google adsense profit plans/The biggest profit from your website/learn adsense free

JenSense * About * Advertise * Home AdSense-friendly privacy policy sample for AdSense publishers to use

2008-10-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

With the new AdSense terms & conditions changes made last week, one of the requirements is that all publishers have a posted privacy policy in place that advises visitors specifically about cookies and web beacons. Here is an AdSense-friendly version of a privacy policy that JenSense readers are welcome to use on their own sites. Obviously, replace ___.com with your own website name and/or URL. And you may need to tailor bits of it to suit your site - if your site targets a specific country, you can change the ISP and city examples with ones in your own country.

Privacy Policy for ____.com

The privacy of our visitors to ____.com is important to us.

At _____.com, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use visit _____.com, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on ____.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

You can chose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

AdSense Privacy Policy Provided by JenSense

Don’t forget you now need to have a privacy policy on all your AdSense sites, this isn’t something that is optional, and when you agreed to the new terms, you agreed to do this too. I don’t know how strict they will be policing this new change to the terms, but it is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to protecting your AdSense account. You don’t want a black mark against your account because you haven’t done this, I will be making the changes to all mine this week.

Attention: Google Adsense users

2008-10-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

I just found this piece of information specifically for Google Adsense users, and I was shocked, and felt lucky too! Because it seems that they have changed their TOS which requires us to add a new 'privacy policy' on our adsense sites.

I knew most of you would be having a tough time on what does a 'privacy policy' means and/or how to create one. Well, no worries!

This site has a ready-made 'privacy policy' template and all you need to do is edit it using your site URL and paste it at your website by creating a new "Privacy Policy" page.

Code:
http://www.jensense.com/2008/03/05/adsense-friendly-privacy-policy-sample-for-adsense-publishers-to-use

To those who knew about this earlier, kindly ignore this post. Why am I posting this? Because I happened to find out this information a few minutes ago and managed to put a "Privacy Policy" page on all my adsense sites before something 'bad' happens due to my carelessness.

To check out the google adsense's TOS, view the link below, hit CTRL+F and type 'cookies'

Code:
https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms

Google launches AdSense for Games

2008-10-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Google launches AdSense for Games
by Daniel Terdiman

Image
This screenshot shows one way Google will place ads in games,
including casual Web-based games like PlayFish's Wordplay.
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If Google's entry into a field of advertising doesn't legitimize it, nothing can. And that's why the in-game advertising industry just got a huge shot in the arm.
On Tuesday night, Google announced the beta launch of its new AdSense for Games program, the search giant's first foray into the video games market, and the long-awaited answer to the question of what the company planned to do with AdScape Media, which it bought for $23 million in February 2007.
According to Christian Oestlien, the senior product manager for AdSense for Games, the program's beta launch will focus on the placement of a variety of forms of ads in Flash-based casual games and some larger titles.
In the beginning at least, Oestlien said, Google will work with partners like PlayFish, Mochi Media, Demand Media and Konami.
The latter, Oestlien said, would use AdSense for Games to place ads in well-known titles like Frogger and Dance Dance Revolution.
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And among the initial advertisers participating in the program are eSurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Of course, the in-game advertising field already has several well-established players, including Microsoft's Massive, DoubleFusion, and IGA.
"By (Google) finally launching in the space," said DoubleFusion CEO Jonathan Epstein, "it confirms for all parties...that this space is of interest to one of the largest media companies in the world. Google does not enter into markets that don't have billion dollar-plus potential for them."
To Epstein, having Google plant its flag in the in-game ads space shows everyone that games cannot be taken lightly as an ad platform, no matter what other choices advertisers have for their dollars.
"The battleground here is not between ourselves and Massive and Google," Epstein said. "It's getting games their rightful share of the ad dollars, as opposed to TV, print, and (traditional) online ads."
For its part, Google is well aware that it will have several significant competitors, but still thinks it can set itself apart.
According to Oestlien, Google intends to do so by leveraging its network of thousands of advertiser partners, as well as its proven experience helping those partners with the placement of effective print, image- and Flash-based creative ads.
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Google's long-term play
Given that Google announced its AdScape buy more than a year ago, Google's move is by no means a surprise. Some see that it's only natural that the company seeks to repeat the success it has had with AdSense in as many new environments as possible.
And some think that while Google may have its work cut out for it in the games space in the short-term, the AdSense for Games move is really part of a long-term play involving several different media.
"I would argue that Google is not going to be a home run in in-game advertising...any time in the immediate future," said Tim Hanlon, executive vice president of Publicis Groupe's media futures practice, Denuo. "But pay careful attention, (it is trying to build the) foundational building blocks to be an ad server in many environments that could be very attractive to marketers and ad agencies, and I think the place where Google will be successful soonest is in the self-serve marketplace, or the long-tail marketer environment."
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"Google does not enter into markets that don't have billion dollar-plus potential for them."
--Jonathan Epstein, CEO, DoubleFusion Hanlon explained he thinks Google is uniquely positioned to help small, "mom and pop" marketing companies get into media formerly dominated by major advertisers. And games could present just such a golden opportunity for these moms and pops, he said.
"In the short term, this is interesting, but not earth-shaking," Hanlon said. "But in the long term, it's yet another step towards Google ubiquity in ad serving."
For now, Google is not saying exactly what its plans are, but it did say that it plans to bring in revenues through both impressions and click-through models.
To Dorian Benkoil, the founder of Teeming Media, an online business consultancy, Google's success at placing in-game ads, like that of its competitors, will come down to how well it is able to integrate those messages in games.

"What I've seen," said Benkoil," is that the community of gamers tend to be very vocal and emotional about anything that they find that isn't well integrated into a game. So if Google is doing an AdSense initiative, I would hope that they would do it in a seamless way that isn't interruptive of the gaming experience. Because if not, they would face some backlash."
Benkoil said that his research has also indicated that in-game ads may not be as effective as those in other media. That's because, he suggested, gamers spend a lot of time on the sites and in the games where they play, but they are deeply engaged in what they're doing and are not very interested in looking at things, like ads, that may be a distraction.
That dynamic, he added, could be a problem for Google if it focuses too much on the click-through model.
Another question Google will have to find the answer to is how gamers feel about ads in the first place.
For years, there have been studies showing that gamers actually like ads because it makes their playing experience more realistic, given that there's advertising everywhere we go in real life.
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Smart ad placement is key
Whether that's generally true or not, Benkoil said the key is how smart the placement of any ads are in games.
"Ads have to be well-integrated into the game," he said, "and usually when they are well-integrated, it's been very carefully done, and the gaming company works very carefully to integrate the advertising message."
Without knowing any specifics of Google's plans, Benkoil said this could pose a problem for the company, since it is known for automated algorithms that place ads, and he said it would be hard to imagine how carefully those ads could be positioned.
"But if they're able to pull that off in an automated sense," he added, "then they've gone to a new generation of in-game advertising."
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For now, with financial markets the world over struggling, some may question whether it's a good idea for Google to be diving into a new advertising medium, but Oestlien doesn't see the economic downturn as much of a problem for the AdSense for Games program.
"Given the current economic situation, we think providing a model that reinforces games," Oestlien said, "is a great thing for Google to be able to do. Games are a pretty resilient part of the economy, and game playing continues to grow."
Either way, given that Google paid $23 million for AdScape, it had to launch its in-game ads program sooner or later. And that's good for the industry, even its competitors insist.
"This is nothing that wasn't expected," said Epstein. "It was a question of when. (And) it's another voice saying the TV buy is outdated and (Google's) is a powerful voice in this argument."
Code:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10060732-52.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Any rapid start running Google ads on my site?

2008-09-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

After being accepted into the program and paste the AdSense HTML ad code in the pages of your site, ads will begin running on your site within minutes. If your site is not included in the Vharsna, it takes a few hours before we can send a robot to indexing your site. Until then, may offer some public service announcements or advertisements alternative set, note that you do not gain anything by it on the AdSense.
Add AdSense for search code to your pages immediately establish a search box AdSense. Since the search results appear on the pages hosted by Google, ads will show immediately if any ads commensurate with the search term used.
Publishers bear alone the responsibility for the operation and maintenance of their positions. Google will not be responsible in the event that put AdSense HTML code manner Declaration incorrect or if we fail for technical reasons showing ads on a site.

How does a socialist program in this position he occupied positions in the search results from Google?

2008-09-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

The participate in Google AdSense does not affect the classification of your search results from Google, as it will not affect the search results that we offer. Google believes strongly in freedom of expression, and allowing access to all content in the Internet. Search results are not affected our relations with publishers or advertisers who pay money to us. We will continue to display the search results according to technical PageRank (PageRank), which excel them.
The addition of Google AdSense ad code or AdSense for search code to your site does not create a way for your web pages to be indexed by robots main index. Robotna true that (from 'Mediapartners-Google') is content to put targeted ads, but it has nothing to do with the main archive.

How does Google target ads on my Web site?

2008-09-29T08:47:00.000-07:00

Once you add to the Google ad code on Web pages that want to display ads for Google, we take the rest of the procedures, through the Google ads with similar content automatically to those pages. Google ads will be targeted in two ways:

* Content Targeting
Our technology relies on the use of certain factors such as the analysis of keywords and repeat the word, the font size and the installation of a comprehensive Web link, with a view to determining the content of any Web page and matching Google ads to each page carefully.
* Location targeting
Location targeting using advertisers can choose ad positions, or subdivisions within the existing Web sites that advertisers want their ads to operate it. May not be related to advertising aimed at positioning the content of the page carefully, however, may be selected by advertisers who find a consensus among the concerns of users and what they can introduced.

Our technology can also identify the primary language of the page. If your content using a written language supported our program, AdSense ads will be designed to fit with the language of the written content for you. In addition to the above, is locally targeted Google ads your visitor to the site.

The list of countries that allow the Google payment by Western Union

2008-09-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Google payment available via Western Union in those countries (currently) and other countries will be added in the future:

* Argentina
* Bulgaria
* Chile
* China (mainland)
* Colombia
* Egypt
* Lithuania
* Malaysia
* Morocco
* Pakistan
* Peru
* Philippines
* Romania
* Taiwan

Just don’t do it--don't cheat google.

2008-09-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

Just don’t do it--don't cheat google.

I know it’s tempting, because it seems so easy and it’s just sitting there waiting for you to do it, but do not click on the AdWords displayed on your own site to increase your revenue. Google (rightfully) frowns on this.

Plus, Google has some of the smartest engineers around, and they are very good at detecting this kind of fraud. And really, for an extra $1, is it worth getting kicked out of a money-maker like AdSense? I think not…

In closing, I want to say that these strategies can help you maximize your revenue from Google AdSense. And I personally guarantee that you’ll have a whole lot of fun creating content pages on topics you have a passion for.

Make sure you display AdWords prominently.

2008-09-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

Make sure you display AdWords prominently.

It’s to your financial advantage to put the AdWords near the top of your page on the right. Make sure there is enough "breathing room" -- i.e. white space around the ads -- so that they will easily attract your visitors

Select vertical AdWords format.

2008-09-27T22:01:00.001-07:00

Everyone’s seen way too many horizontal banner ads up top. Thus, Google recommends you choose the vertical -- not horizontal -- format to display your AdWords. I agree. People have become "banner blind" to a horizontal format. Plus, Google has "trained" us to click on relevant text ads on their own site and they use the vertical format.

Knock yourself out to make high quality information pages.

2008-09-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

Knock yourself out to make high quality information pages.

The ideal Google AdSense page should have great content about a very specific topic. Take pains to be very clear about what the topic is, and carefully choose the keyword (or key phrase) describing the topic. Users don’t like vague pages that don’t make it very clear what the page is all about.

Don’t even think about trying to 'trick' AdSense. (I talked about that earlier, remember? They have penalties, including getting kicked out.) Don't create a page on one topic and give it a file name about a different topic—that’s too confusing.

In a nutshell, you want to make sure the page you create offers great value to people interested in the topic. When you provide excellent information on a specific topic, your visitors will benefit and will be more likely to click through to relevant AdWords.

Think about segmenting your sites: making some pages for high search engine traffic, other pages to sell products,

2008-09-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Think about segmenting your sites: making some pages for high search engine traffic, other pages to sell products, and still other pages just for Google AdSense.

To implement this, you’ll need to recognize that different pages on your site can have different purposes. You may have pages designed to sell specific products. Others may be designed to rank high in the search engines (but don't ever try to trick the search engines). Still others can be designed for Google AdSense.

Now, once you know which pages you're creating for AdSense, your job is simple; select an appropriate keyword (or key phrase).

Then you’ll use that keyword as the file name and put dashes between the words. In the example above, you would use the file name 'water-gardening.html' for your water gardening page.

Best case scenario is that you’re able to select keywords that are the highest paying keyword on the topic. By tweaking the file name, you may be able to improve your AdSense results dramatically.

Build a new site on high paying keywords.

2008-09-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Build a new site on high paying keywords.

This is one of my most lucrative pieces of advice: create a brand new site to take advantage of Google AdSense by deliberately selecting a topic with high paying keywords.

Then, of course, you deliver dynamite content on that topic.

But how do you know what the highest paying keywords are?

Another tool you can use comes from pay-per-click search engine, 7Search. 7Search has a page on the 100 highest paying keywords. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect. The tool often 'times out' and gives you an error when you try to access the page. My best advice is just be patient and try several times to get this list—it’s worth it.

You want to make new pages with higher paying keywords (while keeping it real and releveant).

2008-09-27T21:55:00.002-07:00

You want to make new pages with higher paying keywords (while keeping it real and releveant).

Sometimes, selecting different keywords on the same topic can really make a difference in earnings.

Pretend you have a gardening site and you want to create some new pages.

By carefully selecting which topics to focus on first, you can dramatically increase your income.

With the Overture tool mentioned above, you can find out that 'water gardening' currently has a maximum price of $0.50, while 'gardening zone' is only $0.05. That means you can earn 10 times more by creating a page on 'water gardening' than 'gardening zones'! Which one to choose…yeah, that’s tough!

What you want to do is use information to decide which relevant keywords to focus on as you go through the process of making new pages for your site.

