Lifes Experiences

Americas Debt crisis"Federal Government Shut down"

2011-04-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- If Congress fails to approve a spending bill by Friday, the federal government will shut down. And boy, things aren't looking good.

Lawmakers have been trying to reach a compromise that would set spending levels for the next six months. Those negotiations continued Tuesday at the White House, and it appears things did not go well.

After the meeting, House Speaker John Boehner accused the White House of proposing cuts that amount to "smoke and mirrors."

And President Obama made a rare appearance at the White House press briefing, where he berated Republicans for including hot-button political initiatives in their proposal.

It appears the two sides are still billion of dollars away from striking a deal. With time running out, a shutdown is looking ever more likely.

If it comes to that, agencies won't be able to spend money, and parts of the federal government will close up shop.

Which services would stop? During the last major shutdowns in the final days of 1995 and early 1996, the government closed 368 National Park Service sites, along with national museums and monuments.

In addition, 200,000 passport applications went unprocessed and toxic waste cleanup work at 609 sites stopped. The National Institutes of Health stopped accepting new clinical research patients and services for veterans, including health care, were curtailed.

Work on bankruptcy cases could slow. In the last shutdown, more than 3,500 cases were delayed.

Which services would the government keep running? Agencies are allowed to perform any operations necessary for the safety of human life and protection of property.

The government would keep essential services -- such as air traffic control and the national security apparatus -- in full operating mode.

Federal workers who provide medical care on the job would be kept on, as would employees who handle hazardous waste, inspect food, patrol the borders, protect federal property, guard inmates or work in power distribution.

Workers who protect essential elements of the money and banking system would also report to work.

The Postal Service, which is self-funded, will continue to operate.

How many federal workers would be furloughed? The government went dark twice during the Clinton administration: Some 800,000 workers were sent home during the first shutdown and 284,000 were sent home during the later shutdown.

Workers in shutdown limbo

It is unclear how many workers would be furloughed in a new shutdown. Each federal agency has its own plan to wind down operations, and administration officials have not released details.

Will Social Security benefits be mailed? During the last major shutdown, the Social Security Administration mailed checks throughout the crisis, and a close reading of established law makes clear the agency has the legal authority to do so again.

During the Clinton-era shutdown, new Social Security claims weren't being processed because the agency furloughed 61,415 employees. As the shutdown wore on, the agency adjusted its plan and recalled workers to start processing new claims.

Will troops overseas get the resources they need? Yes. While some Pentagon activities would stop, it would continue many other operations necessary for the safety of human life and protection of property.

However, the Department of Defense says that if the government shuts down for an extended period, troops might not be paid on time.

How long will a shutdown last? Hard to say. Between 1977 and 1980, there were six shutdowns ranging from eight to 17 days.

Nine shutdowns occurred between 1980 and 1995, and none lasted longer than three full days.

The Clinton-era shutdowns lasted five days and 21 days. Since that episode the federal government has suffered no similar shutdown.

9/11 suspects face military trials

2011-04-05T03:39:00.000-07:00

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other 9/11 terror suspects will face a military trial at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

The decision is a sharp reversal for the Obama administration, which wanted the terror suspects to have federal civilian trials.

Besides Mohammed, the other suspects to face charges of participating in the 9/11 plot are Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. All five are at Guantanamo.

In announcing his decision, Holder blasted Congress for imposing restrictions on the Justice Department's ability to bring the men to New York for civilian trials -- a course of action he promised in 2009.

"After thoroughly studying the case, it became clear to me that the best venue for prosecution was in federal court. I stand by that decision today," Holder said.

"As the president has said, those unwise and unwarranted restrictions (imposed by Congress) undermine our counterterrorism efforts and could harm our national security. Decisions about who, where and how to prosecute have always been -- and must remain -- the responsibility of the executive branch."

Holder insisted, "We were prepared to bring a powerful case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators -- one of the most well-researched and documented cases I have ever seen in my decades of experience as a prosecutor."

He added, "Had this case proceeded in Manhattan or in an alternative venue in the United States, as I seriously explored in the past year, I am confident that our justice system would have performed with the same distinction that has been its hallmark for over 200 years."

