1) Always collect receipts for business-related activities. I'm amazed by how some business people don't bother to get or keep receipts for "little" things. The parking fee on the way to meet a client, the "few" letters you mailed, the bag of coffee you picked up for the office - all these little things can really add up over the course of a year. Maximize your income tax deductions by collecting the receipts for all your purchases that are or may be business-related, and recording and filing them appropriately.
2) Manage your RRSP contribution. The Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is The Best Income Tax Deduction for Small Businesses. But that doesn't mean that you should necessarily just make the maximium RRSP contribution every year. Managing your RRSP contribution is a much better small business tax strategy. Your allowable RRSP contribution will carry forward if you don't use all of it in a particular year, so estimate what your total income for the year will be and then decide how much of an RRSP contribution you should make that particular tax year, if any, to maximize your RRSP's tax bang for the buck. It doesn't make tax sense for you to make a large RRSP contribution in a low income year.
3) Maximize your non-capital losses. Similarly, if your business has a non-capital loss (defined as when your expenses exceed your income for the business) in any year, consider when you can best use this loss to decrease your income tax bill before you use it. Non-capital losses can be used to offset other personal income in any given tax year, can be carried back three years, or carried forward for up to seven years. It may make more sense for you to carry your non-capital loss back to recover income tax you've already paid, or to carry it forward to offset a larger tax bill in the future than it does to use it in the tax year the capital loss occurred.
4) Maximize your charitable income tax credits. Charitable donations to registered Canadian charities or other qualifed donees earn you tax credits. But are you aware that charitable donations that total over $200 provide you with more of a tax credit because they're assessed at a higher rate? To maximize your charitable income tax credits, consider giving more to the registered charities of your choice this year. If you make $30,000 in income and decided to give only 5% of your income, the fortunate charities would get $1500. (Be aware that non-registered Canadian charities, American charities, and political parties don't count.) There are more small business tax strategies to help you maximize your business income tax deduction and reduce your income tax on the next page, including income splitting and tax strategies for maximizing your Capital Cost Allowance.
5) Maximize your Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) income tax claim. Most Canadian small business owners know that instead of just deducting the cost of whatever depreciable property they've acquired to use in their business in a particular year, they need to deduct the cost of the depreciable property over a period of years, through a Capital Cost Allowance claim. But many small business owners are not aware that they don't have to claim Capital Cost Allowance in the year that it occurs - a tax strategy that you can use to reduce your income tax. The CCA is not a mandatory tax deduction so you can use as much or as little of your CCA claim in a particular tax year as you wish; you can carry any unused portion forward to help offset a larger income tax bill in the future. It doesn't make sense for you to take your full Capital Cost Allowance claim deduction in a year that you have little or no taxable income. Another aspect of mazimizing your Capital Cost Allowance claim is to buy (and sell) your assets at the right time. You want to buy new assets before the end of your fiscal year and sell old assets after the current fiscal year. Be aware, too, of the 50% rule; in the year that you acquire an asset, you usually can only claim 50% of the Capital Cost Allowance that you would normally be able to claim (and in some cases, the "available for use" rule means that you can't claim Capital Cost Allowance until the second tax year after you acquired an asset).
6) Split your income. The income splitting tax strategy lets you take full advantage of the marginal tax rate disparities. The higher your income, the higher your marginal tax rate. By transferring a portion of your income to a spouse or child, a person with a lower income, you can reduce the marginal tax rate on your income. This is an especially powerful tax strategy for small business owners with children of post-secondary school age. Suppose that you employed your 19-year-old daughter in your business, paying her a salary totalling $10,000. Because of the basic personal income tax exemption, she would pay very little income tax, and would have a nice nest-egg to help pay for her education. (If you paid her an income equalling the personal income tax exemption, she would pay no tax at all!) And meanwhile, you've "lopped" $10,000 off your income for the year, decreasing the amount of income tax you personally owe.
7) Take full advantage of the income tax deductions available to home-based businesses. Do you operate your business out of your home? If not, what's stopping you? While not every business is suitable for a home-based business, home-based businesses do have advantages when it comes to income tax. Besides the Business Use-Of-Home Deduction, home-based business owners can deduct a portion of many home-related expenses, such as heat, electricity, home maintenance, cleaning materials and home insurance. If you own your home, you can also deduct portions of your property tax and mortgage interest.
8) Incorporate your business? One reason many sole proprietors and partners incorporate their businesses is because of the tax advantages of incorporation. The best known of these tax advantages is the Small Business Tax Deduction, whereby the income of qualifying Canadian-held corporations is taxed at a special "reduced" rate. For Canadian-controlled private corporations claiming the the small business deduction, the corporate net tax rate is 11% as of January 1, 2008. For other types of corporations, the corporate net tax rate is 19.5% as of January 1, 2008. However, incorporating your business as a tax strategy will only be effective if your business has grown enough for incorporation to be worthwhile. You not only have to have a significant income already to offset the costs of incorporation, but need to be prepared to leave enough of your business earnings in the corporation to benefit from corporate tax deferral. For instance, if you operate an incorporated business and the corporation's profits in a given year are $60,000, but you take $60,000 from the corporation in salary, your $60,000 is then taxed just as your personal (T1) income would be now, making incorporation for this reason pointless.
Source: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/taxinfo/a/taxstrategies.htm
By Susan Ward, About.com
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Google AdSense and Blogs
If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting a blog, then you are definitely going to want to read this article. It’s all about how to line your pockets with money that’s just waiting to be made without working much harder than you already are.
No only are blogs the hottest thing on the ‘net right now, but they are custom-made for Google’s AdSense program. Why? It’s simple. Blogs represent constantly changing and fresh content to Google’s search engine spiders. Feeding fresh content to those little spiders is just like tossing raw meat to a tiger. They just gobble it up. The more pages of your blog that get indexed, the more traffic you get. And the more traffic you get, the more exposure your AdSense ads get. Are you beginning to see where I’m heading here?
It’s not just Google that loves new content, all of the major engines do. In fact, some web-savvy bloggers are testing Google ads on one page and Overture ads on the other. It doesn’t take too long to see which ads are doing the best when you have nearly side-by-side comparison statistics to look at. Just don’t make the mistake of putting Google and Overture ads on the same page together. While they won’t kill each other like a pair of Siamese fighting fish in the same bowel will, you will be violating both sites’ Terms of Service, and it isn’t worth killing the goose (geese) that laid the golden egg.
It’s a snap to set up Google AdSense ads on your blog. Everything you need to know is right inside of the Google control panel. What’s not so easy is figuring out what ads are going to appear on each page. Since Google targets your key words, and your blog articles could possible wander towards any subject, you never know what you’re going to get.
Well, “never” is a strong word because there actually IS a way to pre-test your blog’s ads before you post your newest edition.
Here’s what you do:
• Write your blog article like you normally would
• Plug in your AdSense code and then post your newest page to a sub directory that’s not part of your blog.
• Click refresh a few times until Google wakes up and starts sending ads.
• If you don’t like what you see then fine-tune the article until you see the types of ads that you’re looking for.
With some ads paying as much as $5 per click or more, I’d certainly spend an extra 30 minutes or so tweaking my blog. That’s for sure. If you’re working hard to get your blog in front of visiting eyeballs, then it doesn’t make any sense at NOT to be using Google AdSense to draw every penny out of your site that’s possible. OK, that’s the end of the article. Now get busy tweaking your blog and checking your ads. You’ve got money waiting to be made!
About the author: Diane provides marketing and internet profit tips. For more Google AdSense tips, visit http://www.adsense.deeljeabiz.com/
Making Sense of Adsense
When you make your living online, you realize the need for multiple streams of income. One of the easiest and most lucrative ways to generate a secondary income, which also happens to be passive, is via Google’s Adsense program. I’m sure you’ve read the claims of a few individuals generating five figure monthly incomes from Adsense. For many of you, I’m sure you are wondering why you aren’t making this same income yourself. Well, wonder no more. If you follow my simple six step system, you will be well on your way to healthy Adsense profits within three months. Are you ready? It’s now time to pay attention.
Step 1 – Preparation. The key to making money with Adsense is all about numbers. BIG numbers! Sure, there are a few people making serious money with less than ten sites, but these are the exception. Your goal will be twenty-four sites in three months. That’s just TWO sites per week! In order to accomplish this, I recommend one of the many available page generation tools available today.
Step 2 – Determine Your Markets. In order to maximize Adsense income with only twenty-four sites, you must know which markets are paying well. To break this down even further, you need to know which keywords within those markets are paying the most.
Step 3 – Register you domains. Once you’ve identified and chosen your markets, you must register domains appropriate to those markets. For example, if your market is ‘Cabbage Patch Dolls’, a domain such as http://www.cabbage-patch-doll.com/ would be appropriate.
Step 4 – Create your site. Using your favorite page generation software and keyword list, it’s time to develop your site. There are several key points to bear in mind when you develop these specifically for Adsense.
1. Format – Always use the large 336x280 large rectangle.
2. Border – Match the same color as your background.
3. Background color - Border – Match the same color as your background.
4. Link = "0000CC"
5. Color_url = "999999"
6. Color_text = "333333"
7. Position – Far left or center and just above the page fold (Top 25% of site)
Step 5 – Verify and track your site Visit your site and make sure all links work and that the sites appear to your satisfaction. You should also check out the ads Google is displaying. Are they targeted to your primary high paying keyword? If not, recreate your site using your high paying keyword in a higher density throughout your site. Make sure you track your Adsense format, position, and traffic with a tracking system specifically designed for Adsense. Once you know your stats, you can adjust for maximum clickthroughs and higher revenues. Step 6 – Get your site listed in the search engines. This is simple… no tricks involved. Simply rent links to your site. A PR7 or PR8 link will do the job. While I’ve simplified the process here, you are now armed with enough information and resources to make some serious money with Adsense.
About the author:This article has been authored by Keith Baxter, the founder of http://www.topkeywordlists.com/If you want to maximize your Adsense income and learn how to drive massive amounts of traffic to your website from the search engines, visit the site now. Only 203 spots are available at the special low introductory rate.
Ways to Increase your Adsense Revenue
How much revenue do you generate from Google Adsense? Recently there has been a lot of discussion about people who earn over $10,000 a month just from Adsense. Furthermore, there are rumors of a few individuals who earn over $1 million a year just from using the power of Google advertisements.
So what is Google Adsense and how can you use this program to earn a six-figure income? About two years ago, Google created this program to help websites to monetize their web-traffic. Here's how it works: Webmasters obtain a special code from Google which then displays targeted ads on their website. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of these ads, the webmaster earns a commission. Unlike other online businesses, there is no selling involved. All you need to do is get people to click on the ads. Although this is an excellent way to generate an income, many websites are not effectively maximizing their Adsense potential. As a result, they are leaving a lot of cash on the table.
The question is how can you increase your Adsense revenue without increasing the number of web visitors? The key to earning an income with Google Adsense is to have your ads match the rest of the site, making them look like part of your content. Your focus is to avoid having the Adsense blocks look like blatant advertisements. The following are six ways that you can do this and increase your revenue at the same time:
1) Find the right place - Most website visitors read content that is in the middle of a webpage. As a result, the best place to put your Adsense block is in the top part of the page, at the beginning of your web content. You want to weave the Google Ads into your web content to give the appearance that they are extra links which expand on the information of the page.
2) Use the Large Rectangle - With Google Adsense, you have the option of picking different ad formats. Most of the time people opt to use the Leaderboard (728x90) or Wide Skyscraper (160x600) style ads. Unfortunately, this is the wrong choice, because both look like blatant advertisements. Instead smart webmasters have found that using the Large Rectangle (336x280) yields the best amount of click-thrus.
3) Ditch the border - Many people experience a sharp increase in Adsense revenue when they changing their border. What they change is very simple…they get rid of the border on their Adsense blocks. This is another way to make the advertisements look like useful web content.
