Google Adsense: Do I Need A Pin Number For Google Adsense?

When you accumulate $10.00 in earnings, Google Adsense will send you a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to the payment address you supplied when you signed up. This is just another security precaution that Google Adsense has in place to protect their publishers but it is important.

Once you’ve been mailed a PIN number, your account payments will be on hold until the PIN is entered in your account. You can still have access to your account and earn money; you just won’t be paid until the PIN is entered. If it hasn’t been entered within 180 days from the initial issue date of your PIN, your account will be disabled and your earnings will be refunded to the appropriate advertisers.

To enter your PIN after you receive it in the mail:

1. Log in to your AdSense account at https://www.google.com/adsense
2. Click the My Account tab
3. Continue to the Payment History page
4. Click the Please enter your PIN link
5. Enter your PIN and click Submit

You’re now well on your way to receiving your first Google Adsense check.

PIN Replacement

If you do not receive your first PIN within 2 - 4 weeks from the initial issue date, you can still request for a replacement. Bear in mind that PIN replacement is limited to 2 times only and that you will need to wait 3 weeks after your last PIN was mailed before requesting a new one.

To request a new PIN:

1. Log in to your AdSense account at https://www.google.com/adsense
2. Click the My Account tab
3. Continue to the Payment History page
4. Click the Please enter your PIN link
5. Click Request a new PIN

Pros and Cons of Flash-based Sites

Flash-based sites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Macromedia compiles more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here's a simple breakdown.

The good:

Interactivity

Flash's Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to create interactive features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized site

With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to real "movie files" that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The bad and the ugly:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your site. You'll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn't have the player installed.

Site optimization

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn't be able to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash content compared to regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk losing visitors.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information.

How To Change the Country in Your AdSense Account?

I have registered my Adsense account with a Singapore address as I was working in Singapore at the time of registration. I have now transfered back to my home country in Malaysia. So, I was thinking of changing the address associated with my Adsense payment to my Malaysia address.

Here is how you can change your Adsense Payment Address:

In order to change the Adsense payment address, you need to fill out a Change Country Request Form, this is how the form looks like:




It took less than 24 hours for Google Adsense Support Team to respond to your request. After they have updated the new payment address, they will also reset the form of payment and tax information.Therefore, the account will be temporary on hold. In order to remove the hold, you'll need to resubmit your tax information and select your form of payment.

1. To resubmit your tax information:

- Log in your Adsense account at https://www.google.com/adsense
- Click the'My Account' tab
- Click the 'Tax Information' link
- Follow the instructions on the 'Tax Information' page to update your current form , or to submit a new form

2. To select your form of payment:

- Click the 'My Account' tab
- Click 'Edit' next to Payment Details
- Choose the type of payment you would prefer and click 'Continue'


Important notes you should also be aware of prior to requesting a change of country or payment address:

- Adsense account cannot be transferred or sold.
- You cannot have mail from Google Adsense forwarded to another billing address.
- You don't have to update the Adsense code on your pages.
- You don't have to create a new Google Adsense account in order to change your country associated with Google Adsense.

Reducing Load Time Through Image Optimization

Even though more and more Internet users switch to broadband every year, a large portion of the web's population is still running on good old dial-up connections. It is therefore unwise to count them out of the equation when you're designing your website, and a very major consideration we have to make for dial-up users is the loading time of your website.

Generally, all the text on your website will be loaded in a very short time even on a dial-up connection. The culprit of slow-loading sites is mainly large images on your website, and it is very important to strike a delicate balance between using just enough images to attract your users and not to bog down the overall loading time of your site.

You should also go to a greater length and optimize every image on your site to make sure it loads in the least time possible. What I really mean is to use image editing software to remove unnecessary information on your images, and thereby effectively reducing the file size of your image without affecting its appearance.

If you own Photoshop, it will be obvious to you that when you save an image as a JPEG file, a dialog box appears and lets you choose the "quality" of the JPEG image -- normally a setting of 8 to 10 is good enough as it will preserve the quality of your image while saving it at a small file size. If you do not have Photoshop, there are many free image compressors online that you can download and use to reduce your image's file size.

On the other hand, you can opt to save your images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size. You can also save your images in GIF format -- the image editing software clips away all the color information not used in your image, hence giving you the smallest file size possible. However, saving in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of your image, so make your choice wisely!

Good Design Practices

Your website is where your business resides -- it's like the headquarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practise good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible.

Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.

Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size.

Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into separate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.

Make sure your website complies to web standards and that they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors.

Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.

Use CSS to style your page content because it saves a lot of work by styling all elements on your website in one go.

The Importance of A Good Design

Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in.

Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.

Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.

On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business.

On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" analogy, and you will get my point.

Sell Your Products on MySpace

When most people think of MySpace they believe it is merely a community for individuals to make friends or reconnect with old friends but MySpace can offer more to savvy Internet marketers who know how to network effectively on MySpace. Although MySpace is intended to be a noncommercial community and commercial websites are strictly prohibited there are some opportunities to advertise and stimulate sales through MySpace. Lets explore the feasibility of advertising on MySpace, the terms of service on MySpace and how MySpace members can avoid being viewed as dreaded spammers by other members of the community or by MySpace administrators.

Advertising on Your MySpace

According to the MySpace mission statement, the community is meant to be a noncommercial one. However, this statement refers to the individuals’ pages created and maintained by members and not the website as a whole. In fact MySpace is a commercial website with banner advertisements running on many of the pages and other advertisements appearing in sidebars and other locations. These advertising opportunities are open to the public and anyone who is interested in advertising in these areas is urged to contact MySpace directly for more information. This type of advertising is worthwhile for business owners who have products or services which may appeal to the members of the community.

While advertising on individual websites on MySpace is prohibited by the terms of service there is sometimes room to market products one ones website without violating the terms of service. Although many visitors to MySpace have encountered websites which are blatant advertisements, this practice is not recommended because, if discovered by MySpace administrators, it may lead to the individual being banned from the community. However, consider an example where a link to an ecommerce website selling sunglasses is placed in answer to a question of, “What is your favorite type of sunglasses?” The link certainly provides a relevant answer to the question and does allow visitors to the website to learn more about the member. Whether or not this considered as advertising is a matter for MySpace to determine but it is likely they would not consider this advertising although those who follow the link might end up making a purchase.

Avoiding the Spam Pitfalls on MySpace

MySpace reaches a large audience each day and this large audience might tempt some to try to advertise to all of these members and visitors at once. Unfortunately this sometimes can be construed as spam. Therefore, precautions should be taken to avoid actions which might be considered spam by other members or the MySpace administrators.

Lets study an example of the potential for spam, consider a MySpace member who is very excited about the cosmetics line they sell. This member might really believe in the products and think they are so wonderful that everyone should learn more about these products. However, if this user then begins systematically going through MySpace searching for all users who mention anything even remotely related to cosmetics and then places a comment on their website directing them to a link to more information about these cosmetics this would likely be considered to be spam. The member may think their actions are harmless but the members who receive these comments and the MySpace administrators may disagree.

