Regardless, I may still do sponsored posts here, and I’d like you to know what my stance on them are.

I take sponsored posts from various 3rd-party companies as well as direct. My favorite places to take sponsored posts: PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews, ReviewMe, and LinkWorth (LinkPosts.) It’s a good stream of revenue, but they’re still too reliant on Page Rank. Fortunately, Izea (PayPerPost) is working on RealRank which has already been implemented in response to Google dropping the PR of a lot of blogs in their system to Zero (including mine,) so be careful.

Anyway, I don’t have anything against sponsored posts unless the advertiser requires a positive review, or no in-post disclosure. I believe it’s very important that for your blog to remain trustworthy, you need to be transparent. That means not recommending something that you don’t like just because you’re getting paid for it. Tell the truth. If the advertiser doesn’t like it, maybe they need to listen, and change the service. You did them a favor; companies pay tons of money for real customer’s opinions. Why would this be any different?

I once got a request to review a financial services company on an old blog of mine. I did the review, but there were a lot of problems with the site that I not only said was a problem in the post, but offered a good way to fix each issue. The advertiser didn’t like the fact that everything in the review wasn’t positive, so they didn’t pay me. I “nofollow”d their links, and never took another post opportunity from that post broker.

But I digress. My point is that I believe sponsored posts are great, as long as they’re honest and fully disclosed as sponsored posts. Each of these that I do on Egonitron.com is included in the Sponsored Posts category and also have a disclosure inside the post, usually at the beginning or end.

How do you feel about sponsored posts? Are you OK with not disclosing them as paid, and why?

There have been too many banks granting mortgages to under qualified people. There have been way too many people buying their homes on adjustable-rate mortgages because the low initial rate seems attractive. The interest rate always goes up, and since most Americans live above their means already, they live paycheck-to-paycheck. They don’t even have a chance to refinance at a lower rate. When the interest rate inflates on their mortgage, they can no longer afford the payments, and are forced to foreclose. Mostly because us Americans feel it necessary to keep up with the Jones’, but at least part of it can be remedied by only taking out Fixed Rate Mortgages.

There are more foreclosures than there’s ever been. That’s a bad thing, but it brings about some opportunities for investors. Buying property at foreclosure and pre-foreclosure is a great way to get some property on the cheap, and can even help the previous owners save their credit in some cases. The only problem with buying at foreclosure is that you must have the full cash amount available to purchase the property.

Another great investment opportunity in a real estate slump like the current one in America is with tax-lien sales. A surprising amount of people have never heard of these sales. There is usually one sale per year, per county for tax liens. The jist of it is that when somebody doesn’t pay their property taxes, the county has money owed to them. After a certain period of time (it varies in different areas,) this “tax lien” against the property is considered unpaid, and held for sale at an annual tax lien sale. The county just wants their money, so they sell these liens to anybody who wants to buy them. If you purchase a tax lien from the county (again, you have to have the full cash amount,) you collect interest on the unpaid amount from the folks who owe the tax. Here in Iowa, the interest rate at which you earn is an astounding 24% annually! Talk about a great investment. If the people who owe the back-taxes don’t pay you in full (amount owed plus interest) after a certain time period (I think it’s 2 years here in Iowa,) then you own the property out-right. So you just bought a property for the back-tax amount. You still have to watch it to make sure the property is actually worth that amount, but in most cases you can earn a significant profit from these. I suggest checking into your county laws and seeing when your local tax lien sales take place.

Check out foreclosures here: Free List of Foreclosures!

Great place to sell without commissions: 0% Real Estate commissions

Find Foreclosures, HUD homes, VA homes, and other distressed properties in your area!

Note: I am in no way a financial expert or planner. In fact let’s just say I’m a financial n00bie, so always consult your local laws, your CPA, etc before following any of my advice.

Anyway, no matter how crappy the market is, there are always ways to take advantage of it. It’s like stocks; John Smith buys a stock he hears good things about when it’s at a high point. The price drops, he freaks out and sells it at a low. Although he knows the old saying “buy low, sell high,” it’s usually the other way around. People need to stop letting temporary situations get the best of them.

Even though just about anybody can see some results, there are plenty of ways to increase the amount you earn with AdSense.

