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Saturday, September 30, 2006

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 5)

The forth element of our Adsense Equation is that of having well designed and optimally placed Adsense Ads. I’ve found that ad positioning is incredibly important. I remember shifting the ads on one of my blogs a while back and being over the moon to discover the next morning that the move had doubled the click through rates that I’d had over night! Its worth doing some tweaking.

Adsense Ad placement and design is an issue that is often hotly debated in Adsense discussion forums. It seems that each Adsense user has their own strategy - some like ads that blend in, others like ads that stand out from the rest of the page. Some like ads in banner positions, others in skyscrapers, others like to put them right in the middle of content. In my experience, different strategies work on different blogs at different times. The key tip I’ll give you is to experiment. Try new positions and design and track your results. One of the best ways you can do this is by using Adsense Tracker which is an amazing tracking package for adsense which gives you much more control over what and how you track your adsense performance. It does cost to purchase the tracker but in my experience you’ll make your money back pretty quickly by using it to adapt your Adsense strategies.

Let me also share a few other tips that you might like to experiment with.

Blend - Most successful Adsense users seem to be taking the approach of blending their ads into the overall theme of their page. This often means making the ad’s background (and often border) the same (or similar) colour to the background of the page and making the title and URL the same as links of the rest of the page. In this way the ad does not stand out as being ‘ad-like’. Having said this I know of a few bloggers who take the opposite approach and make their ads as bright and ugly as possible in the hope of attracting the attention of their readers. I don’t subscribe to this because I think it cheapens the overall feel and look of a page.

In Content - More and more bloggers (and webmasters) are putting their ads inside the main body of their posts. In this way the ads are prominent and more likely to be seen by readers as they read your content. If your text wraps around the ads this can be quite effective. On the flipside of this argument is that you may run the risk of frustrating your readers with dominant ads. People reading content online are a fickle bunch and get easily turned off by blatant advertising.

Above the Fold - it is generally accepted that your Adsense ads should be placed towards the top of your page and be visable without your reader having to scroll down. Studies show that blog visitors stay on average for only 60 or so seconds, many without scrolling down. If you ads are hidden towards the bottom of your page you decrease the likelihood of them ever being seen let alone clicked.

Placement-4Left is Best - Google has put together a ‘heat map’ which is probably the best thing that you can look at when thinking about the positioning of your ads. You’ll see from it that they have found that ads on the left hand side of the page do much better than those on the right hand side.

Too Dominent? - The position and design of your Adsense ads needs to be balanced with the overall purposes and design of your blog. What is the priority of your blog - is it to make money or is it something else. I have a number of blogs - and place ads differently on each depending upon their purposes. For example this blog is not a commercial blog - I’m more interested in building relationships, sharing and hearing others ideas and updating those interested in what I’m doing with my life. As a result my Adsense Ads are in a less prominent banner position and are designed to fit with the overall theme of the blog. However on my Digital Photography Blog there is obviously a more commercial intent (as well as it being something of a passion and hobby). As a result I experiment with more prominent Adsense ads (usually skyscraper and within content).

I cannot stress enough how useful it is to experiment. What works on one blog doesn’t always work on another. I’ve also noticed that if you have a blog with regular and loyal readers that it is good to keep things changing as your readers tend to get used to the way your blog is and become blind to things like Adsense Ads. I notice that when I move my ads around that it often creates higher click throughs for a few days - until the blindness kicks in again. Joel Comm’s What Google Never Told You About Making Money with Adsense is an excellent E-book written with lots of good tips on positioning your adsense ads if you’re wanting to get another person’s opinion on this topic.


By Darren Rowse

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 4)

The third element of our Adsense equation is that of relevant Adsense ads. It is all very well to rank high in search engines to generate high levels of traffic, but without relevant ads that relate to the content of your blog you are not likely to generate much in the way of click throughs.

