When you first start out with Google Adsense you consider a lot of things.One aspect often overlooked by publishers however is whether they should be creating sites which aim to attract lots of low value clicks or just a few high value clicks.
Of course plenty of people do this without realising they are even doing it.Some people hear about the high profit clicks in certain areas of property investment websites, others see the huge visitor counts held by celebrity sites.Both of these of course being highly profitable subjects in the right hands.
I am often asked when working on SEO projects which are is the best to target.Some website owners are concerned that by focusing their website completely on an in-depth niche they are missing out on the more generic clicks.The truth of the matter is, that yes they are, but by removing the specific goal of their site they will no doubt end up receiving much lower value clicks.
The worst thing they can do at this point is start the site focusing on a specific niche and trying to expand into lower click areas.If the site becomes a grey area on specific keywords they may find click value dropping without receiving the increased traffic growth associated with a site that focuses on a pure broad spectrum subject site.
If a webmaster wants to cover all the bases however there is a perfectly feasible way of doing so.Creating a broad spectrum website to cover a subject and then creating sub-sites that each contain information on a specific niche is a great way to capture both low and high value traffic. On top of that it also filters a portion of the low value traffic onto your high value sites.
This funnelling system of a low click value ‘net’ site to capture low click value visitors and send them onto your high click value sites is an absolutely fantastic way of bringing some extra traffic, and profit, onto your high click value website.
The funnelling system is a very important part of any web business, it is a very basic premise of turning a single cent of profit into a dollar of profit from the very same visitor.
This does of course sound very easy while actually being a real pain in the derrière, it is however all perfectly possible and it does lead to some fantastic financial gains for a publisher such as yourself.The important thing about this is to keep definition between websites. Keep the high profit ones focused, keep the broad spectrum vague but widespread and try to cover every niche under the broad spectrum on separate specific niche sites to ensure you drain as much traffic as possible from the low value subjects to the high value niches.
The entire concept of turning a low value visitor into a high value visitor seems like a basic, simple and plain obvious idea, but the truth of the matter is that it is regularly overlooked, infact 93% of publishers do not actively follow a business plan that covers these methods, a staggering amount!.
Once people get to this stage however there is one more important question that’s left.
If I am filtering traffic from Low Value to High Value should I Also place links on my high value sites to the low value sites?
The reason people ask this is that people may find themselves on a high value site but not find what they are looking for and leave, whereas if they saw a link to the low value they may re-enter the process and find the high value site they were looking for, or at least chuck a low value click your way.
My usual answer to this is ‘No’
Quite simply linking possible high value traffic to low value traffic will lose you money.Instead link your high value site to other, closely related high value sites to move traffic within your high value web ring and ensure the highest possible value per click from your customers.Limit this to four or five to avoid Google penalties for reciprocal links.
By doing this you will not only optimize Google Adsense profits, but also the profits from any other money making program being run on your website.
I was surprised today as I found a cheque (Check for you Americans) laying on the mat from CCBill.Now in my earlier days I admittedly started creating a site that was of a more adult nature focused on the met-art girls, this was called Rubix Teens.I had pretty much forgotten about this, and was rather unsure as to what the cheque was and what it was for, after a bit of digging though it appears that the site had made a sale, a sale valued at $51 ($44.51 after ccBil took its fee, thieving B&^%rds, but either way a fairly nice surprise and a fairly decent sum.
This surprise cheque has actually left me wondering if the adult entertainment is something worth taking another crack at now that I am a little older and much wiser!
When you first start out with Google Adsense you consider a lot of things.One aspect often overlooked by publishers however is whether they should be creating sites which aim to attract lots of low value clicks or just a few high value clicks.
Of course plenty of people do this without realising they are even doing it.Some people hear about the high profit clicks in certain areas of property investment websites, others see the huge visitor counts held by celebrity sites.Both of these of course being highly profitable subjects in the right hands.
I am often asked when working on SEO projects which are is the best to target.Some website owners are concerned that by focusing their website completely on an in-depth niche they are missing out on the more generic clicks.The truth of the matter is, that yes they are, but by removing the specific goal of their site they will no doubt end up receiving much lower value clicks.
The worst thing they can do at this point is start the site focusing on a specific niche and trying to expand into lower click areas.If the site becomes a grey area on specific keywords they may find click value dropping without receiving the increased traffic growth associated with a site that focuses on a pure broad spectrum subject site.
