SEM Tycoon

**Nitin M** · 07-18-2006, 02:53 PM

<edit>Dropped the target to 100 tips ... come on .. we can do it!</edit>

Heh ... I couldn't possibly come up with 100 tips all by myself ... but as a group we can! I see we have just over 1000 members to this great new community. To get the most out of this site we need EVERYONE actively involved in sharing information.

So, let's make this thread a testiment to the power of community sharing. Everyone should be able to make a post giving either:

a) a tip they have learned for making money online

b) a lesson leanred for how NOT to make money online

c) a specific nugget of information they wish they had but don't

Once we get to 1,000 posts in this thread I'll sift through and clean/sort/merge all the responses and Lee can make this some type of FAQ for all members to refer back to.

If you're here and reading this then YOU have something to contribute. Even if you feel it's already been covered, post it because when I compile the results I'll be able to make note of the most recurring themes too.

So, I'll start us of ...

-------
TIP #1:
-------
I'm big into adsense and if you have content sites where adsense is the primary form of monetizing, then don't go with the standard adsense placement that is "outside" the content. Instead, put the adsense within the content and strategically placed ... for example ...

Quote:

Lowering Your Monthly Mortgage
Too many consumers don't put in the time to do proper research into
how the can significantly lower their mortgage payments. Waiting for
a telesales person to call or for the just the right mass-mailed offered
is not research! Astute mortgage shoppers know the best way to find
the lowest rates is to do their research online.
----------------------------
Adsense block with no border
goes here. Make the titles
standout (i prefer dark green
or dark red).
----------------------------
By simply window shopping on sites that advertise low mortgages, you
will become much more savvy when it comes to different offers to
lower your rate which will turn into big monthly savings!

Alright so forget about the lame copy because that was off the cuff, but you get my point I hope. Almost everyone has their adsense blocks in the margins of the page. I get 5-10x the CTR with strategic placements as I do with border placements.

Okay ... so that was Tip #1 ... only 999 to go. If you don't have a tip, then ask a question. No tip and no question is too small :yes:

**j-weezy** · 07-18-2006, 02:58 PM

Great post idea!

I'll start by adding on to your tip about Adsense...

Tip #2 - Place images right next to your Adsense blocks to increase CTR

**handsome rob** · 07-18-2006, 03:12 PM

Tip #3: When using adsense on a blog, remove all instances of the word "Blog" from the pages. This is especially true when using a pre-made script like Wordpress. Look for these words in your tags, domain name (god help you), directory (mysite.com/blog), column headings, titles, posts, etc. Doing so will help kill the adsense blog curse, which is when the only ads that appear on your blog are low-paying ads for blogging services and software.

**MediaMook** · 07-18-2006, 03:32 PM

Hey Nitin:

Great idea for a thread.

I'm new to the whole 'new media' monetization thing, but I can pass on some old-school wisdom about advertising:

Tip #4: Always TEST, TEST, TEST, using small amounts of capital, before committing to a set path.

You don't want to get all fired up to make million with a PPC campaign and then blow it all on a non-performing ad (or series of ads.)

Set aside chunks as your test capital and find out which advertising is the most effective.

HTH - Mook

**j-weezy** · 07-18-2006, 03:34 PM

Another great Adsense tip...

Filter out all eBay ads... they don't pay worth a ****!

**Jak** · 07-18-2006, 03:43 PM

Another AdSense tip...

Use AdsBlacklist to filter out low paying AdSense ads.

**handsome rob** · 07-18-2006, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jak

Another AdSense tip...

Use AdsBlacklist to filter out low paying AdSense ads.

Nice tool, thanks

**sp0om** · 07-18-2006, 04:23 PM

Less is more.

When I put up 3 ads on my site, I got many 0 click days in a row. After going back to one ad, I got back into the 5-10 click range.

**clickbuild** · 07-18-2006, 04:32 PM

As MediaMook says, test all the time.

When it comes to testing adsense or other media, use one of your smaller websites first, rather than loosing money on one of the bigger earners. Once you know the changes have a positive effect, roll them out to the main sites.

**gdubs12345** · 07-18-2006, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jak

Another AdSense tip...

Use AdsBlacklist to filter out low paying AdSense ads.

