I found the article by Adam McFarland, interesting and helpful. Using your Blog to promote your site is definitely a great way to get your site noticed, as well as, to help in the traffic department.
But he goes beyond just stating that using your blog to get traffic -- he shows you some methods to get the job done. And he also emphasizes the importance of Bloggers -- and the weight their opinion carries on the Internet. If you have a new Blog, and you don't think you are being heard -- think again.
Using Blog PR To Promote Your Site
by Adam McFarland
The recent trend of using the press release to promote an online business has emerged with good reason – good press costs very little and can do more for a business than thousands of dollars of marketing. Most businesses use press distribution services like PR Web or PRFree to get the word out about their news. While distribution services certainly can be effective, they tend to miss out on arguably the most influential group of the press – bloggers.
Bloggers mold and shape the opinions of their readers, who are normally the most important in their particular industry, many of whom are also bloggers. Not long after a post from an influential blogger, your news has been picked up by several other bloggers and within days you are all over the blogsphere. Before you know it your site is getting more attention than it would if a story ran in the local newspaper! So how do you get the influential bloggers in your industry to run a story about your business?
Why Would Anyone Do a Story About Your Business?
Are you a new company? Did you just launch a new product that they could review? Did your business win an award? Are you a group of college kids who started a company on savings from your summer jobs? You get the idea. There needs to be a reason that someone would want to read about you. Bloggers take pride in the content they feed their readers. You don't stand a chance of getting a blogger to write about you if you don't have a story that their readers will be interested in.
Research Bloggers in Your Industry
More is less when it comes to contacting bloggers. Buy a list of 1,000 bloggers and send out a generic email to all of them and you'll likely get no response. But send a small amount of personalized emails to the appropriate bloggers and you'll be shocked at how many positive responses you get.
The first step is to make a list of the bloggers that would be interested in your story. You can generally get a feel for whether or not a blogger would be interested in your story by reading a couple of posts and checking out their bio. If they've done a few similar stories in the past or they are heavily involved in your industry, there is a good chance they'll want to hear your story. If not, leave them off your list and move on.
The single best method that I have found to research blogs is the Technorati Blog Directory http://www.technorati.com/blogs/. You can peruse blogs in your industry in order of “authority” - how important Technorati thinks a blog is. This is extremely useful. For example, if you are in the travel industry, you can view a list of the most influential blogs in the world of travel.
Another great way to find the right bloggers is to search through your competitors press sections on their websites to see what blogs have mentioned them. You can also find out who has mentioned your competitors by looking at the sites that have linked to them (type in “links:www.theirsite.com” on Yahoo!). There's a good chance that if they found your competitors story interesting, they'll find your story interesting as well.
Compose Your Email
The best way to contact bloggers is by email. The good news is that most bloggers make themselves easy to access and provide their email addresses on their blogs. The bad news is that most people don't know what to do with said email address once they get it. Use the following outline for your email and you'll see amazing results:
Have a simple subject. You probably won't get many responses by treating your email like a press release and writing RELEASE in the subject line. Try something simple like “fan of your blog” or “comment about your blog.” You want to make sure they actually read your email and don't mentally mark it as SPAM when they see the subject.
Start by complementing them. Since you've read their blog and learned about them from their bio, you know quite a bit about them. Use it to your advantage. Complement them on your favorite post, or how cool it is that they worked for XYZ company.
Request them to post about you (be direct). In three sentences or less, tell them your story, why you think it would be of interest to them and their readers, and respectfully ask that they write a post about it. Be direct and to the point. They will respect that. Offer something in return. You have something that could help them. Maybe it's a link back to their blog from your personal blog, or maybe you could provide them with a free product or service that could help them or their business. One way or another, there's something you have to offer them in return for the time spent on a post about you.
Close with something nice. Thank them for their time and wish them luck with their blog and/or business ventures.
Notice that of the five components of the email, only one is about your story. The rest of the email is spent complimenting them and offering them something. Your chances of getting a positive response have just gone through the roof. Every blogger, no matter how large, likes to hear that people are enjoying their posts.
Respond Promptly and Respectfully
Not everyone is going to agree to run your story. Some will say that they don't do that type of thing or that they don't have time. Since you have been so nice as to compliment them, they will still usually reply either way. Regardless of the response, be sure to thank them for their time and wish them luck with their ventures. You never know when they will encounter someone who needs your product or service in the future (remember, they are in your industry) and if they have a positive image of you and your company they will undoubtedly give you a good recommendation.
Sit Back and Watch the Traffic Roll In
Over the course of the next few weeks you will see post after post appear about your business. Be sure to send another thank you email to the blogger after the post and also be sure to promptly provide whatever you offered them in return. At this point you have developed a mutually beneficial relationship with someone important in your industry that can become invaluable over time.
That wasn't that hard was it? With a little research and a carefully crafted email, any business can effectively use blog PR to drive traffic to their site.
Adam McFarland owns iPrioritize - simple to-do lists that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. Email, print, check from your mobile phone, subscribe via RSS, and share with others.
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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Looking For Some Software?
Looking for some software? If we are in business and working online-- software is a necessity. And yes, some of the software is expensive. Many people are tempted by OEM software. Well, the other day, I received some spam that was advertising OEM software. I looked at some of the products -- found it rather, well, interesting. And let's face it, who wouldn't want to save a buck. However, from my experience on the Internet, my radar went up, and the next thought that came to mind was: "Is this stuff legal?" Yes and No.
Here is an article that will explain what OEM is and what problems you can get yourself into if you buy it.
Software Scams --To Cheap To Be True?
By Vickie J Scanlon
I'm sure that you have received an email stating that you can purchase name brand software cheap. As a matter of fact, I received such an email the other day. They call this type of software OEM software. But is it legal? And most important, how can you spot a software scam?