If a webmaster wants to cover all the bases however there is a perfectly feasible way of doing so.Creating a broad spectrum website to cover a subject and then creating sub-sites that each contain information on a specific niche is a great way to capture both low and high value traffic. On top of that it also filters a portion of the low value traffic onto your high value sites.
This funnelling system of a low click value ‘net’ site to capture low click value visitors and send them onto your high click value sites is an absolutely fantastic way of bringing some extra traffic, and profit, onto your high click value website.
The funnelling system is a very important part of any web business, it is a very basic premise of turning a single cent of profit into a dollar of profit from the very same visitor.
This does of course sound very easy while actually being a real pain in the derrière, however it is all perfectly possible and it does lead to some fantastic financial gains for a publisher.The important thing about this is to keep definition between websites, keep the high profit ones focused, keep the broad spectrum vague but widespread and try to cover every niche under the broad spectrum on separate specific niche sites to ensure you drain as much traffic as possible from the low value website to the high value niches.
The entire concept of turning a low value visitor into a high value visitor seems like a basic, simple and plain obvious idea, but the truth of the matter is that it is regularly overlooked, infact 87% of publishers do not actively follow a business plan that covers these methods, a staggering amount!.
Once people get to this stage however there is one more important question that’s left.
If I am filtering traffic from Low Value to High Value should I Also place links on my high value sites to the low value sites?
The reason people ask this is that people may find themselves on a high value site but not find what they are looking for and leave, whereas if they saw a link to the low value they may re-enter the process and find the high value site they were looking for, or at least chuck a low value click your way.
My usual answer to this is ‘No’
Quite simply linking possible high value traffic to low value traffic will lose you money.Instead link your high value site to other, closely related high value sites to move traffic within your high value web ring and ensure the highest possible value per click from your customers.Limit this to four or five to avoid Google penalties for reciprocal links.
By doing this you will not only optimize Google Adsense profits, but also the profits from any other money making program being run on your website.
Clearviews latest venture has now been launched, My Vegan Planet. My Vegan Planet is a site aimed at providing some tope vegan recipes from around the world as our vegan chef calls up from her vast experience to provide tasty international vegan recipes.
My Vegan Planet is fairly new so only has a few recipes as yet but in the near future we will have a whole host of fantastic international vegan recipes for you to try out!
All too often now you see sites for sale, services for offer and content available for the Gardening Niche, the Golf Niche or the Technology Niche.Time and time again you see these niches advertised as something spectacular, intrinsic and competition free.
Unfortunately however these are not infact niches, categories, yes, areas, yes, subjects definitely.They are not however niches.
There is a lot of truth in the fact that niches are incredibly profitable when they are low competition, but a true niche is not as generic as ‘Technology’.
A niche is a specific area of a subject, so for technology it might be Sony MP3 Players, Spy Gadgets, Business Printers or maybe even Erotic hardware.Whatever you do however do not accept anything that says it is in the ‘Technology niche’
The true way to become profitable through a niche is to find an area of a subject that has been left relatively untapped.Your site should concentrate on this niche subject and contain a little information on other areas around the niche to help draw in the search engines.
So for instance if Sony MP3 Players was untapped (Which unfortunately it isn’t) you would have
Main Content Sony MP3 players
Sub Content Sony MP3 Player accessories
Extra Content (Diverse) Other brand MP3 Players and accessories
From here you can branch out your Niches by choosing related subjects, building sites on them and linking them together.These Niche Clouds allow you to cover a wide area, with easier reporting and greater flexibility on improving the most profitable areas.
Creating a niche cloud such as this also gives you greater flexibility on sending customers to sites where products are worth the most.
Say for instance iPods pay greater commission than Sony MP3 Players.You can change your review of some Sony products to hint that certain apple products are better, a quick link through to the relevant page and you have increased income from your prospective buyer.
All this is impossible when you are covering an entire subject, flexibility is removed and your site content quickly goes stale as you try to keep a site going that covers everything on your subject.
As a freelance writer it is all too easy to fall into the trap of continuous procrastination. Days drift by watching a multitude of random DVDs and streaming nonsensical TV shows.All too quickly you can find your lack of work affecting your income; whether it is work you do for others or yourself.
I find the best way to overcome this is to set my own personal deadlines.Of course a deadline is not a deadline without enforcement, so if I miss my deadline there has to be a punishment.This is a vital part of how I work, I am after all a lazy bastard.Ensuring failing to do my work incurs a penalty, from not going out to doing extra work, puts the work I have to do into perspective, and helps me get it out of the way all the quicker.
