Publisher

Wire Transfer(EFT) In India: Google Adsense

Finally Google Adsense team made EFT available for all the accounts which are eligible for payment. I can already see the joy of publishers when they see their adsense account payment system being upgraded to receive their earnings via EFT(Electronic Fund Transfer).

Payment Hold

Once your account is upgraded, your payments will be on hold until you fill the payment method form.

Bank Information
To start with wire transfer we must obviously first give Google our bank details. So after we enable our payment mode we must fill:

neft-adsense-wire-transfer-bank-information

Account holder name, Bank name, Account number are the ones every one of us understand. Along with this we also need to provide our branch IFSC code and SWIFT code.

Indian Financial System Code (IFSC)
An IFSC is an identification code for your bank and branch. It should contain 11 letters and numbers. For more details, contact your bank.

SWIFT Bank Identifier Code (BIC)
A SWIFT-BIC is a unique identification code for a particular bank or branch. It should contain 8 or 11 characters. For more details, contact your bank.

Not All Branches Have Swift Code
Every branch in India has its own, unique IFSC code. But not all branches have SWIFT code. When I contacted our bank’s( SBI – State Bank of India ) branch manager, he told he has no idea about SWIFT code ..and continued to tell me that we can receive money from other country just by using IFSC code and MICR code.

MICR – Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
Typically MICR code can be used to extract following informations:
Cheque Serial Number
Account Number
Branch or city code of a bank
Transaction code

So MICR isn’t of much use in EFT.

SWIFT Code Solution
Swift code is available only in branches which facilitates currency conversion services – like Forex trading etc. So get the Swift Code from your banks nearest branch which facilitates currency conversion service.

That is, go to your bank branch and ask which is the nearest branch of that bank which facilitates currency conversion or which has a Swift Code. Now ask nearest branches Swift Code and enter it in your adsense payment form. Done. [ You need not fill the ‘intermediary bank details’ and other credit details – they are optional ]

Note: With this introduction of EFT to Indian publishers, Google has removed paying via Cheques. So no monthly snail mails any more 🙁

Alignment of Ads, Two Horizontal And Rest Vertical – BuySellAds

BuySellAds [BSA] is an advertising marketplace for small to medium sized website owners/publishers. Publisher like the flexibility in charging the advertisers and the easiness with which one can implement the ad codes into their website.
And advertisers like the quality publisher websites, ad rotation feature for equal exposure, stats features and the recently added A/B split testing between multiple ad banners etc.

But A Problem..
If you are using 125 x 125 ad format of BuySellAds and you have many advertisers, then you might have come across the problem of aligning them.

Example:
If you want to have 6 ad spots, as shown in below image.

[ 2 x 3 – Two Horizontal and rest Vertical ad spots ]

There is no built-in user friendly option to get this to work. One simple solution for this is, you can generate 2 separate javascript ad codes and paste it inbetween 2 separate div or p tags to somehow align it.

But the Problem
1. Using more ad codes means increase in the load time of the website as a whole.
2. All the ads does not get equal exposure. As we can only rotate the ads present in a single block of code and can not rotate between two separate code blocks.
3. Some time we may forget to change the price of advertising on one block, which will some time become unfair for advertisers.

Better Solution
Generate a single ad code with 6(or whatever you prefer) ad spots and add “float:left;” to the A element of the styles array in the ad code.

Before


BannerStyles1240548 = new Array(
    "a{display:block;font-size:11px;color:#888;font-
family:verdana,sans-serif;margin:0 4px 10px 0;text-align:center;text-
decoration:none;overflow:hidden;}",

After


BannerStyles1240548 = new Array(
    "a{float:left;display:block;font-size:11px;color:#888;font-
family:verdana,sans-serif;margin:0 4px 10px 0;text-
align:center;text-decoration:none;overflow:hidden;}",

Caution
Do not copy and paste the above code, as the quotation marks appearing on a webpage will not work properly in the source code. So just manually add float:left; to the A element of the styles array, as shown above.

