Blogging, getting the most out of Adsense and SEO

Welcome new readers!!!

2010-04-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

Just a quick hello to all, in this blog there is a variety of topics from SEO advice to articles on how to customise your blog or about PPC advertising!

Anyway feel free to leave a comment and i hope you find some things of use to you!

Enjoy

Regards Adam

How to get search engines to use post title instead of blog title when indexed.

2009-07-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

Fed up of having your blog title show up in search results blocking valuable post key words?

Remember 70% of your site traffic comes from search engines and how the information is displayed is inportant in attracting visitors. The first rule is if the blog title is present in the search results it is effectively possibly preventing useful information which may attract a reader.

Secondly if your blog title is present on every post it counts as duplicate material and will undoubtably affect SEO big time.

So inevitably you will need to change them to improve your position in SERP's (Search Engine Results Page).

How do you do this, well i have found a great site that gives one hell of a simple hack to assist you. OK so here's the site ...

How to change title tags for your blog.

See isn't that simple....

This is an example on one of my templates.

Right now just a quick explanation, once you have copied the code pasted etc, view your blog and click on a post. Previously you would have had your blog name/title come up on the actual browser window, this now should be replaced with the blog post title right?

So this post should say on your browser window the post title not my sites name! If i hadn't the window would have had my blog title then the post title next.

This will be the same in search results as the search engines will now know to go directly to your post title and ignore the blog one.

Just a quick tip you can check what pages are indexed and how they are indexed by adding site: and then your web address, so for me for example site:pennylanecollectables.blogspot.com would give a list of all indexed pages for this site.

How to get lots more hits on blogs from search engines

2009-07-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

Have you found when using Blogger you may not get as many hits as say a self hosted site?

Well the most common mistakes people use on blogger is firstly poorly worded titles or even missing titles.

Secondly people put intro's to the pages, ie the ones done via layout.

Right just a quick recap on the first one, you want more hits carefully plan your wording in the title because, 1) it is used as that posts URL and, 2) It pretty much is the first thing people will see when searching keywords.

So think carefully you need a good informative title of about 5-6 words long. These should be your primary keywords for that particular page, so make sure you use them at a natural frequency throughout your post. Don't stuff to many in for the sake of it. If it looks unnatural change it because search engine algorithms are not stupid.

Right and to the second point. Putting a description to go with your blog title is essentially a waste of time as it will feature in all search engine results for your pages and bump down vital information about that page which users will not see. Plus it does count as duplication and might affect page rank and SERP's.

The best way to avoid this is either don't bother with a description or add some robot text to make it a no-follow and thus it wont feature in the results.

I hope that helps.

Creating a web of blogs

2009-07-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

If your using Blogger for AdSense why not think about developing multiple blogs. Often you will find with one well written blog you may get 100's of visits per day so it makes sense once you have a blog you are happy with and only need to update every now and then too start a second blog.

Often you will find your primary blog was on something you know a lot about, so really you do need to carry on that theme, however when considering what to blog try looking up subjects that have high interest but a low market saturation. For example i have one on Antiques which has very high interest but low competition except maybe E-Bay!

Once you have got your blog up and running, at least 10 posts, put AdSense on it and within a couple of months you should start to see a return on it.

Again once your happy with that start a new blog and repeat.

I am ultimately trying to have 10 well created blogs within a 1 year period.

Remember don't neglect your older blogs these should still get updated every now and then.

Blending link units

2009-06-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

So what are link units, well they are just text adverts that if displayed right can boost your earnings by as much as 10 - 15%.

I have found the best way to display these adverts is to almost merge them into your normal ones, for example if you have a leader board advert place the long thin link advert above the leader board so it is tightly fitted against it then make sure the background and border colour blend to look like one big advert.

This seems to have a better CTR than using them as separate adverts, don't ask me why because i really would have thought it would be the other way around. Try for yourself and if anyone else has different experiences then let me know.

Does AdSense have the best targeted adverts?

2009-04-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is a good question and to be honest has a very simple answer yes it does! Many of the other competitors dont have the sophistication in technology that google does, not to mention with the new Google tracking cookie, its ability to effectively target ads will be enchanced greatly. this is because it can serve ads on a user by user basis, serving adverts that are relevant to an individual rather than a niche. Please read my post on this matter for further information on how the tracking cookie works.

Another feature of AdSense is the use of meta tags inserted into the text so that words and phrases can be targeted. This gives a possibility of fully customising what ads you show. Off hand i vant remember what they are but can easily be found on AdSense help. As far as i am aware this feature is not available for any other of AdSesne's competitors.

The trouble with some of Googles competitors, is that the targeting is poor at best. Probably the worst of these at the moment is AdBrite. A good example is holidays being shown on a debt insolvency blog. Although there is no reason why you cant run it alongside AdSense. I think the best way to look at it is AdSense has a far more intelligent process and in many respects a brilliant method of serving relevant adverts.

Googles new user tracking cookie, is it a step too far?

2009-04-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

Now hopefully anyone reading this will have read the numerous reminders to update there privacy policies if they are wanting to take part in the new way to get better targeted ads. For those still unsure what it is well basically every time someone goes on a site through google or to a google ad serving site, it will create a cookie, and build up statistics of what types of sites a particular user will go to. That way they can ensure relevant ads are served to a particular user and not to a niche.

So my question is this, how comfortable do you feel knowing that they have data on sites your visiting and actually analysing them not in a large scale but you individually? Does this make you concerned. To some its no new thing since data such as this has been available to them in one way or another for a very long time. Basically this is a more efficient means.

Is it okay to do it?

No I'm not so sure it is, to me it feels too much of an invasion of privacy, the Internet is far to unregulated and how do we know the data will remain secure. Police don't even need to get a search warrant to search your personal browsing habits before looking, which yes in some instances the benefits out weigh the invasion. However one of the most basic human rights the right to a private life is infringed by all this data collection and this new scheme is no better.

What about from a publishers point of view?

Yes from a publishers point of view it could be a very good thing. No more ad targeting (i wish), a much simpler ride. Not necessarily though, some people will visit a site on a subject they had no need to before, say they are looking for debt advice but also look at a lot of car sites, bets are serving car ads isn't the best way to target. I believe self targeting is the way forward.

Will i get lower paid ads if i don't take part?

There is no evidence that it will affect your ad prices, however logic tells you some advertisers may only want to be served in that manner so you might lose out in that way. That's not a guarantee just my opinion on the matter.

So should i opt out? Its up to you, i personally have opted out but that's not to say you should!

The end of video units!!!!

2009-04-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Just a small update for those unaware, video units by Google AdSense will be terminated at the end of the month.

This isn't such a bad thing since half Google's customers couldn't take advantage of them anyway. Me included! I wonder if they are just trying to consolidate on the more successful products or will be launching some new innovation in the next 6 months.

I having a feeling with all the hype surrounding Microsoft's answer to AdSense, its more likely to be the latter so i will try and see if i can find some gossip and will post as soon as i hear more!

Low paying advertisers, do you block them or not?

2009-04-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Should PSA's be blocked?

In my opinion public service ads should be blocked, partly because, to me there is nothing worse than getting clicks on an ad you make no money out of.

Generally though surely it doesn't matter all that much, since if there are no ads to serve then you wont make anything anyway?

No not necessarily, firstly just because some PSA's are being served doesn't mean that they are all going to be PSA's. If you have 3 paying ads mxed up in a ton of PSA's, it will decrease its visibility, and therefore decrease the chance of a click on a paying ad. Blocking PSA's will increase the chance of the paying adverts being seen.

Should i block low paying adverts?

No in my view it is not essential to block them, you can certainly optimise by using your own judgement on the best ads to have on your site and prices you wont accept. Remember though some niches will serve higher priced adverts than others, if your niche isn't right you will be serving ads that pay very little.

What should i consider if i am going to filter out low paying ads?

Don't block too many, little money is better than serving no ads at all.
Block ones that are irrelevant or poorly focused to your niche.
If you have a high CTR but low traffic consider blocking low paying CPM ads
likewise if you have high traffic but low CTR block low paying contextual ads.
CTR is increased with better targeted ads. So don't just try to get irrelevant high paying ads since they are unlikely to get clicks. For example a debt insolvency blog serving holiday ads wont get any clicks, but a one serving debt advice and consolidation loans will.
Do your research as to what are the lowest paying adverts.
Quality of ads is far better than quantity. Good targeted ads less likely to stand out amongst irrelevant ones.
CPM ads pay less or sometimes nothing per click. Although some can still pay quite nicely per click.
Generally I'd advise blocking eBay but that's more a personal preference, eBay pays a lot less for ads than you might think.
Be careful when using some of AdSense competitors, many have poor targeting and serve CPM ads with $0.00 per click.

Is there any other way i can generate a higher CTR other than previously mentioned?

Yes there are a few, use a combo of link ads on top of your usual ads, generally by proxy these pay far less but can improve CTR by around 15%

Try getting rid of borders on your ads by blending them to your page background. This can be done through your ad setup and changing border to your sites page colour. Do the same with the background too.

The filter out list when using Google AdSense

2009-04-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Now i've been a member of digital point for a little while, and rarely do you get people messaging you about a product or tool you have tried with good, reasonable questions. Well the other day id did. It was a message about a tool i used to find out all my low paying ads for my niche. The site is called adsblacklist. Now the adivce i gave i thought was of use to everyone so have decided to post the conversation here. Obivuosly the questions are bold and the answer's italic.

i see you used A.B.L.
how did it increase your bottom line?
let me know,

Yes i did and its great if you want to see all the low paid ads for your targeted audience, but i didn't filter out all of them coz i noticed a few were ads that definitely give over 35c per click.
To be honest its only increased my earnings by a very small amount. Its very hard to judge since i have only used it a week or so ago but i'll do my best. Anyway I'll give you the figures from last week compared to a bad week. Total site hits were up 3.1%Individual Ad impressions were down by 20% and CTR down by 1.4%. However my eCPM was up due to higher paid clicks + lower number of ad impressions. Average price per click up 53%. Total earnings down by only 0.8% on a good week and up 7.6% on a bad. If you take my 6mth average earnings was up by 2.6% So for every $ i only make 2.5c extra.
Hope that helps and doesn't discourage you, since i would have thought some niches will see bigger effects than others

so basically with ABL I can eliminate the low revenue per click Ads from showing up on my AdSense, correct?
Assuming the CTR stays the same, then I should see an increase in revenue, correct? Since each click is more valuable.
To what extent, if any, can you weed out the low paying ads? Can you dictate specifics...like don't show the lowest 20% ads, or 40% ads, etc?

