Google + Is Anybody Out There?

Google + has been operating now since early July; up until 3 weeks ago it was open only to those with the illusive invite and seemed to be attracting users in their millions. Whilst Google can boast nearly 45 million sign-ups since the launch of Beta, it seems the difference between sign-ups and actual active users is vast.
I’ve been using Google + myself since the Beta stage and had hoped that it would quickly become a great way to market myself and my business. However so far things seem to be moving quite slowly.
To date I have made contact with quite a number of co-workers, colleagues and clients all of whom have Google + accounts. This should be a good thing right? Well yes it would be a good thing if any of these profiles were actually using Google + actively.
So why aren’t sign-ups actually using G + to communicate? Well – I think there are a number of reasons.
Fear of the unknown:
It’s always difficult for users when they start exploring a new platform. It doesn’t work the same way as previous platforms they’ve tried (particularly Facebook) and perhaps it’s a bit daunting being part of something new.
No one else is using it:
This is where the vicious circle begins. When I have asked friends, family and colleagues why they are not actively using Google +, the most popular answer seems to be ‘because there’s no one else using it’. It’s like getting that first job, you need experience to get the job, but you can’t get the experience until someone gives you a chance.
Old habits die-hard:
One of the main reasons for new sign-ups shying away from using Google + is that they are way too comfortable using the likes of Twitter or Facebook and don’t like the idea of change. Facebook has long been the leader in the Social Networking arena and people are slow to change to another platform. The answer to this problem is to see Google +, not as an alternative to Facebook but as a totally different, stand alone application.
Aimed at professionals:
Another reason I have come across is that users are under the impression that Google + is not as diverse as Facebook. Sign-ups seems to be under the impression that Google is a more serious application and not aimed at those who just want to play a game or stalk their exes! This is a common misconception, however, as Google have been keen to point out.
The Bottom line on this is, that if Google don’t do something fast to get people talking on G+ then they could be in for a very bumpy ride indeed. Perspectives need to change and they need to change fast. Personally I like G+ and I think it has a lot of great benefits to offer. Google + Hangouts are a great addition and the easy use and manipulation of ‘circles’ is a pleasure to use as opposed to Facebooks ‘friends list’ option.
Come on Google, get your act together and let people know that you are the new kid on the block, one who is not going to lay down easily.

Izaak works for an SEO Agency in London.  He blogs on all things techy related, as well as for some of his clents, who incude a commercial gritting company and an operator of Gatwick Airport Lounges.

How To Monetize Your Web Content?

