EzSEO Newsletter # 259
September 27, 2009 by Andy
In this issue:
1. Chitika – An Alternative to Google Adsense?
2. 2 articles, 2 sites, very different indexing pattern.
Hi Again
Wow this week has flown by.? I had intended to release the first Niche Blueprint this year, but I got sidetracked by other things, in particular the recent Adsense testing I have been doing.? I also made a newbie mistake of trying to login to my Wordtracker account using the wrong case in my username (over the years I have changed my username to be all lowercase, but I had at one time used a capital letter in it), so I thought I was locked out, and that took a couple of days to sort out.? Once I realised my mistake, I didn’t have time to complete the Blueprint research.
Most of this week has been taken up setting up a new site, and adding pages to existing sites.
I have also been playing with Chitika, an alternative to Google Adsense, and it is this that I want to start with today – a video showing how it works, and how to set it up on your own sites (and why I think you should give it a go).
Also today I want to tell you about a couple of sites I own.
I submitted an article to both sites within the last 10 days, but the way Google handled those articles was very different, and VERY typical of the way it handles articles submitted to those sites. The article on the first site took 10 days to be indexed, and on the second site just a couple of minutes.? What’s the difference?? I’ll tell you…
BTW, I am thinking of making this newsletter online only, with a notification of when its uploaded.? The reason is simply that I am starting to use more and more video and screenshots, and I would also like to use diagrams etc.? That is impossible in a text only newsletter, and trying to create two or more versions of the newsletter is a little too much work, even for me 
I realise that many of you like the current form, but if I can find a plugin where you can print from the web in a suitable format, would that work?? I really want to get more visuals into my newsletters as I think it helps get the point over better.? They say that a picture is worth a thousand words…
If you have comments on this format switch, please don’t email me.? Instead leave a comment at the end of the online version of this newsletter.? Also if you know of any good configurable plugins that would allow people to print off newsletters and diagrams etc, please let me know in the comments section.
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1. Chitika – An Alternative to Google Adsense?
– — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –
I have never been a big Adsense fan, much preferring to add affiliate links to my sites.? However, during the last few weeks I have been experimenting with Adsense, and more recently a service called Chitika.
Chitika provides similar banner style formats to Adsense, but there are a few notable differences, so I decided to give it a try.
In a moment, I’ll show you a video on how to setup Chitika on your own site, but first, let me tell you how this thing works, and my initial results from using it.
Chitika only shows ads to US & Canada, and then only when someone comes into your site via Google.? If someone in the US or Canada searches Google and then clicks through to your site (and you have Chitika installed), then Chitika will show relevant ads based on the search phrase that those visitors typed into the search engines.
From what I know about Adsense, the ads are chosen based on the content of your site, so Chitika may have an advantage here of being more relevant and sending more highly targeted visitors to your ads.
Let me explain.
If you have a page on contact lenses, Google will show contact lens related ads.
What happens if someone happens to find your page for a long tail phrase, e.g. contact lens paint.? If your page is not really about contact lens paint, then Google will show contact lens related ads that probably are nothing to do with contact lens paint.? That means the visitor to your site is less targeted since they are looking for “contact lens paint”, and Google is serving up “contact lens” ads.
OK, enter Chitika.? You have the same page on contact lenses, and someone searches Google for contact lens paint.? They find your site, and when they get there, what do they see?? Ads specific to contact lens paint.? Those visitors are now targeted to the ads being shown.? Cool isn’t it?
To take a more general example, if someone somehow found your contact lens page via Google for the term “blue widget”, then the ads shown by Chitika will all be ads about “blue widgets” (assuming advertisers are bidding on this phrase).
OK, so what happens if the visitor is not coming in via Google, or is not from the US or Canada?
Well, there are options, but the best option is to get Chitika to switch ads.
The way I have set this up is for US/Canada visitors to be shown Chitika ads, but if the visitor is from anywhere else, they are shown Google Ads.
This system is not difficult to setup.? You can watch the short video I recorded showing you how to setup Chitika to do just this.? You can watch it here:
To sign up for Chitika, please use this link:
Sign up for an account at Chitika – it’s FREE!
