Sometimes I wish I were American. When I started smoking pot, drinking and generally displaying self-destructive behaviour when I was in my teens it seemed fairly normal to me. Part of growing up. Part of growing up in the states appears to be rehab. We don’t really go in for that as much over here in Europe. It’s a shame because I think it would have really helped me avoid the problems I still have in my 30’s.

So if I were a teenager, I’d want to be in rehab here ‘<a href=”http://www.echomalibu.com”>Teen Rehab ECHO MALIBU</a>’. It’s just beautiful, and it sounds like heaven. The list of activities – surfing lessons, sports, hiking, theatre outings, horse riding – all that sounds amazing, but also the Malibu teen drug treatment facility has expert staff on hand and classroom and certified teachers to make sure you don’t fall behind at school.
<img src=”http://tinyurl.com/2xtffh” />

Well, it IS certainly easy to get a loan, but I don’t think it’s too easy, no. The fact that there are companies out there who are ready to lend money to people allows us to develop our lives in ways that weren’t possible back in the olden days.

http://www.thriftyscot.co.uk/money/compare-loans.html - loans
http://www.thriftyscot.co.uk/money/secured.html - secured loans

Of course people often get into trouble with debt, but that’s to be expected. To get a loan you have to be a grown up, and as a grown up you have to take responsibility for your actions. I’ve been in debt with plenty of personal loans, and I’m still in it. Debt is good. It puts you on the radar and makes you a proper person. It gives you gravitas.

I really love my new camera, but if I had the choice, the camera I’d go for would be the Nikon D3. It’s really been designed for sports photographers, which is what I’d want to use it for. Those incredible powder day skiing shots. It’s also the fastest camera in it’s class, with a shutter release time lag of only 37 ms with the capability of shooting up to 9 frames per second. It even starts up quickly – only 0.12 seconds. If I were to start to take my photography further, then this is the camera I’d aim to acquire. Of course, with a $5000 price tag, it’s not a cheap piece of equipment, but the results would be worth it professionally speaking.

If you need to backup your business data, but you can’t afford the risk of others getting hold of that data, then you’re going to need an encrypted online backup service. There are a few options to choose from, but the best one we have come across is Idrive-E. The online backup performance and features of IDrive-E are unsurpassed and the recent developments of near real time backup of constantly changing data such as MS Outlook data makes the service stand out.

Best of all, up to 2GB, the service can be used for free. Unlimited storage starts at $4.95 per month. It’s easy, fast and secure.

IDrive-E (http://www.idrive.com)

Over the past year I’ve been trying to work out how to make money from my blog. It gets a certain amount of traffic, and I have a readership, but was there a way to make some money from it?

Having studied and learned a large amount about internet marketing over the past year from a talented internet marketer friend of mine, it seemed to me that a solid, well placed link on a blog, within a piece of text which contains the right keywords is very valuable to someone wishing to promote their website.

But how do I reach this market, and how do I, once I’ve done that convince them to buy post for $10? The solution came when I discovered Pay Per Post. Pay per post offers bloggers hundreds of opportunities to create a post to advertise for paying clients. Signing up for the service is easy, and the criteria to meet are strict enough to make the whole process ethically sound.

Find out more here: (get paid to blog)

Once you’ve signed up and your blog has been accepted, it’s very easy to start making money from your blog. Simply pick an opportunity, reserve it, create your blog post, being very careful to meet all criteria laid down for the opportunity and submit your post for review. To begin with you might have a few posts rejected, but soon you’ll be up and running and with a short amount of work each day you can create a regular income from your blog.

Advertising is the life blood of any business, no matter how big or how small. No advertising usually means no business. Large companies have an almost unlimited source of advertising dollars. Small business owners on the other hand, are limited in the amount of money they have for advertising. So, the problem is how to make ones advertising dollar get the most bang for the buck. It’s not enough to advertise. Your advertising must be effective. So, once you have a website or an ad to advertise, check out the following ways to advertise for little or no cost.

1. Advertising coop- Many businesses, especially work at home businesses, offer advertising coops. They will send people to your business for a fee. Usually the fee is relatively smll. This is nice because you already know that these people have at least some interest in your business. Although they may not spend a penny with you, you at least get the exposure.