1. Test!

This is the most important thing you should do to ensure you’re earning as much as possible with AdSense. Called A/B Testing, this is Google’s little-known technique for maximizing your earning potential.

Let’s say you have a 468×60 banner with a light gray background and dark blue text on your page. Perhaps the same banner would blend better if you changed the background to white, but would it convert better? Don’t just change the code to the new format; what if there are other reasons that would influence the click-through rate like a holiday, season change, recent post, etc? Implement A/B Testing and send 50% of visitors to the gray background and 50% to the white background. Give each one a different channel (you are using channels, right?) and you’ll see which one gets a better click-through rate.

To implement is simple:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var random_number = Math.random();
if (random_number < .5){
//your first ad unit code goes here
} else {
//your second ad unit code goes here
}
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”
src=”http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js”>
</script>

Simply place the first part of each code block where it says to above, and you’re in business. Remember to assign a unique channel name to each block to ensure you get accurate results. After a week or so of testing, just look to see which one made you more money. It’s that simple!

Read The ABCs of A/B Testing for more information.

2. Get familiar with your code

Specifically, I’m going to talk about Wordpress here, but this applies to all blogging, forum, and CMS software. A great way to earn more with AdSense with minimal effort is to have your software automatically insert your ad code for you. To do this, you should be at least partially familiar with the coding of your CMS or blogging software (such as PHP.)

There are many ways to have your AdSense displayed automatically, such as before each post, under only your first post on the front page, under only the second post, only on single pages, etc. Check out this quick write-up on how to place Adsense in your Wordpress blog automatically. I recommend going through and implementing each technique, and keeping the ones you like the most. This will get you more familiar with the Wordpress code, and with some experimenting (be careful,) there are plenty of other custom techniques you can apply.

3. Use Plugins

For Wordpress, there are many free plugins available to help you display your AdSense code. AdSense Deluxe is a popular favorite for it’s amazing flexibility and ease of use. AdSense Deluxe lets you place your customized ad code anywhere you choose by simply inserting “<–adsense–>” into your post. This allows you to place the code quickly and painlessly, without adding the ugly code itself by hand.

It also lets you specify multiple ad networks such as Yahoo Publisher Network, as well as different ad layouts. For example, if you want “<–adsense–>” to display a 468×60 Banner ad, set it up in the options menu for AdSense Deluxe. But what if you also want to place a 300×250 Rectangle ad in with your posts? You can specify it as “<–adsense#rectangle–>” and it will display that ad instead.

It’s a very flexible, highly recommended plugin for those who are looking to make more money with AdSense.

4. Read!

If you’re serious about blogging and making money on the internet, you have to read other blogs; especially those who specialize in helping others succeed in blogging. There are very good articles written about blogging, and many of them have attributed to each other’s success. If you haven’t already, sign up for an RSS reader (I recommend Netvibes,) and subscribe to some good feeds. Here are a few recommended websites that I frequent:

Dosh Dosh
Daily Blog Tips
ProBlogger
Daily Web Ideas
PureBlogging
John Chow
Blogging Tips
CopyBlogger
Blogging Experiment
Performancing
Chris Garrett
and of course… Egonitron.com

There are many more great blogs out there to help you out. Read through the archives of these blogs to find more. Each offers AdSense tips and other great tips to help you out.

This was a quick write-up. I could have written an article on each on of tips individually (and I plan to in the future,) but for now start implementing some of these if you haven’t already. Be sure to keep me updated if any of these tips help you out, and feel free to offer your own suggestions!

This post has been part of Daily Blog Tips Blog Writing Project

Website Pros affiliate program is a great place to get started if you own a website dedicated to a topic similar to starting your own website, or want to dive into other promotional methods such as Pay-Per-Click marketing.

With affiliate rates as high as $297 (20%) per sale, you have a lot to gain.

Website Pro caters to creating websites and online marketing solutions for small businesses. The prices they charge seem a little bit high to me, but they’re been around since 1999 and they obviously know what they’re doing. Plus, I probably devalue website creation since I do my own. The portfolio of Website Pros is impressive. Very sleek looking sites with the “Web 2.0″ look.

For affiliate marketers this seems like a great opportunity to make some good money by adding Website Pros to your portfolio. If anybody has any experience with them, please share it here.

