TriPHP Blog

Is Adsense really worth it?

I visit and am a regular member of quite a few |Forums and have noticed that the subject of Adsense earnings is increasingly popular.

The usual theme is that the poster is unhappy with their Adsense earnings are low and as such are asking wether or not Adsense is worth using.

Clearly if you earn little from Adsense then the question is almost answered for you, but equally if you earn a lot the question is again answered for you.

There are many factors that make earings from Adsense vary not least:

1. Ad placement.
2. Quantity of Ads.
3. Subject matter of the website.
4. The type of visitors the site gets.
5. The amount of visitors the site gets

Now I am not saying that these are the only or definitive factors, but to me they do hold the biggest sway.

Ad Placement.

Clearly if the Ads are not placed in such a away that they become a part of the site and an obvious link through to what the visitor is looking for then you are very unlikely to get any clicks.

Quantity of Ads.

Again, if the Ads are not in sufficient quantity that the visitor will easily find them whilst browsing the site then chances of a click are again greatly reduced.

Subject Matter of Website/ The type of Visitors the site gets.

I came to this conclusion after reading a post with this subject, and then following up with a little of my own research. Website owners, or Webmasters (I hate that term!), seem to be less likely to click Ads than the general public. This could be to do with to do with the type of site either is most likely to visit.

The general public generally have no idea about Adsense and just see the link as the website offering a helpful link in their pursuit of whatever they are looking for. For instance, I directed one of my “test subjects” to an Adsense only site with the task of finding out certain information. They gladly clicked the links in order to continue. Ok that’s a bit of entrapment if you like, but if the user came across this site on a normal search chances are they would click through, wheras neither I nor most webmasters would.

The amount of Visitors a site gets.

Truly this a big factor, the more traffic the more chances of a click. After all we are talking percentages here, so the higher the traffic the more chances of a click.

For me Adsense is just a little extra income here and there, I don’t rely on it so its just nice when it comes through. There are other alternatives, but all with equal areas that affect earnings. There is no one right answer as who to use.

The internet is not and never has been my main form of income, I doubt it ever will. I started on the road of “webmaster” quite by chance really around 5 years ago.

This weekend I hit my 46th birthday. So is this now too old?

There is so much already to learn and so much new stuff coming along its clear to me this is the place for the younger generation(oops that makes me sound old!!)

I often get to deal with people from all over the world(which I still find amazing) and when I get to know some of them most are under 20, some as young as 14, and these guys have some powerfull skills already.

The future of the Internet is truly theirs.

I suppose a part of my problem is that I have what I call a “real job” which earns me a good income, so that is always my priority when it comes to allocating time. I do however generate a reasonable income from some areas of my web efforts.

But I often wonder if I gave  up my “real job” and concentrated on my Internet businesess am I too old now to be sucsessful?

Ok so we all look round for ideas and inspiration for our website design and content, and we may use some of these ideas, that in itself is not a bad thing. You could even say that if you do get copied it is a form of flattery.

But when you get one site who no matter what you do then follows with the same, well thats just annoying to say the least.

It becomes worse when the ideas you come up with are to improve important areas that will increase visitors,members etc.

I am not about to say who it is, but the site owner in question has been contacted many times, I have contacted their host provider with the details.

Now you would think that would start some sort of ball rolling,however because the work done is via freely available software and scripts found easily on the internet there seems little I can do. The excuse every time is that they were just about to do the same anyway!

Next step? A “curved ball” I reckon! I have some ideas of what and how to do it I just need to decide the best way for maximum effect. It wont be a nasty thing, just enough to prove a point.

8 Points To Be Considered When Switching Your Web Host 

    When you are moving your website from your present web host to a new one,the following points should be considered to make the transition smooth.

(7) If the website uses any scripts then it has to be found out whether the new hosting plan supports such scripts or any modifications have to be made to the script to run it on the new server.

How Much Web Space Do You Need?

Web space or Disc space is the amount of data that can be stored in the
hard disc of the web server. All web hosting accounts generally provide a certain amount of
web space. Usually this space is between 50 and 500 MB.

How much space one needs depends on the nature and size of the website.
Most websites are mainly composed of text. There may be a few images. Sometimes there may be
Flash animation involved. Text is simple and economical and it occupies very little space.
However,images and flash require much more space.

Some people may want their webpages to be filled with colorful images.But
this is a great mistake - it makes the pages too heavy and it will require much more time
to load.The maximum size of a page (including images) should be
within 50-60 KB. A good page size should be under 30 KB. If the average page size is 30 KB,then even 10 MB webspace will be sufficient ( unless the site is a forum or something like that).

