As of last Week Google Adsense has made available video units for Canadian sites.
I have not had enough time to tell how effective ( read profitable) they are. Ideally I would like to pop a small video in a sidebar but the formats are just too large.
With this them ( Networker) the largest image I can place anywhere is has to be less than 400 pixels or theme format is scrambled.
I have been eagerly awaiting the return of one of my favorite bloggers, Andy Beard, who has been away moving house. It has been over 2 weeks since I have had an Andy fix. He’s back. With a vengeance. Andy has the eery ability to see through the BS and pick up things that other marketing bloggers miss or plain ignore.
In his post “Before I deal the FUD “I’m going to ask you to put on your regular user hat” Andy analysis a recent post by Matt Cutts, “Selling Links That Pass Page Rank” .
Note the title of the post… the words are chosen very carefully- “Selling Links That Pass Page Rank” Not paid links. Not sponsored links. Not paid for post links. “Links that pass page rank”. What is the purpose of buying a link or buying link that will pass on page rank to your site? The only reason to do it is to get higher results in the search engine results pages.
Why does Google want to stop paid links? selling links that pass rank? They are quite serious about stomping out blogs and sites that sell links- in fact- they encourage the reporting of paid links .
Google search is very interested in maintain their credibility. Matt posts here in the “report paid links” post
I even mentioned earlier this year that paid articles/reviews/posts should be done in a way that doesn’t affect search engines.
“The best links are not paid, or exchanged after out-of-the-blue emails–the best links are earned and given by choice”
Why go to all this trouble? What is the end result? All of this is done to achieve higher rankings in search engine results pages.
A dog breeder want to be on page one when you look for “dog breeder” . A florist wants to rank for “send flowers” .
Google doesn’t want you to cheat your way to the top. It considers buying links as a way to cheat or game the system.
I understand this. I even applaud this. I am a huge proponent of the Open Directory.
Google takes its mission so seriously that as well as asking you to report paid links- That if it finds out you are selling links that pass on page rank (and increase the chances of a site being higher in the SERPS) it will strip your Page Rank!
You don’t have to jump through fiery hoops to get on page one of search engine results pages. You can pay some one. You don’t have to go to the trouble of hiring an SEO or adding pages and pages of content or seek out links. You can pay some one to make sure you are on the SERPS everytime. The same company will even help you protect your investment.
It will make sure that a site “paying” for page rank will not out rank you. You will even appear ON TOP of older sites, more relevant sites. A competitor may not even rank anymore regardless of the value of his information if he was found to be “selling links that pass page rank”.
The whole point of buying page rank is to make to top of search engine results pages. You can pay GOOGLE to place you there. You can pay a fee to have your link ON TOP OF EVERYONE ELSE and get rid of all those other pesky sites trying to do the same things. You don;t have to pay to get page rank and be #1- you can just hand over your cash and Google will put you there.
As for the user?
Well according to Matt Cutt’s when I commented on the apparent hypocrisy of the system:
Lisa, we do think of ads as a type of search and try to show the most relevant ads we can (not just the ones where the advertiser is willing to pay the most). We also apply relevancy tests on whether to show ads on the top vs. the side, so that we only promote ads from the right-hand side to the top slot if we think that they’re very useful.
So.. there ads are relevant to the end uses research process and provide a useful purpose. These are results that are posted at the top of every single search you ever do when you are asking them for the best information.
When you pay Google money for placement on the top of search engine results page it refers to those ads “as a type of search”.
When you pay anyone else other than Google to place in top of the SERP’s your site is no longer relevant and given a Page Rank zero.
This is why the sudden change in semantics. Paid Links are now ” Paying for Links That Pass Page Rank”.
Here are some examples of niche blogs:
Joy Of Christmas Blog Devoted entirely to all things Christmas
http://neasoapworks.blogspot.com/ – Blog on Soapmaking
http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/ Blog about Breastfeeding and Nursing.
AnyThingButIpod Blog about all mp3 players Except Ipods (brilliant- why didn’t I think of this!)
The above blogs can command top dollar for advertising because they are EXPERTS and the bulk of their traffic has predictable behavior.
A site about Christmas will have all kinds of Christmas AdSense Ads on it and a high CTR. People coming to that site will be looking for Christmas-y stuff. A Nursing support site will be a site that attracts moms, pregnant moms-to-be and nursing moms. these moms will be looking for baby gear, baby books. toys, etc.
Soapmaking site will have a market of crafters and soap makers. Products related to Fragrance Oils, packaging, soap making supplies, small home business, etc will all do well here.
Your niche or topic will also have related products. If you are using contextualized advertising then you can see what kind of products advertisers are looking to sell on your site. Google is “scanning” your site for keywords and placing ads it feels best suits your blog/site. The ads are based on keywords- match between advertiser an your site. . An advertiser tell Google what kind of sites it wants- or rather- what keywords it looking for. ( The Flip side of Adsense is AdWords- you may want to sign up if only to get a feel on how the system works)
There is an okay Amazon Plugin for Wordpress. I used to love it but the have made some changes to it that I don’t like all that much . Give it a try , it does not play well with Internet Explorer however. I ended up using an old version on an old blog that still uses wordpress 2.1.
You can also go to Widgets section for Amazon Affiliates .
A tip for higher Amazon CTR- don’t give too much information about a product or give a sales pitch. Tease your visitor with just enough info that the click the Amazon link to get more information.
Keep your blogs voice “honest” and maintain credibility at all costs.
I am a bit of a theme addict- though lots of looking and very little changing. A relatively new site, Wordpess Themez is one on many niche social marketing sites to emerge in the last few months. It is specifically for wordpress themes and allows members to “vote”, comment and submit wordpress themes. I like it and it has a potential.
