Monday, December 31, 2012

Fast Adsense Approval

Fast Adsense Approval

 The Google Adsense, is the great source of the bloggers and website owners to earn their revenue. But not all  bloggers and website owners get the Google Adsense approved. Due to their strict valuation most of the beginners who apply for Adsense gets rejected, like me. My first submission was rejected within no time due to the reason "not enough content" and in my 3rd submission i was approved, but in the second review process they rejected me saying unacceptable content. So i started searching why they rejects my account like many of the bloggers who are working hard to bring up their blogs and at last i have made some conclusions which may help us all to get our Adsense account approved.

Better use Top Level Domains

Many of the internet guru's say that it is better to use a top level domain ( sitename.com ) for your site rather using a sub domain ( name.mainname.com ), i too will support this since one of my friend's site was approved very fast by Adsense which has a top level domain but had only little posts. But Adsense also approves .blogspot domains if that blog has rich contents with a good traffic. Better buy a top level domain to get the Adsense approved fast.

Google Search Tips

Google Search Tips    

Find files of a specific type (eg: .pdf, .mp3, .zip)

web development guidelines filetype:pdf
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=web+development+guidelines+filetype%3Apdf

Find directory listings

intitle:"index of" templates
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=intitle%3A%22index+of%22+templates

Find pages with keywords in the url

allinurl:seo tips
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=allinurl:seo tips

Search for similiar terms

~cheap web design -cheap
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=~cheap web design -cheap

Search within a specific site

google site:eisabainyo.net
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=google+site%3Aeisabainyo.net

Websites that are linked to a website

link:http://eisabainyo.net
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=link%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Feisabainyo.net

Google as a world clock

time in Sydney
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=time+in+Sydney

Google as a dictionary

define:query
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=define:query

Google as a conversion calculator

160cm in feet
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=160cm in feet

Google as a weather report

weather:sydney australia
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=weather:sydney australia

Seven Tips to Increasing Your Website’s Traffic Using SEO

Seven Tips to Increasing Your Website’s Traffic Using SEO

SEO is the buzz word – many people have mentioned it and many have heard of it too, but very few people know how to implement it properly. SEO, stands for Search Engine Optimisation and it is the process of optimising and making your website visible to search engines in order to attract more traffic to your website.
SEO is a long term process and the process of search engine optimisation should be carried out and reviewed throughout the lifetime of a website. A few decades ago, submitting your website to search engines would be the only thing you would do to obtain traffic via search engines. However, time has changed and so have search engine algorithms, which means you would need to do more than just submit a site to achieve a good search engine ranking nowadays. Hopefully the following tips will guide you on your way to optimising your website for search engines.

1. Write a killer title tag

The title tag is one of the most prominent pieces of information that anyone sees in a search result page. It also carries significant weight in how search engine spiders rank a site. A title tag that contains relevant keywords and describes the content of the page effectively is more likely to receive a higher search engine ranking. Therefore, the title tag should be optimised to contain main keywords, be relevant to the content of the page, and encourage searchers to click on it when they see it on a search result page.
Example of a good title tag:
<title>Seven tips to increasing your website's traffic using SEO</title>

2. Optimise meta tags

Meta tags on a web page are the pieces of information that describe the page such as the keywords and description of the page and other browser related information. It is important to have unique meta tags for every page of your website that accurately describe the pages to the search engine spiders. The most commonly used meta tags in search engine optimisation are keywords, descriptions and robots.
Example of good meta tags:
<meta name="description" content="SEO is the buzz word - many people have mentioned it and many have heard of it too, but very few people know how to implement it properly. SEO, stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the process of optimising and making your website visible to search engines in order to attract more traffic to your website. " />
<meta name="keywords" content="SEO, tips, website traffic, search engine optimisation, google, ranking " />

3. Use Search Engine Friendly URLs

There are basically two type of URLs for the World Wide Web; dynamic urls and static urls. Dynamic urls are those urls that contain query strings in the urls, for example, http://www.example.com/my_page.php?id=5&task=view. The disadvantages with this kind of URLs are they are hard to remember, difficult to type, and some search engine are not able to index pages with dynamic urls. Static urls are also referred to as search engine friendly urls because they help increase search engine rankings by allowing keywords in the URL itself. For example: http://www.example.com/seo+tips/. They are easy to remember, promote usability, allow search engine spiders to crawl the pages more effectively and increase the page ranking by having the title of the page in the url.
Example of a good url:
http://www.example.com/seo+tips/

4. Obtain relevant inbound links

Search engine algorithms are built in a way in which a website which has more relevant inbound links (ie: links from other websites) are ranked higher than a site with no links. The important rule here, however, is to ensure your website is linked from a website of a similar interest. For example: a web development blog is linked from a web development portal website.

5. Write a semantic code

Having a semantic code means HTML elements on a website are used for their given purposes and separate content from presentation. For example, HTML headings are used for titles and headings of a website, paragraphs of text are enclosed in an html paragraph tag, list items are properly coded using list item HTML tags, etc. This will improve the ranking of your website for appropriate keywords because while search engine spiders are not able to view a website visually, they are able to understand the HTML code of a website.
Example of a semantic code:
<h1>Seven tips to increasing your website's traffic using SEO</h1>
<p>SEO is the buzz word - many people have mentioned it and many have heard of it too, but very few people know how to implement it properly. SEO, stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the process of optimising and making your website visible to search engines in order to attract more traffic to your website.</p>

6. Display keywords and links to important pages on homepage

We all know that it is important to have some text on your homepage, but it is also as important to have keywords and link those keywords to appropriate internal pages of your website. This is because search engine spiders do not scan a website visually but for keyword phrases, contents and links. Therefore, a website with appropriate keywords and links is more likely to have a higher ranking than a website with just a Flash object on the homepage. Examples of important pages that you would probably link to from the homepage are promotion pages and category pages.
Example of a good homepage:
<div id="home">
<h1>Web Development Blog</h1>
<h2>Web Development, Web Design, Web Applications, Web 2.0, AJAX, WordPress Themes, Search Engine Optimisation, Latest Technologies and more.</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://eisabainyo.net/weblog/category/css/" title="View all posts filed under CSS">CSS</a> (13)
</li>
<li><a href="http://eisabainyo.net/weblog/category/design/" title="View all posts filed under Design">Design</a> (26)
</li>
<li><a href="http://eisabainyo.net/weblog/category/google/" title="View all posts filed under Google">Google</a> (21)
</li>
<li><a href="http://eisabainyo.net/weblog/category/news/" title="View all posts filed under News">News</a> (34)
</li>
<li><a href="http://eisabainyo.net/weblog/category/php/" title="View all posts filed under PHP">PHP</a> (28)
</li>
<li><a href="http://eisabainyo.net/weblog/category/default/" title="View all posts filed under Random">Random</a> (35)
</li>
<li><a href="http://eisabainyo.net/weblog/category/search/" title="View all posts filed under Search">Search</a> (19)</div>

