48HoursWeb

AdSense can make you a lot of money. However, there are several problems you might encounter when it comes to AdSense. Let us take a closer look at them, and try to find a solution if that will be possible:

-Your readers might simply recognize AdSense blocks and do not click on them. This usually happens when they are not integrated very well within the website. Try making the AdSense blocks fit more naturally into your website. Try changing the color for example. AdSense blocks have to be an integral part of your website.
-In some cases ads pertaining to your niche might not pay very well. I do not think there is anything you can do about that, as changing your niche would be a dramatic step. That is why not all websites can really benefit from AdSense.
-Having a lot of traffic from sources which tend to lower your CTR. This would include social media sites. A lot of visitors from social media sites simply tend not to click on ads. Try acquiring some traffic by exchanging links with other blogs. You can also try linkbaiting as this method usually works better.
-If you notice that some on your ads have very high CTR, try to investigate it. There is a chance that your competition is artificially inflating your CTR, because they want Google to ban you.

Biz, Web

Websites like Treasuretrooper can be source of income for those who enjoy participating in all kinds of surveys and cash offers. You will probably not earn that much cash, but while doing so you will also have some fun. What can you do if you are already member of Treasuretrooper? First of all, you can only benefit from this website if you are a US or UK resident. If you are, then you will be able to take advantage out of most of the opportunities. You will be able to fill out a home business survey, submit a valid poem, and download a free toolbar. These are only some of the activities for which you can get paid. After you complete an offer, all you have to do is to click “done” button and that specific offer will be added to your pending offers list to be approved.

What distinguishes this particular website from sites providing similar services is that while completing surveys and other offers you can gain golden coins. They in turn, can be exchanged for gifts in Mabutu’s Hut. One of such gifts is that two new members of Treasuretrooper will become your referrals even though you did not refer them or know them.

The creators of the website encourage all participants to look into all the benefits of the program. They claim that it can be a source of hundreds of dollars if you take advantage out of many opportunities; however, for an average user it will be difficult to earn more than $100. A payout of each offer ranges from 0.25 to 30 dollars. Once a person accumulates $20 on his account that is due to be paid, the payout will be between 15th and 20th of each month by check. There are some users that claim that you can earn a lot of money by participating in the referral program. If you refer a new user, you will get 20% of the sum that this person earned, and if the person that you referred refers another person, you will get 5% of that participant’s earning. Overall, it might be a nice way to earn some extra money, but you will probably not earn as much as you may wish for.

Biz, Web

All the legal information that you might need to defend yourself is available on the Internet. It is very convenient as you do not have to go anywhere to check what the legal system is writing about your current situation or the situation that you would wish to check out. Knowing that there is a way to check any information about the legal system on the Internet and how the legal system works makes people safer. If you feel that your rights have been violated, do not hesitate to check it out on sites such as uscode.house.gov/ or dir.yahoo.com/Government/law/. It looks that even Yahoo tries to be helpful here as well, and I am happy about that. Take advantage out of the fact that websites such as Yahoo can be very helpful to you. I would say that the legal system in the Western world is good, but the only problem is that it is so complicated and an average person does not often understand it. It is hard to use a legal system that is hard to understand. That is why I appreciate the fact that I can research some legal aspects on the Internet. Of course, nothing will replace a qualified lawyer, but allowing people to learn about the legal system on the Internet is a step in the right direction.

Education, Web

Submitting your website to different blog directories is an excellent way to increase your website’s Page Rank and to attract new readers. If you want to be a successful blogger, it is very important to have your website listed in many places. Each submission will give you a backlink, and each backlink will increase the popularity of your blog.

It might even take a couple of days/weeks to submit your blog to many directories, as there is really a lot of them. It is unfortunate that a lot of directories that are still being discussed on the blogosphere no longer exist, are not accepting registrations, or you have to pay to be included there. I would like to share the result of my work with you by providing a list of directories. They should be up to date, and are free unless something has changed recently. A lot of bloggers are submitting their sites to them, and they are generally considered to be a great place to be listed. Some of them will require your blog to have at least a few posts, in order to eliminate blogs which may not last a long time. Here is the list of the directories: technorati.com, findory.com, blogflux.com, blogarama.com, bloogz.com, globeofblogs.com, blogdigger.com, 2rss.com, blogstreet.com, bloghop.com, icerocket.com, readablog.com, weblog-index.com, bloggernow.com, fuelmyblog.com, blog-search.info, findingblog.com, blogintro.com, blog-search.com, blogdir.co.uk, lsblogs.com, 5starblogs.com, daytimenews.com/submit-rss-feed.aspx, blogmad.net, nodp.info, blogcatalog.com.

Please note that the order of the list is completely random. While some directories may cease to exist at some point, or do not allow registrations, I hope that most of them will be accepting registrations for a long time. Feel free to leave a comment recommending any other blog directories you think are worth being listed here.

