Savvy Blogging

Google Adsense In Your City

Crystal Collins — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:31:51 +0000

Recently Google launched what is known as Google Adsense in Your City. I attended the event in Nashville, and took away a lot of great information to help increase my Adsense revenue and work on my strategy for going mobile. Here are the strategies and tips I took away from the Google Adsense in Your City meeting:

Ad Placements

For generating the best revenue, here are the ideal locations to place your ads:

above the fold
embedded in your content
near navigational menus
below articles on article based sites

Color Blending

Ads that blend with your content, are ideal for generating more clicks. The “Ad Choices” label clearly identifies the ads, so blending is ideal. The Google Adsense team also recommends against using borders on your ad units.

Ad Quantities

With Google Adsense, you can add up to 3 Adsense ad units + 3 link units on every page of your website.

You can also earn revenue from Search ads – allow users to search for content within your site. Assist ad targeting with refinements and synonyms, and make sure to customize the look and feel of the results to match your site.

Load the ad unit with the highest CTR first.

Adsense loads the highest paying ad to the first ad slot in your html.
Use your performance reports to determine which ad unit has the highest Click Through Rate (CTR) on any page.
Move the best performing ad unit to the top of your HTML code while keeping the same placement on the page.
Result: Get the more clicks on the highest paying ads, even if it’s not the highest on the page.

Use wider ad formats and make sure you are opted in to both text and image adsense.

This increases the number of ads competing to appear on your site, and increases your revenue potential. Adsense determines which will perform best in each unit, so you don’t have to do anything other than do the initial set-up!

Integrated, wider ad formats helped increase Adsense revenue by 165% on an example site, so make sure you are using the best ad unit sizes.

Filter with caution.

Blocking ads and advertisers results in less competition in the auction and lowers CPMs for you. Block as few ads/advertisers as possible, and filter only real competitors. Make sure you are editing your filter list regularly.

Tracking Your Performance

Use channels to monitor the impact of your changes

URL Channels: Track the performance of a domain, sub-domain, a directory, a single page or a script that generates multiple pages.
Custom Channels: Track the performance of a specific ad unit or group.

DFP Small Business (Double Click – Ad Server)

To me, this was the most interesting feature being offered with Google Adsense. It’s a free Ad Server for small businesses that can manage your ads. Currently we use AdRotate on Savvy Blogging for this, but by using DFP Small Business with Google, we could be potentially opening ourselves up to more and better offers for Ad Revenue.

What is Ad Serving? Helps you manage your ads. You can also do A/B testing with Google Adsense, so that you can see which ads perform the best on your site.
Maximize revenue with Dynamic Allocation – no other platform enables real-time competition for each impression. This is what DFP Small Business can do for you.

Mobile

According to the Google team, Mobile Users will Surpass Desktop Users by the year 2015. Advertisers are responding to this shift in behavior, and you should be as well with your blog.

What should be your mobile strategy? Replicate Top Content and Add Unique Mobile Content.

Mobile Site Best Practices:

Design to load fast
Prioritize features mobile users need
Make copy easy to scan and minimize scrolling
Use size and color to emphasize links and buttons
Provide local info
Use mobile site redirects
Use html5 for interactivity and animation
Use analtycs to learn and iterate

Google’s Mobile Offerings:

Mobile Websites
Ad Serving Platform
Mobile Applications
AdMob
Adsense for Mobile Content
Adsense for Mobile Search

To test out your site and get recommendations for building the mobile version of your site, check out howtogomo.com.

Interested in attending a Google Adsense in Your City event? Be sure to leave a comment and let Google know that this interests you!

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I am definitely interested in a Google Adsense in Your City ... by Kaley Ehret
Hello, I am definitely interested! I just starting blogger a ... by Coupon Man

How to Add a Pinterest Tab to your Facebook Page

5 Dollar Dinner Mom — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Great tutorial for how to add a Pinterest tab to your Facebook page, shared in #savvyblogging by Karen of Saving the Family Money. There are so many “pin heads” these days, so having your boards up for people to see your interests is another great way to connect with your community.

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How to Customize What You See on Facebook

Crystal Collins — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:23:00 +0000

Facebook customers are becoming increasingly more and more frustrated that they cannot see what they want to see in their home feeds. I myself am continually frustrated every evening when I open the Facebook app on my phone to see the same updates I saw eight hours prior. With all the friends and Facebook pages I follow, there have to be more than just 5-10 updates in an eight-hour period.

