Around The Search Engines Jan 06 2008

Here we go with yet another round of Around The Search Engines. This one's brief as the weekends are a little slow when it comes to news.

7 Reasons you Should be Advertising on Blogs - Advertise Space

Good bang for your buck: Most bloggers are part time and or just do it for a hobby, so any income is usually good income. You can get on some great blogs for as low as $50 or $100 a month and even some massive ones for as low as $500 - $1000. Try getting on Yahoo or MSN for $100. See if they return your email.

What one thing did you do on your blog in 2007 that improved it the most? - The Last Answers - ProBlogger

Over the last week I’ve run a 1 Question Interview Series here at ProBlogger. There have been some great responses (links to the full series are listed at the bottom of this post) but it’s not over yet. Today I want to post the last two responses (actually there might be one more to come in I’m told).

Mahalo Adds More Social Features - Search Engine Land

Mahalo has just launched several new features that entwine the human-powered search engine even further into social networking and online community building. The Mahalo Follow toolbar now enables you to post links to Delicious, Ma.gnolia, and Mahalo Social, and Twitter with the click of one button. The sidebar now displays quick tips when you're on sites like Twitter and Gmail.

Magellan to provide local listings from Google - ZDNet

Google and Magellan are working together on the new Maestro Elite 5350+GPRS. The new device will let users view local business listings from Google while on the road. This is the first GPS device that lets users search for events, businesses and services according to the two companies.

Will We Ever See Google Personal Ads? - SEO By The Sea

There’s a potentially huge untapped advertising market on the Web involving personal ads that point people to the profile pages of advertisers who might want a little more attention for their personal pages.

That's all for today.

Thank You

Around The Search Engines Jan 05 2008

It's a nice Saturday night and if you got a couple of moments here's another update on Around the Search Engines:

Who Designed Your Blog? [POLL RESULTS] - ProBlogger

Over the last couple of weeks I ran a poll here at ProBlogger which asked readers who designed their blogs. 1828 readers responded in total (thanks everyone).

Ask.com Launches Voice-Activated Driving and Walking Directions - Research Buzz

Ask.com launched Ask.com Mobile a while ago. Now it’s also launching “Click to Speak”, a voice-activated directions service.

How to Get Started With Computer Programming - Chris Pirillo

Programming is NOT as scary of a task as you might imagine. I know some people who shudder at the thought of learning any programming language. However, take a read through these tips, and find out for yourself how to get started.

The Difference Between Selling Something and Giving it Away - SEO Book

I think these two comments do a nice job of showing the difference between how people perceive something they paid for and something they got for free. If people do not have a tangible opportunity cost they often tend not to respect or value the product or service.

Syndication and the Live Web Economy - Linux Journal

What new economy does syndication suggest? And does Linux point the way?

The Google Challengers: 2008 Edition - Search Engine Land

Rich Skrenta -- who, aside from creating the first computer virus, is more notable to search as a cofounder of the Open Directory Project and the Topix news search engine -- has announced he's founded a search start-up. A stealth one, as TechCrunch puts it. Don't we already have several stealth search start-ups? Yep. Here's a guide to who's who.

Excessive Length URL’s and Social Media - Graywolf's SEO Blog

Most CMS systems today are capable of generating clean URL’s. Unless you are dealing with newspapers or magazines where existing legacy systems it’s almost a non issue. However I came across two incredibly horrible URL’s in the same day.

SortFix - Improve your Search - Phil Bradley

SortFix - Improve your Search. This is a search engine that is bolted onto the front of Google, Yahoo and DMOZ, and you can choose which of them you search.

There you have! Wishing everyone a happy continuing weekend. And I'm off.

Thank You

Top Five Simple Google Adsense Resolutions For 2008

In the spirit of the new rush for resolutions, well not really THAT new, I've decided to compile a list of 10 things that every Google Adsense publisher should do in the new year. Take this list to the heart and keep it in mind as you check your website for compliance. Each of these tips should only serve to improve your Google Adsense earnings. Nothing more nothing less. Here we go:

1. Subscribe to the All About Google Adsense feed.

No joke this should come first as you can't afford to keep up with new developments in the Google Adsense world. New techniques, new ways to increase your earnings and much more.