Website Pros Affiliate Program

The first and most obvious technique here is to take commonly used phrases on your blog and turn them into affiliate links. I frequently write about blogging, webmasters, hosting, and other general IT-related subjects, and you can see a few of my aLink Keywords in the image below. These all link to their respective affiliate programs, and have each generated a little bit of extra income.

In addition to linking to affiliate programs, aLinks has the ability to automatically attach your Amazon Associate ID into links to Amazon, a “Deeper Blog Keyphrases” section to help you link deeper into your blog posts to keep readers on your site, and even comes with it’s own statistics.

I suggest giving aLinks a try, if for no other reason than to attach automatic affiliate links.

Google is doing a great job with putting 7 different links in a small 468×60 area without making it look cluttered. I’m curious as to how they’re going to perform, but sadly, we can’t yet create channels for the new format. If anybody has any more information on these new formats, please leave a comment.

Advertising is what makes content free. If it weren’t for TV commercials, we wouldn’t have TV. Same deal with the internet, in most cases. Most websites now-a-days monetize their site by placing advertisements of some sort on the page, hoping you will click on something of interest. Webmasters deserve to get paid for the enormous amount of time and effort they put into their sites. Blocking these advertisements with plugins or simply ignoring them hurts the website owner. If everybody used these, most websites would be no more! That, or all would be on a paid-subscription basis, and who wants that?

I use Adblock for Firefox myself. Am I a hypocrite? hardly…

I don’t believe in using bright flashing banner ads, interstitials (the ad before you get to the page you want,) or deceptive ads. I don’t put them on my websites, and I don’t believe they should exist. They significantly detract from the user experience. Therefore I use Adblock to block those.

I don’t block unobtrusive advertisements like AdSense, static banners, text ads, etc. Many times I will even find myself interested in an advertisement and click on it. The webmaster deserves it, and it provides a value to me as long as it’s relevant.

I don’t understand why people are so insistent about blocking ads when it that very thing that allows them to enjoy the internet as they have been, and watching free programming on TV.

Please, stop.

As a disclaimer, the review requester (DebtHelp) did not require that this review be all positive, I really do think it’s a great resource for those who can use it.

America has a big problem with consumer debt, as we all know. If we all know it, then why is the problem only getting worse? One reason: Because Americans are obsessed with keeping up with the Jones’. It’s not necessarily our fault; it’s been ingrained into us since birth. Wanna know the ultimate secret to staying out of consumer debt? Stop it. Stop trying to keep up with your neighbor. It’s not worth it. If you can’t afford that new Lexus, don’t buy it. Get a Toyota instead; they’re the same damn car, and you’ll save at least $10,000 ($200 per month!) Already got yourself into trouble? Keep reading…

DebtHelp.com gives you in-house resources to consolidate debt, do a mortgage refinance, learn about how to get out of student debt, credit card debt, bankruptcy, and even give assistance with tax debt. I’ve had my share of debt issues (in my less “responsible” days,) and anywhere I looked online for a debt consolidation loan looked shady, so I eventually got myself out of it, but could have really used a trustworthy site like this to help out.

The last financial site that wanted me to review them copied all of their content from articles on the internet, and embedded the loan application from the affiliate site into their own site, providing no security. No so with DebtHelp. Their applications are secure (just look at the certifications at the bottom,) which is very important, especially when releasing personal information over the net.

The only suggestions that I have for the website itself, is that currently it looks a tad cluttered. There is a lot of information to display on this site, and sadly there is a limited amount of space to display it. I would recommend finding a better way to design the site so that the information is not overwhelming as it is currently.

DebtHelp.com

Here is an example of a 468×60 banner with “Very rounded corners:”

If that doesn’t show anything, try refreshing until it does. The ad could look a little bit better, it looks like the leftmost text is running into the border a little bit. It still looks better than the normal square corners, but will it convert better than ads with no border?

I’m going to make 50% of my ads with no border, and 50% with rounded corners and see which one converts better. You should do the same; A/B Testing is one of the best ways to ensure you’re getting the most out of your ad space. I’ll write a comprehensive tutorial on A/B Testing in the future.