Until Facebook fixes this issue (if they ever do), Lists are a great way to organize your content and follow the updates you want to. Here are some simple list names you can come up with to follow the content you are interested in:

Friends
Brands
Local (Usually there is an automatic list created for local people in your area)
Deals
Politics
Savvy People
Whatever Else Interests You the Most

Create your lists and add people and pages to the lists by following the how to create Facebook lists post. After you’ve created your lists, go to the lists page and add them to your favorites so that they show up on the left side of your screen. This will happen both in your browser and on the app if you use both.

The app:

On the Facebook website:

The thing I really like about lists, is that I don’t have to waste time seeing the same things over and over again in my home feed (no matter how many times I’ve tried to customize it). Browsing via lists is a much more productive use of my time on Facebook.

What are some of the list names you use/will use on Facebook to keep things organized?

Are you following Savvy Blogging on Facebook? Make sure and put us in your “Savvy” list!

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I'm not seeing how to add a Page to a list. Even the post from ... by Camille
I don't have the option to create a list any more. I had ... by Rebeca @ The Average Parent
Totally diggin' your “ag people” list name. I may have to ... by Crystal Collins
family/friends farm bloggers ag people photography ... by judi @ farmnwife.com

The Science of Blogging – What You Need to Know to Increase Reach and Profitability

Savvy Writers — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:30:54 +0000

There are few jobs easier than blogging. In its simplest form there is little to separate the writings of a private diary to those of a blogger. With a computer, internet access and a willingness to pour one’s thoughts out over a keyboard –BLOGGING in essence is easy.

Unfortunately blogging as a business is anything but easy. Success, as we all measure it, isn’t the number of posts we write but the fans, “likes”, comments and money we get. Success rests on the fundamental understanding of the science of human behaviour, the mechanics of search engines, and that mysterious art of writing effective copy.

While blogging is easy, running a profitable blog can be maddening.

There are three main components to business blogging success:

Writing to attract
Writing to serve
Writing to profit

And mastering the tightrope among them all.

While McDonald’s proudly announces how many burgers they’ve sold, we bloggers aren’t given the same freedom to gloat about our income winnings. We’re somehow programmed to be excited about interaction, “likes” and page views, but we keep silent when we start making more money. How odd it is to successfully provide readers with products and services they like while hiding the income proof that we’re doing a good job.

But there is a way to walk the tightrope that progresses all three components. There is a method to writing blog posts to improve their relevance, SEO, profitability AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, engagement by our audience. That process is outlined quite succinctly in our Marketing Calendar Blueprint.

For a single writing to create income it must be found, be timely, be relevant, be readable and be authoritative. That’s the process of the Marketing Calendar Blueprint. In creating a profitable plan for your blogging business, the Marketing Calendar Blueprint takes you through the following steps:

1. Choosing a calendar. Learn why you really need to and under what circumstances a real, paper calendar is the best.

2. Understand seasonal trends. Human Behavior dictates buying 99% of the time. Even when aggressively priced, it’s hard to sell Christmas trees in February. Even fake ones. That seems obvious, but the rule applies to just about everything.

3. Manage the science of search engines. That doesn’t mean just optimizing the post correctly for SEO – but also making sure you plan the necessary time for indexing, moving up the ladder, message testing, customer touch points lead time and how to make sure it’s on the home page just as people are thinking about it.

4. Reading and taking action on your Google Analytics information. Understanding where your customers are from and what they look at is crucial – but more it is more important to know when, how and how long.

5. You can’t win if you don’t write about what people search. If you’re not using the exact phrase people are searching for, you’ll find it hard to both attract and educate. It’s important to know which keywords to use on site, and which to use offsite as incoming links. Furthermore, if you optimize your site for a term that doesn’t get searched – how will you ever know you did a good enough job?

6. Finally it’s important to understand what your niche path looks like to get your customers from novice status to expert status. Helping your clients achieve their goals is our main goal . So understand and implementing the steps for them is crucial to improving the number of page views and time on site. And there is no faster way to move customers from fans to cheerleaders.

The Marketing Calendar Blueprint is your guide to understanding the Science of Blogging. Let us help you transform your current “editorial and content calendar” into a business building machine. Without really thinking through how to improve the lives of your customers, your efforts today will not snowball into your success tomorrow.

Ever rave about Netflix or your favorite restaurant, song or movie? Let’s build those kinds of customers on purpose. Let’s build a blog that meets the needs of the fans the exact moment they’re looking for the answer. Let’s create so many repeat visitors that we no longer rely on the Google Algorithm.

To turn your blog into a business platform that your customers market for you and gladly buy and promote your products, check out the Marketing Calendar Blueprint at MarketingCalendarBlueprint.com. You need a very focused, highly effective marketing plan ON PAPER today.

