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