According to this release today, sent to Adsense publishers, Google is experimenting with different formats for ads. I think this is good news...
...for advertisers and publishers - anything that calls attention to the ads is helping both.
See the release below, and below that, the detail they reference:
Readers with sharp eyes will notice that on some rare occasions, your ads may appear or act slightly differently than what youre accustomed to. Rest assured that this is normal behavior that results from our efforts to improve the experience for all members of the advertising ecosystem. (You may have noticed a similar post about our search results on the official Google blog.)
One way in which we achieve this is by making continued tweaks and innovations to the user behavior and appearance of our ads. In the past, these experiments have included changes to the font styling, coloring, spacing, and other aesthetic components. More specifically, changes such as redesigned ad units and arrows to show additional ads have stemmed from these tests. The purpose of these tests is to identify changes to our product that can bring long-term benefits to our publishers, your sites visitors, and advertisers.
Before rolling out a change to our ads, we test performance for a limited number of ad impressions, which may not apply to all publishers. Although we dont notify publishers of these specific changes in order to prevent bias, we closely monitor the performance of these tests. We also welcome feedback from publishers, users, and advertisers, so feel free to drop us an email.
A fresh, new look for AdSense ads
You may have noticed that some of your ad units have started to look a little different lately " were happy to announce that, just in time for spring, weve given our standard ad units a fresh makeover. After extensive testing and research, weve found that the new formats are not only visually appealing to users, but they also perform even better for publishers and advertisers. Were in the process of rolling out this change to all ad units, and you should see that your ad units are automatically updated over the next few days. But, before you rush to make sure all of your ad units still match your site, please be assured that the fonts and colors of your ads wont be changed.
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10:54 PM
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EVER experienced going from one house to another, or from one office to another, just to offer whatever item you want to sell? Wouldn't it be good if you will be able to sell your wares with just a click?
Davaosale.com brains Hermes Diomela, Mark Wendel dela Cruz, and Valentine Apostol encountered the same trouble back in their college days at the Ateneo de Davao University that prompted them to think of a solution.
Get updates and join Dabawenyos Kadayawan 2008 celebration
The three are best of friends in college and were all working as student assistants. Being chat addicts, they are not new to the power of the Internet in bringing messages across continents. They first tapped MiRC chat as a venue for them to go into buy-and-sell.
"Pero ang problema namin is madali mawala yung posts namin sa MiRC. Kaya we thought of another way to post our products. We came across the software PHPBB. Ito yung ginamit naming sa pag-create ng gaming website na davaosale.com," Diomela said.
Each of the three invested P700 for them to be able to buy an Internet domain worth P600 and fee for a one-year hosting worth P1,400. Davaosale.com was officially launched on March 15, 2004.
Diomela said they started inviting their chatmates and friends to visit their website, www.davaosale.com, and slowly they gained followers.
One year after their launch, davaosale.com averages at least 5,000 hits per day or 150,000 per month.
Diomela said that from the hits, they are paid by Google for their use of the American company's Adsense software. They receive about P15,000 per month from Google for using Adsense in their website.
Davaosale also earns from the premium membership fees of P500 per year. He said premium members of their website are given the priority to post their products on the website.
Majority of their income are, however, generated from banner ads. They charge monthly fee for the banner ads. Though refusing to divulge how much they averagely earn from the website, Diomela said it is just enough for them to live a decent life.
A visit at the website showed that there are a number of categories for viewers to select to depending on the items they are wanting to buy or sell. The categories range from automobile, agriculture, apartments, beauty and fragrances, books, magazines, cameras, computers and its accessories, clothing, gift items, food and wine, game consoles, health and fitness, jewelries, medical equipments, pets, toys and even human services.
Diomela said the items banned from their website are sex services, drugs, and fake items. He admitted though that some customers were still able to post fake items for sale in their website.
Website moderators are however at hand to address and delete posting of banned items.
Here's the complete list of their prohibited items:
1. Any item that is harmful to minors, obscene or otherwise objectionable.
2. Sales or promotion of certain weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles.
3. Explosive device.
4. Cigarettes.
5. Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
6. Prescription drugs.
7. Unauthorized copies of software, music, video games, photos or other media.
8. Stolen items.
9. Endangered animals.
10. Any items used for hacking.
11. Bodies, body parts, bodily fluids.
12. Fake ID's.
13. Gambling or casino-related content.
14. Any form of prostitution, pornography, adult, or mature content.
15. Items that will aid in theft or violence.
16. Any other content that promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others
17. Sales or promotion of beer or hard alcohol.
18. Sales or promotion of tobacco or tobacco-related products.
19. Sales or promotion of prescription drugs
20. Sales or promotion of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods.
21. Sale of smuggled goods.
In some instances, there are customers who complain of being victimized by "scammers" who posted their wares at Davaosale.
Diomela said they usually monitor customers who are being complained about and if there is enough ground to the complaints, they are banned from the website.
Diomela, however, clarified that they are in no way involved in the transactions between Davaosale customers, thus they are not liable for anything. A disclaimer posted at their website states such.
Davaosale mostly cater to the 18-27 age brackets and middle-income earners and students.
So what's next for Davaosale? Diomela said they are planning to create another website that would cater to jobseekers and companies looking for workers. He however did not give details since they are still planning it out.
Davaosale is also printing a monthly magazine that they give to their "offline" customers. In the magazine are found the different items that being posted at the website. The magazine is by the way for free.
Diomela said many of their customers give good feedbacks and are thankful that Davaosale helped them find a safer and faster venue to sell their products. All for free, well mostly. Talk about Dabawenyo style of selling. (BOT)
Davaosale.com brains Hermes Diomela, Mark Wendel dela Cruz, and Valentine Apostol encountered the same trouble back in their college days at the Ateneo de Davao University that prompted them to think of a solution.
Get updates and join Dabawenyos Kadayawan 2008 celebration
The three are best of friends in college and were all working as student assistants. Being chat addicts, they are not new to the power of the Internet in bringing messages across continents. They first tapped MiRC chat as a venue for them to go into buy-and-sell.
"Pero ang problema namin is madali mawala yung posts namin sa MiRC. Kaya we thought of another way to post our products. We came across the software PHPBB. Ito yung ginamit naming sa pag-create ng gaming website na davaosale.com," Diomela said.
Each of the three invested P700 for them to be able to buy an Internet domain worth P600 and fee for a one-year hosting worth P1,400. Davaosale.com was officially launched on March 15, 2004.
Diomela said they started inviting their chatmates and friends to visit their website, www.davaosale.com, and slowly they gained followers.
One year after their launch, davaosale.com averages at least 5,000 hits per day or 150,000 per month.
Diomela said that from the hits, they are paid by Google for their use of the American company's Adsense software. They receive about P15,000 per month from Google for using Adsense in their website.
Davaosale also earns from the premium membership fees of P500 per year. He said premium members of their website are given the priority to post their products on the website.
Majority of their income are, however, generated from banner ads. They charge monthly fee for the banner ads. Though refusing to divulge how much they averagely earn from the website, Diomela said it is just enough for them to live a decent life.
A visit at the website showed that there are a number of categories for viewers to select to depending on the items they are wanting to buy or sell. The categories range from automobile, agriculture, apartments, beauty and fragrances, books, magazines, cameras, computers and its accessories, clothing, gift items, food and wine, game consoles, health and fitness, jewelries, medical equipments, pets, toys and even human services.
Diomela said the items banned from their website are sex services, drugs, and fake items. He admitted though that some customers were still able to post fake items for sale in their website.
Website moderators are however at hand to address and delete posting of banned items.
Here's the complete list of their prohibited items:
1. Any item that is harmful to minors, obscene or otherwise objectionable.
2. Sales or promotion of certain weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles.
3. Explosive device.
4. Cigarettes.
5. Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
6. Prescription drugs.
7. Unauthorized copies of software, music, video games, photos or other media.
8. Stolen items.
9. Endangered animals.
10. Any items used for hacking.
11. Bodies, body parts, bodily fluids.
12. Fake ID's.
13. Gambling or casino-related content.
14. Any form of prostitution, pornography, adult, or mature content.
15. Items that will aid in theft or violence.
16. Any other content that promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others
17. Sales or promotion of beer or hard alcohol.
18. Sales or promotion of tobacco or tobacco-related products.
19. Sales or promotion of prescription drugs
20. Sales or promotion of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods.
21. Sale of smuggled goods.
In some instances, there are customers who complain of being victimized by "scammers" who posted their wares at Davaosale.
Diomela said they usually monitor customers who are being complained about and if there is enough ground to the complaints, they are banned from the website.
Diomela, however, clarified that they are in no way involved in the transactions between Davaosale customers, thus they are not liable for anything. A disclaimer posted at their website states such.
Davaosale mostly cater to the 18-27 age brackets and middle-income earners and students.
So what's next for Davaosale? Diomela said they are planning to create another website that would cater to jobseekers and companies looking for workers. He however did not give details since they are still planning it out.
Davaosale is also printing a monthly magazine that they give to their "offline" customers. In the magazine are found the different items that being posted at the website. The magazine is by the way for free.
Diomela said many of their customers give good feedbacks and are thankful that Davaosale helped them find a safer and faster venue to sell their products. All for free, well mostly. Talk about Dabawenyo style of selling. (BOT)
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7:35 PM
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Google Operating System reported they are now seeing the Google AdSense for Feeds option in their AdSense account set up screen. I noted at the Search Engine Roundtable that many folks are buzzing about the new feature at several discussion forums. It appears to me that this beta offering is now open to all, if not most Google AdSense publishers.
In short, Google AdSense for Feeds allows publishers to add AdSense ads within their RSS feed distribution. In fact, Google has been making it easier for those with FeedBurner accounts to easily integrate AdSense for Feeds in their published RSS feeds. The other day, I broke the news at the Search Engine Roundtable that FeedBurner is not accepting new publishers into the FeedBurner Ad Network. A few days after that, Google pushes out the AdSense for Feeds to virtually all AdSense publishers.
In short, Google AdSense for Feeds allows publishers to add AdSense ads within their RSS feed distribution. In fact, Google has been making it easier for those with FeedBurner accounts to easily integrate AdSense for Feeds in their published RSS feeds. The other day, I broke the news at the Search Engine Roundtable that FeedBurner is not accepting new publishers into the FeedBurner Ad Network. A few days after that, Google pushes out the AdSense for Feeds to virtually all AdSense publishers.
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7:35 PM
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Some blog sites are reporting that Google has added the Adsense for feeds option in their Adsense accounts’ Setup menu. Checking out my Adsense account validated these reports. Right after the Adsense for Content and Adsense for Search options in the Adsense Setup menu is a new option labeled “Adsense for Feeds”. Google says it allows users to place relevant ads in feeds Google manages for them.
With the lack of official announcement yet from the Inside Adsense blog, I log-in to my Adsense account and saw the new option to create Adsense for blog feeds. Why you choose this option the Adsense account manager brings you to Adsense for feeds set-up screen. (Note: You are allowed only to set up one Adsense for Feeds ad unit) Once you’ve used up your single option, clicking on the link to Adsense for Feeds will just bring you to a blank page.
After this, you’ll be prompted to specify your blog’s url or feed url. Once you’ve done this you can start customizing your Adsense for Feed unit. However, if Google could not find a valid feed in you site, it will ask you to verify your Adsense for Feeds ad units and what its verified you can start serving your Adsense units to your blog/site’s RSS feeds.
If the system could not find a valid RSS feeds on your site, you will be asked to generate one right within your site to enable you to serve Google adsense units .
This is a welcome development for those Adsense publishers who are still earning a lot of money from their blog/sites Adsense units. While those who don’t want to go throuh the process of verifying their blog/sites will be asked to create their blog/sites’ Adsense units for Feed.
As for me, I might give this new Adsense feature a try.