Let me give you an example. Recently I was asked to help a fellow blogger who has struggling with his Adsense ads because whilst his content largely focused upon the topic of ‘health care’ - most of the ads being served to his blog were focused upon ‘blogging’. He was getting quite reasonable traffic levels and had a reasonably high paying topic (there are some good health care ads out there) but as you’d expect, people coming to a blog about health care did not click on ads for blogging software and services at a very high rate. The challenge was to get his ads reflecting the content of his blog.

Another fellow blogger had the problem of not getting ANY ads being served to his site. Instead of paying ads all he was getting was the public service ads that Adsense serves when they couldn’t find any relevant paying ads (these pay nothing).

How do you get relevant ads? Here are a few things to try.

Make sure there are ads available - My friend who didn’t get any paying ads served was focusing on a key word for which there was no or very few ads. A simple way of checking this is to do a search on Google for the key word you are targeting. If they don’t serve ads on their own search results page its an indication that such ads are scarce - if not non existent. They way we got ads on my friends blog was to experiment with other related keywords. He didn’t have to change the focus of his blog - just the way he described his topics. For example if there are no ads for ‘bed linen’ try ‘blankets’, ’sheets’, ‘quilts’ etc. Experiment with different combinations until you find something that works.

Increase your Keyword density - The more you use your keywords the more likely you are to get ads on those topics. Its not common knowledge exactly how the Adsense bot decides what ads suit your content best (if someone knows feel free to post it in comments below) but it’s a pretty safe bet that if you put you keyword in your title, at least once in your first paragraph and then scatter it throughout the rest of your page that you’ll convince the Adsense bot of what your topic is. It MAY also be helpful to include your keywords in the URL of your page (Moveable type can let you do this - ie look at the URL of this page - it incorporates my title and therefore some keywords). It MAY also be worth putting your keywords in outward links, bold, italics etc. All of these strategies also help optimise yor blog for search engines which won’t hurt either.

Examine your Sidebars, menus, header and footer - It is not just your main content that the Adsense bot searches to find the topic of your page, but also your other areas. When I looked at the healthcare blog that was getting ‘blogging’ ads I noticed that he had the word ‘blog’ in his title, three times on his sidebar and once in his footer. It was also in his URL and he also used the word quite often in his content. My recommendation was to remove the word from as many of those places as possible and to increase his health care keywords. The ads improved their relevancy almost immediately.

Stick to one topic per page - Obviously this may not be feasible on your front page - but attempt to keep each individual blog entry/post as highly targeted as possible. I’ve noticed that some people often include two or three topics in one entry - this will confuse Adsense’s bot so split them up into two entries.

Block irrelevant Ads - Sometimes despite your best intentions Google just gets it wrong and serves your ads that have nothing to do with what you write. If you’re getting some repeating irrelevant ads block them. Adsense lets you do this to quite a few sites and its easy to do. I have a number of ads blocked, some because they are philosophically not consistent with what I write about, but mainly because they just are not relevant to the topic of my blogs.

Ask Adsense - If all else fails notify Google Adsense of your issue. Of course they are busy people - but Google prides itself on being responsive to its users. I’ve emailed with queries a number of times, once on an issue of irrelevant ads, and every time I’ve had positive results from my query. You’ve got nothing to loose - shoot them an email!

If you do all of the above you SHOULD find Adsense serves you with relevant ads. In conjunction with the other elements in our equation this will contribute to increased click throughs and hopefully higher Adsense revenue. Next in this series on maximizing Adsense revenue is a post on Well Placed and Designed Adsense Ads.


By Darren Rowse


Monday, September 18, 2006

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 3)

The next element of this Adsense equation to be examined is how to get high paying Adsense Ads running on your site. Obviously in any business one way to get higher profits is to charge more for your product - whilst you have no direct say in how much is charged for ads run on your site - there are ways of targeting types of ads that might bring in a higher return than others.

As we mentioned in our initial explanation of the equation, the PVR Blog is one example of a blog that targets a well paying ad type - ads for PVR technology. Whilst I do not know specifics of earnings I would suspect blogs like Gizmodo who run Adsense ads would also be generating a higher paying ad, due to their focus on technology.

