thamisgith's blog

A lot of people are using google Adsense on their websites to generate extra income. Basically, you sign up for an Adsense account, put some code on your website, this displays Google ads and you get paid whenever someone clicks on one.

One common technique to increase the probability that visitors will click on the ads has been the alignment of thumbnail images beside the ads. This has always been a bit of a grey area - and Google never really gave definitive advice on whether or not it was a legitimate tactic to use.

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Anyone who uses Adobe's Acrobat PDF reader, which would be most people I guess, might be interested to learn that Adobe released details of a potential security flaw on Tuesday.

It seems that hackers can use links to PDF documents to take over a user's computer.

Read more here....

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In 2005 the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) launched a campaign in order to raise awareness of the most common ways in which people are conned. The OFT identified the top ten scams targeted at UK consumers.

These are listed below and, if you look through them, you will see some patterns emerging. It should help you avoid being scammed - online or offline.

WORK-AT-HOME SCAMSAdvertisements for paid work-from-home schemes and business opportunities are often scams. Would be home workers who apply are asked for money up-front to pay for materials. After payment no more is heard from the parent company.

Another variation on this is where the company does actually send out some materials for assembly. These materials are usually very inexpensive. When the assembled products are submitted they are invariably rejected as they “do not meet the necessary quality standards�. This method also gives the scammers a second bite at the cherry as they often sell a further kit with instructions for the necessary quality improvements to ensure acceptance in future.

Regardless of how good the quality is, the assembled items will never be accepted.

TELEPHONE LOTTERY SCAMSScammers impersonate representatives from a genuine lottery, such as the Irish Lottery or the Canadian Lottery. They make unsolicited telephone calls to their victims and advise them that they are going to be entered in a draw.

A few days later the victim receives another call to advise them that they have won a substantial amount of money. However, before they can receive their prize the victim must pay a fee for administration and taxes. The prize, of course, does not exist.

MATRIX SCHEMESOften promoted online these schemes mainly involve websites which offering high cost electrical and electronic devices as free gifts in return for buying a relatively cheap product - for example a mobile phone charger. Consumers who buy the cheap product (take the bait) are then put onto a waiting list to receive their free gift.

The person at the top of the list receives their gift only after a predetermined number of new buyers sign up. The victims are usually encourage to hasten he process along by introducing their friends and family to the scheme. The large majority of people on the list never receive the prize.

PRIZE DRAW MAILINGSThe victim receives a notification by post that they have won a prize such as a holiday or a sweepstake draw. In order to receive the pies an administration fee or registration fee must be paid in advance. Once this is paid the prize will fail to materialise.

PROPERTY INVESTMENT SCHEMES
Potential investors attend a free presentation, the purpose of which is to persuade them to pay large amounts of money to enroll on a course which promises to make them a successful property dealer.

Some schemes involve the offer of buying as yet unbuilt properties at a discount. Others involve a buy-to-let scheme where the scammers offer to source, renovate and manage existing properties which they claim will provide good returns from rental income. The properties are often derelict and the tenants do not exist.

PREMIUM RATE TELEPHONE NUMBER SCAMS
The victim receives a notification in the post that they have won a prize - a holiday or a sweepstake. In order to claim the prize they need to call a premium rate number - usually beginning with 090 - which will incur high charges. Open there is a long recorded message and the prize simply does not exist.

INVESTMENT-RELATED SCAMS
The victim receives an unsolicited telephone call which offers the opportunity to invest in rare commodities such as diamonds, fine wines or shares. These investments are usually in areas which carry a high risk and where a high level of training, skill and experience is normally required.

The shares are not quoted on any conventional stock exchange. The diamonds, if they exist and are actually supplied, will be low grade and worth considerably less than the amount invested.

NIGERIAN ADVANCE FEE FRAUDS
This form of fraud has been around for many years. Many of the earlier scams originated from Nigeria, hence the name, but today similar variations can be seen from Iraq, Asia, Africa etc. The main requirement seems to be that the area should have recently had a war or some major political upheaval.