4) Adapt the font - Whenever you write content, it should be the same font size and style as your Google Adsense block. This will help make it appear that the advertisements are a natural part of your website.
5) Match the colors - In addition to changing the fonts, you also should match the colors of your website. For instance, if your content is written in black, and your hyperlinks are blue, then the Adsense blocks should also be the same color. Again, this helps the advertisements appear to be normal web content.
6) Don't have too many distractions - On a webpage, it is important to give web visitor a limited number of options. By having too many links and graphics, the web visitor might go to a section that doesn't help increase your profits. While it is important to inform and entertain your web visitor, it is also vital that you monetize your site. So if the main focus of your site is to earn an income through Google Adsense, then get rid of all non-essential links and graphics.
By taking the time to implement these six simple steps, you'll see a dramatic increase in the click-thru ratio of your ads. If added to all of the content of your site, your Adsense income will skyrocket!
Written by Scott J. Patterson. He earns over $12,000 a month, mostly through Google Adsense. To read about this and other home businesses you can try, download his free ebook, The Secret-Guide to Home Businesses: http://www.duncemoney.com/adsense.html
So what is Google Adsense and how can you use this program to earn a six-figure income? About two years ago, Google created this program to help websites to monetize their web-traffic. Here's how it works: Webmasters obtain a special code from Google which then displays targeted ads on their website. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of these ads, the webmaster earns a commission. Unlike other online businesses, there is no selling involved. All you need to do is get people to click on the ads. Although this is an excellent way to generate an income, many websites are not effectively maximizing their Adsense potential. As a result, they are leaving a lot of cash on the table.
The question is how can you increase your Adsense revenue without increasing the number of web visitors? The key to earning an income with Google Adsense is to have your ads match the rest of the site, making them look like part of your content. Your focus is to avoid having the Adsense blocks look like blatant advertisements. The following are six ways that you can do this and increase your revenue at the same time:
1) Find the right place - Most website visitors read content that is in the middle of a webpage. As a result, the best place to put your Adsense block is in the top part of the page, at the beginning of your web content. You want to weave the Google Ads into your web content to give the appearance that they are extra links which expand on the information of the page.
2) Use the Large Rectangle - With Google Adsense, you have the option of picking different ad formats. Most of the time people opt to use the Leaderboard (728x90) or Wide Skyscraper (160x600) style ads. Unfortunately, this is the wrong choice, because both look like blatant advertisements. Instead smart webmasters have found that using the Large Rectangle (336x280) yields the best amount of click-thrus.
3) Ditch the border - Many people experience a sharp increase in Adsense revenue when they changing their border. What they change is very simple…they get rid of the border on their Adsense blocks. This is another way to make the advertisements look like useful web content.
4) Adapt the font - Whenever you write content, it should be the same font size and style as your Google Adsense block. This will help make it appear that the advertisements are a natural part of your website.
5) Match the colors - In addition to changing the fonts, you also should match the colors of your website. For instance, if your content is written in black, and your hyperlinks are blue, then the Adsense blocks should also be the same color. Again, this helps the advertisements appear to be normal web content.
6) Don't have too many distractions - On a webpage, it is important to give web visitor a limited number of options. By having too many links and graphics, the web visitor might go to a section that doesn't help increase your profits. While it is important to inform and entertain your web visitor, it is also vital that you monetize your site. So if the main focus of your site is to earn an income through Google Adsense, then get rid of all non-essential links and graphics.
By taking the time to implement these six simple steps, you'll see a dramatic increase in the click-thru ratio of your ads. If added to all of the content of your site, your Adsense income will skyrocket!
Written by Scott J. Patterson. He earns over $12,000 a month, mostly through Google Adsense. To read about this and other home businesses you can try, download his free ebook, The Secret-Guide to Home Businesses: http://www.duncemoney.com/adsense.html
Google Adsense Strategies and Tips
Adsense is beginning to make a huge impact on the affiliate marketing industry today. Because of this, weak affiliate merchants have the tendency to die faster than ever and ad networks will be losing their customers quickly.
If you are in a losing rather than winning in the affiliate program you are currently promoting, maybe it is about time to consider going into the Adsense marketing and start earning some real cash.
Google is readily providing well written and highly relevant ads that are closely chosen to match the content on your pages. You do not have to look for them yourselves as the search engine will be the doing the searching for you from other people’s source.
You also don't have to spend time in choosing different kind of ads for different pages. Google makes it very easy for you, with no codes to mess around for different affiliate programs.
You will be able to concentrate on providing good and quality content, as the search engines will be the ones finding the best ads in which to put your pages on.
You are still allowed to add Adsense ads even if you already have affiliate links on your site. It is prohibited, however, to imitate the look and feel of the Google ads for your affiliate links. One of the things you can do, however, is to utilize Google's custom palette to customize your Google ads, making them to appear a part of the web page itself. The idea here is to match background and links to match the theme of your site. People on the internet today are trained to click on a link that is blue, and if your Google ads have the same theme as your web page, it makes the Google ads appear to be a portion of your "content."
You can also filter up to 200 URLs. This gives you a chance to block ads for the sites that do not meet your guidelines, and also block competitors. Remember that it is unavoidable that Adsense may be competing for some space on web sites that all other revenues are sharing.
Owners of small sites are allowed to plug a bit of a code into their sites and instantly have relevant text ads that appeal to your visitors appear instantly on your pages. If you own many sites, you only need to apply once. Then ,you are issued a unique "publisher ID", which can be used on any site you currently own. A small snippet of Javascript is placed on your site in the location you wish the ads to appear in, and generally speaking, the ads from Goggle will appear in minutes. This ends the hassle of having to apply to many affiliate programs, and keeping track of many different URL's and user ID's and passwords.
As Google ads are very easy to customize, and can be placed anywhere on your site you wish, you can experiment with placement, colors, and themes. Many tricks are available to the resourceful webmaster, including adding images in conjunction with your Google ads to make them more noticeable.
The payment rates can vary extremely. The payment you will be receiving per click depends on how much advertisers are paying per click to advertise with the use of the AdWords. Advertisers can pay as little as 5 cents and as high as $10-12, sometimes even more than that too. Some savvy lawyers are currently paying as high as $75 for advertising the keyword mesothelioma! And you, as the ad publisher, are earning a share of that money generated.
If your results remain stagnant, it can help if you try and build simple and uncluttered pages so that the ads can catch the visitor’s eyes more. It sometimes pay to differ from the usual things that people are doing already. Google has many tutorials, including a "heat chart" which shows you where the best placement for ads are. You will need an account to access these tutorials. Sign up for an Adsense account at https://www.google.com/adsense/?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-et-awhome&hl=en_US. It is also a refreshing sight for your visitor once they see something different for a change.
It is still wise to look at other people’s information and format your Adsense in a like manner. A wise old business axiom is to "find a good business model, then copy it." Let others do the hard work for you, and learn from a successful site. Just think about it as doing yourself a favor by not having to work too hard to know what content to have. Look to sites that have high page rank, and carefully observe their layouts, their content, and placement of their ads. A little time spent doing research can put dollars in your pocket down the road.
Publishers have the option of choosing to have their ads displayed only on a certain site or sites. You can also have them displayed on a large network of sites if you so desire. Google now has the option to allow other people to advertise on your site. This only makes good sense. If you are marketing to a tightly defined niche, you can place your own ads, written by you, on site that allow this option. The choice is yours, depending on what you think will work best to your advantage.
It is important to note that you cannot choose certain topics only. If you do this, search engines will not place Adsense ads on your site and you will be missing out a great opportunity in making hundreds and even thousands of dollars cash.
Topics to be avoided includes gambling, firearms, ammunition, tobacco or drugs. If you are being offered more cash in exchange of doing Adsense with these kinds, it is just like signing your own termination paper.
With all the information that people need in your hands already, all you have to do is turn Google Adsense into your own cash cow. It all boils down to a win-win situation both for the content site owners and the webmasters or publishers.
Our website, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is a good source of information for the beginning marketer. We present a lot of content for those needing more information on a variety of subjects.
by: Alder Smith, as found on http://www.adsenseprimer.com/
If you are in a losing rather than winning in the affiliate program you are currently promoting, maybe it is about time to consider going into the Adsense marketing and start earning some real cash.
Google is readily providing well written and highly relevant ads that are closely chosen to match the content on your pages. You do not have to look for them yourselves as the search engine will be the doing the searching for you from other people’s source.
You also don't have to spend time in choosing different kind of ads for different pages. Google makes it very easy for you, with no codes to mess around for different affiliate programs.
You will be able to concentrate on providing good and quality content, as the search engines will be the ones finding the best ads in which to put your pages on.
You are still allowed to add Adsense ads even if you already have affiliate links on your site. It is prohibited, however, to imitate the look and feel of the Google ads for your affiliate links. One of the things you can do, however, is to utilize Google's custom palette to customize your Google ads, making them to appear a part of the web page itself. The idea here is to match background and links to match the theme of your site. People on the internet today are trained to click on a link that is blue, and if your Google ads have the same theme as your web page, it makes the Google ads appear to be a portion of your "content."
You can also filter up to 200 URLs. This gives you a chance to block ads for the sites that do not meet your guidelines, and also block competitors. Remember that it is unavoidable that Adsense may be competing for some space on web sites that all other revenues are sharing.
Owners of small sites are allowed to plug a bit of a code into their sites and instantly have relevant text ads that appeal to your visitors appear instantly on your pages. If you own many sites, you only need to apply once. Then ,you are issued a unique "publisher ID", which can be used on any site you currently own. A small snippet of Javascript is placed on your site in the location you wish the ads to appear in, and generally speaking, the ads from Goggle will appear in minutes. This ends the hassle of having to apply to many affiliate programs, and keeping track of many different URL's and user ID's and passwords.
As Google ads are very easy to customize, and can be placed anywhere on your site you wish, you can experiment with placement, colors, and themes. Many tricks are available to the resourceful webmaster, including adding images in conjunction with your Google ads to make them more noticeable.
The payment rates can vary extremely. The payment you will be receiving per click depends on how much advertisers are paying per click to advertise with the use of the AdWords. Advertisers can pay as little as 5 cents and as high as $10-12, sometimes even more than that too. Some savvy lawyers are currently paying as high as $75 for advertising the keyword mesothelioma! And you, as the ad publisher, are earning a share of that money generated.
If your results remain stagnant, it can help if you try and build simple and uncluttered pages so that the ads can catch the visitor’s eyes more. It sometimes pay to differ from the usual things that people are doing already. Google has many tutorials, including a "heat chart" which shows you where the best placement for ads are. You will need an account to access these tutorials. Sign up for an Adsense account at https://www.google.com/adsense/?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-et-awhome&hl=en_US. It is also a refreshing sight for your visitor once they see something different for a change.
It is still wise to look at other people’s information and format your Adsense in a like manner. A wise old business axiom is to "find a good business model, then copy it." Let others do the hard work for you, and learn from a successful site. Just think about it as doing yourself a favor by not having to work too hard to know what content to have. Look to sites that have high page rank, and carefully observe their layouts, their content, and placement of their ads. A little time spent doing research can put dollars in your pocket down the road.
Publishers have the option of choosing to have their ads displayed only on a certain site or sites. You can also have them displayed on a large network of sites if you so desire. Google now has the option to allow other people to advertise on your site. This only makes good sense. If you are marketing to a tightly defined niche, you can place your own ads, written by you, on site that allow this option. The choice is yours, depending on what you think will work best to your advantage.
It is important to note that you cannot choose certain topics only. If you do this, search engines will not place Adsense ads on your site and you will be missing out a great opportunity in making hundreds and even thousands of dollars cash.
Topics to be avoided includes gambling, firearms, ammunition, tobacco or drugs. If you are being offered more cash in exchange of doing Adsense with these kinds, it is just like signing your own termination paper.
With all the information that people need in your hands already, all you have to do is turn Google Adsense into your own cash cow. It all boils down to a win-win situation both for the content site owners and the webmasters or publishers.
