Contributor: ebonk

Are Made for AdSense Sites Ruining Search Results?
By Adam McFarland of iPrioritize.com

It’s happened to you. You’ve searched for something on Google and several promising results appear. You click on a link, but when you get to the site all you see are a few ads and nothing even remotely close to what you searched for. So you go back to the search results and try again, only it happens again and again until you finally find a page with some decent content…or frustration sets in and you give up all together.

Why does this happen? How come in this day and age Google can’t give you the results you’re looking for? A large part of the answer is the growing number of made for AdSense (MFA) sites on the web today. MFA sites are designed for the sole purpose of getting you to click on a Google AdSense advertisement.

Define Made for AdSense

A site is made for AdSense if its sole purpose is to get users to click on AdSense ads. Its owners don’t intend that users will learn from its content or participate in a community. All that they want is for them to click on an ad.

A site is NOT made for AdSense if its primary purpose is to provide unique content and the site owner decides to keep their content free by displaying advertisements, AdSense or other. This has been going on for years - television, newspapers, and magazines all generate revenue with advertisements. The difference is that the advertisements supplement the content of the show or article. The same applies for the web. If you have a news site or a forum, placing ads on your site does not make it a made for AdSense site.

Why Do People Make MFA Sites?

The thing with MFA sites is that they work. The overwhelming majority of the population has no clue what Google AdSense is and doesn’t understand that Google and the site owner make money when they click on an ad. By placing these ads in locations that people tend to focus on (Google gives you examples of locations that result in the highest click-through), it’s inevitable that a certain percentage of visitors will click on the ads - either intentionally or unintentionally.

Site owners make anywhere from five cents to several dollars per click (revenue is split between them and Google) depending on the industry. Big deal right? If you convert 5% of users into clicks and you make 10 cents a click, you’re only making 50 cents for every hundred visitors to your site. Well if you make a thousand MFA sites and each gets two hundred visitors a day, you are making a cool $1,000/day.

Smart MFA site owners design sites with keywords that advertisers pay more than the standard 20 cents or 30 cents. They design sites with “content” about lawyers and car companies that purchase AdWords advertisements that cost several dollars a click. Re-do that calculation with five dollars a click instead of 10 cents and your jaw will drop.

How do they get their traffic? In addition to using conventional white hat SEO methods (like unique content and link building), many of these sites shamelessly also take advantage of keyword stuffing and cloaking - tactics that are considered unethical and are against Google’s terms of service. Many also get their clicks in unethical ways - either by clicking on ads themselves or by employing bots to automatically click. This is called click fraud and is also against Google’s terms of service.

Who Gets Hurt?

Some would argue that no one is getting hurt by “tricking” people into clicking. Hey they’re not getting charged anything. No, but some advertiser is. Some business that’s pouring their hard earned money into Google AdWords to attract targeted visitors to their site. Instead they end up paying for accidental clicks.

You (the searcher) also get hurt by getting less than optimal results. Imagine an internet where these sites didn’t exist. You might actually have a chance at finding what you’re looking for on the first try. That would save you some time that I’m sure you’d be glad to have.

Should Google Do Something About It?

Everyone’s first thought is “Google could stop it if they tried.” In reality, probably not. Regardless of the talent they recruit, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people trying to figure out a work around. As Seth Jayson recently said in his article about the same topic entitled “How Google is Killing the Internet” “I think when you pit a few hundred Google Smarty Pantses — who are getting fat on stock options and gourmet meals at the Big Goo campus — against many thousand enterprising schemers on the Internet, the battle will go to those hungry schemers every time.”

Google does have a system in place to reduce click fraud and are always improving their algorithm to rid their results of sites that practice cloaking, keyword stuffing, and other black hat SEO techniques. Unfortunately, it’s probably not enough.

The larger (and much scarier) question is whether or not Google wants to do something about it. For the time being, they stand to make a ton of money off of MFA sites. Until Google starts to see a negative impact from MFA sites there’s really no reason for them to rush to do anything about it. Say Yahoo! all of a sudden came up with a way to identify and block MFA sites and provided better search results because of it, Google may be threatened by the potential (or actual) loss of search percentage. But until that happens I wouldn’t expect Google to do much more than they are right now.

What Can You Do?

There’s no doubt that MFA sites have clogged up the web with thousands of worthless pages. The best way to reduce the number of made for AdSense sites is probably to do something about it yourself. If you advertise on Google AdWords, don’t allow Google to display your ads on their content network (AdSense sites). As an internet user, you can educate others about MFA sites and encourage them not to click on ads. It may not seem like much, but all of those clicks add up - just ask someone who owns a made for AdSense site.

About The Author

Adam McFarland owns iPrioritize - the efficient way to get organized. iPrioritize is the next evolution of list making. We take your pen and paper list and turn it into a live list that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. We make it easy for you to email and print your list, subscribe to your list via RSS, share your list with others, and check your list on your mobile phone.

