Written on March 7th, 2005 at 02:03 pm by David Shawver
Yahoo to Invest in Blogs, Analyst Says
A quick quote from an article found on Yahoo! News written about Yahoo!
‘Internet media company Yahoo Inc. is likely to build and buy tools that help its users create, publish and search blogs, Susquehanna Financial Group Marianne Wolk said in a note on Friday.’
Read more at Yahoo to Invest in Blogs, Analyst Says
Written on March 7th, 2005 at 01:03 pm by David Shawver
$500 Per Year from Adsense
A VC has decided to go public with how much he’s made with the Google Adsense program in a post titled $500 Per Year. I guess the title answers the question of ‘how much’. $500 a year isn’t really a lot when you break it down, less than $2 a day. My guess is that this is perhaps an average sort of level of earnings for a blog using adsense - in fact its probably a bit above average.
Of course I wouldn’t recommend you do what Fred did in revealing his Adsense stats - its probably the fastest way to get banned from the program. I know of many bloggers who have suffered from doing this - especially in the details that Fred has done.
Anyway - his post got me wondering - how could he increase his earnings (which he generously donates to charity)? I took a quick look at his blog and I think I could double his income, if not triple or quadruple it with just a few simple tweaks and changes to his blog.
I’m not writing this because I don’t like what he does - but rather saw it as a little bit of a challenge - and plus I’d love to see his charity benefit a bit more. So here is how I think he could write a $1000 or more cheque to his charity in his second year (if Google doesn’t ban him):
- more than one ad per page - at current Fred has only the one skyscraper ad on each of his pages. At present virtually every page on his blog serves the full four ads in that banner - there seems to be plenty of ads out there so I’d add a second one.
- in content ads - I would leave his current ads in the side bar where they are (or possibly raise them to the top of the column) and put the second ad per page within the content on his individual archives. Ideally I’d put this ad at the top of the post (perhaps one of the square formats (perhaps the 250 x 250 pixel size) similarly to the ones on Digital Photography Blog’s individual pages. If these ads dominated the page too much I’d probably put a 468×60 sized ad at the bottom of each individual post (not on the main page but only on archive pages) between the end of the post and the comments section (as I do at the end of my posts).
- I’d change the name of the blog from A VC to something with the words Venture Capital (which I suspect is what VC stands for). At the moment Fred’s blog mainly is getting ads for blogs and RSS. This is one of the biggest problems that many bloggers face - they don’t actually get ads for what they write about. Here’s the thing - ads for blogs pay peanuts. Ads for Venture Capital would pay considerably more. I’d also include the word Venture Capital a few more times on each page (it could be through a few mentions on the sidebars) and remove the word ‘blog’ as much as possible. The word blog (even once or twice) seems to bring out blog ads so much.
These are just part of how I’d tackle increasing A VC’s earning capacity - of course you’d also work on increasing traffic levels, probably tweaking the blog’s design and some SEO techniques - but I suspect that if he just did what I’ve suggested above and he kept writing content daily that he’d double his money.
Again - no criticism to Fred and his blogging - looks like he has a great blog and he’s got a very respectable readership level - but thats what I’d start off with if he was serious about getting some more money for his charity through his blog.
Written on March 7th, 2005 at 10:03 am by David Shawver
ecto for Windows 1.5
For all you Windows users - can I suggest you check out the new version of ecto for Windows 1.5. I won’t rave on about ecto again because I have many times before - but I would highly recommend it. If its anywhere near as good as the Mac version that I use it will save you a lot of time and make your blogging a lot more professional. In short - ecto is a way of publishing content to your blog that you can do without actually logging onto your blog’s back end. Check out its feature list here.
‘After a longer than anticipated development and testing period, here is the new version 1.5. Most of the bugs have been caught and fixed, including those from the previous version 1.0.8.x. The main omissions of this release are Japanese/French localizations for the new features which will be provided in future updates. You can download this new version here, and read the changes and known issues in History.txt file. For existing ecto users, please read the Upgrade.txt file for important information on installing version 1.5 over 1.0.8.’