Our website, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is a good source of information for the beginning marketer. We present a lot of content for those needing more information on a variety of subjects.
by: Alder Smith, as found on http://www.adsenseprimer.com/
Saturday, April 18, 2009
How Google Detects Google Adsense Invalid Clicks
Still thinking to cheat AdSense? Stop that. It will never bring you anywhere. You might pull it off with smaller ads network, but definitely not with Google. Here are some detection methods they might use. At the very least, they have the resources to do so.
IP Address
If the AdSense click is originated from the same IP Address as the one used for accessing your AdSense account, your account is flagged.
Cookies
Most home users do not use static IP Address for Internet connection. In most cases just disconnect and reconnect will give you a new IP Address. But don’t forget, Google has set cookies on your computer.
Other Google Services
Thinking that you are safe just because you do not access your AdSense account? Think again. This time, consider these: GMail, Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Toolbar, Google Talk, Google Sitemap, Google Desktop, Blogger, and so on, and so on. With the wide range of services they provide, Google can trace the originator of most (or probably almost all) clicks.
Click Pattern 1
Oh, why this computer / IP address / person is so trigger-click-happy on this particular website but never click on the ads on other sites?
Click Pattern 2
And why is it that people accessing these sites direct (type-in URL or from bookmark) tend to be very active ad-clickers compared with those referred from search engine or other sites?
Click Pattern 3
And why the ad-clickers like to hit and run, compared with non ad-clickers that surf a few pages before leaving?
Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
Your CTR may range from 0.5% to 10%, but if it exceeds a certain point (probably around 10%), you are flagged.
Geo-Location
Used Urchin (Google Analytics) before? Then you should know that Google can trace traffics origin down to the small town. Different IP doesn’t mean much. Unless you site is really targetted to one small geo-point, a high number of clicks from nearby location will get you banned quickly.
Hardware address?
MAC address of the LAN card, modem, and router works almost like a fingerprint. I’m not sure if Google can track this, but probably they do. They have rocket scientist, remember?
Advertisers conversion rateAd click is one thing. But does it bring value to the advertisers? If none of the clicks on your site translate to conversion to the advertiser, you are in trouble. First the Smart-Pricing hits, then your AdSense account disabled.
Search Engine Ranking
Your website is not indexed on any search engine, not linked by any prominent website, but get consistently high traffic? That sounds like something is in play. Regardless of whether it is an adware-embedded software, spam, trojan clickbot, or intentionally installed click-exchange network, it doesn’t sound right.
Webpage design
How about the “click here” or “support us”? Google has the best search engine in the world. Is it really that hard to find those words?
Combo
Each of these detection methods might seem rather weak. But combine them together, and not many click-fraud can pass-through these filters. Even the smartest clickbot will have a hard time.
In short, it is almost impossible to cheat AdSense in the long term. Instead of spending time, money, and effort trying to outsmart Google, try these tips to improve your AdSense earning.
Disclaimer : I’m not working for Google nor in anyway know anyone inside Google. Google might or might not use these methods to detect click-fraud. I’d believe that they have much better detection mechanisms.
Source: http://www.cheatad.com/2006/06/14/how-google-detects-adsense-invalid-clicks/
IP Address
If the AdSense click is originated from the same IP Address as the one used for accessing your AdSense account, your account is flagged.
Cookies
Most home users do not use static IP Address for Internet connection. In most cases just disconnect and reconnect will give you a new IP Address. But don’t forget, Google has set cookies on your computer.
Other Google Services
Thinking that you are safe just because you do not access your AdSense account? Think again. This time, consider these: GMail, Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Toolbar, Google Talk, Google Sitemap, Google Desktop, Blogger, and so on, and so on. With the wide range of services they provide, Google can trace the originator of most (or probably almost all) clicks.
Click Pattern 1
Oh, why this computer / IP address / person is so trigger-click-happy on this particular website but never click on the ads on other sites?
Click Pattern 2
And why is it that people accessing these sites direct (type-in URL or from bookmark) tend to be very active ad-clickers compared with those referred from search engine or other sites?
Click Pattern 3
And why the ad-clickers like to hit and run, compared with non ad-clickers that surf a few pages before leaving?
Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
Your CTR may range from 0.5% to 10%, but if it exceeds a certain point (probably around 10%), you are flagged.
Geo-Location
Used Urchin (Google Analytics) before? Then you should know that Google can trace traffics origin down to the small town. Different IP doesn’t mean much. Unless you site is really targetted to one small geo-point, a high number of clicks from nearby location will get you banned quickly.
Hardware address?
MAC address of the LAN card, modem, and router works almost like a fingerprint. I’m not sure if Google can track this, but probably they do. They have rocket scientist, remember?
Advertisers conversion rateAd click is one thing. But does it bring value to the advertisers? If none of the clicks on your site translate to conversion to the advertiser, you are in trouble. First the Smart-Pricing hits, then your AdSense account disabled.
Search Engine Ranking
Your website is not indexed on any search engine, not linked by any prominent website, but get consistently high traffic? That sounds like something is in play. Regardless of whether it is an adware-embedded software, spam, trojan clickbot, or intentionally installed click-exchange network, it doesn’t sound right.
Webpage design
How about the “click here” or “support us”? Google has the best search engine in the world. Is it really that hard to find those words?
Combo
Each of these detection methods might seem rather weak. But combine them together, and not many click-fraud can pass-through these filters. Even the smartest clickbot will have a hard time.
In short, it is almost impossible to cheat AdSense in the long term. Instead of spending time, money, and effort trying to outsmart Google, try these tips to improve your AdSense earning.
Disclaimer : I’m not working for Google nor in anyway know anyone inside Google. Google might or might not use these methods to detect click-fraud. I’d believe that they have much better detection mechanisms.
Source: http://www.cheatad.com/2006/06/14/how-google-detects-adsense-invalid-clicks/
10 Basic SEO Techniques Every Webmaster Should Know
Now, it’s easier than ever to have websites up and running. You can just setup a blog at blogger.com for free. Or you can spend some $20 to buy a domain name, get a cheap web hosting and install free ready-made scripts like Wordpress, phpbb, oscommerce, joomla, etc. Some web hosting sites even made the script installations as easy as one-click-install.
Many aspiring webmasters create new sites without even knowing HTML, let alone search engine techniques. They get AdSense account and paste on AdSense code, waiting with high hope for the quick money to pour in. But day by day, the earning is really just enough to cover the hosting fee, or even less than that. So, they start to get frustated. Most quit after some time. Some worse, they “fall into the dark side”, employing black hat techniques or hiring less-than-honorable search engine optimizer firms. The rest stay on, determined to learn, and improve. Soon, they found out something about called search engine optimisation. Here I will try to describe some basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques in a simple, easy-to-understand way.
Optimizing a website for search engine means you design a website so that search engines (like Google, Yahoo, MSN) can easily find the pages and include them in the search result. Thus, it will increase the number of visitors coming to your site. Objective of search engine optimization is to have your pages displayed highest possible in the search engine result for your choice of search phrases.
These are 10 basic search engine optimization methods I think every webmaster ought to know. See if the tools you use to create your webpages (Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc…) allow you to do these. If not, it is time to learn some basic HTML.
1) Page title
Title is important. Place important keywords on your page title, and try to have different one for each page. I’ve seen sites with same title for every pages. While it gives stronger branding for the site name, that’s something I can do without rather than sacrificing my sub-pages traffic.
Limit your page title to 80 characters the most. Shorter page title means higher importance on each word.
2) Keyword and description meta-tags
These two popular meta-tags used to be most useful search engine optimization techniques, until they are abused by the search engine spammers. Even then, they are still holding some importance today, specially the description meta-tags. Meta description tag is used by some search engine in displaying the result page, and by other search engines to determine the relevance of your page. Limit your page description to 200 characters the most. Put a descriptive, gramatically correct, meaningful sentence for best result.
Some proclaim that keyword tag is dead. Apparently not so. Yahoo webmaster guidelines lists using keyword tag as a way to help improving search engine ranking.
Use a “keyword” meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page.
Even then, if you have to make a choice between creating good keyword tag and developing useful content - our next point - go with the latter. Limit the keyword to 300 characters. Next to a good title, this is the next most important on-page optimization you can do to bring more visitors to your website. Most important thing you must remember here is this: you should write for your users first, search engine second. Write in natural, easy to understand language. The reason here is that if you write just for search engine, even if you can rank high up, the visitors will close your page as soon as they find out that your site contain just junks.
Besides, search engines now increasingly use some kind of artificial intelligence to analyze websites before indexing. You don’t want to caught off-handed using some useless texts.
First write some useful contents just as you would write offline magazine articles. Then, only after that, you can do some small tweaking to empasize certain parts, and make some changes to the word choices.
Generally, it is thought that keyword density plays some importance to seach engines. Keyword density refers to number of appearance of your keywords relative to overall page. No agreement on the optimum number though. Some believes the keywords should be around 3% compared to the overall page. Some believes the number should be higher, aroung 8-10%. Whatever it is, just try to include some of these keywords on your page, and make sure the page is still read well naturally. If it is not, take them out.
Then there are HTML tags you can use to emphasize importance of certain words. The most commons are bold, italics, and headers.
And, of course, you should use text instead of graphics or flash. Search engines can’t read what is written on your beautifully crafted picture. If you want them be indexed and found by search engines, use text.
If you must use some images, use your keywords on the file name, and always use the ALT tag.
Major search engines have developed some ability to read text in flash files, but to play it safe, avoid flash banners, buttons or page contents. Flash is great for embedded movies, not for any other use.
4) Regular content
SEO or not, this is important. Regularly updated content will draw visitors and search engine alike. But don’t put content just for the sake of it. Contents copied from other site, for instance, not only doesn’t help in search engine ranking, but can even get you penalized.
Write original, useful contents that make your visitors want to come back and recommend to their friends. You will get repeat visitors that way, regardless of search engine traffic. Good contents will also get link from other webmasters, and this will greatly help in your search engine ranking (read next point).
Blogs are very easy to set-up and is a good avenue to create new contents to your site. Major blogging software, like Wordpress, supports RSS by default. By using RSS reader software, your visitors can then choose to be to be notified about new contents on your site.
Creating contents regularly rather than pump in many articles at one go has many benefits. Firstly, your visitors know that everytime they go to your site, they will see new content instead of the same old ones. This will make them want to visit more often. Same thing to search engine crawlers. If everytime the crawler couldn’t find new content, it provides little incentive for them to come back regularly. Thus, your new pages will not get indexed as fast as you want it to be.
Additionally, if you pump in a lot of contents at once, the search engines may think that you are trying to spam. This can result in being penalized.
5) Link and get linked
Link popularity is a way most search engines determine the importance of your site. When a website link to your site, search engines takes it as a vote for your website. In the past few years, this has greatly helped search engines getting the most relevant result for users.
Recently, with a lot of sites using links to cheat into search engines ranking, major search engines, specially Google have increasingly use and develop new technologies to determine the importance of the links.
So, not all links are treated as equal. Links from big reputable sites, for example Microsoft or Reuters are definitely worth more than link from CheatAd.com.
Relevancy of the sites also plays a part. Relevant website will give more value to the linked site. Then there is age in play. Older sites are deemed to be more trustworthy than new sites. Consequently, links from older sites are treated as more valuable too.
Directory submission is the oldest way to build your link reputation. There are free Dmoz, free or paid Yahoo Directory, and thousands other directories. Just search for “directory submission” and you have enough work to do for a whole year. Just do directory submission moderately, probably around 20 directories per week, and you can watch your search engine traffic climbing up slowly. If you have a blog, you can submit it to blog directories as well. Just search for “blog submission”.
Exchanging link with another webmaster is another way. Termed as “link-exchange”, basically you link to the partner site. In exchange, the partner will put hyperlink in his/her site pointing to yours. As many abuse this technique, Google has degraded the value of link-exchange to virtually non-existant. You might even get penalized if your link partner is considered a “bad website” for Google.