7. Build a sitemap

Building a sitemap to help search engines index your content is a quick win because it is relatively easy to produce a sitemap either manually by hand or automatically using a tool. Sitemaps will help search engines to find all the pages on the website that you want them to find. Without a sitemap, it could take search engines a while to find and then index every single page on your website. Sitemaps.org provides useful information on building sitemaps that are supported by Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

Adsense Tips and Tricks


Adsense Tips and Tricks

With personal and commercial blogs, community websites, and social pages becoming the hot topic of the Internet in the last few years, many people have become more Internet-literate and are always looking for ways to make a few hundreds or even thousands from their websites.  This is when Google Adsense comes into play.  Google Adsense, unlike Affiliate Programs, is CPC (Pay-Per-Click) and the good thing about it, is you can still earn some bucks without making a sale. 
As with any other things in this world, it takes time, effort and dedication before you could earn some decent amount from Google Adsense.  And here are some of the tips and tricks to help you with your Google Adsense journey. 

Layout

1. Blend your ads to your website layout
This could be considered as one the most important things which is often overlooked.  Instead of using predefined colors provided by Google, try changing colors of your ads to match the website layout.  For example, if your website uses white background with green text, make sure you use the same colors for your ads. 
2. Do not display a border
While you can’t get rid of the border around your ad, you can make it invisible by changing the border color to that of the background.  Researches have shown that ads without a visible border generate much higher clicks than those with one. 
3. Do not place your ads in normal spots
Internet users have become accustomed to the normal ad spots (eg: a Leaderboard above your header, a Skyscrapper outside the content) and hence, any ads placed in those normal spots will often be ignored. 
4. Choose the right ad formats
There are a few ad formats which perform better than others.  Some of the recommended ad formats are Wide Skyscrapper, Medium Rectangle and Horizontal Ads Links.  However, these ad formats may not necessarily work for everyone, so choose the ones that work for you. 
5. Good layout design
Although a good layout design does not necessarily increase your Adsense revenue, it is important for the first impression and also for the professionalism.


Content

5. "Content is the king"
The fact that Google Adsense is contextual advertising implies that the ads being generated are often relevant to the website content.  That simply means you will not get any relevant ads if the content does not focus on a certain topic or the content is not text based.  For example, if your page does not have any copy/text but an image, it’s unlikely to get relevant ads.
6. Pick a high paying topic
It took me a while to find out that some keywords are being paid more than others.  While Google does not tell you how much advertisers are paying for their keywords, it is pretty easy to guess.  For example, ads about credit cards, home loans and insurance are being paid more than those ads about free blogging tool, yellow pages, etc.   It is also recommended to pick a Niche topic and provide a narrow focus than to pick a general topic. 
7. Update your website frequently
Updating your website frequently enables you to get more visitors checking out your website which increases your page impression and the probability of ad clicks. 
8. Write quality content
Not everyone possesses a natural talent in writing, and I can say for sure that I don’t.  However, if you offer something useful, interesting, and put your heart into writing, your readers will enjoy what you have to say.  And they will be coming back for more. 

Organization

9. A good organizer is the winner
With Google Adsense, you can organize your ads and have a clear idea about their performance by using Channels.  This way, if a particular ad is not performing well, you could always replace it with a difference one.  There are quite a few things you could do with Channels and this is just one of them. 
10. Monitor your statistics
Checking both your website and Adsense statistics enables you to get better ideas about your audiences.  From your website statistics, you can find out which pages are being viewed the most, where most of your traffics come from, what the peak day of the week is, etc.  Similarly, Adsense statistics will tell you which ad formats are being clicked the most, how many page impressions you receive, how much you are making each day/week/month, etc.  You can then make improvements based on these figures to maximize the performance. 

Traffics

11.  Link Building
No matter how good your website is and how relevant your Adsense ads are, without a decent amount of traffics, you will only be making a small amount of revenue, if any.  It is not easy to achieve a decent amount of traffics, but it is not impossible.  Some of the most common ways to gain traffics to your website include Link exchange, Directory listing, participating in online communities and making use of social bookmaking systems.    
12.  Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most successful and recommended methods of gaining traffics to your website and it is more than just a buzz word.  Optimizing your websites for search engines increases your website visibility and ranking, which in turn generates significant amounts of targeted and relevant traffics to your website.  Combined, search sites reach more than 130 million Americans or approximately 85 percent of all Internet users each month, ranking Search/Navigation among the most popular categories on the Web. (Source: comScore Media Metrix) 

Miscellaneous

13. A little maintenance goes a long way
Many people tend to overlook the maintenance part of the website.  In this case, rather than sticking to the same ad formats, or the same positioning of the ads, try experiment with different formats and positioning.  If they do not work, you could always revert the changes.  But if they do, that’s a bonus for you. 
14. Do not click on your own ads
Honesty is the best policy.  Be honest with yourself, and do not try to increase your Adsense revenue by clicking on your own ads.  Google is really strict when it comes to fraud clicking, and before you knew it, your account could be banned and you could be owing some money to the advertisers. 
15. When in doubt, ask
If you have some questions in mind, or are unclear about certain stuffs, don’t hesitate to ask the Google Adsense Help Team.  Before asking them, though, you could do them a favor by checking out their Frequently Asked Questions and Answers page.
I hope you will find the above tips and tricks useful in improving your website to increase your Adsense revenue.  While it is always good to earn some cash from your website, do not let it rule you or your website.  And remember that no money is easy money and it takes a considerable amount of time, effort and dedication before one could see a marked improvement in his Adsense revenue.

