The Mythical Google Sandbox and How To Escape It

With an article title like this, it almost seems like I am playing the fool, by telling you something doesn't exist and then telling you that I will show you how to beat that thing I said does not exist. Maybe I am the fool, or maybe, I have something valuable to share with you today. You be the judge.

I Don't Believe In The Google Sandbox, Dragons Or Unicorns...

I was browsing the Digital Point forums earlier, when I came across this quote:

"The Google Sandbox is something that people either believe or don't believe. It usually means that within the first 6 months - 1 year you won't get a lot of love from Google."

Link: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=8286280

I saw the quote shown above and I had a good laugh. Yes, many people believe in the existence of the Google Sandbox, and I am not one of those people. I place the "Google Sandbox" in the same category as the leprechaun... they both make a neat children's story, but I see no truth in either.

What Is Google Love?

Google love is the imaginary "feeling" that Google has for the websites in its index. The more Google loves a website, the higher that website will rank in the Google search results.

No matter how many search results Google shows for a particular search term, Google will only show a maximum of 1,000 website listings in its search engine result pages (SERPs). However, few people, except nuts like me know that as you go to each consecutive page in Google's SERPs, the actual number that Google is willing to show you gets smaller with each additional page visited.

For example, I just did a search on the keyword phrase "Google Love". My default Google settings are set to 100 results. When I first typed the search phrase, Google showed 68,300,000 results, and Google shows me that I can look at ten pages of results. But, when I get to the tenth page in Google's results, there are only three listings. Google only loves 903 web pages for the search term "Google Love".

Google has told us that they attribute value to a web page, based on the number of inbound links that page might have. Google Love primarily comes from link popularity, which is derived from inbound links.

The Suggested Lifespan Of The Google Sandbox

I see the "sandbox" as being a term that some person working in SEO derived to explain why so many of his client's new pages appeared in Google's search results for about one month, before the pages disappeared into the deep recesses of the Google index.

In absence of a better explanation, some SEO person coined the term "Google Sandbox" to explain to his or her customers why a page disappears from the Google index and stays missing for months or years.

According to those who preach the Google Sandbox theory, the lifespan of the Sandbox is six months to one year. That is a lifetime when you are running an online business.

The Life Curve Of A Web Page

Google's algorithms rely heavily on inbound links to determine the value of a web page. But a brand new web page has not had the opportuníty to attract any inbound links, because after all, it is a brand new web page. So Google gives new web pages the benefit of a doubt.

News stories are a good example of web pages that may very well be important to the world-at-large, but their importance cannot be determined by the number of inbound links available to that page.

As a result, all brand new web pages on the Internet are given an intrinsic value by Google, as if the pages housed a news story. But what was important thirty days ago, will not necessarily be important today. So news stories are given early value and then their value fades with time.

Once the news cycle is completed, the web page will slide down to where it deserves to be according to the normal Google algorithms. This often means that a new web page will disappear into Google oblivion (or the theoretical Google Sandbox), if after 30 days the page has not generated any link popularity of its own.

After The News Cycle, All Normal Rules Apply

We have all heard it before. The way to get a web page to rank in Google is to build link popularity for the web page.

And how do you build link popularity for a web page? Build inbound links to that web page, of course.

Once the news cycle is done, a new web page must compete with every other web page, based on Google's normal algorithm.

What If A Page Could Develop Link Popularity In 30 Days?

What if you were able to build inbound links and therefore link popularity for a web page, before the news cycle runs out? That would be a twist, wouldn't it?

Personally, I know for a fact that if you can build link popularity on a page, within the news cycle window, that this new page will not fall into the dreaded and mythical Google Sandbox. The page will not fall into the Google Sandbox at the end of the news cycle, because the page will have already accrued some link popularity within Google's primary algorithm.

You Are The Master Of Your Domain

As the master of your domain, you get to choose how long a page is sandboxed. Most people don't realize they have that kind of control, but with smart link building, one can prevent a web page from entering the sandbox. Or, if the web page does slip into the sandbox, the smart online marketer can bring a web page out of the mythical sandbox in days or weeks, instead of months or years. The beauty of this truth is that you define the time line for when a web page exits the sandbox, not Google.

