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In a post from last week, I made reference to the need for a momentum metric to buffer the standard strength metric that we get in PageRank. If a PR 8 site hasn’t been updated in 9 months, and is completely blank, that should be reflected in some publicly accessible data.

My question for this post is how would a momentum metric be best accomplished, taking into account the variety of sites that exist. In the comments section of that post, Phillip gave us a start:

Maybe it could be a rating that combines the separate metrics of today, i.e. this number of percentage points is given to Alexa traffic rank, this for PR, this for the number of Technorati mentions, and so on. The question of who gets the biggest weight in the rating would surely be cause of debate.

So why don’t we hack this out in the comment section of this post. Here are the questions to consider:

1. Momentum is a measurement of relative strength over time, and as such requires that we take “snapshots” – what is an ideal frequency of snapshots? One day? One week? One month?

2. To answer question 1, it would help to know the data that we’ll be considering in measuring a site’s momentum. Afterall, why take a daily snapshot if our data is only updated once a week or once every 3 months for that matter. So what data is relevant? Backlinks? Alexa? Technorati? PageRank?

3. How much weight should each of these data points be given?

If you have some ideas on how this topic, feel free to comment, but for answering these 3 specific questions, I propose the following format:

Once a week

Alexa – 25%
Technorati – 25%
PageRank – 15%
Backlinks – 30%
Delicious Votes – 5%

We’re looking for a few dedicated volunteers to help us spearhead the Open Source pMetrics project using the old code and documentation. The goal of the project will be to improve and restructure the old pMetrics code with the following desiderata:

1. Decentralize the server infrastructure
2. Collect common, anonymous data that will benefit the entire Performancing community

In other words, one of the main issues with the old pMetrics was cost of operation. If we can distribute the operating infrastructure to the community, but still collect a minimal set of common data, the community could really benefit.

Anyone want to be actively involved in this project whether at a decision making level or coding level?

For better of for worse, an economy has built around the buying and selling of links. Google doesn’t like the TLA economy very much. That’s not news. We’ve all known that for a while. It screws with their fundamental metric of a page’s value. Really, the big surprise so far has been Google’s lack of decisive action in this regard.

Up until now, they’ve taken a bunch of half-measures, like placing a delay on the Toolbar PageRank.

But it seems that things, well, they are a changing. A Spring Offensive is underway.

As many of you may know by now, Matt Cutts is calling on the webmaster world to report paid links. Cracking down on PR transferring paid links is Google’s prerogative of course. And really, there not telling us we can’t have unqualified paid links on our sites, just that we should be prepared to face the consequences.

So far, the consensus seems to be that rather than issuing penalties, Google will simply devalue any link juice from links they determine to be purchased. Whether Google’s new methods will deflate the TLA economy remains to be seen. What’s clear is that they’d like to see the TLA economy burst into a million pieces. And Google has the resources to make their wishes come true.

The sad thing about this development, as Raj Dash points out in our forums, is that for many bloggers, Text Link Ads is the only real source of monthly income. For the small scale blogger, Google AdSense brings in pennies a day. Text Link Ads has the potential of making all the time and hard work worth it. It scales down well to the little guy. Google AdSense, on the other hand, doesn’t scale nearly as well.

So what are your thoughts? Should Google be cracking down on Text Link Ads? Is doing so not much different than cracking down on alcohol consumption during the prohibition era (a minor pleasure for the average blogger)? Or is the imminent short-term pain a necessary corrective for the long-term health of the net?

For those of you who have been following the new soap opera “pMetrics”, let me put things in context. The management structure of Performancing did not have enough built-in redundancy, and with David Krug’s sudden and surprising extended absence, there just wasn’t an emergency plan in place, so pMetrics suffered as a result.

That’s not an excuse. We accept responsibility for the mistake and are taking the steps to ensure that Performancing operates as a redundant, decentralized team so that its operation doesn’t depend on any single person.

While those steps are in motion, we are happy to be able to announce that pMetrics will be back in operating condition this week. The getclicky team is phenomenal and we are superpsychked (new word?) to be hooking up with them on this venture. We hope you’ll stick with us and enjoy the fruits of this collaboration.

On a related note…

Is there any interest from the Performancing community in having the old pMetrics software opened up for community development? Any thoughts?

Just a note to let people know that Performancing is currently being moved to a new server. While the blog, themes and forum will quickly be back in action, it may take us a while to get the metrics back up- so we recommend that you take down Pmetrics from your sites for now to avoid 404s. We are working as hard as we can to sort everything out and are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Some folks have a habit of bookmarking feeds each time they read a post they enjoy. Soon they have hundred of feeds lined in their reader in no specific order.