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2. 2 articles, 2 sites, very different indexing pattern.
– — – — – — – — – — – — – — – — –
OK, here is what happened.
I have two sites.? One will rename anonymous, the other one is my bloodsugardiabetic.com site.? Since that is the site I built in my WordPress for Affiliate Sites course , I don’t mind sharing that one with you 
For the first site (the anonymous one), I created 6 new pages all related to each other, and all on the same niche.? The main phrase is a one word product name with around 50,000 competing pages in Google.? The top 10 pages in Google are largely PR2 and PR3.
I created a new category on the site and posted these articles so that one was the category main page, and the other five were supporting articles.? This is the exact same method I show you in my WordPress for Affiliate Sites course.
What happened?
Well, the pages got found and “indexed” within 10 minutes.? However, searching for specific sentences from those pages at Google turned up a blank.? Google new the pages were there, but they did not have the content of the pages indexed.
Using a supplemental index checker over at Jerry West’s private site, I confirmed that these new pages were indeed in the supplemental index.
What happened over the next few days was this:
1. The pages completely disappeared from Google, but several other pages on the site were indexed for the main terms I was targeting (different models of the product).
2. I submitted an article to an article site to get a backlink to the main category page for this group of pages.
2. After 10 days, the pages returned to Google’s index, this time searching for sentences off the pages did return results in Google.? The pages are now indexed.
Here is a screenshot of the current rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing:
NOTE: Ranking reports are done with Market Samurai
Clearly these pages are not going to bring me traffic unless its for obscure long-tail phrases.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be submitting more articles to article sites, to see what improvements I get in the rankings for my targeted phrases.? I’ll report back on progress.
OK, over to the other site….
On the bloodsugardiabetic.com website, I created a single page on the main phrase “humalog” which has around 258,000 competing pages in Google.? As a sub-phrase, “humalog insulin” is probably more realistic with just 19,000 competing pages.? The top ranked pages in Google are PR3 & PR4s with a PR6 in the mix as well.
After submitting the article, it was indexed in about 2 minutes, and searching for sentences on the page returned my webpage.? That means Google had fully indexed that page, and was aware of its content.? That’s a stark contrast to the other site.? I did not submit any articles for this page.
The rankings of this page on Google are shown in a screenshot below (ranking columns are in the order Google, Yahoo & Bing):
NOTE: my page is #364 for the single word “humalog”.? Also note that these rankings are 3 days after the original article was published on my site.? In the first site example, the rankings shown were around 12 days after the articles were published to my site.
OK, my challenge over the next few weeks is to see how far up Google I can get my page for these phrases.? I’ll keep you informed in this newsletter as to what I am doing, and what results I have.? Stay tuned.
Oh, finally before I leave, I promised to tell you the difference between the two sites.
The first site has no authority in the eyes of Google.? It does have a PR2, but 99% of the content on there is PLR content that has not been changed.? That means that 99% of the content on that site is found on other sites.? Google reports 737 pages for that site, but Jerry West’s Supplemental Index tool says that of those 303 are in the Supplemental index – that’s 41% of its pages.
The Bloodsugardiabetic.com site has a PR3 and 100% of the content is original and written by myself. There are a reported 425 pages in Google, but Jerry’s tool says that 99 of those pages are in the supplemental index – that’s 23% of its pages.
I think you can see that Google values the diabetes site much more highly than the anonymous one.? This authority is what gets articles to one site fully indexed in minutes, and for other sites it takes days or weeks.
Well, that’s it for this issue.? If you want to read the recent issues of this newsletter, you can read them online at my blog:
Have a great week!
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Visit the subscriber Bonus page for fr.ee reports and other subscriber-only:
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please recommend it to your friends. Also if you have any tips of your own, questions or comments, please leave a comment at the online version of this newsletter: http://ezseonews.com
Any tips or questions & answers I print in this newsletter will also be put up on the web version of the newsletter with a link to your site if you want it. That’s extra free traffic for your site as well as an incoming link to your site.
The contents of this newsletter is copyright 2009 Andrew Williams.? If you want to republish any of the articles, you must get permission from the author.
