This weekend, Google will have site maintenance and AdSense site will not be available to access. However, as usual, You’ll be unable to log in to your AdSense account during this time, but we’ll continue serving ads to your pages and tracking your clicks, impressions, and earnings as usual. In addition, your ad targeting won’t be affected. So, no worries about that.

So, basically the effected time will be as follows;

London - 5pm Saturday
Alexandria - 8pm Saturday
Hyderabad - 10:30pm Saturday
Jakarta - 12am Sunday
Perth - 1am Sunday

It will be about a few hours tops, normally, but I just wanted to share that don’t be alarmed if you cannot access your AdSense account because if a legit click will be made, you will be paid accordingly.

Just a heads up for my readers, really. Have a nice weekend.

Google has just increased “Western Union Quick Cash” enable countries to 10 more. It was announced yesterday. I think it is pretty good thing Google has been try to establish in a global marketing aspect. So there are the 10 new countries that is just added to the list as of yesterday, 21 April, 2010. So, the lucky countries are Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Iceland, United Arab Emirates, Latvia, Lebanon, Slovenia, Tunisia, Moldova and Malta. With Western Union Quick Cash payment option, people will not wait several days to get paid since the clearing money at the bank is sometimes time consuming and mailing time. Besides, this option will not be charged you any money at all, which is also better than bank clearing, because with bank clearing checks, the bank will charge you some amount to clear as well.

 But let me quote you what Google has stated,

 ”Please keep in mind these important points:

• Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup at your local Western Union agent the day after they’re issued.
• You’ll need to present a government-issued ID that matches your AdSense payee name when picking up your payment. If you need to update or correct the payee name listed in your account, please follow the instructions in our Help Center.
• Right now, only individual payee names can receive payments by Western Union, not businesses.
• Payments must be picked up within 60 days of issue, or they’ll expire and be credited back to your account.
• Payments will be made in US dollars, but depending on your local Western Union agent, they may be picked up in your local currency.”

 In case you are wondering whether your country has already been qualified for the Western Union Payment, I should have included the countries that have already been identified.

So, the finalized list of the countries that can be accepted as Western Union Quick Cash payment will be;

• Argentina
• Barbados
• Bolivia
• Bulgaria
• Chile
• China (Mainland)
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• Guatemala
• Iceland
• Indonesia
• Jamaica
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Lithuania
• Malta
• Malaysia
• Moldova
• Morocco
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Philippines
• Puerto Rico
• Romania
• Saudi Arabia
• Slovenia
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• Uruguay
• Vietnam
• Virgin Islands (British)

   Well, enjoy your faster payments, folks. And Thanks for reading. J

Google Adsense

If you haven’t heard yet, AdSense will be doing maintenance on this coming Saturday on 12 September 2009. Bear with me, there’s no need to think negative LOL. Only problem is you will not be able to login to your AdSense account, the rest will do just fine. So, no need to panic. It’s actually periodical maintenance and it will not take very long as well.

So, what’s the most important question in this post? Of course, the ads will serve as usual, the clicks will be paid accordingly and your ads targeting won’t be affected. Here are some cities that will be starting in their local time.

Ottawa - 1pm Saturday
London - 6pm Saturday
Kolkata - 10:30pm Saturday
Manila - 1am Sunday
Auckland – 5am Sunday

Just for the heads up. Everything else will be working as normal.

Do you use AdSense Filtering service? If you haven’t, Try once. It will be a bit of surprise that you don’t know which IP are using to serve your ads as well as competitive ads filter will enable you to block specific ads, such as competitors’ ads, from appearing on your pages.

Now there are two additional features in Competitive Ads Filter that have been improved now.

I will directly quote from AdSense Blog, so that you will not misunderstand the meaning.

Faster filtering
In the past, the Competitive Ad Filter sometimes took up to several hours to block URLs you’d entered. Knowing you’ve wanted a faster filtering system, we’re excited to let you know that URLs added to your Competitive Ad Filter are now usually blocked within 30 minutes. We hope that this will help you quickly make changes to maintain a positive user experience on your sites.

