My 9′o clock post-a-fail hour could not be resisted after I came across this amusing and rather ridiculous hub.

(Warning: By navigating to the link provided above you agree that I am not responsible for any damages the hub author inflicts including, without limitations: excruciating bullsh*t, fail comparison skills, and others.)

Now that you have your gas mask, armor suit, and protective shield on, navigate to the hub link and read up on all the horrible cons of Kontera.

As you get to the pros section, you get quite confused. It seems like the author ran out of space to write. Or maybe the author has pros-phobia. Or maybe he accidentally hit the publish button and is not ingenious enough to add more information. (He later revealed that after 2 weeks of persistent training finally learned how to add more information. Thank you for the addition.)

Since our good friend was incapable of adding a few decent PROS for the Kontera program, perhaps I’m going to share some of my knowledge. I personally don’t think monkeys should be allowed to write hubs. Apparently it’s not against their TOS.

Kontera Pros – Nick Aviles Approved!

Pro #1: Unlike the AdSense program, Kontera in-text ads is not affected by the tons and tons of AdSense and other advertisement blockers such as the Mozilla firefox Adblock Plus. (Make sure to active while browsing darkside’s hubs)

Pro #2: Kontera ads do not take up ANY SPACE on your website at all, whereas AdSense and other types take up a big chunk of your page.

Pro #3: Kontera approves publishers manually whereas AdWords accepts anyone into the program as long as they pay.

Pro #4: Many huge companies are partnered with Kontera including Ford, Microsoft, Bank of America, Sun, Best Buy, Nintendo, and many others.

Pro #5: Kontera ads do not appear somewhere on the side as a banner or a block that visitors learned to ignore. Kontera appears inside the text content that visitors came for in the first place, which will ultimately increase conversion rate.

Pro #6: Kontera offers advanced targeting capabilities and optimization tools that will increase your ads performance and increase conversions. AdSense doesn’t offer anything like that.

Pro #7: Kontera offers brand protection that monitors and ensures that your ad is placed on pages of suitable content only.

Pro #8: Kontera Network reaches 100 Million Monthly Uniques. Almost as much as your Kontera hater hub.

144 AdSense Cons

[Edited by Nick Aviles on September 11, 2001 11:23AM]

I apologize for the delay, had to finish a side job in New York city. Unfortunately, my list of 144 AdSense Cons list burned to ashes in a fire. However, one page did survive, and I scanned it and uploaded below:

So you’re working eagerly to improve your blog and your income. But are you keeping track of all the progress? Have you improved over the last months by 100%? 300%? How do you know how much you’ll improve in the future if you don’t have records of the past?

Keep Track of Important Details

It’s important to keep track of everything you do. How much you’ve earned, how many hours you put in per day, how much you’ve invested and spent, and any other type of information you can keep track of. This will be extremely helpful in the future.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed!

Keeping too much unnecessary information can become overwhelming. Try to avoid recording information that may be too difficult to keep track of, or information that may not be as useful for future reference.

Recently, I changed the theme colors from bluish to reddish, and will continue to change it every now and then. Of course, part of staying unique is avoiding being like someone else. My website colors used to look relatively similar to John Chow’s website. This is what led me to redesign my logo and theme colors.

Of course, I don’t see a problem with getting ideas from other websites. Staying unique is the key.

What do you guys think of the colors and the theme itself? Any suggestions for improvements? Feel free to leave a comment below and tell me what you think.

Capturing you visitor’s email addresses can in turn increase your conversions, sales, and profits. Which manner, however, is the best in order to capture those email leads? This study shows the conversion rates variations between subscribers captured with the use of pop-ups, and without the use of pop-ups.

The study concluded that the use of pop-ups increased email subscribers by 190%. You can practically double your email subscribers simply by implementing a pop-up.

There is, however, a downside to it. You must be careful when applying a popup as to not annoy your visitors. Some people may get angry and never come back to the site.

Google’s decision to end self-censorship of its Chinese search engine in China has spurred out trouble with the Chinese regulators. According to Google’s Jan 12 post, Google may end up closing the Chinese offices, losing $600 million yearly revenues.

The Chinese government laws and regulations prohibit non censorship when it comes to search engines. Google decided not to comply with the Chinese laws. Chinese primary search engine, Baidu, is still China’s leading search engine as of today. Google’s leave from China will not hurt the Chinese in any way.

Ever since Microsoft’s initial Bing release, the search engine is becoming more popular every day. More users are searching Bing.com for answers.

As of December 2008, Bing’s shares went up 2.4% by December 2009, as well as search growth increased by almost 50% while Google’s search growth increased by 20%.

Although Bing is definitely a threat to Google, as of now, Google still remains the world’s top search engine. As Bing’s search growth grows, Yahoo search growth, on the other hand, is steadily declining, bringing concern to all Yahoo investors.

What is Aweber?

Aweber communications is by far the best email campaign management software available. Aweber lets you quickly and easily create powerful email campaigns to maximize your earnings.

Whether you’re looking to get your first email campaign off the ground, or you’re a seasoned veteran who wants to dig into advanced tools like detailed email web analytics, activity based segmentation, geo-targeting and broadcast split-testing, Aweber got just what you need to make email marketing work for you.

Aweber Features

Place Signup Forms – Start turning your traffic into profits. Use the simple to use Web Form wizard to create customizable forms and place them on your websites.

Create Autoresponders – Build a relationship with your subscriber the moment they sign up. Educate them about your product and send them back to your site without lifting a finger.

Unlimited Email Campaigns – Create a countless number of campaigns, send emails to as many people as you want as often as you want.

Ready Email Templates – Want to enhance your emails with rich and colorful templates? Select from tons of ready templates to enrich your messages.

Why Should You Get Aweber?

Email marketing is one of the most profitable aspects of a niche blog. Without an email list you are wasting traffic when you could be converting and making sales. Aweber is the top notch email marketing available, and you can try for only $1. You have absolutely nothing to lose.

As we start off the 2010 year fresh, reviewing your goals, or changing goals to something more sustainable may be required. Ask yourself the question, how many times did I post a day in the past year?

Maybe you posted once a week, twice a week. As long as it was on a consistent basis, you would see tiny noticeable changes. But maybe it wasn’t what you were expecting. Let me break it down why you didn’t see the results you were expecting:

Inconsistent Posting Frequency – Once or twice per day may not be enough. If you’re serious about building your blog, keep your posting frequency around 1 post per day. That’s the minimum I would personally suggest.

Unrelated or Boring Content – Your content must appeal to your readers. Regardless of what your niche is, providing fresh and genuine content is vital. Are your writing skills holding you back? Perhaps reading a bit more would help you improve your writing style and help you develop your very own.

Social Networking & Connecting – If you haven’t joined any social networks, forums, or simply been actively reading relative niches, it may be time to do so. Start off by signing up for 1 relative forum, create a twitter/facebook account, and consistently read and post.

Connect With Your Readers – Discussions with your readers is important. Try to answer any questions your readers may have. Provide email support for any kind of inquiries.