Jude's Blog

I just noticed something today and felt the need to share it.  When you go to a search engine like Google and type in a search term, do you know how Google finds pages that have that term?  It looks at the title of the page as well as content and keywords within that page.  Many say that meta tags are now useless, but of the sites I have looked through that don’t have them, they do not rank well in any Google search.

I did a search and was surprised when a site I frequent wasn’t anywhere in the first 6 pages of Google, so I went to that site and looked at it.  The first thing I noticed was that they only had the name of the company in their title.  Without a description of the company, only a direct search for that name will result in a find.  The next thing I noticed was no meta tags at all, as well as no where on the page a listing of what the site offered or sold.

THAT is why the site doesn’t show up in searches, and that is probably why it doesn’t do better in sales than it does.  One of the first things I learned when I studied SEO was that you MUST put a description in your site title.  My site used to just have “Jude’s Place features novels by Jude Liebermann”.  At least that is better than just having “Jude’s Place”, but I wanted to let my viewers know that I give away a free romance novel, so I added that to my title.  Now, I want my visitors to know I write erotica, so I have included that in my title.  It does appear that Google places the most emphasis on the title of the pages it indexes, so it is vital that title be descriptive. So now my site’s title is “Jude Liebermann’s sensual/erotic romance novels plus free stories”, which just about covers everything.

Having the meta tags and keywords in the content are second most important.  Just make sure the content matches the meta tag keywords, or Google might slap you down for it.  Many sites have tried inflating their meta tags with fake keywords so they get traffic for things they don’t even have on their site. Google has adjusted their algorithm to compensate. While I do not believe that means they totally ignore the meta tags, they do check the rest of the page content to make sure they match.

Keep all the above tips in mind if you want to maximize the search potential for your site.

Though my searches don’t always come up with useful information, my Google adsense continues to pay off.  I have made more this month than I ever have in the years I have used adsense.  If this keeps up, I will make payout in just a few months, something that usually takes well over a year.

For those who aren’t familiar with adsense, it is best to keep track of which pages payoff.  While there might be a better way to do it than I use, custom channels is an easy way to monitor which pages are the biggest cash cows.  Plus, it’s very easy to set up custom channels.

When you first log in to Google adsense, you’re taken to the home page and shown how much you’ve made in estimated and finalized earnings.  Estimated is the current days and month, before Google has the chance to look over your stats and determine if there was any click fraud going on.

What are custom channels?

A custom channel is a specific word you choose for all clicks to be directed to.  So when you create an ad, you select a unique code for that ad and put it on either one page or several pages with similar content.  So when that custom channel records income, you will know which pages received those clicks.  For instance if you have a site like mine, you could have channels like erotica, romance, samples, stories, and place those channels with ads that go on pages where erotica or romance or samples or stories are placed.  So if your custom channel for erotica has clicks and/or money, you know that the ad on the erotica pages produced income.

Custom channels are also a great way of determining what doesn’t produce income, so you don’t have to waste your time creating more content for those areas.  The reverse is true as well. If you have a channel that makes more money than any other channel, you should dedicate most of your writing to that area.  Make more pages with that type of content and place more ads with that channel, so you can make even more money.

How to create a custom channel

From the home page click on My Ads at the top menu bar.  From there, click Custom Channels just below that menu bar.  All your custom channels will appear to the right, and above them will be the button “New custom channel”. A pop up screen will appear where you type in the name of the new channel and then add which ad code you want associated with this new channel.  When creating ads, it’s important to give them names appropriate to where they will be placed.  Then it’s easy to select them when creating channels.

If you are creating the custom channel first, then merely click save after typing the new channel name. Then when creating the ad, you can select the channel.  If you’re doing that first, click Ad Units (above Custom Channels) on the upper left.  Then click “New ad unit”. Below the name, size and ad type is where you would select the custom channel you already created.  Simply click the “add” button to the right of the channel, and it will be moved to the box on the right.  It will then be associated with this new ad.

Now, whenever you visit the home page of adsense, you can click on custom channels for the day, week or month under Quick Reports near the bottom of the page.  This will show all your custom channels and how many clicks and/or earnings you have received for each.  Good luck!

I’m pleased to announce that I just completed the second run through of Sierra Sky. It is now completed at a final word count of 48,359 words. I am now ready to begin submissions, so wish me luck.

ETA I have submitted to two popular erotic epubs today. So I’ve got my fingers crossed.

My site transfer to hawkhost was completed yesterday. I only noticed the site down for a few minutes while the domain propogated to the new host. Most of you probably didn’t even notice. It was a pretty smooth transfer. Let me know if you find anything that doesn’t look right.

I found Hawkhost.com while looking into something unrelated. They have just about everything I need, so I am giving them a try. I paid 3 months, so if all goes well, they will be my host for awhile. Wish me luck that I won’t need to change again anytime soon.

