Adsense Beautifier - against Google Adsense TOS?!

This is a major development in Google Adsense implementation. I think, most blogs that I've seen need to check their Adsense implementation because they might be violating the TOS. Inside Adsense recently discussed about placing images near your ads. Most people says it's okay as long as there is a border between the image and the ads. Someone even made a Wordpress plug-in for it and called it Adsense beautifier. But hey, look at this development. Kindly read the latest stand of Google Adsense when it comes to placing images near your ads. Here is an excerpt:

Can I place small images next to my Google ads?

We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn't actually being offered. That's not a good experience for users or advertisers.

Publishers should also be careful to avoid similar implementations that people could find misleading. For instance, if your site contains a directory of Flash games, you should not format the ads to mimic the game descriptions.

What if I place a space or a line between my images and my ads? Would that work?

No. If the ads and the images appear to be associated, inserting a small space or a line between the images and ads will not make the implementation compliant.

Read the full entry here. On the full entry, you can see an example of an implementation which violates the TOS, including an "ad-near-image" placement similar to Adsense Beautifier:



So, is Adsense Beautifier against the TOS? I think, it's obvious. Better play safe than sorry.

Wrapping your Adsense code inside your post

For the past couple of weeks, I've been busy studying different things so as to increase my Adsense earnings. I studied a little bit of Javascript and came up with the following tweak so as to put your Adsense ads inside your post. You will see this code at work at my Wantusawa blog. You'll notice that the Adsense ad is actually inside the post. So, how did I do that? Here is the step by step guide:

1. Back up your template first, ok?
2. Look for <$BlogItemBody$> tag in your template.
3. Replace <$BlogItemBody$> tag with the code below:

<div id="first<$BlogItemNumber$>"></div>

<MainPage>
<table align=left><tr><td>
YOUR ADSENSE CODE (square or rectangle format)
</td></tr></table>
</MainPage>
<ItemPage>
<table align=left><tr><td>
YOUR ADSENSE CODE (square or rectangle format)
</td></tr></table>
</ItemPage>

<div id="last<$BlogItemNumber$>">
<$BlogItemBody$>
</div> <br />

<MainPage>
<script language="JavaScript">
var obj0=document.getElementById("first<$BlogItemNumber$>");
var obj1=document.getElementById("last<$BlogItemNumber$>");
var s=obj1.innerHTML;
var r=s.search(/<adsense>/igm);
if(r>0) {obj0.innerHTML=s.substr(0,r);obj1.innerHTML=s.substr(r+9);}
</script>
</MainPage>
<ItemPage>
<script language="JavaScript">
var obj0=document.getElementById("first<$BlogItemNumber$>");
var obj1=document.getElementById("last<$BlogItemNumber$>");
var s=obj1.innerHTML;
var r=s.search(/<adsense>/igm);
if(r>0) {obj0.innerHTML=s.substr(0,r);obj1.innerHTML=s.substr(r+9);}
</script>
</ItemPage>

4. Republish your blog.
5. Now, it's ready. The next step is to mark the place in your post where you want your Adsense ads to appear. How? Use the <adsense> tag.

Example.

This is a post. This is longer post. <adsense> This is another post. This is another post. Etc. Etc.

The ad will appear on the place where you put the tag.

That's all folks!

Note: This only works on current Blogger version, this is not for Beta.
You can put the Adsense Ad to the right by simply changing the align=left to align=right on the table tag.

How to "Continue reading here..."

For the past few weeks, I've been looking for a tweak on Blogger to put a "Continue Reading here" on the main page and archive page, forcing the reader to go to the permalink pages where your advertisement are more relevant. I can't find a decent tutorial on the net, but I did find some Blogger blogs with such kind of functionality. What I did was to study their techniques (by reading the source code! hehehe) until I finally figured out how they did it.

Now, I am going to share it with you. ;) There are 4 steps to follow in editing the template and 1 step when posting. But before you do anything, back up your original template, ok?

Template changes.

1. Copy and paste this code on the CSS declarations. That is between the <style></style> tags.

<style>

....
...

<MainOrArchivePage>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</MainOrArchivePage>
<ItemPage>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
</ItemPage>

</style>

2. Copy and paste this code just after the style closing tag (</style>):

</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
var memory = 0;
var number = 0;
</script>

3. Copy and paste this code just after the <$BlogItemBody$> tag.

<$BlogItemBody$>
<MainOrArchivePage>
<script type="text/javascript">
spans = document.getElementsByTagName('span');
number = 0;
for(i=0; i < spans.length; i++){
var c = " " + spans[i].className + " ";
if (c.indexOf("fullpost") != -1)
number++;
}
if(number != memory){
document.write('<br /><a href="<$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>" title="permanent link">Continue reading "<$BlogItemTitle$>" here...</a>');
}
memory = number;
</script>
</MainOrArchivePage>

4. Republish your blog.

Now, after republishing your blog, it is now set for Continue Reading Here kind of post. All you have to do now is to edit your post to mark which part of your post to be hidden. Here is how to do it.

