Blogger vs Wordpress

Blogging is a cheap and easy way for people who don't know how to build their own website to start making money online. All you have to be able to do is write interesting articles. Two popular free blogging platforms are Blogger and WordPress.



If you're just starting out and plan to make money blogging you should choose Blogger even though I think WordPress is a more powerful blogging platform.



It seems a little strange to not pick the best tool but I also believe in picking the right tool for the right job. As I'll explain, Blogger is better than WordPress if you're just starting out.

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How SEO and IM Became Four Letter Words

I just saw Matt Cutts response to the Scamworld video via a post on SaltyDroid.



Matt's tweet in response didn't come as a shock. Internet Marketers and SEOs seem to go hand in hand and Matt has a strong relationship with the SEO community being he's the devine messenger sent down from the top of Mount View to help those of us looking to put things online stay in Google's good graces.

Oh my: "Internet Marketer — a 21st century snake oil salesman." Painting with a broad brush here: goo.gl/MXjSC techmeme.com/120510/p38#a12…

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) May 10, 2012

I have respect for what Matt Cutts has been doing to combat webspam at Google but I disagree with him here. While there may have been a time that SEO and IM had a more legitimate meaning (err maybe just SEO), the titles have generally been corrupted. Maybe a little history lesson will help.

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AdSense Backup Ads Using Amazon Affiliate and Commission Junction

When AdSense does not have advertisers to fill your ad slot it displays a blank space by default which doesn't exactly maximize your revenue potential. A better solution is to display alternate ads. In this post I'll show you how to easily set up your AdSense Backup Ads to display either Commission Junction Smart Zones or Amazon Affiliate ads.



Both Amazon and Commission Junction run large, well respected affiliate programs that can help you earn money from space that would otherwise be left blank. The process is very simple and you only need to know some basic HTML and CSS as well as have the ability to upload files to your website.

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What AdSense Categories You Should Block

Google AdSense has been enabling AdSense Publishers to have more control over the ads that are displayed on there sites. Two of the ways they've done this are by allowing publishers to block ads based on General and Sensitive Categories.



Using these tools can help you increase your AdSense earnings by showing only ads you think would be relevant to your visitors. It can also hurt your earnings if you're not careful.



So which categories should you block and which should you allow?

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Deceptive Ads and Invalid Clicks

I've been noticing a strange AdWords trend that has me really concerned about how it might effect me as an AdSense publisher. I keep seeing very deceptive ads that I'm sure generate invalid clicks through no fault of the AdSense publisher.



These ads have turned up on various sites but today I found one on this very blog as I was previewing my last article.



The ads are disguised so they don't look like ads. The example I included in the screenshot above even closely matches the colors of my site's template.



From time to time I notice a new AdSense click that has high earnings (5-10x my average EPC), then a short time later the click is still there but the revenue has vanished



In some cases it seems these ads are a willful attempt to get more impressions and more clicks but not have to pay for it. The scam appears to go like this:

1. Create an ad that looks nothing like an ad.


2. Make sure the ad can be confused with the content of the sites it's likely to be displayed on.


3. Bid very high for your ad placements.


4. Hope the ads generate a lot of invalid clicks so you get a discount.

Is anything being done about this? Are these types of ads potentially putting my AdSense account at risk of being disabled?

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How To Name AdSense Items

When you create an AdSense Ad Unit, Link Unit, Channel or other item you can give it a unique name to help you find it later when editing it or viewing reports.



By default a fairly non descriptive name is given to the item but I recommend you do not use it. Instead create a more descriptive name.



I thought I'd share the naming convention I use with AdSense that I've found to be very helpful especially now that AdSense has upgraded to the new AdSense interface.

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