With the Google PR update supposedly planned for later this month, it’s important to make sure you have all of your bases covered come home run time. I’m not a big believer in directory based backlinks, but, nobody is going to tell you that a directory based backlink will necessarily be bad for your time. Sure it’s important to watch out for directories that are spammy and generally not very reputable with Google, but, for the most part having a directory backlink is not going to be the downfall of your website.

That being said, there are much better ways to build backlinks. Post on forums with a signature link to your site. Leave comments in high traffic blogs with your name linking to your website. The possibilities are endless.

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If you are a web admin of any type of site, you have probably dealt with spam. I personally hate spam of all types. Email spam, forum spam, blog spam, popup spam, IM spam, MySpace spam, spyware spam… Did I mention I hate spam?

Most smart admins will ban spammers on the spot. No second chances, no warnings, just a quick and permanent ban. Some people spam without realizing it. Others try absolutely ridiculous methods of trying to disguise their spam. Somebody today spammed one of my sites with a message starting with “Dear Sir or Madam.” Now I don’t know about you, but immediately I was annoyed and deleted the message as well as banning the person on the spot. No legitimate member of any site would ever start a legitimate discussion with that. It’s the bottom of the bottom of the canned spam salutations.

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If you are like me you hate video ads on webpages. There are a few times that I don’t mind seeing them though. For example, I was reading Forbes.com today and right on their front page I was hit with a streaming commercial in their in-page video network window. This went immediately into a “top of the hour” type news short with tidbits of the latest news items, much like a TV network would do. I do not mind video ads at all when they are in front of an interesting news piece that catches my attention. These are nothing more than commercials anyway. The main types of video ads that I don’t like are the ones that play randomly when you are clicking between pages. They are often called “intersital” ads and they usually take up the entire page, giving you only a small option to “click to skip”.

What about audio ads? Audio ads can even be found in what looks like a normal banner ad. Flash banner ads often times play music or speech to try and catch the viewers attention. Those ads catch my attention right away but I doubt they work on me. I close them as fast as I can. I hate having my surfing experience interrupted by obnoxious ringtone or dating ads. Anything with sound is really annoying. Actual commercials, as mentioned earlier do not bug me as much because I am used to those already. I just wouldn’t like to go to a forum and have a commercial playing at the top at all times. There is a time and place for those and it’s before something I want to see. When it comes to audio ads they are generally interrupting something I am already looking at, which is why they rank much higher on my annoyance scale.

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So you have a site about football. If another football related site wants to pay a handsome sum to advertise on your website do you take it? Some people have a strict policy when it comes to accepting ads from competitors. My personal policy is if the price is right (Bob Barker reference there for all you fans!), why not take the money? If somebody else selling widgets wants to advertise on my widget site, sure I might lose some sales, but hey who says I can’t charge competing sites more than neutral advertisers?

Not to mention I definitely don’t mind advertising competitors sites if mine is better. So if somebody wants to advertise their new widget site on my PR5 widget site, why would I worry? Even if their site is leaps and bounds better than mine I can always make back the money in advertising. If you are advertising a competitor website on your site you should always raise the price. After all, the target is nearly 100% targeted. It will convert a lot better for them due to the similar nature of their website.

I received this an email from Yahoo a few hours ago announcing a new “quality” based pricing that they will be introducing as of today. Here’s how quality pricing works according to the email:

“Quality-based pricing will give us the ability to price traffic commensurate with the value that advertisers receive from each traffic source. We recognize that this approach may have an impact on how you operate your business, and as a valued Yahoo! publisher we wanted to let you know about this new feature, as you may notice fluctuations in your Yahoo! Publisher Network earnings.”

