I have to admit I’ve been a little slack lately when it comes to updating this blog. I can’t believe it’s been three months since my last post.

In the last three months, I think I have spent about three quarters of that time in countless meetings and phone calls, negotiating with manufacturers and wholesalers to supply me inventory for a few new online stores I intend to open shortly.

In the end, I did have some success in the discussions and I got to play some great Australian golf courses, so I can’t say it was a total loss.

I should be back to posting regularly sometime next week.

The Adsense video units feature, which allows you to show YouTube videos and ads has not had the impact Google Adsense had hoped for.

As of the 27th of March, the option to sign up for YouTube Adsense video units will no longer be available to new publishers. If you are currently displaying Adsense video units, you are recommended to start removing the video code from your pages as soon as possible.

These changes in Adsense video units will not affect other video related ad options. Video ads may appear in your Adsense content if you use image ad units.

At the end of April 2009, any remaining Adsense Leaderboard or Skyscraper video units on your site, will direct users to YouTube.com. Other video unit sizes will automatically be changed to to standard embedded YouTube.com players.

If you have any earnings that you have received from Adsense video units so far, will still be credited to your Google Adsense account.

I wonder what will be the next idea that Adsense comes up with to help publishers earn money from their sites?

Well now you might be able do to something about it!

Recently Google Adsense gave us bloggers some great news concerning illegally copied content. Adsense has released some information about the procedures and tools we can use to protect our content.

This is quoted from the Google Adsense Blog

For example, let’s suppose you own a movie blog, where you recently posted an article about your favorite actor. After publishing it, you notice that another website has copied and published your article without your permission. The owner of the other website doesn’t respond to your requests to remove the content, and it is monetizing their pages with AdSense.

In a situation like this, where you believe that a site containing AdSense code is illegally copying your site’s content, you can let us know by following the process described in our Help Center. It’s our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other applicable intellectual property laws.

The notice should be sent directly from the owner of the copyrighted materials allegedly being infringed (in the example above, that’s you), as we are unable to accept third-party copyright complaints. Also keep in mind that we are unable to process copyright complaints received through the AdSense policy violation report form. Once we’ve received a notice of infringement, we will take appropriate action. If you’d like more information about our DMCA process, please visit http://www.google.com/adsense_dmca.html.

Additionally, if you find a site that is scraping (misappropriating and republishing) your content, you can report it for a potential violation of the Google Webmaster Guidelines. To do this, fill out the form at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport (you must be logged into your Google Account to access this form).

Could these new terms on using the Adsense code and copied content be the death of spam Adsense websites?

How will this affect all those Adsense users who use a RSS Feed grabbing plugin just to make money online with Adsense?

At first I thought it was funny, but the more I read it, the more I understood how true it is.

Let me know your thoughts.

In the bitter cold of the Russian winter, in a small village, some hundreds of kilometers east of Moscow, during a howling gale and darkness falling, a Russian peasant is wandering home to his meagre village.

Suddenly he stops and sees a small game bird on the ground nearly dead from the cold and privation. The peasant picks up the bird and warms it. The bird soon recovers and the peasant wonders what to do next.

At that moment a herd of cattle come by and one of them drops a large dollop right in front of him. Realizing that if he puts the bird in the steaming dollop, the bird will stay warm until morning and then be able to fly away, he does this and then goes home.

But a second peasant comes along after the first one has gone and hears the bird chirping hapily to itself in the steaming mess. This peasant seizes the bird, breaks its neck and takes it home for supper.

This old intelligence story has 3 morals:

1 Do not believe that everybody who drops you in the shit is your enemy.

2 Do not believe that everybody who gets you out the shit is your friend.

3 Whenever you are in the shit keep quiet about it.

To begin with, there is no guaranteed Adsense ad  that will improve your Adsense earnings, but some places do work better then others. Even Google recognizes this and have created a heat map on Adsense ad placement which you can see here.

My favourite Adsense tip would have to be – you need to experiment. Experimenting is often the best way to find what Adsense ad placements suit your audience. I have found the most profitable Adsense ads are the ones placed within the content, usually right above it. But this is not always the case.

If you have a blog site where you have mostly text, the left side of your page might work better. Text is written left to right, your readers will finish the line they are reading and their eyes will return to the left position, hopefully having a higher chance your ads will be spotted.

If your blog receives a lot of comments, you might earn more with Adsense by placing the Adsense ads at the bottom of your post. Your readers will leave a comment then they usually have a short moment where there looking for something to do next. Your Adsense ads can offer them that something to do.

With Adsense, there is also a little bit more then just having the Adsense ads placed in the right area. If your site has more then one Adsense ad, you also have to worry about where they are located in the code. And there is a very good reason to worry.

Adsense will place the higher paying ads in the order it finds them in the source. In other words, if your first ad in the code is not the one getting the most clicks, you might not be getting the most out of Adsense.

Another Adsense problem is placing to many Adsense ads on your site. If your ads are intrusive or you have to many ads not receiving clicks, you will have a lower click through rate and this will affect your Adsense earnings.

To get the best out of Adsense you need to have the ads blend in with your site and you should also regularly check how your Adsense ad placement are performing. By experimenting and using Adsense Channels, you can always be sure you have the best Adsense ad placement on your pages.