Adsense optimization

Getting more clicks on your Adsense ads
More CTR (Click Thru Ratio) means more clicks on your Google Ads. But, is CTR all about position and colors of your ads? No! It's a lot more than that. CTR also depends upon the quality of traffic, relevancy of ads, and even the subject of your website. Let's get in detail:

Do you own a High CTR website?
Yes!! CTR varies from Industry to industry too. It depends upon the keywords you are using to make your web page. It has been observed that more technical the topic is (but not necessarily) less CTR it will give you (for example Search Engine Optimization, Affiliate Network - exceptions are always there), but still works if the Ad content is well written.

However, this is only one condition; there are many undiscovered conditions that affect the CTR of keywords. At times, a particular season also has an effect on the performance of keywords. For example family of 'Turkey recipe' keyword is more active around November and December only and a quite sluggish rest of the year. It becomes really necessary to study the behavior of keywords before starting a massive website of Adsense around a topic.
Your Ad Position and Color: Old, but very effective
Google heat map helps improve the CTR (Clicks Thru Ratio) of your website by suggesting you the most converting areas for your Adsense Ads. You can have a glance at the Google's Survey that illustrates the ideal placements of ads on your web page.
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html#17954


Darker the area, better will be the performance of your ads. Your visitor tends to click on these darker areas more often than the other areas of the web page. Ads placed near rich content usually do well because users are focused on those areas of your web page. For example, on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the concluding part of high quality content tend to perform well, as the visitors are left with no other choice except clicking the Ad block.

Get Targeted Traffic - The Most Essential Part
Traffic that is interested in your content (also called targeted traffic) is interested in your ads too. Thus, there is every likelihood that your ads will be clicked more frequently. Targeted traffic means more CTR, more earnings, and enhanced ad convertibility. On the other hand, the untargeted visitors are not interested either in your content or your ads, so keep your website's traffic targeted.

You can gather highly targeted traffic for your website by web promotion strategy and effective optimization of your web page structure. Effective web promotion strategy requires an appropriate Anchor text and more back links from relevant websites. And, to develop an effective web page structure, you have to optimize your Title Text, internal linking of your website, and most importantly your web content, in the best possible manner.
Choose the Right Anchor Text for Back Link Campaigns
Choosing the right anchor text for back links promotes your website to the traffic you exactly need from the search engines. Choose the Anchor text that directly speaks to your visitors and pulls the traffic that your web page requires. Targeted traffic results in increased CTR of ads. It helps promote your website to that segment of traffic, which is precisely searching for your content (or you can say the traffic that is most profitable to you). Targeting irrelevant keyword reduces your CTR by gathering the traffic which is not interested in your content or ads.

Wisely Choose the Title Text of Your Web Page
Title text of your webpage appears in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) as the Title link to your web page. Therefore, it is the title Text that directly speaks to the surfer on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) about your content's theme. It acts like a Free Advertisement Link to your website. If your title text does not interest the surfer, you lose considerable amount of much-needed traffic. Figure out a Title text that directly communicates with your potential visitors, brings targeted traffic, and enhances the CTR of your AdSense Ads. Don't overdo your title text, and use less than ten keywords in your title text.
Help Google Detect the Theme of Your Web Page
There are many on-page and off-page elements that affect your ad relevancy. Better targeted ads increase both your CTR and EPC. Here is how to optimize your ads:
Meta Tags
If there is NO CONTENT on your web page, the Google Mediabot will consider the Meta Tags while displaying ads. Meta tags have a considerable affect on the relevancy of your ads. It is advised never to leave this space empty. Also, try to make it as easy as possible for Mediabot to understand the theme of your web page.
Title Text
Google Mediabot gives good weightage to the keywords used in the Title text, which in turn gets reflected in your ads. Choose effective keywords for your Title text. Even the order of words in a keyword can affect the ads that are appearing on your web page. So, choose your keywords wisely.
Headings
Google Mediabot gives importance to the Heading text enclosed in tags present in your web page. After Title text, here is another chance for you to dictate keywords to Google Mediabot.
Boost Relevancy Artificially - Use Google's Section Targeting
Now, you can enhance Ad relevancy by using Google's Section targeting. Using this technique you can advise Google mediabot about the areas of your content which should be considered or ignored while matching the Ads with your content.
For more information on the same topic, visit:
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=23168&topic=371
Use Channels for Analyzing Your Ads' Performance
Try to relate your traffic logs with your CTR stats. You will get to know which Traffic source is giving you what CTR. This will help you recognize the traffic segment which is most converting for your website. Channels allow you to analyze your ads' performance, so that you can pin point the changes that your website needs to boost your AdSense income. There are two types of channels available - URL Channels and Custom Channels. You can use the URL channel to track your performance, without modifying your Ad code. Through URL channels, you can analyze the performance of individual page or a group of pages, based on the directory system of your website.

