AdSense Explained - How To Make Money With AdSense

If you have a blog or website (or would like to create one) you can make money by signing up for Google's AdSense and then displaying their ads on your webpages. In this article we describe how AdSense works and give pointers for optimizing the revenue you can generate with it.

Through AdSense, you allow Google to display ads on your site or blog. You've probably come across many pages with blocks of ads with the text 'Ads from Google' next to them. Technically, AdSense works so you put a small piece of scripting code on your page and with this, ads from Google are shown automatically.

You make money when someone clicks on these online ads. Google will not tell you how much they will pay you before you sign up – they encourage you to join and then you'll see what you'll make as the revenue starts building. The reason is that they give you a percentage of the revenue they generate for the click on an ad. And the value of such a click varies with the content of the page, since Google displays ads on a webpage matching its content. A webpage about traveling is thus likely to display ads for airplane tickets, hotels, travel insurance and similar. Having ads related to the topic of the webpage is a way of making it more likely that a visitor will click on an ad. And since Google makes money per click on ads, they are keen on making as many visitors as possible click. The amount of visitors who click on an ad, divided by the number of visitors seeing it, is known as the click through rate or CTR.

If you already have a website or blog and wish to place AdSense ads on it, Google will match ads to the content already there. This means you have less influence over the theme of the ads and thereby the revenue they generate for Google and for you. If however you create a new website or blog with the purpose of making money online, you have a choice of theme for the content you produce. If you produce content for which advertisers pay a high price for clicks on ads, you will obviously generate good revenue for yourself.

Google finds its advertisers through their AdWords product. This works, so advertisers sign up and make bids for certain keywords. The advertisers with the highest bid for a certain keyword will have their ads shown first on pages where Google has matched the content to the keyword. This means that the clicks will pay well on ads on pages with content related to keywords with high bids. To determine which keywords pay well you can use Google's keyword tool, found via the links below.

There are many – and sometimes contradictory – pieces of advice for placing ads on pages in order to achieve a high click through rate. You can decide what size of ad block you want and also decide about colors of text and background. This means that you can create big ads with loud colors in order to make sure that visitors see the ads. You can also do the opposite, which is to try to blend the ads into your webpage, by giving them the same font size, and font and background color as the rest of the page. Finally, you can place graphics around the ads in order to liven up the sometimes dull text ads Google provides. Google will not display more than three ad units on a given page – bear this in mind when designing a page. Trial and error seems to be the best way to optimize the appearance of ads.

Signing up to the program is completely free and quite simple. Putting the scripting code on a page is similarly very simple – you simple copy and paste the code provided by Google. Follow the links below to sign up for Google AdSense.

Note that Yahoo!, MSN and others offer similar programs and you can check them out too, to find out what generates the most revenue for you.

Last a few warnings. You may think that you can sign up and spend your day sitting at home clicking the ads on your site to generate revenue. This would however constitute what is commonly known as click fraud. When you sign up for AdSense you have to agree that you will not click on your own ads. You also have to agree that you will not encourage your visitors to click by including text like "please click the ads below" or "visit our sponsors". While a lot of people certainly try to cheat – and some get away with it – you should know that Google do what they can to detect cheating and will kick anyone off the program who they find to be breaking the rules.

Visit our resources page for links to sign up for Google's AdSense and for Google's keyword tool.

About the author:
Andrew Nielsen is the author of The Online Business Builder, a bestselling eBook teaching readers how to profit from the Internet and make money online.

Article source: AdSense explained

The Problem With Google

If you do a search on Google for "shop for ping pong balls" it is probably because you are looking for the best offers for ping pong balls available on the Internet. Google is however more likely to show you results with websites which are optimized for the keywords in your search, rather than the websites with the best offers. In this article we explore why this is so, and what search engine optimization means for the Internet and companies wanting to make money on the Internet.

Search engines assign a rank to webpages in order to assign different importance to the different pages. The general idea is that the higher the rank of a page is, the higher it will be displayed in search results. Slightly simplified, the more inbound links a page has, the higher a rank search engines will assign to the page. A link from a page with a high rank is assigned a higher importance than a link from a page with a lower rank. Other factors are considered too of course - a link from a page about ping pong balls appears to be considered more important to a ping pong ball website than a link from a page about some unrelated topic. And another very important aspect is that the content of a page is matched with the keywords used for the search.