Yes and no, it depend what you would consider low paying. Generally tools like abl will recommend any ads worth under 75c to blacklist which can be counter productive depending on your niche. For example my sports blog, blocking anything over 35c will eliminate the majority of my ads and I'll be serving up PSA's. Now if i had one on holidays abroad 75c is far more reasonable. Also consider this, placement ads get revenue by number of impression but very little for getting clicks. ABL probably does not take this into account. In those instances ctr could be irrelevant. Also I'm not sure if CTR is affected if you are showing less ads but to be honest instinct tells me it will have a negative effect. However in answer to your second question, in theory, assuming CTR isn't affected, clicks are on contextual ads, your not showing PSA's (because you have no high paying ads available) and you get the same amount of clicks on your 'ad optimised' site. In theory yes you should earn more. But that's a lot of ifs. Honestly though a blanket ban on the say so of ABL isn't the best idea on any site. In my opinion ABL is good for getting the list, its then up to you to research that list, see if you can find anything on the net about how much they pay and what ads are contextual or placement. Look at the adverts relevance to your niche. Because to be honest a well targeted 10c ad could be worth more in eCPM terms than a poorly targeted $4 one. Also decide what is best for your site do you have high traffic because you may want the good placement ads. Or low traffic sites with a good CTR would suit a blacklist on placement ads that have a poor price per click regardless of there cpm. The price to ban depends on the niche.I think that also answers your third question but just to summarise the only way you can decide things like that is by doing a bit of hard work. To be honest most things when it comes to ppc advertising is more effective when done manually. Just try to find a balance that suits your niche. There is loads of advice out there but without knowing the logistics of your enterprise, it comes down to your judgment on what best suits your business.

Now this advice given is a general rule, whether using a program or site like ABL. or just doing it manually. Blocking everything can be worse than getting a $0.01 click since if your not serving ads you wont get any money. Like i have said in this message there is so much information out there but not one piece is going to be able to tell you what is best for your site. Remember just because it worked for someone else doesn't automatically guarantee it will work for you.

I hope what i have shared so far over this and the last forty posts has been of use to you and you continue reading. Once again i welcome any reader to leave a comment on this or any post whether compliment or criticism.

A comprehensive guide to basic Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

2009-03-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimisation Guide

So through out this blog there will be posts talking about search engine optimisation. the object of this post is to go into detail about all the methods i have come across in regard to optimising your sites for better success with optimising your website or blog. This is a comprehensive guide and will take some reading but will positively help with increasing traffic to you site. Some example will have been discussed at length in other posts and instead of repeating myself i will hyperlink them as we come to them. I have purposely put the list in an order i would look to do things in, obviously when updating a site not all of these will be relevant but if you are starting from scratch this is the order I'd advise you do it in.

Keywords and meta's

Firstly get to know your terms, what are keywords what are SERP's or SEO? So what key words do i need? Now start thinking of some keywords, one advisable trick is to look firstly at high value words these can be analysed from using Internet tools, forum advice or a variety of other sources. Some advise looking at keyword stems, essentially words that have a root word and several variations coming from it for example batter, batters, battered and battering. Search engines will count batter in other stems of that word. Unfortunately some keywords that are of high value wont have stems so in all cases this isn't appropriate how ever it is important to be aware of them and potential application. If you cant use them as primary why not look at them in a secondary capacity. Another type of way to optimise is to look at synonyms. These are different words or phrases with near identical meanings. as an example sick, ill, poorly. Again like stems synonyms are recognised in the English language for search engines. If possible these should be addressed. Some synonyms can have a completely different meaning pupil for one can be part of the eye or a student, unfortunately i am unsure on how these are sorted with regard to search engines. Has it a guess though the relevance of your text will filter you out of the wrong meaning anyway.

Keywords In your URL. First port of call is make sure your URL says what your site is about. Good clear descriptive and accurately spelt words. I would recommend you doing some research on keywords before choosing them. As an example a SEO site with the web address dogforsale.com isn't going to give good keywords. Remember though if your site doesn't have them don't worry too much but it is always better to have them. Also don't just rely on keywords in your URL.

Keywords in your Title tags, meta's etc. I've put this as one point as they have been covered in the hyperlink 'keywords' above. Another place not previously mentioned is in the alt tags. These are image meta tags descriptions of pictures and since the search engine spiders don't actually see pictures they do take note of the alt tags. So it is worth while filling these in as well as the other meta tags. Remember meta's headings etc start <> and end with instructions eg title or alt in between. Also when considering your wording for headings tags, you might want to consider secondary keywords. These are words although not as important are handy to have. This will be explained further in other points. You should also consider your language meta tags, although search engines don't solely on this it does help to have it.

Keywords in your content, frequency, proximity and phrases. Again frequency and phrases was discussed in the previous keyword post but another point that does need to be mentioned is the text in the beginning of the document can also be important so it is advisable to have keywords at the beginning. Be aware that if you have pictures for example the beginning of the text in the document might not be the beginning of the whole thing.

Secondary keywords. Secondary keywords are effectively other less common words that come up. for example say you had a holiday site and your keyword phrase was cheap holidays. Now say one of your holidays is a resort in Brighton. the place Brighton will effectively get less competition than cheap holidays, but if some one is searching for cheap holidays in Brighton, if you have optimised for secondary words you have a more chance of getting better targeted traffic and more likely to get hits. Don't go mad on secondary keywords and try to over optimise them, because of there un common nature they wont generally need it.

Keyword formatting. This is things like highlighting words in bold or italic and font size. This should be done in moderation and only where applicable. Although it does show an importance in the text it can also have a negative effect if wrongly used or over used

Some things to avoid.

Misspelling and mistypes. Always check your spelling especially keywords. Don't be tempted to try to optimise for common misspellings of a word. It may get you extra traffic but doesn't do you any favors in the long run. Its unlikely that your SERP's or page rank will be affected to much but it wont help them either.

Keyword Stuffing. This is when a document is saturated with keywords, if they exceed around 7% of your total text it may be considered as keyword stuffing and could get you removed from search engine indexes. Usually keep to around 4-5%. To be honest though if you are genuinely writing it is unlikely you will end up stuffing but it is important to check anyway.

Keyword dilution. This is when you optimise too many keywords and therefore affect performance of all words. I would recommend no more than 5-6 primary and 3 secondary.

Unrelated keywords. These are ones that do not have any relation to your site or its contents. These are more or less worthless so keep it relevant.

A meta to avoid. At all costs avoid using the refresh meta tag, this is a form of redirect and if you must do a redirect a 301 is preferable. To be honest it is not advisable to do either in my view.

Avoid poor coding meta's etc, Although this wont get you banned it may cause your search engine ranking to be lower or cause compatibility issues.

Robot text Make sure your site is indexable and no robot txt is blocking the pages from being crawled. Usually Google Webmaster will let you know if it is having problems.

Optimising with content

The golden rule. Keep it unique, all your own work. Granted in most cases idea's come from somewhere so does advice and facts. Take this post for one this has come from many other sources but what makes it unique is its my own writing my own point of view, my summaries, layout. I decide what is relevant, the way its worded. Its more brief in some places but more in depth in others. So if your ideas have come from other sources you need to make it your own by basically formulating it with your ideas. Besides if your having to copy from a page or website you obviously don't know much about the subject your writing about. Unique content gets ranked far better than copies and close approximations. Now truly unique subjects/topics are gold though.

Get the scoop. Yes just like reporters being the first one get a story is gold, if you get a scoop and be one of the first to publish on the net its more likely to get higher priority in search results. Unlike reporters, make sure you get your facts right because you may not get any benefit if you get key details wrong. Keeping up with current events is a way of getting the scoop. Although each niche will have its own ways of getting the information first. Some niches you wont be able to get information on to the net first. A news blog will invariably get news slower than a news channels website will for example. But hearing breaking news on a new law and you publishing its legal ramifications might. It is not a necessity to get the scoop first but it can be a gold mine when you do.

Content updating. Regularly updating the content of your sites is good for SEO, also to a far lesser degree so is updating old content. Remember search engines like newer content.

Topic consistency. Keep your content on the same topic, if there are slight variations try to keep the URL's separated.

Topic separation. Try to keep content on different pages with different URL's this can help search engines decide on what the subject matter is. Mostly sites will talk about a general topic and then break it into individual aspects, stories or specialised subject. A tip for those who are optimising blogs, try to get rid of your date categories and focus on your subject tags.

Keep page size reasonable. The rule to remember the longer the page, the more things on it, means the slower it loads and the less spiders like it. Generally having too much content on a page can be undesirable to spiders so keep pages to healthy size without over loading them.
Named anchors. It is important that internal links, links to other parts of your page, have anchor text which should have good keywords. Internal links can help stress the importance of certain parts of a page.

The things to avoid.

Poor content. This includes copied, illegal and duplicate content. Copied content firstly infringes copyright so is illegal, you may get banned. Illegal content including but not limited to; copyright, drugs, violence, spamming, hacking or fraud, will get you banned and might get you a visit from the authorities. Duplicate content however is less likely to get you banned but bulking out a site with duplicate content will lose you some brownie points in terms of search engine optimisation.

Text just for search engines This can be known as invisible text or ghost text, which sole purpose is for search engines to find but not users. This will severely harm ranking or worse.

Cloaking and doorway pages. Cloaking is a technique where the spiders see one page (usually highly optimised) and the user see another. Again avoid doing this at all costs. Similar to this is doorway pages, pages essentially designed to trick spiders into thinking they are relevant when they are not.

Images, javascript and flash. Generally images and javascript is OK as long as it is in moderation. Firstly it may slow things down if there is too much secondly it doesn't get noticed by spiders. Flash is similar although some say it has a negative effect on their sites. Flash homepages are a definite no no, just don't do it.