I Boast That I Can Prove It To You

I built a new page 16 days ago that is holding page one results in Google against 200,000+ websites, with my Blackhat Fish SEO Contest entry.

Now, one could argue that I am still in the news cycle for this web page, so in another two weeks, my page could disappear from the Google results. But, I have built so many inbound links to this page that I fully expect that when the news cycle is done, my page will remain outside of Google's mythical sandbox.

I Challenge You To Test My Results

Test my proof by checking back here in a couple weeks, or even in four weeks or six. If I am right, you will be able to click this link to Google's search results for the keyword phrase Blackhat Fish, and you will be able to see my page title on page one or two of Google's search results: "Whitehat vs. Blackhat: Fish For Links or Die Trying".

I say page one or page two of Google's search results, because I would be surprised if I actually won the competition. However, if I am still in the top 20 results for the search key term after July 10, 2008, then I will have proved to you that anyone can beat the sandbox, if only they exercised the right strategy for escaping the sandbox ahead of the end of the news cycle.

I have actually pulled this off with three web pages in the last 60 days. The above listed example is just one of many examples I could show you as proof of concept here. But for brevity's sake, I am only including the one example here.

In Conclusion...

You can accept my analysis as sound, or you can call me the fool. It does not matter to me which you choose. If you want to believe that the Google Sandbox really exists to thwart your online business, then more power to your fears.

Source: The Phantom Writers

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Monetize Your Video with Product Ads

Do you know? You can make money from your uploaded videos on your blog or website now. Recently, Amazon Associates has launched Your Video Widget where you earn referral fees from product links that you add to your videos. You don't have to start from scratch to create Your Video Widget - monetize any video you have!

Creating Your Video Widget is easy:

1. First, upload your videos: a product demonstration, a vacation video, something whimsical or fun! Upload any video you would like to share.
2. Next, handpick products to display in your video. You determine when the product information pops up.
3. Add your new widget to your site.

If someone finds your video interesting, they can add it to their site and you earn the referral fees.

To get started, visit the Your Video Widget page, and add a video to your site today. Click on the video below and start building now.


The launch of the Your Video Widget adds to their suite of digital products including the Kindle Chicklet, MP3 Clips widget and Unbox Movie and TV Preview Widget. Check out all of their digital products here.

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Do It Yourself SEO Tips

So you have your website but just can't seem to get good ranking in Google's search results. Well, if you are a DIY search engine optimizer then what is the best way to fix this?

This is the questions that USA Today recently asked Google engineer and active blogger, Matt Cutts.

So I bet you want to know these tips, don't you? Well, here they are, straight from the expert's mouth:

1. Spotlight your search term on the page.

"Think about what people are going to type in to try and find you," Cutts says. Matt's example is of meeting a chiropractor from San Diego who complained that his site couldn't be found easily using Google search. The words "San Diego chiropractor" weren't listed anywhere on the site. "You have to make sure the keywords are on the page," Cutts says. So it is best to let people know so immediately what your business is, at the top of your page.

2. Fill in your "tags".

Title and description tags are crucial, Cutts says, because they are shown in search results most often.

3. Get other sites to "link" back to you.

Google ranks sites based on popularity. Cutts says it looks at more than 100 pieces of data to determine a site's ranking.

4. Create a blog and post often.

Cutts says blogging is a great way to add links and start a conversation with customers and friends. With a blog, you can link back to your site and offer links to others. It is also a great way to start building content, Cutts says.

5. Register for free tools.

Google's Webmaster Tools offer freebies to help get your site found. And Google's Local Business Center is the place for business owners to submit a site so it shows up in local searches, with a map attached.

The final word...

Cutts says not to overdo it. In other words, don't cram your pages full of keywords. This is called "keyword stuffing" and it is a big no-no from Google who will have your site removed from the index if it is practiced.

So there you have it, 5 vital SEO tips straight from someone who lives and breaths Google and SEO.

