Best Alternatives to Google’s Ad Planner

Last year Google announced that it would be discontinuing several features on its DoubleClick Ad Planner. This led  many users to look for other platforms that provide similar services. This Google product was a widely used tools by website owners, and they gained valuable information using this tool. Some of the changes include removal of ads or domains that do not fall in the Google Display Network otherwise known as the GDN. This has certainly dismayed many active users of the service, as it cannot be used for premium ad placements anymore, and many domains do not fall into the Google Display Network.

How it was useful

This tool was very handy, especially for people involved in digital marketing. It enabled them to get quick and easy analysis of website traffic, demographics, income of households, and so on. It also enables you to find out which sites are doing well in a particular niche.  Though this data isn’t always very accurate, it provides vital information to many websites, both big and small.

This application can be used not only on one’s own website, but on other websites too. This way you can conduct research on your competitors’ websites as well.  Some of the filter options that are no longer available with the application include audience filters of You Tube channel (though the content filters are still available), education, keywords and etc. Information that no longer will be available includes site language, domain research, site info, and many others.

Easy alternatives to Google’s DoubleClick Ad Planner

For those who have been looking everywhere for a suitable replacement for Google’s AdPlanner tool, I am going to highlight about some good and effective alternatives to Google Ad planner. For information regarding ad placement and any non-GDN sites, the IAB Digital Advertising Directory is one of the best available options. This tool proves to be quite useful, and is free to use. It contains almost all the top websites, and they are listed here. You can find more about this tool here.

For site discovery, there are free tools available from many sources. Some of them include, Quantcast, Compete and Alexa. Also, Markosweb is a web service that will help users find out various information about the traffic of a particular website, just like the other tools that has been listed above.

Even the publisher center from Google has been removed. This handy tool helped publishers in the claiming of their own websites. They could also maintain ad placement accordingly. An alternative to this is the Data Card Publisher. This is a free tool developed by NextMark and allows publishers to create and maintain listings of their own in the directory.

For those people who want to create new media plans, there is a tool out there to help them as well. It is again from NextMark and is called Digital Media Planner. This tool is not that expensive and proves to be an efficient alternative to ad placements and non-GDN sites.

10 Amazing Google Adsense Tips and Tricks

Working with Google Adsense to generate a profit can be somewhat daunting, especially when you even think about all of the advanced algorithms that Google uses to weed out sites. But I have assembled 10 amazing Google Adsense tips and tricks that will help you improve your knowledge and your earnings with Google’s ad program.

1) If you want to maximize your profits, make sure to create more than one website.
However, you don’t want to start off by creating 100 websites. Maintenance for that many sites, at first, would be hectic. While having only one website would be the easiest to maintain, it also increases your chances of being cut out altogether by the latest algorithm update. So, you want to have a few websites up and running. Then if the latest algorithm forces one website out, you still have a few others to generate income from while you work on the affected one.

2) Pick a niche to write about per site.
Creating a site that discusses any topic under the moon may be easier to find the desire to update, but it will make it difficult to create constant traffic, make it hard for the Google search engine to rank your site, and cause trouble generating ads that are on topic.
Also, if you only pick one subject to focus on, you can go more in-depth and gain expertise in that field. This makes your website more profitable for users and yourself.

3) Create a site about something you are already interested in!
This Google Adsense tip only makes sense! Making your site about something that you like makes it more fun in the long-run for you to continue managing your site. If something is less like work, then you are more likely to do it. Constant updates on your site is good for traffic and search engines, which generates clicks on your ads.
However, don’t create a site about something that is not in demand. Just because you like to study rare deep-sea anglerfish doesn’t mean that everyone else does. If you want to maximize your profits, you will need to give information about something that the general public will be researching.

4)Do not put Google Adsense on a brand new site!
When building a new site, wait until you have completed the site, you have built inbound links, and you are getting traffic. A brand new site can leave your ads being off topic and difficult to follow.
Also, if you try to apply to Google Adsense too early when your website is brand new, you will most likely be turned away. Google wants to know that your site has enough traffic so that putting their ads on your page will be profitable to them and you. They don’t waste time on beginner or spammy sites.

