How to Start a Blog Using Blogger

Since I've had a number of requests for help getting started with blogger, I'm going to do a "step-by-step" with pictures and text for those who have never ever even looked at or know what a blog is.

Before you start a blog, you need to decide what your subject will be - what you are going write about and put in your blog. What it shouldn't be is something you have no clue about: if you aren't doctor or nurse or paramedic, don't write about medical stuff. If you've never earned a penny doing something online, then don't write about earning money online. Select a subject you have some knowledge about, or something you enjoy. If you have a hobby, like diecast toys or antiques, then write about that. If you are simply a mom whose kids have given her tons of hilarious things to write about (like Erma Bombeck), then write about that. Whatever it is you choose, you have to be able to write from knowledge and experience. Don't think you can start a blog and copy stuff from all over the internet. That just won't fly for AdSense.

So, now that you've picked a subject you have to decide on a name for your blog. Think of a couple that match your subject matter, mainly because someone else may already have a blog with the name you pick, so you want to be ready with a second choice. Or, you can simply use your name, like "Gracey's" or "What Gracey Thinks".

To begin you have to sign up so you type www.blogger.com into your search bar and find the home/sign up page. Then, you sign up for a free account, and when your registration is complete you'll be presented with a "blogger dashboard" (click the images to see a larger view).

On the dashboard, you can select your language, and click the "create a blog link".



Next you'll be presented with a page where you name your blog, and select the URL (blog address or web address) that you'll use for your new blog. When you type in the blog name and URL (the url can be the same as your blog name if nobody is using it) click the link to check if it's available. If so, you can continue and fill in the captcha letters. If someone else is using it, you have to pick a new one and try again.

Once you click the "continue" button you'll be presented with a page where you can pick a blog template - this is the design or the way the blog will look.



Select a design by clicking the button under it. It doesn't really matter much what you choose to get started with - changing the template later is easy, and takes nothing more than clicking a button. Customized template designs are something for those with a litle experience, so we're starting with the basics offered in blogger.

Click continue and you'll get a page like this:


So now the basic layout and setup has been finished and your blog is ready for you to start typing in. Click the start blogging button and it takes you to a page where you can enter your first post.


This is the "blog editor" or "wysiwyg editor". It's what you'll use to enter information and images, even videos into your posts.

Across the top of the editor are options like "font" (in a drop down box) where you pick the type of lettering you want, next is a large and small T with an arrow - when you click that you make your text bigger or smaller.

The "b" lets you make bold text (highlight the text by clicking, holding down your mouse button and dragging across all the text you want to make bold, then click on the "b"); the little i gives you italic text (done the same way as you get bold).

The T with the coloured box changes your text colour; the small globe with the chain link across the top helps you make links.

The next series with all those little lines let you decide whether your text starts at the left (left justified), or is centered, or is right justified, or is justified across the entire page.

The small lines with numbers next to them lets you make a numbered list, the ones with little squares lets you make a bulleted list.

The quotation lets you make a block quote, and the ABC with the check mark is a spell-checker. Next to that is a tiny picture - click that to insert an image from your computer or an address on the internet. The next little picture lets you add a video, and the last icon - is an eraser that removes formatting from a specific selection of text.

Okay, so now you know it all. Well, not exactly, but you should have an idea of how to get started.

To write your first post, you simply start typing in the editor's text box. It works like most text boxes.

When you are finished entering your article, or story or text, you can add labels for your post. This helps search engines and readers find your content - labels work a little bit like keywords do. Then, you click "publish post" and you can click the "view blog" link at the top to see your blog with it's first post.


There are a lot of things not covered here because this post is already very long. The next one will cover the settings in your blog, and how to change the header to use an image, how to change the colour of the the navbar (that bar at the top), how to add gadgets to your sidebar and other fine-tuning details of setting up a blog that not only has good and interesting articles, but that looks good too.

Until then, make some posts and explore your blogger options. Oh - one thing - don't mess with the templates html unless you know what you are doing, and DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT try to monetize your blog at this point. Leave that until you've got some content worthy of having advertising on it.

AdSense Privacy Policy - Adding it to Blogger Blogs

In the last few months or so I’ve had to make use of the google help forums and discovered that there is a never-ending stream of questions coming into the help centers. Some quite simple, but others much more complex. What I also discovered is that help can sometimes be as simple as pointing someone to the right link in the vast network of google help links.
I am no expert on google or it’s help systems, but for the most part I have learned how and where to find help when I need it. What you’ll find though, is that getting a direct answer from any person who actually works for or is approved by google is difficult, at best.
Any email to support generally results in a form-letter reply directing you to a help forum for the area you are asking about. Considering the shear number of emails that must head towards google help centers every minute of every day, that really isn’t all that surprising.
I doubt any one entity that large could respond with personal emails to that volume of mail. But the help centers can be very useful once you learn how to navigate them.
While not related to all the google categories where you can find help, I’ve created a tutorial to help bloggers out a little bit – it walks you through the steps to add a Privacy Policy to your blogger blog, using written instructions as well as pictures in an easy-to-follow step-by-step manner.

Please note that this .pdf tutorial was updated Dec. 6, 2010 to include using your privacy policy on a static page on blogger with the pages gadget.

Adding A Privacy Policy to A Blogger Blog 

(please note:  unfortunately due to people trying to link directly to the server to to allow this to be downloaded from their own sites, I've had to password protect the tutorial. The password to open the file is: getthisfromgracey)
 
Links to Help Forums

Google Help Centres – all one page for all your google services

SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY TEXT

Privacy Policy

We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it. (This privacy policy is applicable to websites falling under the primary holder fill in your website(s) and urls here.)

