I had been using Google’s Adsense program to generate some revenue from my various web sites. Prior to Adsense, I was never previously paid to run these and did so for a hobby. Overall I was pleased with the income I was generating. The only drawback was that I was always looking for ways to get people to my sites. I enjoyed working to bring in more visitors but felt that if I looked at my earnings vs. the hours I worked, the economics weren’t making sense.

Then I figured out that certain sites were paying way more than the minimum .05 cents per click. I reasoned that if I could get pay visitors .05 – .10 to visit. Then if they clicked enough ads that paid much more than I paid, then Adwords could be a viable way to increase traffic to my sites.

So I paid my $5.00 setup fee and added my two most profitable sites. That same day my traffic jumped dramatically and as I thought. Visitors who came in via Adwords were more likely to click other Google ads on my site. My conversions went up and I thought why not put all my sites on Adwords.

This was where some careful research was needed. I found that some sites I run had adwords sponsors who were only bidding the minimum. Remember the concept was to under bid the advertisers on my sites. While my traffic skyrocketed, my expenses for a few sites seemed to outweigh any benefit. When my reports came in it was clear that I needed to use Adwords for only the sites that featured high bidding advertisers. This creates margin for those visitors who come in via paid ads but do not click to my own sponsored ads.

The exception would be if my site was offering a product or service. Then it would be well worth sticking with Adwords on those sites just to get more buying traffic. Because my sites are purely informational I had to watch carefully to ensure I was putting money into Adwords where it was working for me. In some cases I upped my bid on some keywords that were clearly bringing in steady traffic that converted well.

Google’s new offering called Websense may change this a bit. By allowing you to put Google’s search form on your site and then paying if your visitors search off your site and click other sponsored links it may make those underperforming sites profitable again. Time and further research will tell.

The moral of the story is that Adwords is a great way to dramatically increase your profits when using Adsense. Care needs to be taken to see that you are putting your money where it is most effective.

About The Author

John Gall is a full time IT Manager and IT Consultant in Minnesota. He runs several websites as a hobby featuring content similar to that in this article.
Source: Havead.com

For the first time when I saw iPhone pics over the net before it was even released, it was like “iPhone iPhone iPhone” in mind for a few days. I was pretty much convinced that the iPhone is as revolutionary as revolutionary devices go. But a few days back I was searching for devices which offer better features than an iPhone, in short we call them iPhone killers. And to my surprise I found many, after looking into several phones I compiled a list of 5 such phones which I feel are iPhone killers. Ok friends, I guess it’s time to see some good iPhone killers. Here they are:

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Author: Joel

Want to transfer music from your iPod to your friend’s iPod? But unfortunately there’s no laptop or a pc nearby? Well, don’t worry there’s a device which helps you to do the same. Using the iPod to iPod Transfer Device you can easily transfer music, video, and pictures from one iPod to another iPod without the use of a computer.

The data transfer speed is really good. You can transfer a 30 minute video in just 3 minutes. Its rechargeable battery provides up to 1 1/2 hours of operation during transfers and includes an AC adapter that recharges the device in four hours; iPods are recharged while connected. The iPod to iPod Transfer Device costs just $99, if you liked it, you can get one from hammacher.

Author: Joel Source: Bizzntech.com

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1.Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Source: articlesnatch

1. The Maverick Strategy
The Maverick strategy is a very effective way to gain inbound links. Here’s what you do. Get online to one of your favorite blogs and read up on the conversation that is occurring there. Surely one of those pompous bloggers who thinks he knows it all is making a comment about some current event. In fact, since people are sheep, there’s probably a whole boatload of morons who are following the opinion of one person. Here’s what you do.

Carefully research and study the subject matter. Ideally, it should be a subject you are already familiar with. Then write a scathing, but respectful diatribe against the opinion of the status quo. This way, you will set yourself apart from the crowd. What will result is an influx of inbound links. People take notice when someone stands for something different. You really should believe in what you say, because you should stand for your principles. That’s why this strategy works when you find a blog that you disagree with. ‘Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights’ Bob Marley.