"Folksonomies" - a New Viral Marketing Tool

A new consumer phenomenon is called "tagging" or "folksonomies" (short for folks and taxonomy). Tagging is powerful because consumers are creating an organizational structure for online content. Folksonomies not only enable people to file away content under tags, but, even better, share it with others by filing it under a global taxonomy that they created.

Here's how tagging works. Using sites such as del.icio.us - a bookmark sharing site – and Flickr - a photo sharing site - consumers are collaborating on categorizing online content under certain keywords, or tags.

For instance, an individual can post photographs of their iPod on Flickr and file it under the tag "iPod." These images are now not only visible under the individual user's iPod tag but also under the community iPod tag that displays all images consumers are generating and filing under the keyword.

Tagging is catching on because it is a natural complement to search. Type the word "blogs" into Google and it can't tell if you are searching for information about how to launch a blog, how to read blogs, or just what. Large and small sites alike are already getting on to the folksonomy train. They are rolling out tag-like structures to help users more easily locate content that's relevant to them.

Although tags are far from perfect, marketers should, nevertheless, be using them to keep a finger on the pulse of the American public. Start subscribing to RSS feeds to monitor how consumers are tagging information related to your product, service, company or space. These are living focus groups that are available for free, 24/7. Folksonomy sites can be also be carefully used to unleash viral marketing campaigns - with a caveat. Marketers should be transparent in who they are, why they are posting the link/photos and avoid spamming the services.

Humor Turns E-Mail Viral

A study by Sharpe Partners, an interactive marketing agency, revealed that 89% of adult Internet users in America share content with others via e-mail. This is excellent news for those companies who use self-propelling word-of-mouth e-mail techniques to sell their products.

The study generated some interesting results regarding the type of content that is most often forwarded, as well. The most popular content is humorous material.

The second most popular category is news, followed by healthcare and medical information, religious and spiritual material, games, business and personal finance information and sports/hobbies… in that order. So it is easy to see that humor is the best content for your viral e-mail campaign.

Cartoons, jokes and funny video clips are among the things that can be added to an e-mail to insure that it will go viral. People will want to pass along something that makes them laugh.

They are a lot more likely to hit the forward button and send your email to their friends and relatives if it is an “advertainment” rather than an advertisement.

Not along ago, about 35 million people got an e-mail containing a picture taken in Disneyland. It took a minute to see it but there was Donald Duck lying prone in front of the famous Cinderella Castle. The title of the picture was “Bird Flu has hit Disneyland”. It was a viral e-mail advertising Disneyland has used the edgy strategy of making light of what’s serious… and it works.

I’d guess that most people who own a computer have seen that picture… and thus the advertisement for Disneyland. The bird flu epidemic is newsworthy and has the potential to attract an enormous amount of attention to any brand that might, for whatever reason, associate itself with it.

Remember that people are much more likely to share a joke or a funny picture than anything else so you would be well advised to include humor in your e-mail campaign.

Private Label Resell Rights: Your Selling Options

If you are interested in purchasing the resell rights to a particular product, you should have a proper plan in the first place. Many individuals get into trouble, by losing money, because they entered into this opportunity not fully understanding what was required of them. To make money from acquiring the resell rights to a product, you will need to sell that product. Whenever you make a sale, you will begin to see a profit. However, for many individuals, making a sale isn’t as easy as it sounds.

When it comes to selling a product, you need to find effective marketing strategies and selling methods. These methods may include the use of online classified ads, the use of online auction websites, or the development of a product website. Before deciding on a particular selling method, you should study the pros and cons of each method. This is important because different selling methods work different ways for different individuals and products, no two have the same results.

Classified ads can be used to sell a product, which you have obtained the resell rights to. With classified ads, your best bet is to use online advertisements. Most private label products are designed with internet users in mind; therefore, it only makes sense that you use the internet to target these individuals. When examining online classified ads, you will find that most are free to post; however, not all are. You will need to decide whether you want to pay for a service that you can obtain for free somewhere else.

Another popular selling method is to create your own website. This website should be used to outline the product which you are selling and the cost of it. Even if you do not know how to design your own website, you should be able to take part in this popular and effective selling method. Professional website developers can create a professional website, for a small fee, or you can build your own website, with the assistance of a site builder. It is also important that you add a shopping cart to your site. This shopping cart will enable your customers to purchase your product online.

You can also use an online auction website to sell your product. Online auction websites will give your product the opportunity to be viewed by thousands, if not millions, of consumers. The only problem with online auction websites is that more and more individuals are using this selling method to sell products, which they have acquired the resell rights to. This competition may make it difficult or impossible for your product to sell.

The above mentioned selling methods are just a few of the many that you can use. In fact, you shall use as many different selling methods as you can. The more exposure your product gets, the more likely it will get sold.

The Downside of Selling Private Label Products on Online Auction Websites

Each day, at least one individual makes the decision to purchase the resell rights to a particular product. If you are looking for a legitimate business opportunity, there is a good chance that you may be that individual. To successfully profit from private label products, which you have legally obtained the resell rights to, there are a number of important factors that you should first consider. These factors are essential to making money, instead of losing it.

Private label resell rights are available on a number of different products, including e-books and software. In most cases, the e-book author or the software developer is unable to spend time marketing and selling their own product. Instead of targeting potential customers, they shift their focus to others who are looking to make money. This is done by selling the resell rights to their product. If you have the time and the knowledge needed to market the product in question, you may be able to make money with this opportunity.

After you have purchased the resell rights to a particular product, it will then be your responsibility to sell that product. This is where you may be able to make money. Since you have officially paid for the rights to resell the product in question, you are now able to profit from each sale. It is likely that you would want to make as much money as you possibly could. To do this, you will need to sell your newly acquired product.

When it comes to selling any product, whether you created that product or just obtained the resell rights to, you will need to find an effective sales method. There are many individuals who have found success by using online classified ads, creating their own websites, or by using online auction websites. While all of these selling approaches may produce results, they may not work for you.

If given the opportunity, most individuals would choose to sell their products via an online auction website. This is because unlike many other selling methods, online auctions are cheap to use and they often produce fast results; however, those results may not be what you were looking for. If you are planning on purchasing the resell rights to a private label product for the sole purpose of selling that product through an online auction website, you are advised to reconsider your decision. This is because online auction websites are not what they used to be.

Instead of making money with online auction websites, many are losing it. As previously mentioned, online auction websites have changed. In the past, only a limited number of products were available for sale. The limited number of products helped items not only sell, but sell for a high price. Now, there is so much competition on these sites that it is hard to make a profit. In fact, with the time it takes to post an online auction and the fees associated with doing so, you may end up losing money.

To be successful with the reselling of private label products, you are advised to rely on more than one selling method. Online auctions may work, but they are not guaranteed results. That is why it is advised that you do not solely rely on them to generate income.

Facebook: A Popular Social Networking Website

Individuals, of all different ages, enjoy meeting and communicating with other internet users. Despite the fact that individuals of all ages use the internet to socialize, there are certain groups of individuals that do more than others. Those groups of individuals include students, both high school students and college students. For that reason, it is only fitting that there should be a social networking website that has a focus on these particular individuals. And this networking website is known as Facebook.