MAKING MONEY WITH ADSENSE – TIPS

MAKING MONEY WITH ADSENSE – TIPS


Tip #1: Start now!
It’s as easy as falling off a log to generating revenue with Google AdSense. After you’re accepted to the program, just add a few lines of html code to your site (Google shows you how once you’re accepted) – and voila!
Within a few minutes, your site will begin displaying Adsense, and so you can start making money. Each day you wait means you don’t make the bucks you could. So start now.
Tip #2: Make content pages for your site – and put Adsense on them.
Assuming your page is a decent one, the more pages you have displaying Adsense, the more money you’ll earn. If you already have a website, display Adsense on more pages.
And always, always, always focus on making more great content pages. I suggest that you budget time each week for creating pages (and sites) on topics you love. You’ll find more on creating AdSense content pages in Tip
#8.
And it’s especially good if these content pages are very clearly focused. Then, Google will be able to serve highly relevant Adsense to your users. This means your visitors will be more interested in the ads, which results in higher click through rates — and more money for you!
Tip #3: Whenever you can, use higher paying keywords.
Obviously, you’ll earn more if the average AdWord that Google displays pays more per click.
The question is: how do you get Google to display higher paying keywords?
Well, for one thing, don’t get greedy and create pages on unrelated keywords just because they pay more. In other words, don’t create a page on ‘cell phone plans’ on your motorcycle tire site just because ‘cell phone plans’ pays more than ‘motorcycle tires.’
How to find out which keywords pay best? If you’re a Google AdWords advertiser, you can log into your AdWords account and experiment.
If you’re not an AdWords advertiser, use a free tool at the pay-per-click search engine, Overture.
Overture’s tool lets you see what advertisers are paying on Overture for each keyword. Sure, Overture and Google don’t pay the same. But they’re not all that different, and this tool can give you a general idea of which keywords will pay more than others.
(Also, don’t’ forget Google’s commission, so you have to allow for their cut on the amount an advertiser pays for each click.)
Tip #4: You want to make new pages with higher paying keywords (while keeping it real and relevant).
Sometimes, selecting different keywords on the same topic can really make a difference in earnings.
Pretend you have a gardening site and you want to create some new pages.
By carefully selecting which topics to focus on first, you can dramatically increase your income.
With the Overture tool mentioned above, you can find out that ‘water gardening’ currently has a maximum price of $0.50, while ‘gardening zone’ is only $0.05. That means you can earn 10 times more by creating a page on ‘water gardening’ than ‘gardening zones’! Which one to choose… yeah, that’s tough!
What you want to do is use information to decide which relevant keywords to focus on as you go through the process of making new pages for your site.
Tip #5: Build a new site on high paying keywords.
This is one of my most lucrative pieces of advice: create a brand new site to take advantage of Google AdSense by deliberately selecting a topic with high paying keywords.
Then, of course, you deliver dynamite content on that topic.
But how do you know what the highest paying keywords are?
Another tool you can use comes from pay-per-click search engine, 7Search. 7Search has a page on the 100 highest paying keywords. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect. The tool often ‘times out’ and gives you an error when you try to access the page. My best advice is just be patient and try several times to get this list—it’s worth it.
Tip #6: Pull in qualified traffic to your site.
Basic marketing 101 says if you get more qualified visitors to your site, more people will naturally click on the displayed Adsense, and you’ll earn more.
Tip #7: Think about segmenting your sites: making some pages for high search engine traffic, other pages to sell products, and still other pages just for Google AdSense.
To implement this, you’ll need to recognize that different pages on your site can have different purposes. You may have pages designed to sell specific products. Others may be designed to rank high in the search engines (but don’t ever try to trick the search engines). Still others can be designed for Google AdSense.
Now, once you know which pages you’re creating for AdSense, your job is simple; select an appropriate keyword (or key phrase).
Then you’ll use that keyword as the file name and put dashes between the words. In the example above, you would use the file name ‘water-gardening.html’ for your water gardening page.
Best case scenario is that you’re able to select keywords that are the highest paying keyword on the topic. By tweaking the file name, you may be able to improve your AdSense results dramatically.
Tip #8: Knock yourself out to make high quality information pages.
The ideal Google AdSense page should have great content about a very specific topic. Take pains to be very clear about what the topic is, and carefully choose the keyword (or key phrase) describing the topic. Users don’t like vague pages that don’t make it very clear what the page is all about.
Don’t even think about trying to ‘trick’ AdSense. (I talked about that earlier, remember? They have penalties, including getting kicked out.) Don’t create a page on one topic and give it a file name about a different topic—that’s too confusing.
In a nutshell, you want to make sure the page you create offers great value to people interested in the topic. When you provide excellent information on a specific topic, your visitors will benefit and will be more likely to click through to relevant Adsense.
Tip #9: Select vertical Adsense format.
Everyone’s seen way too many horizontal banner ads up top. Thus, Google recommends you choose the vertical – not horizontal – format to display your Adsense. I agree. People have become “banner blind” to a horizontal format. Plus, Google has “trained” us to click on relevant text ads on their own site and they use the vertical format.
Tip #10: Make sure you display Adsense prominently.
It’s to your financial advantage to put the Adsense near the top of your page on the right. Make sure there is enough “breathing room” – i.e. white space around the ads – so that they will easily attract your visitors.
Tip #11: Just don’t do it–don’t cheat.
I know it’s tempting, because it seems so easy and it’s just sitting there waiting for you to do it, but do not click on the Adsense displayed on your own site to increase your revenue. Google (rightfully) frowns on this.
Plus, Google has some of the smartest engineers around, and they are very good at detecting this kind of fraud. And really, for an extra $1, is it worth getting kicked out of a money-maker like AdSense? I think not…

Page Optimization for AdSense

AdSense-like Appearance

FONT - Use the Verdana font on your page, especially near your AdSense ad block. This helps the ads to "blend in", and therefore appear more natural on your page. Use a font size similar to the font sizes used in the Adsense ads.

UPDATE: Google is now experimenting with changing the AdSense fonts. I am seeing the Verdana font replaced with what looks like a Times font. Google is trying other fonts, such as Comic Sans MS (reported to be abandoned due to complaints) and Times New Roman. This throws a monkey-wrench into your SEO optimization. One cannot optimize fonts (blend), when Google is experimenting and changing them. We must all figure out what to do about this. Stay tuned.

top of page

Page Maintenance

UPDATING - Update frequently. Google loves fresh content. Fix any errors that are found.