Routine Information Collection

All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes, and lets me know what pages and information are useful and helpful to visitors.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.

Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.

Controlling Your Privacy

Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.

Special Note About Google Advertising

Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.

About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher’s website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user’s browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Some third-party avertisers used by Google may use a different cookie. You may opt out of most-third party advertising cookies by following this link and visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page, or by visiting this Consumers page to opt out of all advertising cookies.

Contact Information

Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to fill in your contact information here for further clarification.

(originally posted by the writer, me, on one of my other sites)

How Much Money Can I Make With AdSense?

Now that is a question that everyone would like a solid answer to. The problem is, there really is no standard answer. You can make a few cents a month to a few thousand dollars a month, but there's a whole lot of difference between the two, and how to get from one to the other is a long, hard job. At least if you do it honestly.

There are very few "ordinary folks" making thousands of dollars a month, and almost nobody who is new to AdSense will make this kind of money. Forget what you've read all over the internet - especially in those blogs that are all about making "easy" money.

Ordinary people (like me, and like you) can and do make a few thousand dollars a month (I don't), but not by sticking some ads on a couple of half-finished or just started blogs. THAT kind of money takes work, and usually multiple websites (of the dot com kind, seldom blogs), as well as long hours of hard-earned knowledge on the correct way to optimize for search and get real, organic, non-paid traffic.

There are organizations (such as large media sites, for instance) that do make thousands of dollars on their advertising, but many of these have been invited to be a "premium publisher" due to the sheer volume of daily visitors. That's a hard thing to come by, so while you might set your goals toward becoming a premium publisher, it isn't something you should count on early in your AdSense career. Work towards that goal, but in the meantime, don't forget to be realistic about your earnings.

The average blogger who writes their own articles (not copying work from elsewhere) once or twice a week (every week, regularly) can earn some pretty nice pocket money - anywhere from $100 to $500+ a month. But ONLY WITH WORK AND TIME invested in the project at hand. You can't open a dozen blogs with two or three posts on each one and expect to earn much more than a few cents a month.

Part of the reason people don't earn much (or in some cases almost nothing at all) is the advertiser's and what they are willing to pay. If you don't have much of an interest in your blog/website, the advertisers probably aren't going to be willing to put their ads on your site. Those that do may be some of the lowest paying advertisers, and of course, with very little content to interest visitors, you won't get much traffic and without traffic you aren't going to have much chance of getting anyone whose interested in any of the ads.

Getting started the right way can help you build up to a better income. The right way is not to create a blog just to earn money from. That might work for a month or two months, but there are so many "made for AdSense" blogs (blogs/websites designed around nothing but the advertising or earning fast cash) that sooner or later the traffic peters off to very little. Why? Because there are thousands of blogs out there doing the very same thing. The ones that are successful are the ones that really are making their income the right way, and have learned the best and most honest ways of keeping that income. All the rest who are riding along on the coat tails of those types of sites usually fail after a while. Partly because the author's of the blog aren't actually making much money and partly because they copy articles from other more successful blogs.

Copying articles from someone whose work is successful doesn't guarantee you the same success. After all, the original writer is already getting all the traffic you are hoping for, and that isn't likely to change.

You need to provide something other people aren't, or at least provide something fewer people are doing.

So when we see questions like "how much am I going to make on average" in the forum, the answer is essentially "nobody knows". How much you might make depends on how much work and time you are willing to put into it.

If you aren't willing to work for your money, you aren't going to keep getting it for long. There is no free money, and very little easy money. Nobody is willing to pay money for no work these days, not even AdSense.

How to win? Stay on the right side of the AdSense policies and terms and conditions, work hard, produce original content and articles, research SEO techniques, stay away from paid links, and work hard. (Yes, I know...I said that twice to make a point.)

Why You Need "Alt Text" Tags

What exactly is "alt text"? AltText is something you may have heard of, but aren't sure what it is, or what it's purpose is. When you upload an image to your blog, the "alt text" is the stuff you normally won't see, but it describes your image to those who can't visually see your image.

And there are other purposes - a search engine bot (robot) is what crawls through your website or blog and indexes your pages and posts. These bots can't "see" images, they only read text. If your image doesn't have alt text, the bot doesn't know it's there, so your article or website might look like it has a lot of big spaces to the bot, and very little actual content.

This is particularly a problem for those whose sites contain a large number of images - such as mine do. If you want to be indexed properly and have your sites and pages show up well in search engine results, you need to optimize your images by using alt text. It also makes it difficult to get approved for AdSense if you have a lot of images, but no alt text tags. After all, AdSense wants sites or blogs with a lot of good, original content. If it can't see your pictures, then there could be a lot of content "missing" as far as the AdSense bot is concerned.

Another good reason for using alt text is your visitors themselves. Some people still do have dialup connections, and some can be pretty slow when they need to load a lot of images. Because of this many dialup users turn off image loading in their browsers, which means they will only see a blank page if you have no text, or very little text and a lot of space where the images should be, or simply a bunch of boxes with red "x"s in them in place of your images. If you use alt text, these browsers will see that text so they will at least know what the image is.

And then there are those browsers who are blind, or classed as "legally blind". And before you ask, yes the blind do surf and enjoy the internet. At least when people consider them and use alt text for the images. There are voice programs which read text on internet pages that are used by the blind. Their computers read to them, but this software can usually only recognize text, just like a search engine bot. If there's no alt text, there's nothing for the software to read.

Lastly, if you own the image (and you should if you are uploading it) or if the image is being posted with permission of the owner, you can also add this text in the alt text area, or you can add a caption to the image so people are given proper credit for the images.

