• On-page SEO
• HTML
• Semantics of web pages
• Web accessibility
• WCAG 2.0

Have an in-depth read here.

Now go and give it some tests for better CTR!

I guess AOL’s just too large for Google to ban, think about the money they can earn from it. Or they might have had deals for an exception?

There’s still this thread from WebmasterWorld featuring his unique approaches of playing with AdSense. Lots of wisdom in there.

Other than creating channels for traffic analysis and monetization comparison, basically, you also need to think viral which enables you to grow exponentially. It means you would not build sites just for one time consumption but user generated content sites.

Also interesting is that he might be against SEO for traffic with the argument that it’s not repeat traffic and fluctuates at all factors. I guess he’s just a little into himself because the unique sites he own compared to those of ours. But it’s really good insight.

Be changed financially, change in something that you used to believe in, dramatically.

A slightly rounded corner 468*60 Banner format looks like this:

Though with each of these features, we now have more control over the appearance of the ads, borders are rarely standed out in my ad implementations for the sake of blending. Maybe it would look gorgeous on layouts where content are divided and scattered into rounded corner squares the same way. But blending this too much usually leads to unwanted traffic for advertisers thus bringing down conversion rate that will ultimately smart-price you and harm your Adsense earnings.

Anyway it’s always pleasant to try, isn’t it.

This has proven itself so WRONG and DETRIMENTAL that almost certainly WILL jeopardize the SERP of your site. Don’t you ever try to do that from my case. Just a test that has something to tell so both of us benefit.

Just now I came across this insightful discussion at WebmasterWorld about high paying keywords, which I believe, is a very good lesson every Adsense beginner should take a close peek. It’s live here as I’m writing this digest, http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/3380920.htm.

It’s not first time a newbie asking for high paying keywords the moment he arrives at an Adsense forum in his first post. This is also what distinguishes WebmasterWorld from DigitalPoint where savvy publishers come up and give their answers of mortgages, auto, real estate and so forth in replies. In this post of WebmasterWorld, veteran publishers have very different point of views. There are no high paying keywords, actually.

With the increasing awareness and ability to pick sites to advertise, Adwords publishers have given the blessings of high paying keywords to sites that are actually

CONVERTING for them rather than sites stuffed with related keywords, and possibly decent content (because good content is not necessarily the key to good conversion rate for advertisers) that are not converting efficiently if at all. Therefore making highly CONVERTING sites have come first among all measures that may boost your Adsense earning. From the perspective of an Adwords publisher, making pre-selling websites is a proved way to achieve high conversion rate, which states that the preparation of visitors for potential products or services in addition to good content is an essential job to do.

Google is constantly seeking to maximize the value they provide via Adsense network to Adwords publishers, smart pricing is one of the answers and more is coming. The law of supply and demand in economics has shed some light on this similar situation and it’s obvious that Google is trying to fully employing it to help consolidate its online advertising dominance.

Poor quality sites and good content sites with bad targeting often fall in the agony of smart pricing, no matter what keywords they are targetting at. You will surely get no more than $0.1 per click or even lower on mortgage pages if they are filled with crap. With a highly converting website done right, however, Adwords advertisers would compete to advertise on your site and the bid tends to be elevated to above normal, thus bringing in income for you that’s as good as a high paying niche would.

Well put by Green Grass:

For a newbie to run after high paying keywords without a proper site and high quality traffic seems to be like running after a mirage.

So for newbies and all of us, it’s better off making established quality sites. It really doesn’t matter whether the keywords you are targetting at are high paying or not. If it doesn’t appear as such now, it sure will do in future. It’s the way it’s supposed to be.

It’s a good Adsenser to make good content, but it’s an excellent Adsenser who knows what content to make. Before getting down to serious work, you should always know what you are doing and whether you’ll be rewarded or not. Find the right niche. So give it a try to the following carefully selected keyword tools to advance to the next level.

Keyword suggestion / discovery

1. Overture keyword selector tool: Yahoo search marketing keyword suggestion and volume data
2. Google Adwords keyword tool: keyword tool for Adwords advertisers with keyword suggestions, search volumes and bid range.
3. Yahoo search marketing resource center
4. Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool
5. SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool: hybriding many sources of data in one, and free
6. Addme keyword suggest tool
7. SelfSEO keyword suggestion tool
8. WordTracker free keyword suggestion tool
9. Free search term suggestion tool
10. Free-keywords.com keyword tool
11. Good Keywords: a free downloadable keyword suggestion tool

Search term trends

1. Google Trends: search trends, volume, history
2. Google Hot Trends: daily updated list of hottest search terms
3. Google Zeitgeist: discovery search trends and patterns
4. Yahoo Buzz: Yahoo most popular list
5. Lycos 50: movers and shakers
6. AOL Hot Searches
7. Ask Jeeves Top Searches
8. Search.com Top 1000 Searches

Other trends discoverer

1. Technorati Popular
2. BlogPulse Featured Trends
3. BlogPulse Blog Trend Search
4. Google Alerts: know big events in advance so as to write about it on your site or blog

Social sites to go

1. Digg.com: simply the most popular social bookmarking site now but with topics primarily in technology areas
2. del.icio.us: good place to know what people like
3. popurls: an aggregation of popular social bookmarking sites

Other keyword tools

1. Keyword Difficulty Check: know the competition before get down to work
2. Keyword Typo Generator
3. Keyword Optimizer: optimize your keywords list string
4. MSN AdLab: lots of stunning research tools

Specific Top Billboard

1. Billboard.com: top current songs
2. IMDB: top 100 movies of all time
3. Amazon Bestsellers: top selling books to write about
4. IGN top video games
5. Ebay Pulse: know what people are searching on Ebay

What tools do you use most often and what you think should be included in this list? Please post your answers in the comment.

How many columns to use for Adsense

1. 1-column layout rocks. This is a little bit hard to digest at first, but who is stupid enough to fabricate a 1-column site or blog? Those product promoters do this. That’s who. Software package sellers do it, ebook sellers do it, and more are promoting products in a single column layout as the landing page. Simply because it’s the most effective converting layout. It’s the same with Adsense. Imagine you are a visitor, scanning for something with Adsense ads mixed in the content in a sole column centered right upfront catching your eyes, given well targeted ads, wouldn’t you want to click them?
2. 2-column layout still rules. It’s more dynamic and agile in the placement of Adsense, and at the same time effectively holding visitors’ attention in the middle belt that spans no more than 800px. Moreover, it maks generous space for other ad programs. The near-most effective 2-column layout should look something like this:
   
   Though you don’t have to be exactly the same when designing the site layout, you see the princples here. That is to follow the visitors’ finding path, and scatter ads around it, which in most cases would be:

   … -> navigation -> content start-> content end -> additional content -> …

3. 3-column really sucks for Adsense alone. You should take on other strategies and programs to get to the full potential of 3-column layouts other than just Adsense. Quick Online Tips is a good example of 3-column layout blog for revenue.