1. AdSense

AdSense  is the best pay per click affiliate program for sure. The best features are the huge announcement variety and the very effective contextualization mechanisms. Another strong point is his dynamism, which rewards the most authoritative web sites with a higher click remuneration and penalizes web sites with poor contents. This mechanism is called Smart Pricing and update the price for click each week.

• Ads type: text ads
• Ads selection: contextual
• Minimum traffic amount: no.
• Language: almost all
• Earnings type: Pay per Click
• Advantages: Reliability and optimal remuneration
• Disadvantages: Possibility of being banned due to events outside of your control
• Take care about: Smart Pricing. Adsense can provide a hug earning range: it can make you rich, or really sad.
• Payments: Check, wire transfer
• Subscription: http://www.google.com/adsense/

It’s one of the most popular links exchange and text ads advertising program. It displays announcement blocks like AdSense, but not in contextual way. It is possible to select network Ads or only direct links, which advertisers buy on the publisher web site. AdBrite recently introduced InLine advertising (links to the words of web page text).

• Ads type: text ads, InLine ads and Intertitial
• Ads selection: selected by categories
• Minimum traffic amount: no
• Language: almost all
• Earnings type: Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression
• Advantages: it manages text ads and links selling in the same time
• Disadvantages: Lack of ads for non-english web sites.
• Take care about: Video ads are recently available
• Payments: check
• Subscription: https://www.adbrite.com/mb/commerce/register_form.php

It’s an affiliation program for contextual ads and inline ads. It has a good advertisers variety and the earning chance is not bad. Most common languages are available, but each language has its own web site with enrolment rules, tos etc.

• Ads type: annunci testuali e InLine
• Ads selection: contextual
• Minimum traffic amount: no
• Language: almost all but Portoghese (strange…)
• Earnings type: Pay Per Click
• Advantages: Nice interface for ads customisation. Good earnings.
• Disadvantages: No clicks number into the reports
• Take care about: Support seems slow
• Payments: Wire transfer
• Subscription: http://www.miva.com

It is one of the most popular contextual affiliate programs for InLine ads. Unfortunately he only accepts sites in English language. I am testing it from little and it seems to have a good performance, even if it’s not comparable with AdSense earnings. In any case it’s a good AdSense competitor. It allows to highlight the text on which contextualize and display Inline ads. It can be used together with AdSense like the others InLine programs (but it’s always better ask for confirmation to the AdSense support).

• Ads type:  Inline
• Ads selection: contextual
• Minimum traffic amount: no
• Language: English
• Earnings type: Pay Per Click
• Advantages: It allows to customize the underline colour
• Disadvantages: It accept English web sites only
• Take care about: it’s impossible to update your user data online
• Payments: check
• Subscription: http://www.kontera.com/mainform.aspx?type=1

It’s a Pay Per Performance affiliate program; it pays each time a user performs a specific action (lead, buy, contact etc). It has a huge list of publishers with a big number of banners, images and textual announcements to be manually inserted into web pages. You need to be authorized by each advertiser in order to promote their services. Imho it does not work on content web site.

• Ads type:  Images,  Flash movies and text
• Ads selection: manual
• Minimum traffic amount: no
• Language: Almost all
• Earnings type: It depends from advertiser (sell, lead or other. There’s few pay-per-click ads)
• Advantages: There’s a lot of publisher with terrific ads management tools
• Disadvantages: I don’t trust their stats.
• Take care about: When an advertiser does not pay Tradedoubler, the publisher (you) is not paid. It happens too much time in my opinion…
• Payments: wire transfer
• Subscription: http://www.tradedoubler.it/pan/login?action=register

Google has recently opened to Inline affiliate programs together with AdSense, but with the limitation of different layout and colours. If you want to take this chance you would in any case follow the rule number 1 of each AdSense publisher;

1. Ask for confirmation personally to the AdSense support
2. Print the positive answer
3. Keep it in a secure place, in case you’ll unfortunately need to use it

They could, however, constitute a valuable alternative and create a second leg to stand on in order to avoid depending on one source only.