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We did help Firefox 3 set a Guinness World Record!

A few months ago, right before Firefox 3 was officially launched, it was the hottest topic in town! You heard everyone talking about Firefox 3. You could also see the banners everywhere on the web. We are not getting paid for spreading the word but why did we do that? Because we love Firefox! We helped them to spread the word to help set the Guinness Word Record in "The Most Downloaded Software in 24 Hours" and now we did it! With everyone's help, they reached 8,002,530 downloads on June 18, 2008 and that's a big number! I also got my own certificate for helping set a Guinness World Record with them!

We did it! We helped Firefox 3 set a Guinness World Record.

Thanks to the support of the always amazing Mozilla community, we now hold a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. From 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008, 8,002,530 people downloaded Firefox 3 and are now enjoying a safer, smarter and better Web.


Ever since Firefox was launched in 2004 we've relied on our community to help us spread the word, and thanks to projects including crop circles, newspaper ads, giant stickers, videos, blogs and more we now have over 180 million users in more than 230 countries.

So what's next? We'll just have to wait and see what you come up with!

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Penang - The Pearl of Orient

This is where I belong to, Penang - Pearl of Orient. Penang is an beautiful island which is located in Malaysia. It is also one of the 13 states of Malaysia. Attached below are some beautiful pictures taken by professional photographers on the island.

History of Penang

Penang, originally part of the Malay Sultanate of Kedah, was given to the British East India Company in 1786 by the Sultan of Kedah, in exchange for military protection from Siamese and Burmese armies who were threatening Kedah. On 11 August 1786, Captain Francis Light, known as the founder of Penang, landed in Penang and renamed it Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir to the British throne.

Unbeknownst to the Sultan, Light had acted without the approval of the East India Company when he promised military protection. When the Company failed to aid Kedah when it was attacked by Siam, the Sultan tried to retake the island in 1790. The attempt was unsuccessful, and the Sultan was forced to cede the island to the Company for an honorarium of 6,000 Spanish dollars per annum. This was later increased to 10,000 dollars, with Province Wellesley being added to Penang in 1800. An annual honorarium of 10,000 ringgits continues to this day be paid by the Malaysian Federal Government to the state of Kedah.

In 1826, Penang, along with Malacca and Singapore, became part of the Straits Settlements under the British administration in India, moving to direct British colonial rule in 1867. In 1946 it became part of the Malayan Union, before becoming in 1948 a state of the Federation of Malaya, which gained independence in 1957 and became Malaysia in 1963.

The island was a free port until 1969. Despite the loss of the island's free-port status, from the 1970s to the late 1990s the state built up one of the largest electronics manufacturing bases in Asia, in the Free Trade Zone around the airport in the south of the island.

On 7 July 2008, George Town, the historic capital of Penang was formally inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside with Malacca. It is officially recognized as having a unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia.

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New and Improved Google AdSense for Search

I believe many of you make money online bloggers have installed Google's AdSense for Content ads onto your blog. But did you try out the new and improved AdSense for Search? Well, not everyone is using this on their blogs. Some people might don't even know what is that. It is similar to Google Custom Search. It allows you to add a Google Custom Search widget anywhere in your blog and when a visitor searches for something from the widget, it displays the searched results with some ads appeared on the top and right. When a visitor clicks on the ads, you get paid! It may be a supplemental way to boost your AdSense commission earnings.

Well, if you are not currently using AdSense for Search, you may be missing out on revenue from your blog. They now offer more customization options for refining your search results and tailoring them to what your visitors are looking for, and I invite you to give AdSense for Search a try. As you may know, you will be paid for valid clicks on the ads which appear on search results pages.