Facebook may not be as well known as other popular social networking websites, such as Yahoo! 360 or MySpace, but it is still popular. That popularity is mostly among high school students and college students, mostly because Facebook focuses on these individuals in particular. With Facebook, you are required to register for a specific network. That network can either include the high school or college which you attended or are currently attending. Once you have joined the website, you should easily be able to make contact with others who are in the same network.

The network in which you join can be considered an advantage of Facebook, as well as a disadvantage. See, Facebook does not work like most other social networking websites. Instead of being able to communicate with all site members, you are limited to contact with those that are in your particular network, the high school or college that you've selected. The creators of Facebook state that this is for your own safety. Although it is safer for your profile and personal information to be viewed by a small number of individuals, you may not necessity want it to be that way.

Although a large amount of focus is placed on high school students and college students, Facebook has added another popular feature to their website. That feature is workplace networks. By joining a specific workplace network, you will be granted access to other community members who work for the same company as you. This feature is nice, especially since many companies have become large corporations or expanded across the country. You may be able to make contact and become friends with a long-distance coworker that you never knew you had.

Another aspect of Facebook that you may find inconvenient is their lack of available information, before you decide to become a community member. When viewing their online website, which can be found at www.facebook.com, it is hard to tell whether or not the site is free to use. Most online social networking sites will make this known right upfront, but Facebook does not. Aside from the price, you should easily be able to obtain additional information on Facebook, before making the decision to become a member. This additional information may include how Facebook works, why you should become a member, how the invite process works, and general rules and restrictions that are in place.

If you are interested in joining the Facebook community, you should do what you should do with all other social networking websites, research. By taking the time to research and examine everything that Facebook has to offer, you should be able to decide whether or not this popular networking community is what you were looking for. There is a good chance that it will be, but if not, do not worry. There are literally an unlimited number of other social networking websites that you can join.

Promoting Your Business through Craigslist

Craigslist can prove to be an excellent avenue for business promotion. Whether an individual has a small business which they operate on a part time basis or a thriving business which has become a time consuming endeavor, Craigslist can help the business to increase in profits and popularity. The two main components to successfully promoting a business on Craigslist include reaching the target audience and running a marketing campaign which will appeal to this target audience.

Reaching Your Target Audience on Craigslist

Promoting a business on Craigslist doesn’t have to be a difficult process. However, it is not necessarily automatically easier than promoting offline either. Promoting your business through Craigslist does have some similarities to the process of promoting your business offline. The main similarity is that the business promoter must do their research to find out who is their target audience.

Even the most well thought out and innovative marketing campaign will falter if it is not reaching the intended audience. This is why it is so important for those who are trying to promote their business on Craigslist to be sure they categorize their advertisement correctly to ensure their intended audience will receive the intended message. The majority of posts on Craigslist are available free of charge with the exception of job listings in New York City, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area as well as brokered housing listings in New York City. Therefore small business owners can take advantage of the free posting on Craigslist to reach their target audience in a number of different locations.

Consider an example of a company offering moving services in Portland, Oregon. A small moving company that is relatively new might want to take advantage of the free advertising available on Craigslist. To have the best opportunity to reach the target audience the company should place a services offered posting under the labor and moving category for the counties in which the services are offered. Placing the post this way makes it far more likely to reach an audience of those who are planning a move in the desired county than it would if the same exact advertisement was placed as a job advertisement under the category of government jobs in a county in New Hampshire.

Besides being free for most postings, Craigslist offers additional benefits. The most significant benefit is a large audience. Craigslist receives over 4 billion page views per month. With such a large audience it makes it possible for those who post on Craigslist to reach a large audience. However, as previously mentioned, care should be taken when placing the post to categorize the advertisement correctly to ensure the advertisement is reaching the target audience.

Effectively Marketing on Craigslist

Marketing effectively on Craigslist is not very different from marketing effectively in other forms of print media. One of the most important elements of an effective marketing campaign on Craigslist is professionally written copy that appeals directly to the target audience. Hiring a freelance writer skilled in writing sales copy is an excellent idea in this situation. The business owner might be quite knowledgeable about their business but they do not likely have the skills necessary to convey the purpose of the business while also effectively convincing those who read the posting to perform a specific action. The specific action may include visiting a website and making a purchase, requesting additional information about the products or services or performing some other desired action such as visiting a traditional store or place of business.

The other component to marketing effectively, as previously mentioned, is placing the advertisement in the correct section of Craigslist. Categorizing the advertisement correctly is important but it is also important to place the advertisement in the right physical location. Products and services which are only offered in a limited area such as a particular city or county should be advertised in these exact locations. However, those who offer products via a website might consider placing their advertisement in all of the location to which they are willing to ship their products.

Can You Really Use Articles To Build Your List?

Getting customers in your site should always be ranked as high as the importance of the quality and the excellence of the product and the services you provide. They should go hand in hand in providing your customers the satisfaction they get in exchange for the money they have paid for them. Customer service should as well be as fantastic so that the customers are provided with the same satisfaction.

One of the ways you can combine marketing and customer service is through opt-in marketing. With an opt-in list you get the opportunity to introduce your site and products on a good time basis. Opt-in marketing strategy is a marketing strategy that is virtually low cost and not time consuming. Here, you get the consent of your website visitors to subscribe to your newsletters and other promotional materials such as catalogs and free promotions.

Opt-in marketing uses your list of subscribers to send e-mail to. These e-mails will contain the materials you will send to your subscribers. It is essential that you present your promotional items in a manner that will catch the interest and the eye of your subscribers to keep them wanting for more. The best way to do this is to provide fun, entertaining and informational articles.

Well written articles full of content and useful information will help in building your list as more subscribers will be enticed your list. When they have read the samples of your contents in your sites, they will be intrigued as to what will come next. Subscribing to your newsletter will offer them a glimpse of what you have to offer next.

Many sites and companies have captured the importance of articles and this also aids in search engine optimization. As more people are heading towards the internet for their information needs, serving the right information to them via articles in your site will increase the flow of your website traffic. With more traffic, the percentage of your sales will grow. More sales turn into more profit.

There have been the rise for the importance of well written, information enriched and keyword packed articles for the content of their site as well as for newsletters. These articles provide the information many are seeking in the internet. If your site has them, more people will be going to your site for information and research.

Well written articles would also boost your sites reputation. If they are filled with many information you will be regarded as well informed and an expert on the subjects that you tackle. Your articles must be well researched so that the people will trust you. When you have gained their trust, they will always come for you for their needs on that subject.

In connection, you must write articles or commission them to tackle subjects that are closely connected with your type of business. If you have a site for a medicine tackling a certain disease, your articles must be about the diseases. Or if you sell materials for home improvements provide articles with those themes. Most articles searched for are tips, guidelines, methods, manuals and such. If you provide these articles to your customers and you have their trust, they will always go to your site for help and advice as well as for your products.