Increased filter list size
At the same time, a growing number of you have let us know that you’re running out of space in your Competitive Ad Filter. Now, you can add up to 500 sites to your filter list, more than double the previous limit. As you add new sites, please continue to keep the possible revenue impact of filtering in mind.

So, this is actually a big improvement for me, because It is always good to use filter service from AdSense and it will improve and give you safety for your website as well.

Hello, I just got an email from AdSense team that they wil be tweaking a few more updates regarding to fonts, so that Ads will look more natural and nicely fit in with AdSense displayed websites.

So, to get more precise information I will quote here..

Currently, most ad units set to the AdSense default font face are displayed in Arial, with a few in Verdana. Here are the new default font faces we’re launching for our ad units:

Arial: 728×90, 336×280, 120×600, 120×240
Verdana: 300×250, 160×600, 468×60, 250×250, 234×60, 125×125, 180×150
Times New Roman: 200×200

So, tweak your AdSense Ads and generate your income better than ever.

Got this notice yesterday, for me I am not getting 20k a month from AdSense, so it’s okay.. LOL.

Have anyone experienced this too? I hope it wasn’t so bad.

For about an hour this morning, beginning at 7:48am PDT, we experienced a global network routing issue. As a result, fewer or no ads were served to some publishers during this time. Our engineers have since resolved the issue, and we’re working to ensure that this doesn’t recur. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.

Today, I just login to my AdSense account and see that I can now link up my AdSense account and Analytics account to each other. So, without further ado, I linked them up.

It is a good thing overall, I have a feeling google will integrate everything to Google AdSense for publishers little by little, past 4 months, i saw google integrated parked-domain ads and adsense for feeds.

The advantage is, you can actually see more detailed stats about your earning, but disadvantage is Google can track you even better whether you have duplicate AdSense accounts, your office/home IP address, and your web browsing behavior. Just my 2 cents.

It’s time for another free e-book. It’s been pleasure to share some fantastic e-books over past a couple of months and I have actually received more subscribers at my blogs. Good day to start the weekend with.

Here‘s the e-book that is absolutely easy to read and effective for many people. There are basically four techniques, but if you know how to optimize those 4 techniques, it is basically enough for your quick fix. Test these techniques and see the difference.

This AdSense quick tricks 2009 e-book is credited to the original author Aaron Lamont. As you may have well noticed, I never share e-books that are mostly filled with affiliate links and this e-book is definitely not ONE.

So, download and enjoy, any comment is appreciated.

If you want to keep in touch with me, you can always subscribe via email or read in your daily RSS feed reader or subscribe at my blog.

I have been sharing all the goodie for a while now, this e-book is probably one of the cool e-book to get knowledge about google adsense. Yes, I obviously learnt a lot of things I didn’t know before from this book.

So, Here I should share this to all of you. This e-book is written by Elhusseiny Shahin. He actually gave you a few good ideas about finding the niche which is pretty awesome in my opinion.

So, get yourself a copy of this Golden AdSense e-book. And tell me what you think about the book too.

Always happy to see true comments.

Enjoy your free copy.

As a member of several SEO/Wed Development Forums, I’ve seen a lot of “Google Penalized” threads appearing all over the place. In fact there’s a couple, if I’ve counted correctly that just rocked up on DP today. I want to dedicate this entire post to explain to you on what grounds Google will/can/should penalize your site.

Google Penalization
Q: What is the “Google Penalty”?
A: It’s simple. When you try to cheat the system, or do something you’re not meant to Google will “punish” you and this will effect everything from the behavior of your visitors (to a lesser extent) to your monthly earnings (to a greater extent)

Q: How can the penalty affect me?
A: Well for starters, you will be deranked. Meaning you are likely to be completely kicked of the Google Search Engine if the committed “crime” is bad, i.e. using extensive blackhat techniques. However, alot of things can happen through this penalty which isn’t limited to anything from loosing SERPs to being banished from the G-Empire. It just depends how serious your crime was.

