High PR, Page Rank Links Aren't All They Seem

One of the ways to get high PR, or Page Rank backlinks that many of us are familiar with is blog commenting. Blogs that don’t use the “no-follow” tag can 'pass on' some of their Page Rank to their links when you comment on them. It is often taught as an “easy” way to get high-value backlinks for SEO purposes.

In fact, you can get software just for that purpose. For example, Comment Kahuna is very popular, and very good at finding high-PR blogs.

However, most blogs with high PR have that Pagerank on their main index or home page. Sub pages will generally have much lower pagerank.

When you post a comment on a blog, chances are your comments aren’t appearing on the home page where that post is. And even if it is, it will likely “roll off” the home page long before you get any of the pagerank benefit of that home page.

Commenting, or blog posting is a great for getting links, and is a central part of my own strategy. Also, the net value that’s passed on from a high-pr blog will always be higher than that of a lower pagerank blog.

That being said, the fact is that that when you comment on a post that’s on the home page of a PR4 blog for instance, you aren’t getting the same ‘value’ that you would for that same link on a static PR4 page, and in fact might not be getting much value at all.

Blog commenting should be used as one component of your linking & traffic strategy. Just be aware that you may not be getting as much value as you might have thought.

Taking Advantage of "Topical" Niches

We all know about the "usual" niches - things link "weight loss", "dating", etc. But there are zillions of 'topical' niches that can do as well as any top niche, usually with much less competition.

I have a number of niche blogs and sites, monetized with Adsense, to take advantage of traditional niches:

Nursing School Programs - nursing schools, jobs, careers.

Hypnosis-X.info - everything you wanted to know about hypnosis.

Complete Home School Guide - about homeschooling and homeschoolers.

Fix Credit Repair - fixing your credit rating, repairing your credit score.

My point is simply this: Don't limit your Internet Marketing efforts to traditional niches. There's a LOT of money to be made outside of the "usual suspects"!

But I've also begun exploring topical niches: news events, trends, etc.

The Presidential Zone is a new blog I put up to take advantage of the traffic generated from interest in the 2008 U.S. presidential race:

PresidentialZone - a new political blog on the 2008 US Presidential race.

High gas prices is another topical niche with tons of traffic:

Gas For Less Money - blogging on gas savings, mileage improvements.

The 2008 ULTIMATE Gas Savers Guide - improve gas mileage, gas saving devices, more.