Software Scams
These are some of the "sounds too good to be true" warning signs:
1. Prices are below most reputable online sellers -- such as Amazon.com.
2. If the webmaster is telling you the reasons why they are legal -- may not be.
3. If there is a statement that says "you give up the right for a chargeback" (chargeback -- a return of the product, and thus, the return of your money to your pocket). Or, here is a really scary statement that they may have in small print -- that they can counter-sue you for any chargebacks you may put into action against them.
4. If you have to use a special number -- no not the registration number -- more than likely it is an illegal version.
5. Registration -- sellers says the software cannot be registered.
6. No warranty offered.
These are the obvious signs that this software could be illegal. Always take the time to look at "Whois" to see how long a retailer has been online:
1) less than a year -- first warning sign
2) only has an IP address with no name, address, etc. -- second warning sign.
What If I Get It Anyway?
Maybe you're saying to yourself, "Surely it can't hurt. And it's so cheap!" That's the draw. But it can open you to some of the following problems:
1) Credit Card scam
2) No technical support
3) No manuals
4) Software is basically a "what you see is what you get". You got it, no upgrades.
5) The software could have a virus installed with the software. As a matter of fact, illegal software has been one major source for causing damage to computer systems and data.
Example of possible virus download: An individual worker found a Pacman game (though not illegal to obtain) on the Internet while surfing the net at home and decided to download the game onto a floppy to play it at work during the slow times. Just as an added bonus to his benign neglect, he didn't do a virus check on the floppy to make sure the game was clean. He took it to work, popped the floppy into his hard-drive and blindly downloaded the game to play it at his leisure. Low and behold -- Pacman game came with Pacman virus. That happy little critter slowly began to eat away at the hard-drive. Results of his actions, downtime and lost productivity for the company. Worker -- a week of lost wages for the indiscretion.
6) You could face penalties for using illegal software -- which can be significant.
When is it not illegal?
Oem software is illegal when it is not used according to the software license agreement. In most cases, OEM software is legal when it is distributed with specified accompanying hardware. If the OEM software is legitimate, don't expect user manuals, original retail packaging of the software, or the technical support that is usually provided by the hardware provider.
Where to Report Software Piracy
You can report any software piracy issues to the BSA -- Business Software Alliance.
On the Internet, temptations are everywhere, so it's important to learn what is legal and what is not, so you can protect yourself, your data, or your business.
Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site My Affiliate Place at: My Affiliate Place for a repository of tools, articles, ebooks, affiliate information, software, computers, web hosting, where to report scams and more for the Affiliate/Internet Marketing person or individual.
Read more...
Here is an article that will explain what OEM is and what problems you can get yourself into if you buy it.
Software Scams --To Cheap To Be True?
By Vickie J Scanlon
I'm sure that you have received an email stating that you can purchase name brand software cheap. As a matter of fact, I received such an email the other day. They call this type of software OEM software. But is it legal? And most important, how can you spot a software scam?
Software Scams
These are some of the "sounds too good to be true" warning signs:
1. Prices are below most reputable online sellers -- such as Amazon.com.
2. If the webmaster is telling you the reasons why they are legal -- may not be.
3. If there is a statement that says "you give up the right for a chargeback" (chargeback -- a return of the product, and thus, the return of your money to your pocket). Or, here is a really scary statement that they may have in small print -- that they can counter-sue you for any chargebacks you may put into action against them.
4. If you have to use a special number -- no not the registration number -- more than likely it is an illegal version.
5. Registration -- sellers says the software cannot be registered.
6. No warranty offered.
These are the obvious signs that this software could be illegal. Always take the time to look at "Whois" to see how long a retailer has been online:
1) less than a year -- first warning sign
2) only has an IP address with no name, address, etc. -- second warning sign.
What If I Get It Anyway?
Maybe you're saying to yourself, "Surely it can't hurt. And it's so cheap!" That's the draw. But it can open you to some of the following problems:
1) Credit Card scam
2) No technical support
3) No manuals
4) Software is basically a "what you see is what you get". You got it, no upgrades.
5) The software could have a virus installed with the software. As a matter of fact, illegal software has been one major source for causing damage to computer systems and data.
Example of possible virus download: An individual worker found a Pacman game (though not illegal to obtain) on the Internet while surfing the net at home and decided to download the game onto a floppy to play it at work during the slow times. Just as an added bonus to his benign neglect, he didn't do a virus check on the floppy to make sure the game was clean. He took it to work, popped the floppy into his hard-drive and blindly downloaded the game to play it at his leisure. Low and behold -- Pacman game came with Pacman virus. That happy little critter slowly began to eat away at the hard-drive. Results of his actions, downtime and lost productivity for the company. Worker -- a week of lost wages for the indiscretion.
6) You could face penalties for using illegal software -- which can be significant.
When is it not illegal?
Oem software is illegal when it is not used according to the software license agreement. In most cases, OEM software is legal when it is distributed with specified accompanying hardware. If the OEM software is legitimate, don't expect user manuals, original retail packaging of the software, or the technical support that is usually provided by the hardware provider.
Where to Report Software Piracy
You can report any software piracy issues to the BSA -- Business Software Alliance.
On the Internet, temptations are everywhere, so it's important to learn what is legal and what is not, so you can protect yourself, your data, or your business.
Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site My Affiliate Place at: My Affiliate Place for a repository of tools, articles, ebooks, affiliate information, software, computers, web hosting, where to report scams and more for the Affiliate/Internet Marketing person or individual.
Read more...
Monday, August 14, 2006
Blogging and Your Niche
The Article below "Successful Blogging" gives you seven different strategies to successful blogging -- with of course, an emphasis toward your niche. Make sure the niche you choose is something that you have strong interest in -- you can't keep your readers interested, if you are not interested in your niche as well. It will show.
Successful Blogging
by Sharon Hurley Hall
What makes some blogs more successful than others? Here are seven strategies that will contribute to every blog's success.
What's Your Niche?
When people start to blog, they often have little idea what they're going to say today and less idea what they'll be talking about in five years' time. That doesn't matter much at the beginning, but if you're going to stick to blogging, you need to find something you enjoy writing about and can stay current on. Something that's a big part of your life will make a good blogging niche. For me, that's writing; for you, it could be something else.