Military trials ahead for 9/11 suspects

2009: Obama details Gitmo detainee plans

Holder had promised to seek the death penalty for each of the five men. He warned Monday that it is an "open question" if such a penalty can be imposed by a military commission if the defendants plead guilty.

He expressed confidence in the military, however, to conduct "fair trials" and deliver "just verdicts."

President Barack Obama's primary concern is that the accused perpetrators "be brought to justice as swiftly as possible," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

Holder's plan to hold a nonmilitary trial had been sharply criticized by both Republican leaders and key members of the New York congressional delegation. Among other things, critics cited cost and security concerns tied to a trial in Manhattan. They also argued that the suspects -- who are not American citizens -- should not receive the rights and protections provided to defendants in civilian courts.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a written statement that it is "unfortunate that it took the Obama administration more than two years to figure out what the majority of Americans already know: that 9/11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is not a common criminal, he's a war criminal."

Rep. Peter King, R-New York, head of the House Homeland Security Committee, called the decision a "long-awaited step in the right direction."

"These terror trials belong in a military commission at Guantanamo," he said. The decision is a "vindication of President (George W.) Bush's detention policies."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it's "more appropriate" for the trials to be held in a "secure area."

"What I've read about military tribunals is they're not an automatic kind of thing," he said. "They are a different form of a legal system, but something that this country can implement and not be ashamed of."

Holder said he respects the different views expressed in Congress and elsewhere, but insisted he is in a better position to make the final decision.

"I know this case in a way that members of Congress do not," he said. "Do I know better than them? Yes."

A number of Democrats and civil liberties activists have expressed dismay at the idea of holding military trials, warning that such a move represents a dangerous breakdown in the U.S. judicial system.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the decision was disappointing in light of the fact that the U.S. justice system is "the envy of the world."

"Federal courts have convicted hundreds of terrorists," he noted. "When Americans are murdered on American soil, we should not be afraid to bring those responsible for those heinous acts to justice in American courts."

Mason Clutter, an attorney with the progressive Constitution Project, said his organization is "extremely disappointed by the administration's decision to try what is arguably the most important criminal case the U.S. has ever seen in an untested and flawed system instead of in our legitimate criminal justice system."

"Our civilian justice system has a proven capacity to handle complex terrorism cases," Clutter said. "Today's decision will only continue to delay justice for the victims of 9/11 and their families."

Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, called the decision "a devastating blow to the rule of law."

"Cases prosecuted by (military commissions) now are sure to be subject to continuous legal challenges and delays, and their outcomes will not be seen as legitimate. Americans deserve better than this, and the world expects more of us."

A senior defense official told CNN, "We weren't out advocating for this decision. But we do have a court system (at Guantanamo Bay) that is both prepared to handle, and is already handling, people accused of crimes relating to terrorism."

The official said a lack of funding from Congress on more permanent detainment options for terrorist suspects within the continental United States "left the Justice Department short on options."

Obama promised to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility within a year of taking office -- a promise he was unable to keep in the face of congressional resistance.

Holder promised Monday that the administration will continue working to shut down the facility and lift the restrictions on civilian trials imposed by Congress.

Ouattara forces hope to capture embattled Ivory Coast leader

2011-04-05T03:30:00.000-07:00

April 5, 2011 -- Updated 0054 GMT (0854 HKT)

U.N. helicopters fire on a camp controlled by Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast on Monday.

Forces loyal to President Alassane Ouattara have surrounded the residence of rival Laurent Gbagbo, a spokesman for Ouattara told CNN Monday night.Editor's Note: Background context and explainer on what's causing the conflict in Ivory Coast

Patrick Achi said he is about 80% sure that Gbagbo is still inside the presidential palace and will be captured by Tuesday.

"We do not see why he shall not surrender," Achi said, adding the new government may seek to have Gbagbo tried by the International Court of Justice.

CNN could not independently confirm Achi's claims, which include a report that Gbagbo's TV station was destroyed.

The United Nations said it did not know what might be happening at the palace.