As a full time online marketer and webmaster, this is a question I have considered many times and found my own answers through many years of trial and error. Of course, I have taken the passive route in my quest for that online income. This means instead of producing my own products, I market and promote affiliate goods and services. I do NO direct selling on any of my websites, I collect no money and I don’t even have a payment program or system in place.
All my income and commissions come from referring traffic or clients to the affiliate companies which I promote. Totally passive.
These companies do all the selling, delivery of products, customer support, everything… I just get a small percentage for having referred that customer or client. This passive method has worked extremely well for me but keep in mind, selling your own products and services will be much more lucrative since you will receive the majority of the profits instead of just a small commission or referral fee.
However, if you’re like me and want a more “hands-off” passive income from your web content, here are some of the things I have learned over the years. You might find some of these tips helpful in your own monetization. I have placed these tips in the form of a “q and a” format…
1. Should I use Google AdSense?
While placing Google AdSense ads on your site or blog is very easy, the rates are extremely low. You can make 10 to 100 times more by using affiliate links instead of these ads. For example, for one AdSense click you could get anywhere from a few cents to several dollars, whereas with an affiliate program you can get from $10 to $100+ for a click which turns into a sale. However, Google is one of most respected and reliable companies on the web. They pay on time and should not be ignored. I have used AdSense for years mainly because you can’t always find affiliate programs for some content and besides, you can place both affiliate links and Google AdSense on your pages.
2. Should I use Amazon?
Another very simple way to monetize your content is to place Amazon products and referral links on your pages. Amazon’s referral rates are slightly better than Google AdSense especially if you have high volume sales but they are still lower in general. However, I have found users tend to really trust Amazon and buy from them more frequently and more often so conversion rates are much higher than any other affiliate program I have used. For this reason alone, Amazon should be on your list if you want to earn money from the web. I have been using them for years and find building your links are real easy, so too is building whole “A Stores” on a particular topic or line of products.
3. What is ClickBank and should I use it?
ClickBank is one of the largest affiliate networks for downloadable products such as ebooks and software. They pay some of the largest commissions, 40% to 50% or more is very common. Very reliable, I have been using them for years and you should include some ClickBank products on your pages. Please note that ClickBank does deduct a small percentage of your commissions to cover any returns, but it also means you don’t have any dropped commissions – once you make a sale, you will get paid for it.
4. What are affiliate networks?
Affiliate networks, like Commission Junction and LinkShare, are major players in the online affiliate world. These affiliate networks represent thousands of companies which offer products and services that webmasters can promote. They handle all sales transactions and send out your commission checks each month. Most of my affiliate programs are through these affiliate networks with CJ being the top one mainly because they have excellent feedback and tracking.
5. How do I find a profitable affiliate product or service?
Regardless of what you’re promoting, you must be very careful to pick quality products that’s closely related to your content. These two factors will mainly determine your conversion rates, although product ads and display images do play a small part. If you use a network like Commission Junction they will tell which company is making the most sales, they will also tell you which ads are getting the highest return with the actual dollar amount (EPC earnings per 100 clicks). I always use this data when picking which companies and products I promote on my sites.
6. Why do I need to create different income streams?
The real beauty of running an online business, you can have many different income sources which pay you each month. You should plan on having at least 10 to 20 income streams, if one should dry up, you will have the others to depend upon. Once you have quality traffic coming to your website, it is just a matter of placing different affiliate links on your pages, I like including at least three or four different companies on a page, this way you can easily create different income streams for the same page. Throughout your site, don’t just rely upon one company or product, have many different affiliate links and companies.
7. What should be your main strategic objective?
Don’t make this mistake, instead of making one sale and getting paid for it once, pick products and services which give you an re-occurring or residual income. You do the same promotion and work but get paid for years to come. I am still earning income on sales I made five years ago. This will significantly improve your bottom line or your return on investment. Products and services which have a monthly billing element are good candidates for residual income… such as web hosting, autoresponder services, tele-communications and so on. Don’t rule out forming partnerships with businesses in the subject of your website, you might be surprised at the response you get.
Effectively monetizing your web content will largely determine if you succeed or not, so try some of the tips above. Of course, there are many other ways to monetize your traffic such as selling direct ads and links on your pages. The list above is not my full list but they are some of my top-performing programs and they should also work for you and your web content.

Why AdSense may not be the best way to earn revenue on your site

AdSense Pays Billions Each Year – 6 Tips Away to Getting Your Share

Marketers have more than one potential road to revenue. One of those would be Google’s AdSense, even though a few people have argued at times that it’s a PPC (Pay Per Click) prototype. They claim that it would take several ‘clicks’ to compare to the same revenue you could achieve with a lone affiliate sale. And, that rings a little true.
But, not all websites are created for the same purpose, even affiliate programs.
Websites are not always developed for selling a product, such as computer software, or a service, such online backup programs. There are several informative sites also on the Internet, and could be for reviews, or blogs.
Let’s talk about blogs for a moment. A while back I did some work for Joan Mylchreest, creating some backlinking for her website, AllWallDecor.com. She worked for years at an interior design company, until they succumbed to bankruptcy. Joan knew that she could draw from all of her experience working in wall design and create her own Internet business.
Joan, like many other people, had knowledge and experience that was highly sought after. It was her knowledge, not necessarily her labor or products that people wanted. So, she created her own site.
 

