Enkay Blog

How To: 300×250 Ad Block Integration

I have been using Google Adsense since the last week of May of this year and I have noticed how my earnings change as I use different ad integration methods. The main thing I have wanted, as many of you do, is be able to produce a consistency in earnings.

Earlier you may have seen my Adsense earning reports of $10-$15 a month however a there would be “good days” and “bad days”, the bad days being when no clicks were accounted for at all. As far as the good days go, they usually earned more than half of the months earnings. I was happy that I was earning something but if there isn’t consistency then you can never estimate your monthly earnings as you have to look at it on a day-to-day basis. So heres where my Adsense integration has helped me gain consistent Adsense earnings on a daily basis. Whether it is 1 click a day or even upto several clicks a day, the results are simply proof to the fact that ad integration is all it takes.

So lets see how I was able to integrate the ads into my site. The main ads that generate income are ofcourse the 300×250 ad blocks or the 250×250 ad blocks. Its your preference to se either one but I have picked the 250×250 ad block. Either of these two blocks generate a fair amount of income specially if they are located within the post. Well, big question is, how do you integrate it the way I have it on Enkay Blog? Well, its quite simple. Lets start with the first step: Add the following code to your stylesheet

#ads {
float: right;
margin: 3px;
}

Then, if you use the Adsense Deluxe plugin like most of you do, all you need to do is add the following code before and after your adsense block to have it placed in your post.

< div id="ads">< !- -adsense- ->< /div>
In this the < !- -adsense- -> is represented by your ad name that you created using the plugin.

Here is a visual representation of where you need to go to include the tags.

Enlarge Screenshot

After that, everytime you select to include that particular ad block in a post, it will show up the way it does on my blog. I just wanted to also let you know that it seems that the author of the plugin may be having some technical problems with his website so if it doesn’t seem to load, just try again later. Getting back to the topic, you will notice that the best location for an ad is directly into a post and you may have seen several bloggers use that ad placement and if you wondered how it was done, well, now you know!

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this post and now you should be able to take advantage of the best money making ad block and should be able to easily integrate it into your blog too! Have a great weekend!

Jump Start Your Page Rank Batch #4

Hey guys! Happy Friday and I figured that since I need to give back to a lot of the participants in my “Jump Start Your Page Rank” linking chain, that I will start adding batches in queue starting today. I probably have over a 100 people to link back to and so be patient, I will have another 30 free back links coming this week. The link chain continues moving forward and I have received a pingback as of 8 hours ago! Thats what I call a successful link chain! Anyway, here is batch #4!

Blog Duck
Cash Rich Tools
Monday Morning Power
Twice As Nice or Double or Triple
How To Get Traffic On Blogs
Grok Dot Com
Digital Nomads
The Paint Veil
Monkey Giggles
Average Joe Blogger

Thank you to everyone who participated and I hope that you appreciate the link backs. Dont worry, I haven’t forgotten about you guys and I promise to have those batches out soon. On a side note, its surprising that BlogDuck is on this list mainly because I am now directly connected with BlogDuck and soon you will find out how! Well, hope you guys have a great long weekend for those of you in the US! I will be having a post shortly!

The Rich Edit Wikipedia Too!

Today the Dutch Royal Couple was in the news because they apparently went with the idea that altering a Wikipedia article to make the Prince look good. The Prince, Johan Friso, and Princess Mabel of Oranje-Nassau stepped up to the plate in saying that they were the individual behind the recent edits. So lets take a look at how the two played a little “editing” on Wikipedia.

It all started when the Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, rejected the Prince marrying the Princess because of prior romantic connection with a druglord in her college years. Obviously, the Princess denied that claim but later agreed that she did know him. The Prince had the choice of succession to the throne or marrying the Princess and at the time, he decided to go with marriage which took place in 2004.

Obviously, this was a shameful event for the Dutch Royal family and to try to help soften the blow, the Wikipedia article was edited. A U.S. graduate actually developed what is known as the Wikiscanner that tracks the source of the editing that takes place on Wikipedia and in this case the source was Huis ten Bosch, which is the Royal Palace in The Hague. Interestingly enough, the couple decided to remove the words “and false” from a statement on the Princesses’ Wikipedia page that previously read as follows:

Previously known as Wisse Smit, it was said that the Princess “gave misleading and false information” to the Prime Minister, Balkenende

You could see how removing the worlds “and false” makes her look so much better in the eyes of the public! In any case, they actually weren’t charged with anything mainly because it isn’t illegal to do so, but it is poor etiquette! Hows that for a little Royal Wikipedia editing job?

I wonder how many of you have actually edited Wikipedia considering that I have edited my Grandfather’s page since it had a lot of misspellings!

Source: IHT

Do Statistics Mean Anything?

Every so often you may end up browsing to a blog that linked back to you or someone who sent you an email about their blog and you begin to look around curiously. It all starts with the first impression, the way the blog looks and how it compares to your own blog or some other blogs that you may like.