Whenever you can, use higher paying keywords.

2008-09-27T21:55:00.001-07:00

Obviously, you'll earn more if the average AdWord that Google displays pays more per click.

The question is: how do you get Google to display higher paying keywords?

Well, for one thing, don't get greedy and create pages on unrelated keywords just because they pay more. In other words, don't create a page on 'cell phone plans' on your motorcycle tire site just because 'cell phone plans' pays more than ‘motorcycle tires.’

How to find out which keywords pay best? If you're a Google AdWords advertiser, you can log into your AdWords account and experiment.

If you're not an AdWords advertiser, use a free tool at the pay-per-click search engine, Overture.

Overture’s tool lets you see what advertisers are paying on Overture for each keyword. Sure, Overture and Google don’t pay the same. But they’re not all that different, and this tool can give you a general idea of which keywords will pay more than others.

(Also, don’t’ forget Google’s commission, so you have to allow for their cut on the amount an advertiser pays for each click.)

Make content pages for your site -- and put AdWords on them.

2008-09-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Assuming your page is a decent one, the more pages you have displaying AdWords, the more money you'll earn.

If you already have a website, display AdWords on more pages.

And always, always, always focus on making more great content pages. I suggest that you budget time each week for creating pages (and sites) on topics you love. You'll find more on creating AdSense content pages in Tip #8.

And it’s especially good if these content pages are very clearly focused. Then, Google will be able to serve highly relevant AdWords to your users. This means your visitors will be more interested in the ads, which results in higher click through rates -- and more money for you!

Making Money with AdSense

2008-09-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

It’s as easy as falling off a log to generating revenue with Google AdSense. After you're accepted to the program, just add a few lines of html code to your site (Google shows you how once you're accepted) -- and voila!

Within a few minutes, your site will begin displaying AdWords, and so you can start making money. Each day you wait means you don’t make the bucks you could. So start now.

Building a Virtual Content Empire to Display Ads On

2008-09-27T21:49:00.000-07:00

Building a Virtual Content Empire to Display Ads On

So now you’re ready to build your content-rich empire and start raking in the bucks, right? Sure you are! You don’t have to be a great writer, you just have to know where to get good writing. And heck, it really doesn’t even have to be great. Just good.

Here are the steps you’ll want to take:

1. Pick a domain name – this requires some thought, since even though it’s not as critical as it used to be to have a catchy domain name, it still matters to some users. Once you’ve picked one, check with http://www.web.com, or http://www.whois.net to see if it’s available. If your favorite choice isn’t available in .com format, consider being flexible and having it in .net, .biz, .org, or some other form.
2. Reserve the domain name. Web.com and many, many others offer that service.
3. Get web hosting. You’ll want to shop around on this one, since prices and services and terms & conditions vary greatly.
4. Set up your new domain, including your e-mail addresses.
5. Design your site, and start building pages.
6. Get some content. If you don’t want to write it yourself, check out:
§ http://www.ezinearticles.com
§ http://www.goarticles.com
§ http://www.freshcontent.net/
§ http://www.elance.com to hire a freelance writer who will write articles for you. Browse project postings first to see what other people usually ask for these articles—they are very popular.
§ ArticleSiteBuilder.com builds your article sites automatically!
7. For good RSS feeds, check out:
§ http://www.rsscontentbuilder.com/
§ http://www.feedster.com/
8. Sign up with Google AdSense
9. Update content at least weekly
10. Go to mailbox, get checks.

Maximize your Click-Throughs With Placement

2008-09-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

Maximize your Click-Throughs With Placement

Yeah, size matters, but so does placement…particularly as far as Google AdSense ads are concerned. Remember how I said to use the skyscraper format for ads, putting them in the margins as opposed to banner ads across the top or bottom?
Well, guess how much difference that can make. Go on, guess. OK, I’ll tell you. Poorly placed ads, such as banner ads down at the very bottom of the page, might have a click-through rate of about 2.3% on a good day.
But well-placed ads, such as a nice skyscraper ad in that critical upper-left quadrant we talked about, can have a click-through rate as high as 40%.
And that’s for the same ad. Yes, the very same ad can have a click-through rate of an abysmal 2.3% or an awesome 40%. It has nothing to do with the ad itself and everything to do with where you put it.
Another neat trick to maximize click-through is to massage the colors of the ads so that they fit in with the colors of your site. Ads that are seen as “fitting in” get more clicks than ads that clash.

Do-it-Yourself SEO

2008-09-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

There are a ton of free online SEO tools available on the internet. Most feature some very impressive statistics and information to help you optimize your website, analyze search engine positions, research your competitors, and lots of other things.
There are two ways you can use these free online SEO tools:

(1) If you’re new to SEO, these tools provide excellent insight on how a website is performing and ranking. Use them to highlight issues and trends with your website and provide indicators for where optimization work is necessary.
(2) If you’ve had some experience with SEO, these tools will act as a complement to the more specialized SEO tools, like WebPosition Gold or SpyderOpts. You can also use them to supplement an SEO’s internal knowledge base and experience.

Here are some choice tools for both new SEO users and more experience SEO users:

Keyword Research Tool
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-research-tool.shtml/
Use this to research appropriate words and phrases to include in your webpage's body text so that you’ll rank higher. It’s easy to use. You just enter the word or phrase you want to be found under, then the tool suggests additional words and phrases for you to consider using. You also have the option to select from a range of top search engines, e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, Teoma, etc.

Keyword Analyser Tool
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-analysis
This one will read the body of the page and give you a report on what words are used and how many times they are used.
Since most engines rank sites depending on that site’s keyword density (which typically ranges between 3% and 9%), this is a really good tool to have.

Search Engine Position Checker Tool
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine
This tool checks to see if your website appears in the first fifty results in major search engines for your designated keyword or phrase. If your URL is present, the tool outputs what position it occupies. This tool also lets you know if any other URLs from your domain appear in the search results.

Link Popularity Tool
http://www.instantposition.com/link_popularity_check.cfm
This tool will measure the total number of links or "votes" that a search engine finds for your website. One of the best feature is that besides tabulating data, it also produces a very cool graph of the resulting data. One other nice feature is the ability to compare your website to your competitors to help you with your overall marketing strategy.

Meta Tag Generator
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/meta-tag
This automatically generates a Meta Keyword tag by reading the page you specify, removing common words from it, and picking the most used words on the page. Extra weight is given to words in a heading tag (etc.)

Search Term Suggestion Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
This one tells you how many times a certain keyword was searched for at Overture.com. It will also show all related searches for that keyword. It’s a good thing to use to determine search frequency among related keyword phrases

Search Engine Optimization Tool
http://www.instantposition.com/seo_doctor.cfm
This is a tool with a lot of power. It tests the performance of a web site by analyzing a page by important criteria such as title and content. Then it ranks the page against the criteria that the top search engines use. And as if that isn’t enough, it also provides SEO advice to improve your overall ranking. The report it puts out is well laid out and easy to read.

About Specific Keyword Density Ranges

2008-09-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

With the decline of meta-tags, keyword density ranges have become very important. They’ve also become very controversial. Here’s the thing: you want a high enough keyword density—at least 7%--that your keywords rank highly in the bigger search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, DogPile, and HotBot.
But, as we discussed, you don’t want your keyword densities so high that they turn your content into over-hyped gobbledygook, nor do you want to raise a red flag when the spiders come crawling over your content. If your keyword density is 20% or more, the search engine will most likely red-flag you for “keyword stuffing” and penalize you by moving you down in the search results.
Thus, keyword density ranges are controversial. To make things worse, different search engines have different algorithms. One of them might thing an SEO keyword density of 18% is fine, another may not.
The only way a search engine can figure out just what your page is about is to search for the keywords you use. Those keywords don't necessarily have to be right there on the page—they can be in the title and in links that will lead to the page. Having said that, though, keywords that appear on your page are certainly the most common way that search engines use to decide what your page is all about. Keyword density refers to the ratio of keywords to the total number of words on the page.
Now I want you to look again at the paragraph above. There are 95 words total, and I used the word "keywords" exactly five times. The keyword ratio for the paragraph, then, is 5 divided by 95 times 100, or about 5.26%. Easy math, correct? You bet.
But how much does that stuff matter?
Well, it’s not a matter of life and death, but it’s pretty important. You see, when a search engine compares two pages to figure out which one ought to rank higher, keyword density will factor into it—usually pretty significantly. In fact, all other factors being equal (which is pretty much impossible, but let's pretend), the page with the higher keyword density will generally rank higher.
However, simple as Keyword Density is, it can also get really complex in a hurry. Do plurals or other stemmed variations of your keyword count as keywords? Should stop words, which are those common words you see all the time like "a" or "the," be ignored when calculating density?
Should you include off-page content, like meta tags and titles, in your calculations? What about keyword frequency or keyword proximity or keyword prominence? And like I’ve said before, bear in mind that if your keyword density gets too high, search engines just might realize it and penalize your page.
But now, hold on. Even though keyword densities are getting to be a complex science with lots of complicated algorithms, you can do it!
Keyword densities really are not rocket science, so don’t fall into the trap of making things more complicated than they need to be. Go to Google and search on "keyword density." The first three pages should be ones that provide about 20 or 25 different tools for calculating KWD.
Now all you have to do is pick one that feels user-friendly to you and use it to optimize your web page, noting the results. Now try something else: run a Google search on your keyword, and run the analysis on the first ten sites. Take a good hard look at the results. From this, you should get a good idea how your page will compare with the ten top ranking pages in Google, at least in terms of keyword density.
Here’s the thing that frustrates people, though: if you go and do that with three or four different KWD tools, you will no doubt come up with different numbers, but the graph of those numbers will look very similar. Don’t worry about it, because the numbers aren’t the most important thing. You only care how they compare to each other.
Something else you'll probably discover is that keyword density is not a very good indicator of rank. The top ranking page may have a much lower density than the page at number ten, for example.
Why does this happen, when you work so hard to get your keyword density high? It happens because KWD is only one factor among many. It's important to a good ranking, but it's not the be-all and end-all of a good ranking. What you really want to know from your analysis is the range of density values that rank well. Chances are good that if your page is below that range, getting on page one to compete with the big dogs will be tough, and if you're above that range, the search engines may think you’re “keyword stuffing” and you’ll be penalized. Just remember, though, the numbers are guidelines you should know, not carved-in-stone rules that forever define your fate. Experiment!
You may hear self-proclaimed website gurus say that keyword density should always run between two and eight percent or whatever the current numbers being quoted in forums across the Internet happen to be. That’s partly true. Those numbers are probably fairly accurate for most keywords. They’re based on averages and it’s always good to stick close to an average.
But there’s a problem. Here’s how the problem goes: the most commonly used letter in English is the letter “E.” If you wrote a ten word sentence, it would be much easier to use the letter E five times in that sentence than it would be to use, say, the letter Z five times. Letters aren’t an even distribution. Neither are keyword. Big shock, huh?
Remember what I said earlier about not sounding awkward in your content? Well, the biggest thing about keyword density is that it must read well and sound very natural to a user. It’s useless to get a page one ranking if your content is very lame.
Like the letter E, some keywords are easy to use a lot of while still sounding natural. For instance, if your keyword was “grass” on a site about lawn care, it wouldn’t be hard to use “grass” a lot.
But some keywords just don’t lend themselves to being used a lot—like “quince.” (It’s a type of fruit.) Here’s the choice to be made: you can use an average range, which will work well most times, or you can spend time analyzing the top ten pages to find the best range for that particular keyword and be sure you're not trying to optimize for a Z or a quince.
Frustrated? Don’t be! It isn’t that hard. If you’re still confused, check out a competitor's page in Google's cache (which highlights the keywords for you) to get a good visual feel for density.
Another good tip is to perform a “real person sanity check” on your content. Reading your optimized content out loud several times, and try to get a natural flow that will make the copy draw users who will come back. Then take a hard look at your content. If you can substitute a keyword for a pronoun without loosing your flow, do it.
For instance, if your keyword is “hammock”, instead of a sentence saying, “I love to lie in it,” say, “I love to lie in my hammock.”

Likes and dislikes of Googlebots

2008-09-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

What’s a Googlebot? It’s one of the little web-searching spiders (automated) that I talked about in the last section. And these spiders have definite preferences, so you want to make sure your content is good spider food.

Spiders like:

Neat code—less lines of code than lines of text (or more lines of text than lines of codes.)

Normal keyword densities of 3-7%.

Lots of backlinks on pages that link back to your home page. (Top sites have an average of 300 backlinks.)

Original content not found anywhere else.

Quick downloads of sites, which means not a lot of dynamic URLS to other sites.

Site maps.

ALT Tabs for images.

Link partners who are contextually relevant to your page (i.e., if your page is about buying real estate, links might about be how to get loans, how to prospect for deals, how to start a corporation…but not about pet gerbils, latest fashions, or cell phones.)

New content every time the spider comes to check up on your site.

Spiders do not like:

More lines of code than text.

Nested tables.

Super-high keyword densities, which they call “keyword stuffing”.

“Doorway pages” that act as a portal and which just happen to have super-high keyword densities.

Too many backlinks to your home page from within your domain.

Duplicate content from another site—regardless of who stole what from whom.

Lots of dynamic URLs that cause a site to take forever to download.

Repeating the exact same words in your linking text, which the spider will interpret as automated link swapping. (Interestingly, it’s fine for the spiders to be fully automated, but they hate it when we do that!)

Stale content that never changes.

What are Content-Rich Sites and Why Have One?

