Flame Scorpion

Google Wave was a short lived google product that facilitated the communications between teams. It was first released in 2009, and in 2010, Google already announced that it will be closed. Some pundits say that it was shut down to make space for Google Buzz, who later became Google plus. Maybe it was not wide known and accepted, but most of the users that used it are now regretting it.

Today, while searching around WordPress Template directory, I found the P2 template. It is not a copy of Wave, but the way content is arranged made me to think about it. The template has a very light interface where content can be added directly from the home page. It can be used for a better collaboration between teams. It is quick and efficient. It looks a little like reddit, but it is not rating and “up” based, instead, all posts are shown on the homepage like any other blog, so you can see all content not only the “top posts”. The content with comments is accessible from home page and you have all other blog features like categories, tags, etc.

I know that Google Wave had many features that this wordpress template doesn’t, but it might be considered a simplified version. With the right development, it might become a great tool for collaboration.

There is a long debate around adblockers and intrusive ads. We all hate intrusive ads that slow down the page load. Some of us hate all ads regardless or their intrusiveness. On the other hand, a lot of website owners rely on ads as main income stream. Both sides are right, but the problem here is that there wasn’t a real alternative to adblockers.

Pro Adblocker arguments

Ads are making web experience worse by causing slow page loading, intensive resource usage, risk of potential malware, etc. With an ad blocker you will have a better online experience.

You are not tracked by the ad-networks and they don’t get the chance to use your data in other campaigns. You are not followed anymore by repetitive ads.

Website owners arguments

Most websites are powered by the ads that are displayed on pages you visit. If someone likes a page, it will visit it often and will ultimately click on ads. The website owner can continue providing the content or maintaining the tools by making a living from ad revenue.

Free content will suffer because of adblockers. Since content providers can’t make money from ads, they will find something else to do or starting to charge for the content.

The real cause of the problem

Without any doubt, the real cause of the problem are intrusive ads or over-usage. People got tired of closing the ads that are hiding page content, or continuously clicking on: “take me to the article”. It is very often hard to spot what you are looking for because you are too distracted by ads. We all remember those “you won a million dollars” or “you are the 1 million visitor to this page, click to claim your prize”.

Because of this shady techniques, the fair website owners suffer. We can’t be offended by a fair text or image ad from google adsense, but most adblockers block any advertisement. Those who are savvy enough to use adblockers, know that the million visitor is a scam, so those shady websites don’t lose too much because the existence of ad blockers.

The real impact of the Adblockers

According to different sources, 10-15% of internet users are using software to block ads. This means a lower income for websites that rely 100% on ads. As a website owner myself, I know that a website that shows ads, will also show some affiliate links and selling ads directly to interested advertisers ( which are not blocked by adblockers because they are looking as normal image links ). Summing it up, the impact is less than 10% on any website. This is not an amount that should discourage someone to provide quality content. Also, ad blocker users usually don’t click on ads.

Alternatives

Since adblockers first appeared, website owners were terrified that they might lose all the ad income and ideas arrived. There are techniques or tools that can block visitors using adblocker to view the website. Well, this is not a real solution. Any website owner should know that any visitor is worth, regardless he clicks on ads or not. Any visitor has a potential to tell someone else about the website, share it on social networks, etc. Blocking adblock users is just not worth it.

Google Contributor

This project is launched for some time, but I think that it is the only real alternative to the display advertising and adblocker problem. All webmasters  who are using Google Adsense or DoubleClick for publishers can enroll in the program. They will get money from people who visit their website for every ad that is not displayed. The visitors will pay a small fee $2, $5 or $10. Instead of seeing ads, they can see a blank space or other creative.

At first, they will be reticent to paying for content. But sooner or later they will understand that people who write the content, or who create the web tools must be paid too.

Google Contributor is still in early stages and it’s not available in all countries, but I hope that it will solve a big problem on web.

Today, Automattic announced on their blog that they have released the AdControl plugin. With this plugin, any self-hosted WordPress site can earn income trough wordpress.com ad network: WordAds .

WordAds is the Ad Network used on all WordPress.com hosted blogs. Normal users of hosted wordpress can’t opt out WordAds unless they are purchasing VIP or Premium membership. The revenue earned is shared with the blog owners.

Normally, WordAds offers ads in a middle rectangle unit ( 300×250 )placed directly below post content. Some sites also show a header leaderboard and a sidebar wide skyscraper.

Self-hosted wordpress users can now make money from their blogs and websites too by opting into WordAds network. First, they must apply for an WordAds account and download and install AdControl plugin ( make sure Jetpack is installed ). At this moment, the plugin allows only the middle rectangle ad ( 300×250 ) under the post content.

UPDATE: AdControl plugin is not supported anymore. Its functionality was moved to Jetpack Ads, so you need to install Jetpack in order to run WordAds.

This is a big step ahead for Automattic and WordPress. According to Builtwith.com, there are more than 15 million websites built with WordPress. This is a big opportunity for self-hosted wordpress users to earn more revenue, but also for Advertisers to find new ways to advertise. With this move, there is a new big player in the Ad industry.

Here is the official announcement.

There are cases when you need to show different content to different users based on their country, or you want to restrict website usage for some areas in which you need to make use of geolocation. There are a lot of tools or apis you can use to accomplish this but you must implement it on your own. To solve this issue, I have created IPGP Geolocation wordpress plugin.

