Widget

Google AdSense Launches: Matched Content

Google Adsense has come up with a new tool for publishers – Matched Content. It’s a recommendation tool, which shows related content to your visitors – much like a related content widget with images.

Works best when used at the bottom of each article. Since visitors might be looking for more content after they have consumed the content of your article.

Eligibility to use Matched content
The Matched content feature is not available to all publishers. To be eligible, you must have a site that meets our minimum requirements for traffic volume and number of unique pages. We’ve put these requirements in place to ensure that Matched content provides a great experience for you and your site visitors. Once your site is approved, you’ll have access to the Matched content feature in your AdSense account.

Create an ad unit
Create an ad unit in the usual way, making sure to choose an ad size that fits your layout, and to select “Matched content” from the Ad type drop-down in the process.
To get the best fit for your layout, you might want to use a custom ad size. When using a custom size, we recommend choosing an ad size with a width:height ratio of around 2:1 for a horizontal layout, or 1:2 for a vertical layout.

Check if your site is approved for matched content
1. Sign in to your AdSense account.
2. Click the gear icon and select Settings.
3. In the sidebar, under “Account”, click Site management.

Under the “Owned” tab, check the “Matched content” column to see if your site has been approved. If the status of your site is:
Approved: You may place Matched content units on any of the pages of this site.
Not approved: You may not place Matched content units on this site.

If there is no column called “Matched content“, then your account is not yet eligible for it and you’ll have to wait for some months before it is rolled out to every publisher.

Revenue
Going forward am sure Google will roll content matching ads into this widget and help publishers generate more revenue from their site. For example, apart from your own sites content, the widget might show some relevant content and link of an advertiser. This way, advertiser gets traffic and the publisher gets his cut!

Related Read: New AdSense Ad format — Widget Ads

10 Tips for Finding the WordPress Theme That’s Right For You

This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Everybody knows that WordPress is extremely versatile. There are themes available for nearly every mood or whim and new ones are being added every day. When you’re ready to start blogging for yourself, how do you find a theme that will suit your needs? Here are some tips and questions to help you find the right WordPress theme for you.

1. Be aware of your purpose – To choose the best theme for your blog, you need to know what you are going to be using it for. Are you wanting to monetize it? Do you want to throw pay per click out the window and just write for fun?

2. Take a look at others, part 1 – Find the blogs that appeal to you and write the themes down. This first sweep looks specifically at form, rather than function. Write down the five styles that most appeal to you, then go to the next step.

3. Take a look at others, part 2 – There are two parts to any blog: form and function. Search around a little more to see if there are blogs that have the functionality that you want. Will the theme support the widgets that you want? Does it have the coding that you love already in place? Write down around five styles.

4. Do you need to learn a programming language? – Some WordPress styles are more technically intensive than others. Do you have the expertise to install the widgets, or would you prefer a ‘drag and drop’ sort of approach? Are you willing to learn new techniques? This is an important factor when selecting a WordPress theme.

5. Do you need to pay for it? – You might have found the theme of your dreams, but does it cost money? If you are plotting out a straight blog, do you need to have a custom theme available? Themes come in a variety of price ranges and you must be prepared to pay if you like one of the premium set ups.

6. Can you grow with your theme? – Are you satisfied with the WordPress theme enough that you’re itching to put all of your material into it? Can you grow with this theme? More importantly, are you willing to put a whole lot of work into the theme that you’ve chosen? If not, you may wish to choose something else.

7. Is there after sales support? – Does the company supplying the theme offer support in case something goes wrong? If they don’t, are you willing to search hither and yon for someone who can answer your questions? Adequate technical support is essential.

8. Does it upgrade regularly? – Are you going to be left in the dust at each new WordPress upgrade? Can your theme grow with you, or are you going to be left behind? Learn about this before you commit to the theme, because it will save some issues later on.

9. Read some reviews – Once you have answered your questions in terms of the theme that you wish to use, investigate to see if there are any reviews posted. If you can’t find any reviews, ask the people that have your potential theme on their site and see how they feel about it.

10. Give it a test run – All the preparation in the world is not a replacement for giving your theme a shot and seeing how it works. Kick the tires, put some comments in, play with the widgets. If you have to pay for your theme, see if the company will let you have a free trial.

Nothing can beat good content, but a great WordPress theme will make it easier on your readers and potentially attract new ones. It’s like finding the right partner, you’ll know it when you’ve found the right WordPress theme.
Image Source: flickr

This is a guest article from James Adams at Cartridge Save where he reviews merchandise like HP 350 ink to help customers make a more informed buying decision.

New Chat & SMS Widget inside Classic Yahoomail!

I was using Yahoomail as usual, and suddenly something popped up with a water bubble bursting sound. I could see a blue widget above my email folders. I never did anything to get this. No settings, no modifications, no plugins. I was just checking my mail and the blue widget appeared and after a refresh it disappeared. I used the back button in my FireFox browser and took the screen shots of the chat & sms widget.
It had already imported all the contacts and mobile numbers from my Yahoo! messenger.
It looks cool, loads fast.
Here are some screen shots:

It appeared in the Classic Yahoomail and not in the upgraded version of YahooMail. Upgraded version of Yahoomail already has a separate portion for chatting. But this is something new and better, as we need not move from the inbox to start chatting(some what similar to that in Gmail.)

Click above image to see in full screen

Tab for multiple user chat
Did you notice this widget in your Yahoo mail? Hope this is in the initial state of testing. And Yahoo! will rollout this feature to all its users some time in the future.

Got the Chat and SMS widget back in my Yahoo Mail again. Its not disappearing now. Its nice to chat and adds more fun to its already famous Mail