My Blog's

How To Triple Your Traffic

2006-11-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Traffic is vital for any website to flourish, especially of it's a commercial one.

There are numerous different ways to develop traffic to your site, but what we'll be discussing here are the easier ways of driving traffic to your site.

1. Tell everyone This is the easiest and furthermore, free! If you have a lot of online or real life friends, incite them to drop by your site if they can. The more the merrier, as they say.

2. Using Crawlers Crawler-based search engines like Yahoo, Google and Ask Jeeves are the next easiest way to grow traffic. Crawlers work by picking up every website or page that matches a query. It crawls on individual pages, big websites and directories. Google in particular has a feature wherein you can instantly add your site's URL to its directory for simple recovery. Anyhow, this method doesn't guarantee that your site will be visited by hoards of visitors. Oh no. That will be determined by your page's ranking. Page rank is a measure of how relevant your website is. It's like a range of how much support your site gets. If you get a lot of back links to your site, then this does much to increase its page rank.

3. High quality content, increase in keywords and add a sitemap to your site.

A lot of webmasters use the content, keywords and sitemap to develop their traffic. How you ask?

Content As we've said, page ranking is how pertinent your site it. It doesn't matter if you have a hundred or so pages but they have in it nothing but spam. This is extremely irritating, specially to Google, who might even ban you from their list. High quality content however, is the first way to go about it. Even if you've got only 5 or so pages, but possess out up relevant and well written articles, people are certain to come back and visit. A lot of times.

Keywords For instance, your site is covering a topic like, Superman. Of course the typical person looking for a page on Superman will type "superman" on his query box. However, some search for more distinct terms like "super man" or "clark kent" or "lois and clark". If you have pages that have these keywords, there are better chances for your site to be found. The more specific the keyword, the better since it limits the number of the competition.

Sitemap A sitemap is effective for any website since it increases the number of internal links and pages that you have, therefore increasing the probability that a crawler will pick it up. It's also a big help to prospect who are looking for a specific page but wouldn't want to bother browsing through the whole website.

4. Exchange links with other sites Exchanging links with other websites will be a superb way to foster alliance and friendship. It'll increase traffic too, considering most people browse through the links page of websites, especially on fan sites.

At any rate, it wouldn't be adequate to ask for an exchange link for free or just out of the blue. Before a similar site can do an exchange with you, you must have been offering them something in return, like free content or downloads.

5. Article marketing Submitting your articles to online publications is a great way to increase traffic too. This is a bit harder than the other methods, since the publication need to accept of your article first. However, one approved, not only do you get to publish your work, you are also given a link back to your site. This way calls for quality not quantity so please do your best.

6. Submitting to directories There are free and open directories like imegamall.com and searchsight.com. You can submit your site to them and it may increase traffic to your site.

This method is quick and simple but not so reliable either. It might take weeks or months before your site can be listed or maybe not at all. So it's better to try this along with the other methods for greater success.

Tips For Maximum Adsense Content Relevancy

2006-10-15T22:30:00.000-07:00

One of the most essential aspects of getting the most out of your involvement with Google’s Adsense program is to be certain that Google serves up the most relevant ads possible on your site. The concept is easy to grasp--visitors travel to your sites in search of certain content on their topic of interest. If they see advertisements directly related to those content desires, they are far more likely to click on the ads than if they encounter only tangentially related material or, in a worst case scenario, ads that are not even related to their interests. As such, it is in your best interests to make sure your site displays relevant ads. Here are few tips for improving your content relevancy to produce more accurately targeted contextual advertising from Adsense.

FIRST THINGS FIRST. Before you even begin to use Adsense as a monetization tool, make sure there are relevant ads for your site or pages. In most cases, you will have determined this long before you even embarked on site design or content development. However, if you are thinking of adding Adsense to an existing site built with other monetization strategies originally in mind, you may not have bothered checking to see if other advertisers were going after that particular market. Be sure you are addressing a topic for which ads exist in sufficient quantity. If related advertising is sparse, it will difficult to avoid irrelevant ads.

KEYWORDS MATTER. You do not want content that is overstuffed with particular keywords to point of destroying readability and value, but you do want to make sure your materials make liberal use of on-topic keywords likely to spawn the most relevant possible ads. Experts maintain that using keywords with your titles and H1 tags is an excellent way to assist in getting the most relevant possible ads. This has added advantages in terms of search engine optimization, as well.

