Written on December 14th, 2005 at 05:12 pm by Darren Rowse
More AdSense Changes Announced
AdSense has added a few new features today in addition to their ‘Themed Ad Units‘.
They have also made available a new feature called ‘custom reports to go’ which allows you to get your earnings reports sent to you via email instead of having to log into to look at them. You can set up 10 custom reports to be sent daily, weekly or monthly. This new feature is set up through the ‘report manager’ in the reports tab.
Link Units Optimized - AdSense have also apparently changed the landing pages for readers who click ‘adlinks’. There’s no real details of what the improvements are but they are claiming that there is improved monetization.
New AdSense for search Designs - There are also changes with the Adsense for search system. By changes there seem to be a few new formats being made available for more options to integrate the search system into your blog. These are accessed via the ’search code’ section on the ’search tab’. I’m looking forward to playing with these new options tomorrow as I’ve always found the AdSense search to be a little difficult to blend.
All in all the changes seem pretty cosmetic and minor - more tweaks than anything to improve publisher experience.
Full detail of all the changes are outlined in the Adsense What’s New page.
Written on December 14th, 2005 at 04:12 pm by Darren Rowse
FeedBurner Makes RSS Feeds More InterActive
Subscribers to my RSS feed will notice (hopefully) a few changes to how it looks today as I’m testing FeedBurner’s latest offering - a system called FeedFlare (press release) which gives publishers a few new interActive tools to show feed readers.
FeedFlare gives publishers the opportunity to activate any or all of the following features:
- most popular tags for this item via del.icio.us
- tag this item at del.icio.us
- Technorati cosmos: number of links to this post
- Creative Commons license for this specific item. This works even if you are splicing, say, a Flickr photo feed into a blog feed and the two parent feeds have different licenses associated with them.
- number of comments on this post (currently only for feeds created by Wordpress)
- email this item
- email the author of this item (particularly helpful if the item ends up spliced into another feed or repurposed on a site).
I’m testing a few of them which you can see in action here. I’m not including the creative commons one at this point or the ‘email author’ one. All the others are activated but I’m yet to see it counting my comments to this point despite there being numerous posts with comments recently.
All in all I think it’s a smart move from FeedBurner and takes a step toward overcoming some of the problems with RSS feed (ie lack of interactivity).
Written on December 14th, 2005 at 06:12 am by Darren Rowse
AdSense Adds Holiday Themed Ads
update: The 2005 Christmas themed ads are up and running.
There’s a lot of talk going around in places where AdSense publishers hang out that they’ve just added ‘themed ads’ as a feature. This seems to be something they are rolling out to some publishers only at this stage - perhaps it will be for everyone in time too. The message that some publishers have gotten is:
‘NEW We’ve added seasonal spirit to our ad units - you now have the option of displaying themed colors and graphics in your ads during holidays and special events. Visit our What’s New page for details.’
This looks similar to what they did for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I personally don’t see it in my ‘What’s New’ page yet which means it could either be something that they are slowly rolling out or something that they are only offering some publishers (as they did previously) either on a localized basis or on a site by site basis.
I know with the Thanksgiving ads I was included in the program based upon the colors of my site so perhaps this is again what they are doing.
update: after a bit more digging around in my Adsense account I can see where I can turn on themed ads. Do this by logging into Adsense, then go to ‘My Account’, then scroll down to ‘Ad Type Preference’ where you click ‘edit’ and then you’ll be taken to a screen where you can select to ‘Enable themed ad units when available.’ There is a ‘learn more’ link there too which explains them with the following:
As part of our ongoing effort to provide ad designs that will improve results for both advertisers and publishers, we now offer themed ad units - ad units that display themed colors and graphics during holidays and special events. You can view examples of themed ad units by visiting our Ad Formats page.
Whenever themed ad units are available, we’ll display them only to users in the appropriate locations, as determined by user IP address. For example, Fourth of July-themed ads would be visible only to users located in the U.S., while users throughout the world might see ads with a New Year’s Eve theme.
