Google AdSense users have been discussing whether using the Competitive Ad Filter will help increase their AdSense income. Some positive testimonials:

“I Increased my eCPM by over 25% by filtering MFA sites.”

“I noticed a slight decrease on my first day, but an increase of between 25-50% in CTR the last few days.”

“My CTR dropped 30% using the competitive filer but my RPC climbed 300%.”

Originally, the “Competitive Ad Filter” was built to block “competitors” ads from being shown on your web site. But this filter can be used to maximize your AdSense income as well. It’s known that some publishers use low paying AdWords (CPC around $0.0), taking up most of your AdSense blocks only to provide junky MFA content. This gives you bad publicity of your website, giving your visitors a wrong impression that your site is associated with such junky MFA sites. Also, each of those clicks will give you a penny at most, rendering those clicks completely worthless.

There are some web sites (e.g., AdsBlackList.com) that help AdSense users finding out those worthless AdWords ads easily. With AdsBlackList.com, if you type in the URL of your web site on which you run AdSense on, they check your site theme from meta tag info, and generate a blacklist that contains 200 sites that could weaken your AdSense performance; currently, AdSense only allows you to list up to 200 sites in Competitive Ad Filter. Also, you can report to them those junky URLs that you see on your AdSense ads. There are varied responses to using Ad Filter. Some people report 50% increase in their AdSense income, while others see their earning dip on the next day (probably because of lack of ads inventory). So it appears that the effectiveness of the filter is determined by your site theme. You can try the Competitive Ads Filter on your site, and see if the increase of RPC can compensate the decrease of CTR. If that’s the case, you will see a better AdSense income.

Here are a list of sites which are known to be low paying ads, and so should be the first to be added to your filter.

10-bestsites.com
10-top-sites.com
1s.md
25-topsites.com
5-top-sites.com
7-topsites.com
8bestsites.com
9topsites.com
alltheindustrials.com
best4sites.net
best8sites.org
chosenresult.com
dbmoz.com
e-nternet.com
everyrule.com
expert-expert.com
faster-results.com
megasearch.biz
thinktarget.com
top8sites.com
toptensites.org
webzsearch.com

The popular virtual reality “game” Second Life, is one of the most unique ways to advertise your web site or make a living online. The web site allows members to create a character and then use real money to buy and sell land and various other supplies. Hence, your net worth in the virtual world has some real value in real money. Entrepreneurs are already starting businesses and with over $400,000 being spent daily in the virtual world, Second Life presents a clear profit opportunity. Currently, the best market to get involved in Second Life is land and real estate because the first thing new characters look to purchase when they enter the virtual world is land to build homes.

This may sound ridiculous, but purchasing land from members now, and then selling in a few months could earn handsome profits depending on how much you invest. Businesses have just started investing in the virtual world so it is an unproven market, but with over a million members and thousands of new members joining daily, it is apparent there will be a market to sell in the near future.

The annual economy of Second Life is estimated at around $65 Million annually and it is reported that there are over 3000 users that are earning over $20,000 annually from the “game.”

Real Life companies are also taking advantage of this opportunity and investing in this online world. Wells Fargo has purchased its own island in the “game” and many other companies are looking to either purchase advertising space or land in the game.

I know many are going to dismiss the opportunity, but now is the time to invest in Second Life. Land is very inexpensive and its retail price is going to continue to rise over the next few years. There is also a growing market of over 1,000,000 users and many people are already earning five figure incomes from the game.