2. Next make sure to check on your Google Adsense earnings at least once a day.

This is no problem for the majority of Adsense publishers but the few that barely notice they even have Google Adsense ads on their website until the check shows up in the mail need to be more careful. These people are probably the highest earners and take things for granted. This leads to them noticing a problem way too late and losing that precious moola. Once a day isn't too much and should serve to remind you that maybe you should improve up on those earnings by trying something new. All these are added benefits nothing more nothing less.

3. Check your Adsense account a little less. This should number one for most Adsense publishers.

Most of these people have a Firefox extension that shows them the current earnings. This is a good solution if all you can think about doing when you get home is jump on your computer and check your Google Adsense earnings. Most of these people need to realize that if they spent half as much time trying new ways to increase their earnings as they spend worrying about their earnings they probably would be making way more money. It's a good thing that you are so dedicated to your earnings now go out there and use it to your advantage.

4. Spend more time developing other factors that affect your Google Adsense earnings.

It's not just about placement of your ads but much more about how many people see them on a daily basis. Increase the traffic to your website and you'll probably see a rise in your earnings. Now this is common sense but more and more people spend time changing their ads to see if they can entice more of their users to click them. Focus on other factors such as SEO and overall usability of your website.

5. And last but not least remember to keep your Adsense info up to date.

I am guilty of this one myself. When I moved to Florida I completely forgot to change my address. Funny thing is I changed it in just about every other online program I was participating in. The fact that I've been in Google Adsense for so long made me forget that it's just like any other program. So keep your info up to date especially your tax info. As everyone here in the US knows the IRS is no joke.

Well thats all folks. Keep to these five simple resolutions and you'll prosper in this coming year of 2008.

Thank You

Around The Search Engines Jan 04

Here's another round of Around the Search Engines for you to chew on:

Ask.com Fixes Crawler Issue With Badly-Formed URLs - SE Roundtable

Earlier this week, we reported that Ask.com Crawler Inserting Url-Encoded Spaces in URLs Causing 404 Errors. In short, Ask.com's crawlers were crawling badly formed URLs, causing tons of 404 errors in web server log files.

Google AdWords Ads Live While Site is Offline - SE Roundtable

It really isn't cool when you're busy entering tons of data for Google AdWords and your site goes down. Consequently, Google cannot verify the site and cannot check your landing pages and your quality score probably is not where it could be. That's what happened to a WebmasterWorld members, who writes:

Google's User Experience Expert, Kevin Fox, Joins New Start-up Company - Search Engine Land

Kevin Fox, Google's user experience designer responsible for helping design Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Reader 2.0, has announced he is leaving Google to join a "very small start-up." Today is his last day at Google, after being with Google for over four years.

Welcome Back Search Headlines - Bruce Clay

Hey! We’re back from break. Huzzah! Come with me as I clean out my feed reader. I promise it’ll be fun. Or at least more fun than the work you’re putting off by reading this. Ready? Let’s go! A nice roundup of what has been happening while we were away.

The coming 2008 dot-com crash - Geeking With Greg

Early January is the time we see many predictions for 2008. I have not played this game since 2006, but I want to chime in this year.

Google AdWords 101 - Search Engine Watch

I've seen several requests on the various forums of late from new search marketers wanting to know how best to launch their first PPC campaign. So I figured that would make a great first topic for this new column.

Google on Reading Text in Images from Street Views, Store Shelves, and Museum Interiors - Seo By The Sea

One of the standard rules of search engine optimization that’s been around for a long time is that “search engines cannot read text that is placed within images.” What if that changed?

That's it for today. Enjoy your weekend!

Thank You

Around The Search Engines Jan 03

Here goes today's Around The Search Engines:

Politicians: Four Years Late to the SEO Party - SEO Moz

It's the third of January and those of us in the United States are already pretty tired of hearing about November's Presidential Election. I'm sure the rest of you are, too. The world of social media is already flooded with stories about the U.S.'s political dramas and I can only imagine that if you're in any other country, today's offerings at Reddit might not interest you all that much. Currently, seven of the top 10 Reddit stories focus on the U.S. elections. But this really isn't my point.

Matt Mullenweg on No Follow - ShoeMoney

I love interviewing non SEO, but probably some of the most influential people about no-follow. Without very influential people the whole no follow movement would never work. So I shot a email to Matt Mullenweg, the head of Wordpress which was the first time I had ever really seen the no-follow tag being used, some questions.