I like that blacklist tool, I could see that coming in handy
thanks

**clickbuild** · 07-18-2006, 05:20 PM

For adsense get rid of the low paying ads by using the competitve ads filter. I do not use AdsBlacklist as it is too broad. I usually wait to see what shows up on my site and then look at the sites that are advertising. MFA and directory type sites go in the filter.

Every once in a while I remove all the filtered sites for a day to see if the CPM goes up or down, just to confirm I am not filtering out well paying ads.

**Gerto** · 07-18-2006, 06:03 PM

Always experiment a lot, there's never just one thing that works for everyone. Experiment with ad placement, colors, type of ads, companies, .... and see what works best for you!

**Nitin M** · 07-18-2006, 08:13 PM

I think we're up to 10 .. here's number 11 ...

When working on a content site, try to have the homepage link to your newly created pages. So, for example, if you have a tutorials site and you're adding a new tutorial every couple of days, then make sure you keep the links to the newest tutorial pages on your homepage. This is the fastest way to make sure your new content gets quickly indexed.

**ChickenHole** · 07-18-2006, 08:36 PM

Never experiment with your core domains, getting a domain reincluded is a major pain in the ***. Keep the grey stuff of the domains that pay your mortgage and play around with the play money domains.

**xboxundone** · 07-18-2006, 09:55 PM

um i think this is 12 or 13....

Don't try to overmonetize your site... many people have good sites with decent traffic but then plaster ads everywhere and then none of the visitors come back... when you try to monetize your site try to keep it simple and don't overwhelm the visitors with ads (again this is for you good quality site... not your made for money sites

)

**clickbuild** · 07-19-2006, 08:06 PM

When it comes to adsense et al, tracking is vitally important and quite eyeopening. I use AdSenseGold to track adsense clicks and it helps me squeeze more out of the ads plus find and eliminate some of the low paying ones.

Also, when eliminating ads it is also good to keep the magic word "relevant" in your head. Google is pretty good, but you can make sure more of the ads deliver are relevant by filtering out the less-relevant.

Was that a two tips?

**pcdoc** · 07-19-2006, 08:26 PM

The blog article must not contain pornography or adult material, hate or violence-oriented content, suggest racial intolerance, advocate against any individual, have an insulting, obscene or degrading tone, or contain profane language;

otherwise Google may suspend display of Adsense (ads).

Ask me how I know :glare:

**kasrak** · 07-19-2006, 09:04 PM

Well, here's my contribution:

If you have multiple domains (or subdomains) that are hosted on the same server, don't redirect the visitor using a script (JavaScript, PHP, whatever). Doing this will (in my exprience) make search engines (esp. Google) hate your site. Instead use "virtual sites" (well, I'm not farmiliar with IIS, this is for Apache). Open up your apache configuration file (ussually httpd.conf) and add the following for each virtual site:

Code:

<VirtualHost *>
   ServerName yourdomain.com
   DocumentRoot /var/www/yourdomain_directory
</VirtualHost>

Replace yourdomain.com with your own domain or subdomain and yourdomain_directory is the directory (folder) that the site files is in.

Oh, and if this line:
NameVirtualHost *
Isn't in the config file, add it.

For example, here's the bottom part of my httpd.conf file:

Code:

NameVirtualHost *

<VirtualHost *>
   ServerName browse.kasrak.com
   DocumentRoot /var/www/browse
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *>
   ServerName etherdirectory.kasrak.com
   DocumentRoot /var/www/browse/dev/ether
</VirtualHost>

**Virgilan** · 07-19-2006, 09:13 PM

Don't over apply.
Its a nice thought to bring EVERYTHING to a user, but unless you are Google, Yahoo, Msn, etc. You won't have the working-hours to achieve it.

Instead, specialize your site to a specific audience, and work from there.

(I spend more time on Earnersforum than Yahoo, because I am interested in the subject matter, and it is easily accessable, If this exact same forum was a part of Yahoo, do you think I would be there? probably not.)

**jerome2900** · 07-20-2006, 10:14 PM

Three ad formats usually outdo the others if placed correctly on your page. Large rectangle or medium rectangle ( 4 ads ) and the wide skycraper. The rectangles go in the middle of your page and BLENDED in nicely with the rest of your body. Wide text is more pleasing to the eyes and these ads hold the interest of the viewer a little longer. The skyscraper does better if placed down the left of your page since your reader eyes goes there after leaving the center of your page.