Adsense Secrets Revealed by Google???
Google’s Adsense program has been around since the early part of this decade. In that time, Adsense has generated millions in revenue for advertisers and much, much more for Google. Adsense gave Google both money and branding. Every time a web publisher hosts an Adsense ad, Google shows the sign, “Ads by Google” and gets paid by the advertiser per click or impression. The publisher also gets paid so it’s a win-win situation.
But just how much of a win has it been for the publisher? As an advertiser, I have an accounting of how much I pay Google per click or per impression on their content network. It used to be that you could advertise on Google’s content network for a little as a penny per click. Now a days, those penny clicks are all but gone — much like the penny arcades. Expect to pay 50 cents to several dollars per click now in order to get impressions on their content network.
So if I pay Google $1 per click, how much do they pay their publishers for hosting that ad? Up until a few days ago, nobody knew this information outside of Google. It was one of those Adsense secrets along with a great many other secrets that Google held closely like how they do their search algorithm.
I tried to guess the Adsense payout percentage. I have a size-able network of websites with Adsense Ads. Evey time someone clicks on the ads, I noted the payout amount in my Adsense account. The numbers varied according to the competition for that keyword at that moment in time. The numbers that I saw swung widely, even on the same website. For example, a click may pay 3 cents one day, and $3 per click on another day.
I tried to compare what I paid on Google Adwords for similar keywords, but without having access to Google’s data, my guesstimate was that they paid about 50% per click to me as the publisher. Alas, in the spirit of greater “transparency” according to the big G, I now know the answer to one of Google’s Adsense secrets … They pay 68% to the publisher.
Wow. That number is much higher than my guesstimate of 50%. I’m not complaining. I’m just surprised.
So should we all rush to build more Adsense sites? Not so fast. It’s curious that Google would choose to share this information right after they updated their ranking algorithm. The new algorithm would no longer rank “thin” websites optimized for long tail keywords so highly. If you know anything about another Adsense secret, it was to try and rank for the long tail. Hmmm…
If you are an Adsense publisher, let me know your thoughts on why Google would reveal one of their Adsense secrets at this time.
How to Remove Antispyware Soft
Marketing online is fraught with risks. One category is business risk. The other category is technical risk. Business risk is when you try to execute a digital marketing strategy and it fails. Technical risk includes the risk of not implementing your websites and/or scripts correctly. But technical risk also includes the risk from cyber-attacks. One of the most common form is viruses pretending to be a friendly program … like a trojan horse. This blog is about how to remove Antispyware Soft. It’s one of the latest to hit the Internet.
I was attacked by the Antispyware Soft virus today. It got onto my system by some software vulnerability. I’m not exactly sure how. Then again, it seems fairly easy to attack a Windows machine. Antispyware Soft quickly planted itself on my task bar as a “legitimate” antivirus software.
The first thing it did was to pop-up a security notice saying that one of my files was corrupted. It gave me the option to scan my system. Next, it said that my virus definition was out of date. So I needed to update antivirus software by clicking on the “update” icon.
Hmmm. Seems kind of fishy since I use Norton. So I read the error message carefully and noticed a grammatical error. It said, “…protect you computer…” This was another sign that something was amiss.
By now, five other warning messages had popped up. In addition, Windows IE was launched on my computer. I use Firefox.
This was wicked indeed… a virus masquerading as an antivirus software that could launch IE.
The next thing it took over was my Windows applications like Media Player. Antispyware Soft blocked the application every time I tried to launch it. Hmmm.
I ran a scan with Norton. While the scan ran, the rogue software kept popping-up warning messages over my Norton screen. Not good.
Luckily, I still had access to the Internet via my Firefox browser. Thank goodness for browser choices.
I searched and found http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-antispyware-soft.html.
That site provided detailed instructions on how to remove this pest.
In a nutshell, here is what I did to successfully remove Antispyware Soft:
1) Downloaded Malwarebytes Anti Malware (it’s free);
2) Restarted my computer;
3) Pressed F8 during the boot-up so that I could get the “Safe Mode” screen;
4) Selected “Safe Mode with Networking”;
5) Once in Windows Safe Mode, I installed Malwarebytes Anti Malware;
6) Ran a scan inside Malwarebytes;
7) The scan detected the rogue Antispyware Soft;
Deleted the infected files using Malwarebytes (The rogue files hid in my Users folder on my C drive. The file was called [some random characters]tssd.exe, e.g. adlfjsiewpertsse.exe.)
9) Rebooted my computer.
All is well again.
One more thought… I often wondered if software security companies released viruses into the wild so that they could be caught by the software security companies themselves… Nah. Too preposterous.
But this security scam comes pretty close. I wish you safe surfing.
More Web Site Traffic Does Not Equal More Business
When I speak with clients and online marketers, the one thing that comes up consistently is everyone wants more web site traffic. On the surface this makes perfect sense. Send more traffic to your web site and they will surely buy.
If life was only that easy online. Sure, brute traffic will generate more sales and/or opt-ins. But the question is how much did that traffic cost? If you spent $100 to generate your traffic, and your conversion value is $50, was the traffic worth it? On the surface, most web site owners would answer no.
If the answer was only that easy online. You see the hidden answer to that question is how much the web site owner was able to monetize from that customer after the first capture. Was he able to up-sell and cross-sell additional products and/or services to that customer over time? If the answer was yes, then there stands a chance that the $100 that the web site owner paid for that traffic could return a profit after all. If the answer was no, well then the $100 resulted in a $50 lost.
