Dare to be Great

                                 

Welcome Back to Google Adsense!

By Spencer Haws

I have a new Google Adsense account, and I have been successfully using it for the past couple of months and I’ve been paid twice! So, I have no reason to believe I will have another “run in” with Google.

I have kept quiet about it on my blog up until this point, because I wanted to ensure that it stayed active.  I’m extremely happy with the results, and I want to share exactly what happened.

A few short months ago, I wrote one of the most difficult posts I have ever had to write.  The empty feeling that I had when I found out at that time that I had been banned from Google Adsense was almost overwhelming.  The news hit me like a dumptruck of bricks, and I know many of you also had the same experience or at least felt the pain I was having as well.

But today is a new day and I now have Google Adsense back on all my old sites and lots of new sites that I have created.  I’m extremely happy with the results I have seen so far!  Let me give a breakdown of the timeline of events that have taken place, and then I will share exactly how I got a new Adsense account.

What Happened?

In early April, I got the dreaded email from Google Adsense that stated in part this:

After reviewing our records, 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. Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will
both be fully refunded back to the affected advertisers.

Ouch.  Adsense account closed and all the money I had earned was gone.  This was no small amount either because I was not paid for everything I earned in March, and everything I had accumulated from April was also gone – these combined were well over $10,000 (I don’t know the exact amount because once you are banned, you can’t even log in to your account).

I started testing Adsense alternatives that I discussed here, such as Infolinks, Kontera network, Vibrant Media, and others. Some of these performed better than others, but none were ever very close to the high payouts that I was earning from Adsense.  This has all been shared previously on my blog.

However, what has not been shared is that in late April, I decided to form a NEW business entity and apply for Google Adsense with that new LLC.  I was approved in under 24 hours.  So, this new LLC of mine has had an approved Google Adsense account since late April.  I started implementing the Adsense code onto my old sites just a couple of weeks later.

I waited to publicly share this information because I wanted to be sure that I would get paid again.  I wanted to see if placing the Adsense code on my old sites (from a previously banned Google Adsense account) would also ban this new Adsense account.  This is not the case!

My new business entity has been paid twice now.  I received payment from Google at the end of June and I just received another payment a few days ago.  So, the new Adsense account is alive, active, and paying me without any issues.  This raises the mystery even a little more as to why my original Adsense account was banned.  However, I am doing a few things differently now, which I share below.

How I Got a New Adsense Account

I want to clarify how I got approved to a new Adsense account.  As I mentioned, the new Adsense account is NOT in my name – its in the name of a new legal business entity.  So, absolutely nothing is the same between my old Adsense account and this new account.  Everything is different including:

• Account owner (business entity)
• Address
• Phone number
• Bank account information
• Tax information
• You get the idea…EVERYTHING is different.

Also, to clarify; I don’t believe I am doing anything against Google’s Terms of Service.  Google clearly states that a business entity is allowed to have its own account – this is what I have done.  I am personally (in my own name) never able to have an Adsense account, and I don’t.

All the information is different on the business account so that the sites can be judged on their own merits.  At this point, Google has approved them, paid me, and I have no reason to believe that my sites and account are not fully in compliance with all of Google’s Terms of Service.

In order to apply, I created a brand new site to submit for approval to Adsense.  The new site had about 7 to 10 pages of content (all brand new), had a premium theme, and a logo.  The account and site were approved in less than 24 hours.

In the Public Eye = More Risk

I debated with several people and myself as to whether I should be sharing publicly that I’m using Google Adsense again.  I fully understand that this puts me and my business at risk.  I also am well aware that many of you out there probably think this is a REALLY bad move on my part.  But in the end, this is my business, and its my decision.

I have always tried to be open with how I do business, so I feel like this is important to share since its such a critical piece to how I operate.  So, even if this negatively affects my business, I believe the advice I share here can help many others.

Having a public blog will always put me at more risk, and I accept this.  I highly doubt anyone from Google actually reads my lowly little blog here, but there are other risks. (If they do: Hi Google Peeps!) Shady individuals copy my niche sites (I have seen blatant copying), or perhaps this raises my chances of getting clickbombed.  I don’t know.  But I do know that publicly sharing this and other information opens me up to criticism, more scrutiny, and other risky side effects.

