100% Google AdSense: Tools, Tips and Resources

100% Google AdSense: Tools, Tips and Resources:
By Glen Stansberry and Smashing Magazine Editorial Team
Google AdSense is a simple and low-risk way for publishers to quickly monetize their content. The pay-per-click ad system has created an opportunity for anyone to instantly have advertising on their website, without the hassle of having to actively sell ad space. AdSense makes up a good portion of the advertising revenue for many websites, and other websites may use AdSense to earn the bulk of their revenues. Either way, AdSense is an excellent system for monetizing your content.

In this post we present an ultimate collection of resources, tools and tips to help you make the most out of Google AdSense. Among other things, this post covers various Google AdSense tools, Firefox-extensions, WordPress-plugins and related resources.
Please feel free to suggest related tools in the comments to this post. You may also be interested in our post Google AdSense: Facts, FAQs and Tools that was published two years ago.

1. Google AdSense Tools

iPhone AdSense Statistics Application

SenseApp is a program that lets you track your Google Adsense earnings on your Apple iPhone.

AdSense Earnings Tool

Free and fast tool to monitor adsense earnings in realtime. This tool posts all the correct post fields to Googles universal Account Services login and collects information about your earnings. You’ll able to see today, yesterday, this month and since last payment earnings. You don’t need to log in to Google anymore.

Google AdSense Toolbox

Type any web page URL (e.g. cnn.com) or keywords (e.g. web development), select a country (optional) and hit Enter to see the latest Google Ads that are contextual and geo-targeted.
Google AdSense Preview Tool

an addition to the right-click menu for Windows Internet Explorer 6.x, allowing you to preview the ads that may show on any webpage. With just a few clicks, you can see what ads may appear on your new webpages, or make an educated decision on whether to add AdSense to your existing site pages.
Google Search-Based Keyword Tool

The search-based keyword tool allows you to find high-paying keywords to target, based on the domain name you specify.

Google Traffic Estimator

The Google Traffic Estimator is an easy way to determine the search volume of certain keywords, and it shows related keywords and their volumes as well.
SpyFu

SpyFu allows you to look up any website and see how much it is spending on AdSense, how it ranks for each keyword, and which keywords it buys. The tool is quite useful for researching competitors.

adsblacklist

Identify and block low-paying advertisers and increase ROI with AdSense.

2. Google AdSense Online Tools

Contextual Ads Preview/Comparison Tool

This comparison tools comes in handy when you compare AdSense ads to those of other advertisement services (Chitika, Yahoo). You also have the ability to customize the colors and view what ads a certain URL would be likely to display.

Google AdSense Calculator

This AdSense Calculator is designed to help you to predict changes in your earnings depending on improvement (or deterioration) of Page Impressions, Click Through Rate and Cost Per Click. You can download further calculators here.

WordTracker

During the search, people use different keywords. Using this tool, you can find the most effective words before deciding what content to include on your page. Not free, but the free trial is available.
Traffic Estimator Sandbox

To use this tool, you need an AdWords account. This traffic estimator helps you to figure out what keywords result in the highest paying AdSense ads (more details on uphook).

Pubmatic

While Pubmatic isn’t strictly an AdSense tool, it will definitely help you earn more money from your website by optimizing your ads. With each page view, Pubmatic determines whether showing an AdSense ad or an ad from a different network would be best, based on the CPM.

AlterNut Ad

Instead of earning nothing from the PSA ads that Google fills the page with when it has no ads to show, earn a set fee by giving AlterNut Ad your unused PSA ads.

3. Google AdSense Firefox Extensions

AdSense Notifier

This extension displays your AdSense earnings in the status bar.
AdSense Preview

Check what Google ads would be displayed if they were shown on a particular page with this preview tool.

Money Quake

Money Quake allows you to see your real-time earnings for many popular advertising programs, including AdSense.

GraphSense

GraphSense gives you a visual look at your AdSense reports by adding graphs to the interface. As of this post, the extension is still classified as “experimental,” so you’ll have to log in to Mozilla to install it.

4. Official AdSense Resources

Google has provided some official tools and resources to help publishers get started with AdSense.
Google AdSense Help Center

A database of questions and answers about the AdSense program.

Inside AdSense Blog

The official AdSense blog. Find news, tips and other features about the ad system here.
AdSense Community Forum

Have an AdSense question? Ask a community of publishers and the AdSense team.
Official Optimization Tips

A collection of tips provided by the AdSense team.
Official AdSense Channel on YouTube

Instructional videos and interviews by successful AdSense publishers.
Interest-based advertising with Google AdSense

Just recently Google announced the launch of interest-based advertising. This help section addresses the new mechanism and explains how you can benefit from it.