Finally
1. You have nice looking source code! with less clutter.
2. Less number of javascript code, so faster loading of your webpage.
3. All the ads rotate and thus equal exposure to advertisers.
4. Single change in the settings of your ad code will be applied to all the ads.

An Interview with Chitika(CHIH-tih-ka)

Founded in 2003, Chitika (pronounced CHIH-tih-ka), is a full-service on-line advertising network serving over 2 billion monthly impressions across more than 30,000 websites. For advertisers and media buyers, Chitika is a proven channel for targeting on-line consumers and qualified buyers. For all publishers, Chitika is an easy-to-use platform for earning daily ad revenue.

What does Chitika mean?
When Chitika co-founders, Venkat Kolluri and Alden DoRosario left Lycos in 2003 to start their own company, they sought a name that would suggest the speed with which its customers would be able to put up ads on their Web sites. Chitika, which means “snap of the fingers” in Telugu (a South Indian language), captured this sentiment and Chitika Inc. was born. Chitika introduced its online-ads service in January, 2004.
Chitika-eventfamilypic
Since the start of the company it has been mentioned in many of the mainstream media and has been one of the favorite for many “A” grade bloggers. We also use chitika, its been so great in terms of income generation so far. Haven’t seen us, using Chitika, that’s the secret of Chitika(premium) ads. They are invisible to direct visitors!

Ok, without much delay, here we present you the interview that we did with Ryan Travis Director of Client Services
Chitika, Inc.

1. We are very much curious about all the guys behind Chitika, and we want to have a look at your office. If you have any video or photographs(of your employees and office) then please share it with our readers.

Ah – sorry – I don’t have any pictures other than what you can see on our family page!

2. Do you read blogs? If yes, then which are your favorite blogs?

Yes I definitely do read blogs. For keeping up with business, I love to read ProBlogger, TechCrunch, ShoeMoney, and many others. For pleasure, I read PitchforkMedia.com (great for news), Stereogum, N4G, and lots of other sites (I’m a big music and video games nerd!).

3. We know that Chitika was started in 2003. So its not that old, so how could you manage to get the exposure? What do you think, was a stepping stone for Chitika?

Well our first major step was actually somewhat of an accident. Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) came across our ads and began using them, and they worked really well on his sites. He ended up writing a very positive review on the performance, and we really got a lot of exposure from that.

More recently, our Chitika | Premium ads have taken us to an even bigger audience. Our original eMiniMalls ads worked great only for sites about products, but now our new Chitika | Premium ads are doing fantastic on all types of sites (finance, travel, etc. – and don’t worry – they still work great on product sites too!).

4. How do you define success?

Heh.. that is a good question! I would define success as meeting or exceeding the goals that you have set (or that are set for you).

5. What are the mistakes you see your publishers and advertisers are making, in using Chitika

Well I am on the Publisher side so I can only speak for publishers – but the biggest mistake that I see constantly is placement. Publishers will often put our ads in placements that are just not good at all, and then they get upset when they don’t get any clicks on the ads. It is very frustrating! We try to fix this by sending out emails and creating pages to educate the publishers, and by putting up placement guides like this one.

6. What repels you the most from a blog/website(animation at your face advertising etc) ?

Yes – extremely animated ads (“shoot the monkey”, etc.), and especially ads with sound. I really hate hearing “Congratulations, you have won a free iPod!”.. that drives me crazy!

7. What are the new year resolutions for Chitika?

In 2008, we surpassed Ask.com in monthly search-targeted ads served. The next largest provider is Microsoft, and in 2009, we want to surpass them too.

8. How is Chitika differ from other ad networks?

We do a lot of things differently from other ad networks, but I would say that the main difference is in how we target and display our ads. With Chitika | Premium ads, we will only display to search engine traffic, and we will target the ads to what the user was searching for.

This allows us to show extremely relevant ads, and gives the users a good experience. Regular readers who come to your site directly will not see the ads at all – which makes them happy and keeps them coming back.