Well, I am canceling with Fatcow and continuing my search for another host. Considering that after my year was up, the renewal cost would skyrocket, it’s best that I bail now while I can still get my money back. They advertise far more than you actually get, so this host should be avoided.

I’m still having a few minor issues with FatCow, so I’m rethinking of using them. First, I can’t seem to get the SSL to work properly.  I have put in a help ticket to ask about it. Maybe I’m doing something wrong.

Then I try to set up the store they have, and it’s pitiful!  I signed up because that sounded great along with the included SSL (which I can’t get to work right).

Now, I almost signed up with the credit card processor they are affiliated with, iPayment.  They sound great on the surface, but they want a lot of personal information to get set up, nothing like what paypal expects for pretty much the same thing.  Luckily, I did a search to see if they have any complaints against them. Thank goodness I did that.  They apparently have a huge yearly compliance fee they charge every year that isn’t obvious as you sign up.  In fact I looked, and the disclaimer is in light grey at the bottom of the second signup page.

So, I quickly closed that browser and will stick with paypal and Google checkout unless something else comes along, but boo to FatCow for almost convincing me to signup with a company that would ultimately cost me far more than it would save me.  What the heck is the point of that!?  Ugh!

After a very rough start, all is smooth over at Fatcow hosting.  They even uploaded my forum backup, since it’s too large for me to do it without tripping the maximum allowed mysql questions.  Jeesh, though it does seem that no host truly knows what unlimited is.  I will have unlimited bandwidth, as long as it’s not related to a database? Seems silly to me, but oh well.

I know I had issues with one of my previous host attempts, and was constantly getting the exceeded error, but I think they had the max set at some absurdly low number, like 5,000.  Fatcow has it at 75,000, which I can’t imagine my little forum will ever use in an hour’s time.

I made the mistake of renewing for another month with Godaddy, so I’m paid up with them through the middle of May.  I figure I’ll keep my eye on the site over at Fatcow to monitor any problems. If it looks good by mid April, I’ll switch everything over.  It should be pretty seemless, since everything is live over there.  Just a matter of transferring the domain over. 

Most of you probably won’t even be able to tell I’ve made the switch.   At least I hope so.

The only other drawback to all this is that it has distracted me from working on Sierra Sky.  I really want to get back to that story and will definitely work on it this weekend.  I promise!  But then it will literally take months of waiting for submissions editors and then actual editors and then the publisher’s waiting list before the book is available.  I’ll be on pins and needles until then, waiting with baited breath to see what my readers think of my new “style”. 

Due to GoDaddy being ridiculous about their renewal rates, I am looking for a new host (again). At least it’s been 2 years, but I’m already having a hard time of it. What did Godaddy do this time? They only offer discounts to new customers, which I find unacceptable.  So they give huge discounts to new people, but make all their loyal customers pay $4.99 a month no matter if they pay by the month or 3 years in advance.  They do not offer unlimited service nor do they give us CGI, so naturally they shouldn’t be able to charge that much.

So now I’m looking elsewhere. Thought I found a great deal with FatCow.  Not only do they have everything I need, they also provide all their customers with SSL for no extra cost.  I signed up for a year with their special discount and have uploaded files all day.  Well 3 hours ago, everything stopped working.  I tried their live chat, only to be told their servers were having issues, so it was affecting my site.  No updates listed on their site, so how many users are being impacted?  This doesn’t look good to me.  If my site were already with them, it would have been down for 3 full hours, with no end in sight.  I’m currently on hold with their support team to find out what the issue is. Maybe I can have better luck getting an answer than from their chat or ticket system.

I just don’t know why I have no luck finding a host that is reliable.  What does everyone else use? I have gone through half a dozen and always have issues.  Godaddy has gotten a bit pompous, but I didn’t have to deal with down time with them, and I have never been locked out of ftp before.  I can’t even access ftp with FatCow.  If this keeps up, I will be asking for a refund and leaving them in the dust.

I’ve been wanting to get my books on Barnes & Noble’s website for years.  Never wanted to go through the hassle of being a “Vendor of Record”, so I was relieved when they started offering ebooks (Nookbooks).  Still, I couldn’t figure out how to be vendor without having to go through the same hassle.  Knowing that they offer plenty of ebooks that aren’t in paperback, I figured there must be a way publishers were getting their books on Nook.

So I emailed Barnes & Noble and asked.  LOL  Yeah, it took me years to figure out I could do that.  And they quickly wrote me back and gave me the URL, so now I have 2 of my books in the works: Formerly Brandewyne and Faith’s Portrait.  Once they are available, I will work on getting more uploaded.  I couldn’t make FB free, so it’s listed at 99 cents.  FP will be the same price as on Amazon and here.

Right now only one of my erotic romances are available through Cobblestone and that’s Painful Reflections.  That is my first one, so they are must wait quite awhile before uploading to Nook.  Anyway, eventually all my ebooks will be available through Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. 

Here is the link to my NookBooks on www.bn.com.