If they don’t watch out, their feeds could turn into that plant in the Little Shop of Horrors. “Feed Me!” it says and it eats the time we have to write.

I suggest another approach to this overwhelming problem. Here’s how you might go about taming that hungry Shop of Horrors Plant down to a manageable size.

• Visit five feeds a day — feed already in your reader.
• Read back 20 posts or more to really get to know the blog and the blog writer.
• When you’ve read that far, decide for yourself what the blog is about.
• Place each blog into one of three categories:
  A+++ BLOGS — These are blogs that inspire you with ideas, have superior writing, and are on topics that are near what you write about;
  BB BLOGS — These are blogs that are fun to read and offer you a diversion, have great writing and are on topics that might interest your readers now and then.
  C BLOGS — These are a rare few blogs, less than 20 that you think you should check on every few weeks to see what they are doing.
• Drop any blog that doesn’t fit.
• Each day as you add your five blogs to the categories, rank what’s there in order with those you most value at the top of each list.
• When you have been through all of your blogs, imagine that your feedreader is a physical bookcase that only has so much space. Decide on a limited number of blogs that you will allow in each category as a masimum number. Do this without looking at the lists.
• Then go back in and cut the lists. Keep the lists to your magic number from that point on.

We don’t try to read every book in the library. We don’t try to see every movie. There’s no reason to try to read every blog.

Don’t let that Little Shop of Horrors Feed Reading Plant eat up the time you have to write your blog.

Liz Strauss

Well, we already have a bunch of users. But after a wee bit of testing. I’m inviting everyone to sign up for their free trial of Performancing Metrics. Features are added weekly and we have a great developer working on it all the time.

Feedback is more than welcome. It’s geared toward Mom and Pop Bloggers rather than large A-List type sites. It provides a ton of data, most of it useful.

“Performancing Metrics is a new and unique web analyzer that gives bloggers and smaller web sites a more personal understanding of their visitors. Many analyzers give good summaries, and Performancing Metrics is no different – but the similarities stop there. Performancing Metrics stands out with its refreshingly clean and simple interface, innovative features like Spy and RSS feeds, and an unrivaled per visitor level of detail. You also get real time stats, outbound link tracking, download tracking, and much much more.” ~ About Performancing Metrics

My favorite part is the affiliate program. You will earn 20% of every payment made to us by any user who signs up through your affiliate link and eventually becomes a paying premium member. Additionally, there is a second tier commission of 5%, which means you will get 5% of any payment made to us by your referal’s referals.

Head on over and sign in with your Performancing login

You wouldn’t think that working from home would be such a bad thing, right? I mean, you wake when you want, sleep when you want, work when you want. You can excercise whenever, take a stroll with the dogs, stay out of traffic. What’s wrong with that?

Of course, you have to learn to budget revenue, to deal with the ups and downs of contracts. But if you have a bit of business sense, you should be able to learn that lesson. The more serious issue, which is very easy to forget, is health. Bloggers who work from home seem to be increasingly reporting a variety of health problems, or are more prone to them given the change in lifestyle.

1. Flu – though this isn’t due to working at home, bloggers have been reporting serious cases of illness. I was lightheaded for a few hours today, but it passed. Last year, around this time, I was sick for days – something that hadn’t happened to me for as long as I can remember.
2. Obesity – I’ve definitely gained weight working at home full-time for nearly a year now. I know it’s bad, it’s just not always easy to do something about it without a concerted effort.
3. Diabetes from obesity and inactivity. With diabetes becoming an epidemic, weight is something to watch very closely. I’ve tried to eat less per meal, but sometimes I end up snacking too often since it’s easy to do so at home.
4. DVT – Deep vein thrombosis from inactivity or sitting in a cramped position for long hours, over extended periods. If you’re over 40, or have had surgery or recently had a baby or surgery, or are susceptible to any number of risk factors. It’s typically a traveller’s disease but does strike people with sedentary lives.
5. Stroke or heart attack from DVT or other reasons.
6. Headaches from lack of fresh air.
7. Insomnia – especially if you work and sleep in the same room/ studio.
8. Hoarseness of throat, due to not speaking all day. Unless you conduct a lot of phone calls from home.

These are only a few ailments that someone working at home could be prone to. That’s not to say that people working offline are not prone, but when you work at home, it’s easy to forget to exercise or even leave the house for fresh air on a regular basis. Now, the question is, how do we remind ourselves to actually take a break when we’re thinking, “I’ll do it in a minute.” Any suggestions? Scheduling your time like a regular job might be the key.