With the recent crackdown on paid link by Google, it's better to look at traffic first and PageRank second. Some bloggers started to change the way they advertise now. They started to use the nofollow for paid links. I may have to do the same thing with 1 Cool file to be safe. Why? On my blog and mostly on 1 Cool file, I have a very large percent(80%) of visitors that come from Google. Each time an entry(file or blog) is added, the chances increase that they land on one of my page first. I noticed that over the last few weeks and this trend is going upward. So, I don't want to be in Google doghouse for now. Eventually, I want people to go to my site first and then on Google. ;) Having natural link is better and also help to be found in the first pages according to some. Conclusion On 1 Cool file, I added an affiliate program and more features for reviewers(bloggers). You can find files too(freeware/shareware/themes/plugins...). I think I would not be penalized later(first PR update in 2008) because it's more than a blog/file directory. Google should offer a TrafficRank ranking using Google Analytics. That would be better because PageRank does not mean necessary high traffic. Plus, the burden would be on webmasters to add the code on like Alexa where the user must use a toolbar. Will you buy links for traffic or PageRank?
Keywords: 1 Cool File, Ranking, Traffic