helping competitors/affiliates?

[disgust]

this is kind of an interesting question, but I'm curious.

in my category/keywords, there are a lot of sites- but few with a good PR. I'd say the breakdown was traditionally like this: 1 PR6, less than a dozen PR5's, most "good" sites in this cat had a PR4. PR3 was mostly not-so-great sites.

I've spent a LOT of time working on it, hoping to go from PR4 to PR5.. well, the last update, it skipped from a PR4 to a PR6! this was really great.

but this had a bit of an unexpected impact: a lot of the PR4 sites I linked back and forth with moved to PR5 (perhaps because I was linking to them and now I was PR6?)

so basically, I'm a PR6 site with a bunch of PR5's linking to me. I'm wondering if it'd be worthwhile to go out and try to help THEM get higher- since we all link to each other, and I'll be "in the center" of it- in the hopes that I'd be the first ever to reach PR7?

or should I just keep my secrets (most of which are only applicable to my category) to myself, and be content with only having affils that are below me in PR?

[MHes]

If you are pr6 need you be higher? I would consider increasing the content so you compete in a broader and more competitive field, targeting new keywords and markets. Or, with a pr6, you could start to think of doing a new site with a new market. Your pr6 will launch it nicely.

However, I think your question is interesting. I have noticed people linking from other sites to a links page where they have a link back, rather than the other sites homepage. This increases the pr of the links page, which is all they are interested in!

[buckworks]

I'm wondering if it'd be worthwhile to go out and try to help THEM get higher- since we all link to each other, and I'll be "in the center" of it

I sometimes take that approach, and I'm convinced it's A Good Thing to watch for ways to help your link partners grow.

I'm most likely to share tips when a link partner's topic is not too close to mine. I see that as a way to draw "new" PR from areas where I couldn't go on my own.

[Shak]

disgust,

is all your hardwork resulting in increased ranking, traffic and revenue?

Shak

[disgust]

it's a nonprofit site.

we went from 200 unique visitors a day to 6,000 since I added content, got links, etc over a period of 3-4 months.

I'm not doing too terribly well in my SERP, though: I'm one of only two sites in this category with a PR6, but I'm like the 60th page to be shown. I'm hoping it'll change with time and some more tweaks, but I don't know.

MHes: my goal is to get on the first or second page for my primary keyword search. right now I'm like the 60th page. :\

[julinho]

You say: I got myself a PR6, I link to them, then they got a promotion from PR4 to PR5 just because of me!

How do you know it's not more like that: One (or two...) of your partners got a promotion from a low PR4 to a high PR5, then they passed it to you, then you passed it over to your other several partners, then the multiplicative effect of PR feedbacks brought you to a PR6 (or close to it, which was complemented by your own efforts?)!

Going from a PR5 to a 6 is much harder than from a 4 to 5. If you have done so good so far, I think there´s no reasoning for your being concerned about your competitors.

[edited by: julinho at 2:41 am (utc) on April 18, 2004]

[disgust]

that's why there was a question mark after that bit :) I just thought it was odd that of my 10 affiliates, nine were PR4 before I hit 6, after I hit 6, every single one is a 5.

by saying that I shouldn't worry about them, do you mean I should help them to further increase my own rank?

[julinho]

do you mean I should help them to further increase my own rank?

Yes.

[steveb]

Suppose you were first for a search term. What sites would you want second through fifth: four that link to you or four that don't?