Posted by Average Joe on March 14, 2009 under Blogs | 
Wordpress is one of the numerous options that is available to bloggers who are looking for the software to publish their own blog on their own domain name. The software is very easy to use, and provides many themes and great community support. There are a lot of options that are available and while there may be many other blogging programs available, Wordpress has become one of the most popular. In this article you will find some useful information if you are considering starting a blog using Wordpress, such as Reasons to choose Wordpress, Tips on starting a blog and Information about the support offer by Wordpress. Based on this information as well as you own information you should be able to better decide whether Wordpress will meet your needs or not.
Reasons to Choose Wordpress
There are a great number of reasons to choose Wordpress when starting your blog. Some of the features that are included as part of Wordpress may be more important to some bloggers then others. So your personal preference will likely play a big part in your decision. Just one example is for people with little or no programming or design experience, the range of free templates may be encouraging. While others may like the potential power you can get from modifying the coding of the templates. Some of these features include
- A great variety of templates, both free and to purchase.
- The ability to categorize and tag posts easily.
- Built in spell check in the editor.
- Previews and auto save,
- The ability to post text, audio files and video files. Easily.
- A variety of privacy options
- The ability to track statistical data, related to the blog.
Taking a careful look at these features will help you as a blogger determine if Wordpress is right for your or not.
Starting a Blog with Wordpress
For those of you that choose to make your blog using Wordpress, you will not be disappointed. Firstly the time from nothing to having your blog ready to go, can be as little as a few minutes. This takes away a lot of the frustration in getting started and makes the whole process a lot quicker and a lot smoother. You also have a choice, between setting up your blog as a stand alone site, or getting a hosted blog at http://www.wordpress.com. While some of the features do vary slightly, the majority of the system is quite similar. Literally all you need to get started is an email address and a wish to set up a blog. Or if you prefer to go with hosting the blog yourself the process is not much different. Just one or two extra steps, especially if you have web hosting with Fantastico, which allows you to install Wordpress Automatically. Plus the need for a domain name and a hosting account. However this is still fairly straight forward.
Support Offered by Wordpress
For many first time bloggers the type of support offered is very important. This is because first time bloggers may have quite a few questions about the process of starting a basic blog and once they establish a basic blog they may have additional questions about using advanced features and customizing the blog. Wordpress offers a great deal of support for bloggers of all skill levels. The support offered by Wordpress includes the ability to contact the support staff as well as the ability to receive support from other members through online forums. Although the support staff is incredibly responsive some bloggers enjoy the ability to communicate with other bloggers in forums. This is because the forums are active 24 hours a day and bloggers can find support from peers at any time.
Posted by Average Joe on March 6, 2009 under Advertising |
Finally the last in the series of Adsense alternatives on the site, so far we have taken a look at 12 different alternatives, and have another 5 to share in this post. While having a number of different advertisers provides good advantage to ensure you income stream from your web site. It is also possible to go to far in the other direction and have to many different advertisers which in some respects can either make your site look to inconsistent or to cluttered.
Kanoodle Bright Ads (http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool)
Kanoodle’s offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle receives for an advertiser.
Fastclick (http://www.fastclick.com/publish.html)
Fastclick offers you an impressive 65 percent of what it makes from a click on your web site. Payments are done monthly, via PayPal or through checks. The ads can be formatted as you wish, and Fastclick even offers a free support service for its members and no fees are required to register with the service.
Clicksor (http://www.clicksor.com)
Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your web site produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your web site in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven’t made that much, your earning roll over to the next period
AdBrite (http://www.adbrite.com/)
AdBrite offers publishers the possibility of integrating text ads in their pages. These are done on your own rates, with the web sites you approve by hand so it bares some similarities with a classic advertising scheme. You also have the option of adding a “Your Add Here” button that buyers can immediately click to ad space on your page. It can also be used in conjunction with Google AdSense, maximizing your CTR and offering advertisers the possibility of showing their links in your Google AdSense space. You have full control over the look and feel of your adds and finally, you get an incredible 75% of what the advertiser pays for on every click.