With the loyalty of these customers, they may subscribe to your opt-in list to receive all the information you have. If you provide them with the answers for that need, they will be happy to be receiving your newsletters as well as other promotional materials to keep them well informed. Others may even forward your newsletters to other people when they find a certain article interesting.

You should provide links in your newsletter so that when other people are reading it and wants to read more, they may click on the link and go to your site. With the articles you have in your site that are good, they may decide to sign up as well for your opt-in list. This will build your list and make it bigger.

Make sure to keep your subscribers happy and interested in your newsletters and promotional materials. Keep on posting and writing good articles for your site and newsletter. If you are not interested in writing them or if you just don’t have the time, there are many available well experienced and knowledgeable writers available to help you out. This is an investment that will pay for itself in time.

Google Adsense: Learning About the Program and the Most Important Rule

How Does Google Adsense Program Work For Webmasters Wanting to Earn Income?

Advertisers pay Google when someone clicks on their ads which are placed on pages that contain text. For example, if you write content about lawn mowers, you will likely see ads from lawn mower manufacturers and/or retailers on that page. When someone clicks on those ads, the advertiser pays Google and Google pays you. Of course, the advertiser is hoping the person that clicked on the add will actually purchase the lawn mower or whatever they’re offering.

In fact, Google is very strict about the integrity of this process. You are forbidden to click on your own ads. If you do, your Adsense account will be terminated and you might never get it back. You are also prohibited from asking others to click on “your ads”. It makes sense. Why would advertisers want to pay just so your friends and family could click on your ads when no one is really interested in purchasing the lawn mower or subject of the ad.

The good news is that it’s not necessary to “cheat.” Google Adsense is so easy you’ll make more money just going by the rules. Have or write interesting content that will turn up in search engines and you have “targeted” the right people to read those ads. Just think, somebody in Indiana buys a lawn mower and you get a commission!

What Not to Tell Others About the Google Adsense Program – The Most Important Rule

Sympathy only goes so far. Not only is it against the Google Adsense Program Policies but if you rely on friends and family members to click on your ads instead of diligently working the program, you’re cheating yourself – and the Google Adsense Program.

The “help me out” wail may work when your kid is selling outrageously expensive candles for the end of the year school party but it has no place in the Google Adsense Program.

Besides, if you’re asking people to click on your ads, that means you’re not optimizing your site for valid clicks as well as referrals. Why not use that same energy to polish your content and your site. When family and friends ask what you’ve been up to, you can proudly show them your hard work. When they see how excited you are, you’ll see your referral revenue go up.

Google Adsense: How to Apply for the Program and Important Info on Paying Taxes

How to Apply to the Google Adsense Program

Applying for a Google Adsense account is quick and easy for any interested webmaster. Just point your browser to www.google.com/adsense and click on apply. Click on the drop down arrow under account type and select whether you’re an individual or business. If you’re not sure which one to choose, click on the question mark to the left. Next, select your country or territory.
Under website information, it asks for your primary URL. If you have your own website, list it here. If you are using a blogging site such as myblog.blogspot.com then this URL goes here.

Select your website’s primary language. Google adsense supports Chinese (simplified), Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Select the product you want on your pages. Adsense for Content means you will have advertising targeted to the content on your pages. For instance, if you write about flooring, you might have carpet ads on your page. Adsense for Search is for you to add a Google search box to your pages. To maximize your Google Adsense earnings, you will want to have both.

After that, it’s just the regular contact information and you’re all set. You should receive an email in 2 or 3 days letting you know if your application is approved.

Do I Have to Pay Taxes on My Google Adsense Earnings?

Google Adsense is required to collect tax information from those who participate in the program. If you’re a business, you’ll need to put your EIN number on your application. If you’re an individual, all you’ll need is your social security number. If you don’t have that information when you initially sign up, you can still apply for the Google Adsense program. But be advised that Google Adsense will withhold payments to you until they receive your tax information.

While Google does not withhold taxes or provide any tax advice, they will send you a 1099 once your earnings reach a certain amount. Of course, if you are a Non-US business and have no activity in the United States, you will not need to provide this information. For more tax information regarding the Google Adsense program, visit the Google Adsense Support site.

Getting Started With Adsense

A very important element in the rapid adoption of AdSense is that it has been very easy for publishers to get the ads on their site as quickly as possible.

Integrating AdSense in your website takes only a few minutes, and you can be on your way with one or more nicely integrated AdSense ads.

The first thing you need to do is navigate to http://www.google.com/adsense and either apply or log in with your existing account and password. What follows is a page presenting the Google AdSense Terms and Conditions which you must agree to in order to proceed.

You are presented with a report page which you can use to get a detailed status on how your AdSense advertising is doing. This allows you to improve your site's contents and layout to maximize your AdSense earnings.

On the top of your page you also have link to the setup section where you can generate the code that will need to be pasted on your website in order to have AdSense banners on your page.

You can use AdSense for content (the said ads), using a search box or with referrals. Your choice among these options depends on how users will navigate your site.

Finally, there is a "My Account" tab which allows you to set up details concerning your account, payment and tax information.

To add a text ad on your site, go back to the "AdSense Setup" tab and click the "AdSense for content" link. Make sure you have cookies enabled in your browser.

You can make a choice between ad units and link units. The former contain text and / or images concerning a certain site for each unit, most with a detailed description, the latter only contain links to certain types.

Of course, it's a bit hard to know which type you should use so you should probably experiment with both for a while before you decide.

You can also view an example of how the unit will look right on your page. However, you may only use three ad units and one link unit on any given page. This is believed to be a step which Google takes for quality control.

The next step is to choose your ad format and colors. You can basically select any color palette with Google offering some of its own if you don't have the time or skill to create one. You can constantly view how the palette will look through the aid of an example. The one that works best in terms of appearance and revenues will vary with the look, feel and content of a website.

However, your ad formats are limited to a choice of eleven formats. There's an "Ad Formats" link which takes you to a page that lets you see all of these formats, you can then decide which one to best suit your site. However again, this can vary from website to website.

After you finish with customization, you can click "Continue" at the bottom of the page.

You are now presented with a section that titled "AdSense for Content". You can click anywhere in the text that shows the JavaScript required to get AdSense running. This will automatically select all the text in the box.

You can then copy it and paste it into your pages directly. If you use dynamic pages, you should paste this code within your template so as to ensure that it gets displayed on any page of your website. Some advertisers choose not to display Adsense on every page, and this is understandable. An example of this is a company that has adsense, may also have terms and condition which would inevitably provide legal resources which would probably be deemed inappropriate.

What is then left for you to do is to get content on your page (provided you didn't have any already). Google AdSense crawlers will soon visit your site, making sure that the ads displayed are relevant to your site's content.

And you're all done. For a simple page this should indeed be a matter of a few minutes, which is precisely what makes AdSense the choice for so many. Although it is quick, its mass appeal also makes it the best.

What is Google Adsense?

If you look at the Internet a few years back, you'll see that advertising was done in a way that was very similar to other types of media like television, or actually, more like what you see in a newspaper.