5) Do not put images next to your ads!
While many people did this for years and it worked successfully, it now against Google’s policies to do so. This is considered to be ‘encouraging clicks’ which is prohibited. If you do so, you may get more clicks for a bit, but you will quickly be caught and banned from having Adsense on your page. And once you are banned, you cannot get your account back into good standing.

Here is a free additional Google Adsense tip: If you haven’t read Google’s Adsense policies, I seriously suggest doing so.

6) Place images in optimal places on your site.
Ads that are higher on the site get clicked more often, which generates more income.

7) If you want to maintain optimal profit, do not put your ads on affiliate sites.
While well-known affiliate sites may get you more clicks than your own brand new site, you cannot depend on these sites to earn a maximum profit. It can be considered as a violation of the rules and regulations of Adsense. Moreover, each of the affiliate sites charges a percentage of your earnings to be able to post on their site. So, work on your own site, promote it to generate traffic, and be patient. Having ads on your own site will be better for you in the long-run.

8) Make sure to update your site on a regular basis.
If you create a site and leave it for a few months, you may find that your traffic has dropped significantly. Therefore, your amount of clicks and pay has dropped as well.
No one wants to visit a site that has grown stagnant and has old information, so get busy generating new information for your readers!

9) Create ads that best complement your site.
The optimal sizes for ads have been researched. They are the 336×280 large rectangle, the 300×250 medium rectangle, and the 160×600 wide skyscraper.
However, don’t simply use these sizes without integrating them into your site well. You want the overall flow of your site to be pleasing to your loyal visitors, so be sure to fit the ads in a way that is visually appealing.

10) Do not stress over the latest google algorithms, or trying to beat the system!
Google constantly updates their algorithms to cut out spammers, and this unfortunately messes up the generated income for some sites. However, there is no way to currently beat this system, so do not stress if your site sees a dramatic drop suddenly. Simply continue to work hard at improving your site and keeping up with the latest Google Adsense Tips. Hopefully, you will see improvement again in your traffic.

These are some tips that should help you a great deal when trying to maximize the profits from your ads. Overall, continue working to improve your websites and don’t stress! Everyone knows that Google owns the world in their own mysterious way, and trying to fight it will only end in multiple visits to a psychiatrist. So, be happy and enjoy Google’s business offering to the world!

7 Easy Google AdSense Tips With Great Results

Google AdSense is one of the easiest ways to make money online. When you’re creating a site in a good niche, you can add Google AdSense to the pages for a little extra income.

Since you are working within a niche, Google AdSense will scour your content and give you ads that are specific to your keywords. This is great for having ads on your site that are constant updated without maintenance. If you are ready to start making a little extra incomefrom your website, there are a few things you need to know. Adsense can be extremely powerful when implemented correctly.

Here are some easy Adsense tips that will give you great results.
1. Use Better Keywords

Effective Keywords are the bread and butter of Google Adsense earnings. If you’re using highly competitive keywords you’re not going to rank as well as if you were using lower competitive keywords. The Google AdWords keyword planner is a great tool for finding low competition keywords for your articles and blog posts.
2. Have Proper Keyword Density

Check your keyword density before you post an article onto your website or blog. Your keyword density is going to determine the relevance to your niche and will improve your trafficin the search engines. It’s pretty much a given that when you have more traffic you’re going to get more clicks.

However, your keyword density is also going to determine the kinds of advertising is posted onto your site. There is nothing worse than having a niche site for toddles and having an Adsense ad that has to do with body cream.

Use a keyword density tool so your post isn’t marked as spam. This will also help you in the even that you need to boost the density.
3. Publish New Content Regularly

Writing new content every day is not some great revelation, but it is proven to generate traffic to your website. Make sure that you are using the best keywords and the best keyword density in your posts. Try to post a new page to your website every day. When you post a new page you are increasing the chances that somebody will click on your ads.