9. What inspired the idea of targeting the search engine visitors ?

The basic idea is this: better targeted ads means more money – for both publishers and advertisers. If we can target the ads to what people are searching for, then that is really a win-win situation for everyone involved.

10. We see you in twitter, helping your publishers in all possible manner. How do you manage your time?

Ha – terribly! That is something that I am really trying to improve on. It is hard to find a balance between helping everyone out individually, and forming higher-level plans of projects and different items I want to do. I’m still trying to figure out the correct mix, but I feel that it is extremely important to get out there and interact with our customers, no matter what size their sites are.

11. How big or how small is Chitika, as a company?

We are medium-sized. You can see some of us on our “Family” page – that shows the people who have been here the longest. Also – we are currently hiring for several new positions.

12. What all features are in your to do list of Chitika?

Too many! If I list them all here, I might take up all the space on your server 😉

13. If you knew what you know now when you first started Chitika, whats the one biggest tip you would give yourself today?

Do crazy stuff. I think that we all tend to get a little caught up in our worlds of trying to meet our numbers goals, and we get scared to try new/wild ideas. I have found that some of our most successful projects were the “crazy” ones.

14. Strategies used to promot Chitika ?

Lots – but mainly we rely on word-of-mouth. If we do a great job at helping publishers make money, then they will talk about it.

15. Your advice for all chitika publishers/advertisers to make the most out of chitika.

Try new things, and track them by using channels. It is amazing how much improvement you can make by just testing out little changes, like placement, link colors, etc. You should try a lot of different ideas, and see which ones work best. Check out the Chitika Blog for tips on where to place ads, and different ways to customize them.

16. Please tell something, that you would like all your advertisers/publishers/ and others to know about Chitika

Our ads work best when used together on the same page with AdSense – we are meant to be used as a compliment for AdSense, rather than a replacement. Our most successful publishers use both together.

Hope you enjoyed the interview. Ryan is really helpful for all the publishers. If you are a Chitika publisher, then feel free to contact him, if you have any problem or if you need any suggestions. Thanks Ryan and Chitika for the interview.

If you have not yet tried Chitika, then please give it a try. Chitika premium really works like a charm on many sites. Signup for chitika. And please leave your valuable comments in the comment section.

Adsense for Domain Now Available to all Publishers

Adsense for Domain is now Available to almost all Adsense Publishers..if not, then they are busy rolling it to you.

What is AdSense for domains?
AdSense for domains allows publishers with undeveloped domains to help users by providing relevant information including ads, links and search results rather than see empty pages or “page not found” errors.

If you have undeveloped domains, then AdSense for domains can help you make some income. To get started, visit your adsense account and click on “AdSense Setup” and then on “AdSense for Domains”, and follow the instruction.

Previously AdSense for domains was only available for people with huge portfolios(large number of domains, with high traffic). With the opening of adsense for domain to all adsense publishers, even if you have 1 or 2 domains laying around you will now be able to monetize it with adsense.

adsense-for-domain
Never think that you can make a living out of monetizing your undeveloped domains, even if you are having hundreds of domains to monetize. Its good enough if it earns you some good income so that you pay the yearly domain registration charges.
But if you have a already popular domain with TLD (extension) .org or .net etc and if you park the same domain with .com extension, then chances are there that many of your visitors may landup at the .com domain by mistake and you may start seeing more earnings from the parked domain.
For example:
When Darren Rowse started blogging at problogger.net and established a great readership and a huge traffic to his blog, problogger.com had no content(it was an undeveloped domain), yet it ranked very high in Alexa and was receiving a lot of traffic. In such a case if the .com domain is monetized with adsense for domain, then it will yield more income! –> Just an example to clarify. Darren bought problogger.com domain and redirected it to problogger.net later.

Nevertheless, adsense for domains is by far the best way to monetize your undeveloped domains. We have tested with other ad network and they perform very poor and the ads delivered are also not contextual..now wondering how can adsense for domain deliver contextual ads when there is no content on the blog!
Google probably takes into consideration the name of the domain. If your domain is mp3zone.com then the ads served are mostly related to mp3. And if a user comes from search engine then the content matches to the search term.

