Daily Web Dev

 I recently stumbled on an article abot Microsoft’s Adcenter. It seems to me to be their response to the success of Yahoo Overture and Google Adsense. I have seen little news about the program, so I thought it would be good if I shared and discussed it on this blog. Here is a Link to the Program.

The program looks promising, in my opinion. There are some interesteting and new features, including Video Advertisements which I predict will become very popular. Microsoft adcenter also had some neat keyword features such as keyword forecast and keyword clustering. The program looks good, however, it does not seem like it can take on Adsense or Yahoo because of Microsoft’s limited search marketshare. I have not yet signed up for the program, but I plan on applying soon. If I am accepted, I will definetly post my response to the program.

4 Ways to Optimize your site for Adsense or YPN

Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network can generate good revenue for your site. Building a quality site is important to generate revenue. Building a site takes a lot of time and hard work. However, by spending a little time perfecting your Adsense or YPN techniques, you can easily increase your earnings. By using these tips, with time and trial and error, you should be able to grow your Adsense earnings.

Offer Quality Content
The best way to get relevant ads is by writing quality content for users to read. If you have little content on your site, you will likely get unrelated ads and therefore less clicks. Writing some unique articles is a good way to increase traffic as well as Adsense earnings. Users reading articles on a website are also more likely to click your ads.

Optimize your Content for Keywords
Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network place ads based on the content on your page. The ad networks search your Title, URL, keywords, meta tags, etc… The best way to make sure you get relevant ads is by changing those things to relate them to your articles or website. Many practices used for Search Engine Optimization, can be applied for optimizing your page for relevant ads. I suggest trying to target a certain keyword or a few keywords. Make sure the keyword is in the page title, meta tags and URL. Also, try to use <h1> and <b> tags on the keywords.

Choose the Best Ad Placement and Format
One of the most important parts of Adsense optimization is where you place the ads. Also, the ad format is important. Try not to overcrowd your page with ads. Limit your pages to two ads per page, three at the very most. Users will be unlikely to return to your site if it is filled with ads. Also, fewer ads look more professional. Try to use smaller ad formats, my favorites are the 468*60 Banner and 120*600 skyscraper. Place your ads where they will be seen the most and keep them close to your website’s content. If you have written an article, the best place to put your ads is usually after the article, as the user is done reading and may be interested in going to a related site.

Try to Blend your Ads with your Website
Blending your ads with your website is a great way to increase your click through ratio, as well as make your site look better and more professional. The easiest way to make your ads look more similar to your site is by using the colors in your website in your ads. Both Yahoo Publisher Network and Adsense allow you to change the colors of your ads. You can also blend your ads by placing them in areas where they look like they are part of the site.

On Feb 1, 2010, Google officially announced the discontinued support of Google Apps for older browsers.

Google sent an email to all Google App users:

Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010.  After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.  We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience.  We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Apps product or account.

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Keep in mind, Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above. Although this may affect many users and corporations dependent upon older browsers, the innovation of new technology only calls for updates. We can view this as a great step forward for the virtual world.