Open a blog post in Edit HTML mode. To mark the part that you want to hide, simply put those part between <span class="fullpost"> </span> tags.

Example:

Example Post

This is an example post. This one is displayed on the main and archive page. <span class="fullpost">This part of the post is hidden and can be viewed only on the permalink page.</span>

This is how the post will look like on the main or archive page:

Example Post

This is an example post. This one is displayed on the main and archive page.

Continue reading "Example Post" here...

The permalink page will contain the full post. For comments and suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me ;)

That's all!

Money for blogs

Recently, I earned a total of US$80 from my personal blog and my textmates blog, just for putting up a single text link on the sidebar! Interested? Visit this site. It's not a scam! Want some proof? Check this out.

By the way, I'm starting to learn Wordpress. Check my Wordpress blog here.

That's all folks!

My MFA sites list

Since I'm getting numerous requests of the MFA sites that I blocked using Competitive Ad Filter, your waiting is over. Here is my MFA sites list. To the owners of these sites, sorry guys but I don't want your cheap advertisements on my blog. Ok, here it goes...

10-bestsites.com
25-topsites.com
50webs.com
7-topsites.com
8-topsites.com
8-topwebsites.com
8bestsites.com
8topsites.com
9topsites.com
ad2006.com
all-free-info.com
be-healthy.net
best-download-sites.com
best-healthcare.info
best4sites.net
best8sites.org
bestphonesites.net
chosenresult.com
click-here-4-best.info
cohit.com
dailyseek.net
dbmoz.net
dbmoz.org
digg4it.com
download-it-free.com
downtown-internet.com
e-kazaam.com
e-softwaresource.com
findinfotoday.com
finditonline.ws
findmoreinfo.com
finest4.com
focus77.com
freshhunt.com
getbestinfo.com
go-2-shop.co.uk
go-4-best.com
he4lth.com
health-answers.org
healthquestlinks.com
hot4sites.com
info-on.biz
info-zap.com
info.com
infobeagle.com
infoforyourhealth.com
infoscouts.com
instant-free-info.com
leapfinder.com
maximuminformation.com
oninformation.com
op10-web-hosting.com
pricetool.com
searchguide.biz
sneakyprograms.com
soft4kids.com
top-3-sites.com
top-rated-mp3-sites.com
top10-web-hosting.com
top10mostexpensive.com
top8sites.com
toptensites.org

I don't guarantee that if you block these sites, your Google Adsense earnings will double or triple. It just happened to me, so, it's worth the try, anyway, you can still unblock them if the result is not favorable to you.

That's all folks!

Technorati Tags: Blog optimization, blogtimization, Adsense Optimization, Google Adsense, MFA sites, Made For Adsense sites

Using Web Directories As A Link Building Tool

by: SeoAmitPatel

Even in this era of technological breakthroughs, many website owners have a wrong idea about web directories. They think these web directories are simply a way to gain a one-way incoming link. Inclusion in the different web directories is seldom perceived as more than a one-time entry event. The aim is to get listed and obtain the inbound link, for better of for worse. Traffic from some mainstream directories is almost always low and rarely seen as part of the equation. The dormant capability of the directory listings as a source of potential link partners is almost never reckoned as a strategy at all, which is not a wise move at all.

In reality, web directories have far more possibilities concealed within their listings than it is generally believed. Many webmasters and search engine optimization experts ignore the less obvious value residing in the numerous categories.

By looking beyond the single link and searching abilities of a web directory, a website owner can have unrestricted access to innumerable potential link partners, waiting to be added. These partners can be found without much effort in the major internet directories and in the copious niche directory listings as well.

Not all web directories are adept in searching for links. The DMOZ (also known as the Open Directory Project), The Google Directory, The Yahoo! Directory are the directories which one should use in order to carry out link research tasks.

It will not be an exaggeration to compare the web directories to a gold mine of linking partners if one can get the full out of appropriate strategies. Any enterprising and prospecting webmaster can successfully use the web directories as an effective link building tool. It is expected that the readers will now be able to avail this opportunity after reading this article.

