Archive for Blogging
December 24, 2006 at 10:36 pm · Filed under Adsense, Digg, Blogging, Google, Miscellaneous
No this is not a new e-book I am publishing. This is free information I am providing to my readers to help them learn how to make more via Yahoo Publisher Network and Adsense.
The first thing I want to make clear is that this blog does not have much to do with my earnings. In fact it is a very small percentage. Although some of the information I am about to present can be applied to blogs it is not specific to blogs.
I have been using Adsense since 2003 and YPN for the past year. I made a lot of mistakes in the begining as I’m sure most have but through trial and error everything has fallen into place.
Let’s get started.
First, there are certain tools within adsense which many people are not familiar with so I will begin by touching on these and how you can immediately increase revenue in a couple of short steps.
Competitive ad filer
Google provides a tool within your adsense account called the “competitive ad filter”. This is where you can add the URLs of your competitors so that their ads will not appear on your site. This can also be used to add sites which display RON (Run of Network) ads. These are the ads which pay out ridiculously low amounts per click. In many cases these low paying ads lead to MFA (Made For Adsense) sites. In a perfect world we would be able to click a radio button and opt out of these low paying ads or even request that Adsense not publish ads with a RPM (Revenue Per Click) of less than an amount we select however this probably will never happen.
So how do you figure out which ads to filter? How do you know if the ads being published on your site are leading to MFA sites?
If you are using IE6 there is a preview tool which you can install on your toolbar. Don’t click on the ads to find out where they resolve. You can right click on the link and see where the ad leads. Then strip out all of the code leaving you with the sites url. This is the old school way of doing it but now there are a bunch of sites updating the newest low paying URLs. One that I use is Ads Blacklist. It is definitely a great resource.
Now you know how to get rid of some of the lower paying ads. Now let’s talk about where to place them.
Ad Placement
Obviously, you want your visitors to notice your ads. If they don’t then odds are they won’t click on them. Until recently publishers used small images near or next to Adwords ads attract attention. Google has now amended their terms and have disallowed this practice.
Other ways to get your ads noticed are to place them where the visitors are pre disposed to look. The top left of a page, where websites traditionally have there navigation is a great start.
In content is the next place you should have ads. As visitors make their way through your content there is a good chance they will be interested in the topical ads contained therein.
The middle of the right column of a page usually won’t perform as well as the aforementioned positions however depending on your sites layout this is another option.
These are just examples of ad placement and it truly depends on your sites layout. It takes a little time but I highly recommend trying the ads in different places. It can make a HUGE difference in your earnings.
Presentation
Next the ad presentation is important. Blending the ads so they look like they belong on your site is a good idea. Keep the colors inline with the sites design and the size of the ads similar to other images or content.
If you have a site with a lot of images it is a good idea to use image ads. If you have video test out googles video ads. If you have a lot of links use google link units.
Ok so we have most of the basics out of the way so now lets get to the good stuff.
Statistics and Tracking
Let’s assume you have determined where your ads need to be to receive the best CTR. Now we need to get people to your site to generate some clicks and some revenue.
First get all of your statistical information together. Find the following in your adsense account: Your average CTR, the EPC (earnings per click) and eCPM (earnings per thousand page views).
Then check your sites stats to see the average number of page views per unique visitor.
If you find that you are earning 50 cents per click and your eCPM is $16 and you average 5 page views per unique visitor we know that you need 12.5 unique visitors on average to earn $1 in revenue. (1000/eCPM/pageviews = Uniques needed per $). This is some good preliminary information.
Now we need to find some targeted traffic.
Finding Targeted Traffic
Acquiring “natural” traffic through organic links in search engines, directories and through link exchanges is the best way to get traffic. Let’s face it it’s relatively inexpensive and the quality is excellent. Although this is the best way to get traffic it can also be very time consuming and time is money. I do suggest though that you build links and submit to directories and search engines. It will help you in the long run if not sooner.
So we need to start generating traffic via other methods to increase the revenue.
The first and most logical place to start our search is PPC advertising programs and we’ll begin with Google Adwords.
If you don’t already have an account register at Adwords and set one up.
Make a list of all of the keywords associated with your site. Add all of the keywords into your account.
Now it is time to set your maximum bid per keyword. Since we know it will take 12.5 unique visitors on average to generate $1 in revenue we need to set the keyword maximum bids so that we are making, not losing money.
Using the example the maximum we can pay per click is $.08 to break even. Of course we don’t want to break even so we will cut it in half and set the maximum bids to $.04.
You will notice that with the keywords and the low bids it looks like there won’t be much traffic. So we need to add some more keywords. Don’t worry they will be just as targeted.
Finding “other” keywords
Typos are a fantastic source of inexpensive, targeted Adwords traffic. The traffic is just as good as that of the typo’d keyword. For instance someone is attempting to search google for “widgets” and accidently types in “wdgets”. The cost of your Adwords per click for the typo will be less than that of the intended keyword.
You can try and brainstorm potential typos but to make it easy here is a site which will return typos for words you enter, sTypo. Once you have your list of typos add them into your Adwords account and bid on them.
