Earning With Adsense

I just found a website, CubeStat, that sums up website activity and will give you a guess at how much any particular website is earning with Adsense.

Simply enter in the data on the website you wish to learn about and fairly accurate data for website worth, daily page views, and daily ads revenues, as well as a slew of additional website information such as the age of the site and the sites ranking.

If you want to see how your site is doing compared to other sites, or if you are just a stats junkie like myself, you might enjoy this site.

It can be difficult to get a good handle on how much can be made from Adsense. CubeStat seems to offer fairly accurate data within a range of statistical averages. So take a look and see how much ad revenue your favorite sites are earning from ad revenue. It will help take out some of the mystery, or smoke and mirror stories you can hear online and replace it with more tangible and realistic earnings revenue.

My Blogger Profile

I just created a public Blogger Profile. If you are interested in keeping up-to-date with all my new blogspots as well as my website, My My Kid and Life, and my blog it is just that much easier. Enjoy!

Adsense Monetizing Options

I started my website, Me My Kid and Life, in October of 2007. The goal was to encourage and empower other single moms to live the life they want while creating an additional stream of income for my family.

I'm not sure I've achieved either of those goals to my satisfaction. Although my site is the life and times of a single mom I do not gear the majority of my articles specifically for the single mom. Rather my articles are about making money online, travel, family, or other things that interest me such as film. Perhaps it is safe to say that the life of a single mom isn't about being a single mom it's about living life... just like anyone else's life. So, it is life that my website has been about.

I have received many emails from single moms (and dads) who have appreciated what the site has to offer. Perhaps that means that I'm going about the site in the right way. I want people to follow their dreams - not just single moms but all people. The more people who are living a life which they are inspired to live the happier our world will be and the less strife our world will encounter.

The second goal of MeMyKidAndLife was to create an additional (or an alternative) source of income. At the time, I had an online business which (while it afforded me a decent living) ate up an awful lot of my time. I was looking for balance between earning an income and spending time with my family/having free time.

I started the website about a year-and-a-half ago. Honestly, the website is not making much more than it was a year ago... and I'm feeling a little frustrated, agitated and concerned... but mostly, I just want to figure out if I'm doing something wrong and how I can fix it and get back on the right track.

There are a couple things I might be doing wrong...

First, my website is hosted by Yahoo. Is possible that Google might not like a website being hosted by the competition? Could that hurt me with Google Adsense? If anyone knows anything about this please comment and let me know. Adsense does not allow for competitors ads to be on the same pages as the Adsense ads, but would that extend to a site which is hosted by Yahoo? Would Adsense penalize a website that was hosted by Yahoo?

Second, I had a Yahoo RSS Feed button on all of the pages on my website. I have taken the button off about half of the website's pages and will finish taking them down as time allows. (It is quite a timely process as I have so many webpages and each webpage must have the Yahoo Feed Button manually removed.) Again, the concern is that Google's Adsense might penalize the website for promoting the competition.

Third, I visited a search engine optimization site in hopes of learning how to improve my pages and therefore traffic. I followed the instructions but feel that instead of improving some of my pages by focusing on keywords I have word stuffed which would trigger Adsense to penalize my pages, hence my site resulting in less Adsense traffic.

All that being said, I'm not sure any of the above are relevent. But in effect, this is in part why you now find me with so many new blogs sprouting up. It is a test. My blog is part of my Yahoo hosted site. Does that affect the hits it gets or how it is listed in Google? To try to see if my site is negatively impacted by the 'Yahoo' factor, I have started to use this blog - a blogspot owned by Google. In time, I suppose if all other things are equal I will notice an increase in traffic and or Adsense revenue on the blogspot blog if the Yahoo hosted website is actually penalized by Adsense for its competitive nature.

Therefore, if you are wondering why my website is sprouting so many new branches, the answer lies, in part, in the above paragraphs.

Many people say that it is necessary to have different blogs or websites for different topics if you want to build traffic. I have only had one website for all of my topics. Although, I have broken down the different sections and placed like articles together. Many people say that I am doing the exact opposite of what should be done if you want to make money online. I'm not sure I agree. Although, I'm not sure I don't agree.

From my understanding Adsense delivers ads based on the content of a particular website, not based on the overall content of the website. Google search is based on the content of a webpage, not the content of an entire site. Based on that logic, it wouldn't matter what the entire site consisted of. Rather, it would matter what a particular page's content consisted of.

This article is probably a perfect example of what I tend to do wrong when I write articles. Basically, this article covers too many topics. Therefore it might be more difficult for Google Search to place it high in its ranking. This would not work to my favor. Quite likely, this is the main problem with my website. It might not be that my total content is too varied, rather that the content within specific pages is too varied. That would mean that I need to become more disciplined and write in a more focused manner.

I have recently started several new blogs which are focused on particular topics which interest me. I do not full-heartedly believe in this method, nor do I feel it is necessarily necessary. Nonetheless, it is time for me to experiement. Therefore, if you see my work spread out all over the place it is intentional to see if it helps with traffic and Adsense revenue.

The problem I'm having with both the website's traffic and revenue might simply be that I'm not adding enough content and I'm not adding enough focused content that Google is interested in picking up. Although... I don't think that's it. I used to have a page rank of 4 and now it is 0. Truly, I think there is a problem I need to fix... but what is it? As far as adding new content, I do it when I can. I have been quite busy with other things that make me very happy.

Life is about balance.