You can enable or disable themed ad units by following these steps:
1. Log in to your account at www.google.com/adsense.
2. Go to the My Account tab.
3. On the Account Settings page, scroll down to the ‘Ad Type Preferences’ section and click ‘Edit.’
4. Depending on your preference, check or uncheck the box next to ‘Enable themed ad units when available.’
5. Click ‘Save changes.’ Your selection will apply to all your AdSense ad units.
Written on December 14th, 2005 at 06:12 am by Darren Rowse
Tips for Writing Hardworking Posts - Part 1
Next in the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Tip Series is a post from hard working blogger (I keep losing track of how many blogs he writes on) John Evans who will write about Writing Hard Working Posts. This will be a 2 part mini-series with his second post coming next week.
Merry Christmas! I’m John Evans and I write Windows Vista and Microsoft Weblog for b5media. My personal blog is SYNTAGMA.
Most book publishers who have been around for a while will tell you that more than half their income comes from the backlist. These are older books no longer found on bookshop shelves but which are listed at the back of every publisher’s catalogue (catalog). It’s classic Long Tail stuff, because buyers usually order by post and sales are typically small and steady rather than spiky, as with new books. The high profit margin comes from the obvious fact that reprinting old titles is much cheaper than setting up a new book.
Bloggers too have their backlists. These are archived posts which have been indexed by the search engines and continue to draw search traffic months and even years after they were written. Many bloggers will have forgotten all about them. Some will be unaware that all manner of folk are still poking around in their archives. These posts cost you nothing in effort, but continue working for you long after they’re done. They are the hardworking posts : the carthorses of your trade.
One example from my own experience was a post I wrote on Blogsmith, which is the in-house blogging software developed by Weblogs Inc for all its blogs. I noticed it was still in beta and asked Jason Calacanis if the blogware would ever be put on the market. He replied that an announcement would be made in the autumn (fall). I wrote a very simple post about this tiny scrap of information.
Months later I was still getting scores of visits each day to this post, particularly from Technorati and Google. I could never quite work out why it was so popular (See Part 2). Then Jason announced that the blogware was being offered to businesses. Naturally, I did a short follow-up post.
But the endless stream of traffic to the old post continued, and one day it occurred to me that if I inserted a link to the new post in the old one, visitors would get two for the price of one. Almost all of the visitors clicked the link onto the new post.
It’s good to have a stats package which gives you this information and allows you to follow the pathways of search traffic to your blog. Sitemeter is particularly good as it includes all the details of a visit on a single page.
So to turn a post into a hardworking one look at the interconnectivity of your old posts and link them in a network of clickables. A good blogger’s backlist could then be as valuable as it is to an established print publisher.
Part 2 will look at why the Blogsmith post was “hardworking” in the first place
Written on December 14th, 2005 at 02:12 am by Darren Rowse
Guess the Google Adsense Present and Win a Prize!
Talk has started in Adsense forums about whether Google will be sending presents to publishers this year.
Last year they sent publishers (earning over a certain undisclosed amount) a ‘Google Glow Radio‘ like the one’s in the picture (left). Mine lasted on my desk a few weeks before I dropped it (quite literally) and it stopped both glowing and functioning as a radio.
The included batteries were useful though as they powered our TV remote for a few months.
I wonder what they’ll send (if anything) this year!?
Let’s run a competition to guess this year’s present.
I’ll send a cracked, un-functioning Google Glow Radio (batteries not included) to anyone who can guess (in the next 48 hours) what this year’s present will be. First one to get it gets the prize.
PS: I’ll only send it if I can find it. Warning: we moved house this year….
Written on December 13th, 2005 at 10:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Topix.net Gets InterActive
I was looking through my Bloglines feeds earlier today and checked out a Topix.net keyword search feed. As I did I noticed that they’d changed their logo on the feed so I clicked through to their site to find that they’ve done a redesign. The old crusty looking blue is gone and its now a lot more open and orange (almost looks like enternetusers colors). Check it out at Topix.net.
Another change that I noticed (or maybe they had it previously but I didn’t see it) is a ‘Blogs’ link in their top menu that says it indexes the ‘top stories being discussed in weblogs’. Looks like a useful page to keep the finger on the pulse of the wider blogging community.
While I was there I also noticed that they’ve added comments sections to stories which makes them a lot more blog-like. For instance this post on Iraqi Americans voting in Iraq’s elections now can be commented upon on Topix.