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9:44 PM
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Behavioural targeting of ads is the in-thing on the internet right now. It's when an ad company serves advertisement based on a profile they have created of you. You might have noticed something similar on Facebook, which serves future-ads based on your feedback on the current ads: it's a system that learns what to serve based on your personal interest, which is in turn based on inferences drawn from either your declared personal information ('I like this band') or your actions online ('I bought this CD').
It is obviously a grey moral area, as it involves tracking you over the internet, as well as tracking your purchase and/or behaviour as a potential or active consumer. Most of this happens unknown to us.
The practice raises privacy concerns -- how many of us know that we are under such scrutiny and surveillance? Is our privacy too much to expect while surfing the internet from our own homes?These concerns have caught the attention of the U.S. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission; steps have been taken to investigate these doings. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, in a congressional hearing expressed his concerns over behavioural targeting stating that "privacy is a treasured right, but it is also a right that seems to come under regular attack." He also added concern that people "assume they are in the privacy of their own home and that this privacy will be respected. Unfortunately, this is not always the case."
These hearings seemed to have made some impact on the ad policies of at least two major online players. Google yesterday, through a blog post titled "New enhancements on the Google content network" slipped in an opt-out option for cookies that serve both AdSense and DoubleClick ads. A cookie is what does the behavioural tracking mentioned earlier. Now that Google has acquired ad-network DoubleClick, the company will place an additional DoubleClick cookie on our browsers. This will allow advertisers to leverage Google's existing Adsense network to push more display ads. But at least now, we can opt-out of the ad-Blitzkrieg.
Yahoo, took a similar stance. This other giant in our online room will also allow you to opt-out of 'customized' ads on Yahoo.com. Yahoo already allows you to opt-out of such served ads served on third party networks.
Customized, here, is just a euphemism for behaviourial targeting.
What these announcements amount to is a skirting of the issue. How many of us will take the time to opt-out of a service? How many are even aware that there is an issue here? Do we need to click on a button, or fill a form to actively defend what should be an obvious right to privacy?
During the congressional hearing, Facebook pointed out [PDF] that "receiving information that is likely to be relevant... leads to a better online experience". The issue here is the word likely, and the steps taken to refine that likelihood. It would be an even better online experience if we had the option to opt-in to these services, rather than opt-out.
You can opt-out of Yahoo's cookies here, and Google's here.
It is obviously a grey moral area, as it involves tracking you over the internet, as well as tracking your purchase and/or behaviour as a potential or active consumer. Most of this happens unknown to us.
The practice raises privacy concerns -- how many of us know that we are under such scrutiny and surveillance? Is our privacy too much to expect while surfing the internet from our own homes?These concerns have caught the attention of the U.S. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission; steps have been taken to investigate these doings. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, in a congressional hearing expressed his concerns over behavioural targeting stating that "privacy is a treasured right, but it is also a right that seems to come under regular attack." He also added concern that people "assume they are in the privacy of their own home and that this privacy will be respected. Unfortunately, this is not always the case."
These hearings seemed to have made some impact on the ad policies of at least two major online players. Google yesterday, through a blog post titled "New enhancements on the Google content network" slipped in an opt-out option for cookies that serve both AdSense and DoubleClick ads. A cookie is what does the behavioural tracking mentioned earlier. Now that Google has acquired ad-network DoubleClick, the company will place an additional DoubleClick cookie on our browsers. This will allow advertisers to leverage Google's existing Adsense network to push more display ads. But at least now, we can opt-out of the ad-Blitzkrieg.
Yahoo, took a similar stance. This other giant in our online room will also allow you to opt-out of 'customized' ads on Yahoo.com. Yahoo already allows you to opt-out of such served ads served on third party networks.
Customized, here, is just a euphemism for behaviourial targeting.
What these announcements amount to is a skirting of the issue. How many of us will take the time to opt-out of a service? How many are even aware that there is an issue here? Do we need to click on a button, or fill a form to actively defend what should be an obvious right to privacy?
During the congressional hearing, Facebook pointed out [PDF] that "receiving information that is likely to be relevant... leads to a better online experience". The issue here is the word likely, and the steps taken to refine that likelihood. It would be an even better online experience if we had the option to opt-in to these services, rather than opt-out.
You can opt-out of Yahoo's cookies here, and Google's here.
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9:44 PM
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Google is doubling down on cookies. I like cookies as much as the next guy; I've got a box of linzer tarts next to me as I write this. But when a company as powerful as Google starts force feeding you with tracking agents, some might see that as unpalatable.
Much of Google's revenue is based on targeted advertising based on the browsing habits of searches of its Web database. This was accomplished through its AdSense network, which places a cookie on the systems of anyone visiting a site in its AdSense network. Now, Google will place aDoubleClick cookie too, as it integrates that Web pattern tracker's network with its own. The strategy was announced in a Thursday post on The Official Google Blog:
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Today we're announcing some key enhancements on the Google content network (partner sites for which we provide advertising) that will offer a better experience for users and better value for advertisers and publishers.
Some of the capabilities to be enabled "in the coming months" according to the blog include frequency capping and reporting, which allow advertisers to control the number of times a user sees a particular ad and access pertinent reports. Advertisers also will have access to "view-through" data, which helps show ad effectiveness by reporting how often people visited their sites after seeing an ad. Google also claims improved ad performance of its content network.
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We are enabling this functionality by implementing a DoubleClick ad-serving cookie across the Google content network. Using the DoubleClick cookie means that DoubleClick advertisers and publishers don't have to make any changes on their websites as we continue our integration efforts and offer additional enhancements.
To be fair, Google's opt out policy permits users to choose not to accept the cookies with a single click. Personally, I don't really care if my Web patterns are tracked; I have nothing to hide. Hey, you might even benefit from being shown stuff you didn't know you needed.
Much of Google's revenue is based on targeted advertising based on the browsing habits of searches of its Web database. This was accomplished through its AdSense network, which places a cookie on the systems of anyone visiting a site in its AdSense network. Now, Google will place aDoubleClick cookie too, as it integrates that Web pattern tracker's network with its own. The strategy was announced in a Thursday post on The Official Google Blog:
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•
•
•
Today we're announcing some key enhancements on the Google content network (partner sites for which we provide advertising) that will offer a better experience for users and better value for advertisers and publishers.
Some of the capabilities to be enabled "in the coming months" according to the blog include frequency capping and reporting, which allow advertisers to control the number of times a user sees a particular ad and access pertinent reports. Advertisers also will have access to "view-through" data, which helps show ad effectiveness by reporting how often people visited their sites after seeing an ad. Google also claims improved ad performance of its content network.
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We are enabling this functionality by implementing a DoubleClick ad-serving cookie across the Google content network. Using the DoubleClick cookie means that DoubleClick advertisers and publishers don't have to make any changes on their websites as we continue our integration efforts and offer additional enhancements.
To be fair, Google's opt out policy permits users to choose not to accept the cookies with a single click. Personally, I don't really care if my Web patterns are tracked; I have nothing to hide. Hey, you might even benefit from being shown stuff you didn't know you needed.
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9:44 PM
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One of the most sought after payment options for Google AdSense publishers is the ability to be paid via Western Union.
Google had announced at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld that they have expanded Western Union payment to the following five countries:
* Bulgaria
* Egypt
* Lithuania
* Morocco
* Taiwan
Western Union payments are also currently available in other countries, including Argentina, Chile, China (Mainland), Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and Romania.
If you are in any of these 14 countries and would like to receive payment via Western Union, follow these instructions. You must also be set up as an "individual" publisher to qualify.
AdSensePro Ashley added that "payments will be made in US dollars, but your Western Union agent may be able to convert your payment to your local currency."
Forum discussion at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld.
Google had announced at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld that they have expanded Western Union payment to the following five countries:
* Bulgaria
* Egypt
* Lithuania
* Morocco
* Taiwan
Western Union payments are also currently available in other countries, including Argentina, Chile, China (Mainland), Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and Romania.
If you are in any of these 14 countries and would like to receive payment via Western Union, follow these instructions. You must also be set up as an "individual" publisher to qualify.
AdSensePro Ashley added that "payments will be made in US dollars, but your Western Union agent may be able to convert your payment to your local currency."
Forum discussion at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld.
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11:24 PM
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Plenty of multimedia options exist for giving a website or blog a unique look, but when it comes to placing AdSense units, Google needs text.
The advent of universal search enables search engines to deliver more than the ten blue links of days past. When an image or video relevant to the query is available, people may see those items appear along with the usual links.
This lead to site publishers, bloggers in particular, to embrace the idea of pictures being worth a thousand words with their posts. A new post might be an image or a video, with little added to the post in the way of text, beyond the typical enthusiastic 'check this out' message.
It turns out that doing this on a site running Google's AdSense units gives the search engine problems when it tries to drop ads alongside that content. As noted on their Inside AdSense blog:Bad targeting likely means far fewer ad clicks, and less revenue, for Google and the site publisher. Despite the passage of time, Google's business model has not changed from a need for text to place advertising. It's something to keep in mind before posting one's next cute hedgehog pictures.
The advent of universal search enables search engines to deliver more than the ten blue links of days past. When an image or video relevant to the query is available, people may see those items appear along with the usual links.
This lead to site publishers, bloggers in particular, to embrace the idea of pictures being worth a thousand words with their posts. A new post might be an image or a video, with little added to the post in the way of text, beyond the typical enthusiastic 'check this out' message.
It turns out that doing this on a site running Google's AdSense units gives the search engine problems when it tries to drop ads alongside that content. As noted on their Inside AdSense blog:Bad targeting likely means far fewer ad clicks, and less revenue, for Google and the site publisher. Despite the passage of time, Google's business model has not changed from a need for text to place advertising. It's something to keep in mind before posting one's next cute hedgehog pictures.
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11:24 PM
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A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Ad Review Center, which helps Google AdSense publishers block advertisers, has dropped all the advertisers from showing up in the list.
But Google really did not hide all these advertisers from their publishers. It appears that based on how you actually access the Ad Review Center, you may see different options.
Russ noticed it seems to be a rendered bug of some sort. Russ had to click on the blocked tab and then re-click on the allowed tab. Once he did that, the ads showed up again.
I tried this myself and it is 100% a bug. You load up the Ad Review Center and the "Allowed" tab shows up empty. So I clicked on the "Blocked" tab and then clicked back onto the "Allowed" tab and the ads showed up again.
So this seems like a small bug that seems to be freaking out some AdSense publishers.
But Google really did not hide all these advertisers from their publishers. It appears that based on how you actually access the Ad Review Center, you may see different options.
Russ noticed it seems to be a rendered bug of some sort. Russ had to click on the blocked tab and then re-click on the allowed tab. Once he did that, the ads showed up again.
I tried this myself and it is 100% a bug. You load up the Ad Review Center and the "Allowed" tab shows up empty. So I clicked on the "Blocked" tab and then clicked back onto the "Allowed" tab and the ads showed up again.
So this seems like a small bug that seems to be freaking out some AdSense publishers.
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11:24 PM
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Web site owners should follow these handy tips for using Google's Analytics, AdSense, and AdWords tools.
by Jennifer L. DeLeo
Buzz up!on Yahoo!
Whether you're a first-time blogger or you've owned a Web site for many years, chances are you're not doing it just for fun. Most everyone wants to make money with their online venture, or at least gain lots of exposure. If this is the case, then you may want to opt for some Google tools to track your success.
If one of your objectives is to have a lot of eyeballs on your site, you may want to set up an account with Google Analytics, so that you can track your Web site's referrals and run traffic reports. Next, you'll likely want to choose which advertisements are relevant to your site's content by using Google AdSense. This way, you can earn money every time a visitor clicks on these ads. (Yes, real money!) Finally, Google AdWords will help you customize your ads and choose the right keywords to make your site search-friendly.