4. Choose The Best Formats

Google Adsense comes in a lot of different formats. When you’re choosing the format for your blog or website, you want to use the banners for the top part of your website and the squares for the sides. In my opinion, the best formats are the 336×280 large rectangle ads, 160×600 skyscraper ads and the 300×250 medium rectangle ads.
5. Color Coordinate The Ads

When you’re using Google AdSense with your website, you want to make sure that the ads look like they are part of the site. People are more likely to click on something that doesn’t look like an ad. You want to make it look like they are clicking on a link that will take them to a different page on your site.

Make sure that the border colors, the background colors, link colors and the text colors all match your site. You can do this through the control panel. You can even rotate the color palettes to make create a variety of colors when somebody visits your site.
6. Position The Ads Well

The position that your ads are in is very important to getting clicks. When somebody comes to your website, they scan the headlines to see if the information is relevant to their search. Using the links as navigational links around your website is one of the best methods of positioning.

Put your links at the top and bottom of the content pages instead of on the side. Remember that you want the links to look like they’re part of your site. When you position them between at the top and bottom of your content pages you are more likely to get clicks.
7. Don’t Use Too Many Ads

You can go overboard with your ads. Having too much advertising on your website will leave the reader wondering what they need to click for information. This can also look like spamming, something that you never want to do.

Readers are humans and they don’t want a website that is specifically made for Google AdSense. They are there for your content so make sure that the content comes before the ads. Two to three ads on your site is the best amount to have.

6 Search Engine Optimization Jokes That Will Make Any SEO

This post was originally published on the SkilledUp blog.

Working in SEO can sometimes be frustrating and humorless. Google might not always answer your prayers and the guy with inferior content might edge ahead of you in the rankings by using dirty SEO tactics (we’re looking at you About.com and WikiHow). Your client may demand top rankings in a day even though the best SEO campaigns can take months for those kinds of results. If you’re an SEO fan or are perhaps a little stressed out about it as of late, these jokes will give you the laugh you need to get through the day and remember why you love your work.



Optimize Your Fun and Your Career

Sometimes the best way to de-stress is to just laugh about what you’re doing. Work hard but don’t take things too seriously, especially yourself. However, if you felt like these jokes went over your head but are still interested in SEO, trying taking some courses so you can be on the inside next time. SEO is a field rich in opportunities since 100% of marketers in the world now value Search Engine Marketing and Optimization despite competition from PPC. In fact, the average company is planning to increase SEO spending in the coming year. You might want to consider a career in it if you’re especially intrigued and are looking to make up to $66,000 with an entry-level position! Now hold that thought while we check our rankings for SEO jokes…

5 Questions To Answer Before You Start Blogging

Before You Start Blogging, Answer These 5 Questions

Don’t make the mistake of jumping into blogging with blinders on. Before you start blogging, take the time to answer the questions below. That way when you do get started, things will flow much more smoothly.

1. What is the main topic of your blog?

This is your niche, your focus, what you will blog about the most. This will drive everything you write about and share on your blog.

There are two schools of thought on picking a niche. Some people say that you should just choose something you are passionate about because you will want to wake up every morning and write quality content. While that is a great thought, if your passion is underwater basket weaving, you are unlikely to make a great income blogging about it. One often overlooked component in blogging is that you need to be able to find related products to promote to your customer base in order to make money.

Others say you should only pick topics that are known moneymakers whether you are interested in them or not. While that might work for some people, others need to have at least a passing interest in their topic in order to be successful.

I say that it should be both. You want to be certain that thousands (if not millions) of other people share your enthusiasm and interest in the topic and will pay money for products and/or services that you have to offer in the niche from time to time. Even if you’re not interested in making money from your blog, I am assuming that you at least want other people to read it – yes? Then the same rules apply.