Here is the demo, try your search below:

Custom Search

Here are some of the new features you might be interested in:

• Site Search - I heard that many publishers are concerned about visitors leaving their blogs through web search, and so now you can choose to provide just site search. You can also host the search results on your own pages so that your visitors can find the information they are looking for without leaving your blog.
• Improved Indexing of Your Pages - They recently improved their indexing technology so that you can provide a more enhanced Site Search experience for your visitors. AdSense for Search will now index even more pages of your blog, as long as they are able to crawl them, so that your visitors will see more results from your blog in your AdSense for Search results.
• Vertical Search - You can also allow your visitors to search across multiple blogs you select. This could be a network of blogs that you own or other related blogs that you think your visitors might find useful. If you write book reviews on your blog, for example, you can use vertical search to specify a list of online bookstores for visitors to search through.
• Refining Searches with Keywords - You can tailor your search results and ads to the content of your blog, since search terms can have different meanings in different contexts. Let's say you manage a blog about yoga - you can enter keywords such as yoga, exercise, and meditation so that when a visitor searches for mat, the search results and ads will be more related to yoga mats and less to commercial floor mats. Here is an example of this in their video.
  
  
  
  
  
  In my experiments, I have found that this tuning has led to an increase in earnings for publishers.
• Selecting Ad Location - Now you can decide where to place your ads on search results pages whether it is at the top, bottom, or right side of each page. I recommend placing ads at the top and right side of the page, as I have found this monetizes the best for publishers.

To set up AdSense for Search on your blog, just visit your AdSense Setup tab and select AdSense for Search as your product. When you create a new search engine, your settings will be saved in your account. You can then go back at a later time and quickly make any updates without regenerating the code.

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PepperjamNETWORK Publisher Referral Program Increases Payout

If you are an existing affiliate member of PepperjamNETWORK, you may have received and noticed their announcement a while ago titled "PepperjamNETWORK Publisher Referral Program Increases Payout, Offers $10 Sign-up Bonus for New Affiliates, and Introduces Blogger Incentive Program". It is an opportunity and the best timing now for you to make some cash, and probably increase your existing PepperjamNETWORK referral commissions. It is a good news for us as a make make online blogger and we will not miss the offer. This $10 New Affiliate Sign-On Bonus offer is gonna make us some big revenue as PepperjamNETWORK is still quite fresh on the market.

1. Commission Payout Increase - For the entire month of July the PepperjamNETWORK Publisher Referral Program will pay publishers (aka, affiliates) a flat $7 for every new publisher referral. That's a 40% increase from our baseline payout!


2. $10 New Publisher Sign-Up Bonus - To assist you with recruiting new publishers to PepperjamNETWORK, they are going to allow you to provide them with a $10 Sign-Up Bonus. This means that any new publisher that you refer will be eligible for a $10 bonus just for signing-up for PepperjamNETWORK. Keep in mind, in order for your referrals to get the sign-up bonus they must become an approved PepperjamNETWORK publisher, not have an existing PepperjamNETWORK account, and click-through one of the special "$10 Bonus" banners or text links provided to you within the generate links section of the PepperjamNETWORK Publisher Referral Program. Referrals sent in from any links other than the special PepperjamNETWORK $10 Bonus banners or text links will not be given the bonus.


3. Blogger Incentive Program - Bloggers are the lifeblood of the PepperjamNETWORK Publisher Referral program and tend to be their biggest supporters and closet friends. As a result, they thought they'd create a sort of "Pay Per Post" incentive program where any PepperjamNETWORK publisher or blogger will receive $10 for each post you make (up to 5 per month) that promotes PepperjamNETWORK or any PepperjamNETWORK tools. If you are looking for blog ideas check out the PepperjamNETWORK blog at www.pepperjamnetwork.com/blog. So that the team can track your efforts and eliminate spam. Please e-mail them prior to making your post to gain approval of the topic (i.e. I want to write about Pepperjam Chat or the launch of the PepperjamNETWORK Blogger Incentive Program, etc.). By the way, of course you can use your PepperjamNETWORK Referral Program affiliate links and make even more money every time you post about PepperjamNETWORK!

If you are not an existing PepperjamNETWORK Publisher Referral Program affiliate and want to participate in any of the above promotions you will need to join the program by selecting "PepperjamNETWORK" from the advertiser drop-down menu under "Find Partners" within the PepperjamNETWORK interface.

Join PepperjamNETWORK today!

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