Tips to improve your blog popularity....

nobody's looking at your blog. So what now?

The Obvious Ways To Publicise Your Blog
The most obvious way, to let everybody know about your blog, is to go into every forum and post


Hey everybody look at my blog! http://myblogexample.blogspot.com
Please don't do that. If you do, you'll be labeled a newbie, or maybe a spammer. You don't want to be labeled a spammer at Google Blogger Help, for instance. Spammers lose their accounts.

And there are still more ways of increasing traffic, to your blog, that make no more sense. The task before you is obvious (to some), yet paradoxical (to others).
Write content.
Get linked.


Write Content
This is the obvious part, to some. If you're going to be indexed by the search engines, you have to have content for them to link to. Make your content Accurate, Attractive, Complete, Relevant, and Timely.

Get Linked By As Many Sites As Possible
This is the paradoxical part. To publicise your blog, you have to be indexed by the search engines. To be indexed, you have to have weight. To have weight, you have to be linked already. This part takes hard work, and relevance.
Post comments on web sites, of relevant content, with links to your blog.
Participate in forums, of relevant content, with links to your blog.
Get your friends, with relevant content, to link to your blog.


Why Is Relevance Relevant?
Why is relevance relevant? Because relevance brings repeat traffic, and the right reputation. You want the right reputation. Don't be like Doug Powell of BibleDesk fame. Doug is "gathering souls for Christ", by being devious.

Get indexed based on your content, not on what you think will attract traffic.

Participate In Forums
If you want to post in a forum, participate in the discussions. Answer a question or two. You can always have a signature. Put your blog URL in your signature.

Cheers,
Chuck
What Blogger Is Really Doing (and Not Doing) - - > http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com/

After you help or participate for a while, you'll know what needs saying. So write some blog articles, based upon what you posted. When you have relevant articles, you link to them in the body of your message in the forum. Don't advertise the blog in the body of your posts - that's for spammers and trolls. Always link to specific blog posts, and make them relevant links.


Don't depend upon your ISP, or your blog host, to get traffic to your blog. You need the search engines - that's how folks look for help, and that's how they will find your blog.
http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com/2006/07/
publicising-your-blog.html

Posting in a forum or two will get you a reputation. That's good. But if you really want traffic, you have to write articles that people need or want to read, and you have to get your blog indexed by the search engines. People looking for help use Google ("Google for it!"), or another search engine.

Use Blogger Native Features

Blogger provides a feed to Weblogs, a blog update notification service that many individuals and services use to track blog changes. Under Settings - Publishing, change Notify Weblogs.com to Yes.

And Blogger has its native syndication feed. Under Settings - Site Feed, change Publish Site Feed to Yes.

Checkout the Blogger Help article Blog Search FAQ, for more ideas about Blogger native tools for publicising your blog.

Get Indexed By The Search Engines
You can submit your blog to the search engines anytime it pleases you, but your best results will happen when you understand what the search engines are looking for. Here are 3 default Blogger values, which describe your blog to any search engine spider.
There are significant differences between an Old Template, and a New (Layouts) Template Blogger blog, which apply here.

You will generally find these 3 values used in the template.
Near the top...

Those 3 values are provided by Blogger, when you setup your blog. You can improve your chances, though, with just a little work. To get The Real Blogger Status properly indexed, I add the meta description and keyword entries.
Meta Keywords. The Keywords tell the search engines which terms or topics are most important in your blog; they are the words which generate the hits. This gets your blog listed in a search hit list.
Meta Description. The Description describes the contents of the blog; it is what is displayed in a search hit list entry. This is what gets the visitor to click to your blog, when your blog is presented in a search hit list.
Both entries are essential. You want clicks. Without list entries, there will be no clicks.


Having setup my meta description and keywords, I can now submit my blog to the search engines
Altavista.
Dmoz.
Dream Submit.
Google:
Blog Search (for Blogger blogs).
Google Crawler, Googlebot (for all web sites).
Lycos.
MSN.
Technorati.
Yahoo.
These are but a few examples; there are dozens of possibilities.

And next, I create a Google Sitemap.

