With the holidays upon us, these things will sell like hotcakes. Personally, I’ve added links to two of my blogs, and have already seen a great deal of success. In a week, I have earned over $100 in commission.   Get registered and start promoting this merchant, kiddies… your bank account will thank you!

The author of Increase Adsense Income is one of those people.  Taking her Adsense income from pennies per week to hundreds per day, this stay at home mom found a few “golden” techniques that she uses on all of her blogs, in order to increase the income that she makes with Google Adsense.

Written in a simple to read, easy to understand tone, this once-broke mom walks the reader through understanding Google Adsense, creating effective ad units, and explains how to place them within one’s blog for maximum click-potential.   The book is for both novices as well as those who have been struggling for months (or years), failing to reach pay-out each month.

If you’re a Google pro, already earning several hundred per month with each of your blogs or sites, this book probably isn’t for you.  You might be using the same techniques she uses.  Then again, you might learn something new.

If you’re new to using Google Adsense, or you want to learn ways to boost the income you make with Google Adsense, I DEFINITELY suggest you purchase this Increase Adsense Income ebook.  At less than $40, it’s a bargain considering the income you could earn as a result.

This entry was a sponsored blog post. If you’d like to hire me to review your blog,  site, or eboo, please visit my paid reviews page.

How do you do this?   There are two basic ways you can do this: RSS (real simple syndication) feed and email newsletters. There are pros and cons of each, so you need to determine what your needs are before making your final decision.  Here’s a simple breakdown of the pros and cons, as I see it:

RSS feed pros:

RSS feeds require no extra work on your part.  You just put a link on your site, enabling readers to subscribe to your feed, and –Voila!– you have yourself a subscribed reader.  Now, each time you write a new blog post, your reader will be able to read it.     Your reader also has the benefit of being able to choose the method he/she will receive and read your feed:  feed reader or email.  The main perks of using RSS: it’s free, and your readers will always know when you’ve written a new entry.

RSS feed cons:

With RSS feed, you don’t have access to your readers’ information, and therefore aren’t able to do backups of your subscription data base.    With RSS, you’re unable to run split tests (sending different emails to different members), and unable to contact them in any way other than with blog posts.

Email marketing newsletters pros:

Most email marketing newsletter companies have more capabilites than RSS feeds.  You can run tests, alter the look and layout, and include banner ads in your outgoing newsletters.  You also have more control, in that you can send out newsletters that are independent of and not reflected on the site itself.  This means you can entice readers to subscribe by promising content that’s not included on the site.

Email marketing cons:

Coming up with content for a blog and a newsletter might be daunting for some.  Unlike RSS feeds, email marketing is not free.  Most sites charge a monthly fee to manage your email membership lists.

A Weber has graciously offered to allow my readers to take a free test drive of their email marketing services.  If you’re interested in learning how A Weber can help with your email marketing strategies, fill out their info box below:

• The domain name should be as short as possible
• It should be catchy and memorable
• It should be spelled correctly
• It should be able to be advertised by word-of-mouth
• It should be created with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind

The length of your domain name is important, because readers want to reach your site as quickly as possible.  SeeMomSave.com is quicker to type than SeeMomSaveMoneyOnGroceriesAndOtherThings.com.   Your domain name should be as short and to the point as you can make it. Of course, with the huge number of websites on the web, “good” domain names can be hard to come by.  Most single-word domain names have been taken.  Make a list of all of the words your site will be about, and then find ways to use or combine a few of those words to create your domain name.

Make your domain name catchy, so that your readers will remember it.  Online, you can’t rely on catchy jingles to make your domain name stick with your readers, so you need to rely on catchy wording.

Spell all of your words correctly.  I can’t stress how important this is.   First of all, you want your readers to be able to remember how to spell your site’s name, so that they can tell their friends about it.   If your domain name is OldeTymeGames.com, you’ll have your readers sending friends to all variety of spelling variations (OldTime, OldeThyme, etc.).   Also, you want your readers to be able to convey the name of your site to their friends verbally.  You don’t want your readers having to tell their friends, “It’s OldeTymeGames, but the ‘Old” is spelled with an ‘E,” and ‘Time’ is spelled with a ‘Y.’”   Not only is this difficult for the reader to convey, but chances are the person they tell will forget how to spell it by the time they get to their computer.

