Free Writing Center

Avoid Burnout as an Online Writer - Choose Jobs Wisely

Along with the plethora of new opportunities that are available throughout the Online Content industry, there is the issue of too much work and not enough time. If you’re anything like me and you hate passing up good income-generating opportunities, it can be hard to say no.
The Schedule of an Online Writer
Making an income from [...]

How to Write Your First Nonfiction Book

A Stephen King Interview and Commentary on Stephenie Meyer

This week, I’d like to share a great video interview with one of my favorite writers of all time - Stephen King. Mr. King was born and raised in my home state, and he has always served as an inspiration for young Maine writers. In this interview, Borders interviews Stephen King on writing short stories, [...]

Lifehacker Highlights Wi-Fi Surveillance Article

Today, while I was going about my online business at work, one of my buddies approached me and congratulated me on my article that got highlighted on LifeHacker. I’ve been in such a fog lately, racing to finish so many articles by the end of the month, that I never stopped to take a look [...]

Twilight the Book Teaches New Writers How to Get Published

By now, everyone is starting to understand that Twilight the book and Twilight the movie are quickly becoming the next cultural phenomenon, much like Harry Potter was. But, as a writer, one of the most amazing things about Stephenie Meyer’s novel, Twilight, is the fact that it destroys many of the myths about getting [...]

Overwhelm Your Competition With Aggressive SEO Techniques

January 18th, 2010 No Comments

Once you learn most of the more powerful techniques involved in effective Search Engine Optimization, you quickly realize the tremendous power that comes along with that knowledge. The ability to take a web page, and within days to weeks manipulate it so that it rises to the top of Google’s rankings for the most valuable keywords, provides amazing opportunities to the SEO expert.

All of us have “competitors” if you’re in the field of producing online content. Maybe you own a forum or a blog, and you’re competing for organic Google traffic. There may come a point when, during your keyword research, you recognize that a significant number of people are searching for information about your competition.

Or, another situation may be that a specific newsworthy event is taking place involving your competitor. There are a few techniques that you can use to harness those search keywords and use them to your own advantage.

Flanking The Enemy With Aggressive SEO Techniques

Whenever you recognize a newsworthy event, or a large influx of search requests for the web domain of your competition - the best way to handle that information is to turn it around to your advantage.

In warfare, the larger the enemy is, the easier it is to covertly slip behind enemy lines and plant weapons of sabotage. The same is true here - you can take the popularity and size of your competition and turn it around to your own advantage.

Identify the Weak Points of Your Competition

The first step in accomplishing this “aggressive SEO” strategy is by crossing enemy lines. This means using all of the keyword SEO tools at your disposal to uncover keyword phrases that involve your competitor’s website, are very popular (highly searched for in the search engines) and low competition (hardly anyone else is writing about it).

You can see these sort of opportunities with the large online retailers. They have very popular online stores, and many people can’t remember the URL, so they use Google to search for the site. Most other websites and bloggers wouldn’t think about focusing on that keyword phrase, because it’s obvious the person typing it in is looking for the store front.

However, the savvy blogger would take that popularity and do something like write a review about the retailer’s storefront, or otherwise capture the high popularity of that phrase, and take advantage of the low competition.

Exploit the Weak Spots

Once you’ve identified those keyword phrases that are normally “owned” by your competition, then it’s time to produce content on your own domain that focuses on those particular keyword phrases. There is no law that says you can’t write about, or review, your competitor’s products or website - so you don’t have to worry about copyright or infringing on the trademark name.

It’s a free country - and you are allowed to write about anything you like, so long as you don’t claim the products and services are yours. Write a high-quality and very useful review or overview of your competitor’s product or service (or newsworthy event), and then make sure to use the SEO techniques I’ve described on this blog to draw in those search engine queries that are normally aimed toward your competitor.

By using this approach, even small-time bloggers can reroute high-volume traffic of the much larger and more powerful competition.

