Google Maps will help AdWords… and AdSense!

There’s been a lot of talk about the lower eCPM numbers affecting AdSense publishers since mid-February of 2009.

Some people believe the revenue shortfall is mainly due to the financial crisis, others think Google is keeping more for themselves. Since nothing filters from Google, it might be a bit of both, or not.

In all fairness and because so little relevant information is published by Google on this particular matter, it’s anyone’s guess why so many publishers’ revenues seem to be hitting record lows.

But…

In these harsh times, there might be a glimmer of light and it could be coming from an unexpected angle: Google Maps!

Yes, for those of you who have discover (or re-discovered) the planet using Google Earth, it’s no secret that businesses can now be easily located (and spotted) almost everywhere. The businesses that stand out the most are those who have registered with Google’s Local Busines Center (based in Mountain View, CA).

google_maps_showing_biz_contact_data

Business that register with Google must prove the authenticity of the information they post so that insures that visitors only see up to date information (which is very important, for any business directory).

So…

When businesses register to (eventually) show up in Google Maps (and Google Earth), they’re presented with a catchy little pitch regarding Google AdWords — now, that’s interesting.

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google_adwords_reach_more_customers

Imagine, millions upon millions of smaller businesses being introduced to AdWords. It’s awesome because it’ll likely translate into a much more diverse advertiser base, more bids for a wide range of keywords and ultimately, higher and hopefully more stable revenues for publishers.

Here’s what Google writes:

Reach More Customers

If you have a website and want to reach more local customers, give Google AdWords a try. In just a few minutes, you can create ads that appear only to people in your target cities. (You can also have an AdWords specialist build your campaign for you) The best part? You chose the cost of your ads, and you only pay if these ads bring people to your website. Learn more at http://www.google.ca/local/promo

By the way, the link is for Canada because the author is based… in Canada.

Online advertising is still a fragile ecosystem but by helping millions of smaller businesses join the AdWords action, Google is helping itself, of course but it’s also helping its AdSense publishers who should, in turn, prep up their web destinations to be somewhat “local friendly” because that might just be the angle through which ad growth will occur.

If you know businesses looking for free visibility, invite them to list their contact data with Google Maps. It’s fast, free and surprisingly effective (yes, your phone will ring and you’ll get email messages with serious inquiries).

This is good news because amidst a sea of bad economic news, here’s living proof that Google is steaming ahead and building what could well be one of the upcoming paradigms in online visibility… and advertising.

Tags: online advertising, google maps, google earth, google adwords, google adsense, advertisers, publishers, local content, local listings, local businesses, small businesses, ppc, pay-per-click, lead generation, keywords, web publisher revenues, money, wealth

Premium WordPress themes at ElegantThemes

Many web publishers work hard to create unique, engaging and useful content only to realize, after a while, that their WordPress theme doesn’t do justice to the content they post.

While most blog administrators will see no problem in tweaking a few aspects of an existing theme to make it their own, building a custom theme from scratch is generally too much to ask for. Fortunately, theme experts such as those at ElegantThemes provide web publishers with genuinely original blog designs which are not very hard to customize.

All of ElegantThemes’ offerings come with their own control panel to determine if the information is going to be presented “magazine-style” or “blog-style” but that’s just the beginning as there’s a host of other useful options, including advertising zones which you can modify freely.

Apart from the beautiful WordPress theme designs it offers, ElegantThemes is also quite affordable: only $19.95 per year to have access to ALL of the themes, for your own use. This deal includes all the themes that’ll be released in the year following your membership. So it’s a light on your wallet on significant, valuewise.

Themes like PureType, ColdStone, Basic, LightSource and eGamer can both enhance your blogs’ legibility and credibility, especially if you customize them into something that’s truly yours. Just open Photoshop and change a few elements to ensure your web destination will be different than any other.

Starting with an “elegant theme” (instead of “from scratch”) just makes that part of the work easier and therefore, you can be more productive… even if theming doesn’t happen to be your thing.

Take note that there are regular updates on the themes, namely because WordPress itself is continuously evolving. Even the oldest themes get a makover when the main blogging script gets a “code freshening” so you can rest assured the themes will always work flawlessly with the latest WP release.

For the web publishers out there who would like to make a little extra money recommending ElegantThemes to prospective buyers, as affiliates, here the direct link you can use to go to the site and signup, for free.

Overall, ElegantThemes delivers solid WordPress themes which will impress your visitors and elevate your blog closer to what the professionals (and the niche leaders) are showing.

Again, at $19.95 per year, considering the quality of the themes, it’s nothing short of a bargain…

Tags: elegantthemes, elegant themes, themes for wordpress, wordpress, wordpress theming, quality themes, professional wordpress, new wordpress themes, good wordpress themes, solid wordpress themes, bargain themes, high-quality themes for wordpress, impress with wordpress

StudioPress offers WordPress themes for niche businesses

If you’re an individual or a small business looking to use WordPress as a blog —and— as a content management system (CMS), you’re probably going to need a theme which your clients can truly relate to.