5. Getting Started with AdSense

Because of the popularity of AdSense, many so-called “experts” out there try to give “inside information” or sell their secrets in the form of ebooks. If you’re truly a beginner to AdSense, use the official AdSense help database that Google provides.
Here are some “getting started” articles by a few trusted authors.
Problogger’s AdSense Tips for Bloggers

Darren Rowse’s excellent eight-part series will get you well on your way to making money from AdSense.

The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Effective AdSense Link Units Optimization

A great rundown of the different types of link units and how they’re best used in a website layout.

Where Should I Place Google Ads on my Page?

The Google AdSense team has made a helpful map showing the different regions of a website layout where AdSense units perform the best.

6. Optimization Tips

Like any ad system, AdSense can be optimized to generate more clicks and revenue. Here are some tips to help boost AdSense performance.
Adsense Success Stories

Several examples of websites that increased their earnings significantly with Adsense. The success stories talk a lot about ad optimization, etc.
Google AdSense Tips

Google Blogscoped provides an excellent collection of AdSense tips based on its experience with implementing Google ads.

My top 5 tips for increasing adsense earnings (without increasing traffic)

Experiment with color and position, use different adverts for different dates, use content targeting, referrals and take care of the SEO.

Eye-Tracking Studies by Jakob Nielsen

Great eye-tracking examples that show where users’ eyes start and end up on a page.

Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for Higher CTR

A collection of excellent do’s and don’ts for new publishers, as well as advice for more advanced AdSense users.
Rotate Google AdSense Ad Colors : Reduce Ad Blindness

One of the many enemies of publishers who rely on ads is banner blindness. Rotating ad colors is a good way to combat banner blindness, resulting in more clicks on ads.
Google AdSense Tips, Tricks and Secrets

Popular SEO blogger Michael Gray has an extensive post on various AdSense tips and performance boosters.

How to Display Ads Only to Search Visitors

Click-through ratios are much higher if you show your AdSense units only to visitors who were referred by search engines. Here’s an article on how to implement that functionality on your website.
Using the Competitive Ad Filter to Increase AdSense Earnings

Learn how to block made-for-AdSense websites as competitors, allowing only the best and most relevant ads to show on your units.
100 Google AdSense Tips

While this article is a few years old, it still has some very valuable tips on how to optimize Google AdSense. Perfect for the beginner.
20+ Practical and Ethical Tips to Earn More Revenue from Google AdSense

eTechBuzz shows us some useful and ethical AdSense tips.

Blogmitize!

The Official AdSense Blog has a post on how to make the most money from your blog layout.
Little Known ‘Boring’ Websites that Make Incredible Money with AdSense

An article highlighting that nearly anyone with a niche website can make money from AdSense.

7. AdSense WordPress Themes

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, so it’s no surprise that a few themes come AdSense-ready, with ad placements already determined.
Pro Sense

Get Some!
CognoBlue

TechBlue

Elite Circle
Amazing Grace

Amazing

8. AdSense WordPress Plug-Ins

If you want to integrate AdSense in your existing website, here are some plug-ins to help display your ads.
AdSense Manager

The AdSense Manager widget allows for the automatic creation of AdSense ad zones on your WordPress blog. The plug-in also supports other ad networks, such as YPN, AdBrite and Commission Junction.

Easy AdSenser

Easy AdSenser is a feature-filled plug-in that allows you to easily insert AdSense into your posts and layout. It has an extremely user-friendly interface, with lots of features that make adding AdSense much easier than it is with other plug-ins.
AdSense Revenue Sharing

Share AdSense earnings with co-authors using the AdSense Revenue Sharing plug-in.

All in One AdSense and YPN

Use the All in One AdSense and YPN plug-in to automatically insert YPN and AdSense ads into your existing blog posts.
AdSense Under Image

If a post has an image, this plug-in automatically inserts an AdSense block under the image.
AdSense Deluxe 2

Another plug-in to automatically insert AdSense ad units into blog posts.

Google AdSense for Feeds

A simple plug-in that places AdSense in your blog’s feed.
Ozh’ Who Sees Ads

Determines what type of visitor will see ads on your website. This plug-in allows publishers to hide ads from regular visitors and show them only to search visitors.

9. AdSense Books

If you’re looking for an entire collection of tips and advice on making the most out of AdSense, you might want to try a print book instead. Plenty of excellent AdSense articles are available online, but on the whole, it is easier to find more accurate information in print media. Here are some of the most popular books on AdSense.
The Best Damn Google AdSense Book


Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with AdSense, AdWords and the Google APIs
The AdSense Code
Google AdSense Secrets
The Google AdSense Millionaire

10. AdSense Forums and Communities

Webmaster World AdSense Forum

The WMW forum is by far the best forum for getting expert advice on AdSense. A member of the Google AdSense team actually reviews all the threads and answers questions, so the information is legitimate.