About The Author
The Author SeoAmitPatel is a SEO Expert who owns a SEO Company http://www.theseoworld.com and which is working a major SEO Project http://www.gii.in

Keyword Density & SEO

by: Mike Francis

Keyword density is an important factor in search engine optimization (SEO). Keywords, as the name indicates, are the key factors in a web page, while searching. The webpage will be displayed in response to the search about the particular keyword. However, it won’t be an easy job for the search engines to list the results, as millions of web pages, with the respective keyword, are indexed in the internet database. The viewers will require the most comprehensive search, and hence, search engines have formulated certain criteria to rate the quality of the web pages. And, keyword density is one of the significant parameters of the search engine algorithms in listing the webpage in the search engine result pages.

Keyword density is the relative frequency for the appearance of the keywords to the total amount of words in the text. The web page will be oriented on the keyword and obviously, the keyword has to be repeated several times. The number of repetition of the keywords will be increased along with the increase in the word limit. Since the word limit of the web pages differ, it will be difficult to suggest an optimum number of repetitions for keywords. And, keyword density has thus formulated as an adequate parameter to represent the number of repetitions of the keyword corresponding to the word count of the whole text.

As for everything, optimum limit exists for keyword density also. It is certain that search engines as well as viewers are bothered about the quality of the content in the web pages. As a rule, it is reviewed that a lower amount of keyword density will reduce the focus of the webpage on the keyword, and increased number of keywords are feared to affect the readability of the subject. The keyword density will also account the phrase keywords.

Keyword density of a webpage becomes crucial, when the webpage developer tries to optimize it according to the preferences of the search engine. Everybody is in the urge to place their webpage in the top ranking and hence they have to adopt the search engine principles, to maintain their position. The optimum keyword density is important in SEO since the search engines will not entertain both the lower levels as well as higher levels of keyword density. The lower keyword density pages will lose their importance in the listing. But, overstuffing of the keyword is a serious offense for search engines and considers it as an act to deceive of them with keyword stuffing. Chances exists that search engines may run spam on higher key word density web pages and ultimately ban it.

Hence, an optimum keyword density is always advised as a part of SEO techniques. Even though the exact values of the search engine algorithms are not clear, 5-7% is approximated as the optimum limit of keyword density. For strict maintenance of the keyword density in the particular ratio, keyword density analyzers are available in the internet. Adopt any such tool, maintain the optimum keyword density and ensure a better position in the search engine results.

About The Author
Mike Francis' page : http://www.pegasusdirectory.com is a free web directory, that helps webmasters increace their traffic and get known on the internet. For more quality directories try http://www.topdirectorys.com

Technorati Tags: search engine optimization, SEO, keyword density, blog optimization

My blog got indexed after 2 days!

Yeah, and I was surprised!

Here is what happened...

I made a new blog, http://wantusawa.blogspot.com last October 3, and put its link on my PR5 blogs (http://textmates.blogspot.com and http://marhgil.blogspot.com). Up to now, this blog is not yet indexed.

Now, here is what surprised me. I made another blog last October 4, it's Mesothelioma Awareness. I did the same thing, I put a link on my PR5 blogs. And I did another thing that I think made the difference. I showed my blog here. And today, October 6, I found out from Google that it was already indexed! I tried searching the URL in Google and I just found two results. The post I made on that forum and the indexed blog itself! Wow!

That's why I showed my wantusawa.blogspot.com blog here too, hoping to get indexed in the next 2 days. =)

Just sharing my experience. It worked for me, it might as well work for you.

Happy weekend!

Preferred domain name on Google Sitemaps

Do you have incoming links to your blog in http://www.***.blogspot.com format and http://***.blogspot.com format? The bad news is that Google treat each links differently, as if they are pointing to 2 different pages. This is the reason why my http://marhgil.blogspot.com currently has a Pagerank of 5 and http://www.marhgil.blogspot.com has a Pagerank of 3. Imagine if these links were treated as one, counting all the links to http://www.marhgil.blogspot.com the same as a link to http://marhgil.blogspot.com, then, I might have a higher Pagerank, right?

Now, here is the good news. I recently signed-up with Google Sitemaps, and from there, I found out that you can tell Google your preferred domain name. I set my preferred domain name as http://marhgil.blogspot.com. A link to http://www.marhgil.blogspot.com will be counted as the same as a link to http://marhgil.blogspot.com. And since I set it up as my preferred domain name, http://www.marhgil.blogspot.com will no longer be displayed on their index.

This is one great feature that any SEO practitioner must use. Right? For more information about this feature, visit Google Help Center here.


Technorati Tags: Blog optimization, blogtimization, preferred domain name, Google sitemaps

Tweaking the description meta tag

I attended the First Philippine Blogcon 2006 last Monday, September 25, 2006. It was a blast. It inspired me to continue what I'm doing. You won't believe how much blog money these guys are making.