The process is simple. After you install and activate the plugin, you need to select the countries you want to redirect and insert the redirection URL. All traffic coming from those countries will be redirected to that URL.

If you have any problems, suggestions or you only want to give some feedback please use our support page.

Keyword rich domain names are great if they match popular keywords. They are widely used in Internet Marketing for promotional campaigns or host specific products. Keyword stuffed domain names can help SEO because whenever someone place a link to the website, it will have the main keywords in anchor text. You don’t have to worry for over-optimization penalties.

For this purpose, I have developed Mazedom – Popular Keyword Domain Finder. To find great domain names, go to Google Adwords Keyword tool, and export a list with your desired popular keywords. Upload in our tool and wait to see the magic.

As you might have noticed, I don’t post at the frequency I was used to when I started this blog. I don’t think I had what is called “the writers block”, but the lack of ideas to write about was an important factor. Sometimes you think that you are out of ideas to post on the blog, but there are a lot of things to write about in your topic, but there is something more, like a block.

I read a lot of articles about writers block and got a lot of advice. Everything worked only once. For something to work, it must be simple. Today someone told me about a tool that would overcome writer’s blog and generate blog post ideas. At first, I was thinking that it is another website that probably won’t work, but when I tried it, many ideas of blog posts to write about came into my mind. And you only have to click one button.

The tool will not give you ideas on what to write about, nor advice. This tool will suggest you how to start the title of a blog post. Once I saw first few suggestions, a lot of things to write about come into my head. The tools is putting your mind to work.

WordPress 4.0 has just launched today, with new post, media and plugin management interface improvements. Why I am really excited about this is that a lot of people I know complained about the WordPress post editor because it was not real wysiwyg or because it is hard to embed videos or other media. For someone who is making a full time income by writing, this is very important. Switching from visual to text editor and back many times so you can embed a video is frustrating.

In the latest WordPress release, you can embed youtube videos, tweets or other embedable media only by inserting the link into the visual editor. More,  you can play the video directly from the editor. Also, now the content textarea will expand as your content grows, so you won’t have to scroll inside, letting you focus more on your content.

Another area where WordPress was criticized is the plugin manager from WordPress. In WordPress 4.0, there is a new plugin management interface where all the information about the plugins, including reviews is available.

Media library manager was also improved. Video and image management is now much easier with the new AJAX interface.

If you are in Internet Marketing for some time, you know that you can make more money from your website with affiliate links rather than displaying ads. Ads are very easy to set-up, you just place the ad codes in hot areas of your site and then you just keep checking the earnings. Placing affiliate links is also easy, but you have to go to the merchant site, find products to promote related to your content, add the links, then make sure that the links are still working, remove broken links, update links, etc. What if I told you there is an automated way to do all this ?

Wp Auto Affilate Links PRO automatically connect to Facebook and Clickbank, get the links relevant to your content, and place them into your content. The links will be placed on product references, product categories, hot phrases, etc. Easier than setting up ad units. You only set your affiliate id, your website category, how many links you want to be displayed and you are done.

The plugin also has a manual functionality, where you can get your own links and set which keywords ( or keyphrases ) you want them to be displayed on. So, what are you waiting for ? You can install the plugin directly from your administration panel. Go to “Plugins” -> Add new and search for “auto affiliate links”.

Customer who want to learn more here about building websites should begin to educate themselves before they invest in a new website. A brand new website for a business is going to increase profits for the business, but the business owners must make sure they are using the right techniques to produce a profitable website for their business.
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Getting money our of  your blog is not as easy as it was several years ago. Yes, you can give out sponsored reviews or sell directly ad space on your blog, but this can happen only if you are a popular blogger, or if you are covering a very specific topic or a small niche. For a more general blog things can get complicated. Until you come to the point where you can maintain your own tutoring membership program, or to give online consultation for 100$/hour, you have to get used to earn some revenue to keep going.

Google Adsense used to be a good income stream for bloggers, but today, the CTR is low because people used to ignore google ads, and CPC is also at a very low level. On the other hand Amazon affiliate system ( Amazon associates ), can be a good alternative, but only in certain situations, usually when you can find high ticket items to sell. Unlike any other affiliate program around, Amazon associates give probably the lowest rate in the industry, and there is no cookie stored.If they buy in the session after they click on a link on your website you get paid. If they leave and come back later you won’t. So, unless they put something into the cart the session they click on your affiliate link you don’t get any commission.

The average conversion rate on amazon ( the number of purchases for every 100 users you send to amazon ), is 1%. For every 100 clicks you usually get 1 sale. Depending on the links you have on your website, you might need 1000-3000 pageviews to get 100 clicks to amazon. If you sell $10 ebooks, where you get 40 cents for each or 60 cents if you generate them enough sales every month, your EPM ( earnings per mile impressions ), can be at 0.40$ top, and can go as low as 0.10$. If you sell a 500$ laptop, the conversion rate might be lower, but you can make a good 20$ per sale. This time, your EPM can start from 5$ and can go anywhere up to 20$.

If you show only adsense ads, unless your website covers a  high paying topic, you will make between 1$ and 5$. If you put a lot of ads all over your website and you are in the right niche, you might get up to $10 for every 1000 impressions. The figures are not that high either.

My conclusion: If you are selling high ticket items, go for Amazon. If not, go for Google Adsense.