[blaze]

Originally Posted by rossoonline

Totally agree. Using Pligg straight out of the box is of no use if you want to get search engine traffic as all the pages use the same title and description!

I actually found a way to help improve SEO with Pligg. It's a great method and gives you FULL CONTROL of all pages. You can view the hack here.

[wwwSENSERELYcom]

As for the monetisation of the pligg, I think on most pages the advertising should be very light, and only on the actual story pages you could have large ads area between the header and the content.
I think often the traffic from search engine will come on specific story pages (and categories page too) so you can display big ads. But for the regular users, most of the interface should be light in ads, so they are not put off by them.

My suggestions are that top right spot, in the sidebar, a 250x250 ad. And also just below the header/navbar or at the top of the content senction, if you can put something thin like an adsense link units, 728x15

[blaze]

Originally Posted by wwwSENSERELYcom

As for the monetisation of the pligg, I think on most pages the advertising should be very light, and only on the actual story pages you could have large ads area between the header and the content.
I think often the traffic from search engine will come on specific story pages (and categories page too) so you can display big ads. But for the regular users, most of the interface should be light in ads, so they are not put off by them.

My suggestions are that top right spot, in the sidebar, a 250x250 ad. And also just below the header/navbar or at the top of the content senction, if you can put something thin like an adsense link units, 728x15

While using the heat map, I noticed that MANY of the clicks took place near the social bookmarks within the actual story itself... but none of the stories actually got bookmarked. The only thing I could figure out was that they (my users) liked to click on the ajax crap that hides and unhides the social bookmarking. You know, they were done with the story and were just click happy because they were curious about the functionality and what it did. This is where I placed a 468x60 banner from Google -- and it worked out extremely well for me. To this day, that is my highest banner CTR location on my site.

[wwwSENSERELYcom]

where are the social bookmarks placed within your story pages? sorry i don't know your pligg site, could you indicate approximatively?

[blaze]

Originally Posted by wwwSENSERELYcom

where are the social bookmarks placed within your story pages? sorry i don't know your pligg site, could you indicate approximatively?

The social bookmarks haven't changed at all from most other pligg templates or the yget template -- which is just underneath the story itself. Imagine that you click on a story link and you read the full story. At the end of the story, just underneath it, you see the social bookmarks. I place my banner just above the social bookmarks. In my layout, a 468x60 banner fits there perfectly. I leave enough white space around the banner in between the story and social bookmarks.

But again, this only works on my site because this is where many people were clicking on my site. Not to mention, I placed this banner ONLY on the common pages where people were exiting from, not all pages -- this is in reference to "categories." You need to analyze your own site and discover where the people are clicking, because every site varies greatly. My site is an affiliate site, therefore I get different kinds of customers than most others would, as my customers aren't really reading a "story" per se, but rather reading a product description. And most people "scan" a product description rather than read it.

[wwwSENSERELYcom]

I did remove the bookmark links because my site is in french and the audience is not technical, and with bookmarks targeted to rather technically minded english readers there is really no use in those bookmarks on my site...

Except, that I noticed that the title of the story is repeated in each bookmark's title anchor text, so at the end of the day you end up with half a dozen times the title repeated. I think this can only be good or at worse neutral for search engines?

If you think it beneficial, then perhaps I should make the effort to adapt the bookmark thing to include the most famous french digg-like sites (several based on pligg BTW)

[blaze]

Originally Posted by wwwSENSERELYcom

If you think it beneficial, then perhaps I should make the effort to adapt the bookmark thing to include the most famous french digg-like sites (several based on pligg BTW)

No, I think you made the right decision. If your users don't use them, then it's senseless to include them. Just analyze your stats and find out where most of your users are leaving from (what page?) If you don't have a good enough stats program, then try statcounter or google analytics. Analytics does have a pretty nice heat map as well so you can see where the most click activity is on your site's exiting pages.

[ruptan]

Originally Posted by bbrian017

I use Google and I will share with you the results at the end of this month. You can see how they are implemented here, Blog Engage / Published Blogs

Great site you have. I love it.

[dochollywood]

Originally Posted by blaze

The use of a heat map is actually pretty beneficial if you plan on monetizing your site with google adwords. I raised my daily CTR from 2.3% to 8.7% by using the heat map in under 2 days. Now my average CTR is around 9% consistently. However, I didn't just place the adwords where the most valuable clicks were, I placed them in locations of pages that had high clicks for where they exited from. This way, I figured if they were gong to leave, why not get them to click on a Google ad? It worked out very well for me and I never could have done that without the use of heat maps.

I can't testify that anyone can make 1000's of dollars a day having a site be as general as you say -- because I have never known anyone that ever made that kind of money with a startup. I don't have the luxury to hang out with those kinds of people nor have I ever had the luck to meet those kinds of people. Sad really. I wish I knew some of those people! I read about it here and there in the newsletters, but from what I have read, many of these sites also started with Venture capital in the Millions. Look at "KillerStartups.com™". It's a digg style format and is pretty successful from the surface. Not sure how much money they take in, but from the info given on their site, they seem to be pretty successful. But are they a GENERAL type of site? Or are they a niche site? IMO, they are a niche site since they only deal with startup companies. Maybe you don't think the word "niche" applies, but for me, it's a very realistic word and a very realistic market to tackle.

Oh well, tomato -- tomahto.

My site does 5000+ USD per month and growing.. I'm a doctor by profession and believe me I'm tired of being a doctor and I'm only 36 yrs old.. 2-3 hours per week of managing my site is easy money.. Should of been doing this a long time ago. I'm launching a new software product called TrafficJinn.com "Your wish is my command". TrafficJinn is a massive free traffic generating system and membership site. That should take my income to about 15,000 USD per month. It should be ready in September.

To see Video Income proof --> Click here

I also own a Caribbean social network (JohnECake.com) that is starting to take off via viral marketing tactics. Anyways, niche or tailend websites make waaaaay more money. Blaze is right! Took me 8 years to figure that out. Rule#1 Adsense is Non-Sense! Remove it rightaway and put "RELATED" affiliate product that pays higher commissions than a few silly cents. If a user is gonna leave your site, let it be worth it. Also, when a user leaves your site put an exit banner page. MySpace does this and makes a killin.. If you want to learn how to replicate what Im doing in exchange for helping make my Pligg site better, Just holla at me!

To see Video Income proof --> Click here