Rats supposedly have such a fantastic sense of smell that they can detect unexploded landmines and the early development of tuberculosis.

The show mentioned an official website and I checked it out. I really liked the idea and I liked the rats.

The official site HeroRat.org allows you to donate by a single donation or by “adopting” a rat for the donation of 5 EUR per month payable by Paypal.

I chose the rat Ziko for adoption and yesterday received an official certificate of adoption which you can see above and a letter from Ziko saying thanks and explaining what he does.

I find this a great idea and I invite you to check the HeroRat.org website and consider helping Bart out with his amazing project that saves lives.

I rarely buy anything internet marketing related lately because I have bought quite a lot of ebooks and courses in the past and in the 90% of the cases the information was crap or just a rehashed information from someone else.

The Adsense Masters Course has a few different views and approaches to earning money with Google Adsense and online business in general.

I first came across the author, John Xfactor at warriorforum.com where he openly shared lots of his tips and ideas on how he earns over $300 per day with Adsense. (you’ll find a link to that thread on the sales letter)

There were tons of questions and eventually John decided to compile an ebook (and a few videos) based on his system and the Q&A he shared.

What The Adsense Masters Course Is About

John has developed a system of building very small and very tight niche sites that primarily target just one keyword which he uses in the domain name.

He may add 5 more pages to the site with related keywords and build a few links to it and that’s about it.

The key to his system and his success is:

• how to find high paying Adsense keywords with some demand and low competition
• how to design the site to get highest CTR on Adsense
• how to get links to those sites

That’s the core of the Adsense Masters Course and it works well for John.

How I Benefited From The Course

I don’t build sites like John and I don’t intend to.

I learned an interesting thing about getting links with article submissions. John doesn’t give you any new secret article submission sites but he has a different approach to writing articles for those sites.

I can see the logic of that and while I haven’t tested this approach I definitely will in the future.

I also learned something about site design that produces high CTR for Adsense and I have already modified a template on one of my test sites which shows promising results.

The Adsense Masters Course ebook is 95 pages long and 93 pages for me were really not something new, but the 2 tips that I got from the book are something really refreshing in the area of Internet marketing which just bombards you with fancy and “awesome” new products which don’t add anything new to the online business knowledge.

Whether a few tips are worth $77 is your call. If you follow through and don’t just read the ebook and earn at least $77 by applying new ideas, then the ebook is worth the money.

If you don’t follow through, then it’s not.

My Thoughts On The System

John’s approach is different than mine in two major ways.

1. I build just a few large sites that eventually become the authority in that niche. That has several advantages:

a) Every page posted on the authority site gets a boost in the rankings and quickly ranks well in the search engines.

b) Every link acquired for that site helps ALL the articles on the site rank better through more link juice. John has to acquire links for each of his small websites and one new link helps only one of his websites. (or maybe a few just a little bit if he interlinks them)

John’s sites will almost never get any organic links in the future because they are really bad looking (he knows exactly why but that’s the fact most people will agree on) and they don’t suggest authority on the topic. My sites get organic links because they eventually become the top dog in that niche and are very large with lots of visitor interaction thanks to C2 module of SBI.

So they are talked about and linked here and there from other top sites in that niche. That gives them even more ranking power and even less chance that they will be penalized or lose rankings for one or another factor in the future.

2. I don’t focus that aggressively on getting the highest CTR by throwing the Adsense block directly in the face of the visitor. I think there are probably 90% of websites on the Internet that use Adsense and I and probably many others are frankly sick of these Adsense ads.

I give visitors the choice of reading the text or clicking on the ad and while the site’s main objective is similar, I am quite content with lower CTR while at the same time providing the visitor with something useful.

You have to realize something: most people (I dare to say over 90%) have no idea what Adsense ads are and how they work.

They don’t really make a choice whether to click on an ad because they know it’s an advertiser offering something or to keep reading below (or beside) the ad because the main gist of the article is still ahead.