The idea of using these tools may seem a bit overwhelming at first. That's why we asked the Google experts to provide PC Magazine with a list of tips for using Analytics, AdSense, and Adwords. Study them, because they may just help your Web site grow and profit.
by Jennifer L. DeLeo
Buzz up!on Yahoo!
Whether you're a first-time blogger or you've owned a Web site for many years, chances are you're not doing it just for fun. Most everyone wants to make money with their online venture, or at least gain lots of exposure. If this is the case, then you may want to opt for some Google tools to track your success.
If one of your objectives is to have a lot of eyeballs on your site, you may want to set up an account with Google Analytics, so that you can track your Web site's referrals and run traffic reports. Next, you'll likely want to choose which advertisements are relevant to your site's content by using Google AdSense. This way, you can earn money every time a visitor clicks on these ads. (Yes, real money!) Finally, Google AdWords will help you customize your ads and choose the right keywords to make your site search-friendly.
The idea of using these tools may seem a bit overwhelming at first. That's why we asked the Google experts to provide PC Magazine with a list of tips for using Analytics, AdSense, and Adwords. Study them, because they may just help your Web site grow and profit.
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11:19 PM
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Understanding your Web site traffic will help you improve your site's revenue-generating potential by telling you what type of ads will work best on your site, as well as by offering advertisers proof that you're getting what amounts to prequalified sales leads. If you have ads on your site such as Google AdSense, AdBrite, or other off-server ads, you can set pricing and content requirements as you see fit. Be careful though about giving traffic data too freely: You don't want to compromise your users' privacy by selling their e-mail addresses (unless they provide their explicit consent), and you don't want to give away any information that might be of value to a competitor.For more on Web advertising, be sure to read What Is CPC-Based Web Advertising?
AllBusiness.com operates one of the Web's premier business sites, providing practical information and services for business professionals and growing businesses. See more at www.allbusiness.com.
AllBusiness.com operates one of the Web's premier business sites, providing practical information and services for business professionals and growing businesses. See more at www.allbusiness.com.
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11:19 PM
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Mention in-game advertising to video game fanatics and you’re likely to get one of two responses. The first will be bitter complaints that lament the scourge cluttering their virtual worlds. The other will be an uneasy acceptance that harbors hope the included ads will somehow make future games more affordable. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, however, in-game ads are here to stay.
Watchers like the Yankee group predict the marketplace for gaming advertisements will exceed $1b by 2012 and few companies invested in ad sales will let that pass by unattended. For several years, companies like Massive (Microsoft (MSFT)) and IGN have been working to make ads streamed to consoles an accepted reality. Publishers like EA (ERTS) and Activision (ATVI) have signed partnerships. Advertisers are lining up and anxious to see results.
Wednesday, Venture Beat reported Google (GOOG) may be gearing up to dive deeper into the market. According to the article, Google has been quietly testing “AdSense for Games” for months. Their technology, the report says, can be applied to console games, local PC titles, web-based PC titles and cell phone games. Wider spread deployment, the article suggests, could happen quickly.
At this point there is no official confirmation or news to suggest if anything is imminent. It is possible, as the article also contends, that this will remain in Google’s labs.
If a launch does happen, it would help settle questions about what Google’s been doing with the technology they acquired with the purchase of Adscape for $23m in February 2007.
For the near term, AdSense for Games is a story to watch.
At the end of June, Google expanded Adsense for video into a distribution service (Metue coverage of that deal is here).
Watchers like the Yankee group predict the marketplace for gaming advertisements will exceed $1b by 2012 and few companies invested in ad sales will let that pass by unattended. For several years, companies like Massive (Microsoft (MSFT)) and IGN have been working to make ads streamed to consoles an accepted reality. Publishers like EA (ERTS) and Activision (ATVI) have signed partnerships. Advertisers are lining up and anxious to see results.
Wednesday, Venture Beat reported Google (GOOG) may be gearing up to dive deeper into the market. According to the article, Google has been quietly testing “AdSense for Games” for months. Their technology, the report says, can be applied to console games, local PC titles, web-based PC titles and cell phone games. Wider spread deployment, the article suggests, could happen quickly.
At this point there is no official confirmation or news to suggest if anything is imminent. It is possible, as the article also contends, that this will remain in Google’s labs.
If a launch does happen, it would help settle questions about what Google’s been doing with the technology they acquired with the purchase of Adscape for $23m in February 2007.
For the near term, AdSense for Games is a story to watch.
At the end of June, Google expanded Adsense for video into a distribution service (Metue coverage of that deal is here).
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11:08 PM
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Earlier this month, we reported that had Google launched "Lively", its own browser-based virtual world. This seems to be the search giants' initial foray into the booming gaming segment, where Google virtually had no presence.
Well, looks like that will change soon, as initial reports indicate that Google has been quietly testing its "AdSense for Games" product for months. This according to sources is an in-game advertising technology that allows it to insert video ads into games. In demos of the technology, a game character can introduce a video ad, saying something like, "And now, a word from our sponsor". Google could launch the technology fairly sometime soon, since testing has been going on for a while now. Given that Google has been working on AdSense for Games since 2007, it's unclear why they haven't yet taken the plunge into the lucrative gaming pool. The gaming pool is occupied by established players like Double Fusion, IGA Worldwide, Microsoft's Massive, MochiMedia and NeoEdge Networks. Perhaps Google is waiting for some really innovative ideas to stir up the competition.
The Yankee Group predicts the gaming ad market will be worth $971.3 million by 2011. Google's top executives know that search advertising may not last forever, and in-game advertising could become a compelling technology over time as both games and in-game ad technology become more and more engaging.
Well, looks like that will change soon, as initial reports indicate that Google has been quietly testing its "AdSense for Games" product for months. This according to sources is an in-game advertising technology that allows it to insert video ads into games. In demos of the technology, a game character can introduce a video ad, saying something like, "And now, a word from our sponsor". Google could launch the technology fairly sometime soon, since testing has been going on for a while now. Given that Google has been working on AdSense for Games since 2007, it's unclear why they haven't yet taken the plunge into the lucrative gaming pool. The gaming pool is occupied by established players like Double Fusion, IGA Worldwide, Microsoft's Massive, MochiMedia and NeoEdge Networks. Perhaps Google is waiting for some really innovative ideas to stir up the competition.
The Yankee Group predicts the gaming ad market will be worth $971.3 million by 2011. Google's top executives know that search advertising may not last forever, and in-game advertising could become a compelling technology over time as both games and in-game ad technology become more and more engaging.
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11:08 PM
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Don't you think it is fascinating that with so many Adsense publishers, all setting up hundreds of sites, they have absolutely no idea who their clients are? The first rule of setting up and maintaining a successful business is thorough knowledge of your client. Don't you think it is fascinating that with so many Adsense publishers, all setting up hundreds of sites, they have absolutely no idea who their clients are? The first rule of setting up and maintaining a successful business is thorough knowledge of your client.
Let's flip the coin and look at it from another angle. Google does not pay you for clicks on your site; the Adwords advertiser is forking out the money for your checks. The reason why he advertises is to sell a product or service or to drive people to his site for a subscription or whatever reason. He is doing it to gain a business advantage.
The question here is: Are you giving him an advantage or are you just costing him money?
You have heard "˜Adsense is dead' or "˜there is not so much money to be made from Adsense as in the past'. Most Adsense publishers think they have to set up a few more sites which will make up for the lost income. Dead wrong.
The reason for the downward spiral in Adsense income originates from untargeted ads on web pages. Most people would love to place the blame at the doorstep of Google, but this is not the case. The problem lies with the publishing of thousands of websites solely intended to get clicks, thus optimized for the search engine and not giving a second thought to the advertiser from Adwords.
The result from the misuse of Adsense is obvious. In most of the current Adwords information products one of the first warnings you are given when placing adwords ads is to remove the link to advertise on the content network. The reason is simple; the ads appear on untargeted pages leading to untargeted customers. This is a waste of the advertiser's money and a direct loss of income for the Adsense publisher. All the serious Adwords advertisers are not advertising on the content network, which in turn leads to less competition. The cost per click on a content page is far less that the cost on a generic page search.
Adwords and Adsense will never die and is and will remain one of the top income earners for many internet marketers.
So what now? The answer lies in improved sites with quality content. Play with the search engine not against it. If you want to compete with a search engine start your own. Not impossible, Google did it and succeeded.
So what exactly is improved content?
The keywords you are optimizing for should relate to your web content and add value for the visitor. This does not mean you have to write one thousand word pages all on your own. One to two hundred words per page will be fine as long as it answers the question or part of the question that the visitor was searching for with the search term. From there on the page can lead to Adsense ads and a click on the link will be a targeted visitor for the advertiser.
You also do not need to write each page yourself, you can still use PLR content and articles for your sites just make sure that the main question that the visitor would have when searching for that term is answered and lead them further to more specific information through Adsense ads.
Can you imagine the joy on your face when receiving a five figure check from Adsense, and think of the joy you would place on the face of the Adwords advertiser also receiving a five figure payday?
Once you have your site set up correctly there are a few elements that you need to give attention to. The truth about Adsense placement is that there is a trick to it. For high CTR your ad placement must be highly optimized.
I have seen this myself in testing different Adsense placement methods. One placement for all does not work. On certain pages it would be higher up and on others it would be lower down.
It is all dependent on the content of the page and the question you should ask yourself is at which point in the content is the visitor the most likely to want more specific information. If you write your content yourself you should write it in such a way that you give information and then raise curiosity, and it is at that point where your ad should appear for the first time. By utilizing this method and keeping your content targeted you will receive many clicks and your Adwords advertiser will receive the targeted visitors he wants.
Are you beginning to see how important it is to get the content and your ads right Now, let me ask you this: Are you one of the Adsense publishers who are costing advertiser's money or are you one that actually help make advertisers money?
Let's flip the coin and look at it from another angle. Google does not pay you for clicks on your site; the Adwords advertiser is forking out the money for your checks. The reason why he advertises is to sell a product or service or to drive people to his site for a subscription or whatever reason. He is doing it to gain a business advantage.
The question here is: Are you giving him an advantage or are you just costing him money?
You have heard "˜Adsense is dead' or "˜there is not so much money to be made from Adsense as in the past'. Most Adsense publishers think they have to set up a few more sites which will make up for the lost income. Dead wrong.
The reason for the downward spiral in Adsense income originates from untargeted ads on web pages. Most people would love to place the blame at the doorstep of Google, but this is not the case. The problem lies with the publishing of thousands of websites solely intended to get clicks, thus optimized for the search engine and not giving a second thought to the advertiser from Adwords.
The result from the misuse of Adsense is obvious. In most of the current Adwords information products one of the first warnings you are given when placing adwords ads is to remove the link to advertise on the content network. The reason is simple; the ads appear on untargeted pages leading to untargeted customers. This is a waste of the advertiser's money and a direct loss of income for the Adsense publisher. All the serious Adwords advertisers are not advertising on the content network, which in turn leads to less competition. The cost per click on a content page is far less that the cost on a generic page search.
Adwords and Adsense will never die and is and will remain one of the top income earners for many internet marketers.
So what now? The answer lies in improved sites with quality content. Play with the search engine not against it. If you want to compete with a search engine start your own. Not impossible, Google did it and succeeded.
So what exactly is improved content?
The keywords you are optimizing for should relate to your web content and add value for the visitor. This does not mean you have to write one thousand word pages all on your own. One to two hundred words per page will be fine as long as it answers the question or part of the question that the visitor was searching for with the search term. From there on the page can lead to Adsense ads and a click on the link will be a targeted visitor for the advertiser.
You also do not need to write each page yourself, you can still use PLR content and articles for your sites just make sure that the main question that the visitor would have when searching for that term is answered and lead them further to more specific information through Adsense ads.