Your site, URL and accessibility.

Niche. Your site should be relevant to your overall topic.

Age of site. The older the site the better, sorry no other way to optimise on that one!

Sitemaps. Having sitemaps although not essential it is thoroughly recommended that you do.

URL's. Keep the size of URL's to at most 3- 4 words for the home page. Also hyphens in URL's can be of help.

Site size. Generally the larger it is the more spiders will like it. Although try to ensure sites stay user friendly.

Page load time. Pages that load fast get better rankings than ones that don't. If your pages start loading slowly try to cut down the amount of content on that page.

Good uptime. If your site is always working around 98% of the time it will get a better rank. So try to keep site from being down to a minimum. If your hosting provider cannot keep your site's uptime to this level you may want to think of changing to one that does.

File location. Make sue files are easily accessible and easily located in the root directory.

Things to avoid

Session ID's and seo unfriendly Dynamic URL's. Unfriendly dynamic URL's are those that are too long but can be easily rewritten using Internet tools. Session ID's should not be used on pages you want crawled. This can have a very negative impact on SEO.

Bans. If parts of your site have been banned its likely the rest will be suffering to an extent.

Redirects. As explained poorly used redirects 301 and 302 can harm sites. My advice is avoid them and not bother taking the risk.

Finally links and link building

Links to your site. Getting links to your site is an important factor to consider when optimising your site. In effect if some one links to your site it is almost like an approval of your site and its contents. However links to different sites will have different effects depending on their own search engine reputation. The name of the game is to get well ranked sites to link to you and not poor sites. The cream of the crop being .gov and .edu, but these are hard to come by. Another factor to consider is getting sites which are relevant to your content to link to you. This will help more not only for traffic driving but SEO as well. Also the age of backlinks can be important generally the older the better.
Keyword's in anchor of the link. This is just as important as getting the back links in the first place, just a post of your web address will not suffice, neither will using click here as an anchor. It is important that you put a good keyword phrase in the anchor text. Equally important is to make the words surrounding it flow and not look artificial. If someone else is linking to your site, you may not get much of a say in what they do but generally if it is a well optimised site you wont have a problem as the likelihood is the owner will understand the importance of using keywords in anchors. With article submissions sites or forums you create your anchors text so in that respect make the most of being able to choose your keywords.
How many back links? The more backlinks the better in general but two very important points to consider 20 high reputation links are better than 1000 poor, secondly If you have too many backlinks in too shorter space the more likely it will look like you are link spamming or buying links.
What about from 1 site? Generally don't get too many links from 1 site it can look spammy. Also regarding links from 1 IP address, Google says it doesn't discriminate on how many links a person gets from 1 IP address. or C class of addresses however msn and yahoo might.
Directory links. Using the same principle's as with back links from other sites, directory links to your site can be very handy. If you get links from reputable directories then yes, and as long as you do not over do it then again yes they are of great use.
What about out going links? Follow the same principles you would for your inbound links in regards to wording and anchors etc. However when it comes to numbers don't over fill your pages with out going links. This can have a negative effect on your site. Some suggest keep it under 100, I'd suggest less than 50. Also remember when doing your anchor take as much acre over your keywords as you would expect others linking to you to take.

Things to avoid.

Link farms, buying links and excessive linking. Using link farms, sites that spin content the post it over many sites and buying links should be avoided. Often you have no control over where these links go and could end up having a negative SEO effect. Also too many links too quickly can suggest link spamming and also have undesired results. Worse case senario is you will be removed from search engine indexes. To a slightly lesser degree excessive links from one site may have bad effects on SEO.
Stay away from Bad links. Sometimes you cant help who links to you but try to avoid those with poor reputations or those with illegal or immoral content. It is important to read search engines guide lines to understand what bad or poor sites are.
Out going mad! Don't have too many out going links this can be bad for SEO. Also similar to inbound links, don't have outbound link to bad sites, this can be just as bad.
Single pixel links. Don't do it, making invisible or pixel links designed just for search engines is a very bad move and could lose you a lot of kudos.

The importance of Keywords and keyword analysis when refering to SEO and driving traffic to your site

2009-03-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

What are keywords when used in terms of search engine optimisation?
Well they are the words people will type in to the search engines to find the subject matter they require.

How does the search engines find keywords for your site?
There are many factors involved in getting the right keywords. Some on the page (your site) and some off the page (external).

1- On the Page

Keyword frequency, the amount of times a certain word features on a particular page. for example for this page the keywords most used are likely to be keywords and search engine optimisation.
Meta keywords; using keywords and descriptions in meta tags.
Hyperlinked words, or links on your site.
Header text.

2- Off the page

Back links via hyper linked text; these are small key phrases or words wrapped around a link to your site. The text is known as anchor text.

So why are keywords so important?

To be honest the answer to this is very easy, the better your keywords the more likely someone is going to search for them. Also the better established your keywords, the better your page rank for those terms.

So how do i go about establishing my keywords?

Right lets go back to the list and I'll give a brief description of how to do each.

1- On page

Keyword frequency: ensure that in each article or page the text is keyword rich, that is to say make sure you use certain keywords you wish to have in results by making sure those words come up frequently. However do not just spam nonsensical words into the site. This will have very little or no value. Despite the need for frequency make sure your writing makes sense and is still a quality piece of work.
Meta keywords and description. These are pretty simple to do, firstly they need to go into the body of a post or page and need to be in html format the meta tag is as follows. < name ="keywords" content="">keyword1, keyword 2, keyword 3" / > Remember to omit the spaces and the keywords go in bold. You can also add a meta description which is very similar. just omit "Keywords" and replace with description, then add a very small description of the site or page.
Linking words using the href method or [url] method to other sites can be used to great effect for example < href="">web address/" > words you want hyperlinked< /a> these have some value in determining keywords. Later in this post you will see an example of a hyperlink. With linking much like headers a good small group of keywords is better than just one. For example "SEO" on its own is not as useful as "free SEO advice" Also site links at a side of a page can help determine the keywords in your site.
Header text; Quite simply the post or article title usually meta'd up using the <>, format. Again just put a good title containing the keywords in your text or keyword meta's.

Off page

Again this is exactly the same as when linking sites on your page. If you are doing articles or forum posts, instead of just pasting your URL wrap it around anchor text. Good keyword phrases are preferable to single words.

So which phrases are best to use?

Firstly i cant give you exact words or phrases unless i know what niche your looking for. Some general tips are to make sure they accurately describe your site, they are not misspelled or just the same word or phrase repeated over and over again. Word combination is good.
Do your research, the only way you are going to know what keywords work and how they are used is to look at the way successful sites do it. Look at your competitors analyse their sentence structure, what words most commonly appear (this can be done by pressing shift F then typing in the word or phrase). Also look on forums and help sites for advice.
Lastly, although this relates to research i wanted to keep it separate. Try looking for programs or sites that will analyse the successfulness of certain key phrases. A good free one that has been recently brought to my attention is webcomfs.com. It is a free Seo advice and Keyword analysis site. See that is my example of a hyperlink by the way. Anyway you type in a search term and it will tell you how many hits per year that search term gets. Now couple that with the other research advice i have given and you have one formidable keyword filter to hand.

So now you have some idea's a great free tool and now you should be turning to your site so i wish you the best of luck. However t is important to note that there are many more factors involved, keywords are only a small part with the advancement of search engine algorithms and having good keywords wont guarantee better page rank/page value. However if done right may help boost traffic significantly.

One final note to my readers my next post will contain a comprehensive guide to SEO which is probably going to be 10,000+ word, so dont be suprised if you do not see another post for a week or so.

How much traffic will i need to make money with PPC advertising?

2009-03-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

One of the most common questions is how much will i need to do in order to earn a living from AdSense, adbrite or whatever your PPC advertiser is. The answer really depends on how much work your willing to put in, the PPC on your ads and how well targeted they are.

Whatever way you choose to go about it, it will take some time to build a profit gaining site/blog. If you put 40hrs a week could be as little as 3months. However even then its not guaranteed. Don't be disheartened though because if you have followed tips on optimising your search engine rank and developing your content it shouldn't be a problem.

Remember each page you get indexed or links to count for a hit on your site so the more pages the better

Now lets say you have wrote a blog and it has 200 pages a person can visit. Now lets say each page gets around 10 visits each day. Immediately that 2000 hits you'll be getting. Getting 10 hits isn't hard if you have built up enough PR on your site.
Now lets say you get a eCPM of $10 (with a CTR 0f 5% this is easily possible). So for 2000 hits that's $20 per day.

So creating 500+ pages which achieve a low average of 10 hits a day will earn you up to $50. Honestly though through the course of your workings you may get this many pages but it is advisable to make any page very well marketed and all indexed pages SEO'ed properly. Creating articles comments advice in forums guest blogging etc should give easily give you enough traffic to make a living.

Here is an example.....
200 pages with average of 100 hits each per day with a eCPM $10.
200 x 100= 20,000

So 20 x $10 = $200 a day $1,400 a week, $72,800 per year.

Yes it is possible but it will take a phenomenal amount of work to consitently achieve that kind of money and some luck thrown in. My best advice is to not spend the first few months checking your balance it will only dishearten you. Concerntrate on getting good quality links, make sure your site/blog has been indexed, well marketed and full of unique content rich information.

List of best article submission sites for driving traffic and SEO.

2009-03-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

This is the definitive top 6 list of article submissions sites so have a look.

Yes i know i have already provided you with 142 sites but here are some others that come highly recommended by bloggers and SEO's. It is a brief list but probably the cream of the crop.

1) WebProNews
2) Articlecity
3) ArticleBiz
4) goarticles.com
5) Articledashboard
6) ezinearticles.com

Now one to watch out for is Article base as it is a no follow site shame i only found that out after two submissions. Nofollow is robot txt meta tags basically that tell google to ignore them. Best way to see if where you are going to put backlinks is a nofollow look up the source code. This can be done by right clicking your mouse over one of the blogs on the site and looking down the list for view source. If it has no follow meta tags near your signature then you know the site is useless for SEO'ing your site.

Tips on starting a blog for money! Chicken before the egg approach.

