Don't Make Readers, Make Money Online

Hi everyone,

I've been re-reading some of Griz's old posts on his "How To Make Money Online For Beginners". He makes it sound so easy! But here are a couple of tips I picked up will be applying soon. Bear in mind this strategy is strictly if you are looking to make money online using AdSense. It may not apply with other methods.

First, make your site ugly. Not terribly ugly, but definitely unappealing. Obviously Griz can't easily define what that means, but he says he is constantly playing with the look and feel of his sites to get just the right amount of ugly. The idea is that people will land on your site and be turned off by it and immediately click on of your exit links to get away.

Generally your most obvious exit links are your ads. They should be very apparent "above the fold". Above the fold just means that it should display when the page first loads. No scrolling necessary. If you go to his blog, you'll see unappealing colors and a very basic layout. I'd follow that strategy here, but alas, I get no traffic already so it wouldn't really matter.

Another of his tips is to write solid, useful content that is also very bland and leaves the reader wanting more. If you answer every question the reader has...then they are satisfied. They do not continue to search for answers - and they don't search by using your ads. Your content needs to be good enough, but not too thorough. I'm sure this is something that can be practiced.

A high CTR (click-through-rate) is related to bounce rate. Your CTR is the percent of people that click your ads . Bounce rate is the percent of people that land on your page and immediately leave. Hopefully by using your ads.

I spent months working to build the best, most useful site I could and currently have a bounce rate of less than 10%. I thought that was awesome. However, I finally realized that as my bounce rate went down  - my CTR also went down. The better my content gets, the more people just sit and read my pages. They aren't looking any more!

If you strictly create sites that are ugly and not helpful, G may put you "in the sandbox". And G continues to get better and better and discriminating between real content and spun content. To avoid

So I'm revamping my main site again. Uglier. Less easy to find all my great information. My ego has a hard time producing less helpful information. I'll report back how its going soon.

Remember, you don't want a bunch of readers... you want targeted traffic that lands on your page, and then keeps looking,

Cheers!

MJ

Troubleshooting Google AdSense and Google Analytics

I had so much trouble linking my Google AdSense and Google Analytics that once I figured it out, I thought I should share my knowledge with the world. First I'll tell you how I was set up, then I'll explain the solution. Or scroll down directly to the solution if you're in a hurry. My journey to earn money from home in the form of a passive income is anything but easy!

I started with a single money making website. I signed up for Google AdSense and Google Analytics. I copied the code from Google onto my site. No problem. Then I started another money making website. So I added an account for the second site and added the code to that site. Then I did a third. Still no problem. But I realized after the fourth, fifth, and sixth money making websites that I didn't want to have to check every account separately.

I decided that what I really wanted to do was see a different "profile" on a single account. In my case, each site was a profile on an account. So I went about building a profile for each site. But then I had these extra accounts cluttering up my Dashboard. And since Google has such awful explanations and practically NO customer service to speak of, I couldn't find much help. 

Sometimes the forums had a helpful lead, but as often as not, it was just full of frustrated people screaming at Google for their lack of help. After countless hours (during which I was not creating content for my sites like I should have been), I figured out a few things. There is still a lot for me to learn, but here's what I've got so far. I can always add more later...

Delete An Account

1. After you sign in to Google Analytics, there is a drop down box with all your accounts listed on the right.

2. Select the account you wish to delete.

3. Then, over on the left is a link that says "Analytics Settings". Click it.

4. Underneath the View Reports dropdown box is a link that says "Overview = > Your Site (Edit account settings | Edit AdSense linking settings)". Click "Edit account settings".

5. Underneath your account information is a small link that says "Delete this account".

I missed that last step several times before spotting it. They sure don't make it easy delete a Google analytics account.

Link Google AdSense and Google Analytics

1. After you sign in to Google Analytics, there is a drop down box with all your accounts listed on the right.

2. Select the account you wish to delete.

3. Then, over on the left is a link that says "Analytics Settings". Click it.

4. Underneath the View Reports dropdown box is a link that says "Overview = > Your Site (Edit account settings | Edit AdSense linking settings)". Click "Edit AdSense linking settings".

5. If you have multiple sites, then here you will see them listed. Check the box by each site to link your Google AdSense t to your Google Analytics.

6. Copy and paste the code into the head of your site(s) if you haven't already.

Find AdSense Information in Analytics

• After you sign in to Google Analytics, there is a drop down box with all your accounts listed on the right.

• Select the account you wish to see AdSense data for.

• On the left there is a dropdown box with the title "View Reports". Select a profile (or website) from the list.

• Then, from the list of links on the left, click on "Content".

• If your AdSense and Analtyics accounts are linked properly, you'll see AdSense listed as a report when the list expands.

• You can stop here since this is the display for AdSense. I always add this report to my dashboard for convenience. Just click the "Add to Dashboard" button in the top left of the chart.

If you you are looking to make money online, then there is no question that you need to sign up for both of these programs. Google AdSense and Google Analytics are not very user friendly like you might expect from such a huge company.

Cheers

MJ