2008-09-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

A content-rich site is one that has lots of informative articles up at it, usually centered around a theme. Most sites can’t quite pull off being WikiPedia, so they specialize. For instance, you could do a site for dog owners. Possible articles on that site would cover:

How to figure out what kind of dog you want
Where to get a dog
How to deal with a puppy
Life stages of a dog
House-training puppies
Dog training
What to feed dogs
Whether to get more than one dog
How to socialize dogs with other dogs and with cats
Exercise needs of dogs
Training dogs to do tricks
Treating fleas
Common dog ailments and when to go to the vet
Dog nutrition
Taking your dog on a trip
Getting a pet sitter or boarding your dog if you don’t take him on a trip

The articles you’ll want to have on your site should be short enough so that someone can read them in about 5 minutes. This means you want to stick to articles of 250 to 750 words, with 300 to 600 words optimal. To give you an idea, a single page in a published novel has about 300 words.
Of course, your real purpose in putting up all these nice little short articles and changing them out frequently is not to just put information out into the world. It is to have a site that people will come back to so that they will see the Google AdSense ads, and click on them, and then you will get checks in the mail.
That’s a key point, so I’m going to repeat it:

The purpose of having a content-rich website is to attract people to it, again and again, so that they will see the ads and click on them.

You might think it’s lots of cool graphics and colors that make a site attractive to a visitor, but it’s really the content. In order to make money from Google AdSense, you need to grasp that concept. Believe me, you could run a wonderful advertising campaign and develop all sorts of viral marketing tools and attractive affiliate programs.
But unless your Website is content-rich, the traffic spikes that you get for your efforts will only be temporary. The very best way to attract and retain an online audience is to provide content that’s useful, valuable, informative, educational or just downright funny as hell or entertaining in some way.
What does a content-rich website look like?

Building Content-Rich Sites

2008-09-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

First off, why would you want to build content-rich websites? The short answer is “Because it keeps people on your site for awhile, it makes them come back, and they tell their friends about that site.”
But why? Well, for one thing, people will stay on a content-rich site because it takes awhile to read an article or two. Thus, while they’re reading the material, their peripheral vision (off to the sides) notices little ads that happen to surround that articles.
And if people start to realize that a certain site has good content that they like, and in particular, different content that constantly changes and is updated, then they’ll check back to see what’s new.
The worst thing in the world to have is a stagnant website that never changes. People will visit it exactly twice—the first time to check it out, and the second one to see what’s changed—and when they find out it hasn’t changed, they most likely won’t come back. Ever.

Am I Going to Make a Lot of Money Off of adsense?

2008-09-27T21:24:00.001-07:00

Am I Going to Make a Lot of Money Off of adsense?

While we can’t guarantee results, of course, since a lot of your success lies in your own hands, we wouldn’t have written this book if we didn’t believe in the power of Google AdSense. A lot of webmasters are making a lot of money off of AdSense, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be one of them.
The amount of money you can make with Google AdSense mainly depends on what user needs your Website fills. For instance, a site about women’s issues can make some serious bucks on AdSense because of the high level of competition for related keywords.
The CPC (cost per click) is the amount you get paid every time a user clicks on one of those ad banners. CPC rates for competitive keywords can be more than $1, which translates directly to your site’s earning potential within the program.
However, if you’re in a less competitive market, you’ll make less money—that’s just a fact of life. Still, it’s unusual to see anyone using Google AdSense report earnings of less than an effective $1 CPM (cost per 1000 impressions), and the average runs in the range of $4-$5 CPM. Some people are making an effective CPM of $15 or more with AdSense. Oh, and best yet, this is all after Google takes its commission.
About that commission…commission is definitely one thing is that’s a little bit ambiguous with AdSense. Google doesn’t publicize it’s “cut”, and only displays the publisher’s cut in proprietary member reports, so getting good, accurate information on this has been difficult.
To date, comparisons of AdWords rates with AdSense earnings add up to commissions of between 40% and 60%. People speculate all the time on user boards as to why Google refuses to publish its commission rates, but no one has the answer. It might have something to do with legal reasons or it could just be that Google wants to retain the ability to change rates without having to send out an announcement about it each time, which costs money.

What are Users Saying about AdSense?

2008-09-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

What are Users Saying about AdSense?

It’s one thing to hear about all the great advantages Google AdSense offers, including how it can make money for you in your sleep. But it’s another thing to hear comments from real, live people. Here are a few of my favorites.

“We’re seeing this impressive new revenue stream without incurring any cost. We’re maximizing our previously unsold inventory, and our revenue per page figure continues to grow.”
- Scott Zucker, Executive VP and COO, Intelligent Content Corp, PetPlace.com

“It took no time at all to copy and post the code on individual pages, and it fits well with our content management system and with the look and feel of all our pages.”
- Steve Larson, Founder, Our-Hometown.com

“Instead of spending money to hire an additional sales rep to sell ad banners, Google ads have become a virtual sales tool for us. Now we’re able to reap thousands of dollars in additional advertising revenue each month that we would very likely have missed without Google AdSense.”
- Robert Hoskins, Editor and Group Publisher, Broadband Wireless Exchange

“Google shows targeted ads reflecting the sorts of information and services SeatGuru visitors want. For a small business like mine, this is the best approach to advertising. You set it up easily, it automatically serves relevant ads, and it takes very little of my time.”
- Matt Daimler, Founder, SeatGuru.com

“At the beginning I was very concerned that I might lose traffic to competitors. I only used AdSense on a limited number of the site’s pages, and I watched the stats very carefully. If the traffic, pages per visitor, or conversion rates dropped I knew I could easily pull the ads...Since implementing AdSense, our ad revenue has increased more than tenfold, and 100 percent of my available inventory is now sold through AdSense.”
- Vik Kachoria, Entrepreneur, Real Adventure.

What Kinds of Ads Will I Get on My Site?

2008-09-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Obviously, there are some kinds of ads you wouldn’t want to have on your site, such as pornographic ones or ads for sleazy multi-level marketing schemes that scream “Make $30,000 a month just for watching TV!” in big red letters.
Well, you can put your mind at ease. Google has an ad review process that checks the ads they send to your site. This process ensures that the ads that you serve up are family-friendly and that they comply with Google’s strict editorial guidelines.
Google’s ad-screening team combines sensitive language filters, input from site owners like you, and a team of linguists with good old common sense to filter out ads that could be inappropriate for your content. And if that’s not enough, you have to capability to block competitive ads and choose your own default ads. That’s another nice feature: Google kind of lets you run your own show.

Now, another thing you might be concerned about is whether the ads will clash with the look, feel, and colors scheme you’ve got going with your site. Don’t worry. You can customize the appearance of ads and choose from a wide range of colors and templates. Same thing goes for your search results page. And reports are customizable, too. Google provides flexible reporting tools that allow you to group your pages any which way you want.
That means you can view your results by URL, domain, ad type, category and more so that you can figure out where your earnings are coming from.

What Can adsense do for Me?

2008-09-27T21:08:00.000-07:00

What Can adsense do for Me?

In three words, earn you money. More relevant ads on your pages translates into more clicks—and more money that you receive. Because when users click on an ad, Google will pay you. If you’ve set up your own sales team, you’ll get an additional benefit: AdSense complements their efforts. It doesn’t compete with them. With AdSense, you get a reporting page that gives you a breakdown on how your ads are doing and what they’re bringing in.

Google has a huge advertiser base, so they have ads for all kinds of businesses and for just about every type of content no matter how broad or specialized it is. And since Google provides the ads, you don’t have to spend time talking to your advertisers.
AdSense represents advertisers that span the spectrum. These advertisers range from large global brands to small and local companies. And ads are targeted by geography so global businesses can display local advertising easily. One more thing: you can use AdSense in many languages.

So how does AdSense figure out how to do all this targeted advertising? Well, AdSense has the ability to deliver relevant ads because the gurus at Google understand how web pages really work and they’re continually refining their technology to make it smarter all the time.
For example, some words can have several different meanings depending on context. You’ve seen th is happen with “two” and “too” and “to.” Google technology is smart enough to understand these distinctions from the context that the word appears in, so you get more targeted ads.
When you put a Google search box on your site you start making money off of web searches that people do on your site. This ability to search off of your page keeps them on your site longer—since they can search from right there where they are—and it will only take you a few minutes to get AdSense up and running. The best part, of course, is that AdSense is free for you to use.

So Just What is Google Adsense?

2008-09-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Google AdSense is a fast and absolutely ridiculously easy way for people with websites of all types and sizes to put up and display relevant Google ads on the content pages of their site and earn money.
Because the Google AdSense ads relate to what your visitors came to your site to read about, or because the ads match up to the interests and characteristics of the kind of people your content attracts, you now have a way to improve your content pages AND make some serious bucks off of them.
Google AdSense is also a way for site owners to provide Google search capability to visitors and to earn even more money by putting Google ads on the search results pages. Google AdSense gives you the ability to earn advertising revenue from every single page on your website—with a minimal investment of your time
So what kind of ads do you have to put up? That’s the good part—you don’t have to decide. Google does it for you. AdSense always delivers relevant ads that are precisely targeted—on a page-by-page basis—to the content that people find on your site. For example, if you have a page that tells the story of your pet fish, Google will send you ads for that site that are for pet stores, fish food, fish bowls, aquariums…you get the picture.
If you decide you want to add a Google search box to your site, then AdSense will deliver relevant ads targeted to the Google search results pages that your visitors’ search request generated.

If you’re into upgrades, Google is now offering “AdSense Premium”, which is CPC based and, for the time being, offers less flexibility in terms of ad sizes -- only banners and skyscrapers are currently available. You can apply using existing AdWords accounts, or you can request a new account. Applicants are usually notified within a day as to whether they’ve been accepted for the program.
Here’s the thing you need to know: Google has no strict criteria for acceptance into the AdSense program, and Ad Sense doesn’t hit you with a minimum traffic requirement. The only criteria they’re really sticky about is the standard “acceptable content” requirements, and that’s pretty standard almost anywhere.
Google AdSense says they’re serious about attracting quality content sites, and because of that they only allow AdSense members to serve one ad per page. This means you can’t use AdSense for both banners and skyscrapers.(Note: banners are those horizontal ads that run up top and down bottom. Skyscrapers are the tall ads that run vertically, on the left and right of your page text.)
Once you’ve been accepted into Google AdSense, you’ll be able to get the AdSense advertisements on any site you own using the same ad code, provided you obey the Google guidelines. (And that’s very, very important—more on that later.)
Your reporting doesn’t occur in real time, but is updated regularly throughout the day. Right now, you can’t view reports based on a domain or site basis if you run the AdSense on more than one site.

$100/Day Success Timeline

2008-09-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

$100/Day Success Timeline

Days 1 and 2:
Print out this manual and read it 2 times front to back. If there are any gaps in
your knowledge, mark them down and go fill those gaps by doing some quick
research in the PGI membership area. Then, go back and make notes in the
margin.

Day 3:
• Register your 124 domains and signup for your hosting accounts.
• Set the proper DNS setting on your domains so that they work on your
hosting accounts.
• Load your 100 money domain URL’s into an Excel spreadsheet
• Setup all 124 domains on your various hosting accounts.
• Setup your Google AdSense channels
• Load your domains into an FTP program like CuteFTP
• Gather 200,000 keywords

Day 4:
Your domains will most likely have propagated by now.
• Get your WordPress template(s) ready if you’re using your own
• Install a WordPress blog on the root of every one of your 100 money
domains.
• Gather 200,000 keywords

Day 5:
• Setup your blog farms domains in your hosting control panels
• Setup your first blog farm as well as your Excel tracking sheet.
• Gather 200,000 keywords
• Setup your other 2 blog farms in the same way you setup your first.
• Gather incoming links to blog 6 on all 3 blog farms.

Day 6:
• Gather 200,000 keywords

Day 7:
• Install Swift Blogger as directed earlier.
• Load all of your blogs into their respective Swift Blogger installs
• Load content into all of your Swift Blogger installs

• Setup cron jobs and start posting to all 124 domains (and even more blogs,
given that you have subdomains on some of your blog farm domains)
• Gather 200,000 keywords

Day 8-10:
• Finish gathering keywords so you have at least 3 million (preferably 4
million)

Day 11:
• Build Pages on 50 domains

Day 12:
• Build Pages on Remaining 50 domains

Day 13:
• Load all of your pages into Swift Blogger. Swift Blogger will now begin
posting links to your sites.

Day 14 and Beyond:
• Begin your ‘icing on the cake’ promotional methods, including setting up
Linktator, Blogger blogs, and submitting RSS feeds.

***

Extended Timeline

Day 30 - 45:
• You should be seeing income now. Over the next few weeks track your
Adsense stats in Asrep (or any other ad tracking system you’re using) and
watch your channels in AdSense. Figure out which keyword lists are
performing the best and save them to a special folder on your computer
called “Big Money Lists.”

Day 45 and Beyond:
• Take some of the income you’re earning from AdSense and reinvest it in
new hosting accounts and another 100 domains. Don’t wait. Do it
now…you’ll be glad you did. This time around it will be MUCH, MUCH
faster as you’ll know the process front to back and won’t have to constantly
refer to this manual.
• Build sites on your next 100 domains using your “Big Money Lists.” These
domains will likely be quite a bit more profitable than your first 100.
• Come back and read this manual again and figure out which tasks you can
begin outsourcing with your newfound stream of income.

When you’ve reached $25, $50 and finally $100 a day and beyond, don’t forget to
post your success stories in the PGI forum, if you are a member. Personal success
stories can go a long way towards motivating others, which is a good thing.

Final Tip:

How to double the income of one of your domains.

After watching your AdSense channels for awhile, you’ll being to easily see which
domains are pulling in the most cash.

Pinpoint your top performing domain.

Now, take one of your blog farms. If you recall, you have six main blogs…one on
each domain. On five of those blogs you also have subdomains, but don’t worry
about those.

From the homepage of each of your 6 main blogs, link to the homepage of your top
performing domain. Your top performing domain will now have 6 new incoming
links from well-indexed blogs.

Make sure you have links in the footer section of your money domain, which point
to your internal pages. (you can set this up using Linktator).

That’s it.

You see, if you’ve setup your blog farms properly, you have a network of ‘quality’
blogs that actually carry some weight in the search engines. You have interlinked
them in such a way that they form a powerful network. You also have external
links coming into blog 6, boosting your blog network even more .

The 6 fresh incoming links to your top-performing domain will give it a big surge
in spider activity and rankings. Watch over the next few weeks as the income on
that domain goes up.

