Image Courtesy: Google Adsense Blog

I have a bad habit of checking my Adsense account multiple times a day. I do it when I am on the move, i.e. travelling, or waiting for someone, or when I have nothing better to do. The problem is that my iPhone sucks when working with Flash based web-pages.

Google Adsense uses Flash while displaying the graphs, and the earning details, so all I am able to check via the iPhone native Safari browser is the earning figure.

I therefore had started using a 3rd Party Application called DuoSense which displayed my Adsense Earning easlity on my iPhone. This wasn’t obviously the perfect solution, but..well.. it was better that opening the Adsense website directly.

On 3rd March, last month Google Introduced the Mobile Interface of the Adsense Earning Program for publishers. This has been truly a boon for people like me! The mobile interface is fast, crisp! and provides all the details I want to see. Luckily, it does not need Flash to run also. This means, you can view your Adsense account on any phone that has a HTML browser (most smart-phones have this).

Read the Official Announcement on Google Adsense Blog here.

This is one of the topics I get asked many times on forums and via email. I have had good SEO success in the past in most niches. It actually comes down to one simple rule – Get links, good quality links!

Now when links are built naturally all is okay, anchor text is varied (obviously), and people from all over the globe are linking to you because of the great value you are providing. However, looking at things from the SEO perspective, we all want to build good quality links (ourselves) to our sites. These may be from Web 2.0 sites, Directories, Blogs, etc.

Why is the anchor text we choose for our link building campaign important?

Say you are trying to rank your website for the keyword – “black leather bags”, now this is not a very competitive niche, and you can rank for the keyword with a small but good quality link building campaign. “Black leather bags” is our main keywords, however, If I focus my entire link building efforts on getting links with anchor text “black leather bags”, Google WILL detect a pattern and sandbox the site (if the site is new, and link building is not consistent). Hence variation in the anchor text is NECESSARY.

Clarification: The above argument does not stand good if the links you are getting are natural/ from different quality webpages – high PR, low PR, trusted sites, new sites, etc. The best example is Digg.com or a site like Facebook.com . About 90% of the incoming links they have is from a single keyword like “Digg” or “Facebook”, but because many of these links are from authority sites and trusted old domains, it works in their favor instead of becoming a negative aspect.

An experiment I conducted 6 months back:

I purchase 2 domains in a specific niche 6 months back. For the purpose of discussion; let us call it “bluebagsreview.net” and “bluebagsreview.com” – both targeting the same keyword – “blue bags”.

BlueBagsReview.com: I built links by hand and using some tools, varying the keywords, in the ratio – 6:3:1 [6 times Main Anchor Text,  4 times related anchor text, i.e. “blue leather bags”, “buy blue carrybags”, etc., and 1 time a completely unrelated keyword  - such as “Click Here to visit the site”]. I also stopped building links to this site after a short period of 1 month.

BlueBagsReview.net: The number of links I built for this site was tripe of that for the .Com site – using just some automated tools (will talk about it in a later post). I continued doing this for 3 months. ALL links were built the SAME anchor text, i.e. “Blue Bags”.

Results of the Experiment:

• 2^nd month: I held top two positions in Google: .Net at No.2 and .Com at No.1
• 3^rd Month: .Net at No.1 and .Com at No.2
• 4^th Month: .Net at No.1 and .Com at No.3
• 5^th Month: .Net is SANDBOXED (Not even on the 100^th page) and .Com at No.1

What I learnt:

The best thing to do is have a little variation in your anchor text so that it looks normal and also the MOST important part is CONSISTENCY while building links. I am pretty sure if I had continued link building for the .Net site for a few more months, I would have retained the position (calls for another experiment!?).

So what is the optimum Anchor Text ratio to maintain?

I generally follow the ratio – 6:3:1 (Targeted: Related: Unrelated) – Example (“blue bags”: “cheap blue purses”: “click here”).

However, I should mention that this is NOT a set rule, always TWEAK your strategy and campaigns according to your site profile, link profile, and rankings in search engines.

I was just browsing some webmaster forums when I discovered it, I do not remember which one it was, but I had this saved on my computer, so decided to share it with my fellows.

This is a compilation of innovative and unique ways of marketing your website (mostly offline) – and it is almost guarantted that you’ll get a LOT of PRESS Attention, Visitors and probably $$

Feel Free to add more ways on your own! [The one's in bold have been contributed by readers!].

Whenever, I see people, especially my friends trying to uncover the whole mystery associated with the “Make money online” phrase, I feel amused. Actually, there is a lot of negativity and fear attached to doing home based jobs in order to make some kind of supplemental income in India, and most parts of the world.

The purpose of this post is to uncover the whole game of “Making Money Online”, and explaining to everyone, why and how you can be included in the “elite” list of people who are able to earn a living via the internet.

