So the big Google news is that the recent Page Rank (PR) update has caused some major ripples online as many powerful sites have seen fairly significant decreases in their PR. I may not really run any powerful websites, but most of my network has been hit by Page Rank dips, and it’s definitely unsettling - not because Page Rank really means anything, but because many people think it does.

You see, webmasters, advertisers, and other online stakeholders have a difficult time valuing the worth of a website, and more importantly, the worth of a link from a specific website. As such, many have come to rely on Google’s Page Rank to determine how much an outbound link from a particular website is worth. While this is fundamentally flawed (since it’s widely accepted that PR isn’t nearly as important as it was once thought), an online economy was established around Page Ranks.

With the recent PR chaos Google has brought upon the digital world, there’s a whole lot of panic going on. Website owners fear losing money on ads while advertisers fear losing a metric they had relied on for so long. Me? I’m definitely a little annoyed that some advertisers may lower their rates on my sites due to this change, but overally I’m pretty excited. Why? Because this may just be the kick in the pants that we all need to get over the whole PR fanaticism. If I have to take a hit in income for a few months while the industry figures itself out - so be it. Hopefully companies will actually spend some effort valuing adspace properly via research and communication. No green tick on a toolbar is going to tell you whether or not you should buy adspace.

Alright… so I may be dreaming to think the industry is somehow going to find a way to replace PR with a better combination of research and metrics, but hey, that’s why I’m just ranting from the peanut gallery on this one.

I’ve launched yet another new website - this time a web directory. The name may be familiar, Poker Sensei, as it was previously a poker blog that I really lost interest in. I still loved the domain so I used it for this new project.

So why a web directory? Well, to be perfectly honest, I’m hoping to launch a few different niche directories to help funnel some backlinks to my other sites while also seeing what kind of money a directory can make. Initially, all my directories will be completely free to submit sites to (that also means no reciprocal links required), though I may add a pay option at a later date.

If you’ve got any poker sites you’d like to submit to Poker Sensei, you should go ahead and do it now since it really is 100% free. I’ve built this directory in a way that should allow me to easily create more for whatever niche I’d like, so expect more once I see how this one goes.

Another month has come and gone. As such, I present to you my September earnings breakdown. While August was a fairly slow month for me earnings wise, September proved to be the best month so far. A few key things contributed to this, first, the redesign of Wii Play included better positioning of ads and proved to bump earnings a bit. Second, Amazon actually ended up being a decent earner for me for once - partly because of the positioning and usage on Wii Play, but also because of the Blade television series dvd being released. Last, traffic to most of my sites was up, thus bringing in more people to click and follow affiliate links.

1. Google Adsense - 51% of my September earnings came from Google Adsense clicks - up 1% from last month and the highest actual amount ever.
2. Text Link Ads - Text Link Ads accounted for 31% of my earnings which a huge dip down from last month’s 44%. This is mostly due to the other programs doing much better than normal more than Text Link Ads doing worse.
3. CJ and Amazon - The biggest surprise was that the combination of Commission Junction and Amazon brought in 9% of my earnings last month (up from the pathetic 1% in August). This was mostly due to Amazon and the placement adjustments mentioned above.
4. SIAB GEAR - SIAB GEAR was up a little bit to 7%. I need to get off my butt and make some updates to the store… some day.
5. Chitika - Chitika, while down at the bottom spot, earned 2% for me (up from 1%).

This month was probably the biggest shakeup of earners for me that I’ve seen. I expect the actual amount I pull in to steadily increase these next few months as we head into the holiday season.