Marc Macalua, the SEO expert gave us some tips on on-page optimization. One of his tips is to make a unique meta tag description for each page. He showed us how to do it in Wordpress, but unfortunately, he doesn't know about blogspot. =( Since I'm quite familiar with blogspot or Blogger blogs, I studied it and came up with the following code:

<meta name="description" CONTENT="<Blogger><$BlogItemTitle$> | </Blogger><$BlogDescription$>">
<Meta name="keywords" CONTENT="put your keywords list here<Blogger>, <$BlogItemTitle$></Blogger>">

Insert this code inside the <Head></Head> tag. This code will insert the title of your blog posts to the meta tag description followed by your blog description. It will also optimize the keyword tag, putting your blog post title after your keyword lists.

On other matters, I found out that most of them are also earning from Text Link Ads, so, I signed-up too. You can place your Text Link Ads advertisement on the same page with Google Adsense, since Text Link Ads are not contextual.

That's all for now. Happy blogtimizing!

Technorati Tags: Blog optimization, blogtimization, Text Link Ads, meta tag, description tag

Get the most out of those clicks

I tried using the Competitive Ad Filter feature of Google Adsense and my earnings per day tripled overnight! I still get the same number of clicks, but the amount I get per click increased 3x!

What I did was to block those low paying advertisements. Which advertisements are these? If you see advertisement that says, "Here are the top sites on..." or "We've got the chosen sites on...", block them on your account by using the Competitive Ad Filter. You just need to specify their website address.

These sites are Made For Adsense (MFA) sites. If you visit their site (don't click on your ads, ok? It's a violation of the TOS!) by typing directly the website address on your browser's address bar, you will notice that what they got are trash information and a couple of Google Adsense ads. These sites will not invest that much on a single click. Most likely, they just pay $0.01 to $0.03 per click. So, why let them advertise on your site? Block them so that only those high paying advertisers with quality content will appear on your site. You'll notice a dramatic change on your Adsense earnings. With the same number of clicks, you can double, triple, or even quadruple your earnings overnight!

Check my blogs and you will not see these sites appearing on my ads anymore. And everytime I see such kind of advertisement, I simply block them. Google Adsense allows you to block 200 URLs. I think that's more than enough to block these MFA sites.

For more information on using the Competitive Ad Filter, read this. Please note that changes will not take effect immediately. According to Google Adsense help..."It usually takes about 4 hours for your changes to take effect, so you'll continue to see ads for these sites on your pages for a little while."

That's all folks!

Proper ad placement

For the past few days, I kept on experimenting on my Google Adsense placement. If you are not new here, you will notice that I removed the 160 x 600 Wide Skyscaper ad on my left sidebar. Instead, I used the 728 x 90 Leaderboard now, just below the Google Search box. I just found out that it performs better than the Wide Skyscraper. Maybe because it can be seen easily by the visitors, and it seems to be a part of the content and not an advertisement.

My link units perform the best of all the ad formats. I earned at least 70% of my Adsense income from these link units. I don't know why. =) Maybe because the visitors think it as part of the menu, so they click on them. Good.

As you can see, based on my experience, you can earn a "not that bad" amount of blog money if you blogtimize your blog. Proper ad placement can really make a difference. Now that I feel that my blogs are already blogtimized, the next step is to increase traffic. More traffic = more clicks possible = more blog money.

If you want to see how I properly coded my textmates blog, you can download its template here. You are free to use it anyway you want. You can study it or use it as your template.

That's all folks!

Technorati Tags: Blog optimization, blogtimization, Adsense Optimization, Google Adsense

Wrapping around the post to the ads

After doing some Adsense experimentation, I have come to the conclusion that wrapping around your blog post to the Adsense advertisement generates a higher click thru rate. The use of wider ads like 336 x 280 works best. Blending ads to your background color and removing the borders gives higher click thru rate.

Many readers are asking me, how were you able to wrap around your blog post to the Google advertisement? Simple, just follow the following steps.

First, limit your total number of post on the main page. If you don't use the ads on your sidebar, use 3. Just make sure that you don't go more than the 3 ad units per page. If you have 2 ad units on the sidebar, set it to 1. If you have no other ad units placed anywhere on the main page, set it to 3. Ok? How? Read this.

After setting up the number of posts, go to Settings > Formatting and set Enable Float Alignment to No.

Then, insert the following code on your template just before the <$BlogItemBody$>.