Marketers insist on repeating that image is everything and in the online world, that means that if you invest lots of time creating engaging content, using the powerful WordPress back-end, you’ll probably want that information to be displayed in such a way that your visitors will appreciate it to its rightful value.

StudioPress, a Brian Gardner Media creation, is a collection of WordPress themes that have been developed with specific uses in mind, like a theme for realtors who want to display their homes for sale or bands who want to show off their latest album.

By zooming in on specific “niche” needs, StudioPress takes part of the weight, associated with the development of an original theme, off the shoulders of the “week-end web publishers”. StudioPress’ theme packages include original Photoshop-ready images, the theme itself and a host of widgets to perform theme-specific tasks (when needed, of course).

Whatever your line of work, some of the following themes might apply to what you (sometimes with minor modifications)…

…and there are also more “generic” themes which fit for just about anything, like…

The comprehensive and commented CSS stylesheets make it relatively easy (even for newbies) to switch the colors to anything you like and to reposition almost every single element being show to visitors, like the titles of the posts which you may want to make bigger or smaller, depending on the context.

Because these themes aren’t free (under $60), you’re less likely to run into someone else using the exact same theme as you but nevertheless, you should always tweak themes a bit to make sure they truly reflect who YOU are instead of the generic look which should be seen as a major building block but a building block, nonetheless.

agent_theme_for_wordpress

band_theme_for_wordpress

corporate_theme_for_wordpress

Pro designers can gain access to ALL of the theme for under $200 so that might be a good way to start your own local WordPress theming consultancy, if that’s something you’d like to do.

If you’re tired of looking around for a solid WordPress theme, namely in the free themes realm, StudioPress’ theme offerings might offer a more professional alternative which, in turn, will make your entire blogging experience that much better.

Tags: studiopress, studio press themes, professional themes, wordpress themes, wordpress widgets, widget-ready themes, business themes, corporate themes, individual businesses, small businesses, corporate blogging, professional bloggers, quality wordpress themes

ThemesWiki helps beginners and pros alike

Lots of web resources deal with themes, templates and how to build engaging web user interfaces. Many of them are really good and will help you successfully build your project.

Now, in these “wiki times”, you’ll be happy to learn the ThemesWiki features over 50 extensively commented tutorials for a wide range of scripts that you’re likely to use, like WordPress, Drupal, XOOPS, PHPBB, ELGG, MediaWiki and many more.

The code, may it be PHP, ASP or HTML, is highly legible and easy to select and then, paste into your own projects.

Since it’s a wiki, it’s a great place for the pros to share some of their knowledge. There are some guidelines on how to contribute new content, in the event you’d like to show off your coding prowess.

The information is free, nicely organized and fully searchable.

If you’re a coder, webmaster, web developer or web enthusiast, this is most likely a web resource you’ll want to add to your list of bookmarks.

Kudos to the people behind this initiative.

Tags: themeswiki, wiki for themes, wiki for templates, themes for wordpress, how to build themes, how to build templates, developing themes, developing templates, web site themes, web site templates, do it yourself, coding themes, coding templates, tweaking themes, tweaking templates

Higher availability using FlexFrame for Oracle RE

Are you looking to consolidate your Oracle services? Are you looking to benefit from the simultaneous operation of databases across several servers?

If so, make sure to consider Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ FlexFrame for Oracle Rapid Edition (RE).

It’s a server consolidation and high-availability solution for:

Oracle Database;
Oracle Fusion Middleware; and
Oracle applications.

FlexFrame for Oracle RE can be used to consolidate standalone industry-standard servers, storage and applications into a reliable, shared infrastructure in which any application can use any server and storage. For any busy CTO, this is a dream come true!

Don’t worry if you’re running Linux-based Oracle applications because FlexFrame for Oracle RE also provides high-availability for those servers.

FlexFrame for Oracle RE is delivered, installed and maintained like an appliance so it can be implemented with little disruption and risk. Operating systems and Oracle services can run unmodified on FlexFrame for Oracle RE and furthermore, consolidated operating system images are easier to store and maintain in the virtual FlexFrame environment, especially when compared with local boot environments.

So if you believe it’s time that you focused more on your Oracle applications and less on the administration of your server farm, per se, FlexFrame for Oracle RE might be worth a second look.

In a nutshell, it makes hosting Oracle applications a whole lot easier.

Tags: oracle, oracle rapid edition, oracle re, fujitsu siemens, flexframe, flexframe for oracle re, boot environments, operating system images, os images,virtualization, application hosting, server, storage, shared infrastructure

Deploy your Oracle software in Amazon’s EC2

Running software and backing up databases in clouds, as a concept, is gaining ground as savvy developers understand when to use it… and when not to.

Not all corporate software deployments should occur outside of the realm of an internal server room but for some projects, it’s the new way to reduce development, integration and testing cycles.