Q: What reasons can Google use to penalize me?
A: The answer to this question is mainly common sense. Much like this thread itself. Google will punish you if do the “wrong thing” but it seems that most of us, have trouble figuring out between wrong and right at times. So, let’s clear some things out! Below is a list of the most commonly used reasons behind the Google Penalization… it’s not surprising to see most of them in the list, like I said it’s just common sense.

~ Usage of BlackHat Techniques – Search the forums, and you’ll know what I’m talking about. BlackHat SEO Techniques involve “cheating” the system or finding loopholes and exploiting them. This will allow you to get great SERP boost but won’t last for long, they will find you out!

~Usage of GreyHat Techniques – Similar to BlackHat but the damage isn’t as bad. It’s like a less “bad” version of the BlackHat technique but you can still be penalized. Google will only accept WhiteHat SEO Techniques and you should stick to it too!

~ Content Duplication – This not only applies to Google and other search engines, but to us in general life too. If you copy/rip-off other peoples work, work they’ve spent time and effort to create you will be punished. It’s a form of stealing; you wouldn’t steal now would you?

~ Purchasing Links from other Sites – One of the most discussed “link building” techniques is this. People all around the internet purchase links from higher PR and niche-related sites to gain quick authority. However, the unspoken truth is that it’s against the Google TOS, so if they catch you – you will have to face the music.

~ Invalid URL Redirection – I talked about 301/302 URL Forwarding in the earlier FAQ and how important it was, well this is why. If you shift sites and don’t set up the redirection properly – when the incy-wincy Google spider comes along, it won’t realize the shift – resulting in your “new URL” to be treated as a new website al-together, loosing it’s backlinks, PR and authority!

~ Keyword Stuffing – Its name speaks for itself, if you stuff your website with keywords to please the crawlers, it will look bad to real human visitors, and eventually to Google as well. You should “sprinkle” your page with targeted keywords not flood it! Keywords are important, it helps direct the “right” visitors to your site and helps “target” your Adsense adverts. The more targeted the ads, the more clicks you will get.

~ Un-natural Link Building – This is the least of your worries, It’s true that there are penalties for websites building a lot of links in an “unnatural” way in a short time, but I don’t think it will effect normal and legitimate webmasters like ourselves . If you site contains real, unique content and a legitimate product, and should be able to build links naturally without any problems on the search engines. This “reason” mainly focuses on spammers, scrapers, or people who own a lot of domains and start “inter-linking”

Q: I just got penalized! Now what?
A: Well you can’t do much, just spend the time rebuilding and regaining the “mutual trust” between you and Google, which you once had. You can contact them, but unless your sites extremely popular, I wouldn’t bother cause neither would they.

Q: Can Google penalize me for using Auto-Surfers?
A: Obviously, it can’t be good. I’ve researched this question extensively but couldn’t find an exact answer. Then again, common sense will tell us it cannot do anything but harm. Surely “fake” views of Google Ads won’t be something to be proud of. Avoid them as much as possible, frankly you shouldn’t even be using them for anything – imitating “person’s” surfing can’t be for a good cause.

Okay, previous post was long but I am sure it would have given  you insight information that you really need for brining massive traffic to your site and Google related information.

So, Here is the part 2 of All about Google, You can read the Part 1 here  - Easy, Simple and Effective Part 1. Once again, I sincerely want to say “Thanks” to MGTGamer who shares this fantastic information for everyone. This article is published with the content & consent of M3rC and his original post.

All about Google – Easy, Simple and Effective Part 2

Thanks for reading

Sometimes, People wanted to know so much and can find so little information, I keep asking myself why because I have faced this kind of situation quite often. But today is a new day and I have got something to share because someone has done a great job especially to those who are new or vaguely understood about Google before.