Finally, remember that you need people who will return to your blog. And you need people who will bookmark your blog, or better yet, post links to your blog, online. You'll get this most readily when you make sure that your visitors leave your blog, happy.

See Vinu Thomas How Do I Submit My Site To Search Engines? for more ideas. And Blogger Help: Promoting Your Blog provides a good overview of the possibilities.

Having done all of the above, don't expect to be listed on the first page of the hit lists, overnight.

FAQ About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is SEO anyway?


Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is a highly involved, somewhat lengthy, process designed to elevate an internet website’s major search engine ranking and/or positioning. The major search engines (Google, Microsoft Network (MSN), and Yahoo) make up greater than 70% of search traffic on the internet. This is a common way for people to find others, information, companies, potential business partners, etc. by entering a “keyword” or search term. Typically, the searcher will seek information on their keyword or search term and click on the top results. Thus the higher a site ranks for a given keyword or search term, the better its chances of attracting more visitors to its site.

Why Should I Care about SEO?

If you run a business and have a web presence, don’t you want the most people possible knowing about that business? Wouldn’t it benefit you if your website was able to bring you new leads or develop new customers every day, 24 hours per day? Research has shown that nearly 95% of all search engine users rarely read past the first page of search results. Because of that, it behooves you to have your website on the first page of search results for specific keywords and terms.

Can’t I just Pay for a High Ranking?

No! Organic (or “free”) search listing rankings cannot be purchased. These are “earned” over time via links, content, keyword relevance, page and site descriptions, titles of pages, etc. You can pay for clicks to your website based on specific terms or keywords however these are separate results from the free results people commonly click.

What is Pay-Per-Click?

Pay-per-click is a form of internet advertising where you pay a certain amount for each “click” or “hit” to your website as a result of a person searching for a certain keyword or phrase.

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud occurs when a person or automated computer script imitates a legitimate search for a keyword or phrase yet clicks on the pay-per-click result for the sole purpose of generating revenue for the search engine or affiliate.

What is a Linking Partner?

A linking partner is a website which provides a link to your site. Some will require a link on your site to theirs in return (a reciprocal link) while others will want to have a link on a third party’s site in exchange for the link to yours. Reciprocal links aren’t as valuable as unique one way links but the more links you have pointing to your site (link popularity), the more “important” the search engines will consider your site.

What is Page Rank?

Page Rank is Google’s proprietary algorithm for determining a site’s importance. It’s expressed as a value from 1-10 with 10 being the most important and most desirable. The algorithm was designed by Larry Page, Google’s co-founder. Page Rank is affected by things such as the number of links pointing to your website, and the amount of unique and relevant content on your website.

What is a Keyword?

A keyword is a typical word or phrase you’d expect people to use when searching for your site. That’s about as simple as we can explain it.

What is Keyword Density?

The number of keywords you use on a particular page in relation to the number of total words on that page. The more keywords you have peppered throughout the page and site, the better your site may rank for that particular term. You must be careful not to load a page with too many keywords, however—that is considered keyword “stuffing” or spamming and is frowned upon by the search engines.

What is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is basically an inventory listing of all of the pages on your site. It tells the search engines how to get around your site and also how many pages there are on your site. It can be made visible to your visitors, but it doesn’t have to be. Uploading an XML file directly to the search engines is a generally accepted best practice for optimizing your search engine rankings.

What is a Spider?

Search engines utilize small programs to surf and inventory sites all over the internet. These are called spiders, and they follow links from site to site to gather their inventory to report back to the search engine. They are also referred to as crawlers or bots from time to time.

What is a Meta Tag?

A meta tag is an HTML piece of code which provides information about that particular page or document. These don’t provide formatting information or any actionable code—they are there for the search engines to catalog your site and the pages contained on your site.

What is a Blog?

A blog (short for weblog) is a news or journal type of site which is frequently used more for opinionated type of entries and is typically updated frequently. It is intended for general consumption but has become a valuable tool for all types of users to spread information and awareness of their websites.

Why Should I Write Articles for my Website?

Articles are a great way to increase the amount of unique content on your site as it pertains to the keywords you desire to rank well. There are numerous websites that publish articles, and it is common practice for the authors to include a link in their by-line back to their website. This creates an inbound link to the author’s website which in turn increases its popularity. It’s also a good way to increase awareness aside from the linking benefits.