U.N. helicopters fired on a camp controlled by Gbagbo on Monday to prevent the use of heavy weapons against civilians and U.N. peacekeepers, a U.N. spokesman said.

"The security situation has deteriorated dramatically" with an escalation of fighting between forces loyal to Ouattara and those loyal to Gbagbo, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday

Map: Ivory Coast

Heavy weapons are close to the presidential palace and may be neutralized by Tuesday, Le Roy said.U.N. Peacekeeping Director Alain Le Roy told reporters the body is not taking sides in the conflict, but had to act after three days of fire from Gbagbo forces that left four U.N. peacekeepers seriously injured.

Gbagbo refuses to transfer power to Ouattara, who has been internationally recognized as the country's president after elections there.

The fighting has taken a "heavy toll" on civilians, the secretary-general said in a written statement.

"In the past few days, forces loyal to Mr. Gbagbo have intensified and escalated their use of heavy weapons such as mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns against the civilian population in Abidjan," he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter to the secretary-general Monday confirming his decision to have French troops join the military operations conducted by UNOCI, the U.N.'s Ivory Coast mission.

"I, like you, believe that protecting civilians threatened in Cote d'Ivoire is an urgent necessity, together with the political efforts of the entire international community to resolve the current crisis in a manner that respects the sovereign choice of the Ivorian people," Sarkozy wrote.

"These forces have also targeted the headquarters of the United Nations Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) at Sebroko Hotel with heavy-caliber sniper fire as well as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades," the secretary-general said. "Four peacekeepers have been wounded in these attacks."

Several other peacekeepers were wounded in attacks on UNOCI patrols sent to protect civilians and convoys transporting wounded in Abidjan, the main city, he said.

Meanwhile, France urged its citizens in Abidjan to come to the embassy or a hotel for their safety, as a battle for the city loomed.

"Our ambassador in Abidjan issued a message to the French community informing them of this decision and giving them instructions to follow," Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Monday.

The relocation of Abidjan's 12,000 French nationals is voluntary, he said.

France sent an additional 350 peacekeepers to the country over the weekend and took control of the airport in Abidjan, the French Ministry of Defense said Sunday. The new French troops joined the existing United Nations peacekeeping mission of about 7,500 troops already in the country.

Foreign journalists reported being targeted and scrutinized. A group of journalists from the French TV channel France 2 were fired on by Gbagbo's forces when they tried to leave the Novotel hotel in Abidjan, according to the channel and two journalists who did not want their names used to protect their security.

Since then, Gbagbo forces have been patrolling the hotel premises, preventing foreign journalists staying there from leaving, the sources said.

A journalist in the city said Sunday that many people were afraid to leave their homes but were being forced to venture out to get water.

Seyi Rhodes, who is staying at a hotel in Abidjan, said people were risking being shot in order to get to a water pump near the hotel. He saw French journalists come under fire as they drove through the city, he said.

Much of the city has no electricity, he added, calling it "a really crude tactic to get people out on the streets."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded Sunday that Gbagbo step aside immediately.

"Gbagbo is pushing Cote d'Ivoire into lawlessness," she said, using the French name for the country. "He must leave now so the conflict may end."

She also called "on the forces of President Ouattara to respect the rules of war and stop attacks on civilians."

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that 800 people had been shot to death in the western cocoa-producing town of Duekoue. A United Nations official put the death toll so far at 330 on Friday, and the investigation continues Tuesday.

The massacre occurred last week between Monday and Wednesday as Ouattara's Republican Forces led an offensive through the country to Abidjan, said Guillaume Ngefa, the deputy human rights director at the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast.

He blamed 220 deaths on forces loyal to Ouattara. Ngefa said pro-Gbagbo forces killed 100 people.

Other groups have different estimates on the number of deaths.

The Ouattara camp said it "firmly rejects such accusations and denies any involvement by the Republican Forces of Cote d'Ivoire in possible abuses."

But its ambassador to the United Nations said Monday evening he welcomes an international investigation because Ouattara believes in the rule of law.

"If some troops of ours have committed a crime, they will be responding before the court of law," said Ambassador Youssoufou Bamba.