The lesson we can learn from blogs such as these is that they attract specific ads (that presumably are well paying) by keeping their content targeted on the same topics. To over simplify what we’re saying - if you want ads about Camera Phones blog about Camera Phones.

Finding High Paying Ads is not as easy as it sounds (is anything?). Do a search for Google on High Paying Adsense Ads and you won’t find too many sites listing the best keywords for Adsense. The top Adsense users in Adsense discussion forums tend to be pretty secretive about not only what keywords they focus on, but also what sites they run. I don’t blame them either - its good business sense really.

Having said this there are a number of strategies and tools that you might like to employ to help find high paying keywords.

Buy them - Finding high paying keywords for your blog is possible by yourself for free - but as with everything a few entrepreneurial types are willing to do the leg work for you to save you some time and give you a comprehensive result. One service that you might like to try to find good keywords is Top Paying Keywords.
Trial and Error - I know this will frustrate some of you who want a nice and easy quick fix but overall it is one of the best pieces of advice I can give. Try writing on a topic - track the results - if it pays off do it again….lots. Adsense allows you to track specific pages or sections of your blog using its ‘channels’ feature - if you’re smart you’ll watch which sections of your blog are generating the highest ads by dividing your overall earnings by the number of clicks and comparing it to other channels. Keep trying new topics until you strike gold and then dig in like crazy!
Are there Any Ads? - This is a good first question. Despite the many thousands of advertisers using Adsense there are some topics where the answer to this question is no. A simple way to check is to head to Google and do a search for the key words you’re wanting to blog about. The results page will bring up not only a list of other sites writing about that key word (they are you competitors) but on the right hand side there will be a list of ads - these are the same sorts of ads you’ll get on your site if you write on the topic. If there are ads there, it is a good sign. If there are not - maybe its worth finding another topic to write on if you’re hoping to attract ads.
7 Search has a list of the 100 of the top paying keywords (in their advertising program - not Adsense) at the moment. Its a bit depressing actually to see a list like this because you’d have to sell your soul somewhat in order to go with many of them. Its an interesting site to check out though.
Also from 7 Search (and more useful) is their Keyword Suggestion Tool which gives you an idea of what people are paying per click on different tools (again this is not specifically for Adsense but it will give you an idea of what the going rates are). Find What also has a similar service.
Google Adsense’s biggest competitor are Overture (they run the ads on Yahoo) - they offer a service where you can enter your keywords and they will not only tell you how much advertisers are paying for the words but also how many people are searching for the term. This is a very useful tool.
Sign up for Adwords - One way of getting a feel for how much people are willing to pay per click is to sign up with Google as an advertiser yourself. It doesn’t cost much to start a mini campaign and do some research this way. You’ll get a feel for what people are bidding on different words very quickly this way.
Word Tracker is the best tool I’ve seen to help in finding keywords that people are searching for in the major search engines. The excellent thing about Word Tracker is that they also tell you how many other sites out there are targeting the same words! This is very handy as it will stop you targeting ‘Britney Spears’ as a Keyword phrase even though its one of the most searched for keywords on the web because literally hundreds of thousands of other sites have beaten you to the punch. Word Tracker has a free version to trial it and their paying version is even better - well worth the investment.
I’m told Keyword Sleuth is a similar program to Word Tracker however I am yet to trial it.

Targeting High Paying Adsense Ads is an important aspect of generating an income from Adsense. It is not enough in and of itself however. You can have $10 per click ads (I’ve not found any of these yet) but without generating any traffic your research into the right ads will be useless. Likewise it is one thing to identify which ads you want to target - but it is another thing to actually get these relevant ads showing on your site. It is to this topic which our next post in this series will head - Finding Relevant Adsense Ads.


By Darren Rowse

Thursday, September 14, 2006

An Introduction to RSS

You have probably heard the buzz in and around the geek corridors. Someone has possibly told you they are using RSS, and how it has saved their life. Jupiter Research says 63% of large organisations are planning to use it by the end of this year. If there was a TV advertisement for it, it would probably be one of those convenience ads, where at the end a typical mom says "...thanks to RSS I now have more time to spend with my perfect family". You may even be using it right now and not even know it. It might even solve world hunger...OK maybe that's taking it a bit far. But what is RSS?