It’s an interesting move that indicates that Topix is definitely moving in a new direction - away from purely being about news to something more interActive. This comes on top of their recent move to index not only newspapers but also blogs.
The question I find myself asking though is how will bloggers feel about another site running a comments section on their stories? Take for instance this post over at Neil Kennedy’s Weblog which has a comments section for readers to use but which now also has opportunity for comments to be left at the page that links to him at Topix.
Perhaps it’s no different to another link blog linking up and having the opportunity to leave comments about the link to the blog but it does seem a little odd to me for some reason. I’m not sure where my concern comes from and perhaps after a good night’s sleep it will go away - but I’m interested on other’s thoughts on the changes at topix.net
What do you think?
update: Of course I should have gone straight to Steve Rubel when I noticed the changes as his company does do some work with Topix. Steve gives a bit more information on the Topix Changes.
udpate II: SiliconBeat also writes about the changes (they also declare that they are cousins with Topix as they’re owned by the same company). They talk about how the changes are about building community on the site. This is definately new ground for a news aggregator.
Written on December 13th, 2005 at 09:12 pm by Darren Rowse
How to Rank Well in Google with Your Blog Matt Cutts Style
Performancing have a great interview with Google engneer and webmaster relations guy Matt Cutts where he talks about splogs, Adsense and ranking well in Google. It’s a really worthwhile article - especially his answer to a question about how bloggers could rank well in Google. I’ve broken his answer down into some bite sized points (with some of my own comments beside them in brackets and italics):
- I wouldn’t bother with year/month/day in blog urls; I’d just use the first few words from the title of the post in the url - (this is key information. If I was to make one change to the way I set up enternetusers it’d be along these lines - I’m halfway there with keywords in titles but the date numbers were a silly move).
- Don’t try to rank for a huge phrase at first–pick a smaller niche and get to be known as an expert there, and then build your way out and up - (very wise. The beauty about being the number 1 blog in a small niche is that you get a lot of inbound links virtually every time someone talks about the topic. This enables you to build up your authority both in the eyes of readers, other bloggers and search engines which in turn allows you to expand and perhaps even compete for some of the big terms)’
- Controversial posts are sure to build links, but too many controversial posts may undermine your credibility. I think you attract more links with a conversational style, humor, and doing your own research to produce new insights or tidbits of info - (I’ve written about this myself on a number of occasions. Controversy can have an impact in the short term but to sustain it can be difficult. If you want a sustainable blog you better be willing to back up those controversial posts with worthwhile content that stands on it’s own two feet).
- In my opinion, just commenting on other blogs isn’t as useful. There are a lot of ways to build a reputation, from having a great blog to producing a unique service to speaking at conferences. A single creative idea that catches fire in the blogosphere or digg.com is probably more useful than just chasing/buying/trading links. Original information or research is great bait to attract link - (I agree but not completely with this one. There are some bloggers out there that do very well with link style blogs. It’s much much harder to make it big these days with this style of blogging though and most new blogs coming on the scene that are making it big are doing so with original content).
Read the full interview at Google Talks About Splogs, Ranking & More
Written on December 13th, 2005 at 07:12 pm by Darren Rowse
2005 Holiday E-Shopping Exceeds Last Year’s
Nielsen/NetRatings have produced a report (PDF) that shows that this year’s online Holiday spending is up as much as 33% on this time last year. Clikz reports:
‘Books, music, and video combined are the fastest growing category, with a 238 percent increase over last year. Dougherty attributes the growth to a vast selection of titles released during the holidays.
Toys and video games make the combined fastest-growing online retail category for the current holiday season, beginning October 30. Toy and video game buys online account for 149 percent growth from week one to week six. Flowers and gifts grew 117 percent; and consumer electronics grew 90 percent.’
Source: 2005 Holiday E-Shopping Exceeds Last Year’s
Of course this is good news for bloggers developing blogs in these fields with contextual ads and affiliate programs.
I’ve just taken a look back at my Adsense figures from the first 12 days of December 2004 and compared them to the same period this year and there has been a marked improvement of around 60%.