Keep Your Focus
Once you've found your niche, stick to it, most of the time at least. When your readers get used to the content you provide, your readership will dip if you go off-topic for too long. You need to find a way to make your content relevant to your readers. Sometimes all you need to do that is a good title. Choosing a title that relates to the theme of your blog or post will help readers realize what your topic is and how this post relates to it.
Read Or Dead?
If you want people to read your blog, you've got to give them something to read - and you've got to make it regular. For some people, this means posting at least once or several times a day. For others, it means posting a couple of times a week. If you're a WAHM or part-time blogger, you may not have a lot of time to sit down and think of posts, let alone write them. But as long as there's activity on the blog, there'll be people reading it. Stay away too long and people are likely to abandon your blog for one that's got fresh content. Since people have lives that are offline (as well as online) getting a guest blogger is a good way to make sure your blog is updated if you have to be away. And with some blogging platforms like Wordpress, you can submit blog posts by email.
Tell The World
Sitting around waiting for people to find your content can take a long time. Instead, take the content to them with headline animators from Feedburner, email alerts from Feedblitz, RSS feeds from whoever you choose. Submit your blog to directories and try to think of a description that will make people want to visit. This is especially important if your blog is just one of many in a crowded field. What is the unique selling point of your blog? What makes it stand out from the rest? That's what you need to put in the description. Use pinging services like Pingoat to let people know you've updated your content. Also use the social bookmarking services to take your blog posts to a wider audience.
Read All About It
Read other people's blogs, not just on your own blogging plarform, but everywhere. This will let you know what people are thinking and talking about and may give you inspiration for blog posts of your own. This article was inspired by a post on Problogger, for example.
Talk To Others
When you read other blogs, be sure to comment if you've found the post interesting or useful. If you have something to add to the discussion, that's even more useful. The best blogging has a community feel and you have to keep talking to maintain that community. That also means that you should respond to all comments on your blog. If you get a lot of visitors, you don't have to respond individually, but it's nice for people to know their voices have been heard.
Work Those Links
Use blogrolls and bookmarks to keep track of the bloggers you read. You can also link to interesting posts in your own posts and use the trackbacks feature to let those people know about the link. If you're lucky, those people will also link back to you and you'll get new readers for your blog. But that's only one part of the story. The best way to keep getting readers for your posts is to link to them in other posts. After all, you're the person who's most likely to know if one of your blog posts is related to another.
These strategies are a good way of building a blog readership and a sense of community with your readers. Once you've done that, your readers will come to you with questions and comments that will lead to other blog posts - and you'll be sure that someone wants to read them.
About This Author:
Sharon Hurley Hall is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor. Sharon worked in publishing for 19 years, writing articles and editing and designing books and magazines. Sharon writes on freelance writing for InspiredAuthor.com. For more information or to contact Sharon, visit doublehdesign.com.
Read more...
Successful Blogging
by Sharon Hurley Hall
What makes some blogs more successful than others? Here are seven strategies that will contribute to every blog's success.
What's Your Niche?
When people start to blog, they often have little idea what they're going to say today and less idea what they'll be talking about in five years' time. That doesn't matter much at the beginning, but if you're going to stick to blogging, you need to find something you enjoy writing about and can stay current on. Something that's a big part of your life will make a good blogging niche. For me, that's writing; for you, it could be something else.
Keep Your Focus
Once you've found your niche, stick to it, most of the time at least. When your readers get used to the content you provide, your readership will dip if you go off-topic for too long. You need to find a way to make your content relevant to your readers. Sometimes all you need to do that is a good title. Choosing a title that relates to the theme of your blog or post will help readers realize what your topic is and how this post relates to it.
Read Or Dead?
If you want people to read your blog, you've got to give them something to read - and you've got to make it regular. For some people, this means posting at least once or several times a day. For others, it means posting a couple of times a week. If you're a WAHM or part-time blogger, you may not have a lot of time to sit down and think of posts, let alone write them. But as long as there's activity on the blog, there'll be people reading it. Stay away too long and people are likely to abandon your blog for one that's got fresh content. Since people have lives that are offline (as well as online) getting a guest blogger is a good way to make sure your blog is updated if you have to be away. And with some blogging platforms like Wordpress, you can submit blog posts by email.
Tell The World
Sitting around waiting for people to find your content can take a long time. Instead, take the content to them with headline animators from Feedburner, email alerts from Feedblitz, RSS feeds from whoever you choose. Submit your blog to directories and try to think of a description that will make people want to visit. This is especially important if your blog is just one of many in a crowded field. What is the unique selling point of your blog? What makes it stand out from the rest? That's what you need to put in the description. Use pinging services like Pingoat to let people know you've updated your content. Also use the social bookmarking services to take your blog posts to a wider audience.
Read All About It
Read other people's blogs, not just on your own blogging plarform, but everywhere. This will let you know what people are thinking and talking about and may give you inspiration for blog posts of your own. This article was inspired by a post on Problogger, for example.
Talk To Others
When you read other blogs, be sure to comment if you've found the post interesting or useful. If you have something to add to the discussion, that's even more useful. The best blogging has a community feel and you have to keep talking to maintain that community. That also means that you should respond to all comments on your blog. If you get a lot of visitors, you don't have to respond individually, but it's nice for people to know their voices have been heard.
Work Those Links
Use blogrolls and bookmarks to keep track of the bloggers you read. You can also link to interesting posts in your own posts and use the trackbacks feature to let those people know about the link. If you're lucky, those people will also link back to you and you'll get new readers for your blog. But that's only one part of the story. The best way to keep getting readers for your posts is to link to them in other posts. After all, you're the person who's most likely to know if one of your blog posts is related to another.
These strategies are a good way of building a blog readership and a sense of community with your readers. Once you've done that, your readers will come to you with questions and comments that will lead to other blog posts - and you'll be sure that someone wants to read them.