2009-03-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

Your wondering what is the chicken before the egg, well for one its a great analogy. OK well most people when blogging for money write a blog immediately lace it with ads index it as quickly as possible then when they realise they haven't got traffic they decide to SEO there blogs. So the chicken approach is develop your site before submitting it to search engines.

Firstly sort out layout template/design, your ad placement and features.

Next Sort out your keyword and description meta tags.

Many wiser SEO's suggest building a sites fan base, content richness backlinks etc. So basically what you would need to do is write say 8 posts for your blog, adding good unique content rich posts.

After this place your ads and ensure they are targeted correctly

Then build up knowledge of it through the usual means ie forums, other blogs, twitter etc.

Next build up backlinks for it by doing some article submissions, leaving comments on blogs or forums and maybe a spot of guest blogging. You should aim at about 8-10 backlinks, with over half coming from article submissions. Remember this also increases chance of traffic through the submitted articles.

Then submit your site and site maps to be indexed. In theory, because your page rank may take a while to change from low to medium or high if you get it indexed first, this way you will have a blog that search engines immediately like.

SEO advice on meta tags and others

2009-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Right just a quick pointer which i have neglected to mention until now. This is regarding placing meta tags in the html of your blog/website. Another way to help improve how search engines see your sites is to include meta data giving site keywords and a small description. It is a subject of much debate how useful these are but it is in no way detrimental. I think it all boils down to how you use it. So I'll give you the meta code and just omit the spaces.

< meta name="keywords" content="Put keywords here"/ > "< meta name="description" content=" put a small natural description here"/ >

Only use a few relevant keywords and make your description brief but accurate. Also one last thing don't worry if you are using blogger when you save this code it will rearrange itself for you.

You must not misspell words or overload your sites or pages with keywords this will have a negative effect on your how your sites appear on search engines.

Advice on directing traffic and SEO through article submission sites.

2009-03-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

One of the most prominent ways to optimise your site for search engines, is by writing articles for other sites. As i have previously mentioned Free traffic systems is one however this post will deal with sites where you have to submit one article at a time. I'm guessing your thinking why bother when you can get 100's of links just from one site?

The answer is simple, search engines are constantly being updated and it is far more likely multiple submissions sites and their blogs will get bumped down in value or even sandboxed from the web. This is because although they are claiming it is natural it is clearly not the case since you use meta tags to change small parts of an article which is basically the same thing on thirty blogs.

You see link building to be natural needs human love, and writing multiple articles that are relevant to your site and creating a link to it using good solid key words is giving it a bit of TLC.

Firstly when choosing your submission site you need to be looking for a site which offers quality one way links, best way to find this out is perform a simple search with the keywords 'article submission free one way link' the highest results = best quality. Don't just stick to one though try a few out.

Now when you write your article keep it on topic of your own website you will be linking it too. The method of your writing should be informative, accurate and with correct spelling and grammar. It should be content rich but readable. Carefully placed keywords should be used. Treat it like your own site in many respects the first paragraph should be have good keywords without overloading and making it's value useless. Try if you are talking about a subject give a specific aspect of the topic and try not to write to much. If possible try and make it like a small preview of your own work so you can go further into depth on your own site.

There is no reason why you cant write an article on one site, and use a different aspect on another or even write the same article but in a completely new way. Make sure when you write the article you add the site you wish it to backlink it too. When doing this it is best instead of simply putting you websites address wrap it around some text. This is done by using HTML code, < a href="your website address"> Keywords you want to write< /a>, obviously without the spaces. The words again should be keywords that will entice people to them and entice search engines.

Remember there are a few other things to consider. Don't just copy and paste other already published works. You will get found out and your article will have little or no value. Try to keep it content rich but don't go over board and write a series of very long essays.
Try to keep each submission to under 1000 words. Use different pages on your site to link to different submissions. Although the bulk should still link to your frontpage.

You think if for 1 site you do 3 submissions a week that 3x52 weeks = 156 links per year, do ten that's 520 per year. All these links will add up.

Don't think for one minute this is the only thing you will need to do to optimise your site, there are many other avenues to pursue some more tailored to particular niches but not for others. To properly optimise your site you should have many strategies. Many i have already posted and will continue to do so as i get more.

Some Essential SEO Search Engine Optimisation tools

2009-03-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

So I've mentioned SEO before so i wont go into how it is essential for generating higher traffic. Instead i just want to provide you with a couple of very handy Internet gadgets which can be found on one site.

The SEO tools are listed below

They are a Backlinks Analyzer Tool

Which essential analyses what backlinks come from where! Yes i know google webmaster does two but this seems more efficient.

Next is A Page rank tool This is a vital tool as it shows the position your site based on specific key words. Unlike webmaster it displays Yahoo, Msn and Google.

Enjoy checking your sites out!!!

A quick good evening and introduction to my new readers!

2009-03-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

Firstly hello where ever you have come from, if its from my JTV channel thank you for taking the time to have a look. Right so let me get straight to it what is AdSense?

AdSense is an advertisement application run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. By impression it means per time it is viewed.
See my definitions to get an idea of what all the terms mean.

There are other networks you can use such as Adbrite, which are more tailored to a site which gets a lot of hits but very few clicks on ads.

The name of the game create something people need, target the audience and then bring them to your site in as many ways as possible with out breaking any rules. Which brings me to the next point read all the policies set out by google because they are very strict.

Generating traffic can be done in a variety of ways but the most important is getting your site indexed with search engines. Indexed means you will appear on search results. Again look through my posts one of the first is about getting indexed.

Once indexed you need to go through a process called SEO which is Search Engine Optimisation. Basically getting your site higher up the search results. This is done in a variety of ways, firstly your site will automatically gain value as you develop it through writing text into it. Mainly though it is through getting other sites to link to you. Again i have many posts on this subject.

Don't expect to earn £1000's i get around 1000 hits a day and make less than £25.00 a week.

Quick update on Free Traffic Sytems and SEO

2009-03-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

When writing this blog i have no intention to mislead anyone or misinform either, however this is still a very steep learning curve for me and i may sometime be a little Hasty. What i am referring too is Free traffic systems. Firstly yes it is still a great idea but i think i never really highlighted the fact that you wont see results instantly and may take a few weeks before you see any change in your Google Page rank. Getting backlinks to .gov sites are more likely to get noticed a lot quicker.

That isn't to say you shouldn't go for it. Now to the second point, don't go over the top and write 10 articles a day per blog or site because if you increase your backlinks too quickly you may incur Googlebots wrath. Which means you can be removed from the index. My advice write one article per blog/site per month.

So apart from the places you have already told me where else can i get quality links?

2009-03-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

So by now you'll have heard of twitter, forums, free traffic systems and Spott! Surely enough places to get a ton of links to your site so you end up the top of everybodies results.

Actually not really because there are a 100 different ways and different places to get some links and you should try all of them. Remember your pages in a site get indexed seperately so it might be a wise idea to make sure you get a steady healthy set of links to each page.

So what else can you do. Well the first i may have mentioned before is leaving comments on other blogs etc, although these may not be as high quality as others, every little helps.

Now the next one is really a stroke of pure genius, some govermental sites have place you can leave comments. As you can probably imagine Govemental sites are very high quality sites and leaving a comment and your link on them is a great way to get high quality links.

Write an article for other guest blogging sites. and hope they approve a link to your site (usually if the information on your site is relevant and accurate).

Another way which i dont recommend is to buy your high quality links. I must stress in my view why pay for something that with a little work you can get for free.

Right and now for the fun bit here are 142 sites which may help get backlinks one way or another.

1. MalaysiaStory
2. 30daytags
3. MalaysiaStory
4. 34Things
5. Aboogy
6. AllMyFavorites
7. Article Tag
8. aworldofhelp
9. Backflip
10. beanrocket
11. Bookkit
12. Bookmark Manager
13. BookmarkSync
14. BibSonomy
15. blabb.com
16. BlinkBits
17. BlinkList
18. BlogHop
19. BlogLot
20. BlogMarks.net
21. BlogMemes.net
22. BlogMemes.info
23. BlogLines.com
24. BlogPulse
25. Blue.us
26. BookmarkTracker
27. browsr
28. BuddyMarks
29. butterfly
30. Chipmark
31. clipclip
32. clipfire
33. Clipmarks
34. commontimes
35. Connectedy
36. Connotea
37. Complore
38. del.icio.us
39. de.lirio.us
40. Digg
41. diigo
42. dinnerbuzz
43. Dog Ear
44. Dohat
45. Dutch
46. Favoor
47. FeedMeLinks
48. Feedmarker
49. Filangy
50. Flikr
51. Furl
52. GetBoo
53. Gibeo
54. GiveALink
55. GoKoDo MyBookmarks
56. GoobToob
57. Google Notebook
58. H2O Playlist
59. Hotlist Anywhere
60. Hot Links
61. Hyperlinkomatic
62. i89.us
63. IceRocket
64. IndiaGram
65. Indiamarks
66. Jots
67. Kaboodle
68. Kinja
69. leze.de and
70. Lilisto
71. linkaGoGo
72. linkfilter
73. linkroll
74. LibraryThing
75. Linux Bookmarks
76. ListMixer
77. Listible
78. Lookmarks
79. Ma.gnolia
80. Maple
81. Mecanbe
82. memestreams
83. Millions Of Games
84. MotorKen
85. MyProgs
86. Netvouz
87. Network Menus
88. Newsvine
89. NowPublic
90. OYAX
91. PeerMark
92. popurls
93. RawSugar
94. Reader²
95. Reddit
96. Rojo
97. Rollyo
98. Rrove
99. Save Your Links
100. Scuttle
101. Scuttle
102. Segnalo
103. Shadows
104. Shoppersbase
105. Shoutwire
106. Simpy
107. SiteJot
108. sitetagger
109. Slashdot
110. Smarking
111. Spurl
112. Squidoo
113. Start Aid
114. Start
115. StumbleUpon
116. Social Bookmarking
117. Sync2It’s BookmarkSync
118. Tab Marks
119. taghop
120. Tagsy
121. TagTooga.com
122. TailRank
123. Textnotes.de
124. Technorati
125. Tutorialism
126. uLinkx
127. unalog
128. URLBlaze
129. URLex
130. Wazima
131. Web Feeds
132. Wink
133. Wiklink
134. Wists
135. World Wide Wisdom
136. wURLdBook
137. Yahoo! My Web
138. Yoono
139. Youtube
140. Yummy
141. Zaadz
142. Zurpy

Right now just quickly a couple of tips when linking to sites..