<MainPage>
<table align="right"><tr><td align="left">
YOUR 336 x 280 Adsense Code HERE
</td></tr></table>
</MainPage>
<ItemPage>
<table align="right"><tr><td align="left">
YOUR 336 x 280 Adsense Code HERE
</td></tr></table>
</ItemPage>
<$BlogItemBody$>

Then, republish your blog. If you followed all my instructions, you'll be able to see your 336 x 280 Google Adsense advertisement on the main page and on every permalink page where your blog post wraps around it, just like the one I have right now here at the time of this writing.

That's all folks!

Technorati Tags: Blog optimization, blogtimization, Adsense Optimization, Google Adsense

The Title Tag

The title tag is one of the most important tags in your website/webpage/blog if we are talking about SEO. Search engines prioritize this tag when someone search for a certain keyword. Though to the ordinary blog readers, it is nothing but a simple title at the upper left hand side of their browser, to the search engine, it gives a hint of what your blog contains. And they give so much weight on this tag. Therefore, we must manipulate this tag in order for our blog to have a better search engine ranking.

By default, most Blogger blogs have their blog title inside the title tag, because all the default templates have this code on their template:

<title><$BlogTitle$></title>

However, if you are talking about a specific subject in your blog, it is better that the title of your post be included in the title tag, so that search engine can easily see your blog post and give your blog a better ranking on their results page. In order to do this, modify the above title tag as follows: (Simply copy and paste it on your Blogger template replacing the title tag above)

<title><$BlogTitle$><MainPage><Blogger> | <$BlogItemTitle$></Blogger></MainPage><ItemPage><Blogger> | <$BlogItemTitle$></Blogger></ItemPage></title>

With the code above, your title tag will contain the title of your blog plus the title of your blog posts seperated by the pipe sign (|) on the main page. Just limit your blog post to 2 or 3 on the main page, otherwise, you will have a very long title tag which search engines might ignore. Same thing will happen on the permalink pages, with the blog title and post title on the title tag. Just navigate this blog to see the results of that code if you don't get what I mean. =)

That's all folks! Happy weekend!

UPDATE: For Blogger Beta, refer to this Widget-Based XML post.

Technorati Tags: title tag, blog optimization, search engine optimization, blogtimize, blogtimization

Link exchange

When I started learning SEO, I found out that one of the common activity that a blogger do that makes SEO easy is link exchanging. It was already my habit exchanging links with my fellow blogger. Most bloggers I know do the same. Link exchanging as soon as their sidebar goes longer and longer. My personal blog got a long list of blogs on the sidebar that I decided to use a dropdown menu to save some space.

My goal when I link exchange is just to have a list of bloggers on my sidebar and to have my blog listed on them. I just want to make my blog popular. The more links out there, the higher the probability that readers of their blog will click on it and visit my blog. I never thought that the link exchanges I made can boost my search engine ranking. Only now that I studied SEO I understand the value of link exchanging. Aside from the fact that my blog became popular, the search engines saw it as a credible source of information, putting my blog on the first few pages of their results page. With a higher ranking on the results page, I got search-engine-reffered visitors. Visitors that came looking for something. Visitors that click on my Google Adsense advertisements when they are not satisfied with the content of my blog, which in turn gave me some blog money on my Adsense account. Cool!

Let's exchange links to optimize our blogs. The more links to our blog, the more search engine-reffered visitors we have, the more blog money we can have!

Just an update, I'm already on my $60 mark. $40 to go and Google will send my first Adsense paycheck. I'm hoping to receive it by October.

That's all folks!

Technorati Tags: Google Adsense, link exchange, blog money, blog optimization

Blogger beta launched

If you are using Blogger in your blog, you probably noticed the change on the sign-on screen. It says, "Sign in with your Blogger or Google account." Hhmmm, when I first saw this, I thought, they are doing some major changes on Blogger. And yes, they are! They launched Blogger beta yesterday! A new range of features are waiting for us. I just hope I can switch to Blogger beta soon. Read more about this development here.

Spams in blogs

First. What are spams in blogs? These are comments made by spammers to promote their site. These are usually done by a spammer application, spamming hundreds or thousands or millions of blogs in just one crawling.

You may ask, what do they get from spamming other's blog? Nobody click on those links, anyway? Yeah, you are right. I don't even click on them either. So, why are they doing this? They do these to influence search engine rankings. You see, the more links you have to your website, the more "credible" your site is to the point of view of a search engine. The more credible your site is, the more likely it goes to the first page of search engine rankings. Imagine a site having millions of incoming links versus a site with 10 incoming links. Surely, search engine will display the first site first.