Ouattara denied to the U.N. secretary-general that his forces were responsible, but said he had launched an investigation.

Ngefa said so far, 320 bodies have been identified, and the actual number could be much higher. He said the dead included civilians as well as mercenaries.

Flavours New Video

2011-04-04T06:18:00.000-07:00

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Nigerian Elections Pushed Back a week

2011-04-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

A day after an election official announced that Nigeria's parliamentary election was postponed for two days, the nation's election commission announced that all elections would be pushed back a week.

The Independent National Election Commission said the parliamentary, presidential and gubernatorial elections would be put off because of the late arrival of voting materials.

"We cannot proceed with these elections if we want them to be free, fair and credible if there are no result sheets," said Attahiru Jega, chairman of the election commission, on Saturday, when the parliamentary race was supposed to happen. "We cannot bury our heads and say there are no problems. It is regrettable. It is unfortunate. It should not have happened."

Jega also had said he took full responsibility for the fiasco but he said a vendor that was supplying results sheets and ballots was unable to deliver them on time. The vendor, said Jega, cited the diversion of planes to carry relief supplies to earthquake-stricken Japan as the reason for the delay.

Citizens of Africa's most populous nation were supposed to vote Saturday for 360 House of Representatives seats and 109 Senate seats. That vote will now be held April 9.

And they were scheduled to vote next Saturday in a presidential election and for state governors the following week, all of which has been bumped to April 16 and 26, respectively.

Before the logistical problems, the election, the most expensive in Nigeria's history, had already been marred by riots, bombings and assassinations.

"The unprecedented levels of violence that have seen several people either killed, maimed, kidnapped or intimidated for political reasons pose the single most significant threat to the conduct of general elections," warned the Nigeria Elections Situation Room -- a forum of groups focusing on the upcoming elections.

Human Rights Watch estimates at least 70 people have been killed in political violence in the run-up to the voting.

The European Union described Nigeria's 2007 elections as the worst they had ever seen anywhere in the world, with rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation. Nigeria had hoped to

gain a cleaner image this year.

Culled from the CNN

CNN's Christian Purefoy contributed to this report.

Two Bodies Found After French Air Craft

2011-04-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

Bodies of victims of the crash of Air France flight 447 have been found in the wreckage of the plane, a French government minister said in a radio interview Monday, nearly two years after the crash that killed 228 people.

"We have bodies... there are bodies that are still in the parts that have been found," Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet told Radio France Monday.

Air accident investigators have not confirmed that bodies were found, but the head of the agency investigating the crash said Monday he believed the main part of the wreckage had been found.

"It seems that we have discovered the wreckage site. Up until now we had only found a few elements of debris floating on the surface," Jean-Paul Troadec, head of the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) told a different Radio France program.

2009: Plane's final moments

2009: What caused Air France craAir France Flight 447 disappeared after taking off from Rio de Janeiro on its way to Paris.Investigators said Sunday that they had found pieces of the Air France jet that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

The BEA said Sunday that a team -- led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution -- discovered parts of the aircraft during an underwater search operation conducted within the past 24 hours.

The agency did not immediately say what parts of the jet the team found.

Investigators have not yet established what caused the crash, and large parts of the plane -- including both flight recorders -- have never been located, despite an extensive search operation that included a French navy submarine.

The Air France plane went down in stormy weather, and most of the bodies were never recovered.

Studies of the debris and bodies that were found led the BEA to conclude the plane hit the water belly first, essentially intact. Oxygen masks were not deployed, indicating that the cabin did not depressurize, the BEA said in a 2009 report.

Automated messages sent from the plane in the minutes before the crash showed there were problems measuring air speed, investigators have said, though they said that alone was not enough to cause the disaster.

The area where the plane went down is far out in the Atlantic -- two to four days for ships to reach from the nearest ports in Brazil or Senegal in west Africa. The underwater terrain is rough with underwater mountains and valleys, the BEA has said.

