Interest-based Ads Preference

If you've done any work with AdSense then you'll know that there are so many parameters that you can adjust if you're not tracking what you're doing you're shooting in the dark and IF you do hit a target, you'll not know how you got there. Make sense?


Still, there's not much help out there and a lot of hit or miss. And remember, what works for someone with a website on home schooling, might not work for your fancy website about world travel. You MUST experiment and track.
So let's move over to AdSense now and go to the Interest-based Ads Preference page. Here's the URL: https://www.google.com/adsense/v3/app#allowAndBlockAdsAdvancedSettings



Google explains their algorithm in basic terms by saying that the user will bring with them certain predetermined parameters and this will change what AdSense ads display on your website.


Google actually claims that this can be a benefit to you because the user will have ads they like and you will most likely have an increase in your AdSense revenue.


This is exactly why when you have visited a site about sports cars and then go to a site about cats, you can still see sports car ads displaying on the cats site.


Yes, it may be something the user is interested in, but how can we really know if they want to see a sports car ad on the cat site?



I am running an experiment with my site Three Best Beaches and I'll be posting the results right here. Today, I've changed the settings to blocked. I'm not sure how long it takes to change. Most changes I've seen in AdSense happen in 30 minutes or less.



OK, other changes today on TBB include changing my main ad block from the medium rectangle 300 x 250 (as requested by the Google AdSense team when I attended the AdSense in Your City event last month in Orlando) to the large rectangle 336 x 280.


Immediately I noticed on my website that the inventory for image based ads is much lower (at least in my category = travel) than in the 300 x 250 format - seemed to be serving up almost 1/2 image based and sometimes totally image based (like a resort running a hot special or something.) For me - I dunno - I have just had more success with text only ads. More for the user to choose from (because image ads take up the whole ad while text based are three or four ads to the block - see example.)


And the colors were changed, too. I had a hit a few days ago, but crazy me, it was late night when I changed it and I didn't log it. I am thinking that the colors were more in line with my Thesis website links on Three Best Beaches, but you know, sometimes you need a little contrast to stand out.


I don't know about you, but my CTR has fallen dramatically in the last year. I really think this is from this website getting dumped from the high position it held in the SERPs since 2005 and I am working really hard on getting it back up there.


OK, so we've changed the Interest based option (and already I see that it is working - try it yourself) and the block change. Oh, and let me say that I was running the recommended (by Google) three ad blocks on each page using Whydowork AdSense (Google this Wordpress plugin for AdSense placement) to ONE. From my experience AND from talking with the AdSense team, the fewer ads blocks means the ONE block you run with have the most expensive and highest competing ads. Experiment on your own. You will see this is true. The challenge is getting the right block/colors/size/etc. And...depending on your layout, you can get more money from the ads running more blocks. It's not for everyone.


One more change I want to make and am debating this one - is to move the link block (200 x 90) running in the left hand column to within the content at the top right.


Take a look. Here we have the link block running in the left hand column. It's right below a search box - also monetized with Google AdSense - and above the main navigation for the site. 


Using free website software (crazyegg.com), I can track where people are clicking over a given time period...in my case, 2 and a half days. This isn't really a lot (5000 visits), but enough to give me a good idea where people are navigating the site.


I can see that through 5000 visits, not that many are clicking the left hand link block. I don't know about the right hand one - because I haven't set it up on a page that I am tracking. But I am going to implement it and will also share the result.

One thing that was interesting to me was that people were clicking a lot - I suppose they like it - on the Most Popular Beach links in the left hand column. This is done by using a plug in for Wordpress called Top 10.


And lastly, regarding clicks - I see that people are clicking more on pictures of people with bathing suits on, especially women. Sex sells, I suppose. Guys are looking for more pictures. Curiosity.


I'll update as soon as I have more info and will update this post so you can go from here to the new page - if you've landed here from another site or the search engines. Thanks a bunch!

Day Seven - Site Four

It's raining cats and dogs here and just a great time to get some work in. I've been showing you a scheduled way to put up a number of websites with great content and get them profitable for you by the end of the project.

Today we're at day seven and it's time for website number four. Have you thought about what you're going to create? It is easy to get articles - you just need to make sure they are rewritten to they are nothing like what is currently on the Internet. You can probably do a better job anyway.

Now you'll need five articles, so hope your fingers are rested and you're ready to go. We'll also need a full domain name and website to post the five articles to, so make sure you have that ready to go.

As far as articles, I have to stress again that you need to be thinking of something that many people search for, but where there's not a ton of content already written on that subject. And what is too much? Well, when you search, the results is how many pages that keyword appears on (of pages indexed in the search engine). So even though there are over a hundred thousand results - don't worry - you can quickly get near the top of the heap if there is not a lot of competition (millions of pages).

Take for instance a site I have on Immigration. I registered this domain long ago when a friend of mine from Brazil won the Green Card Lottery and brought his whole family to the United States. Today, I post to it almost everyday and it is well indexed and I already get a return on the site. And it's just going to grow!

How do I know? I am using the same formula that I'm using here. And you'll learn as the course goes on.

My website number four is about foreclosure. I didn't like the topic 100 percent, but I thought with the level of interest on this topic, I'm bound to get some of the traffic doing what I do.

No Time for Success

In the other room there's a Nintendo Wii working. Two young boys play tennis together. In my mind there's a battle around the usefulness of video games to the end user. My main stance is that they are a waste of time.