METATAGS. Once upon a time, metatags were a critical aspect of search engine optimization in general. Although the engines rely upon metatags far less than they once did, there is some evidence to suggest that using ad-triggering keywords in your pages’ meta-tags may increase the relevance of the advertisements displayed. This strategy may help, and it certainly cannot hurt.

LOOK FOR LACKLUSTER CONTENT. Many sites to a great job of supplying content related to particular themes or keywords in the main portion of a page, but have sidebars, headers and footers filled with less targeted terms and material. Take a long look at your navigational elements and other “side of the page” text and remove keyword terminology that may be leading to irrelevant ad service. Alternatively, you can use Adsense’s section targeting tool to remove those areas from Adsense’s consideration completely, so long as you do not plan to display ad blocks or ad link units in those areas.

TIGHT THEMING. You want to keep content tightly themed. That means you do not want to feature long, rambling articles that cover multiple topics. Instead, rely upon materials that address singular issues. You also do not want to feature multiple chunks of content on disparate matters on the same page for that very same reason. The value of tight theming may extend past individual pages. Many publishers argue that Adsense tends to reward tightly-themed overall sites with more relevant ads, as well. Even though this aspect of theming is not as well researched and proven, it makes sense to follow the practice, because of the search engine optimization advantages of having a focused site.

BLOCK THE BAD ADS. Monitor your site regularly and take note when irrelevant ads appear. Then, take the time to add them to your blacklist for the site. Google does give you the ability to block individual ads via the Competitive Ad Filter. If you block out commonly served irrelevant ads, you may improve your chances of featuring more ads upon which your visitors will actually click.

The more contextually relevant the ads appearing on your site are, the more clicks you can expect to see. As such, it is important to make an effort to use a combination of proven SEO methods that also work well with Adsense and some program-specific maneuvers to secure the best possible ads on your site.

The Best Place to Put Adsense Ads

2006-10-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

Where’s the best place to put your adsense ads? On your web pages of course. Ok, just kidding. The real question should be: “Is there really any truth to the rumors that where you place those Google AdSense ads can actually improve response?” According to my best information, the answer to that question is: Yes.

Google’s own AdSense experts say that that there is a direct correlation between the placement of the AdSense ads and the resulting clickthrough.

When ads are placed in “content zones”, rather than in “advertising zones”, response rates on Google AdWords goes up. There are also indications showing that ads appearing on the right side of the page get clicked more than ads appearing on the left side.

Advertising analysts with degrees in human behavior and psychology have spent thousands of man-years (people-years?) studying how people read printed and Internet content and what it takes to get them to respond to ads. While some of these studies are proprietary, or are only available to anyone with $10,000 or more to spend on a copy, other studies have been made public and can be read by anyone who is interested.

Google themselves has released some relevant information which is focused directly on increasing your Google AdSense response. You can read their findings here.

Of course, all of the studies in the world aren’t worth a hill of beans if the findings don’t work on your web site. That’s why it is important to test, test and test again. Experiment with your Google AdSense placement and track the results over a period of time. Google provides response tracking tools in your AdSense control panel. Learn how to use them. As you begin to see what may be only subtle differences in response, you’ll be able to determine what works best for your particular site. But don’t get complacent. What’s working for you now might not work next month if you change your site design or content.

One of the most important factors in determining placement of your ads is the type of content that your site delivers. If you are primarily an e-commerce site, and you have a lot of pictures and ad copy for your own products competing for attention against AdSense ads, then it is going to be a particularly tough challenge getting any kind of decent Google AdSense clickthrough. It is situations like this that require very thorough testing and a lot of trial and error.

Blogs seem to have a lot of success generating high response rates to Google AdSense listings. Perhaps it’s because blog readers realize that ad revenue is the only way that their favorite blogmaster can keep the lights on, so the readers think of clicking on ads as a way to make a donation(possible adsense click fraud though).

Regardless of what the experts say, your best bet is to tailor your Google AdSense ad placement to what your own experience shows works best for you. In the end, you’re the only expert who matters.

How To Maximize Adsense Earnings From Your Blogs

2006-10-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

Earn Adsense income from your Blogs

Did you know you can use Google adsense on your blog? Don’t have a blog? Running, starting, and maintaining a blog is cheap, and in some cases free! So why haven’t you put Google adsense on your blog yet? Oh you don’t know how! Here’s why and how!