The idea behind assigning of such a rank is that a page is considered to vote for another page by linking to it. This generally makes good sense as I - and other website administrators - are likely to link to a page which has information that I find good and useful. The problem with it is that I - as a website administrator - will do my best to get as many good inbound links to my site as I can in order to develop my online business. As few other websites link to my website by themselves - despite my wonderful product - I engage in link building and search engine optimization. By this, I mean that I try to get inbound in a number of ways. I post messages on forums about earning money on the Internet, get listed in dodgy directories and write articles which are posted on numerous websites. I am not the only website administrator who works this way. And unfortunately, not everyone produces content of as high quality as myself. On the website where you're reading this article, by far the most information was produced simply to let website administrators get inbound links from content with the keywords they target. This is also why you find the term "making money online" throughout this article. The quality of an article needs to just be good enough to be accepted on the site and the author has achieved what he or she wants.

So there we have it. Because of the way search engines assign rank, the Internet is filled with information of dubious quality. You may even think of all this information - including this very article (which - strictly speaking - isn't about making money on the Internet) - as a kind of spam. As long as the search engines continue to assign rank the way they do now, the internet will be filled with more and more of such junk. I know for sure, that I'll continue to write articles - however remotely related to making money online - just to get inbound links.

So is there are better way?
Well, we're still waiting for the next generation of search engines to come along. This is likely to be based on a different philosophy which is already used elsewhere: rating and voting. On a website like youtube, users rate the content they view, and the number of votes and average vote can be seen by other users. This is exactly the type of information that would be useful for you, the purchaser of ping pong balls. You'll want the website with the highest rank - assigned by other customers - to ensure that you get the best quality of ping pong balls at the best price. This surely would be much more useful to you, than the websites who managed to get the most inbound links to their websites.

Until such a search engine is developed (making the creators a lot of money on the Internet) I will have to rely on articles like the one you are reading now. Having the best product in my category is currently not what it takes to make money online.

About the author:
Andrew Nielsen is the author of The Online Business Builder – a bestselling eBook teaching readers how to make money online.

Article source: The Problem With Google

HTTP cookies explained

In this article we describe – without getting too technical – what HTTP cookies are. This includes their application, areas of concern and their alternatives.

An HTTP cookie is a small piece data. This data is sent by a web server when a user loads a page and then sent back unchanged to the server every time the user accesses the server. The purpose of this is to allow the server to identify the individual users requesting web pages from the server.

Cookies were invented to allow web servers to track and maintain information about the contents of users’ electronic shopping carts. Cookies allowed the server to uniquely identify which user was adding or removing items from a shopping cart and thereby to keep track of individual shopping carts. Without cookies, each interaction with the web server had to be treated as a separate event, and there was no obvious or accurate connection to a user’s previous actions.

Today, cookies are also used to keep track of user site preferences and user behavior across multiple websites. The latter is used primarily for advertising and involves tracking the user across multiple websites and thereby targeting ads to the user. Even when a user visits different websites served by different web servers, there may be ads on such websites which are served from one server. This way, the server providing the ads will be able to track the user.

A cookie can contain any (small) amount of data and will most often contain a string randomly generated by the server. There is thus no personal information stored in the cookie itself. The server may however store personal information and user preferences if the user types these in on the website. The cookie then allows the server to associate the information stored in the server with the user, when the user visits the website and the cookie is sent by the browser to the server.

Most browsers allow the user to decide if he or she will accept a cookie from a web server. If the user declines, this disables the functionality on the website utilizing cookies. If a website has implemented an electronic shopping cart using cookies, it will thus not be possible for the user to make a purchase without accepting the cookie.

Cookies may have an expiration date in which case the browser will not send the cookie to the server after expiration. Some cookies are defined as non persistent, in which case they are deleted when the browser is closed. Also, users may manually delete all or selected cookies.

While the data in the cookie itself is not personal and a server can only acquire personal information if the user explicitly discloses it, cookies are seen as a cause for concern over data privacy. The main reason for this is the tracking of user behavior over multiple websites. For this reason, cookies have been subject to legislation in United States, United Kingdom and other countries.

There are other areas of concern. If multiple users use the same computer, user profile and browser they will appear as one user to the web server. Also, cookies may be stolen, tampered with or an attacker may listen to the connection between a server and user and thereby snoop the cookie.

There are alternatives to using cookies each with their own drawbacks. One alternative involves tracking the user by the IP address from which the server receives the request for a webpage. This is inaccurate as multiple users may share the same IP address or proxy server. Other alternatives include HTTP authentication and embedding of information into URLs.

In this article we described what cookies are and what they may be used for. We have seen why they are a cause for concern over data privacy and we have touched on the subject of alternatives.

About the author:

Andrew Nielsen is the author of The Online Business Builder. A free preview is available on http://www.i-want-to-be-rich.com/.
Andrew is an entrepreneur and internet veteran and is currenly helping individuals and small businesses make money online.

Article source: HTTP Cookies Explained

The Curse Of Auctions – Why You May Be Paying Too Much for Your Adwords

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included.

In this article we describe what the ‘curse of auctions’ is and why it may result in you paying too much for AdWords or other sponsored links.