Slice it any way you want, there are only so many seconds in a day. I'm not going to concentrate on doing everything quickly. People that know me, know that I enjoy the journey. But they also know that I question every activity I do.

Here are four levels of "time". See where you fit:

Level One is merely existing. You just go through the motions because your dream died long ago. This is the hardest level to break out of.

Level Two you are aware of time, but you are not conscious of it. This is the person who spends lots of time surfing the web, watching TV, playing Wii - wasting time that isn't going to help you.

Most everyone is at One or Two.

Level Three is again, aware of time, and you're efficient with it. You work towards being effective. You spend little time with things that don't get you toward your goals.

Level Four is where you are aware of opportunity cost. You spend time doing one activity, but you lose time to do the other activity - so you must choose between the greater of the two.

And it's not only activities, but people, too.

This is tough medicine, but you can't be Mother Theresa. Be careful who you spend time with.

Ok, tough lesson here. But this is what separates the AdSense winners from the losers. Look at every activity you do during the day and log it - keep a journal - and ask yourself - Is this worth my time?

You notice I am not rushing through any of this. That's because when I write about the actual work - most will want to the work without understanding what it takes to make it happen.

AdSense Discipline

Out of all the keys to making web publishing work, this one is the one you need most. A frequent question asked is, Dave, how did you become so successful in the game. My answer is always the same: Discipline.

Few people are natural with it. Most people struggle with it.

A good explanation would be: That which keeps you going after all the motivation to do the action has disappeared.

I once asked good friend Chris Widener how he keeps writing his awesome newsletter and books. He told me that it took great discipline, but once he got into it - it came more routine. In other words, if you work against the voice inside that says sit on the couch and watch some more of the Travel Channel, you will get to the point where it becomes a part of you.

Discipline is simply a decision. It's an easy decision that is hard to carry out. You choose to do what you need to rather than not.

My kids often watch what I eat, because I have a condition called Celiac, where I cannot eat anything that has wheat gluten in it. And that's about everything. But, I am not wasting away... in fact, there's enough out there to keep me watching the scales.

But the temptation is always there. Pizza still smells great. So does warm bread. A nice bowl of cereal - yum... but, full of wheat.

So my kids tell me I must have a lot of discipline not to eat the pasta or bread. But I know what would happen if I neglected my condition. My health would quickly go downhill. Maybe even life-threatening.

What I want you to do is consider this business a choice. One that will eventually bring you health, financially. And that you must decide to be serious about it. Knowing that you can't partake of the table with wheat. You must accept that if you don't discipline yourself to do what it takes each day to make this work, that you're doomed for failure.

We'll be starting in earnest in a short time. Wax on, wax off. Discipline is needed. My scheduling sent to your e-mail address will help - but you must do the work.

I know you will.

What to Do, and When

My sister and her husband just left for Miami Airport. Tonight they fly to Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, to their work in the jungle. We talked this morning about poverty and crime in big cities. And we made mention of how we see it on TV, but if it's not affecting our street - it just doesn't matter. We're jaded.

The reason for this is we all have so much going on. Have you ever been so busy that at the end of the day you can't really write down what you did - there was just so much on your plate that it all ran together. Busy.

If you are aware that this happens to you, then you are a candidate for the remedy - a more focused life. A book that came out a few years ago had everyone thinking about living a life of purpose. We are here for a reason - so let's find out what that is and then develop a plan to carry that out.

My last post was about why we are here. Find your why and now find your focus to make it happen. Anyone that is at the top of their game will tell you focus is the main reason. High School Musical brought us the chant, "Keep your head in the game." That is so hard to do with all the distractions. We sort through what is more important to us.

After this quick course, I am considering starting another blog that simply gives my opinion on the differing home based business courses - especially AdWords/AdSense related. Since I receive around a dozen a week - that will keep me writing for a while. I am sure you get these, too. And if your here, you've probably purchased a $97 course or so, and then a week later found out there's an even "better" way to get traffic, place ads, make affiliate money... you name it.

That first course you bought started getting a little boring or downright tough, and you see the new course which states it practically "runs itself", so you buy that one.

At the end of the year, you're burned out and tell yourself it is impossible to make money on the Internet. You know, because you've done them all.

I know for a fact that if you would simply keep your head in the game and focus, you would make money - with any one of them.

We're wired this way, and there's no denying it. We want AdSense dollars now! We want fast food, quick fix pills, ultra high speed Internet... You get the picture. We have so much, but we still complain.

Because these things take time - these courses - we don't know which, for us, will work. I've seen so many courses that are just pure junk, and I'm sure you've seen the latest that every affiliate marketer is pushing - a party with the Rich Jerk at the Playboy Mansion. I almost cried when I saw John Reese pushing it. He made the bold statement that his earnings from the Internet were because of Christ (interview with Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula), so I "thought" that he was a Christian.

Okay, I'm off course here, and I'm talking about being focused - but that one is a burr under my saddle.

To say that all the programs out there work is foolish. They don't. And you'll have to sit through the whole nine yards to find yourself in failure. Knowledge is the only remedy. Who has been there before and can they give me an honest opinion?

Some say focus is two sided: having a good "crap" filter, and then sticking to a method that works - until you're successful. Of course that's not right. Crap filtering is part of good judgment which comes from experience. You're going to have to buy your share of crap and learn quickly to stay alive in this game.

Focus on the task and take it faithfully to fruition. Do this and you will win... provided your system is not... crap.