Read more at ecto blog: ecto for Windows 1.5
Written on March 7th, 2005 at 10:03 am by David Shawver
How to Write Compelling Blog Posts
There is a good basic post on How to Write Compelling Blog Posts over at Marketing Profs. Nothing particularly new about it but a good place to start if you’re new to blogging and want to have a primer on how to write more effectively. Here is a taster.
‘Writing blog posts and comments on blogs is actually very simple. The basic guidelines: keep your copy lively, factual, tight, clear, short and search engine optimized.
Here are basic blog style guidelines to follow:
Adopt a direct style. Declarative sentences are good. Web readers demand them.
Link like crazy. One thing that distinguishes blog posts from dead-tree journalism is that bloggers link prodigiously….’
Read more at How to Write Compelling Blog Posts
Written on March 6th, 2005 at 10:03 am by David Shawver
Look what Blogging Bought Me!
Sorry for the last couple of days lighter posting - its the weekend and our focus for the last couple of days has been pretty much upon buying this little house that you see pictured.
Yesterday was the auction and thanks a pretty good deposit from the past six or so months of blogging income we were successful in being the last bidder standing (after a pretty fierce bidding frenzy). I’m thinking of unofficially calling our new home The House that Blogging Built.
So I’d like to take this moment to thank a few people for what has been a pretty amazing year of blogging. I realise that in many ways the purchase of this house is not really about me, its very much been a collective effort. Firstly to my partner ‘V’ who ,for some reason that neither of us really understand, let me dedicate significant amounts of time to blogging, even when in the early days it was only earning a few dollars per day. She initially gave me 6 months to work my butt off on being a full time blogger (before I’d have to go get a ‘real job) to see if we could build it into something substantial. She saw the potential and gave me room to follow my dream.
I’d like to thank the five million or so readers who have read my blogs in the past year or so - without them this would obviously have been impossible. I thank the thousands of bloggers around the world that have linked to my blogs and who have therefore been responsible for these readers.
I’d like to thank Rachel for her great blog design and Regan for his hosting of my blogs - both have gone above and beyond the call for me. Also I’m grateful to a few companies that have been sending me cheques each month. They include Google’s Adsense, Amazon, FastClick, ClickBank, Trade Doubler, AdBrite, BlogAds, Commission Junction and LinkShare. And lastly to the many smaller companies and individuals who have sponsored my blogs with text and banner ads. Its amazing how every bit helps.
Ok - thats the end of my academy award speech - now its time to get back on with some serious blogging - after all its only paid the deposit so far!
Written on March 5th, 2005 at 10:03 am by David Shawver
Mini Interview with MyBlogLog
I’m still following the stats that MyBlogLog.com after signing up for it last night.
I actually decided to send them an email to ask a few questions and thought I’d share their answers here as they are not addressed on their General Questions page. Eric from MyBlogLog emailed back the following answers very quickly. Thanks for your time Eric!
enternetusers - Do you track clicks that come from links that are images?
MyBlogLog - We do track image links.
enternetusers - Are you able to track Google Adsense links?
MyBlogLog - We do not yet track Google Adsense, but we’re working on it.
enternetusers - Do you have plans to (or the current ability to) track which pages on a blog the clicks are coming from?
MyBlogLog - Tracking which pages the clicks are coming from is definitely in the works. It’s a bigger challenge than just tracking the links, so we didn’t want to hold up the launch for that feature.
enternetusers - Do you have an affiliate program or some way of paying a commission to bloggers that refer paying customers to you?
MyBlogLog - We will be setting up an affiliate program soon. We didn’t expect this level of enthusiasm so quickly, so a lot of things are coming to a head sooner than expected. So much for a “soft” launch!
Written on March 4th, 2005 at 10:03 pm by David Shawver
MyBlogLog - Track your Outbound Links
I just signed up with the free service at MyBlogLog (affiliate link) which tracks where people go when they leave your blog. Well it tracks them to a point (its not quite stalking) in that it tracks which links your readers click that take them out of your blog.
They offer two versions - a free one which tracks the last 10 outbound links clicked and a paid Pro version ($3 per month) that gives you real time stats and more than just the last 10.