This all may seem a little obscure, maybe even a little strange.But it is well known that incentive is the best propagator of productivity. Just like the lack of motivation is the ultimate killer for those attempting to break into the freelance world.
Of course saying you will set your own deadlines is the easy part.What you really need to consider is what constitutes a manageable, realistic and achievable deadline.If a deadline is too much work in too little time, or too little work in too much time there really is no actual point in having it there in the first place.
If you keep missing your deadlines because they are too strict you will become overworked, burn out and eventually give in.If your deadlines are too lax you will become too lazy, maybe still miss the deadlines but will probably not punish yourself for the lapse.
Learning to create your own perfect deadline is something that you can only really learn from experience, but you should aim for something that stretches you, but not too hard and something that will not let you become too lazy but will keep you motivated enough to reach your goal.
Personally I find 5 articles a day, 4 short ones and 1 long one does me fine. It isn’t much, but ontop of a full time job it’s plenty, keep yourself stretched but not so snowed under you don’t have time to enjoy life!
The most important thing is not to beat yourself up too much about it.Take your punishment, do extra work or whatever you have decided, but do not dwell on it, you need to make sure you lose out over not finishing on time, but you really don’t want to get yourself into a downward spiral of not finishing work because it depresses you, failing the deadline and then becoming more depressed due to that!
And remember please, deadlines don’t work for everyone.If you find setting deadlines is harming your productivity as a freelance writer do not use them.Different techniques work for different people, this just happens to work for me!
For the last couple of months I have held a steady $340 a month, this might not be a significant amount but I have not actually done much in the way of work over this time, so i am pretty chuffed by that!
Just to make things a little sweeter the English pound is dropping in value. This means that the $340 that once would have got me £170 now gets me around £215!
On top of that though working has become more difficult once more as I find myself with a girlfriend, I will however get on with some updating and market research over the next few days to pass on more information to you guys!
Google has had both the Google Adsense and the Google Analytics programs running for nearly its entire existence. However after years of waiting Google have finally announced the release of Google Adsense and Analytics integration.
This may not mean much to a lot of newer affiliate webmasters. But the integration of Analytics and Adsense allows a whole host of improvements and profit tracking on our websites.This kind of profit tracking could only previously be done on physical store websites, not affiliate sites.
With the new integration you will be able to easily track your profits clicks and where they are all occurring.It will enable easy overlay heat map integration, showing you where people are clicking, better click tracking and sowing what kind of adverts people are clicking on for improved Adsense optimization
The key in my eyes though is the ability to see which pages adverts are getting clicked on. Would a page about one celebrity get more clicks than another celebrity?
In short the Adsense and Analytics integration allows me a new degree of focus on my profit optimization.By showing me which of my sites pages are working best it gives me a key indicator on where exactly I should put my future efforts!
By focusing on the topics of my key profit generating pages I can create more of these while reducing the amount of work I put into poor profit generation pages. I would still keep these, but only as a base to keep Google interested and pull in a little extra.Any extra work I put into these poor performing pages would be minimal, with most of my efforts going into where they would be best rewarded.
Google have released this great little video showing off the new possibilities!
A great help to those looking into the new google adsense and analytics combination!
So you want this new adsense and analytics combined integration?
Well unfortunately it is still in Beta and has only been released to a few people, but if you see this
Then it means that you are able to access these great new adsense & Analytics combined features!
On page SEO is an art form that is greatly misunderstood and rarely practiced correctly by many freelance writers. As a freelance writer the majority of jobs you will end up taking will involve sales text and search engine optimization. These jobs will hardly ever throw you into the webpage gubbins of Meta Tags and SEO website coding.
Your job when writing SEO optimized content is the same old two-fold, you have to give your customer what they want and what they need.
Take for instance a site for printers, the customer wants you to write sales text for a new line of Laser Printers. This should sell the product to anyone who views the page. To do this you must suggest the brand repeatedly, promote the product line and entice the customer to purchase the product. In generic terms they may also state that the page should be SEO optimised.
A good customer will provide you with keywords, their preferred density and density placement on page.
Unfortunately not all customers are so well prepared, and expect you to figure this out by yourself, in some cases even wanting you to choose the target keywords.
Now this in itself is bad practice, the customer should tell you what they want you to write, it is not your job to figure out what would bring in the greatest amount of traffic and revenue. After all if you knew this straight off you would be doing it for yourself.