This should not be your own focus of content - because you want to differentiate yourself from your competition, but by funneling keyword traffic away from your competition, you may be able to show people who were originally looking for your competitor’s site why your site is so much better.

Managing All of Your Online Activities

January 11th, 2010 1 Comment

I received a really interesting Tweet a couple of days ago, where a reader asked me how I manage all of my online activities. I immediately understood his question, because to the outsider looking in, I’m currently all over the web.

There are a lot of online writers out there who are just like me - with their hands and their words in everything. Submitting writing and content for clients and at websites throughout the Internet. In my case, I do paranormal research and writing with RealityUncovered, I explore conspiracy theories at TopSecretWriters, I write countless informational articles for LoveToKnow.com, technology articles for MakeUseOf.com, educational articles for Educational-Freeware.com, and I’ve published numerous articles for Associated Content, Helium and even eHow.
vintage typewriter

As I said to my friend and RU colleague Steve recently - it’s like I’m a grenade victim and I have bits and pieces of me that have exploded all over the Internet.

Managing Your Online Activities in a Sane Way

The first thing I should point out is that I don’t do all of these things all at once, or all of the time. Building a powerful online presence and a solid reputation as a professional writer takes a long time, and a lot of building blocks. All of these pieces throughout the Internet are simply stepping stones toward a larger and greater future. Some of them will become cornerstones of that future, while others will not.

The benefit of distributing almost 50 articles every month, to a variety of online destinations with your name credited to each one of them, is that you control your online identity. Even if anyone attempted to write something negative about you, you’ve overwhelmed the Internet with so much of your own work, that anything anyone else writes will never see the light of day - it’s a perfect online insurance policy. Plus - whose going to take you on when they see that you are such a prolific writer, willing to take on any topic and any issue?

Tools You Can Use to Organize

The key to managing all of this is organization. While Twitter and Facebook can certainly turn into a time-drainer, they can also provide a perfect platform to distribute new material of yours to your fans. And yes, you will soon have fans because people have preferences - and your writing will appeal to a specific crowd.

Don’t doubt it. But when that happens, you need an easy way to let those people know that you’ve just written something they may be interested in reading.

Another approach is something that I’ll be writing about soon at MakeUseOf, and that is this - one of the best ways that you can organize yourself online is by creating an author profile blog. I know, you’re thinking not another blog!? However, this one isn’t a blog that you’ll need to babysit. It’s one where you can embed all of the feeds from your online endeavours, and where you can offer an occasional update about your work and your current activities.

A personal bio blog can also help you organize all of the places that you’ve already been published, and it can land you some amazing opportunities for even better places to get published in the future.

So, here’s to staying busy and profitable in all of your online efforts!

Here’s To Tremendous Website Profits in the New Year

January 5th, 2010 No Comments

As we all continue on writing into the New Year, I’d like to take a moment to pause and reflect upon the many changes that are actively taking place across the online writing community.

As I’ve written about earlier on this blog, there is a parting of ways for people who spend a lot of time online. In particular, there is the “content producer” - the writer who exhibits the skill and ability to not only research topics that are in demand, but also to put the result of that research together in ways that are coherent and useful for readers. Then, on the other side, there are the Internet users. Those who search and surf, post comments and forum posts and in general “make use of” the Internet.
computer users

Yes, it is a parting of ways - that of the paid writer, and that of the entertained or educated (whichever the case may be) reader. Which group do you fit into, and is the line really that clear?

Are You a Content Producer or a Consumer?

I used to work for clients who were web designers that would purchase domain names with the home of publishing a page featuring lots of Google ads, with the hopes that the one web page would start generating tremendous ad revenue over time. In fact, there are still folks out there who believe that this dream will really come true.

