You can use Squidoo lenses as a form of organic traffic however.

some link exchanges;
quite a few directory submissions (2000+);
regular social bookmarking;
created a Squidoo lense;
put up a YouTube video promoting the site;
created a Flickr account with links to the site;
Tweeted to 6500+ Twitter followers about the site;
and basically linked to the site at every possible opportunity!

- second important thing is ad placement, never be satisfied with a page CTR less than 5%, keep improving it as long as it isn’t 5%, but don’t reach 20% as it will mean something is very wrong in terms of user-friendliness and you won’t last long. The only advice for ad placement is to put adsense where you’d like to have your own ads if the site wasn’t yours.

- don’t waste your time creating forums, it’s very difficult and doesn’t pay well with adsense. Don’t do flash games, free wallpapers and such niches with really low paying keywords, $0.1 should be the minimum average CPC you’re looking for.

- don’t buy ebooks or pay for anything other than promotion of your site and web hosting.

- try to have your content generated by users instead of you, with the power of internet they can add more content in a day than you can in a month, and it’ll be more relevant.

- add content generated automatically if you can code in PHP and use APIs such as Google Search API, but try to add value instead of simply doing a replica of google search (or whatever APIs you’re using) because if you don’t bring value, then soon your site will be desindexed from google = no more visitors.

- keep having goals, after $3 a day to reach $100 monthly, increase it always, take adsense earnings and web traffic in general as your score in the real-life game. Take traffic building as a game, so use google analytics to keep track of visitors and set traffic goals like you set earnings goals. You should be having fun with this work, otherwise there’s no point, better work in a factory!

- finally don’t put all your eggs in the same basket, that advice applies to web properties, don’t have only one site in case something happens, but also to ad networks (don’t have only adsense, try others even if they probably won’t earn half as much as adsense, try to spend time optimizing their earnings) and also to other things in internet-life, like web hosting companies, where you receive your money, etc. don’t centralize.

B

http://www.beedirectory.com/
http://www.bestdots.info/
http://www.best-net-sites.com/
http://bigger-directory.info/
http://www.bitwide.com/
http://www.blackdhalia.com/
http://www.blackdir.info/
http://www.blaxy.com/
http://www.blisswolff.com/directory/
http://www.bluedirectory.org/
http://bluemushrooms.com/sites/
http://www.bratseek.com/
http://www.business-directory-northeast.co.uk/
http://business-listing.com
http://blogs.b2binternetmarketingagency.com/dir/

C

http://www.cachedirectory.com
http://www.canlinks.net/
http://www.cash-for-surveys.com/dir
http://www.cheapdirectory.net/
http://www.cherrydir.com
http://www.clarib.com/
http://directory.classifieds1000.com/
http://www.clickmybrick.com/
http://www.cliky.com/
http://www.cocovida.co.uk/links/
http://commercedir.com
http://commerce-directory.co.uk
http://www.computer-remote-control.com/directory/
http://www.cyber-find.net/

D

http://www.daredirectory.info/
http://www.ddsx.com/
http://www.desilinkdirectory.com/
http://www.diggeek.com/directory/
http://www.digitaldir.eu/
http://directastic.com/
http://www.directorybin.com/
http://www.directoryforce.com/
http://www.directory-global.com/
http://www.directorylane.com/
http://www.directory-link.info
http://directory-links.net/
http://www.directoryon.info/
http://www.directorystorm.com
http://www.directory-submission.net/dir/
http://www.directoryvault.com/
http://www.directoryws.com/
http://www.directory4u.info/
http://www.directory4u.net/
http://www.diropen.com/
http://dir.seo7.net/
http://www.dir-submission.com/
http://www.dir6.com/
http://www.discoverdirectory.com/
http://www.dmoz.org/
http://www.domaining.in/
http://domain-link-exchange.com/
http://www.donatesearch.com/
http://www.dotrig.com/
http://www.doublemasti.com/dir/
http://www.dpopace.com/
http://www.droolingmonkey.com/
http://www.duanegartman.com/
http://dynamutt.net/
http://www.dynn.org/
http://d911.net/

E

http://www.earth-directory.info
http://www.easydirectory.info/
http://easy2upload.net/directory/
http://www.ebuybao.com/
http://www.enterwork.net/directory/
http://www.esherlock.us/
http://www.etkal.com/
http://evmina.com/
http://www.ewebindex.com/
http://www.ewolf.info/
http://www.excellentweb.info/
http://www.exoode.com/directory/
http://www.explodesearch.com/
http://directory.ezweb-tools.com/