On the other hand though it is good practice for you as a freelance writer to improvise, to complete a job to satisfaction and earn your reputation by working with even the most awkward of clients. While it may not be your role to work on how you will complete the SEO on page it does give you that certain air of professionalism that helps you stand out against one of the worlds most competitive markets.
But first things first, on page optimization for a freelance writer is quite simply the creation of copy (text) that will push itself onto search engines by focusing on certain key words and certain layouts, along with a few other tips and tricks.
On Page Keyword Optimization
The focus on certain keywords is a fine art. To start with too little or too much repetition of the Keyword and its keyword relations is massively important. The ability of your text to attract visitors from search engines could rise or diminish based on this factor alone.
A good layout for keywords is, from my experience,
Header - Main Keyword Phrase
First Paragraph - Main Keyword Phrase, A Secondary Keyword Phrase, Related Phrase
Second Paragraph - Secondary Keyword Phrase, Several Related Phrases & Words from Main Keyword Phrase.
Rest of Text - Main Keyword Phrase should appear in around 1-2% of the text, Secondary keyword phrase about 2-4% and related phrases spread liberally. Parts of the keywords phrase should also be used to help promote the main keyword phrase itself.
Of course this layout for SEO optimization is my own personal view of the best keyword density and keyword layout. Others may find more effective patterns, and I would not be surprised. Keyword optimization is all about making the keywords fit in naturally. You should optimize your keyword densities only to a level where it does not effect the quality and readability of your work.
On Page Formatting Optimization
When you are writing your text on occasions your customer will ask for you to format certain words to help optimize the text for search engines. optimizing your page by formatting the text is relatively simple, though should be used selectively.
If your customer decides that they want you to format teh text for on page search engine optimisation then you have three basic tools to use, namely Header tags, Bold and Italics. Each of these can be used alone or in combination to enhance the importance of specific words in your text.
Headers, created using the H1, H2 etc tags are especially useful for titles, words given a heading tag are given a much higher level of priority from search engines. Use these sparingly but with your keywords to hugely increase the effectiveness of your websites.
Using bold and italic text to increase your on page optimisation is again a great technique, remember to use these seo formatting techniques with care though, too much and your site may end up being flagged as spam. bold or italics should rarely cover more than a sentence and should not appear in any more than 1/3 of your total number of paragraphs.
Using these formatting SEO techniques wisely will lend a new lease of life to your copy that could greatly increase the amount of organic traffic pulled through your text.
Spelling and Grammar for SEO
This should be something you focus on in your writing on anyway, but proper use of spelling and grammar is imperative to good SEO. Google, the worlds most used search engine has unique techniques to check through sites for valuable, correct and useful information. To reach this end your search rankings are greatly affected by your spelling and grammar. A poorly created piece of text is less likely to be of use, less likely to be accurate and much less likely to be what the browser is searching for!
For this reason spell checking and proof reading is essential to the text you write, whether it be for your own websites or your freelance career.
Without a doubt one of the most frequently asked and not to mention horrendously dreaded questions faced by authors (be they fiction or sales speelers) is “Where do you get your ideas?”
Answering this question is nigh on impossible for most. Some may revert to quoting a favorite classical book as inspiration, others may talk about how their travels have influenced their viewpoints. The fact of the matter is however that a question like this could easily be compared to “why did you decide to choose this topic of conversation” within a normal conversation.
Now while the question is a difficult, tedious and generally frowned upon inquiry it does on occasion make a writer think about where their ideas do infact originate from.
I find my creativity for instance is greatly influenced by my travels, people I have met and places I have seen. But in the same vein the beauty seen in the Antoni Gaudi architecture (prominent in Barcelona) can in my eyes just as easily be compared to a leaf strewn path on a sunny autumn day in my own city.
The truth of the matter is that us all writers are influenced by everything that is set about us, from our childhood and upbringing, all the way to our future. Our beliefs and or experience is always layered over our text like a thin veil, practically invisible but always pointing the ethics, topics and detail of our work.
The future hang an influence on our character is one that has often raised questions from people. But if you ask a 20 year old and a 60 year old about pensions I will guarantee to you that they give some very different responses and levels of detail on the subject.
Our own influence is what drives our minds, and it is our own personality which chooses what needs to be written, whether it is the belief in what is true, or more likely in what will be profitable.
For this reason I have decided that from now onwards whenever I am asked where I get my ideas from I will steadfastly reply, ‘from myself’.
Then it means that you are able to access these great new adsense & Analytics combined features!