What is RSS?
There are many different ways of explaining this evolution. I will simply add to the description pool by using my interpretation of it.
RSS is the abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication. Interestingly enough abbreviation is exactly what it does. It abbreviates all the bumf most websites on the World Wide Web contain; in order to provide you with specific content you want. In other words, if you surf the web at a super rate and require a number of websites to be open at any given time, then RSS allows you to receive/ syndicate this information without requiring you to constantly open new pages in your browser. RSS has become an essential tool to eMarketing guru’s world wide as it allows you to "pull" the exact content and leave everything such as images, colours, flashing graphics etc. behind. This allows for faster upload times, better scanning, more control and less distraction - when all you require is to take in content and not the flashing Vegas-like billboards down Super Information Highway.

How to Use RSS
To get into the RSS club you will need a RSS Reader or Aggregator. This can be a daunting task as there are multitudes available. Trying to test all of them is not an option! If you are an open source lover like me, you can download RSS Bandit. There are other good purchasable readers like Feed Demon. Mozilla Thunderbird, an open source email program, has one built in to it. The difference between most RSS Readers is the interface and functionality they provide. Most of the good ones are able to house a list of RSS feeds: categorized by types or groups of which you can customize. In addition to this there is a preview section where a list of the new content is ordered by heading/ subject and time posted -much like your email. Lastly, there will be another section which contains the full text version of content syndicated from that particular web page.

Adding RSS Feeds
Normally your new RSS Reader contains a couple of feeds already installed to get you started. But in order to acquire new feeds yourself; you need to visit web pages which are RSS/ XML enabled. If you value the content on these pages, look for a small square orange icon with "XML" "RSS" or a radioactive type sign within it. This indicates there is a feed available somewhere (hopefully distinct...) on the page. There are still a couple of icons being used at the moment, but the RSS industry is trying to standardize it by advocating one. Alternatively, to acquire more feeds: get a friend with similar internet 'content' taste to and ask them to share feeds.
Browsers like Firefox can also accept feeds, although their display method is not as comprehensive as specialised RSS Readers. The great thing about the Firefox browser is that the small orange icon appears in the address bar, when a feed is available on a webpage. This lets you know immediately when a feed exists before searching the page.

Make Every Day an RSS Day
Now try and download the feed on your favourite site to get familiar with this type of icon. You can then go to your other favourite web sites and acquire their feeds. You'll go home satisfied with your new found ability to suck up in real-time; current information at a rate which would have Einstein fighting to keep up.
I can just see ads with the typical moms now "...since that RSS Aggregator came into our lives we now save so much time. I am able to be present at every one of Johnny's soccer matches..." Cut to Johnny as he scores a goal and hugs his mom. A really huge orange icon appears on screen as an R&B diva voice sings... "Make every day an RSS day".

RSS is one of the many tools used by the QuirkStars at Quirk eMarketing to keep ahead of the game as far as their services and online knowledge is concerned. In addition to being avid RSS fundi’s their knowledge of web development, search engine marketing, email, viral & affiliate marketing allow them to offer businesses a complete Internet marketing solution.


By Smallz Mancotywa

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 2)

Adsense Revenue = Traffic Levels + High Paying Ads + Relevant Ads + Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads

I now will turn my attention to each of the four elements of good Adsense revenue in turn and give some practical easy to implement tips to improve each from my experience.

Increasing Traffic Levels is a key component to increasing Adsense revenue. As I wrote previously, ‘The more people that see you Adsense Ads, the more likelihood there is that someone will click on them.’