About This Author:
Sharon Hurley Hall is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor. Sharon worked in publishing for 19 years, writing articles and editing and designing books and magazines. Sharon writes on freelance writing for InspiredAuthor.com. For more information or to contact Sharon, visit doublehdesign.com.
Read more...
Friday, August 11, 2006
New Landing Page Algorithm Changes for Google Adwords
Google has made changes to their their landing page algorithm for Google Adwords. Needless to say the changes were unsettling and in some cases have harmed some online businesses.
The scenerio of changes
Before the changes took affect, many advertisers were promoting their keywords for 5 to 10 cents a click, but after the change the keywords jumped to between 50 cents to a $1; Other advertisers were able to keep their bid prices on their keywords, but the page positioning of their ads shifted from their original page 1 standing to page 3 or 4, etc.; Other advertisers were unable to continue with their PPC campaigns; and last but not least, others saw no change at all.
The following type landing pages for Google Adwords were hit the hardest:
Read more...
The scenerio of changes
Before the changes took affect, many advertisers were promoting their keywords for 5 to 10 cents a click, but after the change the keywords jumped to between 50 cents to a $1; Other advertisers were able to keep their bid prices on their keywords, but the page positioning of their ads shifted from their original page 1 standing to page 3 or 4, etc.; Other advertisers were unable to continue with their PPC campaigns; and last but not least, others saw no change at all.
The following type landing pages for Google Adwords were hit the hardest:
- Squeeze pages
- affiliate sites
- one page sales letter sites
- adsense sites (those involved in Adsense arbitrage). Adsense arbitrage is where people make money by bidding on less expensive terms to drive people to a page with only AdSense or Network ads.
- affiliate sites
It seems that Google has assigned scores to the landing page, and thus, determined the positioning, pricing, etc. What to do? Through all my readings on the issue the following seemed to be consistent:
- provide relevant content
- Link to the page that provides the most relevant information.
- Remove Adsense Ads from your landing pages
- Add more content to your site
- Your landing page should have at least 500 words -- and relevant to your product/ad.
In my readings, some applauded the change, some wanted more changes, others were angry and yet others devastated by the changes. Whatever the case, there is only one thing that I am sure of, the Internet is an ever changing environment -- whether you like it or not, you have to roll with the punches -- or make individual choices to stay or leave the online arena.
Read more...
Monday, August 7, 2006
Adsense And Your Income
I thought that this article would be helpful -- as you know a lot of adsense sites are going up, but you should also know that there is a right way and a wrong way. I guess it all is determined at what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it.
AdSense and Your Income
By Vickie J. Scanlon
Google Adsense, as you all know, can make a great secondary income to your main website, or if you decide on an info site, a fairly decent income thru Google Adsense alone, if you know how to do it. But what is the right way and what is the wrong way of utilizing Adsense?
The basic generic elements to utilizing Adsense are content, display ads and traffic. That’s not so hard. Right? Well, what seems so simple can be very deceptively difficult. However, through experimentation and testing on your websites you can begin to make some income from Google Adsense. Content alone will not give you the income from Adsense-it's quality content.
Let me emphasize quality content. Why? Many people are overwhelmed by what people call, “junk” websites, which are websites that offer less then quality content with the sole purpose of only getting clicks.
In fact, in my forum travels, I read a post where a webmaster was giving up his/her website, even though it had made around $10,000 because of all the hoopla about Adsense sites. What was my first initial question? Does or did this person have a junk site and was dropped by Google, or did this person’s income flat-line?
Avoid using “article crawling machines” or other automated article systems, these systems may get you up and running in the short run, but running a business in that matter, can definitely put your sense of accomplishment in the toilet and give your website and business a short run.. And yes, then you would probably need hundreds of websites with thousands of pages.
Can you create a website with quality content and make good money with Adsense – certainly. Google gives numerous examples of quality content with the use of Adsense. For example, look at AskTheBuilder.com – a quality website that pulls in $1400 a day in Adsense income.
Thus, if you are looking for longevity on the web, go with a theme that interests you with quality content. Then you won’t need hundreds of websites or thousands of pages and you can build your traffic and a viable income, while keeping both your credibility and integrity intake.
About The Author:
Vickie J. Scanlon My Affiliate Place it is an Affiliate Site and Learning Site for Affiliate Marketing/Internet Marketing offering Tools, Computers, Software Utilities, Web Hosting/Domain Info, How To Information on Adsense and more.
Check my website for information on Adsense-Adsense Basics this will help you to get started on the right foot.
Read more...
AdSense and Your Income
By Vickie J. Scanlon
Google Adsense, as you all know, can make a great secondary income to your main website, or if you decide on an info site, a fairly decent income thru Google Adsense alone, if you know how to do it. But what is the right way and what is the wrong way of utilizing Adsense?
The basic generic elements to utilizing Adsense are content, display ads and traffic. That’s not so hard. Right? Well, what seems so simple can be very deceptively difficult. However, through experimentation and testing on your websites you can begin to make some income from Google Adsense. Content alone will not give you the income from Adsense-it's quality content.
Let me emphasize quality content. Why? Many people are overwhelmed by what people call, “junk” websites, which are websites that offer less then quality content with the sole purpose of only getting clicks.
In fact, in my forum travels, I read a post where a webmaster was giving up his/her website, even though it had made around $10,000 because of all the hoopla about Adsense sites. What was my first initial question? Does or did this person have a junk site and was dropped by Google, or did this person’s income flat-line?
Avoid using “article crawling machines” or other automated article systems, these systems may get you up and running in the short run, but running a business in that matter, can definitely put your sense of accomplishment in the toilet and give your website and business a short run.. And yes, then you would probably need hundreds of websites with thousands of pages.
Can you create a website with quality content and make good money with Adsense – certainly. Google gives numerous examples of quality content with the use of Adsense. For example, look at AskTheBuilder.com – a quality website that pulls in $1400 a day in Adsense income.
Thus, if you are looking for longevity on the web, go with a theme that interests you with quality content. Then you won’t need hundreds of websites or thousands of pages and you can build your traffic and a viable income, while keeping both your credibility and integrity intake.