You'd enter a site, and in some location you'd get to see a banner (often these were quite numerous and very large), which would present an ad for whatever company was paying for ads on your space.

But there was one problem with this kind of advertising. It really wasn't exploiting the fact that the ads weren't in some newspaper, but were instead presented over the Internet.

You've probably noticed a lot of things like this over the pages you've browsed. You're looking at an on-line shop, looking for a watch but you get a banner that advertises a car.

While you might, at some later point want to buy a car, but right now you're looking for a watch and it would have surely been nice if the banner were advertising a watch, because then you would have probably clicked it.

Well that's also what the folks at Google thought of, so they came up with a killer idea. This is known as Google AdSense, and it's known as a targeted advertising program.

What you do (as a web designer / website owner) is, instead of jumping through hoops to get some banner on your site that your visitors won't even care about, is you just allocate some region of the screen.

You then sign up for the Google AdSense program, you insert a small snippet of code in your webpage and Google ensures that in the location you specify, a banner will appear, presenting ads relevant to the contents of your site.

It's very easy for Google to do this because Google is a search engine company. It looks for the key words in your page, searches a database of websites to find the ones related to whatever is on your page and presto: a targeted ad.

You (the webmaster) get a fee for each visitor that clicks on an adsense banner on your site. Now that's bound to happen more often than with a traditional banner because people are actually interested in what's in that banner (otherwise, they wouldn't be on your page would they?).

But, this also does wonders for the people who want to advertise. And it's because of the same reason. The greatest thing about Google AdSense is that all the content in a banner is relevant.

This relevancy is the key to the programs success, and also the reason why everyone remains happy. The advertiser has a relevantly placed advert, the publisher earns money from their content and Google takes their cut.

Of course, as always, Google has set some high standards for its AdSense program, in terms of looks and functionality.

An extra benefit is that AdSense advertising is a lot less obtrusive than regular advertising. But this also means you should position the banner better because it's possible that visitors might miss it altogether.

So in the end, Google AdSense is an advertising program that is unique because the ads are relevant to the content on the site. Anyone that wants to advertise pays Google for it. Anyone who wants to place ads on their site does this through AdSense, getting paid by Google in the process.

All transactions are run through Google, and the advertisers and publishers get access to statistics which help them to understand and moderate the effectiveness of their campaign.

The whole process is elegant, simple and effective for anyone in the chain, from site visitors to advertisers, and it's one of the reasons Google are known for their innovation and new thinking.

Why and How E-mail Viral Marketing Works

What does a virus have to do with marketing? Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands and then to millions.

Public health nurses offer sage advice at flu season: stay away from people who cough, wash your hands often, and don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Viruses only spread when they're easy to transmit. Viral e-mail marketing works great on the Internet because instant communication has become so easy and inexpensive. Digital format make copying simple. From a marketing standpoint, you must simplify your marketing message so it can be transmitted easily and without degradation. Short is better. Remember the K.I.S.S. standard….Keep it Short and Simple. The shorter and easier to remember is always better than long and complicated.

Clever viral marketing plans take advantage of common human motivations. The desire to be cool and greed drives people. So does the hunger to be popular, loved, and understood. The resulting urge to communicate produces millions of websites and billions of e-mail messages.

Most people are social. Social scientists tell us that each person has a network of 8 to 12 people in their close network of friends, family, and associates. People on the Internet develop networks of relationships, too. They collect e-mail addresses and favorite website URLs. Affiliate programs exploit such networks, as do permission e-mail lists. Learn to place your message into existing communications between people, and you rapidly multiply its dispersion.

If you can design a marketing strategy that builds on common motivations and behaviors for its transmission, you have a winner.

The Many Facets of Viral Marketing

In the beginning, e-mail was the one way that viral marketing was started. Since that long ago day, viral marketing has gone from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish the objective of creating a successful viral marketing campaign. These includes:

1. E-mail: It was first but it is still around and still being used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more restrictions are placed on it. Still… it does work.

2. Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.

3. Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product or service out there and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and services.

4. Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special events like having an expert available to answer questions on a given day at a given time.

5. Tell-a-friend Script: If you add this with a statement saying that e-mail addresses supplied will never be shared with third parties, you can increase your potential customer list greatly.

6. Video Clips: Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase traffic.

7. Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from you.

What Works & What Doesn't in Viral Marketing

Stop with the enforced e-mail forwards already! Trying to force or bribe people to forward your info to a friends or family in order to be rewarded or win looks skanky in today's ultra-permission-based world. Especially when you tell visitors nothing about their friend's or family’s privacy in the space directly next to the e-mail form.

A true viral campaign gets forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the glory of the content, not because you bribed them with points or something else.

What absolutely will not work:

Suggesting that e-mail recipients forward your message to their friends and family will not work. Adding a line at the bottom of your e-mail that reads “Please feel free to forward this message to a friend” is more likely to get it deleted than forwarded.

What absolutely will work:

Offering something worthy of sharing like a valuable discount, vital information or offering an incentive for sharing like additional entries into a sweepstakes or an added discount or premium service will work.

Relevant or timely information, research, or studies that are included in your e-mail might encourage the recipients to share with their family and friends. Interactive content like a quiz or test, especially if it’s fun, will inspire forwarding.

Jokes and cartoons are almost always forwarded to everybody that the recipient knows. Why? Because they are entertaining and entertainment is meant to be shared.

A really cool multimedia experience is always going to achieve a lot of pass-along. Rich media is new and the novelty and tech factors alone are often enough to make the e-mail recipient eager to share it.

Oops! Almost forgot one really important thing….You can craft a brilliant e-mail following all the rules, but if a consumer visits your site and has an experience less that what was promised, you are going to achieve viral marketing, alright…the bad kind. So be certain that your product or service is ready and is as advertised.

Web Design Elements You Should Avoid Having on Your Site

As a website owner, you should design your websites to give your visitors the greatest ease of use, the best impression and most important of all a welcoming experience. It doesn't matter if you had the greatest product in the whole world -- if your website is poorly done you won't be able to sell even one copy of it because visitors will be driven off your website by the lousy design.

When I'm talking about a "good design", I'm not only talking about a good graphical design. There are many components which contribute to a good website design -- accessibility design, interface or layout design, user experience design and of course the most straightforward, which is graphic design.

Here are some of the elements that I think should be a no-no on your website:

1. Background music

Unless you are running a site which promotes a band, a CD or anything related to music, I would really advise you to stay away from putting looping background music onto your site. It might sound pleasant to you at first, but imagine if you ran a big site with hundreds of pages and every time a visitor browses to another page on your site, the background music starts playing again. If I were your visitor, I'd just turn off my speakers or leave your site. Moreover, they just add to the visitors burden when viewing your site -- users on dial up connections will have to wait longer just to view your site as it is meant to be viewed.

2. Extra large/small text size

As I said, there is more to web design than purely graphics -- user accessibility is one big part of it too! You should design the text on your site to be legible and reasonably sized to enable your visitors to read it without straining their eyes. No matter how good the content of your website or your sales copy is, if it's illegible you won't be selling anything!