Your domain name should hint at what your site is about.  Remember that before your readers can find  your site, the search engines must find it first.  Search engines don’t have brains, and aren’t able to understand irony or cuteness.  Search bots only understand clear, direct wording.  If you have an idea about giving your site a “symbolic” sort of name, you should go back and give it some more thought.  If the words “Gold Dress” is your way of trying to convey, “This site is about making money, which is what the word ‘gold’ symbolizes,” then you might be on the wrong track.   Search engines and targeted ads might mistake your site for a blog about parties or nightlife.  SEO and search engines aside, you also want your readers to know, at first glance, what your site is about.   Like the title of a book, let them know without a doubt, what your brand is all about.

Ready to purchase your domain name?  Go there now.

Any link ending with obvious affiliate links (things like ?ref=2347575) will either turn your visitor away OR will cause him or her to open another window and type in the name of the website (withOUT your affiliate code).

I’ve found that in affiliate marketing, the less real info you give your reader about the site you’re sending them to, the more likely they are to click your link. This means that Click here will get more clicks than cashcrate.com, which will get you more clicks than using http://cashcrate.com/341668

I call this “making your links pretty,” because… well, because I’m a mom and moms like pretty things. The technical phrase, I suppose, would be “using html to mask your links.” If you are using a site-building software, chances are that you have a tool bar that has a little “chain link” icon on it. That’s what you’d use to create a nicer-looking link. Simply write out the words that you want to be clickable, highlight them, click the chain link icon, and type in the url with your affiliate code. If the link is going to another site (rather than another page in your site), make sure to indicate that you want this link to open a new window when it’s clicked (most site-building programs ask this when you put in your link).

If you’re using html to build your site (or if you’d like to learn the basic html command for creating a link for future reference), use the following instructions:

• Use an opening bracket like this <
• Add the anchor command a href=” (this basically translates to “this link will redirect to the following url”). So you now have <a href=”
• Add the url with your affiliate link in it, and add the closing quotations (for this example, we’ll use the same one I used above): http://cashcrate.com/341668″ So you now have <a href=”http://cashcrate.com/341668″
• Close that command with a closing bracket > and you now have completed the first part of your html command. It should look something like this (except of course, that it will be your own affiliate url): <a href=”http://cashcrate.com/341668″>
• Type in the words that you want to be hyperlinked (clickable). For this example, I’ll use the words “Click here.” So you now have something that looks like this: <a href=”http://cashcrate.com/341668″> Click here.
• Close your anchor command (which is basically you signaling the computer that “this is the end of the words that I want to be clickable). The closing command is simply </a>
  
• Now you should have some html code that looks like this: <a href=”http://cashcrate.com/341668″> Click here.</a>

In the visual mode (once you’ve saved your work), all that gobblety gook will look like this: Click here.

A few great things about this company:

* Their products are topical, appealing to those who are into pop culture and current events.

* You can promote their homepage, any single shirt, or any category of shirts (which ever is a better fit with your site/blog)

* Their statistics are tracked in real time (which means as soon as someone purchases a shirt with one of your links, the commission shows up on your statistics page).

If you’re interested in earning income by promoting these shirts, click here to go directly to their affiliate sign-up page.

Look at this page, which I’ve created to give an example of an affiliate marketer who is attempting to earn the site owner revenue from people registering to take online surveys. Scroll down to see the entire page. You wouldn’t believe how many sites I see like this… many of them with 10 times the number of banners this page has. Many newbie affiliates think that the flashing banners will attract viewers (and earnings), but the opposite is true. Banners, when used excessively, actually turn visitors away.

One simple tweak in methods could have these affiliate marketers earning several times the revenue they are currently earning: using text links and content. You saw the page of blinking banners. Now take a look at this page,. Here, the affiliate has written an intro, and has written a short informational blurb about several of the survey sites she’s referring her visitors to. Both examples are attempting to drive their visitors to the same sort of sites. Research shows that the 2nd example (the one with text links) will see much higher commission revenue than sites with only (or mainly) banner ads.

As with almost everything in life, there is a time and place for banners. Use banners in your side bars, or one in your header. If you can, steer away from using too many that flash or move. While the flash might have attracted visitors back in the late 90’s, the modern online-experienced eye tends to ignore banners with too much activity.

Use banners as you’d use salt when cooking. Used sparingly, banners can add a little flavor to your site… but remember that too much will ruin even the best recipe.