When you sign up for the free version you get 7 days for free of the pro version. You need a different email address for each blog you sign up for. I’m tracking two blogs - this one and my digital camera one. I’m interested in knowing about the outbound links for a number of reasons:
• I guess mainly it gives some instant feedback about what your readers are interested in and how they are using your blog.
• It also might give you an indication as to who is on the receiving end of your traffic (ie if you find a lot of your traffic is going to one blog maybe you could call in a favor from that blogger (or it might explain why they are being extra nice to you).
• It gives you an indication about how much credibility your readers think you have (ie if they all click through on every recommendation you make you might actually be trusted.
• It could give some indication of which ads your readers are clicking on and which they are not (although from what I can see it doesn’t seem to be tracking Adsense clicks which would have been a very handy feature!!! It is tracking some of the static text ads that I’ve got on my digital camera site however which is very useful information to know.
Anyway - its a fun new toy to play with and I’ll make a decision in a week whether to continue using it or not at a pro version level.
found via Reflexive-Blog
Update: Already after just a few minutes of using this tool I can see the benefits of it. For instance it does track my text links quite well and I can already see that one of my amazon text link ads is getting clicked on a few times this hour. This is good to know as it gives me an indication that that link works well in the position I’ve placed it. This could be useful information.
Having said this I can also see what one of my main frustrations will be of this service. In using it on a site as large as my digital camera one (with 2000 pages) I would love to know what pages the clicks are actually coming from on my blog. I don’t have an accurate memory of where each link is placed on my blog - some pages have 10 to 20 outbound links so tracking which page each click is coming from would have been a feature I’d be happy to pay money for.
Written on March 4th, 2005 at 12:03 pm by David Shawver
Wacky Blogger Wanted
InsideBlogging are looking for a wacky blogger. If you think you fit the bill you should head over and express your interest in the blog that they say has a ‘Fark / CollegeHumour kind of humour’.
Update: Jeremy posts more information on this at his blog and says the applicants need to be in a position to post 3-4 posts per day. Oh and you have to be an ‘oddball’ type.
Written on March 4th, 2005 at 12:03 pm by David Shawver
Google Back Link Update in Progress
Google seems to be doing a back link update at present. I’ve noticed significant changes in some of my blogs back links so far. Traffic changes and SERPs often follow such updates.
Update: Others are seeing it too
Update II : Sorry for my lack of explanation here - I’ve had two emails, a comment and two instant messages asking for clarification as to ‘backl inks’. I was in a rush to post the information and am about to dash off now - but put simply (or as simply as I know how), a ‘back link’ is simply another site linking to your blog.
Every month or two Google does an update to the number of other sites that it finds linking to your blog (and the posts within it). The amount of links pointing at your blog has an important part to play as to how highly they rank your site. No one really knows just how they rank sites, but we do know that backlinks play a major part in it. So when they do these periodic updates webmasters all over the web hold their breath to see what it will reveal and what impact it might have.
For example - enternetusers.net had no recorded back links to it two days ago because it was a brand new domain (only a month or so old). A few minutes ago I checked and found that Google now sees 2080 backlinks pointing to it (probably mainly from my old domain - but also from many of my wonderful readers who changed the links on their sites to the new domain). This should help me increase my readership in the coming weeks and months.
Note: Backlink Updates take time to take full effect. Google has many data centres and it takes time for them all to come into line (if they ever completely do). If you check your back links now they could well be different tomorrow (or in 10 minutes) - it takes a while for Google to stop dancing.
How do you check your back link numbers I hear you ask? There are a number of ways. You can use a number of online tools - I use Digital Point’s Back Link Tracker which is a free service. To get the most of it and track your back links over time you have to check it every day or two. otherwise you’ll just see how many back links you have on any given day rather than the changes in your back links over time. It will also track your page rank, how many pages Google indexes and other things like your ranking on particular key words.
You can also use the ‘link:’ command in Google. ie type in link:www.yourdomainname.com into the search field on Google. It will come back to you with sites that it finds linking to your site. Note: if you use this method your results probably won’t reveal all links to your site - I know doing it for me now the results omit ‘duplicate results’. But if you do this over time you’ll see changes. There are plenty of other tools out there for this type of thing also - my suggestion is that if you’re going to track it choose one tool and stick to it so that you can track your results consistently over time.