Always check three things:

•That the links in signatures show up to visitors
•That the links in signatures are do-follow
•That the forum shows posts from all time, and not just recently active. Many don't! You can see the defaults, in a Bulletin forum, at the bottom left of the post lists. "From the Beginning" is what you want. Many of the high PR forums only do a limited amount of days.

Bonus:

•Make a signature there people will want to click on. You'll get both the search benefits, and free visitors too!

One last quick point is dont bother trying to use wikipedia they have a no-follow policy so googlebot will ignore any backilnks. Read their spamming article if you dont believe me.

What is a SEO Marketing Adviser

2009-03-06T05:11:00.000-08:00

Had alot of people ask what the hell is SEO, well it is an acronym if you hadn't guessed. But in the internet world it Means Search Engine Optimisation.

Often you see people post that they are a SEO guru, I prefer SEO Marketing Adviser, sounds a lot more professional.

But it got me thinking in my blogs and others there are a lot of acrnyms which people may not understand so here is a very brief list.

SEO- Search Engine Optimisation.
SERP- Search Engine Results Page
Page Rank- How google determines the value of your site and its pages
CPC- Cost per click
CPM- Cost per Mile or i prefer metre. (means per 1000)
CTR- Click through rate measured in percentages.
eCPM- Effective Clicks per mile. (Its the total cost of the clicks + cpm per 1000)
PM- Obviously per mile
BLO- Back link Optimisation (very few people use this but you may come across it)
TAP- Target ad placement.
HTML- HyperText Markup Language (the Language the internet reads)
XML- Extensible Markup Language
HTTP- Hypertext Transfer Protocol

Thats it for now, i'll add more when i can think of them

A quick update on Free traffic systems

2009-03-05T05:54:00.000-08:00

So just wanted to post that i have had my first article published through free traffic systems. Its been published twice and am starting to work on my second article. Its probably best to explain it does take up to 24hrs before your submission gets approved and then slowly it gets updated onto the blogs after that.

So far mine has been published on 2 blogs, which equals four back links not bad eh?

I done a little research on what kind of submissions they have on there and it looks like the greatest number of blogs are on SEO, Finance and blogging but other categories such as cooking and sports are on there too.

Give it a try if your looking for a link go down my posts till you get to the one which explains what free traffic systems is all about and click where it says click here

Final thought of the day. 03

2009-03-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Just a very quick basic maths lesson..........

So if you have been an avid reader of my posts you should by now have a counter and be able to project your traffic levels for a certain day. Also you may notice AdSense can take some time to update the amount of impressions your getting. Usually the clicks are the first thing to go on there. Which if your like me can get your heart racing if your CTR suddenly jumps to 50% like mine did today.

So how can you predict your final CTR with basic maths of course. So just a quick lesson on working out percentages for those times when google aren't on their game!!

I will use my final CTR as an example So far my AdSense account is showing as 738 impressions with 217 clicks and a CTR of 29%. Yes i proverbially crapped my pants.

However i know my traffic for the day is around 4500 so this is the sum to find your projected CTR. 100 divide that by 4500 = 0.22222
then do this 0.22222 x 217= 4.8% CTR

Remember this is only a projected CTR as you may have more clicks than that, but usually the clicks go on first.

and if not you now have the sum if you ever need to work out percentages.

Making the most of the affiliate links on Free traffic Systems.

2009-03-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

So by now if you have read my last post you know what free traffic systems is, if you cant be bothered here's a quick recap....

It is a site which invites you to guest blog. The incentive it will post it onto 30 blogs providing 2 links back to your specified site per blog. So for one article you can get 60 quality links. The affiliates program is if you refer others and they guest blog you will receive 1 link to your site per 3 submitted. So you refer 90 people you get 30 free links. If they then refer another 10 people each you get a link back for every 5 submissions. Effectively you will get quality links for doing nothing.

So how do you go about this affiliates programme?

Firstly go to the website (which can be found on my previous post) go to affiliates copy your referral link. Now paste that into the body of one or more of your blogs/sites. Now every time some one clicks you will get a record of impressions. That's the first way to do it.

Second way is to put it on somewhere like digital point forums, send a post telling people about it and paste your referral in.

Third way, post it into others comments on blogs etc.

Fourth way Put it on twitter! Especially if you have a marketing orientated following.

Free traffic sites with quality links!

2009-03-03T18:24:00.000-08:00

Wouldn't you love to be at the top of Googles search for your Keywords. Tired of being at the bottom of the heap. Well no more click here . This is a very simple guide on how you can create thousands of one-way back links fairly easily. It all depends on how much effort you put in however.

The first thing is, this method regards one website, which does work and can increase your back links with out infringing Googles guidelines. They claim to be able to significantly boost your page rank. In theory the idea seems sound but please dont quote me on that. Besides its worth a try isn't it? Basically, it is like an article submitter only far far better.

ok i've got you tempted haven't i, well this is like guest blogging for a large and very handy company. So first off you will need to write an article. The good thing about this website is that it is very careful about duplicate content. They have implemented a feature which allows it to randomly select phrases out of options you choose, so that when you publish it, all of the articles should be different. This is done with specific meta tags [ spin ][/ spin ] (without the gaps).

Also, you select some keywords to publish on, and you get the CHOICE of which blogs you publish the article on, so you make sure that the article is published on a relevant website related to yours for maximum quality. The only problem with it is that each article can only be submitted to 30 blogs. This isn't so bad though, you'll see why next. You can publish 2 links in each article however, so that is 60 back links per article. The way it works is it will generate 60 versions of your article so it is still a quality back link. This does take a little time to do because it is partially manual and you must read the the how too before attempting it.

Also if you refer a person and they publish articles, you get a back link yourself in every 3rd article they publish and you wouldn't have even needed to do anything. Just referred that one person and off you go. Also, for each person that they refer, you get a link in their 5th article, so if you get 100 people to sign up who all make articles and promote, you will have a LOT of back links and you won't even need to maintain it.

So all you need to do is sign up and get started. The back links will be relevant and quality back links, you'll notice a big difference. It is important to note it isn't that straight forward to begin with and may take a few hours to get used to it. I've just completed my first article and it has taken 3 hours. But that's 3hrs with 60 back links. Not bad hey? Well here's the link have fun and good luck.

Oh and did i mention its 100% free, yes free, doesn't cost a penny. As far as i can tell no catch either.

Improving page rank

2009-03-03T05:49:00.000-08:00

So what is page rank, well its the way google prioritises the indexing of your site. Effectively the better your rank the higher your site will appear on search results. It is essential that you improve your rank on your sites and blogs since someone searching might get 3,000,000 results and the last thing you want is to be near the bottom.

So how do you improve it, first of all get yourself indexed with google, this can be done through webmaster.

Once you have done that submit site maps for your site. The easiest way to do this is to submit your atom feed to webmaster. This may take a few days before your submitted feed to be processed. the data you should submit is your Url plus atom.xml. So mine for this site looks like this http://isadsensereallyworthithaveyoursay.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Once submitted you wont have to keep resubmitting once you have done it once as google will update your site map from time to time.

Within a few days you should have a site map uploaded to webmaster and then a few days later it should be indexed.

Now chances are your page rank will show as low so these are a few steps you need to take to improve it.

1- High quality links to your site/blog. This means sites which google think are of high value (for example wikipedia) Just linking your site to others is not enough you must get them back. A good way to do that is getting your links put on sites such as twitter or spott. Forum links also may help.

2- Words, write, write and write some more. As discussed in previous posts google loves words. So dont fill your pages with pictures it wont help.

3- Improve frequency of keywords. If your site talks about AdSense make sure AdSense is mentioned regularly. But don't do this at the expense of the quality of your writing, your not doing yourself any favors if people wont want to read your work.

4- Network your blog or site even low quality link backs will help.

5- A little trick is to use page headers and perma links or hyperlinks. Please look at my hyperlink section if you don't know how these work.

6- Finally if you have a blog make sure you have a relatively large amount of posts before they get archived to a new page. This will increase the word count of each page since technically each page is indexed separately. However dont go to mad because the more post the longer the loading time which can be counter productive.

There are many more other ways to help improve your page rank but these are the most basic and easiest ones to do.

Final thought of the day.

2009-02-26T19:17:00.000-08:00

Courtesy clicks what are they and are they a good idea?

What are they, well i hear a lot of people who are in this game say when they read someones work and enjoy it, they will click on an ad to show their appreciation. I know what a nice thing to do!

Well actually no not really, in fact quite the opposite. Let me make this clear courtesy clicks are a bad idea mainly because if everyone in this game done that we could jeopardise others accounts.

Why you ask, well AdSense in particular keep a very close watch for fraudulent clicks and one of the main indicators is an unusually high click through rate (CTR) that doesn't fit the normal trends. The usual page CTR for a non faked one is between 3-4% although it can be a little higher or lower than that. Getting an average of over 6% for a 30 day period is going to ring some alarm bells.

So don't give courtesy clicks and don't get friends to click either, remember per 1000 people is a big number and the trends wont differ that much.

That's not to say if you do have a good day and get a higher click through rate you should worry especially if you've only had 10 hits and one click. However if you have a high amount of traffic and get a CTR of above 20% for any day you may want to let Google or whoever know you have had it. It could be someone is deliberately clicking on your ads to get your account terminated. Who, the competing blogs of course!

You see this is one problem we face is those who wish to sabotage our accounts to thin out the competition. Best advice keep vigilant and if some thing seems out of place then you MUST inform your ad service provider or you could face a ban. Once e-mailing them they should be able to follow the trail the ip addresses have left, to determine if someone is trying to sabotage your account. It could be someone is deliberately clicking on your ads to get your account terminated

Sorry for scaring everyone before bed but i needed to make it very clear NO COURTESY CLICKS EVER and BE DECENT DON'T SABOTAGE OTHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is Spott a goood marketing tool

2009-02-26T14:13:00.000-08:00

Now i just received an interesting e-mail from Adbrite encouraging me to get more hits on my site, now this e-mail was great because it gave me a lot of handy tips (most of them i already knew but never mind). So i was reading through and they mentioned about getting listed on a site called Spott.