2. Website-The age of the internet has expanded the possibility of owning your own business to an almost unlimited number of people. It also has expanded the advertising audience to a tremendous amount of new people, world wide, who otherwise you would never have been able to reach. Although websites will cost you to get hosted, you can advertise it many ways for free. Things like link exchanges and article submissions allow you to get exposure to your website with no cost except for you time. And as we will see in a moment, your website can be advertised many other ways for free. The advantage of a website is that it centralizes all your business and products into one central location. It gives you somewhere to send people so that you don’t have to do as much selling because you let your website do the selling for you.

3. Answering Machine-Change the message on your answering machine to reflect the fact that you are now in business for yourself. You could say something like,” Hello. You have reached the home office of John Doe of My Business.com…..” That way when you call that person back, they may ask you about your business and thus the door is open to discussing your business.

4. Put a sign in your front yard or in the yard of a friend or relative with your name and website address on it. This is a good way for your neighbors to find out about your new business as well as any people that ride by your house.

5. Place a magnetic sign or bumper sticker on your car. Now, when you are riding down the road, sitting at a stop sign, or leaving your car parked at the mall or grocery store, you are getting free advertising.

6. Wear your ad-Place your website on a sweatshirt, tee-shirt, or a hat. So, when you are out in public, people will see you ad and again it will open up the door to discussing your new business.

7. Flyers-There are many places that will allow you to place a flyer about your business. Businesses like grocery stores, libraries, laundromats, hair salons and others will let you place a free ad on their public bulletin board.

8. Business cards-Don’t leave home without them. You never now when the chance to hand one out will happen. You may see an old friend, meet someone looking to get out of the 9-5 rut or who is in need of a new opportunity.

9. Free Classifieds-Use the internet and the many free classified ads on it to advertise your business. A search using “free classifieds” will give you an almost limitless number of places to submit your website and ad.

10.Ezines or electronic magazines are also a good place to advertise your business. Some charge a fee for placing your ad in the best location, some let you advertise for free. Again a web search will allow you find numerous ezines to place you ad in.

11.Place your web address in your e-mail signature.

12.Place a flyer or business card in your out going mail.

13.Word of Mouth-The least expensive form of advertising and maybe the most effective way to advertise your business is word of mouth. Simply tell those you come in contact with that you are in business for yourself. They will tell others and they will tell others and it can go on and on. Sooner or later someone will take a look at what you are doing.

There is a new advertising style from Google Adsense that is available in your Adsense panel, it is called “Google Ad Links.”

This new ad system presents a list of 4 or 5 vertical links(you can pick either 4 or 5 and Google will supply the actually links) to your site visitors, when the visitors click on one of the targeted contextual words it displays a results page from Google listing ten Adwords advertiser’s ads for this related topic.

Here is what Google says Adlinks are: “What are Ad Links by Google?

Ad Links are a new form of text advertising that we’re offering to our AdSense publishers. Using the same contextual targeting algorithm that targets Google ads to your content pages, Ad Links units display a list of topics that are relevant to your page. Each topic, when clicked, brings the user to a page of related advertisements.

The result is advertisements that are closely targeted to the interests of your users. By selecting the topics through interaction with the ad unit, users are presented with useful information in the form of related advertisements. Their direct involvement with the evolution of the ad unit guarantees an interest in the ads that are presented.”

Positive Aspects of Adlinks:

They allow you to blend this in with sections of your links which will get more visitors to click on them, inevitably increase your Adsense revenue.

The Adlinks ads display 10 ad results when clicked without cluttering you page.

Google’s rules allow you to place three Adsense code block on a website. If you are doing this near say a 500 word article it can distract the visitor from viewing the article. With Adlinks you can still display 1 block of normal Adsense code and the Adlinks block and it keeps your page relatively nice looking while still giving you revenue potential.

Negative Aspects of Adlinks:

Adlinks requires your visitors to make two clicks. One on the original Adlinks block and one when they view the Adlink results. As any marketer knows the more actions you need a visitor to take the less the response rate.

Where are the best places to display Adlinks ads?

The best place to display them are within your navigation menu. Try to make them blend in as best as possible.

Another great place to put them is at the end of an article suggesting an interested reader view these resources. When doing this the reader is very targeted since they red your whole article and if they are likely leaving your website, why not let them leave through Adlinks and make some money?

Are Adlink ads as effective as the normal ad blocks?

Well some have seen positive results while other have not. Personally I am going to test it some more to see what kind of results and make my decision then.