2. The Maven Strategy
If you’re an expert in a certain field or sector, you can share your knowledge and become the local blogosphere expert. You must possess intricate knowledge about the subject matter so that you are the most knowledgeable person writing about the subject. If you truly know as much as you think and you write about it, people will flock to your site. This is another great way to get inbound links.

3. The Comedy Strategy
One thing that the Internet is lacking is quality humor. If you’ve got a good sense of humor and you know how to make people laugh, you will surely gain a wealth of admirers. Just be yourself and write what you feel. Honesty makes people laugh, especially uncomfortable honesty. This is probably one of the best ways you can attract visitors to your web site. Remember, everyone loves to laugh.

You can employ any number of these strategies to increase web traffic and feed your blog. You will feed it a great, whole meal if you use these strategies, and you’ll enjoy a huge amount of visitors.

Author: Mohit at TntArticles.com

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With the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN seemingly changing their algorithms on a regular basis, it sometimes feels like you’re fighting a losing battle trying to keep up with them. We’re all constantly tweaking our websites and chasing links in a desperate attempt to grab, or hold on to, that elusive spot on the first page of results for our chosen keywords, so is SEO really worth the effort?

Well firstly if you have optimized your site well, both through onpage and offpage optimization, and manage to obtain top rankings in the search engines, then you can get a great deal of free traffic to your site, depending on how popular your keywords are that you are ranking well for. So yes of course in this instance SEO is most definitely worth spending time over.

The problem, however, is that if you are launching a new site and plan to get the bulk of your traffic from search engines, you may end up being disappointed because it can take many months before you even get close to achieving high rankings. This is particularly true of Google and Yahoo. MSN is easier to rank highly for, but this is negated by the fact that a lot less people use MSN than Google and Yahoo.

This is why when I now launch a new site I’m focused more on receiving traffic from other sources, and concentrating almost solely on building my own list of subscribers. There are endless ways to start getting immediate traffic to a new site and start building your list.

I personally like to post in forums, write and submit articles to article directories and relevant ezines, pay for advertising in these same ezines, write and submit press releases, promote a squeeze page on traffic exchanges (if my site is related to making money online), credit-based safelists (free safelists are a waste of time) and other list-building services. I also like to write free reports and ebooks (containing links to my site) which can be freely given away (and rebranded for greater distribution) creating a viral effect.

Author: Abhineet at Goarticles.com

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Long awaited Google Knol has been launched last month, since then there is some controversy about the feasibility of Knol in the presence of other successful knowledge base websites like About.com and Wikipedia. There has also been speculation about Google Knol that it would prove to be Wikipedia Killer. Google has defined Knol as a unit of knowledge saying that Knol’s objective is to be source of basic knowledge for anything that anyone search for on the internet. Many webmasters are worried that Knol would get top ranking for major keywords, much like Wikipedia. Adam Ostrow at Mashable.com said in a post “each “Knol” is created by a single author, who can then choose to either accept or reject edits made by others in what Google is calling “moderated collaboration.” Beyond that, Knol authors can insert AdSense on their Knols and earn revenue based on clicks. In reality, this sounds a lot less like the community collaborating on authoritative articles (Wikipedia) and a lot more like a potential land grab to create content for lucrative keywords.”

After the recent conflict in Georgia it has been noticed that the detailed maps of Georgia are missing from Google Earth. This led to some rumors that Google has perhaps removed Georgia from Google Earth after the Russian retaliatory invasion on Georgia. This conspiracy may be provoked due to the fact that the Google’s CEO Sergei Brin is Russian born. What many people failed to notice is that Georgia’s neighboring countries Armenia and Azerbaijan also lack mapping data.

Google posted notice on Lat Long Blog that the conspiracy is not true and Google never launched the coverage in those countries because mapping data was unsatisfactory for Google. The product manager Dave Barth who addressed the issue at Lat Long Blog also said “We’re hearing from our users that they would rather see even very basic coverage of a country than see nothing at all. That certainly makes sense, and so we have started preparing data for the handful of countries that are still blank on Google Maps. Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as other significant regions of the world will benefit from this effort.”

Apart from all this controversy Russia seems to know where they are going.