***

As a final note, I want to say that your success in this business, as with most things
in life, is 90% dependent on your mindset. If your mind isn’t geared for success,
then you can work your tail off and still get nowhere.

Have you ever noticed that some people work their butts off and get nowhere
while others seem to work very little while success seemingly falls in their lap?
This is no accident – it’s mindset.

Installing Your WordPress Blogs

2008-09-27T20:16:00.000-07:00

Installing Your WordPress Blogs

At this point, your domains have been registered and setup on your server.

Now, we’re going to install a WordPress blog on the root of each of the 100
‘money’ domains you purchased. Again, don’t worry about your blog farm
domains for now as we’ll get into setting up your blog farms later.

There are several programs/services out there that will install WordPress blogs
for you automatically, at the click of a button across multiple domains. I use a
program called WordPressSuperInstaller (WPSI). It’s by far the best automatic
wordpress installer out there in terms of features, speed and easy of use.

There are simple step-by-step videos on how to use WPSI. It’s very easy and will
probably take you 15 minutes to learn how to use.

At this point, you need to go ahead and install your 100 blogs (one blog on the root
of each domain).

It’s extremely important that your blog links to your internal pages.
Now, we have not created our internal pages ye, but that does not mean that we
can’t setup a link to our internal pages from our blog. This may not make sense
now, but it will in a minute.

Let me explain…

When you build your pages using RSSGM Generator or NC Generator (these are
the page-building scripts included with this download), the scripts are going to
create several sitemaps for you. These include mainsitemap.php and
fullsitemap.php. Now, we haven’t built our pages yet. I haven’t even talked about
using these generators, but just keep reading and you’ll know in a minute why I
mention them here.

For a description of what these sitemaps are, read the instructions
that come with the scripts.

Now, it’s very important that you link from your WordPress blog to one of your
sitemaps. Why? Because when the spiders arrive at your WordPress blog, they
will follow the link to your sitemap, which contains links to your other pages. In
other words, you’re creating a funnel that the spiders can follow.

Now, even though you haven’t actually built your sitemaps yet, you know what
they will be called. They will look like this:

http://www.domain.com/mainsitemap.php
http://www.domain.com/fullsitemap.php

So, you can link to your site maps before you have even created them because you
the know the url before hand ☺.

In this case, we’re going to be linking from the sidebar of our blog to the
mainsitemap.php. Don’t worry about fullsitemap.php for now.

So – how do we do this across all 100 of our blogs automatically, so that each blog
is linking to the corresponding mainsitemap.php file for that domain?

Well, fortunately, WPSI has a feature built in that will allow you to do this.

Registering Your Blog Farm Domain Names

2008-09-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Registering Your Blog Farm Domain Names

You’re going to be building 4 blog farms (explained later) with your extra 24
domains. You’re going to use 6 domains per blog farm.
This means you should choose 4 themes to build your blog farms on – one theme
per blog farm.

Your 4 themes should match the 4 themes of your money domains. In this case,
we’ve chosen finance, health, auto, and technology.
Now, go ahead and register your blog farm domains around those themes. So, you
would register:

6 Finance Domains
6 Health Domains
6 Automotive Domains
6 Technology Domains

These domains are going to consist strictly of blogs. Blogs talk about news, so a
good domain name for finance might be:

Myfinancenewsblog.com, or something similar.

Again, you want to choose general themes here as I’ve described above.

Again, I’ll be talking much more about blog farms in a later section and it will
become clearer why we’re choosing themed domain names for our blog farms.

At this point, you should have 100 themed money domains and 24 themed blog
farm domain names. Your blog farm domains should be broken into 4 themed
categories of 6 domains each.

Moving on.

Here’s a question I anticipate getting: “Is it really necessary to buy 100 domains?”
My answer is: it’s hard to say. I want you to have the best possible chance of
earning $100/day as quickly as possible, which is why I’m recommending 100
domains. If we buy 100 “money” domains then we need to make $1 per domain
per day to reach our goal. This is realistic

Now that you have your domains, it’s time to get hosting.

Setting the Foundation of Your Portal Network

2008-09-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Setting the Foundation of Your Portal
Network

First of all, this manual is written with the assumption that you want to increase
your AdSense earnings by $100 per day. I am assuming that you are currently
earning $0.

Supplies:

Taking your AdSense income from $0 to $100/day quickly is going to take some
investment up front. This means investing in the right tools, domains and hosting
accounts.

If you don’t have some of the tools listed below, that’s OK. But collectively they
are going to make your life a whole lot easer.

Here’s the list of tools we’re going to use in building our AdSense income:

• RSSGM Wizard – Included in Your AdSense Profits Unleashed Package
• DreamWeaver or any WYSIWYG editor
• CuteFTP – cuteftp.com
• Microsoft Excel – office.microsoft.com
• AsRep (adsense tracking tool) – asrep.com
• A Keyword list cleaning application
• WordTracker
• WordPressSuperInstaller
• Linktator
• Swift Blogger
• Rss Submit Seo Version
• Subscription to KeywordCountry.com

Position the Ad Blocks Properly

2008-09-26T06:42:00.001-07:00

The location of the AdSense ads drastically effects the CTR. You don’t want

your ads on the right or left sides of the page (a location often used by new AdSense

publishers). You want them as close to the top and middle of the page as possible.

This is true because the center of a web page is where Internet users have been

conditioned to look for the content. The majority of informational sites layout their pages

with their header across the top of the page, the navigation down the left, the content in

the center and perhaps more navigation or advertising down the right. Anything located

outside of the content box is often overlooked or ignored (there are a few exceptions,

which will be discussed in the AdLinks section a little further down).

This is especially true of people who found the page by using a search engine for

a specific set of keywords. They want the answer to their question or a solution to their

problem only, and are not interested in browsing or anything else.

You want to place one large rectangle ad block just above your content, be that

the top of the center column or on the top of the left hand side of the page. So, for

example, if you have an information website about “widgets”, and you have an article

reviewing the latest “blue widget”, then put one large rectangle ad block just above the

start of the article text (but below the article title).

That is one small change in this version of the ebook that can make a big, big

difference. Putting one large rectangle block below the content title on the page helps

draw the visitor into clicking the ad. Once they’ve read the title of the article, the next

thing they see are the ads, which they immediately associate with the content and are

thereby induced to click–which is exactly what you want!

I was getting great CTR rates before by putting the ads above the title, but after

switching the ads below the title, my CTR rose by 26%! That means that for ever $100

a month I was earning before, I was now earning $126. Not bad for a simple change

like that, is it?

Google now allows you to show 3 ad blocks, and you want to take advantage of

that. The other place you must put an ad block is at the end of the content, right after

the article. If you can get it in above the author’s “About Box” (if there is one), that’s

perfect. The reason is that if the visitor has read the article completely, it is very likely

that they will be interested in ads pertaining to that article. This is especially true of

content which is a review of a product or service. (Just be sure that the article usage

guidelines allow you to put your ads above the author’s About Box if it’s not your own

article).

So the top ad block catches those who are interested in products and services

now, and the bottom ad catches those were wanting some education but are now

convinced that it’s time to look further.

But you get a third ad block to use, and if you aren’t afraid of cluttering your page

with ads (and that is a valid concern for some), you want to take advantage of it. If your

content is long enough, put the third ad block inside the content, and make your content

wrap around it. This way you catch the visitors who get bored with the article. Maybe at

first it held their attention, but they read all they care to read or were convinced early on

and are ready to move on now. Put your ad block about half way into the text of the

content so that you can give those visitors a place to “click away” from your site, a place

that will make you money.

Finally, there’s the AdLink ads. In addition to the three ad blocks, you can place

one set of AdLinks on your page. If your navigation is in the left hand column of your

site, put the 5-link AdLinks block above your navigation in whatever size makes it fit in

well (200 x 90, 180 x 90, 160 x 90 or 120 x 90). That way the AdLinks links actually look

like navigation on your site, and it induces people to click. If your navigation goes

across the top of your page, use the wide AdLinks (728 x 15 or 468 x 15).

Once users are done with the content, if they haven’t already clicked away on

one of your rectangle ad blocks, chances are they are looking for more information, and

so they turn to the navigation on your site to see what else you have to offer. Provide

navigation in the form of Ad Links and you will see your CTR rise. I improved my overall

CTR by 6.5% by using this method. That means that for every $100 dollars a month I

was earning, I was now earning $106.50. Multiply that over many thousands of dollars,

and it’s a real revenue boost. A simple change can make that happen for you as well.

Bottom Line: Place one large rectangle ad block just below the title of your content on

the page, and (if the content is long enough) one large ad block about halfway down the

page (blended with the content), and a final ad block at the bottom of content, just

before the “About the Author” box is there is one. Finally, put AdLinks on the page so

that they look like navigational links.

Choose the Best Colors For Your Ad Blocks

2008-09-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

Most new AdSense publishers have read that making the border color and the

background of your AdSense ad blocks match the web page on which the ads will

appear will improve your CTR. This is generally true (but not always, as the “Facts and

Figures” section reveals). As a general rule of thumb you will see an increase in CTR

by making your ad background and border colors the same as the background of your

web page.

So, for example, if the background of your pages is white, make the border and

background of your AdSense ads white as well. If your page background is green,

make the border and background of your AdSense ads green. The reason for this is

that it blends the ads in with your site so they don’t scream “Advertisement!” If ads

scream out that they are ads, people will not look at them out of banner blindness. But

if you blend the ads with the page, people will look at them, be interested, and click.

Two additions to the above which you may not already be aware of: 1) The

statistics show that using the “standard” blue link color works best, with one exception

that is covered in the “Facts and Figures” section, and 2) You should make the color of

the advertiser’s url a color that does not stand out on the page (that’s the small domain

name or url that appears below the ad text–not the link url). Both of these steps make

your ads look less like ads, thereby increasing your CTR.

One last tip that will really increase your CTR is to make all of the links in the

content portion of your page except the AdSense ad links a color that is 1) not the

traditional blue link color and 2) that is not as bright and noticeable as the traditional

blue (dark green is a good one).

If you do this you will notice that the AdSense links are very, very easily noticed

on the page, so they catch the attention of your visitors right away. Placed in the

appropriate position on the page, it doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to see why this makes

the ads get clicked a lot more.

However, keep your navigation links the same color as your AdSense ad links,

because you want your AdLinks to blend in and look like site navigation.

Don’t worry if this is a lot to try and visualize–I’ll show you an example page of

exactly how to make everything look a little further in the ebook. Base your page layout

on that example and you can’t lose.

Bottom Line: Make the border and background colors of your ads match the

background color of the web page on which the ads will appear, make the link color the

standard “blue”, and make the advertiser url a color that does not stand out. Finally,

make the other links on your page a color that is not the traditional link color (such as

dark green).

Make Your Ads Look Less Like Ads

2008-09-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

The basic goal of this document is to make your AdSense ads look less like ads,

and more like content on your page. It has the second goal of putting the ads exactly

where they need to be to draw the most clicks.

“Wait a minute,” you might say, “isn’t that a little shifty?”

No, it’s not. The AdSense publisher’s problem is that the typical Internet surfer is

plagued by “banner blindness”. People automatically overlook anything that looks like

an advertisement because of being bombarded with ads all the time. It’s not that they

aren’t interested in what the advertiser has to offer. With AdSense you know that they

are interested most of the time, since the ads shown are related to the content of the

page. The fact that the visitor clicks on the ad is an expression of their interest in

whatever that ad has to offer.

What I’ll focus on in this document is not hiding the fact that the links are ads, but

putting the ads on the page in such a way that they are not overlooked by the visitor.

Google makes it very clear that the links are ads by placing their “Ads by Google” link in

the ad block.

Bottom Line: To get more clicks, you’ve got to get your visitors to notice the ads by

putting them in the right place and making them look less like “traditional” web

advertising.

What Custom Channels Should You Create?

2008-09-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

What Custom Channels Should You Create?

With the range of Custom Channels limited only by your imagination, it’s not
always easy to figure out which channels you need to create.

I’d recommend that you build channels based on the following:

Location
Do ads do better at the top of your blog pages or on the side? Do you
get more clicks from ads that you’ve slipped into the article or from
the ads at the bottom of the page.

Try creating different channels for each sort of location so that you can
track how different locations are doing.
Ad Unit
Different ad units can deliver different results. You might be using four
or five different types of ad units across your sites. Make a channel for
each type of unit so that you can get an idea about which units are the
most attractive.

Of course, location and ad unit are related but you won’t be untangle
the data unless you have it!

Color
I keep saying that the color of your ads should match the color of your
site. But not all your sites are the same color! You might well find that
some color schemes win you more clicks than others — a fact which
could influence your overall site design.

Create different Custom Channels for different colors and you’ll have a
better idea of how your designs affect your income.

Link Units
It’s certainly worth creating a channel to track the performance of your
link units. These are special in their own right and you should know
how they perform in comparison to your other ad units.

While Google can now track ad performance for your specified domain name,
please don't expect URL or Custom Channels to give you data about your
visitors, such as who referred them to your website or which web browser
they use. These are details only your server logs can tell you.

How To Create A Custom Channel

2008-09-20T22:51:00.001-07:00

How To Create A Custom Channel

The URL Channels are especially useful if you have several websites, and
have a general idea of the formats, colors, alignment etc. that works best for
you.

Remember though, you still need the original, Custom Channels if you want
to track ads across different domain names, based on ad sizes, formats,
colors etc.

For instance, if I want to track left-aligned ads across all my websites (sites
with different domain names), I need to group them together into a single
channel and manually change the channel code for each page.

First, I name the new channel:
Then I choose the Ad Type, Layout and Color of the ads I want to track:

Finally, it’s simply a matter of allocating an alternate URL if I don’t want
public service ads, selecting the channel and copying and pasting the code
onto each of the pages that contain these kinds of ad.

Defining the ads to track in my new channel.

Of course, I would then have to repeat the process if I wanted to track ads of
a particular color or size.

That’s very different to the process you use to create a URL Channel.

URL Channels are tracked automatically without the need for you to paste
code. With Custom Channels, you’re going to have to go back to your own
site, add the code in the appropriate pages and upload the changes to your
server.

