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

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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

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Contributor: ebonk

Cracking the Google Adsense Code
By Kim Roach (c) 2006

Google Adsense has empowered web publishers of all shapes and sizes to make money from their web sites. Whether you own a hobby site that gets 100 visitors per day or a popular finance portal that is flooded with millions of visitors per month, you can benefit from the Google Adsense program.

Simply sign up for a free account, grab your Adsense code and paste it up on your website. Well, it sounds good anyway. In reality, that’s not the whole story. Maximizing your adsense earnings requires a little more care.

Fortunately, you can quickly increase your earnings by reading every word of this article. I will cover the basic necessities and also reveal advanced tips that you won’t find on every digital corner. So, if you’re looking to put more money in your
pocket with a few tweaks of code, I urge you to read on.

As you are reading, keep in mind that Google is actually one of the best resources for finding information on Adsense optimization. Think it’s hard to believe that Google would give good advice? Well, it makes sense when you think about it. The
more you make as a publisher, the more they will make. Google has a big incentive to help you perform well. Not to mention, they have tons of data to research what works best.

So, for much of my research, I took quite a few tips from Google. But don’t worry, there are also some advanced tips here that Google will probably never reveal to you.

Most Effective Ad Formats

In general, wider ad formats tend to outperform the taller ads. This is because the wider ads are much easier on the eye.

According to Google, the following ad formats result in the highest number of click-throughs:

1. 336×280
2. 300×250
3. 160×600

Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com increased his revenues by 20 percent after placing the large rectangle (336×280) in the upper left corner, positioned within his articles.

Text links are another ad format that often work well. Using text link ads, you can create Adsense ads that blend in seamlessly with your navigation.

For an example of this, go to http://www.dealofday.com.

Tim Carter saw an 18 percent increase in his revenues after placing link units in the upper left corner under his site search bar.

Number of Ads

Multiple ad units can sometimes help optimize your performance. This is especially true for pages with lots of text, forums, and message boards.

However, it could possibly lower your revenues as well. When you show more ads, the ads that are placed lower on the page often have lower bid prices than the ones on top. Therefore, you must test the number of ads on a page to see what works best for you.

When using multiple ad units, make sure that the ad unit with the highest click-through rate appears first within your HTML code. This will ensure that your prime real estate is occupied by the highest paying ads. You can use CSS positioning to get your highest paying ads placed in the location with the highest CTR.

Colors

Ads that blend in with the colors of your site generate the highest click-through rates. In most cases, it is best to use the exact same color scheme for your ads that you use on your web site. To see some good examples of this, check out:

http://www.lockergnome.com
http://www.worldvillage.com

By using ads without background color or borders, your ads seamlessly integrate with your content.

Keep in mind that blue text links seem to perform best for Google Adsense. Blue is the assumed color of links on the Internet. Therefore, our pyschie expects links to be in blue.

However, you may want to rotate your colors every once in a while to spice things up. This way, your visitors don’t get used to your ads, which can cause banner-blindness.

Ad Placement

Just like in real estate, location is the key to success with Adsense. Fortunately, Google provides us with a heat map, (http://tinyurl.com/ld8d2) showing the best spots for ads.

One of the best places for your Adsense ads are at the top-left of the page. Because people are used to seeing navigation on the left side of the page, the eye naturally gravitates to this section of your web site.

Many studies have been performed to see how the eye travels across a web page. You can see a demonstration at http://poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/main.htm . Knowing how people view your web site will help immensely when optimizing the placement of your ads.

In addition, you should also place your Adsense ads next to rich content and navigation elements. These ads often do well because users are focused on those areas of a page. You can see examples of this at Ezinearticles.com and Lockergnome.com.

As you can see, these sites have placed their adsense ads next to search boxes and navigation links.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t change the layout of your site to fit the ads, but rather use the ad formats that best fit with your site layout.

Images

Many publishers have started using images around their ads. As a result, many of them have doubled their revenues.

One of the most successful implementations of this techniques is to use the 728×90 leaderboard with 4 thumbnail-sized images above each ad. You can see some good examples at:

http://www.drawapig.desktopcreatures.com/
http://www.sg-god.com/heaven/

Of course, you can’t use images of blinking arrows because this would be enticing visitors to click. However, it is perfectly acceptable to place related pictures beside your ads.

For example, if you have a page about laptops, you could place a leaderboard with 4 laptop images above each ad. In this way, you are using images to complete the story.

In fact, Google is currently testing an ad format that would blend images together with related text ads. It seems that even Google thinks that images are a good idea to bring attention to ads. To see an example of the Google ads in beta, go to http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=3576

Forums

If you have a forum, I hope you are monetizing it with Adsense. Many people include Adsense within their web site, but when it comes to their forum, they simply let the ball drop. Forums can definitely be an extra source of income when optimized properly.

To find out about the best placement for Adsense within forums, I went to Google for some advice. To my surprise, they also have a heat map for forums (http://tinyurl.com/d7xsr) .

One of the best ways to monetize your forum is to place Adsense directly within the threads. To see an example of this, go to http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=106170. Google advises that you place a skyscraper above the fold on the left side of your forum and they also suggest placing a leaderboard directly below the top navigation and below the first post.

If you are looking for additional ad space, you can place a horizontal link unit near the top of the forum, just below the header.

The next Adsense tactic is one that isn’t talked about much. However, when used appropriately, it can be extremely powerful.

Newsletters

If you own a newsletter list, then you can easily leverage that list in order to earn more Adsense revenue. Whenever you send out your newsletter, simply link to an article on your site within the email. By doing this, you can draw people to your Adsense pages and easily increase your Adsense revenue.

This is one of the best things about building your own list. You are able to direct traffic to any place at any time.

In the end, the key to increased revenues is testing. Not all sites are the same. You have to experiment to find out what works best for your particular site. What works for one site may not work for another. Only by testing can you find out which styles
encourage your visitors to respond.

Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews
(http://www.sitepronews.com) and SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com)
newsletters. You can contact Kim at: kim @ seo-news.com

Technorati Tags: google adsense, search engine marketing, search engine optimization

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