Written on October 6th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:10 pm by Darren Rowse
How to Target US Traffic for YPN Ads
If you’re a YPN publisher but are worried about having too much non US traffic (they don’t let YPN be used on sites with too many non US readers) then you might find a tip written by Erik helpful on Saving Your Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) Account from being BANNED.
In it Erik outlines how to show YPN ads only to US traffic and serve AdSense ads to non US traffic using a WP plugin.
PS: I can’t see similar principles in this tutorial couldn’t be used for using Chitika ads (they don’t pay for Asian traffic at this point).
Written on October 6th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
Chitika extends referral program to 15 months
Here’s some good news for Chitika publishers who have referred other publishers to the system - they’ve extended the referral program to 15 months instead of 12!
This means that those who started referring people from the first month that it was possible to do so (around 12 months ago) now will continue to earn 10% of the earnings of those that they referred until the end of the year instead of having it end around now. Not bad considering the next three months are traditionally bumper months for online advertising.
Now if we can just get them to make it an ongoing indefinite deal….
Full details at Chitika Blog
Written on October 5th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:10 pm by Darren Rowse
b5media Takes Funding
Just a short post to point to some exciting news for me and the blog network that I’ve been a part of building over the past 12 months - b5media.
Today we closed a deal with two Canadian VC companies (Brightspark and JL Albright) for a round of financing.
You can read about it more at our main blog and from the VC’s perspective over at Rick’s blog.
It’s an exciting time for us as a network. While I can’t believe how fast we’ve grown in our 12 months (we’ve been so busy with this deal and the network that we didn’t even have time to post acknowledging our birthday) this injection of investment will allow us to ramp up what we’re able to do an extra few notches.
To use a Spinal Tap analogy - we’ve been growing at a volume of 10 but this takes us up to 11 (or more).
The money allows us to do a number of things for the network and our bloggers. This isn’t the post to outline them all - but I thought I’d share the news with you as it’s both something I’m excited about but also is somewhat relevant to our topic here.
How does it impact me directly?
The main thing is that from today I’m the VP of Training and Development at b5media. This is something that over the next few months I’ll be transitioning into in a full time capacity.
My role will largely be working with our wonderful team of bloggers in a capacity that will help them to take their blogging to the next level. In a sense I’ll be doing a lot of what I do here at enternetusers and have done consulting with bloggers but focussing more upon our team.
As part of my role I’ll continue to develop enternetusers (as it is part of the network) but some of my other blogs will be transitioned into others writing on them to allow me more time to work on b5 directly.
I’m sure a lot more will be said about b5 taking this step - but I’ll leave my two cents worth at this for the time being.
Written on October 5th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 11:10 am by Darren Rowse
Advertisers Target Key Blogs with personalized AdWords Ads
I just spotted the ad below running over at TechCrunch.
It’s an AdSense ad (image ad) that is obviously being targeted to the blog it appears on as it quotes it’s blogger.
I’ve seen a few people taking out similar ads like this over the past few months and suspect it’ll become more and more common place on blogs.
Here’s the ad (in the extended entry due to it’s size).
Written on October 5th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:10 am by Darren Rowse
Google Gadgets Available for Webpages
Google today announced Google Gadgets are now available for webpage owners.
Previously they were only available for Google Desktop or Homepage but now publishers can add them. In a sense they are widgets which will sit in your side bar and they range from Google Maps, to the Current Moon Phase, to games, translation and time and date.
I’m not about to rush out and add any of them to my blogs but there might be some worth using depening upon the nature of your blog.
found via Duncan
Written on October 5th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
How to turn a normal WordPress installation into a working online shop
Ever thought of adding a shop to your blog? I know some of you have as you’ve asked me how to do it. There are a few options emerging for bloggers. We’ve seen Chitika launch Shoplinc and Amazon launch aStores - but both don’t really give you a heap of control over how your shop runs and looks.
Another option that does give you more control is to make your own store. There are lots of ways to do this. I’m not expert enough to really outline them all (if there is anyone who is that would like to do a guest post on the options please let me know) however I came across a post today that could be useful for some looking at these options.
