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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5 YouTube Tips to Keep Videos Alive

YouTube, as always, is an unbeatable video website that has reached countless milestones. Despite issues of copyright infringements and the fear of oversaturation, a lot of online users are still on the platform uploading video after video. However, the majority of video uploaders are remiss on techniques that can successfully launch their videos to the point of becoming viral. They only think in terms of YouTube views and not on longevity. What they need are techniques that will help them see the big picture of a YouTube success.

Why not try these tried and tested strategies?

1. Piggy Back Technique
   
   

The piggy back technique pertains to riding on the limelight of others. There are two ways to do it. First is to leverage your video to what is already trending or popular online. You want to be swept together with the popular videos or topics that people are currently searching for. You will appear in the search results which will give you a bigger chance to get clicked and viewed. Second is to post video responses to niche-related YouTube channels. 

2. Relevant Online Communities
   
   

Look for popular and relevant online communities where there is a pool of users. You can sign up for Digg or Reddit and start establishing relationships with community members. When the time is right, you can start sharing your videos and create a discussion around it.  It is important to share your videos outside the realm of YouTube. There are endless possibilities on forums and other types of online communities.

3. Build Subscriber Base
   
   

Just as celebrities need fans, video owners need viewers and subscribers as well. They are the ones who will see your news feed such as video likes, favorites and new uploads. And you can’t gather a lot of these people if you have crappy video content with a sorry number of YouTube views, or if you don’t do the next strategy below.

4. Respond
   
   

This strategy is repeated in the nth time on video blogs but still there are those people who are too smug and complacent that they neglect or deliberately ignore comments. What are they thinking? Unless you are a popular music artist like Bieber, your videos need a voice or people will stop commenting on your other videos. This is not limited to YouTube. You need to respond to comments about your videos even on blogs or forums as well.

5. Link your videos
   
   

This is a very valuable strategy if you want to shine a light on your other videos in your video library. You can use annotations or place video links on the description box. You can put links to related videos or previous videos with a lot of YouTube views.

These tips have been written repeatedly, yet only a few tried to apply it to their YouTube plans. Maybe it’s no longer about strategies but a case of idleness.

Updating Old Web Applications

The past few days I've been working on some websites that I wrote years ago. Part of the motivation was to add new features but there were also some bugs that developed when external APIs changed or in some cases disappeared.



Some of it was painless, other parts had me banging my head up against the wall.



I thought I'd document some of the problems I ran across and some of the things that have helped make the update process easier.

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Website Header Size?

Your website's header is an important part of building your brand. But how big should your header be? Webdesign trends constantly change. Today I'm going to look at 10 popular websites in different markets and look at their header size and layout as well as their logo size.

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Blogging Is Not A Get Rich Quick Scheme

Over the years more and more people have been looking for ways to make money online. Many have turned to blogging. But how much money can you expect to make from a blog?



I addressed this topic back in 2008 in How Much Money Do Bloggers Make (analysis of a poll from Darren Rowse) and it turns out to be not that much for most. Now I'd like to address the same topic by looking at the stats of 7 of the 10 last blogs in tecnorati's top 100 blog list.



They're not the top of the list but also nothing to sneeze at either. Being in the top 100 when there are hundreds of millions of blogs out there is a very big accomplishment!



So let's look at what it takes to make the least, most popular blog and what type of success it has.

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