Can you imagine the joy on your face when receiving a five figure check from Adsense, and think of the joy you would place on the face of the Adwords advertiser also receiving a five figure payday?
Once you have your site set up correctly there are a few elements that you need to give attention to. The truth about Adsense placement is that there is a trick to it. For high CTR your ad placement must be highly optimized.
I have seen this myself in testing different Adsense placement methods. One placement for all does not work. On certain pages it would be higher up and on others it would be lower down.
It is all dependent on the content of the page and the question you should ask yourself is at which point in the content is the visitor the most likely to want more specific information. If you write your content yourself you should write it in such a way that you give information and then raise curiosity, and it is at that point where your ad should appear for the first time. By utilizing this method and keeping your content targeted you will receive many clicks and your Adwords advertiser will receive the targeted visitors he wants.
Are you beginning to see how important it is to get the content and your ads right Now, let me ask you this: Are you one of the Adsense publishers who are costing advertiser's money or are you one that actually help make advertisers money?
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11:08 PM
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JULY 28, 2008 | First the good news: Click fraud dropped ever-so slightly last quarter, from 16.3 percent to 16.2 percent. But the bad news is that botnets were the force behind over 25 percent of all click fraud traffic in the second quarter, according to the latest numbers on pay-per-click fraud reported in the Click Fraud Index.
The numbers -- logged by the Click Fraud Network, a group over 4,000 online advertisers and ad agencies and reported by Click Forensics -- also revealed a slight decrease in the average number of fraudulent pay-per-click ads found in search engines such as Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network. The average for the second quarter was 27.6 percent, down from 27.8 percent in the first quarter.
But the big red flag in the report was the increasingly automated nature of click fraud, with botnets pumping out an average of one fourth of all such fraud in the second quarter. "Although click fraud rates were relatively unchanged in the second quarter, we found that the methods used to commit click fraud have become increasingly more sophisticated and difficult to detect," said Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics. "The threat from botnets is the biggest concern as they have grown to cause over one quarter of all click fraud. Online advertisers should be extra vigilant in watching for traffic from botnets in their search marketing campaigns."
Danny McPherson, director of security research for Arbor Networks, says he's not surprised by the latest botnet numbers. "I know many of the core content folks are quite concerned with bits and click fraud, and suspect there is a great deal more abuse there then folks actually realize...it's extremely hard to detect if done right." McPherson says.
Meanwhile, China, Russia, and France were the main hotspots for orchestrating click fraud outside of North America, according to the Click Fraud Index, with 4.3 percent coming from China, 3.5 percent from Russia, and 3.2 percent from France.
The numbers -- logged by the Click Fraud Network, a group over 4,000 online advertisers and ad agencies and reported by Click Forensics -- also revealed a slight decrease in the average number of fraudulent pay-per-click ads found in search engines such as Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network. The average for the second quarter was 27.6 percent, down from 27.8 percent in the first quarter.
But the big red flag in the report was the increasingly automated nature of click fraud, with botnets pumping out an average of one fourth of all such fraud in the second quarter. "Although click fraud rates were relatively unchanged in the second quarter, we found that the methods used to commit click fraud have become increasingly more sophisticated and difficult to detect," said Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics. "The threat from botnets is the biggest concern as they have grown to cause over one quarter of all click fraud. Online advertisers should be extra vigilant in watching for traffic from botnets in their search marketing campaigns."
Danny McPherson, director of security research for Arbor Networks, says he's not surprised by the latest botnet numbers. "I know many of the core content folks are quite concerned with bits and click fraud, and suspect there is a great deal more abuse there then folks actually realize...it's extremely hard to detect if done right." McPherson says.
Meanwhile, China, Russia, and France were the main hotspots for orchestrating click fraud outside of North America, according to the Click Fraud Index, with 4.3 percent coming from China, 3.5 percent from Russia, and 3.2 percent from France.
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11:08 PM
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If you missed the recent news it appears that Google has gone, in effect, head to head with Wikipedia, but with differences.
These differences are that Google’s new online encyclopedia, called Knol (derived from the phrase “unit of knowledge”), has a focus on authorship (Wikipedia articles are not credited to individuals) and frames the articles with Adsense advertisements thus “monetizing” the service. Moreover authors will get a cut of the revenue. You can find the blog post by Udi Manber, Google’s VP of Engineering, that announced the general availability of Knol here.
The logic behind Google’s move is obvious: With Wikipedia having become the pageview generating monster that it is (about 5% of search results link to its articles), and with its grass roots consensus style authorship, the opportunity to create a commercial version of the concept that gives authors ownership and revenue for their work is commercially compelling. The way editing Knol articles works is, by default, "authorized collaboration" where an author submits an article and anyone can suggest changes, but only the original author can allow those changes to be made. The alternative is "straight collaboration" where a lead author starts an article and specifically invites other people to edit the piece with the same rights she has.
Authors can choose to license their contributions under the Creative Commons Attribution License (the default), the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License, or an "All Rights Reserved" license.
All of the WYSIWYG editing tools are built-in to the Knol user interface, and by some strange marketing quirk even though you can’t yet add images or videos to articles (an incredible omission!) you can add cartoons from the archives of The New Yorker!, I find that seriously weird.
Users can search Knol’s content directly and as the articles are indexed along with the rest of the Internet, Knol content will turn up in general Google searches. Beyond searching Knol’s content, users can also write reviews of articles and rate them.
This brings up the question of whether Google will show favoritism for its own content over Wikipedia or for that matter over any other knowledge repository. It’s very early to try to analyze this and the answer is anything but clear so far. You can bet we’ll all be watching very closely for indications of evil bias.
These differences are that Google’s new online encyclopedia, called Knol (derived from the phrase “unit of knowledge”), has a focus on authorship (Wikipedia articles are not credited to individuals) and frames the articles with Adsense advertisements thus “monetizing” the service. Moreover authors will get a cut of the revenue. You can find the blog post by Udi Manber, Google’s VP of Engineering, that announced the general availability of Knol here.
The logic behind Google’s move is obvious: With Wikipedia having become the pageview generating monster that it is (about 5% of search results link to its articles), and with its grass roots consensus style authorship, the opportunity to create a commercial version of the concept that gives authors ownership and revenue for their work is commercially compelling. The way editing Knol articles works is, by default, "authorized collaboration" where an author submits an article and anyone can suggest changes, but only the original author can allow those changes to be made. The alternative is "straight collaboration" where a lead author starts an article and specifically invites other people to edit the piece with the same rights she has.
Authors can choose to license their contributions under the Creative Commons Attribution License (the default), the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License, or an "All Rights Reserved" license.
All of the WYSIWYG editing tools are built-in to the Knol user interface, and by some strange marketing quirk even though you can’t yet add images or videos to articles (an incredible omission!) you can add cartoons from the archives of The New Yorker!, I find that seriously weird.
Users can search Knol’s content directly and as the articles are indexed along with the rest of the Internet, Knol content will turn up in general Google searches. Beyond searching Knol’s content, users can also write reviews of articles and rate them.
This brings up the question of whether Google will show favoritism for its own content over Wikipedia or for that matter over any other knowledge repository. It’s very early to try to analyze this and the answer is anything but clear so far. You can bet we’ll all be watching very closely for indications of evil bias.
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11:08 PM
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LOS ANGELES, CA, Jul 30, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Leading marketing sciences firm MarketShare Partners (MSP) officially announces the appointment of Gokul Rajaram to its board.
Rajaram joins MSP's board after nearly five years at the helm of Google's AdSense product management team. Heralded as the "godfather of Google AdSense," his extensive experience in the online advertising industry will be instrumental as MSP rolls out its breakthrough automated marketing mix and modeling tools to the marketing industry.
"My professional passion has been around optimizing marketing effectiveness and driving ROI via our efforts at Google. MarketShare Partners has created unique breakthrough tools around automated marketing mix that are unprecedented," said Gokul Rajaram. "MSP's solutions will drive massive change in the industry and I'm excited to be part of the team."
"MarketShare Partners is very pleased to have Gokul join our board," said Wes Nichols, Managing Partner of MarketShare Partners. "We became friends though our work with Google and have been impressed with his visionary perspective of where this industry is moving. He will be instrumental at helping MSP become the authority in this rapidly expanding field of marketing effectiveness."
Rajaram most recently served as Product Management Director for Google AdSense. He worked at Google from January 2003 to November 2007, helped conceive and crystallize AdSense in early 2003, and played a key role from its launch to its growth into a multi-billion dollar product line. He also helped drive a number of Google's acquisitions, including DoubleClick, AdScape, and dMarc. Earlier in his career, Rajaram worked as a technical architect at Juno Online, where he developed the back-end advertising system that drove much of Juno's revenues and helped it go public in 1999. Rajaram has an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan, a M.S. in Computer Science from UT Austin, and a BTech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur where he received the President's Gold Medal for being Class Valedictorian.
MarketShare Partners is the leading marketing sciences firm focused on strategic models and tools that drive resource allocation optimization, marketing ROI and effectiveness. Serving global brands -- including nearly half of the Fortune 50 -- from seven locations, MSP is expert at developing dynamic and econometric models to quantify interactions between all business drivers that impact revenue -- not simply marketing or media drivers and well beyond simple media mix modeling. MSP has also developed a suite of advanced expert systems for small and medium business, media companies and marketing agencies, helping guide better decision-making through the latest in marketing science. Find out more at www.marketsharepartners.com.
Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=806531
SOURCE: MarketShare Partners
Rajaram joins MSP's board after nearly five years at the helm of Google's AdSense product management team. Heralded as the "godfather of Google AdSense," his extensive experience in the online advertising industry will be instrumental as MSP rolls out its breakthrough automated marketing mix and modeling tools to the marketing industry.
"My professional passion has been around optimizing marketing effectiveness and driving ROI via our efforts at Google. MarketShare Partners has created unique breakthrough tools around automated marketing mix that are unprecedented," said Gokul Rajaram. "MSP's solutions will drive massive change in the industry and I'm excited to be part of the team."
"MarketShare Partners is very pleased to have Gokul join our board," said Wes Nichols, Managing Partner of MarketShare Partners. "We became friends though our work with Google and have been impressed with his visionary perspective of where this industry is moving. He will be instrumental at helping MSP become the authority in this rapidly expanding field of marketing effectiveness."
Rajaram most recently served as Product Management Director for Google AdSense. He worked at Google from January 2003 to November 2007, helped conceive and crystallize AdSense in early 2003, and played a key role from its launch to its growth into a multi-billion dollar product line. He also helped drive a number of Google's acquisitions, including DoubleClick, AdScape, and dMarc. Earlier in his career, Rajaram worked as a technical architect at Juno Online, where he developed the back-end advertising system that drove much of Juno's revenues and helped it go public in 1999. Rajaram has an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan, a M.S. in Computer Science from UT Austin, and a BTech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur where he received the President's Gold Medal for being Class Valedictorian.
MarketShare Partners is the leading marketing sciences firm focused on strategic models and tools that drive resource allocation optimization, marketing ROI and effectiveness. Serving global brands -- including nearly half of the Fortune 50 -- from seven locations, MSP is expert at developing dynamic and econometric models to quantify interactions between all business drivers that impact revenue -- not simply marketing or media drivers and well beyond simple media mix modeling. MSP has also developed a suite of advanced expert systems for small and medium business, media companies and marketing agencies, helping guide better decision-making through the latest in marketing science. Find out more at www.marketsharepartners.com.
Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=806531
SOURCE: MarketShare Partners
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10:05 PM
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The Google content network now accepts display ads served from qualified third-party vendors. Third-party ad serving has been a longstanding request from top brand AdWords advertisers who use third parties to create and manage their online campaigns. Initially, we will be only accepting third-party ads in English, but we hope to expand to other languages soon.