Today this type of fraud is mainly perpetrated via e-mail, but some traditionalist scammers may still use letters by post. The victim receives offer to share a large sum of money in return for using the recipient’s bank account to transfer of the money out of the country. If bank account details are provided, the scammers may empty the victim’s account.
Alternatively, the scammers may ask for money up front - usually for bribing corrupt officials in order to get the money out of the country.

CREDIT SCAMS
Another advance fee fraud, which often originates in Canada. Adverts are placed in local newspapers offering quick loans, even if the applicant has poor credit history. Applicants are told that their loans have been approved but they must pay an insurance fee prior to release. After the fee is paid, the victim will never hear from the scammers again and the loan amount will never be advanced.

PYRAMID SCHEMES
Pyramid schemes, sometimes called Ponzi schemes, offer a return on a financial investment which is based upon the scheme continuing to grow as new members join the scheme. The money from new investors is used to pay earlier investors - robbing Peter to pay Paul.
After a while the pyramid will collapse as it reaches the point where there are not enough new victims entering to pay off the earlier investors.

These top ten “hall of shame� scams are outlined here in fairly broad brushstrokes. Nevertheless, hopefully you can see some common patterns which will help you to avoid being scammed in future.

Hamish Hayward

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For a while there it seemed as if you couldn't open your e-mail without finding a whole load of spam e-mails trying to get you to buy fake designer watches online.

I can't imagine who would be interested in these - after all, the chances of getting scammed or ripped off are pretty high. The quality of fake designer watches varies enormously as well.

A few years ago I bought my wife a fake rolex in Abu Dhabi. It cost me the equivalent of £10 and she was quite happy with it. Unfortunately it made her wrist turn turn green after a few days. Oh well.

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Adsense is great - yeah? Thanks to our chums at Google, lots of bloggers and webmasters finally have the opportunity to earn real money online. There's nothing spammy or scammy involved, you just host ads on your site or blog and get paid whenever someone clicks on them.

However, it seems that everytime you visit a forum where Adsense is discussed, there is nearly always someone posting that they lost their Google Adsense account - and the opportunity to earn money online - for no good reason.

No doubt about it - Google can seem a bit high handed at times - and I'm sure a lot of people have had their accounts terminated who have not, knowingly at least, violated Googles terms and conditions.

By the way, if you haven't read through Google's Terms and Conditions then you should definitely do this as soon as you can.

There are some parts where you may feel the need to enlist the help of a lawyer, or possibly a team of lawyers, but you never know, it might stop you getting your account terminated due to some accidental infraction on your part. Like the majority of legal systems, Google operates on the principle that ignorance of the law is no excuse.

One of the most common breach of Google's Ts & Cs, which can be seen almost every day, is people who are advertising their blogs or sites on traffic exchanges. This is a big no-no for Google - it comes under the category of encouraging a third party to generate invalid impressions. Note that there is no necessity for any clicks to be generated by this method. The very act of putting your site, with Adsense code, into rotation on a traffic exchange is enough to get you banned.

So, if you are one of the many webmasters or bloggers who are using exchanges to drive traffic to your site then either stop it now, or remove the Adsense ads from the page you are advertising. Otherwise you run the risk of losing your Adsense account.

Starting A Home Based Business ......

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What's the first thing you think about whenever you hear someone mention the lottery?

Maybe you think about what you would do if you won the jackpot; what you would buy first, where you would travel? Maybe you think about how you would tell you're boss you're quitting? Or maybe you think about how slim the odds of winning actually are (but it's a nice thought anyway)?

Everybody's different - but whatever the answer is for you - you almost certainly don't think about the possibility of earning money from the lottery rather than winning it (unless you run a corner shop or are a subpostmaster that is).

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There's no doubt about it - a lottery syndicate is one of the best ways to play the lottery. A quarter of all lottery jackpots are won by syndicates. These are often formed by a group of workmates or friends who club together to increase their odds of winning. This allows the syndicate members to have more entries (the only way to genuinely increase your chances of winning) whilst still controlling the cost.

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Unwanted telephone sales calls are regarded by many as one of the inevitable inconveniences of modern life. These calls can be especially annoying, the phone always seems to ring just as you’re about to sit down to a family meal or step into a nice relaxing bath.