Those who don't use alt text as often as they can could be missing out on a lot of visitors.

So, how to put the alt text on your images? If you use a blog service like wordpress or blogger, they have box right in the imager uploader where you can type your alt text. Below are screenshots of how to add the alt text to your blogger images:

• upload your image into your post
• click the image to get the options box
• click properties
• type description in the text box that opens and click OK

Make your blog or website more accessible by using the Alt Text whenever you upload an image - this newer method works on old previously uploaded images as well!


(note: originally posted by me on another of my blogs)

Using the AdSense Help Forum Effectively

If you want to get answers that help resolve your problems or questions in the AdSense Help Forums, there are some things you can and should do before you start posting to the forums.

First, you need to read the AdSense Support Forums Terms of Service. You shouldn't post profanity, or advertising. You also must not use your website address as a signature. This is considered advertising. You can, however, use your Google Profile to list your websites if you so choose. Posters can access your Google Profile from your nickname on the forums. (You may post your website url in your question if it's necessary to the question, just not as a signature.)

Next, at the Help Forum "home page" you'll see a list of discussion categories. These links will bring up questions in each category, filtering out other categories. It's helpful to read through other postings, because often your question will already have been answered in someone else's post. On the right side of the page is a listing of "popular" discussions that may already answer your question as well.


At the bottom of the home page is a link to "browse all discussions". When you click on this you get all the discussions and threads in the forum, including some you should check before you begin a new post. At the top of the help forum discussions are "pinned topics". These are topics posted by AdSense/Google Employees, and often will include things like current problems (ie: "Known Issues"). If there are system bugs that many publishers are experiencing, you will probably find it here in the pinned section, unless it has already been resolved. Many duplicate complaint posts could be avoided if people would check the pinned topics first.

Another thing to do before posting your own topic is to search the forums. Just think about where you are. You are in a forum hosted and run by Google. And who are Google? They're the people who are pretty well known for their search engine, which means they do "search" extremely well. You should make use of this. Type your problem into the search bar at the top and click the "search help" button.


Look through the results and see if your problem (or a similar complaint or question) is there, and if it has been answered or not.

After doing all of that, if you still have a question that hasn't been asked or that is more specific than what's listed, then go ahead and post your question. Click the "post a question" link on the left menu.

How to Post an Effective Question

If you want an answer to your question, then you need to post a question that addresses your issue as clearly as possible and contains details. Questions like "I can't get approved" or "What's wrong with my website" or "Why?" are really not going to get you helpful answers.

Don't:

• post questions unrelated to AdSense problems
• post the full question in your title
• post one word questions (why? when? what? help!)
  
• post the same question over and over again (simply edit your question or post a "bump" and it will move back toward the top of the forum again)
  
• post "bumps" every minute
• post without checking the help articles (link is in left sidebar)
• post in any language except english (there are help forums available in other languages - down at the bottom of the page linked here is a drop down box with the avalilable languages for help forums)
• post spam (this will get you banned from the forum)
• post your email address, publisher ID or personal details
• post your website address unless the help you are asking for is AdSense related
  
• post personal insults and profanity
• post links to pornographic websites
• post adlinks in the forum

DO

• use a title related to your question
• post a full explanation and question within the body of the post. If your question doesn't make sense, we can't answer it properly without asking further questions.
• use the search function before posting
• read the help articles before posting
• include your website url if you think people need to look at your site to offer help (this is necessary for questions on ads that won't display, help with disabled accounts, ad placements, ads that aren't related to your content etc.)
• check your posts for answers instead of posting again
  
• try to be patient. There are a lot of questions every day and not that many of us to answer them.
• try not to take your anger a frustration out on the people answering your questions. Almost none of them are employed by Google or AdSense. Most of them are volunteers who are publishers, just like you. Unless a responding poster has "Google Employee" by/under their name, they are just ordinary folks trying to help others.

If you post a question and can't find it later, you can check your profile and see a listing of your questions. In the menu bar at the left is a link for "My Discussions" this will take you to your profile where all the questions you've asked are listed. You can click the link for the post you want and it will take you to that thread.

If you post a question that doesn't get answered, amend your original question to bring it back to the front of the forum where people can see it again. Posting the same question multiple times simply makes everyone annoyed. There are some types of questions that we just can't resolve in the forums, so you may not get an answer.

Please note that questions related specifically to how to place your AdSense code into your website are often more related to:

1. the specific website creator you are using
2. the webhosting or blog service you are using
   

than they are to AdSense. Unless one of the volunteers has used your specific website builder, questions of this nature may not get answered. Your best choice for questions relating to your website is to ask at the webhosting help center, or the web builder help sections.

Please try to remember that as AdSense publishers most of the volunteers have experienced similar problems and have experienced the same frustrations as you have. Please don't come into the forums with a nasty attitude towards those who are trying to help you. All this will do is make the volunteers reluctant to try and help you.

You can express your frustration, just don't make it a personal attack on your helpers. That won't resolve anything.

If your question is related to other Google services (YouTube, gmail, google search, blogger, etc.) then you need to ask your question in the help forum for the related product. You can start here at the "Getting Started with Google Help" page, or if you want to look at all the help forums and groups available for Google services and products you can do that here.

Frequently Asked Questions...With Simple Answers

These are some of the questions we see over on the AdSense Help Forum on a pretty regular basis. In most cases, the answers are mostly simple and can be found in the AdSense Help Center pages by doing a search - a topic which we'll cover in another post.

1. How long does it take to get an Adsense account?

Although the AdSense sign up pages say that you should receive a notice from them in about 48 hours, over the past year that has changed. While some applications might actually get reviewed as quickly as that, most do not. Currently it can take anywhere from a week to a couple of months.