As publishers have moved towards monetizing RSS feeds, their have been vibrant discussions as to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or whether they will drive subscribers away. At the end of the day while it appears that many are discussing the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds few are taking the time to examine the options available for inserting advertisements in feeds. Ultimately the advertisements served are going to determine the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The ads served must be related to the content contained in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content, the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in balance with the volume of content served, advertising in RSS feeds will succeed. Take a closer look at some of the ad serving options currently available for RSS feeds. Review of Current OptionsGoogle AdSense for Feeds Google’s AdSense for Feeds offers contextually targeted advertisements, with a wide selection of advertisers. Google chooses not to divulge the percentage of revenue that is shared with the publisher, so it is difficult if not impossible to predict monthly revenue. The current Google AdSense system for feeds is tied to blogs and does not appear to be overly flexible. http://www.google.com/adsense

Pheedo Pheedo displays categorized advertisements rather than contextual advertisements. The upside to this is that Pheedo’s advertisements can be used in conjunction with Google AdSense or AdSense for feeds without violating Google’s contract. Pheedo works with the publisher to serve advertisements from similar or related categories associated with the feeds contents.

Pheedo’s system allows for advanced ad filtering, giving publishers control over keyword ad filtering, specific ad filtering or url filtering. Pheedo’s system also allows publishers to sell ads to existing advertisers whom they already have a relationship. The revenue split is 50% and feeds can be a sponsored flat rate advertisement or a pay-per-click advertisement, where the publisher is only paid if the advertisement is clicked. http://www.pheedo.com

Kanoodle for Feeds Kanoodles systems for providing advertisements for feeds is similar to Google’s but they do not have the breadth of advertisers that Google boasts. Advertisements are served based on topics, not to keywords. Kanoodle shares 50% of the revenue generated from the advertisements with the publisher serving the ad. http://www.kanoodle.com Evaluating Options When evaluating feed ad serving solutions consider the following:

1. Ad Relevance In order to generate revenue from RSS advertisements or for an advertising campaign to succeed using RSS as a channel. It is absolutely critical that the advertisements served in the feed contain related content, the more related the content the higher the likelihood that the advertisements will be of interest to the reader and clicked. Also the closer the content relates to the feeds theme the higher the likelihood the reader will have genuine interest in the product or service being advertised.

2. Ad Ratio Publishers need to retain control over the frequency of advertisements. Readers will become frustrated with feeds that are heavily laden with advertisements and genuine content. The advertiser is happy as they are reaching a targeted audience the publisher is happy because their advertisement is being clicked and generating revenue.

3. Clearly Denoted as Ads The debate over editorial control and advertisements rage on. It is generally considered proper net etiquette for publishers to clearly mark advertisements to distinguish them from editorial web content. When selecting a RSS advertising partner consider the context in which the advertisements are displayed. Does it blend with the feed or site, while still being clearly marked sponsored material? Or does the content blend so well that it appear as a product or service endorsement from the publisher? Credibility and reputation online matter, and the segregation of advertisements and ensuring they are properly denoted as such will go a long way to enhance credibility with readers.

Clearly as RSS increases in popularity publishers are looking for ways to monetize their content. RSS in advertising is a logical step, and striking a balance between quality, consistent content and occasional related advertisements will lead to the success of advertising in RSS feeds. If the balance is not found, publishers may be forced to move to a subscription RSS feed model.

Advertising Revenue - Making Money With Adsense

Advertising revenue and Google Adsense go hand-in-hand.

The Internet has regained a lot of credibility since its fall from grace at the end of the 90’s.

This means more businesses are spending more money to get customers via the Internet. And it’s possible for you to cash in on those millions of dollars.

Google has an advertising program, involving four parties:
1.Google
2.Customers paying for the ads – through the Adwords program
3.Visitors clicking on the ads – on search engine results pages and websites
4.Website owners running the ads on their websites – through the Adsense program. These are the people making money from ad revenue.

For an example, look no further than the page you are on at the moment. Notice down the right hand side of the page and also in the top left of this article there are groups of ‘Ads by Google’ (if can’t see them its because either you are not in the US or not reading this article on my website).

Google has developed technology that automatically senses what the theme of the page is and then displays ads that are suited to the theme. This way the visitor will see advertisements likely to be of interest.

