Web Development Blog » adsense http://www.web-development-blog.com Web development tutorials, SEO articles and PHP script resources Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:38:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 404 Errors: Report, monetize and analyse http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/404-errors-report-monetize-and-analyse/ http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/404-errors-report-monetize-and-analyse/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:57:00 +0000 Olaf http://www.web-development-blog.com/?p=1136

After your websites getting more pages and links, the chance that a visitor will follow a dead link to your site exists. If a visitor is trying to access a page on your site, the server will report (normally) a 404 error. The response is by default some unfriendly page with some spare information about the error which let most visitors stop visiting your site. But using the 404 error the right way, you the site owner can collect important information like:

  • Of course the broken link or URL
  • The HTTP_REFERER information where the dead link is available
  • How often people try to access the bad URL

Using the right tools you’re able to turn 404 errors into a powerful resource:

  • Provide a site search feature and let people search what they are looking
  • Add advertisements to your error page and start earning money
  • Learn about what people like to see on your site

In this tutorial we will show you how-to:

  • Create a dynamic error page using the Google Site search and Adsense content ads
  • Setup Google analytics to track 404 errors using a filter
  • Set the site search feature with Google Analytics to collect the search queries from your visitor

Error reporting page

With the Apache webserver it’s possible to use custom directives for your error script, place this code into your .htaccess file (place the file into the site root):

ErrorDocument 400 /error.php?err=400
ErrorDocument 401 /error.php?err=401
ErrorDocument 403 /error.php?err=403
ErrorDocument 404 /error.php?err=404
ErrorDocument 500 /error.php?err=500

We use for the custom error script the most common HTTP errors.
Next we need to create a PHP script called error.php which can handle the different errors:

<?php
$errorNum = (int)$_GET['err'];
$err_str = array(404=>'Not Found', 400=>'Bad Request', 401=>'Unauthorized', 403=>'Forbidden', 500=>'Internal Server Error');
echo '
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>'.$err_str[$errorNum].'</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>An error occured: '.$err_str[$errorNum].'</h1>
 
<!-- place here your advertisement -->
 
<!-- place here your Google analytics code -->
</body>
</html>';
?>

This script will show the different errors and also some advertisement if you add the ad code. Don’t forget to add the GA code snippet.

Track dead links in Google Analytics

In case of a 404 error the page title on this custom error page will be “Not Found”. We use the page title as a filter in Google Analytics to track the page views. Create a new profile for the site you’re working on and add this filter:

Adding Google Site Search to your 404 error page

If you haven’t done yet, create a Google site search for your website. Add only your own website to the list of searched sites and don’t search the entire web. Add your Google Adsense ID (section “Make Money”) and head to the section “Look and feel” and select the option Iframe. Choose a style for the search form / result and maybe you like to customize the style. Push now the button “Get code” (or enter the section “Get code” from the sidebar) and enter there the URL from your error page.
Copy / paste the code for the search form and the results into the body section from your error page. Your completed page will look like:

<?php
$errorNum = (int)$_GET['err'];
$err_str = array(404=>'Not Found', 400=>'Bad Request', 401=>'Unauthorized', 403=>'Forbidden', 500=>'Internal Server Error');
echo '
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>'.$err_str[$errorNum].'</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>An error occured: '.$err_str[$errorNum].'</h1>
 
<form action="http://www.yourdomain.com/error.php" id="cse-search-box">
  <div>
    <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="thisCodeIsProvidedByGoogleCSE" />
    <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:10" />
    <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8" />
    <input type="text" name="q" size="31" />
    <input type="submit" name="sa" value="Zoeken" />
  </div>
</form>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&lang=en"></script>
 
<div id="cse-search-results"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
  var googleSearchIframeName = "cse-search-results";
  var googleSearchFormName = "cse-search-box";
  var googleSearchFrameWidth = 600;
  var googleSearchDomain = "www.google.com";
  var googleSearchPath = "/cse";
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/afsonline/show_afs_search.js"></script>';
 
if (empty($_GET['q'])) { // show the ad only if there is no search
	echo '
<!-- place here your advertisement -->';
} 
echo '
<!-- place here your Google analytics code -->
</body>
</html>';
?>

We placed the add code also into some IF clause, because there should not be another Google Adsense advertisement beside the Google ads from the result page.

Enable site search tracking in Google Analytics

The code for the error page is complete and we move to the last step: Tracking the site search queries from the error page. To do this we need to go in Google Analytics to the profile we created for the error page and click Edit (twice), check the setting Do Track Site Search, enter a “q” as the “Query Parameter” and click Safe Changes.

This error page is very basic and you need add your sites web template to make it complete. If you like this tutorial and you have used the code on your own site please share the URL to your new or updated error page. Even if you don’t like to use the code from this page, we advice to track the errors and also the site search queries from your visitors. If you have questions or comments please post them below.
Similar Posts:

 
]]> http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/404-errors-report-monetize-and-analyse/feed/ 9 Adsense for WordPress – 5 Plugins reviewed http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/adsense-for-wordpress-5-plugins-reviewed/ http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/adsense-for-wordpress-5-plugins-reviewed/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:41:41 +0000 finalwebsites.com http://www.web-development-blog.com/?p=680

If you try to monetize your blog with Google Adsense you might have noticed that this is not an easy job. Blog reader are very focused on reading the content and writing comments. Many readers will not visit your site since they read your blogs in a RSS reader. That will say that we need a very flexible Adsense plugin to place our ads on the right place in our blogs articles. Some of you will say “I place them always on place A, B and C”, but I’m sure that this will not work all the time.