3. Popup windows

Popup windows are so blatantly used to display advertisements. I will just close them on instinct every time each one manages to pass through my popup blocker (yes, I do have one like many users out there!) and, well, pops up on my screen. Imagine if you had a very important message to convey and you put it in a popup window that gets killed most of the time it appears on a visitor's screen. Your website loses its function immediately!


Hopefully, you will be able to compare the above against your own site as a checklist and if anything on your site fits the criteria, you should know it's high time to take serious action!

Improve Usability of Your Website

No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to be read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn't load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

The Importance of a Sitemap

A sitemap is often considered redundant in the process of building a website, and that is indeed the fact if you made a sitemap for the sake of having one. By highlighting the importance of having a well constructed sitemap, you will be able to tailor your own sitemap to suit your own needs.

1. Navigation purposes

A sitemap literally acts as a map of your site. If your visitors browses your site and gets lost between the thousands of pages on your site, they can always refer to your sitemap to see where they are, and navigate through your pages with the utmost ease.

2. Conveying your site's theme

When your visitors load up your sitemap, they will get the gist of your site within a very short amount of time. There is no need to get the "big picture" of your site by reading through each page, and by doing that you will be saving your visitors' time.

3. Site optimization purposes

When you create a sitemap, you are actually creating a single page which contains links to every single page on your site. Imagine what happens when search engine robots hit this page -- they will follow the links on the sitemap and naturally every single page of your site gets indexed by search engines! It is also for this purpose that a link to the sitemap has to be placed prominently on the front page of your website.

4. Organization and relevance

A sitemap enables you to have a complete bird's eye view of your site structure, and whenever you need to add new content or new sections, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration just by glancing at the sitemap. As a result, you will have a perfectly organized site with everything sorted according to their relevance.

From the above reasons, it is most important to implement a sitemap for website projects with a considerable size. Through this way, you will be able to keep your website easily accesible and neatly organized for everyone.

Make It Easy To Buy From Your Site

Convincing your prospects to purchase from you is a hard job, but have you ever thought that you're making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced but don't know how to buy from you? No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won't buy if they find the process cumbersome.

First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site.

Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a check. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects' desired payment method. After all, it wouldn't make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won't be able to pay you when they want to.

On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this. You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident to buy from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?

Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects' confidence. Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

As a conclusion, it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay. Eliminate any chances of that to maximize your profits!

Search Engine Friendly Pages

There is no point in building a website unless there are visitors coming in. A major source of traffic for most sites on the Internet is search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Altavista and so on. Hence, by designing a search engine friendly site, you will be able to rank easily in search engines and obtain more visitors.

Major search engines use programs called crawlers or robots to index websites to list on their search result pages. They follow links to a page, reads the content of the page and record it in their own database, pulling up the listing as people search for it.

If you want to make your site indexed easily, you should avoid using frames on your website. Frames will only confuse search engine robots and they might even abandon your site because of that. Moreover, frames make it difficult for users to bookmark a specific page on your site without using long, complicated scripts.

Do not present important information in Flash movies or in images. Search engine robots can only read text on your source code so if you present important words in Flash movies and images rather than textual form, your search engine ranking will be affected dramatically.

Use meta tags accordingly on each and every page of your site so that search engine robots know at first glance what that particular page is about and whether or not to index it. By using meta tags, you are making the search engine robot's job easier so they will crawl and index your site more frequently.

Stop using wrong HTML tags like to style your page. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead because they are more effective and efficient. By using CSS, you can eliminate redundant HTML tags and make your pages much lighter and faster to load.

Who Is Your Audience?

Understanding the type of people who visit your site is a very important task because you can use that information to enhance your site to suit them. As a result, you will gain more loyal returning visitors that come back again and again for more.

What is the age level and what kind of knowledge does your audience have? A layman might linger around a general site on gardening, but a professional botanist might turn his nose at the very same site. Similarly, a regular person will leave a site filled with astronomy abstracts but a well educated university graduate will find that site interesting.

Take your audience's emotional state into consideration when building your site. If a very irritated visitor searches for a solution and comes across your site, you will want to make sure you offer the solution right up front and sell or promote your product to him second. In this way, the visitor will put his trust in you for offering the solution to his problems and is more likely to buy your product when you offer it to him after that.

When you design the layout for your site, you have to take into account the characteristics of your audience. Are they old or young people? Are they looking for trends or are they just looking for information served without any icing on the cake? For example, introducing a new, exciting game with a simple, straightforward black text against white background page will definitely turn prospects away. Make sure your design suits your site's general theme.

Try to sprinkle colloquial language in your sites sparingly where you see fit and you will create a sense that your audience is on common ground with you. This in turn builds a trusting relationship between you and your audience, which will come in useful should you want to market a product to your audience.

5 Things To Consider When Publishing A Newsletter

Providing a newsletter for your opt-in list subscribers provides many benefits in terms of driving traffic into your site as well as boosting the sales and profits of your site and company. This is a marketing ploy that will not hugely dent your marketing budget and will not also require many man-hours in developing this project.

With a newsletter, you can inform the public about your company and products as well as services. You can keep them posted and updated about what’s going-on with your company as well as many of your promotions and offerings. With these, you keep on reminding your subscribers that you are still here and is willing to offer them good deals and services.

Newsletters also allow you to impress your subscribers. It can show your expertise and knowledge about the topic at hand and the many benefits you can offer them. When you impress people, they will become potential customers and another great thing is that they can recommend you to their friends, colleagues and family. All of them could very well be customers in the future.

If you do not have a newsletter or publishing one for your site, then you may have to consider about researching and be well informed on how to publish one. It is not as easy as it seems but if and when you get the right idea and process, it will be smooth sailing from there on. Try to take the time to learn what you need to learn and get that newsletter ready and good to attract subscribers to your newsletter as well as traffic to your site.

Here are five things to consider when publishing a newsletter.

1. Make sure that the content of your newsletter pertains to and closely associated with your business or the theme of your site. Do not dwell too far on what could be regarded as your field of expertise. You have started a site and your theme for your site will always be something you are knowledgeable about. For example; if you have a site that sells auto car parts, your newsletter must contain articles or content like photos that pertain to cars, auto parts and such. You may also include content about your company and your staff.

Remember that visitors of a certain site are there because they are interested in what the site has to offer. If they sign up for an opt-in list or for a newsletter this means that they want to be updated for that certain theme or subject. Be sure that when you publish your newsletter you are providing for the need of the subscriber as well as their interests.

2. Ensure that you have well written, information riddled and content rich articles. You articles will be the body of your newsletter and that they should be able to excite your readers as well as provide information. Articles should be well written and checked for errors such as spelling and grammatical errors for it to look professional and believable. The trust of your client to you and newsletter is at stake here.

3. Fact-check your articles. Make sure that you provide true facts and figures so that your reputation as an expert and knowledgeable in that field is not questioned. If you lose the trust of your subscribers these may persuade them to unsubscribe to your newsletter. You will lose many potential sales this way.