But in the end, I know this information is valuable to others, and is exactly would I would want if I was reading someone else’s blog.

What I’m Doing Differently

This of course makes me wonder why my account was shut down in the first place.  However, I have changed my sites in some instances to make them less aggressive.

I was contacted by a former Google Adsense employee who explained that if your sites are generating an unusually high CTR, this could be reason for getting your account shut down.  Perhaps this was the reason for my account closure?  I will admit that when I first started building niche sites in 2008 and 2009, I was using the BlueSense theme with a VERY aggressive ad placement.

However, all my sites since that time were using more traditional themes, with very normal ad placements (as suggested by Google).  I never changed these early BlueSense theme sites, so perhaps this led to my demise?  I really don’t know.

So, here is what I have done to ensure that I don’t get my account shut down again.

• Went through every single one of my sites and removed any BlueSense or other themes that look unprofessional (i.e. Look like they were made for Adsense).  I installed more aesthetically pleasing themes with less agressive ad placements.  This has caused a decrease in CTR, but I believe its well worth it.
• Made sure I did not have too many ads above the fold.  If all you can see is ads above the fold, this is too many.

Finally, another reason that people have gotten their Adsense accounts shut down is due to click bombing.  I am looking into options to help prevent clickbombing on my sites as well.  I’ll share what I find as I have a chance to fully review different options.

As I’ve discovered, there is no good replacement for Google Adsense when it comes to small niche sites.  Google’s advertising network is just so large that others really just cannot compete on the same level.

If your business model is different or if you are targeting specific keywords; then other networks or CPA offers may work better.  But for the types of keywords that I like to target, and the types of sites that I like to build – Adsense is the best advertising option.

Overall, I’m excited to be back to using Google Adsense!

READ MORE: nichepursuits.com

Tigers

                             

Link an AdSense account to an Analytics account

To start receiving data from AdSense within your Google Analytics account, you must first choose an Analytics account to link AdSense to. If you don’t already have an Analytics account, visit the Google Analytics website to sign up for a new account.

Before you start the linking process, make sure you're using a Google Account AdSense login that has both Administrator access to your AdSense account and Administrator access to your Analytics account.

If you're trying to link a new account and either your Google Analytics account or your Google AdSense account is now closed, then you'll need to re-open the closed account and remove the link before you can link to another account.

To link your AdSense account:

1. Click the gear icon  and select Settings from the drop-down list.
2. In the sidebar, select Access and authorization, then click Google Analytics integration.
3. On the “Google Analytics integration” page, click Link next to the Analytics account that you want to link to your AdSense account. A new window opens and you’re taken to your Analytics account.
4. In Analytics, click Link Accounts.
5. In the dialog that appears, specify your primary Analytics property and Analytics views, then click Continue.
   Your primary and secondary Analytics properties are listed under the AdSense tab, and your AdSense and Analytics accounts are now linked.

Please allow at least 24 hours for the data to populate in your reports. If you're having trouble linking your accounts, check our linking AdSense and Analytics accounts FAQs.

Once you've linked your AdSense and Analytics accounts, your next step is to set up the code you’ll need to track your AdSense sites in Analytics.

READ MORE: support.google.com

Beatles

                                  

Google Launches AdSense Direct, A New Tool For Direct Ad Sales

By Frederic Lardinois

Google today launched AdSense Direct, a new tool for publishers who – as the name implies – want to sell ads directly and aren’t large enough to make dealing with the complexities of DoubleClick for Publishers worth their while.

This puts it into direct competition withiSocket, BuySellAds and other services that make it easier for smaller publishers to sell ads directly. This also marks Google’s first foray into this area of the advertising business for small publishers. AdSense, after all, has always been about programmatically choosing ads to display on a given site based on the content on the site and Google’s knowledge of what a specific reader is likely interested in.