Of course it’s not really a fair comparison because my traffic levels have also increased significantly in this time. The other factor to consider is that a year ago Adsense was by far my largest earner but these days it’s running second and is probably running a little lower as a result of the competing ads.
A better comparison between this year and last year would be to look at total earnings across all of my blog income streams. This is a little tricky as figures are unaudited and there are quite a few of them to consider, but if I were to take a stab at it I’d guess that the overall increase in earnings so far this holiday season in comparison to last year would be around a 400% increase. Not bad for a year - if I could do that again over the next year I think I could almost retire (although it gets harder each year to sustain the high levels of growth - the year before the increase was closer to 5000%).
Anyway - all that to say that December’s shaping up to be a decent month here. How’s the holiday season going for you?
Written on December 13th, 2005 at 07:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Get a Little Bit Personal
The next post in the b5media 12 Days of Christmas Series (I’m keeping a full list of posts there now) has been submitted by Christina Jones, another of our newly merged blogs fom the About Weblogs Network. Christina blogs for us at eBeautyDaily and the Birthday Blog (which will be merged over onto it’s new domain and design shortly). Here’s Christina’s tip on Getting Personal on your Blog
Hi there - I am Christina Jones, from eBeautyDaily, and I want to offer my thoughts to you about the importance of getting to know your readers. One of the joys of reading other peoples blogs is getting a glimpse into their lives and their personalities. For some reason, this is always fascinating to us as humans. I have blogs ranging from the very serious to the very informal (with eBeautyDaily falling somewhere in between), but in all of them, you can see a personal part of me. I try to write from the heart rather than from the wallet. Without the heart, you might as well be writing a press release.
As a enternetusers it can be beneficial to you to encourage your readers to interact with you and express their feelings about your topics so that you can gear your writing and your advertising towards things that they might be interested in. I believe this is the reason that blogs have become so very popular as a method of building a business, and as stand alone businesses themselves. Two things that I can’t stand to see on a blog are a lack of ability to leave comments, and no contact information. These are the very first steps to getting personal with your readers - without them I immediately wonder if I can trust any of the information I am reading, and I usually never return to the blog.
Yes, I know, you will get some spam. There are dozens of scripts to cloak your email address that you can look into, and most blogging platforms have options or plugins that can stop comment spam from overtaking your blog. The few moments of time tending your blog comments are nothing compared to the benefits you will receive from interacting with your readers. Also, don’t slack on responding to your comments, this is the interActive part of blogging, and what makes blogging so much fun. This is also the place where you can really reveal your personality, especially if you are blogging about more serious subjects. And don’t forget to thank your readers for reading occasionally. Ideally you are building a community, and if they don’t believe that you care about them, they might forget to care about you.
I hope you have a joyful holiday season, and thanks for reading!
Written on December 13th, 2005 at 03:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Chitika Introduces Daily Filtering, Faster Updates and Includes more European Countries
Chitika should be happy about some of the changes announced over at the Chitika Blog today. There are two main changes:
1. Daily filtering of clicks from countries currently not supported in the eMiniMalls program: Instead of waiting till the end of the month for the audit process to filter out non-revenue earning clicks from unsupported countries, we are now filtering out those clicks from the daily reports. Please note though that daily reports are for directional purposes only. The final revenues are calculated after the audit process that takes into consideration factors like click fraud, merchant feedback, merchant chargebacks, etc. Our goal is to continue enhancing the reporting process as much as possible and decrease the differences between the daily and monthly (post audit) stats.
This is what many publishers were calling for in the last round of audits. It will mean that your daily figures will be down for December in proportion to the percentage of traffic you have from disallowed countries. To avoid losing out publishers should use the Alternate URL feature. It is worth noting that there is still an auditing process that will filter out other factors at the end of the month but that this should reduce the decreases in revenue from auditing.
2. Faster daily updates: You can expect to see a faster turn around time for the daily reports.
I’m generally asleep when stats update and didn’t notice any difference yesterday but I do know of quite a few publishers were were surprised by quicker updates (hours ahead of ‘normal’) yesterday.
Lastly Chitika announced that they’ve expanded further into Europe and are now testing running ads in countries including France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Netherlands.
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