But, let’s speak clearly: banners and graphic ads can’t compete with contextual ads on blogs, unless…

… you find a system to hyperlinks relevant keywords in every post, instantaneously and on-the-fly.

Image Credit: cre8tiv88

Now things would become interesting because, with only one action, you can add a remarkable amount of links. Check out how to proceed in each one of the cases:

• On a CMS developed in PHP
• On WordPress
• On VBulletin (one of the most common forum platform)

Generating links on-the-fly with WordPress: the Cross-linker plugin

Cross Linker is a great plugin for WordPress that generates links to determined keywords when the post is visualized without changing the source code (download version 1.3.2 here). Besides specifying the keywords with relative URLs for the link, it allows you to:

• ignore keywords included in determined tags
• insert the nofollow option in the anchor text
• search for the keywords to be linked also on comments

and much more.

Geek Auto linker Lite 4.5.0 for vBullettin

It’s the analogous plugin for that popular forum platform. It’s much more simple than Cross-linker for WordPress, but is executes its job perfectly. To download it, you need to register in the forum.

Generating links dynamically in a generic CMS developed in PHP

If you don’t have WordPress or vBullettin, but you do have a CMS in PHP, there’s a source you can use as a base to be perfected and adapted to your demands:

$anchor_keys["anchor1"] = “http://www.site.com/path/to/affiliation1″;
$anchor_keys["anchor2"] = “http://www.site.com/path/to/affiliation2″;
$anchor_keys["anchor3"] = “http://www.site.com/path/to/affiliation3″;
while (list($anchor,$link) = each($anchor_keys)) {

$key_linked=”<a href=”$link” rel=”nofollow” style=” … “>”.$anchor.”</a>”;
$post = preg_replace(’{b’.$key.’b}’, $key_linked, $post,3);
$post = preg_replace(’{(<A[^<]*)’.$key_linked.’([^<]*>)}i’, ‘$1′.$key.’$2′, $post);
$post = preg_replace(’{(<A[^<]*)’.$key_linked.’([^<]*</A>)}i’, ‘$1′.$key.’$2′, $post);
}

This code performs the following task:

1. Before viewing the post, search in the text the words to be used as anchor texts indicated in the array $anchor_keys
2. Once you find them, link them to the corresponing URL
3. Check if they’re not a part of a link (as an anchor text or URL), if so, it removes the link that’s just been created
4. Preview the post

Cautions

You’d better not exaggerate on this possibility and avoid forcing links not relevant that send the user to unexpected places. If, for example, you spontaneously link Skype to your posts, you could, in some cases, do it through an affiliate program that recognizes a commission. The user will get to Skype.com anyway regardless it’s a direct link or not.

Furthermore, it’s advisable to use the nofollow option for affiliate links since, even they forward the user to a relevant content, they do so through an intermediate path that is not relevant, and they could play not very pleasant games from an SEO point of view.

In relation to the most popular affiliate programs, I suggest two among all:

• Commission Junction
  I’d dare to say it’s the number one affiliate program in the world
• Tradedoubler
  It has all kinds of advertisers

So, accepting all the  incoming friendship requests could work well on Facebook but could not on LinkedIn. Lifestreaming is strictly unrecommended  and it is better to add your website link into your profile only if it provides relevant information about your job and your skills.

Another substantial difference between LinkedIn and others social network is;

Do not join groups for the sake of adding one more group logo on your profile page. Join a group only if it relates to your career or interest and only, only if you can devote time to participate and be a valuable member of that group.

but my favourite recommendation is:

Do not beg for recommendations. If people think you are good they will recommend. If you feel like asking for a recommendation, make sure the person you are asking is a good colleague whose words actually bear some weight when possible employers look at your profile. Don’t have your uncle,aunt,mom and dad leave recommendations for you. We are not in high school.

Come on, who did not  thought this almost one time! I am a good boy, you can check it

Check this video out if you still don’t know LikedIn:

Via Applicant

In fact, as well as the web and social networks have influenced both media and marketing with viral effects, so have they been strongly influencing financial products such as loans.