It appealed to me because it uses a tool that many of us know and love - WordPress.
Serial Deviant is the one who wrote the post and you can read it at How to turn a normal WordPress installation into a working online shop.
It does assume some knowledge of HTML and CMS but as many of you are more than proficient with them I though I’d share it. Give it a go and let us know what your results are like!
found via Andy
Written on October 4th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 11:10 pm by Darren Rowse
Blogging for Chickens Ends - 110 Pairs of Chickens Donated
Just a short note to let people know that the Blogging for Chickens project is officially over.
Thanks to all who have made donations. The total raised was $1100 (AU) (around $830US) - that is 110 pairs of chickens going to families living in poverty.
Having travelled through and lived for short periods of time in a number of slums in SE Asian countries I know what an impact even a small donation like this can have upon the life of a family - thank you all for your generosity.
In the next day or two (once a couple of paypal e-checks have cleared) I’ll make a payment to Oxfam on behalf of those who took the option to donate via my paypal (most of those who participated took this option).
Written on October 4th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
How to Be Curious
This post builds on yesterday’s post on the Curious Blogger.
Is curiosity a personality trait or can it be learned?
I suspect that personality type does come into being curious. Some people seem to be naturally wired in a way where they’re doing the above things - however I also think that it is something that can be learned to some extent. Here are 12 starting points for becoming ‘more curious’:
1. Don’t accept Spin
Keep an eye on the ‘official word’ and press releases that you see - but don’t accept that they are the final word. Get in the habit of asking ‘what isn’t being said?’ Allow yourself to be a little critical - (but balance it with optimism).
2. Ask Questions
Curious people are always asking questions of others around them (and themselves). Be careful that you don’t do this to the point where you become known as a gossip or in a way that people feel ‘used’ - but get in the habit of asking the questions that might normally go unasked. It’s amazing what people will tell you when you do ask the question.
3. Ask ‘What if…’
One of the key questions you should get in the habit of asking is ‘what if’? Curious people don’t just ask but they come up with solutions - they dream up ways of solving problems. Many of the solutions will end up being thrown away but if you ask ‘what if’ enough times you’re bound to make progress eventually.
4. ‘Turn Questions into Quests’
An old teacher once used this phrase with me and it’s stuck in my mind ever since.asking ‘what if…’ (and other questions) is not enough. Keep a record of the questions that you ask yourself (and that your readers ask you) and revisit them from time to time to attempt to find a solution to the problems behind the questions. Taking your questions to the next level like this may not always be fruitful but at times it’ll lead you on journeys of discovery to unexpected places.
5. Dig deeper than the RSS feed
Keep in mind that you’ll not be the only person in your niche using the tools mentioned above. As a result if all you ever do is regurgitate what you find in them the result will be a blog that is very similar to what others are writing in your niche. Develop a network of contacts, make your own news, dig around other information sources and at times you’ll get lucky and find news that is unique.
6. Use available Tools
Familiarize yourself with tools that will help you gather and filter information. Tools like Technorati, news aggregators, blog pulse, Topix, Google News etc are all tools that help you keep your finger on the pulse of your niche.
7. Put disconnected ideas together
Edward De Bono has a lot of different exercises that help people develop lateral thinking skills. I’ve read a number of his books that give suggestions on putting random ideas together to find new solutions and find that using them is great and will help you come up with ideas that you’d never dreamt of previously.
8. Play
Perhaps the most curious of ‘creatures’ are children who do a lot of what we’re writing about here (especially asking questions). Another thing that children do is ‘play’. With no other agenda than having fun and seeing what happens next children will play with the things around them, experiment and push the boundaries of their environment. In doing so they learn about life, themselves and their world. I find that it’s often when I take this ‘playful’ approach to life that I’m at my most creative and make all kinds of discoveries.
9. Get ProActive
One of the main things that I notice about curious people are that they rarely sit still and are always pushing forward and taking initiative. They don’t expect stories or ideas to just come to them (although they do at times) but Actively search for ideas to write about and people to connect with. They have a mindset where it almost becomes natural to ask, seek and find the things that the rest of us hope that will one day fall in our laps.