I have recently posted about the sources of knowledge and some websites I find it very interesting for webmasters, SEO and online marketing worlds. One of these sites is DigitalPoint forum, which I visit frequently past a couple of months. I have met an awesome person from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and here’s what he shares all about google. I can only say 3 words.

Easy, Simple and Effective.. I will divide into two parts because this is going to be covered in a lot of Google related topics.  So, Thanks to MGTGamer whose profile is M3rC shares this fantastic information for all of you. This article is published with the content & consent of M3rC and his original post.

Google Search Engine Related

Q: My site/blog doesn’t show up on Google! Why?

A: This, I think is one of the most widely asked questions not only here at DP, but any SEO Forum for that matter. Well, let’s see the answer to this question depend on many, many variables. As you read through this thread, perhaps you might come across information that will help you understand the algorithm behind the Big G (no-one really has a 100% insight on it, but we can all try) However, for the purpose of the thread, let’s work out a few? If you type “site:[your domain here]” on Google and no results are found, you should try the following processes: 

1) Write some decent UNIQUE Content
2) Fine-Tune your H1 & H1 Tags and have a well written Title, Description & Keywords.
2) Submit your articles to Social Bookmarking sites such as Facebook, Yahoo! Buzz,  Stumble Upon, Google Bookmarks, Digg, Reddit & Others.
3) Submit your site to Directories (You can find heaps of recommended ones, just search the DPForums)
4) Make sure your SiteMap is up to date and in working order
5) Submit your site to the “Google URL Submitter”
6) Register a Google Webmaster’s account, and submit your site details <- IMPORTANT!
Trust me, this works all the time! I usually get indexed after 5-8 HOURS after I follow those six steps (in order)! It works. Perfectly.

Q: Should I submit to Yahoo/MSN/Google?

A: Why not all three? It wouldn’t hurt. Now it is true that the algorithms behind these big engines are different, in fact I personally conclude that they are matching opposites. I have personally experience websites moving up on the Google Results (due to WHITE hat SEO techniques) and in return the site was falling on Yahoo results. So, I guess it’s fair to come to that assumption? I recommend you submit to all engines, but select one and work on getting good results on that. Don’t try to kill all three engines with one stone, cause your stone will never be big enough.

Q: How to get #1 Position for keyword “ABCDE”

A: If the answer to this question can be answer via a thread post, Search Engines wouldn’t exist because everyone “would be #1″. To gain number one status, is hard and it’s even harder to maintain that position. In fact it’s near impossible you pick a keyword and search it once a week, You would see that there’s at least some slight change in the order of websites. It will take time, effort and perseverance to get to #1. If you stick around long enough and stay true to your ambition you will get there! Only time will tell if you do.

Google Adsense Related

Q: I’m not earning “X” amount! Why?

A: Don’t quit your day job just yet, hand on for a second buddy. Google Adsense pays you PER CLICK. That’s right you might get lucky and get $1+ for a click, but that won’t be for ever unless you done your homework, and found the ultimate niche (this is possible) anyways, most of us publishers, earn around 10-40cents a click, and those are the lucky ones. You won’t get rich overnight with a new site, so give it time. Traffic is the key, not only traffic but targeted traffic. Junk Traffic that you can buy for $1/100,000 hits is the biggest waste of a dollar! Targeted traffic means that your visitors have an interested in your topic, so if they see an advertisement that catch their attention they will hopefully click on it. Surfers that get paid 2 cents to view your page for 10seconds isn’t going to get you any clicks, guaranteed. Traffic ultimately is the key to success in Adsense, so stick around learn as much as you can – and one day you can reap the benefits.

Q: What can I legally display?

A: There’s been a few threads about warez and adult sites having Adsense on it, well to answer all those questions – get rid of it! Google cannot be cheated, we’ll you can but not for long. They will find you out and eventually destroy your ability to use their tools once and for all, let alone earn money. If your still concerned about your niche you can always try other incentive sites, or even better read theGoogle Adsense TOS first. If they don’t say you can’t do it, that means you can <- just a handy pointer.