Making the Google content network more accessible to large brand advertisers also benefits AdSense publishers and end users. Third-party ad serving will introduce a greater variety of advertising into the Google content network, increase the inventory of quality display ads competing to show on AdSense publisher sites, and offer more engaging ads for end users. In the long run, we believe the increased inventory and ad competition will result in increased revenue for many AdSense publishers.
Rest assured that ad quality on the content network will remain one of our highest priorities. Only advertisers with whom we have proven relationships and who've clearly demonstrated commitments to our quality standards may participate in this program. And our policies governing ad content and formatting are unchanged.
How to control third-party ads shown on your site
The same ad management features for Google ads also apply to third-party ads. You can use the Ad Review Center to filter specific placement-targeted ads from appearing on your site. To block contextually-targeted ads from a given advertiser, you can use the Competitive Ad Filter. (The Ad Review Center currently only shows placement-targeted ads, not contextually-targeted ads.)
Optimizing your site to allow third-party ads
To allow third-party ads on your site:
1. Opt into image ads - Currently, third-party ads are only available in image or Flash, so they won't appear in text-only ad units.
2. Enable advertisers to target your AdSense channels - Most advertisers who use third-party ads are brand-conscious. They prefer to specify websites where their ads will appear in order to optimize the targeting and effectiveness of their campaigns.
3. Opt into placement targeting - Placement targeting will allow advertisers to target their ads specifically to your site.
Following these steps will enable your site to accept third-party ads. However, we can't guarantee where or when third-party ads will appear on your site.
Want to learn more about third-party ads? Visit our FAQ.
Making the Google content network more accessible to large brand advertisers also benefits AdSense publishers and end users. Third-party ad serving will introduce a greater variety of advertising into the Google content network, increase the inventory of quality display ads competing to show on AdSense publisher sites, and offer more engaging ads for end users. In the long run, we believe the increased inventory and ad competition will result in increased revenue for many AdSense publishers.
Rest assured that ad quality on the content network will remain one of our highest priorities. Only advertisers with whom we have proven relationships and who've clearly demonstrated commitments to our quality standards may participate in this program. And our policies governing ad content and formatting are unchanged.
How to control third-party ads shown on your site
The same ad management features for Google ads also apply to third-party ads. You can use the Ad Review Center to filter specific placement-targeted ads from appearing on your site. To block contextually-targeted ads from a given advertiser, you can use the Competitive Ad Filter. (The Ad Review Center currently only shows placement-targeted ads, not contextually-targeted ads.)
Optimizing your site to allow third-party ads
To allow third-party ads on your site:
1. Opt into image ads - Currently, third-party ads are only available in image or Flash, so they won't appear in text-only ad units.
2. Enable advertisers to target your AdSense channels - Most advertisers who use third-party ads are brand-conscious. They prefer to specify websites where their ads will appear in order to optimize the targeting and effectiveness of their campaigns.
3. Opt into placement targeting - Placement targeting will allow advertisers to target their ads specifically to your site.
Following these steps will enable your site to accept third-party ads. However, we can't guarantee where or when third-party ads will appear on your site.
Want to learn more about third-party ads? Visit our FAQ.
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10:03 PM
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We're always delighted to hear how your AdSense payments have made a difference in your life, whether it's covering your web hosting costs, supplementing your school tuition, or helping you quit your day job.
This month, we hope that you'll consider making a difference for others by contributing a portion of your AdSense revenue to the cyclone relief efforts in Myanmar (Burma) and in China. Google.org is donating more than $1.5 million to assist in the relief and rebuilding efforts.
We especially encourage our US and UK publishers to use Google Checkout to donate:
http://www.google.com/myanmarcyclone
http://www.google.com/chinaearthquake
In addition to monetary contributions, the affected areas may also need tents, medicine, or other items. We encourage you to contact your local Red Cross to find out how to donate these items.
If you'd like to help out even more, you can add a gadget for China or Myanmar (Burma) to your website to encourage your visitors to make their own donations.
This month, we hope that you'll consider making a difference for others by contributing a portion of your AdSense revenue to the cyclone relief efforts in Myanmar (Burma) and in China. Google.org is donating more than $1.5 million to assist in the relief and rebuilding efforts.
We especially encourage our US and UK publishers to use Google Checkout to donate:
http://www.google.com/myanmarcyclone
http://www.google.com/chinaearthquake
In addition to monetary contributions, the affected areas may also need tents, medicine, or other items. We encourage you to contact your local Red Cross to find out how to donate these items.
If you'd like to help out even more, you can add a gadget for China or Myanmar (Burma) to your website to encourage your visitors to make their own donations.
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5:17 AM
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More CTR (Click Thru Ratio) means more clicks on your Google Ads. But, is CTR all about position and colors of your ads? No! It's a lot more than that. CTR also depends upon the quality of traffic, relevancy of ads, and even the subject of your website. Let's get in detail:
Do you own a High CTR website?
Yes! CTR varies from Industry to industry too. It depends upon the keywords you are using to make your web page. It has been observed that more technical the topic is (but not necessarily) less CTR it will give you (for example Search Engine Optimization, Affiliate Network - exceptions are always there), but still works if the Ad content is well written.
However, this is only one condition; there are many undiscovered conditions that affect the CTR of keywords. At times, a particular season also has an effect on the performance of keywords. For example family of 'Turkey recipe' keyword is more active around November and December only and a quite sluggish rest of the year. It becomes really necessary to study the behavior of keywords before starting a massive website of Adsense around a topic.
However, this is only one condition; there are many undiscovered conditions that affect the CTR of keywords. At times, a particular season also has an effect on the performance of keywords. For example family of 'Turkey recipe' keyword is more active around November and December only and a quite sluggish rest of the year. It becomes really necessary to study the behavior of keywords before starting a massive website of Adsense around a topic.
Your Ad Position and Color: Old, but very effective
Google heat map helps improve the CTR (Clicks Thru Ratio) of your website by suggesting you the most converting areas for your Adsense Ads. You can have a glance at the Google's Survey that illustrates the ideal placements of ads on your web page.
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html#17954
https://www.google.com/support/adsensehttps://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html#17954
/bin/static.py?page=tips.html#17954
Darker the area, better will be the performance of your ads. Your visitor tends to click on these darker areas more often than the other areas of the web page. Ads placed near rich content usually do well because users are focused on those areas of your web page. For example, on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the concluding part of high quality content tend to perform well, as the visitors are left with no other choice except clicking the Ad block.
Get Targeted Traffic - The Most Essential Part
Traffic that is interested in your content (also called targeted traffic) is interested in your ads too. Thus, there is every likelihood that your ads will be clicked more frequently. Targeted traffic means more CTR, more earnings, and enhanced ad convertibility. On the other hand, the untargeted visitors are not interested either in your content or your ads, so keep your website's traffic targeted.
You can gather highly targeted traffic for your website by web promotion strategy and effective optimization of your web page structure. Effective web promotion strategy requires an appropriate Anchor text and more back links from relevant websites. And, to develop an effective web page structure, you have to optimize your Title Text, internal linking of your website, and most importantly your web content, in the best possible manner.
You can gather highly targeted traffic for your website by web promotion strategy and effective optimization of your web page structure. Effective web promotion strategy requires an appropriate Anchor text and more back links from relevant websites. And, to develop an effective web page structure, you have to optimize your Title Text, internal linking of your website, and most importantly your web content, in the best possible manner.
Choose the Right Anchor Text for Back Link Campaigns
Choosing the right anchor text for back links promotes your website to the traffic you exactly need from the search engines. Choose the Anchor text that directly speaks to your visitors and pulls the traffic that your web page requires. Targeted traffic results in increased CTR of ads. It helps promote your website to that segment of traffic, which is precisely searching for your content (or you can say the traffic that is most profitable to you). Targeting irrelevant keyword reduces your CTR by gathering the traffic which is not interested in your content or ads.
Wisely Choose the Title Text of Your Web Page
Title text of your webpage appears in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) as the Title link to your web page. Therefore, it is the title Text that directly speaks to the surfer on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) about your content's theme. It acts like a Free Advertisement Link to your website. If your title text does not interest the surfer, you lose considerable amount of much-needed traffic. Figure out a Title text that directly communicates with your potential visitors, brings targeted traffic, and enhances the CTR of your AdSense Ads. Don't overdo your title text, and use less than ten keywords in your title text.
Help Google Detect the Theme of Your Web Page
There are many on-page and off-page elements that affect your ad relevancy. Better targeted ads increase both your CTR and EPC. Here is how to optimize your ads:
Meta Tags
If there is NO CONTENT on your web page, the Google Mediabot will consider the Meta Tags while displaying ads. Meta tags have a considerable affect on the relevancy of your ads. It is advised never to leave this space empty. Also, try to make it as easy as possible for Mediabot to understand the theme of your web page.
Title Text
Google Mediabot gives good weightage to the keywords used in the Title text, which in turn gets reflected in your ads. Choose effective keywords for your Title text. Even the order of words in a keyword can affect the ads that are appearing on your web page. So, choose your keywords wisely.
Headings
Google Mediabot gives importance to the Heading text enclosed inBoost Relevancy Artificially - Use Google's Section Targeting
Now, you can enhance Ad relevancy by using Google's Section targeting. Using this technique you can advise Google mediabot about the areas of your content which should be considered or ignored while matching the Ads with your content.
For more information on the same topic, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=23168&topic=371
For more information on the same topic, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=23168&topic=371
For more information on the same topic, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense
/bin/answer.py?answer=23168&topic=371
Use Channels for Analyzing Your Ads' Performance
Try to relate your traffic logs with your CTR stats. You will get to know which Traffic source is giving you what CTR. This will help you recognize the traffic segment which is most converting for your website. Channels allow you to analyze your ads' performance, so that you can pin point the changes that your website needs to boost your AdSense income. There are two types of channels available - URL Channels and Custom Channels. You can use the URL channel to track your performance, without modifying your Ad code. Through URL channels, you can analyze the performance of individual page or a group of pages, based on the directory system of your website.
Custom channels can help you measure the performance of different Ad formats presented in your web pages. And, by pasting channel-specific ad code into your pages, you can track CTR, Impressions, number of clicks each individual ad format is generating, and compare its performance with other web pages.
Block Junk Websites and Competitor Websites from Showing Ads
There are many junk websites that might be displaying ads on your website. These websites steal the traffic from your website and recycle it on their own Adsense ad blocks. Recognize such websites and stick them in Adsense Competitive Ad filter. Also, you can block your competitor websites using this competitive filter.
This trick can sometimes double or triple your Adsense income, augment user experience, and makes look your Google ads more genuine. For more information about this tool, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=21593&ctx=sibling
This trick can sometimes double or triple your Adsense income, augment user experience, and makes look your Google ads more genuine. For more information about this tool, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=21593&ctx=sibling
This trick can sometimes double or triple your Adsense income, augment user experience, and makes look your Google ads more genuine. For more information about this tool, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=21593&ctx=sibling
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5:13 AM
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I just got off the phone with Michael Fortin, one of the top copywriters and conversion experts on the web.
We were doing a teleseminar for our members on conversion and testing for website owners wanting more out of the traffic they already enjoy, rather than constantly having to promote their sites to support low conversion rates. Specifically, we were talking about all the things you can do to test different "calls to action."
A call to action is anything you are trying to get people to do on any particular site or page of a site. It could be buying a product or service, getting people on an announcement list or newsletter, or getting people to click on your advertising links.
Most web publishers are so happy when they finally have a site up that they consider their work done and get right to marketing it. Once the traffic rolls in, they enjoy whatever sales or clicks they get and try to make more money by driving MORE traffic to the site.
Then they start building another site. And another. And another.
This is a disturbing trend that is creating a massive amount of waste. Both in resources and time. Especially when it comes to niche publishers who are building massive networks of sites on different topics in order to capture emails, generate advertising revenue, sell affiliated products and services, or to build their lists to generate backend sales to their subscribers.