Increasing the readership of your blog is not as simple as it sounds, it takes time, patience and hard work (and sometimes a bit of luck) Having said that there are many things you can do to get your blog in front of a wider audience and there exposing the adsense messages on your site to more potential ‘clickers’. Here are a few tips…

Quality, Interesting, Useful and Original Content - What are the blogs that you read the most? If you’re anything like me they are blogs that have quality content that ’scratches me where I itch’. This is essential to increasing your readership unless you have a pretty amazing ‘gimmick’ to bring readers in.
Good Blog Design is really important if you want your blog to create a good first impression. With millions of other blogs and sites out there its worth some effort to make yours stand out. Also worth a read is Good Weblog Design and Layout.
Link to others - be generous with your links to other bloggers big and small. You’ll be surprised how many links come back your way. This not only brings traffic from their sites but doesn’t hurt your ranking in Google.
Comment on others blogs - Some of my most loyal readers came to my blog because I genuinely interacted with them on their blogs through comments. Hear me now, I say genuinely because its easy to spam in comments, but this will have the opposite effect of generating readers to your blog.
Update Frequently - There is nothing that turns me off a blog faster than seeing that it hasn’t been updated for a month or more. Keep it rolling over with interesting content.
Interact with Readers - Having an interactive blog that invites the involvement of readers is one way of generating repeat visitors. I’ve written a tip on Interactive Blogging including a number of interactive tools that you can use on your blog. Also check out this tip on using comments effectively to increase interactivity on your blog.
Optimise for Search Engines - I can’t stress enough how important Search Engines are to increasing traffic, especially traffic that will click on your ads. I find that 95% of my traffic comes from Google and have found that anecdotal evidence suggests this traffic clicks through on Adsense ads at a higher rate than traffic from links on other blogs and sites. So work hard at getting listed and highly ranked on Search Engines.
Add a signature to your outgoing email - Learn a lesson from Hotmail who have used signatures on the bottom of their users emails for years to promote their home page and generate interest in their product. Be careful though if you don’t want your worlds to collide!
Web Rings - There are literally thousands of webrings that you can sign up for. I’m not sure how effective they are these days, but some people still swear by them.
Add an RSS feed to your blog - more and more people are reading blogs without ever visiting them through News Aggregators that pick up information using RSS. Whilst this does not guarantee those reading through aggregators will visit your blog (and therefore see your Adsense Ads) it certainly increases the chances of them dropping by, especially if you invite comments and have internal links on your posts.
List your site on Portals - There are a growing number of sites which exclusively list blogs. If you want people to find you its worth submitting your blog to be listed on them. Some focus on specific topics (like Eaton Web and Globe of Blogs). Other portals like BlogShares, Blog Street and BlogTree also list a lot of blogs in different ways which might increase your blogs profile.
Blog Search Engines and Indexes - Get yourself registered on sites like Blogdex, Popdex and Daypop (they require RSS I think). These sites have features that allow people to search for blog entries via topic and keywords. They also list the most popular recent topics and each have other interesting features which can enhance your blogging experience.
Start a Newsletter - Offer your readers a newsletter service to keep them up to date with your latest posts. I’ve found since adding a free weekly newsletter to my digicam blog that hundreds of readers have signed up for regular updates of my latest posts. Think about this - hundreds of people have given me permission to invite them to come back to my blog - every week!
Get Involved in Blog Projects and Memes - From time to time other bloggers will invite your participation in a blog project of theirs. Get involved, support their project and you might find it pays off. On the flip side start your own blogging project or meme. Do something that is of service to other bloggers. Rachel’s Blogger Gallery was a great example of a project that allowed others to get involved. I tried something similar with Underblogs and Blogger Idol.
Get involved in other web forums - Genuinely participate in web forums and discussion pages on topics related to your blog. Many of these allow you to add a signature to your posts which raise your blogs profile.
Promote your Posts - If you think you’ve written something worthwhile spend a few minutes letting others know about it. I regularly shoot other bloggers to notify them of what I’ve written if I think it will interest them. Think about it before you send the email and don’t bombard the same people constantly with every topic you write on - be selective, concise, polite and helpful with your emails but don’t be afraid to promote yourself.
Add a ‘Email a Friend’ Option to your posts - make it easy for your readers to tell others about what you’ve written. I know this function gets used regularly on my blog and brings in new readers that I would never otherwise have been able to reach.