Custom channels can help you measure the performance of different Ad formats presented in your web pages. And, by pasting channel-specific ad code into your pages, you can track CTR, Impressions, number of clicks each individual ad format is generating, and compare its performance with other web pages.
Block Junk Websites and Competitor Websites from Showing Ads
There are many junk websites that might be displaying ads on your website. These websites steal the traffic from your website and recycle it on their own Adsense ad blocks. Recognize such websites and stick them in Adsense Competitive Ad filter. Also, you can block your competitor websites using this competitive filter.

adsense

How do you make money from the Google Adsense Program? What AdSense Tips can you share with us?

I have been asked this question so many times in the past few weeks that I thought I should write something on the topic. It seems increasingly bloggers want to try to cover their hosting and ISP costs with some revenue from their blog - and increasingly they’re doing it and are able to make a few (or quite a lot) dollars on the side. Many are turning to Google’s Adsense program.
Covering costs of my Digital Photography Blog is why I originally signed up with Google Adsense - blogging can get expensive when you have high levels of traffic and a lot of pages.

Whilst the agreement you sign with Google stresses that you are not allowed to give specific information about your earnings from the program I can say that I’m glad I’ve signed up because its well and truly covered my costs - and then some. In fact I think its quite feasible to expect that Adsense coupled with other strategies for making money from Blogging could quite easily generate a decent living. It takes time and hard work, but I think its very doable. (Update: Since writing this series I’ve revealed that I am now looking at making over a six figure income this year in 2005 from blogging).

So how do I make money from Google Adsense? Let me share some AdSense Tips that heve helped me.

This will be the first in a series of posts on this topic. Let me say up front I’m no expert - there are a lot of people out there making a lot more money than I am using Adsense - however most of them are not telling their secrets - well not for free anyway. I’ve got no secrets to hide and am willing to share what I’ve learnt since I signed up for the program 8 months ago. If you want a REAL expert’s opinion on Adsense I’d recommend buying Joel Comm’s What Google Never Told You About Making Money with Adsense E-Book. Joel earns $15,000 per month from Adsense and has some good things to share.

I know some bloggers are put off or offended by the idea of making money from blogging so I’ll try not to let these posts dominate my blog - however if you are not interested in the topic, simply skip over these posts.

I am going to assume a few things in this series to cut down the amount of introductory comments I have to make. Here is what I am assuming:

* You have a blog. Whilst most of the following tips will apply to other types of websites I run Adsense on blogs and will speak from that experience.
* You have (or will) read a basic overview of Adsense and have some understanding of what it is.
* You have(or will) read the program policies as outlined by Google. These give details of site eligibility, ad placements and other requirements for using the system.

3 important tips

Have an idea about making money online but don’t know where to start?

There are several ways to make money on the Internet – even if you don’t have a product to sell. Keep in mind that running an online business takes time and effort, just like running any business. However, you can get started without any products, which is one less roadblock for most people wanting to start a business.

You don’t need to be a computer expert to run an online business, but you do need to either be able to set up a website, or have the resources to pay someone else to do it for you.

Here are 3 simple ways to make money online even if you don’t have your own product:

Affiliate programs
Being an affiliate means you are selling other people’s products, and you get a percentage of the sale, or you make a small fee for each person who requests more information. Most major retailers offer affiliate programs, along with many smaller retailers (with lots of good products and services). It’s not a good idea to try to compete with an established retailer like Wal-Mart, Target, or Circuit City. A better way to make money is to find a “niche” that serves a smaller group of people, that you can easily reach.