While that’s a bit of a headache, it’s a headache worth having.

Creating the code for my new Channel.

Custom channels provide such a broad range of information — from how
different locations are doing to how particular types of ad units affect your
revenues — that without them, you’re working in the dark.

How To Create A URL Channel

2008-09-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

How To Create A URL Channel

Google lets you create two kind of channels: URL channels and custom
channels.

With URL channels you can track clicks across your site’s pages. You can do
this by entering four different kinds of URL in the “create new channel” box.
Each type of channel gives you information of different accuracy:

example.com tracks all the pages in your site and gives a general
picture of what your site is doing;

subdomain.example.com tracks all the pages in one particular
subdomain;

subdomain.example.com/widgets tracks all the pages in a specific
directory;

and subdomain.example.com/page.html tracks the clicks on one
specific page.

That’s a huge range of choices, from an overview of a site that might have
hundreds of pages through groups of pages that concern particular subjects
to the clicks you’re getting on just one page.

So if you had three sites, one about custom cars, one about custom bikes
and one about speedboats, the first thing you’d do is create a general
channel for each site.

You should always create a channel for each one of your sites.

That will let you see not just how much money you’re making overall, but
how much money each site is making. You’re not going to get too far without
that sort of information!

Now, let’s say that the custom car site had tabs for American cars, European
cars, Japanese cars and classic cars. Each tab is a subdomain and you could
create a channel for each subdomain too. Now you could see which topic is
making the most money.

And if you discussed one car on each page, you could also create channels
for the individual pages and see which cars are the most popular and deliver
the highest earning clicks.

Sounds good, right?

And it’s now very easy to do.

Back in the bad old days, Google required you to manually change
AdSense tags for each ad block you wanted to track. Many AdSense
partners complained about these pesky old channels until Google launched
the URL Channels to make life easier.

Now all you have to do is sign in and click the tab marked “AdSense Setup”
followed by the “Channels” link.
And the next step is to use the link marked “URL Channels” and enter the
URLs you want to track.

That’s it! You don’t have to do anything else. Google will start tracking the
URLs you’ve added automatically.

So apart from creating URL Channels for each of your sites, which of the
other URL Channels should you create?

As far as I’m concerned, you can’t have too much information. Major areas
should certainly be covered and if you can go as far as tracking each page
without going over the 200 channel limit, so much the better. It’s certainly
worth tracking a few individual pages to make sure that the revenues are
spread out across different parts of the site.

If you find that one page is making lots of money and another is making
none, you’ll want to know the reason why.

How To Track With Channels

2008-09-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

How To Track With Channels

Google has its own FREE tracking feature called "Channels". Channels remind
me of spy movies, where a smart chip is planted in the arm of a super
sleuth, making it easier to track his activities or whereabouts.

AdSense now hands you 200 such chips. Use them to track ads on specific
domain names or to group ads according to specific ad formats, keywords,
their location on the page etc. You can use any other factor that might
impact their effectiveness, based on the type of website you have.

Channel those clicks!
Google tells you many things about each Channel, such as the ad
impressions, click-throughs and earnings data.

You can use the channel reports to find out which channels are making you
the most money — and how to increase your earnings for other channels.

Response Tracking: Your Hidden Pot Of AdSense Gold!

2008-09-19T02:13:00.052-07:00

Response Tracking: Your Hidden Pot Of
AdSense Gold!

In the last chapter, we talked about content. Google won't let you ask
visitors to click on your ads, or use other deceptive ways to make them click.
But good content is an endorsement in itself. Some of its charm rubs off on
the ads, making the ads more believable — and interesting!

If you have a website with impartial product reviews, for instance, visitors
are more likely to click the ads to learn more about a product, check out the
latest prices or order online.

It’s crucial to create content that’s genuinely interesting. But your work
doesn’t stop there.

After setting up your AdSense Account, the first thing you want to do is play
with your ad formats and placement to make the ads blend in. That's where
the bulk of the "easy-money" is hiding.

But once you've got that right, what next? You start tweaking the text and
making all sorts of other changes to improve your CTR.

But every time you make any sort of change to your ads, you must
track the results.

Google’s Video Content

2008-09-19T02:13:00.051-07:00

Google’s video content come from YouTube and come with two kinds of
ads.

The future of the Internet on mobile phones might be a little unclear. The
future of video on the Internet seems to have been settled.

Users love it.

They watch television on YouTube and they’ve become used to seeing videos
on blogs and websites. Even Oprah has now launched her own YouTube
channel.

That’s both a challenge and an opportunity for publishers. It’s a challenge
because creating original video content can appear difficult and look
expensive. Actually, it doesn’t have to be either, although at the very least,
you will need a digital camera.

And after putting together “The Next Internet Millionaire,” I can tell you it’s
also a lot of fun!

But video is also an opportunity because you don’t need original content.
There are tons of clips available on the Web that you can place on your own
site and earn from the ads on your page and embedded ads in the video
itself.

Two of the best places to find videos like these are Revver and Google itself.

Revver doesn’t have as big an inventory as YouTube, but it does share ad
revenue. The site embeds an ad into the video, lets publishers place the clip
on their own site and gives them 20 percent of the income. That might not
sound like much, but don’t forget, you’re getting the content for free and you
can still put AdSense units around it.

The alternative is to use Google’s video content... which is drawn from
YouTube.

The videos come with companion ads placed above the screen, which can be
either text or image-based, and overlay ads which appear at the bottom of
the screen. Both can pay by impression or by click.

Interestingly, the overlay ad changes as the film progresses and users can
even choose to move back and forward through the ads. They can also
choose to close the overlay, which might not be so good.

You can only place one video unit on a page but you can change the
surrounding color to blend the unit into your site, choose from three different
sizes and select content by category, creator or receive it automatically
targeted to keywords you supply.

Have you noticed what’s missing?

That’s right, at the moment, you can’t choose individual clips yourself.

That’s a huge hole in the plan and there have been complaints that Google
has been serving automated video that isn’t very relevant.

If you’d like to give it a try, click the AdSense Setup tab and choose the
video units link. You’ll have to link your AdSense account with a YouTube
account — you’ll only have to do that once — and you’ll then be free to
create your AdSense player, choose content and paste the code onto your
page. You won’t even need to host the video on your own site.

I think these video units can be a great way to enhance the content on any
website. They’re very simple to use, offer additional revenue streams — and
give you one less content post that you have to create yourself.

Much though will depend on the sort of creators available in your content
field or the clips that Google decides to give you.

Test to see whether Revver or Google gives you the most revenue — I
suspect that it will depend on the content of the video, so make a point of
searching both for good clips — then get into the habit of offering films about
once a week.

AdSense On Mobile Phones

2008-09-19T02:13:00.050-07:00

AdSense On Mobile Phones

RSS could prove to be a powerful revenue source for
AdSense publishers. It can certainly be a good way to
inform users that you’ve got new content and bring
them back in to view it.

I’m not sure about AdSense on mobile phones.

AdSense started allowing publishers to place one ad
unit on mobile Web pages in September 2007. You
can select the colors, specify the kind of code your
mobile page uses (“wml (WAP 1.x)”, “xhtml (WAP
2.0)”, or “chtml”), and choose ad units with one or
two text-link ads (although the double unit can only
appear at the bottom of the page.)

It’s currently available in thirteen countries, including
US, England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland,
Russia, Netherlands, Australia, India, China, and
Japan.

It sounds like a good idea, but AdSense for mobile has its challenges. Phones
have not shown themselves to be good ways to surf the Web.

The screens are tiny, the downloads are slow and it’s very expensive. Most
people are prepared to wait until they get home or to the office to look at a
website, rather than do it on their mobiles.

There are exceptions though. Surfing on phones is fairly popular outside
America (especially in Japan). In the United States, it might be used for
information that changes quickly such as sports news or finance. If you have
a site on either of those topics or which is popular in Asia, you might want to
create a page that will work on a mobile, offer breaking news and place an
ad on it to see how much it earns.

My feeling is that it won’t be worth the effort but it’s still early to say for
sure.

Much depends on what happens in the mobile phone market. If phone
companies copy the iPhone and offer built-in wi-fi, then publishers won’t
need to build special pages for mobiles. Doing so would be a waste of time —
and if you have to pay programmers, a waste of money too.

On the other hand, if Google’s phone software makes mobile browsing more
popular then the market could become large enough to make building special
mobile sites worthwhile.

Although you’d still want to be sure that Google’s mobile ads do better than
AdMob’s, a rival service. At the moment, reports are mixed, suggesting that
results depend on the content.

In general then, my feeling is that if you currently have a mobile website,
AdSense for mobiles might a pretty useful addition although you’d want to
test it against AdMob. Optimize the ads as much as you can and put them on
the sort of content people on the move are likely to need.

If you don’t have a mobile site though — or a Japanese audience or breaking
news — you might want to wait before looking for a programmer to help you
with the coding.

AdSense In RSS Feeds

2008-09-19T02:13:00.049-07:00

AdSense In RSS Feeds

One of the biggest changes to take place on the Internet recently has been
the growth of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. These let subscribers
see when a site has been updated and sends them information instead of
waiting for them to come to the site to see it for themselves.

The good news is that Google is starting to put AdSense ads in RSS feeds.

The system is new and Google is still testing it as I’m writing this book but if
you’ve got an RSS feed on your site (or want to set one up) and you’ve got
more than a hundred subscribers, your site can join their team of Beta
testers.

There seems to be little room for tweaking the ads, although it’s a safe bet
that the same principle of blending the ads into the page would apply as
much here as on a Web page. At the moment though, the ads only appear
after the content, at the bottom of the URL. You can apply for the program at
http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/aff

Alternatively, if you don’t want to be a Google guinea pig, Kanoodle is ahead
of them. You can use their program at
www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool.

Build Thousands of Pages with Other People’s Content

2008-09-19T02:13:00.048-07:00

Build Thousands of Pages with Other People’s Content

What is the focus of your web site? Is it all about parenting? Do you help
people with their finances? Does your newsletter introduce people to new
web sites? Or is your focus on the legal field? Regardless of your niche, you
can benefit from taking advantage of one of the little-known secrets of
AdSense experts… FREE syndicated articles.

Many writers want nothing more than to have their work published and read.
Syndicated content is a dream-come-true for writers AND publishers. For the
writer, it exposes their work to a larger audience. And for the publisher
(that’s you!), it means more quality content for your site. You might not be
aware that there are literally THOUSANDS of articles available online which
you can easily add to your web site!

Of course, the trick is knowing where to find these articles. Below is a list
that can get you started by showing you where you can find over 30,000
articles that are ready to be placed on your own web site.

Please note that each site has its own restrictions and rules for using its
content. In all cases, you must leave the author’s name and web site link
intact. Some sites require that you also link back to the site where you found
the article. This is critical! Remember that while you are allowed to use the
articles on your pages, the content is still property of the author. Please give
credit where credit is due!

You may wish to publish articles only relevant to your topic, or you may wish
to become a publishing powerhouse, adding thousands of new pages to your
site. Regardless of how you wish to approach it, here are a few sites that
provide you with thousands of FREE articles that you can republish on your
web sites.

EzineArticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
A fantastic resources featuring over 21,000 articles covering a huge range of
topics. However, they do have a limit of 25 articles/year for each site. Look
through the categories and you can select some gems.

DotComWomen.com
http://www.dotcomwomen.com/free-content.shtml
Nice selection of articles targeting women.

John Watson
http://members.tripod.com/buckcreek
John offers his stories for site owners to enjoy and place on their sites.

ValuableContent.com
http://www.valuablecontent.com/
The site name delivers as promises. Dozens of categories with hundreds of
articles for you to publish. Marketing, business, humor, internet, legal,
computing, sports, travel and many more.

Patricia Fripp
http://www.fripp.com/articleslist.html
Patricia Fripp is a businesswoman, marketer and motivational speaker. Her
site offers over one hundred articles perfect for any business-oriented site.

ArticleCity.com
http://www.articlecity.com
This one is a source of articles that will keep you busy for weeks on end.
ArticleCity offers over 12,000 articles that you can place on your site. If the
topic exists, you can bet that this site will have an article on that topic. I
recommend spending a great deal of time selecting articles for your site
here.

Want to find more? Simply do a Google search for "free articles" and see
what turns up. Fine tune your search for your topic to find articles relevant to
your site, such as “free parenting articles” or “free financial articles”.

Now that you know where to find free content, you can build hundreds or
thousands of keyword relevant pages and place your AdSense code on them
to generate more revenue.

Adding AdSense To Your Blog

2008-09-19T02:13:00.047-07:00

Adding AdSense To Your Blog

Not all blog sites use the same template so how you add AdSense to your
blog will depend on the company you’re using.

For users of Blogger.com, which is owned by Google, one option is put the
ads in the template section of the site:

" title="external
link">
<$BlogItemTitle$>

You can see on my own blog at www.joelcomm.com how I put ads directly
above my text. http://crayfish-info.blogspot.com does the same. The ads
here are centered above the

tag and he’s added a
break tag to
add a gap between the head and Google and help his ads to stand out.

To do the same thing to your blogspot blog, click “Change Settings” on the
Dashboard and then click “Template Tab.” Somewhere on the page, below
the CSS material, you should find a section of code that begins:

<$BlogDescription$>

The code should then look like this:

Before uploading, check the preview to make sure that the ads are where
and how you want them, then “Save Template Changes” and “Republish” to
refresh the blog.

Of course, you don’t have to place AdSense directly above the text. Another
option is to embed the ads within the text so that they appear after
particular entries. That would limit you to three entries per page (if you
wanted an ad unit after each entry) but it could increase your click-throughs.

Blogger now lets you do this automatically. Click the Template tab, then the
Page Elements link and finally, Edit in the Blog Posts section. You’ll find a
check box that lets you show ads between posts on the home page.

You’ll even be able to format the ads from that same control panel, making
the whole process very, very simple.

Using Multiple Ad Blocks

2008-09-19T02:13:00.045-07:00

Using Multiple Ad Blocks

Google lets you place more than one ad unit on each page of your Web site.
In fact, you can place:

3 ad units
3 link units
3 referral units
2 AdSense for search boxes

What does this mean for web publishers?