First if you are considering adding ads onto your blog, you should learn more about the specific rules Google has in regards to blogs, though it is very similar to the rules they have for sites.

Blog content is what Google likes

Using blogs for Google adsense plain makes sense! The content is original, and is considered high quality from Google’s concept, even though you and I know some of the Blogs on the net are plain idiotic! So qualifying a blog is often easier than a site!

Due to the nature of blogs, there is usually a lot of varying content, meaning on a Blog you can have thirteen different subjects, whereas on your site you are supposed to have only one or two. This makes getting very diverse and specific ads on your Blog, far easier than on your site!

A blog that invites feedback or interactivity with a user may attract a lot of clicks, because it attracts a lot of visitor’s. Your blog has the ability to attract a specific set of people who will be interested in your material. Thus your adsense ads will be even more specific!

You can also add a blog to your commercial site. Really! You can talk about your products or specific information that your customer’s might be interested in. You can talk about your company, or even get a little personal! Besides having the added benefit of getting you some adsense clicks, it might actually make people like you! Studies have shown that people will buy more from a person they find personable or that they know a little bit about. Tell them about you!

You can start a blog for free, like those on Yahoo! Or you can get software to start a blog on your site. The latter is best, because you will have the most control. Again you can visit Yahoo! web hosting and use the tool for free.

When you decide to get ads on your blog, remember there are a few ways to increase your click through rates, which are really about the same as on your site.

Optimize your Adsense ads

Make your ads as much a part of your website as possible. Use the same font, font-color and background for your Google ads.

DON’T use boxes, tables, or anything else that yells; Here are the ads for my site. Don’t hide the ads!Design your ads to closely resemble links for your site, or make them blend as part of your site. Use your preview toolbar when creating your ads, which will give you a clear indication of how your ads will look.

Remember, a good ad is one that does not distract, that blends in, but still arouses the interest of your visitors.

How long does it take to get a blog indexed with Google? Well unlike websites, blogs can be all-set with Google, in as little as three days or less in some cases!

Once you feel you are comfortable with Google adsense, you can then take the steps to get your blog to making you a little money! Go over all the rules for using the Adsense program, and remember, just because you are a blogger in this case, that doesn’t mean Google won’t remove your ads quicker than a dog can scratch a tick, if you are using profane, abusive, slanderous, or otherwise universally unaccepted public topics!

That in mind, the rest is easy. Google will explain the whole process, on the same site that I have already listed at the beginning of this article.

Use your blog to your advantage. Getting approved for ads on a blog is easier than a website, and if proper steps are taken to design your ad well, and provide interesting content, you can make some money with Google Adsense on your blog!

Top 10 AdSense Tricks To Boost Your Commission

2006-10-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Google AdSense is fast becoming the preferred way for people to earn an income online. Forget eBay and multiple affiliate programs. Whether you are a work-at-home mom trying to make a little extra cash or an Internet entrepreneur with hundreds of monetized websites, AdSense is truly the easiest way to earn money.

Simply sign up for a free account, grab your ad code and paste it in your site. But here's the amazing thing - no matter how much money AdSense is making for you right now, a few simple tweaks can increase that amount considerably. And I should know, after learning about these tricks, I more than doubled my AdSense commissions!

The self-proclaimed AdSense gurus and experts are sharing this insider knowledge, for a fee.

You can learn all these secrets from them, as long as you buy their e-book, sign up for their seminar or purchase their newsletter. But I'm going to share all their AdSense tricks for free. Here they are:

1) Color code your ads to match your web site palette *exactly*. Don't use frames around your ads. Instead, in the AdSense code generation interface, make sure you choose the same color as your page background for the ad frame and the ad background.

When choosing the ad heading colors, match them to the *exact* color of your page headings. Use the exact same ad background shade as your page background. Use the exact same ad text font and color as the text on your pages. You can see an example of this color-matching on my Search Engine Advice Blog at - http://www.searchenginecollege.com/blog.htm - notice the 4 link ad unit at the top and the skyscraper text ad unit on the left hand side under the heading Ads by Google as you scroll down the page? The link and text colors are identical to the color palette used throughout the rest of the page.