These are just some of the ideas that I’ve used and seen others use to increase the readership of a blog and thereby increase the exposure of Adsense ads to a wider audience.Many of the above tips were taken from my Blog Tips Series including the ‘Finding Readers’ Series.

What methods have your found to be effective at increasing the readership of your blog? What works for your and what doesn’t? What tips would you add to this collection?

Of course increasing traffic alone won’t greatly increase your Adsense revenue, but it can help! In our next Adsense Tip for Bloggers we will explore ways to generate High Paying Ads - the second component in our Adsense Revenue Equation.

By Darren Rowse

Monday, September 11, 2006

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 1)

There are many factors that impact the level of revenue generated from a blog using the Google Adsense program. Books have been written explaining expert strategies for Adsense - However for the purposes of this series we’ve boiled it all down into four elements that we believe impact your Adsense earning capacity the most. Speaking in general terms here is a simple equation that illustrates how the factors each contribute to Adsense Revenue.

Adsense Revenue = Traffic Levels + High Paying Ads + Relevant Ads + Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads

Its not Rocket Science. Each of the above four elements contribute directly to the total revenue that your Adsense Ads will produce. Don’t just work on one of them though because if any one is weak it will hold your potential earnings back. Lets break each factor down….

Traffic Levels - The more people that see you Adsense Ads, the more likelihood there is that someone will click on them. As I examine the statistics provided by Adsense that report my daily earnings I notice that my earnings in the past 8 months have increased considerably as my total page impressions have increased. For example earlier in the week when Slashdot linked up to this post I had an influx of 50,000 visitors in 24 hours to my blog - it doesn’t take a genius to work out what this did to my Adsense earnings that day! Work on increasing your traffic levels and you should see an increase in your Adsense Revenue.

High Paying Ads - Once again I’m stating the obvious, but if the content you provide on your blog attracts high paying ads you’re going to do significantly better. For example it has been documented that the PVR Blog is doing pretty well when it comes to high Adsense earnings - the secret of its success is partly due to it being served with ads that are high paying. The topic of the PVR blog is, as you’d expect, PVR technology including TiVo, Replay TV etc. This is cutting edge technology and therefore advertisers are willing to pay top dollar to get their products and services out there! In comparison if a person was to start a blog on ‘toothpicks’ I suspect the ads are not likely to pay very much. It would take very high traffic levels to earn as much from a toothpick blog as it would the PVR blog.

Relevant Ads - A second reason the PVR Blog is successful is that it servers relevant ads. To put it simply people looking for information on PVR technology are confronted by Adsense ads for PVR technology. I recently visited a blog that was having trouble getting relevant ads - they had a blog on Tourist destinations in Australia - but unfortunately they were getting Adsense ads for remote control cars. You can guess what their revenue was like. Increase the relevancy of your Ads to your content and you are one step closer to increasing your Adsense revenue.

Optimally Positioned and Designed Ads - One of the coolest things about the Adsense program is that they give you freedom in choosing the best position and color scheme for your ads. Just like in the wider world of advertising - positioning is a key element to an ads success. A Billboard positioned on a road where no one drives is not likely to get the same results as one positioned on a busy intersection. The position and design of your Adsense Ads is critical - if they are out of site they’ll never get clicked on.

Bringing them Together - The above four elements are in many ways pretty obvious when spelt out like this - the challenge comes to improving each to optimize Adsense revenue.

Your revenue will only grow as high as the weakest one of these factors on your blog. For example if you have high paying, relevant, well designed and positioned ads but no traffic you’ll not do well. Likewise if you have high traffic, high paying and relevant ads but they are poorly designed an in a position where they’ll never be seen - you’ll waste all your other hard work. Its not enough to work on one element.

How do we improve each? In the next four posts we’ll examine each area in turn and suggest a number of ways that you might try tweaking them to increase your revenue.

