google

If you are a noobpreneur like me and eager to learn about Google AdSense, here’s a video that might interest you :)

The explanation is surprisingly excellent and I highly recommend you to watch this video or other official Google videos from InsideAdSense.

Cheers!

Ivan Widjaya
A true noobpreneur

Googol, representing a numeric one with 100 number of zeros after it, rules in today’s Internet.

Googol? What’s Googol? Why is it significant?

The ‘ruler’ of Internet world - Google. Google’s name derives from Googol.

Why Google rules - The Noobpreneur Point of View

The answer is quite simple - it rules because it answers the necessity of the people surfing the Internet - to search the abundant data and information available.

While there are dozens of search engine companies, Google (and Yahoo!) stands out of the crowd. Google does search the web better in some ways - thanks to the gang of smart PhDs employed - but it is not really dominant in term of search capability.

Why Google stands out? It has resources. Where does Google get the resources from? From the surfer, for the surfer.

The AdWords and AdSense. The alfa and omega, the first and the last. THAT’s where the humongous amount of resources are from.

Resources are paramount

No matter how good or cutting-edge your project is, VC (Venture Capitalist) and investor money boost a business through the roof.

Google is big because of the VCs role. VCs money enable Facebook to hire more high salaried smart people to create better applications and systems. All applied to Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Craiglist, etc.

No matter how good you and your business are, it’s the investor who make or break your business. Have a look at Agloco - the paid to surf the Net company - lack of funding halt the development, hence ruining its potential.

As soon as your business getting through the roof, you can soon find the resources yourself - thanks to the established market and network.

How to rule like Google

No secret - Google’s formula is simple, yet nearly impossible to copy! Here’s how:

• Seek the right ‘geek’ - Not all geek can make money, but the right type of geek can be one of the most richest people on earth.
• Seek the right window of opportunity - Google was founded at the right time - the Internet is at its early stage of booming, and Google is right on it since day one.
• Seek the right funding - Google’s initial funding term is crucial in determining the early success. It’s not the amount of funding that counts - it’s how ownership is shared among shareholders and the terms underlying it that count.

Ivan WIdjaya
No matter how you hate it, Google rules :)

So many people think and say that Google PageRank is your measurement for success in having a website. Some say that having a high PageRank is halfway to greatness.

Money making and business side, PageRank is considered as ‘land value’ - the higher the PageRank the more expensive the ‘land value’.

But, is PageRank really that important?

Consider this - you can optimise and build your back links (other websites that link to your website) vigorously to increase your PageRank - you can even pay for someone to optimise your webpages and provide you with tons of back links - nothing personal, it’s just business. Sooner or later, doing this, your PageRank will increase.

But, will your website make more money by increasing the PageRank?

Not necesarily. Or…?

Well, this is where the controversy lies - I followed webmaster forums for two reasons: to promote my web properties and to learn SEO (search engine optimisation). In the forums, PageRank is hot topic - including the debate regarding its importance.

Generally there are two views on PageRank:

1. Useful - High PageRank means better position in search engine result pages - better position mean more exposure to potential visitors.
2. Useless - PageRank is just a number - the real money lies on the number of targeted incoming traffic.

The majority of people will say that PageRank is useful. The smaller number of people say PageRank only feeds your ego, nothing more.

My view on PageRank

I’ve written about ignoring PageRank - Why You Should Stop Worrying About Google PageRank and Start Producing Great Content.

I really mean it.

I agree to those that say PageRank is a residual result - it is important, but not that important.

I agree that PageRank’s importance varies depending on your websites purpose. If your websites relies on content (blogs, news sites, etc.), targeted traffic is far, far more important than PageRank). However, if your websites are webmasters and advertisers-friendly (web directories, link building sites), then PageRank is very important.

Content websites

What is a content’s purpose? To attract people that care enough to read it. That’s why a certain content attract a certain visitors that don’t even consider a site’s PageRank - all they care is a good read. That’s why targeted traffic, lots and lots of them, are more important than PageRank.

Your measurement of success in content websites like blogs and news sites is readership. And a happy reader will return to your site often - If you monetise your site, this is where the money lies. The money is good if the targeted traffic is good.

I’ve seen probloggers (authority bloggers on the Net) have thousands of visitor every day and tens of thousands subscribers worldwide. They read good, if not great, content only. That’s why PageRank is not even considered when people visit content sites.

Webmasters and advertisers-friendly websites

In this type of website, your site serves for two purposes - to ’strengthen’ and to expose sites participating in your services. If you own a web directory, it is your job to get a high PageRank - targeted traffic is still important, but the PageRank number is more important.

Why would people list their websites in your web directory? Because you have a good PageRank and the listing fee is acceptable, even free. But people understand that quality comes at a price. There are websites that charge a sum of money for your website’s link to be displayed in the websites at a certain period of time.

I’ve seen that people are willing to pay top dollar, often hundreds of dollar, per year for their links to be listed in the webmasters and advertisers-friendly websites. So, yes. PageRank is important :)

I conclude

So, I conclude that PageRank is not a one-size-fits-all measurement of a website’s success. There are many success factors, and PageRank is only one of them, depending on your sites’ type.

There’s also other measurement of a website’s importance - Page Strength (by SEOmoz.com). So, PageRank is not that, unique, one-and-only measurement system (it’s Google’s - so there is a reason for PageRank to be famous and important :D).

