Version 2.0 of the Ad Buttons plugin has been released. Now, the plugin itself hasn’t changed much, but an exciting new feature has been added: Ad Buttons Ad Network Ads. The Ad Buttons Ad Network has been created for the plugin and allows you to show 3rd party ads on your blog. So, if you don’t know what ads to add to your site, let adbuttons.net handle it for you. The credits you earn by showing ads on your site can be used to finance your own ad campaign on the network.
Right now, adbuttons.net is still very limited, but functioning. I like to give people access to the system as early as possible, so I can extend the software based on feedback from the users. I’ve done the same with the Ad Buttons plugin and, based on your feedback, this seems to be a model that the users like.
Joining the Ad Buttons Ad Network is not mandatory, you can still use the plugin to manage your own ad inventory for your blog.
]]>A lot of CPA programs only pay for conversions from certain countries. There is no point in showing these ads to people from other countries. It would be better to show these visitors other ads.
Per Gustafsson has made the ip2nation database that enables you to retrieve the visitors country. I have incorporated the ip2nation database into the latest Ad Buttons plugin release. This enables the program to know from which country your visitor is and enables you to control which ads are served.
Unlike other ip2nation plugins that are available, Ad Buttons is currently using the latest version of the ip2nation database and has update functionality already build into the admin panel so you can update the database with one click when a new version is released.
]]>Ad scheduling is simply done by specifying a start and end date for the ad. When filled in, the ad will show in your admin panel with the appropriate status: scheduled, active or expired. I’ve received quite a few questions about ad scheduling, so there you have it!
To support scheduling, a few new fields had to be added to the database. They should be automatically added when you run the automatic upgrade process. If you want to update the plugin manually, make sure you disable and then re-enable it in your wordpress admin panel to make sure the database is updated for your installation.
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David noticed some issues with his rss feeds. I thought I’d share my response here with you. Here’s part of the e-mail I received from David:
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There are a couple of issues I have noticed with the rss feed.
- The number of subscribers is below 10 still, but it fluctuates from day to day so I do wonder how accurate the information is.
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The fluctuating subscriber numbers in FeedBurner are easy to explain: the provided subscriber count is simply the number of people who have accessed your rss feed on any given day. This might come as a shock to some of you, but not everyone is on the internet every day. So, a rss feed subscriber count of ten, two days in a row, could mean you have 10 subscribers. But it is also quite possible that the ten people who accessed your rss feed on day one are not online the second day. Ten other people might have accessed your feed on the second day, bringing your total subscribers count to 20 people.
The problem with accurately tracking the subscriber count is the limited information available to the feed provider. The only things we can track are the software used to read the feed (although, as pretty much any information send over the internet, this can be faked) and the ip address of the computer accessing the feed. I don’t think there is something similar to the cookies used in browsers in use in feed reader software, and even if there is: this would still not guarantee a 100% reliable way of tracking subscribers. I think the service provided by FeedBurner is as close to reliable subscriber tracking as you can get.
But even if we know that the reported subscriber numbers aren’t very accurate, we can use the reporting available to look at the bigger picture. Over time, if you are doing it right, you should see a general upward trend in the reported subscriber numbers.
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Images are a way to commute and impress. An image customized to your blogging needs is a resource. A dashing and sporting image like the one above can get attention of your readers and bring in some loyal readers to your blog.
Many bloggers search images on Google or other search engines and then pin it up on their post. Most of the times, these pictures are not relevant to your article and require some photoshoping. If you blog full-time and you are a master of photo-editing, you can create some really nice illustrations for your blog posts. But, if you blog in part-time and you do not have enough time or if you can not do photo- editing, you may be on the backgear.
Here comes the role of image and text generators. These are the online tools that will create wonderful illustrations and graphics for you without ever requiring you to know those photo-editing skills.
In this post, I have listed some of the best image and text generators out in the network that may be interesting to bloggers.
The Advertising Slogan Generator
Give any word or ‘group of words’ and this generator will generate a slogan corresponding to your input, written on a banner and also on t-shirt of a nice babe.
This tool generates you a trophy with your custom words below it. It is great for quick rewards.
Converts your text into zombie like images and gives you an instant HTML code to be used in your blogs or your other communities.
Give your custom text and see it on an airplane. Works great to impress your readers. It is really neat and of course, royal. However, the text you provide should be short enough to fit on the plane.
Add your custom titles to the video. Use your creativity to really make some interesting illustrations.
This handy tool converts your text file to image by using your parameters like image width, height, contrast, etc.
Generate a neon sign board with your own text glowing up.
Creates a wedding sign board with your custom text. Allows up to 4 lines of text. A cool tool to work with.
Fake Magazine Cover Page Generator
Generates a fake magazine cover page with your own image on your desired magazine. many popular magazines are available to choose from. This works pretty well when you try to stand out of the crowd.
‘Angry Tom yells out your Say’ generator
A great tool which accepts your 4 line of text and then gives you a picture of an angry tom which speak those words out.
This is a free RSS/XML to image converter service. It always shows the real-time content of every RSS feed. A nice and handy tool to work with. Show your RSS feed in a better way.
Some of the above mentioned converters are flash based and so you may need to use “Prt Scr” button on your keyboard to capture them.
