AdSense often easier than affiliate programs
Google's AdSense is a superb revenue generating opportunity for small, medium and large web sites.
Some webmasters are designing brand new sites specifically for serving AdSense text ads. (It's against the AdSense rules to design a site purely for AdSense, so you'll want to include a few affiliate links or sell your own product, too.)
Here's the background info:
AdSense overview
AdSense FAQ
AdSense tech FAQ
AdSense policies
AdSense allows you to serve text-based Google AdWords on your web site and receive a share of the pay-per-click payment. AdSense ads are similar to the AdWords ads you see on the right-hand side at Google when you do a search there.
AdSense is having a huge impact on the affiliate marketing industry. It's often much easier to generate revenue from AdSense than from an affiliate program.
Weak affiliate merchants will die faster than ever.
If you're a merchant running a lousy affiliate program, now's the time to improve it FAST.
AdSense's advantages
AdSense is simple to join.
It's easy to paste a bit of code into your pages.
It's free to join.
You don't have to spend time finding advertisers.
Google provides well written, highly relevant ads - chosen to closely match the content on your pages.
You don't have to waste time choosing different ads for different pages.
You don't have to mess around with different code for various affiliate programs.
You're free to concentrate on providing good content and Google does the work of finding the best ads for your pages from 100,000 AdWords advertisers.
It's suitable for beginners or marketing veterans.
AdSense provides simple, easy-to-understand stats.
If you have affiliate links on your site, you ARE allowed to add AdSense ads. However, with your affiliate links, you must not mimic the look and feel of the Google ads.
You can filter up to 200 URLs, so you can block ads for sites that don't meet your standards. You can also block strong competitors.
Inevitably, AdSense is competing strongly for space on web sites with all other revenue sharing opportunities.
If you own a small web site you can plug a bit of AdSense code into your site and almost instantly relevant text ads that are likely to appeal to your visitors will appear on your pages.
If you own several sites, you need apply only once. This makes AdSense much simpler than joining a bunch of affiliate programs.
As you can see, I'm really keen on this revenue sharing service
Disadvantages
One problem is inappropriate ads. You don't want spammy junk advertised on your site. Google's standards probably aren't as high as yours. You can filter out 200 URLs, but in some industries that won't be enough.
The stats Google supplies are inadequate. They're easy to understand at a glance. However, they don't tell you exactly which ads people are clicking on, or which keywords are involved. That's frustrating.
Also, I'd like to be able to identify and block ads that have very low payout rates, without doing a lot of sleuthing and messing around.
The ad panels say "Ads by Google" - free advertising for Google. You don't earn anything if someone clicks on that link.
The minimum payout is $100, which is regarded as too high by sites which don't receive much traffic. That won't worry experienced webmasters.
Also, sites that want to display AdSense ads may not include "other content-targeted and/or text-based ads on the pages displaying AdWords ads." However, human beings review the sites. Rejected sites have been able to appeal successfully.
Another disadvantage is that Google doesn't allow you to share your stats with other webmasters. The AdSense Terms and Conditions say:
"Confidentiality. You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google's prior written consent. 'Google Confidential Information' includes without limitation: ... (b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to you by Google..."
That's really weird. Web site owners need to be able to share such information and discuss successes and failures.
A big disadvantage of the service is that Google doesn't say how much its AdSense partners will receive. You'll just receive an unknown share of the revenue.
Only a company with the goodwill and respect Google has earned could get away with such a cheeky offer.
Google says:
"How much will I earn through this program? The AdWords ads you are able to display on your content pages are cost-per-click (CPC) ads. This means that advertisers pay only when users click on ads. You'll receive a portion of the amount paid for clicks on AdWords ads on your website. Although we don't disclose the exact revenue share, our goal is to enable publishers to make as much or more than they could with other advertising networks."
So the only way to know how much you'll earn is to try it and see. If you want to bail out, all you have to do is remove the code from your site.
Don't put all your eggs in the AdSense basket. If Google discovers fraudulent clicks on ads appearing on your pages, it can dump your site from the service, and refuse to pay you all revenue owed. Some webmasters who claim total innocence have had this happen to them.
Google has made several changes to its AdSense FAQ, clarifying varying things. For example, it IS possible to apply for separate accounts for separate web sites. I've done so, and checked with Google that it's OK in my case. Read the rules - they look ambiguous to me. If in doubt, ask first!
Some time after the launch of AdSense, Google added "channels" which improve the tracking. I strongly recommend that you experiment with these.
Sites with "excessive advertising" are being rejected.
PLEASE read the rules and FAQ. When I looked, some advice in the rules contradicted advice in the FAQ. If in any doubt, ask their support staff. They're very
Monday, January 18, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Making Money from Your Website with Google AdSense
Google AdSense is the Google program where you can host pay-per-click ads on your Website. When someone clicks an ad, you earn money. Simple as that.