Other Advertising Networks
Adwords is a good place to start however YPN is another great place to advertise as well as MSN’s new program. There are also a ton of ad networks floating around the net including Adbrite among others.
Back to Tracking
I know the tracking part is boring but it is the most important part of any advertising campaign. You need to know that you are in fact making money and you need to know immediately!
Compare your advertising campaigns against your earnings. Be sure your revenue outweighs your advertising expenses. If your revenue is at least 20% more you are on the right track and you need to think about increasing your advertising budget. The bottom line is the more you spend the more you will earn. The increased traffic may also help your site in other ways including alexa rank and page rank.
Once you have realized a positive cash flow you have unlocked the secret to earning a ridiculous amount of money.
In Closing
I wanted to talk a little about my earnings. To some it may seem like a large amount but truly my revenue is tiny compared to that of my peers. I have more than one associate making over $1000 per day. It seems almost impossible but it is not. In fact it is more or less common sense and a good knowledge of how Adsense and YPN work combined with some marketing knowledge.
Anyone who’s making good money with adsense and has a good eCPM can increase their earnings significantly. I am proof of that.
Even the smallest site is a potential goldmine!
I wish I had the time to go into further detail but I figured I’d start with the most importan principles. I will post more info as I have time so stay tuned.
Good luck and feel free to post some of your success stories!
December 21, 2006 at 11:53 pm · Filed under Digg, Adsense, Blogging, Geek Tech, Google, Miscellaneous
googles change in the TOC sends showckwaves through the publisher community!
The image is an example of images used in violation of googles new rules. Among publishers the use of images next to google adsense ads is a well known method to increase CTR. The recent change was on every relevant forum within an hour.
How is this going to effect you and your earnings? For me it will certainly decrease the CTR on some of my sites. Will this mean a max exodus to the Yahoo! Publisher Network among US publishers? This is a distinct possibility.
Read about these changes on the google adsense blog
December 18, 2006 at 1:34 pm · Filed under Money, Blogging, Miscellaneous
I’m not sure how proud I am to admit this, but I do have a Homestead account. As a matter of fact, I host about 20 websites at Homestead.com. I opened the account about 5 years ago and the only reason I chose Homestead is because I had absolutely no clue what I was doing and Homestead seemed to be the best option at the time.
I couldn’t have been more wrong…
Since then, I’ve had problems so often that most of the time I just ignore them as I don’t really use those sites anymore. There was a time, however, when I would actually try to contact Homestead support for help. Contrary to what the Homestead big shot, Justin Kitch, says about his customer service, it has got to be some of the worst support I have EVER dealt with. And I have sites hosted on at least ten different hosting companies. Hands down, Homestead is the worst.
Read the rest of this entry »
December 6, 2006 at 3:13 pm · Filed under Money, Blogging, Miscellaneous
To be honest… I completely forgot that I submitted my blogs to the Washington Post Blogroll program a few months back. It wasn’t until today when the newsletter dropped in that I realized the system was still on its way.
From the Washington Post Blogroll Blog:
“The Blogroll is a unique service for bloggers created by the
advertising team at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI). Blogs
partnered with WPNI are given a rotating spot on the washingtonpost.com
homepage, and are given the opportunity to accept ads from WPNI
advertisers. Partner blogs will also be a fixture in our regularly
updated Blogroll Directory, which lists all members based on their
category.”
I hope I get accepted!
Technorati Tags: blogroll, Washington+Post,
December 2, 2006 at 2:07 pm · Filed under Blogging, Miscellaneous
CNET editor James Kim took his family on a Thanksgiving getaway up the northwest coast, and to date has not come back. In fact, they aren’t even available by phone. They’re just flat out missing.
The CNET article has the best run down I’ve been able to find so far, but it still leaves me scratching my head.
What the hell happened?
My first guess was that they decided to go the Corona Beer route and throw their cell phones in the ocean for a few days, but then I read that they keep constant communication flows with their two businesses in the Bay Area.
My thoughts and prayers are with James Kim and his family. I’ve enjoyed reading his work and hope to see him back home soon.
Technorati Tags: James+kim, CNET,
December 1, 2006 at 10:43 am · Filed under Blogging, Google
I’ve had a long week so please forgive me if this just comes out as some kind of cranky rant, but I need to get it off my shoulders.
StatCounter seems to have gone down the drain for me over the past two weeks. The stats are completely wrong and I’ve been able to prove it several times during the two weeks of frustration.
First, there are the discrepancies between Statcounter and other statistical tools. Now this is nothing new. We all know that tools like awstats and similar tools have had issues with being accurate, but the last two weeks have been extreme.
It started when Google analytics and awstats were showing close to the same thing, but Statcounter would be off by several hundred visits a day per site. I found this to be a bit odd, but at first I actually believed Statcounter over Google and awstats. According to Statcounter the traffic was significantly lower than what Google and awstats were showing.