Web site traffic, you see, is only part of the equation. For many people, they see traffic as the only part of the equation because most web site owners are starving for it. If only they knew how “easy” it is to get traffic. They can take their pick of traffic from SEO, SMO, PPC, CPV, email drops, co-registration, mobile ads, banner ads, contextual ads, thank-you page ads, ezine ads, online videos, RSS placements, podcasts, blog commenting, forum posting, profile creation, press releases, articles, guest blogging, online classifieds, directories, pay-to-post, picture tags, pop-ups, print ads, radio ads, tv ads, … the list of traffic sources is long.
The meatier part of the equation is conversion. How well does that traffic convert to a sale or an opt-in after it hits your web site? The meatiest part of the equation, however, is the hidden part: How well can you monetize that conversion in the back-end? In other words, do you have a business system that maximizes the value that you deliver to your customer while at the same time is efficient enough to be replicated? And by the way, is it low cost?
The business system is the critical part of the online marketing equation that can set your business apart. Everything up to that part — keywords, traffic, niches — are all transparent. In other words, your competitors have full access to that data. What they can see and monitor, they will steal. Count on it. Your business system is hidden. Only you know what happens after the customer enters your system. And that is your secret sauce.
So stop worrying about getting more web site traffic. I’ve showed you that that part is easy and can be duplicated by your competitors. Instead, focus on the part that will bring you the most value to your business. In fact, I would argue that it is your business. And that would be your business system.
Tiger Woods Cheating and Online Reputation Management
“Tiger Woods apologizes for cheating during his sponsored press conference. Youtube at 11.” If you missed it live via UStream the first time around, don’t fret. You can watch Tiger Woods’ performance on Youtube, on Hulu, on Livestream, on Metacafe, on a myriad of other online video sites. And if that isn’t enough, you can read about it on 7,930,000 blogs. Simply Google “tiger woods press conference” to see the latest search results.
It’s no wonder why Tiger Woods took 80 days before breaking his silence. With the Internet, celebrities need the time to properly plan an online reputation management campaign. Whatever you have to say spreads very fast online.
Ten years ago, we had another high profile cheating scandal. I’m referring to President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. “I did not have sex with that women,” he said in a press conference while wagging his finger at the camera. That was far from the truth, of course. But hey, he only had to deal with 3 channels back then: print, TV, and radio.
Remember those days? Remember the days pre-Google search dominance, pre-Youtube, pre-Facebook, pre-Twitter, pre-IM, pre-texting in the US, pre-24×7 instant info?
How did we get by back then? … Not being able to Tweet, leave comments, Digg, Bump, Stumble, hyperlink, Flame, and repost?
I wonder if President Clinton would have delivered a different message if Web 2.0 had been around back then?
We live in an age of social media dependence. While human nature remains the same — we all like to rubberneck and stare at the car crashes of other people — we want acceptance from our tribe as to whether our gawking is justified. With Web 2.0, this is easy to do. The online reputation management teams that top celebrities employ, recognize this fact.
The online reputation management game plan goes something like this:
* What is the story that we can sell?
* What does the brand represent?
* Can we reposition brand?
* Who are the key influencers online?
* Can they be bought off?
* Can we go viral with our new story?
* What is the execution window?
Having worked with celebrities, I can tell you that the right story if properly told and through the right influencers can do wonders in terms of diffusing a hot one.
So Tiger Woods may be all right after all … not despite of Web 2.0 but because of Web 2.0. Watch out world, this is the year of the Tiger.
Articles Marketing – What Works in 2010
When I started working on the Internet in the mid 1990’s, the mantra was … Content is King. The Web was much slower back then, so content equals articles. If you wanted to do website marketing, you had to write lots of articles.
Fast forward 15 years: Today the Web is bulging with content. Some argue that we have too much content. Video has taken hold online big time. Witness the Youtube phenomena. So the question for 2010 is … Does articles marketing work anymore?
I get this question from clients often. So let me just jump to the answer. Articles marketing still works online.
…but to get the true implication of this answer requires that I write some more content.
Article Marketing to Build Authority
People still believe what they read in print. What you say, how you say it, and how you support what you said, make indelible impressions on your reader’s psyche. Somehow, what is written carries more weight than what is said verbally. Perhaps this is because writing something down is still harder for most people than simply just saying it.
Sure, people do get skeptical about what they read, but if the content is well crafted with the proper headline, people will allow you to make your argument in print.
Repetition also helps. If you write about a given topic enough times, you eventually become the “authority” on the topic. Whether you deserve the authority status or not is debatable. You wrote down your arguments … And that by itself is is a fact. Write enough arguments and people will quote you to support their arguments. Weird how this works.
So using articles to market your idea still works in 2010. Write enough about that idea and you will build authority.
Article Marketing to Build Links
Believe it or not, search engine spiders are still dumb. We are well into the 21st century and search engine spiders still can’t make out the content in videos, audio, and graphics, including pictures and Flash.
What they can decipher is text content. And boy have they feasted on articles over the past 15 years. I wonder how many articles Google, Yahoo, and Bing can ultimately index?
I will cover this in another, ahem, article. But for now, just know that if you want to manipulate the spiders, simply feed them written content.
Use article marketing to build links: Link to your blog. Link to your videos. Link to your audio. Link to your pictures. Link to your Flash. Link to your articles. Link to your links.
Article Directories that People Read
Time is precious. The Web is a time suck. So if you want to use article marketing to build authority, publish your articles where people will actually read them.
As far as my testing goes, there are only two places where people actually read articles online. They are
- EzineArticles.com
- Docstoc.com
Some people have also found real readers on ScribD.com. So you may try your luck there. Just be sure to track.
As for the other 10,387 other article directories online, use them for link building.
So that’s it folks… My first post in 2010. Article marketing still works in 2010. It’s true because I wrote it down.