No, actually they just click on something that is aligned with the intention they have mind – and that is usually the Adsense ad that stands out in their face.

They click on it almost instinctively without really knowing what will happen – and voila, you’re earning money because people don’t know how this Internet things works.

Most people don’t even know what a browser is, can you imagine? Do you think they know what Google Adsense ads are, how they look like and how the whole system works?

It doesn’t really give me great pleasure earning money tricking people. While I know that Adsense above the fold is a must if you want to get at least a decent CTR, I wrap text around it to give people a choice of a click or reading the text.

I’ve talked to many friends about Internet marketing and Adsense and when I surfed around the net showing the examples of Adsense ads they had no idea whatsoever that those were Adsense ads AND that the owner of the site earns money through clicks.

So while I don’t recommend John’s strategy of slapping Adsense ads right in the face of unsuspecting visitors, I did learn a few tips on how to improve the CTR which I will adapt to my sites and still give people the chance of another action besides just clicking on that ad.

Final Words

I recommend John Xfactor’s Adsense Masters Course because there are a few good tips and ideas that I haven’t read before (and I read a lot ) which you can use and implement into your existing sites.

But I definitely do not recommend you build sites like John because they are maximized for best earnings with Google Adsense and do not have the visitor’s satisfaction in mind.

There is no emphasis on the quality of articles or how to write them in order to provide easy-to-follow tips or advice or reviews for someone who is looking for info on the Web.

In fact, there are tips on how to write as fast as possible rewriting the existing info on the web.

I also don’t think this system can work in the long term with Google. Getting your main keyword in the domain name and taking advantage of Google’s algorithm flaw that currently allows those domains to rank realy well cannot last in my opinion.

It’s easily exploitable and you need just a few poor links to get that keyword focused domain into the top 10. I personally think this won’t work in the next few years…

The sites also look bad (because that gets the highest CTR) but if all sites on the Web looked like that, it would be really a nightmare.

I personally recommend you build nicer looking sites, give the visitors a chance or reading the text or clicking the ad and build interesting and informative websites with lots of videos, pictures and ways of interaction (C2) for visitors.

One more things that I really liked from John’s ebook is his mindset and his approach to work. You can see that I even quoted him (with his permission) at the top right of this blog.

John has the right attitude to success and you can also learn from that even if you don’t apply any of his tips and tricks to your site.

The ideas from the Adsense Masters Course can add to your overall knowledge of Internet marketing but I really recommend you just adapt them to your websites and stick to large content sites and develop them into authorities on the topic.

I’ve been following Wiep.net for quite some time and I strongly recommend you subscribe to their feed if you’re serious about your online business.

I hope that by now you know that getting good rankings in Google and therefore lots of free search engine traffic requires quality content + quality links.

And while you can outsource content and get quite good articles written for a good price, it’s very difficult to get quality links by outsourcing the work.

In fact, that has never happened to me and I’ve tried 5 or 6 times in the past.

So while you’re checking out Wiet.net make sure to read the latest post on What if link requests were honest?

You might bookmark that post and send a link as a reply to the next crappy link exchange request you’ll get in the future…

Disclosure: I received CuteRank free of charge to test it and possibly provide a review for my readers if I happen to like it. I do – so here’s the review… (I don’t receive any compensation if you buy it.)

CuteRank is a software tool that allows you to track rankings for specific keywords across different search engines.

The tool is installed on your PC (Windows) and then you need to set up a new profile where you enter your site’s URL and select the keywords for which you want to check your rankings.

You can also select tons of search engines like Google.ca, Google.co.uk and many others but the default option is to select Google.com, Yahoo.com, Bing.com, Ask.com and Aol.com.

Once you store the profile, CuteRank will start the updating process and check your current site’s rankings for your chosen keywords.

You can then see the rankings in the report screen:

At first you’ll of course see only a red dot on the graph but when you check your rankings daily, you’ll start to see how your rankings have changed over time.