In a recent article that I wrote for MakeUseOf, the popular tech blog, I discussed among other things the importance of fresh content for the SEO quality of a website. Stagnant websites simply don’t do as well as competitors who are always adding new content. A number of commentators either didn’t know about this fact or didn’t believe it, but it’s part of the reason why the Internet is now splitting into these two groups - the content producers and content consumers.

The Growth of the Internet

Just pause for a moment and consider the sheer growth of the Internet thanks to this phenomenon of competition for the freshest, most relevant content. Now, blogs and major informational portals are hiring and paying decent wages for high-quality writers to produce informative, novel and useful articles for the Internet audience.

Yes, there are still all of those spammy websites out there that produce garbage pages only to “trick” search engines into ranking them highly and to attract the occasional web visitor - but in time those are getting weeded out as search engine algorithms become more and more intelligent at identifying the relevant, high quality pages that pertain to an Internet traveler’s search terms.

This is the reality. As the Internet evolves into a massive database filled with more and more pages of content, the websites that win are those that have the better content - the high quality, well-written useful articles. And how do you get the content that’s better than your competition? You hire a high-quality writer with a mastery of the English language and with the ability to persuade, convince and teach your readers on the niche topics that you target.

When you choose your writers, just remember that more than any other service in the entire world, with online writers - you get what you pay for. So pay well, and screen out all of your applicants who can’t write well - only hire the best!

If you do hire well - before long, you’ll quickly recognize that your content and your website as a whole is consistently ranked at the top of search engine results.

Writers and Sedentary Lifestyle

December 31st, 2009 No Comments

As the holiday season approaches and we’ve all finished gorging on a Christmas ham (only to turn around and gorge once again on a New Year’s feast), I’d like to take a moment to talk a little bit about writers and a sedentary lifestyle.

One of the hardest things about being a write is the fact that 100 percent of your job consists of you sitting on your backside, and the only part of your body that’s moving is your fingers. Sure, you’ll end up with some pretty dexterous fingers, but I can guarantee that your midsection won’t turn out quite as well.

writers and sedentary lifestyle

Yes, being a writer involves a lot of sitting, but that doesn’t mean you have to end up three times you’re optimal body weight and with a waistline the size of Texas. As you enter the new year, you know that you’ll be faced with the same writer demands and deadlines, but I’d like to offer a few very effective tips that you can use to maintain your health while also maintaining your schedule.

Effective Writers and Sedentary Lifestyle Changes

Sitting for many hours a day is probably more hazardous to your health than the coffee you drink, the cigarettes you smoke, the fat-laden steaks that you eat, or how fast you drive. Every hour that you sit there not using most of your muscle mass, you are burning almost the least possible number of calories you can.

While your brain may be getting all of the exercise in the world, the container that supports your brain is going to start falling apart. There are several important things you can do to maintain (and even strengthen) the parts of your body most negatively impacted by a writer’s sedentary lifestyle.

The great image above comes from the University of Illinois. It shows a series of exercises that you can do to maintain your spine posture and keep a healthy flow of circulation through your arms and legs. And speaking of circulation, don’t forget the tender tendons that channel through your wrist.

At about thirty years old, I had carpel tunnel syndrome. I seriously thought my life was over - I live on the computer. In my twenties I figured I was invincible and such things would never happen to me, but if you aren’t careful, you can pinch the tendons and nerves within your “carpel tunnel” by not taking care of how you hold your mouse. Using a soft soft cushion like this can help tremendously.

If you’ve never tried yoga, this is a great time to start. By taking a break every 30 minutes to an hour, getting on your yoga mat and going through a few yoga exercises. You’ll find yourself not only losing the weight you gained through your sedentary lifestyle, but you’ll also find yourself feeling more energized and stronger than you ever did before.

While it might take time out of your schedule to do these exercises, in the long run it will give you more time because you’ll feel more energetic, refreshed and awake.

Finally, I wanted to save the best for last. The device above is called an exercise ball chair. Want to get transform your body out of that sedentary lifestyle the fastest? Give this baby a try.