Is it really as easy to make money with Google AdSense as many would lead you to believe? Now that I've become heavily involved with managing Google AdSense programs for my clients, I can see it's not all play and no work.
Unfortunately, a lot of people bought into the idea that there was a lot of easy money to be made and they are now finding out they aren't making nearly as much as they thought they would. Additionally, Google has a lot of prohibited practices when it comes to AdSense, and too many Webmasters are finding out they violated Google's policies after the fact - often because they never bothered to read the AdSense policies in the first place.
Webmasters must not only comply with AdSense policies, but their Websites must also comply with Google's webmaster policies.
Prerequisites for Making Money with AdSense
To make money with Google AdSense you need plenty of traffic coming in to your site or there won't be anyone to click the ads. Website promotion techniques, especially search engine optimization and article marketing will bring more traffic to your site. You also need to have content that will attract the ads with the highest Pay Per Click (PPC) rate that are relevant to that content. Then, you need to lay out your web pages so the ads blend in with your site. Studies have revealed that people who visit sites that contain ads that use colors that are not in harmony with the actual Web site tend to develop "ad blindness". Meaning no matter how much traffic comes into your site, chances are no one will click the ads because they'll be ignoring them. If no one clicks, you make nothing.
Is it really as easy to make money with Google AdSense as many would lead you to believe? Now that I've become heavily involved with managing Google AdSense programs for my clients, I can see it's not all play and no work.
Unfortunately, a lot of people bought into the idea that there was a lot of easy money to be made and they are now finding out they aren't making nearly as much as they thought they would. Additionally, Google has a lot of prohibited practices when it comes to AdSense, and too many Webmasters are finding out they violated Google's policies after the fact - often because they never bothered to read the AdSense policies in the first place.
Webmasters must not only comply with AdSense policies, but their Websites must also comply with Google's webmaster policies.
Prerequisites for Making Money with AdSense
To make money with Google AdSense you need plenty of traffic coming in to your site or there won't be anyone to click the ads. Website promotion techniques, especially search engine optimization and article marketing will bring more traffic to your site. You also need to have content that will attract the ads with the highest Pay Per Click (PPC) rate that are relevant to that content. Then, you need to lay out your web pages so the ads blend in with your site. Studies have revealed that people who visit sites that contain ads that use colors that are not in harmony with the actual Web site tend to develop "ad blindness". Meaning no matter how much traffic comes into your site, chances are no one will click the ads because they'll be ignoring them. If no one clicks, you make nothing.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Making Real Money With Google AdSense
There are many Make Money Fast (MMF) websites out there that tell you it's possible to,
well, you know, do just that; make money fast. However, did you know that although some owners of these MMF systems have made a total revenue between $300,000 and $500,000, they're likely to be the same ones that turn up missing later on down the road, on the run with hundreds of thousands of consumer dollars? A dangerous situation to find yourself in.
So why do people do it?
I'll tell you why. It's because of greed and lack of integrity. Then again, it could just be because certain individuals in particular are in a tight financial situation and essentially need to find a way to make a little bit of extra cash fast to pay off their bills for the month. Believe it or not, there are indeed legit reasons why people seek out MMF websites.
But why risk yourself being in a situation where you end up being part of the statistical count that contributed to those hundreds of thousands of dollars that are now at the disposal of the owner of a MMF chain, who presumably is nowhere to be found? Because there is actually a better and more proven way to make money through a company that has a lot of reputation and integrity on the Internet, called Google. That's why!
How It Works: Great, Just Another Referral Downline System Again No, not at all! What I'm about to show you has nothing to do with referrals, works solely based on an honor system, and is driven to success by the work you put into it. Although it is indeed the fastest way I've made real money on the Internet (well, aside from an online coding contractor I work for), you still have to work for it.
So here's how it works. Company A out there is just being started, and believes that they've found the answer to man's problems. They're 99.9% sure that their product will sell. So what do they do? They run to Google and pay them to list their business in featured search result listings. This maximizes Company A's exposure out on the web. Google will also list Company A's advertisements in what is called Google AdSense (textual advertising). These are usually content related text advertisements which webmasters and publishers place strategically on their website and are commonly recognized as "Ads by Google."
The webmasters and publishers that put forth Google AdSense on their websites are first approved for AdSense. Once a high volume of traffic starts flowing through their website, those AdSense banners start generating revenues as more and more clicks on the links are received. So if you haven't figured out by now, this is indeed a Pay Per Click (PPC) system.
How Much?: Expected Potential Earnings You're probably wanting to know right away how much you'll be earning. So I'll just give you a rough estimate of what to expect assuming all goes well with your website. If done properly, a single website can generate on average, revenues ranging between $200-$600 a month. Not bad, considering this is only for one website. I don't like jumping the gun too soon like this, but let's fast forward in time where this is indeed how much your website is making. Now what? Start up another site! This doubles your income over two streams of revenues, and with each making $200-$600 a month, you can see how things
can really add up!