F

http://fabaroo.com/
http://fabarooni.com/
http://www.fastdir.info/
http://www.fastfindinternet.com/
http://fastpaths.com/
http://www.fatinfo.com/
http://www.findgoodsites.com/
http://www.findsites.net/
http://www.thenewwebtools.com/findsome/
http://www.findtoplinks.com
http://www.findwhatwhere.info/
http://www.freekicktemple.com/directory/
http://www.freeonlinedirectory.info/
http://www.free-seo-directory.net/
http://freesites4all.com/
http://www.free-top.net/directories/
http://www.freeurldirectory.com/
http://www.freewd.org/
http://www.freewebdirectory.biz/
http://www.freewebsitedirectory.com/
http://www.free-website-directory.com/
http://www.friendlyweb.info/
http://www.fsobc.org/

G

http://geek-mom.com/
http://www.general-website-directory.com/
http://www.getinsearchengines.com/
http://get-listed-now.info/
http://www.gilas.net/
http://www.gimmemydomains.com/links/
http://www.givelink.info/
http://www.globalbusinesslist.com/
http://www.godirectory.org/
http://www.goldxfers.com/directory/
http://www.gooddirectory.net/
http://www.goodprdirectory.com/
http://www.go2directory.info/
http://www.grafoff.com/
http://www.graydirectory.com/
http://www.greatrates.info/
http://www.green-links.info/
http://www.gr8sitepoint.com/
http://www.gten.net/

H

http://directory.helpedia.com/
http://www.hideurl.info/
http://www.hinddawn.com/dir/
http://hookahbar.us/directory/
http://hotgossip.be/

I

http://www.iftekharkhan.com/
http://www.ilinkr.com/
http://www.illumirate.com/
http://www.imomlinks.com/
http://www.indiadir.org/
http://www.infignos.com/
http://infiniteinfo.net/
http://www.info-listings.com/
http://directory.inmeres.com
http://www.insanedirectory.com/
http://www.inteligentd.com/
http://invo.info/
http://www.irkawebdirectory.com/
http://www.isearchlink.com/
http://directory.iserv.com.au/
http://www.isins.com/
http://www.iwebdirectory.net/
http://www.iwebinfo.com/

J

http://www.jamjaa.com/
http://www.jayde.com/
http://www.jello.no/
http://juicytail.com/

K

http://www.katulago.de/english.php
http://khasmoth.inethoster.net/
http://www.kinds.biz/
http://www.kingoftheweb.net/directory/
http://www.klik-klik.com/directory/
http://www.klottra.com/
http://www.koolar.com/
http://free-web-directory.koollog.com/

L

http://www.laketahoecoupons.com/
http://www.lambslinks.com/
http://www.linkaddurl.com/
http://linkbook.pcgraphicsolutions.com/
http://www.linkdiary.info/
http://www.linkdir.info/
http://www.linkedout.info/
http://www.linketeria.com/
http://www.linkforever.net/
http://linknom.com/
http://www.linkonup.com/
http://www.linkpedia.net/
http://www.links-factory.com/directory
http://www.linksharbour.com/
http://www.linkstomy.com/
http://www.linksweb.info/
http://www.linktome.info/
http://www.linktoria.com/
http://www.littlewebdirectory.com/
http://www.livewired.org/

M

http://www.maddir.com/
http://www.majesticdirectory.com/
http://www.makemepopular.com/
http://www.marsdirectory.info/
http://www.mastersites.info/
http://www.mathukiya.com/
http://www.megri.com/
http://www.mercury-directory.info
http://miriblack.com/
http://www.mmorpgcrypt.com/links.asp
http://www.monkey-directory.com/
http://www.more-traffic.info/
http://directory.mydignet.com/
http://www.my-great-site.com/
http://www.mygreencorner.com/
http://dir.mymaldives.com/
http://my-own-place.com/

N

http://www.nelspruit.com/
http://www.neonlinks.com/
http://www.netcandy.info/
http://www.netkushi.com/directory/
http://www.network-room.com/links/
http://www.nicedirectory.net/
http://www.niche-listings.com/
http://www.nolinkback.com/
http://www.n1directory.com/