Digital Point AdSense Forum

Digital Point’s AdSense forum isn’t as strict as the Webmaster World forum, so there is a lot of engagement but less experienced users and less informed advice.

Jowl Comm’s AdSense Chat

SEOChat

SEOChat doesn’t have an entire forum dedicated to Google AdSense, but it does have a thriving forum for affiliate marketing in which many AdSense topics come up on a regular basis.

11. Those Against AdSense

It’s always a good practice to hear the other side of the story when rounding up resources on a topic, especially one as controversial as AdSense. Many experts argue that AdSense isn’t the best choice for publishers to monetize their content. Here are a few articles that criticize AdSense.
Dear AdSense, You Broke My Heart

Problogger Darren Rowse’s open letter to AdSense about why he was disappointed in its decision to change the referral policy for publishers outside the US.

Have You Weaned Your Blog from AdSense Yet?

A convincing argument for moving from AdSense’s cost-per-click structure to CPM ads and other affiliate programs.
Why You Can’t Make Money Blogging

Copyblogger’s Brian Clark provides some compelling reasons to ditch AdSense and sell products that solve real-world problems.

10 Reasons Why People Hate Google AdSense

A round-up of thought-provoking reasons as to why Google ads repel publishers. Some of the reasons include: the ads are ugly, Adsense is everywhere, poor email support with the Google team and many others.

About the author

Glen Stansberry writes about creative web development at Web Jackalope. You can get to know him by following him on Twitter.
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© glenstansberry for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: adsense, google, tools, useful

Ten of the best FREE online education resources that you should know about

Ten of the best FREE online education resources that you should know about:
We recently published an article that listed the free online learning resources offered by the best 40 colleges in America (here). In the process of doing so, we came into contact with all of the major, most important and professional FREE online education sites on the internet. This article will present you with ten of the best of these.
There is a distinction between, on the one hand, sites that are driven by a concept or theme, and that have some form of evaluation and feedback, and sites that are simply video archives for lectures and events. This list will contain both, but the former were emphasized and given priority. (more…)

HTG Explains: The Linux Directory Structure Explained

HTG Explains: The Linux Directory Structure Explained:

If you’re coming from Windows, the Linux file system structure can seem particularly alien. The C:\ drive and drive letters are gone, replaced by a / and cryptic-sounding directories, most of which have three letter names.
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) defines the structure of file systems on Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems. However, Linux file systems also contain some directories that aren’t yet defined by the standard.

/ – The Root Directory

Everything on your Linux system is located under the / directory, known as the root directory. You can think of the / directory as being similar to the C:\ directory on Windows – but this isn’t strictly true, as Linux doesn’t have drive letters. While another partition would be located at D:\ on Windows, this other partition would appear in another folder under / on Linux.

/bin – Essential User Binaries

The /bin directory contains the essential user binaries (programs) that must be present when the system is mounted in single-user mode. Applications such as Firefox are stored in /usr/bin, while important system programs and utilities such as the bash shell are located in /bin. The /usr directory may be stored on another partition – placing these files in the /bin directory ensures the system will have these important utilities even if no other file systems are mounted. The /sbin directory is similar – it contains essential system administration binaries.

/boot – Static Boot Files

The /boot directory contains the files needed to boot the system – for example, the GRUB boot loader’s files and your Linux kernels are stored here. The boot loader’s configuration files aren’t located here, though – they’re in /etc with the other configuration files.

/cdrom – Historical Mount Point for CD-ROMs

The /cdrom directory isn’t part of the FHS standard, but you’ll still find it on Ubuntu and other operating systems. It’s a temporary location for CD-ROMs inserted in the system. However, the standard location for temporary media is inside the /media directory.

/dev – Device Files

Linux exposes devices as files, and the /dev directory contains a number of special files that represent devices. These are not actual files as we know them, but they appear as files – for example, /dev/sda represents the first SATA drive in the system. If you wanted to partition it, you could start a partition editor and tell it to edit /dev/sda.
This directory also contains pseudo-devices, which are virtual devices that don’t actually correspond to hardware. For example, /dev/random produces random numbers. /dev/null is a special device that produces no output and automatically discards all input – when you pipe the output of a command to /dev/null, you discard it.

/etc – Configuration Files

The /etc directory contains configuration files, which can generally be edited by hand in a text editor. Note that the /etc/ directory contains system-wide configuration files – user-specific configuration files are located in each user’s home directory.

