Links in a Blogger hack.

The Bizarre Jokester (WOW!) left the following comment on my post "More Martian Jokes":

You have taken the hack from my blog Amazingly Bizarre.

I'm really honoured about that.

However, I feel that it is extremely unfair of you to remove the complimentary link at the bottom, as I requested very clearly on the page where you copied the code that 'Please do not remove the link at the bottom'.

Now once again, i request to you to put that link back up, since you ought to give credit (where it is due) in the way the owner of the hack wants it.

Thanks!

:)

My reply:
I liked all the little icons, which formed a neat line across the bottom of each post. I didn't link the look of the link so much though. It was in a larger font and didn't fit in line. I do understand why you would like to have a link to your blog from everywhere your icons are used, to advertise your hack and bring in traffic. On the other hand I think my readers may be distracted by so many advertisements for your blog. I will remove the hack as you wish & reconsider how to use it on my blogs.

How do I increase traffic on my blog?

I've tried

• linking from community websites like Orkut. It increases traffic, but the links keep disappearing & I had renew them.
  
• increasing ranking on Technorati and other blog rating sites by getting links from other blogs
  
• getting placement on my own search engine (say a Swicki)

Well, here's a new one I've just installed on jokewarehouse.blogspot.com and yourfunnyvideos

• Give readers a prompt to rate your posts on social bookmarking sites like del.ic.ious. I've put in a blogger hack to put little icons at the bottom of each post. The method came from Amazinglybizarre.blogspot.com/new-blogger-hack
  

Links are good. Aren't they?

All this time I've been trying to improve my sites' ranking on the search engines by improving content and keywords. I've brought traffic to my sites by putting in links from online communities. Apparently I've missed the point completely.

The point is PageRank & I can't believe I never noticed it before. I stumbled across it today while reviewing "PayPerPost". "PayPerPost" pay for product placements and advertorial on blogs. Quality blogs. This blog isn't good enough. I don't post often enough.

One of the advertisers stipulated only sites with a PageRank of at least 2. "What's PageRank"? The question flashed through my head a microsecond before I typed PageRank into Google. I now know that PageRank is actually a Google trademark, based on the number and quality of links to a page from other webpages. Scrolling down the list of explanations, I chanced on Webworkshop which explained that search engines avoid abuse of the PageRank system by assigning a PageRank of 0/10 to any sites which have too many links - known as link farms. Links to penalised sites can penalise your PageRank.

Didn't I just link to one of those last week? And didn't people stop coming to my sites afterwards? It was one little link which did that? I went to the first PageRank checker I could find and checked the link farm. It has a PageRank of 0. Not much point getting links from there, its not going to increase my ranking. In fact I'm better off linking from here.