Here are 5 points you may want to know before doing it yourself:

Hosting

The post was only on the front page for less than 30 minutes as far as I can tell. Here’s what a majority of viewers saw when they clicked the Digg link to my site:

In the space of those 30 minutes google analytics tells me that the site had nearly 2,000 views. I am unsure of the number who couldn’t get through because of hosting problems. After researching others is seems that you can expect between 5000 and 150,000 visitors depending on how long it stays on the front page and whether it makes the top 10 stories of the day (always displayed on the right hand side of the page).

If you don’t have the hosting to support making it to the digg front page you will miss out on a lot of traffic and it will very quickly get your page buried (as mine experienced). Even if you get buried you will still get an influx from many different sources on the web.

Quality

There are ways to get more exposure to your page by working with your friends to help get the diggs up. And while I recommend this to get the initial momentum, if you aren’t submitting quality work it won’t take long to get a bad reputation. Also make sure you do a good job of spell checking and editing your post before it gets submitted.

Putting time into creating a masterpiece for submission can be a great idea when aiming to get traffic from digg. Once you establish yourself as a producer of great content the digg the community will happily embrace your future work and you will find it easier (so they say) to get to the front page.

Links

Once a page gets popular on digg not only will it generate significant traffic to your site but it also gets the attention of other resources on the web. As a direct result you will see an influx in traffic from other social bookmarking sites. The following day I had about 400 visitors from Reddit (from the same buried article).

As linkbait it’s great. I did a google search to see how many times my post had turned up. After just one day there were 118 backlinks recognised by google. Great stuff for a buried post.

Adsense

As a rule the more experienced an internet user is the more banner blindness they have. Generally I have been getting a CTR on my adsense of about 1-2% but for the digg traffic I had a CTR of just 0.27%. So if you are trying to get a build adsense revenues by getting digg traffic don’t bother. Either think of a smarter way to monetize traffic or start working on a longer term strategy.

RSS Subscriptions

Of the 2000 visitors there were only 25 new subscribers. So most of the traffic was fleeting. An interesting post to check out is probloggers How to Build a ‘Digg Culture’ on your Blog which covers a few ideas of how to benefit from digg traffic. He also talks about the bump his subscriptions get from digg traffic.

Although most of the digg traffic is short lived, there are many benefits from getting to the front page. Keep working to get there and you will eventually reap the rewards.

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Take Attention Away From Adsense Adds

This blog used to have large images at the header of every blog post which looked cool but I have learnt a few things since.

1) Readers Start At Images

Even if there is content above an image readers will always see the image first. As a result images will always be an excellent way to grab readers attention. However if you are using an image at the start of your post readers will often ignore anything above the image. Here is the problem, the hottest spot for adsense clicks is above the content. (The image on the right shows adsense hotspots).

If your image at the top is too strong it will actually draw readers a straight into your content. So although it is good to connect very strongly with readers if you are trying to make money it might be worth your time to make a “softer” entry into each article.

2) Mild Confusion Helps Adsense

Using the image as a cue for readers makes it easy for them to find what they are looking for, but sometimes giving them what they dont expect will help them see more of the page. Too much confusion is obviously a bad thing, if the reader leaves feeling frustrated then you did it wrong. A good indicator of frustration is bounce rate. Different marketing techniques and traffic sources have different bounce rates so to test out confusion levels try different layouts and watch to see if the bounce rate changes.

My previous articles had a large image at the start and it was clear to the reader it was the beginning and they were to read from there. My new layout has a smaller image and creates mild confusion for the reader where they are not quite sure whether the add is a part of the image or not.

Before

After

Getting your adds mistaken as part of the content is the key for getting them noticed and getting better click through rates.

After making these changes I saw a noticeable improvement in my adsense revenue.

I hope this helps!

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As Mentioned in the previous post, installing AdSense on blogs is quick and easy way to start monetizing your blog. Although it is easy there are a few tips that will bring your more satisfaction (money) from your AdSense.

Here are 8 strategies to implement that will improve your AdSense cash flow.

Ad Placement

AdSense units should be placed where visitors eyeballs are. Because of the way we learnt to read we move our eyes left to right and top to bottom. So AdSense should be placed toward the top and left of the page.

The other way to get adds noticed is to place them in the route of the eyes. Adds placed directly above, below or within content are more likely to get seen than AdSense on the sidebar. You can see in the image below the hot spots for content readers. You can read more about this research at useit.com.

AdSense Format

The three top performing AdSense units are: 336×280 large rectangle, 300×250 in-line rectangle and 160×600 wide skyscraper. Try to use these units where possible, but bear in mind that other formats might be more effective for your design.