So i had a look and basically it is a link exchange site, you have a spot icon appear on your blog in a small square which features other peoples sites and then others would have yours. Oh did i mention this site is FREE!!!!!

The catch is though you have to have some incoming traffic to earn points, 4 points earns you an impression on another site. Where as you only get 3 points for every person who goes on your site.

If what i am writing is of interest to you you will need to create an account which can be found here, you type in your blog address they give you a code, which is easiest if you paste into a javascript window if your using blogger. If not paste it in between the < body > of your Html.

Remember if you want your request approved then it must feature in the top half of your blog/website.

So what are the benefits (like i need to tell you), right this is a direct quote from what i read from someone else and i think it sums it up perfectly. "In the Internet advertising game the objective is to create a network of paths, all of which lead back to you". Basically create as many avenues and possibilities that people will see your site. Spott does that very well. Next to getting indexed i would rate it a top priority.

However as briefly mentioned there is a downside, you need to earn points through traffic to get an impression on another page. Like i said the point ratio is 4:3, so you will always have to have more traffic than you will get impressions. Not good if you only have traffic for 500 people a week.

Anyway that's only a small gripe, i think its a great idea, so give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Good luck

Layout and format for optimising ads

2009-02-25T18:21:00.000-08:00

So lets move on to layout and format.........

So what is a good format to have and where should i place my adverts?

The answer to this isn't as straight forward as you think. Most people go for striking and bright ads which overall in my opinion make your blog look tacky and if anything puts me off what i am trying to read. However to some this is the whole point. My view is don't make then too striking you may put people off.

However you do want to put them in a place where people will see them. Google has done a handy diagram showing the "hot spots" are for advertising. See below

I am not going to put a key as i think its self explanatory. Red is highest etc.

As you can see from this diagram the main spots that the adverts work best are above the posts and to the left. However this diagram does not unfortunately show what performance between the posts is like.

In my view if someone is just passing by the likely hood is that they are going to miss any adverts that they would have to scroll down and see, but on the other hand a serious reader is probably more likely to take notice of adverts between posts. So i guess its really a trial and error thing.

When it comes to the design of your ads look for ones that will have either a colourful and striking view to them them example red border on blue background; or a blended colour. Me personally would go fior the latter as bright and vibrant colours can look very tacky.

Have a go experimenting to see what yeilds the best results, you may find other ways that attract more attention to your adverts.

If Twitter's good enough for him?.......

2009-02-25T16:01:00.000-08:00

So we have all heard of twitter haven't we? After all President Obama's a fan. Did you know that many other publishers are using Twitter as a way to direct traffic to their sites/blogs?

Yes its true twitter is one of the fastest social networking site on the planet. The best bit about it, unlike facebook everybody adds everyone else so you can get a very large following very very quickly. Also you can post things about your blog with direct lnks to it.

Think of it as a way to meet contacts, advertise your subject matter and gather a solid fan base. Really the opportunities are endless. Not only can you connect with any old person, you can get in touch with the right ones too. Think of it as an online directory and library.

You could even create a large linking network, why not try offering link trades when you get a high enough following.

One rule though dont just use it as an advertisimng tool. As i have stated many times the best way to go about your marketing is through general social interaction. Try taking an interest in their blogs or sites, offer advice, or even ask for it.

Dont just use it as a tool to market people will see through it much more easliy than you think.

Is Adbrite worth it? How's it compare to AdSense

2009-02-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

So is it better well first of all Adbrite is similar to AdSense but in some ways it is better. Although like with most things AdSense does out perform it in other areas.

If you wish to read the post on AdSense pro's and cons please view . the review here

Adbrite ands AdSense isn't an either or situation since they can be used together. This is because Adbrite offers the option to replace your AdSense adverts with there own if an advert becomes available that will beat the price AdSense are offering for that space and when it cant it will show the AdSense instead.

If you do want to just go with one or the other then here are some important features of Adbrite.

You can specify what ads you want much easier than with AdSense.

It has 4 possible options rolled into 1. For example you can choose to feature page adverts which pop up between loading pages and a similar program to AdWords.

These are just a few of the many benefits of adbrite, check out their website for more and decide for yourself.

Like many things in life one you’ll have to test for yourself. I certainly like it better than programs like Kontera where they underline your text.

I guess the main thing is what niche your going for and what sort of eCPM you get on your site.

Like i explained on the last post AdSense is better if you have a good CTR (Click Through Rate) since it is shows more of the PPC (Pay Per Click) adverts, whereas, Adbrite serves more CPM ads. So if you have high traffic but a low CTR then Adbrite's the one for you.

The one slight issue is Adbrite's targeting leaves a lot to be desired compared with others on the market.

Even though AdBrite’s targeting needs work it’s not going to cost you a thing to try them out.

For me, it is worth having them both because I like having a 3rd party manage my flat-rate ads. So if you’re looking to sell ad space from your site, you may want to look into AdBrite.

And if you’re searching for a new monetization option or perhaps you’ve been booted from AdSense and you’re looking for other CPC programs — give AdBrite a try to see how it works with your site or blog.

Like i said there is no reason you cant use these together and in fact does it not make more sense to do so.

Also Adbrite is compatible with Blogger. Check my post on Java scripting for more information.

Once again i hope this is helpful and please any requests or questions add a comment, it is open to all users not just members. Please don't advertise your blogs on here though, if you want to link exchange instead i am more than happy too.

Adsense V's the rest. How does it compare!

2009-02-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

So you've read all about AdSense but here another quick recapped review of it along with a brief selected list of its competitors.

Ok well lets start with AdSense:
As you may well already know AdSense is one of, if not the most, popular Internet advertising network sites. It offers publishers of websites and blogs to advertise on them and receive a small portion of the profits made on those adverts.

Through AdSense the type of ads displayed are usually directly related to the subject matter of your blog/website. Which in turn means it is in keeping with what you write and targeting the right audience for their clients.

AdSense works by auctioning off the available advertising space on a site to various advertising companies.

The default form of advertisement available from AdSense is CPC, but CPM may also appear on sites if the ad agency chooses the site and wins the auction, but these types of ads cannot be specifically requested by an AdSense user.

The main benefits from AdSense are

it is 100% compatible with blogger and other google products.
it is without a doubt the largest organisation in the business.
It has far better publisher support than other networks.
It shows PCC and PCM ads
it has links adverts options
You can advertise through video's with the aid of Youtube
Far more support forums.
Allows you to hand target your adverts
Make money from RSS feeds.

The disadvantages are

Google does not disclose how much you will receive for an impression/click on ads.
AdSense is mainly a pay per click advertiser and you cannot specify which one you can have.
Video units don't always work for some users.
AdSense is far more strict than many other providers.
Is far more strict on having other competitors ads showing on the same page.
It is far more picky on what it cosiders a quality impression, for example a page visit may not count in certain countries/domains.

You may find using AdSense not to your liking especially if you have high traffic to your site but a very low click through rate (CTR) since, as previously explained with AdSense you are more likely to get PPC ads them. Here are some of the other options.

Bidvertiser
Obeus
Valueclick Media
adbrite
adjungle
kontera
AdEngage

There are many many more but these are the ones i intend on reviewing over the next few weeks. Finally one of these Adbrite is known for having a higher rate of CPM ads and not to mention you can apparently run them along side your google ads. I will explain how this works in another post. Although at the moment i am slightly dubious of Adbrites claim and am waiting for a reply from Google.

Getting to grips with Html codes

2009-02-23T08:21:00.000-08:00

The most essential part of improving revenue with AdSense is getting to grips with the XML/Html codes. I will not go into detail why in this post but will post the reasons after finishing this.

just trust me it is essential to learn at least the basics.

Remember not all sites use the same format and the ones i am giving are compatible with Blogger. For Wordpress and others you may have to do the research yourself.

Anyway without further delay here is basic Html jargon busting guide. Click on picture below to get the list.

Remember these are designed to be placed in the body of your post and not into your template. Remember to close off codes otherwise they wont work.

Try to copy codes or web addresses into note pad so you don't have to keep rewriting them.

Have you started marketing yet, not sure where to begin?

2009-02-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

So you've got your blogs up and running but still your site traffic barely hits 100. So what are you going to do? I have briefly mentioned networking which is a long and slow process which will slowly boost your visitors. Basically the name of the game is to get your blog over the Internet.

I'm not going to give away any secrets but think what is of interest to people, where can i engage them personally.

Look to generate hits through high traffic sites (as long as it is within their rules).

Remember what ever you do you are a salesman, your selling your product. (your blog)

However that doesn't mean go for the hard sell. Why not check out Digitalpointforums and see how they do it.

And mainly you need a product that is worthy of the interest.

Don't ever mislead others. ie if you have a site about chocolate don't tell people get free car by clicking on your link.

Don't use third party sites to encourage visitors to your site to click on ads. Google aren't stupid.

If your going to put links on posts in a forum at least take the effort to create a well thought out post and not just spam junk. Firstly you are more likely to get visitors and you wont irritate people who genuinely are looking for information.

Remember your conduct reflects on all AdSense users as a whole.

Other general tips are to always update your blogs.

Googlebot loves words, this effectively makes blogs ideal food for him/her/it. Don't fill your blog with pictures not the best way to get page rank. Aim for at least 300 per night

Secondly get link exchanges boosts rank.

Also look at adding obscure words, or search the Internet see where there are a lack of pages containing certain phrases.

This is why an antiques blog is so ideal because for one i can link it to my e-bay but often looking for the exact product is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

For example, when looking for a 1910 royal Daulton vase i would only come up with a handful of results.

Once again good luck, and if anyone has any problems, queries or just thinks I'm talking rubbish leave a comment.

High paying Key words

2009-02-21T16:06:00.000-08:00

This is NOT an all inclusive list

High Paying Keywords for AdSense are essential if you want to avoid getting ads with a $0.01 per click here is a list of some of the highest paid ones. Read and enjoy.