Although most people find these calls irksome, a significant number – such as the elderly, people who live alone, people separating after an abusive relationship etc. - can also find them intimidating. This is especially so if, when the phone is answered, there is nobody at the other end – a common occurrence as telemarketing firms often disconnect if the call is not answered quickly enough in order to maximise their efficiency.

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If you understand how Google Adwords works then you can do good business and make good money on the internet. It’s that simple.

There are plenty of horror stories about people who have blown their ad budget in a couple of days with no return - and click fraud is a major worry for many advertisers. These are very genuine concerns but, like most problems, they can be easily overcome once you understand exactly how the system works.

The Google Adwords Miracle Guide explains exactly how to use the Adwords system. Whether you are new to Adwords, already have some experience or even (especially?) if you have tried Adwords in the past and had poor results, you will benefit from this e-book.

Most instructional e-books of this type are built around one or two basic ideas and can be summarised by a couple of bullet points. This is not the case here, you will need to read this from beginning to end – but once you have done this you will look at Google Adwords in a completely different way.

You will understand how to drive traffic to your site whilst keeping costs under control and maximising your profit. Not only that, but this e-book goes far beyond the simple mechanics of using the Adwords system efficiently. Different techniques and strategies for generating profits from different types of site are covered in depth.

The book runs to 105 pages and is subdivided into 4 main sections. The content, summarised below, is well written and easily understandable.

Basics
Introduction to Google Adwords – opening an account – campaigns & adgroups – how Adwords really works – the most important factor in determining how much you pay per click (it’s not your maximum bid)

Writing your Ads
The importance of relevance – idiot proof headlines – different types of headlines – the body text of your ads – split testing – Google’s Quality Score

Campaign Management
Bidding explained – managing your daily budget – inactive keywords

Special Themes
Advanced techniques – promoting affiliate products with Adwords – using product reviews – the truth about keywords – different match types explained - list building with Adsense

Cost is $97 with a 45 day money back guarantee. Anyone interested in earning online would be well advised to look at this e-book.See it here........

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Google Adsense has provided many webmasters and bloggers with a genuine opportunity to make money online. In a nutshell, it's simply a matter of signing up for a Google Adsense account and then posting some code onto your website or blog which causes Google's pay-per-click Adword ads to be displayed.

The ads are "contextual" - thanks to Google's software they reflect the content on the page upon which they are displayed. So if your website is related to travel, the ads will also relate to travel. If you have a website which provides information on new car sales, the ads will be for car sales, and so on.

With very few exceptions (gambling, adult related content, etc.) Google will serve relevant ads for you regardless of your sites main subject area. There's no need to spend time seeking out advertisers and, since the adverts are highly relevant to your main topic area, they should be of interest to your visitors, thereby increasing the number of people who click on them.

And that's the good bit - whenever someone clicks on one of those ads, the advertiser pays Google a fee. Google then splits this fee with the webmaster hosting the ads. This, along with similar ads hosted on Google's search pages, is how Google makes most of its money - it's big business.

Google Adsense has become one of the best ways for small webmasters to earn online, and an entire industry seems to have grown up around it. It's possible to choose from a huge range of e-books detailing how to maximise your Adsense income. Selection of ad types, colour schemes, positioning of ads, good topics and keywords etc. are usually discussed in depth.

It's also possible to participate in online forums where the main topic of discussion is Google Adsense and the best ways to earn from it. Software is available for the (largely) automatic generation of special websites whose sole purpose is to earn from Adsense - so called "Adsense sites".

As good as a lot of the available information is, many webmasters find themselves disappointed by their Adsense income for one simple reason - insufficient traffic to their sites. Of course, there are many independent references and resources available which deal with the subject of generating traffic to websites - but since many of the best traffic building strategies require time, effort and sometimes money this can put too great a strain on the patience and advertising budget of many online entrepreneurs.

In order to satisfy a growing number of webmasters aspirations to earn Adsense income, a number of relatively new services have sprung up, all of which are based upon a symbiotic relationship. Two of these are detailed below:

Blogging For Adsense Profit
This is pretty straightforward - you can now sign up to blogging networks which, in return for content provided by you, will split any Adsense profit 50 - 50. So, when your blog post is displayed, 50% of the time it will show Adsense ads associated with your account and 50% of the time it will display ads associated with the blog host's Adsense account.

