1. Google Adsense stuff

I've heard that Google have been getting tough on Adsense sites recently, investigating sites displaying Adsense and removing ones which don't meet the criteria.

You see, what's happening is that people are getting approved for one site, then adding the code to other sites they own.

That's fine by Google as long as the new sites have nothing wrong with them/don't break Google's small print.

Well some of that small print is mighty small and two friends have written to me this week to say their sites have been banned in the past 7 days.

Why?

Well both for the same reason. They both put a lot of work into building new content sites and put the Adsense ads up on almost every page.

But it was obvious that the sites had no purpose other than displaying the Adsense code.

They didn't try to get subscribers to their ezines, they didn't promote affiliate programs, etc.

All they did was have good quality targeted content + Adsense.

Now you might think there's nothing wrong with building a site like that, but Google just doesn't like it when it comes to Adsense.

One friend sent me the letter Google sent him. Here's part of what Google had to say:

"Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant."

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Ok, so seeing that having quality content isn't enough, what can you do to make sure your own Adsense sites don't fall foul of the rules?

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Well what you have to do is give your sites an extra purpose.

Here are a few ways of doing that:

# also display some affiliate links on the pages, and include an affiliate graphic or two.

# perhaps run a news ticker. You can get good ones from a number of sources, but one of the best is

has newsfeeds covering a huge variety of niches.

# link to authority sites on the subject, even though they're probably not linking back to you.

# start an ezine and have a subscribe box displayed prominently on each page.

# if your site is about online business/marketing give away a free ebook or two. But make sure they're quality one's you can customize with your affiliate links so that you stand a chance

of profiting from them.

# have a poll running on your site. I use a good one from One Minute Poll

If I were you I'd do all of them.

2. Google Adwords Traffic:

One way of GUARANTEEING plenty of visitors from Google is by buying Adwords.

If you do it right you can make a fabulous income. If you do it wrong, you'll be well out of pocket.

Recommended Adwords Resources ->

Chris Carpenter's GoogleCash ebook, which details how Chris makes a living from Adwords. An excellent resource.

I'm a big user of Google Adwords to promote my many mini sites. And it's now made easier because of the help I get from using GoogleCash and AdWords Analyzer. Read the page listed below to

follow this strategy (it works).

3. Google and blogging...

Google is still ranking frequently updated Blogs very high. And having your own blog (and keeping it to the theme of your main site) could be a great way of getting more traffic.

To learn how to do it well I'd like to recommend you read James Maduk's Blogging Secrets which is a really good multimedia ebook. Very tasty.

Like his excellent Google course "How to Get Ranked #1 On Google" it's a combination of Audio / Video / Whiteboard Training and Screen Captures. (plus you get 4 Hours of bonus audio

interviews from his private E-learning sessions.

If you're thinking of blogging for profit you need to read this first.

4. More Google Stuff...

Your commercially oriented sites probably took a rankings kick in the guts in the last Google update.

Don't worry, you're not alone. This site lets you enter the main keywords for your site and see how many other sites with the same keyword phrase have dropped in rankings.

Not really useful, but interesting.

More useful - in fact a MUST READ if you're at all interested in learning more about how and why Google's latest update is affecting your sites - is a detailed online report "A Statistical and Experimental Analysis of Google's Florida Update" written by Leslie Rohde who developed that marvelous ranking software Optilink.

There's no charge to read it, though Leslie could easily have packaged it up into a "special report" and sold it.

When you've done with reading it though, I seriously suggest taking a look at Optilink.

Leslie is one of the most knowledgeable search engine people around, and the Optilink software works a treat.

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Looks like an Adsense competitor is on the way early in 2004

Overtures efforts in this field are in beta, with some major sites already running content matched Overture advertising, (and rumors that it's going to be opened up to all of us) and Commission Junction have got a contextual advertising/content matching solution in the works - though unlike Adsense it's very unlikely

to offer pay per click.

You can get more on Overture's Content Match here and while you're there you might want to consider advertising on them. I've had an account there for years now and get tons of traffic to my mini sites. A friend of mine, Paul Manuel, wrote a free report

detailing how he makes a great living from his Overture advertising. you can get it here.

Ok, one last Google thing: Trackmeat.

It's no cost software that saves you logging into Adsense 50 times a day to check how your commissions are doing.

Once you install it and click "Go" it minimizes right away, and your AdSense income will update down in the taskbar and system tray at intervals set by you.

It also works for Commission Junction.

(note: I haven't used this software, so I'm not recommending it, just informing you that it exists)