Tutorial: Make More Money on Your Sites with a Mouse Trap

[Jace]

This is from a pretty cool blog I read on a consistant basis, thought I would pass it along:
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Have you ever noticed that when you go to MSN, Yahoo, or Google the cursor goes to the search box when the page loads? I know I notice it when I start to type something in the address bar and half way through the cursor goes to the search box. I call this phenomenon the “mouse trap.”

The reason the search engines force the cursor to the search box on their sites is the same reason you should do the same on your site: to make more money. I have made this change on my site and will show you how to do the same on your sites.

Aaron Wall points out that the Adsense search box is the most profitable ad unit per pixel you can have on your website. BY A LOT!. So for this project:

Sign up for Google Adsense.

Once you have an Adsense account:

1. Log in and choose the AdSense Setup tab.

2. Choose the Adsense for search

3. You can choose either the Google WebSearch or the + SiteSearch option.

4. Customize the colors however you want and generate your code.

It should give you a code that looks like this:

5. Cut and paste this code to a text editor.

6. Now you have to add a name (let’s go with name=”google”) in the form tag so:

becomes

7. Paste this code where you want the search box to appear on your site.

8. Change your tag to

Now, whenever anyone goes to your site, the cursor will go to the search box so if they start typing and press enter, it will do a Google search. If there are adwords for the search term, they will appear on top of the search results. When they are clicked, you get paid.

I’m about 99% sure this is kosher with Google (after all, they do it themselves!). Matt, if you could give this method a thumbs up I’m sure everyone would appreciate it.
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and yes Robin, I pasted the whole freakin thing.....waaaaahhhh!

source

[gonzo]

Adsense will use adult sites as affiliates?

[Jace]

Originally Posted by gonzo

Adsense will use adult sites as affilaites?

I have no clue, but not everyone here only does adult

[Toby]

No, AdSense does not permit adult sites. But, I have several non-adult sites with AdSense ads.

[sarettah]

Ok, first of all, I personally hate going to google or yahoo, starting to type into the address bar andf ending up in their searchbox instead.

Now, not to be pissy, but.

Jace, you have several times posted stuff about what you consider "bad" or "immoral" business practices, such as the post down below about the autoblog program that can rewrite the content pulled in through an rss feed.

But, you seem to have no problem with a mousetrap type feature that inadvertently grabs the surfer and gives you a shot to misdirect them.

What is the difference whether you are ripping off a blog or ripping off a surfer?

Why is it ok to hijack the surfer and send them where you want them to go instead of where they want to go but it is not ok to rewrite a link which in essence provides the same control?

[Jace]

Originally Posted by sarettah

Ok, first of all, I personally hate going to google or yahoo, starting to type into the address bar andf ending up in their searchbox instead.

Now, not to be pissy, but.

Jace, you have several times posted stuff about what you consider "bad" or "immoral" business practices, such as the post down below about the autoblog program that can rewrite the content pulled in through an rss feed.

But, you seem to have no problem with a mousetrap type feature that inadvertently grabs the surfer and gives you a shot to misdirect them.

What is the difference whether you are ripping off a blog or ripping off a surfer?

Why is it ok to hijack the surfer and send them where you want them to go instead of where they want to go but it is not ok to rewrite a link which in essence provides the same control?

I think that rewriting an affiliate code is a litle bit different than placing a cursor in a search box automatically....I personally don't see anything wrong it, and I would have no issue with it, simply because it doesn't harm my computer or steal money from others.

I don't get mad when msn or google places my cursor in the search box when I come to a page, it never has annoyed me, and I don't consider me doing it ripping off a surfer, in fact I think that is a far stretch

I really can't believe someone would compare stealing content with placing a cursor in a search box

[sarettah]

Originally Posted by Jace

I think that rewriting an affiliate code is a litle bit different than placing a cursor in a search box automatically....I personally don't see anything wrong it, and I would have no issue with it, simply because it doesn't harm my computer or steal money from others.

I don't get mad when msn or google places my cursor in the search box when I come to a page, it never has annoyed me, and I don't consider me doing it ripping off a surfer, in fact I think that is a far stretch

I really can't believe someone would compare stealing content with placing a cursor in a search box

No difference in my mind.

If I rewrite the link code I am now sending the surfer where I want him to go.

If I move the cursor to the searchbox when the user placed the cursor in the address box himself, I have now in effect hijacked the borwser from the user. The purpose of that is to capture what he was trying to enter into the address box and I am using that information to send him where I want him to go within my search results and as your title says :make some mobney from him"

In the long run there is very little difference. In one you are ripping off a fellow webmaster in the other you are ripping off the surfer.

The only way that that can be considered ethical is under the guise of "honor amonst thieves", in other words, it is ok to rip off a surfer but it is not ok to rip off a webmaster.

[Jace]

Originally Posted by sarettah

No difference in my mind.

If I rewrite the link code I am now sending the surfer where I want him to go.

If I move the cursor to the searchbox when the user placed the cursor in the address box himself, I have now in effect hijacked the borwser from the user. The purpose of that is to capture what he was trying to enter into the address box and I am using that information to send him where I want him to go within my search results and as your title says :make some mobney from him"

In the long run there is very little difference. In one you are ripping off a fellow webmaster in the other you are ripping off the surfer.

The only way that that can be considered ethical is under the guise of "honor amonst thieves", in other words, it is ok to rip off a surfer but it is not ok to rip off a webmaster.

I guess I don't see anything wrong with it because of where I would use it, primarily on something like a blog or feeder page, where people aren't normally going to use it all that much. When i enter in a url into the address bar and hit enter, where is my cursor? no where on any blank on the page, and definitely still not in the address bar, and this is how people are used to things....the cursor is gone normally, and this is how people are used to it, so to think that when someone opens my page up that they will start typing instantly is just a wierd though, and the more I think about this mouse trap thing the more I think it is kind of stupid for my sites, because no one would probably instantly start typing when they get to one of my sites....not because I think it is scamming or something

I don't know dude, I just seriously don't see anything wrong with it. The ONLY thing I would be causing the surfer to do is click the "back" button if he typed something when he got to my site and hit enter for some bizarre reason.

I mean, if I am surfing around on a site and typed something in not realizing that it was in a google adsense box, then hit enter....I would not be upset and feel like I was ripped off, I would just wonder what happened and hit "back"....hardly a scam

[sarettah]

Originally Posted by Jace

I mean, if I am surfing around on a site and typed something in not realizing that it was in a google adsense box, then hit enter....I would not be upset and feel like I was ripped off, I would just wonder what happened and hit "back"....hardly a scam

And I fully believe you would not use it in a scammy way but if you think of what COULD be done with it, what kind of pages you could send the user to without them realizing it, it could be used in very nasty ways. I would think that the autoblog guys never intended their code to be used as a ripoff.

This methodology could be used for good or evil (for lack of any better words at the moment).

It is the way of the world I guess. ActiveX was invented to give a more fluid, pleasurable experience for the user. It allows a developer to access more features and possibillities but it also allows the scammers to hijack the computer, load spyware, etc. I can use my car to go down to the thrift store and drop off a contribution or I can use the same car to go down to the thrift store and rob it. I really don't think most of what is used in a nasty way was originally intended to be nasty and this autoblog feature is probably the same sort of thing.