1(a) - Why is it taking so long?

This is because the influx of applications has grown tremendously over the last year. The growth of "get rich quick" sites and scam sites using AdSense and Google to further their scam earnings has created an enormous backlog and constant increase in applications for AdSense accounts.

Along with this, the fact that the economy all over the world has taken a nosedive over the last year and half means that individuals who would not have thought about using AdSense previously are all trying to get in on "the money", which many websites tell you is "hundreds" or "thousands" of dollars a week. Which is a very large misrepresentation.

Because of the thousands of applications every week (perhaps even every day), it now can take anywhere from a few days or a weeks, to longer than two months. The wait time is long, and you'll need to have patience.

2. How old do you have to be to have an AdSense account?

AdSense requires that you be 18 years of age to have an account. This is because in most US states you must be 18 years old to legally enter into a contract. Agreeing to the AdSense Terms of Use is considered entering into a legal contract.

3. How many times can we click per day?

Yes, we do get questions like that.

The answer is NONE. Publishers are not allowed to click on ads on their own websites. Ever.

If you are visiting another publisher's website you should only click on an ad if the ad is something that you are looking for or interested in. One click is enough. If you see more than one ad you are interested in, visit the site a little bit later and view the ad then.

4. Can I use AdSense ads in my e-mails?

The answer is NO. AdSense policy does not allow AdSense code to be place in an email.

You can, however, place a simple link to your website in your email signature. You mustn't use this for sending unsolicited mass emails; that would be considered email spam and sending email spam can get your email account disabled.

5. Can we ask visitors to click ads?

Again, the answer is NO. AdSense publishers must not draw undue attention to their ads in any way.

You may not write "please support us and visit the advertisers", "please click the ads to help me" or anything similar.

You also may not write things like "please don't click the ads" because that draws as much attention to the ads as asking someone to click them.

6. Is there a phone number for AdSense?

I'm sure there must be one, but it's not one that we get to know about.

A simple search for a telephone number for Google or AdSense will get you a phone number, but the phone call would be very short as it's highly unlikely you'd get past the answering receptionist.

There really is no telephone support for AdSense publishers. Many have tried, and many have failed.

7. What is the email address for AdSense?

The email address to contact AdSense can be found throughout the help pages on the AdSense website. Unfortunately, the only reply you will probably get is one directing you to their help forum, so you might as well start there and save yourself the aggravation of waiting for an email reply.

8. Can I use other advertisers on my pages with AdSense ads?

Yes, AdSense allows it's publishers to use other advertising and affiliate programs. They do have rules for other ads - these other ads must not be formatted to look like or be confused with Google AdSense ads.

You can find out the details about AdSense requirements for using other advertisers on this page.

Why Was My AdSense Application Rejected?

There can be many reasons for having a rejected application - from incorrect personal data, or a typing error in your website address (url), to poor navigation on your website, or content that's not suitable for AdSense.

Application Details

The details you fill in on your AdSense application must be correct, and complete. Your name will be the name your payments go to if you are approved for an AdSense account, so you need to make sure this is correct in your initial application. The same thing goes for your address, and other personal details.

AdSense applicants must submit their website url when they complete an application. The website url is the part that looks like this: http://helpfulinformationfornewbies.blogspot.com/ or www.google.com .

Your website url must be correct because AdSense reviews your website to ensure it fits with AdSense policy, and contains the type of content their advertisers want to place ads on. If you type the url incorrectly, or if your website doesn't yet exist, then AdSense is likely to reject your application because they can't access your website.

Double check all the details in your application before you click the submit button. Once you send it, you can't edit it. You'll have to wait for them to review it (this can take anywhere from a few days to a few months) and send you an email. At that point, you can edit your application to correct any errors and resubmit it again.

To learn more about the AdSense application, visit their help center.


Website and Content Issues

When AdSense rejects an application, the email they send is usually pretty generic. It might say "wrong page type" without giving any further details, or it might list "poor or no navigation", or "under construction" or any one of a host of other reasons, most of which aren't very detailed.

The best place to get help in determining the actual issue(s) will be at the AdSense Help Forum. Volunteers and "Top Contributors" deal with questions like this every day, and most of them are pretty good at being able to tell you what the reasons will be, and can sometimes offer other suggestions to help you get your application and website "AdSense ready".

Page Type issues can mean anything from content that isn't acceptable to AdSense and doesn't comply with their policies, to not enough content.

In the forums we constantly see applicants whose blogs or websites have almost no content - one post or article is not "content". It's a beginning, but it's not enough to satisfy advertisers, so it's not enough to satisfy AdSense.

For some areas of the world, AdSense requires that a blog or website must be 6 months old - this actually means they want you to have six months worth of content. If you open a blog or website in January, make one post and wait six months you probably still won't get approved. The blog might be six months old, but there is still no content.

There's a saying over at AdSense... "Content is King".

Content must also be useful to people, and interesting. A blog full of posts that aren't going to interest people, or provide some useful information isn't likely to interest AdSense either. The sort of content that's going "out the door" (ie: getting less approval) at AdSense are sites that are built specifically to earn income with "get rich quick" schemes, or money making sites that have no purpose other than to accrue income from AdSense.

All content on your website or blog must adhere to AdSense policies. If it doesn't, you probably won't get an approved account. To see what the content policies are, you can visit the AdSense Program Policy page.

Poor navigation issues can be anything from having "flash only" navigation, to having no navigation, or to having navigation or menu buttons that don't link to any page, to broken menu links.

