09.19.2007 | 2:27 pm | AdSense, Beginners, Getting Started, Google, Income, PPC, SEO, Site Building, Tips
If you are really wanting to make money with Google AdSense I think there are a few things that are important for you know or do.
Of coarse as always these suggestions are only my opinion. Please make sure you test what works best for your site . I can only tell you what is working for me take ‘m or leave ‘m but I tell you this same info made a big difference with my online income increasing.
- First off the most important thing I can recommend is to read Google Adsense’s Terms of Service. This is an agreement made between you and Adsense when you joined. It tells you a lot of information on what you can and can’t do while the ads appear on your pages. Not only do I suggest reading it once I suggest reading it so many times you could recite it by heart. It’s that important. Breaking Google’s rules can get you banned for life and nothing is worth that!
- Never EVER click your ads There is NO reason that its ever ok to click your own ad. There are always other options!
- Certainly don’t ask others to click your ads. I found out that the clicks will happen naturally.
- Play around with your ads colors.
- Try blending your ads background with your pages background color Remove ad border I.E. Blend border color with your background too.
- Use the same text colors that you have within your page. Maybe a slightly darker or bolder color for the Subject.. maybe your pages content links color.. color coordination is very valuable.
- Although many have found the border improves their CTR as well as making ads stand out more different colors than the page. Try. Test. Try. test
- Text is your best friend. Use it as much as you can. I could never begin to stress this enough. Google AdSense ads are created by the text found on your page as well as search engines use text to include you in searches.
- Use your META Tags. Be descriptive about your page in your title tag. Use Meta tag for keywords and pick out the best keywords from your page Use descriptive alt tags for images.
- Keep adding the code to more and more pages in visible spots. Don’t be shy with them. Higher in the page and close to content is best.
- Don’t talk with others (friends,family ect) about your ads or that you are or not making any money with it ect.
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09.7.2007 | 11:58 am | Ad Networks, AuctionAds, Getting Started, Income
AuctionAds is the newest Ad program out there it has been noted as the most successful product launches of 2007. EBay gave them a developer award. And the network is growing by leaps and bounds with over 20,000 current members with as much as 200 new members daily. This affiliate program is H-O-T!
So what are you waiting for … Try AuctionAds on your site to see how it compares to your other sources of online revenue, such as AdSense or YPN.
If your still not sure here are some reasons why I think you should test out AuctionAds:
1. Some publishers have reported at various message boards that AuctionAds is making them double what they were earning with AdSense. AuctionAds is safe for to use along side the major ad networks so you won’t even have to remove any of your current advertising to add AuctionAds it will compliment what you are currently using. However, if you know what your doing you may want to swap out AdSense or YPN for AuctionAds at least partially!
2. The large inventory variety there are so many keywords with a lot of inventory. So it’s easy to find keywords to commpliment your sites niche. If you visit EBay and do searches you will be able to se inventory available. It’s that easy!
3. No PSAs! As default AuctionAds shows ads related to technology (think iPods and Xbox), so you don’t lose any revenue potential.
4. AuctionAds uses 30 day cookies so you will continue to earn on those eBay clicks for the next 30 days. I noticed a large increase in income 30-60 days after implimenting AuctionAds. and it even got better from there.
5. AuctionAds AuctionAds does have geotargeting, meaning you can earn money off your visitors when they click ads from outside the US… YPN still does not permit their ads being shown to non-US visitors.
6. Because AuctionAds uses standard ad unit sizes, you can easily replace AdSense or YPN ad units without having to change your layout, not to mention they will fit in all the standard places such as sidebars or underneath blog or forum entries. The can also be easily used as default ads to replace AdSense PSAs!
7. You can earn an affiliate commission of 5% for 6 months off new AuctionAds publishers when they click the “Ads by AuctionAds” link on any of your ad units. Again, neither AdSense nor YPN do this.
8. A majority of the ads they show have a picture, which has been found to increase your click through rate since your visitors will have a visual cue of what is being sold.
You have to keep in mind that AuctionAds is new and is growing very quickly so there may be a few growing pains involved. But I really think this ad network is worth it. I am awilling to stick with AuctionAds for a while as I have noted a good steam of revenue from the ad format and look forward to growing right along side of AuctionAds .