This newsletter disclaims all responsibility for the advertising copy or the product advertised. You cannot rely on the fact that the newsletter has examined the product or recommends or endorses the product, unless it clearly says that it has, when you make your decision whether or not to purchase the product or interact with the advertiser. You are advised to do your own investigation before buying. Additionally, this newsletter may accept articles that we do not write or investigate the accuracy of and for which we may receive direct or indirect benefit or compensation. We specifically disclaim any responsibility for the content of such copy.
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A link to the online version of your newsletter is fine – but I won’t be watching any videos – I hate them
Give me stuff I can read and archive!
That’s a real shame as so much more information can be shared in a video. Can I ask why you hate videos?
Hi Andy,
Excellent newsletter as usual. I have recently signed up for the WordPress for Affilaites course so I would like to know if the ‘Anonymous Site’ was also a wordpress blog or a conventional .html website. Also, how does the age of each site compare?
Thanks
Hi John
The anon site was registered in June 2006 and was an HTML site originally that I converted to WordPress not so long ago. It is essentially the same site structure as taught in the WFAS course.
The Blood sugar site was registered in July 2008 for the sole purpose of creating the WFAS course.
Andy
Fine with me if you want to go the online route with your newsletter. I enjoy your videos they are seldom overlong unlike some other expers!
Keep up the good work it is appreciated.
Thanks
Nick
The ranking tool looks cool. Can share more about this tool?
Its one of the features of Market Samurai
Your email is one of the few I really read. I prefer not to be overwhelmed with visuals. Everyone (or so it seems) is sending videos (which take forever to watch- I can read faster) or worse emails/newsletters that only say “Go to my blog for the latest!” Why?, what’s there- no clue. I am not motivated to go on wild blog chases. If as part of the newsletter, you indicate- video on chitka online (hyperlink here)- that’s fine, then I have a clue. So please keep at least some indication of what the newsletter is about.
Even if I go online I’ll be providing a skeleton overview of what’s included in the online newsletter. That way you can decide if there is anything you want to read.
online newsletter sounds like a great ideal.
if I can print it and a plus is reading it in google reader(full text).
You can do that now. The feed for my newsletter is at:
http://ezseonews.com/feed/
Hi Andy ,
Love you precise and to the point newsletters.
Yours is one of those top news letters I make a point to read.
I must admit I do read yours through my email but dont really mind switching over to online as I do find that I can absorb information much better in a shorter time in Video Format.
Thanks for that Chitika overview especially for switching over Ads
Hamant
I receive several newsletters that are now online only and send me an email notification when they’re available. I have no problem at all with this method.
I’d always read your newsletter whichever way you did it.
Jake
Hi Andy
I would prefer all your information on-line. I end up reading both and doing a mental “version compare” that isn’t really necessary. Since online tells the fuller story that’s best in my view.
Thanks for all your dedication in building tools and sharing your knowledge. Beginning on Thanksgiving long weekend (Oct 12 in Canada) I’m taking myself through your WFAS course methodically and thoroughly. I completed my purchase in August, but I was unexpectedly unemployed the first 8 months of this year with the market meltdown and follow-on bust in the oilsands industry here in Alberta.
I’m a single parent who also got hit concurrently with transitioning my Mom into a seniors’ lodge and launching my 18 year old into full-time employment. I ran out of money, time and creative energy at the same time as the WFAS course was opening my mind to wonderful possibilities.
I’m now back in corporate on a short-term contracts to make the capital I need to fund a my life and a month of intense focus on WFAS in November. After that I will balance corporate work and WFAS work until I can cut loose the corporate side forever. On payday next week I’ll purchase a year of Wordtracker and then I’ll have your complete suite of recommended tools (i.e., KRA Pro, Fat Content Creator). I used the earlier unemployed time to download all your print material bonuses and study them thoroughly.
Having soaked in these materials for a few months I think I have matured from the original euphoria of last spring where I discovered all this wonderland of on-line marketing but lost heart as my bank account went down and family demands went skyrocketing. Your weekly reports and print materials are helping me KNOW this can be real for me. You are helping me transit the “I can’t believe this amazing life is even possible” gap.