Getting Started: Making The First Step Towards Success These first few steps are extremely critical so please pay attention to detail.
You will need a web hosting provider - Please, I urge you, don't settle for anything less than what you're capable of doing. Go the extra mile and actually subscribe to a cheap web hosting provider. The one currently hosting The Article Project is SurfSpeedy.com on a redundant Cisco network and OC-48 SONET rings. In other words, 99.9999% uptime. I'm currently getting all the server side scripting I need, a secure hosting system, fast network, 1000MB of hosting space, and delegation for my domain, along with tons of other features I'll probably never use during the life of the account. How much am I paying for all this? Less than $5.00 a month! Once you have a place to serve up your website, start looking into registering a domain name - Try to aim for something that you and your visitors can remember off the top of their head if they were to look at it once and almost forget about it. If your website is about "How To Use The Internet," see if www.usingtheinternet.com is available. When you've decided on a name, I'd recommend you go with iDotz.net and register a .com domain for less than $9.00 a year! The reason I'd recommend them is because they were the first ones I ran into that allowed you to pay via PayPal. Now put those two together, web hosting and a good domain name, and you're set to go! Create a plan for action and stick to it - I'll be honest with you upfront. Chances are, you may not reach your financial goal by the end of the first month. In fact, the excitment of being able to get your money's worth out of the work you put into your website, may turn into monotony and discouragement. But don't lose hope! You need to stick to what you've set out to do, keep your website up to date on the hour if necessary, and make sure your visitors have plenty to read!
Avoid rambling on about nothing and don't cheat - Google has perhaps the largest database in the world, full of website listings and search results. Chances are, if you mirror your website with another content saturated website that's been around for quite some time, and Google does one of their special keyword analysis trick on your website and finds out about it, your AdSense application will most likely be turned down for unauthentic content. Have an open mind and be creative with your writing. Shoot for about 25 solid web pages before you submit your Google AdSense application. Bottom line, give them something to talk about! You'll need it in the months to come! Begin formulating marketing thoughts - This is perhaps where the line between sanity, and spamity comes in that you'll end up approaching before too long. Some webmasters can't keep their cool and end up going off the deep end, spamming hundreds of innocent lives, and contaminating hundreds more of chat rooms and IRC channels. Don't do this! Play it smart and submit your website manual to search engines that provide the service for free. One great way to do this is to submit your site to The Open Directory Project at dmoz.org. It may take a few weeks, but your listing will eventually show up in Google as well. Also, sign up withTrafficSwarm.com and surf for unlimited free credits that can be redeemed for visitors. I've acquired over 2700 credits through TrafficSwarm. It took me a few days, but it saved me $40.00 of having to pay for just as many credits by simply surfing for a few days.
Stay on top of things - Keep yourself one step ahead of your visitors. For every 100 visitors (unique or not) that come, plan to write one more article or section of your website; make it a news item or something. Keep your website clean and neatly organized, don't let it end up looking like your brother's bedroom or closet a few months down the road from now. And if things begin to pick up with your website, set aside an email account and allow your visitors to send in their own articles or writings for you to publish. This in itself could be very rewarding because not only will your visitors end up generating your revenues, but they could also end up being your main supplier of articles to publish. The main point of discussion here, though, is to stay on top of things and keep up with the work. You'll eventually be glad you did later on down the line when you're short $200 on a down payment for a new Honda Civic.
Getting Finished: Bringing Your Website Before the Judges Okay, so this is the moment you've all been waiting for. Spit shine that last corner of your website and get ready to show it off. Then make your way over to http://www.google.com/adsense and send in your application. It will take a couple days for your application to be reviewed and accepted, if in the likely event that it is. Once you've been approved, login to your account and start generating your text advertisements, placing them neatly on your website. Then let the fun begin
well, you know, do just that; make money fast. However, did you know that although some owners of these MMF systems have made a total revenue between $300,000 and $500,000, they're likely to be the same ones that turn up missing later on down the road, on the run with hundreds of thousands of consumer dollars? A dangerous situation to find yourself in.
So why do people do it?
I'll tell you why. It's because of greed and lack of integrity. Then again, it could just be because certain individuals in particular are in a tight financial situation and essentially need to find a way to make a little bit of extra cash fast to pay off their bills for the month. Believe it or not, there are indeed legit reasons why people seek out MMF websites.
But why risk yourself being in a situation where you end up being part of the statistical count that contributed to those hundreds of thousands of dollars that are now at the disposal of the owner of a MMF chain, who presumably is nowhere to be found? Because there is actually a better and more proven way to make money through a company that has a lot of reputation and integrity on the Internet, called Google. That's why!