A loan system, that is, a micro-credit one managed with social dynamics is called Social Lending.

Photo Credit: mitarart

If you’re not familiar with social lending yet, here’s what you need to know:

What’s the difference between Social Lending and traditional loans?

On traditional loans, it is the bank that lends you money, on social lendings it is the individuals like you who will lend money to you.

If I’m not granted a loan through the bank, is it likely that I’ll get it from websites like these?

Hardly. Even on online social lendings, the requester’s rating is calculated (the risk for investors who lend you money). If you’re a high risk borrower for a bank, you’ll probably get the same status online.

Do I need to provide guarantees for a loan?

No, or at least, not the way it is requested by banks.

So, there’s a chance I may not restitute my debits? Once there are no guarantees…

Theorically, you might, but consider that you won’t get high sums of money from Social Lending. And not restituting a small sum of money implies the impossibility of reusing this opportunity in the future and for good. Is it worth it?

If it is individuals like me to lend the money, consequently, I myself can do it.

Exactly. In a Social Lending platform, you can register for both loans request and financial investing by lending money to others.

If I wish to lend money but the requester doesn’t need to give any guarantees, what kind of guarantees will I have?

There’s a maximum limit of money you’re allowed to invest, which is subdivided in parts. You can’t lend more than one part to the same person.

To provide a practical example: if you invest 10.000 euros in total, you can’t lend a single person more than 10% of this value. Therefore, you’re compelled to lend 1000 euros to 10 different persons. That limits your risk and avoids speculation.

Consequently, the person requiring the loan will receive it from lots of investors, not only one.

But, what’s the interest rate?

That is perhaps the most interesting point about social lendings: the interest rate is established by whom requires the loan. The requester submits the request specifying the amount, the motivations for the request and the interest rate they are willing to pay.

But, then I can ask for a very low rate!

Yes, but who will be willing to lend you the money? These are the laws of supply and demand. If your rate is too low, no one will offer you money, and you’ll have to submit the request again, raising it. Therefore, as you can see, it is all about the laws of the market, with banks outside.

So…

I hope to have succeeded in explaining the concept of social lending. And beware to the fact that each social lending platform has its own rules, so consider the information on this post as a general guiding.

Here are some peer-to-peer loan platforms:

• Zopa
• Prosper
• Kiva
  Targeted to microcredit for poor countries, based in the USA.
• Virgin Money
• CommunityLend
• LendingClub
• GlobeFunder

The most common way of phishing is sending an email which invites the user to update his/her own credit card information or other due to various, and clearly false, reasons.

The link the user should click really looks very similar to the one of the actual service supplier, but the real destination is another and the provided information is drawn by unknown people with fraudulent purposes. Media often give the alarm, but never make available to users the few and easy pieces of information to defend oneself from this kind of swindles. To protect oneself against phising is extremely simple.

When the cheat takes place

Phishing does not happen when user clicks on the suggested link, but only when he/she enters personal data in the link destination page. It’s therefore sufficient to check with attention the page address in order to understand whether we are dealing with phishing or not (even if, for non-expert users, it would be better never to click on links of unclear nature).

Page source

Once in the page containing the form for data entering, watch the extended address of the page itself. In particular, examine the domain, which is the part between ‘http:// ‘ and what comes after the next “/”. In the example the domain is displayed in blue: http://cldp.co.kr/ws/redirected.to.paypal.com/cgi-bin/web-run/Paypal.dll It’s a tiny string which reveals whether the page is authentic or not.

Second level domain

The domain is unmistakably made up of words separated by dots. Well, the first two domain words starting from the right identify the actual page source (the so-called second level domain). The actual address source in our example is highlighted in red: http://cldp.co.kr/ws/redirected.to.paypal.com/cgi-bin/web-run/Paypal.dll Even if the creators of the page in our example have made their best to spread the word Paypal in many positions of the address, it is clear, on the basis of what was explained, that the page, no matter how much similar to those of Paypal, is fake.