Why Making money online is the easiest way to get additional income, and even earn a living for most people:

There a numerous ways to make money on the internet. The most common methods are:

1. Sell a product or service, on a site like eBay, etc. Obviously you make a profit on the sales amount.
2. You own a website and you earn advertising revenue.
3. You become an internet marketer and promote other people’s products, in addition to the two ways listed above.

Now, as I said earlier, there are NUMEROUS ways to generate cash, however, we are only discussing the most common methods.

Method 2, as stated above is by FAR, the SIMPLEST, the MOST convenient, and the MOST stable method of making money on the internet in India. So the main question still stands: For a complete newbie, someone who has NEVER known anything about the internet – how does someone like him/her make money by selling advertisement on a website?

Good Question!

Well.. although it is the easiest there are certain things we need to keep in mind while starting a website in order to earn revenue from it.

This is going to be a pretty long post, hence, the best thing to do is divide it into parts. Watch out for this space and I’ll do a series of posts for people just starting out.

Guys, you might have wondered, that this blog has been abandoned, no posts since many months. So, before eveything else, I say – SORRY. I want to apologize for not updating the site, and staying away too much. I was actually busy working on projects and did quite a lot of travelling in the last few months.

But anyways, enough excuses . Now, I am back, and back with a BANG!

Stay tuned, and you’ll be updated with some of the finest content on Internet Marketing, SEO and MMO.

This is the perfect time/period to write this post.

Everything on the internet comes in waves, a new technology, a new strategy, new marketing techniques, etc. Example: First Hotmail, now Gmail. First MySpace, now Facebook/Twitter. First Napster, now Music Streaming sites. Lastly, the biggest of them all: first, AltaVista Search, now the Big G.

So,  like everything, I have seen an upsurge in the development and promotion of “Micro Niche” Adsense websites. Although the basic strategy behind these sites is the same: keyword research, low competition, quality content and easy monetization. It can be seen, that most people are EXPLOITING this technique. Hence, Micro Niche Websites is commonly mistaken as a Made-For-Adsense (MFA) site.

Plenty of people are riding the wave. It is only till Google catches up.

The purpose of this post is to highlight the problem and provide a solution. If you are just looking for a quick buck, then I would say go ahead, make 100 one page sites, stick your Adsense Code and rake in some moolah. Just keep doing it until Google decides to either de-index/sandbox your sites, or even if Adsense decides that your site does not meet their quality guidelines and removes you from the program.

However, if you are looking at long term passive income, and a sustainable business model, like myself, then put more effort in buidling your sites. When you have selected your micro niche, trust me, 80% of the battle is already won. Why waste the effot by just putting up a one page/MFA site. Go ahead, get some quality content on your site. Build 10 – 15 pages, make all sites look unique, and start your link building campaigns.

Surely, the effort will be many folds greater, but your business model will be SUSTAINABLE.

This is what works for me, and brings a smile to my face every time I check my Adsense account.

Just thought I would let you guys know (you can skip this, if you are aware of VeriSign price increases).

The organization that registers .Com and .Net domains, i.e. VeriSign, has decided to increase price for both tlds. Domain prices are going to go up on July 1, 2010 – .com: 7% increase and .net: 10% increase.

This is a bad news for people like me, who buy a lot of domains for mini sites, niche sites, etc.

Earlier a .Com and .Net at goDaddy could be bought at $7.49 + $0.18 (ICANN Fees) = $7.67,

Now, dot com would cost: $8.02 + $0.18 = $8.20. and,

dot net will cost: $8.24 + $0.18 = $8.42!

Therefore, net increase:

.com: + $0.53

.net: + $0.75

For people like me, who purchase 100s of domains every month, it is an extra cost of a few hundred dollars!

Anyways, just for the heads up, you can purchase domains at old prices till July 1, 2010.

Hmm.. Its been quite some time since I posted on this blog. Some big projects have been keeping me busy. However, it is now time I share something nice with all you loyal readers. If you personally know me, you will know, that I am an Adsense guy, i.e. most of my efforts goes into making of quality sites monetized primarily by Adsense.

I am always looking to diversify my internet income. This is why my affiliate revenue is almost as good as Adsense. Anyways, in March 2010 (2 months back), I decided to check out, what the Amazon associates program was all about. Now, I have read all over forums, blogs, etc. that tha Amazon affiliate program literally sucks!

Why? Well..from the research I had previously done, I figured, that the conversion rates for most people were poor, less that 1% of ultra targeted traffic, and also that Amazon, sent payment only after 90 days of finalizing you earnings. Hence, if you have earned something in January, they will release the payment only at the end of March! wow! Moreover, if you live outside the United States, the only mode of payment available is a check sent via snail mail (Amazon does bank wire for USA), which will take another month to reach you. So, you actually receive your payment in about 4 months, not counting the time taken by the banks to clear international checks.

Anyways, I thought, that Amazon having such a huge presence on the internet, was at least worth a try. I decided to take action.