By Darren Rowse

Friday, September 08, 2006

How to Choose a Student Loan

By Kara Alaimo

Looking for savvy ways to finance your education? Then it’s time to go shopping – to look at a range of loan options, that is. As interest rates on federal college loans rise and shift to fixed rates, experts say it’s more important than ever to accurately calculate the cost of your education, consider all of your financing options and knowledgably select the ones that will be cheapest over time. Here’s how to do it:

INVESTIGATING OPTIONS

“A popular mistake students make [when it comes to college loans] is not knowing all their options,” says Raza Khan, president and co-founder of MyRichUncle, which offers private student loans. “The challenge seems so daunting, that most students take the first loan option they’re offered.”

But as of July 1, 2006 federal college loans, which were previously based on market rates, have moved to fixed interest rates. For the PLUS loan, that means an interest rate of 8.5 percent, and for Stafford loans, 6.8 percent. Khan says, if market interest rates go down, private loans may become a better option.

Even if federal loans remain the best deal, Khan says, the cost of education is so expensive that most students need to supplement the federal loans they’re offered with private ones. In this case, he warns, “the loans which a university recommends may not be the cheapest financing option available.”

A recent “60 Minutes” investigation revealed that some universities offering students particular financing options were receiving kickbacks from the organizations financing the loans. To make sure you’re getting the cheapest interest rate, investigate all of your options, including loans recommended by your school and those available from other sources.

MyRichUncle, for example, offers a variety of loans tailored for particular needs, such as those customized for students who need cash to live on when they complete unpaid internships or are studying abroad at international institutions. Recently, the company began offering pre-prime products, which lend to students who lack credit -- and as a result would typically have a hard time securing loans – based upon unconventional factors such as academic performance.

CHOOSING THE CHEAPEST RATE

It may sound obvious to recommend choosing the cheapest financing option available, but Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of finaid.org, says often students do not.

“A lot of students will select private loans because the student has the obligation for repayment, even though prior to the change in rates PLUS loans were cheaper,” he says.

But, even if the loan is technically in your name, most loans require a parent co-signer. Either way, parents are on the hook – so better to go with the cheapest deal. Kantrowitz also emphasizes the importance of accurately calculating the cost of education. Remember that tuition costs are likely to rise each year, so multiplying the cost of tuition for your freshman year by four won’t work.

When looking at private loans, take into account all of the costs associated with them – such as origination fees and the ways in which interest will compound over time (Finaid.org has calculators to help you figure this out). And be sure that you’re comparing the lowest rate that you will qualify for with each organization, which may differ from the lowest rate on offer based on factors such as your credit.

LUCRATIVE LOOPHOLES

If federal rates remain the cheapest option, being savvy can help you save.

“Once you have been in school for two years, consolidate your PLUS loan every year,” Kantrowitz says.

Although the PLUS loan is now fixed at 8.5 percent, the maximum interest rate for consolidated loans is capped at 8.25 percent. By consolidating, you’ll save a quarter percent.

Kantrowitz also says you’ll lessen the amount of dough that the government believes you can afford to spend on college – known as your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) – by limiting the amount of money in your name on bank and other accounts.

While the government looks at 35 percent of your own assets in considering your ability to pay for college -- a number that will change to 20 percent on July 1, 2007 -- the maximum they will consider is 6.4 percent of your parents’ assets. So spend your own money first.

EVERY BIT COUNTS

John Hadeed, a senior studying business management at Fordham University in New York, is keeping his loans in check while he’s in school by paying just the interest each month.

“If I waited until I was out of school to start paying, my loans would have gone up by several thousand dollars simply in interest,” he says.

You may not be able to pay much while in school – that’s the reason for the loan – but small efforts like this can amount to a big difference over time.

Need more information? Finaid.org offers a variety of tools to help, including information on loans and savings, and calculators to estimate the cost of college, your EFC and loan payments. With a bit of work, locking in a better deal could save thousands of dollars over the life of your loan.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Private Student Loan Consolidation

Private Student Loan Consolidation
Now you can consolidate your private education loans or refinance your consolidated federal loans with the new NextStudent Private Consolidation Loan.