While Google has diminished the value of reciprocal link, Yahoo and MSN are still holding on, though with less value. Even then, it still valuable enough to work on. Just be careful to have only reputable link partners.
To check whether the link partner is bad, just search for “site:www.domainname.com” in Google (replace domainname.com with the partner’s website) and see if the pages are indexed.
The most “in” link-building technique now is via article submission. You can write or buy an original article, and include a link to your website on the resource box (a small section after the article, where you introduce yourself and your website).
This is what I mean:
Article here…...About the authorFernando Hal is a contributing writer for CheatAd.com, a blog about click-fraud on pay-per-click advertisements. You can then submit this article to a myriad of article submission sites, e.g. GoArticles.com for other webmasters to put it on their website.
The wonder of article submission is that not only it helps search engine ranking, but also brings in interested visitors who like your articles. This is very targeted traffic, compared with directory submission or link-exchange.
Other link building methods are visiting relevant blogs and leave comments there, as well as joining forums/discussion boards and leaving hyperlink to your site on the signature.
If you intend to purchase link from other sites, consider getting links from many smaller sites rather than few major sites. The paid link might be considered as spam by Google.
On the other hand, don’t be stingy in linking to others. Be choosy on who you want to link, but don’t hold back if you find a good site that can be useful for your visitors.
6) Usability
Always remember, your most important audience is the visitors. Give them a good experience, and they will come back. Framed pages, for example, is irritating. It breaks navigation’s “Back” button, and is confusing. Pop-up windows, javascript hyperlink, and fixed text size are just a few design mistakes notoriously committed by many new web designers/ webmasters.
For a start, read Jacob Nielson’s articles on web usability and web design mistake.
Build the website for your visitors. Make easier navigation. Look at Google, MySpace, eBay, and Amazon. There is one striking similarity among them. All four of them have drop simple interface. Many will describe them as “ugly”. But these are few of the most successful sites online. Fact to be told, web visitors don’t need pretty interface. They need a usable website. Beside helping your visitors, good navigation system will help search engines to find and index your sites.
Or look from other point of view. Your website may be well optimized for search engine, but if your site is not visitor-friendly, the visitors will leave as soon as they come. Like the way this article says it: In other words, time and money was spent to “optimise” these sites in a way that brought them traffic, and then drove it away!
7) Use Tools
There are many tools to help you rank better in the search engines. By that, I mean tools that can help you to analyze your website so you can make changes accordingly. By all means, stay away from all automated tools that promise to help your ranking, e.g. automated search engine submission software or automated link-exchange software. Your website can get penalized by search engines due to the intrusive nature of many of these automated tools.
Here are few tools that you can use with peace of mind:
- Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/)Google Analytics is powerful site statistic service that tells you almost everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site.
Currently Google Analytics is offered by invitation only. I have an extra invitation that I’d like to give away. If you are interested, just leave your comments or trackbacks for this post. I’ll give the invitation to the most useful comments/trackbacks.
- Sitemap generatorA sitemap is a file/page where you can list down URL of all pages from your website. A correctly done sitemap can help search engine crawlers find and index your pages.
xml-sitemaps.com provides free service to generate sitemap in three different formats: xml, html, and text format. You can then upload these sitemaps to your site and follow the search engine submission procedure accordingly (see next items). Note that the free service from xml-sitemaps.com has a limitation of 500 pages per website.
You may also try http://www.sitemapspal.com/. It has higher limit, but can only create sitemap in xml format.
- Google Sitemaps (http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemap/)Google Sitemaps is an easy way to tell Google about all the pages on your site, which pages are most important to you, and when those pages change, for a smarter crawl and fresher search results.
After you have the sitemap ready, you can then submit to Google Sitemap. Google Sitemap takes in xml-formatted sitemap. Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemap/ follow the instruction there. If you already have a Google account (e.g. Gmail), you can use it straight away. Otherwise you’ll need to register an account.
But Google Sitemaps is much more than just for sitemap submission. It can also answers questions you might have about how Google sees your site. For example, you can learn about errors and statistics.
- Yahoo Site Explorer (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/)Site Explorer allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo Search. You can view the most popular pages from your sites or competitors’ sites, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page.
- Yahoo Feed Submit (http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request)Yahoo does not have the service equivalent to Google Sitemaps, but if you are looking for a place to submit your sitemap to Yahoo, you can do it at http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request. It takes in RSS, Atom, and text format. You can submit the urllist.txt created by xml-sitemaps.com above.
8) Be patient
Google imposes a period of time called sandbox, which cap your ranking from going top until a certain period of “probation” is passed. This range from few weeks to more than a year for competitive topics / niche. Many webmasters agree that Yahoo also has a certain kind of “sandbox”, although there is no specific name for it.
So, if your site is not yet ranked well, be patient. Remember that search engine optimization is not magic. Search engine companies closely guard their mechanism for fear that the information will be used to trick the search engine. All these SEO talks that we have are based on observation of many experienced webmasters. Nothing is fixed here. The search engines may change their algorithm - and thus, your ranking - anytime.
Refrain from overdoing anything, including techniques above or any other technique. Search engines’ main interest is to provide quality result for their audience, the web searchers. When you do too much, it raises suspicion that your content might be not worthy enough to build up naturally.
Know your limit and ability. If you are new on search engine optimization, don’t go for a very competitive keyword like gambling, lawyer, or the infamous mesopotamia.
Moderation, thus, is the key.
9) Stay away from black hat optimization techniques
Black hat search engine optimization techniques promise quick way to improve your site ranking and bring visitors to your site. These includes page cloaking, hidden text, link-farm, comment-spamming, and duplicate pages.
You may not understand all these terms, but if you anyone telling you they can improve your search ranking overnight, these are most likely black hat techniques.
They work by tricking search engines to think that your pages hold more value than what they really are. As the search engines competes to provide the most useful search result to the visitors, they shun these techniques.
Nowadays, major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN have advanced detection technology to sniff out these black hat techniques. When they fail, your competitors are all too happy to point it out to the search engines.
Search engines will then take action accordingly, like penalising your site ranking or even take them down altogether.
If you are interested to find out, read this blog: SEO Black Hat. Don’t be deceived by the name. It is a great site covering both white-hat and black-hat SEO techniques.
10) Keep on learning
These techniques are just the basic to get you started. There are many resources on the Internet to learn search engine optimization.
Here are some places to get you going:- Wikipedia- Google Webmaster Help Center- Yahoo! Webmaster Resources- Webmaster World- Digital Point Forums
Source: http://www.cheatad.com/2006/07/17/search_engine-optimization/
Many aspiring webmasters create new sites without even knowing HTML, let alone search engine techniques. They get AdSense account and paste on AdSense code, waiting with high hope for the quick money to pour in. But day by day, the earning is really just enough to cover the hosting fee, or even less than that. So, they start to get frustated. Most quit after some time. Some worse, they “fall into the dark side”, employing black hat techniques or hiring less-than-honorable search engine optimizer firms. The rest stay on, determined to learn, and improve. Soon, they found out something about called search engine optimisation. Here I will try to describe some basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques in a simple, easy-to-understand way.
Optimizing a website for search engine means you design a website so that search engines (like Google, Yahoo, MSN) can easily find the pages and include them in the search result. Thus, it will increase the number of visitors coming to your site. Objective of search engine optimization is to have your pages displayed highest possible in the search engine result for your choice of search phrases.
These are 10 basic search engine optimization methods I think every webmaster ought to know. See if the tools you use to create your webpages (Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc…) allow you to do these. If not, it is time to learn some basic HTML.
1) Page title
Title is important. Place important keywords on your page title, and try to have different one for each page. I’ve seen sites with same title for every pages. While it gives stronger branding for the site name, that’s something I can do without rather than sacrificing my sub-pages traffic.
Limit your page title to 80 characters the most. Shorter page title means higher importance on each word.
2) Keyword and description meta-tags
These two popular meta-tags used to be most useful search engine optimization techniques, until they are abused by the search engine spammers. Even then, they are still holding some importance today, specially the description meta-tags. Meta description tag is used by some search engine in displaying the result page, and by other search engines to determine the relevance of your page. Limit your page description to 200 characters the most. Put a descriptive, gramatically correct, meaningful sentence for best result.
Some proclaim that keyword tag is dead. Apparently not so. Yahoo webmaster guidelines lists using keyword tag as a way to help improving search engine ranking.
Use a “keyword” meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page.
Even then, if you have to make a choice between creating good keyword tag and developing useful content - our next point - go with the latter. Limit the keyword to 300 characters. Next to a good title, this is the next most important on-page optimization you can do to bring more visitors to your website. Most important thing you must remember here is this: you should write for your users first, search engine second. Write in natural, easy to understand language. The reason here is that if you write just for search engine, even if you can rank high up, the visitors will close your page as soon as they find out that your site contain just junks.
Besides, search engines now increasingly use some kind of artificial intelligence to analyze websites before indexing. You don’t want to caught off-handed using some useless texts.
First write some useful contents just as you would write offline magazine articles. Then, only after that, you can do some small tweaking to empasize certain parts, and make some changes to the word choices.
Generally, it is thought that keyword density plays some importance to seach engines. Keyword density refers to number of appearance of your keywords relative to overall page. No agreement on the optimum number though. Some believes the keywords should be around 3% compared to the overall page. Some believes the number should be higher, aroung 8-10%. Whatever it is, just try to include some of these keywords on your page, and make sure the page is still read well naturally. If it is not, take them out.
Then there are HTML tags you can use to emphasize importance of certain words. The most commons are bold, italics, and headers.
And, of course, you should use text instead of graphics or flash. Search engines can’t read what is written on your beautifully crafted picture. If you want them be indexed and found by search engines, use text.
If you must use some images, use your keywords on the file name, and always use the ALT tag.
Major search engines have developed some ability to read text in flash files, but to play it safe, avoid flash banners, buttons or page contents. Flash is great for embedded movies, not for any other use.
4) Regular content
SEO or not, this is important. Regularly updated content will draw visitors and search engine alike. But don’t put content just for the sake of it. Contents copied from other site, for instance, not only doesn’t help in search engine ranking, but can even get you penalized.
Write original, useful contents that make your visitors want to come back and recommend to their friends. You will get repeat visitors that way, regardless of search engine traffic. Good contents will also get link from other webmasters, and this will greatly help in your search engine ranking (read next point).
Blogs are very easy to set-up and is a good avenue to create new contents to your site. Major blogging software, like Wordpress, supports RSS by default. By using RSS reader software, your visitors can then choose to be to be notified about new contents on your site.
Creating contents regularly rather than pump in many articles at one go has many benefits. Firstly, your visitors know that everytime they go to your site, they will see new content instead of the same old ones. This will make them want to visit more often. Same thing to search engine crawlers. If everytime the crawler couldn’t find new content, it provides little incentive for them to come back regularly. Thus, your new pages will not get indexed as fast as you want it to be.
Additionally, if you pump in a lot of contents at once, the search engines may think that you are trying to spam. This can result in being penalized.
5) Link and get linked
Link popularity is a way most search engines determine the importance of your site. When a website link to your site, search engines takes it as a vote for your website. In the past few years, this has greatly helped search engines getting the most relevant result for users.
Recently, with a lot of sites using links to cheat into search engines ranking, major search engines, specially Google have increasingly use and develop new technologies to determine the importance of the links.
So, not all links are treated as equal. Links from big reputable sites, for example Microsoft or Reuters are definitely worth more than link from CheatAd.com.
Relevancy of the sites also plays a part. Relevant website will give more value to the linked site. Then there is age in play. Older sites are deemed to be more trustworthy than new sites. Consequently, links from older sites are treated as more valuable too.
Directory submission is the oldest way to build your link reputation. There are free Dmoz, free or paid Yahoo Directory, and thousands other directories. Just search for “directory submission” and you have enough work to do for a whole year. Just do directory submission moderately, probably around 20 directories per week, and you can watch your search engine traffic climbing up slowly. If you have a blog, you can submit it to blog directories as well. Just search for “blog submission”.
