In theory, this represents your “subscriber core” and indicates how ’sticky’ your content is.

You might think this blog fares abysmally, according to Text Link Ads “Blog Juice” calculator.

A 5.4 out of a supposed 10 ranking?

Let’s look at the components of the score:

• Bloglines: the number of Bloglines subscribers (accounts for 40% of score)
• Alexa: ranking determines 15%
• Technorati: 30%
• Links: Inbound links 15% (determined fromTechnorati).

From the example above, the low number of bloglines subscribers (32) has hit my rankings hard.

De-emphasizing bloglines subscribers and feedburner subscribers (also a set of RSS subscribers) would be detrimental to your rankings.

Why would anyone want to do this?

In that case, why would a blogger deliberately aim for low RSS subscriber numbers?

Simple. Three reasons.

1. Control
2. Relationship building
3. Branding

Instead of building feedburner/bloglines RSS readership, I’ve built a traditional list.

• Control

Unlike indirect communication with my readers via a RSS feed, I can communicate directly with them via the opt-in list services provided by aweber or getresponse.

This gives me the opportunity to determine how often I communicate with my list and how I do so. I’m not merely restricted to just blog posts.

• Relationship Building

Having a list and control over the emails gives me flexibility in building the relationship gradually.

I can queue a variety of welcome posts, and staggered communication which can ease a new subscriber into the flow of things.

• Branding

I can customize branded posts, personalized to the list members, and have highly targeted and relevant offers sent to the members.

I believe an opt-in list brands you more effectively, compared to a RSS publishing service.

So it’s true that you give up the blog popularity ‘point score’ based on the number of perceived subscribers, but the intangible benefits you’ll gain are unparalled.

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Resources:

List Building Autoresponders-

• Aweber
• GetResponse
• Text Link Ads (Good for building link popularity, $100 free credit)

Click fraud? It shouldn’t be as big an issue with pay per action. If an AdWords advertiser sets up the latest method offered by Google to kick in when a purchase takes place, it’s hard to imagine fraudsters providing their credit card numbers and addresses to the business.

The debut of pay-per-action from Google addressed the basics. A Google product manager for the new product discussed the basics of the latest service on an Inside AdWords blog post.

A new text link ad format emerged as part of that discussion. The pay-per-action FAQ described the format:

What is the text link format for pay-per-action ads?

Text links are hyperlinked brief text descriptions that take on the characteristics of a publisher’s page. Publishers can place them in line with other text to better blend the ad and promote your product.

For example, you might see the following text link embedded in a publisher’s recommendatory text: "Widgets are fun! I encourage all my friends to Buy a high-quality widget today." (Mousing over the link will display "Ads by Google" to identify these as pay-per-action ads).

Though the maximum length of a text link is 90 characters, we’ve found that shorter links perform better because they allow the publisher use the link in more places on her/his site and in different context. The maximum length is 90 characters but less than 5 words is best. Even better, just use your brand name to offer maximum flexibility to the publisher.

Google’s pay-per-action could have an impact beyond just the advertiser/Google relationship. Andy Beal suggested that the new plan is a "clear threat" for affiliate marketing networks:

Google, for all intents and purposes, has just entered the affiliate marketing arena, with the battle cry that they can do affiliate marketing better than the affiliate networks can.

Now, I feel obliged to inform you that when I posed this suggestion to Rob Kniaz, product manager for Google’s advertising products, he was very quick to deny any intention to compete in the affiliate network space. “We think this is different from the traditional affiliate marketing industry”, said Kniaz. “[It’s an] extension of the current AdWords product”. Oh really? Kind of like how Google doesn’t see itself competing with Microsoft’s office suite.

When I pushed Kniaz to explain why Google is so keen to distance itself from any associations with affiliate networks, his response was that the new PPA platform offered “more automation, more options, more control” than affiliate networks.

Did Google just slip into Commission Junction’s HQ with a silenced pistol and a license to kill? Your comments are welcome below this post.