A real bonanza: you now have many more chances to hook readers with new
ads as Google will show unique ads in each ad unit!

With multiple ad blocks, you can also decide which ads are served in the best
places for your site.

How Many Ads Is Too Many?

2008-09-19T02:13:00.044-07:00

How Many Ads Is Too Many?

In general, I recommend that you put as many AdSense units on your page
as possible. The more choices you give your users, the more likely they are
to click.

The only caveat to this is ad-blindness. Put lots of ads on your site and users
are just going to ignore them. And when they ignore one unit, they’re likely
to ignore them all.

This can be more of a problem for small Web pages than for larger pages
such as those on blogs. On a short page, all those different ads can quickly
outweigh the content; on a long page, you can scatter them about so that
they’re less likely to get in the way of a user’s reading.

One great solution is to have a long home page with lots of ads but which
contains only the headlines and the first paragraph or so from each article.
To read more, the user has to click to a page with just that one article.

That page would have fewer units. But because those units would be
influenced by just one article, the ads would be better targeted.

BEYOND BASIC ADS: Catch Fickle Visitors With The Google Search Box

2008-09-19T02:13:00.043-07:00

Catch Fickle Visitors With The Google Search
Box

8.1 Finding Money With Search

What happens when your visitors can't find what they want on your website?
They might be bored, probably they're hungry for more or they might want
to refine their search. If you have a Google Search Box, you can now retain
these 'quitters' — and make money from ads they click from their search
results!

The Google Search Box isn't just an added convenience for your visitors — it
can actually make you money! When your users enter a search term,
you’ll receive a commission for any ad they click on the results page.

If your AdSense ads are being ignored then, add a link at the bottom of the
AdSense ads, inviting visitors to try Google search. A simple note should do
the trick. Try something like: "Can't find what you're looking for? Try Google
Search!"

A Google Search box allows your visitors to specify their exact search terms,
thereby "pulling" more relevant ads to your page. Using the Search feature,
you can pull up on-demand AdSense ads at the top of the search results.

At the bottom of the Google text ads, place a link to the Google Search bar,
inviting readers to Search for better-targeted content and offers. When
visitors click an ad, YOU get paid!

You can invite users to search within the website or the entire web.
As far as possible, use a staid gray button for the Google search
feature. It looks more believable — and legitimate! Note that Google has not
played around with its own search buttons, although the logo itself has
undergone many theme-based transformations.

Fig 8.1 The "Search" feature is an important part of content-rich websites. On my
website above, users are invited to search different threads within the website 'by
keyword' and 'by username' creating a good potential to merge in a Google search
box.

Google Search Boxes are getting increasingly popular with Internet Forums,
enabling users to pull up relevant text ads "on demand"!

8.2 Learn How To Add Google Search To Your Web Page

Adding Google Search to your Web page is very easy. This Step-by-Step
Tutorial shows you how:

How to… Add Google "AdSense for Search" to your Web Page!

1. Log in to your
AdSense Account and click
the "Account
Information" tab.

2. From the
Account
Information Page,
click on "Products"
and then the "Edit
Information"
button to Subscribe
to AdSense for
Search.

3. Click the "Search Settings" tab
to specify your search preferences
and results. Paste the html code on
your web page and start turning those
clicks into AdSense cash!

8.3 Showing Your Results On Your Site

One of the decisions you’ll have to make when you put an AdSense search
box on your site is where to bring up the results page. You have three
choices:

● On a Google page in the same window;
● On a Google page in a new window;
● On a page on your website.

Clearly, the last option is the best. You’ll be given two codes: one for the
search box and one for the results. You’ll need to paste the search box code
in the appropriate location on your Web page. The search results code goes
on a page that you’ll have to create specially to hold the results.

Not only will you be able to offer your users a search option and earn from
the ads that appear on that page, you’ll also be able to show your own
internal links and AdSense ads to keep them on your site.

Fig. 8.2 Users have to scroll past an entire screen of ads and links to reach the
search results at WorldVillage.com.

8.4 Flavoring Your Search Results

Another easy decision is whether or not to “site-flavor” your search. This is a
real no-brainer. Site-flavoring lets Google figure out what your site is about
so that searches made from it are better targeted.

So if you have a site about music, someone tossing “bass” into your search
box is more likely to get results about guitars than singing fish.

That’s an option you’ll definitely want to switch on!

8.5 To Search Or Not To Search

Putting a Google search box on your site brings advantages and
disadvantages. The big plus is that all the ads the user sees are going to be
relevant. The user chooses the keyword so the results are going to be right
in line with what the user wants.

On the other hand, that means you’ve got no control over the keywords they
choose so you can’t try to promote high-paying keywords. You have to take
what you’re given. You could have a high click-through rate but low revenues
(although there’s still no guarantee that the user will click on an ad rather
than an unpaid listing on the search results page.)

But your users will leave your site at some point anyway. Why shouldn’t you
try to make money when they do click away? Even if Search doesn’t bring
you huge amounts of money, you should still use it as an added revenue
source and to bring extra functionality to your users.

I look at it this way. If a visitor doesn’t find what they want on my site, I’d
prefer that they leave some change in the “tip jar” on the way out the door!

8.6 Home Page Searching

One way to increase your revenues from searching is to encourage your
users to use your site as their home page.

Many users have Google as their home page. If you’re offering the same
service as Google, using their search box and delivering their results, there’s
no reason why they shouldn’t be searching from your page — and giving you
revenue from the ads.

Just encourage your users, especially users with Google as their home page,
to switch to you, and you’ll be able to make the most of your search function
and your ads.

8.7 Customizing Your Search

Google lets you customize the search box to match your site in the same way
that you can customize your ad units. But a different principle applies here
that applies to your ads: you want your search box to look like a search box.

You can certainly make the box look like part of your site so that it looks
attractive but as I said, keep the button grey.

People trust Google to deliver results that they want. If the search box
reminds them of Google, they’re more likely to use it than go to Google.com
and search from there.

8.8 Google’s Custom Search Engine

One of the things I love most about Google is that they’re always improving
their services and coming up with new ways of earning money through
websites.

I’ve never been very enthusiastic about Google’s Search boxes. I’ve always
seen them more of an added functionality for my users than a way of earning
extra revenue.

Google’s Custom Search Engines though change all that. These let you limit
the scope of a user’s search to sites that you’ve selected.

What’s the advantage of that?

Enter any keyword into a Google and only a fraction of the results are going
to be relevant. Google might be a very powerful search engine, but to get the
information you need, you’ll still have to filter out the sites with poor content,
little information and ads instead of text.

A custom search engine lets you do that for your users so that they don’t
have to do it themselves. Not only will they then be more likely to leave your
site through your search box, they might even come back to your site every
time they want to search for information on your topic.

Building your own search engine is very simple. You can start here:
http://google.com/coop/cse/. You can even format your search results page

to match the look of your website and invite your readers to submit the sites
that they like to make your own filtering easier.

Finally, place the line: “Didn’t find what you’re looking for? Search the [your
subject] sites that we recommend” next to your search box, and guide your
users to the tip box at your site’s exit.

AdSense QuickStart Guide #3: Building A Site From Scratch

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AdSense QuickStart Guide #3: Building A Site From Scratch
Using an automated system like Blogger or Zlio is the easiest way to get
started with AdSense but it’s not for everyone. Create a complete website
from scratch is going to take a little longer... but not a lot longer.

Step 1: Pick Up A Name
The first thing you’ll need is a domain. You grab one of those at either
GoDaddy.com or NetworkSolutions.com.

Step 2: Build Your Site
You can build your site yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Or you can
take a pre-built template and pack it with your own content. Yahoo! has a
program called SiteBuilder (http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/index.php)
that’s packed with a good range of templates that you can use and play with
but you’ll have to upload the finished site onto their servers. If you’re in a
rush, it’s a great way to get online and earning fast.

Step 3: Create Your Content
Keep it simple! You don’t have to pack your site with Flash images or
anything fancy. Write about what you like! If you’re into fun at the beach,
create pages with reviews of your local sand spots. Into skiing? Discuss your
favorite ski equipment. Everyone’s got something that lights their fire. Find
yours and put it on your first site. You’ll find that a site that interests you
interests all the people like you... and gets you the sort of following that wins
clicks.

Step 4: Apply For AdSense
Once your first pages are up and built (and none of this should take you
more than a few hours) you’re ready to apply to AdSense. Fill in the form
and wait for the approval.

Step 5: Bring In The Traffic
While you’re waiting for the first ads, you can start submitting your site to
the search engines and building up the traffic.

Step 6: Play With Your Ads
When the ads come in, don’t forget to optimize them for your site. It’s very
simple and will have a massive effect on your CTR, even at this early stage.

And that’s all there is to it, apart from the final step... spending the money! I
don’t think you need my help for that, do you?

AdSense QuickStart Guide #2: Building An Ad-Supported Commercial Site With Zlio.

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AdSense QuickStart Guide #2: Building An Ad-Supported
Commercial Site With Zlio.

Writing content is just one way to fill a site that will earn from advertising.
Another is to display products for sale. That might sound hard but with a
website, it’s very, very easy.

You don’t have to see the products, store the products, touch the products or
mail the products. All you have to do is market the products... and take a cut
of the sales price.

Usually, ads on commercial sites don’t work too well. You want people to buy
from you, not from a competitor. When you use Zlio.com— an online store-
building service — to build your site though, you don’t need to care who
gives you the money... as long as someone does.

Step 1. Sign Up And Choose Your Store Name
Zlio’s registration page is very simple. The only thing you’ll need to consider
is the name of the store. You might want to think about that for... maybe a
minute. Just choose something that’s simple to remember and which sums
up the products you plan to sell.

Step 2. Pick A Template
There’s no programming with Zlio. Pick one of eleven ready-built templates
and you’re ready to go.

Step 3. Add Products
Zlio has over three million different products that you can add to your store
and receive commissions on sales or even payment for clicks. I’m sure you
can find something you want to sell...

Step 4. Add AdSense
In addition to placing units containing products for sale, you can also include
AdSense units. And Zlio’s AdSense API makes it a breeze. You don’t even
have to go back to the AdSense site to get the code. It’s all automated from
Zlio’s own site.

Step 5. Start Marketing
Building the site is easy. It will take about five minutes. Bringing in
customers will be a bigger challenge and take a little longer. But it’s nothing
that can’t be overcome with some hard work and steady learning.

QuickStart AdSense: A Step-By-Step Guide

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QuickStart AdSense: A Step-By-Step Guide

You can be up and running with AdSense in just minutes. Sure, you’ll need a
bit more time if you want to use all of the advanced strategies and
techniques I discuss in the rest of this book, but you don’t have to wait until
you’ve figured everything out before you can start earning with AdSense.

Remember, every minute that your site isn’t showing online or isn’t showing
ads, you’re tossing money down the drain.

If you don’t have a site yet, or if you’re not showing ads on your site, before
you move on to the rest of this book, follow one of these guides. You’ll be
amazed at how easy it is to start making money with ads!

AdSense QuickStart Guide #1: Building A Blog

Blogging is probably the easiest way to get online with AdSense fast. The
sites are already online, you don’t have to worry about graphics and the
domains are all set up.

All you have to do is sign up, write and earn!

Step 1: Surf to www.blogger.com
Complete the registration page, choose a name for your blog and pick a
template.

Step 2: Apply For AdSense Through Blogger
Another form, another five minutes. It will take a day or two before your
application is approved. In the meantime, you can play with Blogger’s
AdSense preview tool, and...

Step 3: Write Your First Blog Entry
Not sure what to write? Start with your family, spout off about a story in the
news, put up pictures for your friends to see... it doesn’t matter. Everyone
has something that occupies their mind, that interests them or that they’re
good at. Put up anything. You can change it later but for now just get in the
habit of writing to the Web. Once you’ve done it once you’ll see how easy it
can be — and how addictive.

Step 4: Play With Your Ads
Once AdSense has approved your application, you’ll be able to start playing
with your ads. You can change the colors, fix the font size, remove the
border and move them into the sidebar if you wish. You can get everything
geared up and ready to...

Step 5: Bring In The Traffic
It’s taken you minutes to get your site set up. Now you have to let people
know you’re online. Chapter 20 will tell you how to bring in the traffic but for
now you can start by telling your friends, swapping links with your favorite
sites and submitting your site to the search engines. Hold off on the paid
advertising though until you’ve got enough content to make it worthwhile.
You’re rolling!

Does Location Matter For CPM Ads?

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Does Location Matter For CPM Ads?

In a word, yes! This is what Google has to say about CPM ads, the type of
ads you’re likely to get from a site-targeted campaign (my emphasis):

You'll earn revenue each time a CPM (cost per 1000 impressions, also known
as pay-per-impression) ad is displayed on your site. You won't earn
additional revenue for clicks on these ads.

Please note that the placement of CPM ads on your pages can affect
the amount an advertiser pays for that impression. Placing your CPM ad
units below the fold, or in an otherwise low-impact location, may result in
lower earnings than if the ad unit was placed in a conspicuous location.

So if you were thinking, “Great! I’ll encourage click-throughs above the fold
and get paid per impression with an expanded text ad at the bottom of the
page...” think again.

Google claims that CPM campaigns have to bid for space on publishers’
websites in the same marketplace as CPC ads, and that therefore you would
only receive a CPM ad if it’s the highest paying option. If advertisers are
paying less for a CPM ad at the bottom of a page, it’s less likely then that
you’re going to get one down there.

Now, how Google is figuring out where on the page you’re putting your ads
beats me. Their love of Smart Pricing (see Chapter 13) though, suggests that
they could be comparing advertisers’ sales results with the number of
impressions and assuming that sites with high impressions and low sales
have put the ads in out-of-the-way places.

Whichever method they’re using, the end result is that you’re still going to
see higher revenues from ads in the best locations and less from the worst
spots.

Blocking Ads

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Blocking Ads

Another useful way to control the ads you see on your site is to block ads you
don’t want.