Dan Morris is a the author of LettersFromDan.com and created the Marketing Calendar Blueprint in conjunction with Savvy Blogging’s own Crystal Collins. Some of the proceeds from the Marketing Calendar Blueprint go to support Savvy Blogging.

photo courtesy of AnomePhoto.

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The Power Hour from The Barefoot Executive

5 Dollar Dinner Mom — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:22:59 +0000

On Saturday morning at NAMS, we heard best selling author Carrie Wilkerson give a very motivating and inspirational morning keynote.

She shared her “Power Hour” concept with us…and wow…so simple. But so powerful. There are many times in the day where I “shut it all off” to get some work done…but not for a full hour. This concept may require a little extra discipline and may not happen every day when you start. In looking at my daily schedule, I’m thinking 2-3 pm will be my power hour!

Carrie Wilkerson is the author of The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom, and blogs at Barefoot Blog.

*This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.

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Create Your Own Graphics and Creatives

Andrea @ Savings Lifestyle — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:25:07 +0000

It’s also so cool when you get to meet someone in person whom you sorta know online, right? I mean, that’s what the blogging world does. Well, the same goes for people who produce products that you use and love.

On Friday at NAMS, the first session we attended was taught by Jack Born. Honestly, I was busy multi-tasking and then heard him mention the product, BoxShotKing. My ears perked up since we (the Savvy team) use BoxShotKing…and we love it.

I spoke to him in between sessions and asked if we could offer a special promotion to our community – and he did (it is an affiliate marketing event, of course he would). But before I even tell you about the promotion, let me tell you about what BoxShotKing does.

We all have creatives or ads on our site. Some may even have their own info-products that we create. Last year alone, everyone on the Savvy team created an eBook. I wanted a 3-dimensional front cover of a book to use for affiliates in various creatives. We also wanted a tool that would create the product graphic but on an iPad, a stack of CD’s/DVD’s or a workbook. Well, BoxShotKing can do that for you and it’s SO simple!

This tool also helps you create the design too. But, if you’re like me, you want to use your own designer. If not, BoxShotKing can help you save even more and not pay a designer to create the image for you. Either way, you take the design and place them into a creative that shows other what devices the product can be used for.

Jack created a special offer for the Savvy Blogging community to purchase BoxShotKing for just $69 – this is $30 off the regular price. With just using this once it pays for itself since really good designers charge nearly that (usually more per hour).

Visit this link at BoxShotKing to take advantage of this discount.

This post contains an affiliate link. Read the Savvy Blogging disclosure for more information.

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Social Media and Blogging Weekly Round-Up {02.11.12}

Ashley Pichea — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

There were a LOT of great social media and blogging posts this week… here are some of the best posts I stumbled upon:

What Writers Can Learn from Chefs about Cooking Up Good Design

Before your readers can digest your content, they’re going to “taste” it with their eyes. They’ll get an impression of your writing before they read it — this is inevitable.

8 SEO Tips That Take 15 Minutes or Less

For seasoned SEOs this is rather elementary information but should serve as a reminder of what should be a daily check for a site as they require so little time to assess and can be implemented rather quickly. In fact, you could tackle one of these items every day over your morning coffee and in a little more than a week create the opportunity for additional site traffic.

SEO: How I Write a Blog Post Part 5

SEO can be complicated. And it’s not a science. But I do think about it with every post and the little rules I do know, I stick by. Even little steps can help your SEO.

How to Use Backlinks to Rank Organically in the Search Engines

By hyperlinking keywords you grab the attention of your readers. The links add a depth to your blog post telling readers that there is more information that they want to know about on a different page.

15 minutes to better website content

Here are 9 things that you can do to jump start your SEO copywriting and social media strategies in just 15 minutes or less.

How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover

It’s so important if your business hinges on your ability to put your creative brain through some mental hoops, that you protect that brain as much as you possibly can. That means taking periodic breaks from all the technology you surround yourself with and simply turning it all off… Here are 3 tips on how to claw your way out of the mental fog, find your motivation again, and let your voice ring out…

How to Develop a Reputation for your Blog – A Quick Guide

To get your blog’s popularity right up to stratospheric levels, you will need to take proactive steps to develop a reputation for your blog and make sure that you are able to maintain this reputation that you have so carefully developed.

Stop focusing on making money with Social Media Marketing, focus on creating value for your customers

Don’t focus on how you can turn social media into a sales funnel for your company, think about how you can use these tools to create value for your customers. Do that, and the money will follow.

Why You Should Care About Building an Email List

If you haven’t tapped into the power of a good email list, you’re losing a ton of opportunities.

How Bloggers Can Create and Use White Papers

White papers were first used only by companies that sold expensive and technical products, but nowadays they’re being effectively used by small business and bloggers, not only to generate leads directly, but to also generate emails for newsletters.