Next comes bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data which one is allowed
to transfer  per month. Bandwidth includes all uploads and downloads irrespective of
the protocol used.
Bandwidth depends on various factors like — the average page size, the
total number of visitors the website will have and the average number of pages the
visitors will visit.
If the average page size is 30 KB,the average number of visitors is 5000
per month and if  each visitor will visit 3 pages on an average,then the bandwidth
requirement will be less than 1 GB per month,which is provided by most of the low cost hosting packages.

So when somebody is launching his/her website for the first time,he/she
need not worry about disc space or bandwidth.A disc space of 10 MB and bandwidth of 1 GB will be sufficient.
But when choosing a web host, one should choose a host which provides
account upgrades.
If the requirement of space or bandwidth increases in future then one can
go for the upgrades instead of changing the host.

Six Things To Remember While Choosing A Free Web Host

Those who are new to Internet Marketing generally tend to look for free web hosting
to host their sites. They want to keep their start up costs small.This definitely
helps the marketer to start free . However, free web hosting has certain disadvantages
which should be kept in mind and in the long run he/she may be forced to go for commercial web hosts

(1)Amount Of web space

The marketer/webmaster has to see whether the web host has enough space to fulfill his needs.
Most of the free web hosts provide space of 5 MB or less.Though this space is adequate for most people in the beginning,it may not be sufficient for future expansion.Also, one may need more space,depending upon how many pictures the pages may use,whether the pages include sound files,video clips etc.

(2)File Type And Size Limitations

Sometimes there are limitations on the maximum size of a file that can be uploaded to the free site. Sometimes there are restrictions on the file type.

(3)Advertising

To cover the expenses of providing free web space and other associated services,the free web host may impose advertising on the free sites. Sometimes banners are placed on the pages.
Sometimes a pop up window is displayed. The webmaster has to keep all these in mind.

(4)Online Site Builder

Most of the free web hosts only allow to design the web pages by their online site builder.
This is beneficial for the new internet marketer/webmaster. But as one gets experienced, he/she may want to go beyond the available site builder. He/she may require more tools and may go for more complicated web designing.

(5)Speed of Access

Most important thing for a website is reliability and speed of access. The marketer/webmaster must ensure that the free site he/she is going to set up is not down most of the time. For example, if somebody finds the site on a search engine and wants to have a look at it and if the site is down at that time,he gets frustrated.He will go for another site instead.So before choosing a free host,the webmaster must try it out himself,both during peak and non peak hours.

(6)Bandwidth Available

Another important thing the marketer/webmaster must keep in mind,while going for free web hosting,is the availibility of bandwidth to his proposed site.That means most of the free web hosts generally impose a limit on the amount of traffic a site can have per day or per month. If the amount of traffic exceeds the limit per day/month, the web host may cancel the site or may ask to pay for the additional bandwidth used.It is very difficult for the webmaster to try to measure the amount of bandwidth he/she may need.A lot depends on the design of the pages(it may have more graphic images) and the number of visitors it can attract.A minimum of 100 MB bandwidth per month is suitable for a simple personal home page.
On the other hand,a minimum of 1 GB is required for a commercial site in the beginning.

So, the new internet marketer/webmaster may start with free web hosting.But he/she must keep in mind that in the long run,as their business grows, they have to switch to a commercial web hosting service.

Every successful affiliate marketer knows the importance of having short and to the point links. As a matter of fact, statistics show that you have a 300% better chance of making a sale with a cloaked link or a redirect page than what you have with the actual affiliate link itself. There is a number of reasons for that.
First off, by recommending an affiliate product or service to someone - not using a link cloaker or redirect page - you are making a HUGE mistake. Believe it or not, You are putting your reputation on the line, which will drastically hurt your short term as well as long term success on the internet.
To demonstrate what I just stated, let’s assume I get an email from Armand Morin. Armand is one of my Internet Marketing Idols. He makes aproximatly 40 thousand dollars a day on the internet and I know that what he says, works. If he recommends something, I will be sure to check it out.
But for the sake of this article… lets assume that he sends me an email promoting someone elses newly launched product. Everything is very convincing - except for one thing… and that is the link within the email.
I look at it and it looks something like this: http://Armond-Mor.longurl.hop.clickb…/?tid=EMAIL256. First off, that is an incredibly messy clickbank URL. How could a multi millionare, highly reputable internet marketer send me a poor email like that?
Secondly, it is pretty obvious to me that he is trying to make a quick commission off of me. Not that it is ever any different, but now - instead of my trusting his recommendation 100% - I can’t help but think in the back of my mind that perhaps the only reason why he recommended this particular product to me is because he is wanting my money.
If on the other hand, he had sent the exact same email to me with a shorter, cleaner and more professional looking URL, those doubts would have never crossed my mind and chances would have been pretty good that I would have purchased that product. Simply because he recommended it.
Another big problem with using the original affiliate link is that people will copy paste the URL in to their browser, replace the affiliate ID with their own, and instead of the affiliate getting the commission, the customers give the commission to themselves.
You may think this is dirty business but hey… that is reality. You can fight that problem or you can avoid it all together. And let me tell you, avoiding having that problem is avoiding headaches. Not only that - but you will also increase your commission rate by up to 300%. Well worth it if you asked me.
So how do you go about hiding your affiliate URL?
There are tons of programs out there that help you to do just that. Look for programs such as tinyurlz.com or similar link shrinking systems. They don’t cost you a thing yet they can make and save you fortunes.