Phishing, the most skillful ones.

As regards the domain, (in our example cldp.co.kr) the part in red is the identifier, registered to a registar, while the one in blue (what comes before the second level domain) can be set by phising authors as they like. It is then possible that in the domain also appears the name of the company whose users are the target of the cheat, but this can appear only in the blue part of the domain. So, even if our page address was: http://Paypal.co.kr/ws/redirected.to.paypal.com/cgi-bin/web-run/Paypal.dll This address would NOT belong to Paypal because the second level domain is not the correct one. In fact the real second level domain name of Paypal have to be paypal.com and not co.kr

The answer of Matt Cutts

This software is supplied in 2 languages, Chinese and English, even if some texts such as the name of some channels are not translated from Chinese in the English version.

Many of the sport events in Italy are paid for, can be watched for free on the channels provided by PPLive as well as sport events of others countries.

These channels obviously have the broadcasting rights in their own geographical jurisdiction but, clearly enough, in internet borders and geography do not mean much. Thus, by sending the streaming signal in the network, everybody can follow these events.

How it works

The PPLive set up file has a size of 5 Mb; once installed the programme icon appears on Windows taskbar. By double-clicking it, a small interface is open, with the video on the left side and a list of channels, many of which with indecipherable names, on the right.

In order to open a channel, one has just to double-click on its name, wait for PPlive to connect to the streaming and preload, and the video will start.

We tested some of them and, honestly, have been struck by the image quality, considering that the signal is a streaming via internet and underlining anyway that, in order to get a satisfying image quality, it would be better to support a streaming of at least 300k, that is to have a good connection supported by a good modem.

Channels and events

Obviously many, most of the channels are Chinese or from East Asia, but some of them have the rights to broadcast events which here are charged and, anyway, also programmes in many other languages are provided.

For those less experienced I dare say that­:

internet line can be compared to a sort of pipe and connection speed is the water passing from that pipe.

For this reason:

1. our provider doesn’t supply us with water but he just provides us with a pipe and we just pay for our pipe real capacities (the real amount of water that can pass through it);
2. the source of our water is not our ISP but it comes from another tab (the server we are connected to).

That is to say that all online programs measuring our line speed usually send us a file showing the download program speed (in practice they deliver into our tab a certain amount of water so that we can estimate the real quantity passing through our tab at the same time).

The first real trouble to run reliable tests is the following:

• Is the speed showed by servers during these tests lie or truth? And is it the same one as for any pc? In other words, are the figures real ones?
• If so, does this speed correspond to my computer one?

So you must check if the visualized download speed is not an invention.

To verify our speed we can install a program testing our band and it will show us the data entry speed that should correspond to the one visualized in any test site. I found a free and nice one, Netmeter. You can install and start it during your ADSL speed test so that you can do a comparison of all figures (the ones showed to you and also your pc ones). Then you will be showed a window like this one:

Make a supposition of your ADSL speed from different test results

It might even sound like a silly doubt, but it is not. In case my ADSL speed test server supplies my tab with a quantity of water smaller than its capacity, its speed will be a correct one but it will never correspond to my line real speed.

Here you have different download speeds reported during speed test programs I personally ran using these devices:

• CPU dual core – WinXP Pro Notebook
• Router Wifi Zyxel 660 HW
• Wlan Connection 802.11 b/g (up to 54 Mbps)

Even if they are very variable, I had confirmation during all tests by my Net Meter that these data are reliable ones. So, how to know my real connection speed?

If thinking about the comparison of water and tab, with reliable figures, my ADSL speed nearest result certainly is the highest one (4.492 by zdnet.com.au). All the others had lower results for the following reasons:

• They sent less data than my line could really support (less water than my tab capacities);
• Maybe the net was engaged (a water waste during the flowing and so its incoming quantity is less than my tab capacities).