Near enough is NOT good enough. If you can't quite get the color matching right, use Google's built in color palette together with the RGB to HEX or vice versa color converter on this page - http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Style. That handy little tool was a life saver for me.

This is probably the one single tweak that made the most difference to my commission levels.

2) Try not to use the traditional horizontal banner style or leaderboard image ads because people are blind to them.

3) Use Google's own AdSense optimization tips at https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html and visual heat map to assist you in deciding where on your page to place your AdSense ad code.

4) Research competitive keywords using a keyword research tool such as Keyword Discovery at http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/?id=22487 or grab a list of the most popular keywords from various sources and use them in your web site pages where relevant. This article - http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/article.php/2156041 - is a good source of frequently searched keywords. Targeting popular keywords should trigger AdSense ads on your pages that utilize those keywords. The more popular the keyword or phrase, the higher AdWords advertisers are generally willing to pay per click for it so the higher your commission on those clicks.

5) Incorporate the AdSense code into your page so that the ads look like a regular part of your site. You can see an example on this Internet Dating Stories site - http://www.lovestory.com.au/ - where link ads are incorporated within the regular left hand navigation of the site under the heading "Feature Links".

6) Use Google's new 4 and 5 link ad units wherever possible. They seem to have a much higher Click Through Rate (CTR) than regular ad styles. You can view all the AdSense ad formats at https://www.google.com/adsense/adformats.

7) Place arrows or images next to your ads to draw attention to them. You can see two different versions of on this search engine article library page - http://www.searchenginecollege.com/articles/article-library.htm - at the top (where a pointing hand directs your eye to the ad) and the bottom where 3 images draw your attention to each of the three AdSense ads.

8) Use the full allowance of multiple AdSense ads on each of your pages - 3 regular AdSense ads, plus 1 link unit. Use careful placement of these ads so they blend into your site and don't distract from your content. Clever use of this allowance can be seen on this page about bad Internet dating stories - http://www.lovestory.com.au/bad-stories.htm - where you see:

Extending VoIP to Remote Locations: Challenges and Solutions
Quintum's survivable...
PacketSaver: More Efficient, More Reliable VoIP
Learn How VoIP is Dramatically Cutting Telecom Costs for Small Businesses
FierceIPTV
State of Minnesota Interconnects Court System Using Citrix NetScaler Application Delivery
Hundreds more titles...

- 1 horizontal 4 link ad unit towards the top of the page under the first paragraph.
- 1 vertical skyscraper text ad unit about halfway down the left hand side under "Sponsor Links".
- 1 vertical skyscraper image ad unit down the left hand side under "Sponsor Links".
- 1 horizontal text banner unit at the bottom of the page with images above each ad to draw attention to them.

You can also include 1 AdSense referral button in addition to the 3 other units.

9) Tailor your page content to a particular niche or focus. Page content that is tailored towards a specific theme is more likely to trigger AdWords ads that closely match the content and are therefore more likely to interest your visitors and inspire them to click.

Don't create pages merely for the sake of placing AdSense ads. Visitors (and search engines) can see through this ruse in an instant.

10) Use custom Ad Channels for each of your ad placements, for example, "Top 5 Link Unit Blue Palette" or "Left Side Navigation Image Skyscraper" etc. Tweak, track and measure the success of each of these custom channels so you know what gives you the highest CTR. Some ad formats and colors will work better than others, but you won't know which until you test, test and test some more!

ARTICLE RESOURCE BOX:

The above article may be re-published as long as the following paragraph is included at the end of the article and as long as you link to the URL mentioned below:

About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running her own SEO business, Kalena manages Search Engine College - http://www.searchenginecollege.com - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing subjects.

Traffic Building - Top Four Traffic Building Techniques for Success

2006-10-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

Traffic building. What is it all about? We are told we have to traffic build. We must get traffic in order to build a list, in order to sell our products.

But why don’t we just buy a million visitors a month? That would certainly be the easiest way, wouldn’t it?

But you and I know better. For our traffic to be worthwhile, it must be personal. It must be targeted. And we must target out landing pages to our traffic sources.

So what are my top 4 traffic building techniques?