About The Author:
Vickie J. Scanlon My Affiliate Place it is an Affiliate Site and Learning Site for Affiliate Marketing/Internet Marketing offering Tools, Computers, Software Utilities, Web Hosting/Domain Info, How To Information on Adsense and more.
Check my website for information on Adsense-Adsense Basics this will help you to get started on the right foot.
Read more...
Monday, July 31, 2006
Adsense, Adsense Design and Human Behavior
It is human nature to find the easy way to complete a task, or I should say the lazy way. If you are new to the Google Adsense Game – it is wise to take the time to gain a little knowledge before placing ads throughout your site and then expecting people to click on them. If they are clicking on your ads, you still may find that could be a strong possibility that additional income could be coming your way.
Which was some of my failings, sad to say, when I was a newbie. As a matter of fact, I remember saying, "What the heck is Google Adsense?" But hey, that was just newbie ignorance speaking – be open to everything that is legit, and if your site is compatible with Google Adsense use it, it can help you make a little extra money on the side.
However, I would like to say that you should look at the samples given, to get an idea of how the ads should be placed on a site, and remember, each site is unique. Unique – is such a small word, with a lot of headaches. Maybe some of your webpages are not compatible with Google Adsense, or your ads cannot be placed in the same place as the samples given in the article below, or maybe the ad size just doesn’t fit the scheme of your site.
Well, what I am telling you is, get armed with information, know the rules, and (sigh) experiment. When I first started on the Internet, I would keep changing my website – my husband kept telling me not to change my website all the time, but you know, I was a newbie in training. Okay, maybe obsessed, but I’m getting where I need to be, I don’t have to change things as much now, but I’m always learning, because things ‘keep a changing’.
There is really a lot to absorb in this article and a lot to learn. So, you would be wise to bookmark some of the websites the author directs you to, to read later. They are informative and helpful. I found the Eyetrack III article rather interesting, since it gives you a quick rundown on human behavior and the printed webpage, as well as, gives you an idea how a human eye moves over a page -- in web design, and in ad placement it is very important.
Cracking the
Google Adsense Code
By Kim Roach (c) 2006
Google Adsense has empowered web publishers of all shapes and sizes to make monëy from their web sites. Whether you own a hobby site that gets 100 visitors per day or a popular finance portal that is flooded with millíons of visitors per month, you can benefit from the Google Adsense program.
Simply sign up for a free account, grab your Adsense code and paste it up on your website. Well, it sounds good anyway. In reality, that's not the whole story. Maximizing your adsense earnings requires a little more care.
Fortunately, you can quickly increase your earnings by reading every word of this article. I will cover the basic necessities and also reveal advanced tips that you won't find on every digital corner. So, if you're looking to put more monëy in your pocket with a few tweaks of code, I urge you to read on.
As you are reading, keep in mind that Google is actually one of the best resources for finding information on Adsense optimization. Think it's hard to believe that Google would give good advice? Well, it makes sense when you think about it. The more you make as a publisher, the more they will make. Google has a big incentive to help you perform well. Not to mention, they have tons of data to research what works best.
So, for much of my research, I took quite a few tips from Google. But don't worry, there are also some advanced tips here that Google will probably nevër reveal to you.
Most Effective Ad Formats
In general, wider ad formats tend to outperform the taller ads. This is because the wider ads are much easier on the eye.
According to Google, the following ad formats result in the highest number of clíck-throughs:
336×280
300×250
160×600
Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com increased his revenues by 20 percent after placing the large rectangle (336×280) in the upper left corner, positioned within his articles.
Text links are another ad format that often work well. Using text link ads, you can create Adsense ads that blend in seamlessly with your navigation.
For an example of this, go to http://www.dealofday.com.
Tim Carter saw an 18 percent increase in his revenues after placing link units in the upper left corner under his site search bar.
Number of Ads
Multiple ad units can sometimes help optimize your perförmance. This is especially true for pages with lots of text, forums, and message boards.
However, it could possibly lower your revenues as well. When you show more ads, the ads that are placed lower on the page often have lower bid prices than the ones on top. Therefore, you must test the number of ads on a page to see what works best for you.
When using multiple ad units, make sure that the ad unit with the highest clíck-through rate appears first within your HTML code. This will ensure that your prime real estate is occupied by the highest paying ads. You can use CSS positioning to get your highest paying ads placed in the location with the highest CTR.
Colors
Ads that blend in with the colors of your site generate the highest clíck-through rates. In most cases, it is best to use the exact same color scheme for your ads that you use on your web site. To see some good examples of this, visit:
http://www.lockergnome.com
http://www.worldvillage.com
By using ads without background color or borders, your ads seamlessly integrate with your content.
Keep in mind that blue text links seem to perform best for Google Adsense. Blue is the assumed color of links on the Internet. Therefore, our pyschie expects links to be in blue.
However, you may want to rotate your colors every once in a while to spice things up. This way, your visitors don't get used to your ads, which can cause banner-blindness.
Ad Placement
Just like in real estate, location is the key to success with Adsense. Fortunately, Google provides us with a heat map, showing the best spots for ads.
One of the best places for your Adsense ads are at the top-left of the page. Because people are used to seeing navigation on the left side of the page, the eye naturally gravitates to this section of your web site.
Many studies have been performed to see how the eye travels across a web page. You can see a demonstration at EyeTrack III. Knowing how people view your web site will help immensely when optimizing the placement of your ads.
In addition, you should also place your Adsense ads next to rich content and navigation elements. These ads often do well because users are focused on those areas of a page. You can see examples of this at EzineArticles.com and Lockergnome.com.
As you can see, these sites have placed their adsense ads next to search boxes and navigation links.
Keep in mind that you shouldn't change the layout of your site to fit the ads, but rather use the ad formats that best fit with your site layout.
Images
Many publishers have started using images around their ads. As a result, many of them have doubled their revenues.
One of the most successful implementations of this techniques is to use the 728×90 leaderboard with 4 thumbnail-sized images above each ad. You can see some good examples at:
sg-GodDrawAPig
Read more...