The “New” SEO Secret Weapon

Ready for the mind-blowing “secret new ingredient”? It’s the authority, editorial focus, and relevance of your site — in other words, your site quality.

4 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Page Visibility

Have you noticed less interaction on your Facebook page in the last few months? Getting your updates to appear in the coveted news feed is more challenging than ever.

Getting Blog Traffic Through CommentLuv Blogs

One great way to get new visitors to your site is by commenting on blogs in your niche. The likelihood of bringing those potential new readers back with you is increased by commenting on CommentLuv blogs.

Do you want more engagement OR more traffic to your blog?

Probably the most important point to realize is that you can do one or the other, but probably not both. What I mean is that many bloggers want more engagement AND more traffic. But in general it takes a different approach to grow traffic than it does to grow engagement.

Increase Blog Traffic By Building Trust and Taking Control

Refreshing your stats all day is not going to bring new readers to your blog. You need to get out there and make those connections. You can take control of your traffic in a number of ways…

6 Mistakes to Avoid When Emailing Your Subscribers

How do you ensure that those who have signed up to your email list actually read the emails that you send, let alone that they continue to subscribe? And how do you ensure that you benefit when people actually read it. Most problems that occur in email marketing for blogs are the result of a few key mistakes as I will now outline.

21 Essential Tools for Bloggers (That Don’t Cost a Bean)

These tools will actually help, not hinder you, as you start your blogging journey. They will help take you from blogging newbie to confident, efficient and well-seasoned blogger.

How to Craft a Privacy Policy for Your Website

Privacy policies are often not given the attention they deserve. Many companies churn them out, not realizing their true importance. While not everyone will read the policy, it’s these types of policies that say a lot about what the company stands for and what it wants to achieve. Information is key to future growth. It provides insight that can’t be replicated in other ways.

Expand Your Business Quickly Through These StumbleUpon Marketing Strategies

StumbleUpon was responsible for more social shares than even Facebook in the United States recently. Given that StumbleUpon only has 20 million users right now while Facebook has 800 million, this shows you the enormous potential for growth through going viral via SU. If such a small community can account for such massive amounts of traffic now, imagine the coverage you can get when this community grows even bigger.

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The weekly round-up posts are brought to you by Ashley Pichea.

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You're welcome, Chuck! Thanks for the positive feedback – I ... by Ashley Pichea
What a great use of StumbleUpon. Thanks for sharing these ... by Chuck Bartok

NAMS $77 Audio Sale

Crystal Collins — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:19:50 +0000

NAMS is doing a pre-sale of the audio from this week’s conference for only $77. When the recordings are released at the end of this event, the price is rumored to go up to $297. If you wanted to come to NAMS, but weren’t able to for whatever reason, grabbing the recordings is a great way to get the great info from the sessions without having to travel.

Grab the NAMS recordings for $77 and get a free 30-day MyNams membership to get access to some great free tools and the forum. After the 30-day trial, the membership is $14.95 a month.

The Savvy team will be posting some great takeaways from NAMS through the weekend, so be sure to check back for those!

*this post contains affiliate links.

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Google to Penalize Sites With Excessive Above the Fold Advertising

The Happy Housewife — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:04:26 +0000

Last week Google changed it’s algorithm in an effort to penalize sites who are ad heavy and content weak. This has been an ongoing effort since the Panda update last February.

This new change will only affect 1% of the searches globally, so you might not notice it. But if you are in that 1% you should reconsider how many ads you have running above the fold.

Above the fold advertising is lucrative for many people. Overwhelming readers with several ads above the fold and little to no content will hurt you when it comes to SEO as well as annoy your readers.

You can use this browser size tool to see what your webpage looks like under different screen resolutions.

You can read more about this update on Google’s search blog.

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Pinterest – A Social Media Game Changer?

5 Dollar Dinner Mom — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Once I moved past the “pinterest addict” phase, I noticed something interesting. Rather than googling something, I found myself searching on Pinterest.

We wanted to share this very interest infographic posted on Mashable, along with the article…Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers. We’d love your thoughts on the subject! What does the future hold for Pinterest?

Has Pinterest been a game changer for you, your blog or your small business? In what ways are you using Pinterest to grow your online community, platform and presence?

If you’re new to Pinterest, find out how you can use Pinning for Profits.

*affiliate links have been used in this post.

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I always search through Pintrest before I go to Google. by Kathy @ Teaching Good Things
I see great strength from the Pinterest style. Seems like a ... by Paula
How does it expose bloggers? Seems like the biggest bonus comes ... by Paula
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