PageRank, and Page Strength, is an excellent indicator of the strength of a website, but not necessarily the quality.

It’s all up to you to determine whether PageRank is important to your site or not. After all, for monetised sites, it’s the income that counts.

Ivan Widjaya
In a love-hate relationship with PageRank

Do you know what a MFA - Made for AdSense?

It’s a term that describes websites that are made optimised for Google AdSense. The layout and design of the websites allow the best possible location for AdSense ads to convert.

Well, there are also a Made for Google - that is, creating web applications that are created with a hope - that someday Google or Yahoo! might want it. FeedBurner and Blogger are the prominent examples of companies that are acquired by Google.

There are some rare real cases out there, but let’s take a look in a ’smaller’ case.

There’s a man, Gurbaksh Chahal - Not at Bill Gates’ prodigy level, but what he did is nearly as impressive. I found his interview from Entrepreneur.com.

In short, Gurbaksh Chahal dropped out of school at 16 to found the online ad network ClickAgents. Two years later, he sold it to ValueClick for $40 million in stock. Then, he started BlueLithium, a global onine ad network that implement behavioral targeting. In 2007, Yahoo! acquired the business for $300 million. And, he serial entrepreneurship plans more of this coming.

Impressive, indeed. Anyway, he is just 25 years old. His current net worth is more than $100 million. Do the math.

A tip or two from him, on how to create a company that is made for the behemoths:

- Of course, create something of high value - cutting edge, useful, web based technology with unlimited potential and be one of the top on the Net - this is the hardest part.
- To appeal to the likes of Google and Yahoo!, you might want to own a company that everybody wants that is not for sale.
- Make the behemoths realise that they needed you, not the other way around.
- Do a PR in such a way that Google or Yahoo! heard about your company from different sources in different ways - that will attract them to your company rather than you going to them.

Great tips. The next question is, how to find (and create) a cutting edge, useful, web based technology that will make you being chased around by Google?

Ivan Widjaya
Made for Google

Okay - criticise me on this. I think PageRank is bad for your health.

Come on now. Every now and then you and I are always worrying about your PageRank - Is it going up? Is it going down? Will Google slam my site to PageRank 0? When will the next Google PageRank update? How to increase PageRank? How to cheat PageRank? How to find loopholes in PageRank system? And many more questions in our head.

Do you really want to improve your PageRank? OK. Here’s how:

1. Build your backlinks - increase the number of sites link to your site.
2. Get a link from a higher PageRank website - If you can’t get them link to you naturally (or because they wanted to), pay for it!
3. Ask related website’s owners to exchange links with you - this is called a reciprocal - Google view reciprocal links more important than the regular one way link.
4. Buy traffic - hopefully, many visitors will link your site.
5. Get listed in directories - the more, the better.

It’s all legitimate, often-implemented, ways to improve your PageRank. But then, there are one problem with those suggestions - no matter how hard you try to deny, great content is paramount. Period.

Sure, you heard a lot of people, including pro bloggers, suggest you to be persistent in writing content; to be able to find what’s an interesting read for your targeted audience; to be able to write engagingly. But, to be honest with you, there’s no other way that is as cost-effective and powerful as writing great content.

Considering the 5 how-tos above, here’s my arguments why you should rely on great content more than anything else:

1. Build your backlinks - is not easy. Unless you pay for it, there is no other way that works except providing great content.
2. Get a link from a higher PageRank website - technically, this is what PageRank all about, isn’t it? A link is a vote to your site - more important website linking to you feels like a celebrity refer you to the community - big impact, it is. However, how to get their links? Only two ways - buy them, or let them come naturally. I read in forums that people are willing to pay hundreds of dollar PER LINK from PR 6 sites. Great contents cost you zero dollar.
3. Exchange links - it’s actually working, if you have the time for it. I think it’s better to spend your time creating good content than exchanging links one at a time.
4. Buy traffic - It’s generic and not everlasting - and expensive.
5. Get listed in directories - similar to the ones above, the main consideration is time and money. If you have them, no problem. Alas, most of us don’t have them.

There are endless ways to improve your Google PageRank - as long as you have the time and money, it’s all fine. But Google themselves admit - the best way to get more traffic and better PageRank is to create valuable content.

Moreover, why bother PageRank? In many cases, PageRank is for your ego, not for your visitors! Your visitors don’t really care what PageRank you have - as long as you have useful content for them, that’s all that matters. Do you think having a PR 5 site will make your site more useful - NO. Does having a PR 5 site will guarantee you to earn money online? NO.

I’m not stand up against Google PageRank - it IS important for your site to be placed higher in the search engine, thus more easy for visitors to reach your site. But, in my humble opinion, too many people consider PageRank as the most important factor in creating value for your website.

It is not.

Having great content often means a higher PageRank - not the other way around. You can pay all money in the world to get a better PageRank - but as soon as you stop paying, your PageRank drops! This is a common practice in the world of web master and web developing - although common is not by all mean ethical. A typical case - You pay for a sum of money to increase your site to PR 6. You stop paying, your site’s PR drops to 1. That’s fact.

Do you know what make Steve Pavlina having a great personal development blog? Great content. With zero advertising - he uses word of mouth to spread his great content - today his blog is visited by more than 24,000 visitors PER DAY. Of course, as a result, his blog has a high PageRank.

So, stop worrying about Google PageRank - get out of the rat race of chasing high PR - and start producing great content!

Ivan Widjaya
Great content is king

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