Google gives you a limit of 200 URLs to block, which isn’t much. You might
well find yourself burning through them pretty fast, especially if you try to
block lower paying ads in favor of the higher-paying ones.

Playing with keywords, content and placement will give you much better
results.

Public Service Ads

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Public Service Ads

The penalty for not getting your keyword placement and density right isn’t
just irrelevant ads. It could also be no ads at all. If Google can’t find any
relevant ads to give you, it could use your space to present public service
ads, which are very nice but they don’t pay you a penny. You might prefer to
earn money and give it to a charity of your choice rather than give space on
your site to a cause that Google chooses.

Google lets you get rid of that space by collapsing the ad, tossing in an
image or by creating a color block in the same tone as the background color.
But that seems like a waste to me. That space can earn you money. If
something goes wrong with your contextualization, you want a back-up that
brings revenue.

The most obvious solution is to specify an alternate URL in the event that
Google has no ads for you. You can do this from your AdSense account.
Instead of linking to the Red Cross or whoever it may be, you’ll receive a link
to a site that you’ve pre-chosen.

I’ve created my own default set of ads for various block sizes. You can see
an example of this at www.worldvillage.com/336x280-1.html.

A great replacement for pesky PSAs, right?

Just remember that Google doesn’t like it when publishers use ad units that
mimic AdSense ads ON THE SAME PAGE as live AdSense ads. That’s why I
only use this format for PSA replacement.

But there are plenty of other options.

For example, you could use this space to deliver image-based ads that come
from your server. For offers that pay per action (clicks or signups), I like to
use WebSponsors.com. You can signup for a free account and find new ways
to monetize your unused ad space.

Probably the best way to turn that wasted space into revenue though is to
place a Chitika ad there. I talk about Chitika later in this book, in the chapter
about other ad systems. The company has some fantastic looking ad units,
and they can be used in conjunction with AdSense.

Having a Chitika ad automatically replace a PSA ad is, I feel, the perfect
solution until you manage to sort out the problem with your AdSense unit.

The principle is the same as the AdSense-like ad units I used to use: create a
blank page on your site, add your Chitika code and use the URL as your
alternate AdSense URL

It’s really very simple and very effective.

Google Ads Preview

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Google Ads Preview

Don’t want to wait for the robot? No problem. The Google Ads Preview tool at
http://googleadspreview.blogspot.com/ lets you see the ads your site is likely
to receive right away.

Google has its own tool for this, but this program by Digital Inspiration is
much better. That’s not just because it also works with Firefox (Google’s
preview tool only works in Internet Explorer) but mostly because it lets you
compare different programs and formats side by side.

When you’re just starting out, that’s not really important. But when you’re
combining AdSense with Chitika eMiniMalls it’s useful to see what effect a
single change can have across the different ads you’re displaying.

You can also compare the AdSense ads with those served by Yahoo!
Publishers Network.

And here’s the real kicker: the Google Ads Preview Tool also lets you
toss in keywords and see which ads turn up.

Try it! Surf over to the site, toss in a keyword relevant to your site and see
what ads you’re likely to receive.

Note that I said which ads you’re likely to receive, not which ads you will
receive.

That’s an important difference. Google uses all sorts of criteria to decide
which ads you’re going to get. I’m not sure which criterion this preview tool
uses to choose ads for keywords but I can’t see it emulating Google
completely.

Use the tool to preview the ads on your site and you’re on pretty firm
ground. You’ll get a great impression of the ads you’re likely to get and you
can either match your content to it or change your content to bring up some
different ads. Use it to preview the ads you’re likely to get with a certain
keyword and you’ve got a guide to where those keywords can take you.

Either way, you’ve got a very useful tool.

Inviting The Robot

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Inviting The Robot

So far in this chapter, I’ve explained some of the ways that you can tweak
your page to keep your ads relevant. But the changes you make won’t have
any effect until Google’s robot stops by and re-indexes your page. What will
generally happen is that once you upload your new page, you’ll still get the
old ads and you might have to wait some time before the robot visits it again
and you can find out whether your changes have the right result.

To get the robot to stop by earlier, reload the page in your browser, and then
again a few minutes later. Do not click on any of the ads just reload and wait
a few minutes before attempts.

This doesn’t always work but with a bit of luck, you should find that you
receive new ads within a few minutes.

No 'Baiting'!

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No 'Baiting'!

Often I've clicked through a 'promising' website, only to find reams of
keyword spam, interspersed with AdSense. Websites like these make
AdSense look bad.

Keyword spam may trick search spiders, but your human visitors will leave
disappointed.

People hate being 'baited' by a web site. Offer content that makes their
visit worthwhile. Address the needs and concerns of your visitors with
original content.

Quality content builds trust and loyalty — and that, in turn, makes people
want to click. Search rankings may change, but loyal visitors keep coming
back for more!

the most effective way to ensure the crawlers read the keywords:Section Targeting

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Section Targeting

Probably the most effective way to ensure the crawlers read the keywords
you want to emphasize though is to use Section Targeting. This is a fantastic
technique. By simply inserting a couple of lines of HTML code into your Web
page, you can tell the crawler which parts of your site are the most important
and ensure that you get ads relevant to that content.

The lines you want to use to emphasize particular sections of your Web page
are:

Section text.

The rest of the page won’t be ignored, but those particular lines will receive a
heavier weighting. If you want to tell the crawlers to ignore particular
sections, you can use these lines:

Section text.

You can highlight (and de-emphasize) as many or as few sections as you
wish, but what you can’t do is use these instructions solely to highlight
keywords. So you can’t put them around particular single words or phrases
on your page and hope to see ads that relate only to those terms.

In fact, Google recommends that you highlight a sizeable portion of text — as
much as 20 percent — for the targeting to be most effective. The result of
targeting small amounts of text could be irrelevant ads, public service ads...
or even a banning if you deliberately tried to bring up ads that have nothing
to do with your site.

Section Targeting is probably most useful if you have a Web page that covers
lots of different topics. So if you had a blog about MP3 players but had
written an article about rap music for example, you could use Section
Targeting to ensure that you didn’t lose ads about the music players to ads
about rap music. Or you could tell the crawlers to ignore your readers’
comments and focus on your own entries.

And presumably, there’s nothing wrong with stuffing a paragraph with
keywords related to your subject and telling the crawlers to focus on that
section to ensure that your ads stay targeted.

It’s definitely something that you want to play with.

If there’s one problem with Section Targeting though, it’s that it can take up
to two weeks before you see the results — the time it can take for the
crawler to re-visit your page. So it’s not a fast process and that can make it a
bit of a blunt tool. But it’s not blunt enough to be ignored.

Keyword Frames

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Keyword Frames

One of the reasons that websites don’t always receive relevant ads may be
that all the navigation and other non-content words affect the way Google
reads the page. If your links and other words take up lots of space, it could
well skew your results.

One way to avoid your navigation affecting your ads is simply to create
frames. You put all of your content in your main frame and the navigation
material in a separate frame. Only the “content frame” has the Google code
(google_page_url = document.location), so your keywords won’t be diluted
by non-relevant words.

Keyword Placement

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Keyword Placement

It shouldn’t really matter where you put your keywords, should it? As long as
the right words are on the right page in the right amount of numbers, that
should be enough to get you relevant ads, right?

Wrong.

One of the strangest results that people have had using AdSense is that
putting keywords in particular places on the page can have an effect on the
ads the site gets.

The most important place on your webpage is directly beneath the
AdSense box. The keywords you place there could influence your ads.

For example, mentioning clowns in the space directly beneath the AdSense
box could give you ads about circuses and red noses!

Keeping that in mind, you could play with your ads in all sorts of ways. If you
had a site about camping for example, you might find that you’re getting lots
of ads about tents and sleeping bags, which would be fine. But if you also
wanted to make sure that one or two of your ads were about Yosemite or

mobile homes, then mentioning those keywords once or twice on the page
directly below the AdSense box could give you ads for sites with that sort of
content too.

Bear in mind though that you’ll often find that you get ads that try to
combine the main thrust of your site with the words in that keyword space
below the ad box. So if you had a site about gardening and you mentioned
“cabbages” beneath the ad box, you’re more likely to get ads about growing
cabbages than ads about cabbage recipes.

Experimenting with the placement of the keywords could allow you to control
at least one or two of the ads you receive and help keep them varied. That’s
definitely something to try.

Keyword Density

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Keyword Density

You’ll need the right keywords to get the right ads. But you’ll also need the
right amount of keywords.

There’s no golden rule for putting the right number of keywords on a page to
get the ads you want. You’ll just have to experiment. It also seems to be the
case that keyword density is counted across pages, especially for high-paying
keywords. If you have a site that's generally about cars and you write a page
for car rental, a higher-paying keyword, you might find that you need to
produce several pages about car rental before you get the ads.

In general though, if you find that your ads are missing the point of your
page and that your titles are all correct, then the next step would be to try
mentioning your keywords more often and make sure that they’re all finely
focused. For example, talking about “fire extinguishers” is likely to get you
better results than talking generally about “safety equipment.”

Finding Keywords

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Finding Keywords

We know that Google’s crawlers search websites for keywords, then reports
back and tells the company what kind of ads to send to the site. If your site
is about pension plans for example, then your keywords would be things like
“retirement”, “401k” and “pension”.

Getting the right keywords on your site won’t just make your ads relevant; it
will also help you to make sure that the ads you get are the ones that pay
the most.

There are all sorts of tools available on the Web that tell you how much
people are prepared to pay for keywords. www.overture.com and
www.googlest.com let you see how much people are prepared to pay, and
keywords.clickhereforit.com also has a list of keywords with their prices.

On the more professional side, WordTracker provides a wealth of keyword
research tools that unearth pure gold. You can check it out at
www.WordTracker.com.

Again, you don’t want to build a site just to cash in on a high paying keyword
but if you know that “401k” pays more than “retirement” for example, then it
makes sense to use the higher paying keywords more than the lower paying
ones.

Keep The Title, Directory And Headlines Relevant

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Keep The Title, Directory And Headlines Relevant

How exactly the crawlers read pages is a secret guarded about as closely as
Coca Cola’s special syrup formula. One thing that does seem to have an
effect though is the title of your URLs and files.

When you create your pages and view them on your computer before
uploading them to the server, you should find that AdSense serves up ads
related to the name of the directory that holds the page. That gives a pretty
big clue as to at least one of the things that Google is looking at: the name of
the directory.

Actually, it’s not just the name of the directory that’s important. The name of
the file plays a big part too.

If you have a website about wedding trains and the title of one of your pages
is trains.php for example, there’s a good chance that you’ll get ads about
Amtrak and Caltrain. That wouldn’t give you many clicks. Change the name
of the file to weddingtrains.php and there’s a much better chance that you’ll
see ads related to weddings.

If you find that the ads that are appearing on your site have nothing to do
with your content, the first places to look are your directory and your title.
Make them more relevant to your content and you should find that you get
better ads.

Another place to look is your headlines. Instead of using a tag for
your heading, try using the

tag with headings that contain your
keywords. That should help them to stand out to the crawlers.

And if you don’t have any headlines at all, try adding some.

Attracting Relevant Ads

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Controlling Your Ads

Attracting Relevant Ads

Getting the color and placement right will help improve your click-through
rate. But neither of those will affect which ads your site serves.

In theory, Google controls the ads that appear on your site. You don’t get to
choose them at all. In practice, there are a few things that you can do to
stop irrelevant ads from appearing and ensure that you get the ads that give
you cash.

The more relevant the ads, the greater the chance that a user will click and
you’ll earn money.

The most important factor is obviously going to be your content. Google’s
crawlers will check your site and serve up ads based on the keywords and
the content on your page.

Bear in mind that Google’s crawlers can’t read graphics or Flash or pretty
much anything that isn’t text. I’ll talk about content in detail in Chapter 11
but for now, remember that if you want to keep your ads relevant, you’ve
got to have the sort of page that Google can understand and use to give you
the ads you want.

Changing The Look Of Your Ads

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Changing The Look Of Your Ads

Changing The Look Of Your Ads

The strategies I’ve provided in this chapter will all help to improve your
clickthrough rates. That’s what happened when I used them and it’s what
happened when other people used them.

But one of the most important strategies you can use with AdSense is to
experiment.

If you find that a slightly larger ad format gives you better results, for
example, then obviously, you should use the bigger one.

In the past, changing your ads meant copying the code and pasting it into
your site again.

Today, things are a bit easier than that.

When you create your ad code, you’ll be asked to give that code a name.
Make sure that name tells you exactly where the ad will be placed and its
format.

Whenever you want to change the way an ad looks, you’ll be able to pull up
that code on your AdSense center and make the changes. Your ad will be
updated automatically within the next ten minutes.

Unless you want to change the size of your ads. That you’ll still have to do
manually by pasting in the new code.

Using Colors To Increase Your Clicks

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Using Colors To Increase Your Clicks

Design Your Website To Highlight Adsense

I once went to a fashion show where each model wore the exact same black
outfit for the entire duration of the show. Boring? Hardly! The show was
intended to showcase platinum jewelry, and the outfits were designed to
enhance the jewelry — instead of distracting the audience.

You don’t have to make all the pages on your website identical (or black).
But you do want to make sure that the look of your page draws attention to
the ads — and makes them appear as attractive and as valuable as platinum
jewelry.

Many websites have strong graphic elements that catch the eye —
usually at the expense of the AdSense units.

If you're using AdSense, be judicious in the selection of fonts, font size,
colors, images, tables and other visual aspects of your website.

Draw subtle attention to your AdSense units. Make them the stars of
your show!

Seasons Greeting With Themed Units

2008-09-19T02:13:00.021-07:00

Seasons Greeting With Themed Units

There is one more type of ad unit that you can
use on your site. You just can’t use it all the
time. Every time a holiday rolls around, Google
brings out new ad units with seasonal themes.

The designs themselves vary according to
season and location (users in Europe, for
example, won’t see Thanksgiving ads).

In general, I always say that your ads should be
unobtrusive but I like these themed ads. They’re
eye-catching without looking like banners. When
it’s holiday-time, it’s always worth checking out
the format page again and seeing what’s
available.