How It Works: Great, Just Another Referral Downline System Again No, not at all! What I'm about to show you has nothing to do with referrals, works solely based on an honor system, and is driven to success by the work you put into it. Although it is indeed the fastest way I've made real money on the Internet (well, aside from an online coding contractor I work for), you still have to work for it.
So here's how it works. Company A out there is just being started, and believes that they've found the answer to man's problems. They're 99.9% sure that their product will sell. So what do they do? They run to Google and pay them to list their business in featured search result listings. This maximizes Company A's exposure out on the web. Google will also list Company A's advertisements in what is called Google AdSense (textual advertising). These are usually content related text advertisements which webmasters and publishers place strategically on their website and are commonly recognized as "Ads by Google."
The webmasters and publishers that put forth Google AdSense on their websites are first approved for AdSense. Once a high volume of traffic starts flowing through their website, those AdSense banners start generating revenues as more and more clicks on the links are received. So if you haven't figured out by now, this is indeed a Pay Per Click (PPC) system.
How Much?: Expected Potential Earnings You're probably wanting to know right away how much you'll be earning. So I'll just give you a rough estimate of what to expect assuming all goes well with your website. If done properly, a single website can generate on average, revenues ranging between $200-$600 a month. Not bad, considering this is only for one website. I don't like jumping the gun too soon like this, but let's fast forward in time where this is indeed how much your website is making. Now what? Start up another site! This doubles your income over two streams of revenues, and with each making $200-$600 a month, you can see how things
can really add up!
Getting Started: Making The First Step Towards Success These first few steps are extremely critical so please pay attention to detail.
You will need a web hosting provider - Please, I urge you, don't settle for anything less than what you're capable of doing. Go the extra mile and actually subscribe to a cheap web hosting provider. The one currently hosting The Article Project is SurfSpeedy.com on a redundant Cisco network and OC-48 SONET rings. In other words, 99.9999% uptime. I'm currently getting all the server side scripting I need, a secure hosting system, fast network, 1000MB of hosting space, and delegation for my domain, along with tons of other features I'll probably never use during the life of the account. How much am I paying for all this? Less than $5.00 a month! Once you have a place to serve up your website, start looking into registering a domain name - Try to aim for something that you and your visitors can remember off the top of their head if they were to look at it once and almost forget about it. If your website is about "How To Use The Internet," see if www.usingtheinternet.com is available. When you've decided on a name, I'd recommend you go with iDotz.net and register a .com domain for less than $9.00 a year! The reason I'd recommend them is because they were the first ones I ran into that allowed you to pay via PayPal. Now put those two together, web hosting and a good domain name, and you're set to go! Create a plan for action and stick to it - I'll be honest with you upfront. Chances are, you may not reach your financial goal by the end of the first month. In fact, the excitment of being able to get your money's worth out of the work you put into your website, may turn into monotony and discouragement. But don't lose hope! You need to stick to what you've set out to do, keep your website up to date on the hour if necessary, and make sure your visitors have plenty to read!
Avoid rambling on about nothing and don't cheat - Google has perhaps the largest database in the world, full of website listings and search results. Chances are, if you mirror your website with another content saturated website that's been around for quite some time, and Google does one of their special keyword analysis trick on your website and finds out about it, your AdSense application will most likely be turned down for unauthentic content. Have an open mind and be creative with your writing. Shoot for about 25 solid web pages before you submit your Google AdSense application. Bottom line, give them something to talk about! You'll need it in the months to come! Begin formulating marketing thoughts - This is perhaps where the line between sanity, and spamity comes in that you'll end up approaching before too long. Some webmasters can't keep their cool and end up going off the deep end, spamming hundreds of innocent lives, and contaminating hundreds more of chat rooms and IRC channels. Don't do this! Play it smart and submit your website manual to search engines that provide the service for free. One great way to do this is to submit your site to The Open Directory Project at dmoz.org. It may take a few weeks, but your listing will eventually show up in Google as well. Also, sign up withTrafficSwarm.com and surf for unlimited free credits that can be redeemed for visitors. I've acquired over 2700 credits through TrafficSwarm. It took me a few days, but it saved me $40.00 of having to pay for just as many credits by simply surfing for a few days.
Stay on top of things - Keep yourself one step ahead of your visitors. For every 100 visitors (unique or not) that come, plan to write one more article or section of your website; make it a news item or something. Keep your website clean and neatly organized, don't let it end up looking like your brother's bedroom or closet a few months down the road from now. And if things begin to pick up with your website, set aside an email account and allow your visitors to send in their own articles or writings for you to publish. This in itself could be very rewarding because not only will your visitors end up generating your revenues, but they could also end up being your main supplier of articles to publish. The main point of discussion here, though, is to stay on top of things and keep up with the work. You'll eventually be glad you did later on down the line when you're short $200 on a down payment for a new Honda Civic.