Great and Easy Steps in Getting Started

Before I go any further, I would like to discuss how easy it is to create a quality website, with WordPress. You can build your own professional site with the multitude of plugins and themes they offer, easily.
Plugins from WordPress will allow you to optimize your site with perks such as contact forms for readers to communicate with you, as well as ad management and imaging.
These will not only allow for an easy development of your site, but also help significantly in maintaining it. Take for example the ad management plugin…ads that expire will be automatically dropped from your site. This means you won’t have to waste valuable time in doing it manually.
Many of their options will help you with time management, allowing you to dive into other areas that require your attention. Think of the time you can spend on creating quality content, if you aren’t tied to basic maintenance issues with your site.
For beginners to the experienced, WordPress is there to show you how to create a website that will make you proud.

Affiliate Products Not Always Enhanced with a Wide Reach

When someone considers working with SEO, they need to keep in mind the use of their keyword, or keyword phrase. Placing it directly in the domain name is ideal. An example would be Joan’s keyword phrase, which is ‘wall décor’. That is a very broad term, considering that it could be wallpaper, paintings, mirrors, and just about anything that might be considered wall décor, even if you don’t.
My point is that with a wide-reaching keyword, or keyword phrase, it can bring in a large variety of people searching for a particular product. This isn’t necessarily going to bring a lot of benefit to you, if you are selling an actual item, or service.

The Flip Side of That Coin…

If your site is an informative site, such as review or blogs, then you might be interested in bringing this amount of traffic to it, especially if you utilize AdSense. They soak it up and bring loads of traffic with it, especially if the content is high quality. In fact, the more pages, the better. AdSense advertisers love the opportunities that multiple, high quality pages can bring their way.
It’s a fairly simple process. AdSense scans pages for the keywords, or keyword phrases which have been purchased by advertisers, and in turn could bring them more business. And, if your content is well-written, the keywords can be easily placed with a natural flow.
However, if you want to take it up a notch, read on…

Take Your Website up a Notch for Maximum Results

Anytime you want to create, or update your website, each page should be looked at carefully, regardless of what type of your site is…informative, or sales. Google can do some amazing things for your site, such as boost your ranking and profits from advertising. However, the following tips can boost your chances even more:

1. Place your keyword, or keyword phrase, directly within your page title.
2. Include your keyword/phrase in the meta description. This description is often placed by Google directly below your link, so focus on creating a special write up (160 characters) that will catch the eye of your targeted audience. If you don’t create your own, Google will simply take the first 160 characters from your original content.
3. Headlines are important enough to warrant special attention. Place your keyword phrase in your h1, h2, as well as h3 tags.
4. Google has the capability of sending traffic your way based on your images as well. So, place your keyword/phrase into the alt text of your images so they can direct the appropriate audience to your site.
5. Keyword placement is important. It has to be natural, but effective. It should be placed relatively quickly (within first 90 characters), and also in the last paragraph. If the content is written well, it could also be within the body, in a natural flow. However, be careful to not go over 2% density.
6. Linking, both Internal and external will help with the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). An anchor text with keyword can lead traffic to an outside site. You can also direct traffic to another page in your own site, with an internal link.

These tips might sound simple. But, that’s because they are. Google is there to help you with ranking and profits from AdSense, if you just follow the basic tips I shared above.
If I could say just one more thing, it would be that even if you don’t want to get involved with AdSense, make sure you pay close attention to your keyword placement, and quality of content. If are selling a specific product or server, yet the keyword is too broad, you are opening the door to unnecessary traffic…and potentially lots of it.
Now that you know my take on it all, hopefully it will help you to bring your site to new levels.
Jason Monroe is a successful freelance writer and Internet entrepreneur who has used his skills to help others make a website and become proficient in their careers as well.

Adsense de Google

Google Adsense is a good way to monetize his blog. Here’s why:
1. Less time:
Installing AdSense on a blog does not take more than 5 minutes. You must paste the code in the sidebar or an appropriate plugin, and Google will do the rest. Affiliate Marketing, however, may take several hours and Email Marketing requires an extra effort.
2. Low traffic:
AdSense does not need to loads of traffic. A small amount of traffic (about 2500 visitors a month) you can easily make $ 10-20 per month. Affiliate Marketing and most other methods of monetization, however, need a lot more traffic.
3. Free:
methods of monetization of other force people to buy products. Now, the chances of someone clicking on an ad are much higher than buying a product because it is not spending money. This makes it easier revenue generation as opposed to methods that require sales.
4. Annonces ciblées:
AdSense is better than other ad networks because the ads are targeted based on content and reader’s interest.