All flash navigation is difficult for the bots to follow, and if they can't follow a navigation link, to them, it's broken - they may be able to follow some of the links, or none of the links. On top of that, many people still don't allow flash in their browsers, so those people can't use your website. You need to create text links as well as flash links. You can put the text navigation in your website footer or sidebar, or create a sitemap with text links and link to the sitemap with a text link on your home page.

Menu buttons or links that are meant for future pages should either be removed, or should link to the page. Don't leave incomplete links in your navigation menu.

One of the biggest navigation problems we see are with blogs. Everyone thinks because it's a blog, it already has navigation. In some cases, this is true, it does have a form of navigation...but only if you have a bunch of posts. It's the posts and their pages that create navigation in the form of the archives on most blogs. If you have only one or two posts, you really don't have much in the way of navigation.

You'll notice in the sidebar of this blog, the first thing is titled "Pages". That was created using a blogger gadget, and the blogger pages function. You could also use the links gadget to create a menu. In the links gadget you can enter a url (in this case, the url of the page with the post on it) and a website title (instead of a website title, I use the post title) - everytime I make a new post, it is added manually to that menu. Anybody visiting my blog doesn't have to hunt through the archives looking for a subject they want. It's in the post menu. As a blog grows and has hundreds of posts, you won't want to use this method. You'll need to do something else, like only include important posts. You should always have an archive listing in your sidebar for navigation, and a text sitemap can be very useful as well.

Under Construction might seem like a pretty specific reason, but for many it is anything but. We see lots of people in the forum whose websites aren't under construction, but that's the reason they are given.

We see this a lot with websites that contain mostly graphics or images, and very little text. Landing pages or home pages that have an image and no text are another problem, as are photoblogs and videoblogs (nothing but videos in a blog is not considered good content for AdSense).

Photos and images should always have "alt text" tags so they can be "seen" by the AdSense bots and crawlers. They can't see an image if there is no text, so a website or blog of nothing but photos will look completely empty. A bunch of pages with nothing on them is a website under construction.

Websites built entirely of flash can create problems too - sometimes they can crawl them, and sometimes they can't. The best flash sites I have seen are the ones that also have a plain html version of the site for users without flash in their browsers. Some of the worst sites I've seen are those that require you to use a specific browser, like IE only sites.

Language - AdSense has a list of supported languages, and if the language your website was built in is not on that list, you won't be able to get an approved AdSense account. You can learn more about the languages AdSense supports at the AdSense Help Center.

In the end, there are some websites and content that are just not suitable for AdSense advertisers. Not everyone is granted an AdSense account.

Google Green?

No sermon here today, folks, but thanks to one of the "Top Contributors" (Dan) over on the AdSense Help forums, we're going to shoot for taking a news article and video the "viral" route.

What that means is, grab the link for the article, and post to your blogs - everybody. This will help get the word out that not every website who talks about Google or AdSense is on the "up and up".

You know all those "almost scams" and "google scams" we've been talking about? Well, here in this article at the link Fox News tells it like it is. Let your friends know there are places they need to be careful of- especially if they are thinking about signing up for AdSense.

Fox Twin Cities - Investigating Google Green

Remind your friends, if they want to apply for AdSense, then they should do it right at the Google AdSense homepage and not anywhere else.

Getting Started with AdSense and Blogger

Everyday on the Google AdSense forums you'll see lots of questions about using AdSense with Blogger blogs. Today's post will help you get started using AdSense on Blogger. More complex questions will come later, and of course you can always post a specific question to the comments, or use Google's AdSense Help Forum.

1. Can I use AdSense with Blogger?

• yes, Blogger blogs accept AdSense code very easily.

2. What's the best way to sign up with my blog?

• Blogger has a "monetize" link which many people use to get an AdSense account, and currently, if you try to apply for adsense without using this monetize link, you'll get rejected for "domain ownership issues.
• Adsense does not accept "subdomains" for their applications, so signing up at the Adsense home page with a blogger URL will get your application rejected because a blogger URL is a subdomain. To avoid that, you need to apply using the monetize link.
• Using the monetize link in blogger lets Adsense know that this is a blogger URL, which is acceptable to use for Adsense, so please do not try to sign up at the Adsense homepage for your blog.

3. My Adsense account for my blog was approved. How do I add the code to my blogger?

• There are different options for adding AdSense code to your blogger. You can use the monetize link to place the ads, you can use the Adsense Gadget in Blogger, or you can use a Text Gadget and add code you generate from your AdSense Account.
• See this step-by-step tutorial (includes snapshots and text) for the ways you can place your code on blogger blogs.

4. Why don't all of my ads show up on my blogger? I have all the code, but you can't see all the ads.

• The main reason for this is that you probably have too many of the same kind of ad on one page.
• AdSense only allows for 3 ad units, 3 link units and 2 AdSense for search boxes on one page.
• When you choose to have the AdSense ads display below each post, the number of posts allowed to display on a page has something to do with this problem. Many people leave the "posts per page" set at the default, wich I think is 5. That means there may already be three ads on the page (one ad after every 2nd post). What happens is that any other ads of the same type you put on your page won't display.
• There are two ways to remedy this. Set your post count per page to 1, 2 or 3 posts per page. This will result in one or two ads being displayed leaving you one ad of the same type for another spot. Or you can change the add type. You can use ad units between your posts, and ad links in your sidebar, or vice versa. This allows you to display 3 ads between your posts, and 3 ads in your sidebar (or below your header if you choose).

