Web Marketing Strategy Update

I was over at Jeremy Schoemaker’s ShoeMoney Blog today. Jeremy’s one of the internet marketing entrepreneurs who’s been monetizing traffic since the early days, and that’s reflected in his blog (it seems he’s a fellow Mac user as well, which can’t be a bad thing!).

Topical, opinionated and hype-free, with a sprinkling of industry gossip; it’s one of those blogs that you stumble on and then realise an hour’s gone by and you’re still reading …

Besides his other Internet ventures, Jeremy is also well known for generating huge AdSense revenues and hosts Net Income on WebmasterRadio.FM, where he’s interviewed Darren Rowse of Problogger, Wordpress Creator Matt Mullenweg, SeoBlackHat QuadZilla, and SEO marketer Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl, amongst others.

There’s lot’s of good stuff on ShoeMoney, but here’s one post you should read right now:

How Hackers Are Using Google To Pwn Your Site

This excerpt should give you an idea why:

“So now here is where it gets interesting…. Now that I had figured out how the person was hacking into my box I was curious how in the hell the person found the file. It was in a subdirectory that I had not used in YEARS. There was no link to it from anywhere on my site. The directory structure it was in was like … html/oldforums/oldstuff/badfile.php . How in the hell did this person find this file? Well after going through the logs greping for the ip range that hacked my box I found that the person found my site from Google! Specifically using Google code search. Now while this was interesting it still did not explain how the page was even indexed…. ohh wait I use Google Sitemaps and I had it on to index everything (the default setting) OUPS!!”

Here’s another more than a few people could do with reading:

OnPage SEO Is Garbage Clarification On Rockstars

“I mean do people really just not comprehend that blackhat is NOT about clickfraud or cracking or XSS or BREAKING THE LAW its about educating yourself and mastering how all aspects of SEO work and why… the right way AND the wrong way. Seriously im not joking when I say 95% of whitehat is so easy its stupid easy basic stuff. What do you do when you master that. Me, I always try to learn more.”

I almost forgot to mention it, but you’ll also find a rank checking script that gives your site’s ranking in the major search engines for any keyword phrase you type in. It’s clean and fast, and Jeremy kindly allows download of the script for your own use.

Just one minor gripe, Jeremy — I’m not one of those spelling or grammar freaks you mention. Honestly I’m not! But could you try not to keep using “there” when you mean “their”? My tired brain stumbles and has to rewind when the words following are not in the context it expected, momentarily breaking the flow ….

This is a paid review, but if the site wasn’t good, it wouldn’t be here (plus it’s way longer than required!).

Good thread over at Webmasterworld to help publishers get the most from Adsense. I’ve pasted the initial post below, but visit the site for more discussion and plenty of links to more information.

Low CTR: Blend, put ads to heatzone, test colors, decrease # of ad units

Low EPC: Block MFA, decrease # of ad units, improve content topics, lookup SmartPricing

Earnings High Fluctuation: Try removing ads from low performance pages

Low Earnings: Build more content, get more visitors, see Low EPC, test AdLinks, test Referrals

Bad Targeting: Find & zap the offending keywords in your pages, lookup section targeting

Low # of Visitors: Lookup SEO

Sudden surge in Traffic: Study stats, don’t panic it’s good news

Sudden surge in Clicks: Study stats, don’t panic but inform Google if CTR is to the roof and all from few IPs

Clicked my own AD: Just don’t do it again, if repeated inform Google

Can’t Login: Check connection, wait 1 hour see if its reported already on WW, contact support

Low sense of security: Join the club, diversify with other networks, use alternate ads

Payment is late: Stop complaining, wait one month the contact Google

Statistics Stuck: Stop complaining, wait few hours, prepare for a click dump

How to find MFA: Lookup AdSense preview tool

Support did not reply: It takes time, contact them again if more than 2 weeks passed

Competitive Filter Full: Nothing can be done, check list for old or expired sites

I got banned: Send an appeal if honest, offer stats, move on

Where do I learn more: You are in the right place, just read a lot before posting a question