Now, who among you like spams? Nobody. Of course, if I want a comment in my blog, it should be relevant to what I'm talking about and not from anyone giving his poker or casino site. Hehehe. The proliferation of these comment spams gives every blogger a headache. And Blogger blogs are among the victims of these comment spams. As a solution, Blogger provided a new feature to fight these comment spams. This is the word verification option, which is also known as captcha in the computing world. But this feature is not automatically available by default. You need to do some setup changes in order to enable it. When this feature is enabled, you are sure that humans are the one making comments on your blog and not machine doing its spamming job. Refer to this article in Blogger help to enable this.

That's all folks!

Optimizing your Blogger template

Inside AdSense, the official blog of Google Adsense has a very good article on optimizing AdSense on blogs. Read about it here. I religiously followed their suggestions and saw significant increase on my blog money. But still, I'm not satisfied with the result that I continued experimenting. You'll notice that my ad positioning now is quite different from their suggestion on that article. After wrapping around the blog post to the ads, I see a significant 50% increase on my average blog money per day. So far, this positioning is the best for me. But I'm not yet done. If I can still think of a better ad position, I might test it again next week.

The challenge of putting Google AdSense on Blogspot blog is the Adsense maximum ad placement of 3 ad units, 1 link unit, 2 Google search box and 4 referral button (1 per product) on each page. This is the first challenge that I have to face when I started my blogtimization. The article on Inside AdSense shows proper positioning, but how to do it exactly on Blogger was never mentioned.

My initial thoughts were these: If I am going to put an ad after each post as a "commercial break", and I limit the post display to 2 on the main page, it's fine on the main page but what will happen to the archive page? Surely, I will have one ad per post, and if I have 10 post in a month, that will be 10 ads in a single archive page! It's a sure violation of Google Adsense policies. Then, what if I remove the archive page? For me, a blog without the archive page is not a blog.

Well, I was able to sort things out after searching the Blogger help. I found three Blogger tags that solved my problem. These are the MainPage, ArchivePage and ItemPage tags. What do these tags do? Blogger call them as conditional tags. Read all about them here.

Using these tags, I was able to manipulate how ads display on each item page, archive page and main page. You can check this blog, or my text messages blog and you will see that I display ads differently on the Main Page, Item Page and Archive Page. But still, I stick with their policy on the maximum number of ads per page.

If you are serious on putting ads on your blog, start learning these tags so that you can blogtimize your template the way you want it.

-----

Now, as promised, I'm giving away free blogtimized Blogger templates. I'm going to share with you my templates I used on this blog and on textmates. You are free to edit the templates in anyway you want. I just want one favor in return for this free template. Simple and easy, just write one blog post in your blog about this blog. Say anything you want, it doesn't matter, as long as you have a post in your blog with a link to this blog. Then, send me an e-mail at marhgil(at)yahoo(dot)com stating your name and the link to the blog post. And a bonus, if you link my four blogs (kukote in a jar, textmates, kukote meets the beauties and this blog) on your sidebar, I will give you a copy of "SEO Made Easy" pdf file from which I learned much of the SEO practices that I applied on my blogs. I'll send the templates at least once a week depending on the number of requests. Deal or no deal?

Let's blogtimize to blognetize!

Know Thy Visitors

Know your visitors first. What countries were they coming from? Were they reffered by search engines? If they were, what keywords did they use to find your blog? What is their browser? Did they use Firefox or Internet Explorer? What screen resolution are they using? Is it 1024x768 or 800x600? After reading your blog, which link did they click?

You need to know these data so that you know where to start. You need to optimize your blog based on these data. As for me, I optimized my blog so that they are both viewable on Firefox and IE, 1024x768 resolution and 800x600. Majority of my visitors use those settings on their computer, so, I have to make sure that my blog is viewable on these settings.

You don't have to do too much SEO if your blog is already performing well on search engines. If you are using one of the default blogger templates and already blogging for more than 6 months, chances are your blog is already search engine optimized. All you have to do is Adsense optimization.

You might be thinking, "Hey, how would I gather these data?" How would you know if your blog is already search engine optimized? I am using Performancing service and Google Analytics service. They are free, all you have to do is sign-up, put a little amount of code in your template and you are set. Actually, I just recently signed-up with Google Analytics. After signing up, I was overwhelmed because they provide too much information. Well, Performancing is good enough to gather these data, but if you want more information, try Google Analytics.

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To keep us inspired on blogtimizing... see what Abe of Yugatech got because of blogging. Click here!

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Do you want a blogtimized template for your blogspot blog? Watch out for my next post to know how you can get one.

Happy weekend guys! Happy blogtimizing!

Let's blogtimize to blognetize!

This is a continuation of my previous post.

So, you're interested in blognetization? Based on my experience, the key to blognetization is blogtimization. When I say blogtimization, it is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Adsense Optimization combined.