O

http://www.ohsearch.org/
http://www.opendirectorys.com/
http://opposite-corner.com/
http://www.oswd.us/
http://www.oznames.com/

P

http://www.paranabis.com/
http://www.pblake.com/
http://www.pedsters-planet.co.uk/
http://peksman.com/
http://www.pickedsites.info/
http://www.pileiton.com/
http://directorio.pixelin.org/
http://www.directory.pkdesign.sk/
http://www.placeyourlinks.com/
http://www.plentylinks.com/
http://www.webdirectory.plus-uk.net/
http://poozl.com/
http://www.pop-net.org/
http://premiumsites.org/
http://www.profitchoice.com/webdir
http://www.prolinkdirectory.com/
http://www.properdirectory.com/
http://directory.proud-collector.com/
http://www.purple-directory.com/

Q

http://www.qos-team.com/
http://www.quickdirectory.biz/

R

http://directory.rankorama.de/
http://www.redjuniper.com/
http://red-links.com/
http://www.regularlinks.org/
http://www.r-fd.com/
http://www.riodirectory.com/

S

http://samsdirectory.com/
http://sanory.com/
http://links.scrabblestop.com/
http://www.sc4m.com/
http://search-made-easy.com/
http://searchsight.com/Directory.htm
http://www.search-the-world.com/
http://www.searchworth.com
http://www.seekzap.com/
http://www.seocraze.com/directory/
http://www.seodir.org/
http://www.seodirectorys.com/
http://directory.seoexecutive.com/
http://www.seo-friend.com/
http://directory.seohyd.com/
http://www.seowebindex.com/
http://www.seoweblink.com/
http://www.sgtsearch.com/
http://www.sighbercafe.com/
http://www.simpledir.com
http://www.simple-directory.net/
http://www.siteinclusion.com
http://www.sitelinkcentral.com/
http://www.site-list.net/
http://www.sitematrix.org/
http://www.sitereviewer.net/
http://www.sitesdirectory.info/
http://www.sitesurfdirectory.com/
http://www.skaloosh.com/
http://www.skypemedia.com/
http://sloppylinks.com/
http://www.smartwebdirectory.info/
http://directory.softensive.de/
http://www.somuch.com/
http://www.specialdirectory.net/
http://www.spheri.com/
http://sponsored-directory.info/
http://www.springsnow.info/
http://www.submitlink.info/
http://www.submit-url.org/
http://www.submiturlhere.com/
http://www.submit2dir.info/
http://www.suggest-link.net/
http://www.suggestlink.co.in/
http://www.summerrains.info/
http://www.sun-directory.info/
http://www.suredirectory.com/

T

http://taterlinks.com/
http://www.tattamangalam.com/free_web_directory/
http://www.textonlyweb.com/
http://www.tfwd.org/
http://www.thalesdirectory.com/
http://thebusinessdir.com
http://www.the-free-directory.co.uk/
http://www.thelinkingpro.com/
http://www.themedirectory.net/
http://the-other-corner.com/
http://www.theseoking.com/
http://www.thevividedge.com/
http://www.timeclicker.biz/
http://topdot.org/
http://www.topsearchengineranking.us/
http://www.toptero.com/
http://www.topwebdirectory.info/
http://www.tradein.biz/
http://www.triplewdirectory.com/
http://directory.trout.pl/
http://www.tsection.com
http://www.turnpike.net/
http://typodrome.com/

U

http://u-get-listed.info/
http://www.urlcable.com/
http://urlchief.com/
http://www.urlmoz.com/
http://www.urlshack.com/
http://www.uuiq.com/

V

http://u-get-listed.info/
http://www.urlcable.com/
http://urlchief.com/
http://www.urlmoz.com/
http://www.urlshack.com/
http://www.uuiq.com/

W

http://www.wannaberichtoo.com/link/
http://www.web-bulletin.com/
http://www.webdirectory-submit.com/
http://www.webhotlink.com/
http://www.webmasterinfoandcontent.com/resources/
http://www.weborizon.info/
http://www.website-directorio.com/
http://www.websitetop.com/
http://webslackers.com/
http://linkitup.weightlossinfo.us/
http://www.widlo.com/
http://www.wikidweb.com/
http://www.winterfires.info/
http://www.worddirectory.net/
http://www.worldofdot.info/
http://www.worldwidedirectory.org/
http://www.wroclaw-airtour.pl/edir/
http://directory.w3joint.com/

Why has privacy become such a big deal for consumers over the last few years? The answer is that customers need reassurance before giving out their personal information to someone they do not know. They might really like your web site and even visit it often, but as soon as you ask for their name, they get suspicious. Moreover, if you also ask for their address, phone number, credit card number, bank names, account numbers, health history, or current job information, they start worrying about what you are going to do with all that information. Can you blame them? Of course you cannot. What you have to do is ensure you address some basic but critical aspects of their concern, through a clear and efficient Privacy Policy.