2. How do you want to present yourself to the world?

Before you start blogging, it’s important to understand how you want to be perceived by your readers. The way you write blog posts, how often you post, even how long your posts will be and which social media sites you promote to will all be impacted by your persona. Here are a few ideas to get you started…
The Expert

The expert wants to be seen as the best in his field, the ultimate source of knowledge on the topic. The expert’s blog posts will be tightly focused one topic and very detailed. The expert prides himself in being the best at what does.
The Reporter

You love the latest news and gossip and want to share it with the world. Whether it’s fashion, technology, natural foods, if its’ news and it’s happening now, you know about it want to write about it.
The Storyteller

Storytellers are typically writers, or personal bloggers. Your posts may cover many topics from what you ate for dinner to how buy a car. What ever tickles your fancy today, that’s what you write about.
The Helper

Helpers are the product reviewers, DIY, and how to bloggers. They want to help you solve your problems in any way they can.
The Marketer

You want a blog for the single purpose of promoting your business, whether it’s collecting leads or selling a product, everything you do is to grow your business. You’re not in it for the passion. You’re in it for the money.
There are many, many more blogging personas. You may even fall into multiple categories which is perfectly fine, but take the time to understand who you are before you start blogging. It will save lots of confusion later down the road. Seriously, can you imagine going to a review site where the reviewer proceeds to tell you about the amazing party they went to last night?
3. Who are your top 5 bloggers in your niche?

Take a few minutes to Google your topic and then look at the top 5-10 sites that come up.

What do you love about them? Color, layout, topic, language, imagery, etc.
What do you hate about them? Color, layout, topic, language, imagery, etc.
What’s missing from their site? Is there something obvious to you that they should be covering but aren’t?
What are the main categories and topics they cover?
What social media sites are they on?
What products and services do they promote?

When you’re first getting started, it can be easier to model what you’re doing after those who are already successful. Don’t copy them, but do implement the good stuff into your blog in some way. There’s no need to start from scratch. Unless you’re truly doing something that’s never been done before, there’s someone out there that you can model your site after.
4. What are the top 3-5 categories that you will blog about?

This may not seem important, but these 3-5 main categories that you plan to blog about will often turn into your menus and navigation on your blog, they will be the keywords that you focus on, and can even tell you what sorts of products and services you might want to offer on your blog.

Take it to the next level and brainstorm a few article ideas under each topic, to see if you REALLY a strong desire to blog about these topics. If you do, the article ideas will come easy. If not, you’ll find yourself struggling to come up with ideas.

Don’t make the mistake of coming up with 20-30 topics – that’s too narrow… My guess in that 25 of those 35 topic ideas are more likely to be just really good article ideas.
5. How frequently are you committed to publishing new content?

This is a BIG one that so many people overlook. Before you start blogging, take a look at your schedule – work, family, exercise, all of it. How much time do you really have to dedicate to your blog? If it’s an hour a week, that’s great, but it’s unlikely that you’ll publish 3 posts per week in that hour. (I recommend giving yourself 1-2 hours per blog post, at least in the beginning.)

It’s important when you start blogging, to be consistent, so don’t make the mistake of putting too much pressure on yourself. Here’s my recommendation… Set the goal of writing one post per week and if you find that’s too easy, then try for 2 posts per week. Depending on your topic and your persona, that may be more than enough.

I hope these quick tips help you get your blog started on the right track!

3 Quick Tips To Start A Blog The RIGHT Way

Starting a new blog is an adventure for everyone who does it. You never really know what is going to happen next, how much traffic you’ll have tomorrow, or any number of things. But experienced bloggers know a thing or two about what they should have done in the beginning. Take their advice.
3 Tips To Start A Blog The Right Way
1. Determine Your Niche Based On Your Passions

Before you even start a blog, think about what you’re passionate about. What do you love to do? What do you love to talk about? It doesn’t matter if it’s cool or trendy or whatever. Think only about what YOU love and what YOU are passionate about. Then use those things to determine what you can realistically blog about and what your niche should be.

Having a blog means publishing lots and lots of content. Like, lots of content. In fact, that’s pretty much all a blog is about. If you’re not passionate about your blog’s niche, you’re going to run into trouble down the road when you run out of ideas of things to start writing about. You’ll struggle to find topics and when you do find topics to write about, your writing is going to reflect that you don’t really care about what you’re discussing.

