After yesterday's post on AdSense arbitrage, I thought this would be an appropriate follow-up:

Although it has been around for quite awhile, affiliate arbitrage has been a popular topic to discuss recently. One of the main reasons for this is popular bloggers such as Tyler Cruz disclosing the results of their own ventures into affiliate arbitrage. If the recent discussions have inspired you to try out affiliate arbitrage for yourself, here are three tips for avoiding common mistakes that most beginners make:



Automatically Choosing the Highest Paying Niches: Although this may initially seem like the best route to take, it is normally not. Popular niches are almost always over saturated and dominated by experienced players in the affiliate arbitrage game. When you are starting out, you will have a much better learning experience if you choose a lower paying niche that is also low on competition.

Focusing More on Volume than Conversions: You may think that sending 1,000 visitors to your landing page everyday is great, but if you are sending traffic that doesn’t convert, then your bank account is going to be depleted pretty quickly. Instead of obsessing over volume, you need to focus your energy on finding keywords that send visitors which convert into sales.



The Cost of Keywords: If you are bidding on keywords that cost two dollars a click, it is not going to take long before you start wishing that you weren’t. When you are getting started in affiliate arbitrage, it takes some time to learn how to write ads and create landing pages that result in a high percentage of conversions. Therefore, you need to bid on lower cost keywords so that you can learn the ropes of affiliate arbitrage without burning a huge hole in your pocket.

Unless you were away from your computer all weekend, there is a very good chance that you read at least one blog post about Google banning AdSense accounts which were being used for arbitrage. The storm of controversy began with a post by Jennifer Slegg, and quickly became the hottest topic in the search engine marketing community. Regardless of what you have read so far, here are five facts about AdSense arbitrage that you can take to heart:

1) Google is not banning every AdSense account engaging in arbitrage. You may not believe us or even Shoemoney (see video below), but today a Google representative confirmed what we already knew:



2) Google is looking for web sites which convert poorly for advertisers. Because many people jumped into the AdSense arbitrage game without properly educating themselves, they created landing pages which earn money for themselves but lose lots of money for advertisers.

3) Google is not only banning poorly converting arbitrage web sites. Because they are trying to clean up the AdSense content network, Google is also reviewing potential Made for AdSense sites. As with the arbitrage sites that are actually being banned, MFA web sites offer virtually no useful content. The only difference is that these sites receive organic traffic instead of paid traffic (however, more often than not, the organic traffic is a result of spamming efforts).

4) Arbitrage can be beneficial to publishers and advertisers! Yes, we said it, and so have several other prominent bloggers. If you can buy cheap traffic, send it to landing pages that give you a profit AND convert for advertisers, then there is no reason not to engage in this opportunity. If you can send AdSense advertisers targeted visitors, no one is going to be mad at you.

If you are monetizing your blog or web site with contextual advertising, chances are it is with Google's AdSense program. AdSense is by far the most popular and widespread contextual advertising program available. The main reasons for this are its high payouts, easy customization options and high acceptance rate for publishers. Even though there are web site owners all over the world making money from Google's contextual ad units, many of them are missing out on another great opportunity that Google offers: AdSense for search. Not only can AdSense for Search put some extra money in your pocket, but it can also give your users a better experience on your web site.

Adding AdSense for Search to your web site is just as easy as adding a standard ad unit. Google allows you to customize how the search box will look, what will be on the results page and if you want to create a channel to track the search box's performance. Additionally, you can give your users the option to specifically search your web site or all of Google's index.



Once you have added the search box to your web site, your users can immediately start using it. When they perform a search and end up clicking on one of the paid ads above the organic results, you get paid. Although the payouts are not as high as normal ad units, they can quickly add up to a substantial amount.

When you are deciding on where you want to place your search box, it is important to think about the habits and needs of your visitors. For example, if your web site is primarily composed of articles on specific topics, it would make sense to place a search box at the bottom of each article page. This will allow your users to continue their search for information in the event that they didn’t find the answers to their questions in your articles. On the other hand, if you are placing a search box on a blog, your users would gain the most benefit by you placing it near the top of your navigation column.

Three Letter Domains: Three letter domains have always been popular, but a quick look at recent domain sales will show that they are more in demand than ever before. So what’s the reason for the hype about three letter domains? Because three letter domains are so easy for internet users to remember, companies, entrepreneurs and organizations with plans to launch a large web site are more than willing to invest a significant amount of money in a quality domain name.

