Google PageRank, among other things.

A lot of changes happened while I was floating in outer space, one of them being that my Google PageRank (PR) flunked from three to ZERO. Yep. Now my page is unranked. It should be irritating me, I know, with all the effort I've invested in whoring for exchange links and signing up with all the online directories I was able to find that time when I was desperate for even a PR1 and didn't know any better. As it happens, I don't have much energy these days to even bother. Anyway, I was already kind of expecting it to drop ever since I signed up with Text Link Ads (TLA), which I have read a little while back has issues with Google.

Also, and I think this is a big factor in my i-don't-give-a-shit attitude is that TLA was able to bring in more than five times the amount of money that Google Adsense was able to give me in the same period of time. Plus it does not require me to constantly change how my ad units look every damn time I change layouts just so my readers will notice it. You may be thinking, she is crazy, PR is important! Maybe. Especially if you are being paid to blog about products/services. But gone are the days when PR matters highly to advertisers, like PR is the only thing that can save them. It is now a well-known fact that it those days are past. Or maybe I am just sourgraping. You decide.

Here's a surefire sign that Adsense is not working for me. You, ALL of you, didn't even notice that I don't have Adsense units here anymore. I am right. You know I am. I removed it and nobody even noticed. So I know I made the right decision in dumping my loyalty on TLA's lap. TLA, by the way, does not even ask that their ads be clicked. And that's the beauty of the system. You earn money (although not much, but money is MONEY nowadays) without doing anything (except of course sign up and put a teeny weeny code in your site to allow TLA to place ads in there). Go ahead and sign up with TLA. Unless you love your PR so much, which I don't.

Next stop, Helium. I have written fifteen or so articles for them already. I dropped out for a month, I go back, eager to write some more when bam! I tried to log in and was surprised when they did not allow me inside the site anymore. I thought it was a site bug, because I definitely did not do anything that's not in accordance with their freaking site rules, so I emailed Helium support. Here's what they have to say:

Thanks for your ongoing interest in the Helium site. Unfortunately, Helium.com is not set up to provide an optimal experience for writers from every country. At present, our audience is predominantly US-focused. To prevent frustrations from all writers and to limit staff time spent trying to accommodate, we are not accepting submissions from some locations at this time. Readers from around the world are welcome to enjoy Helium’s articles. In the future, we are hoping to offer different versions of Helium that will attract and best suit all writers. We are currently evaluating the impact this has on a few existing members, and we will settle with them on an individual basis in the coming weeks. Regarding any upcoming sites I have no specific information on that at this time.

Nice. Very... diplomatic. And full of shit. I almost thought we had something good going on, Helium. I honest-to-goodness did. I even have plans laid out, you know. *sighs* Like my PR, once they take it away, you can never get it back. I wonder if those were punishments for the MIA stunt I pulled off. Hmmmm...Nah. I am not that special. It's the same for everyone everywhere, at least in the case of PR. I have not checked if I was the only one booted out of Helium. Share your experience. Please do.

Lastly, this Mturk thing that's been paying almost all the bills lately was also messed up. They used to have a satisfactory reward system. Last time I checked, I am convinced that the Askville administration folks are seriously deranged because they implemented a new reward system like that. I won't go into details. It has been discussed (and I have read it) in the Turker Nation forum a lot of times already that I even dream about it some nights.

Oh boy, oh boy. I'll need new sources of income. And an Advil.