Mesothelioma-$24.88
What Is Mesothelioma-$24.88
Domain Name-$15.00
Email Hosting-$14.99
Peritoneal Mesothelioma-$13.03
Business Credit-$12.00
Car Insurance -$11.75
Wisconsin Mortgage-$11.70
Cash Annuity - $10.45
Wrongful Death-$10.01
Sell Notes -$9.00
California Mortgage-$8.04
Texas Mortgage-$8.00
Online Trading-$7.88
IRA Rollover-$7.43
CPM-$7.25
Doctorate Degree-$7.16
Credit Counseling-$6.60
Master Degree-$6.42
Term Life-$6.32
Low Interest Credit Cards-$6.25
Bankruptcy -$ 6.11
Malpractice Lawyer-$6.03
Tax Attorney-$6.01
Slots-$6.00
Car Credit-$6.00
Alcohol Treatment$5.85
Pay Day Loans-$5.70
Accept Credit Cards-$5.59
T1-$5.55
Adult Education-$5.50
Cash Advance-$5.38
Laptop Computer-$5.36
mesothelioma attorney-$5.25
Credit Cards-$5.21
PPC-$5.06
Spam Filter-$5.05
Anti Virus Protection-$5.00
Life Insurance-$5.00
Breast Cancer -$ 5.00
Cell Phone Plans-$5.00
SEO-$4.99
Blue Cross-$4.95
Homeowner's Insurance-$4.94
Structured settlements $4.85
VOIP-$4.82
Acne - $4.74
Debt Consolidation-$4.57
Note Buyers -$4.56
Credit Score-$4.50
Web Hosting Reseller-$4.45
University Degrees Online-$4.37
Mortgage Note-$4.30
Dedicated Hosting-$4.26
Consolidate-$4.23
Consumer Credit-$4.22
Rehab-$4.17
Reduce Debt-$4.09
Teeth Whitening-$4.09
Web Host-$4.05
Refinance Quotes-$4.01
Private Jets -$4.00
gmc-$4.00
Settlement -$4.00
Equity Loans-$4.00
Idaho Mortgage-$3.91
Rewards Cards-$3.87
Internet Broker-$3.77
Equity Line Credit-$3.76
Casinos Online-$3.75
Helpdesk Software-$3.74
Drug Rehab-$3.65
Investing-$3.61
Anti Spam Software-$3.58
Bachelor Degree-$3.56
Bonds-$3.53
Distant Learning-$3.51
Poker -$3.50
Online Banking-$3.50
Free Credit Report-$3.36
Adult Diaper-$3.30
Casinos-$3.20
Dishtv-$3.16
Diabetes-$3.09
Holland America-$3.09
Jet Charter-$3.05
Lexington Law-$3.05
Personal Injury Attorney-$3.01
Blue Shield-$3.00
Yellow Page Advertising-$3.00
Spyware-$2.99
Facelift-$2.96
Cheap Hosting-$2.89
Server-$2.84
Ameriquest Mortgage$2.79
Register Domain-$2.75
Lawyer -$2.61
Lasik-$2.57
Annuity -$ 2.56
Loans-$2.55
Cruise-$2.51
Direct Mail-$2.51
Cellular Phone Rental-$2.51
Phone-$2.50
directv-$2.50
Windstar Cruise-$2.40
College-$2.28
prepaid legal-$2.28
Travel Insurance-$2.27
Need Money-$2.26
Lenox China-$2.26
Death Insurance $2.25
Personal Domain Name-$2.14
Payperclick-$2.03
Satellite-$2.02
Eloan-$2.02
Depression-$2.01
Extra Money-$2.01
Transfer Money-$2.01
Alaska-$2.00
Trans Union-$2.00
Pregnant$2.00
Depends-$2.00
RV-$2.00
Hawaii$2.00
Asbestos-$1.99
Canadian Pharmacy-$1.94
Bextra-$1.93
Viagra-$1.72
Divorce-$1.68
las vegas-$1.62
Work at Home-$1.58
Online Marketing-$1.57
Video Conferencing-$1.51
Taxes-$1.50
Affiliate Programs-$1.35
Legal Advice $1.26
Travel-$1.25
Immigration-$1.24
Weight Loss-1.22
Calling Cards-$1.16
Boise-$1.16
Dentist-$1.15
Ford-$1.15
Invitro-$1.07
Wow-$1.04
Vioxx -$1.01
Quick Book(s)-$1.00

Having problems getting your AdSense adverts on Blogger?

2009-02-20T04:42:00.001-08:00

Are you having problems getting adsense pages onto your website? I know this is a basic tip i'm about to share, lets face it anyone who is on here can get adverts generated on here. Simply clicking on monetize for one.

However doing it that way has one significant draw back because these ads aren't custom targetable by prospective advertisers. What i mean by targetable is when you go through the adsense advert generated and add channels to your ad units. I have explained how do do these steps in a previous post.

So why use them? Well the answer is because you have a greater chance of being able to display relevant ads to your post. Although even using monetize google will eventually tailor to your needs.

Now i dont know about you but this whole copy and paste into the Html code gets tedious and can be very difficult to do. So is there an easier way to do it without having to go for the monetize option.

In a word yes! Look back to my previous post about counters, remember the Html/java script in gadgets well thats the ticket.

In case you dont remember this is how you find it, Layout-> Page layout-> Gadgets-> Html/java script.

Now get your code from AdSense and paste it into the box save and there you go. Make sure you don't give it a title as this will appear on your blog. Repeat for the other ads you wish to place.

Lastly the 3 main benefits of doing this are.....

1- Your ads are targetable
2- You can place them in your page layout much more easily without scrolling through line upon line of text, trying to find the right place.
3- Saves a lot of time.
4- It can also be done to accommodate link ads.

Amazing what you find out through a sudden brain wave because i did not find this trick on any forum, its all me baby!

Lastly remember AdSense policy dictates you can have a maximum of 3 txt/image ads+ 3 Link Ads + 1 video ad unit.

Good luck!

We love you Google we do!

2009-02-19T18:45:00.000-08:00

Oh Google we love you. Fantastic news just about to switch off the computer and guess what?

Google has only gone and indexed this blog hooray, let the party begin. So all you out there who still need some Google love give me a shout. i am more than happy to link exchange as long as you have a blog that is well written and have an interest in at least one of my blogs.

Oh for anyone wondering what i mean by indexing, it means my site will feature in the blog directory and in search results. Good times!

By this time tomorrow all my blogs should be indexed so even better times.

Final thought of the day.

2009-02-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

My final thought today is regarding my last post. Honestly don't bother with Google Analytics, it does work but is actually inaccurate. So go for another one.

Like i previously mentioned try expertcounters, honestly you wont be too disappointed, for one you can look up the statistics of your users, what blogs are the most popular, amongst many other great features. It has pie charts and line graphs.

Purely from a marketing perspective it gives you an idea what countries are giving you the most hits. Why this is so important i will post another time, sorry I'm way to tired.

One last thing the expert blog counter isn't 100% accurate but hey at least its a lot better than Google Analytics.

Night all

Add a counter to help your blog!

2009-02-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

I have found a great free counter which can give you not only a hit count but various other statistics. It is called www.expertcounter.com. It is will give you data on type of hits and a geographical list of site visitors.

Right firstly register with expert counters follow the steps to add website and generate the code for your counter. Now here's the clever bit to save you having to struggle to put it on through the Html follow these steps.

1) Where you read "Edit Posts – Settings – Layout – View Blog", click on "Layout"

2) Click on "Add a Gadget" (to the side menu or to the bottom of the page)

3) Click on the "HTML/JavaScript" option.

4) In the "Content" field paste the code from your ExpertCounter account. Then click on "Save"

Easy wasn't it? Now I'm sure there are probably better counters out there or you could just opt for google analytics but i found this one works for me.

Basic Adsense adding to blog.

2009-02-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

When adding your first AdSense blogs there are two ways it can be done. The first which only works for blogger.com is to go to the layout tab of your blog and then click on monetize, follow the instructions and away you go.

You can also add further AdSense ads by clicking on layout again then go to page layout then click on add gadgets and AdSense will be half way down the list. Click on it then choose your options and away you go.

Remember you can only really have three monetize applications.

The second way you can do it is as described in your AdSense help site.

Here's the basic low down, go through options on AdSense to get ads follow the steps, copy and paste code which is generated. Don't worry if you don't get it first time you can retrieve the code in manage ads tab.

Now go to format-edit html then look down the text until you get to < body >. If you look towards the bottom you will see < body > just above < html > Now paste your code somewhere in between the < body > fields. Again you should limit it to a maximum of 3 different pastes. Also this html will not have spaces between the writting and the <. wont let me post as it should look.

This is probably the best way since you have more control over them than if you use the blogger method.

Remember to create channels for each code you upload and make them targetable. This can be done through the AdSense setup tab and click on channels. It really is quite easy to do.

Finally remember to try to get a balance between text links and picture ones.

Making the most of your competitive ad filter.

2009-02-19T09:48:00.000-08:00

Making the most of your competitive ad filter
Right a quick marketing tip, on your adsense account you should have a competitive ad filter in your AdSense Setup tab. This is basically the adverts you want to filter out of your site/blog. To filter out an ad isn't rocket science so I'm not going to explain how to do it.

A top tip is firstly to filter out the low paying sites, ones paying 0.01 per click for example.

Have a look below at my low paying advert list below

Unfortunately with Adsense (unlike some of its competitors) you don't know how much your going to get from each advert so you will have to rely on using research to find lists of low paying ads.

Now i have found some that many people agree need to be filtered out because they don't pay much. these are.................

allthebrands.com
bloodhoundnetwork.com
commerce-database.com
ebay.ca
ebay.com
ebaymotors.ca
eniro.dk
finditonline.ws
info.com
mongenie.com
shop.com
shopperuk.com
shopping.yahoo.com
swapclix.com
wisegeek.com
yahoo.com

There are many more but these are the ones that are most frequently mentioned.
As i find more i will post to the tag filter out list.

Also check out my filter in lists when i get round to doing them.

Last thoughts of the day, erm morning actually!

2009-02-18T21:41:00.000-08:00

Right a lot of people seem to ask well how many hours will i need to put in to get some results. Well from what i have read in various places some of the more successful AdSense users have had to put in at least 300+hrs before they get results.