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08.20.2007 | 7:47 pm | AdSense, Google, Income, PPC, Statistics and Reports, Tips
Are you monetizing your website with Google AdSense? LOL
If you are you’re going to want to take a moment to set up alternate or default ads for your AdSense Ads. Alternate ads would be an ad that would replace the AdSense Ad when there are no available ads and instead a lovely PSA (Public Service Announcement) appears that when clicked will not result in any revenue for you (Example of a PSA RedCross.org). These ads, while helpful to communities and/or non for profit organizations, will instead lower your CTR (click through rate) as well as ePCM (Page View Value per 1000). I personally had no idea how simple it was to set up a default ad until fairly recently and wanted to take a moment to pass this valuable information on as it did increase my overall CTR and ePCM as well as created an additional source of revenue.
First, you will need an alternate advertiser and/or affiliate program. There are many to choose from like Chitika, Amazon ect. but I suggest a non contextual affiliate program since you are probably running more than one AdSense ad block on a page and you want to stay within the rules of the AdSense program.
Second, you will need to create a basic template page. You can use Note Pad or HTML-Kit or a similar text editor. You will need to make this page a .html, .shtml, .php or what ever page type you want. I prefer .php myself so I will create a page called google-default.php. I suggest keeping your HTML in this page simple but you will want to at least a 0 left margin in the BODY Tag.
Then in the BODY area of the page you place the code for your alternate affiliate source. Upload to your site in a location you can easily remember. You can use this text as your initial AdSense alternate ad HTML code if needed. (To save code : Right click the link and “Save Target As”)
Third, you will need to update your AdSense code. The best way to do this is to login to your AdSense account and visit the create code area. When updating ad settings for your pages ad you will need to place your default ads URL, or web address location at your site, in the box for the “Alternate Ad” and it will automatically ad the proper code. It will ad a line in the code that looks similar to this
google_alternate_ad_url = "http://mysite.com/google-default.php";
You will need to repeat this process for various sized ads so the alternate ad that appears is the same size as the original AdSense ad would be so the alternate ad will appear correctly on your page.
Origanilally posted (12-08-05) by me at another blog.
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08.6.2007 | 6:07 pm | Getting Started, Income, PPC, Site Building, Visitors
For those who already have a site with some content and maybe even some traffic too should begin testing and gathering information on what ad programs work best for your sites niche. I personally have tried several programs and find that many are not going to work on my site at all or maybe just made a small amount. But there are a few that make a moderate amount as well as even performs beyond my initial expectations.
Don’t disregard programs that don’t make a lot because each little bit helps and multiplied by thousands of visitors this can really add up. And keep in mind that some times if you spend time investigating and customising ads to work better with your site this will increase your revanue as well. I found it to be benificial to find a select few programs and become very literate in how the programs work and keep work with them until you find the best fit for your site.
There are so many differant programs out there that you can use to make money from your website. There is Pay-Per-Click, Contextual, Affiliate, Direct and several others. All these programs are waiting for you to make money from why not give it a try!
AuctionAds
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08.6.2007 | 4:37 pm | Getting Started, Income, Site Building, Visitors
In order to make an income online you are going to need people. So traffic or visitors to your website is going to be your main goal for quite a while. In order to gain visitors initially as well as earn their return visit you will need to have a site with quality content that is valuable to your visitors. This is very important as we all hate to end up at a site that runs you in circles and gives you little or none of the information you are looking for.
So make sure to take the time to do it right. While it is possible to make money quickly online I suspect that your goal as a work at home mother is more of a long term stable income, right? Well then you are going to need to put some thought, heart, time and a lot of work into this but I garantee if you do this you will be on your way to financial freedom.
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08.6.2007 | 4:10 pm | Blogs, Income
The newest craze for making money online is Blogging. Blogging is creating a way for many people to make a very decent income. Blogging for those who don’t know is for the most part a website with the owner of the site being a journalist on their topic of choice. This site is an example of my new blogging attempt. I am not really a blogger but I do however love to share what I learn. Blogging is a simple way for anyone to have a website.
Blogspot.com is a popular place for beginners to start a blog with little or no HTML knowledge. But to be honest with you I think for the long term you would be better off having your own domain right from the start. I feel that there are so many benifits to having your own domain that they outweigh any small quick income you get from a controled by someone else free blog.
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08.6.2007 | 3:59 pm | Getting Started, Income, Site Building
As I stated before in my last post I am a little ahead in the “Get Rich Quick Online” game. I already have a large content website running. To be honest I have several websites old and new live. The older ones are very beneficial as they can give boosts to the new sites being developed. With some time and effort you can do the same.
The first step in building a good content website is to find something you are passionate about, something you would like to spend a lot of time on. Your going to be doing this day in and day out so you are going to want to find something that is fun to you. I personally started a hobby site many years ago and it now makes almost 50% of my income. It certainly the site that started it all. In addition you will want to make sure you have knowledge on your niche or subject. This will be what makes you invaluable to your visitors in the long run.