In fact, the 50 - 50 split is based on the number of displays. Due to the way Google Adsense revenue is allocated it's difficult to arrange a 50 - 50 split of profits - but over time it should average out to something around 50% each.

Essentially, you provide the content and the blog host provides traffic to your blog. There does tend to be a sense of "community" with this type of arrangement and, once this is established a reasonable level of visitors to your blog posts should be achievable. If you're a gregarious type of person who does well in a "community" environment then this may be a good option for you.

Two blog networks which provide this service are listed below. Note that these two sites also operate an affiliate scheme (though the links below are not affiliate links) so, in addition to earning from Adsense income associated with your own blog postings, you may be able to earn additional income from anyone else you introduce.

http://www.writingup.com/

http://bloggerparty.com/

Article Writing For Adsense Profit
There are many benefits to writing and submitting articles to article banks. You get backlinks to your site which not only improves your search engine ranking but also results in traffic from direct clicks. You also have a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field as your articles are syndicated and reused around the internet on websites, blogs and in ezines and newsletters.

As if all that wasn't enough, there are now article banks which, similar to the blogging communities previously mentioned, will split Adsense revenue associated with your articles with you. Again, a 50 - 50 split seems to be common. The site below operates this system, at the moment there is no affiliate scheme.

http://www.sg-web-design.com/

As more and more people seek out Adsense income, the number of sites offering the type of revenue sharing detailed above will continue to grow. If you are the type of person who is better at producing content than driving traffic, or if this is your preferred method of operating, then sites like these could very well afford you the opportunity to get your slice of the pie.

Hamish Hayward

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An autoresponder is simply a software program which stores email messages and then sends them out to email addresses stored in a database. the order in which the messages are sent out is defined and the delay between messages can also be predefined.

For example, message 1 may be sent immediately, message 2 may go a day later, message 3 a further day after that etc. You load your messages into the responder once and then just let it do the follow up for you.

Email addresses can be input manually, via a form on a website, or by sending a blank email to the autoresponder address. If you put email addresses in manually then it is absolutely essential that you have the recipient’s permission - otherwise you are spamming.

Autoresponders work well because they allow you to communicate with your opt-in subscribers several times. This allows you to build a relationship and it takes you out of the "one chance to make a good impression (sale)" arena which has many advantages.

One of the main advantages is that you don't need to make ludicrous over-hyped claims – just establish rapport with your subscribers and give them the actual facts they need to make a decision.

A lot of research has been done into this field and it has been found that people rarely buy anything at the first time of asking. You will often hear that 7 autoresponder messages is the ideal number – but it will vary depending on the product or service that you're promoting.

One of the key things to remember is that you don't need to dive straight in and push your product in the very first message. In fact this is a bad thing to do.

Perhaps you've heard of AIDA? It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and is an often quoted mnemonic in the field of advertising. It can be used as an aid for most advertising and marketing campaigns and it can certainly be applied to autoresponder messages.

Attention

Grab your prospect's attention using a very simple webpage which has an eyecatching graphic, a few bullet points outlining your service, opportunity or product and a signup form for them to enter their e-mail address in order to receive your autoresponder messages.

You can encourage them to sign up by giving away a free e-book or a special report. Keep the page simple and uncluttered and design it so that your prospect doesn't have to scroll down in order to complete the sign up form.

Interest

To a certain extent you also have your subscriber's interest – but don't rest on your laurels. Your first autoresponder message should be a fuller explanation of what you're offering your subscribers. By which I mean the benefits that you're offering them – not the details of the product or service itself. Ask yourself what problems your target audience may have – then provide the answer to those problems – in general terms.

At this stage you don't have to tell them exactly how you will solve their problems, it's enough that you know what their problems are and that you have some proven method of addressing them. Because of some standard pleasantries that need to go in the first email, this "interest" phase will probably need 2 messages to cover it.

Use bullet points and lists to list the problems as these are easy for people to read quickly.