/home – Home Folders

The /home directory contains a home folder for each user. For example, if your user name is bob, you have a home folder located at /home/bob. This home folder contains the user’s data files and user-specific configuration files. Each user only has write access to their own home folder and must obtain elevated permissions (become the root user) to modify other files on the system.

/lib – Essential Shared Libraries

The /lib directory contains libraries needed by the essential binaries in the /bin and /sbin folder. Libraries needed by the binaries in the /usr/bin folder are located in /usr/lib.

/lost+found – Recovered Files

Each Linux file system has a lost+found directory. If the file system crashes, a file system check will be performed at next boot. Any corrupted files found will be placed in the lost+found directory, so you can attempt to recover as much data as possible.

/media – Removable Media

The /media directory contains subdirectories where removable media devices inserted into the computer are mounted. For example, when you insert a CD into your Linux system, a directory will automatically be created inside the /media directory. You can access the contents of the CD inside this directory.

/mnt – Temporary Mount Points

Historically speaking, the /mnt directory is where system administrators mounted temporary file systems while using them. For example, if you’re mounting a Windows partition to perform some file recovery operations, you might mount it at /mnt/windows. However, you can mount other file systems anywhere on the system.

/opt – Optional Packages

The /opt directory contains subdirectories for optional software packages. It’s commonly used by proprietary software that doesn’t obey the standard file system hierarchy – for example, a proprietary program might dump its files in /opt/application when you install it.

/proc – Kernel & Process Files

The /proc directory similar to the /dev directory because it doesn’t contain standard files. It contains special files that represent system and process information.

/root – Root Home Directory

The /root directory is the home directory of the root user. Instead of being located at /home/root, it’s located at /root. This is distinct from /, which is the system root directory.

/run – Application State Files

The /run directory is fairly new, and gives applications a standard place to store transient files they require like sockets and process IDs. These files can’t be stored in /tmp because files in /tmp may be deleted.

/sbin – System Administration Binaries

The /sbin directory is similar to the /bin directory. It contains essential binaries that are generally intended to be run by the root user for system administration.

/selinux – SELinux Virtual File System

If your Linux distribution uses SELinux for security (Fedora and Red Hat, for example), the /selinux directory contains special files used by SELinux. It’s similar to /proc. Ubuntu doesn’t use SELinux, so the presence of this folder on Ubuntu appears to be a bug.

/srv – Service Data

The /srv directory contains “data for services provided by the system.” If you were using the Apache HTTP server to serve a website, you’d likely store your website’s files in a directory inside the /srv directory.

/tmp – Temporary Files

Applications store temporary files in the /tmp directory. These files are generally deleted whenever your system is restarted and may be deleted at any time by utilities such as tmpwatch.

/usr – User Binaries & Read-Only Data

The /usr directory contains applications and files used by users, as opposed to applications and files used by the system. For example, non-essential applications are located inside the /usr/bin directory instead of the /bin directory and non-essential system administration binaries are located in the /usr/sbin directory instead of the /sbin directory. Libraries for each are located inside the /usr/lib directory. The /usr directory also contains other directories – for example, architecture-independent files like graphics are located in /usr/share.
The /usr/local directory is where locally compiled applications install to by default – this prevents them from mucking up the rest of the system.

/var – Variable Data Files

The /var directory is the writable counterpart to the /usr directory, which must be read-only in normal operation. Log files and everything else that would normally be written to /usr during normal operation are written to the /var directory. For example, you’ll find log files in /var/log.

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For more detailed technical information about the Linux file system hierarchy, consult the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard documentation.

What Type of Learner Are You? [Infographic]

What Type of Learner Are You? [Infographic]:

Do you remember how you used to do your revisions in school and after? Which way was the most effective for you? Do you commit everything to memory, use mindmaps, make a recording of your teacher or lecturer’s lessons or carry around note cards to read on the way to school and back? Well, it turns out that the way one student studies may differ from the way a classmate does because there are different styles of learning we are individually adept for.

There are essentially four types:

1. visual learners,
2. auditory learners,
3. read and write learners, and
4. kinesthetics learners.

Each function is clearly illustrated and explained in today’s featured infographic by onlinecollege.org. You will get learning suggestions and find out which tests you are likely to excel better in than others. This will also be a helpful guide to today’s educators, especially those who are adamant that there is only one way to revise.

Tell us which is your learning style.

Recommended Reading: More infographics

Spot an infographic you think will be a perfect fit here? Send the link to us with relevant details and we’ll credit you with the find.

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2. The Infographic Revolution: Where Do We Go From Here?
3. What Happens in an Internet Minute [Infographic]
4. State of the Internet 2012 [Infographic]