Ideally you would want to have a product or service that you can start a subscriber base. Having many people paying monthly or yearly for your valuable service can really add up over a short period of time. Even if you do not have a service or product you feel you can market there are so many other options to explore that even the newest computer newbie can make money online
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08.3.2007 | 12:40 pm | Getting Started, Income, Site Building
I am an average mom. Ok. Well maybe I am slightly more than average. :o) The main differance between me and most other moms out there is that I am able to support my family 100% off of my online income. My children have never and will never have to be sent off to day care so that I can go to work outside the home. And in my opinion that really says it all. I am home with my family what could be better?
While I am already making a decent income online I am very motivated to continue in my quest to make more money. I love to learn and I love my websites and learning ways to improve my sites content in order to create a more enjoyable visit but also to increase the revanue the sites create.
I have started this blog to help document the things I learn and to pass this info on to others. Hopefully inspire you the way I have been inspired by others who I have looked to in the past.
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01.16.2006 | 10:57 pm | Getting Started, Income, Personal
I just had such a amazing weekend. I actually went on a mini vacation of sorts, the first without kids since having kids (my oldest will be 12 in 5 days). A rental car, a place you have never been (I had been to Boulder, Colorado but not to downtown Denver) before (12 years ago), a nice hotel (Adam’s Mark) room, my best friend, and 40 short hours. Yep, sounds like a mini vacation to me. Sure did wonders for my spirit!
Ok, what did I do?
You will never believe me… maybe you will there are pictures.
My friend and I drove from Salt Lake City, Utah to Denver, Colorado to go to last Saturday’s Denver Broncos and New England Patriots ACF divisional playoff game at Invesco Field at Mile High. Not only was this was my very first Bronco Live game it was my very first NFL Football game, and it was a playoff game against the reigning Super Bowl Champions New England Patriots too.
We arrived at Invesco Stadium about 3 o’clock and there were already at least 5,000 people dressed in orange and blue there having a “Tail Gate” party unlike anything I have seen. What a sight, just you and 5,000 of your closest friend’s barbequing and drinking a few beers, LOL. You just can’t beat that! I immediately felt and seen the intensity of the Broncos Fans but later found out that was nothing compared to what I would feel and see during the game.
The game, the first playoff game at Invesco field as well as the first playoff game since Elway, itself was so intense and full of team spirit. I have never seen so many people (75,000+) in one place. Then to have all of them screaming, stomping on the floor, beating on walls, yelling “IN-COM-PLETE”, giving a high five to 10 of the people around them after big plays, “Thunder” coming out after the Broncos score, seeing their quarterback Jake Plummer, saftey John Lynch, and my favorite player, Champ Bailey, make the big plays (loved the game changing interception by Champ, so intense) right before your eyes and then seeing everyone realizing their team just won the game. Everyone was so pumped up after winning the game you could here the screams from everyone as they came out of the stadium. So many people, it was so loud and everyone so happy.
My seat rocked too, right above the end zone where the Broncos scored the most, I sat in section 229 (mid way up), which is referred to as the “South Section” or the “Rowdy People”. This section was almost (but off to the side a bit) directly under the main large screen and white Thunder statue (um, Thunder is a boy LOL), the people around me were great they did an awesome job living up to their predecessors.
It all was a lot to take in; in such a short time. This was an experience I will certainly never forget. I think I will now be a much bigger fan. I see football totally different now. Oh, I will be back for another game you can count on it, this time with my boys. Thank You Denver, The Broncos team, and the Fans! AMAZING!
As an added note, the Broncos are now just one win away from going to Super Bowl XL in Detroit on February 5th, 2006. The win they still need will give them the AFC Division Championship and the great news is they will be playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, after their win in Sunday’s game, at home in Denver! Wow, another home game, this one will be played on Sunday, January 22, 2006 at 1 in the afternoon. Tickets for the game sold out in less than 30 minute earlier this morning and now are being sold on the secondary market with quite a bit higher price tag at the moment (up to $1,100 for the seating area I was in) then the ones for the game that I went to but nothing compared to the price of the tickets to Super Bowl XL!
Updated: 01-18-06
Denver Broncos Desktop Wallpaper - By me and made before trip for personal use. I hope you enjoy there are also stationary or website backgounds there to.
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01.1.2006 | 7:32 pm | Ad Networks, Getting Started, Google, Income, PPC
If you’ve been looking for a fairly simple way to increase your website’s revenue, or even just supplement your sites hosting costs, Google AdSense may be your answer.