4) Google Adwords. I have a love-hate relationship with Google Adwords. I hate the fact that my conversion rate on Adwords visitors is less than 25% of my conversion rate everywhere else, on average. I love the fact that I can get as many as 1000 visitors per day from Adwords, so I can test opt in script and sales pages quickly and easily. Advice: Never spend more on Adwords than you can afford to lose, at least until you get good at it and have consistent results. Buy a good book on Adwords and learn everything you can and test everything you do.

3) Ezine advertising. I like ezine advertising. Why? If someone opts into your list from an ezine ad, what do you know about them? You know they read their emails. You know they click through links in their emails. You know they do not unsubscribe. In short, they are everything you want in a subscriber.

2) Other people’s lists. And no, I don’t mean stealing or buying or anything like that. I mean an endorsed mailing. That is where you have someone else who has a list, mail an offer to their list that offers some incentive for their subscribers to opt in to your list. It may be a free report or a free product. It may be useful information that you can offer them. You can either pay the list owner or swap mailings with them. For example, you mail an offer for them, and they mail an offer for you.

1) Article writing. This may well be one of the hardest forms of traffic generation because of the time involved. You cannot just write a check or use paypal to write your articles. You literally have to sit down for a hour a day and write articles. And for some of you, it may not be easy to write. But let me ask you this. If you were to write for one hour a day for a month, do you think it will be harder or easier at the end of one month to write articles? Of course it will be easier. Just do it. Write for one hour every day.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_Mize

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 5)

2006-09-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 4)

2006-09-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 3)

2006-09-18T00:29:00.000-07:00

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

An Introduction to RSS

2006-09-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

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

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 2)

2006-09-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

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

Google Adsense Tips For Blogger (part 1)

2006-09-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

Private Student Loan Consolidation

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What Is Student Consolidation For?

2006-09-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

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.

SEO Techniques

2006-08-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

So you want Your website to be on the first page of every Search Engine - SEO Techniques will help You get there! The Techniques on this page will enpower You with the information that will move You towards that goal. Set Your aim high, the sky is the limit! Others have done it, so why can't You -- Search Engine Optimization ( SEO ) is really quite simple!

If You have been putting off optimizing Your website for a higher Search Engine results position, today is a good day to make Your start. SEO Techniques will make it much easier that You expected!

The following list of SEO Techniques will help you optimize your website so you will get a higher Search Engine Results Position (SERP). Some of the items can be done quickly -- others will take a bit of time.

If you complete all the items on the following list of SEO Techniques, give the Search Engines some time to send out their bots to deep crawl your website, your site traffic will increase. Make sure you are ready for it!

Search Engine Optimization -- What is it?
Optimizing your website so you will obtain a high search engine results position is what SEO Techniques is all about. It is reported that 65% of all websites visited start with a search from a search engine.

For people to find your site via a search engine, the site will require a high Search Engine Results Position (SERP). This means when they search keywords phrases like SEO techniques, they will find you site page on the first page of the search engine results. Ending up on the 10 page of the search engines results will not get you any traffic.

Getting a high SERP is a combination of a number of things. Leaving out any of the items on the following list of SEO Techniques can result in your page not getting as high a search engine results position as it could.

Google Adsense Tips

2006-08-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

most of the pages on this site display text ads from Google's AdWords program. To display these ads, a site must join Google's AdSense program. Joining is free, but not all sites are eligible to join. Once you're accepted, however, it's very simple to place the ads on your pages and to start generating revenue for your site. AdSense will serve ads that are generally very relevant to the content of a particular page. Here are some tips based on my experiences so far with the AdSense program.

Google Adsense tips #1 : Don't put ads on empty pages.

When I reworked my site, I built a skeleton set of pages that had no content, just titles and some meta tags. I displayed ads on those pages, however. Although all you see are public service ads at first, the very act of displaying ads on a page causes the AdSense web crawler to quickly fetch that page for analysis. A page with good content will thus begin showing relevant paying ads fairly quickly.

If you don't have any content, then, Google will have to guess as what your page is about. It may guess wrong, and so the ads that it displays may not be relevant. You'll have to wait until Google re-crawls the site for the ads to correct themselves. Here is what Google had to say when I asked them about how often the AdSense crawler updates a site:

Thank you for taking the time to update your site. New ads will start appearing on your site the next time our crawler re-indexes your site. Unfortunately at this time, we are unable to control how often our crawlers index the content on your site.

