Forget about Google Adsense! The other roads

Ever since the Google grand slam on affiliate marketing which basically paralyzes a lot of landing pages and their subsequent "commitment" to ensure that surfers and adwords advertisers have "good" experience using google by forcing up to 10x times the cost of per click (my personal experience is 16.18 per click), a lot of marketers is forced to relook at their marketing channel. In addition, there is this big sue against google for click fraud which google paid a small token somewhat in millions as settlement and after which they have been banning websites that are close to earning their first $100 which includes me. Google have been merciless in their position as attested by the number of complaints in adsense help forum.

Further verified by the latest book titled the death of adsense, it is time to relook at the method of revenue generation of websites. For newbies, the common terms are,
Impressions - The number of impressions is the number of times an ad is displayed.
CTR - Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions).
PPC - The pay-per-click is the amount you pay each time a user clicks on your ad
PPA - Pay per Acquisition or Cost per sales
PPM - Pay per thousand impression
PPV - Pay per Visitor

Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN)
PPC. Saying is that YPN earning per click is up to 4x times that of Google Adsense but YPN click-through rate is much lower. It is still its better stage and is only available in US. But will certainly be my on A * list soon. (For US residents only now.)

Azoogle
PPA. Since 2000, online marketers have depended on the AzoogleAds? Network to deliver targeted and un-targeted customers from a variety of websites, search portals and newsletters. Ranked #1 by 30,000 media experts for 2004 and 2005 and looks promising. Percentage rate varies. Recommended.

Amazon Omakase
PPA. As an Amazon associate, you can now serve ads to your site based on the content on your pages. What's more, this service is totally compatible with AdSense. Unlike other ad program, amazon only pays you when some one buys usually at a percent between 4 to 8.5 which means rather huge if the user buys a thousand dollar plasma tv screen.

AdBrite
PPC or Flat-Rate. 2 type of ads avilable. Text Ads and Interstitial ads and is based on bidders getting your website. Free form text ads that give you more control over their appearance than AdSense. Also displayed with no "Ads by xxxxx" text. Excellent service. No exlusivity required.

Affiliate Sensor
PPA. This service automatically allows you to display ads from Clickbank's large member network. ClickBank is the Internet's largest digital marketplace, where thousands of the web's most popular products are sold every day. Some formatting issues when selecting certain ad sizes but overall cool. Recommended. Usually one sales is a minimum of $20.

Bidvertiser
PPC - Definitely one of the major players which will allows you to set your own price and advertisers or have everything automated, just like AdSense. $10 minimum payouts through PayPal. Recommended.

Clicksor
PPC, PPM, PPV. - Fixed rate for Advertisers. 70% profit share from displaying our contextual ads and able to earn up to 85% ad revenues for displaying your own ads under the affiliate programs. Additional 10% from the daily earning of Publishers referred. Check (min. payout: $50), or Paypal (min. payout: $20).Only seems to accept sites with a large amount of traffic, at least 50% of which must come from Canada, USA and UK. However, a search in google (ironic, isnt't it) shows Clicksor being called as fraud, much like Google itself.

Commission Junction
PPA. Using CJ's smartzones you can display rotating advertisements. Generally used for image ads rather than text ads and sells both physical and electronic products.

Direct Link Ads
Trying to be a competitor to Text Link Ads but is very confusing, not very user friendly and don't really explain what they do or how they do it.

Adsense - Improve Your Earnings by 5 Folds

You may find many Adsense Gurus on the net, offering you thousand ways to improve your Google adsense earnings! Mind you guys, just buying some genius adsense template and expect it to produce thousand dollars a day is a sure impossibility!

I am telling you with my practical experience that nothing would work unless you are prepared to go that extra mile. You should get hold of the adsense secrets that are unique to your site. You must be prepared to make continuous changes and measure effectiveness on a continuous basis.

Following are simple but effective steps successfully followed by the author, which may help you to improve your adsense earnings by five folds or even more! However, keep in mind that nothing would work unless you customize these options to suit your requirements.

The Best Position - This is always the demarcation point which decides you should be earning in hundreds or thousands! You must identify the most likely position where the reader would be most tempted to click. At first you might have to follow what Adsense Gurus have suggested. However, you must keep in mind that what they have said is not unique to your site.

You should be bold enough to do your own research and identify the best positions unique to your site, 'cos there could be exceptions to what Adsense Experts have proposed. Best example I can quote is 'Plentyoffish.com' a dating site which earns half a million Dollars a month just by displaying a single Google ad in each page with completely different link color format than the rest of the site using!