We need a plugin that has the following features:

  • Single blog post placements
  • Unlimited number of ad layouts
  • Easy to integrate with each blog post using tags
  • NO revenue share with the plugin author!

Additionally we like to see features like:

  • IP-based filter functions
  • Alternative ads for the IP filter
  • Using ad code from other networks than Google Adsense

For this review we selected the 5 WordPress plugins because they have recent updates (active projects) and many features:

Adsense Daemon

This plugin supports three different Adsense layouts. All configured ads are placed on all your blog pages (single view). For each layout you have the control (7 options) where each ad will show up. The plugin has basic features and acts very static. A good plugin if you don’t need so much functions.

AdSense Integrator

If you need a more flexible plugin, you should check this Adsense plugin for WordPress. It has all the features we mentioned above and more: Default settings for automatic placement, full control about which pages have to show the automatic placed ads and a CSS margin for some better ad placement. Revenue share is enabled by default, but you can change this setting (if you don’t like to support the developer with 4% of all your ad impressions).

Everything seems working, except the single ad placement :(
With every placement the “initial” ad is placed too, maybe a recent bug? I posted this to the WordPress forum and will post the result here. Anyway a good plugin if this bug is fixed.

All in One Adsense and YPN!

Great plugin idea on how to configure your blog using Google Adsense or  YPN (Yahoo Network). While the configuration options are very comfortable is this plugin less flexible. All settings are site-wide and valid for all ad formats.

The plugin offers an option to use multiple ad formats, a random function will show them all. I don’t think that this really works (maybe for different colors?). There is an option to disable ads for single pages, but this will disable all ads on that single page. While this plugin looks really good, I will not use it.

Easy AdSense

If you check the WordPress plugin page you should think that this is a great plugin, but I deactivated the plugin very quickly. At the moment that the plugin was activated, it shows already the Adsense ads from the plugin author and also at least one link to his website on each of your blog pages. I need to mention that I choose the plugin because according the author, is this version more advanced and doesn’t include a revenue share. The plugin has a lot of functions to configure the different products like Adsense for search and feeds and of course the content and link units. I’m sure you can treat the setting that way to get a static ad setup for your site, but I don’t like a plugin that includes code in my site without permission and that’s the reason why my advice is to NOT using this plugin. You never know what a future version will do with your website!

Quick Adsense

Finally a plugin that has all important features and works for 100%! Using this plugin you have all the options you need for your blog site: Static placements for your whole website, custom placements for your posts using simple snippets or just disable ads for a single post. This plugin has more features:

  • Add your Adsense code to your blog posts and your sidebar widgets, all settings are controlled through a single settings page.
  • You don’t need to remember the tag names, just place them using quick tags in the HTML mode of your editor.
  • There is space for 10 different ad layouts for the blog pages and 3 in your sidebar.
  • There are no strings attached will say no revenue share or unwanted links, the only thing the author asks is to place a link or button.

There is one feature missing; the IP filter with the option to show alternative ads. Since this feature is very special and should work together with a GEO location script, I think I can miss this feature for now.

At the end I must say I go for the Quick Adsense plugin, because I need a plugin that makes it possible to place the ads on locations I choose while writing a blog post. The Adsense Integrator is also a good plugin, but because of the bug in the current version it’s not useful for my website.Similar Posts:

 
]]> http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/adsense-for-wordpress-5-plugins-reviewed/feed/ 5 AdSense for Domains, just another Domain Parking Service? http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/adsense-for-domains-just-another-domain-parking-service/ http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/adsense-for-domains-just-another-domain-parking-service/#comments Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:44:17 +0000 Olaf http://www.web-development-blog.com/?p=245

Actually “Adsense for domains” is just like most of the other domain parking services. So why should we park our unused domain names with Google?

For a long time I never used any domain parking services because I didn’t believed in that product. I checked the first time “Revenue Parking” provided by my domain registration provider Dynadot, after several month I was not very satisfied with that product. Another point to not use that kind of service was that you need host a domain name with the same provider if you want to their domain parking service.


Resell Domains for GoDaddy.com

Several weeks ago I read on the Adsense blog about this new service and forget it already because the “Adsense for domains” was not yet available in my account. By accident I noticed the new link on my Adsense setup page and started to plat a little with this new product.