Q: OMG! I “accidentally” clicked my ad! What now?

A: Don’t panic, just notify Google using this and just one measly “accidental” click won’t do you harm unless someone has a repulsive disorder, repeating the same accident over and over…

Q: Google banned me, do I have hope?

A: Save your time, and don’t bother. Google has many publishers as they need, if not want too. So, if you really want to you can file a complaint and fight and near unwinnable battle. Or else you can be smarter and invest that time in working with other incentive programs like Adbrite or YahooPublisher.

Q: I’m getting “X,XXX” clicks but only “$YYYY“! What’s going on?

A: If your impressions, clicks and payout doesn’t match out then either you are overlooking something really important your Googles wrong, and the likely hood of that happening is 99% and 1% respectively! Target your keywords better, revise your traffic and visitor behave by using Google Analytics then re-revise your advert layout and colors and positions as these three are the biggest reasons why your Adsense might not be performing. If all three seems in shape, post here @ DPForums, I’m sure we can help you out!

Google PageRank/Traffic Related

Q: Whens the next PR Update?

A: Digg a hole, and bury yourself and we’ll call you up when the next updates coming. Seriously, who cares? PageRank is just a visual representation of how much GOOGLE THINKS that your site is of value to the community, you could easily have a low PR site with significant amount of visitors. PageRank is important but isn’t the only SERP factor! For crying out loud don’t worry about this, it happens every 2-4months and if you can’t stick around that long – do you really think web developments for you?

Q: Do-Follow? No-Follow? Who-Follow? 

A: Your probably wondering what it is, well it’s simple. Google allows webmasters to set which sites should get the “link juice” from the originating webpage. What does that mean? Well say I have a PR4 page and I link to your page, and I set you as “Do-Follow” then when the little incy-wincy Google spider comes crawling my site and comes across your link, it will identify the Do-Follow tag and pass on some of that PR4 Link Juice on to your page! That’s why “DO-Follow Commenting” is such a good way of getting good, healthy and quick backlinks for your site! Obviously, the term “nofollow” will negate this instance.

Q: Buying links for Higher PR and better back links?

A: This gets a bit grey, let me put it this way. You can do it, but if Google finds out that you are – you will be penalized and most likely loose the effect of that bought link. In other words, if they catch you – you’ll go down the SERPs and they are likely to backlist you (this is an educated guess).

Q: I just started a website, how can I get more traffic?

A: This is one of the most frequently asked questions by new web developers, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Except maybe the fact the answer has no limits. You can generate traffic from telling your friend to visit it, to ordering a Cessna plane to leave a URL on the skies of a sunny morning and everything in between the two! There’s unlimited ways you can get traffic but here are few that’s been narrowed down to “online marketing”:
~Submit to Social Bookmarking Sites
~Participate in Forums, Online Discussions and become a niche-related community activist (other words talk to people)
~Don’t Spam! “If what you have to say, isn’t something you want to hear yourself – don’t say it”
~Write often, the more content you write the more times your visitors will come back to read it
~Perfect your theme, layout and optimize your site visually <- this has so many advantages, so just do it.
~Be creative and think outside the box, look at what others are doing and try to beat it with something out of the ordinary. People get amused by new and exciting things.
~Optimize your tags, keywords and images for Search Engines this will indirectly turn into traffic.
~Aviod keyword spamming
Google SiteMaps Related

Q: Should I have a Sitemap?

A: Do you want to be ranked high in search engines? The answer to these two questions will be the same.

Q: Google hasn’t accepted my Sitemap yet?

A: It will take a while, if you have submitted your sitemap to Google Webmasters, just give it a few days and personally visit your sitemap URL to see if it’s in working and accessible order.

Ok, pretty long enough for part 1. Part 2 can be read here.

Thanks for reading.

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