Note to all SBI-ers: Site Build It also provides rankings report (in the Search Engine HQ) for ALL of your keywords (which is better than CuteRank – where you have to manually enter them and you’ll probably check just a few) but it doesn’t provide you with historical graph. (which CuteRank does)

This tool helps you understand the outcome of your work – how you optimize the content and what happens when you get internal links to certain pages and what happens when you get quality external links to certain pages. (and what happens if you don’t do anything. )

In time, you will get a better understanding how search engines rank your content and what it takes to get higher in the search engine rankings results.

One more thing though; no matter what you do, you’ll never get 100% consistent results.

I for example uploaded 2 articles in the same day and linked to them from the same T2 page and they didn’t get any external links. They also both passed Analyze It.

One article’s rankings are improving and the other one’s are getting worse.

But still, the majority of your ranking results will show some consistency based on which you can deduct what needs to be done to rank higher.

There are a couple of editions of CuteRank which differ only in the number of supported websites. The free edition supports only one website which should be enough for you to test drive CuteRank and see how it works.

I also spotted that CuteRank offers a 20% holiday discount if you buy the Standard or Pro edition this December.

Thanks again to Kevin from the CuteRank team for letting me test the CuteRank Pro edition for free. It’s a cool tool that helps you see what’s going on with your site’s rankings in the long term.

Update: Here’s the latest press release on the latest version 2.2.0:

CuteRank.net has released CuteRank 2.2.0, a free rank checker software which allows webmasters to check and track their keyword positions on major search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, and AOL.

CuteRank.Net – Jan 4, 2010 – CuteRank.Net, an innovative provider of easy-to-use SEO software, recently released an upgraded version of its free keyword position checking software called “CuteRank”. It allows webmasters to check multiple keyword positions on multiple search engines, saving their time, and boosting their efficiency.

“Being a webmaster myself, I always know how important keyword ranking means to us,” said Kevin Zhou, marketing director of CuteRank.net. “and I also know how inconvenient and time-consuming it is to check keyword positions in a browser, needless to say checking keyword positions on multiple search engines. So the idea hit me and our team started building this software. Then I figured out that we can provide this software for all webmasters, free of charge.”

Key features of CuteRank include:

• Check keyword positions on multiple search engines, and in different languages.
• Record keyword position history so you can track your keyword ranking performance in a long time, in vivid graph;
• Scheduled updating, fully automatic process, update your keyword positions on your scheduled time;
• Export keyword ranking data in multiple format including csv, HTML, and pdf;

CuteRank is free for download on http://cuterank.net. There are 3 different editions of CuteRank, the Free Edition, complete free but limited to one site; the Standard Edition for serious internet marketers who have no more than 5 sites; and the Professional Edition with no site limit, ideal for SEO companies or consultants.

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I started using Widgetbucks in July 2008. Basically , the reason I first used them on my site was just as a filler in the empty right side column of my website (I have a 3 column website)

It doesn’t interfere with the other ad networks that I have on my website. And it can be used along with Adsense as well as Chitika  or any other networks. The only restriction being, you can’t use more than 3 widgets on a page.

Am I happy with the results I get from it? I would say yes, because Widgetbucks has become another regular stream of income for me.

Here is how to get started?

Head over to Widgetbucks where you register your details and wait for them to approve your website. Once approved you can then login to your account and create a widget in the My widgets section of the website. Here are step by step instructions on how to create a Widget.

Step 1

You choose one of the channels from the three options provided.

It lets you name the widget which is very good as you can then customise it to suit your website.

These are all the different layouts it offers for Shopping Channel .

Step 2

The next step lets you customise the Widget for colors , sizes and category.

Each style offers different sizes to choose from. These are all the different sizes available for the original Widget style.

Step 3

Click on get the code button and add the code to your SBI website in a include (which is what I do) I find adding it as a include useful as I can make changes site wide with a click of a button.