Dot Mobi: There has never been a better time than now to invest in some quality .MOBI domains. Since the initial buzz about these domains have died down, they can now be obtained for under fifteen dollars a year. However, even though they cost less, this does not mean that they are any less of a quality investment. In recent auctions, different .MOBI domains have sold for five and even six figure amounts. If you come across a .MOBI name that you have a good feeling about, don’t be afraid to invest in it.



Dot TV: If you haven’t heard of .TV, don’t feel bad. It’s a fairly new top level domain. Even though it sounds like it was specifically made for television shows, .TV is actually the country code top level domain for the small Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu. In addition to the obvious idea of using these domains for television shows, there is also an expanding market for using these domains to create personalized video web sites. To learn more about this trend, be sure to check out Me.TV, which is dedicated to bringing together personalized .TV channels.

If you already have some quality domains and are looking for ways to monetize them, make sure to check out our guide to getting paid for domains.

Converting traffic to your web site into actual customers requires many different things. Although most people are aware of the importance of using persuasive copy on your web site to convert visitors, many web site owners forget how much influence the design of a web site can have on visitors. If you want to ensure that you aren't losing potential customers because of a poor web design, here are four tips you need to take to heart:

Embrace Whitespace: A popular misconception is that a well-designed web site should have elements taking up every inch of the screen. Unfortunately, this could not be farther from the truth. Using whitespace is one of the best ways to force your visitors eyes to the area of your page that matters (normally the content). If you have ever looked at other people's successful landing pages, you will notice that most of them are centered, with whitespace on both sides. This ensures that visitors focus on the content and do not get distracted by excess elements.

Keep Your Background Basic: One of the fastest ways to keep your visitors from converting is to have a background that is: too busy and distracting, and/or makes it difficult for people to read your content. Always stick with colors and textures that are calm and subtle. Under almost all circumstances, you should use a lighter color for your background and a darker color for your content. Doing the reverse will make it nearly impossible for people with any kind of sight impairment to read the content of your web page.

Your Traffic Shouldn't Have to Think: When it comes to creating navigation for a web site, the simpler you make it, the better. Your menu should be placed in an area that is very easy for your visitors to find. Additionally, the organization of your navigation structure should be simple enough for even the most inexperienced internet user to understand.

Images are Good (in Moderation): However, when you start using excessive amounts of images, you have created a problem. Not only will you overwhelm your visitors and ensure that they are extremely distracted, but you will also cause many of them to leave your web site because of an extremely slow load time. Remember, unless you are creating a photography or thumbnail web site, the images you use should compliment your written web site content (and not the other way around).

If you have ever visited any of the large webmaster forums like Digital Point, then you probably noticed that a lot of webmasters spend a lot of time worrying about what will happen if AdSense bans them. In the past, the majority of Google’s guidelines for AdSense were relatively straight forward. As long as you followed these guidelines and didn't try anything sneaky, your chances of getting banned from AdSense were virtually nonexistent. However, Google has recently made some changes to their AdSense program policies. Unfortunately, these changes are not exactly clear cut, and as a result, even more publishers are now on edge. Let's take a look at the two changes that have generated the most buzz throughout the webmaster sphere:

Ad and image placement (12/18/06)
Although Google had actually tested placing images next to ad units, in December 2006 they told AdSense publishers that this practice was misleading and not acceptable. They stated that images should not be used in a way that makes them look associated with an ad unit. The reason that this caused such a stir is that although they showed unacceptable examples of using thumbnails next to ad units, their explanation about other images was anything but crystal clear.

Ads and navigation (5/3/07)
The latest (and grayer) change that has been made is placing ads near navigation. According to Google, placing an ad unit near navigation can cause accidental clicks by visitors. They then go onto to say that if they detect enough clicks that they deem unintended by users, they can ban a publisher's account. As you can imagine, this release really put publishers on edge. Many publishers have integrated ad units into their navigation in a way that they do not feel is misleading (such as a skyscraper in the navigation bar of a blog), but after reading this, are very concerned that they may be punished by Google.

So What's the Answer?
Although Google has made these changes, as an AdSense publisher you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with your ad units. While it is important to not do anything that they have specifically forbidden (such as lining up thumbnails), it is ok to try out new ideas that do not specifically go against their policies.