Yes I am the proud owner of http://www.tinyurlz.com

The importance of Design.

So how important is Website Design?
As far as Seo or Serps are concerned not at all.
Things change however when the human element is involved.

Its all about giving the visitor confidence in you and your
website, especially if you are selling something. Liken it to a
shop, if you walked in and it was a mess, poorly lit and
decorated you would be unlikely to stay long let alone buy
anything. The same applies to Websites.

Firstly we have to consider the speed of load, too slow and your
lost straight away.
Secondly the design. Like it or not we humans judge things withouth thinking on how they look. Your product may be the best in the market place, but a poorly laid out site will put off many a visitor.
Colours are also important,if a visitor is going to be staying at your site for a while then making a pleasant colour scheme that is easy on the eyes is important.I read once about the 3 colour rule,meaning avoid using more than 3 colours and make sure they go together, I beleive this is good advice.

Overall layout is probably the hardest for most site owners to acheive easily.
The site must be easy to navigate,complicated or unclear navigation is a big turn off.

Making the visitor aware of what you and your website have to offer as soon as they hit the landing page is a big must, a bit like the shop window in the high street, if you dont lay out your shop window with what your have to offer then those looking are going to walk on by.
Keep the text of the site as much the same as is possible, it does make a difference, for ease of reading as well as a professional look.Dont make the text too small either.
Make sure that as much as possible all pages keep to the same theme for a really professinal look, this also keeps the  overall site navigation easier. For example, if you have a nav bar on say the left on the home page try to keep it there for the rest of the site.
Headers and logos that are poorly made will also  spoil a good website,if you are like me and dont have the skills to design them, then find someone to do it for you. There are many designers out there who will design and make your banners and logos for reasonable money, beleive me its worth it.

Overall you have to make the visitors experience a pleasurable one,build their confidence in your product and create the professional image.
Remember this, with all the competition there is on the internet your first impression does and will count.

Having spent hours as others do trying my best to improve SERPS I got to thinking that Google should change a few things, not just to help website owners but also to assist people searching.

Ok, alot of what we want to find we can sometimes get recommendation, but say you cant. Its fair to assume that on a Google search most users dont go past the 3rd page. That dosn’t mean you have found the best website for your needs or indeed the most reliable or professional website.

Because you come in at say page 23,456 dosnt mean you offer less than those who come in at page 1. so is that fair…NO!

What I think is that Google should come up with a set of Standards. These should be based on critera that will benefit the sites in the chosen keyword who meet strict standards that could be set. This in turn will benefit those who are searching as they will find genuine ,honest and reliable sites.

What should the criteria be? That is the BIG question, though I am sure that there could be ways to be ,say for example “verified” or registered as Established and other important criterea.

Now I am not saying that alone should get you to page 1, but there should be a way to integrate this to the algorythm that makes the search results less reliant of things like backlinks, after all if you buying Apples do you care how many backlinks the site has? No you want to be assured the site will deliver quality service and products.

In most, if not all areas of business there are the experts that we should all listen to and heed the advise that they give.

Then you get the occasional business person who has their own ideas which go against what all the experts say will work. They ignore that and pursue their ideas and views with a passion.

Now we can all think of examples of these sorts and the most sucsessful are millionaires.

So I got to wondering, would the same apply with SEo and SERPS?

We all try our best to follow the route the gurus spell out. We chase the, mostly, elusive goal with assurance that we are doing things right. Alot will get there, more wont.

What if…you or I decided we would ignore the rules, miss out what is considered best practice and pursue the unique ideas you have?

I guess alot would depend on what exactly those ideas are. Results could depend on the type of website, what the market competition is …etc…etc.

Makes me think though………maybe when I get the time!