A little over a month ago I wrote that I was going to try Google's new Adsense Referrals program.

I placed Referral ads on three of my most popular pages at my Job Interview site.

I just checked my stats and did some calculations. My regular Adsense pay-per-click ads are averaging 2 cents more per click than my new Adsense Referrals ads.

Remember, with the Referrals ads I only get paid if someone takes a specified action after clicking on the ad. The payment is based on conversions, not clicks.

A typical Referral ad in the niche I'm experimenting with is paying, on conversion, about 50 times more than I'm earning with a similar ad on a pay-per-click basis.

But the Referral ads require visitors to complete a two-step action: first, they must click on the ad, then they must also "convert" by taking the desired action (signing up for a trial offer, for example). About 10.3% of those who click on the ad take the second step and complete the desired action…earning me money. That is a good conversion rate.

With the pay-per-click ads, though, 100% of the people who click earn me money… but certainly not as much per action.

Because the two types of ads are neck-and-neck with only a 2-cent difference after about 30 days, I'm going to continue the experiment a while longer… and will keep you posted.

Please let me know if you're doing similar experiments and what kind of results you're getting.

If you're new here and like what you see, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or sign up for my free email updates. Thanks for visiting!

I received a message from Google the other day:

Dear Publisher,

Congratulations, your account has been selected to participate in the AdSense Referrals Beta. The Referrals Beta is an exciting new feature of AdSense that allows you to:

Earn extra revenue on a cost-per-action basis;

Select ads from hundreds of AdWords advertisers as well as our standard Google product offerings;

Select a list of relevant keywords for your site and let Google figure out the best ads for your site;

Customize your referral ads to match the look and feel of your site;

Track the success of your referral units with custom channels.

To get started, simply log in to your AdSense account, click on AdSense Setup, then select Referrals.

So I decided to take it for a spin.

Unlike regular Adsense which places ads on your site based on Google's interpretation of your content's topics, Adsense Referrals allows you to select from a list of advertisers, and to specify up to 10 keywords.

You can also see how much money you'll earn from each advertiser if your visitors click through and perform the desired action.

These are not pay-per-click ads like regular Adsense; they're pay-per-action.

For example, a PPC ad might pay me 10 cents whenever someone clicks on the ad. After that click, regardless of whether that person buys the product or service, I don't receive anything else. With a Referrals PPA ad, a click will not pay me anything. But if the person who clicked also signs up for a trial offer (or whatever the specified action is), I might get $10.

The payout is much higher than PPC, but the conversions, of course, will be lower.

So I'm testing Adsense Referrals on three of the highest-traffic pages on one of my websites (not this one) to determine whether the income generated will be higher than that from regular Adsense.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Click here to find out more about Google Adsense Referrals.

Affiliate Extraordinaire Jeremy Palmer just tipped me off that Search Marketing Expert Vinny Lingham is reporting some astounding news: Google will be dropping their popular pay per click advertising model in favor of a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model!

According to Vinny:

"Google will no longer accept Cost Per Click (CPC) bids. Apparently, this is in anticipation of more branding dollars moving online and Google will still utilize Clickthrough rates in determining Quality Score, but will charge for ads on a CPM (Cost per Thousand Impression) basis. My sources tell me that the new CPM rates are expected to earn more effective revenue with advertisers that have low clickthrough rates and also allow them to embed advertising within the newly acquired
YouTube network."

This is certain to shake up the "Adsense empire" builders!

If you're interested in Google's Adsense PPC program, you've got to read Vinny's entire post, including the comments, here: Google to Drop CPC and Revert to CPM.

Is SEO a waste of your time and money?

"Yes!" says one web expert.

Anthony Fallon, CEO of Warrington Web Works, a UK web publishing company, claimed this week that search engine optimization (SEO) is a waste of time and money for businesses.

In a February 27th press release, Anthony says that using the latest distribution technologies (like RSS), writing quality content, and taking advantage of vast improvement in search engine technology make SEO unnecessary.

"Web 2.0 it’s all about your visitor", Anthony added. "The new distribution technologies like RSS will get your message out there without any magic or manipulation of search results. The quality of Google’s Search technology is really coming on in leaps and bounds. If businesses can get in front of their customers without stuffing their content with keywords, it has to be a good thing. As for the SEO Industry, good riddance I say."