LINK ROT - Periodically run a link checker on all your web pages. Fix all broken links that are found. Either remove or replace every one of them. A webpage with a lot of old, broken links is considered to be of lower quality, because the webmaster has not kept it up. A free online link checker is Dead-Links dot com.

CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT - Try to make each page better and better. Add new information as it becomes available.

top of page

Page Quality

QUALITY FACTOR - The Adsense algorithm contains a "quality" factor. In general, the higher the quality of the web page (and CTR), the higher the quality of the ads served.

SPELLING - Run a spelling checker. You can be penalized for poor spelling.

GRAMMAR - Poor grammar can reduce the perceived quality of a web page. Top advertisers prefer to advertise on high quality pages.

MINIMUM LENGTH - In general, I believe that a page with 500 words is judged a better page, than a page with 100 words. What is the ideal length? I don't know. I think it can vary. But the more excellent the text, the better.

My own personal speculation is that 400 words might be a good minimum, and 10,000 words is far too many. My largest page is 6,000 words, and that is too long (an archival tome is an exception). All my other pages are much smaller. Break up very large pages, into smaller, more readable pages. This allows you to place additional, more targeted AdSense ads.

top of page

Page SEO

Perform Search Engine Optimization to ensure high placement in the SERPs.

TITLE TAG - Make it brief and accurate. Do not load with keywords.

META TAGS - Provide appropriate meta tags for each page - your Description Meta Tag should be brief and accurate, and your Keyword Meta Tag should only contain words which appear in the body text of your page - limit to 10, or 5 is even better.

LINKS - Reduce outgoing links to only the very best. Too many outgoing links can cause a page to lose focus, and distract your visitors from clicking on the Adsense links.

READABILITY - Some blogs use grey text on a grey background, which is the worst case for readability. This actually PHYSICALLY HURTS my eyes. There is no reason to do this, except laziness, because it is an application default. Unbelievably, some very prominent bloggers still do this.

Use black text on a white background, if you aren't sure what to do. OR, as a minimum, at least provide sufficient contrast so that JUST READING the text is not a difficult task.

top of page

Page Traffic

TRAFFIC SOURCE - Organic traffic is best. Strive for high SERP position in Google. Do not concern yourself with your MSN or Yahoo position. They provide little traffic.

ALT TEXT - Choose your "Alt Text" for images carefully. I get more traffic from just Google Images, than I get from the total traffic from both MSN and Yahoo combined. Think about THAT!

RSS FEED - Provide an XML RSS feed for your visitors, so that they can easily read your new content. Feedburner is a good way to do this, but I couldn't get it to work, so I just linked to my RSS feed on my index page. I'm done with RSS - the only thing it does is help thieves to steal your content. No more RSS for me.

top of page

Page Targeting

KEYWORDS - Carefully select the keywords you want to target for each page. Keywords that pay the most are those involving money, such as attorneys, credit, insurance, loans, medicine, mortgages, and real estate. However, these keywords are the most competitive, and therefore the hardest to rank for in the SERPs.

If you have difficulty getting highly-targeted ads, then try the Adsense feature called "Section Targeting." This will cause Adsense to serve you the ads that are relevant to the keywords that you want targeted, and ignore nearby untargeted words.

Google provides an excellent source of keywords at -
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

top of page

Google Analytics

STATISTICS - Use Google Analytics on every page to get important information about your visitors.

INSURANCE - We frequently hear about sites that have been banned, due to "invalid clicks" and "click-bombing". If YOU get a warning, or get banned, you must jump through hoops, and provide your log files to Google, in order to prove your innocence.
HOWEVER, if you are using Google Analytics, Google ALREADY HAS this information, and already knows just what is going on. I consider this to be very important, since Google can far more easily determine that YOU are not responsible for any transgressions. Use Analytics for information, AND for added safety!

Adsense Tips..

CLICKING - NEVER, NEVER click on your own ads.
Never instruct others to click on your ads. (Secrecy - Do not tell any friends or family members about your websites that have AdSense on them - they may try and "help you" by clicking on your ads, which can result in you being rejected from the program, with no recourse. Google can easily detect abnormal click patterns and IPs, etc. It may sound extreme, but it has proven to be good advice.)

APPEARANCE - DO NOT encourage clicks.
DO NOT place images next to Adsense ads.
DO NOT draw undue attention to the ads. No arrows, no flashing.
"Sponsored Links" is the ONLY acceptable text for introducing ads.

SITE CONTENT - DO NOT place prohibited content on your web pages. Read through the list to determine content that is not allowed.

COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL - DO NOT steal copyrighted material and place it on your web pages. Not only will you receive a "Duplicate Content" penalty, but you may receive a DMCA Cease and Desist order. If you get a couple of these, you are going to have a tough time getting your content indexed in Google.

top of page

AD TYPES

TEXT ADS - When using the "Get Ads" feature, specify "Text Ads Only". Image ads are CPM ads, and pay very little - typically, ten for a penny. JUST ONE image ad wipes out 3 or 4 higher-paying text ads.

CPM ADS - The default condition is to serve CPM ads to everybody. Email Adsense to "opt out" of low-paying CPM ads. This will help you to make more money, because your high-paying PPC ads will not be displaced by low-paying CPM ads.

PSA ADS - Avoid Public Service Ads which literally pay nothing. If you are getting PSAs, check for "poison words" on your page, which can result in only PSAs being served. Also, sometimes called "stop words." If you cannot identify any poison words, consider specifying "Alternate Ads" in your "Get Ads" feature.

ALTERNATE ADS - Personally, I do not specify alternate ads, since I consider the lack of Adsense ads a personal failure - either in keyword selection, or in page quality. I keep changing things UNTIL I no longer see the PSAs. Google has paying ads for just about everything.

top of page

AD FORMAT

BLENDING - Do NOT use borders.
Make the ad background color the same as the page background color.

TITLE LINK - Almost always, use the standard blue color for your Title Link. This works best overall, since most visitors easily recognize it as THE "link color."

AD TEXT COLOR - Use the same color for your ad text that you use in your body text. This aids in blending the ads, and makes them look more natural.

AD URL COLOR - I like green, just because it adds a little "color". Try other colors, too. Many prefer grey.