Exchanging link with another webmaster is another way. Termed as “link-exchange”, basically you link to the partner site. In exchange, the partner will put hyperlink in his/her site pointing to yours. As many abuse this technique, Google has degraded the value of link-exchange to virtually non-existant. You might even get penalized if your link partner is considered a “bad website” for Google.
While Google has diminished the value of reciprocal link, Yahoo and MSN are still holding on, though with less value. Even then, it still valuable enough to work on. Just be careful to have only reputable link partners.
To check whether the link partner is bad, just search for “site:www.domainname.com” in Google (replace domainname.com with the partner’s website) and see if the pages are indexed.
The most “in” link-building technique now is via article submission. You can write or buy an original article, and include a link to your website on the resource box (a small section after the article, where you introduce yourself and your website).
This is what I mean:
Article here…...About the authorFernando Hal is a contributing writer for CheatAd.com, a blog about click-fraud on pay-per-click advertisements. You can then submit this article to a myriad of article submission sites, e.g. GoArticles.com for other webmasters to put it on their website.
The wonder of article submission is that not only it helps search engine ranking, but also brings in interested visitors who like your articles. This is very targeted traffic, compared with directory submission or link-exchange.
Other link building methods are visiting relevant blogs and leave comments there, as well as joining forums/discussion boards and leaving hyperlink to your site on the signature.
If you intend to purchase link from other sites, consider getting links from many smaller sites rather than few major sites. The paid link might be considered as spam by Google.
On the other hand, don’t be stingy in linking to others. Be choosy on who you want to link, but don’t hold back if you find a good site that can be useful for your visitors.
6) Usability
Always remember, your most important audience is the visitors. Give them a good experience, and they will come back. Framed pages, for example, is irritating. It breaks navigation’s “Back” button, and is confusing. Pop-up windows, javascript hyperlink, and fixed text size are just a few design mistakes notoriously committed by many new web designers/ webmasters.
For a start, read Jacob Nielson’s articles on web usability and web design mistake.
Build the website for your visitors. Make easier navigation. Look at Google, MySpace, eBay, and Amazon. There is one striking similarity among them. All four of them have drop simple interface. Many will describe them as “ugly”. But these are few of the most successful sites online. Fact to be told, web visitors don’t need pretty interface. They need a usable website. Beside helping your visitors, good navigation system will help search engines to find and index your sites.
Or look from other point of view. Your website may be well optimized for search engine, but if your site is not visitor-friendly, the visitors will leave as soon as they come. Like the way this article says it: In other words, time and money was spent to “optimise” these sites in a way that brought them traffic, and then drove it away!
7) Use Tools
There are many tools to help you rank better in the search engines. By that, I mean tools that can help you to analyze your website so you can make changes accordingly. By all means, stay away from all automated tools that promise to help your ranking, e.g. automated search engine submission software or automated link-exchange software. Your website can get penalized by search engines due to the intrusive nature of many of these automated tools.
Here are few tools that you can use with peace of mind:
- Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/)Google Analytics is powerful site statistic service that tells you almost everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site.
Currently Google Analytics is offered by invitation only. I have an extra invitation that I’d like to give away. If you are interested, just leave your comments or trackbacks for this post. I’ll give the invitation to the most useful comments/trackbacks.
- Sitemap generatorA sitemap is a file/page where you can list down URL of all pages from your website. A correctly done sitemap can help search engine crawlers find and index your pages.
xml-sitemaps.com provides free service to generate sitemap in three different formats: xml, html, and text format. You can then upload these sitemaps to your site and follow the search engine submission procedure accordingly (see next items). Note that the free service from xml-sitemaps.com has a limitation of 500 pages per website.
You may also try http://www.sitemapspal.com/. It has higher limit, but can only create sitemap in xml format.
- Google Sitemaps (http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemap/)Google Sitemaps is an easy way to tell Google about all the pages on your site, which pages are most important to you, and when those pages change, for a smarter crawl and fresher search results.
After you have the sitemap ready, you can then submit to Google Sitemap. Google Sitemap takes in xml-formatted sitemap. Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemap/ follow the instruction there. If you already have a Google account (e.g. Gmail), you can use it straight away. Otherwise you’ll need to register an account.
But Google Sitemaps is much more than just for sitemap submission. It can also answers questions you might have about how Google sees your site. For example, you can learn about errors and statistics.
- Yahoo Site Explorer (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/)Site Explorer allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo Search. You can view the most popular pages from your sites or competitors’ sites, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page.
- Yahoo Feed Submit (http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request)Yahoo does not have the service equivalent to Google Sitemaps, but if you are looking for a place to submit your sitemap to Yahoo, you can do it at http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request. It takes in RSS, Atom, and text format. You can submit the urllist.txt created by xml-sitemaps.com above.
8) Be patient
Google imposes a period of time called sandbox, which cap your ranking from going top until a certain period of “probation” is passed. This range from few weeks to more than a year for competitive topics / niche. Many webmasters agree that Yahoo also has a certain kind of “sandbox”, although there is no specific name for it.
So, if your site is not yet ranked well, be patient. Remember that search engine optimization is not magic. Search engine companies closely guard their mechanism for fear that the information will be used to trick the search engine. All these SEO talks that we have are based on observation of many experienced webmasters. Nothing is fixed here. The search engines may change their algorithm - and thus, your ranking - anytime.
Refrain from overdoing anything, including techniques above or any other technique. Search engines’ main interest is to provide quality result for their audience, the web searchers. When you do too much, it raises suspicion that your content might be not worthy enough to build up naturally.
Know your limit and ability. If you are new on search engine optimization, don’t go for a very competitive keyword like gambling, lawyer, or the infamous mesopotamia.
Moderation, thus, is the key.
9) Stay away from black hat optimization techniques
Black hat search engine optimization techniques promise quick way to improve your site ranking and bring visitors to your site. These includes page cloaking, hidden text, link-farm, comment-spamming, and duplicate pages.
You may not understand all these terms, but if you anyone telling you they can improve your search ranking overnight, these are most likely black hat techniques.
They work by tricking search engines to think that your pages hold more value than what they really are. As the search engines competes to provide the most useful search result to the visitors, they shun these techniques.
Nowadays, major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN have advanced detection technology to sniff out these black hat techniques. When they fail, your competitors are all too happy to point it out to the search engines.
Search engines will then take action accordingly, like penalising your site ranking or even take them down altogether.
If you are interested to find out, read this blog: SEO Black Hat. Don’t be deceived by the name. It is a great site covering both white-hat and black-hat SEO techniques.
10) Keep on learning
These techniques are just the basic to get you started. There are many resources on the Internet to learn search engine optimization.
Here are some places to get you going:- Wikipedia- Google Webmaster Help Center- Yahoo! Webmaster Resources- Webmaster World- Digital Point Forums
Source: http://www.cheatad.com/2006/07/17/search_engine-optimization/
How to Cheat Google AdSense (and get your AdSense account disabled)
Face it. You come to this article probably thinking to find some ways to cheat Google, or to confirm whether some method you have on mind will work. Well, if you want to know how to cheat AdSense, here are the ways, focusing on the AdSense click-frauds. These covers from basic AdSense cheating techniques to the advanced class.
But before you proceed, you might need to know why you shouldn’t cheat Google (answer: you will get caught).
Basic clicker cheat
This is a noob. This guy knows almost nothing about web technology or network architecture. He clicks on his ads every time he has chance. It can be a few clicks to hundreds of clicks daily. Most likely he doesn’t even read the AdSense Program Policies and Terms and Conditions.
Proxy clicker cheat
She knows a thing or two about cookies and IP address. Or she doesn’t know, but somehow guessed that if she use the things called anonymizer, Google will not be able to trace her, because her identity is hidden. She may use anonymizer / proxy websites or specialized anonymous software like tor (The Onion Router).
Multiple computer clicker cheat
He knows that somehow Google will detect if the clicks are originated from his own computer. So he will try to even out origin of the clicks. He will recruit his friends, family members, relatives, neighbors, his cats, and his dogs on single mission: to click on the ads. He will also click on the AdSense ads when he is using the library computers, or his office workstation.
Software clicker cheat
Graduate to the next step is buyers of clickbots / click-bots. These are specialized robot software to click on AdSense ads. It will browse around your websites, clicking on the ads every few minutes. The more advanced ones will cloak the IP address too, so the website seems to be very popular worldwide. To cover the track, this clickbots will browse around the advertisers sites too while continuing its “click quest”.
Paid-clickers cheat
If you don’t like automated things, there is always other option for you. Just pay $50 dollars a month to the professional AdSense clickers. These are groups of highly specialized Internet surfers with office in the dark rooms in street corners of India, Pakistan, and China, helping AdSense account owner to earn good amounts of money � before the AdSense account is disabled, that is. They will browse around your websites, clicking on the ads every few minutes. Because they use human eyes, they know which ads worth more. And to be more convincing they can click a link or two, or sign up free offers / newsletters on the advertiser sites.
Click-rings cheat
Network is power. So says many business gurus. Instead of taking things to their own hand, this people realize that they can join hands with those with similar goals and distribute AdSense clicks among themselves, the so called AdSense click-rings. Joining this click-ring network means that your website address will be made known to members, who will regularly browse the website and click on your AdSense ads. In exchange, you will also browse other members’ sites and click on their AdSense ads. The medium used varies. Some click-ring groups use mail-list for communications. Some are using bulletin boards/forum, Yahoo groups, or Usenet. IRC is another popular way. Slightly more complicated is specialized AdSense exchange software for collecting members website address and displaying others’ websites for clicking.
Other medium cheat
I have tens of thousands email address on my newsletter subscriber list. If I include AdSense ads on my newsletters, with 5% CTR, I can get a thousand clicks per one email. Not bad. Or I can pay someone to write some useful/nice/funny/cute toolbars or firefox extensions or screensavers that people can download and use for free, and display my AdSense ads there.
Visitor cheat
Simply putting “Visit out sponsors” or “Check out the ads above” on your website is cheating. This might not be very clear-cut cheat to some. But Google AdSense program policies has stated clearly, the only text allowed are “Advertisements” or “Sponsored List”
Spam cheat
This is the highest level all click-frauds, the Maestro of Fraudsters. She spams millions of emails regularly, offering to “satisfy your inner needs if you can help me check on the links on my website”. Of course, email is not the only way. What IRC and instant messaging (IM) are for, after all. She will look for unsuspecting victims, offering something too-good-to-be-true “if only they will visit the website and click on the links”.
Click-through-rate cheat
Whichever method(s) above used, there is one limiting condition: the CTR(click-though-rate). Any CTR that exceeds certain percentage (probably around 10%) will raise red flag in Google AdSense back room. To lower the CTR, the professional cheaters will create some pages on the same domain that attracts very high traffic. Some interesting freebies will sure do the tricks. AdSense code is pasted there, thus creating a very high page impressions. Whether or not the the ads are clicked does not matter anyway, because they are targeting low paying keyword that does not have much competition. The fake clicks are, of course, on where the big money is, the low traffic pages stuffed with high-paying keywords.
Don’t Get Caught With Google Adsense Click Fraud
Click fraud is the act of clicking on ads for the purpose of costing the advertiser money. It is simply the same as paying out cash for false leads. Many bloggers, including myself are aware of this fraud and are sharing the same sentiment that this is the one big problem that Adsense is facing.
How do you prevent being involved in this fraud?
Majority of webhosts are offering access logs. Once this is offered to you, it is necessary that you hand it over to Google as well. This allows them to look for any suspicious activity on your site. Problems like this are very serious and giving it to them is saying that you would want to help them in any way you can in solving the problem.
It can also help if you have a click monitoring software. If you do not have one yet, you should try and get one. There is absolutely no major factor preventing you from having one because most of this software is free. As usual, all the information you have received should be turned over to Google. This is showing Google that you too are fighting against click frauds and is in no way a part of it. Study your server logs and watch for any activity that seems suspicious. Report anything that you may find odd, may it big or small thing.