• Leaderboards are best at the top of the page;
• Squares and rectangles can be embedded into text itself;
• Vertical ads and buttons should slip down the side of the page;
• Vertical link units should be placed next to link lists;
• Horizontal link units can go at the top of the page, between blog
entries or above and below directories;
• Image ads should rarely be used at all;
• Themed ads can be slotted in at holiday time;
• And Video ads should be used whenever possible.

Those are the general rules governing ad formats. They’re worth knowing
because they’re a good place to start.

They’re also worth knowing because you can’t break the rules until you know
what they are... and that’s when the fun really begins!

Expanded Text Ads — Shrinking Control Or Expanded Income?

2008-09-19T02:13:00.020-07:00

Expanded Text Ads — Shrinking Control Or Expanded
Income?

Take a look at the ad format samples
on the AdSense site and you’ll see a
bunch of squares and rectangles filled
with ads. Most of those ad units will
contain more than one ad. On those
units that do contain just the one ad,
like the button or the half-banner,
the ad will fill the space neatly and
look pretty subtle.

You might be surprised then to put a
skyscraper or a leaderboard on your
site and find just one giant ad,
written in super-sized text.

All the effort you’ve put into picking the right ad for your site, testing to see
which formats work best and calculating which will give you the most clicks
will have gone right out of the window.

You’ve prepared your site to serve multiple ads that look like content, and
instead you’re handing out a single ad that just screams “Don’t click me!”

This can happen sometimes, but it’s not a reason to panic. It might even be
a reason to celebrate.

There are two possible reasons that Google is sending you these expanded
text ads.

The first possible reason is that you’ve been keyword-targeted. Google keeps
track of your results (just like you should be doing) and tries to serve up the
number of ads for your page that will bring in the highest amount of income.
That might be four ads in a unit. Or just the one.

Frankly, I’m a touch skeptical that showing one ad is going to bring me more
revenues than showing several. But I’m prepared to give AdSense the benefit
of the doubt.

If I see that Google is giving me one ad, I’ll compare the results for that one
ad to the previous results that I’ve had serving multiple ads in the same unit.
If I find that my revenues have dropped I can either block that ad using my
filters or just ask AdSense not to give me any more single ads.

But if I find that the expanded text ad is giving me more money, I might still
be worried. I know that users are more likely to click ads that look like
content. I also know that they prefer to have a choice of ads rather than just
one option.

If I’m getting more clicks then with just one ad, it could well be that I have
been doing something wrong with that ad unit in the past. I would want to
look at how well it’s been optimized and whether it’s in the right place to
bring in the best income.

It could well be that this single ad is a high-payer and works better with little
competition. But it could also be that getting that one ad is a warning that
something was wrong with the way you’ve laid out that ad unit on your site.

You might want to try some different strategies to see if they’ll increase your
revenues when the multiple ads come back.

There is another possibility though. You might have been site-targeted.

This is a whole different ball game. It means that an advertiser has spotted
your site and asked Google to run their ads on it on a pay-per-impression
(CPM) basis.

You’re no longer dealing with tempting people to click, so you don’t care how
much your ad looks like an ad. In fact you might even want it to look like an
ad, if that’s what will keep the advertiser happy.

The most important point to bear in mind here is that you want to make sure
that you’re not losing money. It might be very nice for the advertiser to have
exclusive control over a particular spot on your page but if you can make
more money serving CPC ads in that space, then you need to make sure that
your site is working for you and not for the advertiser.

Again, watch your stats for a week and see if the revenues you receive for
your impressions are higher than those you receive for your clicks.

Most publishers do find that ads that pay by CPM pay better, especially sites
with high traffic rates. After all, you’re getting paid for every visitor who
comes to your site rather than just those that click, so all you have to do to
increase your revenue is increase your traffic. As long as each impression
pays more than you’re paying for the traffic, you’re going to be making a
profit. That should be easy to calculate.

If you find the revenues are lower though, then you’ll want to boot that ad
off and go back to serving conventional ads. You can do that by opting out of
showing site-targeted ads (you’re automatically opted in).

In general, the biggest problem with these sorts of campaigns is not lower
revenues; it’s that you’ve got no idea how long they’re going to last, which
makes it difficult for you to take advantage of them. If you knew, for
example, that you were going to get paid per impression for the next two
weeks, then you’d want to buy in as much traffic as possible for that period,
provided that you were paying less than you were earning.

And because you don’t care about CTR, You could also lay off the
optimization and focus on making your site more attractive to users.

But you can’t tell when your site is going to be used for a CPM campaign and
you can’t tell how long it’s going to last either. That means there’s little point
in making major changes to your optimization; you might have to rebuild it
the next day.

The best strategy then when you spot a site-targeted ad on your site is to
keep a close eye on the cash flows. Buy in more traffic if you can do it
profitably but for the most part, just enjoy the extra income!

Link Units — Great Little Stocking Fillers

2008-09-19T02:13:00.019-07:00

Link Units — Great Little Stocking Fillers

An ad format that has already proved its worth, when used correctly, is link
units.

If you’ve ever bought Christmas presents for children, you’ve probably
bought stocking fillers. You dole out hundreds of bucks on some state-of-the-
art electronic gizmo, toss in a couple of toy cars that cost a dollar each just
to fill up space and give the kid more to unwrap... then watch him spend 90
percent of his time playing with the car that cost 10 percent of your total gift
budget.

Ad Link units have the potential to be equally profitable.

They’re very small, almost unnoticeable... but when used well, they can be
extremely effective.

Ad Link units let you place a box on your site that contains four or five links.
They come in sizes ranging from 20 x 90 to 200 x 90, and are really meant
to be placed on a sidebar.

Because you can place both Ad Link units as well as other ad units on the
page, you might find that the choice helps: if a user doesn’t spot something
interesting in one type of ad block, he might spot it on another.

Where Ad Links differ from other types of ads is that they only display a list
of topics that Google believes are relevant to the content of your pages. They
don’t display the ads themselves. When a visitor clicks on a topic, Google
pops up a new window with targeted ads.

It can be argued that the Ad Links are ineffective because like video ads,
people have to go through two clicks in order for you to get paid. That’s
right, once again, you’re only getting paid for the second click (but that does
mean you can check to see which ads your users are being served.)

But it can also be argued that if someone is
taking the time to click on a topic, then they are
probably very interested in the link, and are
likely to click an actual advertisement on the
resulting page. Some people have found that
just about everyone who clicks on an Ad Link will
click on the ads that appear on the next page.

I have tested Ad Links on multiple sites and
have seen vast differences in results. That
makes it more difficult to say whether or not
they are for you.

In the first case, I placed the Ad Links on an
information-based site with a very general
audience. The results were nothing to write
home about. Let's just say that you could just
about buy a large candy bar with the CPM I saw.

In the second case, I placed the Ad Links on a product specific site with a
narrow audience. The results were fantastic! We're talking about a CPM that
is greater than what someone might make flipping burgers in one day.

The conclusions should be obvious. If you’re going to use an Ad Links unit
campaign. You need to put them:

1. On a site with a specific field of interest. A general site will give
you general ads — and few clicks.

2. Above the fold with few other links. For Ad Links, this is crucial: If
your users are going to click a link, it should be a link that gives you
money.

It’s also a good idea to keep your Ad Link units for sites with high-paying
keywords. If someone comes to your site seeking out information or a
product on a top-notch keyword, they tend to be more likely to click as a

result.

There are two kinds of link units: vertical units and horizontal units.
Vertical link units are great slotted into sidebars. They just look like a natural
extension of the link list.

But horizontal link units can be at least as effective. Since they were
introduced, they really have become an extremely useful tool.

Some users have reported increases in CTR as high as 200 percent using
these units!

Instead of piling the links one on top of the other—which is great for putting
above lists of links but stand out too clearly when placed in text—the
horizontal ads blend in perfectly when placed on pages with articles.

Horizontal Ad Link units are great for inserting into articles and show very
clearly which keywords your site is generating.

You can still only use one Ad Link unit per page and users still have to click
twice before you get paid but they’re definitely worth slipping into a long
article. You probably shouldn’t put them at the bottom of a page where
they’ll be very easy to miss, but there are plenty of other places where these
sorts of ads can work very, very well.

For example, a horizontal ad unit can be a great alternative to a leaderboard.
It’s much more subtle and takes up less space on the page — definitely
something to experiment with to see which of the two brings you the highest
revenues.

Or you could use them to separate forum or blog entries. As a horizontal
unit, they can be very effective as frames that give people somewhere easy
to go when they reach the end of a text unit.

One great use for horizontal link units though is on directory pages. If you
have a Web page that contains tables of links, slipping a horizontal link unit
above or below them — or both — can make the ads look like a part of the
directory.

It almost makes you want to build a directory just to try it out!

Gadget Ads — Clever But Are They Effective?

2008-09-19T02:13:00.017-07:00

Gadget Ads — Clever But Are They Effective?

I’m optimistic about video ads. I’m not sure yet about Gadget ads.

These are rich media ads that might contain animation, Flash games and
interactive content. At the moment advertisers are big brands like Coca-Cola
and I suspect it’s likely to stay that way. Ads like these cost a lot more to
design and program than a text ad, a graphic ad or even a home-made video
ad.

They can pay by impression or by click but I’m skeptical that you’ll get many
clicks. An early test showed that only a third of one percent of viewers
actually interacted with the ad.

The problem is that they just look too much like ads. Most users have learnt
to ignore them.

If you do want to test them though, you’ll need to opt in to receive image
ads. Apparently the most popular sizes for gadgets are rectangles,
leaderboards and skyscrapers.

Some ads might do well — such as those for movies or which have an
attractive built-in game — but on the whole, I expect you’ll find that a well-
blended text ad unit will do better.

Adsense Video Ads

2008-09-19T02:13:00.016-07:00

Video Ads

There is however, one type of image ad that you should welcome on your
website: Google’s video ads.

These are an excellent addition to Google’s inventory and for sites that get
them, they can bring very impressive returns.

Instead of receiving the sort of static image that just gets ignored, you’ll
receive the opening still of an online video. The video is stored on Google’s
servers so your download times won’t be affected, and it only plays when the
user clicks the Play button, minimizing distraction to the user.

That’s a good thing. If a user’s eyes keep drifting to a moving image when
he’s trying to read your content, he’s going to get pretty frustrated and not
want to come back.

Play-per-click: a scene from Google’s sample video ad.

And it’s fine too if you’re being paid on a CPM basis; you won’t care then how
often someone sees the video. But you’re not always paid on a CPM basis;
you might also be paid on a CPC basis.

Unlike Google’s other ad formats though, you won’t be paid for just one click.
Users first have to click the Play button—which won’t pay you a dime—and
then click either the screen while it’s playing or the link underneath the
screen before you’ll earn money.

In fact, you can’t even track the number of times the film is shown.
(Although that does mean that you can watch the film yourself without
getting rude messages from Google, and it also means that CPC advertisers
are less likely to get free branding at the expense of your page space.)

That extra step might sound like it’s going to hit your clickthrough rate for
that ad unit but I’m not sure that’s true.

As soon as someone sees a button anywhere, they want to click it. In fact,
I’m sure that if you put a big notice next to the Play button saying, “DO NOT
PUSH THIS BUTTON” you can be sure that your clicks would go through the
roof. (But don’t try it; it’s unlikely that Google will appreciate it.)

People will want to click that Play button, and many of them will want to
learn more about the company that created the ad. And even if your CTR
does drop for that unit, it’s likely that the click price for video ads will be
higher than for other units competing for that space.

Video ads are more expensive to create than text or image ads. That’s why
they tend to be created by big companies like car giants or Disney. They
might even be offering their television ads. If those corporations have gone
to the trouble creating an original video ad or formatting a television ad for
the Web, there’s a great chance that they’ll go to the trouble of outbidding
their nearest rival for exposure.

If you’re getting a video ad, track how long it appears on that page
and compare the revenues it brings with the days on which no video
ad appeared. You should expect to see a spike in earnings. If you don’t
see that spike, you can always opt out.

Unlike text or image ads though, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get a
video ad. To qualify, you have to be opted in to receive image ads on an ad
unit in one of these sizes:

● Medium Rectangle (300x250)
● Large Rectangle (336x280)
● Square (250x250)
● Small Square (200x200)
● Leaderboard (28x90)
● Skyscraper (120x600)
● Wide Skyscraper (160x600)
(It’s worth noting that with video ads, the bigger the format, the better the
results).

If you’re receiving those kinds of image ads and AdSense has a video ad to
match your content, you might receive one.

But what if you don’t? You’ll be receiving the sort of image ads that earn a
poor clickthrough rate. That would cost you money.

There are two things that you can do to minimize any losses from fishing for
video ads and not getting them.

The first is to stop fishing fast. If a week has gone by and your image ad unit
hasn’t acquired a Play button, it’s probably not going to. So turn that image
ad back into a text ad.

The second is to follow the strategy I use at DealofDay.com. I’ve placed
two rectangular ads at the top of the page to make them unmissable
but one of them is an image ad.

Google no longer allows publishers to place related images right next to ad
units to draw attention to them but you can put an image ad next to a text
ad. If that image ad becomes a video ad, you’re going to earn more money.
If it stays an image ad, it’s going to pull eyes into your ad zone.

This is about the only time I can think of when an image ad might be better
than a text ad.

And when you do get video ads, there are also a couple of things that you
can do to make the most of them...

Adding video to your Web pages for example, is a breeze. There are millions
of clips available for free use on the Web, and there’s nothing to stop you
from shooting your own short.

If your site regularly receives a video ad from AdSense, placing one
or two more videos on those pages would help the ad blend into the
site and increase clicks.

You could also encourage advertisers to build their own video ads specifically
for your site. In Chapter 6, I talk about Google’s “Advertise on this site”
feature and recommend that you make use of the landing page to help
advertisers create effective ads for your site. You could also add a line or two
there about video ads.

Video ads are still fairly new on AdSense, but I’m really excited about them. I
think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of them in the future and they’re
going to really prove their worth.