Webmasters Gallery

As you use Google’s AdSense for more and more time you begin to learn from the mistakes of the past, and you slowly begin to realize which of your actions kept your site from reaching its full potential.

But an important part to making a mistake is telling people about it and teaching them how to avoid making the same mistake. So this is a list of the top five mistakes people using AdSense make.

You should read them well, and see if any of them is applicable to your contents. If it is, you must stop and attempt to fix such errors as quickly as possible.

The first major no-no that everyone seems to be hitting at one point or another has to do with breaking the rules. Google’s AdSense is a great program but it relies on you respecting a few set rules.

The most important thing is not to create “artificial clicks” through any means possible. Never click your own links, never ask your friends or close ones to click the links and never, by any means have your content encouraging the visitors to click the links. You run the risk of being permanently banned, and that will definitely damage your revenue.

Failing to comply with Google’s terms could have your AdSense account suspended. And this is why this rule is by all means the most important one of all. It’s because this is the difference between life or death.

The second thing users get wrong a lot of time is having a bad color palette for ads. Many times this happens because the publishers aren’t knowledgeable enough to change default color palettes.

Others just can’t seem to spend enough time in changing those defaults. Having bad ads that stand out is sure to push people away from clicking; whilst having something which is clearly visible yet distinctive will.

Third, of course, the position of the ads is probably the key element you should get right if you want to maximize your profits with AdSense. This is noted in a lot of places on the web and Google talks about this as well. Google can provide you with statistics which illustrate what positions work particularly well on your website.

Fourthly, banner ads are also a very bad idea if you’re using AdSense. 480×60 type ads are a sure way to drive many people away as most Internet surfers have developed a natural resistance to such means of advertising.

And last, but clearly not least, is not taking care of the site running the ads. Because ultimately it doesn’t matter how cool the site is itself. If it doesn’t have updated contents and a lot of daily visitors it will probably never earn you any serious AdSense revenues.

So these are the most important five things people get wrong while using the AdSense program. But of course if you don’t like this means of expressing the issues, here are the top five things you should do to ensure your AdSense ads are constantly bringing in that revenue.

Never break Google’s policy. Don’t make visitors create “artificial clicks” on your website regardless of the person doing so or the reason. Make sure your ads have the right colors that blend in with your site, and make sure they’re positioned in the right places to attract as many customers as possible. Always try to avoid using banner-like (480×60) adds unless you really know what you’re doing and constantly keep your site fresh and up to date.

So with that in mind you should be raising your AdSense revenues in no time.

Recently, I have been doing research on Web Caching. And I have found Caching Tutorial for Web Authors and Webmasters , which is a detailed, informational document published by Mark Nottingham.

A Web cache sits between one or more Web servers and a client or many clients, and watches requests come by, saving copies of the responses — like HTML pages, images and files — for itself. Then, if there is another request for the same URL, it can use the response that it has, instead of asking the origin server for it again.

Web Caching can reduce latency, because the request is satisfied from the cache instead of the origin server, it takes less time for it to get the representation and display it. This makes the Web seem more responsive.

And also, Web Caching can reduce network traffic, because representations are reused, it reduces the amount of bandwidth used by a client. This saves money if the client is paying for traffic, and keeps their bandwidth requirements lower and more manageable.

You can also get more information about the type of web caches, how web caches work, how to control them, tips for building a cache-aware site and etc…

How effective is your website marketing strategy? If it doesn’t include all the essentials, you may need to rethink things. Otherwise, you risk leaving traffic on the table.

Make sure you’re incorporating the three important concepts outlined below into your website marketing plan. Each one has power on its own, but they’re much more powerful in combination.

1. Leverage — Leverage allows you to magnify the power of your efforts. You can use the power of article directories, for example, to rank higher in the search engines than you could otherwise. Article directories also build links without any additional effort on your part. Submit your article once, and it continues to work for you.

One of the best ways to use leverage is to spread your content around on various powerful sites. This allows you to increase your reach, get the attention of the search engines, and rank higher. Using article sites, Squidoo, and other user generated content Web properties help you reach new markets and create valuable backlinks to your site.

2. Diversification — The more keywords your site is found for, and the more traffic sources you have, the more stable your free traffic becomes. It’s pretty well established that if you can get your site to rank well for keywords with a lot of demand and competition, you’ll get more traffic. But, we often spend too much time trying to hit those hard to win for keywords.

Stable free traffic, however, is more often achieved by being found for many more lesser known keywords. The more keywords your site is found for, the more stable the traffic. Keyword diversification, therefore, should be a primary objective for any website marketing strategy.

Building more Web pages is one way to diversify. Having additional pages will result in an increase in internal links, more PageRank, and your site being found for more keywords. Another way to diversify is to create more links on other websites, especially in conjunction with substantial content. This will expand your free traffic sources.

3. Automation — Automation creates leverage, helps you diversify, and frees up your time. One way to take advantage of automation is to use software. You can use software to make directory submissions, facilitate link exchanges, republish RSS feeds, and do keyword research.

If your current website marketing strategy is feeling a little ill, try reviving it with automation, leverage, and diversification. Use leverage by creating unique content on other more powerful sites (such as article directories). If inpointing links are a weakness, seek out linking opportunities. If your site is being found for very few keywords, create more Web pages on your site. If automation is not part of your arsenal, add it now. More free traffic can be yours by implementing a few small changes.