5. How much does it cost to use Blogger and AdSense?

• Nothing. Google provides both services freely. If anyone asks you pay anything for a Blogger blog or an AdSense account, then you are in the wrong place.
• There are many websites on the internet that ask you for money in exchange for providing information about earning money with AdSense, and they trade on the Google name, but they aren't associated with Google, and their practice is not condoned by Google.
• Information about AdSense or Blogger is available freely from their respective home pages at Google. You should never pay for something that is offered free. Any payments you might make to these other sites go to them, not to Google and Google cannot help you get your money back, nor will they refund you something they didn't charge you for.
  

Using "No Right Click" Codes - For Those Who Think They Need It

Lots of people seem to want to use the "no right click" on their web pages. The code is simple, but for the most part, it's a fairly useless protection against image thieves. Anybody who really wants the image will know how to get it (even I can do it) even if the code is present.

About the only people it will deter are those casual surfers who might happen upon your site and think "oh, pretty pic" and hit the right click - they'll get the "right click not available" and move on to somewhere else. Even then, if they want to use it in a blog or something else bad enough, they'll try a screen capture, and there's not much that will stop that.

For those who just have to use it (be aware that "no right click" also means that none of the functions in the right click menu work - none - when you use this you disable all of the right click functions, not just the copy).

So here's a code provided by WebmasterTools 3 (the free version - rather old, but still useful) which they also provided online (last check I couldn't find the site). The part that says "Right Click Not Available" is the part the viewer sees when they try to right click on the images on that page - that text can be changed to anything you want to use.

The script below gets inserted between the head tags of your webpage.



For those asking for instructions on using the code - it's as I mentioned above - place the entire code as shown between the head tags on your web page (the head tags look like this: <> (the beginning of the header section and < /head > (the end of the header section) ). To see the tags you need to be able to access the html portion (the code) of your web page.

Don't Let Your Work Become "Duplicate Content"

In at least one of my recent endeavours I've come to realize that taking time to protect your work online can be pretty important for some things.

Not just images, graphics and photos, but your written work, like blog posts and articles, stories and poetry. Pretty much anything you put on the net.

Some folks won't worry much about whether someone has copied their blog post or photos, but for those who are concerned, there are some steps you can take that help. While there is no real protection for anything you put out on the internet, making the effort can do two things - offer protection from those who just don't know any better, and help to educate them about copyright and plagiarism.

Anyone who follows any of my free blogs will already know that I'm pretty happy to share much of what I do with others. That's just my nature. What I'm not happy to see is other people claiming my work as their own. While none of these methods shown here will really stop anyone who is out to copy your work and put their name on it, some of them will help you find any work of yours that's been used elsewhere.


Copyscape is a service that will search the internet for written work. They offer a free service (limited, but it works) and paid programs for greater coverage. You simply put in the url of the page where your work is displayed (a blog page or website page), hit enter and wait. It will search around the net looking for whatever article or written work is on your page and then list places it found it, if any.

CopyrightSpot works essentially the same as Copyscape, though the service is at present, completely free. It is, however, still in "alpha testing", but it does seem to work reasonably well. Like copyscape, it is designed for the written word. You can also use their logo to show that you check your work against their service on a regular basis. While this won't stop someone out to purposely copy your stuff, it might give them pause if they realize you will eventually find them.

For images, the same folks who put out CopyrightSpot have MyFree Copyright. Here, you can upload a small version of any image or graphic and create a footprint for it, then get a registration number to place on your images, along with the logo if you want. This service also works to protect a file of written work, or text whether it's a web page or pdf or other form of written work. It too is provided freely. Each item you register generates an email to your account, showing the date of registration and registration number. While this is not the same as registering work with the Registry Office, it can provide a "time stamp" for your work, so if it's necessary to provide proof that someone else copied the work from you, this can be helpful. Like any other service, it doesn't stop unauthorized uses (nothing really does), but it has it's uses.

And one more place where you can upload files, including chk sums and other details and get it time stamped to help protect your ownership of your work. Copyclaim is also free, so those who write articles, poetry, tutuorials or upload .pdf files might find it useful. Note: it looks like Copyclaim is defunct.


TinEye doesn't actually offer protection, but it can help you find your images on the internet. It's still in beta, and has a ways to go before it will become really useful, but it too works if images are used in a lot of different places. TinEye is essentially a "reverse lookup tool" for images - you can upload a low res version of your image and it will search around the net and list places where it's found. If you prefer not to upload an image, you can use the Firefox browser plugin, where you simply right click on your image, and it will search from that. Note that with the browser plugin, this won't work if you are using the clear gif method of protecting your image, because all TinEye will see is no image and a clear gif. There is also a version for macs.

The image bank TinEye uses to search is still somewhat limited, so if it doesn't find your image, that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't in use somewhere else, it just means that wherever the image is, TinEye hasn't indexed that particular site or space yet. The more people who use TinEye and submit sites for indexing, the better it will get.

Get the TinEye Plugin for Firefox here.

Get the mac version here.

While there are other similar services for protecting your copyrights, many are paid services. If you earn your living with imaging or writing, you might want to invest in a paid service, and/or register your work at the Registry Office for your country or state. But for the average blogger who might have a need to prove the work belongs to them, these free services should be sufficient.

(originally posted by the writer, me, on another of my blogs)

How to Add A Privacy Policy to Blogger, and Privacy Policy Text

NOTE: The .pdf tutorial has been updated (Dec. 6/2010) to include instructions on putting your privacy policy on a blogger static page, or a blogger post.