For example, rather than selling sporting goods to everyone, you might start a fishing site that sells canoes and fishing products to people who like fresh water fishing. You can also find smaller retailers who may offer more specialized products to those who know a lot about fishing, while selling the basics from Wal-Mart to beginners.

A good place to start is Commission Junction (http://www.CJ.com), and you’ll get an idea of the products you can offer. Be creative in finding your niche, start with something you know a little about, or enjoy doing, and before long you can be making money online!

Adsense from Google
Adsense is an advertising program from search engine Google.com (there are other advertising programs you can offer, but for now Google’s is the biggest and most popular). By placing ads on your site, you earn money for each person who clicks on the ad. Google will automatically determine which ads are best for your site, based on the topic of each web page. All you have to do is place the code on your web page, and Google does the rest.

You can also sell individual ads, and determine your own terms and price. But using a program like Google is simple, and if your set gets a lot of visitors, you can make good money. Again, the best way to succeed is to find a niche, create a website around that topic, and Google will be able to determine the best ads for your visitors.

Write a “How-To” booklet
If you don’t want to sell other people’s products, but don’t have a lot of money to create your own, a simple way to get started is to write your own “how-to” booklet. Pick a topic you know enough to write about, and start writing. Information products are always good sellers – the key is to solve a particular problem. “How to catch fresh water fish” or “How to plan a fishing vacation on a tight budget” are possibilities for the fishing niche mentioned above.

To learn more, do a search for “creating information products” or “writing e-books”, and you will find lots of resources. Once you create your product, Clickbank.com offers a simple service to help you sell your information product, and there are others to help you get started.

Again, be creative, there are lots of problems out there that people need help with. And offering a good solution can make you lots of money!

Making money online takes more than just building a website. You need to pick the right products or services. Then you need to find the right audience to sell those products and services. Then you need to promote your website to enough people so you can make money. For now, you should have enough ideas to get you started – even if you don’t have a product to sell yet!

writting articles

Some believe that Internet marketing revolves around content. With the lack of one-to-one approach in the virtual marketing arena, the internet solely depends on creating traffic through words that attract people. The need for good content by good articles is enormous. Websites are filled with all sorts of various content.

Have you ever wondered why articles are so important? Articles are one way of ensuring your website climbs up the search engines. The reason why is because people search for information online. The websites that have more useful content are the ones that are ranked higher in search engines like Google. The reason why search engines concentrate and appreciate good content is because they want to give people what they are looking for.

So how do you get articles?
Articles don’t just appear from thin air. The webmasters looking for articles have to either write the articles themselves or they will have to pay for them. The problem is that most website owners may not have enough skill to write these articles in a way that attracts readers or even if they have the skill, may not have any time. That’s when they look for ways to get new articles for their website.

That is exactly the reason why if you can write articles it is a great way of making money online. Saying that, it would help to know how to make money online doing just that. There are several ways you can choose to do this. The first one, and probably the easiest, is to write articles for the article submission sites.

What Are Article submission sites?
There are several of these article submission sites, which accept articles and pay for them. There is Constant Content that pays you when your articles are sold. The amount that you get paid varies anywhere between $3 to $200 per article. It is very obvious that the articles that pay a higher amount are more in depth, informative, and longer.

How to Contact top websites
A second way is a little more time consuming when compared to the first, however, you will need to contact the website owners directly and offer to write unique content specifically for them. Many website owners would love to hire someone to do articles for them, even if it costs more, because they want unique content. If you work at this, you can land yourself one contract and do a good job, and then the word of mouth is enough to land you many other projects.

make money everyday

Your goal should be to make money online every day.

Just think if you could get your blog to only $100 a day. That’s $3000 a month my friend! I don’t hear any complaints with anybody that suddenly has an extra 3k coming in month after month from their blog.