Which was some of my failings, sad to say, when I was a newbie. As a matter of fact, I remember saying, "What the heck is Google Adsense?" But hey, that was just newbie ignorance speaking – be open to everything that is legit, and if your site is compatible with Google Adsense use it, it can help you make a little extra money on the side.
However, I would like to say that you should look at the samples given, to get an idea of how the ads should be placed on a site, and remember, each site is unique. Unique – is such a small word, with a lot of headaches. Maybe some of your webpages are not compatible with Google Adsense, or your ads cannot be placed in the same place as the samples given in the article below, or maybe the ad size just doesn’t fit the scheme of your site.
Well, what I am telling you is, get armed with information, know the rules, and (sigh) experiment. When I first started on the Internet, I would keep changing my website – my husband kept telling me not to change my website all the time, but you know, I was a newbie in training. Okay, maybe obsessed, but I’m getting where I need to be, I don’t have to change things as much now, but I’m always learning, because things ‘keep a changing’.
There is really a lot to absorb in this article and a lot to learn. So, you would be wise to bookmark some of the websites the author directs you to, to read later. They are informative and helpful. I found the Eyetrack III article rather interesting, since it gives you a quick rundown on human behavior and the printed webpage, as well as, gives you an idea how a human eye moves over a page -- in web design, and in ad placement it is very important.
Cracking the
Google Adsense Code
By Kim Roach (c) 2006
Google Adsense has empowered web publishers of all shapes and sizes to make monëy from their web sites. Whether you own a hobby site that gets 100 visitors per day or a popular finance portal that is flooded with millíons of visitors per month, you can benefit from the Google Adsense program.
Simply sign up for a free account, grab your Adsense code and paste it up on your website. Well, it sounds good anyway. In reality, that's not the whole story. Maximizing your adsense earnings requires a little more care.
Fortunately, you can quickly increase your earnings by reading every word of this article. I will cover the basic necessities and also reveal advanced tips that you won't find on every digital corner. So, if you're looking to put more monëy in your pocket with a few tweaks of code, I urge you to read on.
As you are reading, keep in mind that Google is actually one of the best resources for finding information on Adsense optimization. Think it's hard to believe that Google would give good advice? Well, it makes sense when you think about it. The more you make as a publisher, the more they will make. Google has a big incentive to help you perform well. Not to mention, they have tons of data to research what works best.
So, for much of my research, I took quite a few tips from Google. But don't worry, there are also some advanced tips here that Google will probably nevër reveal to you.
Most Effective Ad Formats
In general, wider ad formats tend to outperform the taller ads. This is because the wider ads are much easier on the eye.
According to Google, the following ad formats result in the highest number of clíck-throughs:
336×280
300×250
160×600
Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com increased his revenues by 20 percent after placing the large rectangle (336×280) in the upper left corner, positioned within his articles.
Text links are another ad format that often work well. Using text link ads, you can create Adsense ads that blend in seamlessly with your navigation.
For an example of this, go to http://www.dealofday.com.
Tim Carter saw an 18 percent increase in his revenues after placing link units in the upper left corner under his site search bar.
Number of Ads
Multiple ad units can sometimes help optimize your perförmance. This is especially true for pages with lots of text, forums, and message boards.
However, it could possibly lower your revenues as well. When you show more ads, the ads that are placed lower on the page often have lower bid prices than the ones on top. Therefore, you must test the number of ads on a page to see what works best for you.
When using multiple ad units, make sure that the ad unit with the highest clíck-through rate appears first within your HTML code. This will ensure that your prime real estate is occupied by the highest paying ads. You can use CSS positioning to get your highest paying ads placed in the location with the highest CTR.
Colors
Ads that blend in with the colors of your site generate the highest clíck-through rates. In most cases, it is best to use the exact same color scheme for your ads that you use on your web site. To see some good examples of this, visit:
http://www.lockergnome.com
http://www.worldvillage.com
By using ads without background color or borders, your ads seamlessly integrate with your content.
Keep in mind that blue text links seem to perform best for Google Adsense. Blue is the assumed color of links on the Internet. Therefore, our pyschie expects links to be in blue.
However, you may want to rotate your colors every once in a while to spice things up. This way, your visitors don't get used to your ads, which can cause banner-blindness.
Ad Placement
Just like in real estate, location is the key to success with Adsense. Fortunately, Google provides us with a heat map, showing the best spots for ads.
One of the best places for your Adsense ads are at the top-left of the page. Because people are used to seeing navigation on the left side of the page, the eye naturally gravitates to this section of your web site.
Many studies have been performed to see how the eye travels across a web page. You can see a demonstration at EyeTrack III. Knowing how people view your web site will help immensely when optimizing the placement of your ads.
In addition, you should also place your Adsense ads next to rich content and navigation elements. These ads often do well because users are focused on those areas of a page. You can see examples of this at EzineArticles.com and Lockergnome.com.
As you can see, these sites have placed their adsense ads next to search boxes and navigation links.
Keep in mind that you shouldn't change the layout of your site to fit the ads, but rather use the ad formats that best fit with your site layout.
Images
Many publishers have started using images around their ads. As a result, many of them have doubled their revenues.
One of the most successful implementations of this techniques is to use the 728×90 leaderboard with 4 thumbnail-sized images above each ad. You can see some good examples at:
sg-GodDrawAPig
Of course, you can't use images of blinking arrows because this would be enticing visitors to clíck. However, it is perfectly acceptable to place related pictures beside your ads.
For example, if you have a page about laptops, you could place a leaderboard with 4 laptop images above each ad. In this way, you are using images to complete the story.
In fact, Google is currently testing an ad format that would blend images together with related text ads. It seems that even Google thinks that images are a good idea to bring attention to ads. To see an example of the Google ads in beta, go to SearchEngineJournal.com
Forums
If you have a forum, I hope you are monetizing it with Adsense. Many people include Adsense within their web site, but when it comes to their forum, they simply let the ball drop. Forums can definitely be an extra source of income when optimized properly.