Add domain names and configuration

Adding domain names is quite simple just add your name together with the language and in the next step you get the information for the DNS settings. As with most other parking services you don’t need to change the name server entries. You need to enter at least 4 A-records and one CNAME for the “www” sub-domain. The CNAME holds also your Adsense Publisher ID which should be used for the validation that a domain belongs to your Adsense account. For the DNS configuration you will find help files with information how to change the DNS with the bigger domain name provider. I created one account on my own server and add other domain names as domain pointer. This way I’m able to copy past the information directly into “named” data base files.

setup style config report

Validation process and add styles

After you add the domain to your account and the DNS configuration is done it needs a few hours until the validation is done. At the moment you need to check the your account by yourself and if needed to re-validate there is an option too. After validation you’re able to add channels to your parked domain name: “I suggest to do that other wise you didn’t know which domain performs very well and which not”. Tray also to enter some keywords to your domain name and maybe you like to change the style from your parking page. Right parking pages are not very “stylish”, but maybe some custom colors will let the visitor generate more page views.

Reports and earnings

“Adsense for domains” is  (great) CPM based advertising. It look to me as for regular ads, that some domain names perform better some than another. Just like with content related ads Google will show ads with higher and lower revenue. The reports are the same as for the other ads (content, search…) and doesn’t need any explanation. At the moment I can’t see if impressions from the landing page will earn more or less than impressions from other result pages. There is no information about the how many clicks are generated.

Rules for publishers

There are some new rules for the “domain park” publisher, since the earnings are CPM based it’s not allowed to redirect traffic to that page, advertising for parked domain isn’t allowed…

I use the Adsense product for names which are not used anymore and still have some traffic. I noticed that some domain perform much better than earlier with content ads.

What is your experience with “Adsense for domains”?

Similar Posts:

 
]]> http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/adsense-for-domains-just-another-domain-parking-service/feed/ 14 Some nice Google Adsense updates http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/some-nice-google-adsense-updates/ http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/some-nice-google-adsense-updates/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:12:03 +0000 Olaf http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/some-nice-google-adsense-updates/

Several weeks ago a several Adsense publisher has complains about recent modifications in the click behavior for Adsense ads. While an Internet visitor was able before to click the whole ad area to reach the target page, is the new ad only clickable on the ad title and the URL. This modification was done by Google to ban unwanted clicks for their advertisers. Afterwards I think that most of the publisher doesn’t have noticed a change in their earnings (maybe a publisher who need those unwanted clicks to earn money). ;)

Enough about this, there are new features!

Managing Ads via the Adsense control panel

Since a few days it’s possible to use this great feature to maintain existing ad code without changing your HTML. Just create a first (new) ad zone and place some standard Adsense code into your HTML (yeah I’m talking about an account from a publisher in Europe). If you need to change the colors, ad dimensions or ad channel on a later moment, just do it within your Adsense control panel. This is really a time safer! This way it’s easy to change for example the color for multiple pages from your website with just a few mouse clicks.

Ad container with dynamic controls

Maybe some of you have already noticed these new type of ads:

  • Ad banners with the more or related links to show the “other” ads
  • smaller ad boxes with a dynamic “flashy scroller” to show more ads without reloading the page
  • … and maybe there are more?

Sure this feature is only useful for AD-surfer (I hope there are some of them) and maybe this new links/navigation elements makes some people curious.

Video units? And why not (ad free) YouTube Videos?

A few weeks ago the Video ad format was added to my Adsense account, I played with it for a while but skipped this format for the next time.
How does it work? People can watch the videos within the theme you have selected for your video ad and MAYBE the visitor will click some (tiny) ad which is placed above/below the movie and YOU (the publisher) became rich. :(

Sorry, but these ads make no sense (to me), the video player is really big and will take on some of my websites ~50% from the content space. All this afford to have (maybe) some clicks from a banner with one or two small ads? This clicks need to be very high priced because they could give your website the imago from some MFA site.

People from Adsense thanks for the “Manage ads” feature, I like to see more of them!Similar Posts:

 
]]> http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/some-nice-google-adsense-updates/feed/ 9 Don’t let Google run your site http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/dont-let-google-run-your-site/ http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/dont-let-google-run-your-site/#comments Sun, 31 Dec 2006 03:41:18 +0000 Olaf http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/dont-let-google-run-your-site/

In the quest for monetizing their website, webmasters sometimes forget the base fact that they own the site and not Google Adsense! So, often you see webmasters ask questions like ‘Whether Adsense TOS allows linking to such and such site or whether the TOS allows pictures next to ads and so on and so forth. As long as the queries are related to simple ad placement it may be OK but more and more webmasters are getting influenced by the TOS and ad returns that they are willing to modify the content itself. This cannot be good news for the internet since finally it is the quality of information that matters along with the way it is presented. If you are good at presenting your knowledge in a certain way (say, first person), then you should continue to do so, irrespective of whether Google Adsense representatives likes it or not.

The most common reason for such an attitude would be the so-called lack of alternatives. We would rather term it as lack of knowledge of alternatives. There are other PPC programs available but their is no need to look at only contextual programs. There are a whole lot of other monetizing avenues if only you know where to look, f.e. sell directly advertisements on your site. Plus there are so many different affiliate programs around to choose from.

All these can work only if your content is useful enough. Once you have quality content, you will not have to depend on Adsense for your daily income. Spread out your portfolio and you will have a better chance of maximising returns. In short use Adsense on your site; don’t run your site for Adsense.Similar Posts:

 
]]> http://www.web-development-blog.com/archives/dont-let-google-run-your-site/feed/ 4