In order to prove his point, Anthony wrote an article, "SEO Mind Crime," posted it on Wednesday and told his readers to search for "SEO Mind Crime" on Google over the coming days. Within 24 hours, the article appeared at positions 3, 4 and 6 on Google's first page (out of 826,000 indexed pages).

According to Anthony, this isthe ultimate proof that SEO is no longer required in our Web 2.0 world.

I'm not so sure.

Anthony's test may have worked for an obscure phrase like "SEO Mind Crime" (I doubt ANYONE would normally search for that phrase without being specifically asked to do so), but we need results from "real" visitors searching for "real" keyword phrases.

What good does it to to be ranked high in search engine results for phrases people aren't using?

The REAL test is whether non-SEO tactics like those Anthony promotes can be as successful as SEO with commonly used keywords and search phrases our target audiences are likely to use.

That being said, I totally agree with Anthony that we need to put most of our emphasis on non-SEO tactics such as: (1) providing quality content, (2) using technologies like RSS and user-friendly media like video, (3) promoting and marketing our sites through social networking and bookmarking services, and other Web 2.0 tools.

But I do not believe that SEO is completely worthless. Sorry, Anthony!

Here's the link to the press release: Search Engine Optimisation A Waste of Time and Money

This is an excellent article contributed by guest author Josh Anderson. He wrote it mainly as a how-to guide for Internet "newbies," but YOU should read it regardless of your level of online experience!

“The Online Marketing Parachute. How to survive ‘making money’ on the internet.”

Disclaimer: Resemblances to your self or other characters in this story are merely coincidental. If this sounds like you don’t worry.

You are not unique.

Does this sound familiar?

Hi my name is Neophyte Newbie.

I have been trying to make money on the internet for 6 months now and my goal was to make 1 million dollars.

The problem I am having is that to date I have spent hundreds (really thousands but I am too embarrassed to say it) and am making no money. I quit my job so I could work full time on my "Internet Business" and I need $3000 in the next two weeks because the ponzi scheme I joined did not pay out what they claimed they would when I invested my last $12.

My wife and kids are getting tired of eating government issue peanut butter, raisins, cheese, and stale bread from the food bank and the prospect of living in a car for the rest of the winter is freaking me out. I am trying to start this fire sale but so far I have no jv partners and the ebook I wrote about "how to make money on the internet" is not selling.

I only have $500 left on my last credit card (the rest are maxed out and the bill collectors are calling every day) and was wondering if I should purchase the new Nuclear Portal Maker software because they say that if I don't they are locking the doors for ever and only those who purchase it will have the secret of push button money printing?

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by: Cheryline Lawson

A lot of people are lured by affiliate marketing because it can be financially rewarding, even if you just stay at home.

Affiliate marketing programs are best alternatives to those who are sick and tired of their arduous daily work just to climb up the venerated corporate ladder. You don't need products to sell, you just have to market them in your own web site and you don't have to worry about processing the customers'payments and the shipment of the products.
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That's the very interesting question raised in a post by Adam Viener at ReveNews.com.

Adam references a study done by RankingMeasures.com that concludes:

Sites displaying contextual PPC advertising are consistently ranking lower than similar sites without these ads. These ads are taken from the search engines' own advertising networks…

Personally, I think this study (like most others) is full of crap. You can draw all kinds of conclusions from studies. For instance, I could conclude that, if you want to earn more money, you have to drink more alcohol–based on a recent study by the Reason Foundation that reports "drinkers earn 10% to 14% more than teetotalers."

Anyway, check out the comments as well as Adam's post, and form your own opinion.

Read the post here: ReveNews.com.

by: Kamau Austin

A growing but underground movement is quickly gaining steam online. Others outside the Internet business world may be missing this expanding industry.

Since the dot.com boom and its bust many people outside the Internet marketing world have understandably been skeptical about the net being a realistic path to business and financial wealth. However, almost a billion people around the world use the net as an information gathering, ecommerce, or, more recently, social networking resource. This critical mass of worldwide Internet traffic means that billions of dollars in online business are being generated by a variety of different Internet industries.

Read more