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Eric pointed out Adgetize to me today, so I thought I’d give it a try. This ad program seems to have the greatest potential so far. You are getting paid not only for ad views or ad clicks, but also for posting on your blog. This is not a paid posting service, you just go about blogging like you normally would. You post what you want and earn points with their system.
Another big difference with services like Xavier Media Banner Exchange is that your accumulated points will be converted into cash! So, if you are getting clicks and hits from traffic exchange programs, but really rather be paid for your blog, this is your chance to sign up with a brand new service.
Adgetize has only been around for a month, but people have already been paid for this program, so it seems to be legit. Looking at how their system works, I’m not entirely sure they will last long in the advertising market. People are currently signing up like crazy and displaying the Adgetize ads on their websites to earn cash. If the program fails to attract enough advertisers, this nice program could soon be gone.
If you want to give it a try, you can sign up for their service for free and start showing ads on your site within minutes. Just go to the Adgetize website and sign up now!
Looking into more ways to get free advertising and traffic, I found the Xavier Media Banner Exchange program. Programs like these are a great way for the starting bloggers to get some visitors to their blog, without having to put down any cash for advertising.
The program works with a 3:2 ration, which means that for every 3 ad clicks on your site, you will get 2 visitors send back to you. You will start with 1000 banner impression credits and you can get another free 5000 banner impression credits just for writing a review. Since I was going to write this review anyway, that’s 5000 totally free banner impression credits for me, yay!
What I really like about this banner exchange program is that you don’t have to do any clicking to earn points, your visitors can take care of that. This makes this program a lot better than Entrecard in my eyes.
You can put your own ad in several of 35 different categories, so the traffic you will be getting should be pretty targeted. As with any banner campaign, the number of clicks on your ad will depend on the design of your banner. Since you can have multiple ads running through this program, you can do some split testing and see which banner design performs best for you.
I’ll have to see how this works out in the long run, but my first impression of the Xavier Media Banner Exchange is very positive. You should give it a try! If it doesn’t work out for you, too bad, but at least you didn’t loose a dime trying it.
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Looking at different methods to bring traffic to this very new blog, I decided to give Entrecard a try. I was very hesitant in using this method because it is very much like the numerous traffic-swap programs out there. Been there, done that, didn’t like it!
You basically put an ad button on your site and visitors who are also signed up with Entrecard can click it to earn points. I can in turn visit their sites and click to earn points for myself. The earned points can be spend on displaying your ad button on other peoples websites.
The great thing about this method of advertising is that it doesn’t cost you a dime, which is great for people just starting out blogging. The downside is that you’ll have to do a lot of clicking to earn enough points to put your ad up on other sites. Also, when not clicking, the other users of the system will not notice you and will not visit your site.
So, if you click a lot, you get a lot of visitors. Great, if you have the time to visit all these blogs to click the button. But be aware of the type of traffic you get in return: they are other Entrecard members, only visiting your site to click the button. Most of them probably don’t even read a single word on your blog. They are the click-n-run visitors.
You might wonder how Entrecard got so popular. I’ll tell you: it’s all in the marketing! With a few big names, like Darren Rowse and John Chow, promoting your service, things can start snowballing pretty fast. Shame on you, both of you! Although it looks like they are both not using the service anymore.
If I don’t like this method of getting traffic, why am I using it? First of all, I believe in trying out things for myself before writing a review about it. Sure, I could just browse the web to see what everyone is saying, but that wouldn’t make a very objective review. I also think that this service can potentially bring me some visitors that might decide to hang around or subscribe to my rss feed. Since they are all bloggers, it is very targeted traffic I’m getting for this blog. The only question that remains is whether or not they actually read my posts.
So, to summarize: if you measure your blogs success in visitor numbers only and have time to spare to visit 350 blogs a day, just to click the Entrecard button, go ahead! If you are more interested in growing your blogs community, I’d say there are better ways to spend your time.
]]>There’s a better way though, say hello to our friend the rss feed. If you are blogging, there’s no doubt that you have seen this term before, about every blogging platform has rss feeds integrated into the software. Still many beginning bloggers don’t know what an rss feed is or how to use it. The rss feed is the best thing since sliced bread!
The rapid rise of blogs, and rss feeds, only a few years ago, might make you believe that rss is one of the hip inventions of the 21st century. Truth is, that the technique has been around since the 1960’s. Like most things computer related, rss’ roots lie at IBM. But let me not bore you with a history lesson, nor the technical details of the rss feed. Let’s just take it’s working for granted and see how we can make use of it.
Without getting into the technical details, let me quickly give you an idea of what an rss feed is. Simply put, the rss feed makes the content of a website available in a standard way. The key word here is content, the feed doesn’t contain the layout of the website or the ads you see when visiting the site, although ads can be integrated into rss feeds as well. An rss reader can read the contents of multiple rss feeds and display them to you. This way you can keep track of new posts on multiple blogs from within a single web page or application.
If you want to know which rss reader is best for you, I’m not the one to ask. There are many readers available, online applications as well as stand-alone programs. I use Google reader but similar services are available at other sites. I prefer the online rss reader because it enables me to access my feeds from any computer with an internet connection.
The Google reader serves my needs, so I have not tried other applications yet. If you want to see some other rss readers available, Life Hacker posted a list of their visitors favorite rss readers a while ago and Daren has also asked his visitors what they use.
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