In my opinion Google AdSense is by far the best PPC programme allowing webmasters to earn money by showing adverts on their blog - it pays high, the ads look good and they are relevant.

However, they can be strict (with good reason) and some sites will not be accepted. So, I have compiled a comprehensive list of five alternatives to Google AdSense.

AdSense Alternatives

1.  AdBrite- Probably the most popular alternative to AdSense is AdBrite. AdBrite ads look quite attractive and in most cases pay relatively well, but not as high as AdSense. Their system works a bit different as it also allows advertisings to directly publish adverts on certain sites.
2. Bidvertiser - Another very popular alternative to AdSense, Bidvertiser does not pay as well as AdBrite, but does allow publishers to also show eBay ads which could be appealing on certain types of websites. However, for advertisers click fraud is seen as a problem with Bidvertiser.
3. Yahoo Publisher Network - Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN), pays very well (even similar rates to AdSense), the adverts are very relevant and look good. However, the only flaw with YPN is that it is notoriously hard to get accepted into, even more so than AdSense.
4. AdToll - AdToll is quite a popular network, but it does not work the same way than the other advertising networks listed here. It works more in the way of advertisers buying their own banner ads on individual publishers sites - this results in good sites selling many ads but small sites may find it hard to sell advertising.
5. Chitika - Chitika is a relatively small network, but is growing quickly in size. The adverts look good, it pays well and it is definitely a good time to try jumping on the Chitika bandwagon.

As you can see, not being from AdSense is not the end of the world and all the advertising networks on this list are definitely worth a look.

AdBrite

Bidvertiser

Yahoo Publisher Network

AdToll

Chitika

Google AdSense can be a great money making tool if you know how to use it and is definitely the highest paying and most popular PPC (Pay Per Click) network in existence. If you don’t have an AdSense account, it is worth signing up for one and getting approved even if you don’t plan to place any ads in the near future.

Anyway, to earn money from AdSense there obviously needs to be people looking at your adverts. So, this means that you will need two things; traffic and visible ads.

Placing your AdSense units in the best places can be key to getting more clicks - I have seen many high traffic sites getting less clicks than sites with lower traffic purely due to poor ad placement.

However, you need to be careful not to breach any of the AdSense Programme Policies, or you will risk your AdSense account getting banned. The AdSense policies related to ad placement are:

 

Google ads, search boxes or search results may not be:

• Integrated into a software application of any kind, including toolbars.
• Displayed in pop-ups or pop-unders.
• Placed in emails or in email programmes.
• Obscured by elements on a page.
• Placed on any non-content-based page.
• Placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads.
• Placed on pages whose content or URL could confuse users into thinking it is associated with Google due to the misuse of logos, trademarks or other brand features.
• Placed on, within or alongside other Google products or services in a manner that violates the policies of that product or service.

 

Obviously the key to successful placement is to experiment; place ads in certain places of your pages for a week at a time to find which placement results in the best CTR (Click Through Rate) and revenue.

Diagram of where AdSense units should perform best on a page

The image to the right shows, after many experiments, the places where AdSense adverts should perform best. Obviously some of the areas on certain sites are not possible - but you should try out roughly where the darkest colors are.

The darker the colors, the more visits are attracted to the area, hence they are more likely to see and click on adverts. 

However, sometimes it is best not to always go with the darkest areas you can use - this may have a negative impact on the look of your website and put off people from returning or even reading your content in the first place. Personally, I think you are best off placing the content where it looks good, but using the chart to the right to avoid the completely white areas.

As I have said before though, the key to it is to experiment - try different ad placements to get the best for your site.

The next article related to AdSense will be about blending and making ads look like part of the site.

This is just a quick note to say that The New Webmaster has been purchased - it is now going through a full relaunch.

We have introduced a brand new design, logo and general layout. The blog will no longer be dead, in fact our writers will produced at least two great quality articles per week.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or recommendations.

The main four advertising types;

CPC: Click based advertising like google adsense (main purpose) where you will get paid per click on ads on your site.

CPM: Paid per thousand views such as adsdaq where you are paid a certain amount per thousands ad views.

Private Advertising: involves selling ad space on your site directly. I find this method very effective as if you sell ad space you will have guaranteed revenue.

Affiliate: The highest potential advertising form, where in you ‘plug’ a site/product and with each sale you get a certain percentage commission, example company –click bank

-Cheers

As a webmaster/blogger you should be aware of the advertising network run by google, google adsense.

Adsense is a widely used ad program that is very easy to manage (doesnt really require managment once setup) and is a good place to start in making revenue from your site. Earnings from adsense vary but it also gives you large potential.

