How to fill out a W-8BEN form

You may have found that when signing up for or requesting payments from various affiliate programs and ad networks that you have to fill in a W-8BEN Form. The W8-BEN is usually used by people outside of the US to certify their foreign or non-American status and certain companies will ask you for this because of tax reasons.

You can find out more about the W-8BEN Form here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRS_tax_forms#W-8_Series

When you first see the form it looks quite complicated, but it is actually quite easy to fill out, in saying that, it’s quite easy to mess up to.

How to correctly fill in a W-8BEN form

If you need help to fill in a W-8BEN just follow the quick video below which shows you what fields to fill out and what you need to put in them...

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Adf.ly: Make Money with Intermission and Framed Ads

If you have already searched intermission ads on Google you would have probably seen a lot of varying opinions about whether intermission ads are good or bad. Some people use framed ads to be less intrusive, but the problem is intermission ads pay LOADS more.

If you haven't already got an Adf.ly account, you should Sign Up and check it out to see exactly what this page is talking about. Its absolutely Free to Join!

I have used intermission ads and Framed ads one of my sites for quite some time now, using various different methods of implementing them. This article is to give you a little info about using Adf.ly links and how to use Interstitial/Intermission and Framed ads...

Basic Paid Intermission link with Adf.ly Shrinker

1. To change a link into a paid Intermission (or Interstitial) link log into your account and post your link into the Adf.ly Shrinker at the top of the page.

2.Click more options to change ad type to Interstitial and give your link a custom name. Then shrink it.

3. Post your new link into blog post or webpage or email or Twitter feed or on Facebook....etc

You can check the progress of your newly created links on the homepage once you log in.

Multiple/Bulk basic Links with Adf.ly Mass Shrinker

1. Go to Tools from the top menu, then enter up to 20 urls. Choose your preferred ad type and hit Mass Shrink

2. Post your new links into blog post or web page or email or Twitter feed or on Facebook....etc

Full page Script to automatically change all or selected site links

1.Go to tools, then Full page script. Select which code suits your needs and copy to a text file to edit.

2.Paste script into head, or body section of your sites template. The links will be automatically redirected.

Tips:

Adf.ly also have a site entry script, if you use this make sure you change the amount of times and the page turns the ad shows on to a reasonable amount.

I use the full page Interstitial/Intermission script on a download site, it only redirects on urls I specify in the script, which makes managing the links very simple. This also means that if there was ever a prob with Adfly, you would only have to remove it to fix any problems, rather than replace every link you created.

Ive also tried using framed ads, they are less intrusive but pay much less, so I use Intermissions (on certain links). Most users don't seem to mind to much, as long as its not overdone and your content has some value.

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RSS Feed to Twitter Using Dlvr.it

Dlvr.it allows us to automatically publish content from RSS Feeds to social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Dlvr.it has many features that make it perfect for automating your twitter account and its interface is very easy to use. Here is a quick video to get you started with Dlvr.it...


This video only shows a pinprick of the power this site has, its tools like content filtering, custom URL shortening, scheduled posts and automatic hash tagging plus much more make it a must have tool for anyone promoting on twitter. The best thing is, its FREE!

There are so many ways you could use this tool to help make more money online, the best way to get started is to jump over to Dlvr.it and take a look at what it has to offer and how you can best use it to promote your pages.

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How to Check your Backlinks Easily with Google and Yahoo

As you all know, backlinks or quality backlinks are vital for the success of your site, page, article etc. and boost the chances of them making money online. But how can we easily and quickly check the number of backlinks we have without any programs or special tools? Well, the short video below will show you how to do a simple and fast backlink check using only Google and Yahoo search.

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How to Edit your robots.txt file in new Blogger

If you have been on blogger for a while you will know that you couldn't directly edit your robots.txt file. The only way to change it was to use robots meta in your template. Now with the new upgrade to blogger we have access to this little but very important file. We can now change our robot.txt file from within our dashboard.

For people that don't already know what a robots.txt is , here's a little explanation of what they are and how they are used within your site.

What is a robots.txt file?

