I spoke in April about why I believe advertising networks should stop using Alexa to determine rates for publishers. Jonathan from SmartWealthyRich got me thinking about the subject again with his post ‘Why I Feel Like Breaking Up With Alexa‘.
More recently I talked about my dislike for viralink.It seems that the viralinker’s have won, well perhaps they have not won but they have definately succeeded in making the Technorati authority value completely worthless. I was browsing Technorati the other day and noticed a few blogs with a Technorati authority of 300+. Upon checking one of the blogs I quickly realised that the blog was less than 2 months old and had less than 30 posts.
Now clearly the Technorati authority value isn’t complicated, it’s just the number of backlinks to a blog and as we all know, this is something which can easily be gamed. However, with sites such as ReviewMe using the authority as a basis of a publisher’s advertising rate, gaming Technorati is something ReviewMe needs to look at.
At the moment ReviewMe prices the review on a blog by Alexa ranking, Technorati authority and estimated number of RSS subscribers. The ranking rating is an average of the values i just mentioned.
ReviewMe need to examine how they prices reviews. Alexa ranks can easily be inflated and technorati authority can be increased very easily too which leaves RSS subscribers as the only clear indication of how popular a blog is.
Here is what I suggest ReviewMe use to base advertising rates :
- RSS Subscribers – I’m sure some bloggers would start doing feed exchanges to increase their RSS numbers but overall it remains one of the most reliable ways to gauge a blog’s worth.
- Page Rank – I’m sure that that is a factor already.
- Traffic – Why don’t they ask publishers to place a traffic tracker on their blogs so that traffic stats can be verified.
I am a realist, I know that it is difficult for advertising companies to find a good way of pricing a blog but I believe that they should be actively looking at alternatives to Alexa and Technorati as their main sources of information.
If enough bloggers actually complain about this, perhaps the advertising networks will sit up and listen 
traffic is the best form, as it can indicate the kind of exposure for advertisers. pr, feed count etc. are not as accurate as that, since it is different on every blog.
Great topic of choice. It will certainly get some attention from the Advertising networks. As it should. It was like everyone was thinking it but did not want to open it up.
Right on the money Kevin! (and thanx for the linkage)
Alexa and Technorati are kinda useless right now since everyone is gaming them, one alternative would be to manually change the prices of the reviews on reviewme. Or, like you wrote, the folks at reviewme could ask for a plugin or tracker to be installed, or they could even develop a "reviewme stats plugin" and require the publishers use it to be included in the program.
As for the Viral Link thing, well we both agree on that!
My blog even got included in a virallink matrix, without me asking for it, I asked the blogger to remove my link, but by the time my link was taken off that matrix, 20+ other bloggers had already copied the list… so even if I wanted to rely on Technorati, my technorati rank is now totally useless….
I'm wondering (and hoping) if a lot of bloggers will pick up on this, it would be good to see some changes at reviewme and the other advertising networks, as it would be more fair for everyone
a fellow blogger has even found a way to <a>. Lets just face it. . . there is no GOOD way to rank websites.
That didn't work out as planned. It was supposed to read: a fellow blogger has even found a way to game the RSS stats. Lets face it. there is no GOOD way to rank websites.
As an advertiser myself I very rarely put any value into the technorati. it is unfortunate that most advertising companies do.
Technorati won't even let me list some of my blogs. From day 1 one of my blogs has never been able to be claimed.
Thus another problem with technorati. I have emailed them 5 or so times as well as posted on their website. No response.