Being of an academic turn of mind (I’m a tech writer in industry) I appreciate your disciplined and un-hyped approach. I want the core skills and solid understanding before I leap to “TAKE MASSIVE ACTION!!!!!!!” espoused in other programs. I want quality ahead of noise and busy-ness. Massive action comes later – just beyond the phase of disciplining myself to patiently learn to use your toolkit and master the skillset.
On a final note: I appreciated your day-in-the-life report a couple of weeks ago. Looking for a vision I can hold while embarking on this WFAS voyage, I was struck by how much your life had the steady and peaceful quality I used to enjoy as an independent writer working from home. I loved the ability to blend household responsibilities into my work day seamlessly while my two kids were at daycare. I was a more involved school Mom as well, having control of my own time. I had a balance of people contact and quiet writing time and I was never happier – or more well-paid. However the business had no passive income capability and when my particular niche dried up after five years I reluctantly fell back into corporate.
I see now how developing an authority site(s) for affiliate products gives me the best of all worlds. In time I can also see myself creating niche sites a la Niche Profit Classroom 2.0 but I decided I’m not comfortable starting there. Interestingly, it was your interview with Adam Short that introduced me to your work and I liked the depth and technical thoroughness of your approach. I’m confident that using your comprehensive approach to gathering keywords for themed articles and writing Fat Content will improve anything I opt to write/publish/market using the Niche Profit model later.
On my wall above my desk I’ve got the words “Freedom 55″. I borrowed the phrase from a London Life insurance product – but for me it keeps me pointed to my 55th birthday next June and the vision that, while I may not be financially free by then, I will be solidly upon the journey: working entirely from home, enjoying time with my two sons, and building those multiple passive income streams to freedom.
TAKE MASSIVE ACTION? Of course!! With my feet firmly under me thanks to your products and support.
All the best,
Kim
Good luck with it Kim. Its hard work, especially in the early days, but you can get there.
Hi Andy,
Just wanted to say that I like receiving the text version of your newsletter as I save them and refer back to them. Have you considered switching to an HTML format?
As far as a plugin that users can print the page, I use this http://lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-print.html
It’s a great plugin. Hope you decide to keep either a text or HTML version of your newsletter.
Cheers,
Scott
Hi Scott
One of the problems with HTML format newsletter is that not everyone has an email program that reads HTML, and I would imagine that I would have to upload images before posting a newsletter – real hassles as I then need to make sure URLs are correct. With a web page, I dont have to worry about that as Windows Livewriter will take care of it for me. What I want to do is have the time to continue creating a newsletter, but reduce the time it takes, and increase the interactivity with readers. An email format, HTML or otherwise, does not increase interactivity (I want interaction not just with me, but with anyone who reads the newsletter), whereas an online version does as replies and comments can be posted at the bottom.
Hi Andy,
I think making your newsletter online is a great idea. In addition in will get readers to your website which is good marketing.
I look forward to your video tutorials. I love your soothing, calm and rational demeanor. It’s comforting to have someone so grounded providing guidance and proof that doing things the right way the first time is the best way.
You’re sort of the Alexander McCall Smith of internet marketing!
Warmly,
Donna
Andy,
I see nothing wrong with having your newsletter online. I would ask only one thing and it does not matter if you continue as now or if you put the newsletter online. Make a brief statement of what’s in the newsletter. I spent several hours going through various newsletters looking for something you had said in one of your newsletters. If you tell what is in your newsletter, somewhat of a menu then I can keep them in a file and use a search to find information I’m looking for.
Thanks
ejb
Two things I look forward to on Sunday: The CBS Sunday Morning Show and Andy’s newsletter. Haven’t been reading Andy as long as I have been watching Sunday Morning but it holds an equally important place in my day.
The online only version of the newsletter is fine with me.
And I enjoy the movies. Having completed the Affiliate Site Course I find myself frequently reviewing the movies as opposed to just reviewing the associated documentation. Your teaching background really shows and your videos are probably the best instructional ones I have encountered on the net.
Hi Andy
Online version only is fine by me & makes sense as I always click through to watch any videos or extended comments.
Thanks for a great Newsletter – I have been a subscriber since early 2005! There are only a few others that fall within this category.
