Most bloggers like to think that they can write whatever they want without consequence. There are times, however, when a blogger will get called up something he or she has written. It happened to John Cow recently when he used the “C” word. It wasn’t written with malicious intent, but that single word caused such an uproar that some readers vowed never to return to the Cow’s blog. This begs the question: how much should you self-censor your blogging for your audience?

It happened to me recently. I have another blog that focuses on Thailand and my life here. I wrote a post about how Thai people have started wearing pink shirts in honor of His Majesty the King of Thailand. Just to bring you up to speed, His Majesty the King is universally revered in Thailand – and I mean in a big, big way.

The problem came not with my post itself, but with one of the comments that a reader had left. The comment was written about His Majesty the King and Thai people in a derogatory manner, which is as big a no-no as you will find in Thailand. I let the comment slide because I’m not in to censoring other people.

Two days after my initial post was written, I got a call to my office in Phuket. The call came from the Ministry of Information Technology (MICT) in Bangkok telling me to remove the offending content. Naturally, I obliged, because the MICT has the power to block certain websites. YouTube was blocked for months due to offensive videos posted about His Majesty the King.

There are certain topics that I can never write about as a blogger in Thailand. There are some topics I wouldn’t even discuss in public except with close friends. It goes back to the idea of self censorship. For me, if I write about some issues, at best I might offend my readers, but at worst I could end up with my blog blocked.

In more general terms, there are some opinions, words, whatever, that are best kept to yourself. You have to understand your audience. I’m not saying you should try and appease everyone, but sometimes you have to hold your tongue.

The number on rule I live by with my blogging is: don’t offend feminists. I’ve done it and I regret it to this day.

They are watching you.

Tags: Around the web by Angel
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Today, I was surprised to see an email drop into my inbox from a Google employee. I won’t reveal his name, but I checked him out and he does work for Google. I also checked out the header of the email and verified that it came from Google. Part of the email was a disclaimer warning me not to republish any of the email’s contents. I’m probably jeopardizing my blog now, but what the heck, you’re only young once, right?

The email was an invitation to the Google Elite Sector. I’d never heard of this group before, but according to the email, the Google Elite Sector is a collective of individual webmaster who have access to increased Page Rank, better SERPs and easier indexing in Google. Basically, you get your blog or website streamlined.

When you join the Google Elite Sector, you get an automatic Page Rank of at least 5, instant indexing of all your pages, a top-10 position for any 10 search phrases and a top-30 position for another 20 phrases. You have your website or blog turned into what Google calls an Elite Google Product.

It sounds like a great offer. According to the email, only 500 invitations are sent out to webmasters and bloggers every year. Each invitation is selected by a team of 10 Google employees based on five factors:

• Quality content
• Style of writing
• Topic of the website or blog
• Language of the website or blog
• The marital status of the webmaster or blogger

The more I read about the Google Elite Sector the more excited I became – until I got to the catch. To join Google Elite Sector, you need to pay a one-time fee of $10,000. I was shocked to see how much it cost to join this group. Would you pay $10,000 to get in Google’s good books?

Of the 500 people invited each year, only about 50 of them accept the offer and pay the fee. If you look around the blogosphere, you can start to see who has paid the $10,000 to Google. Invitations are sent out every two to three months. Once you have an invite, you are given seven days to accept the offer. If the time expires, then you become automatically excluded from any future Google Elite Sector invitations.

I did a bit of investigating and I am starting to see the Internet the way Google does. If you look at sites like Cash Quests, Shoemoney and Pro Blogger, you start to see patterns emerging. I don’t want to say for sure because I risk my neck if I’m wrong, but those blogs look to me like they are part of the Google Elite Sector.

I also read on an underground webmaster forum that both John Chow and John Cow refused entry into the Google Elite Sector, which is why they have lower Page Ranks than they should.

If this is the sort of level Google will stoop to, it makes you wonder what else is going on behind closed doors. Don’t be surprised if my blog “disappears” in the next few days. Lucky for me, I don’t live in the US. If I did, there’s no way I would publish this blog post.

Stay safe.

Tags: Around the web by Angel
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What they hey? I’d been in Bangkok all weekend sorting some visa issues and when I arrived home I found out that my blog now has a Page Rank of 3. Obviously I’m very pleased with this because my blog is less than four months old.

I have one other blog that has so far held it’s PR5 and one that has held its PR4. So long as those blogs don’t drop their ranks, I think I’ve done alright.

Even more surprising is that a health blog I started on a whim about three months ago also has a Page Rank of 3 now. I was actually just about to sell that blog, but will have to think about changing my asking price.

I’m writing this as I check all of my blogs, and amazingly, a blog that I bought on the cheap recently has a Page Rank of 3 as well. So that leaves me with one PR5 blog, one PR4 blog and three PR3 blogs.

Page Rank can easily be used to make money, so I’m going to spend the next week of so seeing how much I can make after this latest toolbar update. The problem at the moment is that with all the shifts in Page Rank, its value remains uncertain.

But whatever… I got Page Rank!

Addendum: While I’m excited to get Page Ranked, I’ve noticed that a LOT of blogs in various niches have been given PR3. Let’s hope this update is final. Also, Youtube is at PR3. If that isn’t strange then I don’t know what is.

Tags: Around the web by Angel
12 Comments »