Often when registering your domain, you need to choose from a range of Top-Level Domains (TLDs). To put it in layman term, it refers to the suffix attached to domain names.

For instance, the TLD for example.com is .com. The TLD for example.net is .net.

Because of technical issues and others, during the last few years, ICANN started to introduce new TLDs specifically for many industries.

Also don’t forget there are country specific TLDs, like .uk for United Kingdom and .us for United States.

Basically, AdSense publishers are allowed to choose from any top level domain, except perhaps .xxx, which are going to be approved for online adult entertainment. As long as you comply with Google AdSense Program Policies, you are safe.

There are many other considerations though when starting your new site.

A .biz domain is for business purpose, but it may trigger spam filter if you are going to adopt email marketing as part of your marketing strategies, using the domain in question.

Generally, .com domains are so common that people think when you own a website, you own a .com. It is common sense. When you see an online ad, you expect it to be whatever-the-company-name-or-brand dot-com. It may be of your benefit to have a .com for this case.

For me, I always choose .com when registering for a new domain. They may say all good names have been taken, but really if you let creativity kicks in, you can still get great domains.

I often get very good deals on .info domains too. But your mileage may vary.

You can get a complete list of TLDs from ICANN — International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

It may not seem to be obvious at the first glance why you want a fast and reliable hosting for AdSense sites — and virtually any of your content site that you create specificaly to earn money from contextual advertising or other advertising programs.

First, let us make it clear.

You can host your site on free hosting service. Nothing is going to stop you. During your application, it may increase your chance to be accepted into the program if you have a professional site with your own domain.

But, really, after being accepted, you can take any low quality hosting service and use it for any of your new site.

The thing, I recommend that you always go for the fastest and greatest hosting you can afford for several reasons. It better has to be reliable too. Why?

1. It increases your professionalism

Don’t expect everyone run on broadband. Many people are still on dialup, although broadband penetration is certainly going up. So you optimize your page to load in a breeze.

The sad thing is, with slow hosting which hiccups during peak time, you have just ruined your hard work. Click! Your visitor has just clicked anywhere else, instead of your AdSense ads.

2. It caters to low attention span problem

People have shorter attention span online. It develops over time as there are more pages to choose and read everyday. If your whole page, including Google AdSense ad blocks don’t load in a few short seconds, they are not going to wait.

The back button is just one click away…

Remember that AdSense ads are loaded based on JavaScript code. Although it is a safe bet that Google is usually fast, still you need to load the page fast enough before user browser can start querying for the ads.

3. It increases your income.

Yes, it really does. For every visitor that you miss because of your sluggish hosting, for every minute or even second it goes down, you have just lost your AdSense dollar.

This is not something you can afford, especially given the fact that there are inexpensive hosting packages that actually deliver values.

Best Practices for Hosting

This doesn’t mean that you must go for the most expensive hosting package.

Nowadays, you can get a good hosting package for as low as $10 per month. You just have to shop around, do your own due deligence before getting your credit card out.

Have third opinions. Don’t hesitate to ask.

Some hosting allow multiple domains per account.

So shop around.

You usually get what you pay, but never accept anything less.

If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your favorite browser, an extension you absolutely don’t want to miss is AdSense Notifier.

It takes a few seconds to install. Once done, you need to restart your browser.

You then begin customizing how it works.

Enter your AdSense username and password.

You set how often it should update.

There are also options to define which numbers to show. You can also show today’s earning or last 7 days, this month, any many more.

You can group by page or ad unit.

Finally, AdSense Notifier can be set to update when you left-click on it, login into your AdSense account when you right-click on the bar or open the option window. There is even an option to display the page you want it to open directly in your account.

Your choice.

[AdSense Notifier]

What could AdSense publishers to prepare for holiday season? Online retailers have begun to plan for it. Probably they have a plan to revamp some of the components or functions of their online store so it converts more.

Others have started to look into how to improve their conversion using email marketing. If they start thinking about the strategies, it could make a difference between success or failure when the time comes.

What about AdSense publishers? Are you going to sit and watch? Or, is there anything you could do to increase your revenue?

I would say that if you focus on your sites which have the most potential, then chances are you could have the right content in place and increase traffic at the same time.

Here are what my recommendation for this holiday season:

• Write high demand content. If you have no time but write a few more content pages, that would be in the form of reviews. For your niche, there probably are other type of content that is more demanding, but here is my take on reviews. Research on some of the popular options or ideas for holiday gifts and write reviews around those products. Make the content visible and easily accessible. This should place relevant product ads on your pages, of which you can monetize during holiday shopping season.
• Add more keyword focused keyword pages. Combine this with the next tactic to increase your traffic and get ready for more ads to earn revenue from.
• Search engine optimization campaign. It could be as simple as syndicating more articles to other sites or article directories. There are still a few months to go to get higher ranking in search engines.
• Optimize AdSense ad units. It is probably the time again to review your channels and learn how you can improve your ad units. AdSense optimization is a topic I have covered in the past.
• Diversify. Look into many great affiliate programs and see how your pages could fit with the products or services offered by the programs.

If you get yourself ready before holiday season, you can certainly increase your site revenue both from selling products or services — through affiliate programs or your own — or significantly increase your AdSense revenue.

Remember, how you optimize your ads highly depends on your monetization model. If you are driving traffic to affiliate programs, you might want to place AdSense pages below the content so that people who decide not to click still can find what they want.

Finally, test to see what works for you so you are ready for a big hit this season.

Chitika extends referral program limit from 12 to 15 months

Chitika has just extended the referral revenue stream from 12 to 15 months. This means that if you referred someone in October 2005, your referral revenue will continue through January 2007.

Now, publishers who referred others could also earn a share from the holiday shopping season revenue.

AdSense EFT available in three new countries

Publishers located in Czech Republic, Finland and Slovakia are now able to enjoy the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) feature from Google AdSense. The 15th of any month is the deadline to update your form of payment for that month’s payment cycle.

Chitika opens official forum

Chitika finally has opened an official forum where we can go to meet other Chitika members, learn some tips and tricks, etc. Forum is a great platform for discussion and also getting feedback. The forum is called Chitika SPHERE. If you are a Chitika publisher, take some time to know other publishers.