What are Directories?

Directories are databases containing listings to websites based on categories and sub-categories. Many of the search engines access directories to crawl their links to learn of new sites. Directories are an invaluable resource for search engines and can often serve to improve a site’s ranking depending upon how important the search engine weighs the directory in question. Directories may provide a link to your site often without requiring a return or reciprocal link on your site.

There you have a faq based overview of search engine optimization, why you should care, and some of the key terms used. If you're considering implementing an optimization program for your website, please visit http://smbconsultinginc.com for more information on this topic.

5 most useful tips to Protect Your Adsense Account

In PPC advertising industry click fraud is defined as clicks generated by

Competitors of advertisers: These parties may wish to harm a competitor who advertises in the same market by clicking on their ads. The perpetrators don't profit directly, but force advertiser to pay for irrelevant clicks thus weakening or eliminating a source of competition.

Competitors of publishers: These persons may wish to frame a publisher. It is made to look like the publisher is clicking on its own ads. The advertising network may then terminate the relationship. Many publishers rely exclusively on revenue from advertising and can be put out of business by such an attack.

Other malicious intent: As with vandalism, there's an array of motives for wishing to cause harm to either an advertiser or a publisher, even by people who have nothing to gain financially. Motives include political and personal vendettas. These cases are often the hardest to deal with, since it is hard to track down the culprit, and if found, there is little legal action that can be taken against them.

Unwanted "friends" of the publisher: Sometimes upon learning a publisher profits from ads being clicked, a supporter of the publisher (like a fan, family member, or personal friend), will click on the ads to "help". However, this can backfire when the publisher (not the "friend") is accused of click fraud.

Clicks generated by publisher:Some publishers tries to generate clicks manually or with the help of computer programs to drive up their revenue.

Following tips will help you protect your Adsense account from click fraud if u don't fall in the last category listed above.

1.Regular monitoring of traffic log and your adsense reports:
Monitor your adsense reports and your traffic logs regularly(atleast once a day).If you do this regularly you will become familiar with your site's performance and you will be able to easily identify something strange and suspicious very easily.If you notice something strange in your reports or traffic logs you will have to report it to adsense support as soon as possible.You may include all the details yo have from your reports or your traffic analysis tool.Suspicious activities can be something like a conciderably high click throgh than you normally gets,conciderably high increase in page impressions recieved,A large number of clicks from a same IP etc.By sending an email with all the details you found you can notify google about suspected invalid activity.In order to be able to be monitor your sites performance and the behaviour of the vistors u will have to encorporate some kind of traffic analysis tools to your site.Google analytics,Stat Counter etc are well known examples used by a large number of webmasters.

If you wish to track the clicks on the ads on your website you may wish to use Ad Logger .You may also check this which uses google analytics to track adsense clicks.You may also concider doing a search on "webmaster resources" and "site traffic analysis".

2.Be polite in forums:
This tips is only important for those who are promoting their websites through their signatures in different forums.If you act rude in the forums it is never going to help you,but it can sometimes put you in trouble.Think about this case,You behaved in a rude way to some other member in the forum and you have a link to your site on your signature and the angry member decides to click on your ads regularly and deliberately.This can send the wrong message to google and sometimes they may think thats it you who is doing the clicks or you have appointed someone to click your ads regulary and they might decide to ban you.so i'd advice you to be polite and helping in all the forums in which you are participating.If you can't help,atleast don't blame or make fun of anyone.You may read this for more tips on promoting your website using forums.

3.Don't discuss your source of income(adsense)with family,friends etc:
Don't tell your friends and family anything about how you are making money online or how your website is making money for you.Even if u decides to tell them make sure to tell them why they can't click on your ads.You will have to convince them that they clicking on your ads won't be a help for you and it will be a harm.The problem with discussing this with your friends and family is that sometimes they will start clicking on your ads thinking that the are helping you earn some bucks.But you know that it can get you banned.

4.Stay away from illegal methods of traffic generation:
Invalid clicks or click fraud includes clicks from traffic generated using methods like Traffic exhange,PTC advertising,Auto surf etc.Thes type of traffic are blacklisted by adsese TOS.So you must stay away from traffic generated by illegal methods.The above mentioned are just examples and the list is not limited to them.