Technorati Tags: search engine optimisation, webmaster, google adsense, google adwords

powered by performancing firefox

Contributor: ebonk

Checking Out with Google’s New “Checkout” Service
By Merle MCPromotionsPress

After months of “buzz” online about Google’s proposed “PayPal Killer,” they’ve finally launched their new service, “Google Checkout.” After all the hype that was floating around, you’d have thought this new creation would be the death of Paypal, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Online payment options are important, so it’s always nice to have another way to accept payments from your web site. But Google’s new service is also good news for consumers who are concerned about their privacy when shopping online.

We all know Google likes to do things their own way and put a little “Google Twist” on their work, so it comes as no surprise that they’ve added some integration with their Adwords program. You don’t need to use Adwords to utilize Google Checkout, but if you do, Google gives you some other nice benefits.

If you are a seller who also uses Adwords, you’ll love this: For every $1.00 you spend with Adwords, Google will allow you to process $10.00 in “Google Checkout” salës for free. So if you’re already using Adwords and start using Checkout you’ll save monëy on your transaction fees. What are the fees, you say? 2% and $.20 per transaction, which does beat Paypal’s current fees of 2.9% and $.30 per transaction.

Another advantage to offering Checkout on your web site is that your Adwords ads will display a small graphic of a shopping cart next to them. This is called a “Google Checkout Badge,” and will identify your site quickly to searchers as one who will take “Google Checkout” payments from shoppers. Some are wondering if this may help your Adwords ranking. This is something that still remains to be seen.

To sign up, you’ll first need to have a Google account, which you can get at nö chärge by going to http://google.com/accounts. At this time, you must live in the U.S. and have a bank account if you wish to process payments as a merchant. If you’re a merchant you’ll also need to specify your return and shipping policies.

Merchants can accept payments by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. If you have an Adwords account you’ll want to link it to your new Checkout account during the registration process in order to earn your free transaction credits.

Before you get too excited, be aware there are some things not allowed to be sold using this new service. They include:

• Adult Goods
• Alcohol
• Body Parts (don’t you need to keep those?)
• Buyers Clubs offering goods at wholesale
• Credít and Collection Services
• Drugs
• M-L-M and
• Gambling

For a complete list, see http://tinyurl.com/hmujh.

There are three ways for sellers to accept payments:

1. Buy/Now Buttons: These are similar to Paypal buttons. You just copy and paste some HTML code and you’re done.
2. E-Commerce Partners: For use with Google’s approved partners’ shopping cart systems.Some of them are: Channell/Advision, Infopedia, Mercantec, Monster Commerce, ShopSite, Volusion.
3. API: A more complex way to integrate more options. This involves a programmer to setup.

One disadvantage to the cut and paste button method is you cannot specify tax or shipping rates. You’ll need to use the API checkout method in order to do that. Another shortcoming is the inability to specify your own return page after a customer completes the purchase process. They get taken back to a “Google Thank You Page.”

All orders are placed into Google’s Merchant Center inside your in box. To view your orders you’ll need to log into Checkout and go to the “orders tab.” If the order can be fulfilled, you then clíck the “charge button” that’s located next to each order. After the order is sent you’ll need to let the buyer know by clicking on the “ship button” next to it.

If you’re worried about chargebacks, don’t. They’re all evaluated by Google and Google will go to bat on your behalf. If the transaction is covered by their “Payment Guarantëe Policy” and you supply Google with all of the documentation they request within 10 days, they will reimburse you within one week.

If you sell on Ebay and want to use Checkout, you might want to review their current approved payment types. There’s been talk on the Net that they are not currently allowing sellers to offer this payment option. For more, see http://tinyurl.com/gowgy.

Checkout’s privacy features are great for your buyers. Google handles all of their personal information — instead of entering a credít card with each transaction, all they have to supply is a user name and password to complete a purchase. All credít card details are maintained by Google with complete details of all transactions.

With the rise in identity theft and people more nervous then ever about sharing their personal information, this should make everyone happy. There’s also the added benefit of a faster checkout experience which is to be appreciated if you’ve ever been put through page after page of a badly put together shopping cart.

Buyers can also clíck a box during the purchase process to specify if they would like to receive future promotional emails from this seller. This should help some with their already “too full” in boxes.

No matter if you’re a merchant or a consumer there are advantages on both sides when it comes to Google Checkout. I’m sure with time Google will add more benefits and features that will make their Checkout process even more impressive. And who knows, maybe someday they will give PayPal a run for their monëy. For more information see:

https://checkout.google.com and
https://checkout.google.com/sell

Did You Find This Article Useful? Then Digg It.

About The Author

“Must Have Marketing Resources” by Merle is loaded with VALUABLE online resources YOU need to know about, when it comes to running your online business. Download your copy now at … MCPromotions.