Google AdSense is a phenomenal advertising revenue program that is taking the Internet by storm. It was specifically designed to enable content rich sites to increase their advertising marketing revenue simply by displaying Google’s AdWords advertiser ads. The more content pages you have, the more advertising revenue you can make. It’s really that simple.
Google AdSense makes selling advertising space easy, as they handle everything for you. With access to a database of hundreds of thousands advertisers ready with pay per click ads as well as pay per impression ads, you’ll never have to worry about finding advertisers for your website again. The great thing about Google’s sophisticated advertising system is that the ads that display on your web pages are relevant to your content. They scan each page to determine what your page is about and display the ads accordingly. This will increase your click-through rate considerably, as relevant text ads combined with quality content are highly effective.
If you have a quality site that provides content to it users you may qualify to display Google AdWords text ads on your web pages. Although the AdSense program is free to apply, your site will be reviewed and must be approved in order to begin displaying the ads. As there have been many sites turned down, you’ll need to ensure your site meets Google’s criteria prior to applying by viewing their current guidelines and policies.
They’re basically looking for quality sites offering content. The keywords here are “quality and content” . So if your site is under construction, loaded with advertising and/or broken images and links, don’t even waste your time applying, as you won’t be accepted. However, if you have a quality site and provide your visitors with content, you will most-likely be accepted.
This great post was first posted here : Google Adsense
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10.29.2005 | 2:14 am | Ad Networks, Beginners, Chitika, General, Income, PPC
Over the past few weeks I’ve been a part of a beta testing program of a new ad format for Chitika’s eMiniMalls.
Chitikais a new type of Pay Per Click ad program that many webamsters will find quite profitable for their websites. You’ve probably even seen them around the web by now , they come in a range of sizes but usually have a picture of a product and then some tabs running across the top that say ‘Description’, ‘Best Deals’, ‘Reviews’ and ‘Search’. As you hover the cursor above these tabs they change what information the ad shows.
How do they work?
- Ads pay on a per click(PPC) basis. The value of the clicks depends upon the product being featured.
- left in default mode - mini-malls are non contextual ads (this is helpful when it comes to running them in conjunction with Adsense - more information on this below).
- ads can be set to be contextual and to target site specific keywords (ie they look at your webpage and use it to find ads that are most relevant to it’s content)
How Profitable are they?
Overall - I’ve been beta testing mini-malls for 2 weeks now and am quite happy with them overall. They certainly don’t out perform Adsense for me - but my overall earnings are very promising. Especially when you take into consideration that I have yet to place them on every page I own and have not spent much time optimizing them yet and you’ll see that they have some real potential. (some say that they are outperforming Adsense for them).
Cost per Click - Very very good. The first day I added mini malls I pretty much just slapped the code up there and saw the average amount for each click was being payed I was quite amazed. They are considerably higher than my average click value on Google’s Adsense - some days they are 5 or 6 times higher. I’ve talked to a couple of other webamsters using them and they report anything from 3 times higher to 10 times higher click values than Adsense. This is the definate strength of Chitika mini-malls.
Click Through Rate - The percentage of people clicking on eMiniMalls ads is considerably lower than what I receive via Adsense. This is probably for a number of reasons.
Poor Optimization - This is partly my fault. I’ve just not had time to really optimize the ads properly. It is also partly because they are not currently offering channels to track ad performance on different blogs/categories/positions. As a result if I were to try to optimize the ads now I have no way of tracking the results. Channels are a feature that will be added shortly however so I’m expecting to be able to increase my CTR somewhat.
Average Ad matching - Chitika are still working on how they match ads with content. Ad relevancy seems to be a bit of a problem on some posts. I know this because I have seen some products that just don’t show up on pages where I’d expect them to. Hopefully they’ll continue to develop their algorithm and find ways of making ads even more relevant.
Lower Numbers of Ads - I’m suspecting that Chitika has a lower number of ads than Adsense to select from to run on sites using mini-malls. This means that sometimes ads can be a little irrelevant to your content which would decrease CTR also.
Reports - Emini-malls are in beta at present so don’t expect too much in the reporting and statistic yet. At this stage they just update at the end of each day and give you some basic stats under the four headings of - Date, Impressions, Clicks and Revenue. These stats are what they call ‘unaudited’ - which means they haven’t taken anything off the total that they suspect to be click fraud or ‘dodgy’ clicks. They ‘audit’ you at this stage once per month (they have indicated that this will happen daily at some point in the future). I was only in the system for three days of last month but the auditing brought my ‘unaudited’ figures back by about 10% of what they were. Clicks are audited by some secret process that includes multiple or repeated clicks, traffic from bots and spiders as well as traffic coming from certain countries like China or Korea.