Why Adsense Accounts Get Banned and How to Prevent It

Banned from Adsense–But Can’t Understand Why?

If you are an Adsense publisher, something that is always in the back of your mind is a possible account ban from Adsense. Many times, Adsense is totally justified in banning an account. You will see whining like this on many internet marketing forums, “Adsense banned me! Well, maybe I clicked on a few ads myself, but that was only to test if they were working…” Duh!
The hue and cry from us little guys is that “Adsense doesn’t want us to make any money! Once you break over a certain threshold, they cancel your account.” That just doesn’t make sense at all.

It's No Puzzle--Adsense Always Favors Advertisers Over Publishers

Of course Adsense wants publishers to make money; if a publisher is making money, so are they. It’s in Adsense’s best interest to have quality sites in the network where advertisers can buy ad space. No ad space= no ads=no money for Google. You just need to remember that if Adsense has to pick between a publisher and an advertiser, the advertiser will win every time.
Publishers more often than not have their account banned without warning, and by means of a form letter. No specifics are ever given. Typically, a publisher will receive an e-mail with wording similar to this: “We’ve determined that your AdSense account poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due to invalid activity, we’ve found it necessary to disable your AdSense account.”

What Can Trigger A Ban from Adsense?

If Adsense sees a huge jump in CTR without a corresponding jump in traffic, or you have decided to generate some traffic via a paid service, it can trigger red flags with Google.  Veteran blogger and internet marketer Lisa Irby says that  “Often times these services send artificial traffic via bots which can generate false impressions and clicks on your ads.  That’s a surefire way to get banned from AdSense.”

Viligantly Monitor Your Adsense Traffic and Clicks

The best way that you can protect yourself from a ban is to carefully monitor your traffic. You should be using some kind of analytics program, such as Google Analytics, Get Clicky or Piwik to track where your traffic is coming from.

Signs You Could be Under a Clickbomb Attack

If you suddenly get a huge influx of traffic from a strange source, and also notice that your CTR has gone through the roof, don’t ignore it. You should note the IP that the traffic is coming from and the date it is occurring and contact Adsense via their invalid clicks contact form immediately  and let them know this is happening. You should also suspend showing ads on the site or sites being attacked at once. It’s a good chance that you are under a clickbomb attack from a rival publisher trying to put you out of business.
If you significantly alter your site layout and/or themes and it results in boosting your CTR significantly, you should also keep careful notes about that. Keeping “before and after” screenshots of any significant site revamps is not a bad idea, as you can keep it for documentation if you need it.  Don’t ever incentivize a visitor to click on your ads, or otherwise subtly trick them into clicking on an ad. It’s only asking for trouble.

What’s Super Annoying About Getting Banned by Adsense

Unfortunately, there seems to be no human review process before an Adsense account is banned. There is little recourse for the average user to fight a ban either. Here is the issue of banning via software nicely summed up by SubmitEdge.com:

It is a problem that Google relies on software alone to decide who gets closed down. It is disturbing that in 8 ½ years, they have made no attempt to do a better job at this. It’s also disturbing that unless you know a Brad Fitzpatrick or Ben Collins at Google who will take a personal interest, the odds of getting your account reactivated are next to nothing – and that is only after months of appeals while you’re losing money and your SEO is shot.