Getting Finished: Bringing Your Website Before the Judges Okay, so this is the moment you've all been waiting for. Spit shine that last corner of your website and get ready to show it off. Then make your way over to http://www.google.com/adsense and send in your application. It will take a couple days for your application to be reviewed and accepted, if in the likely event that it is. Once you've been approved, login to your account and start generating your text advertisements, placing them neatly on your website. Then let the fun begin
Monday, January 11, 2010
5 Ways How I Boosted My Google AdSense Earnings By
Google AdSense is a great way for webmasters to monetize their websites. While many webmasters are struggling hard to earn $3 - $10 per day, some 'genius' webmasters have
already enjoyed $30, $100, and even $300 a day from AdSense ads on their websites. How are these 'genius' webmasters differ from their counterparts? They think different! They think out of the box!
Let me share with you some tips which has been responsible in boosting my AdSense profits by 700%. Here are 5 of them, and if you follow these steps, I'm sure you'll see a difference in your AdSense income.
Here are the tips:
I concentrate on 1 format of AdSense ad, which is the Large Rectangle (336x280). This format has been proven to work with me in resulting high click-through rates (CTR).
Why this format? Because the ads look like normal web links, and people are trained to click on these types of links.
I create custom palette for my ads. I choose white as the color for the border and background. This is because, all of my pages have white background. The idea is to make
the AdSense ads look like they are a part of my web pages.Previously, I put all my AdSense ads at the bottom of my pages. One day, I moved those ads to the top of the page. The result surprised me. My earning increased! Since then, I don't hide my AdSense ads anymore!
I maintain some links to other relevant websites, and I put my AdSense ads at the top of the links, so that my visitors see them first.
I automate the insertion of AdSense code into my webpages using SSI (server side included). You'll need to ask your web administrator whether your server supports SSI
or not. Here's how to do it. You just put the AdSense code in a text file, save it as 'adsense.txt', and upload it to the root directory of your web server. Next, call the code
on other pages using SSI.
This trick is really a time saver especially for those who use automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.
Here's a tool I use to generate thousands of pages on my website within seconds:
http://www.adsense-insider-secrets.com/page-generator.htm
already enjoyed $30, $100, and even $300 a day from AdSense ads on their websites. How are these 'genius' webmasters differ from their counterparts? They think different! They think out of the box!
Let me share with you some tips which has been responsible in boosting my AdSense profits by 700%. Here are 5 of them, and if you follow these steps, I'm sure you'll see a difference in your AdSense income.
Here are the tips:
I concentrate on 1 format of AdSense ad, which is the Large Rectangle (336x280). This format has been proven to work with me in resulting high click-through rates (CTR).
Why this format? Because the ads look like normal web links, and people are trained to click on these types of links.
I create custom palette for my ads. I choose white as the color for the border and background. This is because, all of my pages have white background. The idea is to make
the AdSense ads look like they are a part of my web pages.Previously, I put all my AdSense ads at the bottom of my pages. One day, I moved those ads to the top of the page. The result surprised me. My earning increased! Since then, I don't hide my AdSense ads anymore!
I maintain some links to other relevant websites, and I put my AdSense ads at the top of the links, so that my visitors see them first.
I automate the insertion of AdSense code into my webpages using SSI (server side included). You'll need to ask your web administrator whether your server supports SSI
or not. Here's how to do it. You just put the AdSense code in a text file, save it as 'adsense.txt', and upload it to the root directory of your web server. Next, call the code
on other pages using SSI.
This trick is really a time saver especially for those who use automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.
Here's a tool I use to generate thousands of pages on my website within seconds:
http://www.adsense-insider-secrets.com/page-generator.htm
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Want Higher Adsense Earnings? Then Optimize Site
Webmasters know that Adsense generates a sizeable source of additional advertising
income. That’s why they’re using it to go after the “high paying keywords.” They’ve
bought the lists that tell them what these keywords are and they’ve used various other
methods of identifying them. And yet, after putting up these “high paying” pages on their
websites, the advertising money they expected to see isn’t rolling in. What’s wrong?
Well, having those pages is one thing. But driving visitors to those pages is an entirely
different thing and is often what’s lacking. To get visitors to your high paying keyword
pages, you’ve got to optimize site navigation.
Take a moment to think about how visitors use your website. After landing on a certain
page, they’ll often click to another page that sounds interesting. They get there by way of
the other links that appear on the page they landed on. How you enable visitors to move
about your website is what is meant by the term, “Site Navigation.”
A typical website has a menu of links on each page. The wording on these links is what
grabs a visitor’s attention and gets them to click on one of the links that will take them to
another page of your website. Links labeled “Free Resources” or “Download ebooks” are
generally good attention-grabbers.