Written on March 4th, 2005 at 07:03 am by David Shawver
Positioning your Adsense Ads III
In a previous post in this series I asked the questions:
‘can you have too many adsense ads on a post?’ and ‘when does more actually = less with adsense?’
There are probably two main ways of answering these questions. The first one is from the point of view of aesthetics and the second is about cold hard cash and whether it will earn you more money to have more ads or less.
1. Aesthetics - probably the most common complaint I hear against Adsense (and other types of ads) is that advertising is an eyesore and ruins the design of a page. I’ve read post after post of people complaining that they do not want to be exposed with ads and especially offensive to their sensitivities are pages that have ads all over them.
I have some sympathy for this view and its something that always weighs heavily on my mind as a blogger - how many ads are too many ads? The beauty (probably the wrong work in a paragraph about aesthetics) of Adsense is that it is customizable and ads can be made to blend into or contrast the design of a page. Even so, the more ads you put on your page the higher the chance you have of offending the those who are advertorially (I know its not a word - I’m being post-modern) sensitive.
Related to this is the theme of your blog. I have some blogs that I only serve one ad per page (or even no ads) simply because I don’t feel its appropriate to commercialize the blog at all.
2. Financial Considerations - believe it or not - but having more Adsense ads on your site can actually mean you earn less income from them! I know this sounds stupid and some of you think I’ve finally lost it - but its true, I found out for myself last week. Let me tell you the story.
Last week I decided to ‘tweak the ads on one of my blogs’. The blog in question had two ads per page, one in a banner ad at the top of the page and the other in a position within the content section of my blog. The ad within the content was my primary ad - the one that performed best (as previously discussed). Adsense allows three ads per page so the logic in my mind said ‘three ads will perform better than two’. So I cleverly decided to ad a small ad to my side bar (similarly to the one I have on this blog at present over on the left). I added it (with a label saying it was an ad) and smuggly went to bed imagining that I’d just earned myself a few extra dollars a day.
The next day I noticed that the Click Through Rate of my Adsense ads was lower than normal overall - so were earnings. I was not too concerned because it does tend to go up and down from day to day. The following day I noticed the same thing - lower CTR and lower earnings. Day three and I was starting to worry a little that something had gone wrong as the trend continued and I had little idea why. At first it didn’t even cross my mind that the new ad might be having any impact.
I checked the channels feature of Adsese at this point and realised that only one of the many channels that I track was lower than normal. It had halved its normal rate! Of course the channel that had decreased was the primary in content ad from my blog (my cash cow of the blog).
It only took me a few moments to work out why this had happened. You see the ad that I had added to my side bar was stealing ads from my primary ad in the content and leaving it with few, if any ads to serve. Let me explain.
The way Adsense works if you have more than one ad running on a page is that it will serve ads to the ad that it finds first on your blog. It fills up the first one first, the second one in the code second and the third one in the code third. If at any point it runs out of relevant ads it stops serving them and you either end up with a public service ad, an empty space or an alternate ad (depending upon how you configure your set up).
On that particular blog the code was in this order.
- 1 Banner ad
- 2 Side bar ad
- 3 In content ad
You can see what was happening - the banner ad got first priority and was always served ads. The side bar ad almost always got ads and the in content ad got them some (50%) of the time. Of course this left my primary position empty half of the time (not a wise move).
You can probably guess what I did faster than a speeding bullet - side bar ad was gone very quickly and the banner ad didn’t last long either. Now the in content ad is always full and I have moved a secondary ad further down the page. CTR and revenue are back up to normal (in fact they are up a bit).
So - take home message time. When designing the ads on your page rank your ad positions in terms of priority. Which spot do you want to get the first ads and always be full? Which are secondary spots that don’t matter so much if they are empty from time to time? Then check to see which order they appear in the code on your site. This is easily done. Simply select the ‘view source’ option in your browser. This should open a window that shows you the back end of the page you’re viewing - find the google adsense code and work out which is which (you should be able to tell by the size of the ad). If your primary ad isn’t the first one you might need to make some changes either to where you place your ads or to how your blog is configured and serves the code.
Also read Positioning your Adsense Ads I and II.
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