All the major search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo! allow you to purchase sponsored links. You make a bid for certain keywords and the higher your bid, the higher in the list of search results for the keywords your ads appear.

You are in effect participating in an auction where the item traded is your position in a list. Such bidding is in many ways similar to auctions performed in auction houses where everything from antiques, books, cars etc may be traded.

The term “curse of auctions” has been around for some time and concerns the proposition that a buyer at an auction purchases an item for a price exceeding the value of the item because some bidders do not know the real value of the item being traded.

The theory is that if all the bidders for an item know the real value of that item, then the item will be sold at this real value. This is because the bidders will bid until this real value is reached. No one will bid any higher. In order for the bid to reach the real value, at least two bidders must know the real value.

If there is only one bidder who knows the real value and all other bidders estimates the value of the item to be lower than it actually is, then the winning bid may be below the real value of the item. In this case, the bidder makes a good deal since the price paid is below the value of the item.

If however there are bidders who overestimate the value of an item, then these bidders will make bids above the real value of the item. For the bidder who knows the real value, this is a lose-lose situation. If the bidder only bids until the real value of the item is reached, then the bidder will be outbid by the less well informed bidders. This means that the bidder must either not purchase the item or he or she will have to pay a too high price for it. This lose-lose situation is meant by the “curse of auctions”.

In the world of online advertising and sponsored links, the “curse of auctions” may result in the price paid for some keywords to be too high. If you participate in such an auction and bid against novices who are not well informed, then your choice may well be to either not win the auction or pay a price you know is too high.

The above description is a simplified version of the world of bidding for keywords for sponsored links. The primary reason for this is that different keywords have different values for different websites. Amongst other factors, this value depends on the revenue generated per click on the sponsored this. And this revenue obviously depends on the quality of what website to which the user is directed when clicking the link.

Bids for certain keywords vary very much from search engine to search engine. Generally speaking, Google is the most expensive. MSN, Yahoo! and smaller search engines often have much lower bids for the same keywords and so can be much more profitable for you. Smaller search engines generate less traffic, but as long as they generate profits for you, they are worth using.

If you are a website administrator and make you of sponsored links, you should determine if what you are bidding for keywords represents a fair value. If not, you should lower your bids.

If you are an affiliate you should be especially careful as I have described in the article “Why Affiliates Are Losing Money On AdWords”. You can find this article by following the links below.


About the author
Andrew Nielsen is a consultant and internet entrepreneur. He has created his own businesses and helped other businesses make money online. Andrew Nielsen is the author of the bestselling eBook The Online Business Builder. A free preview of the eBook is available on http://www.i-want-to-be-rich.com/

Article source: The Curse Of Auctions

How To Get Quality Inbound Links To Your Website

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included.

To achieve a high rank on search engines, your website needs inbound links. In this article we explore ways to achieve this.

In another article we have discussed how Google assigns a page rank to websites and webpages and how this is a factor used by Google when displaying search results. In this article we will not go over the details of how Google determines the page rank, but simply state, that to achieve a high rank, you need inbound links to your webpages – and preferably from other pages with a high rank.

There are multiple ways of getting inbound quality links.

Directories
The aim of some websites is to list a large number of other websites in their directory. They do this in order to attract visitors who may be looking for the type of websites they have in their directory. Some directories are free whilst others charge a fee for inclusion – or a fee for skipping the normal queue of websites waiting to be reviewed and listed. In most cases, inclusion in directories will increase your rank as you get high quality links to your site. Note however that some directories do not offer quality links even though they charge you for inclusion. Before paying for inclusion you should determine if the page rank of the directory is so high that it is worth the investment to pay for inclusion. If not, simply choose other directories. The directory dmoz.org is large, comprehensive and free. It can however take months from submitting your URL to dmoz until they accept it. For links to this and other directories, follow the link to resources on the author’s website below.

Articles
Writing and publishing articles on the internet is a good and cheap way of getting inbound links to your site. A large number of websites accept articles written by non-professional writers as long as they are of a minimum standard and they will post them at no cost to you. Some article websites allow the articles to be used on other websites as long as the author’s resource box is included. In an article you may link to your own website and thereby get your inbound links. One article may be submitted to as many articles websites as you like, so the work for writing and submitting one article can give you many inbound links. Submitting articles to article websites can be a tedious and time consuming activity. You may therefore choose to use an offer from certain websites for them to submit your articles for you. You can write articles on any subject you like or hire someone to write an article for you. Websites with articles often have a high page rank so the links to your website can be of high quality. As with directories, you may want to determine the page rank of a site with articles before submitting your article. Articles have the added bonus of attracting visitors to your site because they may show you as an expert on the subject matter of the article.
To find websites with articles, do a search on Google or follow the link in the resource box below.