I actually did not want to spend too much time testing stuff with Amazon, hence, all I did, was select about 10 of my product niche sites* and included the Amazon widget in the sidebar.

*Note: These sites were not authority sites, basically content based, product niche sites. Example: a site about baby products, or laptops, etc. The cumulative daily traffic on these 10 sites was about 250 uniques everyday – all organic traffic.

Now, my Adsense income on these sites has been quite stable, clearing double digits everyday. Not great..but reasonable compared to the efforts put in building and promotion of the sites.

So, I included the Amazon affiliate product widget on each of these sites, and forgot about it. I had installed the widget on the 13th of March, to be exact, and it was only last week, that I logged in to my Amazon account to check the results of the experiment. My initial thoughts were, that it might not have done too well, because my Adsense earnings were still stable, no fluctuations, so I wasn’t expecting a surprise really.

Here is today’s updated report of my Amazon account:

Yes! I made $1707.31 in about 2 months, without doing anything! really! I have thus realized, that you cannot be sure of ANYTHING until you try it out yourself. Maybe, the other people are doing it all wrong..maybe, you will do something different (be it unknowingly)..whatever. The path to success can be defined in just 2 words: Take Action!

So How did I end up making that much? Well, I am not really sure, all I can say, is, that my sites receive good quality organic targeted traffic. These are people who are looking to buy something. Also, I put Amazon widgets in a non-intruding space on my sidebar, so only those people who were interested, clicked – thus I got a higher conversion rate of 6.5% compared to the industry average of less than 1%.

Moreover, I actually leveraged the power of Amazon’s huge product catalog. I should mention, that none of my sites are about beds, furniture or similar products. But still, I see that almost 30% of the sales are of furniture related items. Some, people even bought $500 worth Amazon kindles, giving me good commission. Basically, I sent someone to buy a particular product at Amazon.com, and the buyer, ended up buying much more than what he or she might have initially planned. So, everyone was happy.

The Future:

Now, obviously, after tasting Amazon blood, I am not going to sit idle. I am going to promote the Amazon affiliate program more aggressively. What I want to point out to everyone who might be looking at doing Amazon, just remember, that you need to send laser targeted visitors to Amazon, people who are willing to buy, and one of the most important thing, is that you have to have patience.. it might be that you do not make anything in the first few months… do not lose hope and you WILL succeed!

I have been using article marketing (read submission) as one of my main SEO tactics. You can bet that I have used almost all the services out there, ranging from manual submission, spinned article submission, to automated submission software.

However, this is the first time I am publicly reviewing a product like this. Yes, it is UAW or the Unique Article Wizard. UAW is basically an article distribution service (like iSnare) but with a twist. You need to sign up with them @ $67 per month. You then have to write articles (spinned and re-written allowed) and upload it to their system. Soon enough, after reviewing the article you have uploaded, they will use their proprietary algorithm, to create unique variations of your article – which they will then submit to the article directories in their network.

So how does it actually work (creating spinned versions?)…Well, I cannot go into details, as per their agreement with customers. We (members of UAW) are not allowed to reveal the working methodology of article submission.

There are 2 features in the UAW system that makes spending the $67 worthwhile. Firstly, the HUGE network of sites they have in their system (to which they submit articles) and secondly, the “drip feed” feature, i.e. the service allows you to set the number of directories you want to submit to everyday. This way your link building campaign appears natural to search engines.

How many backlinks do you get? And are these helpful for SEO purposes?

This is a difficult question to answer because with one submission process, I have sometimes got just about 10 links, with another I ended up with 77 links! So it depends on the niche you are trying to target.

I have been using UAW for quite a few months now, and I can say, that it WORKS, but only for low competition keywords and niches. If you are trying to rank for high competition keywords, you will need more than the links from UAW article submissions.

Ask Aditya Reader Question:

I have subscribed to many automated link building services, such as Unique Article Wizard, LinkVana, etc. My site is hello1234.com, what I want to know is what anchor text should I choose for link building (since these are not “natural” links). Should I only use “hello 1234″ [this is the keyword I am trying to target] ?

Aditya’s answer:

Whenever you are handling a link building campaing, you must remember that the links you are building must appear natural to the search engines like Google. Definition of natural: search engines should understand, that it is not you who is building links, but other people are linking to your site out of respect and love!

Therefore, if the only anchor text you use is “hello 1234″, search engines will sooner or later understand that you are trying to manipulate rankings, and hence might penalize your site.

I suggest you use a variation of anchor texts, i.e. “hello 1234″, “get hello 1234 here”, “click for hello124″ or simply “hello1234.com”. Also, remember to link to your inner pages as well, and not just the homepage. I follow a 40:60 rule when I build links for my websites. About 30-40% of the links, I use the target keyphrase/ keyword and the rest 60% I use, manipulated keyword or long tail keywords.