Sooner or later you decide to look at the Technorati and Alexa widget of the blog and think to yourself, “hmm..this blog isn’t even halfway as good because its Alexa is above 2,000,000 and is Technorati Authority is only 14!” You can’t say that you haven’t, because every one of us is guilty of having come across a website and disregarding it because of a low Alexa or Technorati ranking. I have done it and on a more personal level, I noticed how my traffic changed as my ranking got better. I was lucky to have a few people help me and guide me to become a more popular blog and stand out from the crowd but what about those who have brand spankin’ new blogs? Well, why do even care about these rankings? Lets find out!

#1. Credibility
First of all, better rankings in turn means better credibility. For some reason, people believe that the higher the number of people that visit your blog, the more credible you are. This is a highly important point mainly because you cannot gain readers if you don’t seem like an honest resource to begin with. For example, would you believe John Chow made all that money if he had no ads on his site even when his Earnings Report showed 20 filled Ad spots? Or would you believe the RichJerk if he didn’t have those bank and Paypal statements plastered on his site? Well, I don’t know about you guys but most people only believe it till they see it. Being as honest and hard working as possible makes you a credible source of information. As for myself, I try and verify all the news items and information that is passed onto me before I blog about it to be sure not to make it seem as though I take rumors and convert them to “real news”

#2. More Readers
Secondly, better ranking also translates to MORE readers. Of course, if you are a credible source then theres a higher chance that more and more people will want to read your content. People judge your blog by your rankings and they feel that commenting on a high ranking blog or reading the content will help them be as successful or even more successful. Mostly new bloggers feel that commenting on a better ranking blog than them will help them get a link back if that blog uses a “Top Commentators” plug-in like I do. As most of you know, I provide link backs to the Top 10 commentators on my blog and thats merely an incentive to be featured in a post. Other bloggers such as John Cow reward their bloggers with a percentage of their advertising earnings meanwhile, others such as Ms. Danielle and Mr. Gary Lee link back to their commentators. Theres an incentive behind having good rankings and that is truly more readers and thus more comments.

#3. Higher Earnings
Lastly, better ranking could translate to higher earnings. The reason i threw the word “could” in there is because it depends how you use your rankings to your advantage. If you have a great Technorati and Alexa ranking and don’t have any kind of advertising options then you have cut yourself out of the loop regardless. On the other hand, if you are a ReviewMe member or are signed on with Text Link Ads then you will see that as your ranking rises, so does the price you can charge. The amount of money you make also depends on the different advertising options you employ. If you limit yourself to text ads then you may still earn a reasonable income but if you expand that to include site reviews, banner ads, etc. then you have just opened up new doors to bringing in possibly higher income.

So thats what a better ranking translates to in the blogosphere. We care about them because of the many reasons listed above and that is why we strive to raise the bar higher every single time. Your statistics aren’t just numbers that make you look good but they are numbers that portray your readership and popularity, so use them wisely! Hopefully, you will see why rankings are taken so seriously in the blogosphere and how increasing them can affect your blog positively. I will have a post later as to how you can increase your rankings so watch for that in the coming days. Happy Wednesday everyone!

The Anand’s Zune Contest Study
Anand from TheAnand.com has a great case study posted on his blog that evaluates the effects of Ms. Danielle’s Zune contest on her blog. He sent me an email and I thought it would be interesting to consider if you are planning on having a contest of your own!

Theme Update Complete

Well folks, some of you got to see an early preview of the theme update and I am happy to announce that the theme update was completely successfully a few moments ago. Usually when I work on the site, I set up my Maintenance Mode plug-in but this time around I had actually set up my entire Wordpress blog as a test site on my new host.

Thankfully, everything went smoothly and the integration of the new theme update wasn’t difficult at all. It took approximately 22 hours to design the graphics and to make sure everything was working perfectly on the test site before it went live on the actual site. I hope you like the new design and your comments are highly appreciated. As for now, I will see how much people like or dislike the theme and depending upon that reverting back to the original will not be a problem either. On the flip side, I really hope you guys DO like the new theme.

Many of you have asked me what was the original theme that I used and in response, I would like to say that the theme is called Vertigo Enhanced 3-Column and it is still being used on the site however, it has undergone several upgrades since it was first introduced on the blog. Some of you have also brought up the idea as to why I was doing a theme update. Basically like I stated before, its mostly to expand upon the space that I previously had but never fully used. As time has passed, I realized that expanding one of the columns was necessary to make room for plug-ins and advertising alike. Certainly, the new theme update expands the column on the extreme right by about 35 pixels and this will now allow me to have two 125×125 pixel ads side by the side. Similarly, it also allows me to clean up the space and make it a little more presentable!

So, once again, Welcome to the new theme and tell me how you like it! Thanks again to those who commented on my earlier post asking for your opinion. I highly appreciate your comments and I hope you have noticed that I have taken many of those into account! Thanks again guys!