4. Provide fresh and new articles that can provide new information to your subscribers. If you publish stale and old news in your newsletter, there is a tendency that people or your subscribers already have read and known about them. This will lose their interest in your newsletter and they wont get to read what is most important, your ads. They may not open or read any of your succeeding newsletters losing your intention in writing and publishing newsletters, to get them to visit your site and make a purchase.

5. Never use copyrighted materials such as photos and articles. This is outright plagiarism, you may get into a lot of trouble for this. You can lose your business and get sued over copyright infringement. If you do not have the time to write your own articles, there are many willing and able professional article writers that can do it for you for a reasonable fee. All your investment in writing and publishing articles will be well worth it when you see your list build up and your traffic increasing.

Parents: Warn Your Teens about the Dangers of Using Social Networking Websites

Are you the parent of a teenager? Do you ever wonder about their safety online? Although the internet has changed for the better, the change has made it easier for people to access the internet and pretend to be someone that they are not, someone who you would likely not want socializing with your child. For that reason, you should take proper action to protect your child when they are online, especially when they use online social networking websites.

Online social networking websites? What are they? If you are not an internet user yourself, you may be completely unaware of social networking websites, what they are, and how they operate. The first step in protecting your teen is to familiarize yourself with them. Social networking websites are known as online communities that aim to connect internet users with each other. Unfortunately, these social networks have become the stomping grounds for many online predators and who are they after? Teenagers and chances are your teen may be one of them.

When it comes to protecting your child, your first thought may be to prohibit the use of online networking websites. Of course, you can do this if you want to. You are the parent, you can do anything that you want; however, there is really no need to. Despite the fact that danger exists, social networking sites are relatively safe, even for teenagers. However, to be safe and stay safe, your teenager needs to know what to avoid and who to be on the lookout for. Essentially, this means that the best way to protect your child from online predators is to educate them on the danger out there.

One of the first things that you may want to discuss with your child is who they are talking with online. Although they may not want to give you an answer, you need to emphasize the importance of knowing who they are talking to. Since social networks work to connect individuals who do not physically know each other it may seem impossible, but it can be done. Your child should fully read and try to understand the content of their friend’s online profiles. This will enable them to watch out for inconsistent stories or any inaccurate information. Tell your teen that if they learn that someone is being untruthful they need to end the conversation right away.

In addition to who your teen is taking to, it is also important to learn what they are talking about. As with who they are talking to, your teenager may not want to give you a straight answer. Even if you are unable to get an answer out of them it is important to let them know what is appropriate and what is not. Be sure they know that it is best to completely avoid individuals who like to speak of sex, drugs, and other illegal activities. Although they may enjoy having a number of online friends, there are plenty of other individuals, especially teenagers, who would more than willing to have pleasant and harmless conversations with them.

Perhaps, the most important thing to discuss with your teenager about social networking sites is arranging physical meetings. Let them know that these meeting are unacceptable. There have been numerous reports, over the past few years, of teenagers being lured away from their home in hopes of meeting a new friend, who they thought was at their age. Unfortunately, many of these online friends turn out to be older and, in many cases, sexual predators. In the event that your teenager wants to meet an online friend and you feel that they would with or without your permission, you may want to offer to go with them. Of course, it is advised that you use caution and be sure to meet in a public place.

By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, your child should still be able to use social network sites, but use them safely. In addition to the above mentioned safety concerns and precautionary measures, you may have your own. It is very important that you keep your child aware of the dangers that lurk online, awareness is the key.

Using Online Video Websites to Promote Your Blog

Blogs have literally taken in the internet by storm. It seems as if just about everyone has a blog. Blogs are so popular that it there is a good chance that you have one. While blogs are nice, it is sometimes difficult to get them seen. Many blog owners, maybe even yourself, are unsure how to go about generating more internet traffic. Luckily for you and me and other blog owners, there are various ways to increase the number of page views.

The first step in getting traffic to your blog is to make sure that you have an interesting topic. If you are writing about your personal experiences, you may find that not everyone wants to read about them, that is unless you lead an adventurous life. However, if you blog on a wider range of topics, such as working from home, saving money, or being a good partner, you are likely to get a bigger group of audience. This is because more internet users, especially ones that you do not know, would be more willing to read information on these topics, rather than your daily adventures or lack of adventures.

Once you have found a topic that you would like to write about, you will need to start creating your blog, if you haven’t already. When making your blog it is important that you write content that will be useful to your blog’s general topic. It is also important to include lots of content. Content is what most search engines use when picking up websites. In the event that your blog gets indexed by a search engine, you will find that your blog’s traffic should automatically increase. This is because a large number of internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for.

Although a high search engine ranking may help to increase the amount of traffic your blog gets, it is sometimes difficult to achieve. Most individuals do not go further than the third or fourth page, when looking at search engine results. This means that if your blog is not considered to be high ranking, you may not get the results that you were hoping for. However, this does not mean that you should give up. Instead, it simply means that you just have to find another way to promote your blog.

One of the many other ways that you can go about promoting your blog is through the use of online video websites, particularly the ones that are free to use. Online video websites are websites that allow internet users to upload videos that they have created. Once uploaded, these videos can be viewed by thousands, if not millions, of internet users. If you are looking for a fun and low-cost way to market your blog, look nowhere else but online video websites.

Before uploading your video, to an online video website, you will have to make your video. When making your online video, it is important not to make your video sound too pushy or like spam. It may be a good idea to state the purpose of your blog and what can be found there. You may also want to record yourself or someone else visiting your blog to showcase your blog’s features. You could also take still shots, also commonly known as screen shots. These shots will allow you to post pictures of your blog pages. Having those pictures float through your online video is a great way to show internet users what your blog is all about.

Once you have finished making your video, you will need to upload that video to your computer. Once your video is saved, upload your video by following the uploading directions for each online video website that you would like your video or videos to be uploaded to.

It is important to note that you are not guaranteed to see an increase in your blog’s traffic, but why not at least give it a shot? With most video websites being free to use, there shouldn’t be any risks associated with incorporating your blog into your next online video.

What You Need To Make Your Own Online Videos?

When it comes to using online video websites, most internet users only view the videos that are available. Do you know that you can do more than that? A large number of online video websites will not only allow you to view videos, but to make and to share you own videos.

Making and sharing your own videos, sounds exciting doesn’t it? If it does, I guess you would want to get started right away. However, before making plans for your next online video, you should think about how the process works. This is important because it tells you what type of equipment you will need to get started.

Before uploading and sharing you newly created online video, first you'll have to shoot it. To do this, you need a video recording equipment. Video recording equipment can include camcorders, webcams, cell phones, and / or digital cameras. If you are looking to produce a quality video, you may want to think about using a camcorder or a webcam. Cell phones and digital cameras will work, but many only provide you with a limited amount of recording time. In addition to a limited amount of time, not all digital cameras and cell phones record sounds. Although these sounds can be added in later, it may be time consuming.