You may want to consider disabling ads for your own IP address and local geographic area. This will certainly prevent accidents and will not make Google mistake another user as you. You can do through a htaccess file. This will avoid Google mistaking as clicking on your own ads and be kicked out because of it.
Keep your Adsense off on pop ups and pop unders. Your ads should not be displayed on content sites that promote illegal activity or tampering of the legal rights of other people or business. Included in this are the content that is considered adult and gambling ones. If you think that you may be breaking this rule, immediately remove your content or Adsense from the web page.
Be truthful and confess up to Google about times when you might have clicked on your own ads, whether accidentally or intentionally. Or the times when you have done something that is against the Terms of Service that they are implementing. Be honest about anything that you may have done that is wrong. Confessing is way better than Google learning about it eventually. It would mean eventual termination and no getting back what you have worked so hard for.
Do not tell your family or friends about Adsense on your website. Chances are they may start clicking on them to help you make money without you knowing it. They may be doing more harm to you than help by trying it in the first place.
If ever someone you know chanced upon your Adsense, make sure they understand that they cannot click on your ads under any circumstances. It would be wise to brief them on important things about Adsense and what not to do with them.
Most pay per click networks have different measures in hand to protect website owners against click frauds. Other search engines can track more than 50 data points, IP address, browser’s information, user’s session info and pattern recognition. They also have “systems” available that detects fraud. Not to mention the specialized teams monitoring how things are going and helping advertisers stop click frauds.
Google offers suggestion on how to avoid click fraud. Using “negative keywords” can be used to keep your Adsense showing on products and services that are in no way related to yours. Adding tracking URLs to your links so you can track the traffic coming from Google.
Do not be caught in the Google click fraud. Be aware and be wary.
Source: Adsense Tips
How do you prevent being involved in this fraud?
Majority of webhosts are offering access logs. Once this is offered to you, it is necessary that you hand it over to Google as well. This allows them to look for any suspicious activity on your site. Problems like this are very serious and giving it to them is saying that you would want to help them in any way you can in solving the problem.
It can also help if you have a click monitoring software. If you do not have one yet, you should try and get one. There is absolutely no major factor preventing you from having one because most of this software is free. As usual, all the information you have received should be turned over to Google. This is showing Google that you too are fighting against click frauds and is in no way a part of it. Study your server logs and watch for any activity that seems suspicious. Report anything that you may find odd, may it big or small thing.
You may want to consider disabling ads for your own IP address and local geographic area. This will certainly prevent accidents and will not make Google mistake another user as you. You can do through a htaccess file. This will avoid Google mistaking as clicking on your own ads and be kicked out because of it.
Keep your Adsense off on pop ups and pop unders. Your ads should not be displayed on content sites that promote illegal activity or tampering of the legal rights of other people or business. Included in this are the content that is considered adult and gambling ones. If you think that you may be breaking this rule, immediately remove your content or Adsense from the web page.
Be truthful and confess up to Google about times when you might have clicked on your own ads, whether accidentally or intentionally. Or the times when you have done something that is against the Terms of Service that they are implementing. Be honest about anything that you may have done that is wrong. Confessing is way better than Google learning about it eventually. It would mean eventual termination and no getting back what you have worked so hard for.
Do not tell your family or friends about Adsense on your website. Chances are they may start clicking on them to help you make money without you knowing it. They may be doing more harm to you than help by trying it in the first place.
If ever someone you know chanced upon your Adsense, make sure they understand that they cannot click on your ads under any circumstances. It would be wise to brief them on important things about Adsense and what not to do with them.
Most pay per click networks have different measures in hand to protect website owners against click frauds. Other search engines can track more than 50 data points, IP address, browser’s information, user’s session info and pattern recognition. They also have “systems” available that detects fraud. Not to mention the specialized teams monitoring how things are going and helping advertisers stop click frauds.
Google offers suggestion on how to avoid click fraud. Using “negative keywords” can be used to keep your Adsense showing on products and services that are in no way related to yours. Adding tracking URLs to your links so you can track the traffic coming from Google.
Do not be caught in the Google click fraud. Be aware and be wary.
Source: Adsense Tips
Friday, April 17, 2009
How To Get Your Google Adsense Account Banned
I was browsing the affiliate marketing forums last night and saw several new post about people who got their Google Adsense accounts banned. I see these types of post all the time and it leaves me scratching my head. It’s not difficult to follow the Google Adsense Terms Of Service.From what I’ve been able to tell, there are two types of people who get their Adsense accounts banned:
1. Those who deliberately push the limits. They know there’s a chance of getting their accounts banned and they’re not surprised when they get the notice.
2. Those who do not take the time to read the TOS and are crushed when they get their banned notice from Google Adsense Group #1 is understandable and most of them know the risk. There is no excuse for Group #2. It’s your responsibility as a Google Adsense Publisher to know the Google Adsense Terms Of Service (TOS).
Here’s a quick list of the ways you can get your Google Adsense account banned.
- Click on your own ads. Sure, accidents happen. But if you’re so “clumsy” that you click on your ads 20 times in 10 minutes, you probably need to be banned. If you do accidentally click on your ads, contact Google Adsense immediately and let them know what happened.
- Put Google Adsense on websites that have questionable or banned content such as Hacker, Warez, Porn, Drug and Gambling sites.
- Showing Adsense ads on Registration or “Thank You” pages.
- Sticking ad relevant images next to your Adsense blocks. For example, tricking people to click on your ads by putting pictures of cell phones next to an Adsense block showing cell phone ads.
- Registering multiple accounts. I’ll just say it’s possible to have multiple accounts legitimately. However, for most of us, one account is all they will let you have.
- Registering an account after you have been banned. See above.
- Taking part in a “Adsense Click Ring”. These are groups of people who click on other members ads. Google is smart enough to figure this out folks!
- Putting Google Adsense on Pop Ups that keep generating other pop ups when a user tries to close them. This gets a lot of Adsense Account holders. This increases your “impression rate” thus messing with your data that Google uses. The best thing to do is to not put them on pop ups anyway. Google also does not want their ads on Pop Unders.
- Asking other people to click on your ads. Google says not to do it, so don’t. Simple as that. I’ve seen video’s and other forms of advertisements where goons asked people to click on their ads. It’s my opinion these people need to be banned!
- Disclosing click through rates, earnings per click and impressions. Although I don’t agree with this one, Adsense TOS says not to do it, so I don’t. Their money, their rules.
- Using malicious automation software such as ‘bots’ to click on your ads. Again, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know this is bad. I don’t feel sorry for these types of people either.
- Putting Adsense on pages with no content. Some people will put up pages with nothing except ads on them.
- Hiring overseas workers to click on your ads. There are companies/individuals who do nothing but click on Adsense ads. Do you really think Google can’t figure this one out?
- Creating Made For Adsense Websites. Google is beginning to really crack down on websites that are made just for Adsense.
- Putting Adsense ads on Hate websites. Bad business, don’t do it.
- Keyword stuffing pages. Google considers this a No-No and may yank your account for it. I use to see this a lot with Mesothelioma pages. (FYI, Mesothelioma use to be one of the highest paying keywords on the Internet)
- Putting Adsense on websites that promote guns & ammo, beer or hard alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, copyrighted infringement content, knockoff clothing or goods and sites that distribute term papers or essays.
- Using excessive profanity. I’m not sure who decides what “excessive” is, but Google will ban your Adsense for it dammit!
There are more, but the ones listed above are the ones I see violated the most. Here’s a link to Googles policy terms. https://www.google.com/adsense/policies and here is their Terms and Conditions page https://www.google.com/adsense/static/en_US/Terms.html
Long story short, if you value your Google Adsense account, play by the rules!
I don’t agree with all of the rules above, but like I say, it’s Google’s money, you have to play by Google’s rules. All the more reason all website and blog owners should diversify their sites income generating streams. If you live by Google Adsense, you might find yourself dying by them.
Source: http://www.affiliatewatcher.com/how-to-get-your-google-adsense-account-banned/
Defining Blogs
Blog: a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links. Blogs are alternatively called Web Logs.
Blogs & The Worldwide Web
Both personal sites and lists of links have existed since the web was born. Indeed, the ability to link one document to the other that existed on the global network drew early enthusiasts to the Web. They published pages and eagerly perused the pages published by others. That was the time when the accessibility to the pages from any computer with a modem and a browser was more important than the content of that page. For a while, webpages became an interesting addition to the cyberspace. Then the space got crowded. As a result the web grew at an exponential rate and search for the required information became difficult and simultaneously more time consuming.
Until, a few of these enthusiasts decided to put the links they collected daily onto a single webpage. These people placed their stuff – descriptive text and link/s, for example: their travel records, on the web. The text enabled the reader to know why they should click the link and wait for the page to download. And so a particular type of website was born.
The New York Times article about a website named ‘LemonYellow’, published in July 1999, didn’t say a word about weblogs, but affirmed the notion that webloggers were onto something. Most of the early weblog editors designed or maintained websites for a living. Few of these editors just knew HTML - the simple coding language used to create webpages.
With Weblogs becoming popular, the personal websites became extensions of their day-to-day lives. Webloggers started rolling personal journals — ongoing links-laden riffs on a favorite subject. Soon they linked to general interest articles to online games, and often to Web-related news.
Blogs & The Worldwide Web
Both personal sites and lists of links have existed since the web was born. Indeed, the ability to link one document to the other that existed on the global network drew early enthusiasts to the Web. They published pages and eagerly perused the pages published by others. That was the time when the accessibility to the pages from any computer with a modem and a browser was more important than the content of that page. For a while, webpages became an interesting addition to the cyberspace. Then the space got crowded. As a result the web grew at an exponential rate and search for the required information became difficult and simultaneously more time consuming.
Until, a few of these enthusiasts decided to put the links they collected daily onto a single webpage. These people placed their stuff – descriptive text and link/s, for example: their travel records, on the web. The text enabled the reader to know why they should click the link and wait for the page to download. And so a particular type of website was born.
The New York Times article about a website named ‘LemonYellow’, published in July 1999, didn’t say a word about weblogs, but affirmed the notion that webloggers were onto something. Most of the early weblog editors designed or maintained websites for a living. Few of these editors just knew HTML - the simple coding language used to create webpages.
With Weblogs becoming popular, the personal websites became extensions of their day-to-day lives. Webloggers started rolling personal journals — ongoing links-laden riffs on a favorite subject. Soon they linked to general interest articles to online games, and often to Web-related news.
Blogs and Journalism
The world has seen the emergence of a new style of journalism, based on a 'raw feed' directly from the source. And the common notion that surrounds the emergence of serving ‘raw feed’ is that the journalists testing the new waters are bound to wreak havoc on institutionalized media. Also a popular notion is that Weblogs changes the nature of 'news' is in the migration of information from the personal to the public.
Unquestionable, a blog is a medium that gives maximum exposure to one’s creativity. Just by hitting the 'post' button and any personal writing becomes published writing.
Weblogging is driving a powerful new form of amateur journalism. Today, millions of Net users — young people especially — have taken up the role of columnist, reporter, analyst and publisher while fashioning their own personal broadcasting networks. For the inexperienced, a blog consists of a running commentary with pointers to other sites. Some, like Librarian.net, Jim Romenesko's Media News or Steve Outing's E-Media Tidbits, cover entire industries by providing quick bursts of news with links to full stories.
Journalism and blogging together is becoming popular day by day, more than any other form of blogging. Following reasons are considered to extensively contribute to its increasing popularity:
Creative Freedom
Part of a blog's allure is its unmediated quality. For a journalist, there's no luxury like the luxury of publishing unedited essay. The freedom in being able to present yourself precisely as you want to is of enormous joy. It does not matter how sloppily, irrationally or erratically the content is written. The idea is to publish what you think in the way you think.