I am already not a fan of this. I’ve been on both sides of marketing for a long time now and from my experience it has always been the advertisers responsibility to spend their advertising dollars wisely. With this new system Yahoo will basically be guaranteeing advertisers their money’s worth while publishers are tossed around in the wind. I could have a highly professional site that I put a lot of time and money into and be using Yahoo instead of direct advertising. Well, even if my site is totally legit and NOT MFA (or in this case MFY), if the advertiser doesn’t convert on their choice of advertising keywords that put their ad on my site in the first place then they will get their money back and I will be left with nothing. Yahoo sees this differently, however:

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Are you making good money with your websites? If not then you will definitely want to check out my latest project I’ve launched. I recently started an all new (and feature loaded) marketing forum devoted to helping new internet marketers get their new websites off the ground in every way that counts. The website is located over at  www.OnlineMarketingKnowledge.com and we are currently holding a launch contest for an impressive $10,000 in prize values. Be sure to check it out and join in on the discussion!

Another big draw and one of our main focuses with this new forum is to offer people personal assistance in their marketing endeavurs. We are currently running several 45 day courses tought personally by people who have been highly successful in the industry. Our first class started just a few days ago and already we are getting positive some great positive feedback.

Aside from classes, the rest of the forum is open to the public. We are aiming to turn this site into a knowledgebase of webmaster success tips and assistance. The community is growing quickly and so is the excitement. If you are new to internet marketing or if you aren’t making as much money as you would like, this site is for you!

As the popular saying goes.. “Webmasters don’t click ads”. I’ve been finding this more and more true lately as I’ve been branching out into several other types of websites. The funny thing is that I’ve been running webmaster sites for the past few years but my sites that get the most clicks are my videogame, entertainment, celebrity, and general related sites. I think this is either because webmasters are used to seeing ads, or they just don’t care about ads. I know that I hardly ever click on ads and I bet it’s safe to say that other webmasters don’t either.

So how do you monetize a webmaster related site? Well, you could always charge for memberships, but, I don’t recommend that. There are enough free sites out there that you have to compete with to begin with. Charging won’t make growing your userbase any easier. One way is CPA and CPM ads. Sure webmasters don’t click ads, but, they have to hear about their tech and web related products somehow.

What kinds of ads and services interest webmasters? Personally I’ve had a lot of success with programs such as Text Link Ads and Google Adsense Referrals. Some other really good affiliate programs are Azoogle and Click Bank.

I’ve posted this on some of my forums before, but, I thought I’d post it here as well. It seems like everybody is looking for ways to make a million dollars. It’s a nice round number and after all, who couldn’t use a spare million? I was brainstorming a while back and realistically a million dollars is not that difficult to earn (in concept). Most people look for ways to earn it all at once instead of looking for ways to earn it piece by piece over time. It’s all about getting yourself motivated enough to get the ball rolling. Many people never get to this point, but, you don’t have to become a statistic. You can take control of your future by selling niche items on eBay.

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When your site begins to take off and you are faced with the option to place ads on your site there are a few things you should consider. First of all, ads can sometimes make your site look cluttered and ugly. Secondly, your ad space might be worth more to you than to your potential advertisers. What I mean by this is that you could be using your site to promote other websites and services that you have to offer. Eventually you’ll have to sell ad space one one of your sites if you want to turn a profit, but when you are just starting out it’s sometimes more beneficial to keep your traffic within your own websites.

I suggest building a small network of sites. Link them to each other and before you know it you will have steady traffic on more than one site. The trick is to never expand until you have your current sites off the ground. Nobody wants to go to a network of empty sites, but, people will definitely be more likely to show up and stay if you have several well established websites full of content.

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Every AdSense publisher has at one point or another been faced with the decision to make their ads stand out or blend into their website. I have always been a fan of blending my ads because it tends to look better, but lately I’ve been trying some other options and I have to say that I am starting to lean towards making my ads stand out more.

I think it’s a tricky thing to get your ads just right, but you’ll never find out if you never change them around and try new things. I have lately tried using some pastel type colors that don’t really look ugly, but also don’t blend in directly to my site.

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