If you happen to be using Oracle to manage your data, you’re well set to use their software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform which is an open and integrated set of technologies, including the following:

Oracle Database;
Oracle Fusion Middleware;
Oracle Enterprise Manager; and
Oracle VM.

They allow independent software vendors to build, deploy and manage both on-premise and cloud-based applications.

The Oracle SaaS platform helps businesses achieve scalability and availability with support for grid computing,virtualization and integrated management across the platform. Coupled with the development, integration and testing cycles savings (in both time and money), it’s even more interesting.

SaaS and cloud computing have made the enterprise IT infrastructure somewhat elastic so that it can grow incrementally without any theoretical upper limit. Oracle has caught on to this idea and has partnered with Amazon Web Services to enable companies to…

deploy Oracle software; and
back up Oracle Database.

…in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, dubbed Amazon EC2.

If you’ve been in charge of projects that seem to grow exponentially, you’re likely to understand, first-hand, why this technological approach makes sense. It’s up to you to see if your project is a good fit for it.

Tags: oracle, saas, software-as-a-service, cloud computing, grid, deloy oracle, backup oracle, amazon, aws, ec2, amazon ec2, cloud storage, cloud applications, reduced development time, oracle savings, orace scalability

Are AdSense publishers’ revenues on a slippery slope, or what?

If you’ve been a Google AdSense publisher for several years, you probably remember the 18th of November, 2007.

That’s the day the clickable zones in Google’s ads were dramatically modified so only the title and the link were clickable, instead of the whole ad, including the description and the surrounding “white space”.

This modification in the way the Google AdSense ads were delivered to publishers’ web pages had desastrous consequences in their revenue — most publishers seeing their click through rate (CTR) drop by over 50%, with revenues plunging accordingly.

The AdWord advertisers were happy but even through this measure should’ve encouraged them to spend more (because of the heightened legitimity of the clicks), it didn’t seem to have any significant effect and publisher revenues have never recovered from that spectacular drop, starting in mid-November of 2007.

Fast forward in March of 2009, with a nasty recession hitting the US and many other “first world” countries, AdSense publishers are being hit by another revenue drop, this time, by the way of free falling effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPMs).

While the eCPM for a business blog might’ve averaged around $15 in January of 2009, something happened in mid-February that has been tanking the eCPM since. Nowadays, in March, the same profile is lucky to get $3 (of eCPM) instead of the usually very stable (over the last year, at least) $15 revenue threshhold.

Because of this, a typical publisher used to getting some $50 a day will likely get 5 times less and with a meager 10$ —for the exact same number of valid clicks— to live by, which obviously isn’t enough.

Most AdSense insiders know Google has taken a bit more than its “fair share”, over the last year but this latest drop in web publisher revenues is probably linked directly to the advertisers themselves… and how little money they now invest in the online advertising campaigns.

But Google isn’t providing web publishers with any sort of insight that would confirm this theory so we’re all forced to speculate to guess what’s causing Google AdSense’s publisher revenues to hit (what appears to be) record lows.

Other long-time web publishers think the global (and domestic) inventory of quality advertising zones has grown exponentially and therefore, advertisers now have access to a nearly unlimited number of online venues to reach their “intended audience”. This is likely to take a (serious) toll of the already battered web publisher revenues.

And there’s another thing…

Yes, it gets worse — Google AdWords now features way to screen out certain type of publishers and as such, an advertiser can decide to spend his money in Google’s own network of sites instead of “spreading the wealth” elsewhere, in the “web publisher network”. The controls allow for more fine-tuning but the stage is set for yet another hit of web publisher revenues. Even for those who create unique, valuable and sought content.

And last but not least, Google’s rules on what constitutes a “valid click” seem to be quite variable, depending on who you ask.

Most web publishers were under the impression that whenever a visitor —an genuine one, that is— clicked on an ad, money was awarded to their account, for that click. Well, it’s not simple, anymore.

It seems Google AdSense’s rules have evolved in such a way that if a visitor doesn’t stay “x” number of minutes of the advertisers’ web site, the click doesn’t count, at all. Speculation about a “one minute minimum” time requirement is rampant in several AdSense-related forums but, as with so many things regarding AdSense, any information of remotely significant value is usually kept —secret— so articles like this one are only going to multiply, all over the web, with all flavors of “requirements” being discussed. Google should really clear the air on all of these matters but if it hasn’t done so in the past so, realistically, there’s little chance things will change, in the future.

So, for the time being, countless web publishers are getting hit head-on by the “financial crisis” and it’s unclear when things will head back up… if ever.

For the hour, what seems to be akin to a tragedy is taking place and web publishers will need to take action, sooner or later, to recoup their lost revenues.

Tags: adsense, google adsense, falling revenues, lower revenues, low ctr, low ecpm, financial crisis, recession, economic downturn, dramatic drop in adsense revenues, advertisers, adwords, google adwords, speculation, speculation about adsense, web publishers, publishers losing money, adsense money, adsense advertising