This same site navigation logic applies to driving traffic to your high paying pages. I have
some pages on my website that get a lot of traffic from search engines, but the earnings
on these pages are very low. I use cleverly-labeled links to get visitors off these pages
and onto my higher earning pages. It’s a great and inexpensive way to turn cheap clicks
into real dollars.
Ready, Set, Test
Before you begin testing, you’ve got to have two things: something to track and
compare; and some high earning pages you want to funnel your site traffic to. For fast
results, select a few of your highly visited pages.
Next think of ways to get visitors viewing a particular page to click on a link to one of
your high earning pages. That’ll help you come up with a catchy description for the link.
And remember, you can use graphics to grab your visitors’ attention. Be creative!
And remember, it’s all about location, location, location. Once you’ve come up with the
attention-grabbing description, you’ve got to identify the perfect spot on your page for
positioning the descriptive link to your high paying page.
Spend some time visiting other websites to see how they’re maximizing site navigation.
For example, using a “Hot Pages” list or a “Most Read Articles” list are common menu
selections.
Then let the testing begin. Try putting different text on different pages. That way you’ll
get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. Mix things up a bit – put links on the top of
the page and the bottom.
It’s now all a matter of testing and tracking, and testing and tracking until you find the
site navigation setup that works best
income. That’s why they’re using it to go after the “high paying keywords.” They’ve
bought the lists that tell them what these keywords are and they’ve used various other
methods of identifying them. And yet, after putting up these “high paying” pages on their
websites, the advertising money they expected to see isn’t rolling in. What’s wrong?
Well, having those pages is one thing. But driving visitors to those pages is an entirely
different thing and is often what’s lacking. To get visitors to your high paying keyword
pages, you’ve got to optimize site navigation.
Take a moment to think about how visitors use your website. After landing on a certain
page, they’ll often click to another page that sounds interesting. They get there by way of
the other links that appear on the page they landed on. How you enable visitors to move
about your website is what is meant by the term, “Site Navigation.”
A typical website has a menu of links on each page. The wording on these links is what
grabs a visitor’s attention and gets them to click on one of the links that will take them to
another page of your website. Links labeled “Free Resources” or “Download ebooks” are
generally good attention-grabbers.
This same site navigation logic applies to driving traffic to your high paying pages. I have
some pages on my website that get a lot of traffic from search engines, but the earnings
on these pages are very low. I use cleverly-labeled links to get visitors off these pages
and onto my higher earning pages. It’s a great and inexpensive way to turn cheap clicks
into real dollars.
Ready, Set, Test
Before you begin testing, you’ve got to have two things: something to track and
compare; and some high earning pages you want to funnel your site traffic to. For fast
results, select a few of your highly visited pages.
Next think of ways to get visitors viewing a particular page to click on a link to one of
your high earning pages. That’ll help you come up with a catchy description for the link.
And remember, you can use graphics to grab your visitors’ attention. Be creative!
And remember, it’s all about location, location, location. Once you’ve come up with the
attention-grabbing description, you’ve got to identify the perfect spot on your page for
positioning the descriptive link to your high paying page.
Spend some time visiting other websites to see how they’re maximizing site navigation.
For example, using a “Hot Pages” list or a “Most Read Articles” list are common menu
selections.
Then let the testing begin. Try putting different text on different pages. That way you’ll
get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. Mix things up a bit – put links on the top of
the page and the bottom.
It’s now all a matter of testing and tracking, and testing and tracking until you find the
site navigation setup that works best
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
AdSense Stats and Performance 101
As more and more people are getting into the AdSense game, there seem to be many questions asked again and again by the newcomers. Here, I have compiled detailed explanations to some common AdSense terms, facts, and performance tips.
Terminology
Real Stats (Figures based on actual performance tracking updated several times
a day)
Page Impressions: The number of times an ad unit (a collection of 1 to 4 ads). If you have two ad units on a page, then every time the page loads you get two page impressions. Page Impressions DO include PSA (Public Service Ads) and Alternate Ads.
Clicks: The number of times someone clicks on an ad. Clicks on PSA will be included in this stat as well.
Earnings: Money you’ve made.
Derived Stats (Figures calculated from the real stats)
Clickthrough Rate: Clicks/Page Impressions. It is expressed as a percentage.
Effective CPM:. Earnings per thousand page impressions. Calculated by 1000 X Earnings / Page Impressions
EPC: Your EPC is not displayed because it does not really matter. EPC stands for Earnings Per Click (Earnings/Clicks) and is frequently talked about.
Facts (What we've discovered)
Stats Update Frequency/Delay: Although AdSense stats usually updates every couple hours, you don’t need to panic at all if you see no change in your stats for over 12 hours. Even if other webmasters are seeing normal updates.
Don’t worry about anomalies in your stats during the course of the day. These are not accurate. There could be delays in the update due to one reason or another. Only when you see figures for a new day can you know that the figures for the previous day are not going to change any more.
