Inspired by Rob Sullivan’s How to beat the Google Sandbox post, I’ve decided to conduct my own experiment. Rob’s hypothesis which we want to test is this: Google AdSense can get a site out of the Google Sandbox.
Read the rest of this entry »

Is there a Pinoy PR9 or PR8 site out there? If you’re the webmaster of a high PR site, please leave a comment with the URL of the high PR page within your site. Now I know this post will attract comment spammers so here are the guidelines:

• You are the owner or webmaster of the site.
• One of your pages is showing a toolbar PageRank of 7 or above.
• The site is for Philippine consumption.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s SEO contest time again. Let the linkbaiting begin.

I have always wanted to host a SEO/SEM contest but I wanted to do something original… different… Now Don’t get me wrong, I love what seologs.com and v7n have put together AND I have donated to each, but I wanted to try a new approach.

Azoogleads has generously signed on to be the official sponsor. The entire contest will have a estimated 25,000.00+ in prizes and I think many people will find it entertaining.. stay tuned…

Did he say $25,000??

Hey if pink blogs (you know the screaming adolescent/shopping-centric diaries) can do it, so can you!

My girlfriend’s blog which was launched last month is now showing flashes of PR5 for the homepage.
Read the rest of this entry »

On Yahoo! News too!

It’s not everyday you can do a vanity search on Google News. This one’s definitely a milestone worth screencapping.

Rob Sullivan over at the TextLinkBrokers.com blog has somehow found a link between AdSense and escaping the Sandbox.

…I have another site that I started over a year ago, and have been dutifully building content and links, yet I can’t get it out of the sandbox. In fact, the current Google cache is of pages that no longer exist, and haven’t for months.

My explanation, however out there it seems to be is that somehow the Google Ads have allowed the site to bypass the sandbox and move into the index almost immediately.

The first Google organic referral came last week, just two short weeks after the site was tagged with the Google Adsense code. Since then, both sites have received a handful of Google organic referrals.

Based on this very small and somewhat limited test case, my gut is telling me that one way out of the sandbox and into the SERPs is to apply for and install Google AdSense onto your site.

I’m not convinced. Some of his examples are circumstantial at best. Definitely not something I’d stake my site’s SEO on. The good thing about it is, I’m so not convinced I’ve decided to do a scientific study on his hypothesis myself. Stay tuned for more details.

A recent drop in Yahoo! Publisher Network click earnings threw some DPers into a daze.

For us international publishers still waiting for Y!PN to open her gates, this is definitely not encouraging news. You better make it past beta for us international publishers. Don’t quit on me you hear!?
Read the rest of this entry »

Jill Whalen takes aim and Jarrod Hunt counters beautifully.

Paid links are here to stay. The first thing to remember is to get on theme paid links from sites that operate under Google’s radar. The second thing to remember is to keep your link profile as natural looking as possible; that means mixing a few well-placed paid links with the organic ones.

Last tip, don’t tell Matt Cutts :)

The Inside AdSense blog has published a short article on how AdWords listings are ranked:

How is Ad Rank determined? While bid price (the price advertisers are willing to pay for each click per thousand impressions) is obviously an important factor, we also calculate advertiser Quality Score to make sure the best performing ads will always appear on your site. Quality Score takes into account factors such as an ad’s relevancy and click-through rate (CTR) (i.e. how likely users are to click on a given ad) because a higher CTR sometimes outweighs the benefits of a higher bid price. This ensures that your site always displays the ads representing the highest revenue potential for you.

No matter how you look at it, Google wins. The best ads will still be the ones with high bids and high CTRs.

UPDATE: Unconfirmed TV reports say at least 50 survivors have been rescued from the buried school house in Brgy. Guinsaugon, St. Bernard, Southern Leyte (7:50 PM, 02/20/2006).

A moment of silence for those affected by the Leyte landslide. St. Bernard, the area hit by the tragedy is on the southern tip of Leyte, a hundred or so kilometers from my hometown. Prayers for those who died and help for those who survived would be much appreciated.

More information here:

• National Disaster Coordinating Council official report
• Google News
• Yahoo! News
• Technorati

To help, please get in touch with the following agencies:

• Philippine National Red Cross