The Robot Exclusion Standard, also known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol or robots.txt protocol, is a convention to prevent cooperating web crawlers and other web robots from accessing all or part of a website which is otherwise publicly viewable.

Robots are often used by search engines to categorise and archive web sites, or by webmasters to proofread source code. The standard is different from, but can be used in conjunction with, Sitemaps, a robot inclusion standard for websites.

Why use a robot.txt file?

Sometimes you may want to stop certain parts of your site being indexed in search engines e.g. archive pages of a blog. The easiest way to let search engines know that you don't want these pages crawled is to use a robots.txt. You can set different rules for different robots and web crawlers depending on your preferences.

But, not all crawlers will listen to your robots.txt file and continue to access your pages, robots.txt simply asks not to be crawled it doesn't block access. Most big crawlers will follow your requests.

What goes into a robots.txt file?

There are various things you can put into your robots.txt file. Here is an example of a basic robots.txt file...

User-agent: * Disallow:
The example above tells all robots to visit all files because the wild card * specifies all robots.

User-agent: * Disallow: /
The example above tells all robots to stay out of a website.

You can also tell robots to not crawl specific directories. It would look something like this...

User-agent: * Disallow: /cgi-bin/ Disallow: /images/ Disallow: /tmp/ Disallow: /private/

For more information about robots.txt and what can go in it check out the wiki here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_exclusion_standard

How do you edit your Blogger robots.txt file?

Well, you cant really edit your Blogger robots.txt but you can use your own custom robots.txt info.

Blogger already has a robots.txt file but you cant edit it. When you create your custom robots.txt it will override the default rules and display your custom robots.txt info.

To create a custom robots.txt in new blogger...

1. Log into your dashboard and navigate to Settings and then in the dropdown menu select Search preferences.
2. At the bottom of the page you will see a section called Crawlers and indexing, in that section is Custom robots.txt.
3. Hit the Edit button on the right and enable it.
4. Enter you custom robots.txt rules and save changes. Done

Im not going to tell you exactly what to put in your  custom robots.txt, because each site is different and needs different rules. Before you start using robots.txt make sure you have properly researched the necessary rules for your type of site and you know exactly what you want crawled and not crawled.

Warning

Improper use can prevent your site from being indexed properly in search engines, so make sure you read a bit more about it and know what you are doing before proceeding.

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Improve Your Google AdSense Ad Relevancy with Section Targeting

There is a little known method to increase the relevancy of AdSense's ads on your pages without actually modifying your content visually. It forces AdSense to focus on or ignore certain sections of content. This is referred to as "section targeting".

What is Section Targeting?

Section targeting lets you highlight parts of your page or content that you want Adsense to emphasise or down play. Through handing Google AdSense your suggestions using targeting, you are assisting Google AdSense to improving the relevancy of your ads and as a result boost your ads CTR . Although it is quite easy to setup, I suggest that only people with at least some basic HTML knowledge should try to implement section targeting.

How do I use Section Targeting

To start using section targeting, you will need to add some HTML comment tags to your code. With these tags you can state the beginning and end of the sections you want to emphasise or de-emphasise.

The HTML you need to emphasise a section look like this:

<!– google_ad_section_start –>

<!– google_ad_section_end –>

You can also designate sections you'd like to have ignored by adding a (weight=ignore) to the starting tag like this:

<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –>

With the tags added, your final HTML code should look something like:

<html>
   <head><title>Section targeting</title></head>
   <body>

      Irrelevant text here

<!– google_ad_section_start –>

   This is the most important content of your webpage. You prefer Ads being shown related to this content.

<!– google_ad_section_end –>

      Other irrelevant or low-paying keyword-content here

   </body>
</html>

This is not a Quick Fix

You can use section targeting to make suggestions about as many sections of a page as you like. However, please be aware that Google AdSense can't guarantee results, and that it may take up to 2 weeks before Google's crawlers take any changes you've made to your site into account.

To use this feature properly, you need to include a lot  of content in the section targeting tags. Using insufficient content can result in less relevant ads or Public Service Ads. Also, keep in mind that this feature should only be used to highlight significant sections of your site's relevant content.

It's against Google AdSense's policies to manipulate the ad targeting to result in ads that are not relevant to the content of your pages.