The waste is generated when people are in too big a hurry to build more sites, add more products, and get more traffic to sites that can convert sometimes 1000% BETTER than they do now.
They are moving at a hectic pace, in this scenario, to build build build, when their income goals can most often easily be met without so much waste.
One example of waste is when someone builds a content-dry site that has nothing but Adsense and some links on it. People hit that kind of site and can't wait to find a reason to leave. The thinking is, "Great! My 'click thru ratio' is sky high! I am getting almost everyone to click on my ads!"
But here's what's happening in reality: you are working VERY hard to get traffic to such a site, only to "burn" it on a 35 cent click! No email capture, no followup, and most importantly no desire on the part of the visitor to EVER see your site again!
Would you rather have someone come through your site and click immediately on an advertiser's link, never to return? Or would you rather have someone come to your site, read some great content, sign up for your list and not click on ANY links that first time?
I will take scenario #2 any day of the week. And I won't have made a single penny off of that person with that initial action. But I will in the future!
If you have a site that you constantly test and tweak for performance (beyond its ability to repulse your visitors into clicking on an advertisement just to get to a QUALITY site) then you have a real business.
You can test and track SO MANY variables to make a site more profitable than it is now. Every site on the web can perform better than it does right now. Every single one!
The people who understand this never stop testing their calls to action to get their visitors to do more than something that results in a one-time action.
Traffic is the most expensive thing on the web both in the time it takes to get it and the resources you have to use up for each and every hit.
The traffic you have now might be all the traffic you EVER need on a daily basis to make a killing with your site. You will never know until you test and track everything about your site.
The headlines, the offers, the opt-in forms, the guarantees, testimonials, bullets, adsense placement, followup... In short, every webmaster on the net has a lot of work to do on every site they own if they really want to reap the kinds of profits their sites are actually capable of pulling in.
Most people get a site up and are happy with the sales or clicks they get and move on. NO! You are leaving so much money on the table thinking you are done with a site right after you put it up.
That site is the worst it should ever be! Wasting another domain fee, hosting fee, bandwidth and the costs associated with getting traffic to a brand new site before you have optimized your current site for the very best conversion it can pull is NOT good business practice.
I know people who have literally thousands of domains. And one thing I can guarantee you is this: They are making a pittance, even if they are making $60,000 a DAY, in comparison to what they COULD be making with far fewer sites and more testing and tweaking of that smaller group!
And Fortin seems to agree. He is going to be at my seminar in New Orleans September 9th - 11th, 2005 to expose everyone who attends to just how much money they have left on the table over the years because they have never tested different aspects of their calls to action.
It is enlightening, as well as depressing to find out how much money you COULD have made all this time had you tested from the beginning!
But the point is, you cannot go back to get all those lost subscribers, sales, or clicks. You can only start testing today to capture more money from each site you own. Thereby alleviating the need to have a massive network of sites all performing at half their potential or much less!
About the author:
Jack Humphrey is Managing Partner at Content Desk. He is also the author of Power Linking 2005, now in its 4th edition. http://www.power-linking-profits.comTo learn more about the profitable niche publishing industry, check out http://contentdesk.com/mardigras
We were doing a teleseminar for our members on conversion and testing for website owners wanting more out of the traffic they already enjoy, rather than constantly having to promote their sites to support low conversion rates. Specifically, we were talking about all the things you can do to test different "calls to action."
A call to action is anything you are trying to get people to do on any particular site or page of a site. It could be buying a product or service, getting people on an announcement list or newsletter, or getting people to click on your advertising links.
Most web publishers are so happy when they finally have a site up that they consider their work done and get right to marketing it. Once the traffic rolls in, they enjoy whatever sales or clicks they get and try to make more money by driving MORE traffic to the site.
Then they start building another site. And another. And another.
This is a disturbing trend that is creating a massive amount of waste. Both in resources and time. Especially when it comes to niche publishers who are building massive networks of sites on different topics in order to capture emails, generate advertising revenue, sell affiliated products and services, or to build their lists to generate backend sales to their subscribers.
The waste is generated when people are in too big a hurry to build more sites, add more products, and get more traffic to sites that can convert sometimes 1000% BETTER than they do now.
They are moving at a hectic pace, in this scenario, to build build build, when their income goals can most often easily be met without so much waste.
One example of waste is when someone builds a content-dry site that has nothing but Adsense and some links on it. People hit that kind of site and can't wait to find a reason to leave. The thinking is, "Great! My 'click thru ratio' is sky high! I am getting almost everyone to click on my ads!"
But here's what's happening in reality: you are working VERY hard to get traffic to such a site, only to "burn" it on a 35 cent click! No email capture, no followup, and most importantly no desire on the part of the visitor to EVER see your site again!
Would you rather have someone come through your site and click immediately on an advertiser's link, never to return? Or would you rather have someone come to your site, read some great content, sign up for your list and not click on ANY links that first time?
I will take scenario #2 any day of the week. And I won't have made a single penny off of that person with that initial action. But I will in the future!
If you have a site that you constantly test and tweak for performance (beyond its ability to repulse your visitors into clicking on an advertisement just to get to a QUALITY site) then you have a real business.
You can test and track SO MANY variables to make a site more profitable than it is now. Every site on the web can perform better than it does right now. Every single one!
The people who understand this never stop testing their calls to action to get their visitors to do more than something that results in a one-time action.
Traffic is the most expensive thing on the web both in the time it takes to get it and the resources you have to use up for each and every hit.
The traffic you have now might be all the traffic you EVER need on a daily basis to make a killing with your site. You will never know until you test and track everything about your site.
The headlines, the offers, the opt-in forms, the guarantees, testimonials, bullets, adsense placement, followup... In short, every webmaster on the net has a lot of work to do on every site they own if they really want to reap the kinds of profits their sites are actually capable of pulling in.
Most people get a site up and are happy with the sales or clicks they get and move on. NO! You are leaving so much money on the table thinking you are done with a site right after you put it up.
That site is the worst it should ever be! Wasting another domain fee, hosting fee, bandwidth and the costs associated with getting traffic to a brand new site before you have optimized your current site for the very best conversion it can pull is NOT good business practice.
I know people who have literally thousands of domains. And one thing I can guarantee you is this: They are making a pittance, even if they are making $60,000 a DAY, in comparison to what they COULD be making with far fewer sites and more testing and tweaking of that smaller group!
And Fortin seems to agree. He is going to be at my seminar in New Orleans September 9th - 11th, 2005 to expose everyone who attends to just how much money they have left on the table over the years because they have never tested different aspects of their calls to action.
It is enlightening, as well as depressing to find out how much money you COULD have made all this time had you tested from the beginning!
But the point is, you cannot go back to get all those lost subscribers, sales, or clicks. You can only start testing today to capture more money from each site you own. Thereby alleviating the need to have a massive network of sites all performing at half their potential or much less!
About the author:
Jack Humphrey is Managing Partner at Content Desk. He is also the author of Power Linking 2005, now in its 4th edition. http://www.power-linking-profits.comTo learn more about the profitable niche publishing industry, check out http://contentdesk.com/mardigras
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10:38 PM
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Most of what you know about a business, a brand, a service or a product will come to you via a method called article marketing. Although it is currently one of buzzwords in the online business industry, it's actually been used for a long time. In fact, its use goes as far back as the advent of mass printing. So what is it exactly and how does it impact a business?
What is article marketing? At its core, article marketing is actually advertising, a means to promote something related to a business or brand. It comes in the form of a short article, which can contain news, an explanation, directions, clarifications or any relevant information about the product or service being promoted. Articles can appear in all types of media, more commonly in print and online.
Materials used in article marketing are distributed and published for free.
How is it used? Article marketing is often used in conjunction with an advertising campaign. Notice how write-ups in related subjects often appear in newspapers or on websites each time a company or brand is launching something?
A company producing cocoa powder, for example, will come up with articles discussing the different types of cocoa and how best to use them for cooking or baking. A car company can publish or post write-ups about road safety and vehicle maintenance prior to a promotional blitz for a new model.
Online article marketing Traditional article marketing is similar in many ways to its online counterpart. However, there are also several differences, many of which are considered beneficial by business owners. Some of these are:
Keyword relevance People who use the Internet look for information in a different way. In traditional media, promotional materials have to catch the viewer's eyes. In online marketing, an article can appear solo on a web page and have all the attention of the visitor.
In online article marketing, a write-up has to be search engine optimized, containing the necessary keywords that will help it appear high on search engine listings. As such, articles become highly targeted promotional materials, able to hone in on the relevant market – the kind that will be interested enough to buy, subscribe or participate.
It can go viral. Online article marketing allows limitless access and use of articles. Visitors can flag them, share them, vote for them or interact by leaving comments. If the article impresses a visitor, he or she can even promote it to others, thus spreading the word about the business without the owner having to pay extra.
Articles also get spread online a lot faster and can reach more people than traditional methods. It's quite possible, for example, that a write-up posted today can reach thousands within 24 hours and millions within two to three days.
Online article marketing is free. There's no need to pay for a half-page ad or a 15-second spot on TV. Articles may be sent to an article database or directory, a website that serves as a repository of write-ups.
Directory or database owners offset the cost of providing the site for free by charging advertisers instead. Articles are categorized so visitors easily find them.
Authors and business owners have more control. With online article marketing, the author can pretty much do what he wants to do with the write-up and how it appears on his website. He can, for example, post the article with just one single ad or post only the kind of ads that will be relevant to the article.
Article marketing continues to be a popular method for business promotions. The only disadvantage is that the method becomes overused and abused – hence, the appearance of low quality write-ups. Hopefully, with more discerning readers, article marketing will regain its respectability as a very effective means of promoting a business.
If you're looking for the best articles to populate your site with, Article Shark is where you can find articles that will suit your niche.
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10:38 PM
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In less than 10 years Google has become the dominant power of the internet. If someone needs to search the web for something, Google is who they trust to direct them in the right direction. Being such a powerful and innovative company, Google is also very trusted in general. They are extremely reliable and have constantly found new ways to make money in intelligent ways.
One of Google’s primary sources of income is their advertising programs. They have a program called Google AdWords that has become a necessary part of generating traffic for just about any site on the web selling a product. The way it works is that people who want to drive traffic to their webpage will bid on specific relevant keywords. When someone runs a Google search on these specific keywords, the bidder’s page will show up in the sponsored links on the results page. It is a fast way to make your webpage available to the public. The interesting thing about Google AdWords is the bidder pays-per-click, or in other words, the bidder pays only when someone click on the link leading to their page.
Another advertising program is Google AdSense. This program allows people to place ads on their webpage for other people’s services. It is a way to maximize you site’s potential income. The way it works is Google looks through a given webpage, and finds its relevant topics. It then says, “This page talks a lot about flowers (just an example). This would be a good place to put ads for site that sell flowers. ” Google AdSense then places the ads on your page and every time someone clicks on an ad on your page, you get a commission of what they pay to have the advertising there.
Now here’s the point. Google makes a ton of money off of these programs which means they can pay tons to have people promote the same programs. They want more people to use them. So here’s the little known big secret. Google Advertising has affiliate programs! Google will actually pay you to get other people to sign up for their advertising programs. This is an overlooked but powerful way to make money in the affiliate world.
Entrepreneur Kimball Roundy has developed a system that teaches you how to make money off of Google Advertising via video lessons. This system is called The SpiderWeb Marketing System and not only does it teach you how to promote Google Advertising, it does it for you through the system itself. Kimball gives this system away for free for this reason: by signing up for this Google advertising through The SpiderWeb Marketing System, he gets a commission from Google. You, the user, get to use the system for free, and then the system allows you to get other people to sign up for Google advertising under you! That means that you will start making passive income by successfully generating a downline and it’s all free! The SpiderWeb Marketing System will do everything for you. So to recap, you can make money off of Google, and now, you can do it better than everyone else.
