Welcome to another guest post here on DSWM that should spark some awesome debate…Adsense is another topic that tends to do just that. I too am hoping to learn a thing or two from both the article and your responses below!

Please welcome Simon Rogers from Teenius.com.

If you’re using Adsense, no doubt you would have seen a little section that speaks about your ‘CTR’. Your CTR is a very important part of  Adsense and for many people determines whether they make a little or a lot by using the program. This article will show you the three main tips for increasing your CTR and earning more through Adsense.

What is CTR?
CTR stands for ‘Click Through Rate’. This basically indicates what percentage of your visitors click one of the Adsense adverts. So if, for example, you get one hundred visitors and four clicks, you’ll have a CTR of 4%.

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Pay attention, this is how we turn a personal gripe into a useful article for everyone .

Threaded Comments is a truly awesome invention ain’t it? It encourages easy to implement reply comments from not just the blog admin, but from other readers as well; a true community type atmosphere indeed!

I was a little late to the game, but when I finally got it, they were truly appreciated by all; especially me! Now I wonder why all bloggers with over a certain amount of comments per post don’t use it.

Top Commenter is another amazing addition to any blog, yes? Encouraging comments, replies, replies to replies and so on; much like threaded comments, but with one ultimate goal…..to be #1! It’s also quite awesome for contests. Hehe.

All good and fun, right? Yea, well…

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Three things to not forget - Guest bloggers wanted. Top Commenter contest March. $100 Blog Improvement Review Contest.

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First things first - if you’re a daily coder type person, then this will be obvious. However if code is your nemesis (arch enemy), then you may not have known this and find it kinda cool…

Would you like to freak out a fellow blogger who does not have the CommentLuv plugin installed on their blog? Hehehe. I was recently editing my typos on someones blog using their nifty edit comments plugin and noticed the code for my CommentLuv link:

<abbr><em>Dennis Edell´s last blog post..<a href=”http://www.directsaleswebmarketing.com/best-blog-improvement-review-contest-1-winner-100-via-paypal/”>Best “Blog Improvement Review” Contest - 1 Winner - $100 via Paypal</a></abbr></em>

Being one of those that is learning code slowly but surely I asked myself if this would work anywhere HTML works; as you can see, it does:

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I told ya it was coming . When I announced the top commenter winners for January, I stated that there were two posts coming regarding comments on this blog. A general one regarding the official comment policy of this blog and a whole separate page regarding rules & tips for the monthly top commenter contests.

There IS a new updated comment policy and you DO want to read it, as it WILL be enforced. And yes, a few slicksters out there may want to consider that a threat .

Relax. It’s very simple, straight forward and logical. Not to mention, still more lenient then most I’ve seen. All in all though, it had to be done.

I do wish to sincerely apologize to a select few in regards to number 1. In the past I allowed a 3rd option for the name field…..pure keywords as long as you signed a real name under your comment.

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Have you been experiencing the same issues I have? For the past week or two or more I’ve been bitchin’ all over the sphere about bloggers CommentLuv plugins not picking up my last post. In fact, it kept picking up the post about, Google alerts, which at the time of this writing is more then 10 posts back.

Oh yea, really frustrating. Alas! Thanks to Andy Bailey, the tireless/fearless creator of this awesome Wordpress plugin, I have the solution! And, well yea, it was my fault. Oops.

The following solution is in Andy’s words, assuming you’ve had your Feedburner feed switched to Google,

“Visit commentluv.com and log in, go to the claim your site page and see if it still has your old feedburner url in the feed field. If it has, change it over and see if that does it.”

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About two weeks ago Ryan McLean from SmarterWealth fame wrote an article discussing the importance of having banners. It was a brief article (a tad self-serving ) but overall got me thinking about some changes coming soon to Direct Sales Web Marketing.

I know it’s been asked and talked about before, numerous times; but not from me (I don’t recall) so here goes…

Main objective today is 2fold:

1. Which is currently better for overall sales - Advertising Banners or Text Links? Does “banner blindness” (or other pet names) REALLY exist?

2. Does the answer to number1 make a difference if it’s affiliate sales or private ad sales?

Reason I’m asking:

As mentioned above, I will be revamping the blog a bit; specifically the side bars for starters. 2009’s primary focus will be income production (not even on the list in ‘08). One avenue of this is inevitably blog monetization. However I would like to do it as classy as possible and genuinely helpful for all parties concerned (sorry Mr. Chow).

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Woot! Here it is! Those times of screaming Oh Crrrrrap! are gone .

As promised when I published the arrival of threaded comments, I have just installed the WP-Ajax-Edit Comments plugin, for users of Wordpress 2.5 or higher.

A big thank you to Sire for turning me on to this one after asking him what was compatible with commentluv. He wrote a whole post about it just for little ‘ol me! (Well, and other curious readers I suppose.)

I don’t know about others, but this plugin is awesome with a whole mess of features for both users and admin. Very cool indeed.

Anyhoo, that’s enough for the plugin sales pitch, lets get down to serious business. Hehe.

We all make comment mistakes with the slap of the forehead wishing against all hope to be able to fix it. What I want to know is, do you have a usual mistake…..one or two things that you goof on CONSTANTLY.

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I’ve had this discussion a number of times on other blogs. With Mitch at least once, on BloggingQuestions, and several others which I can no longer remember.

I do not currently use one, nor do I have any real plans to add one in the coming days. The reasons for this are 3fold (at least the three most prominent in my mind).

1. SEO:

Blogrolls are inherently do-follow links. As my regulars are well aware, I give PLENTY of linklove when it’s appropriate. The rolls just suck it right off the homepage for no real good reason that I can see.

Contextual links (links within a post) are far superior all the way around. Search engines read text first, then go for the links IF at all. Plus, visitors are far more prone to clicking intext links, then sidebar links.

2. Link Exchanges:

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What?!?! You’re not interested in $100 CASH or a TON of prizes??

OK today’s post is not JUST a brag post about reaching the 200 mark (small dance, woohoo!) but a lesson for all, including myself.

You may recall the happy dance we did together when I hit the 100 subscriber mark on November 5th 2008. This post may be a wee late, but I first noticed 202 subscribers on January 7th, this year.

If you really want to break it down, that’s approximately 12 subs per week…not to shabby, eh? Although I never really looked that closely. What’s my secret formula? Well, unless you live in a bubble I really shouldn’t have to tell you, but I will .

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Again my apologies for dashing your hopes, but I’m not looking to purchase (at least not right now). I’ll give you some extra link love at the end to make up for it .

Albeit a quick post, lets call this a follow-up to my somewhat ranty yet popular post regarding blank advertising blocks and the evil of it all. My main point of it all being simply, they are unprofessional and desparate looking to potential advertisers. If you are actively, seriously seeking advertisers you need a well done advertising page.

Well, do ya have one? We want to see it! I think it would be a great help to beginners without one. Let us know what you display, why you think it’s important, and if you have anything different then others that you’ve seen (ex: graphics/screenshots, etc.).

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