Accidental Clicks:
Couple of weeks ago i wrote to adsense support about the impressions generated by me while updating my site.The reply i got from them said that a publisher is allowed to view his sites as much as they want provided that he\she is not clicking any of the ads that appear on his\her site,he\she is not refreshing the pages too often.So that clears things up.

What if you clicked on your ad accidentally? The answer is,You will have to write adsense support about this as early as you can.If you are interested in viewing and checking the ads on your site without creating illegal clicks you may use Adsense preview tool.AdSense preview tool is an addition to the right-click menu for Windows Internet Explorer 6.x, allowing you to preview the ads that may show on any web page.If you want to avoid complication of accidentally clicking on your ads you may disable ads for your computer.

Don't sit back and relax while your website is earning you money using adsense.You will have to work hard to protect that Source of income from threats like clickfraud.

Reasons And Solutions For Irrelevant Ads

If you are a google adsense publisher you must have came across with the problem of getting irrelevant or off-targeted ads on your sites. What are the reasons for getting irrelevant ads? How can you stop them from appearing on your sites? Read On and you will find these questions answered.

Reasons for getting irrelevant Ads:
*Lack of content
You all Know that google adsense ads are contextual.Hence keyword rich content is a must to get well targeted ads.If your site has less content that can be one of the reasons why you are getting off-targeted ads and/or PSAs.

*Sensitive Keywords
Sometimes webmaster have to compromise on including keywords which are not related to your niche in their site's content.If these sensitive keywords happens to fall under the category of high paying ones you will see ads related to them on your site instead of getting ads related to the topic of your site.Some webmasters would think that they will benefit from these ads since they have a higher EPC but this is not the case,Since these ads are irrelevant to your site's content your visitors will not be interested in clicking on them.

*poor advertising strategies by advertisers
This is something which not under the control of the publishers.It is found that some advertisers uses generic keywords to bid upon in their advertising campaigns instead of using specific keywords.This results in serving off-targeted ads to a publisher's site.This is neither going to help the advertiser since it will reduce the sales and their ROI.

*Geo-targeting
Geo-targeting in the google adsense is another reason why we sometimes gets off-targeted ads.Some Geo-targeted ads doesn't consider about the site's topic and considers only about the geographic location from where the visitor is.

*comment spamming
This can be another reason for getting off-targeted ads.This happens mainly in blogs.sometimes adsense media bot picks up the sensitive keywords that may be there in the spam comments and serves ads which are related to them and thereby resulting in irrelevant ads for the site.

Possible solutions for Off-targeted ads:
*Keyword rich content.
Each system will have its on methods of getting ads relevant.In google adsense it is more dependent on what you write about than anything else. So having more content with keywords related to your sites niche can help you in getting more relevant ads.
Content without keywords or with sensitive keywords won't help you.

*Use of section targeting
You can use Section targeting to emphasise those part of your content to which your ads to be related.You can read about section targeting here
Make sure to have significant amount of content between your section targeting tags else you will end up with irrelevant ads again.Also note that section targeting can take up to 2 weeks to take effect.
Also be warned about using this feature to emphasise irrelevant content as it might go against the google adsense program policies.

*Section targeting with "weight ignore"
You can use this to mask the your content with sensitive keywords from adsense media bot.Locate the part of your content with sensitive keywords and enclose it between section targeting with weight ignore tags.

*make sure that your site's topic is reflected more from your page titles,headers,meta tags,Image ALT parameter and from your content instead of from graphics and images that appear on your sites.

*Use your keywords in your page titles,headers and the words near to where the ads are going to appear.

*Don't use generic names as your page file names.For example,if your page is about "Making money with adsense" you can name the file as "making-money-with-adsense.html" or something like that.

*Use Competitive ad filter
You can always use competitive ad filter to block unwanted ads from appearing on your sites.Make sure to use it in a wise manner because a deliberate filtering can affect your EPC.

Get alternatives for your Adsense...

Many people have started using Google's AdSense program, but there are some who find it a bit too uncertain or simply not suiting their own requirements from an ad program.
But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.

