A Quick Update on Blogcatalog.com

Blogcatalog, a social networking site for bloggers has made some changes to the site to make it more easier for bloggers to network and promote their blogs.

The Changes include:

- Complete Visual Redesign
The have finally shed our dated look for a much cleaner interface.

- Shout-to-Shout
Get a better picture of your shoutbox conversations with the new shout-to-shout feature.

- BlogCatalog Broadcasts
Send mass messages to your BlogCatalog followers with new Broadcast tool.
http://www.blogcatalog.com/broadcast

- Special Features For Our Supporters
Get frequent thumbshot updates, no ads, access to beta features and much more when you help support BlogCatalog
http://www.blogcatalog.com/account.donate.php

- Improved Language Support
With blogs in dozens of languages Blogcatalog have updated their encoding to a much more friendly UTF8.

Blogcatalog.com is similar to MyBlogLog.com. If MyblogLog.com can help you get more traffic and increase you revenue, then blogcatelog.com may do the same for you.

2 Easily Violated AdSense Policies

I have read Google AdSense Policies several times and I have to admit that I am not a good reader. Today Sushith from http://brokencodes.blogspot.com commented on my blog stating that I have made an AdSense mistake by placing a label "Topics" above an AdSense ads link unit. After reading this comment I quickly went to www.google.com/adsense to read again the AdSense policies. And yes, Google doesn't mention about label. Here's what Google said:

Publishers participating in the AdSense program may not place misleading labels above Google ad units - for instance, ads may be labeled "Sponsored Links" but not "Favorite Sites"

Well, it seems that Sushith is right. I have made an AdSense mistake that can lead to my account being disable. So I decided to remove the "topic" label placed at the top left sidebar of this blog to comply AdSense policies fully.

You may have spent a hard time optimizing your AdSense ads to make the most money from AdSense. But if you use label with AdSense ads, you can only label "Sponsored Links" above the AdSense ads or link unit.

Another AdSense mistake that is easily made by AdSense publishers is placing AdSense ads in second level domain names that contain the word "Google". Some of the example of second level domain names that use Google are:

http://googleadsensetips.blogspot.com/
http://google.blognewschannel.com
http://google.blogspace.com
http://google.weblogsinc.com

Publishers who display AdSense ads in these domains can get their AdSense disabled by Google and actually Google disallows people to register Google trademark as second level domain name as stated at http://www.google.com/permissions/guidelines.html.

4 Web Design Tips for Increasing Your Website's Money Making Potential

When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose. Here are four important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well.

1) Do not use splash pages
Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like "welcome" or "click here to enter". In fact, they are just that -- pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the "back" button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2) Have a simple and clear navigation
You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don't know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

3) Have a clear indication of where the user is
When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don't confuse your visitors because confusion means "abandon ship"!

4) Avoid using music on your site
If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they're not annoyed by some music looping on and on on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it -- volume or muting controls would work fine.