Why is this so? Let me give you an example: My textmates blog. Regular visitors will never click on any ad even though it's Adsense optimized. When I say Adsense optimized, ads were properly positioned on a higher click rate percentage. Text addicts that came back every week to copy the text messages will not click on any ad. Not ever. Trust me. They'll just come, copy the text messages and go.

But hey, I'm earning much of my blog money on that blog? How come? Because that blog is also search engine optimized. Try searching "text messages" (without the quotes) on MSN, and you will see that blog appearing on the first page of their results page. Out of millions of website having the keyword "text messages" (without the quotes), my text message blog appeared on the first page. Try searching "funniest philippine text messages" (without the quotes) on Google and see where my blog ranks. Based on my statistics, 60% of my visitors came from search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. These search-engine-referred visitors are the source of my blog money. Why?

Imagine this. I am a web user. I want to look for websites where I can copy text messages. I went to MSN and type "text messages" and I reached the textmates blog. But I'm not satisfied with the result. I want more. Do you think, I will still go back to MSN to search again or will I click on the ads on that blog? Google Adsense is intelligent; it shows relevant ads depending on your content. In my textmates blog, you will notice that the advertisements from Google are related to text messages. And it is positioned strategically (Adsense optimized) so that visitors can easily see it. Once the visitor clicked the ads, a certain amount of money is transferred to my Google Adsense account, which will be sent to me when it reached $100.

I started blogtimizing my blogs last June 15 when I started that textmates blog. After 1.5 months, I already earned $40+. Click here for proof. I saw dramatic changes on my earnings after 2 weeks, after a series of experimentation on ad positioning and after that blog started showing up on search engine results page (SERPs).

This is the purpose of this blog. We'll learn blogtimization for an ultimate goal of blognetization. Why should we blogtimize? In order to blognetize. You enjoyed blogging, you're blogging for free. Why not enjoy blogging and get paid on what you enjoy doing? Search engine optimization is easy, Adsense optimization is easy, and you’ll just blogtimize for the first couple of weeks or months depending on your goal. After that, blog money will start pouring in your Google Adsense account.

I think, I already talked too much. I think, you already see my point. Let's blogtimize to blognetize!

Let's blognetize!

Let's learn some few words first. Blognetization and blognetize.

What is blognetization? The term is a portmanteau made by contracting the phrase "blog monetization". No, as of now, you cannot find the term anywhere on the web. I just made it myself. Try googling and no one has ever mentioned the term. So, it means that I own this term, hehehe. Because I'm the one who first mentioned it on the web! Blognetize is obviously the verb counterpart of blognetization. The act of monetizing your blog is blognetization and to blognetize means to monetize your blog. Ok? And another term, the money you earned by blognetization, let me call it as blog money.

Ok, let me tell you my story first. I first learned blognetization when I heard about Google Adsense. I tried it myself, I put some Google Ads on my blog, and waited if I will really earn some money... but to my disappointment! I was just earning an average of US$1.00 per month! And since Google Adsense promised to pay only when I reached an earning of US$100.00, the current earning rate meant that I will get my first paycheck after 100 months, or after 8 years and 4 months! So, I therefore concluded then that blognetization was not for me. Maybe, it's for those blogs with high traffic only since Google Adsense pays on per impression basis and per click basis. With a blog traffic of just 100 - 150 hits per day, I told myself that this is not gonna work. But still, I did not delete the Adsense code. What if I'm still blogging after 8 years and 4 months? Then maybe, I'll get my first $100 paycheck. Hehehe.

I have read numerous blog post about Google Adsense saying that it did not work for them. And since my experience was the same, I can relate so much. The main reason why we failed was none of our visitors click the advertisement, or the percentage was very small, about one in 10,000. How could I earn with such click rate if I only have 100-150 visitors per day? Most of my visitors are co-bloggers who don't care clicking on any advertisement, they just want to read my blog post, put some comments, and go.

Despite this failure, I continued experimenting. I tried Adbrite. But the results were the same. But still, I continued searching for techniques. Until I found the key to blognetization! Yeah! I found out that what I did on my previous months of Google Adsensing was hilarious! Analogously, it's just like this: When I found out that boxing makes Manny Pacquiao wealthy, I bought some boxing gloves, went to the boxing ring with a tough opponent expecting to win. Of course, I failed. Surely, anyone with that kind of thinking will fail. In order for me to win that boxing fight, I need to learn how to box like Manny Pacquiao.

Ok, forget Manny. Let's get back to blognetization. What I found out is that you can really blognetize your blog and earn some blog money! Really. No, I don't go into click fraud if that is what you're thinking. When I started applying the key to blognetization, my US$1.00 per month became US$1 per day! With that rate, I'm expecting to earn my first Google Adsense paycheck in less than 4 months! Forget the eight years! Hahaha!

