Adsense Referrals, now with Google Checkout

Google today announce that in addition to AdSense, AdWords, Firefox with Google Toolbar, and Google Pack, you can now refer your users to Google Checkout through AdSense.



Checkout gives your users a faster, safer, and more convenient way to shop online. OK, that sounds great for them, but what do you get out of it? Well, every time you refer a user to Google Checkout, you make a little money. It's a simple process that includes all of three steps:

1. You place the Checkout referral button on your site.
2. Someone clicks on the button, signs up as a buyer with Google Checkout using a valid U.S. credit card, and completes a purchase of at least $10 before shipping and tax through Checkout within 90 days. (The current $10 minimum purchase corresponds to our existing $10 promotion for new buyers, so this amount may change in the future.)
3. You earn $1.

It's that simple. Please note that Checkout referrals are currently only available for U.S. publishers, and Google Checkout is currently only available for buyers with a U.S. credit card. We hope to make both Checkout and Checkout Referrals available in more countries soon.

If you're not convinced, why not try it out yourself? It costs nothing to sign up (actually, you'll even get a $10 bonus) and it'll make shopping online a little easier. And remember, if you're still figuring out how to improve the performance of your referrals, take a peek at our optimization tips for referrals.

You can get started with Checkout referral ads by visiting the AdSense Setup tab in your account. We think your users will thank you for showing them Google Checkout, and your wallet will like having some extra money for you to spend at all of those great Google Checkout stores.

Source: Inside AdSense

Google Tests Cost-Per-Action Ads

Google has laaunched another limited beta of pay-per-action advertising--a model that allows advertisers to pay for a specific consumer activity, like signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase.

The cost-per-action ads will appear only on the AdSense publisher network. Partner publishers are allowed to choose whether they want CPA ads to appear on their sites. Over the next few weeks, Google will begin inviting publishers and advertisers to participate, a spokesman for the search giant said.

Google first began testing pay-per-action ads in June 2006. During that test, the CPA ads did not compete with regular AdSense ads. They were displayed on a different network, dubbed the Content Referral Network.


According to Greg Sterling, principal for Sterling Marketing Intelligence, CPA ads offer publishers a lower-volume, higher-cost option on their AdSense ads. "While there will likely be fewer "actions," the revenue realized per event will probably be greater--and much greater in some cases," he said. "Publishers have a great deal of choice in the program and will know exactly how much they'll make on any given lead or action originating from their sites."

Sterling said that advertisers were very likely to embrace the program, too.

"It will be interesting to see how both advertisers and publishers respond, and whether both sides embrace the program almost uniformly. I would imagine that advertisers would," he said. "Google is offering PPA in new ad inventory that complements traditional AdSense, so publishers in the near term won't lose any click revenue as they test the performance of the new program."

Information from: publications.mediapost.com

What is AdSense for feeds?

Google currently beta testing AdSense for feeds, a program that allows you to monetize your feeds through contextually targeted advertising.

AdSense for feeds works the way the rest of the AdSense program works, delivering ads that are so relevant to the content that readers find them useful. And when people click on these ads, Google pays you.

Please be aware that Google beta test of AdSense for feeds is full and we are not accepting applications at this time. If you're interested in participating in AdSense for feeds in the future, please check their blog for updates.

How to put AdSense in your blog's sidebar

Note: This article assumes you are using a classic template. For Layouts-enabled blogs, you can simply add a new AdSense page element to your sidebar, or drag an existing element to the desired location.

If you're new to AdSense and not too familiar with making modifications to your blog's template, you can follow these instructions for placing AdSense code in your blog's sidebar (using the Minima template as an example).