White Is In Demand - Having more white space around the article and the Ad will definitely increase your click through rate. In my case, this is one of the real secrets behind the high click through rate in my Adsense ads. Your objective should be to get the reader's attention to the Adsense ad and the article. Therefore, it is important to have other areas blank as much as possible to centre reader's attention to the Ad and the article. Remove all unnecessary items which are cluttered around the article and the Ad and have more white space on either side of the page.

What is Your Ad Size? - Highly effective Ad formats are 336x250 and 768x120. However, it is up to you to find out the best size for your site. These are the widely tested and accepted sizes. Tyr them out and see the outcome.

Be Discreet - I personally don't prefer to server image ads in my Adsense campaigns because they dilute the effectiveness of the Ads. It is starkly obvious to the reader that they are clicking on Ads and the sole purpose of putting them is to make money! Just don't make it so obvious! Instead, include text ads which are relevant to the theme. Place the ads where the reader is likely to seek a break while reading the article or your copy.

Artistic Way To Be Discreet - The font, color and texture should match with the rest of the page. This will make the ad looks like part of the article. You have the options to use either an ideally matching color or a contrasting color. Either way is effective.

Use The Maximum but Have a Balance - Always try to use maximum number of adsense ads in each page. Don't lose balance however! Ads should not dominate the page.

Measure the effectiveness of Ad units - Always make use of Google Adsense channels to identify which position or format has produced high click through rates. Be prepared to change the Ad format, color and position according to your findings. These simple but effective methods surely drive you more income you never ever expect if you are prepared to follow those in your own way. Find out your way out today.

Adsense: Playing By The Rules

AdSense has become a major part of many Internet marketers income portfolios. It's fast and easy and of course very lucrative if you take the time to learn how to implement it effectively.

Like most income streams though, there are always people out there who do their best to take advantage of the system in any way they can to maximize their earnings. Exploiting systems by taking advantage of the shortcomings or bugs in the system is generally a short term deal. As soon as the supplier finds out that they are either not getting or not providing value for their service, they will very quickly close any 'holes' and fix the bugs. When you take into account the millions of dollars that are generated from Adsense ads each month, it goes without saying that Google will go to great lengths to ensure that their advertisers are getting good value for their advertising dollar.

With this in mind, if you intend to monetize your site with Adsense and want this to be a long term income strategy you need to be familiar with the terms and conditions. Lets strip away some of the 'legalese' and take a look at some of the policies, requirements and also the type of activity that may cause your account to be terminated.

* Up to three ad units may be displayed on each Web site page - that's pretty clear. You can have up to 3 ad units, regardless of size or placement, on each of your web pages.

* A maximum of two Google AdSense for search boxes may be placed on a page - again, that's easy enough to understand. The search boxes are the ones that allow you or your visitors to search the Internet or your web site using a Google Search box on your web page.

* A single link unit may be placed on each Web site page, in addition to the ad units and search boxes - the link units are a different format to standard adsense units. They provide just the link with no URL or additional text. You can have one of these in addition to your adsense ads and search boxes.

* A single referral button per product may be placed on a page - Google will pay you for referrals, but you are allowed only one referral link on each web page.

Those policies spell out what you are allowed to do. Now lets look at things you aren't allowed to do. From an advertisers point of view, the quality of the page their advertisement is displayed on will bear a relation to the quality of the visitors who actually click on this page. This is one of the reasons you are not permitted to place ad units on pages that have no other content. The rule of thumb is that you should only be placing ad units on pages that contain some sort of valuable or useful content.

The reality is that it is in your interest to provide useful content. The better your content is, the more likely it is that it will appear higher in the search engines. This in turn brings you more traffic and the traffic you get is mostly people who are interested in the subject matter of your site. These also happen to be the people who are most likely to click on your ads simply because they have come to your web site looking for information and/or products.

Other things that you need to avoid in order to protect your account include:

* Never place ad units on pornographic, racist or hate related sites.

* Never place ad units on error, registration or 'thank you' pages. Remember, the advertisers want their ads on useful, relevant pages. Common sense should tell you that these pages are neither relevant or useful for advertising. It's a bit like placing an ad inside a cabinet. Nobody goes there looking for information or products!

* Never click on any of the ads on your website. This is considered fraud (for obvious reasons). If you do accidentally click on an ad, make sure you contact Google support immediately and let them know which page and the date and approximate time.

