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Posting From WordPress to Google+

February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Google+ WallpaperI’ve been working for the last few weeks to try and figure out an easy way to automatically add posts from my WordPress blog to my Google+ page. Hoping that someone else had already created a plugin, I searched in vain both in the WordPress plugins directory, as well as other WordPress sites and forums. I thought I had finally found a way, however, convoluted to be able to semi-automatically add a blog post to my Google plus page. However, it seems like every time I almost figure it out, there’s still one piece missing.

A cool thing, though, is that if you use the Google+ badge on your site, you can +1 your post (which you should do anyway for all of your posts, right?) which then allows you to share the post on your wall. It’s an extra step, but it makes it easy for you to easily share your latest post on your Google+ page.

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Filed Under: WordPress
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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 250×250 – Square

February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Google AdSense 250×250 – Square is one of my favorite ad units and it’s one you’ll see commonly around the Web now, both in side bars and in content with wrap around text. The 250 x 250 – Square is versatile and can be placed in many locations, added to the fact that used correctly it can convert very well. However, the 250×250 Ad Unit has fallen out of favor byMicrosoft Advertising, as well as the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), in favor of the 300×250 rectangle.

The 250×250 Square ad unit is still very useful, though, and can be used both with text-only and image/rich media versions, as seen below:



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Filed Under: Internet Marketing
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StumbleUpon Stops Direct Links

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Česky: Toto je icona pro siciální síť. Je souč...

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s another Internet marketing play I’ve been following recently. A lot of people have started playing in the StumbleUpon playground because of the valuable traffic that can be obtained via the StumbleUpon network. StumbleUpon is changing the game again because instead of direct links to websites, the website links will be contained in the StumbleUpon iframe link.

The SEO implications are obvious. Links from StumbleUpon to target sites that were previously direct, followed (until recently) links from a PR8 site will now disappear, replaced by internal StumbleUpon links that load the target page in an iframe.

Once again, diversification in all online marketing efforts is the recommendation, as all efforts, no matter how successful, can and will change over time. Also, it highlights the fact that online marketing is a never-ending moving target, which means you cannot stop testing and learning to see how all the moving pieces affect your marketing efforts.

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Filed Under: Social Media
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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 120×240 Vertical Banner

February 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

AdSense Ad Formatting - Text Ad sizes

The Google AdSense 120×240 – Vertical Banner is a shorter version of the 120 x 600 – Skyscraper. The AdSense version of this ad unit is only available for text ads, due to the small area. Once again, the 120 x 240 – Vertical Banner ad unit size is also used by Microsoft Advertising, while it has been delisted by the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau).

This small, vertical banner is ideal when you have a small area under a thin column or you have a small area available in a large header or footer. While the 120 x 240 – Vertical Banner shouldn’t be relied upon as your main income generator for a page, as it doesn’t attract a lot of attention, it can be very effective if placed correctly. If you’re trying to place a skyscraper under a menu or in a sidebar and it is just too long, the 120×240 vertical banner is a good alternative.

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing
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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 120×600 Skyscraper

February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Examples of standard web advert sizes, from th...

Next up in the series of posts on Google AdSense ad sizes are the ads in the Google Adsense “Other – Vertical” banner category, starting with the 120×600 skyscraper. The reason the ad unit is called a skyscraper is because it is tall and thin and can dominate the space, like an actual, physical skyscraper. This ad unit is not in the AdSense top 4 recommended sizes and is listed in the Delisted Standard Ad Units category of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Ad Unit Guidelines. Microsoft Advertising, however, continues to list the 120 x 600 – Skyscraper as part of its standard ad unit sizes, both for marketers and agencies, as well for small and medium businesses.

The original skyscraper was thinner than the current commonly used version of the skyscraper, to accommodate the small side rails in the layouts of many web sites. As site design has changed and elements, including sidebars, of site layouts have gotten larger, the Google AdSense 160×600 Wide Skyscraper has become the more prominently used ad unit.

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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 234×60 Half Banner

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Google Adsense Page Navigation

Image by Stephen Edgar - Netweb via Flickr

As we delve further in this series of posts on Google AdSense ad sizes, we’ll explore the less used and alternate versions of Google AdSense banners. The AdSense 234 x 60 – Half Banner is found in the “Other – Horizontal” category, after the four main recommended sizes. While this ad unit is in the Delisted Standard Ad Unit sizes on the IAB Ad Unit Guidelines, it can be found as a recommended size in the Microsoft Advertising Standard Ad specs. I think the reason for the difference is that the IAB creates standards for agencies and other large advertisers, while AdSense and Microsoft Advertising also provide marketing channels for smaller businesses and publishers.

The 234×60 – Half Banner is very useful in side columns, especially near a navigation menu or under a larger square or rectangle ad unit. I have also seen it used in the footer of a website or blog.

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing
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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 468×60 Banner

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ah, the original banner ad. Now relegated to the description of 468×60 – Banner in the ”Other – Horizontal” category of AdSense, it is the original banner ad that showed up all over the Internet in the late 90′s and early 2000′s. This ad unit is the grandfather of Internet banners. The 468×60 reigned supreme in the days of 640×480 and 800×600 screen resolution, but has given way today to leaderboards and skyscrapers with the advent of larger screen sizes.

When was the last time you saw the small version of the classic banner ad? No, really. I have searched and searched across sites for examples to put in this article, but haven’t been able to find any on major sites anywhere. I did find a few smaller sites that still use the 468×60 banner, but they also plaster ads all over the page – not really the type of advertising you want to be associated with.

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing
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Lego Man Boldly Goes Into Space Like No Other Lego Man Has Before!

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Lego Man in Space

Lego Man in Space

A couple of teenage high school students from Toronto have launched a Lego man into space. No, really, they have! Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, 17 year-old classmates, launched a lego minifigure holding a Canadian flag using a weather balloon filled with helium and captured great video of the lego minifigure with a backdrop of the Earth. The “Lego Man in Space” has a YouTube video that has received over 2 million views, as well as his own Facebook page with more than 5,000 fans.

While some news outlets have claimed that this is the first lego man in space, according to Universe Today, several Lego toys are constantly flying even higher above the Earth at this very moment aboard the International Space Station as part of an educational outreach effort by NASA and Lego. And 3 more Lego figurines are speeding to Jupiter aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter.

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Filed Under: Awesome or Scary?
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Exploring Standard Ad Unit Sizes: Google AdSense 160×600 Wide Skyscraper

January 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
160x600 Wide Skyscraper on mashable.com

The Wide Skyscraper works well in a side column

The wide skyscraper is another ad unit that has taken over as one of the most prevalent ad units visible throughout The Internet. This ad size is recommended by all of the major ad networks, including Google AdSense, Microsoft Advertising and the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau). Unlike most of the square ad units, the skyscraper is designed for very specific locations, as it is very tall and thin, although not as thin as its predecessor, the 120 x 600 – Skyscraper. The skyscraper is very useful for small columns, or rails, on your site, under menus, categories, tags or other, similar list-type content.

Because of this, the 160 x 600 – Wide Skyscraper has become harder to find, as wider screen have allowed the navigation columns to expand to 250 or 300 pixels, accommodating the larger square ad units. However, a lot of properties are starting to put the Wide skyscraper next to a list or menu in the wider columns that are now found in most modern layouts.

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Filed Under: Internet Marketing

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