Crawling is done automatically by our bots. When new pages are added to your website or introduced to the AdSense program, our crawlers will usually get to them within 30 minutes. If you make changes to a page, however, it may take up to 2 or 3 weeks before the changes are reflected in our index. Until we are able to crawl your web pages, you may notice public service ads, for which you will not receive any earnings.

Google Adsense tips #2 : Don't be afraid to ask questions

If you're wondering about something, don't be afraid to ask Google. So far, they've always responded to my questions within a working day. There are two email addresses to use, depending on the type of question:

Please feel free to email us at adsense-tech@google.com if you have additional technical questions or concerns. For general program or account questions, please email adsense-support@google.com.

Their responses are always very polite, and they appreciate getting problem reports and suggestions.

Google Adsense Tips #3 : Avoid non-English characters on English pages
This one is a bug, to be honest. My surname is French, and I prefer to write it out correctly with the accent grave on the first "e". Every page on my site would then include at least two accented letters, because my name shows up twice in the footer. On some pages my name shows up two or three more times.

Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. But on some pages the presence of the accented characters is enough to cause AdSense to display non-relevant ads in French. This happens whether the browser indicates a preference for French or not.

Google Adsense Tips #4 : Check your keyword density

Although Google doesn't release exact details as to how they determine the ads to serve on a given page, they do tell us that it's the text content of the page that matters, not the meta tags. Before serving ads on a page, then, you might want to check its keyword density. A good, free tool for doing this is found here:

http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

This lets you fine-tune the page before exposing it to the AdSense crawler.

Visit :

http://www.ericgiguere.com for complete google tips article.

How To Use Blogger Templates

2006-07-31T21:42:00.000-07:00

This post helps you to install a new template on Blogger. I have provided you this document as a guide to use the templates downloadable from this blog. This guide is not an official document from Blogger itself, and if there are mistakes in this document it is entirely attributable to me.All templates have been actually tested using a Blogger account.
Warning: if you haven’t got a clue what you are doing you are welcome to try this out. If however somehow the looks of your blog are not what you expected it to be, please revert back to the previous template you used. Always make a backup of your existing template before installing a new one!Installing a new template is a simple three-step process.

Extract dowloaded file using Windows XP the built-in zip file reader. I recommend to use a program like winzip.

- Open html file with notepad, File-open, file of type: all files.

- Log in to Blogger account dashboard

- Click on the icon under “change settings”

- Click the button “template”

- Replace the template text (make a backup of the old template text first).

- The graphical templates use the image files that are within the .zip file that you can download. Upload these image files to the same directory on the webserver as where your blogger files are written to. or you can upload these image file to a free webhosting like geocities or photobucket.

- if you uploaded these image to other webhosting, include the url of your hosting before the images name. example: imagename_Stars1.jpg becomes http://yourwebhosting.com/imagename_Stars1.jpg.

- Click on “save changes”

- Republish the entire site

Forex. com Gain Capital Group

2006-07-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

FOREX.com is a registered Futures Commission Merchant (NFA ID #0339826) and a division of GAIN Capital Group. A pioneer in online foreign exchange, GAIN Capital Group provides forex trading & asset management services to institutional investors and professional money managers in over 140 countries.

At FOREX.com, individual forex traders can leverage the market expertise and financial strength of GAIN Capital Group and access an institutional currency trading platform, FOREXTrader, along with powerful real-time forex charts, professional forex market research, and a suite of advanced forex trading tools.

For traders new to the forex market, FOREX.com offers forex training programs, forex minis, and information about trading the forex market.

Why Choose Forex.com

Respected Market Leader
* 9th Fastest Growing Technology Firm in the U.S.
* Executive team of Wall Street veterans with over 100 years experience
* Over $100 billion in monthly trade volume
* Registered Futures Commission Merchant
* Clients in over 140 countries

Best in Class Dealing Practices
* Fixed dealing spreads under all market conditions
* Click and deal from streaming executable prices
* Guaranteed Fills on Stop Loss and Limit Orders*
* No slippage on market orders**
* Risk limited to funds on deposit

Advanced Trading Tools
* Real-time forex charting
* Daily & weekly forex research reports
* Up to the minute market commentary
* Streaming news headlines
* Real-time trade alerts

Personalized Service
* 24 hr customer support by phone, email or chat
* Knowledgeable Series 3 Registered Forex Specialists
* Free mentoring services
* Online account management tool “MyAccount”

BECAME FOREX TRADER FOR FREE!