You can also vary the amount of roundness of your corners. When you choose your borders, AdSense provides you with a choice of either square corners, slightly rounded corners, and very rounded corners. The code comes out like this:

google_ui_features = “rc:10″; for very rounded corners
google_ui_features = “rc:6″; for slightly rounded corners
google_ui_features = “rc:0″; square corners

From my quick testing, it doesn’t seem like you can edit the number for custom-rounded corners. In other words, you can’t enter “rc:8″ in place of “rc:10″ to get “mostly rounded corners.” If I’m mistaken on this, please let me know, but it didn’t work for me.

source: QuickOnlineTips

My traffic dropped drastically, almost immediately. I get a lot of organic (search engine) traffic for that blog, and the drop in visitors quickly killed my AdSense and YPN earnings. This was about a week ago, and Google still hasn’t come back to visit the new robots.txt and index my posts again. This little mistake cost me over $300/month, if it continues.

Fortunately, AdSense is not my only source of income for that site. By using multiple monetization techniques, I keep receiving money, even if my PPC networks like AdSense isn’t bringing me anything. Specifically monthly-paid text links and pay per post type techniques. This is all temporary of course, because without the traffic, the text link price will dwindle down, and so forth. But the point is I’m able to handle a sudden loss in traffic this way, as long as the problem is corrected.

Moral of the story: You’ve heard it before, but don’t keep all your eggs in one basket when monetizing your website.

I’m not on the list, but I guess I could be. Last month I made a little bit over $600 from AutomoBlog.net, and it was the same the month before. Off of those calculations, my yearly blogging salary would be about $7,500 from AutomoBlog. Not too bad for something I started for fun. I haven’t even tried to monetize Egonitron.com yet, but I think I’ll start soon. Having a Page Rank 6 really gets me a good start on that.

LinkWorth recently released a few new products to help you make money online by monetizing. On top of their normal text link advertising, they now offer LinkinText, LinkArt, and LinkPost.

LinkPost is another player in the “get paid to blog about something” playing field, along with ReviewMe, PayPerPost, and Sponsored Reviews. While not original, it’s a good idea to be enrolled in as many of these as possible to open all of your options. So far, ReviewMe has been the highest earning for me (for AutomoBlog.net,) but I’m excited to see how LinkPost works out. It works similarly to ReviewMe in that advertisers choose your blog among a list. PayPerPost works differently; you have to review the opportunities available and choose which ones you want to take advantage of. It’s not a bad method, just different.

Similar to PayPerPost and ReviewMe, LinkPost requires you to disclose your post as sponsored by entering a badge at the end of the article, as you can see below:

It’s surprisingly simple to use, and you just need an AdBrite account to use it. Instead of inserting a picture with the <img> tag, you use a special code that they give you. You can insert the code yourself, or go to their interface, where you just enter the image URL and it creates the code for you:

So after you enter the URL, you just copy the given code into your page. To show you the end result, here’s a bunny with a pancake on its head:

As you can see at the top, there’s the ad. Non-intrusive, and only shows if you hover-over with the mouse. Ads are completely optional, so you can still get the added functionality without advertising.

Click-through to read more…

At the bottom-left there’s a Menu item, and if you click on it, you get some cool options. If for some reason you want to see the bunny’s nostril really close, you can zoom in up to 1000% (10x) by clicking the “Zoom” option from the menu. The Menu also allows you to Email the picture, Link to it, or even embed the same image into your own site. So if you want to embed the bunny picture into your site, I’ll still get revenue from ad clicks from your site as well; the tracking information remains with the picture. The next menu item is “Subscribe to RSS.” AdBrite sets up an image RSS feed for you with the pictures that you use with BritePic. This is super-useful for photographers who run photoblogs.

BritePic optionally lets you automatically add a watermark to each of your photos that appears in the lower right-hand corner of the picture. You’ll also notice that when you hover over the image, it scrolls a caption from the top right of the picture.

Another really nice feature is the picture loads before any of the flash, so users with a slow connection can still see the picture before the flash loads. This also lets people without flash see it.

Altogether, this is a really cool new technology that not only makes the publisher money, but finally gives boring ol’ pictures some interactivity and provides some very useful functionality. They also plan to add more features in the future like image rating, view gallery, photo discussion, and visually impaired accessibility. JPEGs are so 2006.