How do I set up my own Wordpress blog?

It’s not a hard thing to do. Quite easy for someone with even just a basic grasp of the internet and a rudimentary knowledge of web development.

And what a person lacks in web design skills can easily make up for it with creative problem solving.

We’ll take you through the process step by step.

So you’re new to the whole Adsense Experience, that’s okay, everyone was a newbie once. You’ve got to start somewhere. Here are a few tips and suggestions for people who are either about to embark on their Adsense adventure or who have just set sail.

http://www.squidoo.com/adsensebeginnersguide

Don’t make a site about Adsense. You know very little. And in the process of trying to learn you are of course going to websites trying to find out more. In the search for your adsense knowledge how would you feel if you stumbled on a site like the one that YOU have made? By a rank amateur. Who is just regurgitating what everyone else has said. In the process of reguritating it it is also being watered down. Also the Adsense Newbie who makes a site about Adsense is probably gathering information from other sites made by Adsense Newbies. They have haven’t digested it properly and you are unable to discern what is worth reading and what is not.

Don’t strive to be an Adsense Expert for the sake of being an Adsense Expert. When you’re making enough money to live on comfortably to give you the lifestyle you believe you deserve, then you can be an expert who writes e-books, talks at seminaros or publishes their methods. Until then we’re all learning. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from each other.

I was playing the other day with the new WordPress 2.3.2 RC1 and I noticed some additions. The first one is about smilies, which can now be converted from and to graphics on display.

Another addition is the new Akismet engine 2.1.3, previously offered as an update. Something new and nice that caught my eye is the “Convert Categories to Tags” option. Not useful for me, but I know a bunch of bloggers who would happily convert all their categories.

I also noticed a new bookmarklet, some graphic rendering errors, and also some small graphic tweaks. Anyway, it’s Release Candidate 1, so it will be a while until the final release. I decided not to look under the hood, but instead check out the repository to see what changes have been made to the code.

This happened yesterday.

Today I noticed that my dashboard offered an upgrade to 2.3.2. This is indeed a nice Christmas present. I upgraded it and everything went smooth.

Read here to see how to upgrade. 

Still thinking to cheat AdSense? Stop that. It will never get you anywhere. You might pull it off with smaller ads network, but definitely not with Google. Here are some detection methods they might use. At the very least, they have the resources to do so.

• IP Address
  If the AdSense click is originated from the same IP Address as the one used for accessing your AdSense account, your account is flagged.
• Cookies
  Most home users do not use static IP Address for Internet connection. In most cases just disconnect and reconnect will give you a new IP Address. But don’t forget, Google has set cookies on your computer.
• Other Google Services
  Thinking that you are safe just because you do not access your AdSense account? Think again. This time, consider these: GMail, Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Toolbar, Google Talk, Google Sitemap, Google Desktop, Blogger, and so on, and so on. With the wide range of services they provide, Google can trace the originator of most (or probably almost all) clicks.
• Click Pattern 1
  Oh, why this computer / IP address / person is so trigger-click-happy on this particular website but never click on the ads on other sites?
• Click Pattern 2
  And why is it that people accessing these sites direct (type-in URL or from bookmark) tend to be very active ad-clickers compared with those referred from search engine or other sites?
• Click Pattern 3
  And why the ad-clickers like to hit and run, compared with non ad-clickers that surf a few pages before leaving?
• Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
  Your CTR may range from 0.5% to 10%, but if it exceeds a certain point (probably around 10%), you are flagged.
• Geo-Location
  Used Urchin (Google Analytics) before? Then you should know that Google can trace traffics origin down to the small town. Different IP doesn’t mean much. Unless you site is really targetted to one small geo-point, a high number of clicks from nearby location will get you banned quickly.
• Hardware address?
  MAC address of the LAN card, modem, and router works almost like a fingerprint. I’m not sure if Google can track this, but probably they do. They have rocket scientist, remember?
• Advertisers conversion rate
  Ad click is one thing. But does it bring value to the advertisers? If none of the clicks on your site translate to conversion to the advertiser, you are in trouble. First the Smart-Pricing hits, then your AdSense account disabled.
• Search Engine Ranking
  Your website is not indexed on any search engine, not linked by any prominent website, but get consistently high traffic? That sounds like something is in play. Regardless of whether it is an adware-embedded software, spam, trojan clickbot, or intentionally installed click-exchange network, it doesn’t sound right.
• Webpage design
  How about the “click here” or “support us”? Google has the best search engine in the world. Is it really that hard to find those words?
• Combo
  Each of these detection methods might seem rather weak. But combine them together, and not many click-fraud can pass-through these filters. Even the smartest clickbot will have a hard time.

Amidst a user backlash regarding changes to its Reader application, Google on Wednesday made slight adjustments to the service to enable more control over sharing capabilities.

Reader users can now separate shared newsfeeds into categories that are only accessible to friends if that user sends them a direct link.

Google Reader aggregates selected news feeds in a central location, and allows users to share entries via a public Web site with the click of the mouse. Until recently, users had to send their friends the exact URL to that Web site if they wanted them to view selected feeds. On Dec. 14, however, Google announced that it would integrate users’ shared feeds with everyone on their Gmail chat lists.