With adsense, basically;

-you pick a certain style ad

-you put adsense code on your site

-adsense automatically places relevant ads on your site within the code space

-you make money when those ads are clicked on by visitors

Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, unobtrusive Google ads on their website’s content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on your site, you’ll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages. Learn more about AdSense for content.

It’s also a way for web site publishers to provide Google search to their site users, and to earn money by displaying Google ads on the search results pages. Find out more about AdSense for search.

The program is free, and combines pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertising - meaning you get paid for valid clicks on the ads on your site or search results pages as well as impressions on your content pages. So go ahead and try this program. If you comply with our program policies, just complete our online application and select either or both of AdSense for content pages and AdSense for search. One application gets you approved for both AdSense and AdSense for search - you can decide to use any combination of these products on your pages.

-Google adsense support pages

What is a sitemap?

Basically a sitemap is a single page that has links to every page on a website.

Why should you have one?

The Sitemap Protocol allows you to inform search engines about URLs on your websites that are available for crawling. Basically meaning bots used by google and other search engines can find every page on your website easily that you allow it to find.

Meaning your pages have a higher chance of getting indexed in search engines and in a shorter amount of time.

Having your site listed in directories is basically a must at the moment and will generate some traffic (very little though) but having links to your site is likely to improve seo and pr rankings

We provide a submission service where we will manually submit your site to 20 directories of PR3+ (2x PR3, 7x PR4, 7x PR5, 3x PR6, 1x PR7).
We provide this service for only $5USD if you are interested send an email to sumbmssion@thenewwebmaster.com.
We will provide a list of the sites after submission.

1.Write and submit articles . Yeh it has to be the same topic as you site is based on.
2. Put your sites link in forum signatures.
3.Review websites in your niche on Alexa to try to take some of their traffic by including a reference back to your site.
4.Whenever you send an email to someone, always add your website url as a signature.
5.Keep updating content on your websites/blogs.
6.Tag blog posts at social bookmarking sites, especially at http://del.icio.us/.
7.Politely ask your or encourage readers to subscribe to your rss feeds.
8.Encourage readers to comment on your blogs.
9.Include translation for your websites/blogs.
10.Do not be boring (simple)
11.Comment on other related blogs.
12.Make sure error pages (eg, 404) redirect to your site
13.Brand your website with a logo and a slogan/catch phrase.
14.Hold a contest that people in your niche will talk about. This will equal more links and traffic to your website.
15.Build a tool that individuals in your niche will love and enjoy. Then give it away for free.
16.Get a custom t-shirt made with your website url on it, and wear it often.
17.Open up a myspace account and find targeted friends so that you can promote your services to them. Do not spam people, myspace is cracking down on spammers and are starting to sue people.
18.Have an easy to remember domain name. If your domain name is too long or not memorable then people may forget your site.
19.Add a bookmark option to your website/blogs.
20.Stay up to date on what is going on in the world, you can monetize off hot topic trends.
21.Network, when you know more people you can find people that can help you get what you need.
22.Be funny, people like something that will make them laugh and they will spread it for you if it is a genius idea.
23.Answer people’s questions on Yahoo! answers with a link to your website in the sources area.
24.Make a sitemap for your website.
25.Use a favicon for your site.
26.Look at sites related to your niche to try to figure out how they get their traffic.
27.Properly optimize your website for the right keywords (seo)

Ok, choosing a hosting company is one of the first and one of if not the most important decisions you will need to make on your path to creating a website.

There are literally thousands of web hosting companies out there all with different things to offer so it can be confusing, frustrating and even intimidating.

The first step is seeing what you need in a host. What does your website and you require?

First find out roughly how much disk space and bandwidth you will need. You don’t want to pay more than you need to.

See what support the hosting company provides because as a person new to running a website you may need some if not allot of help.

Uptime is also a big thing try and make sure you hot guarantees over 99% uptime as you if your website goes down so will you earnings.

Extras check if you get a domain included, if you can host more than one site and other things like how many email address you can have (free).

Personally I don’t believe you need to spend over $8 a month if you are running a simple site. I run one of my site http://www.playswfgames.com on a $4.95 a month hosting plan with Lunarpages and as a game site it uses a lot of bandwidth but I have never had a problem with it.

My two top choices are Hostgator and Lunarpages both offer low prices (under $8/month) and both have unlimited disk space and bandwidth.

So check out Hostgator and Lunarpages and compare the two (pick which would be best for you)

-Cheers
Jason

As a webmaster one thing you should know about is SEO (search engine optimization). As the name suggest its about improving search engine results for you site and its keywords so you pull in more traffic.

Having your site ranked number one in a google search is the aim, as number one positions for google searches normally results in that site getting 80%+ of all traffic searching for that term.

A good starting point on your ever long search to fully understand seo can be found here
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starter-guide.html

Its written by google and a major search engine its probably a great way to start.

-Jason