You may notice the Google Friend Connect  widget.

I thought I would give this a try. It seems that MyBlogLog is slowly dying. That is a real shame, as I really like MyBlogLog and often check both the stats and what those in my community are doing.

We’ll see where the Google Friend Connect takes us.

I admit I am not sure how popular this is or will be but it never hurts to test. I’ll be spending some time looking at what it provides and how to work it in my site.

Join my community!

I am bringing AdSense back to this blog.

Most readers should never see them!

One of the many features of the Semiologic Pro theme is that is comes with the Who Sees Ads plugin built in. I am setting it up so AdSense only shows for readers who come from search engines. I’ll first show you a bit about the Who Sees Ads pluging then I will explain why, after no AdSense ads for over a year, I would bring them back.

Here is a screenshot of the Who Sees Ads plugin in the Semiologic theme.

The Who Sees Ads plugin allows you to control when an ad shows and who it shows to.

You can set an ad to show to a reader only the first time they visit or show for a particular number of times a visitor visits and then not again. The plugin allows you to have an ad not show until a post is older.

One other feature of the Semiologic Pro theme is that nearly everything on the blog is widgetized.

This makes arranging just about everything related to your blog as easy as arranging the widgets in your sidebar. It’s pretty cool.

Here is a screenshot of the widget admin screen in Semiologic Pro

Now, about the return of AdSense.

First, I do not feel that AdSense is something that would be appropriate for most of my readers. Let’s face it, most bloggers that would regularly read this blog avoid clicking AdSense ads out of habit. Also, for social network visitors, an AdSense block right at the top is a bit of a turn off.

AdSense does have an advantage for search engine visitors.

Often, a vistor from a search engine is looking for something related to what is on a page, but the information is not quite what they are looking for. These are the types of vistors that AdSense is good for. AdSense will serve up ads related to the post that may be closer to what the visitor is really looking for. I have posts that get search engine traffic that is probably not related to the main theme of this blog (making money, in case it is not too obvious). The normal ads that I have on this blog are not related to many of the searches that I get.

I am hoping that AdSense will monetize some of this traffic.

Otherwise, it is wasted traffic. At the same time, I want to keep the number of ads for my regular readers to a minimum. I also like to keep some control over ads to regular readers since there is an implied endorsment since they are on my site.

So, if you are a regular reader, no AdSense for you.

The last $1.00 ScratchBack link for this blog has been taken.

I really like the ScratchBack ad system.

They have added some new designs to the widget too. I am still hoping that narrower designs will be coming out soon.

I have raised the price of the links to $2.00.

It will stay at $2.00 until the last $1.00 link is bumped off. Then it will go up to $3.00.

In the meantime, it is my job to bring traffic to see these links. Otherwise, there will be no reason for anyone to pay $2.00 to purchase one. Unless, of course, they are just purchasing the link as a tip. That is also greatly appreciated.

I would also suggest taking a look at the various links yourself and seeing how people are using them.

You can learn from what others are doing to further your own efforts. There are one or two sites that are very good blogs. I find the car wax ad an interesting idea, and don’t forget Jim Kurkral’s Flip camera ad.

The Firefox SEO link surprised me. I have been using the Firefox SEO extension for a while myself and it can be a useful addition to anyone running a blog or website or several blogs or websites.

So far, I have approved all the ScratchBack links that were requested/tipped for.

As long as they do not lead to anything that could be termed offensive I will most likely approve a link. If you have any concern about your link feel free to contact me first, that or $2.00 is not really a risk anyway. Since the ads are no-follow, there is no need for concern on my part about linking to spam.

The ScratchBack widget is a great alternative since Google started to crack down on paid links without no follow.

The catchy graphic help the links stand out. The marketplace also helps advertisers find your site to purchase a link. While there are some alternatives that will let you keep all the profit from an advertisement, without a marketplace, you may not find advertisers. While ScratchBack has not replaced the income I used to get here from TTLA, it is doing well and shows promise. I kind of wonder what it would do on John Chow’s blog.

If you haven’t given ScratchBack a try, what are you waiting for?

Most sites have things that take up space and are less profitable. It is a safe and easy way to monetise a site or blog.