Instantaneity
To a few writers, even writing for a weekly magazine may seem like taking ages to print. With a Weblog, you hit the send key and it is out.
Interactivity
It is a kick to receive feedback from people who have taken interest to read and criticize your work. These are the people you have never heard of; who stumble on your Weblog and become a part of your thinking process.
Lack Of Marketing Constraints
When blogging it is not necessarily to tailor a work piece for a certain readership or demographic. People interested in a perspective finds its author – the blogger, instead of the blogger finding a publication that reflects people’s interests.
Most of the time, the Weblogs tend to be less about actual reporting and more about analysis and punditry and opinionated commentary. The 9/11 terrorist attacks fuelled the public's appetite for information, analysis and news, if only to make sense of the tragedy. Bloggers rose to prominence by feeding this desire.
Blogging has taken off in remarkable fashion; in a way, it has made good where newsgroups have failed. It has kept the promise that the Internet would provide real community to Web surfers. Tuning in to some of the newsgroups devoted to the terror attacks; one may sometimes feel to be in the middle of a verbal war zone with so much noise passing for informed discussion.
Weblogs run from single person operation to large teams and communities, to business organizations spread throughout the world. They offer a great way for readers to find constantly updated news and information. It also allows authors to connect to thousands of readers in a personal way and add the honest, unedited voice of thousands to increasingly commercializing Web.
The plethora of tools that helps managing the weblog capitalizes on the ease of publishing posts to even greater extent.
These are probably the reasons why they have been widely adopted and maintained - for several years in some cases.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
Unquestionable, a blog is a medium that gives maximum exposure to one’s creativity. Just by hitting the 'post' button and any personal writing becomes published writing.
Weblogging is driving a powerful new form of amateur journalism. Today, millions of Net users — young people especially — have taken up the role of columnist, reporter, analyst and publisher while fashioning their own personal broadcasting networks. For the inexperienced, a blog consists of a running commentary with pointers to other sites. Some, like Librarian.net, Jim Romenesko's Media News or Steve Outing's E-Media Tidbits, cover entire industries by providing quick bursts of news with links to full stories.
Journalism and blogging together is becoming popular day by day, more than any other form of blogging. Following reasons are considered to extensively contribute to its increasing popularity:
Creative Freedom
Part of a blog's allure is its unmediated quality. For a journalist, there's no luxury like the luxury of publishing unedited essay. The freedom in being able to present yourself precisely as you want to is of enormous joy. It does not matter how sloppily, irrationally or erratically the content is written. The idea is to publish what you think in the way you think.
Instantaneity
To a few writers, even writing for a weekly magazine may seem like taking ages to print. With a Weblog, you hit the send key and it is out.
Interactivity
It is a kick to receive feedback from people who have taken interest to read and criticize your work. These are the people you have never heard of; who stumble on your Weblog and become a part of your thinking process.
Lack Of Marketing Constraints
When blogging it is not necessarily to tailor a work piece for a certain readership or demographic. People interested in a perspective finds its author – the blogger, instead of the blogger finding a publication that reflects people’s interests.
Most of the time, the Weblogs tend to be less about actual reporting and more about analysis and punditry and opinionated commentary. The 9/11 terrorist attacks fuelled the public's appetite for information, analysis and news, if only to make sense of the tragedy. Bloggers rose to prominence by feeding this desire.
Blogging has taken off in remarkable fashion; in a way, it has made good where newsgroups have failed. It has kept the promise that the Internet would provide real community to Web surfers. Tuning in to some of the newsgroups devoted to the terror attacks; one may sometimes feel to be in the middle of a verbal war zone with so much noise passing for informed discussion.
Weblogs run from single person operation to large teams and communities, to business organizations spread throughout the world. They offer a great way for readers to find constantly updated news and information. It also allows authors to connect to thousands of readers in a personal way and add the honest, unedited voice of thousands to increasingly commercializing Web.
The plethora of tools that helps managing the weblog capitalizes on the ease of publishing posts to even greater extent.
These are probably the reasons why they have been widely adopted and maintained - for several years in some cases.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
How do you become a great Blogger? Follow the Standard Rules
Blogs release the voice of the readership by allowing experts in their field to correct others, and be corrected themselves. With so many participants, being dissimilar becomes difficult and it becomes more difficult with a certain set of similar rules.
Time Is Your Ace
Bloggers should take care of the freshness of the content. Publishing the content on time is the mantra. Bloggers may post a link to the original news source and can convey the news hours before established outlets can commit resources to their own rehash and news top.
Share The Credit
While traditional media avoid reporting anything "not invented”, bloggers should reveal the web's vast resources through compulsive linking. Giving credit to the real authors should do this linking to web resources.
Roll On The Blogs
Bloggers should weave new broadcast networks. In other words, bloggers should regularly commend and link to other blogger's posts.
Chronology
To make room for fresh arriving news most of the traditional publishers dump their old product into search enabled database warehouses. But a blog should be like a diary-like stack of events. Its chronological news presentation should fit with innate human story-telling or information-processing habits.
Site Construction
Do not over-engineer and brand-bloat the site. Avoid heavy-handed attempts at graphic branding that may generate more clutter and confusion with poorly placed content. Highlight the urgency and directness of the content. Make it more funny and insight-filled blog.
Reliability
Defeat the notion that Blogs are unreliable. Writing only about the truth can do this. Be accurate. Be consistent. Sometimes, blogs distill a reality too fragmented for a person to comprehend, so avoid breaking links and avoid directing people to sites where they would not like to go.
Communication
Most human verbal communication is not rocket science; it's sloppy, looping, incoherent, and prolix. Blogs compare rather well to an older and more widely used communications tool, talking. Advertising in a blog will enable an advertiser to communicate with a critical mass of thinkers.
Adhering to Privacy Statement
People who report the news should be aware of the consequences of abuse that is inherent in the system. Handling privacy is not an easy task. A blogger’s ethical standards are designed to delineate the journalist's responsibilities and provide a clear code of conduct that ensures the integrity of the news. The only exception to this rule is when inadvertently personal information about someone else is revealed. It is only fair to remove the offending entry altogether, when you discover that you have violated a confidence or made an acquaintance uncomfortable by mentioning his or her name in your write-up. Also important is that you remember that you have made a mistake and try never to repeat that again.
A Touch Of Human Interest
Blogs should provide details from the writer's life: missed flights, break-ups, and rodents under the stove, computer meltdowns, muggings, and tamale recipes. These are the examples of what visitors actually want to read.
Discover The Passion Within
Blogs are mostly written in the first person and can convey a blast of the emotions. This emotional richness may consist of irony, elation, bitterness, tears, laughter, profanity, boredom and compulsiveness. Blogs should be written as human expressions rather than corporate excretions.
Devotion
It should be remembered that readers would reciprocate to all honest efforts. They are equally devoted. If bloggers get to write about what they care about at whatever length and in whatever detail – they will write with far more commitment than the average corporate scribe.
Conclusion
A widely dispersed audience depends on weblogs for filtered and disseminated information as it plays an important role positioned outside the mainstream of mass media.
Professional bloggers are experts in evaluating the nature of information sources; it is not reasonable to assume that all readers can do the same. Readers depend on the bloggers to provide them with their knowledge share. Weblogs point to, comment on, and spread information according to their own idiosyncratic perspective. Readers accept all information provided to them via blogs – all information – including articles from a source that is a little wacky or has a strong agenda etc, but not an unethical nature of source.
If it is felt that a well-written article can stand on its own only with ethically clear and relevant sources. Readers may cease to trust a blog where disguised or unclear source of an article is discovered. Making the sources clear or providing the readers all the facts is important because it enables the reader to avoid evaluating the facts differently. So, weblog’s ethical standards are designed in way that delineates the responsibilities of weblog professionals and provide a clear code of conduct to ensure the integrity of the news.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
Time Is Your Ace
Bloggers should take care of the freshness of the content. Publishing the content on time is the mantra. Bloggers may post a link to the original news source and can convey the news hours before established outlets can commit resources to their own rehash and news top.
Share The Credit
While traditional media avoid reporting anything "not invented”, bloggers should reveal the web's vast resources through compulsive linking. Giving credit to the real authors should do this linking to web resources.
Roll On The Blogs
Bloggers should weave new broadcast networks. In other words, bloggers should regularly commend and link to other blogger's posts.
Chronology
To make room for fresh arriving news most of the traditional publishers dump their old product into search enabled database warehouses. But a blog should be like a diary-like stack of events. Its chronological news presentation should fit with innate human story-telling or information-processing habits.
Site Construction
Do not over-engineer and brand-bloat the site. Avoid heavy-handed attempts at graphic branding that may generate more clutter and confusion with poorly placed content. Highlight the urgency and directness of the content. Make it more funny and insight-filled blog.
Reliability
Defeat the notion that Blogs are unreliable. Writing only about the truth can do this. Be accurate. Be consistent. Sometimes, blogs distill a reality too fragmented for a person to comprehend, so avoid breaking links and avoid directing people to sites where they would not like to go.
Communication
Most human verbal communication is not rocket science; it's sloppy, looping, incoherent, and prolix. Blogs compare rather well to an older and more widely used communications tool, talking. Advertising in a blog will enable an advertiser to communicate with a critical mass of thinkers.
Adhering to Privacy Statement
People who report the news should be aware of the consequences of abuse that is inherent in the system. Handling privacy is not an easy task. A blogger’s ethical standards are designed to delineate the journalist's responsibilities and provide a clear code of conduct that ensures the integrity of the news. The only exception to this rule is when inadvertently personal information about someone else is revealed. It is only fair to remove the offending entry altogether, when you discover that you have violated a confidence or made an acquaintance uncomfortable by mentioning his or her name in your write-up. Also important is that you remember that you have made a mistake and try never to repeat that again.
A Touch Of Human Interest
Blogs should provide details from the writer's life: missed flights, break-ups, and rodents under the stove, computer meltdowns, muggings, and tamale recipes. These are the examples of what visitors actually want to read.
Discover The Passion Within
Blogs are mostly written in the first person and can convey a blast of the emotions. This emotional richness may consist of irony, elation, bitterness, tears, laughter, profanity, boredom and compulsiveness. Blogs should be written as human expressions rather than corporate excretions.
Devotion
It should be remembered that readers would reciprocate to all honest efforts. They are equally devoted. If bloggers get to write about what they care about at whatever length and in whatever detail – they will write with far more commitment than the average corporate scribe.
Conclusion
A widely dispersed audience depends on weblogs for filtered and disseminated information as it plays an important role positioned outside the mainstream of mass media.
Professional bloggers are experts in evaluating the nature of information sources; it is not reasonable to assume that all readers can do the same. Readers depend on the bloggers to provide them with their knowledge share. Weblogs point to, comment on, and spread information according to their own idiosyncratic perspective. Readers accept all information provided to them via blogs – all information – including articles from a source that is a little wacky or has a strong agenda etc, but not an unethical nature of source.
If it is felt that a well-written article can stand on its own only with ethically clear and relevant sources. Readers may cease to trust a blog where disguised or unclear source of an article is discovered. Making the sources clear or providing the readers all the facts is important because it enables the reader to avoid evaluating the facts differently. So, weblog’s ethical standards are designed in way that delineates the responsibilities of weblog professionals and provide a clear code of conduct to ensure the integrity of the news.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
Blog Reputation Counts
The reputation that a blog carries is a vital determinant of its popularity in the market. If a blogger understands the web culture in a manner in which it should be understood, then success might be just about the corner.
It is the "web culture" that is considered to be both cause and effect of a "post-intellectual" society characterized by "rootlessness, mobility, a sense of impermanence, and a loss of orientation. But this isn’t a license to publish any unwanted information. A blogger should always remember that the kind of information they publish in a blog is the kind of audience they invite.