10. Network
A lot of what I covered in my last post on the characteristics of curious bloggers related to their ability to connect with others. Reach out to other bloggers in your niche (email them, comment on their blogs, help them improve their blogs etc) but also your readers (as you’ll find all kinds of interesting contacts among them).
11. Find a ‘Curiosity Buddy’
As you network - keep your eyes open for other curious people to spend time with. I have a number of other curious and creative bloggers who I naturally am drawn to that from time to time I spend a little time with to do some blue sky thinking with. I find that the ideas often flow through such collaboration.
12. Slow Down
Blogging is an immediate and at times fast paced medium. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the possibilities and feel under pressure to have to produce high quantities of content day in day out - however if you don’t stop occasionally to reflect upon and make space for the above things you’ll be unlike to actually benefit from them.
Written on October 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 09:10 pm by Darren Rowse
Google PageRank Frequently Asked Questions
Matt Cutts (Google Engineer) has a useful post on Google PageRank which answers some of the frequently asked questions about PR and PR updates which comes on the heals of the latest PR update.
Here are a few key comments to the questions I get asked a lot:
“PageRank is computed continuously; there are machines that take inputs to the PageRank algorithm at Google and compute the resulting PageRanks. So at any given time, a url in Google’s system has up-to-date PageRank as a result of running the computation with the inputs to the algorithm. From time-to-time, that internal PageRank value is exported so that it’s visible to Google Toolbar users.”
So - when you see your PR go up or down keep in mind that the new PR that you see is the PR that Google has been using for your site for some time already.
“By the time you see newer PageRanks in the toolbar, those values have already been incorporated in how we score/rank our search results. So while you may be happy to see that the Google Toolbar shows a little more PageRank for a given page, it’s not as if that causes a change in search results at that point. So you won’t see any search engine result page (SERP) changes as a result of this PageRank export–those changes have been gradually baking in since the last PageRank export.”
As above - Google’s been using your PR previously and so when you see a new one you shouldn’t expect any corresponding change in actual search engine rankings or traffic from Google.
This is all information we’ve talked about previously here at enternetusers but it is worth saying again as the questions continue to get asked on these issues. It’s nice to see Matt talking about it also and confirming that there actually was a PR update (the first time I’ve seen anyone from Google confirm it as it’s happening).
Written on October 3rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:10 am by Darren Rowse
Chitika Publishers Report Increases in Earnings for October
I’ve had emails from 5 different Chitika (aff) publishers this morning all asking me if Chitika have made some sort of change to their system because yesterday’s (1 October) earnings were significantly up.
Publishers are reporting 20-40% jumps in earnings for the first day of October. The increase seems to be coming from higher click values (Avg Cpc) with CTR much the same as usual.
I noticed the increase also (my increase was around a 25% jump) and thought it was just one of those freak things but as 5 others have independently contacted me I am wondering if there’s something bigger going on.
The other reason that i suspect that this is wider than just me is that my unaudited referral revenue went up by 26% on 1 October. This indicates that publishers I’ve referred to Chitika had higher earnings on that day than normal.
Ultimately time will tell whether this was just a one day glitch for some reason or whether Chitika have made some sort of change to how much they’re sharing with publishers. Lets hope it’s an ongoing increase because it’s not everyday that you get a 25% increase in earnings.
Did anyone else notice a bump in their earnings on 1 October?
I’ve sent an email to Chitika asking for more information/explanation on the bump and will report back on anything that I find.
Update: Since publishing this a number of people have contacted me hypothesising that this could be linked to Shopping.com (one of the advertisers on Chitika) increasing the amount that they are paying per click for the last quarter of the year in the lead up to the holidays (something I wasn’t aware that they did). No word from Chitika as to whether this is the case.
Also - I note that the figures for the 2 October (which just came in) were back down to a normal CPC level for me and were only up by 15% or so in my referral payments. Maybe it was just a one day thing after all. What were your first two days like? Up, down or normal?
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