All you do is use it instead of your regular office chair. Sounds simple right? It takes some getting use to. The balance required to sit on this ball forces your body to make the necessary weight changes using almost every muscle in your body to maintain equilibrium. These subtle changes, over time, keep your body in a constant state of energy and balance - so while you’re writing, your body is building it’s core strength…it’s like the best of both worlds.

With that said, while the FitBall Exercise Ball Chair will definitely be one of your most effective weapons against weight gain from your writing, it will definitely take some getting used to. No more slouching for you!

I hope some of these ideas can make a change for the many writers and sedentary lifestyles that they maintain. I know that I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to get back to the healthy young lad that I was only ten years ago - and I know that you can too!

Come back and let me know how you do with your health goals in the comments section below!

SEO Fools and Idiotic Content Just For Search Engine Traffic

December 28th, 2009 No Comments

In the process of doing some search engine research tonight to come up with some new interesting topics for my blogs and clients, I decided that tonight I’m going to finally expose a level of idiocy that I’m constantly coming across on the Internet. Unfortunately, it’s one of the most annoying and irritating symptoms of how search engines work today. I call the phenomenon, “Promising Roses and Delivering Stink Bombs.”

The first thing I’d like to say is that this particular post is not SEO optimized. I couldn’t be bothered because this behavior is just too urgent and needs to be exposed this very moment - no need to SEO optimize my vent, it will speak for itself.

SEO Fools Writing Useless Web Content Just for Search Engine Traffic

This is how it works. There are countless guys and girls out there who recognize that once you can identify certain keywords and them use them in a particular pattern, a particular number of times and using very particular rules - you can place your website and your article on the very first page of Google results. That’s the approach of the SEO expert and that’s how the system works, and it works well. But you know what else?

That’s pretty much where 90% of the SEO experts out there finish their efforts. When you arrive at their website, guess what you discover? Half the time it’s one paragraph jam-packed with gibberish - a collection of keyword phrases and a few lines or two of semi-coherent writing. The page is nothing more than an absolute, one-hundred percent, useless and idiotic waste of space. Therefore, I’ve decided in this particular post to run through a few high value SEO keywords to point out some of these brainless twits out there that take part in this kind of behavior.

Keyword Phrase: World Wide Web History

This is a huge, highly-searched keyword phrase. So, let’s take a look at the top Google results.

Now, listings one and two make perfect sense. Obviously Wikipedia and W3.org are excellent resources on the history of the world wide web, but let’s take a look at the third major listing on the first page of google - IdealFinder.com (no, I’m not going to link to it and make matters even worse.)

Aside from the page format and coloring that’s horrid enough to make your eyes bleed, take a look at the first paragraph:

World Wide Web (WWW), system of resources that enable computer users to view and interact with a variety of information, including magazine archives, public- and university-library resources, current world and business news, and software programs. The WWW can be accessed by a computer connected to an internet, an interconnection of computer networks or through the public Internet, the global consortium of interconnected computer networks.

Has this guy ever heard of grammar? How about writing a sentence that at least makes sense? “system of resources that enable computer users to view and interact with a variety of information” - what the hell does that even mean? I’ll bet this guy went out and paid a team of foreign guys sitting in a cube in some third-world countries a dollar an article for this garbage. And every day that passes, more and more of this horrendous excuse for content continues to pollute the Internet. Okay then, let’s continue on to the next site that follows this one on Google’s top 10 listing for this search term - Elsop.com. Let’s take a look.

Okay, this appears like a legit site that provides links covering the history of the world wide web, right? Good enough. The page itself doesn’t contain an article, but at least you can click on each link to read the information that you came looking for, right? Right??? “CLICK”….