So going back to my original post is it worth it? Well only you can answer that, because it really depends how much time and effort are you going to want to put in.

Lets take me for example i so far have put in nearly 18hrs today just researching updating my blog and indexing. In total since i started i have put in at least 50hrs and have nothing yet to brag about,

However i am seeing results with a steady increase in hits each day I'm slowly getting there. In fairness, i am spending a lot of my time researching different aspects of optimizing profits from AdSense.

That's just me though i like to know as much as possible as quickly as i can.

My advice to all you newbies out there try to spend a few days thorough research before moving on to actually marketing properly. Don't think once you have done research for a few days you need to completely stop doing it. people are quite generous with their knowledge take full advantage of it while you can.

Believe me there is so much to learn, it may take a few years to fully understand everything.

So no I'm not quite running to the bank with wads of cash just yet but have built up a sound basic knowledge which i am happily sharing.

Right off to the land of nod. Post more later.

Index your site on yahoo.

2009-02-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

Ok this going to be short and sweet because i havent had chance to fully test it but is coming from quite a few sources. Right one way (and to many the recommended way) to add to adsense is to create a Rss feed on your blog and add it to your yahoo home page.

Firstly sign up for a yahoo account then set up a feed on your blog, to do that click on layout, then page elements then gadets. Right go down the list until you get to site feeds click on it.

You should have a screen which says URL now type in your blog address (for example http://ohdear whatcanthematterbe.blogspot.com/

right now add this to the end. feeds/posts/default?alt=rss. it should look like the Url below.

http://ohdear whatcanthematterbe.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.

Next go to your Yahoo page and click on add content then to Rss feeds. type in your full feed address and it should allow that feed into your page.

For more info on your feed url's read the blogger help page and type in Rss feeds.

Please let me know of any easier solutions or you have a comment to make, cheers!

marketing tips on link trading!

2009-02-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

Now as previously discussed in my first post another great way to get more traffic is by trading links with other blogs. Link trading is the process of placing your blogs link on another blogs site. They in turn link back to yours. It is a fair exchange.

The benefits of link trading are.....

1) If the blog your trading with is indexed and your not it will speed up the time it takes googlebot to index your site. Of course this is provided you have followed the steps suggested in my previous post.

2) If other readers read one blog they are more likely to click on some of the links.

3) Might help to make some friends out there in the land of blogging.

4) It helps to raise your page ranking with google and other search engines.

5) Link trading implies an endorsement of your blog, however never mislead your readers by claiming it is an endorsement.

Right so there's some benefits now lets look at ways of going about it. As i have previously said in other posts you should try to interact with other users, look at their blogs and if you like it or find it informative offer to link trade with them but........

DO NOT ......

- expect them to link trade it is their choice and you must respect their decision

- be rude or abusive if they wont trade again its their choice.

- Link trade for the sake of it, try to keep it relevant to your blob and/or of genuine interest to you.

- do not harass them if they don't answer to your request.

Remember always be polite and sincere these people might be the difference between get 10 hits a day or 2000.

Be respectful of there opinions and subject matter.

Follow these simple suggestions and you may have a hat full of link trades and blog hits in no time at all.

Getting indexed with msn

2009-02-18T15:13:00.001-08:00

So here's a quick and easy step my step guide to getting your site indexed by msn

1) Go to MSN.com
2) Search for for domain or sub domain and if isn't indexed
yet, it'll show no results.
3) Then, you look down to the bottom of the page, there's a sentence there saying:
"Send the address to us" -- click that, follow what it says,
enter your URL and verification code...
4) Then wait for the next day and rechecked again your url
with MSN.

Some people reported have their sites indexed within 24hrs

Some brief marketing ideas for your blog

2009-02-18T13:44:00.000-08:00

As previously discussed the name of the game is to increase hits on your blog, and as promised here are some short tips on how marketing strategies including websites and blogger forums.

So you have your blog set up ready to go right next step is look around for some free blog indexing sites that will index your blog for you. Blog indexing sites are sites that will list your blog on their website which will increase the chance of someone seeing it and taking a look.

The first and most important site to get indexed on is Google since it is the most used search engine. Of course try getting indexed on other search engines too. To get indexed on google for free either do it through the webmaster Tools product offered by google. It is quite straight forward and no real explanation is needed.

The next method is You can submit your site directly to Google at their Submit Your Site page. You only need to submit your blogs home page. Google will send its web crawling computer program, called the Googlebot out to find your blog. It will then add the blog to Google's index. However this method may take a while for you to get listed. One way this can be speeded up is to get yourself linked to other blog directories since the googlebot often crawls through those. Another way is to get someone as a link trading partner, that person also being already linked to google.

(please check my links for links to both methods)

Remember ranking high in the search engine results is essential for the visibility of web sites. If you want to appear higher in a google search results make sure you follow these 2 pointers.

1) Google considers incoming links to be extremely important in calculating the PageRank of a web site. Links are also strongly considered in Google's algorithm for positioning sites in the search results. So adding links and being added will help boost your page ranking.

2) Googlebot crawls the web, searching for freshly updated web pages. Since many traditional web sites are "static", and rarely get any fresh material added, they don't change. Once your indexed to make sure that you regularly update your blog as stagnant blogs don't impress the Googlebot.

Now back to the marketing strategy, other ways to get your self noticed is by listing yourself in blog directories such as

Blog Search Engine
Globe of Blogs
Blogger Forums

although these may require membership they are all completely free. They also provide a special area for you to list and describe your blog, for others to read. Along with some welcome new visitors, you'll receive a visit from the Googlebot.

So again a few more tips i will also update links to include the sites i have mentioned. Good luck once again and please feel free to comment on anything you don't agree with or if you may have some additional info you would like to share.

Trying to create a high hit rate blog?

2009-02-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

Want a blog someone will read, do you want your ads to make more money or, do you want to write a blog but have no idea what you want to talk about? Well if so read on!

The whole idea of blogging is to write your opinions and allow others to read it. Whether your doing it for fun or you have some grand advertising scheme the principles the same getting people to visit your blog.

The best way to decide this is to look around on the web, see how other blogs are performing, and what sort of topics they are talking about. Is there anything on the subject that you feel they don't cover, or can you cover that subject in better detail.

If your going to talk about a mundane or low interest subject you wont have many visitors but if you have a blog on a subject all the cool kids are talking about you will have more hits.

Don't just plagiarise someones work that's not the idea, its wrong and it isn't going to win you any friends. Look at expressing your own opinions. Make it interesting and informative, give opinion mixed with facts. The idea is to create a need for your readers to interact and leave their own views on the subject. If you have read other blogs and got some ideas by all means share opinions you agree with but use your own words and maybe out of respect provide a link back to the original source.

When reading others works look at the comments, does everybody agree with the post, do they have different opinions and do you have an opinion that has not been expressed? Try to make your blog as unique and informative as possible by summarising opinions. If say your doing a review on flat screen TVs look at customer reviews and try to give a balanced view based on the feedback's given.

Don't be afraid to give your own opinion, often a controversial opinion will create more hits than a consensual one!

Try to improve your blog presentation by adding photo's and creating your own unique looking blog.

Before posting proof read your work, do some research see if you have missed anything out.

If posting a long article give a small introduction (no more than 100 words), that will entice your readers to read on.

Again try to market your blog by creating interest on other sites, linking, etc

Don't be afraid to try a blog see how it performs and if it doesn't work try another topic or re-examine your marketing strategies.

Anyway here is a few tips to give you some idea of how to create a high hit rate blog.

My next blog post will most likely be on marketing tips that will increase hit rates.

So is adsense really worth the time and effort?

2009-02-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Main things people want to know is will it make me a bundle of cash and how much effort is needed to create a profitable adsense account! I'm sure there are many people out there who have their own opinion on this. Now I'm a relatively new adsense user and to be honest have found it very overwhelming at first. However in my opinion yes adsense can make you at least a small extra income, There are many helpful users out there who will offer tips and guidance to the newbie. One small catch with trying to make a living through publishing adverts is it will take time and lot of reading. You Will need to learn how to input source codes into your HTML.

Here are some basic tips i have managed to compile

1) Make sure you carefully read the adsense policies before starting, failure to comply can result in your account being suspended.
2) Don't click on your own adverts as tempting as it might be
3) To start create a topical blog, make sure it is on something you have knowledge and/or a passion for.
4) try to make your blog look as professional as possible, why not look around at others
5) Join a blogger forum and submit your blog blogger forums is a good start.
6) Make sure your ads are well placed.
7) Do not over stretch yourself by creating multiple blogs, you will find you wont have time to regularly update all of them
8) try to update as often as possible, one post a day should be your aim.
9) do your research, there are many advice and help pages on the web that are designed to help optimize your adsense income.
10) try linking to other blogs of a similar nature that you have read and that you have enjoyed. Some bloggers will return the favour.
11) Engage with your fellow bloggers leave comments on blogs that interest you. This will get your name posted om other peoples sites. However be sincere in your comments don't do it just for the sake of advertising your name somewhere else.
12) Try creating blogs with high interest, some subjects will get higher hit rates than others.
13) Try adding Rss feeds to your blog.
14) Get yourself indexed with google and other providers.
15 Promote your Posts - If you think you’ve written something worthwhile spend a few minutes letting others know about it. I regularly shoot other bloggers to notify them of what I’ve written if I think it will interest them. Think about it before you send the email and don’t bombard the same people constantly with every topic you write on.
16) try adding a hit counter, it will give you some idea on how your blog is doing.
17) Target high paying ads with specific keywords, and use your own common sense on what type of advert is likely to pay the most
18) Try to keep on top of Blogging, if you have a laptop take it round the house with you and spend a couple of minutes here and there updating your blogs or doing research
19) Don't ask others to click on your ads, you must allow them to do it of there own accord.
20) Why not ask a friend to add a blog to your account, saves you having to constantly update and gives you somewhere to place your ad.

This is a basic tip list i am going to go into further detail on many aspects of the adsense world as and when i understand them myself.

Please look at my links of helpful blogs and links which may assist you as much as they have me. Also please leave your comments on what you think of adsense and whether this was at all helpful to you.