To find out about the best placement for Adsense within forums, I went to Google for some advice. To my surprise, they also have a heat map for forums.
One of the best ways to monetize your forum is to place Adsense directly within the threads. To see an example of this, go to Digital Point Forums. Google advises that you place a skyscraper above the fold on the left side of your forum and they also suggest placing a leaderboard directly below the top navigation and below the first post.
If you are looking for additional ad space, you can place a horizontal link unit near the top of the forum, just below the header.
The next Adsense tactic is one that isn't talked about much. However, when used appropriately, it can be extremely powerful.
Newsletters
If you own a newsletter list, then you can easily leverage that list in order to earn more Adsense revenue. Whenever you send out your newsletter, simply link to an article on your site within the email. By doing this, you can draw people to your Adsense pages and easily increase your Adsense revenue.
This is one of the best things about building your own list. You are able to direct traffïc to any place at any time.
In the end, the key to increased revenues is testing. Not all sites are the same. You have to experiment to find out what works best for your particular site. What works for one site may not work for another. Only by testing can you find out which styles encourage your visitors to respond.
About The Author: Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim @ seo-news.com .
Read more...
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
What are the Google Bots and How Does it Affect Your Website?
I found this article on the different Google Bots to be very helpful. I like to know what the Google bots are doing and most importantly, how I can benefit from the Google Bots as a webmaster.
The Image Bots was of interest to me, I had decided to give images a try on my site. Well, the author was right, at least in my case, images did not produce the results I wanted. And last but not least, check out the code you should put in the robot texts to get quality ads from Google Adsense.
This is a great read -- "Today's Google Bots And What They Do" by Kim Roach.
Today's Google Bots and What They Do
By Kim Roach (c) 2006
Google currently indexes over 8 billion web pages. However, before these pages were placed in the index, they were each crawled by a special spider known as the GoogleBot. Unfortunately, many web masters do not know about the internal workings of this virtual robot.In fact, Google actually uses a number of spiders to crawl the Web. You can catch these spiders by examining your log files.
This article will attempt to reveal some of the most important Google spiders, their function, and how they affect you as a web master. We'll start with the well-known GoogleBot.
GoogleBot
Googlebot, as you probably know, is the search bot used by Google to scour the web for new pages. Googlebot has two versions, deepbot and freshbot. Deepbot is a deep crawler that tries to folow every link on the web and download as many pages as it can for the Google index. It also examines the internal structure of a site, giving a complete picture for the index.
Freshbot, on the other hand, is a newer bot that crawls the web looking for fresh content. The Google freshbot was implemented to take some of the pressure off of the GoogleBot. The freshbot recalls pages already in the index and then crawls them for new, modified, or updated pages. In this way, Google is better equipped to keep up with the ever-changing Web.
This means that the more you update your web site with new, quality content, the more the Googlebot will come by to chëck you out.
If you'd like to see the Googlebot crawling around your web property more often, you need to obtain quality inbound links. However, there is also one more step that you should take. If you haven't already done so, you should create a Google Sitemap for your site.
Creating a Google sitemap allows you to communicate with Google, telling them about your most important pages, new pages, and updated pages. In return, Google will provide you with some valuable information as well. Google Sitemaps will tell you about pages it was unable to crawl and links it was unable to follow. This allows you to pinpoint problems and fix them so that you can gain increased exposure in the search results.
The next Google bot in our lineup is known as the MediaBot.
MediaBot - used to analyze Adsense pages useragent: Mediapartners-Google
MediaBot is the Google crawler for Adsense Publishers. Mediabot is used to determine which ads Google should display on Adsense pages.
Google recommends that webmasters specifically add a command in their robots.txt file that grants Mediabot access to their entire site. To do this, simply enter the following code into your robots.txt file:
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Disallow:
This will ensure that the MediaBot is able to place relevant Adsense ads on your site.
Keep in mind that ads can still be shown on a page if the MediaBot has not yet visited. If that is the case, the ads chosen will be based on the overall theme of the other pages on the site. If no ads can be chosen, the dreaded public service announcements are displayed instead.
There is a strong debate over whether or not the MediaBot is giving websites with Adsense an advantage in the search engines.
Even Matt Cutts has confirmed that the Adsense Mediabot has indexed webpages for Google's main index.
He states, "Pages with AdSense will not be indexed more frequently. It's literally just a crawl cache, so if e.g. our news crawl fetched a page and then Googlebot wanted the same page, we'd retrieve the page from the crawl cache. But there's no boost at all in rankings if you're in AdSense or Google News. You don't get any more pages crawled either."
Matt Cutts claims that your website does not get any advantage by using Adsense. However, in my mind, simply getting your site updated in and of itself is an advantage.
This is very similar to Google Analytics, which also promotes a slightly higher degree of spider activity.
Those who run Google Analytics on their site can expect additional spider activity.
However, you certainly shouldn't depend on any of these tools for getting your site indexed. The key to frequent spidering is having quality inbound links, quality content, and frequent updates.
Have images on your site? If so, you have likely been visited by our next Google spider, the ImageBot.
ImageBot - used to crawl for the Image Searchuseragent: GoogleBot-Image
The Imagebot prowls the Web for images to place in Google's image search. Images are ranked based upon their filename, surrounding text, alt text, and page title.
If you have a website that is primarily image based, then you would definitely want to optimize your images to receive some extra Google traffïc.
On the other hand, some web sites may not benefit from Google image search. In most cases, the traffïc from the Image search engine is very low quality and rarely converts into buyers.
Many people are often just looking for images that they can swipe. So, if you want to save some bandwidth, use your robots.txt file to block ImageBot from accessing your image directory.
One of the few exceptions I would make is if you have a site dedicated to downloadable images.
Our final bot is completely dedicated to the Google Adwords program.
AdsBot - Checks Adwords landing pages for qualityuseragent: AdsBot-Google
AdsBot is one of Google's newest spiders. This new crawler is being used to analyze the content of advertising landing pages, which helps determine the Quality score that Google assigns to your ads.