Well that’s odd - broken link. Let’s go back and try another. “CLICK”…

No, it’s not a fluke. Almost all the links are broken, and there’s no decent content whatsoever to make a visit to this site at all worthwhile - yet there it sits as the 4th item on the first page of Google as though it has any value. As an SEO guy myself, I know the reasons why - but it’s unfortunate. Because, by making search listings so completely automated as Google has, it encourages the proliferation of complete trash on the Internet which exists only for the sole purpose of drawing in traffic, not to provide valuable and useful content for visitors.

Have you come across the many “traffic traps” that exist on the web, just like these? Share your own experiences and opinions in the comments section below.

Happy Holiday Wishes to All Readers

December 26th, 2009 No Comments

As the New Year approaches, I would like to pause and take a moment to wish everyone a joyous New Year.

It’s been an amazing journey over the last few years, culminating in the creation of this blog as part of my growing writing career. I never imagined that things would turn out quite like this - but with hard work and dedication, things always work out.

So, with a full heart and with immense gratitude for all of you, loyal readers and fellow bloggers, I wish you great joy and overwhelming prosperity in 2010.

Writing Prompts for Kids

December 25th, 2009 No Comments

Whether you’re a classroom teacher looking for writing prompts for kids, or you’re a mom or dad looking for interesting subjects for your child to write about, writing prompts serve an important purpose in overcoming one of the largest psychological obstacles of writing for many kids. Often, coming up with an idea to write is an overwhelming task, not only because the child doesn’t have a large number of life experiences to draw from, but also because they are often very shy and afraid of being ridiculed for their ideas.

writing prompts for kids

By providing students (or your children) with writing prompts, you can spark their creativity and avoid the initial difficulty of coming up with ideas. Often, writing prompts generate some of the most amazing and insightful writing from children!

Coming Up With Writing Prompts for Kids

If you’re unsure about what writing prompts for kids that you should use, always think simple. Some people make use of longer writing prompts, actually providing a couple of sentences to start a story or an event in the child’s mind. However, doing so can limit children and create a scenario that’s too narrow. Instead, provide only one sentence or even only part of a sentence, and then watch the creative sparks fly.

The short list below comes from the writing prompt powerhouse CanTeach. I’ve selected the best writing prompts from the long list, but if you want to see them all, make sure to visit the site and browse the entire page.

The Top 25 Writing Prompts for Kids

What is the best way to treat meddlesome people?
What is the meaning of “He laughs best who laughs last”?
What is something that really bugs you?
What would happen if you could fly whenever you wanted? When would you use this ability?
What would happen if there were no television? Why would this be good? bad?
What if cows gave root beer instead of milk?
What would happen if everyone wore the same clothes?
What would happen if you threw a piece of trash on the ground? What if everyone did?
What would happen if you grew taller than trees? How would this change your life?
What would happen if you found gold in your backyard?
What would you do if a bully bothered you on your way home?
What would you do if you saw little bugs in your salad?
What would you do if you woke up in another country and no one could understand you?
What would you do if someone said you did something wrong and you didn’t?
What do you think about ghosts?
What do you think about when you can’t fall asleep?
What do you think courage means?
What does “Have your cake and eat it too” mean to you?
What does “There are two sides to every coin” mean to you?
What are you afraid of? Why?
What would you invent to make life better?
I wish I had a million… Then I would…
I wish I had enough money to……
I wish everyone had…..
I wish there were no more…..

One liners are always the best writing prompts for children, and the ones above are sure to generate some of the most entertaining, interesting and intriguing writing from your kids and your students. Make sure to come back and let us know what sort of amazing stories came from these ideas in the comments section below!

Example of a Research Paper Outline

December 22nd, 2009 No Comments

If you’re looking for an example of a research paper outline, the odds are you find yourself faced with the task of going through the steps to writing a research paper. While it’s an excellent idea to use an example of a research paper outline (and you’ve come to the right place for that), it’s just as important to make sure you understand the steps involved in writing a research paper. The outline for your paper is only one step - but it’s not the first step.

example of a research paper outline

The first step is getting a good grasp on exactly what topic (thesis) that you plan to pursue. Ultimately, the rest of the process of writing your research paper will flow from the topic you choose, the research materials you find, and how the analysis and findings play out.