Once you have created your online video, you will need to find a way to upload it to your computer. Most recording devices, including camcorders, webcams, digital cameras, and cell phones will come with the necessary equipment. This equipment often includes computer cables. Once you hook your recording device up to your computer, your video should begin to load. However, for this to be done you will need to have movie making software installed on your computer.

When it comes to movie making software, you will likely find that your computer already one. Most computers, especially ones made within the recent years, have the software programs preinstalled. If your video does not automatically load, once your recording device is hooked up to your computer, it may be a sign that your computer does not have a movie making program. If this is the case, you will need to purchase some. Movie making software programs can easily be purchased online or from a wide variety of different retail stores.

Once your video has been loaded onto your computer and recognized by movie making software, you have a number of different options. If you are satisfied with your video, as it is, you can save it and then move on. If you would like to make alterations, now would be the time to do so. Depending on the type of moving making software you have, you should easily be able to edit your video. This editing may include, but not limited to, deleting scenes, adding captions, and the adding of music. Once you have made all of your edits, you will need to save your movie.

The final step to making an online movie is to find an online video website that you can upload your video to. Popular online video websites including YouTube and Google Video; however, you can find additional sites by performing a standard internet search. After you follow the directions, provided by each individual online video website, your video should be displayed for the rest of the world to see.

Blogging for Profit Begins With a Long Term Plan

Many people dream of blogging for profit, and this goal is not far beyond the reach of someone with average intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic grasp of blogging technology. However, very few people manage to reap the profits they want from their blog. Most people who attempt to make money with their blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often, bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their readership will grow and how much money they will make, and when these expectations are not met the disappointment can crush the desire to continue blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into has to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn a profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a realistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that you will need is a large readership. The higher your traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you. However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will need in order to make a profit isn't easy. As more and more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get attention. You need to be able to market your blog effectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts and almost no time marketing their project. To be certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog search engines like technorati, and once your readers know that you update frequently they will return to your site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how often you update if nobody is reading your page, so don't skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in the blog community, and following other established modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a really great idea for a blog, success is not going to happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all likelihood it will be at least several months before you are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed to your blogging project during this initial rough period. To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update and how many readers you want to attract, and then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

How to Find Reputable Affiliate Tracking Software Programs or Services

When it comes to finding a particular product or service, there are many individuals who start searching online. The internet is a great way to find whatever you are looking for, but there are also a number of disadvantages in doing so. For instance, it is often difficult to determine the quality of a product or service online. If you are a business owner who needs affiliate tracking software for your affiliate program, you will need to find and purchase affiliate tracking software. While you can do this online, there are a number of important factors that you will want to keep in mind.

As previously mentioned, it is often difficult to determine the quality of a particular product or service, including affiliate tracking software, online. This is because it is difficult to tell whether or not an individual or company is being honest with you. This means that although you may find an affiliate tracking software program that claims to be the best, it may not actually be. To determine whether or not the claims of a software seller are legitimate, you will have to do a little bit of research.

The first step in finding a reputable affiliate tracking software program or service is to familiarize yourself with all of your available options. You can easily do so by performing a standard internet search. You may want to perform the search using the words affiliate tracking software. Your search should provide with the names and website addresses of a number of different software services or programs. You will want to quickly examine each of these products and eliminate the ones that do not offer what you need. This should leave you with a smaller list of software programs or services. Those are the software programs and services that you will want to further examine.

You can easily determine whether or not the affiliate tracking software of your choice is reputable or not by finding a product review website. These websites can also be found by performing an internet search. If you have the names of numerous software programs, it is likely that a number of them will be reviewed. You should examine closely those reviews and weed out any that have negative marks or complaints. While most affiliate tracking programs are reviewed, you may find a few that are not. For your own safety, you shall treat these programs as if they have a negative review. This is because you will not want to pay for affiliate tracking software if you don’t know how well performing it is.

You should also be able to determine whether or not an affiliate tracking software program is reputable by performing a standard internet search on each program. For instance, you will want to perform an internet search with the name of that particular software. It is likely that your search will connect you to web pages in which that affiliate tracking software was discussed. You are advised to read through these discussions to determine if current, or even past, customers were satisfied with what they received.

When searching for reputable affiliate tracking software, it is important to remember that very few products will have a perfect review. There will always be someone who thinks that something should have been different. A few negative comments or reviews does not mean that the affiliate tracking software in question is not reputable. However, you should be leery of software that has a large number of negative reviews or comments. That software may not only be not worth your time, but also not worth your money.

Belong to More Than One Affiliate Program, How It Works

Each day, a large number of individuals are making money through affiliate programs. Those individuals are webmasters, people who own and operate their own website. When it comes to making money with an affiliate program, there are many who want more. What is nice about affiliate programs is that you can get more by joining more than one program. Joining more than one affiliate program can be great, money wise, but it can also get confusing. Instead of letting this confusion deter you away from making more money, you need to learn how to properly handle the situation.

With one affiliate program, depending on which business you are associating with, it is easy to keep track of all of your records. This is because you will only have income coming in from one place; however, that all changes when you make the decision to join more than one affiliate program. When you need to keep track of your clicks, earnings, and financial records for more than one affiliate program, it can get a little time consuming and confusing. This time and confusion is only elevated as you join more affiliate programs.

Your first impulse may be to keep track of your own earnings. Many individuals do this with a simple pen and piece of paper. Unfortunately, there are many individuals who are unaware of the fact that there is a much easier way. It is by using your computer and a software program that was developed by a professional. The software is known as affiliate tracking software. If you do not already have this software, you are advised to obtain it because it can make it easier to join more than one affiliate program.

Before deciding on a software program, it is good that you take time to fully examine the affiliate program in which you are participating in. Many affiliate programs are run through third party programs. These popular programs include, but not limited to, Commission Junction, Link Share, and Clickbank. Many of these programs are designed to make using affiliate programs easier, but many of these programs also have their own form of tracking software. If you are not a member of these programs, you will have to find other affiliate tracking software.

If you are interested in getting an affiliate tracking software, there are a number of different options available. There are a number of software programs that you can obtain, some are free, but others require you to pay for them. The best way to decide on affiliate tracking software, whether it is chargeable, is to examine all of your available options. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Simply by performing a search with the words, affiliate tracking software, you should be provided with a number of different results. Those results should include software programs that are obtainable for a small fee or free to use.

In your search, you will learn that many affiliate tracking software programs are similar. They all tend to have the same goals. Those goals often include allowing you to generate click reports, financial records, and reports on pending payouts. Despite the fact that most software programs have the same features, you are still advised to check. When it comes to purchasing something from the internet, including affiliate tracking software, you can never be too sure. Examining the features of a tracking software program will enable you to determine whether it is worth the buy or the time to download it.

By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, you should be able to successfully participate in a number of different affiliate programs, with ease. The above mentioned affiliate tracking software programs are designed to assist you, the affiliate, by keeping your affiliate programs up-to-date and organized. By keeping those programs organized, you should be able to spend your time concentrating on marketing your affiliate products.