Refinance at today’s low rates
Consolidation isn’t just for federal student loan borrowers anymore. At NextStudent, you can refinance all your student loans, even private loans and previously consolidated loans, into one easy-to-pay loan at rates starting at just 8.98%.

Take longer. Pay less. Start now.
We’ll give you up to 30 years to repay your NextStudent Private Loan. That means dramatically lower payments for you.

What are you waiting for? Apply online today

More benefits. Only from NextStudent
At NextStudent, super-low rates are just the start.

> One small monthly payment
> No prepayment penalties
> No collateral required
> Refinance up to $125,000
> Fast, simple application that lets you get started today

What Is Student Consolidation For?

You may wonder what student consolidation or student loan consolidation are. Well, it's simple: when a student wants to go to college he can get a loan from an organization to pay for his tuition. This student loan is a special kind, not like any other loans given by banks; this loan has a program created for the best interests of the student. However, when you get such a student loan, you might find out it is not enough to finish college. Thinking of what you could do to pay your tuition fee, the only thing that comes to mind is to go out and get another student loan. The good thing about student loans is that you won't have to start paying them off until you finish college. But, by the end of college you might end up with three or four or maybe even more student loans and debts. This is where student consolidation comes into play. Student loan consolidation means that all of your loans will be gathered into just one loan which you will have to pay after graduation. The advantages of student consolidation are countless.

You don't have to think of student loans as burdens or as debts because they are more like investments really. When you finish college you will be qualified for a good job and you will be able to pay off all of your loans. Through a student loan consolidation program it will be even easier because you won't have to live with the stress of multiple payments per month, loosing a lot of money on interest. Also, you can benefit from different repayment offers and deferment so you don't have to be worried about details while you are in school.

Small things (worries) will make your life a living hell if you let yourself get consumed by them. Being ignorant is not a solution either because, this way, you might end up in a lot of trouble and debt. When you get a loan you should do a lot of research first and know all the possible ways you can get a loan. First of all if you're planning on getting multiple loans you should check out which are eligible for student consolidation. If they are not eligible for student loan consolidation, then they are not such a bright idea because you will end up paying different loans. Consolidation won't work as it is supposed to if you don't pay attention.

The problem is that not many people have knowledge about student consolidation programs or student loan consolidation. More and more people (student or teenagers) find out every day that student consolidation might be the answer to their prayers. People try to ask around, but they very seldom understand to the full extent what student loan consolidation is and how it can help in each particular case. If you want to know more about this phenomenon (if it can be called this way) online organizations give out this kind of loans and the information you need is found on the Internet. A search on (student consolidation) or (student loan consolidation) will result in many details which will clear things up for you.

Another type of student loan (more like an educational loan) is the PLUS loan. The PLUS loan is eligible for plus loan consolidation. Made by parents, the PLUS loan helps support the tuition fees of their children. Of course you can have multiple PLUS loans and begin a plus loan consolidation program. The causes for multiple PLUS loans can be a lot, like: having two or three children or too big fees to pay for only one loan to handle. This is the point where plus loan consolidation comes in. The advantages of plus loan consolidation are the same as the ones offered by the other student loans. Documentation on plus loan consolidation is very scarce on the Internet, but it's enough to give you an idea.

Nowadays, technology has made it easy for us. We can learn everything we want about student loans and student consolidation over the Internet. The really amazing thing is that we can fill in applications for student loans and student loan consolidation online, without even going to the bank. The advantages are countless and it's not too hard to profit from one of these financial moves. Anyone interested in education could and should get a student loan or more if he or she needs it and after that consolidate them.

Whether it is a plus loan consolidation or any other type of student loan consolidation, the idea of turning more loans (which are time and money consumers) into only one is a very bright one. If you really want a good education or if you're a parent and want only the best for your children, you shouldn't worry about getting a loan or more. In the end, it's your dream and your future. Money shouldn't get in the way of what you know it's good for yourself or your loved ones. Through student consolidation most of the problems of student loans can be solved and so can yours.