Adsense Text or Image Ads?

When creating a new AdSense content ad, the first option presented to a publisher is if they would like only text ads, image ads, or both, text and image ads. I’m going to share a little known AdSense secret… ready?

When an image ad appears on your site, it has beat out at least two text ads at auction for a specific keyword phrase or for targeted advertising on your site. What does this mean? Well, obviously, higher CPC and, more money. Bottom line- image ads are not only good- they’re great and you want them on your site. Always opt in for “text and image ads” when creating new AdSense ads for your blog.

Getting More Visitors Through Link Building and Networking

Optimization is the first and most important step to attracting potential customers. But don’t stop there! You should increase traffic and develop links to your site in as many ways as possible. In addition to directly bringing more visitors to your website, these approaches will also increase search engine rankings by improving the assessed relevance of your site. Link building and networking are two ways to generate additional traffic.

Link Building

Building links to your site helps generate visitor traffic. In addition, the number of these links is monitored by search engines and can improve your site’s rankings. The more links detected the more relevant and active your site is assessed to be. Links can be developed in number of ways.

• Directories
There are many directories available online, often dedicated to specific industries or geographical areas.Placing links to your site on relevant directories can help
search engine visibility while increasing your website’s exposure.

• Reciprocal Links
You can increase links to your site by placing your link on another site in exchange for placing their link on your site. When using this strategy it is important for the
links to be relevant to each hosting sites’ content in some way.

• One Way Links
Finding a website willing to place your link on their site without cost or reciprocation can be difficult. However, it is worth the effort because this approach tells search engines that the hosting site places a high value on the
content and relevance of your website.

Networking
As an expert in your field you have valuable information to share. There are many avenues you can utilize to share this information thereby improving interest in your company as well your search engine ranking.

• Blogs
Sharing information on a blog is a great way to establish you and your business as experts in the field. When updated frequently, blogs help direct leads to your website as they search for the type of information relevant to your business.

• Blog Commenting and Forums
You can also share what you know on other blogs or forums related to your business and area of knowledge. You can post comments and answer questions while providing a link back to your blog or website. It is important to focus on sharing information, however, and avoid direct selling on these platforms.

Add your Blogging Tips Here

Here’s what I have so far, please add yours. Thanks!

1. Stay fresh by reading. Keep up-to-date on what is happening in your genre. I use google reader to rss subscribe to many blogs, so I always have something interesting and new to read about everyday.

2. Comment. Interact with others in your blog area. Sometimes my blogs are an expansion of an idea I started in a comment.

3. Check out your audience. Only a percentage of visitors leave comments. Get a good stats program so you can see which blog posts are the most visited. I use http://www.quantcast.com/

4. Credit your sources, and tell them about it. Drop a note to someone you have linked to or quoted in a blog entry and give them its URL. You’d be surprised at how many people then return the favor and include you on their website.

5. Gather the links you use on various topics over the course of time & repost them as a collection every now & then for people that missed them the first time.

How To Verify Technorati Claim Token

When submitting your site to Technorati you must go through a claim token process to prove that you are the true owner of your blog. There seems to be some confusion around how exactly this is done.

After you submit your site Technorati will send you an email that will look something like this:
Thank you for submitting your blog claim on Technorati. Technorati will need to verify that you are an author of the site http://themoneybloggingguide.blogspot.com by looking for a unique code. We have just assigned the claim token 7RGZJJGU7YQA to this claim. Please visit http://technorati.com/account/ for more details.

What you must do next is create a simple post on your blog with any title (ie. "Temporary Post - Please ignore") and the body of the post containing your claim token (7RGZJJGU7YQA for example). This post will be public facing but you'll be able to remove it in a few minutes.

After that is complete follow the link http://technorati.com/account/. At that bottom of your account page click on the Check Claim button for your blog. This next page will then ask if you have already made the temporary post (which you have) so you can simply click the button at the bottom of that page to confirm. After a few minutes you should receive an email saying something like this: Thank you for submitting your blog claim on Technorati. We have successfully crawled your blog and found the claim token, and your claim is now awaiting review.