Blog, Web

There are many occasions throughout the year to go on holidays and when it comes to blogging the problem is that this usually involves abandoning blog for a week or two. Are you willing to abandon your blog for two weeks? If you are not then there seems to be a solution for the problem, at least for those who use WordPress. WordPress allows you to pre-set the time and date for your post to be published anytime in the future. This means that even thought you might be away from your computer, all of the posts that you scheduled can still be posted. Since many bloggers who blog regularly could have a nervous breakdown knowing that there won’t be any post on their blog for two week, this solution seems to be very practical. Of course, you could also just mention in your last post that you are going for holidays, but the possibility to preset the time of your posts seems very attractive. This feature is very useful, and some blogs will benefit from it a lot more than others. For example, you cannot schedule to post news articles, because you don’t know what the news will be in a week. On the other hand, if you have a blog about something which doesn’t change as fast, you will probably love the possibility to schedule posts to be published when you are going to be on vacation.

Web

The Internet can be a great source of information. In my opinion, one of the best things about the Internet is that it offers weather forecasts. In fact, because of accurate forecasts you can completely get rid of your traditional thermometer to measure the temperature. You will simply no longer need it. What you can use instead is a program that displays the current temperature in your city. The data will come from a distance of a few miles so it should be quite accurate. Additionally, there are many sites on the Internet which predict the weather for the next few days, and you can check them from time to time too. With such software you can additionally check the force of wind on the particular day, and get other useful information. It might be a good idea to check the forecast each time you plan a trip with your family or friends. I think that weather forecasts can be very useful, and what I like the most about it is that you can have access to them just with a click of a button.

Anyway, it is hard for me to imagine life without any access to the Internet, and I realize that even 10 years ago, the Internet was not as popular as it is today. Some people did not even know that such thing as the Internet existed.

Web

Performing website validation ensures that your website is working without any problems or errors. Having a website that has various errors is risky. That is because browsers will try to repair the error, but since there are different browsers, each of them will do it in a different way. This in turn can result in some serious problems with your site. It is a shame that there is no standard when it comes to browsers. Until there will be more cooperation between the companies that create the most popular browsers, such errors will be especially dangerous. Nonetheless, there are tools which can help you spot such mistakes:

1. A good tool for validating your HTML or XHTML is http://validator.w3.org/
2. For validating your CSS use http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
3. To make sure your readers do not have problems receiving feeds use http://feedvalidator.org/
One advice that I would like to give you here is to stick to the most popular browsers like Internet Explorer. I know that other browsers might seem to be more suitable to you, but I think that it is still too early to try to be original and have a browser that nobody else has. Most of the people in the world use Internet Explorer anyway, so try to stick with it as well for as long as it is possible.

Tech, Web

As you probably know, being a blogger requires a lot of work. This not only applies to professional bloggers. A blogger has a multitude of things to work on: ideas for posts, marketing, website design, link exchanges etc. This time I would like to give you some advice on making your CSS more organized. For those who are wondering what CSS is, let me tell you that CSS is responsible for a lot of customizability when it comes to your website. You can change the font, colors, default paragraphs, and so on. In any case, to make your CSS more organized, visit www.htmlhelp.com/tools/csscheck/, input the location of your style sheet (CSS), and run a report that gives a feedback on your code. It will give warnings for any potential elements that might cause problems. In most cases when you use a popular template, then you should not have any error. However, sometimes even if you use a popular template you might want to do some changes, and if that is the case then something can always go wrong. By using such CSS tools you can make sure that your style sheet file does not contain any errors. Additionally, such tools can be very useful for web designers who create templates on a daily basis.

Biz, Blog, Web

It is important to have links pointing to your site from other people’s blogs. Such links will not only contribute to higher Page Rank, but can also bring a lot of targeted traffic. There are at least a few ways you can try to obtain such links. Your site will benefit from them, so here is what you can do:

-Submit your blog to as many directories as possible.
-Submit your articles to free article directories.

The process of submitting your blog and articles can and will be time consuming. However, there is a solution to this problem. You can purchase the appropriate software that will do it for you automatically. This will cost you some money, but if you are dedicated to blogging it will not be a problem. Additionally, if your blog generates some money, your investment will surely not be wasted. It will still take you some time to register in order to submit your articles, but you will only have to do it once. The same applies to web directory submission. Many programs already have directories listed in their database for your convenience. I know there are many webmasters taking advantage out of such software, and they claim that it is worth it.

Blog, Tech, Web

In today’s world identity theft happens very often. There are a lot of thieves that want to steal something very precious to us: our own identity. Identity theft happens also, or even primarily, on the Internet. You cannot imagine how easy it is to commit identity theft with all those smart thieves wanting to steal it. However, you can protect yourself from identity theft at least to some extent.
Before you start protecting every data you send on the Internet, it is important for you to know that thieves might not be interested in everything you have. This is what they are mainly interested in: credit card numbers, social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, ATM cards, various credit reports, online passwords, PIN numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, home or business addresses, dates of birth, mortgage information, and phone calling cards. By knowing what details to protect, you can greatly reduce the chance of an identity theft. One of the most important rules is to not give out your personal details to someone who you cannot trust. Not all companies over the Internet are trustworthy so keep that in mind as well. Makes sure you only provide your credit card details over a secure connection, unless you deal with a company that you can really trust. The same applies to other personal details.

Biz, Web