I was faithful to Statcounter until last Monday when it became clear the stat counter just wasn’t doing its job. I used a political blog that doesn’t get a lot of traffic to run some tests on. Once again, Statcounter was off by about 120 unique IP’s.
Then, this morning I had four new registrations on another blog (I have a lot of subscribers on my political blogs) and Statcounter is showing that the site has received ZERO visits today. These registrations took place more than 8 hours ago, yet Statcounter shows nothing. How can that be?
I just don’t know what to believe anymore. It’s quite frustrating to be honest.
Anyone else having issues?
Technorati Tags: Google, Awstats, Statcounter, Traffic,
November 15, 2006 at 2:31 pm · Filed under Technorati, Blogging, Miscellaneous
David Sifry of Technorati recently posted his quarterly State Of The Blogosphere report on his blog. Beanstalk built a perfect summary of the overall report.
* Technorati is now tracking more than 57 Million blogs.
* Spam-, splog- and sping-fighting efforts at Technorati are paying dividends in terms of the reduction of garbage in our indexes, even if it does seem to impact overall growth rates.
* Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size approximately every 230 days.
* About 100,000 new weblogs were created each day, again down slightly quarter-over-quarter but probably due in part to spam fighting efforts.
* About 4% of new splogs get past Technorati’s filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days.
* There is a strong correlation between the aging and post frequency of blogs and their authority and Technorati ranking.
* The globalization of the blogosphere continues. Our data appears to show both English and Spanish languages are a more universal blog language than the other two most dominant language, Japanese and Chinese, which seem to be more regionally localized.
* Coincident with a rise in blog posts about escalating Middle East tensions throughout the summer and fall, Farsi has moved into the top 10 languages of the blogosphere, indicating that blogging continues to play a critical role in debates about the important issues of our times.
It’s kind of hard to imagine 100,000 new blogs being launched everyday. The blogosphere never ceases to amaze me.
October 31, 2006 at 12:31 pm · Filed under Adsense, Plugins, Blogging, Google, Miscellaneous
Before we get started I want to make it clear that this is a method for dummies. There are no files to download, no big fancy template changes or anything. No, this is a simple php command that rotates the Google Adsense client ID.
If you’re on the hunt for a plugin to do this, you can try this one. The AdSense Sharing Revenue and Earnings System looked brilliant and from reading the features I was certain it was exactly what I needed. The problem is the download doesn’t seem to work. I followed the instructions perfectly and the plugin simply will not show up in the admin panel. Being a guy who doesn’t have a lot of time in life… I moved on. Read the rest of this entry »
October 28, 2006 at 8:07 am · Filed under Blogging, Electronics, iPod, Geek Tech, Gadgets, Miscellaneous
It’s Saturday so I figured we could use something different. Today’s first post came to me as a surprise and I still have a hard time believing it happened.
According to this blogger, when a 40GB iPod was ordered it was shipped with two bars of soap and a package of cheap batteries instead of an actual iPod.
He even has the pictures posted so stop by and say hello.
October 21, 2006 at 2:22 pm · Filed under Technorati, Technology, Blogging, Google, Miscellaneous
Not likely. Well… maybe a few disgruntled bloggers but I don’t think it goes too far beyond that. If you haven’t read the latest post at Technorati you might want to click on over and read the latest log by Adam Hertz.
The whole scenerio began unfolding a few weeks back when Brian Pinkerton of Technorati posted an excellent resource on Technorati link calculations. Brian used a blog that had significant link changes as an Read the rest of this entry »
October 20, 2006 at 8:47 pm · Filed under Gmail, Technology, Blogging, Geek Tech, Google, Miscellaneous
Google’s “Talkabout” blog contains a post asking users to send in stories that happened while using Google Talk.
Drop by and send them your story if you have a minute. 
October 20, 2006 at 8:37 pm · Filed under Electronics, Technology, Blogging, Geek Tech, Gadgets, Miscellaneous
While I disagree with Techie Diva’s claim that gas prices are rising (they’re dropping where I live), as always the gadget blogger makes a great find with the new Electroscoot.
I have no idea what the MPH translation is, but I’m guessing the scooter will do about 35 MPH. Not bad for those of us who dwell in the big cities. At .50 cents for that 35 miles you really can’t at all complain about the cost of running this micro ride.
It comes in at about $2,000.00 USD give or take a few either way. Not too bad all things considered.
October 16, 2006 at 12:23 pm · Filed under Search Engines, Technology, Blogging, Geek Tech, Miscellaneous
Text Link Ads recently launched the Blog Juice Calculator and I must admit… I kinda dig it.
The free blog tool uses an algo that pulls data from Technorati, Alexa, Bloglines, and indexed backlinks to decide what the juice level is. I surfed through some of the categories and I find the results to be highly relevant.
October 9, 2006 at 3:31 pm · Filed under Blogging, Google, Miscellaneous
All your database are belong to us
The Google Blog is giving us a heads up on the next Google Earthling Sighting. Looks like a team of the Google employees will be mountain biking in Moab Utah for the “24 hours of Moab” event.
If you’re in the area you might want to be taken to their leader for a quick hello.
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