Other Channels offered by Widgetbucks

Widgetbucks even offers the option of choosing a travel or a local channel. I haven’t tried those but let us know in the comments if you have tried those channels and how effective they are.

Payments

Widgetbucks offers the option of getting paid by paypal and check. They pay once the balance reaches $ 50 usd.

I have never had any delays or any other problems in receiving payments from them. The payment always hit my paypal account on the 15th of every month.

The only drawback they have I feel is, they make payments only after 45 days unlike other networks which make payments every 30 days.

How does Widgetbucks compare to other ad networks?

While I do not receive similar kind of income as I get from Adsense they have proven to be a regular stream of additional income for me.

I receive almost the same amount from them as Chitika ads network for my product based website. Infact, in comparision to  Amazon widgets, Widgetbucks has worked well for my website.

Another good reason to use them is, the relevancy of ads served.

Placements That Work Best

I find the third column above the fold as the best place to put the Widget on. Above the fold is a new position I am trying, which at the moment appears to be yielding better results than my previous positioning of this Widget where it was somewhere in the middle of the right hand column.

I haven’t tried it, but I would think it is perfectly suited even to go in the left side nav bar, below the navigation buttons, if it’s a two column website you have.

So here is why I use Widgetbucks:

• Easy to implement
• Good additional source of income
• Payments on time
• Relevant Ads

I would recommend you to give Widgetbucks (aff link) a try.

While I haven’t been using them for that long, I’ve decided to share my Copaclick review here because the company is constantly improving their system.

The one thing that Copaclick are proud of is their quick adaptation to the publisher feedback.

Therefore, I’ll cover here what they offer at the moment (September 2009), but I suggest that if you read this Copaclick review later, head over to their site to see what’s new.

Choosing Your Ad’s Appearance

You can select typical sizes for your ads like 300×250, 160×600, 468×180 and others. There are currently  7 color themes to choose from but I am sure that you’ll be able to choose many more soon.

One interesting feature that comes with Copaclick ads is the Highlight section which enables you to highlight the title of the ad.

This may be especially useful for the ads in the side column (160×600) where the highlight may help draw visitor’s attention to the ad. I am still testing this and I’ll let you know soon how it goes.

Choosing Ad’s Content

Copaclick ads are based on products so you can choose your preferred keyword for the ad (if I’m using the ad on a page about Hoover vacuums, I can select Hoover vacuum cleaner) but there’s also the Fallback Category (where I’d choose Vacuums) in case there’s no directly targeted ad for my page.

There are tons of Fallback categories, from used cars to hard drives and home appliances. If you have a product related website, I am sure you’ll find your category in there…

Optional Search Targetted Setting

Copaclick allows you to select search targetting which will use the referring search engine’s keywords (if there are any) instead of the keywords you set in the previous step.

Once you complete that step, you’ll be given a javascript code which you can then add to your pages.

Similar Products (Beta)

There’s also the Similar Products ad which shows more products all related to the keyword or the Fallback Category you selected.

Results So Far…

The Copaclick payout per click is currently at around the same amount as I get with Chitika on my sites. There are three reasons why I am still using Copaclick though:

• Not all visitors like the same ads. Some visitors prefer Adsense while others ads with images like Chitika and Copaclick. That’s why I use different types of ads on my pages to reach a wider audience.
• In some places, I use Copaclick as an alternate ad to Chitika. I use Chitika Premium which displays to search engine traffic and Copaclick which displays to the rest of the traffic. This adds additional revenue (I am at around 4-5 extra dollars per day) which I wouldn’t get with Chitika which wouldn’t show to non-search engine traffic.
• I’m waiting (testing) to see which ad network performs best in the long term and I’ll use it in the most prominent places.

One thing I really like about Copaclick ads is their clean look. They don’t like like annoying ads and blend very nicely and non-aggressively into a page.

If you have a product based website or even pages where products are mentioned, try the pay-per-click Copaclick network. (aff link)

They currently pay to Paypal if you accumulate more than $25 in one month which is also very convenient.