Best wishes from Australia
Nadine
Andy,
Your newsletter is one of the very few I do not send to an obscure gmail account for when (if ever) time is available to review them. I value your comments and insights, and the videos are great. Online is fine with me – as long as there’s a reminder via email to go look for it.
Hope that helps.
Thanks!
Dave
Hi Andy,
1-I would like to know which wordpress theme do you use for your sites?do you buy development license?
2-to submit to article directories do you use special spin/submit programs to do the job?I am using article blueprint what is your idea about it?
thanks
I tend to use Studiopress themes on most of my sites. Yes, I bought a developer license. As for submitting articles, I haven’t done a lot of it in the past. I am currently trying Article Blueprint to see what sort of a job it does, but I still write single quality articles and submit to a single directory.
I don’t mind the online only version as long as we get email updates… or I could subscribe to your feed.
The way I print your newsletters for reading is to copy and paste them in a two-column landscape template in OpenOffice.
I’m with Books for Sale in hating videos. My reason is that they are mostly used so that “authors” can avoid the work of writing understandable information. And most videos are obviously done without rehearsal or planning, just a ramble through a procedure.
Videos are also useless for reference, so unless you want to spend time viewing them again, you have to take careful notes of all important points covered.
I much prefer your current format of an email newsletter. It pops conveniently into my inbox, I scan the headlines & content, read what interests me, reference what I need to and move on. Although videos do have their uses to illustrate a complex point, I much prefer written content which I can edit and reference more easily.
I have problems accessing your Chitika screencast video link from my inbox. The link doesn’t even appear in my browser from your online newsletter.
If you read the online version, its embedded in the web page (not a link).
There was no embedded video – just a large blank square where the video should have downloaded. I have discovered the source of the problem: Onspeed accelerator that I have installed was blocking the download! I’ve now turned it off and it’s all fine. Thanks, Andy.
Web letters with video work for me – especially if you are giving us even more content
text only email is super handy for archiving and search purposes; hence archiving pics, audios and vids requires giving them appropriate file names and/or keeping a brief description/summary of them in a text email/file.
the problem i have with audio and vid is quite some people make them huge files for the length of the audio/video, so if you want to archive them they not only take too long to download but also take too much disk space. converting vids to smaller files takes too much time and is not always possible.
> if I can find a plugin where you can print from the web in a
> suitable format, would that work?
how about one that enables to archive the page(s), not only printing ? so probably pdf.
instead of a plugin i’m more interested in a free printer driver enabling us to save your and other people’s site pages as pdf and which embeds png (jpg is no problem) as well as keeps hyperlinks active. then also some freebie tool which enables to search through pdfs.
when using vids, consider adding a hyperlink to the vid so people can go from the pdf video link to the online video, instead of archiving the video on their computer.
Hi Andy
Go with the Online option, it’s much better and easier to read.
Your 2 sites – I presume you are putting the difference down to 100% own content on the one site?
One thing I am finding with my WP site is that if write a new post it gets indexed within 3 minutes (haven’t a clue how Google manages this) but if I write a new page it can take a lot longer to index – any idea why?
With regard to your diabetic site – are you making decent money from it? as the rankings you are showing don’t seem good enough to make this happen.
One thing I am finding is that if I keep up a steady flow of focused articles to EzineArticles, I do get sales, but if I dont write any for Ezine for a week or so, the sales dry up. What I don’t know is whether the buyers are finding the articles directly in Ezine or finding them via Google?
John
The rankings I am showing in the latest newsletter are for a competitive term that will need more work to rank well. It is the work involved in doing this that I hope to show in successive newsletters. I don’t do any article marketing or link acquisition on the diabetic site at all – its a test site, and as such I don’t work on it other than for testing stuff.
Do you think that your sites need article marketing to bring traffic because your content is not ranking well in the search engines? I cannot see any other reason sales would be linked to article submissions.
Hi Andy,
You mentioned Studiopress for wordpress themes.any particular theme that you found it being seo friendly where we can add Adsense/ppc affiliate page?which one do you recommend?
No theme that I know of is completely SEO friendly. You have to setup WordPress and the site structure to make it SEO friendly, and then setup plugins to help things along.
Online is just fine. I find your videos invaluable.