Understanding the Steps to Writing a Research Paper

If you just came here for the example of a research paper outline, feel free to scroll down and use the sample printed at the bottom of this article. However, before you start using the outline, following the steps from the beginning will make the process of completing your research paper much easier, and will ensure a much better grade - most likely an A+. So what are the steps to writing a research paper? Read on.

First: Select Your Topic. This assumes the topic isn’t assigned. If you have the freedom to choose your own topic, try to choose a topic where you already have a few resources to conduct research. For example, if you know you have an uncle who was in WWII and that he would offer you an interview, doing a research paper on some aspect of WWII would be an excellent idea.

Second: State the thesis of your paper. This is the central point that you want to examine with your paper. It should be a question or a statement that you’d like to prove or disprove.

Third: Conduct Your Research. This is the most difficult step of writing your research paper. It actually comes before you create the outline. This is because based on what you uncover during your research, you may decide to change around the outline. Obviously, dive into Google and don’t forget to sift through the invisible web for even more information you couldn’t normally find. Once you’ve exhausted the Internet, don’t forget the many other resources at your disposal at your local library including books, references, and journals. Finally, also consider the option of interviewing experts if you really want to score some huge points.

Create Your Outline. See below!

Organize Your Research. This should be done during your research, but you can also do it after the fact. Take all of the notes that you’ve collected and organize all of your research into major groups or “points.” These are the major points that will make up the major sections of your research paper. Since you already know at this point that you have all of the information you need, the paper will practically write itself.

Write, Revise, and Rewrite. The part of writing a research paper that so many students fail at is properly editing. As you work through your research notes and write each section of the paper as you’ve outlined it, you’ll need to make sure that you only write the paper in terms of what the research taught you - be very careful not to plagiarize! When you’ve written the first draft of your research paper - remember, you’re not done! Carefully edit for grammar and spelling, and then retype the entire paper into final version format. Your polished work will be a surefire A+

An Example of a Research Paper Outline

Moving on to the reason that you came here - the example of a research paper outline. Please use the outline as a general starting point, but remember that the information you uncover during your research will really define how you fine tune the final outline.

The Title of Your Paper
A statement that describes the thesis of the paper
Introduction - this includes a description of the question or issue that you’re going to examine and explore in the rest of the paper. It explains why the issue is relevant and important to investigate, how much of the issue the paper covers (the scope), and list the questions that you plan to pursue to answer the final thesis.
Describe your Methodology - Explain how you went about doing your research, including not only online methods but whether you performed any sort of tests of your own, or whether you interviewed subjects and what procedures you used to analyze the information you uncovered.
Analysis - This is the body of your paper and will likely make up the majority of the pages. Make sure to seperate this section into the logical subsections and you make your way through the process of answering questions and making your way toward answering or validating the original thesis you set out to pursue with the research paper. Carefully cite your sources whenever you use any of your research, and make sure to keep a numeric notation of the source noted in the paper so that you can list the source in the bibliography at the end of the paper.
Conclusion - The conclusion of the research paper wraps up all of the issues examined and analyzed throughout the paper and draws a conclusion related to the original thesis based on all of those points and analysis. Don’t forget to include recommendations for future research to better answer the thesis, or to ask further questions related to the original thesis.
References - This is probably the driest part of writing a research paper, but it’s also the most important because it’s the evidence that holds up your analysis. Check out this Cornell reference page for a good example of how to make references using APA format.

Once you’ve finished writing your research paper, please come back and list the grade you received in the comments section below!