Forums
There are a multitude of discussion forums on the internet. If you post to a forum and include a link to your website you get an inbound link instantly. Some website administrators will go onto forums simply to post a reply to a message with a ‘yes, I agree with what that other person wrote’ and may thereby get an inbound link. Posting to forums is a simple and effective way of getting inbound links, but if you post nonsense, then very few internet users will follow any of the links to your website.

There are many other ways of getting inbound links and we shall mention just a few here. Pixel advertising sites offer links to your site for free or for a very low cost. If you invest your time this may be a way to get as many as a thousand free inbound links, but they are unlikely to be of very high quality and you will have to spend a very long time. Follow the link in the resource box below to find sites listing pixel advertising sites that offer free advertising. Other sites will offer you a free space for an ad or a link to your site. If it’s totally free, it is probably not of very high quality.

Reciprocal linking is the practise of exchanging links with other sites. They link to yours if you link to theirs. While this gives you inbound links, it also means you have to link to other sites which can degrade your own page’s rank.

In this article we have discussed how to get inbound links to your website for the purpose of increasing your page rank. We have seen how forums, articles websites and online directories are a good means for achieving this goal.

About the author:
Andrew Nielsen is an internet entrepreneur and is currently helping individuals and small companies make money online.
Andrew runs the I Want To Be Rich website on which a free preview of The Online Business Builder is available for download.

Article source: How To Get Inbound Links To Your Website

Affiliate Programs Explained

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included.

Affiliate programs are a type of partnership between a seller and an advertiser.
The advertiser directs visitors to a seller’s website and for this the advertiser receives a percentage of the revenue generated from the visitors coming from the advertiser. The advertiser is said to be an affiliate of the seller.

The percentage paid by the seller to the affiliate is set by the seller and varies depending on the type of products, the profit margin on the products sold and how keen the seller is to promote his or her products through affiliates. Percentages anywhere between 10% and 75% are common.

The advantage for the seller includes additional sales and that the seller knows exactly what margin he or she will have on products sold to visitors coming from affiliates. If the seller markets his or her products through advertising using sponsored links, banners, text ads or similar, the seller does not know before starting a campaign what number of sales will be generated per dollar spent on advertising. The seller thus does not know if the campaign pays off or not. With sales generated from affiliates the seller knows exactly what percentage of revenue from a sale goes to the affiliate and therefore knows exactly how much is left for the seller. A seller who offers an affiliate program can have hundreds or even thousands of affiliates.

For the affiliate participation in an affiliate program allows the affiliate to make money without having a product to sell. For the affiliate, revenue can be generated simply from attracting visitors. The affiliate does not need to worry about procuring or shipping products or about providing any kind of support to the buyer. The affiliate has a wide range of choices for how to attract visitors. In a common setup, the affiliate has a website from which visitors can be sent to the seller’s website. The affiliate may also have a blog which generates so much traffic that it pays of to direct visitors to a seller’s website. A blog can be created for free and so is the choice of many affiliates. Finally, an affiliate may direct traffic to a seller’s website by advertising using banners, text ads or sponsored links as available through Google’s AdWords, Overture or similar services. If the affiliate attracts visitors from such advertising only, the affiliate does not need to create a website or blog and so does not need to create any content for such.

Affiliate programs and paying of commissions to the affiliate can be supported by third parties or be handled directly between the seller and the affiliate. If paying of commission is handled directly between seller and affiliate, the affiliate normally needs to sign up for the affiliate program on the seller’s website. In case of third parties handling payment of commission it is common that no agreement needs to be set up between the affiliate and the seller. The third party however will then have separate agreements with the seller and with the affiliate. Commissions are normally paid by cheque but in some cases it is paid by PayPal or wire transfer.

Technically affiliate programs are normally supported so a visitor’s IP address is recorded when the visitor follows a link provided by the affiliate to the seller’s website. If a purchase is made and payment is collected, the visitor’s IP address is determined again, and if it matches that recorded when a link was followed, the commission can be paid instantly. In some cases a “cookie” is stored on a visitor’s computer when a link is followed and this is used to identify the source of the visitor.

In short, affiliate programs allow sellers and affiliates to share the revenue generated for sales from sellers’ websites and can generate considerable income for both parties.

Andrew Nielsen is the author of The Online Business Builder. He is an internet entrepreneur and is currently helping online businesses make money online. Andrew runs the I Want To Be Rich website.

Article source: Affiliate Programs Explained

The Online Business Builder

Welcome to my blog.

I am the author of the bestselling eBook The Online Business Builder, which is an eBook helping thousands make money on the internet. You may download a free preview here: Preview of The Online Business Builder.

In this blog you'll find resources and articles.

Good luck.

Andrew Nielsen