Google uses this Quality score in combination with the amount you are willing to bid to determine the position of your ads. Therefore, ads with a high quality score can rank higher even if other advertisers are paying more than you.
This is one of Google's many efforts to ensure that they are delivering the best results to their users.
Can you still block being spidered? Of course, but it will lower your overall Adwords quality score, which could end up lowering the positioning of your ads. If possible, it is best to give AdsBot complete access to your site.
Today's Google bots are becoming more advanced all the time. However, nothing beats relevant, quality, updated content. Deliver that and the search engines will eat it up.
About The AuthorKim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim @ seo-news.com
Read more...
The Image Bots was of interest to me, I had decided to give images a try on my site. Well, the author was right, at least in my case, images did not produce the results I wanted. And last but not least, check out the code you should put in the robot texts to get quality ads from Google Adsense.
This is a great read -- "Today's Google Bots And What They Do" by Kim Roach.
Today's Google Bots and What They Do
By Kim Roach (c) 2006
Google currently indexes over 8 billion web pages. However, before these pages were placed in the index, they were each crawled by a special spider known as the GoogleBot. Unfortunately, many web masters do not know about the internal workings of this virtual robot.In fact, Google actually uses a number of spiders to crawl the Web. You can catch these spiders by examining your log files.
This article will attempt to reveal some of the most important Google spiders, their function, and how they affect you as a web master. We'll start with the well-known GoogleBot.
GoogleBot
Googlebot, as you probably know, is the search bot used by Google to scour the web for new pages. Googlebot has two versions, deepbot and freshbot. Deepbot is a deep crawler that tries to folow every link on the web and download as many pages as it can for the Google index. It also examines the internal structure of a site, giving a complete picture for the index.
Freshbot, on the other hand, is a newer bot that crawls the web looking for fresh content. The Google freshbot was implemented to take some of the pressure off of the GoogleBot. The freshbot recalls pages already in the index and then crawls them for new, modified, or updated pages. In this way, Google is better equipped to keep up with the ever-changing Web.
This means that the more you update your web site with new, quality content, the more the Googlebot will come by to chëck you out.
If you'd like to see the Googlebot crawling around your web property more often, you need to obtain quality inbound links. However, there is also one more step that you should take. If you haven't already done so, you should create a Google Sitemap for your site.
Creating a Google sitemap allows you to communicate with Google, telling them about your most important pages, new pages, and updated pages. In return, Google will provide you with some valuable information as well. Google Sitemaps will tell you about pages it was unable to crawl and links it was unable to follow. This allows you to pinpoint problems and fix them so that you can gain increased exposure in the search results.
The next Google bot in our lineup is known as the MediaBot.
MediaBot - used to analyze Adsense pages useragent: Mediapartners-Google
MediaBot is the Google crawler for Adsense Publishers. Mediabot is used to determine which ads Google should display on Adsense pages.
Google recommends that webmasters specifically add a command in their robots.txt file that grants Mediabot access to their entire site. To do this, simply enter the following code into your robots.txt file:
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Disallow:
This will ensure that the MediaBot is able to place relevant Adsense ads on your site.
Keep in mind that ads can still be shown on a page if the MediaBot has not yet visited. If that is the case, the ads chosen will be based on the overall theme of the other pages on the site. If no ads can be chosen, the dreaded public service announcements are displayed instead.
There is a strong debate over whether or not the MediaBot is giving websites with Adsense an advantage in the search engines.
Even Matt Cutts has confirmed that the Adsense Mediabot has indexed webpages for Google's main index.
He states, "Pages with AdSense will not be indexed more frequently. It's literally just a crawl cache, so if e.g. our news crawl fetched a page and then Googlebot wanted the same page, we'd retrieve the page from the crawl cache. But there's no boost at all in rankings if you're in AdSense or Google News. You don't get any more pages crawled either."
Matt Cutts claims that your website does not get any advantage by using Adsense. However, in my mind, simply getting your site updated in and of itself is an advantage.
This is very similar to Google Analytics, which also promotes a slightly higher degree of spider activity.
Those who run Google Analytics on their site can expect additional spider activity.
However, you certainly shouldn't depend on any of these tools for getting your site indexed. The key to frequent spidering is having quality inbound links, quality content, and frequent updates.
Have images on your site? If so, you have likely been visited by our next Google spider, the ImageBot.
ImageBot - used to crawl for the Image Searchuseragent: GoogleBot-Image
The Imagebot prowls the Web for images to place in Google's image search. Images are ranked based upon their filename, surrounding text, alt text, and page title.
If you have a website that is primarily image based, then you would definitely want to optimize your images to receive some extra Google traffïc.
On the other hand, some web sites may not benefit from Google image search. In most cases, the traffïc from the Image search engine is very low quality and rarely converts into buyers.
Many people are often just looking for images that they can swipe. So, if you want to save some bandwidth, use your robots.txt file to block ImageBot from accessing your image directory.
One of the few exceptions I would make is if you have a site dedicated to downloadable images.
Our final bot is completely dedicated to the Google Adwords program.
AdsBot - Checks Adwords landing pages for qualityuseragent: AdsBot-Google
AdsBot is one of Google's newest spiders. This new crawler is being used to analyze the content of advertising landing pages, which helps determine the Quality score that Google assigns to your ads.
Google uses this Quality score in combination with the amount you are willing to bid to determine the position of your ads. Therefore, ads with a high quality score can rank higher even if other advertisers are paying more than you.
This is one of Google's many efforts to ensure that they are delivering the best results to their users.
Can you still block being spidered? Of course, but it will lower your overall Adwords quality score, which could end up lowering the positioning of your ads. If possible, it is best to give AdsBot complete access to your site.
Today's Google bots are becoming more advanced all the time. However, nothing beats relevant, quality, updated content. Deliver that and the search engines will eat it up.
About The AuthorKim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews and SEO-News newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim @ seo-news.com
Read more...
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