Sometimes the stats are carried forward several days. This happens when Google decides to freeze your clicks and earnings for fraud checking/tracking purposes or server delays. Thus, you may notice your earnings/clicks shoot straight up when you least expect it. It is possible for your CTR to go up by as much as 10%.
The update on the different stats are not synchronized. For example, when you check your account, the page impressions may be freshed updated, while the clicks and earnings are from two hours ago. Thus, there may be a sharp drop/increase in the derived stats. Due to this, you don’t need to fret over all these little bumps.
Often delays in updates foreshadow changes to the AdSense program. For example, slow updates preceded introduction of channels, TOS changes, and addition of new languages.
Channels are a great way for you to track the performance of your ad on
a particular page/site. If you want to use the same code for all of your pages, you can also use the recently added URL channels. Of course, channel data are delayed by two days
Performance Tips-
EPC doesn’t matter! That is because you have absolutely no control over your EPC. Your EPC is influenced by many variables including your webpage content, advertiser’s budget, seasonal fluctuations and more. Thus, the productive thing to do is concentrate on the factors that you have control over such as CTR and page impressions.
How well am I doing?
Many of us probably wonder how we are doing compared to other AdSense users, including myself. However, we really can’t get a good sense of the average if Google doesn't disclose their figures, which they don’t. Since people doing well with AdSense generally don’t like to reveal their earnings due to the fear that they may be terminated by the program, any discussion about an average EPC/CTR/CPM is a waste of time
From various experiments by myself and other webmasters, we can conclude (at least for now) that using image/text ads instead of just text ads will dramatically decrease you CTR because of various reasons. (i.e. fewer advertisers, banner blindness etc.) However, the EPC is usually slightly higher.
Blend in or stand out? This is completely site dependent. Sometimes, people will never click on your ads unless you “trick” them into doing so, although this is not so good for long term. Other sites will require your ad to scream in your visitor’s face to get good clicks. Do some extensive testing to find out what’s good for your site.
Make good use of the URL filter feature. Blocking repetitive (eBay ads) or boring ads (free smilies) will definitely increase your CTR.
Large rectangles placed above the fold will often generate most revenue. However, this may not be a good long term solution since such and ad is usually obstrusive and have little aesthetic value.
If you run a forum site, you may notice that your earnings are very low. Here is a solution: use a simple cookie-based php script that only displays AdSense ads once every 10 page views -- essentially a counter counts down from 10 to 0 and on 0 displays an AdSense block. Between the AdSense ads, display regular banner ads. Although your AdSense page impressions may be down, you will notice your CTR skyrocketing, and a large increase in overall earnings
Terminology
Real Stats (Figures based on actual performance tracking updated several times
a day)
Page Impressions: The number of times an ad unit (a collection of 1 to 4 ads). If you have two ad units on a page, then every time the page loads you get two page impressions. Page Impressions DO include PSA (Public Service Ads) and Alternate Ads.
Clicks: The number of times someone clicks on an ad. Clicks on PSA will be included in this stat as well.
Earnings: Money you’ve made.
Derived Stats (Figures calculated from the real stats)
Clickthrough Rate: Clicks/Page Impressions. It is expressed as a percentage.
Effective CPM:. Earnings per thousand page impressions. Calculated by 1000 X Earnings / Page Impressions
EPC: Your EPC is not displayed because it does not really matter. EPC stands for Earnings Per Click (Earnings/Clicks) and is frequently talked about.
Facts (What we've discovered)
Stats Update Frequency/Delay: Although AdSense stats usually updates every couple hours, you don’t need to panic at all if you see no change in your stats for over 12 hours. Even if other webmasters are seeing normal updates.
Don’t worry about anomalies in your stats during the course of the day. These are not accurate. There could be delays in the update due to one reason or another. Only when you see figures for a new day can you know that the figures for the previous day are not going to change any more.
Sometimes the stats are carried forward several days. This happens when Google decides to freeze your clicks and earnings for fraud checking/tracking purposes or server delays. Thus, you may notice your earnings/clicks shoot straight up when you least expect it. It is possible for your CTR to go up by as much as 10%.
The update on the different stats are not synchronized. For example, when you check your account, the page impressions may be freshed updated, while the clicks and earnings are from two hours ago. Thus, there may be a sharp drop/increase in the derived stats. Due to this, you don’t need to fret over all these little bumps.
Often delays in updates foreshadow changes to the AdSense program. For example, slow updates preceded introduction of channels, TOS changes, and addition of new languages.
Channels are a great way for you to track the performance of your ad on
a particular page/site. If you want to use the same code for all of your pages, you can also use the recently added URL channels. Of course, channel data are delayed by two days
Performance Tips-
EPC doesn’t matter! That is because you have absolutely no control over your EPC. Your EPC is influenced by many variables including your webpage content, advertiser’s budget, seasonal fluctuations and more. Thus, the productive thing to do is concentrate on the factors that you have control over such as CTR and page impressions.