Assuming you have already signed up and been approved for a Google AdSense account, you should be able to log in here. Once you're signed in, click the AdSense Settings tab near the top of the page. To cut right to the chase, focus on these steps:

1. Choose Your Ad Layout - To fit ads in your sidebar, it's best to choose one of the following ad layouts.

   Button (125x125)
   Skyscraper (120x600)
   Wide Skyscraper (160 x 600)
   Vertical Banner (120 x 240)
   Small Rectangle (180x150)
   

2. Choose a color palette - They are very cleverly named but it's really just a matter of your preference.
3. Copy your AdSense code - At the bottom of the page, there's a box with code in it. Highlight all of that code and copy it.
4. Paste the code somewhere - Notepad or Text Edit or something like that is a good place for now.
5. Go to Blogger.com and sign in - Choose the blog you want to put ads on and click the template tab.
6. This is less of a step and more of a precaution - Copy your entire Blogger template and save it in Notepad or Text Edit just in case.
7. Find the place in your template that says this; you might have to scroll down pretty far:

   <!-- Begin #sidebar -->  <div id="sidebar"><div id="sidebar2">

8. Paste the AdSense code you saved earlier right after that part.

   <!-- Begin #sidebar -->  <div id="sidebar"><div id="sidebar2"> 
   PUT YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE

9. Save your template changes and republish your blog.

Adsense Now accepting applications for new referrals beta

Many of you already use referrals to direct users to your favorite Google products. Now, with our new referrals beta, you can select products and services from our base of AdWords advertisers. This is good news for those of you who have wanted to use referrals in the past, but couldn't find a product to match your site's content. With the referrals beta, you can search for products that match up directly with your site's content. And you can customize your referral units to match the look and feel of your site, making it easier than ever to find a referral ad that fits in seamlessly with your site's design and content.

What's more, Google can help make sure you find and display the most relevant, best-performing referral ads on your site. Simply provide a few keywords to describe your site and your users' interests, and you'll see ads automatically displayed that perform best for your site. No more constant updating, rotating products, or guesswork.

As with our current Google referrals, you'll generate earnings when your visitors click through to an advertiser's site and complete an action defined by your advertisers, such as a sale or sign-up. Because these actions are often more involved than a simple click or impression, advertisers pay more for these referrals, which can translate into higher earnings for your site.

While we plan to open this up to all publishers in the near future, this update is currently only available on a limited basis as part of our beta test. If you are interested in being one of our beta testers, please visit the referrals beta site and sign up.

Posted by Dan Friedman - AdSense Product Marketing
Posted By Inside AdSense Team to Inside AdSense at 3/20/2007 09:07:00 AM

Latest Updates from Google AdSense, New and improved features

AdSense for search results on your site

The latest AdSense for search option allows you to integrate Google's results directly into your site. No need to send your users to Google for their query results; now users can search for the information they seek, but stay on your site. This new search results option also allows you more customization of how the results blend into the appearance of your site. To use it on your pages, just choose the 'Open results within my site' option when generating your search code. Or, for a more detailed explanation, visit our Help Center.

Diagnosing - and treating - crawl issues

The new Site Diagnostics page of your account provides you with details about errors our crawler encounters when attempting to access your pages in order to determine the content and deliver relevant ads. On this page, we'll let you know when our crawler has trouble reaching one of your pages, and provide you with suggestions for resolving the problem so we can access your pages and provide you with relevant ads.

More referral options, more revenue

Along with the new and improved designs for referrals we've been offering over the past few months, we've also added two new products to your referral selections: Google Pack and Picasa. Google Pack, now available to most publishers and users around the globe, is a downloadable collection of essential software applications. You'll receive up to US $2 for each successful Pack conversion. Picasa, Google's photo organization and editing software, earns you up to $1 for each successful conversion. Add a Pack or Picasa referral to your site today to get started earning more!

Introducing a new ad format - the 200 x 200 Small Square

We're happy to introduce the newest AdSense ad format - the 200 x 200 Small Square. This ad format supports text, image, and video ads and offers you yet another option of integrating AdSense in to your site. To take a look at this new format, check out the Ad Formats page.

Take action on your channel data with our newly designed channels page

You asked for it, you got it! Based on feedback we received from publishers, we're happy to announce a newly designed Channels page under the AdSense Setup tab in your accounts. In addition to better organizing the channel data for each AdSense product within its own subtab, the new design makes it easier for you to take action on your channels. Just select the checkbox next to any channel and then choose to activate, deactivate, remove, or rename the channel as you please. Find more information about getting started with channels in our Help Center.