Below are some important issues you should take into consideration when writing your company’s Privacy Policy:

1) Explain what types of information you collect and how you use it

Provide reassurance. Clearly explain what types of information you ask from your visitors for and what you are going to do with such information. Besides personal information, what other information do you keep track of? Do you collect information from children? How do you verify parental consent for information about their children? Remember that information is power and although about two thirds of Internet users might be willing to accept a guarantee that you will not abuse their privacy, the other quarter feels extremely nervous about the way their personal information might be used. Therefore, if your web site mines raw transaction data to identify visitors, to come up with new offers, or to sell their names to merchandisers, you will need to explain how you share that information within your own family of companies and outside, or else you will very likely face serious legal problems.

2) Explain why your server and online operations are secure

Now you have already told people what information you ask for and what you do with it, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Next you will have to explain what makes your server and online operations secure. You probably do not want to be caught with no answer when confronted with questions such as, ‘How do you make sure nobody steals my credit card information?’ or ‘How do you protect the privacy of my emails to your customer support team?’ Point out how your consumers can tell if they are really on a secure server, i.e. the change in the URL, the icons that show up on the status bar, etc. You may even take a shot at explaining encryption, and the Secure Sockets Layer. Most importantly, concentrate on the benefits to the consumer, for in the end, most of them will not care less about all the security measures you take and all the money you spend to make your website secure, unless that translates into some specific benefits to them.

3) Let customers out

When people read your Privacy Policy for the first time, they will want to know how they can start or stop receiving email from you. Giving customers an opt-in and opt-out option is a great way to build trust and lower their personal barriers. However, you must be aware that people’s needs, desires and interests might change over time and despite the fact that no one likes to lose a customer, you must let them go if they state that they are no longer interested in receiving your emails. In order to protect your customers’ privacy, you must give them access to their personal profile or account, and let them delete themselves. Since one of the biggest invasions of privacy is spam, one of the organizations created to fight spam called The Anti SPAM League considers that it is a good idea to allow people to opt into your e-mail newsletter twice - once by clicking the checkbox and Submit button, and again by responding to the e-mail notification that they can subscribe if they reply -. Double opt-in makes it more likely that people know what they are doing when they volunteer for the email. Remember to include an ‘unsubscribe’ option at the bottom of each newsletter you email to your customer base. Of course, if most of your customers request to be removed from your mailing list then you will have a much more serious problem because your business will be in danger. But still, you must always give your customers a way out.

4) Let customers view and edit their personal information

If you give people the opportunity to view and edit their information, chances are they will provide even more. The reasoning under this is pretty basic: almost no one destroys his or her own data. Therefore, whenever you display customers’ personal information, place clear and visible labels indicating how they can edit it. Be clear about how they can view and edit their information, i.e. ‘You can access all your personally identifiable information that we collect online by logging in and clicking the ‘Change User Info’ link in the box on the right-hand side of every page’. Also, answer questions that might be of extreme importance to some customers such as, ‘Can I review information you have about my child?’.

5) Inform customers about policy changes

Most businesses revise their Privacy Policies from time to time. If you are among these businesses, inform your customers how they can have access to those changes and revisions. For example, include a sentence in your Privacy Policy such as, ‘New versions will be posted on this web site, so please check back periodically for updates’.

6) Tell your customers who to contact in case they have questions about privacy

Sometimes people might have some specific questions that are not explicitly covered in your Privacy Policy. For example, where they can learn more about their right to privacy or who they can talk to if they have a question about their privacy. Always include one or more ways in which customers can contact you regarding privacy issues. This contributes a lot in terms of reassurance.