Getting your Adsense account back after being banned is a slim-to-none chance. You might have a shot at it if you have the right connections at Google, as Jef Poskanzer did, or  complain to the government as Mark Bowyer of Rusty Compass did. Pamela Parker of MarketingLand.com recently reported on these two Adsense ban and subsequent reinstatement cases:

In the first case, well-respected netizen Jef Poskanzer, who runs the acme.com site, was banned from AdSense on January 15. Google’s explanation, in a form letter, was that “… we’ve determined that your AdSense account poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due to invalid activity, we’ve found it necessary to disable your AdSense account.” Though Poskanzer appealed, Google denied his appeal. But, then, he blogged about it on his site. Because Poskanzer is well-connected in the Internet world, Googler Matt Cutts posted on Google+ about the situation, saying he hoped the ad quality team would reconsider. Indeed, the intervention convinced Google to give Poskanzer another chance, and he was reinstated as of January 31. “My fame is an advantage,” wrote Poskanzer, “but what really ought to matter is my 8.5 year relationship with the company, plus my demonstrated history of working with AdSense to resolve our prior issue eight years ago, to our mutual benefit.” A second similar situation occurred to the Rusty Compass travel website, run by Mark Bowyer in Sydney, Australia.
On September 13, 2011, Google informed Bowyer that his AdSense account was being disabled for generating invalid clicks. He appealed and started a thread in the AdSense support forum. Like Poskanzer, his appeal was denied.
In December, Bowyer took the matter to the New South Wales’ Fair Trading — a state agency that enforces fair trade laws and provides consumer protections.
An article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald about the case and Google reinstated Bowyer’s account in mid-January, 2012. Bowyers has still heard nothing personal from Google, only receiving templated-style email communications.

If you are banned, don’t expect to hear from an actual human at Adsense, because that will never happen.
If you sincerely believe that you did absolutely nothing wrong to provoke being banned, there is some recourse available by appealing to Adsense for reinstatement into the program. Here is the link to the appeal form.
Just don’t be overly optimistic about your chances for reinstatement unless you are well-connected.

Why AdSense may not be the best way to earn revenue on your site

So, you’ve got an idea for a website that you think can eventually earn some revenue. Perhaps showing contextual advertising is one idea you’re exploring. Google Adsense makes it so easy to start displaying ads it’s tempting to dive in. But maybe it’s not the best idea for making money from your site.
Let’s delve into some of the reasons why AdSense may not be the best choice, and then look at some other ways websites can make money for their owners.

The ads may detract from the perceived value of your brand.
You’ve created a great site with content that others want to read. Then, BAM, one day, there are ads everywhere. It looks like you’ve sold out, and your site loses its coolness. This is one reason Mark Zuckerberg reportedly resisted advertising in the early days of Facebook, and still keeps it to a relatively small part of the site’s layout.
You lose some control over what’s published on your site.
While contextual advertising means that any ads displayed on your site should be related to the content you’re publishing, you still give up control over what shows on your site. You may even wind up with ads from your competitors, if you also offer a direct product or service on your site.
Your content may end up overshadowed by the ads.
If your pages showcase ads prominently – and they probably have to in order to gain a volume of clicks – it means your content will become a bit harder for readers to find and read.
Maybe you make them scroll down the page further to see your content, maybe you’ve got your articles wrapped around ads… either way, readers will find themselves distracted and working harder to gather the information they hoped to find when they clicked to your site. You could lose readers who otherwise may have become loyal fans of your content.
That’s unless you have enough traffic that you can get away with showing the ads in a very unobtrusive spot. The NYTimes.com example here shows they can do with just one lone ad on the bottom third of the page.

Clicks/impressions but no funds $0 Why Adsense? if google's not paying....

We have adsense displayed on multiple websites and we get so many hits/impressions but our account stay on $0, google need to explain this to us for we have directed mass traffic to other adword clients and received nothing for it?

This is in my opinion not what i signed up for need to be addressed as soon as possible, Google owns the search engine market yes and have the slogan to always be nice, not what Google do here!

Whats the problem, explain

The ads get clicks from various places, I've even gone as far as asking other network/clients to support the program and see if they like to buy advertised content via the adsense links. They click and still nothing, we would like to offer google adsense on our Domain Parking and Auction website here

http://www.domainnameauction.
co.za and use our adsense account to earn revenue for all the clients that park their domain names on the system, the adsense does NOT WORK!!!!! and Google's clients are scroring free traffic from us without GOOGLE PAYING US!!!!! yes google receive money from their advertisers on Adwords but not paying their adsense clients!!!!

Google need to step up with answers.