Cheap Ideas for Amsterdam

Sophie and I are in Amsterdam. We are staying at the Aivengo Hostel which has sort of a zen feel about it. The hostel is fairly centrally located and is rather inexpensive.

I booked the hostel through HostelWorld, which is how I usually book hostels. Although, I'm starting to question whether or not that is the cheapest way to book hostel beds. I like that I can book in advance and have the safety of checking other people's feedback on the hostel, before arrival, so I know what to expect. Booking through HostelWorld also allows me the option to leave feedback. If I book directly through the hostel I don't have the option to leave feedback... and there have been a couple times when feedback become very imporant.

I called a day or two before coming to Amsterdam to check on the price. Although we booked about a month in advance we still ended up paying $35 per night per person on the three busy weekend nights. But when I called the rate was only $25 per person per night. I'm very happy to say the owner was willing to give us the lower price - which saved us $60. I'm unhappy to think that I can book a fair price through HostelWorld. The point is, if you book through an online booking agency you'll want to do your homework to ensure you are getting a reasonable rate. We encountered the same problem when we booked at the Pegasus Hostel in Berlin. On the other hand, sometimes you can get a better rate through on-line booking sources.

The Aivengo Hostel has 20 bed dorm rooms. Honestly, if traveling with a teenager (at least a teen like Sophie who loves to meet new people) hosteling is a fantastic way to go. While the teen is still with you, she also has the opportunity and freedom to meet and encounter new people when traveling. It gives both of you a little space while still keeping you together.

The hostel is a drug-free hostel. It offers no kitchen or breakfast option which hasn't been an issue for us. It has a microwave and I make my own coffee in the morning. Gee... force me to save a buck!

This is our second trip to Amsterdam. Two years ago, Sophie and I came after spending time with my sister and cousin in Paris and Edinburgh. We have returned because this is the one place Sophie wanted to come to before leaving Europe and going off to school. We are here for a total of 6-nights. At first I didn't think we'd be able to find things to do for seven days in this town. But now that our trip is nearly finished I've come to see that our trip has been perfectly paced, relaxing and fun. We've gone to the RijksMuseum and have spent many days walking around exploring the lovely streets, canals and architecture that Amsterdam has to offer.

Today, Sophie and I will probably explore the Cannibas Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. During our last visit we visited the RijksMuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and the Torture Museum. We were going to visit the Torture Museum again to get so pictures for the website, but the digital camera's pics have been dark... and the Torture Museum is dark... so, what's the point?

I totally recommend going to the Torture Museum. It's spooky and eery. We went at night which made it even more creepy. Definitely an experience with weird contraptions and devices most of us have never seen or imagined before and will probably never see again.

The RijksMuseum is under major renovation and will be until 2014. Only one wing of the museum is open to the public. This is actually rather cool. What the museum has done is to put all of the most famous pieces together. Therefore, you see everything of the most importance and that is all. Yes, we like to wonder through museums and wish we had time to see it all, but on the other hand, ensuring you see all the important works of art that a museum has to offer is rather convenient.

I have very fond memories of the Van Gogh Museum and look forward to visiting it again. It's a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Also, it is open everyday, except Jan 1, which makes it always something that can work into our plans. More than once, we've wanted to go to the Louvre on a day when it was closed.

Addicted to Cruising

After taking our Southern Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jade I am completely sold on cruising.

Before our cruise we had spent 9 days in Berlin and 2 in Basel, Switzerland. Yet even after our 12-night cruise on NCL I wasn't exhausted at all when I got home.

Definitely do your research before cruising. Go online and see what people are writing in the Cruise Forums. You'll even find Cruise Forums specific to the cruise and cruise line you want to take. This way, you'll know in advance if you should expect lousy food or entertainment. It's better to be prepared than to have bad food sprung on you.

In the Cruise Forums we had learned not to expect much from the food on the Norwegian Jade. So, we were quite content with the mediocre food. I wanted good old American food... and apparently I wanted a lot of it. That is pretty much what we got. I found that the chocolate brownie sundae in the Blue Lagoon was the best dessert. While Sophie loved the soft serve with all the toppings. Our favorite resturant was the Grand Pacific. It is the only formal dining room on the ship (freestyle dining). We loved the opportunity to dress up. At home, I'm too busy. On the cruise, I took the time to take the time...

Cruises are cheap and perfect for my thrifty and frugal nature. Actually, I didn't even spend all of

my 'ship money' which we got while making the reservation. I think I had something like $38

wasted. Guess I should have bought those cute reading glasses while I had the opportunity!

I can't wait until my next opportunity to cruise. Now I see what all the

fuss is about!!

Working With Adsense

I started my website in October of 2007. It seems like I must be doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what it is. Although I have added content fairly regularly over the duration of the site, my Adsense earnings haven't increased much. I'm concerned that I am somehow violating an Adsense rule. Or, perhaps it is that Google doesn't like that my website is hosted by Yahoo. Is that possible? I have heard that Google's Adsense doesn't want competing ads on the same pages with their ads. I understand that Adsense isn't interested in the competition, but would that also apply to Yahoo in general rather than just Yahoo's ad program?

I am in the process of taking down my Yahoo RSS button in case that is hurting my ranking with Google and my adsense ratings. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

I am writing through this blog to see if it makes a difference with my Google listings. My other blog goes directly through my website but Google still hasn't picked it up even through I've manually sent it through Google's Search Blog Ping. It's been over a month now, I believe the blog should have been picked up. We'll see how Google's Adsense program feels about this blog Google blog (blogspot is owned by Google) and hopefully I can figure things out and make some positive headway with monetizing.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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