Conclusion

Use section targeting wisely. Do not wrap a single sentence or even a medium-sized paragraph in section targeting tags.

One example that I've tested is ignoring menus. NOTE that Google AdSense ignoring your menus does NOT mean Google's Crawler will so no worries there. I had a menu section with links to articles on a huge variety of topics. The topics were totally unrelated to the page / article. I wanted ads to be relevant to the article, so wrapped my menu in ignore tags and wrapped my article in ad_section targeting tags. After a few weeks, my Google AdSense ads did become much more relevant and I didn't see the same level of unrelated ads that where being shown because of the unrelated topics in the menu.

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How to submit a Full XML Sitemap for Blogger

Getting your site indexed with Google is key to the success of every site. Googles index is the most famous and well used search index on the Internet, so it makes sense to focus on them as a primary source of traffic.

Most sites will eventually be indexed if they are live long enough, but who knows how long it could take for Google to crawl your site and index you?

The great thing is Google and most major search engines offer us a way to 'guide' them to and around our sites so they can index us quickly and efficiently. These little gems are called Sitemaps.

How to Submit a Full XML Sitemap for blogger.

Submitting a Sitemap of your blogger blog to Google and other search engines is a fairly simple process. Nearly every blog nowadays have an RSS/Atom feed and most blogging platforms provide this by default, like Blogger. Your Sitemap is basically your RSS/Atom feed displayed as an XML Document.

The default URL for blogger Feeds look something like this...

http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default or http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full

You can submit this Feed as your Sitemap to help google find your pages, but there is a big problem with using the default feed.

It only displays 25 of your latest blog posts. What if you have 500 posts? You want all of them indexed right? Instead of submitting the above Feed you want to submit a Full Sitemap.
A full feed URL looks like this...

http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500 

The part in red means it will display posts from post 1, and the part in green means it will display a max of 500 post. So, you can see with this sitemap you will be able to submit up to 500 pages of your site.

Visit the link below to find out exactly how to add your Sitemaps to Google.
http://support.google.com/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=100283

What if I have more than 500 pages?

Simply submit a second Sitemap with a slight difference. Change the start point (the red part) to 501 like this...

http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=501&max-results=500

With the two site maps you will be able to submit page 1 to 500 and page 501 to 1000.
If you want to add more pages just change the start value e.g 1001, 1501, 2001 etc.

Hope this helps

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How to add a Custom Favicon to your Blogger blog - Official

The favicon should be in .ico format, popularly known as windows ICO (icon) file format and should be less than 10kb. The best and appropriate sizes are 16×16 pixels and 32×32 pixels. You can easily create one with any photo editing software but most of them don’t allow the image to be saved in icon format. In that case you can save your image in .png format and use any online tool to generate favicon or use GIMP, a small but powerful photo editing software, to create one. Name the file as “favicon” and save it in you computer’s hard drive.
After you have successfully created the favicon, all is left for you is to add it to Blogger by clicking the “Edit” link beside “Favicon” as shown in the picture above. Choose the file that you have saved on your hard disk and “Save” it.

To be noted

• After saving the settings for your custom favicon, you may not be able to see it immediately while viewing your blog. This happens because the default Blogger favicon remains there in your browser’s cache. To view it, clear your browser’s cache or wait for sometime or days to expire and get deleted by itself.
• Your blog’s favicon URL is:

http://your-blog.blogspot.com/favicon.ico

By Raju

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How to Add PayPal Donation Button to Blogger Blog

In this post I will be showing you how to add a PayPal Donations button to your Blogger blog, so you can begin receiving donations through PayPal from your visitors. This button is FREE and it allows you to accept payments in a variety of forms eg credit card, wire transfer etc

Adding this button is very simple, and its a great way of making extra income from your blog. It also gives your loyal visitors the opportunity to show there appreciation.