EXPERIMENT - From time to time, try changing your Adsense ad text colors to see if there is any improvement in CTR. If there is not, change them back to your old colors.

top of page

AD PLACEMENT

NUMBER OF BLOCKS - Use only ONE ad block per page.
The 250x250 is best (IMHO), since
A. It shows a maximum of 3 ads, and
B. the text is larger.

In general, the fewer the ads shown on your page, the more you will receive per click. Google will serve you the highest-paying ads first, then lesser-paying ads, as you add more and more ads. Google can also serve ads which have high-CTR rates, but pay very little (1 to 3 cents). You must filter these out. Arbitrage publishers create the highest CTR ads.

TOP CENTER - Place your single ad block at the top of the page, just below the title, near the center of the page (just like this page - removed for low performance).

Try other positions, to see if your CTR improves. Try the extreme left (menu-like) and extreme right (Google-like). Use the positioning that provides you with the highest CTR. Always place your ads "above the fold".

AD LINKS - Try Ad Links. I find them to be poor performers, but your experience may be different. Many publishers have good success with them. It all depends upon your site, subject and implementation. Try them at the very top, and at the very bottom of your page.

top of page

AD REPORTING

CHANNELS - Assign one Adsense reporting channel to EACH page, so that you can observe the performance of each page. You cannot see the results of individual changes, if you use the same channel on multiple pages. This is especially important for your best-performing pages, which should be studied the most closely.

The higher your CTR, the more money you will make. Use the channel to determine the change to your CTR, when you make any page change. Let your CTR be your guide.

If you hit the 200 channel limit, disable your lowest-performing channels (pages), to free up room for new channels for testing. Luckily, I have been granted 500 pages.

top of page

ADSENSE FOR SEARCH

SEARCH BOX - Add an "Adsense for Search" box to your index page, so that your visitor can quickly find what he/she is looking for on your site, AND the Internet.

In addition, you can get paid, if your visitor clicks on the search results.

Many publishers place an "Adsense for Search" box on every page. You may choose to do the same. For me, this is overkill.

top of page

ADVERTISERS

BLOCKING - Use the Adsense Blocking Filter to block those ads which you find offensive, have spelling errors, or are MFA (Made For Adsense, of Made For Ads).

Block all ads from the giants, which pay very little, such as amazon.com, ebay.com, shopping.com, and target.com.

I also block ads which go from the specific to the general (less focused). For instance, if my page is about a heart diagram, I block ads for "diagrams" in general, which pay very low. No one who is looking for a heart diagram wants to see any other kind of diagram!

top of page

TESTING

TEST, TEST, TEST - Do not believe everything that you are told. There are many misconceptions. You must find out for yourself, what works best on your pages. Sometimes, what you think is best, may not be true. Keep an open mind.

ONE DIFFICULTY - While you are testing, Google is testing too! Do not confuse the results of YOUR changes, with changes made by Google! WATCH what Google is changing at the same time that you are making changes. Google switches ads all the time. Be aware that any performance change may be due ENTIRELY to the ads that Google is currently serving you, and may not have anything to do with your changes.

MINIMUM TEST TIME - Don't jump to conclusions. One day is always inconclusive, due to random variation. There are definitely day-of-the-week variations. A week is a much better length of time to evaluate any change. But sometimes, the result of your change is SO BAD, that you don't have to wait a week. If the results are terrible, then switch back right away. There is no sense in throwing away money.

top of page

AD REMOVAL

UNDERPERFORMING PAGES - Sometimes, you may have a VERY popular page, but the Adsense ads perform terribly, no matter what you do. It may be that Google simply does not provide good ads for the page. It may be that the subject of the page simply does not generate clicks. For instance, webmasters don't click - we have been trained (terrified) into not clicking anything.

REMOVE ADSENSE - It really doesn't matter what the reason is. You must remove the Adsense from that page. The huge number of impressions that do not generate clicks, will pull your CTR and eCPM stats WAY DOWN. This will result in you being paid far less per click on your other pages, and you will make a lot less money. Google rewards high CTR, and punishes low CTR.

This situation has occurred with my most popular pages. I have gone back and forth with adding and removing AdSense. The result is always the same. Poorly performing pages must be removed. Several of these pages will never see AdSense again, because they are a huge detriment to total income - a millstone, holding all the others back.

You don't have to believe me. Just try it yourself.
Strive to raise your CTR (legally), and keep it high. That is the nature of the game.

Top 10 unknown Google tricks

Top 10 unknown Google tricks

Below is a list of our top ten Google tricks many people who use Google don't know about.

Definitions

Pull up the definition of the word by typing define followed by the word you want the definition for. For example, typing: define bravura would display the definition of that word.

Local search

Visit Google Local enter the area you want to search and the keyword of the place you want to find. For example, typing: restaurant at the above link would display local restaurants.

Phone number lookup

Enter a full phone number with area code to display the name and address associated with that phone number.

Find weather and movies

Type "weather" or "movies" followed by a zip code or city and state to display current weather conditions or movie theaters in your area. For example, typing weather 84101 gives you the current weather conditions for Salt Lake City, UT and the next four days. Typing movies 84101 would give you a link for show times for movies in that area.

Track airline flight and packages

Enter the airline and flight number to display the status of an airline flight and it's arrival time. For example, type: delta 123 to display this flight information if available.

Google can also give a direct link to package tracking information if you enter a UPS, FedEx or USPS tracking number.

Translate

Translate text, a full web page, or search by using the Google Language Tools.

Pages linked to you

See what other web pages are linking to your website or blog by typing link: followed by your URL. For example, typing link:http://www.computerhope.com displays all pages linking to Computer Hope.

Find PDF results only

Add fileType: to your search to display results that only match a certain file type. For example, if you wanted to display PDF results only type: "dell xps" fileType:pdf -- this is a great way to find online manuals.

Calculator

Use the Google Search engine as a calculator by typing a math problem in the search. For example, typing: 100 + 200 would display results as 300.

Stocks

Quickly get to a stock quote price, chart, and related links by typing the stock symbol in Google. For example, typing: msft will display the stock information for Microsoft.

Adsense Tips..


Google AdSense Tips

Google just released a Newbie Central for their AdSense program, those ads webmasters can include on their site to earn money for every click on the ad from a visitor (if you're using the program, part of the advertiser budget will go to you, and the other part to Google). I wanted to add some tips from my own experience:



Ads can work well in-between other stuff. On a games site of mine, some of the games don't contain ads next to the game area; the AdSense ad will only be shown in-between game rounds. This is the time the visitor is not concentrating on performing a task but might take a small break, and be open to the option of visiting new sites.