In the last few months or so I’ve had to make use of the google help forums and discovered that there is a never-ending stream of questions coming into the help centers. Some quite simple, but others much more complex. What I also discovered is that help can sometimes be as simple as pointing someone to the right link in the vast network of google help links.
I am no expert on google or it’s help systems, but for the most part I have learned how and where to find help when I need it. What you’ll find though, is that getting a direct answer from any person who actually works for or is approved by google is difficult, at best.
Any email to support generally results in a form-letter reply directing you to a help forum for the area you are asking about. Considering the shear number of emails that must head towards google help centers every minute of every day, that really isn’t all that surprising.
I doubt any one entity that large could respond with personal emails to that volume of mail. But the help centers can be very useful once you learn how to navigate them.
While not related to all the google categories where you can find help, I’ve created a tutorial to help bloggers out a little bit – it walks you through the steps to add a Privacy Policy to your blogger blog, using written instructions as well as pictures in an easy-to-follow step-by-step manner.

Adding A Privacy Policy to A Blogger Blog

NOTE: Unfortunately since a large number of people have been hotlinking to this tutorial, I have had to protect it by locking it with a password. The password to open the file is getthisfromgracey.

Links to Help Forums

Google Help Centres – all one page for all your google services


SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY TEXT


Privacy Policy

We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it. (This privacy policy is applicable to websites falling under the primary holder fill in your website(s) and urls here.)

Routine Information Collection

All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes, and lets me know what pages and information are useful and helpful to visitors.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.

Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.

Controlling Your Privacy

Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.

Special Note About Google Advertising

Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.

About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher’s website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user’s browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Contact Information

Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to fill in your contact information here for further clarification.

(originally posted by the writer, me, on one of my other sites)

Get Yourself a Website, and Avoid the Scams

If you are fairly new to web technologies, this little info package is designed to get you started. I won't build your website for you, but this will help you understand where to go to get one, and what you should ask yourself before you start - also, what not to do.

These days we get a lot of questions on how to get a website (usually they are after "free" websites), or how to make your own website. The fact is, if you don't know anything about web design and don't understand anything about coding, then the easiest way to get started is with a web host that also provides web building tools.

Where you start is going to be entirely dependent on what you want in a website. If you just want to share your experiences with the world, then blogging is the perfect platform for you. Most free blogs are "ready to go" services. You select a template design (the look and colours of your blog), add "widgets or gadgets" (things that let you add stuff to your blog) and start typing.

If you don't intend to add any advertising sponsors to your site, then you can use Wordpress or Windows Live, LiveJournal, or one of many other blog platforms (just search for "free blogs"). If you think you might want to add some paid advertising in the future, opt for Blogger.com

If you are out to build a "website" as opposed to a blog, then you need to look for a webhost that offers free websites. Here's a list of free website offers that appear to be reasonably popular to the "free website crowd" to have a look at:

• Google Sites
• Google's Blogger
  
• WetPaint
• Yola
• Weebly
• SnapPages
• Edicy
• DotEasy

For those looking to setup photography sites, or photographic galleries there are offerings like SmugMug and Redbubble, among a bunch of others that offer similar things. Not all of them allow advertising either.

Of all the above sites, I maintain an account at Redbubble, and have an account at google sites, though that is yet undeveloped. Not having used any of the above, I can't give any real recommendations, I only know quite a few people recently have tried these sites.

Then there are places like Squidoo, Hub Pages and Google Knol. In essence they are one page "shorts" that you can build on just about any subject. Simple and easy to start.

And, if you really don't want a website or blog, there are all kinds of community/social sites that allow you to share things in little short snippets, like Facebook or MySpace (I don't care much for MySpace - there's way too many users who spam), or orkut (don't care much for this one either) and a host of others you can look up. Then there's the ever popular "twitter", though for the life of me I can't see why it's so popular. Everything on twitter runs about as slow as molasses, and became so frustrating I canceled an account within days of opening it.

Regardless of which option you choose, there are things you'll want to consider - whether or not you intend to use sponsored advertising, or if you want to sell your own advertising.

Many free hosts already do place their own advertising or banners on your free website, so you'll want check whether or not advertising by the website owner is allowed. Many forms of advertising require you to be able to access the code or html for the site, or require the use of widgets, gadgets or plugins, so giving consideration to your future plans when you select a free webhost is something you'll want to do before making your final decision.

Once you've decided, and signed up an account for your choice of spots, then you start filling it with interesting stuff.

Now, if you surf around the net a while you'll see a lot of places that carry the same content, things like news aggregators, and articles on a huge array of subjects, but...many of these same articles, very nearly word-for-word, can be found on hundreds of different websites. That's known as "copied content". Copied content isn't all that interesting to most people.

Let's face it, if I want to know about a Nikon camera, I'm going to start at Nikon and from there, I might look for some user reviews, but I would be more likely to read a camera review from someone whose used it, than someone who copied their review from another website.

What you need to write, is something of your own. A lot of you are probably asking "what do I know that's interesting?" Think about this for a moment. Is your life an exact duplicate of anyone else's? You might have similar stories, or been through some similar things, but you as an individual are unique. You probably won't see everything the same way anyone else does.

The easiest things to write are those things that have a personal impact on you - your thoughts and ideas on anything from politics to health, to raising a family or remaining childless. What ever it is, it should be something you can write about from your own experience. Imagine if Erma Bombeck had never sat down to write her tales of family life? I'm not saying every personal blog will be an instant best seller, but writing what you know is the best start you can give yourself.

Once you have experience with your website or blog, you can branch out. Research things that are of interest to you, and then write about them. Share things like family recipes, or "how-to-s" if you have hobbies or a home business.

Do anything, except copying "canned, pre-written" articles.

Right about now, there are thousands upon thousands of websites carrying "information" on finances, stocks, forex, news, and technology. And the majority of them carry the exact same articles, and the exact same information. People are getting tired of those. Very tired. They want something fresh, something new, something unique. Don't get caught by thought of easily filling up your space with these free articles. For the most part, nobody really wants to see them again and again.