For a detailed step by step procedure to setup your adsense for domain follow the link to support page.

To check whether AdSense for domains has been enabled for your account, log in and visit your AdSense Setup tab

An Interview with BuySellAds.com

BuySellAds.com [BSA] is an advertising marketplace for small to medium sized website owners/publishers. They want to help small to medium sized website publishers sell more ads and make more money from buysellads websites. They also want to help advertisers find better placements and streamline the process of dealing with small to medium sized publishers.
Interview-BuySellAds-Technotip
BuySellAds.com is a direct banner selling service. As a result you can charge as much as you want for an ad slot and you can move away from PPC or CPM etc adnetworks and start charging more, on monthly basis.

We could somehow get in contact with a nice guy called Todd of buysellads.com, and he was kind enough to answer some of our questions.

1. We are very much curious about all the guys behind BuySellAds.com, and we want to have a look at your office. If you have any video and photographs(of your employees and office) then please share it with our readers.

Hahaha, well, BuySellAds.com is run by me out of the second bedroom in my apartment. We have a programmer and an assistant site manager who also work from home and are remote. We’re a very small team, 100% bootstrapped, and trying to be as efficient as possible to make this thing work for everyone. I don’t think there’s any other way to do it.

2. How would you decide that BSA is matured enough to comeout of *BETA*?

Good question. I’ll make you a deal… as soon as Gmail comes out of beta, we will come out of beta. Cool?

3. Do you read blogs? If yes, then which are your favorite blogs?

There are only two blogs I read religiously: http://TechCrunch.com and http://OnStartups.com

4. There was a Buzz in the blogosphere, when BSA was launched. what do you think made “A” list bloggers write about your launch?

I think the idea behind BSA just rings true with many bloggers. The problem I was trying to solve is real and I wasn’t the only person with that problem: selling ads on my own was a pain, too time consuming, and distracted me from publishing more often. Buying ads was also troublesome – contacting multiple bloggers, making payment different ways, etc, it was just totally disorganized and inefficient.

5. What about the tool(suggestion tool based on real data) which would show us the value of our blogs ad space?

Yes, this is a good idea and one that we want to do. It’s one of those things that’s very hard to get *right*. For example, a site in our network CSSRemix is getting around 100K impressions per month. They are selling 7 ads across the top of their site at $350 each. That is a $3.50 CPM which is very high for our network. You will find many sites of similar caliber that cannot charge that much. Pricing ads is tricky and is not an equation – there are many many factors involved. That being said, it’s something we’re very interested in building because it is hard to build – which would make it a very valuable tool.

6. What goals do you have for BSA in coming years?

Same goals we have now, help publishers sell more ads, and help advertisers find quality niche placements from a central marketplace.

7. What was the major challenge you faced while launching BSA?

Having the guts to pull the trigger. I had the site ready to go for a few weeks before I actually launched.

8. What do you call, was a stepping stone for BSA?

Getting some of the first publishers signed up (Logopond, PSDTuts, FreelanceSwitch, etc).

9. Share a happiest moment about BSA(except the launch day)?

Seeing the first ads sold moments after the first publisher had installed the ad code 😉

10. How do you define success?

Success for me is about doing the right thing. Whether in business, family, etc., it’s important to always do the right thing and that’s how I sleep well at night.

11. What are the mistakes you see your publishers and advertisers are making, in using BSA

Changing price frequently and/or raising the price on an advertiser in their first month. It just doesn’t make any sense. The publishers who do the best with BSA raise pricing on their advertisers *maybe* once every 3-4 months. I think that it is important for publishers to find a price they are happy with for this period of time and stick with it. Even if you need to raise the price for new advertisers, you should let the existing advertisers stay at their current rate for roughly 3-4 months. As for advertisers, the common mistake I see with them is not giving a placement enough time. One month is a long time, but with some businesses advertising in this niche it can be more about branding and staying power (believe it or not) than anything else.