Put too much emphasis on AdSense and your site may be linked to less. The more available space you dedicate to AdSense on your site, and the less you differentiate between ads and content in your design, the more money you earn with the program, right? Not quite. While pushing the AdSense may result in short-term gains, it might also convince some visitors that the site is too crowded to be worth visiting again. And some of those visitors may also be bloggers or other people who might otherwise help to promote your site with links to it. And the less your site gets linked to, the less traffic it gets, meaning AdSense revenues may go down in the long term.


Even if you get huge traffic, the AdSense income from the site is more dependent on the site type and audience. Google targets AdSense ads automatically to the site content. Or at least, it does so ideally – but some types of content fare better than others with this targeting. I noticed for instance that AdSense does better on a games site than on a technology blog. I also heard people say that AdSense does quite good on product oriented blogs; say, one post solely about the iPod; another post solely about Gadget XYZ, and so on.


Image ads can be relevant and work for you, but they might also apall some visitors. Google's AdSense program gives you the option to choose between a couple of different ad formats. Two main groups are text ads vs text & image ads. When you choose the latter, Google will deliver what they deem works best for your content (or so one would hope, and it would be in Google's best self-interest to serve you the best possible ad, it seems).

However, Google doesn't really know your layout preferences, and they don't really understand when your audience thinks ads are "too much"; and considering image ads include Flash animations (which you can't disable, once you go for image ads), Flash animations may well push some people away. One thing you can do is to only show image ads in areas where they don't disturb the content, e.g. at the end of posts. Also, you might want to listen to visitor feedback on the ads being served; I received emails before that the blinking ad on this or that site made a person want to leave the site, at which point I blocked the specific advertiser via the AdSense Setup -> Competitive Ad Filter option.


When it comes to context sensitive targeting, you can increase or lower the importance of certain parts of your page. To help Google find a matching ad for your content, you can use the HTML comment syntax by encapsulating more important parts with

<!-- google_ad_section_start -->
... your important site content here ...
<!-- google_ad_section_end -->.
Or, to lower the importance of a section, use:

<!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->
... your not so important site content here ...
<!-- google_ad_section_end -->
(Google notes that it may take up to 2 weeks for this change to your site will be taken into account by the AdSense.)

What if your site doesn't have any good matchable content to begin with, though? Say, the page just includes an image. Well, for the reasons of search engine optimization but also ad optimization you might want to consider using at least a descriptive title, an explanatory footer containing the important keywords or keyphrases (the kind of footer that actually helps the human visitor by explaining what the page is about). In the case of image content, reasonable alt and title attribute texts should be used as well.*

*Whatever you do, don't resort to "keyword-stuffing" as it doesn't help your visitors and may get your page ranked lower in search engines.



Be aware of risks when you change ad layouts too much. I once had a system on the server to randomly differ between various AdSense layouts on the same page. Doing so I was hoping to add some good variety to keep the ads at least somewhat interesting and notable. Shortly after I stopped doing so and simply included a rather big static area for the AdSense to "do what it wants," the AdSense revenues for that site increased. Now, I don't know if this was a coincidence of some sorts, as revenues often go down or up even when you don't do anything, but it might well have been that there was a connection between adding too much homemade randomization, and lowered revenues.

At another time, during the redesign of this blog, I switched from one ad format to another for the end-of-posts AdSense ad space. This, combined with perhaps other layout changes, suddenly cut the ad revenues in half for the blog. It took me some time to realize that I had some ad channels* set up for the specific old layout size, and by changing this I must have kicked out all those advertisers who were pushing their ads through the channel.

*This setting can be found at AdSense Setup -> Channels.


Use competing ad systems when AdSense doesn't seem to work for a site. At CoverBrowser.com, which shows galleries of comic and book covers and so on, I tried including AdSense ads in "non-annoying" places in the layout (including trying to use AdSense affiliate links via AdSense Setup -> Referrals), but this didn't seem to work at all. However I then tried "affiliating" the "buy" link below individual covers, utilizing the eBay affiliate commission system offered by AuctionAds.com*. (Disclosure: Patrick Gavin, co-owner of AuctionAds, paid me for consulting before on other projects, like Sketchcast.com.) This worked a lot better, and as it was simply connected to an existing site feature, it also didn't add clutter.

A good start to find other ad programs is to search for adsense alternatives on Google... you will see a lot of lists which are dedicated to competitors. (Note that some of these competitors may be US-only.) You may also want to join an ad or blog network like The Deck, Federated Media (disclosure: I was part of Federated Media before), or 9 Rules. Before joining such a network – which might require you to show them your traffic stats and so on – check if their typical ads and campaigns fit with your site layout and your general ad type preferences.

*CommissionJunction also offers an eBay affiliate system but CommissionJunction has really low usability, in my opinion; setting it up is confusing.


Sometimes you may get a sudden increase in traffic, hence ad clicks, but you can't locate the source of the traffic. I'm using Google Analytics to track my sites, though AdSense is also a good first indicator of traffic explosions... because it will show the combined page views of all your sites (provided you include AdSense on all of them), as opposed to Google Analytics, where you need to check site by site individually.

However, sometimes even with Google Analytics, you won't be able to locate the source of your traffic because there's no specific new popular referrer being shown (a referrer is the site linking to your site, provided people click on that link). In these cases, it may well be that your site has been discussed in a TV show or similar, as the show won't "link" to you (but audiences will be entering your domain manually into the browser when they like what the saw on TV). When you feel that there has been a traffic explosion sometimes you may get additional email feedback in regards to your site, and it makes sense for you to ask your visitor: where did you first find out about the site? Maybe the can let you know about the name of the TV show, or magazine, or other "offline" source responsible for the peak. (I sometimes sent pointers to the BBC Click show for instance, with partly enormous effect.)


Consider using AdSense even when the page doesn't get any traffic yet. Who knows, some day the traffic suddenly explodes, and you might not realize fast enough and thus miss out on the action (as sometimes, traffic goes as fast as it comes).

On the other hand, reversely I would suggest to never do a site just to make ad money with it. That kind of motivation may lead to spammy sites that don't help anyone really. (If a project is great, it's great even if it doesn't make any money.)