Culled From The CNN

How To Make Money Online

2011-04-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

How Do Websites Make Money

If you have ever wondered exactly how people make money online just by setting up a website, let me help you find out. The great thing about an income generating website is that you do not even need to sell anything directly yourself, which makes things so much easier; no stock, no shipping, no after sales issues, no online payments or any of that stuff. The other great thing is that your income continues to come in even if you are asleep or on holiday! However, that does not mean it does not take a lot of work - beware of anything you come across that suggests you can get rich quickly with no effort. The only people getting rich are the ones selling you this fraudulent idea.

How Do Websites Make Money - The Basic Principle

OK - here is the basic principle behind how websites make money:

You create a website about any subject you want, you attract loads of free visitors to it from search engines, some of whom will click on adverts and links to other sites. You get paid either for every advert click or whenever someone buys something from one of the other sites you provide a link to. You have to understand that this is a drastic simplification, but it sums up the mechanism for how you get your income from a site that sells nothing at all directly.

Your website really can be about absolutely anything, though you should be aware that some subject areas can be more lucrative than others, depending how much competition there is for advertisers and what products or services are available to be sold in that particular niche. By the way, niche is a word you will come across a lot in the field of online business. In order to succeed, it is quite important to find a niche market that is not being targeted by millions of other websites. It is easier to get to the top in a small field of competitors than one full of businesses with lots of money and expertise to throw at the problem of getting visitors.

How Do Websites Make Money - There Are No Magic Short Cuts

It is easier if the subject of your site is something you know a lot about or feel passionate about. The subject of your site is less important than the fact that you can find plenty to say about things relating to it. It is of course perfectly possible to research a subject you know little about and this is a great way to learn more about new subjects you are interested in. You need to set up a relatively simple, well structured website with lots of pages of information, advice or guides. This should be genuinely useful information that will be of interest to your target niche market.

There are no short cuts here. The only way you will get any income is if you get lots of visitors, and the only way you will get lots of visitors is to create a site that offers people interesting and useful information. Make no mistake, no matter what your website looks like, or what adverts and links you have on it, your income will only ever be in direct proportion to the number of people who actually visit your site. Ranking highly enough in search engine results to get visitors to your website is a big subject in itself (search engine optimization), but making sure your website is full of useful and unique content is the first step in this process.

The 3 Basic Steps To Building Your Making Website

This website currently gets about 1,200+ unique visitors every day from search engines. This traffic costs absolutely nothing and is achieved by targeting words and phrases that I know for sure people are searching for every day. Keyword research is the absolutely essential first step when you are trying to build a website that will attract visitors. Remember, unless you get lots of visitors you will make no money at all. You can create a wonderful looking site providing lots of great information, but unless your pages are targeted at what people are actually looking for, your lovely site will go unseen.

1. Keyword Research Tools

The only way to know what people are searching for is to use a keyword research tool. A good tool will tell you what words and phrases are actually being searched for on the search engines and it will tell you how many searches per month are being done on each one. It will also show you how many other websites are competing for those phrases. You can use this information to identify keywords with enough traffic to make them worthwhile targeting, but not so much competition that you will never achieve top rankings in search results.

You need to identify lots of words and phrases that you will optimise your pages for, which together will allow you to bring lots of free traffic to your site. There are only a few really good tools out there. I use one called Wordtracker, but a good alternative is Keyword Discovery. Without the vital information that these tools provide, anything you do on your site could be a complete waste of time. I tried to manage without them when I first started, but learned the hard way after getting to the top of Google for keywords that I then found out no-one was actually searching for. A keyword tool is one of the best investments I have made.

2. Domain Name And Web Host

Your domain name is the unique URL of your website, such as keithgarrow.com, and it is best to use your keyword research to find one that will help you get traffic. There are hundreds of websites you can use to find out which domains are available and to register one, but you can usually get one free when you choose a web host for your site.

The easiest approach is to find a good web host that will include a free domain name and you can register it when you sign up for hosting. All web sites must be hosted somewhere. A Web host provides powerful computers where you can store the pages of your website. They are stored on robust servers and that is where all visitors to your site are directed when they click on links to your pages. There are thousands to choose from and there are plenty that offer perfectly good hosting for very little money. However, you do need to take care to avoid the many that offer unreliable hosting and poor support.