TargetPoint (http://publisher.targetpoint.com)
TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site’s overall performance and better revenue. It’s free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get paid with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.
So as you can see there are many alternatives to use for advertising on your web site. But don’t forget you don’t need to limit your site to just one advertiser, and you can combine some of these program’s with your existing Adsense program. For some other alternatives don’t forget to check out Adsense Alternatives #1 and Adsense Alternatives #2
Posted by Average Joe on under Advertising |
As we have seen there are some alternatives to using Google Adsense for your site advertising. There are a great many alternatives and here we will take a look at a few more options. Really the biggest thing to keep in mind for advertising you place on your site is to keep a mixture of different advertisers on the site, to attempt to maintain a more consistent flow of income.
Nixie (http://www.nixxie.com/display.php?section=Partners)
Nixie claims to hold a technology that can read and understand your site, enabling it to display the most relevant content to your site. Besides text ads, Nixie also features price comparison listings as well as live auction advertising. It’s very easy to implement and has a good payment policy as well.
Chitika (http://www.realcontext.com/index.php?option=RealContext:+Contextual+Targeting+Engine)
RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there’s an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn’t. That means there’s a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.
AdHearus (http://adhearus.com/webmaster.php)
AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn’t stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There’s a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it’s a breeze.
AffiliateSensor (http://www.affiliatesensor.com/)
AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There’s integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA’s (Public Service Ads).
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress (http://www.miva.com/us/content/partners/arx.asp)
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress is targeted towards small and mid-sized publishers. It implements Search Box functionality and also features things like a Category Directory as well as the handling of 404 error pages. It can be integrated with your page using a simple on-line wizard.
contextWeb ContextAd (http://www.contextweb.com/Corporate/publisher/publisher.shtml)
ContextAd offers the possibility of contextual ads for dynamic pages, meaning ads will change as soon as your page does. It’s very easy to use and free to sing up for and offers a transparent payment policy. The ads are fully customisable and real-time reports are available 24/7.
If you are looking for more options take a look at Adsense Alternatives #1 and Adsense Alternatives #3
Posted by Average Joe on under Advertising |
There are many people that use the Google Adsense program, to generate some income from their website. However there are also some that find the program to be a little uncertain or just doesnt suit the feel of their site or requirements from an ad program.
Well there is some good news for you. There are many alternatives to the Adsense program, which attempt in varying degrees to overcome some of the short comings. Here is a list of some of the more noteworthy ones, with a brief descriptions of each.
Bidvertiser (http://www.bidvertiser.com/)
Like AdSense, Bidvertiser displays text ads in your page. But the difference lies in the fact that advertisers bid over your advertising space, ensuring you earn as much revenue as you possibly can. This also means that bids will increase over time, earning you even more cash. You also get a great way to customize your ads with a very easy to use tool and detailed reports on your site’s status.
AllFeeds (http://www.allfeeds.com/?action=publishers)
AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don’t. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.
Quigo AdSonar (http://www.quigo.com/adsonarpublishers.htm)
Quigo AdSonar achieves relevancy by placing a filter according to your site’s categories. It also offers you on-line reports of your site’s status and the possibility to add your own custom ads replacing ads that don’t gain you any revenue. The setup is very simple, in a similar fashion to AdSense’s and quite customizable as well.
MarketBanker (http://www.marketbanker.com/mb/sell.php)
MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There’s also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense’s and they’re just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT (http://www.intellitxt.com/site/web_01a.html)
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT offers user-activated ads, highlighting certain words within the content of the page and presenting relevant ads when a user hovers his mouse over them. It uses a pay-for-performance pricing scheme and can easily be used along with other advertising methods, because it is unobtrusive. It places you in full control, allowing you to easily integrate it within your site with some simple JavaScript.
BidClix ( http://www.bidclix.com/PubTop.html)
BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it’s also very flexible.
This is just a small sample of the many options available so don’t forget to check out Adsense Alternatives #2 and Adsense Alternatives #3.