If you’ve tried Copaclick and wish to share your results or if you have any more questions, just use the comment section below!

If you’re not yet using the Amazon affiliate program, you may be losing on quite some income.

I’ve already shared my experiences with Amazon Context links before, but this program has been cancelled by Amazon and now you have to build links yourself.

My earnings with Amazon has not been comparable with how much I made with Adsense and Chitika but then I changed a few pages and focused more on Amazon affiliate links.

The results can be seen on the picture…

So what do you need to do to increase your earnings with Amazon affiliate program?

1.    The affiliate links convert best if your site is product based and people are actually looking to buy something. If you have an informational site, then your conversion will be very low.

2.    The conversion according to my stats is from in-content links which point to a product. The widgets like Omakase and other types of banners do not convert well.

3.    If you have product based pages, sneak in one or max two affiliate links so that people get on Amazon. Most people trust Amazon and have shopped there before. They will buy tons of other stuff besides the products you promote. I get around 70% sales of products which I don’t directly promote (books, DVDs, video games, …)

4.    Promote products that have lots of 4 and 5 star reviews. That way the visitor will be reassured that the product is really worth buying.

5.    My best converting pages (on a couple of sites) are those with »best« in the keyword. (best vacuum cleaner, etc.) People who type in Google »best vacuum cleaner« want to know which one is best and buy it. They are not looking to research for hours themselves but they want an expert opinion and move on.

So I’ve recommend top vacuums based on Amazon reviews and made a very comprehensive page where I recommend top 5 vacuums. That page converts really well.

The earnings from Amazon affiliate program have almost caught up with Chitika and Adsense last month and I keep adding one or two links to most new reviews I post.

See if you can implement Amazon links into your site and get those extra dollars squeezed out of your site’s potential…

What is Infolinks?

It’s a in-text advertising program which usually shows as a double-underlined link. Here’s an example how the Infolinks shows on my vacuum site:

Infolinks Sample on a website

Here’s how it works (from their FAQ):

Using our dynamic proprietary algorithm, Infolinks intelligently scans your web pages and converts carefully selected keywords into cost-per-click (CPC) In-Text ads. These specially formatted double underline hyperlinks lead to highly relevant advertiser content.

And each time a visitor clicks on the ad, the publisher gets paid. The Infolinks advertising can also be used together with Google Adsense and Chitika on the same page.

Customization

The ads are totally customizable and you can test various combos to see what works for you.

You can change underlining (single or double underline), the color of the in-text links, the format of the ad that shows up when someone holds the cursor over the links (see picture), how many ads you want to show on each page and even where on page you want the ads to start appearing and where to stop appearing.

Infolinks Popup

Infolinks by default shows many ads per page (I think 10 or even 12) and if you use Adsense or Chitika too, then I suggest you lower the number of in-text links per page so that your pages don’t scare your visitors away with too many ads.

Add this line (or change it) in your code: var infolink_anow = ‘3′;

3 is the number of ads in the above example and that’s how many I use and still earn nice additional income.

I also suggest, that when you sign up with Infolinks, let them run for a week or so and then email their support asking for better optimization. Their team will check the theme of your site and optimize the ads.

Their optimization improved my earnings by almost 50%. (That was in November – in the shopping season! See picture below – the red numbers are earnings before optimization and the green numbers are after the optimization.)

Infolinks earnings before and after optimization

Affiliate Program

Infolinks offers also a referral program which works like this:

For each publisher who joins the Infolinks network by clicking the personal referral link, you are be entitled to a one-time referral fee of up to $1,000 per new publisher, as follows*:

• Small Publisher – $25 (up to 10,000 average net Infolinks page impressions per day)
• Medium Publisher – $100 (up to 100,000 average net Infolinks page impressions per day)
• Large Publisher – $1,000 (over 100,000 average net Infolinks page impressions per day)

* Publisher’s traffic must have at least 30% of traffic from the US. If less than 30% of the publisher’s traffic comes from the US then the referral fee will be 30% of the fees listed above.

