February 2008 Archives - Slick Affiliate

A Couple of Ideas to Improve Your AdSense Income

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Make Money Online, Technology

A couple of months ago Google made some significant changes to their AdSense program when they re-did the clickable area, which caused a lot of people to lose money. I know personally that my AdSense income dropped by at least $70.00 a month as a result of this change, and I’ve heard from several others that are have had the same problem.

Anytime there is a change, it is only natural we take the time to step back and look over the situation in the hope of finding a way to improve it. One post I ran across recently was written by Josh titled 10 Ways to Increase Your AdSense Income. In his post, Josh covers a bunch of methods people should consider when trying to maximize their clicks.

Two important tips:

2. Target competitive niches! I don’t care what anyone says about MFA sites, they work! I’m not talking about spam sites, I’m talking about high-quality, informative sites that are in a high paying market! Some of these niche sites can bring in $5-$10/day after only a couple days. When you’re making over a $1 per click you don’t need much traffic to make money.

3. If a site has a CTR of 1% or less, remove it from your site. Although there is some controversy as to whether or not CTR causes “smart pricing” to kick in, it’s just not worth risking. At least remove Adsense for a few weeks and see if your overall adsense income rises. If so, you were probably hit with Google’s Smart Pricing. If that site in particular was causing smart-pricing to kick in, consider a different monetization model.

And one tip I’m not so sure about:

8. Do not go by Google’s heat map. It’s a good visual aid for some layouts, but there are just too many variables. The effectiveness of any layout will be determined by color, style, niche etc. so testing is always your best bet!

Click over to check out the rest of the list!

Where Do You Backorder Most Of Your Domains?

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domain Backordering

In order to be a successful domainer, it seems that you truly need to have to devote some time to backordering domain names. This is a great way to find some diamonds in the rough and truly make some money, or get some quality domains to hang on to for awhile now.

Today while I was browsing through a few back order lists I began to wonder out loud about backordering domains. Where do you do most of your back orders? I regularly find domain names that I would love to own, but some I wouldn’t pay the minimum $60.00+ on, and the others get bid up really high.

For many part-time domainers it can be tough to spend that kind of money regularly on domain names, which creates a significant advantage for full-time domainers with deep pockets to snatch up any domains that might have a long term value.

Where do you have the most success back ordering domains?

Do You Still Use Facebook?

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Web Based Apps

Today I noticed an interesting post over at Webware, which talks about a planned face lift for Facebook. In looking at the screenshots provided, I really don’t see a major difference in the look of the site, but it will be nice to have the wall in its own tab.

While looking over the photos, I realized that I haven’t logged into Facebook in awhile. I’ve probably logged in twice in the past 2 months, mostly for maintenance purposes (approve friends, check wall, etc.). Do you find that you still use Facebook? Or has it lost most of it’s appeal?

DNJournal Updates Reported Domain Sales

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domain Sales

After skipping a week due to T.R.A.F.F.I.C, but it looks like DNJournal has finally updated their domain sales page with the latest sales figures.

Only one domain that broke the 100k mark, which was Unet.com. A couple others went much higher than I would have expected, but I consider that to be a good thing, because it means our industry is healthy and demand is higher than supply. Those domainers with the one word generics are doing quite well.

Any names that surprised you?

Tips For Picking a Popular Niche For A New Blog

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Blogging

Whenever you start a new blog, it is extremely important to spend a little time researching before purchasing a domain name, picking a design, and launching the blog. Before getting started, you’ll first need to find the right niche for your blog. This is often easier said than done. Even if you know what you want to talk about, sometimes you are better off looking for a more focused keyword within the same niche.

If you are interested in learning more about how to research your niche, Copyblogger has posted some great tips on niche keyword research and provides some examples of a keyword hunt that was recently done. This is probably one of the better write ups covering niche keyword strategy.

How much research do you do before launching a new blog?

New Information About Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Free Software

I’m a big fan of the Mozilla Thunderbird software. I generally use a mixture of Thunderbird 2.0 and Microsoft Outlook 2003 to manage my 15+ e-mail accounts via POP3 and have no real complaints. After looking at what is in store for Thunderbird users, I will be considering making the permanent switch to Thunderbird once version 3.0 comes out.

For more information about Thunderbird 3.0, I recommend you check out this post over at Webware. Among the things we can expect are better searches, a built-in calendar (this is huge for me), and some new technology that is designed to take message beyond e-mail (IM integration, etc.).

Anyone else looking forward to Thunderbird 3.0?