And here is a very big "what not to do". Don't get caught in buying into these "make money on the web schemes". There are almost none that will win you any income, save a very few (and they do not advertise with big flashy web pages or ask for money up front) and most will cost you a great deal, both financially and emotionally.

Scams play on the need for money - who doesn't need money today? They practically guarantee big returns, instant cash and lots of it. They nearly always offer you a "free info package" all you have to pay for is shipping (anywhere from 99 cents to $1.79 or $2.29 etc.)

The catch is in the fine print - and yes, it really is there if you read it. This free information pack or free trial costs you a fee every month (usually $59.95 to $79.95 or so) if you don't cancel it within a certain number of days (usually 7 to 15) - the biggest trick of all is that the "free trial" often doesn't get to the purchaser within that specified cancellation time.

Even worse, most people don't bother to read the fine print, and may not discover til a month (or many months) later that they are paying these fees. By the time they try to find the website they got the free trial from, it may be gone entirely, making it very difficult to the find the trail to cancel the "program". What often happens is the consumer ends up having to file a dispute for the costs with their bank or credit card, then having to cancel bank accounts and credit cards and setting up new ones.

If you are interested in earning money online, regardless of where you find the original offer, don't ever sign up for
anything until you've done some research.

After all, would you buy a car without checking it out, or a pair of pants without making sure they fit? Buying into anything online is no different, but it's a lot easier to find out information online, all you need to do is run a websearch for the name of the program or website and check out the search results. When you see a lot of bad reviews or information, back away quickly.

It's time for consumer's to take responsibility for what they do. If we all learned to do that then these scam sites would go out of business pretty quickly. Consumer's online need to educate themselves.

For most, all it takes is to be scammed once. What surprises me are the ones who sign up for one scam - discover after paying for it all that's it's a scam, and then a couple of weeks later sign up for another.

If you don't learn after the first time, you deserve what you get the second time. Yeah, that's harsh, but folks, we are supposed LEARN from our mistakes.

Now...go have a look around the net for a place that feels like home, and build your website.

(originally posted by the writer, me, on my other blog)

What Is Adsense? And How do I Start?

Welcome to the Basics - this is a very basic explanation of AdSense and how it works. More details and further explanations can be found at the AdSense website, and you should be sure to visit that to gain a better understanding of the program.

What is Adsense

Adsense is a marketing and advertising platform that serves up advertising paid for by the businesses, companies and individuals who advertise using the Google AdWords program.

If you qualify to use AdSense you are allowed to place these advertisements on your website and collect earnings for ads that display. The advertisers who use Google's AdWords program buy advertising through the program, and they pay Google to advertise for them. These ads are then served to prospective customers through the AdSense program, using third parties to display the ads (that's the AdSense Publishers - people like you and I).

Effectively, the advertisers pay Google, and Google takes their cut, and then pays us.

Does it Cost Anything to Get An AdSense Account?

No, AdSense is free to apply for, and free to use on your website. Google does not charge the publisher any fees at all.

Does Google or AdSense Provide Me With a Website?

No, AdSense is not in the business of providing pre-built websites or hosting websites. Google does provide free site space and a free blog platform that you can sign up for, but you must build the site yourself using your own content. google.sites is a website building platform that you can use for free, and blogger.com is a blog platform that you can use for free.

How Much Money Does AdSense Pay Me

How much you can earn using this program depends on how much time and effort you put into maintaining and updating your website, and how much traffic you have, and how much the ads on your website pay. There are a number of factors that go into earnings.

Don't let all the hype you see on the internet take you for a ride. Average publishers do not make thousands of dollars a week, or even a month on this program. It's more like a couple of hundred dollars a month. There are quite a few publishers who can pay most of their monthly bills using this program, but to get there is hard work, and takes time to grow your site holdings. If you just want to plunk some ads on your site and forget about it, then the program isn't for you...not if you expect to earn a lot of money doing it.

See more information on the AdSense website about earnings.

How Do I Get Started with AdSense?

AdSense has requirements that each prospective publisher must follow in order to qualify for an AdSense Account.

You must first have a website. One that is already established, and has already started to draw traffic. You don't have to have traffic in the thousands to get started, but a site with zero traffic isn't ready for AdSense. Your website should also have a lot of good, originally produced content. AdSense isn't really looking for sites that are simply made in a hurry in order to make money. Some get accepted, but most are in error, and large numbers of these sites lose their accounts. Original content is "stuff" you produce yourself - whether it's stories, articles, tutorials, photos or other images, wallpapers, videos - original content has more value because it can't be found in other places.

If you have your website built, then you need to find out if your content would qualify.

Your website must also have content that follows the AdSense policies - no adult content, no content relating or linking to things like drugs (prescription or illegal), weapons, illegal software, music or video downloads, no content that is considered a copyright infringement, no sites that are nothing but big long lists of links, among many other things. All of the policy requirements can be found on the AdSense site, under the Help section in the AdSense Policies subsection. It's important that you make yourself aware of these, and it's also important that you read and understand the Terms of Service before you get involved in AdSense.

There are a lot of rules, and it's important that you do more than just read those rules, you also need to understand them. If you don't understand something, then don't be afraid to ask for help.

Once you have gone through the policies and you are sure your site is ready, then you fill out the AdSense application and provide them with the url of your website. Then you wait for them to review the site and application, and when they have, you'll receive an email from them. If you are accepted to the program, you are off and running - but attention should always be paid to the policies when adding things to your site.

What if I'm A Business Who Just Wants to Advertise?

If you want buy advertising, then you would sign up for the AdWords program, rather than the AdSense program.