The main difference between Wifi and Ethernet cable connections

Of course, we are not dealing with the same 10Mbps I am paying money for, but I feel lucky in comparison to other people facing some sort of never ending stories. Anyway, I didn’t want to be content with that, so I had the care of repeating all tests again, this time connecting my notebook to the router by an Ethernet cable and not a Wifi connection.

Then a doubt arose, as I already knew that Ethernet cables guarantee a better performance on the same line in comparison to wlan 802.11 b/g, but I didn’t know how much.

Give a glance to all the same line and same conditions results, using an Ethernet cable to the router.

Connecting by a cable the notebook to the router, I obtained that my ADSL ran at an incredible higher speed! Then I had the possibility to confirm that all these tests are reliable even when new cable measurements show homogeneous and substantial differences among all ADSL speed tests in comparison to wireless ones.

I even had a strong waste of time trying to improve my wifi connection. I did so working on my router settings, but I didn’t get to any consistent improvement. Then, as for wireless connection, I was already in a sort of pole position.

Anyway, in this occasion too, I had the chance of making new discoveries, that sooner I’ll have the pleasure to share with you all.

Many are DSL operators inefficiencies, and sometimes you just need a little bit more knowledge to avoid any useless stress. Here you can get some further information in order to verify whether your ADSL is really a slow one or you just made a possible wrong estimation.

Photo Credit: cerae

Differences between asynchronous (ADSL) and synchronous (SDSL) DSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is a wide band line with an upload speed lower than its download one. For private and not business use ADSL is the most common one as there is no need to send too many data, for there are many more incoming data than outgoing ones. On the contrary symmetric DSL (SDSL) guarantees you the same speed, for both kind of data.

Megabit and Megabyte: how to understand lines real speed

For a 4 Mbps (Megabit per second) line people think of a 4 Mb/sec (Megabyte per second) download speed. Be careful: one byte corresponds to 8 bits; one kilobyte corresponds to 1024 bytes; one megabyte corresponds to 1024 kilobytes. Such a high quantity of speed measures variables usually generates a sort of confusion, created on purpose by the commercial system.

Here you have a list of an hypothetical 4Mbps line, which is translated in bit, bytes and megabytes:

• A Mbps line downloads no more than:

• • 4 Megabit per second
  • 500 Kbyte per second
  • 0,5 MegaByte per second

So, a 100 Mb file, with a 4 Mbps line, should need 200 seconds time download, with a browser indicating a 500kb/sec download speed.

The minimum guaranteed band

Therefore, all operators guarantee a really minimum speed much lower than the one in force in all commercial networks. For a more detailed idea of ADSL lines performances, you must calculate as done before, considering the minimum guaranteed band and not the commercialized speed.

Anyway, take care: the minimum guaranteed band is often indicated in kilobit! But your PC can show a kilobyte speed where 1 kilobyte corresponds to 8 kilobit. Is that clear? You should divide the minimum guaranteed band for 8 and the result will be the value that should be then shown in your PC during the download (in case it shows it in kilobytes).

Let’s take a 10Mb file, that must be downloaded on a PC, and let’s give a glance to the maximum download speed supposed to be as the guaranteed band varies:

• 128 Kilobit/sec.-> 11 minutes download at the maximum, with a transfer speed of 16 Kilobyte/sec.
• 256 Kilobit/sec.-> 5,5 minutes download at the maximum, with a transfer speed of 32 Kilobyte/sec.
• 512 Kilobit/sec.-> 2,5 minutes download at the maximum, with a transfer speed of 64 Kilobyte/sec.

How to calculate your real ADSL download speed

1. Connect here and check your line download speed
2. Mark Kbps (kilobit per second) speed
3. Check which is the minimum speed guaranteed specified in your subscription and, first of all, if it is in Kilobit (it should be so)
4. Connect here, insert your value in the text box and then the speed is converted in other measurements standards (Kilobyte, Megabyte, etc).

In conclusion: too many people are still confused by kilobit and kilobytes, as there is no clearness on the subject.

I hope I didn’t do any serious mistake…if so…please tell me !!!