I’m not too impressed by the auditing feature. While I understand why its there I can see that this will be the cause of some tension between Chitika and Publishers. I’m sure Adsense has some sort of system in place that does something similar - but they are big enough to build it in as a real time feature so that publishers just don’t know what they lose.
I know from my conversations with Chitika staff that the reporting system will be undergoing significant improvements in the coming weeks and months.
Ad Formats - They currently offer 10 different size formats in some pretty standard sizes. Overall the options are pretty good. They also allow you to make some changes to the design of your ads by changing colors of borders, title and text to match your page/site theme colors.
Payment - Payment is via Paypal in US Dollars at the start of every month - around 30 days after the end of the month you’re being paid for. You need to reach a minimum of $10 to get a payment.
Can Mini-Malls be used in conjunction with Adsense? - Most people I talk to about mini-malls asks this - it’s important as most publishers will want to use them in conjunction with one another.
At first Google said ‘no’ you can’t use them for two reasons:
- They look too similar to Adsense Ads
- They are contextual ads
The follow up pointed out two things.
- They actually don’t look like Adsense ads - they have a picture in them, tabs etc. I think the mistake Adsense made at first was in confusing mini-malls with Chitika’s other ads which do look very similar to Adsense ads.
- You can actually disable the contextual element of the ads and plug in code that targets a specific product.
The replysaid that they were sorry for making a mistake and that Chitika mini-mall ads can be used in conjunction with Adsense IF they are set to be non contextual.
Quoted from adsense:
“Yes, you can use the Chitika products that rely on keywords selected by
you as opposed to your site’s content, on your site in addition to Google
ads.”
I know of several who have had this same conversation with Google with the same results.
English Sites only - at this point they are in beta test and only accepting Engine sites into the program. While this is sad for non English sites I guess they have to start somewhere. Hopefully they’ll widen it later at some point.
All in all - I’m very pleased with Chitika’s mini-malls. They have loads of potential. I look forward to the future of this program.
I’ve also seen them producing very relevant ads on various websites. I’ve also heard a couple of publishers who were so impressed with mini-malls that they’ve ditched Adsense all together as they were able to earn significantly more from Chitika.
You can apply to be a part of the eMiniMalls beta test at Chitika Mini Malls Sign Up.
Disclaimer: the links to Chitika in this post are affiliate links - if you sign up using these links I earn a small amount as a commission. It does not impact what you earn from Chitika but rather is paid by Chitika. While these links are affiliate links I genuinely believe in the product and have pointed out both its benefits and weaknesses.
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10.28.2005 | 2:01 pm | Ad Networks, AdSense, Beginners, Chitika, Google, Income, PPC
Many of the questions I’ve heard asked about Chitika eMiniMalls have been related to whether or not they can be used on the same page as Google Adsense ads. This was initially of major concern for a number of us when we first came across eMiniMalls. As a result, many wrote an email to Adsense for clarification some a couple times even. The final response is that it was allowable from the perspective of Adsense to use Chitika eMiniMalls on the same page as Adsense ads in the following circumstance (I’m told by a YPN publisher that this is also true with YPN):
1. eMiniMalls must be made to be NON-contexual
This is great news as it added Chitika eMiniMalls as another revenue stream to the sites of many without compromising another important source of income like Adsense.
Note: Chitika has another ad system, called RealContext, that is NOT allowed to be used in conjunction with Adsense - don’t get them mixed up.
It is worth noting that different webmasters and bloggers have seen difference results from using Adsense and Chitika’s eMiniMalls on the one page. These results have included:
A few publishers have reported small decreases in their Adsense earnings. Some have even noticed a 5-10% decrease in overall Adsense earnings since adding eMiniMalls. Of course, this is considerably less than the overall increase in earnings that the eMiniMalls have returned so many are willing to take this hit knowing that an overall considerably better financial position.
A smaller number of publishers have noticed increases in their Adsense earnings when they replaced one of multiple Adsense Ad units with a Chitika eMiniMall unit. This sounds crazy - bit it makes sense when you realise that sometimes less Adsense Ad units on a page can result in increase click value amount for some ads (thats another topic for another day)
* Some have found eMiniMalls to be so well suited to their site’s that they’ve removed Adsense altogether and are just running the Chitika ads (I wouldn’t recommend doing this straight away without testing things first).
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