7) Write a privacy policy that people can understand

Last, but not least, this issue can make the whole difference between a trusted business and one that may look OK, but deep inside you feel you cannot trust. Unfortunately, most Privacy Policies are written by lawyers and consequently, contain way too many technicalities. We do not question the value of legal terminology, but we greatly emphasize the fact that a Privacy Policy does not need to sound too serious or elegant. It just needs to be clear and simple, so that any average consumer can understand it without much effort. If you use industry or in-house jargon without explanation you make readers suspect that you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes and the final result debilitates the whole purpose of the policy, which is to build trust. Sure you will have to talk about your security precautions, but refer to them in plain English before you mention tech words that most people do not understand.

Our advice regarding how to write an efficient Privacy Policy can be summed up in just two sentences: ‘Keep it simple’, and ‘Do not lie to your customers’. If you want to learn more about this and other related topics, check out www.Anti-Spam-League.org. This organization offers free membership and the chance to access a wide amount of relevant information on privacy, spam, email abuse, Internet fraud, responsible marketing and several other topics.

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”>

If the page contains multiple meta tags of the same type, we will aggregate the content values. For instance, we will interpret

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX”>
<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOFOLLOW”>

The same way as:

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”>

If content values conflict, we will use the most restrictive. So, if the page has these meta tags:

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX”>
<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”INDEX”>

We will obey the NOINDEX value.

Unnecessary content values
By default, Googlebot will index a page and follow links to it. So there’s no need to tag pages with content values of INDEX or FOLLOW.

Directing a robots meta tag specifically at Googlebot
To provide instruction for all search engines, set the meta name to “ROBOTS”. To provide instruction for only Googlebot, set the meta name to “GOOGLEBOT”. If you want to provide different instructions for different search engines (for instance, if you want one search engine to index a page, but not another), it’s best to use a specific meta tag for each search engine rather than use a generic robots meta tag combined with a specific one. You can find a list of bots at robotstxt.org.

Casing and spacing
Googlebot understands any combination of lowercase and uppercase. So each of these meta tags is interpreted in exactly the same way:

<meta name=”ROBOTS” content=”NOODP”>
<meta name=”robots” content=”noodp”>
<meta name=”Robots” content=”NoOdp”>

If you have multiple content values, you must place a comma between them, but it doesn’t matter if you also include spaces. So the following meta tags are interpreted the same way:

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”>
<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW”>

If you use both a robots.txt file and robots meta tags
If the robots.txt and meta tag instructions for a page conflict, Googlebot follows the most restrictive. More specifically:

* If you block a page with robots.txt, Googlebot will never crawl the page and will never read any meta tags on the page.
* If you allow a page with robots.txt but block it from being indexed using a meta tag, Googlebot will access the page, read the meta tag, and subsequently not index it.

Valid meta robots content values
Googlebot interprets the following robots meta tag values:

* NOINDEX - prevents the page from being included in the index.
* NOFOLLOW - prevents Googlebot from following any links on the page. (Note that this is different from the link-level NOFOLLOW attribute, which prevents Googlebot from following an individual link.)
* NOARCHIVE - prevents a cached copy of this page from being available in the search results.
* NOSNIPPET - prevents a description from appearing below the page in the search results, as well as prevents caching of the page.
* NOODP - blocks the Open Directory Project description of the page from being used in the description that appears below the page in the search results.
* NONE - equivalent to “NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”.

A word about content value “NONE”
As defined by robotstxt.org, the following direction means NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW.

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NONE”>

However, some webmasters use this tag to indicate no robots restrictions and inadvertently block all search engines from their content.

The benefits of one authority site are numerous and substantial including:

New pages / articles will be indexed quickly using existing rank of main site
Only one site to back link to, can focus more on getting/ more able to get quality links
Don’t have to keep setting up domains / installing sites
One lot of keyword research
Easier to maintain and update
Less likely to be seen as spam by Google

Disadvantages of an authority site:

Domain name doesn’t target the keyword so may not rank as well.

I’d love to hear some more comments about this if anyone has any opinions

Apparently, Google does make changes to its interface and claims that the change is only “cosmetic” and the end of the month earnings will be calculated as usually.

What is interesting that different people saw the change on different dates. For example, my change has happened on 12/10/2009, some had in on 12/02/2009. Probably it was difficult to do an update for all Google Adsense at one time.

In any case, I believe that Google clarified that one should not count on the earnings amounts showed as already earned. In fact, earnings were always just an estimate. I heard of cases when Goolge adjusted (decreased) Adsense Earnings at the end of the month due to usage of unethical practices by the publishers. I do not think that adjusting the earnings will become a common practice with Adsense as it is at Chitika right now.