How to Write Your First Nonfiction Book

December 19th, 2009 No Comments

If you’ve ever considered writing your own nonfiction book, this video of a talk offered by Dan Poynter is one that you must watch. Dan is the owner of Para Publishing. He started Para Publishing in 1969 in North Quincy, Massachusetts in order to publish his own non fiction books on parachute design safety and skydiving. In 1974, he moved to Santa Barbara and started publishing a number of other books on many other subjects by Dan as well as several other authors.
how to write a book

Today, Dan is recognized as a well established and successful publisher. He not only publishes, but also travels around the world to offer his insight into the publishing industry. Self-Publishing Guru Dan Poynter explains and educates new writers on how to write publish and promote their first book. He personally fell into publishing because he believed in his book and believed that there would be an audience for it (and there was!).

In an impressive example of work-ethic and drive, Dan both writes and publishes his books - a total of 76 so far. His books are nonfiction - obviously making him the nonfiction expert to go to for your own insight into how to write your nonfiction book. Dan’s is no fly-by-night publishing company - his books sell tens of thousands a year. His best-selling one sold over 100,000 in one year. In fact, his company is a perfect example of business entrepreneurship and how someone with the drive to succeed and a passion for a product can make it independently.

Please enjoy this fantastic video of this awarded writer and publisher on how to write your first nonfiction book.

When you’re done listening - share your own opinion about Dan’s talk in the comments section below!

Increase Your Website Ad Revenue with the Google Heat Map

December 16th, 2009 No Comments

If you’re running a free website (one that doesn’t require a reader subscription), then the odds are pretty good that you’re probably depending on ad revenue to support your operating costs (and hopefully some form of profit). In addition to using effective SEO techniques to attract as many visitors to your website as possible, another element of increasing your website’s ad revenue is by getting your visitors “converted” into revenue.

How do you convert visitors? As I mentioned recently in the 4 A’s of Marketing - you convert them into profit by driving them to take action that’s profitable for both the reader, and for you. It’s profitable for the reader because you’ve chosen products and services to advertise that you know are high quality and valuable, and it’s profitable to you because those companies pay you based on referred sales.

Google Adsense is one of the best ways for new bloggers to learn what ad placement techniques work on a website and which methods don’t work. On one of my blogs, for the longest time I couldn’t manage to generate any clickthroughs to my Google ads. On the one hand, I don’t like introducing large and obtrusive ads into my articles or on my website, but on the other hand I could tell that my visitors weren’t recognizing the value of those ads and taking advantage of those links.

After doing a little bit of research about website “heat maps,” I figured out what I was doing wrong, fixed it, and increased my ad revenue by over 600 percent. In this article I’ll quickly review what I learned so that you can put it to use on your own blog or website.

The Website Advertising Heat Map

As I mentioned, Google Adsense is one of the best learning tools for a new blogger that’s looking to get into earning decent revenue through advertising. Google is extremely helpful in that effort, because they actually provide a very valuable ad heat map on their Adsense help pages that shows you exactly where you should place ads on your website for the highest clickthrough percentages.

As you can see from the heat map, according to Google that most effective areas for advertising on a website are first and foremost at the very top of your content area. Now, there’s a tradeoff here. Personally I feel that placing a huge Google ad at the top of your content is very tacky and a major turnoff - it doesn’t look very professional. On the other hand, I’ve seen plenty of websites that do it, and they retain their readership - so proceed carefully.

The areas of any blog that I recommend concentrating on (if your template design allows for it) is the menu bar on the left and the menu at the top. These aren’t in the reddish-orange area, but they are still in the hot spots that generate the most action from visitors. The website where I tested this heat map concept was TopSecretWriters. I decided to place a large Google ad at the top of the left menu bar.

I did have to slide some of my favorite graphical content down below this ad, and it did involve tweaking some of the template code itself, but in the end it was a smart move because it transformed the almost non-existent ad revenue on TopSecretWriters into a very healthy stream of clickthroughs and profit.

The moral of the story is this - the Google Adsense heat map is accurate, and I would highly recommend taking the time to become familiar with it and then redesigning how you structure the ads on your blog or website so that you are taking advantage of those hot spots.