12. What repels you the most from a blog/website(animation at your face advertising etc)?

Poorly placed ads that don’t fit in well with the design of the site. Sites that have scripts for more than 2 ad networks. The biggest turn off, however, is seeing ads that are not targeted. If you look through all of the websites in BSA’s inventory and check out the ads BSA serves for those sites, you will see that 99.9% of them (had to give myself a little room for error) are very targeted placements.

13. Whats your view about PPC, CPM, CPA advertising?

Blah, Blah and blah. I like to keep things simple, fixed 30-day rates.

14. What are the new year resolutions for BSA?

The one is easy, get the new site launched!

15. Please tell something, that you would like all your
advertisers/publishers/ and others to know about you and BuySellAds.com

What you see is what you get. BSA is real.

We are using BuySellAds on some of our blog too, and it provides a reliable service. Once your blog is accepted into their network, your blog will be listed in their marketplace and you will get a lot of exposure. And the best part is – they pay on time!
BuySellAds is still in Beta, and we hope it will be available for all public shortly. And we recommend to try Beta Registration and see your luck with them.

Hope you enjoyed the interview

Santa Google has limited gifts for 2008 Christmas!

One of the thread answered by AdsenseAdvisor says:- “We really appreciate the work you all put into building great sites. However, we feel that gift-giving is not the most appropriate gesture this year given the current global economic climate. I know you may be disappointed, but I hope you can understand our efforts to be fiscally responsible in these times.”

With all these, some publishers are reporting that they have received gifts from Google.
Here are some of the pictures posted in that same forum.
T-shirt-mug-pen-mousepad-sticker

The gift package are said to be arrived via UPS and included Shirt, a Mug, a Pen, a Mouse Pad and Paper with Google Logo.
But some of them got only the Mug(Better then nothing!).
Google-Mug
Mug-Google-Closer-look

Each Christmas Google use to send such gifts to some of its selected publishers and advertiser(maybe for those who earn them a lot), but for this(2008) Christmas Google thinks not to spend more(to cut down its budget, due to global economic crisis!). So we think it will limit the gifts only to its top most publishers and advertisers. At the most it may send some greetings to other selective publishers and advertisers.
Above gift images look great. It may be lot cheaper in terms of cost, but gifts are gifts and are usually priceless.
If you want to get something from Google, then get GMail stickers by sending them stamped, self addressed envelops.

Best Pay Per Click Network- Bidding System

Technotip.org uses AdSense, Bidvertiser and Chitika as PPC advertising.
But I feel that bidvertiser has some very good features that I miss in both AdSense and Chitika.

Technotip.org uses AdSense, Bidvertiser and Chitika as PPC advertising.

But I feel that bidvertiser has some very good features that I miss in both AdSense and Chitika.

*You get 20$ in free clicks with Bidvertiser, using which you can advertise on our blog(and on any blog using Bidvertiser)…to use it click here.

Get 20$ FREE credit of Bidvertiser, using paypal a/c

Bidvertiser has the following features(some of these are present in AdSense, but not all):

1. You can display eBay ads, which gets more CTR.
bidvertiser-ebay-ads

2. Endless customization. We can customize the ad to the look and feel of our blog/website. Color, size(we can create any width and height of our choice), font size, format, ad open in new window or in the same page)…etc.

3. We can track the clicks by logging into our account.

4. Bidvertiser for feeds. We can also monetize our feeds, by integrating the easy to use Bidvertiser for feeds. It can be integrated with any feed service.

5. It has a top class referral program. You can see many “A” grade bloggers using Bidvertiser banners to promote bidvertiser. This is because, Bidvertiser provoids a very good income for referring it to new advertisers or publishers.

Earn money by directing users to signup with BidVertiser

Place a Referral button or a text link on your site and you will start to earn money when a user clicks on your button or link and signs as an advertiser or a publisher:

When a user signs as an advertiser and first spends $10, Bidvertiser will credit your account with $5. When that same advertiser spends $50, you will be credited with an additional $20.