* Never place ads on pages that you display in Traffic or surfing/hit exchanges. This is mentioned in the policies and is not permitted.

I hope this information has been useful. Adsense is a great way to earn some extra income, but you need to make the effort to ensure you are within the terms and conditions. At the end of the day, common sense should give you a good indication whether you are doing the right thing with Adsense ads. If in doubt, check the programme policies at https://www.google.com/adsense/policies.

How to optimize your website for Google

IBP's Top 10 Ranking report demystifies Google's ranking algorithm and tells you in easy-to-understand words how to optimize and prepare your website specifically for better results in Google.

Suppose you want to know how to get a top 10 ranking for the search term "outdoor equipment" in Google. IBP will tell you how to optimize your website for exactly that search term in Google.
IBP's advice is based on in-depth analysis of current, up-to-the-minute top 10 results in Google for that search term and it is specifically for that search term and specifically for Google..

IBP's high quality analysis results are always up-to-date, specific, and accurate. You won't get that level of search engine optimization accuracy with any other tool.IBP also works with Yahoo's latest search engine ranking algorithm, with MSN Search and all other major search engines. IBP helps you get the rankings you deserve.

IBP uses a proven method that works

A search engine optimization method that really works is to analyze the web pages that currently have a high ranking for your important keyword. Since these pages have a top 10 ranking, the pages must have all the best settings.

With IBP, analyzing the top ranked web pages is as easy as 1-2-3. IBP analyzes the web pages that currently have a top 10 ranking in the search engine of your choice and compares them with your page.

IBP tells you how the pages have achieved that ranking and how you must change your web pages and the links to your website to obtain a similar ranking. Improving your website has never been so easy. IBP helps you get more customers and more sales with increased search engine rankings.

Get top 10 rankings on Google & Yahoo with IBP's proven Top 10 Optimizer

If you want to get high rankings on Google and other major search engines then you must optimize your web pages. IBP's Top 10 Optimizer helps you optimize your web pages quickly and easily.

Fact: If you want to get high rankings on Google and other major search engines then you need optimized web page content and high quality inbound links. IBP helps you get both.

IBP helps you get high Google rankings in three easy steps:

3 Easy steps to top 10 search engine ranking...

1) Download IBP now and install it on your computer. IBP runs on Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista.

2) Start IBP and enter your website address in IBP's Top 10 Optimizer tools.

3) Follow the instructions and benefit from top 10 search engine rankings on Google & Yahoo!

IBP tells you in plain English and in great detail what you have to do to get a top 10 ranking for your specific keyword in the search engine you've chosen. IBP supports all important search engines.

Protect Yourself From Clicking Your Ads Accidentally

You are aware that clicking on your own AdSense ads will lead to the termination of your Google AdSense account. To protect your Google Adsense account, you adhere to the Google AdSense terms and conditions. Because you are constantly working on your AdSense page in order to improve your Adsense earning, you fear that someday you may click on the AdSense ads accidentally.

Well, fear no more. There are two ways you can protect yourself from clicking on your AdSense Ads accidentally.

1. Disable Your Browser Javascript

If you disable browser Javascript setting, the Google Adense ads will not be shown while you are working on your AdSense page. The following steps will show you how to disable Javascript in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Internet Explorer 3.X
- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Options.
- Select the "Security" tab page
- Uncheck "Run ActiveX scripts" to disable Javascript
- Restart the browser

Explorer 4.x
- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Internet Options.
- Select the Security tab page
- Select Custom and click on the Settings... button
- Select Disable under Active scripting to disable Javascript
- Restart the browser

Explorer 6.x
- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Internet Options.
- Select the Security tab

page
- Select Custom Level... button
- Select Disable under Scripting > Active scripting to disable Javascript
- Restart the browser

FireFox
- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Options.
- Select the Content tab page
- Uncheck Enable Javascript to disable Javascript
- Restart the browser

You should be aware that by disabling Javascript in the browser, you may not view any PPC ads or use any Javascript related application in your browser

2. Edit the Hosts File In Your Computer

Open the host file in your PC with Word Pad/note pad and add the following entry in the host file of your PC:

- 127.0.0.2 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

Save the hosts file and restart your browser. You will not see the AdSense ad while you are working on your website.

You can find the hosts file from the following directory of your PC:

- Windows 95/98/Me, c:windows
- Windows NT/2000/XP Pro, c:winntsystem32driversetc
- Windows XP Home, c:windowssystem32driversetc

If this trick is applied, you would not be able to view any Google AdSense Ads from any AdSense site.