2006-07-31T21:11:00.000-07:00

JOIN & BECAME FOREX TRADER FOR FREE!
You could Earn $10, $100 or More a day!

ITS FREE>>>

Make money in Forex trading so easy,

Join today get real Cash $5 reward & $10,000 Virtual money to practice.
Start trading as litle as $1, Accept e-gold, e-bullion, wire transfer.
Just join now for free!, Open account and Get $5 Cash reward & $10,000 Virtual trading.

Follow link below to open account:

http://www.marketiva.com

after signup you can do this step:
1. Download "Streamster " and install on your computer
2. login from Streamster & start trading forex,
3. You can start trading with click Pair under colums "Bid " or " Offer". than fill "Quantity size" ( You can trade with 100 guantity size per $1 real Cash ) than select "live trading" or "Virtual trading"( for practice ) , press "ok"
4. For Buy/long order Click Pair (like GBP/USD) under "Offer" colum
5. For Sell/Short order Click Pair ( Like GBP/USD) under "Bid" Colum
6. look at "trade price" if you feel get profit, you can "Close" follow this step: Click at "positions" than Click under " instru.." colum. example:GBP/USD, click "close "

> You can Fund or withdraw your cash via: e-gold, e-bullion or wire transfer, Before you can withdraw you must send verification id: upload your "photo" & Copy your Driver license or pasport or else. SCAN your document and upload to Marketiva or> follow link below>

https://www.marketiva.com/index.ncre?page=identification

> You can make deposit with wire transfer, e-gold or e-bullion,
Just Click "account Center", Make deposit at Deposit fund, Withdraw at Withdraw fund
> Try to trading with virtual money & you will understand about all methode to trade, Click " Discussion " to meet & share with all trader, you can select your country group & Chat with all member to share about your trade.

Forex Trading Platform

2006-07-31T20:28:00.000-07:00

As the name says, the Forex trading platform is a place where you can sell and buy the forex. This can also be called the forex-trading station. All forex trading financial companies, banks, traders and brokers will provide their own trading hub. These currency trading or forex trading hubs use sophisticated software's, which have, can perform various kinds of analysis such as technical and fundamental analysis. They also generate data, which is both numeric, and well as statistical base such as graphs, pies, regression data etc.

In most cases the trading stations or the platforms have real time streaming ticker line. This ticker line is being constantly updated and gives the buy / sell currency rate of major currencies in pairs. Forex dealers or traders also maintain fixed spreads on major currencies across the world, which are constant irrespective of the changing financial markets. Most of the trading stations will provide the following

Real time streaming of the major currencies in pairs.
Pricing which is competitive
Fixed spreads in 3-5 pips
Certainty of price for the currencies in buy and sell position

Another factor in the forex trade is that the more creditworthiness an institution or a forex trader is, the better access they have to market information and competitive pricing. This is then reflected also in the trading sessions that the subscribers and the investors utilize. They would have better access to interbank prices and therefore the cost of the execution for the trade in currencies would be better. The currency trade software's provide the following in most cases

Real time streaming currency pair rates. One can click the suitable boxes provided to confirm the sale or the purchase of the desired currencies.
They allow the linkage to currency margin account, which means that you can have more purchasing power with less of investment.
Immediate confirmation of the sale / purchase of the currencies. Of course the cost would be debited to your account. This is done almost simultaneously and in real time.
These currency trade software will also show you the real time profit / losses that you have made in the currency transactions.

Investors must make sure that when they subscribe to these currency trade software's, they read the terms and conditions as many trades may be subject to regulations and the agreement that may be drawn between the client and the websites / currency trade companies.

There are options provided whereby one can also limit or stop the open orders. These can also be cancelled or modified at a later stage in these forex trades. Reports on all forex and currency transactions can also be generated. These reports can be in the form of monthly / weekly reports. One can print these records or download them for later. There are many combinations and permutations, which are possible. Depending upon forex trading packages that each forex trader or financial company may provide, the forex trading stations may differ in features provided.

About the author:
Forex Trading Platform is user-friendly software showing you live prices to decide on your trading in Forex markets. For more info, visit http://www.forex-made-easy.biz/forex-trading-platform