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10:33 PM
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[NEW YORK - Wednesday] - by Devon Melk. Rumors are now running amok that the 2nd most powerful website on the entire Worldwide-Web may file BANKRUPTCY, with the deadline set for this December; being the date of both discharge and dissolution in a Federal Court of Law.
This would come as a SHOCK to investors and "Googlers" alike who both profit and benefit from the use of the World's largest and most powerful search engine which receives far in excess of 100 MILLION unique daily visitors and well over 300 million individual searches daily - making it perhaps the single most valuable public data resource as an "information bank" online the world over.
But is the rumor true or false?
The origin of the rumor occurred when some savvy Internet marketers began making statements that they had heard "insiders' talk" that the company (now publicly traded since April 30, 2004, just over 3 years ago) may face financial disaster with the release of a "new system" that would allow advertisers to get their otherwise pay-per-click (PPC) advertising completely free.
This, of course, would naturally lead directly (like a domino- effect) to the collapse of Google's sibling program AdSense; as its only revenue comes from the direct sales of AdWords "clicks."
The "new system" in question and responsible for the controversy over getting AdWords pay-per-clicks free is that developed by Dr Jon Cohen of New York City, New York (now retired) who discovered a simple, yet effective means, for getting Google PPC ads without having to suffer the costs involved.
The retired New York doctor and native has a publicly disclosed net worth now in excess of $70 million [US], having generated well over $377 million in product sales from sixteen (16) separate online businesses within just nine
(9) years since first venturing online in 1998 (about the same time as Google was founded).
It is estimated by company insiders and leading financial analysts that the
"good doctor" (as he's called by "all who know him") has purportedly saved well over $93 million (some estimates suggest closer to $136 million) in otherwise paid advertising at Google and the other major players in the PPC targeted-search arena online - including Yahoo, MSN, AskJeeves, AllTheWeb.com, HotBot, AltaVista, Lycos and Netscape, just to name a few.
The "secret" became available to the general masses last April, and its very release caused such a major sweeping stir among the community of Internet-marketers, affiliate-marketers, webmasters, ecommerce company owners and surfers alike that the site quickly rose to break the top most visited 1,000 websites on the entire planet briefly; and as can be seen here:
http://tinyurl.com/39lnjn (Alexa data on this!)
When asked if the "secret" would somehow ruin Google, Dr Cohen revealed almost cryptically that it actually would bring about just the opposite effect, and "stimulate" even more business volume for the virtual giant.
Many people were dismayed to find that Google itself is deliberately allowing the purchase of 100,000's of PPC ads offering the secret system to the general public -- which indicates to most observers that either they [Google] haven't caught it, or they simply feel that it somehow is not a threat to their continued operation.
For anyone's inspection factual and hard evidence supporting this can be seen by simply looking to the right-hand column when doing a search for
"get google ads free" (specifically in quotation marks) at Google.com under the "Sponsored Links" section.
Or take this direct and instant SHORTCUT:
http://tinyurl.com/2ctu6j
You can also see nearly 100,000 specific results in the "organic" fields index located in the center and which occupies the bulk of the results pages.
One would think that if Google felt threatened by such a release as this earth-shaking "secret" is, they would hardly allow for either paid-ads or organic content to make the top searches regarding it.
However, evidence supports to the contrary - and this being the case now for a full six (6) months.
Mysteriously, within just two (2) hours of its initial release last April, Google itself actually did in fact 'pause' the parent firm's attempts at advertising the new system using PPCs on their search engine - only, however, to release the hold after a Review Team consisting of some of Google's top executives completed performing an in-depth investigation and made the determination to ALLOW the ads to run.
The secret system was recently revised however to include "major new content" and "more exhaustive instructions," and is now available at its Home Site:
http://www.DigitalProductSearch.com/freegoogle
The most important addition is that of a so-called "string of code"
(tech-talk for some HTML) that can be added to any webpage(s) that instantly causes the elimination of the page owner's AdWords costs right away.
Even a "live" woman spokes-representative ("Rachel") has been added to the site, and who appears to literally walk out onto the webpage and talk to visitors and explain a bit more how the mysterious new breakthrough system works.
Since the addition of this new "live" spokes-woman has now appeared at the site, company Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Mr Todd Coutrin states that "sales for the system have skyrocketed above 2,430 percent suddenly and
with no limit in sight."
Coutrin continues: "With the newest revision now in place, plus all the additions added, affiliates for the new system can expect to earn even more than ever before!" (Note: Affiliates make up the bulk of the firm's sales generation.)
The refund rate for the new revised version of the secret (named V5.1) has dropped to less than half of what it was before the newer version's release; meaning it's now even more readily-received and put to use than ever before
(perhaps in large part to the newer simplicity of application) - now making it the safest and one of the best resellers for the networks of affiliate marketers who earn their revenues from the reselling of other electronic publishers' stock and digital product lines.
When asked, Google company representatives stated matter-of-factly that the rumors of bankruptcy for the ecommerce giant are simply not true, and that the rumor millings are in fact simply the result of "panics" brought on by the usual hysteria associated with anything large, new or revolutionary - or in this case, all three.
Attempts to contact both Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the former Stanford University students who founded Google in 1998, to request comment were unsuccessful.
Again, Google itself seems to be the biggest supporter of the "new system" as it's allowing more and more advertisers to promote the new system on its search engine before over 100 million daily searches and surfers.
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6:08 AM
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As predicted in last months MyBlogEarnings, my Adsense income has taken a bit of a hit this month as advertisers start to reduce their spend. So far this month my CTR has remained fairly constant, but my CPM has dipped by a few dollars.
I haven’t really worked on my adsense optimisation for a while, as after growing my adsense income from a few hundred dollars to over $4k in 8 months, I’d assumed that I pretty much had it cracked.
However, after this months CPM reduction I’ve added adsense optimisation to the list of things I’m going to focus on this month. Here are 10 Tips To Improve Google Adsense Earnings that have worked for me in the past, that I’m going to focus on this month to get my CPM back up for the rest of the month.
Make The Most Of Google Love
One of the common reasons bloggers don’t make a lot of money from Google Adsense is because they don’t write about topics that people are searching for answers on i.e. using Google. Just writing interesting articles isn’t going to get you a lot of clicks on ads as your readers won’t be searching for answers or certain products.
If you take a look at my top posts in the sidebar you will see that most of the posts are giving tips, or useful links for services, or are product reviews i.e. posts that get lots of Google love which sends lots of click happy people through to my site. If you post more articles of this ilk your adsense earnings will increase. These articles are also timeless and will continue to get Google traffic long after my regular readers have moved onto newer material.
To maximise your Google traffic don’t forget the basics like making sure your post titles are clear and that your first paragraph clearly explains what the post is about, so that even if you are not the top result you have increased your chances of being clicked on. Take a look at my top posts - every one of the post titles makes it clear what the post is about, which is why they do well on Google.
Smart Pricing - Less Is Better
I’m stunned by how many blogs haven’t factored in Google Adsense Smart pricing into their site design. If you haven’t come across Adsense Smart Pricing before, then in one sentence this is where Google looks at your site’s overall CTR and if it’s low then it will display lower value ads and if it’s high it will display higher value ads.
So, for many sites a quick way to improve earnings is to actually display fewer ads i.e. to remove poorly performing ad units like sidebar ads, or ads that are below the fold etc. This will increase your site’s average CTR, which will make Google display higher value ads in your better performing spaces which will raise your overall earnings.
Smart Pricing works across your Adsense account, not just on a site by site basis. So, if you are displaying a significant number of Adsense ads on other sites that have a poor CTR then you should remove them as your main sites will benefit.
If You’re Going To Place Ads Put In Best Spots - Don’t Kop Out
In my view, if you are going to run ads on your site then it doesn’t make sense to do it half-heartedly i.e not put your ads in the best slots. If you do you’ll never get to see the full benefits - if you’re going to do something in my view, then do it right!
This heatmap shows where the best positions for Google Adsense Ads are.
Blend Your Adsense Units
Following on from the previous tip, again if you are going to add Adsense ads to your site then again I think you should make sure that they are fully optimised. The best way of doing this is to blend the ads into your site by making sure that the text and link colours match.
To maximise CTR you should also wrap text around your ads. Many sites have tried placing ads above text or even before articles, but in my opinion this is a bad move, as all it does is encourage readers to ‘jump’ past your ads straight to the content.
Get A Good Stats Package
One of the difficulties with Google Adsense as it’s virtually impossible to see for certain which posts have a high CTR. But, if you have a good stats package then at least you can see which of your posts are popular so that you can try and write more of the same to further grow your traffic.
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6:07 AM
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Improve your revenue from Google AdSense ads by using this simple PHP code to test your ads and identify the ones that pay better. You could run one ad format for a week, then run the second format and compare results. Better yet, test formats simultaneously and start getting side-by-side results to compare the same day.
Lots of articles suggest trying out different types and formats for your ads. Then they say you will figure out the format, size and placement that gives you a better click-thru rate and increased revenue. That's all very nice. But, because of all the ways you can vary your ads (different sizes, shapes, locations on your page, link colors, text, border colors, etc.), this can be a long process. That is why I wrote this.
This site recommends Google AdSense for targeted ads This article is written specifically for Google AdSense ads. You might be able to modify it for other types of ads. Because ad providers and their code is always changing, this article is about Google AdSense only, but the general concepts might apply to other advertisers.
The Ad Testing Code
Google lets you vary many settings including colors of links, borders, text, backgrounds, plus ad sizes and shapes. Modify the default Google AdSense ad format and you are likely to increase your earnings.In our example, we test an ad without a border against an ad with a border. This page has a white background, so “no border” means the color of the border is set to white. I wrote this code to test ads and found that ads without a border had better click-thru rates than ads with a border.
Take a quick look at the two ads formats we are evaluating in our coding example before we get too deep into the explanation. Only the border color is different. Everything else remains the same so we do not confuse and confound the test. (The channel ID assigned by AdSense changes, but that is not part of the appearance of the ad.) You could easily vary some other setting for your own purposes.
Building the Ad Testing Code
Log into your AdSense account and create 2 custom channels for your site. One channel is for each format you are going to test. (Adsense help explains how to set up custom channels.)In the PHP code on your site, generate a random number of 0 or 1. We use this number to serve up one of two AdSense ads.
srand(time());
$random = (rand()%2);
?>
$random = (rand()%2);
?>
In your AdSense account, generate the AdSense code for the first channel. Our first channel has no (a white) border. Paste it in to your PHP code. Then, back in AdSense, generate the code for your second channel, selecting the appropriate custom channel and setting the border color. You will build something like the following:
To make it easy to see below, the border color we are varying is in bold text.
if($random == 1)
//test with white border (no border)
{
?>
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
}
else
//test blue border around ads
{
?>
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
}
?>
//test with white border (no border)
{
?>
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
}
else
//test blue border around ads
{
?>
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
}
?>
Let the ads run. In your reports you will see roughly equal numbers of each ad being served up. When you determine which format is better, try changing another setting to see what will give you even better click-thrus and revenue.
Download the code source (adtest.txt)
View page with both ads showing so you can see the differences.
Notes About Testing AdSense Ad Formats
Just like we tested two different border colors, we could have varied another setting. For example, if you want to see whether black link titles perform better than blue, set one color: google_color_link = "003366";
and a second color: google_color_link = "000000";
You can run a more complex test, with, say, three options for a single variable. Modify the random number generating portion of the code to generate a 0, 1 or 2. You should test only one variable at a time (holding all other variables constant). If you test too many variables, you do not know what is performing better.
When you get more comfortable with custom channels and with testing various ad formats, you can get more sophisticated with your tests and how you use my little PHP script.