With AdSense Direct, which is currently only available in the U.S., publishers can make deals with individual advertisers – no matter whether the publisher is on AdWords or not. Publishers can simply give potential advertisers a link to their AdSense Direct page and all the publishers have to do is upload their creative and pay for the ad.

Google takes a 15 percent cut from all AdSense Direct transactions. All invoicing and billing is handled through Google Wallet.

There are no upper or lower limits for the number of impressions served through one of these campaigns, by the way. Advertisers simply buy the space for a given day or longer time period, though campaigns can’t last longer than 90 days.

As a site becomes more popular, direct ad deals tend to be far more lucrative than just running basic AdSense ads. Google recommends a price when publishers set up a new campaign and the company says its research has shown that publishers can generally charge about 2.5x the price of a standard contextually targeted ad.

READ MORE: techcrunch.com

Your Fear of Looking Stupid is Holding you Back!

                             

How I Increased My Adsense Earnings 80% With One Simple Test

BY Bob Lotich

In my new book, Pro-Blogging Secrets, I spend a lot of time talking about some of my favorite ways to increase earnings from our blogs. This is a simple and easy tip that you can use today and see an increase in earnings.

For years, I've told bloggers that if they simply start testing different variations with their Adsense units, they can increase their earnings over night.

Those who took me up on it have confirmed there's a lot of money left on the table. But for those who don't ever do testing, I assume it's because it seems too difficult to figure out how to do it.

Well, Adsense has finally made it very easy for us to test a lot of different variations right from the Adsense dashboard.

First, log in to your Adsense account and click the "My Ads" tab. On the left side, click "Experiments."

This will lead you to a page that looks like this:

Now, hit the "Create" button to get started on your first variation.

Now, you can fill out the title and details of what you want to test. I suggest testing different colors of links, display ads vs. text ads, and, possibly, fonts.

Under the "Variations" area, select an ad unit you would like to test. To get the quickest results I suggest testing your most popular ad unit first.

In this particular test, I'm testing display ads compared to text and display ads. The original is display ads only, and for this variation, I just need to fill out how I want my text ads to appear.

After that's complete, you just need to hit "Start Experiment," and Google does the rest of the work for you. Google will auto-confirm the winner after you give enough impressions. Or you can end the test at any point if you feel there's a good enough chance that one is better than the other.

READ FULL ARTICLE:  huffingtonpost.com

I Want to Live Not just Survive

Best Adsense Tricks: 7 Small Business Ideas to Grow your Daily Income

Starting a small business is not an easy step for a person who never knows how to make money on Internet. But there are many ways you can choose and start earning the right and straight way. All you need is the patience and time. Because every successful earner on Internet never earned at beginning. People fed up too quickly when they never see any earning coming out from their websites or business. Here are some quick ideas you can choose and start your small business to grow up your daily income.

1. Earn though AdSense

   
   
   Start a website. Choose any topic you are interested most and can write with relax. For example if you can write on fitness, go and start a fitness advice website. Populate your website with useful content daily. Submit it into different search engines and directories to get few link backs. Remember, take care of your visitors and never thought about any money at least during the first month. Then go and sign up for google AdSense and embed AdSense ads in your website. Try harder, promote it and you’ll be getting $$ in your AdSense account.
   Now start another website and double your income. Do it again and again. It needs time but it is the simplest method you can try.

2. Earn with Affiliate Marketing

   Getting income from affiliate marketing is another quick way to go. Start promoting other people’s products though any affiliate network like Commission Junction, LinkShare, NeverBlueAds etc. Use generic website and SEO traffic to sell products or use PPC(pay per click) advertisement networks like adwords, YPN (Yahoo Publisher Network) and MSN adcenter. PPC is the quickest way to go.

3. Start website Flipping

   Website flipping is an old but still successful idea to earn huge profits. Buy some new and old (expired) domains and put related contents on them. Build as many links as you can. Generate some traffic and page rank and then Sell it. You can get a good amount of profit from every website you flipped out.