AdSense Fix Inverted Exchange Rate Problem for Australian and New Zealand Publishers -Problogger

Earlier in the week it was revealed that AdSense had made a mistake in calculating payments to some non US publishers. It seems that the problem was localized here in Australia and New Zealand and that Google inverted the exchange rate that they used to calculate how much publishers would be paid in their local currency.

How to get traffic from the New York Times - SEOptimise

A number of blog aggregators exist including the popular Techmeme but none have the ability to get your content showcased on multiple pages of the New York Times website like BlogRunner does.

Blogs and self promotion - Seth's Blog

The truism of the web: people talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself.

Did You Know You Can Get Traffic From CNN? - Essential Keystrokes

So, I was going about my business last week when the latest story about another toy recall hit. The recall of Aqua Dots struck a nerve with me because that was an item my two artsy girls had recently added to their Christmas Wish Lists. Moments after reading the CNN story, I opened up my dashboard at Raising a Healthy Family (I know, I know, too many to keep up with!) and started writing. I linked to the CNN story and the CPSC site complete with a listing of all the recalls, and hit publish.

Ttttthat's all folks!

Thank You

Around The Search Engines Jan 02

It's about time for another round of "Around The Search Engines":

Google's Algorithm Awarding New Pages? - Search Engine Land

Google Artificially Promotes Recent Web Pages from Google Operating System reports that Google has been recently showing a bit too much love to new or very recent pages indexed by Google. Ionut Alex Chitu example was that Google's New Years logo promoted a search for January 1 tcp/ip, which then showed results for Digg and other new pages that had zero historical factors to be weighed on in the Google algorithm.

Sites With Downgraded Toolbar PageRank Still Passing Link Juice? -SE Roundtable

Ever since Google downgraded the visible PageRank scores seen in the Google Toolbar for sites that do not use the nofollow on their ads, people have been wondering how it has been impacting the Google search results and algorithm.

7 SEO Techniques That Google Smashed in 2007 - Copy Brighter

The SEO playbook changes fast. Really fast. Best practices shift on a monthly basis, and time-honoured methods can become obsolete and dangerous – literally overnight. Here's the top ten methods Google snatched out of the game in 2007.

18 most popular Web Analytics blog posts of 2007 - Visual Revenue

I decided to do my general 2007 Web Analytics status using Avinash’s Top Ten Web Analytics Blogs: July 2007 as a foundation (Since most of them happen to be friends of mine anyway) and ask them to provide me with their 3 most popular posts of the year. Find the result below; which is simply a minimum MUST READ list – if you are working in the Web Analytics industry.

That's it folks. Be back again tomorrow for another thrilling round of Around The Search Engines!

Thank You

Google Adsense's Newbie Central Explored

The Google Adsense team today launches a new section of their help page aptly called "Newbie Central". Now before anyone get all giddy and joins in on the Google Adsense bandwagon keep in mind of what this new section really is.

First of course is a complete guide on how to register for Google Adsense and get started. Basically telling you things like how to put the code on your website. Oh wait that's not all. They also tell you to subscribe to the Adsense blog and their support forum. Now we are getting nice and dirty!

Earnings and Expectations

This page basically lists all the factors that affect your earnings in the Google Adsense program. Obvious things like how much traffic you get and your Clickthrough Rate. For new users this page may actually be useful in getting to know how each section of your reports relates to your overall earnings.

The Rest

Not even worth my time is the rest of the new pages. Everything from channels, formats,... Newbie Central couldn't have hit it more squarely.

The Funny

The funny part is the fact that this simple page could be used to replace the whole Google Adsense help section. No really this is just about all you ever get information wise from the folks at Google. So enjoy the Newbie Central and bask in the fact that this is all you need to learn about Google Adsense. Well from Google anyways.

Thank You

To Google Adsense Austalian and New Zealand Users

Watch out! Log into your Google Adsense account and check out your payment history page. Then click details and see what conversion rate was used on your November payments. If the conversion was done at 0.867 : 1 rather than 1.15 : 1 then Google may have messed up your payment. Count it and you'll see that the conversion loss amounts to about $15 out of $100.

Don't panic send an email to the folks over at Google Adsense if you haven't already gotten one from them. They claim that those users who were affected by this error will be credited with the amount lost by January 7th.

Basically what happened was Google converted from Local currency to US instead of the other way around. Either way though there's nothing to worry about I just wanted everyone to know in case this affects you. Enjoy the rest of your holidays.

Thank You