When a user signs as a publisher and first earns $10, Bidvertiser will credit your account with $10. When that same publisher earns $50, you will be credited with an additional $40.

Your earnings will be tracked in your Referral control panel, including clicks, sign-ups and conversions.

6. Minimum target to get the payment is $10. Bidvertiser pay monthly, either by check or instantly through PayPal, and the minimum target to get payment is 10$.

7. Simply display the BidVertiser text ads on your website and let advertisers bid against each other!. And the highest bidder will be allowed to advertise on your blog and hence you will be getting maximum benefits from each ad spot.

8. Have your bidding steadily improved over time
You will see a constant improvement in your bidding over time, as both your visitors and advertisers will be exposed to the opportunity of bidding against each other on your ad space.

9. Block any unwanted ad
BidVertiser enables you to filter-out any unwanted ads. Prior to your own filtering, each ad has to be pre-approved by Bidvertiser editorial team. This mechanism gives you a peace of mind with regards to the ads displayed on your website.

10. BidVertiser does NOT accept websites that:

Produce, provide or link to:
- Adult content
- Sexual content
- Excessive profanity
- Illegal drugs or related content
- Hate speech or hate graphics content
- Click frauds are taken very seriously and strictly.

I am just using one 125 x 125 ad spot in this blog and that itself is yielding me good payment each month. The revenue share that I get for each click is more than that I get from AdSense. But the only problem for me to have all Bidvertiser Ads on my blog is, its not highly contextual. The Advertiser who bids on our ad spot, will be allowed to show his ads until he wishes or until he is outbid by some other advertisers. So its difficult to get contextual ads.

And as I have seen, it requires time to get more exposure among advertisers. I have an old website with just 2 or 3 pages, and Bidvertiser shows ads all the time in that website. But Technotip.org is still a new blog, so sometimes there will be default advertisement(referring advertisers to advertiser on my blog, with free clicks of 20$).

And the main advantage is, advertisers get 20$ in free click, to advertise on any site using Bidvertiser. And this is a great advantage to refer any advertiser to Bidvertiser. And by referring advertiser you get the referral income too.

When there is no ads to server to your ad spot, this default advertisement referring advertisers to Bidvertiser will be shown.

And Advertisers get these features:

Site-Targeted Advertising
With BidVertiser, you decide where your ad will be displayed. They allow you to either browse through or search the categorized directory of sites and select only the appropriate ones for your business.

Traffic Origin
BidVertiser allows you to display your ads within a geographic range you determine. Simply choose your geographic targeting and your ads will be shown only to users located anywhere in the country or countries you selected.

Ad Creative
With pay-per-click model, you only pay for clicks you receive. The user that sees your ad knows exactly what you have to offer and only if he finds your offer appealing, he will willingly click on it to visit your site.

Advertisers can also Drive Buyers to their eBay Listings and Stores, using the free 20$ clicks.

So whatelse do anyone want to get started….?

Your earnings depend on your smartness. How well you integrate those ads into your blog/website. Your skill to bled the ads. Selecting the right ad formats which suites your site template…etc.

I always use customized size(width and height) on my other blog. This has given me high returns.

We have heard this many times, in many blogs — “Do not put all your eggs in single basket”. So just using one advertising network is not advisable. You can atleast use the referral program of Bidvertiser to earn a lot of passive income.

Bidvertiser can be used in overcoming the disadvantages of automated systems Content Match, where neither the advertiser nor the publisher has any control of the advertisements’ quality, pricing and timing. Bidvertiser On-Site Bid Per Click offers website owners with the ability to sell their ad space, automatically, to the highest bidder, on a price-per-click basis, where the price is mostly effected by the quality and popularity of their website. Advertisers can place ads directly on sites of their choice and pay only when a visitor clicks-through their site.

We will be writting about bidvertiser and some strategies to improve the earnings through Bidvertiser. So please keep comming back and signup to our email or rss feed.

So, if you want to signup as Bidvertiser Publisher, then click here.

And if you want to signup as Bidvertiser Advertiser, then click here.