Making money with AdSense takes time. In my experience, it may take many months to years for a site to gain enough traffic to make OK money through AdSense... if ever. I have almost never experienced any site making quick and easy money with AdSense (though you may be getting quicker results than me of course, as it depends on so many variables!).
I think for any site getting a couple of thousands of visitors a day, you might want to start playing around with AdSense to see where it takes you (if you didn't already include AdSense anyway just to see what happens, and following up on tip #9). As you are paid in US-$, the actual benefit the ad revenue will bring depends on your local costs of living as well (you might even ponder moving or going on an extended holiday trip if your local costs of living are too high for your site revenues to cover)

Top 10 computer mouse tips everyone should know

Top 10 computer mouse tips everyone should know

Most computer users don't take full advantage of the computer Mouse. Below are computer mouse tips and secrets that help you get the full potential of your computer mouse and increase your overall productivity while on the computer.

Shift key and mouse click

Many text editors and programs allow you to highlight all or portions of text using the Shift key and the mouse. For example, place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph in a text editor, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the paragraph to highlight the full paragraph.

Bonus tip: Holding down the Alt key while dragging and highlighting text in a text editor will allow you to selectively highlight text. This can be useful if your paragraph or other text is in a column.

Take full advantage of the scroll wheel

Today, everyone is familiar with a mouse wheels ability to scroll up and down on a page. However, this wheel can also do so much more, below are just a few examples.
The mouse wheel is not just a wheel, it can also be used as a button. Pressing down on the wheel will act like a third mouse button. This can be used to open a web page in a tab by clicking the wheel on any link and can also be used to close a tab by clicking the wheel on any open tab.
Holding down the shift key while scrolling up or down in a Internet browser will quickly go back and forward between web pages.
Zoom in and Out on a web page, word document, excel spreadsheet, etc. by holding down the Ctrl key and scrolling up to zoom in and down to zoom out.
Move forward and backwards while browsing the Internet by holding down the Shift key and scrolling up and down. Scrolling down goes back and scrolling up goes forward.
Some mouse wheels can be pushed left or right to also move back and forward on a web page.

Select with double and triple click

Any word can be selected by double-clicking the word. If you want to highlight the whole paragraph, click the mouse button three times on any text in the paragraph.

Use the right-click

Take full advantage of the right-click any time you highlight text or wish to view the properties of an object. For example, if you highlight a file or text, you can right-click that highlighted item copy it and then right-click anywhere else to paste it.

Tip: If you right-click on any file or text and drag it while continuing to hold the right button, when you let go you will be given the option to move or copy that file or text. This saves you the extra step of having to right-click where you want to paste the item.

Tip: While in a browser pressing and holding Ctrl while clicking on any link will open that link in a new tab.

Ctrl key and mouse click or highlight

While holding down the Ctrl key you can left-click to select multiple objects or highlight multiple sections of text. For example, in Microsoft Windows you could hold down the Ctrl key and click to select multiple files at once. If you wanted to highlight different parts of a paragraph or web page, you could also hold down the Ctrl key and select each section you wanted to copy.

Tip: Mozilla Firefox users can also hold down the Ctrl key and individually click on each cell in a table they wish to copy or drag their mouse down a row to select just that row or text without selecting any of the other text in that table.

Use the mouse side buttons

Many new computer mice have buttons on the side of the mouse. These buttons can be programmed to do anything, however, by default the left-thumb button can be used to go back on a web page. This makes browsing the Internet more enjoyable since you do not need to move the mouse cursor to the browser back arrow button in order to go back a page.

Use the Windows Snap To feature

Take full advantage of the Windows mouse Snap To feature, which will automatically move your mouse to buttons that appear in a dialog box. For example, if you delete a file or close a window you may get a prompt asking you if you are sure you want to perform the task. With the Snap To feature enabled, the mouse cursor automatically moves to the Ok button, so all you will have to do is click the mouse button if you agree. This saves you the time of having to move the mouse cursor over to the Ok button and then click Ok. To enable this feature open the Mouse properties under the Windows Control Panel and check the Snap To check box under the Pointer Options tab.

Tip: While changing this feature we also suggest looking at other available options in the Mouse settings. For example, increasing the Motion speed can also help increase your productivity while using the mouse.

Manage the open window with the mouse

Double-click the top title bar of any window to maximize a window or if it is already maximized resize it to a window. You can also double-click the icon for the window in the top-left corner of the window to close that window.

Move the mouse with your keyboard

Instead of using the mouse that came with your computer you can also enable Windows to use the number pad as a mouse.

Customize your mouse

Finally, if you have a mouse with more than two buttons, installing the included mouse software will allow you to customize the mouse even more. For example, if you don't use the side buttons to move back and forth in a web page change it to something you do more often, such as switching between open windows or opening the calculator.

Top 10 Internet tips and tricks

Top 10 Internet tips and tricks

You don't need the http:// portion of a web page

When typing an Internet address you do not need to type http:// or even www. in the address. For example, if you wanted to visit Computer Hope you could just type computerhope.com and press enter. To make things even quicker, if you're visiting a .com address you can type computerhope and then press Ctrl + Enter to type out the full http://www.computerhope.com address.

Quickly move between the fields of a web page

If you're filling out an online form, e-mail, or other text field you can quickly move between each of the fields by pressing the Tab key or Shift + Tab to move back a field. For example, if you're filling out your name and the next field is your e-mail address you can press the Tab key to switch to the e-mail field.

Tip: This tip also applies to the buttons, if you press tab and the web developer has designed correctly the button should be selected and will allow you to press the space bar or enter to push the button.

Tip: If you have a drop-down box that lists every country or every state you can click that box and then press the letter of the state or country you're looking for. For example, is a drop-down box of States in the United States you could press u on the keyboard to quickly scroll to Utah.

Use Internet search engines to their full potential

Make sure to get the most out of every search result. If you're not finding what you want try surrounding the text in quotes. For example, if you were searching for 'computer help' this actually searches for pages that contain both computer and help and not necessarily pages that have computer and help next to each other. If you search for "computer help" with the quotes around the search query this will only return pages that actually have computer and help next to each other.

Tip: Many new computer users also don't realize that in every search box you can press enter instead of having to move the mouse button over to the Search button.