You are now all set and can delete the temporary post from your blog.

This process is a bit cumbersome and I would like to see Technorati streamline it. Having said that I would still recommend that anyone with a blog should submit it to Technorati. It is a great community to share your content and help build your viewer base.

Please feel free to comment on this post with any questions that I may have not covered here.

Top 10 Topics for your Business’s Blog

Knowing what to blog about can make all the difference when blogging for your business. While it may be easy enough to decide what to write about for a personal blog (i.e. ranting is somewhat encouraged), those same approaches may not be appropriate for your business’s blog. Always remember that your business’s blog is a vehicle for that business; as such, it can help you get your business going places, so long as you provide the right fuel.

1. Blog an event. If your business will be featured or is co-sponsoring an event, blog it. Blog about your acceptance of the invitation or sponsorship, blog about the event itself, blog what happens there, etc.

2. Ask a question. Asking a question about the way things are done or presenting a new concept and ask for opinions is a good way to encorage interaction from your readers.

3. Comment on something. Whether you comment on something in the news, another blog post, or a product development, providing your business’s take on it, relative to the industry, involves your readers in a intimate way; it helps them to feel part of a dialogue.

4. Provide information. This type of posting could take the form of a “How-to” or a list (i.e. the top 5 reasons to get a new accountant). Either way, providing useful information is always appreciated.

5. Interview someone. Not only is this a great way to build up your own connections, interviewing someone can provide you with double the traffic (your normal traffic and the traffic attributable to the interviewee).

6. Invite someone else to post. Similar to interviewing someone, you have the chance to amp up the traffic to your site and a guest blogger can put in a different perspective, maybe even one that you may not have thought of.

7. Review something. It could be one of the products you sell or one that is part of your industry, such as accountants and home tax prep software. Just be sure that you provide good and honest information.

8. Answer questions. Businesses will frequently receive emails, Facebook comments, and the like that ask a question about a product or service. Instead of simply replying to the individual, make a post about it. Other people likely have the same question.

9. Talk about your industry. Be it ways the industry could be improved, the legal considerations regarding your industry, or simply an initiative that is gaining ground, you have an opportunity to position your business as an authority in its industry by critiquing it.

10. Write about your experience. As a professional in your industry, you have a plethora of knowledge about what the day is like (i.e. time management) and what makes it easier (i.e. technology). For example, just because your business is engineering, it does not mean that your readers may not be interested in reading about why a smartphone is instrumental to your success.

Get Targeted Traffic Using Facebook

Since Facebook is the biggest and the most popular social networking site nowadays, a lot of online businesses are seeing the potential of Facebook as an online marketing tool and in bringing targeted traffic to web sites.

For online businesses the best way to market their products to people of course is by promoting it online. Internet marketing is the easiest and most effective way to reach millions of people worldwide without spending thousands of dollars in marketing. So as much as possible Internet marketers and business owners eagerly find a site that is visited by millions of people everyday to promote their business. In this way there is a bigger chance to create great traffic to their business’ web site and if this happens, more sales will be made. Business owners can use all the numerous marketing tools Facebook provides, such as your profile, messages, friends, applications, news feeds, groups, market place, networks, events, pages, socials ads, beacon, polls, Facebook platform ad networks, Facebook applications and sponsored groups.

Ready, Set...Blog!

In the time it’s taken you to read this post, you could have set up a blog and published three 300-word posts already. It’s easy, it’s fun, and if you play your cards right, it could make you some money. Not just because you can put ads up or sell products using a blog (though you can do both of those things), but because a blog gives potential employers, clients, and customers a way to find out more about you and to build a relationship with you or your company that’s more human (and humanizing) that the simple exchange of dollars for products. Whatever your line of business, you or your company will be looked up on the Web, and if they don’t find your site, they’ll find other people’s sites about you — or nothing at all. Much better, I think, to take control of your online self, and a blog is an easy and cheap way to get started.