Please notice that in order for you to be entitled to the referral fees, the new publisher must be actually new (and not in previous contact with Infolinks or related to any of the Infolinks publishers), must enter the Infolinks website through your referral link, be accepted to become a qualified publisher, and remain a fully active publisher with an average of at least 300 daily net impressions for a minimal consecutive period of three months.

Only after this period, and subject to you still being a fully active publisher as well through that period, you will be paid (together with your regular earnings), all subject to your agreement with Infolinks and in accordance with the results accumulated and recorded in the Infolinks system.

As you can see, there aren’t massive earnings with their affiliate program but every little bit helps, especially in the current financial situation around the world.

Earnings and Payments

I have placed Infolinks on a couple of my sites and here are my stats and earnings:

Total monthly earnings

As you can see, Infolinks have added almost $1500 extra monthly income without really affecting my CTR and earnings from Adsense and Chitika. They pay to Paypal or wire tranfer the money to your bank.

Payment is sent 45 days after the earnings period. Here’s a detailed explantion from the Infolinks:

You get paid every month. In details, at the end of each monthly payment period, Infolinks calculates your earnings for that month and issues your payment within 45 days of the end of the payment period, with the exception of monthly earnings of less than $100 which remain in your account and are added into the following month’s earnings. We welcome all legitimate websites, big and small, to join the new generation of In-Text advertising today. There are no hidden commitments or qualification minimums.

I have been receiving the payments on time and have been very pleased with the Infolinks support.

If this Infolinks review hasn’t answered all your questions, then let me know in the comments below and I’ll answer your questions!

To sign up for Infolinks and test drive it on your sites, follow this link. (affiliate link)

But now they have introduced Chitika Premium, which includes non-product ads. There are two tricky things with this ad though:

1. It shows only to the US traffic.

2. It is behaviorally targeted – so it shows only to certain US traffic.
Chitika doesn’t explain what that means but my guess is that the ad will show only to visitors who came to the site through the search engine query.

What if the traffic comes from somewhere else?

You have two options:

-    the ad will collapse and there will be just a little bit of white space
-    you could include Google Adsense as the alternative ad

I’ve tested the Chitika Premium on my conferencing site and the average CPC is a nice 0,27 per click.

Will Chitika now approve more non-product based sites?

YES. Here’s what Ryan Travis said when I asked him this question:

Now that our ads work great on all types of sites, we will be approving many more sites.  We did not approve certain sites before, because we did not want to waste our publishers time if we knew that our ads would not perform well.  Now we know that we can perform well anywhere, so we will be approving much more.

And if you’re not that familiar with Chitika yet, then check my previous article Top 10 Reasons Why Chitika Rocks.

Look no further than Brian Purkiss from Plainbeta.com.

Brian offers plenty of blog design tips and tricks on how to improve the functionality, ease of use, choice of colors and SEO of your wordpress blog.

If you are thinking about designing your blog by yourself then you need to check his post about What Makes A Website’s Design Look Good.

Brian shared 7 tips that will make your blog look good:
• Easy navigation
• Images
• Graphics
• Colors
• Engaging content
• Minimalism
• Animation

You’ll find more detailed explanations (with graphics!) in Brian’s post so head over to see what good looking blogs look like.

On another note, if you are a blogger looking for tips on how to make money online and eventually achieve financial freedom, then there something for you too.

Brian often blogs about money making tips, how to increase pagerank , the latest news in the blogosphere and the latest gadgets (ipod, zune, …).

Oh, and did I mention that Brian is only 18 years old?

I see a bright future for him and if he keeps blogging and working hard on his Plainbeta.com blog, then when he is at my age, his blog will have a pagerank of 14.

Anyway, I want to thank Brain for all the comments on my blog and I invite you all to check his ideas, designs and tips and whether you want to hire his website design skills for your own blog.