4. Start Blogging

   Blogging is the most successful and easy idea to get income daily. You can blog on anything. Just choose a favorite topic of yours, buy a domain, a hosting account, install wordpress and start blogging. Promote your blog and build as many commentator’s community as you can. I personally started a blog few days ago and i am getting daily 30 to 40 hits from google within just 2 days. All was because of good and quality content. You can then use different advertisement networks or sell advertisement space to different bigger companies or blog owners. You can earn up to $2000 per blog per week easily if you work harder.

5. Work as a Freelance

   Everyone have some kind of special skill. For example, I am an excellent php developer and I know i have done so many things in php that no-body was able to do. I use my php skills to earn a lot of profit from freelance sites like eLance, rentacoder etc. You can also do the same. It does not matter if you don’t know php. If you are good designer, have good English and can write articles, a good system administrator or any skill. You can still use your skills to work as a Freelance.

6. Develop your own Products

   If you are a good brain stormer , think and create some unique product that no-body have done before and hire some developer/designers to build that product. Launch it . Believe me nothing but this idea is one of the best and long tail earning way.

7. Write E-Books and promote them

   There are people who earned thousands every week by selling their ebooks. E-book is a very successful business these days. You can write on any topic, like Internet Marketing, health & fitness, beauty etc. Write the ebook yourself or get some ghost content writer to do so. Writing an e-book is not harder. I have written my first e-book in just 4 days on (Wordpress).

READ MORE: bestadsensetricks

Animals

17 Wordpress Plugins For AdSense

By Stan Schroeder

Like it or not, many blogs survive thanks to Google AdSense - a fact that's leading some to debate the use of ad blocking software. However, implementing and tweaking AdSense ads on a Wordpress blog can be tedious. We've gathered 17 Wordpress plugins which help you implement, control and overview AdSense ads on your blog.

Adsense Deluxe - probably the most popular and perhaps the best AdSense plugin out there, AdSense Deluxe lets you automatically insert ads (it works with Yahoo ads, too) into your posts or pages. Very configurable and yet simple to use. (at the time of this writing, the official link for this plugin is dead. Hopefully, it's just temporary.)

AdSense Widget for Wordpress Sidebar - Add AdSense to your Wordpress sidebar in the form of a widget.

Shylock AdSense - another plugin for easy integration of AdSense ads into your blog; has an interesting feature that lets you set particular ads into blog posts which are more than X days old.

Adsense Injection - random Adsense injection into your blog.

AdMan - integrates ads directly inside your blog posts. Compatible with AdSense.

AdSense Manager - a fully featured AdSense manager. Use the latest version only, as older versions had some issues with the AdSense terms and conditions.

AdRotator - afraid of adblindness? AdRotator rotates (doh!) your AdSense ads, and combines them with other advertising programs.

AdSense Attachment - display extra content, like images, in a new page together with AdSense ads.

MightyAdsense - display AdSense ads without modifying the templates. Has a preview for ads in the Wordpress control panel.

Google Ad Wrap - show that pesky Google spider what content on your blog is really important

Adsense Inline - another plugin that makes inserting AdSense into your blog posts really easy.

Adsense Beautifier - places images next to your AdSense ads, which should increase the clickthrough rate. Be very careful with this one, as there's some controversy over whether this violates the AdSense T&C.

Author Adsense - split revenue between several blog authors on the same blog.

Author Adsense MU plugin - same as Author AdSense, only commercial and aimed only atWordpress MU (Multi User) users.

AdSense Sharing Revenue and Earnings System - another revenue sharing plugin for AdSense on Wordpress. Also shows you your earnings in real time.

Adsense Earnings Wordpress Plugin - always be in control of your AdSense earnings, right from the Wordpress Admin panel.

WP-AdsenseProfit - another plugin that shows you your AdSense earnings in real time.

READ MORE: mashable.com

We met for a Reason, Either you're a Blessing or a Lesson

                                   

7 Powerful Ideas To Increase Your Adsense Earning

Adsense being used by almost every blogger but not all extract the maximum out of it. Here are 10 powerful tips for you, which will help you to increase your Adsense earning. I’ve tried all these tips by myself and found it very useful. Hope it will work for you.

