Internet Babel

Whilst reading a post earlier today on ProBlogger Darren hit on something I’d never really thought about before.

This is the post I’m referring to, it’s a post about the downsides of using Adsense on your blog. He also did a post on the upsides here. But on the ‘downside post’ at the end, he touches on the fact that many small bloggers quit before ever reaching their $100 minimum payout limit;

“While it’s nice that AdSense accepts these publishers with little traffic (some ad networks don’t) the reality is that some bloggers give up before hitting this mark. I wonder how much money AdSense makes out of this.”

previous to reading that post I’d never even considered that fact. But thinking about it… Google must make a ton from people who sign up… fail to see immediate results… and quit. They then have to pay the publisher nothing as he or she has quit anyway and stopped displaying ads therefore will never reach their $100 payout limit.

By the title of this post it may suggest I’m saying that Google make the bulk of their income from this, obviously I am not suggesting that for a second! haha, but still, when you consider the amount of publishers who just quit before reaching $100 and never look back… must be some nice pocket change for em’!

Anybody who has used Adsense for long enough and has read into Google’s TOS knows that they can be very vague, a little bit sly and at times, a bit unfair.

Generally and genuinely, I believe they try their best to provide a good service for their advertisers and publishers. But most would say they seem to sway more in favor of their advertisers. Certainly when it comes to click fraud, where a publisher may be completely innocent. Very little tolerance. Which is fair enough… well, not to the publisher but I can see there’s not much room for error on their part.

But given they seem to want to protect their advertisers so much and are constantly telling publishers to follow their TOS on ad placement, copyright, content, copyright etc it seems a bit hypocritical of them to place Adsense ads on YouTube don’t you think?

Over the past… month or so I’ve noticed Adsense ads being integrated into YouTube more which I don’t mind at all but… don’t Google’s TOS state ads should not be placed onto pages with any kind of copyright content? yet YouTube is, well… absolutely packed out with copyright content.

Now… I can recall numerous debates about whether or not Google mind you putting ads on the same page as an embedded YouTube video, given it may be copyright. I know on YouTube now, they basically put the weight on the uploaders’ shoulders so to speak, advising any uploaded content is basically the responsibility of whoever uploads it.

Fair enough, as long as Google don’t start getting on publishers’ backs about Adsense ads on pages with videos on because, I’m pretty sure when there were debates about this. Google sort of… unofficially said… no. You can’t do it. Yet they do it themselves? maybe that’s why they’re always so vague with their answers, to cover their own actions at a later date?

Then again if you take a look at where the ads are on YouTube, they’re on search results pages and generic pages etc. Not actually on any VIDEO pages. Maybe that’s Google’s little way of escaping their own rules for some more income…

In the spirit of Christmas I’ll be giving away a free PS3!

Here’s how to enter:

1. Subscribe to this blog via Email

2. Post the following paragraph on your blog;

Internet Babel is a blog about making money online, blogging, web design, SEO and general Internet chat or… babel. Over at Internet Babel dot com, there is a free ps3 up for grabs! to enter simply click here and follow the instructions.

You can of course paraphrase to a degree and add other text to your post but the bulk must be in relation to the above. Also the links need to stay in tact and this must be posted in a post dedicated to this competition, not just in some random round-up post.

Once you have subscribed via email and posted that on your blog, simply send me the link to the post via the contact page (using the email you are subscribed with).

That’s it!

The winner will be chosen at random and will be announced here on the 22nd of December.

Thanks and good luck

Getting backlinks to your blog is one of the best ways of getting traffic. Getting your blog known, getting pagerank and getting a quality perception of your blog.

Here are some of the top ways to do so…

Good Content

Obviously, you don’t need to read this to know this. Good content is at the primary core of getting backlinks. If your content says nothing new or doesn’t even say something known in an articulate or interesting way. People won’t link to it. Make sure your content is as good as it can be.

The more you put in, the more you get back.

Here are some quick tips on how to improve your blog content (posts):
- Think viral
- Use correct grammar
- Use images in your posts
- Cover popular news within your niche
- Give your unique opinion on things

Competitions

Competitions, if good. Work. It’s just the nature of humans, we like to win free prizes! No matter how bad the prize, some people just cannot resist entering. Literally. They will enter just for the chance of winning, even if they have absolutely no interest or lust for the prize. Or believe they have nearly no chance of winning (just look at the lottery!). People do it because that thought in the back of the mind is always “I could win…” they enter INCASE they do win, because if they don’t and they watch someone else win they think “that could of been me!”.

It’s very hard for some people to resist the urge of a free competition and the Internet is no exception. Start doing some good competitions on your blog, give away some prizes and if your competition is viral… people will link to it. Aside from hopefully getting your blog linked to more, competitions also add interactivity to your blog. Letting your readers know you have their interest in mind as well.

Visit and Comment on Your Readers’ Blogs

It’s always good to keep in touch with your readers. They’re the ones keeping your blog alive so at least pay them the respect of taking a look at their stuff now and again. If you just take some time to visit some of your avid readers’ blogs, comment, look around, give some feedback. They will appreciate it and will be far more likely to link to you for nothing if they like an article you write.

Aside from this, another good way to get a free backlink is to read and comment on well known blogs. Most big blogs have a Top Commentators list now as a way of rewarding the most avid contributors. Getting the no.1 spot on a TC list, on a well known blog can bring some fairly good extra traffic and some more general awareness. It’s also a free backlink!

Use Social Networking Sites

Another obvious point. But a good one. Use social networking sites as much as you can. Sites like Digg can bring you enormous amounts of traffic, in quick succession no doubt but the traffic it produces can obviously lead to a lot of backlinks. Better still, targeted backlinks. They will be very likely to be from blogs and sites within your niche.

If you submit to the Business category on Digg… the people who digg it, will most likely; like, write or be into business. Therefore any backlinks they give to you will most likely be on their business site/s and or blog/s and anybody who clicks these links from there will also be targeted. It’s a on-going trail of links that will grow if you keep persisting.

These are just some of the ways of getting backlinks. Feel free to share your ideas on doing so to!

I’ve got a little project on the go…

I’ll let you all know what it is in a little while.

Well, if it works out that is

Congratulations to Tim from Yimto.com who was randomly picked as the winner of the free advertising spot as of the recent competition.

Thanks for all those that took part as well and don’t forget to keep reading… some great stuff coming up!