However, if you truly love what your blog is about, you’re really not going to have any issues with finding things to discuss on your page. It will come naturally. Your writing will also reflect that you’re passionate about the topics, and you’ll get more readers and devoted blog followers. Again, it doesn’t matter if you think other people are into what you like or not. You’d be surprised at how many people actually share your love for…well, whatever it is you love!
2. Take The Time To Connect With People

The best way to start building a blog following and getting traffic is to build relationships with other bloggers. Don’t view them so much as your competition, view them as potential friends. The Internet is more than big enough for all the blogs about “x” topic that are out there, and each blogger has his or her own unique take on the topic they’re blogging about.

Say you have a cooking blog. There are thousands of cooking blogs out there. Maybe even hundreds of thousands. But none of those bloggers have your unique voice, nor do you have theirs. You may have developed your own recipes or your own special twists on old standby recipes, and this is what will bring people to your blog. You can make your cooking blog as small or as big as you want it, and in the end, there’s plenty of room out there for everyone with a cooking blog.
So don’t view people with similar blogs as your competition and strive to be bigger or better than them – instead, try guest blogging for them. Invite them to guest blog for you. Share links, tips, and advice. Develop relationships with these people, because they are real people just like you. This is what will grow your blog. Your blog won’t grow if you sit by yourself and insist on being bigger and better than everyone else out there. It’s just not a healthy attitude to have when blogging, and it will make your blog truly stagnant.
3. Get Content Out There, Then Tweak Your Design

So very many newbie bloggers focus hard on their blog design in the beginning, before they ever get any content out there. This is the exact opposite of the approach you should take. Sure, you want it to look just right before you start doing any blog posts, but the truth of the matter is, you can rarely – if ever – get your blog to look exactly the way you want it in the beginning. You have more to learn about web design, and some of the things you want may cost money that you don’t have yet.

In the beginning, it’s best to choose a blog template that you like fairly well and start putting content out there, and then focus on tweaking the looks of your blog as you continue to post consistently. The design of your blog can be a huge block that takes too long to get past, and you’ve lost three months or more of content and traffic building while you perfect your design.

You can be tweaking your design here and there along with posting, so you’re letting the search engines know you’re alive and publishing content now – right now – while you do other things. It takes time to establish yourself and start building traffic, and by the time you start getting a decent blog following, you may very well have the design you want. However, if you wait to start publishing content until then, it’s going to take even more time to build your following.

Instead, start getting content out there ASAP and worry about everything else later. It will all come in due time.

Make Money With Blogspot.com

Blogspot is one of the most famous domains for people who are willing to start their own web page. From personal related content to new and very interesting businesses, you will be able to find a little bit of everything at blogspot. It does not matter whether you are a beginner or someone experienced, all that counts is that people can have blogspot as a way of showing what they think, advertising what they want to sell or even make money.

Yes, it is possible to make money with blogspot. Blogspot is a wide community that has people from all over the world. You can find all sorts of sites that are offering their services or even products. People have blogspot as the easiest way to make money because the whole community is easy to handle. For example, having a domain at blogspot allows you to show the world that you have a business, even if you are just starting now. In fact there are several different ways to make money when you are asking yourself the question how to make money with blogspot.

Apart from being able to make money and have your business grow with blogspot, you will also be able to have other advantages. For example, if you have a blog you will not have to spend a single penny when you start it. Later you will be able to add advertisements that will allow you to earn by people click. The simple fact that the ad is there will already have you earning real money. Later, when you have the ads and your product or even service well displayed, you will be able to work from your home and make money straight from your comfortable couch or even bed! You can have people trust your company because blogs on blogspot are very easy to use. You will be able to set up a whole costumer support network straight from your home. Many people like to make business with blogs from blogspot because they are able to know and have a much more personal relationship with the company’s SEO than they would when dealing with larger companies. It is all about a trust relationship. You will be able to have comfort, live better and also increase the chances of growing more and more every passing day.

You can also make money with blogspot easily because by simply having it you will be able to have contact with people from all over the world. Once your own network starts to grow, you will be invited to parties, events, fairs and even conferences. There you will be able to talk to several different people and possibly do business with people, increasing your earnings little by little. Many people believe that such dream is impossible, however it is not. If you go online and start doing your very own blog with blogspot, you will notice how easy it is to create, add content to your blog and even administrate it. You will certainly be able to have your very own business and make money with it.