1. Blend Your Ad Units Perfectly Into Your Pages

When you insert your ad units into your pages you must blend them perfectly. By the word “blend” I mean, you have to match the color scheme of your ad units with the color scheme used in your webpages. For Eg, If your blog’s links are in red colors, use the same color for your ad units links.

This will make the ad units look more like normal links, which increases the chances of getting more clicks.

2. Choose The Ad Format That Works

After testing all the ad formats, people says certain ad formats perform better than others. Ad Formats like – 336×280, 250×250 and 780×90 works well in most cases, anyways it’s not guaranteed because not all sites are the same. You have to find out which ad format performs well in your site.

3. Block Unnecessary Ad Categories

Imagine your blog is about making money or related to technology and some cosmetics ads appear in your blog, that sounds awkward right? Those unrelated ads will never be clicked. It’s not necessary for you to display them in your blog, so you can block such categories from your Adsense account.

Go to your Adsense dashboard, go to Allow & Block Ads and choose General Categories from left sidebar. Now you can block unnecessary categories from appearing in your block.

4. Choose The Right Place To Insert The Ads

Placing the ad units in the place where it can be seen or have 100% coverage, will help you to get more clicks. You can place your ad units by following the Adsense heat map.

Placing ad units in the header and below the content are best place to embed your ad units. Remember, not all sites are the same, so if your ad units are not performing well even after following the Adsense heatmap, then you will have to experiment by placing the ad units in different places of your site and find the place which performs well.

5. Use Both Banner And Text Ads

Making your ad units to display both text and image/rich media ads, will increase the number of ads competing to appear on your site. More advertisers in the ad auction drives higher bids and more revenue for you. This is said by Google itself.

6. Get More Targeted Traffic

More targeted traffic, more revenue you can make with Adsense. That’s the reason why sites that get most of it’s traffic from search engine makes more money. You can build more targeted traffic by guest posting on sites on your niche, commenting, and participating in forums.

7. Sign Up To Adsense Newsletter

Sign up to Adsense newsletter, so that Google can send you more Adsense tips to increase your earnings. If you follow all their suggestions, you can make more money from Adsense than others do.

Hope it was helpful.

READ MORE: geeks4share.com

Smile More

                                 

Seven Tips For Achieving Optimal AdSense Setup

By Michael Johnston

OK, so you’ve reviewed your options for monetizing your website and decided that display advertising is one of the channels that has big potential. Great. Now what? Once you’ve signed up for AdSense, it’s time to start thinking about how exactly you’re going to incorporate ads into your site. Below are seven tips for getting AdSense up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible. (Sign up for the free MonetizePros newsletterfor more monetization tips and tricks.)

Tip #1: Use The Most Common Units

When you’re creating ad units within AdSense, you’ll be presented with several different dimensions. At the top are the “Recommended” sizes: 300 x 250, 336 x 280, 728 x 90, 160 x 600, and 320 x 50. Below are several other options for ad units, both big and small.

Size most definitely matters when setting up your AdSense units, and the five mentioned above are recommended for a reason. They are the sizes most commonly created by advertisers. Sticking to these standard sizes will increase your fill rate and ensure that you’re able to serve the ads that will drive clicks and earnings.

Here’s the IAB’s official display advertising guidelines–note the Universal Ad Package:

When you’re designing the layout for your website (more on this below) stick to the most commonly used sizes when it comes to your ads.

Tip #2: Use Multiple Sizes

When setting up your ads, be sure to include a bit of variety in your sizes. Building a page layout that features only 300 x 250 ad units, for example, can be a mistake. It will reduce the universe of ads from which AdSense is able to pull when attempting to fill your site, which means you might miss out on the opportunity to serve ads that would drive high CTRs and earnings. Moreover, failing to diversify your inventory can bite you down the road if you get an inquiry from an advertiser looking to pay premium CPMs to run a campaign that only has creative in one size.

Advanced Tip: If you have plans of selling ads directly to advertisers at some point in the future, make each page on your site identical in terms of the number of ad units it includes. Ideally, each page should have the same ad units in the same places. Down the road, this makes the inventory management process much easier.