$100 for others is just a small money. But for me, an extra $100 on my pocket every four months is better than having nothing at all. Right?

Are you interested on learning more? Wait for my next post as I reveal the key to blognetization. In the mean time, subscribe to Google Adsense first, you can find the link on the sidebar of this blog. It's free, so you have nothing to worry about. Just wait for my next post!

to be continued...

Update (08/01/06) : Continuation here.

related readings:
Google's Hidden Payroll

Technorati Tags: Google Adsense, Blog Monetization, blognetization, blog money

My Blogging History II

This is a continuation of my previous post.

Comments came when I learned the art of blog hopping. I hopped from one blog to another, reading their entries and posting a message on their tag boards. I found out that unlike ordinary readers, bloggers love to comment. Unless you're a celebrity blogger, most comments on your blog will come from other bloggers. And of course, the most commented post will be the one with a good content.

When comments came, I became more addicted to blogging; posting entries at least once a day. I even post up to a maximum of 5 entries in one day. Posting anything that came into my mind, ranging from my weird experiences on a taxi cab, weird thoughts, weird things I've observed, a forwarded e-mail that caught my attention, lyrics of songs, and so on.

Aside from posting, I learned many things on blogging. I learned to edit the template. I learned to add a tag board. I learned to put streaming background music on my blog. I learned to collect statistics data on my blog. And finally, I learned to monetize my blog! Yeah, I'm currently earning some blog money now. These are the things that I want to discuss on this blog... the things that I learned, and the things that I am currently learning, ranging from template editing up to blog monetization.

So, that’s basically how I started blogging. I think, that's enough for my blogging history. Next time, I'll post a real blogtimization post.

My Blogging History I

Before I start posting anything about blogtimization, let me tell you my story on how I got hooked on blogging.

I started blogging 2 years ago, on February 2004, using the free service of my-diary.org. I didn't have any idea of the word "blog" then. All I wanted then was to have a way to kill boredom by writing all my experiences online. I searched for "online diary" and from then on, I started writing about my life. I was in Kuwait during that time.

The service of my-diary was very limited. It just gave you a place to write your thoughts. You cannot post picture, you cannot do anything except writing. But still, I used the service for almost 5 months. You can check out my first blog here.

Then, the word "blog" came to me when I saw penoy's blog then, the penoycentral.com. He was one of my classmates during college. It seemed to me that he was really hooked up on blogging that he even purchased his own domain name for his blog. (Note: Penoycentral.com is not online anymore, Penoy is now blogging on penoycentral.blogspot.com.)

I searched for the word "blog" on google and checked if there were free blogging services available, and I found Blogger.com. I signed-up immediately and studied how things work on blogger. And since then, I blogged, I blogged and I blogged.

During my first months of blogging, I didn't know if anyone was actually reading my blog. I didn't have a tagboard, I didn't have a hit counter, I didn't have a tool for tracking traffic on my blog. No one bothered commenting on my posts. But I didn't care. I just continued blogging. Not really. During that time, I was so curious on how other people's blog got so many visitors and comments.

So, I decided to "advertise" my blog. I put a link of my blog on my e-mail signature. I enlisted my blog on different blog directories. I put a link of my blog on my Yahoo Messenger status. But still, I was not satisfied with the results. I was waiting for comments on my post, and still, zero comments everyday. Some of my friends on Yahoo Messenger read my blog, but they didn't bother writing comments. They just like reading it. They didn't feel oblige to comment. And I didn't want to force people to comment on my post, I wanted the comments to come naturally.

to be continued...

Update (07/31/06) : Continuation here.

Introduction

What is Blogtimizer? A person who blogtimize. I got the idea of the term blogtimize here. Well, it did not say there that the term is copyrighted, so, I thought that I might as well use the term. Well, if it is copyrighted, kindly inform me and I will immediately put the credits on you. But I prefer to use the term not only for optimizing ads on your blogs, but for any kind of optimization related to blogs. Anyway, it's a portmanteau of the word "blog" and "optimize." It could be search engine optimization, content optimization, template optimization, and of course, adsense optimization. No, I'm not an expert on these subjects. I'm actually a newbie on these, except on blogging. So, what is this blog all about? This blog will be my notebook. I am currently interested on these subjects, and I want to log all the information that I learned about these subjects. This could be helpful to you or to me or to anyone. Well, I don't guarantee that you'll get an expert opinion when you read and apply these information to your blog, all I can guarantee you is that I am applying all these optimization tips and tricks on my blog. If it works for me, it might as well work for you.

So, that's it. I'll be posting more topic soon!