AdSense Colors

AdSense works differently on every site and you need to adjust your colors accordingly. The general rule is to use contrasting ads on sites with dark backgrounds and to blend adds on sites with light backgrounds. To contrast use a boarder, and to blend keep it free.

The most successful link color is blue. This is connected to the roots of the Internet where all major websites used to feature blue links.

Targeting Keywords

To improve your AdSense revenues you need to target the right adds. Some pay only 1c per click while others pay $20-30. Assuming you already have a blog why not research topics you might post about and find out what keywords pay well then tailor the posts around them.

Use Adwords Keyword Tool to find variations of the keywords you are targeting, then use AdSense Traffic Estimator to find the highest paying variations.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is largely the way google decides what adds to place in your pages. This will also help with SEO for your site. A good keyword density is around 2% and up to 4% (any more will be seen as spam by Google).

I use the WorddPress plugin Keyword Snatcher to help keep track of my keyword density while writing my posts. Try it yourself and let me know how it goes.

Keyword Placement

Google places more weight on keywords towards the top of the page. So make sure you mention your keyword in the first paragraph. The title and headers are also of high importance to Google. Try to include your keywords in these and you will get targeted adds.

Add Keywords To Images

When you insert an image to you post you have the option of editing its title, description and caption. This is another place you can tell AdSense what your post is about and make sure they display the right adds.

Omit Off Topic Text

Sometimes you say things that are off topic and you don’t want to google to use for adds. You can open the HTML view (top right of the WP compose box,next to Visual) and insert the following code surrounding the off topic text:

<!- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) ->

Off topic text..

<!- google_ad_section_end(weight=ignore) ->

Test Test Test!

You have all the information you need now test out different variations and keywords to get your best results.

Let us know how it goes.

Sponsored Resources

Blogging To The Bank 3.0
The Blueprint Of A Blogging Millionaire. The Best Blogging EBook On The Net.

Atomic Blogging 3.0
Your Complete Step By Step Tutorial Guide On Creating Profitable Blogs.

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An absolute beginners guide to monetizing your blog.

The main 4 ways to monetize your blog in order of profitability:

1) AdSense.

AdSense is the simplest way to start monetizing you blog.

Adsense is CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising so you get paid when someone clicks on the link. Each click can be worth anything from 1c-$100 depending on your topic.

Here’s how to set it up in WordPress:

Sign up for AdSense with your google account at Google Adsense

Then install a plugin called Easy Adsenser to your WordPress blog.

Then set up your ads inside AdSense and copy and paste the code into Easy Adsenser in WordPress admin (Settings>Easy Adsenser).

Voila now you’re getting paid.

AdSense is the easiest to set up but gets the lowest returns.

2) Affiliate Ads.

When you promote someone else’s product on your website it is called affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is CPA (Cost Per Action) which means you get paid when a person clicks a link from your page then actually buys. In return you get percentage of the sale. If you have picked the right affiliate links to have on your website then these can get much better results that just CPC advertising with AdWords.

A great affiliate program to get started with is Amazon Associates. With Amazon if a customer clicks the link on your page then you get a commission on anything they buy at Amazon in that session. For more info check out Amazon Associates. The great thing about amazon is they have so many products it is easy to find stuff for your niche.

3) Conextual.

Contextual advertising is usually just an extension of CPA affiliate ads. But instead of displaying ads for a product you write about it. Contextual advertisements have the highest CTR (Click Through Rate) because they are directly related to the information on your page. For example,If I was talking about cameras and I said “I got an awesome Canon PowerShot Digital Camera for my birthday” that would be a contextual link. You can click it and try it out of you like.. ;)

Once again Amazon Associates is a great program for contextual adds because almost anything you talk about they sell so why not link up.

Another way to implement contextual adds is to do a product review. If I use some software that has an affiliate program, I could write a whole post reviewing the software and then drop the affiliate link in at the end. If readers click through and join up I get paid. This is very effective when reviewing products that are related to your readership.

4) Sell Your Own Product.

Selling your own product is the ultimate in profitability because you don’t share the profit. Also you can sell you new products to your existing customer base making your business grow even faster. Obviously you need something to sell first, but maybe you could keep this in mind as a longer term goal.

Sponsored Resources

Blogging To The Bank 3.0
The Blueprint Of A Blogging Millionaire. The Best Blogging EBook On The Net.

Atomic Blogging 3.0
Your Complete Step By Step Tutorial Guide On Creating Profitable Blogs.

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