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Earn more and engage users

Enrich your site with click-to-play video ads

Click to play video ads, a new ad format for sites in the AdSense network, are now available for the Medium Rectangle (300 X 250), Large Rectangle (336 X 280) and Square (250 X 250) ad formats, as well as the newly launched Small Square (200 x 200) format. If you're opted in to image ads and using one of these formats, video ads may appear on your pages. Video ads can be paid on either a cost-per-click or cost-per-thousand-impressions basis. Curious about what video ads look like? Visit our Ad Formats page to view samples.

Engage your users with embedded videos

Nothing spices up a site like some embedded video, and Google Video makes it easy to get high-quality content on your pages. Simply find the video content you like (almost all videos are embeddable), paste the code on your page, and allow your users to interact more deeply with your site. This is a great way to complement your content - movie reviews look better with trailers, and travel articles benefit from a good walking tour. So start watching...and embedding.

Earn more with our newly optimized tips page

We've made improvements to our Optimization Tips, now offering more information on successful color palettes and strategies for specific sites like forums and blogs. The improved tips page also includes more screenshots to make it easier to implement our tips on your site. If you've never reviewed our optimization tips, or you've used them in the past and are looking for new ways to improve your earnings, now's the time to optimize.

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Stay up to date with AdSense

Inside AdSense in your inbox

If you don't have time to check our Inside AdSense blog frequently but would like to receive the latest news and tips from our Google AdSense team, you might want to consider subscribing to our Inside AdSense emails and reading at your own convenience. You can also change your settings to a digest form if you prefer by logging into the group at http://groups.google.com/.

Dates got you down? Try AdSense Calendar

You can make AdSense dates memorable by subscribing to the AdSense Calendar, which provides our monthly payment schedule, a record of AdSense blog posts, future system maintenance periods, and upcoming events. Subscribing to the AdSense Calendar is easy – just follow the instructions in our Help Center. While most of you will choose to subscribe via Google Calendar, you can also easily view it using a feed reader or your favorite iCal-compatible program, like iCal for Mac.

AdSense API

The AdSense API is a free beta service that enables you to integrate Google AdSense into your website offerings. Using the AdSense API, you can enable users to perform a variety of AdSense functions without ever leaving your website. Users can create or manage their AdSense accounts, modify their AdSense ads, and view ad performance and earnings reports.

The AdSense API is ideal for developers whose users create their own web content through web hosting, web publishing, blogging, and social networking applications.

Flexible and Functional
What can you do with the AdSense API? This all depends on your programming genius and users' needs as AdSense publishers. Some possibilities might include:

• AdSense for content ad customization
• AdSense for search box customization
• Implementation of referrals for AdSense and Firefox
• Generating URL and custom channel reports

Multi-Language Compatibility
To make your programming environment even easier, the AdSense API utilizes SOAP and WSDL, which support a growing number of languages - including Java, .NET, Perl, PHP, Python and XML.

Ready to apply? Apply to be a developer.

Because the AdSense API is currently a beta program, the online documentation is available in English only. However, all API services are compatible with any language and currency.

Time limit for AdSense referrals earnings is now 180 days

You may have noticed today that the time limit for AdSense referrals is now 180 days. Based on the feedback we heard, we agreed that 90 days may not provide enough time for your referred publishers to complete earning $100. Therefore, we decided to double the window. This change is retroactive, so it will also apply to AdSense signups that occurred more than 90 days but less than 180 days ago.

Category Hint, A new Tergeting Option on Chitika eMiniMalls

Category hint is a new targeting option by which you can pick and choose from a list of categories supported in the eMiniMalls system. Your selected category will be used as a “fallback” in the event that the system does not find an appropriate product for your preferred keyword(s).

Selecting “Categories Hints” does not guarantee that only products from those product categories will appear. eMiniMalls service will first try to find matching results for the keyword(s) of your choice. Second preference will be given to a popular product from the selected category hint when possible. If the category product is missing, a network-wide popular product will be displayed as a fall back. learn more on Chitika Blog
Technorati Tags: chitika, eminimals, adsense, blogsense

SysSense

SysSense is your personal desktop Google AdSense monitor. It keeps your current Google AdSense information in the Windows system tray. You can monitor an unlimited number of Google AdSense accounts. A sound and/or system tray icon balloon can be configured to alert you when your statistics have changed.
SysSense