Eventually, someone rises to the opportunity to compete against a large entity such as Google. Although they may not be a true competitor in the sense to Google, MozRank provides what I’ll refer to as “an alternative way” to determine your page rank vs Googles PageRank system, utilizing the MozRank Linkscape program, from their free SEO Tools.
As many bloggers know, their page rank was dropped by Google in 2007 from participating in PayPerPost’s program, which payed bloggers to publish advertisements in their blog posts. Unfortunately, PayPerPost did not disclose to any bloggers the potential consequences of advertising for them, creating a violation of Googles webmasters policies. For those of you who do not know, what occurred were sites being penalyzed by posting advertisements for money, utilizing the “do follow” attribute, which passed page rank to the advertisers. This resulted in many of us (yes, I included) losing page rank to our blogs. I, like many other blogger’s did not understand that we were violating any type of policy with Google, and for those (like myself) who submitted a request to Google for reconsideration, that may not have returned their page rank back to its prior status.
Although my prior paragraph here may seem like a rabbit trail, the point I’m wanting to make is that there is still hope to see your blogs having page rank, but perhaps not yet through Google. I guess you could say that MozRank is a competitor to Google’s pagerank system, although they rate things differently. Their algorithm for the page ranking must work differently, otherwise they would be violating Google’s patent for the specific manner and algorithms used when Google establishes page rank.
So, if your blog(s) experienced a penalty from Google or you lost your page rank for whatever reason, such as no longer receiving fresh backlinks, there is another resource to check your page rank. At the very least while you await for Google to re-evaluate your blog, you have something to make you feel a bit brighter!
This blog had attained a PR 3 according to Google’s page ranking system, prior to Google’s drop, and since that time I’ve been fighting the Google PageRank blues since. 
There were other reasons though too that I lost my page rank, which included a year away from actively posting to my blog or building links, due to significant changes on the home front. At least for now, MozRank’s Linkscape evaluation has made me feel a bit brighter these days as I checked my page rank with their beta system. If you’re experiencing the page rank blues, head on over to MozRank to check out your blogs!
There are two ways you can check your blog ranking with MozRank, using their Linkscape Beta program. The first obvious one is to check it directly from their site, and the second option is to install the page rank plugin for Firefox to see the rankings from MozRank while you’re on your blog, or any other site. To give you an idea of comparison, my blog TallSailsAdventure.com, which is currently at a PR1 is rated at PR2.67 using the MozRank Linkscape system.
Just a side note, for anyone who may be wondering, this post is NOT an advertisement for the above mentioned site, but simply something I came across and thought I would share with my readers. Now chin up, and don’t give up on your blog, which may have lost Google PageRank, because now there is another way to evaluate your blog with an alternative page ranking system. Happy Blogging! 
Comments Attribute to Follow, or No Follow?
Should you use the “follow” or “no follow” attribute for your blog comments? That is the question!
Like many other blogger’s, I went through promoting the “Comment, We Follow” scenario, and utilized the “Do Follow” attribute on my blog comments. But then there comes a time when you have to stop and think about how that affects your blog from a business perspective. Recently, I decided to eliminate the whole “do follow” mentality (for a while anyhow). To follow or not to follow seems to be a double-edged sword. On one hand you may get more comments, which can also benefit your blog, but on the other hand it may be good until your site is getting lots of traffic before you start giving away page rank through comments.
By eliminating the do follow attribute, I suppose some blogger’s may therefore wish to refer to me as a selfish, unsociable, or a bad blogger to hang out with – lol, but I decided to take on what I’ll refer to as my “business perspective”. Besides, all is not lost though, for those using the no follow attribute for comments, which still benefit the person who comments! I don’t pass up opportunities to comment on no follow blogs, and neither should you.
You may be wondering what I mean by business perspective, in regards to blogging? To begin with, let’s think about any other business. The first thing about business is survival! Will you and your blogs survive, if you give away all your page rank via comments? Unless you have a huge following of other websites linking back to you, how are you going to survive if you give away all your page rank in comments? You won’t! Let’s face it, if your indexed blog posts and pages don’t appear in the higher search engines results, you might as well throw in the towel, unless you don’t care about your blogs and traffic.
If you look at the largest sites online, are they giving away page rank via the “Do Follow” attribute with their comments software? NO! So, how do you think us little gals, or guys will survive as blogger’s if we do? We won’t, unless our blogs are already ranking very well!
In regards to serious blogging, I think the first thing one needs to think about is their personal business perspective, and realize that blogging isn’t any different than any other form of business, and the first thing you have to look out for is your own survival! Otherwise, what you have to contribute to the Internet as a blogger is of little value, because your blogs will rarely be found or read, if you don’t establish higher search engine rankings. If you plan to sell advertising on your blogs you will also struggle to maintain sponsors interests if your site isn’t able to maintain it’s page rank status.
If you’re a serious blogger, you may want to look at whether or not you’re applying a serious business perspective or not – if that is your ultimate goal as a blogger. If not, your time blogging will perhaps always be like working as a volunteer. If that is your goal, that’s okay. If the equivalent of volunteering isn’t your goal, then I challenge you to examine your goals as a blogger. Are you wanting to work essentially as a volunteer, or develop your blogging into more of a business adventure? If your goals are focused on a business mentality, then you need to seriously address the question in regards to things such as comments attributes. Will you choose to use the no follow attribute for comments, or the do follow attribute? That is the question! But, it’s only one question of many that you must ask yourself if your desire is to blog with a business perspective! If you choose to use the no follow attribute, I’m one blogger who won’t judge you for that decision, and I would still be happy to comment on your blog. Happy blogging!