There are several routes to go when you become an affiliate marketer. Some prefer to just list advertisements for merchants (paying for ads that link directly to the sellers’ sites). Most, however, prefer to build sites that include links to advertisers.

This is a concise, step-by-step instructional on how you can utilize the build-a-website option of affiliate marketing. If you have questions, please contact me.

1. Brainstorm. Think of an idea for a site. Make it something that you really, truly have a passion about. Politics, pets, purses, or whatever tickles your brain.

2. Brainstorm again. Now that you have an idea in mind, you need to come up with a name for your site. Make it something descriptive, catchy, and creative. Descriptive means make the title relevant to the site. CindysAwesomeSite.com doesn’t tell me what it’s about. Know that creative spelling might cost you some visitors, though. ILoveWhiteFurryCats.com will get more traffic than say ILuvWhiteFurryCatz.com.

3. Register that domain name. Before you can start building your site, you need to purchase rights to the domain you chose. I use and recommend Go Daddy for domain purchases. They have great prices, and the best support I’ve seen. Click here to go to Go Daddy and register your domain name.

4. Purchase a hosting plan. A host company saves your site on their servers. You’re basically paying for someone to hold it and make it available online. Host Gator’s hosting plan is one of the best because, for just $7.95 per month you can host unlimited sites with them. This means that if and when you decide to branch out and create new sites, you won’t have to pay additional hosting fees. Click here to visit Host Gator & learn more about their plans.

5. Build. This is probably the most challenging part of the job. Building the site. If you’re proficient in HTML, you can get busy building the site that fits your needs precisely. Those who know little or nothing about HTML can build impressive sites using Premium Web Templates. By using templates, you can pick one that suits you, then add in your content.

6. Join networks. Check out my directory of affiliate networks. It’s a comprehensive listing of strong, legitimate networks that can enhance your site and earn you commission. Register for as many as you can (they’re all free), then search their programs to find merchants that fit in with your site.

7. Create Content. When it comes to affiliate marketing, content is king. Sites made up of nothing but banner ads will drive visitors away. Overly-wordy sites will hold attention for a little longer than rows and rows of banners, but you need to find a happy medium to hold on to your visitors. Think of the content on your site as a conversation with new friends at a party: You want to write in normal, friendly, informative tones.

8. Add relevant links. If your site is about junk food, you can write a post about the most popular holiday snacks. Then browse your networks, looking for programs you could mention (and promote) within your post. LinkShare Corporation, for example, represents a merchant that sells gourmet popcorn. So instead of writing, “One of the most popular edible gifts is popcorn. You can get it at your local grocery store or online.” You would write, “One of the most popular edible gifts is popcorn. If you haven’t tasted gourmet popcorn, you’re missing out! Dave & Thomas have to-die for flavors. Click here for a special coupon offer from Dale and Thomas Popcorn!”

The link has embedded code that will send your readers to the merchants you choose, and you’ll get commission on any sales that your link generates. Affiliate networks have done most of the work for you. Just search for merchants that you think will tie in with your site/post, and then click on “text links” to choose one that you like best.

There are a few tricks that will make your visitors click the Adsense ads on your page.

* Don’t put borders around your adsense links.

* Make sure the background of your adsense links matches the background of your site (nothing screams “Advertisements!” like an island of screaming bright background on a pale background (or vice-versa).

* Place adsense code at the top of your pages. Visitors’ eyes will have to glance at the ads before they read your content. Also, Adsense likes to refer to whatever is directly beneath it. By putting adsense above your content, you ensure that the ads will pertain to your content.

Google Adsense has been referred to as “Welfare for Affiliate Marketers,” meaning it’s that slow-but-sure, guaranteed payment you will receive each month. Armed with tricks and skills, however, you can turn that monthly “affiliate welfare” check into a sizable, respectable sum. (Employing such techniques, one affiliate went from $1 a day to $600 per day.)

To learn more tricks of the Adsense trade, get a copy of The Best Google Adsense Book. Or, learn from another Adsense master, with this ebook offer (he’s truly an Adsense guru, and I learned a lot of what I know from him… and my bank account and I are very happy with what I’ve learned. )

The Secret explains with simplicity the law that is governing all lives, and offers the knowledge of how to create – intentionally and effortlessly – a joyful life. This is the secret to everything – the secret to unlimited happiness, love, health and prosperity.

The book is not religious, overly wordy, or difficult to understand. If you want to start or maintain your own online career, give this book a read to get you into the right frame of mind.