Desire

Having built some empathy with your prospect by demonstrating that you understand their problems, you now need to generate some desire for your product by providing some more detail of exactly how it will solve these.

No doubt your product has many desirable features which pick off your prospect's problems one at a time. Don't try to address them all in one e-mail, you'll just confuse your subscriber (and quite possibly yourself).

Focus on one or two key points (problems) in each message and show how your product will make their problems disappear . This will take 3 or 4 messages for most products.

Action

Finally you need to tell the prospect what you want them to do. It's not enough to provide your name, phone number and a link to your website. Tell them exactly what you want them to do, e.g.:

Click here to visit the website and place your order

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The BBC's "Money Programme" ran a 30 minute documentary on Google last Friday (20/01/06).

It's a broad brush picture of Google and covers a lot of ground - Google's creation, the birth of Adwords, the floating of Google on the market and a whole lot more.

The issue of what information Google stores about its users is mentioned, albeit briefly. good timing by the Beeb in light of the US government's recent attempts to garner information on web users.

If you missed it, or if you don't get the BBC in your country, you can watch the whole episode online at the BBC's website - link below.

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Some years ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I visited the Amazon website for the first time. My friend was someone whose judgement I trusted - and I had also heard good things about Amazon from other friends and colleagues.

I was certainly impressed with what I saw when I got to the site, it was well laid out, information was clear, prices were good and there was a great range to choose from. But I didn’t buy anything - not on that visit. Later on I went back to the site and I am now a regular customer.

So what’s the moral of the story? I went to one of the best websites on the planet, I was already interested and I had plenty of first hand recommendations from people who I knew and trusted - but I didn’t buy anything. Why not?

Simple - it's perfectly normal behaviour that's why, in fact had I bought anything on that first visit I would have been flying in the face of conventional behaviour - on the internet or in the real world.

It's the equivalent of window shopping, or you could consider it as research if you like. Just be aware that this is the way the vast majority of people surf and view websites - get used to it and plan accordingly.

The only way that you're going to make a sale is if the visitor returns, or if you have further contact by some other means. there are a number of ways to do this, two of the best methods are as follows:

• Make the content of the website so interesting and compelling that your visitor will want to return.
• You take the initiative and keep in touch by sending your visitor information by email.

Both of these methods work very well, and should be used together if possible.

Focusing on follow up: Use an autoresponder to follow up automatically for you. It will help you form a relationship with your customers and/or potential team members and increase your profits more than almost any other tool.

An autoresponder is simply a piece of software which stores pre-loaded email messages and then sends them out to people who have supplied their email address. The important thing is that the emails are going out only to people who have given their permission for emails to be sent to them. they are, to use the network marketing parlance, qualified prospects.

They have visited your website, read a short summary of your business opportunity and shown their interest by completing the form and supplying their email address.

Most autoresponders will allow you to automatically generate the code to produce a form for your interested prospects to enter their name and email address in order for them to receive your messages. Paste this code onto a very simple single page website, add a few bullet points explaining the benefits of your product/service/opportunity, drive traffic to your website and then let the autoresponder do the follow up for you.

The system works very well for the following reasons:

1. There is a high degree of automation.
   

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Free traffic you can get it from:

Traffic Exchanges.
Forums.
Press Releases.
Articles

Traffic exchanges sometimes get a bad press - but they really do work if they are used correctly. Use a "gateway" or "splash" page and you'll get results. Use an affiliate website and you'll be lucky to see a decent return on your time and effort.

Forums can be a really good way to get your name in front of people. Put your website's URL in your signature - you'll be surprised at how many visitors you attract by this method. The good thing is that they already "know" you from your posts - you can consider them to be "targeted" visitors.

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Despite the fact that so many people want to have their own business, it seems that everybody hates sales. So if you're thinking about starting your own business - online or offline - give the sales process a little thought.

The selling process should be simplicity itself. You should have a website provided which allows your customers to place orders online. Depending upon the product or service that you provide, there should also be a suitable way to take orders off-line - a freephone order hotline number or, at worst, a simple single page order form which can be mailed to HQ or the despatch warehouse.

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