AllFeeds (http://www.allfeeds.com/?action=publishers) AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don't. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.

MarketBanker (http://www.marketbanker.com/mb/sell.php) MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There's also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense's and they're just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.

BidClix ( http://www.bidclix.com/PubTop.html) BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it's also very flexible.

Chitika (http://www.realcontext.com/index.php?option=RealContext:+Contextual+Targeting+Engine) RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there's an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn't. That means there's a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.

AdHearus (http://adhearus.com/webmaster.php) AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn't stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There's a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it's a breeze.

AffiliateSensor (http://www.affiliatesensor.com/) AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There's integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA's (Public Service Ads).

Kanoodle Bright Ads (http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool) Kanoodle's offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.

TargetPoint (http://publisher.targetpoint.com) TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site's overall performance and better revenue. It's free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.

Clicksor (http://www.clicksor.com) Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven't made that much, your earning roll over to the next period.

Bidvertiser (http://www.bidvertiser.com/) Like AdSense, Bidvertiser displays text ads in your page. But the difference lies in the fact that advertisers bid over your advertising space, ensuring you earn as much revenue as you possibly can. This also means that bids will increase over time, earning you even more cash. You also get a great way to customize your ads with a very easy to use tool and detailed reports on your site's status.

Quigo AdSonar (http://www.quigo.com/adsonarpublishers.htm) Quigo AdSonar achieves relevancy by placing a filter according to your site's categories. It also offers you on-line reports of your site's status and the possibility to add your own custom ads replacing ads that don't gain you any revenue. The setup is very simple, in a similar fashion to AdSense's and quite customizable as well.

Vibrant Media IntelliTXT (http://www.intellitxt.com/site/web_01a.html) Vibrant Media IntelliTXT offers user-activated ads, highlighting certain words within the content of the page and presenting relevant ads when a user hovers his mouse over them. It uses a pay-for-performance pricing scheme and can easily be used along with other advertising methods, because it is unobtrusive. It places you in full control, allowing you to easily integrate it within your site with some simple JavaScript.

Nixie (http://www.nixxie.com/display.php?section=Partners) Nixie claims to hold a technology that can read and understand your site, enabling it to display the most relevant content to your site. Besides text ads, Nixie also features price comparison listings as well as live auction advertising. It's very easy to implement and has a good payment policy as well.

MIVA AdRevenue Xpress (http://www.miva.com/us/content/partners/arx.asp) MIVA AdRevenue Xpress is targeted towards small and mid-sized publishers. It implements Search Box functionality and also features things like a Category Directory as well as the handling of 404 error pages. It can be integrated with your page using a simple on-line wizard.

Fastclick (http://www.fastclick.com/publish.html) Fastclick offers you an impressive 65 percent of what it makes from a click on your website. Payments are done monthly, via PayPal or through checks. The ads can be formatted as you wish, and Fastclick even offers a free support serice for its members and no fees are required to register with the service.

contextWeb ContextAd (http://www.contextweb.com/Corporate/publisher/publisher.shtml) ContextAd offers the possibility of contextual ads for dynamic pages, meaning ads will change as soon as your page does. It's very easy to use and free to sing up for and offers a transparent payment policy. The ads are fully customizable and real-time reports are available 24/7.

AdBrite (http://www.adbrite.com/) AdBrite offers publishers the possibility of integrating text ads in their pages. These are done on your own rates, with the websites you approve by hand so it bares some similarities with a classic advertising scheme. You also have the option of adding a "Your Add Here" button that buyers can immediately click to ad space on your page. It can also be used in conjunction with Google AdSense, maximizing your CTR and offering advertisers the possibility of showing their links in your Google AdSense space. You have full control over the look and feel of your adds and finally, you get an incredible 75% of what the advertiser pays for on every click.

So, as you can see there are many offers for this kind of advertising, and many hybrids based on AdSense like advertising. Also, a lot of services can work together with AdSense to earn you an even greater amount of revenue for your ad space.

You need to have optimized niche website templates for best results. You may find the best adsense templates and blog templates at www.AdsenseTemplates.com (http://www.adsensetemplates.com). They are offering 100 fresh new templates every month.