AdSense’s Terms and Conditions require “not modifying the JavaScript or other programming provided to You by Google in any way.” The above ad test does not modify Google’s code. We are simply randomly serving up one of two scripts. When you look at the HTML source for each format that PHP generates, the scripts are exactly what AdSense generates. We have not modified Google JavaScript or programming in any way.
-
5:58 AM
Edit this post
I am not the only one who finds the recent high profile comments about Click through Rates hard to swallow.
It started with Vodafone’s Ray de Silva quoting 25% at Mobile Advertising and Marketing Forum in London in January.
Then, at the MoMo Peer Awards Blyk’s CEO quoted 29%. Both Vodafone and Blyk have not shown any proof about this and they do sound like figures pulled out of that hat.
I spoke candidly to AdMob about the “reality” of these figures and there was agreement that these figures can only come out of very controlled circumstances or campaigns managed within a week or month. These are not the industry standard for on-going mobile advertising services.
As a market leader AdMob says that its click through rate on average is about 10 to 15% - which is impressive and on top of that realistic. But quoting figures as high as 29% is doing little that building up home for mobile advertisers in the market.
I would actually go so far as to say it’s like a “please advertise with me” number that sounds appealing but without justification or signing up – one will never know.
We know mobile advertising is a growing market. But quoting figures without substance is a bad move.
If you look at the chart above it’s from a campaign that I ran with AdMob. I made the same charts in more detail for campaigns run with Decktrade, Google and JumpTap and others.
By using examples of bkimedia.zinadoo.mobi and gomonews.mobi in campaigns run over 2 weeks I managed to track to see what campaigns were more effective by terms of cost and click through over each vendor. If you would like to know more, then contact me – but in the diagram above over two days the sheer volume of impressions on AdMob drove down the click-through vs cost ratio. The above is only a very small example and the click through rate for the campaign was about 2% - but then the cost of the campaign was also only pennies.
Finding a rational between cost vs click through vs impressions is the first step that companies need to take in the mobile advertising and marketing space before quoting unrealistic click through rates.
It started with Vodafone’s Ray de Silva quoting 25% at Mobile Advertising and Marketing Forum in London in January.
Then, at the MoMo Peer Awards Blyk’s CEO quoted 29%. Both Vodafone and Blyk have not shown any proof about this and they do sound like figures pulled out of that hat.
I spoke candidly to AdMob about the “reality” of these figures and there was agreement that these figures can only come out of very controlled circumstances or campaigns managed within a week or month. These are not the industry standard for on-going mobile advertising services.
As a market leader AdMob says that its click through rate on average is about 10 to 15% - which is impressive and on top of that realistic. But quoting figures as high as 29% is doing little that building up home for mobile advertisers in the market.
I would actually go so far as to say it’s like a “please advertise with me” number that sounds appealing but without justification or signing up – one will never know.
We know mobile advertising is a growing market. But quoting figures without substance is a bad move.
If you look at the chart above it’s from a campaign that I ran with AdMob. I made the same charts in more detail for campaigns run with Decktrade, Google and JumpTap and others.
By using examples of bkimedia.zinadoo.mobi and gomonews.mobi in campaigns run over 2 weeks I managed to track to see what campaigns were more effective by terms of cost and click through over each vendor. If you would like to know more, then contact me – but in the diagram above over two days the sheer volume of impressions on AdMob drove down the click-through vs cost ratio. The above is only a very small example and the click through rate for the campaign was about 2% - but then the cost of the campaign was also only pennies.
Finding a rational between cost vs click through vs impressions is the first step that companies need to take in the mobile advertising and marketing space before quoting unrealistic click through rates.
-
8:52 PM
Edit this post
Google has expanded its contextual ads program to allow many more content sites to carry its paid listings. The new Google AdSense program allows site owners to sign-up for the program in a self-serve manner, similar to becoming an Amazon affiliate.
Google's contextual ads program, Google Content-Targeted Advertising, was officially launched in March. In the program, Google negotiated deals with large web sites to integrate its paid listings into their web pages. Smaller web sites were not able to take part.
"When we rolled out content ads a couple months ago, we had set a threshold of 20 million page views per month for web sites we'd consider for the current program," said Susan Wojcicki, director of product management for Google's ad syndication programs. "We found there are huge number of very high quality web sites that did not meet that threshold."
The new AdSense program corrects this. It allows any site to apply, even those with only a few thousand page views per month.
"We built an online automated way for web sites to come to Google, sign-up and apply to be accepted into our network," Wojcicki said. "This program will be a way for web sites to earn money by putting ads on their pages."
Those accepted into the program simply insert some short JavaScript code into their web pages. In response, Google will deliver a banner or skyscraper-sized ad module filled containing paid listings.
While the program opens the doors to many more sites than before, not all will be accepted. Google will review the sites to ensure that they meet certain program policies. Among those not eligible are sites that include content about drugs, pornography or gambling.
Google Ads & Blogs
The program policies do not allow "personal pages" to take part. What's a personal page? This isn't defined. However, a traditional personal home page listing things like interests or family news certainly wouldn't be eligible. Similarly, some blogs may find themselves rejected, under this rule.
"In general, we're looking for at this stage web sites with more standardized content," Wojcicki said. "Blogs are an example of a gray area, and we will review them on a case-by-case basis to see if they fit our network."
This will be a difficult area for Google, because blogging tools aren't just used by those wishing to express personal views. Some use them simply because they are an easier way to publish a web site focused on a particular topic.
Gary Price's great search and research site, ResourceShelf, is an example of this. Gary moved to using the Blogger.com tool, now owned by Google, not out of great love to be blogging but because it was an efficient way to publish his content, he has told me in the past.
ResourceShelf is so tightly focused around a particular topic that it should be a natural for Google's program. But how about blogger Jeremy Zawodny's site?
Zawodny has a section of his blog archives that are specifically about Linux, which might be perfect for ads about Linux (should he wish to carry them). However, the home page of his blog is far more diverse, such as including a post (at the moment) about determining the optimal temperature for Heineken beer. Not exactly the standardized content Google wants.
Why even care about standardized content? Google's contextual technology automatically delivers paid listings that are deemed relevant to a page, based on that page's content. So, a blog that covers a wide variety of topics may be difficult to target.
For example, the jimpunk blog is about, well, a lot of pictures that have no apparent theme to me. But since this is a site making use of the free Blogger service, it already carries Google's contextual ads. This was done as part of the initial Google rollout of its contextual program.
What are the ads about? Buying "Iraqi Most Wanted Cards." Why? There's a part of the page that flows an article across the page that appears to be about the Iraqi conflict. As best I can tell, this may be what's causing Google to make the bad guess that ads for "Most Wanted" cards might be relevant to this page.
Helping The Web, But...
Google makes the pitch that its ad program should be a boon to everyone who uses the web, since the revenue will help publishers keep making good content for users.
"From the user standpoint, this will be good. No only will it fund quality publishers to produce quality content, it will also produce a better user experience, because they'll be able to see ads that are related to the content," Wojcicki said.
An excellent recent article from Business 2.0 explores in more depth the idea of contextual ads as helping support good web content. It's an idea I buy into. When I got involved with building web sites back in 1995, I always hoped there would be a way to connect those with good content with advertisers to fund their work. Google's program certainly will help with this.
Nevertheless, one major downside remains to the expansion of Google's contextual ad program. It leaves the company even more vulnerable to accusations that it may favor sites carrying its ads in its search results, as I explained when the program first announced.
At that time, Google denied that this would happen. The company has even added a FAQ answer denying it. And Google cofounder Larry Page reemphasized this last month, when I spoke with him about the issue.
"That's not something we would ever consider doing. We wouldn't bias our search results based on the monetary relationships we have with people," he said. "It would be sort of dumb for us from an economic perspective. Let's make a little bit more money and in return get everyone in the world upset."
Google's contextual ads program, Google Content-Targeted Advertising, was officially launched in March. In the program, Google negotiated deals with large web sites to integrate its paid listings into their web pages. Smaller web sites were not able to take part.
"When we rolled out content ads a couple months ago, we had set a threshold of 20 million page views per month for web sites we'd consider for the current program," said Susan Wojcicki, director of product management for Google's ad syndication programs. "We found there are huge number of very high quality web sites that did not meet that threshold."
The new AdSense program corrects this. It allows any site to apply, even those with only a few thousand page views per month.
"We built an online automated way for web sites to come to Google, sign-up and apply to be accepted into our network," Wojcicki said. "This program will be a way for web sites to earn money by putting ads on their pages."
Those accepted into the program simply insert some short JavaScript code into their web pages. In response, Google will deliver a banner or skyscraper-sized ad module filled containing paid listings.
While the program opens the doors to many more sites than before, not all will be accepted. Google will review the sites to ensure that they meet certain program policies. Among those not eligible are sites that include content about drugs, pornography or gambling.
Google Ads & Blogs
The program policies do not allow "personal pages" to take part. What's a personal page? This isn't defined. However, a traditional personal home page listing things like interests or family news certainly wouldn't be eligible. Similarly, some blogs may find themselves rejected, under this rule.
"In general, we're looking for at this stage web sites with more standardized content," Wojcicki said. "Blogs are an example of a gray area, and we will review them on a case-by-case basis to see if they fit our network."
This will be a difficult area for Google, because blogging tools aren't just used by those wishing to express personal views. Some use them simply because they are an easier way to publish a web site focused on a particular topic.
Gary Price's great search and research site, ResourceShelf, is an example of this. Gary moved to using the Blogger.com tool, now owned by Google, not out of great love to be blogging but because it was an efficient way to publish his content, he has told me in the past.
ResourceShelf is so tightly focused around a particular topic that it should be a natural for Google's program. But how about blogger Jeremy Zawodny's site?
Zawodny has a section of his blog archives that are specifically about Linux, which might be perfect for ads about Linux (should he wish to carry them). However, the home page of his blog is far more diverse, such as including a post (at the moment) about determining the optimal temperature for Heineken beer. Not exactly the standardized content Google wants.
Why even care about standardized content? Google's contextual technology automatically delivers paid listings that are deemed relevant to a page, based on that page's content. So, a blog that covers a wide variety of topics may be difficult to target.
For example, the jimpunk blog is about, well, a lot of pictures that have no apparent theme to me. But since this is a site making use of the free Blogger service, it already carries Google's contextual ads. This was done as part of the initial Google rollout of its contextual program.
What are the ads about? Buying "Iraqi Most Wanted Cards." Why? There's a part of the page that flows an article across the page that appears to be about the Iraqi conflict. As best I can tell, this may be what's causing Google to make the bad guess that ads for "Most Wanted" cards might be relevant to this page.
Helping The Web, But...
Google makes the pitch that its ad program should be a boon to everyone who uses the web, since the revenue will help publishers keep making good content for users.
"From the user standpoint, this will be good. No only will it fund quality publishers to produce quality content, it will also produce a better user experience, because they'll be able to see ads that are related to the content," Wojcicki said.
An excellent recent article from Business 2.0 explores in more depth the idea of contextual ads as helping support good web content. It's an idea I buy into. When I got involved with building web sites back in 1995, I always hoped there would be a way to connect those with good content with advertisers to fund their work. Google's program certainly will help with this.
Nevertheless, one major downside remains to the expansion of Google's contextual ad program. It leaves the company even more vulnerable to accusations that it may favor sites carrying its ads in its search results, as I explained when the program first announced.
At that time, Google denied that this would happen. The company has even added a FAQ answer denying it. And Google cofounder Larry Page reemphasized this last month, when I spoke with him about the issue.
"That's not something we would ever consider doing. We wouldn't bias our search results based on the monetary relationships we have with people," he said. "It would be sort of dumb for us from an economic perspective. Let's make a little bit more money and in return get everyone in the world upset."
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