Tip #3: Place Your Ads In Hot Spots

The most challenging part of setting up ad units on your website is figuring out exactly where they’re going to go. This is often a balancing act; you’ll want to come up with a site design that (literally) puts your ads in a position to succeed while also delivering a clean layout that provides a positive user experience (i.e., a site that just looks good).

Below is the official AdSense heatmap, which conveys some general rules of thumb for which areas of your webpage are most likely to attract eyeballs. The darker the zone where you place your ad units, the higher your CTRs and AdSense earnings will generally be.

Decisions about where to position ad units should be considered in conjunction with the two above; the decision of where to place your ad units is of course linked to the decision about how big your ads should be.

If you want more specific examples of layouts that work with AdSense, Spencer Haws has some good examples up at Niche Pursuits.

Tip #4: Watch Out For Pandas

Within the last few years Google introduced its page rank algorithm (affectionately known as “Panda”) as part of its shift toward visual search technology. Basically, the update was designed to penalize sites that displayed primarily ads “above the fold” and pushed any valuable content lower on the page. So if you came up with a layout that features your ads front and center while relegating the valuable content to below the fold, you might want to think again.

Below are the examples Google gives for layouts that highlight content (unlikely to be penalized) as well as one that pushes content below the fold (likely to be penalized):

Scott Blanchard of ClickBump has a great summary of what exactly the Panda update means for setting up your ads, along with a few examples of what to avoid. Anand Khanse at The Windows Club also has a good summary of the line you’ll need to walk when positioning your ad units.

Tip #5: Put Some Thought Into Color Schemes

As we highlighted in our recent post on ways to boost AdSense earnings, playing around with the visual presentation of text ads on your site (assuming you opt to show text ads) can be a high value activity. If you’re planning to show text ads, spend some time coming up with a layout that either blends with, complements, or contrasts with your site. Without your elections, AdSense will set you up with the “Google default” color scheme, with black texts, blue links, and a dark green URL.

John Saddington at TentBlogger has a good summary of the three general strategies. The official AdSense help guide also shows us some examples of the three approaches:

Once you’re up and running, you’ll want to come back and experiment with different mixes of text and color. But it won’t hurt to put some thought into this at the beginning.

Tip #6: Know Your Limits…And Push Them

If you’re using AdSense, you must be aware of the limitations imposed by Google. Specifically, there are caps on the number of ad units you’re able to have on your page:

• 3 ad units
• 3 link units
• 2 search boxes

You’ll need to comply with these guidelines in order to get approved, and you’ll want to be sure to remain in compliance afterwards (or risk getting booted).

But AdSense provides plenty of opportunities (eight to be exact) to generate revenue on each page. The limits above include three “link units” and two “search boxes”. A lot of website owners overlook these potential monetization sources when setting up ad units–which can obviously rob them of earnings.

A search box is simply a custom search engine that allows your users to look for content within your site. Along with the results from your site, Google will display some third party ads:

Link units are smaller ad units (many of them are just 15 pixels tall) with text-based ads. When placed at the end of your articles or other content, these link units can generate impressive CTRs and potentially boost your overall CPM by $1 or more. Here’s an example of a link unit at the top of a page:

Tip #7: Plan Ahead For Experiments

A critical component of any website monetization plan is experimentation. No matter how much thought you put into it, your first layout probably won’t be the strategy that maximizes your AdSense earnings. But don’t worry; you’ll get there eventually–assuming you experiment regularly with different strategies and layouts.

Wherever possible, do a favor to your future self and make it easy to rearrange the sections of your site. If you’re adding a 728 x 90 leaderboard at the top, think ahead to an experiment that may involve removing that leaderboard and putting another unit below the fold. Or set aside real estate that may be used later as an alternative position for a link unit. There’s no exact set of directions for following this tip; just think ahead, and do your best to make your site layout as flexible as possible.

Bottom Line

Not all website layouts are created equal, particularly when it comes to the potential to generate AdSense earnings. Decisions that may seem minor can end up having a big impact on how much money you ultimately make from display advertising. Follow the tips above to put your site in a position to succeed.

READ MORE: monetizepros.com