But how can you do this? Here are some ideas to help you get started to make money online every day:

• Pick a subject - You got to pick something to blog about. Make sure that you are passionate about it.
• Set up a blogging schedule - You should try to have some sort of schedule. It might mean only once a week. This is ok to start because at least you will be providing new information 4 times a month which will turn into some visits to your blog.
• Figure out how to set up your wordpress or blogspot blog. If you are going to self host your wordpress blog you will need to learn how to do this. You will need to learn how to add plug-ins that are helpful to your blog, but don’t worry if you research you shall seek and find the answers.
• Read about SEO. Don’t worry for your first couple months about seo as you will be surprised that Google has already added you to their search engine, however, to get your site ranked higher and higher to be seen by more people then you will need to begin the journey of learning about SEO because then you can add things to your blog to make it more productive.
• See what others are doing. Don’t reinvent the wheel the best ideas are found by looking around and seeing what works and doesn’t work.
• Stay committed. If you aren’t willing to do this for at least a year to see what your results are then sorry to say but you may need to just forget about it. You need to become long term thinking.
• Learn to monetize your blog. Google adsense is the easiest implementation, but starting out you probably will only make pennies on the dollar until you begin getting mor and more traffic. You can start with places like commission junction but it’s always best if you can end up selling your own products like an ebook.
• Learn how to increase subscribers. This will help you increase blog traffic get referral traffic and more when your subscribers increase. It’s so awesome when you get to see your first subscribers and then watch the count go up over time.

If you stay committed to these tips and put more and more effort into your blog then you will definitely begin to make money online every day even if it starts with cents. Believe me it can move from cents to dollars the longer you stick to is and as long as you are writing good stuff.

avarage person

Can you really make money online? The answer is a resounding “Yes!”

First, though, you need to understand how this game really works.

The right mindset is crucial to your success.

You’ve probably come across numerous business opportunities already. I know you’re actively searching for information. I hope you haven’t become jaded already by the con artists out there who make false promises.

The fact is you can profit significantly and, yes, even quickly once you learn the right way to do business online. So, approach this article with an open mind.

What E-Commerce is really all about

There’s nothing magic about the Internet. It’s really just another medium of communication. The difference between doing business online versus doing business in a brick and mortar establishment is this:

1. Your potential customer base spans across the globe if you so desire. You aren’t limited by your location.

2. Your business operates 24/7. You can still make sales even when the workday ends.

3. Your overhead is significantly lower than it would be in a traditional business, and the barriers to entry are lower as well.

4. You can create non-traditional businesses which will have no parallel in the offline world.

As an online entrepreneur, you also enjoy a wider range of options in number of products you sell, their method of delivery and your profit margin after expenses.

Sounds great, right? It truly is an ideal situation for the small, home based business owner; but don’t quit your job just yet.

An online business requires just as much focus and dedication to get off the ground as any other business, so forget about working at home in your underwear right off the bat.

The first thing you need to do is investigate your options. What type of business can you start online? Which businesses are the easiest to set up?

If you already possess some business knowledge and common sense, you’re off to a great start. The real challenge comes when you start translating this knowledge to match the rules of online commerce. The game is played a bit differently on the internet than it is on the streets.

Newcomers often have difficulty sorting out the differences between business models versus business strategies.

Here are some of the most common online business models:

1. Selling tangible goods (ie, Ebay)

2. Selling information products (intangible/downloaded)

3. Affiliate marketing

It takes a certain personality to thrive in any one of these. Let’s take a look at the traits associated with each.

The Seller of Tangible Goods

This type of entrepreneur usually possesses previous experience in the retail industry, though it is not totally necessary to have previous experience in order to succeed. However, an inexperienced online retailer faces the biggest learning curve.

In order to sell tangible goods, you’ll need to learn the ins and outs of wholesale for product sourcing. You’ll need to learn how to set the optimal price point for your products to remain profitable and competitive. You must deal with shipping and returns.

If you run a one-person operation, it will be near impossible to ship products in the necessary volume. In this case, you’ll need to find companies which can “drop ship” your product. Drop shipping is a fulfillment service.

This sounds ideal – but be forewarned. Most real wholesalers have minimum order requirements and will not ship single items.

Drop ship wholesalers who do ship single items often mark up their prices and you end up paying at least 10%-15% above the true wholesale cost. This isn’t a small price to pay when your objective is competitive pricing. Even a small mark up can kill your profit margin.

If you choose this route, be prepared for a lot of hard work! Online retail requires persistence, patience, strategic planning and a high degree of risk.

The Seller of Intangible/Information Products

Information products present an good opportunity for small, home-based business owners. Your costs of development and overhead are low, while your potential profit margin is high.