Technorati Tags: webmaster, google checkout

powered by performancing firefox

Contributor: ebonk

Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site
By Adam McFarland of iPrioritize

The recent trend of using the press release to promote an online business has emerged with good reason � good press costs very little and can do more for a business than thousands of dollars of marketing. Most businesses use press distribution services like PR Web or PRFree to get the word out about their news. While distribution services certainly can be effective, they tend to miss out on arguably the most influential group of the press � bloggers.

Bloggers mold and shape the opinions of their readers, who are normally the most important in their particular industry, many of whom are also bloggers. Not long after a post from an influential blogger, your news has been picked up by several other bloggers and within days you are all over the blogsphere. Before you know it your site is getting more attention than it would if a story ran in the local newspaper! So how do you get the influential bloggers in your industry to run a story about your business?

Why Would Anyone Do a Story About Your Business?

Are you a new company? Did you just launch a new product that they could review? Did your business wín an award? Are you a group of college kids who started a company on savings from your summer jobs? You get the idea. There needs to be a reason that someone would want to read about you. Bloggers take pride in the content they feed their readers. You don’t stand a chance of getting a blogger to write about you if you don’t have a story that their readers will be interested in.

Research Bloggers in Your Industry

More is less when it comes to contacting bloggers. Buy a list of 1,000 bloggers and send out a generic email to all of them and you’ll likely get no response. But send a small amount of personalized emails to the appropriate bloggers and you’ll be shocked at how many positive responses you get.

The first step is to make a list of the bloggers that would be interested in your story. You can generally get a feel for whether or not a blogger would be interested in your story by reading a couple of posts and checking out their bio. If they’ve done a few similar stories in the past or they are heavily involved in your industry, there is a good chance they’ll want to hear your story. If not, leave them off your list and move on.

The single best method that I have found to research blogs is the Technorati Blog Directory. You can peruse blogs in your industry in order of “authority” - how important Technorati thinks a blog is. This is extremely useful. For example, if you are in the travel industry, you can view a list of the most influential blogs in the world of travel.

Another great way to find the right bloggers is to search through your competitors press sections on their websites to see what blogs have mentioned them. You can also find out who has mentioned your competitors by looking at the sites that have linked to them (type in “links:www.theirsite.com” on Yahoo!). There’s a good chance that if they found your competitors story interesting, they’ll find your story interesting as well.

The best way to contact bloggers is by email. The good news is that most bloggers make themselves easy to access and provide their email addresses on their blogs. The bad news is that most people don’t know what to do with said email address once they get it. Use the following outline for your email and you’ll see amazing results:

• Have a simple subject. You probably won’t get many responses by treating your email like a press release and writing RELEASE in the subject line. Try something simple like “fan of your blog” or “comment about your blog.” You want to make sure they actually read your email and don’t mentally mark it as späm when they see the subject.
• Start by complementing them. Since you’ve read their blog and learned about them from their bio, you know quite a bit about them. Use it to your advantage. Compliment them on your favorite post, or how cool it is that they worked for XYZ company.
• Request them to post about you (be direct). In three sentences or less, tell them your story, why you think it would be of interest to them and their readers, and respectfully ask that they write a post about it. Be direct and to the point. They will respect that.
• Offer something in return. You have something that could help them. Maybe it’s a link back to their blog from your personal blog, or maybe you could provide them with a free product or service that could help them or their business. One way or another, there’s something you have to offer them in return for the time spent on a post about you.
• Close with something nice. Thank them for their time and wish them luck with their blog and/or business ventures.

Notice that of the five components of the email, only one is about your story. The rest of the email is spent complimenting them and offering them something. Your chances of getting a positive response have just gone through the roof. Every blogger, no matter how large, likes to hear that people are enjoying their posts.

Respond Promptly and Respectfully

Not everyone is going to agree to run your story. Some will say that they don’t do that type of thing or that they don’t have time. Since you have been so nice as to compliment them, they will still usually reply either way. Regardless of the response, be sure to thank them for their time and wish them luck with their ventures. You nevër know when they will encounter someone who needs your product or service in the future (remember, they are in your industry) and if they have a positive image of you and your company they will undoubtedly give you a good recommendation.

Sit Back and Watch the Traffíc Roll In

Over the course of the next few weeks you will see post after post appear about your business. Be sure to send another thank you email to the blogger after the post and also be sure to promptly provide whatever you offered them in return. At this point you have developed a mutually beneficial relationship with someone important in your industry that can become invaluable over time.

That wasn’t that hard was it? With a little research and a carefully crafted email, any business can effectively use blog PR to drive traffíc to their site.

About The Author

Adam McFarland owns iPrioritize - simple to-do lists that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. Email, print, chëck from your mobile telephone, subscribe via RSS, and share with others.

powered by performancing firefox