The Adwords customer (the advertiser trying to sell a product or service etc using these ads) is billed every time a visitor clicks. The amount depends on the cost of the ad, which is basically determined by advertising demand.

Revenue from that billing is split between Google and the owner of the website where the visitor clicked. If the ad costs the advertiser 50 cents per click, Google gets 25 cents and the website owner running the ads gets 25 cents.

If you were to click one of the Adsense ads you see on this page I’d get 50%.

Google Adsense is not the only program you can use to place ads on your site. Companies like Searchfeed offer similar programs but Adsense is where the money is.

There are a few key elements to successfully earning revenue from Google Adsense:
•Create website pages to rank well in the search engines. No visitors =no clicks=no revenue
•Strategically position your Adsense ads to attract the most clicks.
•Target keywords that have a high click price, thereby earning more per click.
•Make sure the words you target have enough searches per month to be worth the effort of creating a webpage.
•Make your site a valuable resource so visitors return.

Some more advanced strategies include:
•Create a valuable newsletter that visitors want to receive. Publish each issue on a webpage with Adsense and notify subscribers by mail with a link to the page (this method also minimizes risk of your email being filtered).
•Target less competitive keywords for your search engine rankings but direct the traffic (legitimately) to pages with more competitive keywords because the Adsense ads will pay more per click.
•When choosing Adsense ad design (you can choose color and format) avoid designs that are obviously ads. The less they look like ads the better.

I recently read a book about Adsense, written by a guy called Joel Comm, that has increased my revenue by 34%. I’ve heard from many other marketers with similar stories.

Through testing and tracking he was able to increase his earnings from $30 per day to $500 per day. His Adsense revenue for January 2005 was $17,463.75!!

You have got a great idea, and your website is now complete. You are ready to open for business but where are your customers? Simple – you are going to have to go out and get them. It sounds easy, but advertising can be a pitfall that can cripple many e-businesses.

There are several methods of advertising on the Internet. Some are free, some are low cost, while others are insanely expensive. The first thing you will need to look at is how much you are willing to pay for traffic, and how far your advertising dollar can go.

One of the most effective, and cheapest, methods of advertising is through e-zines. There are thousands, if not millions of e-zines published every single day. The best way to approach e-zines for advertising is to join a couple that fit your product profile and that you find interesting. Most e-zines offer incentives to new businesses signing up, and will even run your ad for free just for subscribing. You can find many e-zines that offer ads for as little as a dollar. It is a fantastic way to reach thousands of people who are already interested in your type of business.

In fact, you can utilize e-zines to promote your product for free, if you can write an informative article. E-zines are desperate for content, and will often offer to publish your article in exchange for a link back to your site. If you go this route, make sure that your article is informative and not just a sales pitch. For example, if your e-business deals with making money from home, an article about how working from home decreases stress would be very well received. You can rely more on making a good impression with the article and a simple link back, than a hard sell that might not even make into print.

Link exchanges are another free alternative to costly advertising. Be prepared to get lost in the shuffle if you choose a popular site. The best way to make use of this method is by running your own link exchange from your site and offering a free posting in exchange for a link back to your site. My links page, for example, can be found at http://www.iscaweb.com/Links.html

Targeted advertising is by far the best way to bring in traffic to your website. By using targeted key words, your customers are not just stumbling into your website. Half the work is already done by the key words. You just need to supply the information. Google Ad Words can be used very effectively as well as other targeted key word companies. Most of these operate on a pay per click basis, so you will need to research your key words and supply the best possible words to ensure a good cost-to-click ratio. Press releases are a great way to get the word out about your site and possibly create media buzz. While this method is more expensive than the above methods, it has the potential to bring in substantial traffic. Before sending out your release, make sure that it is formatted correctly and contains a powerful first paragraph. News editors are inundated daily and you do not want to get lost in the shuffle.

When writing your press release, it is important to make it news worthy, instead of a plain announcement. Using our example above, if a recent study is released about stress management and working from home, it would be a perfect time to send out a press release that mentions the study and your business. Be prepared to receive phone calls and answer questions if your release is a hit.

You don’t necessarily have to wait for an event to happen to send out your release. If all else fails, get creative! There are many ways to tie in your business to current events, all you need is a little imagination.

We have covered just a couple of ways to effectively advertise your new or existing e-business. The best advice is to start wisely, plan your advertising budget accordingly and get the word out as effectively as possible.