There are some sites and systems that offer free hosting, but these are just not worth bothering with if you are interested in making money. They are too limited in what they offer and do not give you the control you need in order to optimize and promote the site properly.

You can find a list of recommended hosts on the main web host review page, but I can recommend Fat Cow as one of the best to begin with. Not least because of the next thing you need – a tool to help you build your site.

3. Website Design Tools

You can buy very expensive website design tools, such as Dreamweaver, but this is a big investment for anyone who is not doing web design professionally. This page is about how to make money from websites with very little initial outlay. By far the cheapest way to get started is to find a good web host that offers a free site building tool. For anyone with no knowledge of HTML, CSS, etc, this is the ideal way to begin.

One of the reasons for recommending Fat Cow on my web host page is that they offer a very good free site building tool as part of the deal. It is a very simple drag and drop tool and you can see a video of how it works below:

800 massacred in ivory coast

2011-04-04T05:34:00.000-07:00

French peacekeepers in war-torn Ivory Coast were in control of the airport in the main city of Abidjan, the French Ministry of Defense said Sunday, as a battle for the city seemed to be looming.

An additional 350 French troops joined the United Nations peacekeeping mission overnight, the ministry added. There were about 7,500 troops already in the country under the U.N. mandate.

United Nations helicopters and French forces patrolled the skies over the city as a tense calm reigned Sunday morning, a local resident told CNN.

The uneasy peace came in the wake of claims of a massacre as fighters backing internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara battle forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to leave office.

Ivory Coast's humanitarian crisis Reported massacre in Ivory Coast

Map: Ivory Coast

Making Money with Google Adsense

2011-04-04T05:11:00.000-07:00

How to Make Money on Google Adsense

Google AdSense is a new, fast and easy way for small and medium sites to make money free online by displaying relevant, text-based, un-obtrusive ads from Google AdWords (Google's own advertising program) and receiving a share of the pay-per-click payment.

Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on your site, the results can be much better than you'd earn from banner networks and many affiliate programs.

For now, AdSense is the best way to make money free online from informational sites even if there are no obvious related affiliate programs. But you don't need to disregard affiliate programs. You can combine both these ways to make money free online and double your income.

AdSense is easy to join, it doesn't cost you anything, all you have to do is paste a few lines of code into your pages, and Google does the work of finding the best ads for them from hundreds of thousands of AdWords advertisers. You can check the relevance of the ads by looking at the text ads on the right side of this page.

How to get started

Go to Google AdSense.

Fill in the application form and confirm an email that Google will send you. If you own several sites, you need apply only once.

Google evaluates your site and will follow-up with you via email within 2-3 days (usually within 24 hours). If you're accepted, you'll be able to log in to your AdSense account.

Log in to your account using the email address and password that you submitted with your application, and agree to the AdSense Terms and Conditions.

Paste the AdSense ad code into your Web pages. There are 10 ad layout choices: 728x90, 468x60, 125x125, 120x600, 160x600, 120x240, 300x250, 250x250, 336x280, and 180x150. In addition to text ads, you have an option of running contextually targeted image ads.

You can choose the color palette from a long list of available palettes or create your own. You can even rotate your ads through up to 4 palettes.

The AdSense ad code is unique for your account and is not site/page-specific. You can place it on any page or site you own.

How to get the most out of AdSense

There are three obvious ways to increase your income from Google AdSense...

1) Increase traffic

Create more keyword-focused pages. See Building: Site Content: Choosing Keywords for more information on finding the most profitable keywords.

2) Increase click-through rate

Use simple design with the AdSense ads displayed prominently. According to Google, ads in the skyscraper format works better (especially on the right side of the page). Focus to only one topic per page - that should make it easier for Google to serve up the more tightly contextual ads which means better click-through.

3) Increase the value of clicks

Of course, you can't do it directly. However, you can find some "expensive" keywords and create pages optimized for them, within your site's theme. These keywords are highly competitive and you'll unlikely get high ranking for them, but visitors will arrive from other "inexpensive" pages and click on Google's ads.

To estimate the relative value of a keyword, search for it on FindWhat. The search results page will show the cost for each listing.