More Info on Adsense and Internet Advertising

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately about how to generate traffic and revenue through internet advertising. You’ve been seeing a lot of changes to this blog in that vein over the last few weeks. Some of the things I’ve learned:

1. Google Search tool – revenue doesn’t come from making searches, it comes from clicking the ads on the search results that the search tool returned.
2. CPC ads – CPC are cost per click ads, revenue is earned when an ad is clicked. Self-explanatory
3. CPM ads are cost per 1000 impression ads – Advertisers running CPM ads set their desired price per 1000 ads served, select the specific sites on which to show their ads, and pay each time their ad appears. For the guy who has the ads showing on his website, this means revenue in your account each time a CPM ad is served to your page. You don’t get paid until you’ve shown 1000 ads.
4. CPM vs. CPC ads – CPM ads compete against pay-per-click (or CPC, cost per click) ads in the Google ad auction, so only the highest performing ads will be served to guys like me. Advertisers will need to bid a higher CPM than the existing CPC ads in order to show. While I still don’t get it all, it seems you’d get paid more with CPM (passive) ads that don’t require clicking.
5. SEO – Search Engine Optimization. There are ways to design your site to increase its page rank in search engines, which generates more traffic, which means more ads clicked. I’m in the process of making some of those changes to the website. I’m hoping I can do this without making it too busy and annoying looking. More info here.
6. SERP – Search Engine Results Page. You do SEO in order to increase your SERP ranking. Makes sense.
7. Supposedly lots of people make over 100k a year doing this. So far, I might be lucky if I make 10 dollars. I’m a little over halfway there. My goal was to make enough to add into my poker bankroll. I might get one buyin a year for 10NL. LOL.
8. I’m not supposed to click my own ads, or ask others to do so. Doing so can get you banned based on the Adsense terms of service (TOS).
9. It appears I’ll never sell anything via my Amazon afilliation. I still don’t know if I can buy stuff from my own store.
10. Keyword Stuffing – unethical SEO technique where you load keywords into your site to make it move up to the top of a search engine results page (SERP).
11. Google Adwords is for people who are advertising their products
12. Google Adsense is for bloggers, webmasters, and people that want to display ads to generate revenue.
13. Google Analytics is probably more appropriate for Adwords than Adsense.

_uacct = “UA-2736361-1″;
urchinTracker();

Google Analytics

I’m testing out Google Analytics, a way to track who is coming to my blog. I want to see if I’m getting any non-friend hits. I’m not even sure how it works, but the code is now being tacked on to the end of each post. This is the first one.

_uacct = “UA-2736361-1″;
urchinTracker();

Adsense

I reread the Adsense terms of service, because I don’t want to break it. Here’s an exceprt:

Encouraging clicks
In order to ensure a good experience for users and advertisers, publishers may not request that users click the ads on their sites or rely on deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks. Publishers participating in the AdSense program:

May not encourage users to click the Google ads by using phrases such as “click the ads,” “support us,” “visit these links,” or other similar language
May not direct user attention to the ads via arrows or other graphical gimmicks
May not place misleading images alongside individual ads
May not promote sites displaying ads through unsolicited mass emails or unwanted advertisements on third-party websites
May not compensate users for viewing ads or performing searches, or promise compensation to a third party for such behavior
May not place misleading labels above Google ad units – for instance, ads may be labeled “Sponsored Links” but not “Favorite Sites”

Sites displaying Google ads may not include:

Violent content, racial intolerance, or advocacy against any individual, group, or organization
Pornography, adult, or mature content
Hacking/cracking content
Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
Excessive profanity
Gambling or casino-related content
Content regarding programs which compensate users for clicking on ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites, or reading emails
Excessive, repetitive, or irrelevant keywords in the content or code of web pages
Deceptive or manipulative content or construction to improve your site’s search engine ranking, e.g., your site’s PageRank
Sales or promotion of weapons or ammunition (e.g., firearms, fighting knives, stun guns)
Sales or promotion of beer or hard alcohol
Sales or promotion of tobacco or tobacco-related products
Sales or promotion of prescription drugs
Sales or promotion of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods
Sales or distribution of term papers or student essays
Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity, or infringes on the legal rights of others

So, for the record, I won’t be encouraging anyone to click any ads. This one makes me curious: “Gambling or casino-related content ” – I don’t believe poker to be gambling, it’s gaming, like chess or a sporting event, because there is clearly skill involved. So, I’ll continue to provide my poker updates. While I think the rule is silly and pseudo-morally hypocritical, I won’t be discussing any gambling pursuits such as lottery, slots machines, bingo, blackjack, or any gambling activity.

I’m such small potatoes that it doesn’t matter, but if, for some reason, my site takes off, I figure I should get it out of the way.

Blog Updates

So I made new changes to the blog. I created an Amazon affiliate account. So, you’ll probably see some additional changes as I work out the kinks. Trying not to violate my terms of service.