A discussion of earning with Affiliate Programs, SEO, Wordpress Blogging and General Motivational Ideas for Internet Publishers

First off, I’d like to wish those who celebrate it a “Happy Easter” and to everybody, hope you’re enjoying your life, family and your experience earning a living using the internet to drive affiliate sales. I’m currently working on a few projects of interest to the blogging community which have my mind on fire for new articles for this blog, but for now, I’d like to update any of my readers here about the status of this blog.

I’m currently designing a new theme for this blog -on-the-fly- (for anybody who has noticed). I don’t really want to go for a John Chow or ProBlogger style as far as the layout goes, but this blog has published some decent material over the last year and I feel it deserves a make-over.

New website added to the blogroll:

- Super Affiliate Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

I’ve been reading this guy’s blog for a while (probably commented on it a few times) and I think Zac is one of the fellow bloggers I’d give a nofollow’ed plug to beside Andy Beard and Matt Cutts. The reason I recommend Zac’s blog is because he does his best to be motivational but he also tells the truth when it needs to be told. Let’s face it, a negative opinion of anything in the blogging world can cost you readers. That’s why I get annoyed with bloggers who always put a shiny coating on everything. Fear of losing readers for telling the truth is not unlike a “holy grail” to the bloggers pumping up their RSS feed reader stats by offering only rosy opinions. A real blogger needs to sling a little shit (pardon me) once in a while and play politician to sway contemporary opinion… Anyway, that’s why I added Zac, forgot to mention, every time I check out his blog it inspires me and I learn something. That’s what a good blog should do.

Happy Easter,
and think about this…

         

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In an event that is a slap in the fave to humanitarian efforts inside China, journalist Shi Tao was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities requested by the communist government.

From the AP wire :

Yahoo Execs Defend Company’s Role in Arrest of Chinese Journalist WASHINGTON (AP) — Two top Yahoo Inc. officials on Tuesday defended their company’s role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist but ran into withering congressional criticism over information Yahoo gave the Chinese government about the man’s online activities. “Yahoo claims that this is just one big misunderstanding. Let me be clear — this was no misunderstanding,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said as his panel’s hearing got under way. “This was inexcusably negligent behavior at best, and deliberately deceptive behavior at worst.” He angrily urged Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan to apologize to journalist Shi Tao’s mother, who was sitting directly behind them. Shi Tao was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities requested by the communist government. Yang and Callahan turned around from the witness table and bowed from their seats to Shi’s mother, Gao Qinsheng, who bowed in return and then began to weep. In written testimony Yang contended that Yahoo “has been open and forthcoming with this committee at every step of this investigative process” — a contention Lantos rejected. The committee is investigating statements Callahan made at a congressional hearing early last year. He said at the time that Yahoo had no information about the nature of the Chinese government’s investigation of Shi when the company shared information with the authorities about Shi’s online activities. Callahan has since acknowledged that Yahoo officials had received a subpoena-like document that made reference to suspected “illegal provision of state secrets” — a common charge against political dissidents. Last week Callahan issued a statement saying that he learned the details of the document months after his February 2006 testimony, and that he regretted not alerting the committee to it once he knew about it. He reiterated that regret in written testimony Tuesday and contended that Yahoo employees in China had little choice but to comply with the government’s demands. “I cannot ask our local employees to resist lawful demands and put their own freedom at risk, even if, in my personal view, the local laws are overbroad,” Callahan said. Callahan also said that even if he’d known of the reference to state secrets his testimony still would have been fundamentally accurate, because the Chinese government’s order to Yahoo didn’t reveal any details about the investigation or that it was related to political activities. Lantos disputed Yahoo’s position. “I do not believe that America’s best and brightest companies should be playing integral roles in China’s notorious and brutal political repression apparatus,” Lantos said. Human rights and free-speech advocates have lambasted U.S. companies including Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for helping the Chinese government stifle the flow of ideas in exchange for greater access to the country’s rapidly growing Internet market. But the convictions of Shi and another Chinese journalist Yahoo provided information about have focused the most strident criticism on Yahoo. House Foreign Affairs Committee: http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/

As if it weren’t bad enough that Google supports the Chinese government in censoring Google search results, this turn of events pegs Yahoo as another supporter of the opressive Chinese government. In my opinion, all humanitarian bloggers and webmasters should boycott these search engine giants because they are more interested in their profits than they are in human rights.

Original story posted here :

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071106/congress_yahoo.html?.v=3

         

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Google is regarded by many people as the company who’s policy is Do no Evil but apparently there’s a lot of evil doing going around at the Googleplex these days, and I’m not talking about Google ripping off hard working webmasters or ripping off AdWords advertisers, those two evils are already well known. Today I’m about to drop a bomb on many Adsense publishers reading this blog who are unaware of Google’s ultimately sinister “Adsense for Domains” program. Before I delve into explaining exactly how “Adsense for Domains” works and why it is a slap in the face of all legitimate publishers, let’s first review some of Google’s policies for Adsense publishers regarding quality of their website and content on their website.

