The Google PR Update
It has been quiet some time that I have not really logged into those webmaster and SEO forums, so I missed all the excitement and discussions of those long threads regarding “Predict your Google PR” and how everyone used to keep a count on days..while Google used to enjuoy all the attention it gets during those days.
Yesterday, while updating one of my new sites, I saw a faint glimpse of that green bar on my toolbar and I was like.. Oh, so this one got a PR now, it was just 1 so as I said, it was not really visible 
And then I went onto check all my other sites and see what is the outcome of the recent update. As predicted most of the had lost its earlier high PR and lost 1 or 2 rank. It ddin’t really bother me also as I am seeing so much increase in my traffic and earnings. So the PR update was not really something I was looking forward to and was not too keen about getting high values.
I do agree, having a high PR certainly helps when you are selling ad space and trying to sell your website, but as we all know, PR is most importantly dependent on web page linking and with website owners buying links on high PR sites and making sure that they have links from all corners, the real authenticity and the importance of GOOGLE PR (as it used to be) is somewhat compromised these days. If you have money to spend on buying links, you certainly can get high PR. So my main aim is to work on the rankings of my keywords rather than getting high PR. I hope it does not become like the Alexa Rank, which you can increase double fold in just 1-2 days 
January was a good month
January 2008 was the best month for me in terms of Google Adsense earnings. It was my highest so far and I also did break the record of highest earnings on a single day.I am seeing that my keywords are getting more paid compartively, the CPC has increased and also the CTR has increased.
It is amazing to note that how a slight change in your ad placement can do the trick. The same ad unit was getting clicked 5 times more, soon after it’s position was changed. I must start writing a book on Money Making using Google Adsense, but this book of mine will be different from all the other books I have come across. Well it’s just a thought and I don’t see the possibility of turning it into a reality atleast in the near future. At the moment, I don’t have time to implement my own findings in the other pages of the same website and also on other sites as I am so busy and tied up with projects and office work.
Oh yes, in January I finally… yes finally reached the 100USD benchmark in Kontera after 4 months. I had written to Kontera earlier how their ads are not helping much and that I am getting much more clicks in Google Adsense comparatively. They had written to me that they will optmize the keywords for my sites, but it never helped me. Well I like Google Adsense because, you yourself can optimize your keywords, your sites and try to get the desired ads you want and you can place it on any website you own, provided you know that you are following their Terms and Conditions. I will check out Kontera for another month or so and see if there is any difference. Else it will be more beneficial for me to sell my ad spots and links to other sponsors.
So the year 2008 was a good start for me. I hope it continues and by the end of this year, I do break some more records of mine. Yes I always compete with myself
PPC Advertising on Popular Keywords
PPC advertising is pay per click advertising. The advertisers pay for the clicks. You might have often noticed those sponsored results on the top bar and side bar on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alexa etc. I have tried using Google Adwords 2-3 times but I run the campaign for just 10-15 days and then when I see no result, I just stop the campaign. I just don’t have patience to wait and watch. For me, the result should be quick. I often noticed that the times, when I run a campaign on Google Adwords, my Adsense earnings drops. It might be just co-incidence or maybe Google has a policy not to drive traffic from Adwords and then use it for Adsense as they have to protect themselves with so many new MFA sites coming up everyday, with no content but just to make money.
For PPC, you should exactly know what you are targeting, what are the right keywords to aim for. The goal of finding good keywords is to build a table of keywords that can bring targeted traffic to your Web site and keywords that are often searched for, but still not so competitive as to make a top ranking next to impossible.
There are many ways to find a good related keyword. I am listing the ones, I use very often and they are good tools all free of cost.
1. Google Adwords Keyword tool to check out the related and most searched - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
2. WordTracker – You can check out the Free Keyword Suggestion Tool at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
3. Overture - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
4. Keyword Tool from SEO book - http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
So when an advertiser is putting money on keywords, it is better to do some research and then aim for those keywords. Well it is interesting, but this baby site called babycenter(I love that website and it really is a good site for baby related stuff), must have also done some research and they have actually bided on my domain name as one of their targeted keywords both on Google as well as Alexa. So if you search for the term “kidsandbibs” or “kidsandbibs.com”, it shows the sponsored result from babycenter. So this shows that my site is indeed a popular one. Here are some screenshots from Google and Alexa.