Ok, lets begin : )

Creating your PayPal Donation Button

1. Log into PayPal

2. Click Merchant Services Tab which will take you to Merchant tools

3. Scroll down and in the right side bar you should see 'Donations' within a list of links. Click it

4. You will see some options like Donation name/service ,donation id,etc. The first field (Donation name/service) is the only thing that is required the remaining fields are optional.
Enter the first field, choose a button style, scroll down and click on "Create a button Now"

5.You will be presented with html code for your button. Copy the code

Adding Donate Button to Blogger/Blogspot

6. Sign in to your Blogspot  blog, navigate to layout and create a new html/java widget where you want your button to appear.

7. Paste your button code into the new widget and  Save, done

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How to Remove/Disable/Hide the Navbar in Blogger Blogs

Most of you know what the Navbar in Blogger is, that's why you're here : )

For those who don't, its the small toolbar that sits at the very top of a Blogger page which allows navigation of the blog and also search and login.

The Navbar is useful, but doesn't look great, that's why so many bloggers choose to remove/hide the blogger Navbar from their site. Disabling this feature is easier than you may think, and can give your blog a much more professional and unique look.

The below steps will take you through the simple process of disabling/hiding the navabar on your blogger blog...

(I am using the new blogger dashboard, but it is very similar on the old)

1. Sign in to your blogger account and select your blog. Go to Template then go to Edit HTML and select Proceed.

2. At the top section of code you will see your template info and under that you should see Variable definitions.

Copy this code:
#navbar-iframe { display: none !important; }
and paste it BELOW the template info ABOVE Variable definitions as shown in the picture below..

3. Preview your changes to make sure your blog is running correctly before you save.

4. Save your template, done.

I hope this simple tweak helps you to remove your Navbar. Any feedback will be gratefully received : )

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How to add Google Adsense Ads to Blogger Below Post Title, Above Content or Below Content Area

Adding Adsense ads below post title or above content area is definately a good way to increase your CTR ( click through rate ) in Blogger. Also, if you've placed it in your blogger post above the fold, you will receive higher CPM rates than at the bottom of your page below the fold area of your blogger blog. This technique of placing Adsense within a post is a great way of getting more targeted ads to your site, thus, more clicks on ads.

Before you start I just want to tell you a couple of good ad units that work well below blogger posts...

    Large Rectangle (336 x 280) - Recommended First

    Medium Rectangle (300 x 250) - Recommended Second

These Ad formats are highly recomended. You can also choose to align your ads to the left, right or center using float.

So lets get started : )...

How to add Google Adsense Ad Below Blogger Post Title

1. If you want to show your Google Adsense ad BELOW your Blogger post title on the LEFT side, then copy the below Code...
(Replace YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE with your Ad Code)

<div style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;">
YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE
</div>

OR

2. If you want to show your Google Adsense ad BELOW your Blogger post title on the RIGHT side, then copy the below Code...
(Replace YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE with your Ad Code)

<div style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;">
YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE
</div>

OR

3. If you want to show your Google Adsense ad BELOW your Blogger post title in the CENTER, then copy the below Code...
(Replace YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE with your Ad Code)

<div style="text-align: center; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;">
YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE
</div>

NOTE:

If you use Code 1. and Code 2. then your content will start to show on the other side of your ad.
If you want your content to show below your Google Adsense Ad, then paste the following code just below  Code 1. or Code 2. ...

 <div style="clear:both"/>

NEXT:

Now you need to add this code to you Blogger Template. Sign into your Blogger account and go to Dashboard--> Design--> Edit HTML, make sure you check the EXPAND WIDGET TEMPLATE box.

Now find this code (use ctrl+F)...

<data:post.body/>

Now paste your code just BEFORE that code.

NOTE:

If you are using the automatic read more option for your custom Blogger template, then you will find the <data:post.body/> code more than once. So, do it for each one and look which one is working (make sure to backup you template). You can paste for both, if you want to display on home and post pages.

All Done!

 

A little Extra...

The area below the content of your post pages or you could say the area above your comment section is also a great place to catch your visitors eye. Placing your ads here could be beneficial if using the Large Rectangle (336 x 280), Medium Rectangle (300 x 250) or Banner (468 x 60) formats.

Now, if you want to show your Google Adsense ads ABOVE the comments area of your Blogger post pages, then do the procedure as you did before but this time paste your code just after this code...

<data:post.body/>

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