You will need a new skill set if you choose this path. Primarily, you will need to learn good copywriting skills and how to sell people on what they desire, not on what they think they need. It’s relatively simple to entice a visitor to purchase, say, an MP3 player when they’re already looking for one. This doesn’t require convincing sales copy.

An information product, though, does require good copy. You’re asking your potential customer to invest in a product they aren’t familiar with – something they can’t see or touch or play with like a tangible product.

Information marketing is very much “all in the mind”. It rests on your ability to stir up people’s passions and secret wishes. If you pride yourself on seeing “the big picture” and have the heart of a teacher or communicator, information marketing could be the right choice for you.

The Affiliate Marketer

Being an affiliate marketer can be the Ideal business for most people. They make a living selling products they do not own. Profits come from commissions paid on sales that they refer to other merchants.

A good affiliate can reap an enormous full-time income marketing a whole suite of products that he does not own. He doesn’t pay for product creation, doesn’t have to ship anything and doesn’t deal with customer service issues or returns.

One major skill an affiliate marketer needs to develop as is the ability to generate highly targeted traffic. You also need to learn how to capture that traffic and do a bit of extra selling before they hit the merchant’s site.

If you don’t capture the visitor’s e-mail address, they’re gone for good – and you’ll get stuck trying to generate volumes of traffic over and over again just to capture enough “luck of the draw” sales to get by. It’s like throwing your ad budget down a hole.

If you want to make money online, there are two ways to go about it. The first is trial and error, spending hundreds of hours in front of your computer, buying e-books and struggling perhaps a year or two before you make a dime. The second and best way is to learn from someone who has already achieved success online and can coach and guide you every step of the way.

But beware, there are many out there who will sell you garbage e-books and courses full of ideas on how to make money on the internet, but most fall short of giving you an easy to follow and workable plan. Especially if your a newbie to internet marketing.

I know first hand about this because I spent a full year struggling to make money on the internet. I bought almost every so called Guru system out there only to be let down and was still left struggling to make money. But my determination to make a living on the internet paid off and now I produce a fantastic full time income for my family solely from my online affiliate business.

Whether your a newbie or have been struggling for some time, you can achieve online success too if you don't give up and learn the right skills from a proven Internet Wealth Building Coach.
Just stay focused, proactive and stay positive - and soon you’ll be well on your way to making outstanding money online!

top 10 tips

1. Content Is King

Don't forget that people come to your blog to read your articles. Write good quality content and update regularly. If you want people to come back, write at least three times per week. If you aren't able to write a new article, you can always post an interesting video from YouTube , or use an article exchange service.

2. Be Specific

Stick to your niche. People coming to your blog aren't interested in your personal life, they want information on your topic. It's better not to post, than posting off topic articles.

3. KISS

Keep It Short and Simple. Don't write long and complicated essays. Write short and concise articles that can be read in a few minutes. Don't forget that many of your readers, visit from work and don't have much time.

4. Design

Even if your content is fantastic, first impressions do matter, so pay attention to your blog design. Don't use a stock template, try to find a design and colour scheme that looks professional and relevant to your content. Try to avoid designs that may look impressive at first, but in reality seem amateur.

5. Navigation

Help your readers to navigate through your blog, by adding a sort by label or search function. Provide links to your top articles and give incentive to your new visitors, to read more than your latest post.

6. Don't Crowd Your Blog

Even if it's tempting, don't crowd you blog with useless plugins and widgets. Even if you think that an extra feature will look great, it could confuse your readership and make your blog look unprofessional.

7. Add Links To Other Blogs

You make think that adding links to other blogs is a bad idea as it will drive people away, but in the long run it's essential. It make your blog look as part of a community, and you may get a very important backlink.

8. Comment On Other Blogs

You should spend some time reading other blogs relevant to yours, and writing good quality comments. Thus you let people know about you, it makes you look active in the community and provides a very important back link. Don't just spam, write something useful.

9. Join A Link Exchange Site

To get a kickstart for your blog, join a good quality link exchange site like Link Referral. It will raise awareness on your blog and it will get you some much needed traffic to start with.

10. Use Blog Catalogs

Add your blog to as many blog catalogs you can. Even if you don't rank high in Google, people could still find your blog through a blog catalog. There's no point in blogging, if people can't reach your blog.