Quality guidelines - specific guidelines Avoid hidden text or hidden links. Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects. Don’t send automated queries to Google. Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords. Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content. Don’t create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware. Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

Did you digest all that, particularly the parts about “cookie cutter” sites without original content and the last part about “Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first”. It all sound good in theory however….

Enter Google Adsense for Domains

It seems Google is either too stupid or too greedy to follow their own rules they set for Adsense publishers and in a shameful and dispicable effort to get their Adsense ads on every site they can, they’ve created “Adsense for Domains”. Essentially, “Adsense for Domains” is Google’s solution for sites like SEDO and GoDaddy to monetize “parked domains”. Yes, you heard me, parked domains, domains with no content, domains with no reason for anybody to visit them, domains that have absolutely no value except for domain speculators. If you don’t believe me, have a quick look at the official page for Adsense for Domains.

Now that most Adsense publishers who strive to create original content are fuming over this insanely evil behaviour on Google’s part, here’s even more of a reason for you to revel in disgust. Normal Google Adsense ads DO NOT get included when a search engine’s spiders or bots visit your page because the traditional Adsense code is output by Javascript and is thus invisible to spiders or bots. Well, well, well, now are you starting to see why these parked MFA (Made for Adsense) sites are popping up in the search engine results? Google purposely has altered the code in “Adsense for Domains” so that search engines will pick up on the anchor text in the Adsense code, resulting in these content-less sites appearning as if they have actual content.

There is no question that Google is also violating the FTC’s Truth in Advertising policies and that “Adsense for Domains” is simply and purely a “bait and switch” form of advertising because it is leading a consumer in the door unfairly and attempting to send them out the door at a cost to the advertisers. I wonder how many Adwords advertisers are aware that their ads are appearing on these useless websites. Let’s face it, a web visitor goes to a site that consists of nothing but Adsense ads, chances are they will click on something if they don’t click the back button first. Not all web surfers are webmasters and aware of what an Adsense advertisment is. Many newbies will find these fraudulent sites in Google’s search, click to visit and then click an ad to leave. This is the most disgusting abuse of advertising and marketing I’ve ever seen in my entire life and Google deserves to be heavily fined by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) for violation of Truth in Advertising policies beside being a two-faced omnipotent corporation who enforces policies they allow themselves to break.

         

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We’re a little more than halfway through the month of October and once again, it’s been a very busy month. The social networks and blogosphere have been providing a plethora of topics and content to blog about. Here’s just a few of the most popular stories from around the web.

Google Acquires Jaiku
Mashable social Networking News has asked the question, Breaking: Google Acquires Jaiku, Why Not Twitter? and from Jaiku’s site We’re Joining Google. Now the multi-million dollar question, Why the heck would Google even be interested in these seemingly “junk technology” sites? It looks like the Web 2.0 revolution is going to make the dot com implosion of the late 90’s look like a triple decker red herring sandwich.

Speaking of Twitter - Blogger Pays his Rent using Twitter
Blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick has recently posting the interesting article Twitter is Paying My Rent. I have to admit, I just don’t see anything useful in Twitter, but if this guy is paying his rent using it, more power to him. I just wish I could figure out how to use Twitter for anything useful? It just seems like a big waste of time to me, but maybe the attitude of “Time is Money” doesn’t apply to the internet and text-messaging generation.

MSNBC Acquires Newsvive
One of the most innovative social news sites, and a personal favorite of mine, Newsvine, was acquired by MSNBC. According to Charlie Tillinghast, president of MSNBC Interactive News, Newsvine will remain a stand-alone site with MSNBC providing technology resources. The complete story is avaliable here : MSNBC Interactive News Acquires Newsvine

Yahoo Assumes Control of MyBlogLog
The rumours have been flying since early 2007 that Yahoo had acquired the blogger community MyBlogLog. The rumours have finally been solidified with Yahoo recently co-branding the MyBlogLog site and now requiring a Yahoo Id to access the service. This acquisition and subsequent co-branding has seen bloggers across the blogosphere removing the MyBlogLog widget from their sites. We’ve removed the widgets from all of our blogs in solidarity. After all, who wants to be passing the “link juice” to a Yahoo owned company ?

John Chow Reaches a New Milestone
One of my favorite bloggers, the quintessential John Chow, has announced New Blog Milestone - 10,000 RSS Readers. Congratulations to John Chow and here’s looking forward to the next big milestone, the 100K mark.

         

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