The quality and content of a blog post varies wildly, as does their readership. Some are published by experienced writers, others by people who are often as entertaining, informative, and accurate as the experienced writers. But whatever goes on board attract criticisms. So, it is important to check the authenticity of the information that is to be published. Reliability, authenticity and value-adding information are the determinants of a blog’s reputation. You should check the facts and the links. If you find any thing that needs to be changed, correct that before anybody else picks it up.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
It is the "web culture" that is considered to be both cause and effect of a "post-intellectual" society characterized by "rootlessness, mobility, a sense of impermanence, and a loss of orientation. But this isn’t a license to publish any unwanted information. A blogger should always remember that the kind of information they publish in a blog is the kind of audience they invite.
The quality and content of a blog post varies wildly, as does their readership. Some are published by experienced writers, others by people who are often as entertaining, informative, and accurate as the experienced writers. But whatever goes on board attract criticisms. So, it is important to check the authenticity of the information that is to be published. Reliability, authenticity and value-adding information are the determinants of a blog’s reputation. You should check the facts and the links. If you find any thing that needs to be changed, correct that before anybody else picks it up.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
Blogs: Clarity Is The Key
As blogs are a great tool for brainstorming and sharing knowledge, they should be written and thought upon clearly.
Whatever writers write for blogs should make sense. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, rhythm, syntax, and structure do not matter as much as the focus does. It is the clear focus on a particular topic of discussion and the concise nature of the post with which they could move the reader.
Due to these characteristics, news organizations may someday be willing to point to weblogs or weblog entries as serious sources, but only if weblogs have, as a whole, demonstrated integrity in their information gathering and dissemination, and consistency in their online conduct.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
Whatever writers write for blogs should make sense. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, rhythm, syntax, and structure do not matter as much as the focus does. It is the clear focus on a particular topic of discussion and the concise nature of the post with which they could move the reader.
Due to these characteristics, news organizations may someday be willing to point to weblogs or weblog entries as serious sources, but only if weblogs have, as a whole, demonstrated integrity in their information gathering and dissemination, and consistency in their online conduct.
Source: SolveYourProblem.com
Uploading a Video with Blogger
Want to know how to upload a video to your Blogger account? Here's a video showing you how to upload your own videos, or link a video through youtube.com
How to create a blog with Blogger
Want to start your own blog? Not sure where to start? Here's a helpful video showing how to sign up with blogger.com (also known as blogspot.com)
Thursday, April 16, 2009
What Facebook is for
Weird but funny video talking about facebook. It got a lot of bad publicity, especially with Muslims and how it referes to Muhammed. The picture at 1:21 shows the writing "Muhammed is thinking of starting a new religion". Not sure if that was random, but it offended a lot of people.
Ten ways to get rich blogging
1 Write about getting rich blogging. There are dozens of successful blogs about blogging. Sites such as ProBlogger and Make Money Online are full of get-rich-quick schemes and elaborate tips for ad placement and site tweaks.2 Get a book deal. Better still, a film deal. Numerous writers have gone from idea to blog to book deal without attracting any readers at all. Recently video blogger Ze Frank secured a Hollywood agent, abandoned his daily web TV show and moved to LA to pursue a film deal.
3 Get a job. If you’re looking for a great job, the first page of Google search results for your name are at least as important as your CV. Your blog won’t earn you any money directly, but it might get you a nice job. Mine certainly did.
4 Find a real niche. There was a time, not that long ago, when a chap could say “I like my Tivo. I’ll start a Tivo blog, and get all the Tivo advertising.” That chap (Matt Haughey) has already got rich, so you can’t. Blog niches are getting smaller every day. Want to start a blog about squid? Don’t bother, there are three already.
5 Get sued. A graph of Perez Hilton’s traffic would show a spike in November 2006. That’s when he was sued by a paparazzi agency for stealing its photos and scrawling “Mess” across them. The agency asked for $7.5 million. He got lots of new readers.
6 Get sacked. In 2002, Heather B. Armstrong was sacked for blogging about the debauched antics of the LA design company where she worked. In 2007, her site, Dooce, is still the only blog in the top 100 aimed specifically at women.
7 Keep your costs down. Even though he’s probably the most famous blogger in the world, with an alleged six-figure income, Perez Hilton’s office is a corner table at the Coffee Bean café on Sunset Boulevard. He’s there every day, from opening time to closing time, buying the occasional latte and tapping away at his laptop.
8 Break a big story. Old-fashioned scoops work for all blogs, whether it’s the Drudge Report telling the world about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky or giant squid caught on camera for Squidblog. Breaking stories bring links from other blogs, and with them traffic. A big story can see a small blog leap from 2,000 to 100,000 readers in a day.
9 Get bought out. In October 2005, Jason Calcanis sold his roster of blogs to AOL for about $25 million. His arch rival Nick Denton, a former FT journalist, has a hugely successful stable of blogs that is literally priceless, because Denton says it’s not for sale.
10 Write lots of lists. It’s a common cliché that people don’t like to read many words online. It’s also not true. Lots of people read tens of thousands of words a day online, but it’s all broken up into tiny chunks – e-mails, headlines, odd sentences from news stories. Lists work in the same way.
Source: Tom Whitwell, from The Times
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Automotive History: Bentley Motors
Prestige and elegance are the hallmarks of the superb Bentley car models with their stunning interiors and striking body that oozes class and luxury. The Bentley is a car for the enthusiast with a taste for the extravagant lifestyle and the money to go along with it. The young Walter Owen Bentley could never have foreseen in his early life, the impact his creation would have in the world of prestige cars.The classy Bentley is the status symbol for those who want to travel in luxury and make a display of their affluent lifestyle, but was not recognized as such in the early days. When W.O. Bentley first established the company, it was geared toward racing cars as was his passion. In time, Bentley and some associates entered into the quality market with the production of a sporting touring car and after financial difficulties leading to the company being bought out by Rolls Royce, Bentley cars developed the reputation for prestige and style. W.O. Bentley was not a poor man made good, but was attached to a Victorian family who were reasonably wealthy, able to hire servants to serve them in their mansion-like home. Though from a privileged background, the 16 year-old Bentley was a hard and willing worker, learning his trade in engineering by working long hours, six days a week.
It was in 1919 that the Bentley company became a serious concern in the prestige car arena, producing cars that are prized collectors items to this day. Unfortunately, financial problems resulted in the company going into liquidation and was subsequently bought by Rolls Royce, who no doubt saw Bentley as their major competitor. Now that Rolls Royce were at the helm, Bentley became less of a force than it had been with some suggesting that Bentley cars were simply no more than Rolls Royce with a different mascot. That proved to be the case until the Bentley name was revamped with the introduction of the Mulsanne Turbo sedan in the 1980s. This resulted in a resurgence, with Bentley sales up and BMW now providing engines for new models. Volkswagen also entered the picture with the result that they gained control of Bentley, its Crewe factory and assets. The work of the original W O Bentley has resulted in a name that is synonymous with elegance and prestige, a car that is proudly owned by those who appreciate the luxury and superiority of a classic car.
Lamborghini Reventon Modeled After F-22 Fighter Jet
The new Lamborghini Reventon is latest Supercar for the super rich. With a price tag around 1.4 million dollars this car is for an exclusive group of high performance car fans. If the price tag wasn't enough Lamborghini is only releasing 20 of the cars, which have all been sold. It is possible that a they will release a few more but you better have been on the waiting list a year ago. It had been reported the Reventon Supercar has been modeled after the F-22 fight jet and taking a close look at the design it's hard to disagree. If a car ever looked like a fighter jet this is it. The name Reventón comes from that of the famous fighting bull that took the life famed bullfighter Felix Guzman in 1943. Source: http://www.lamborghinireventon.net/
[ Reventon Tech Specs ]
Specifications Engine
Type: V12
Displacement cu in (cc): 396 (6496)
Power bhp (kW) at RPM: 650(478) / 8000
Torque lb-ft (Nm) at RPM: 487(660) / 6000
Brakes & Tires
Brakes F/R: ABS, vented disc/vented disc
Tires F-R: 245/35 ZR18 - 335/30 ZR18
Driveline: All Wheel Drive
Exterior Dimensions & Weight
Length × Width × Height in: 185 × 81 × 44.7
Weight lb (kg): 3671 (1665)
Lamborghini Reventon Performance
Acceleration 0-60 mph: 3.3
Top Speed mph (km/h): 211 (340)
Fuel Economy EPA city/highway mpg (l/100 km): n.a. (21.3)
Illustrations from the Old Days
Here are a variety of illustrations from my high school days. I'd like to think I'm able to draw in all kinds of styles, or a few different ones anyway. Sometimes, depending on the nature of the drawing, you need to use soft edges, and sometimes, dark and thick outlines to make your drawing scream louder. You can draw a rose to look soft and realistic on one occasion, and draw another with thick outlines, sharp edges, in a much more abstract form.Babyblue Studios Header
Here's a header from April 2007 I made for my website http://www.babybluestudios.com/. I was bored and thought of the idea of blending and chopping a bunch of my designs/illustrations/photos together to create a collage of sorts. I had a lot of fun rearranging the layout. Every other arrangement looked completely different from the one before. It's amazing how different one variation can look from another. And when do you finally say - "Yup, that's the one I like"...I guess I liked "this" arrangement best. There is a new collage featured on my website now, and it uses a lot more white space. This one was just a lot more fun I think.
Top 10 Best Shoe Design: Air Jordan 12
The Air Jordan XXII was released in 1996-97 and was the first air jordan shoe in the Jordan Brand line. In this season, Jordan lost the MVP season title by the narrowest margin in NBA history to Karl Malone as he helped lead his Jazz to the NBA Finals only to fall to Jordan and the Bulls. Jordan wore the Air Jordan 12's while he took home his fifth NBA title and fifth NBA Finals MVP. This is by far, my favourite Air Jordan shoe, and picked by myself to be one of the best shoe designs of all time.
Before Distributing Presentations to Others
If you're making a Powerpoint presentation that you intend to distribute to lots of different people, here are some important things to remember:
1. Stick with the fonts that come installed with Windows. When in doubt, go with Times or Arial. Fancy fonts that appear on your machine will cause problems if everyone else doesn't have them. If you're using a fancy font, make sure to embed the font.
2. Avoid embedding sounds and videos: these will not go from Mac to Windows gracefully, and you have to be very careful about how you insert the files in order to get them to "travel" properly.
3. Try looking at the presentation on a different computer; be prepared for some visual changes in your file - the version or platform may not support some of the features you've put in, so be sure to check your file on several different machines and versions BEFORE you distribute it!
1. Stick with the fonts that come installed with Windows. When in doubt, go with Times or Arial. Fancy fonts that appear on your machine will cause problems if everyone else doesn't have them. If you're using a fancy font, make sure to embed the font.
2. Avoid embedding sounds and videos: these will not go from Mac to Windows gracefully, and you have to be very careful about how you insert the files in order to get them to "travel" properly.
3. Try looking at the presentation on a different computer; be prepared for some visual changes in your file - the version or platform may not support some of the features you've put in, so be sure to check your file on several different machines and versions BEFORE you distribute it!
Making Powerpoint Presentation Files Smaller
Prior to Powerpoint 97, there was no internal file compression code inside of Powerpoint, and files could get pretty big quickly. The most common cause of large files is the addition of large bitmaps. Powerpoint 97 compresses these bitmaps, but previous versions do not. To keep your presentations as small as you can, try reducing the resolution of your bitmaps, which will bring their size down tremendously. For viewing on screen, the bitmaps don't need to be more than 72 dpi; they won't print nicely until they're up around 150 or higher, but the screen always displays at 72 dpi, so if the primary viewing medium is the screen, there's no point in having the bitmaps be a higher resolution. Also, the bitmap format can make a big difference to your file sizes. JPEG and PNG both have good internal compression code. GIF has some, but not as good as JPEG. BMP files are the largest; TIFF files will also be very large. Sometimes, as you're working on a presentation, you'll notice that the file seems to get bigger for no reason. To get rid of this "bloating", save the file using "File/Save As" and give the file a new name. This can reduce the file size.
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