Top 10 Windows 8 tips and tricks

Top 10 Windows 8 tips and tricks

Customize your tiles

Make the most of your Windows Start screen tiles by adjusting the sizes, where they are located, and what is listed.
Move any tile by clicking and dragging the tile. While moving a tile, if you need a larger view of the Start screen move the tile towards the top or bottom of the screen to zoom out.
Use your mouse wheel to scroll left-to-right through your tiles.
Any Desktop shortcut or program can be pinned to the Start screen by right-clicking the icon and choosing Pin to Start.
In the bottom right-hand corner of the start screen is a magnifying glass with tiles, click this icon to get a zoomed out view of your Start screen. In this view, if you right-click on a group of tiles you'll be given the option to name group, which can be useful if you have a group of related tiles (e.g. games). In this view, you can also click and drag a group to organize your tile groups.
Create a new speed bump between tile groups by moving a tile to a speed bump.
Resize any User tile or Live tile by right-clicking the tile and choosing resize.
If there is a tile you want on your Taskbar, right-click the tile and choose Pin to taskbar.
Show admin applications on the Start screen by clicking Settings in Charms, click Settings, and change the Show administrative tools from No to Yes.
In Internet Explorer 10, you can also pin any of your favorite web pages to your Start Screen.

Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts

Knowing at least some of the Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts will make your Windows 8 experience much more enjoyable. Try to memorize these top Windows 8 shortcut keys.
Press the Windows key to open the Start screen or switch to the Desktop (if open).
Press the Windows key + D will open the Windows Desktop.
Press the Windows key + . to pin and unpin Windows apps on the side of the screen.
Press the Windows key + X to open the power user menu, which gives you access to many of the features most power users would want (e.g. Device Manager and Command Prompt).
Press the Windows key + C to open the Charms.
Press the Windows key + I to open the Settings, which is the same Settings found in Charms.
Press and hold the Windows key + Tab to show open apps.
Press the Windows key + Print screen to create a screen shot, which is automatically saved into your My Pictures folder.

See our Windows shortcuts page for a full listing of all Windows shortcuts.

Know your hot corners

The corners on your screen are hot corners and give you access to different Windows features. Below, is a brief explanation of each of these corners.

Bottom Left-hand corner

The bottom left-hand hot corner of the screen will allow you to access the Start screen, if you're in the Start screen and have the Desktop open, this corner will open the Desktop from the Start screen.

Tip: Right-clicking in the left hand corner will open the power user menu.

Top-left corner of the screen

Moving the mouse to the top-left corner and then down will display all the apps running on the computer. Clicking and dragging any of these apps to the left or right-hand side of the screen will snap that app to that side of the screen. Each of these open app icons can also be right-clicked to close or snap.

Right-hand side of the screen

On the full right-hand side of the screen will be given access to the Windows Charms.

Taking advantage of search

The Search in Windows 8 has been significantly improved when compared to all previous versions of Windows. To search for a file or run a program in Windows 8 from the Start screen just start typing what you're trying to find or want to run.

As you begin typing, the results will start appearing on the left-hand side. In addition to being able to search for files and run programs, the Search also supports limiting the search to apps such as Finance, People, Maps, Photos, Mail, Music, Videos, Weather, and much more. If what you are searching for is not a file or program, click on the app you wish to use as the search. For example, if you were searching for "New York" and selected the Weather App you would be shown the weather in New York, NY.

By default, Search organizes the available Apps by how frequently they are used and then in alphabetical order. If you want to keep your favorite app at the top of the Search list, right-click the app and choose Pin. Pinning the app will lock it in place regardless of how often it is used. If there is an app you don't want (e.g. Finance) you can turn on and off any of the search apps through the PC settings, which is found under the Settings in the Charms.

Bonus tip: The Search is also found through Charms and can also be opened by pressing Windows key + F.

Running two apps side by side

Any app can be pinned to the left or right-hand side of the screen. For example, open the People app and then press the Windows Key + . (period) to move that app to the right-hand side of the screen, pressing the same keys again will move it to the left-hand side, and pressing the same keys again will make it full screen. While an app is pinned, any other app or program can be opened and loaded into the available space on the screen. For example, in the below picture, we've opened a browser window and have the People app running to monitor our social networks.



Any open app can also be pinned using your mouse by clicking at the top of the tile and dragging it to the left or right-hand side of the screen.

Bonus tip: The Desktop can also be pinned to the left or right-hand side of the screen.

Note: In order for snap to work properly your resolution must be at least 1,366 x 768.

Windows 8 Task Manager

The Windows 8 Task Manager has been significantly improved over previous versions of Windows. Some of the new changes include showing a total percent usage at the top of your Processes, which makes it easier to determine total memory and CPU usage, improved Performance graphs, a Startup tab to see startup processes and their impact to system performance, and the App history tab (as shown below) that gives you the total resources an app has used over a period of time. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to start exploring the new Task Manager.



Use a picture password to log into your computer

Windows 8 includes a new feature called Picture password, which allows you to authenticate with the computer using a series of gestures that include circles, straight lines, and taps. Enable this feature if you want a new way to access your computer or have a hard time with passwords.
Open the Windows Charms.
Click Settings and then More PC settings
In the PC settings window click Users and then select Create a picture password

Bonus tip: A four digit pin password can also be created and used to access your computer.

Take advantage of Windows 8 apps

Windows 8 comes included with several apps to help you get the most from your computer. Below are just a few of the included apps.

People

Microsoft touts the People feature in Windows 8 because they understand how many people are using social networks today. In the People feature you'll be able to connect your Windows computer to all the major social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Once connected, you can pin the people app and monitor your social network (as shown below), use People in Search to find people, and get an overview of what is happening in all your social networks.



Reader

The Reader app will give you PDF support right out of the box.

SkyDrive

The SkyDrive app will give you access to the Microsoft cloud service SkyDrive, which allows you to store your photos, documents, and other files in the cloud and access or share those files with any computer with Internet access.

Store

Take advantage of the Windows Store and install one or more of the thousands of available apps designed for Windows 8. The Store is found in the Start screen, or use Search to search the Store app for any apps that you are trying to find.

Know the answers to common questions

Windows 8 is the biggest change to Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, which was released all the way back in 1995. Since so many people have grown up with Windows, it can be difficult to transition to a new way of doing things. Below, is a short list of the most common questions previous Windows users will have.