Update on Chitika

Way back on June 29, I mentioned the fact that I was going to try out the Chitika eMiniMalls system. Just wanted to update everyone. If you are looking for an Adsense alternative, this could be the one for you. Of course, you’ll have to try it to see if it works in your niche, but for me, it has been a much better earner than Adsense. And none of that oh-so-secret, we won’t tell you how much you get, and we will smart price you down to nothing. Nope, it is clear and simple and direct. You get good control over the ads, upfront details about payout, and ads that pay substantially better than Adsense (at least for me, anyway). Try Chitika and see if it works for you.

SEO Links Firefox Extension

Kudos to NickW for pointing out this rockin Firefox extension for SEOs. This little tool allows you to hover over a link and not only see the backlinks to that URL from the big three search engines, but the rankings for that URL/anchor text pair. I suggest you keep the tool turned off during normal surfing, because it can not only get annoying, but it also sends a query to G, Y, and M each time. You can toggle it on and off by clicking on the little triangle of colored balls in the status bar. But it is extremely handy when you want to quickly see how one of your keyword phrases is ranking (or your competitor’s). Download it at www.webmasterbrain.com/seo-tools/firefox-extensions/seo-links/. This ranks as a top-notch SEO tool as far as I’m concerned. Of course, you have to have Firefox to use it, but you do, right?

What NOT to do when optimizing your site

rmccarley spotted a web page and mentioned it over at SEO Chat today. We all spend so much time discussing how to properly SEO a site, that we sometimes forget to mention what NOT to do. So let me make sure this clear to all the SEO newbs out there. Go to http://www.web-specialists.com/ (I don’t want to link to it) and be sure to AVOID using this technique on your own sites. (Surely, I don’t have to actually explain what not to do – hopefully, it is blatantly obvious).

DazzlinDonna finally digs the whole Community thing

For the past year or so, I have skimmed over the numerous discussions based around building communities, using such sites as del.icio.us, flicker, etc. I skimmed because I was never really interested. Sure, I understand the concepts and the benefits, but I just did not really care. Frankly, the idea of del.icio.us was a bit intriguing, but it never really captured my attention because of a couple of things. One, I could never remember how to spell the dang thing (where to put the dots), and two, it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to me. Too plain, ya know? Flicker is cool, but it never filled any kind of actual need of mine.

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Google update Jagger2 begins

A week ago, the first of a three-part Google update began, and today the second part is beginning. (Note that Jagger3, the third and final part, will begin next week, probably around Wednesday). Jagger 2 can be seen on only a few datacenters at the moment, with 66.102.9.104 being one of them. The theory, based on Googleguy comments, is that this update has kicked in some spam filters, and Jagger 3 will deal with canonicalization or ranking or supplemental issues. Since I did not see any real changes in Jagger 1, I could not comment much on the update, however, with Jagger 2, I am seeing a few changes. Some of my sites are showing some nice upward movement, so while those changes may not stick, it is still a nice positive sign. Many forum posters seem to like the changes, though a few do not, of course.

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An Adsense Smart Pricing rumor?

Just read a post at WMW that includes the following statement. Apparently with Smart Pricing, if you have multiple sites, and one of them performs badly, it will lower your earnings not only for that 1 site, but for all sites in the account. Now, this has me wondering if I should test this out. Back before Smart Pricing took effect, Adsense was very good for my bank account. Since then, the amount I receive per click is truly laughable. Like many others, I suppose, I have Adsense on a large number of my sites. Only a few of the sites bring in the bulk of the income, while most of them bring in negligible amounts. If I were to remove Adsense from those sites, and leave them only on my “important” sites, I wonder if the the EPC would skyrocket back up or not? I may decide to take the time to test it out and if I do, I will report back on the results. If anyone has already tested this, please email me and let me know what happened. You can read the thread regarding this over at www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/10045.htm.

Some search related reading for your weekend

Microsoft has some great reading for those of you interested in how a search engine views things. Titled Web Search and Data Mining, they discuss various MSN Search projects that they are working on, and they also include a nice bibliography of search-related publications. These should keep you busy at least till Monday. Check it all out at http://research.microsoft.com/research/sv/web-group/.

Google BL and PR update under way

So, the latest SERPs update has been named Update Jagger, and now backlinks and PageRank are beginning to be updated as well. Jagger was chosen as the name because the Rolling Stones will be playing in Vegas at the time of the WMW conference, and Matt Cutts has been called the Mick Jagger of Search. So now you know how this update got its name. In any case, you can check your new backlinks count (not that it means much) on the following datacenters:

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Recent small Google updates and PR BL changes soon

According to Matt Cutts, there have been a few small updates in the recent past (which of course everyone already knew), and there should be a visible PR and Backlink update within the next few days. Matt says there were some changes on September 22 (yes, that coincides with a bunch of forum threads) as well as this weekend (yes, see my post from yesterday), as well as some changes for CJK and Europeans on October 5 and 7, respectively. Apparently, the Chinese and European updates had nothing to do with spam, but he implies that the September 22 and past weekend updates were an effort to reduce spam. So, now that is cleared up. Oh, you can read it all for yourself at www.mattcutts.com/blog/more-info-on-updates/.

Some churn in some Google SERPs

Although it does not appear to be across the board, many webmasters are seeing some drastic changes in the Google SERPs. I do not see any significant differences in the results for any of the sectors I normally track, but there is enough talk out there to indicate something has been going on. I have been watching the forums carefully, and it seems as though there are three prevailing theories on what might be happening.

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SEO FAQ interactive site

An interesting new SEO site was brought to my attention where questions about SEO are answered by the users themselves (if they are so inclined). The site describes itself as being created for the general webmaster as well as for SEO companies to share information with each other as well as serve as a reference place on the ever-changing science of SEO. If you are simply interested in learning about SEO, you can read the questions and answers, but if you want to contribute as well, you can answer any of the unanswered questions. In addition, you can post a question that you would like to see answered. Very interesting little project…check it out at www.seofaq.net.

Managing dynamic meta tags?

I often see people wondering how to create unique meta tags on their dynamic PHP site. I just came across a tool that might be the answer for you. It is called phpMyMeta and is available at www.sloogle.com/. I say “might” because the description is short and I have no direct experience with the script, so I am not positive that I am interpreting the purpose of it correctly. But I thought I would point it out to you, just in case this was something you have been looking for.

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Looking for seo tips from Matt Cutts?

Well, ok, maybe seo tips is stretching it a bit, but Aaron interviews Matt Cutts, and perhaps you can glean a tip or two out of the interview if you try real hard. In case you do not know who Aaron and Matt are, the first is a well-known SEO and author of the SEO Book, and the second is a Google engineer. Check out the interview at www.search-marketing.info/newsletter/articles/matt-cutts.htm.

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