How well am I doing?
Many of us probably wonder how we are doing compared to other AdSense users, including myself. However, we really can’t get a good sense of the average if Google doesn't disclose their figures, which they don’t. Since people doing well with AdSense generally don’t like to reveal their earnings due to the fear that they may be terminated by the program, any discussion about an average EPC/CTR/CPM is a waste of time
From various experiments by myself and other webmasters, we can conclude (at least for now) that using image/text ads instead of just text ads will dramatically decrease you CTR because of various reasons. (i.e. fewer advertisers, banner blindness etc.) However, the EPC is usually slightly higher.
Blend in or stand out? This is completely site dependent. Sometimes, people will never click on your ads unless you “trick” them into doing so, although this is not so good for long term. Other sites will require your ad to scream in your visitor’s face to get good clicks. Do some extensive testing to find out what’s good for your site.
Make good use of the URL filter feature. Blocking repetitive (eBay ads) or boring ads (free smilies) will definitely increase your CTR.
Large rectangles placed above the fold will often generate most revenue. However, this may not be a good long term solution since such and ad is usually obstrusive and have little aesthetic value.
If you run a forum site, you may notice that your earnings are very low. Here is a solution: use a simple cookie-based php script that only displays AdSense ads once every 10 page views -- essentially a counter counts down from 10 to 0 and on 0 displays an AdSense block. Between the AdSense ads, display regular banner ads. Although your AdSense page impressions may be down, you will notice your CTR skyrocketing, and a large increase in overall earnings
Monday, January 4, 2010
5 Ways How I Boosted My Google AdSense Earnings By
Google AdSense is a great way for webmasters to monetize their websites. While many webmasters are struggling hard to earn $3 - $10 per day, some 'genius' webmasters have
already enjoyed $30, $100, and even $300 a day from AdSense ads on their websites. How are these 'genius' webmasters differ from their counterparts? They think different! They think out of the box!
Let me share with you some tips which has been responsible in boosting my AdSense profits by 700%. Here are 5 of them, and if you follow these steps, I'm sure you'll see a difference in your AdSense income.
Here are the tips:
I concentrate on 1 format of AdSense ad, which is the Large Rectangle (336x280). This format has been proven to work with me in resulting high click-through rates (CTR).
Why this format? Because the ads look like normal web links, and people are trained to click on these types of links.
I create custom palette for my ads. I choose white as the color for the border and background. This is because, all of my pages have white background. The idea is to make
the AdSense ads look like they are a part of my web pages.Previously, I put all my AdSense ads at the bottom of my pages. One day, I moved those ads to the top of the page. The result surprised me. My earning increased! Since then, I don't hide my AdSense ads anymore!
I maintain some links to other relevant websites, and I put my AdSense ads at the top of the links, so that my visitors see them first.
I automate the insertion of AdSense code into my webpages using SSI (server side included). You'll need to ask your web administrator whether your server supports SSI
or not. Here's how to do it. You just put the AdSense code in a text file, save it as 'adsense.txt', and upload it to the root directory of your web server. Next, call the code
on other pages using SSI.
This trick is really a time saver especially for those who use automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.
Here's a tool I use to generate thousands of pages on my website within seconds:
http://www.adsense-insider-secrets.com/page-generator.htm
already enjoyed $30, $100, and even $300 a day from AdSense ads on their websites. How are these 'genius' webmasters differ from their counterparts? They think different! They think out of the box!
Let me share with you some tips which has been responsible in boosting my AdSense profits by 700%. Here are 5 of them, and if you follow these steps, I'm sure you'll see a difference in your AdSense income.
Here are the tips:
I concentrate on 1 format of AdSense ad, which is the Large Rectangle (336x280). This format has been proven to work with me in resulting high click-through rates (CTR).
Why this format? Because the ads look like normal web links, and people are trained to click on these types of links.
I create custom palette for my ads. I choose white as the color for the border and background. This is because, all of my pages have white background. The idea is to make
the AdSense ads look like they are a part of my web pages.Previously, I put all my AdSense ads at the bottom of my pages. One day, I moved those ads to the top of the page. The result surprised me. My earning increased! Since then, I don't hide my AdSense ads anymore!
I maintain some links to other relevant websites, and I put my AdSense ads at the top of the links, so that my visitors see them first.
I automate the insertion of AdSense code into my webpages using SSI (server side included). You'll need to ask your web administrator whether your server supports SSI
or not. Here's how to do it. You just put the AdSense code in a text file, save it as 'adsense.txt', and upload it to the root directory of your web server. Next, call the code
on other pages using SSI.
This trick is really a time saver especially for those who use automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.
Here's a tool I use to generate thousands of pages on my website within seconds:
http://www.adsense-insider-secrets.com/page-generator.htm
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