AdSense have today announced a new type of ad – Expandable Ad Units.
I’m pretty sure
that I’ve seen these ads being tested on one of my sites (although bizarrely I am not able to use the ads as I’m not located in a country that they are available for – see below) and they are basically an ad that looks like a normal image ad but which expands when a reader interacts with it (by clicking it).
AdSense say that these ads are served on both a CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impression) basis (advertisers choice). If they are CPC you only get paid if people click the ad and visit the advertiser (I have a bit of a problem with this – see below).

• If they’re located in North America or Europe, with a website in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish
• If they’ve added the AdSense code directly into their site’s source code
• If they’ve enabled image ads

• You can block advertisers using the Competitive Ad Filter – this means going in an blocking advertisers domains from having their ads appear on your blog. This is only effective if you notice the ads and also means you’re blocking any other ads from that advertiser from appearing on your site.
• You can use the Ad Review Center – this allows you to log into the back end of your AdSense account and view all ads being targeted to your site. OK, this could work, but last time I checked my Ad Review Center (and I rarely do it because of the number of ads and the slowness of using it) to see what ads were being targeted to DPS I saw literally thousands of ads. AdSense say you can narrow it down by just viewing ‘Rich Media’ ads which is helpful – but I just checked my account and still saw hundreds of such ads on my own account. I don’t know how many were there exactly because I had to close down my browser – something about viewing 100 rich media ads on a page didn’t agree with Firefox on my computer).

Are you interested in earning income writing reviews online? Many thousands of people today are doing just that everyday. Discover how you can write a review that will begin making money for you right now.

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by: Robert Matthews

Do you want to create best selling ebooks? Here are some tips you can use to improve your ebook writing.

1. Bank on your skills and knowledge. When choosing the best topics to write about, ensure that you consider what you do best. List down all the things that you are most passionate about and the things that you are an expert on.

These are the best sources of your book topics as these will allow you to offer your readers with valuable information. Don't forget to do a keyword research to make sure that your chosen topics have viable market online.

2. Offer quality ebooks. If you want to easily make a mark on this field, you must strive to offer your readers with nothing but the best.

This is not only to give them their money's worth but also to ensure that they will come back for more. Aside from loading your ebooks with valuable information, ensure that your content flows smoothly.

It must be free from any types of errors and it must read really well. Your clients must feel very pleased, well-informed, and satisfied the moment they finish reading your ebooks.

3. Know your audience. If you don't know what they are looking for in the first place you cannot give your readers what they truly need.

So it is very important that you take some time to get to know these people. Hang out on their favorite forums and discussion boards and get as much information about them that can help you gauge their needs and demands.

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Share with them a slice of your expertise so you can empower them to do things on their own, help them resolve their pressing issues, and find the most appropriate answers to their burning questions.

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Remember, you are feeding your readers with information that they might actually use in their lives. So misleading them is not actually an option as this can severely damage your online reputation. Consider verifying the information you have against reputable resources before you sell your ebooks online.

6. Market your ebooks. Once they are written you need to promote them. Use article marketing, email marketing, blogging, and paid advertising.

Following these 6 tips will help you improve your ebook writing which will make them easier to sell.

by: Jeff Schuman

We are all aware that music and "atmosphere" go together. We might put on relaxing music for a quiet romantic dinner, but listen to something livelier while doing some physical work or exercise or when out socializing in larger groups. You might have heard of farmers who increase production by playing music to their animals. Recent studies showing that listening to fast music while driving increases the rate of car accidents and the Mozart Effect claims to increase intelligence. While some claims may be exaggerated, there is no denying that music can be suggestive and affect our state of mind. But the reason for this is very mysterious. Why should organized sounds affect us to such an extent that billions are spent annually making music? The main aspects of music which influence us can be summed up as:

Tempo & Rhythm

Pitch Melody and Harmony

Tempo and Rhythm and its combination has an immediate physical impact on our perceptions. The rhythm of an object suggests more or less frequent movement to qualify the repetitive nature of the underlying beat, even though the tempo of a piece of music might be slow and relaxed. A high frequency of notes can suggest a degree of contained excitement within that relaxed state. Music tends to have a steady tempo to it, often measured in beats per minute. Most of the music based on simple observation is in the range of 50-200 beats per minute, the same as the extreme range of our heartbeats. The music tempo of the piece of music roughly equates with the heartbeat associated with the corresponding state or emotions.

Ranging from 60-80 beats per minute is calm and relaxed, less than 60 often very relaxed, introspective or even depressed. 80-100 is moderately alert and interested otherwise 100 upward are increasingly lively excited or agitated. 80-120 is a common tempo, since we crave some degree of excitement from our entertainment. Since the heartbeat and the music tempo have a strong degree of suggestion, 120-160 is common in some energetic situations. Music suggests movement as it moves in time; and unconsciously we keep associating ourselves with the music while talking, walking, running, dancing, riding etc.

Pitch, Melody & Harmony

Pitch on its own affects our perception. It depends on how we perceived sounds and music providing a basic scale from” high= light, happy, carefree" to” low = dark, sad, ominous." We must find a large thing more threatening than a smaller one as part of our evolutionary heritage. In general bigger objects make deeper noises whether long column of air or long strings in a musical instrument, big chest, large animal footsteps, or large objects banging together. Conversely smaller instruments, short columns of air, short strings, small animals or objects make higher pitch noises. A Melody can be preferred if sounds are reasonably close together with a variety of nice harmonious intervals between them and a rhythm is similar to that of speech. A good melody (even if it doesn't have words) is often one that we could hum, sing or whistle. Generally melody consists of a linear sequence of tones. The notes should have durations which are not too short and not too long, and should not be in an extreme range or shouldn't have large awkward jumps between them. Although instrumental musical can stretch those boundaries a little, melodies in its way are very similar to sentences that our brains are designed to speak and listen to.

A good melody ( even if it doesn’t have words ) often is one that we could hum, sing or whistle. Even if they are reasonably close together with a variety of nice harmonious intervals between them, rhythms similar to that of speech can be preferred as a melodies. Generally a melody consists of a linear sequence of tones. The notes should have durations which are not too short and not too long, and should not be in an extreme range or shouldn’t have large awkward jumps between them. Although instrumental musical can stretch those boundaries a little, melodies are very similar to sentences that our brains are designed to speak and listen to.

Harmony is that when we combine tones with different pitches, even some that that seem to be close to the combination of notes is completely the natural set of different notes produced by something vibrating and easily demonstrated musically brass instruments. Those natural (without keys) instruments such as bugle, octaves, fifths and thirds produced are a series of notes. These notes are well placed together to make harmonious sounds like major chords. String instruments can be demonstrate the lowest notes of the harmonic series by playing the strongest harmonics of the strings which divide the length into fractions like halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, etc. These harmonics always present to varying degrees within all notes, and their proportions help to give sounds their unique color or tone.

by: May Smith

Learning music can multiply your abilities as an actor. Here are two examples from two A-listers of how they have used music in their career. Followed by showing the technique of being good a music and acting are the same.

Johnny Depp Story

The first career that Johnny Depp wanted to have was to be a musician. Actually, to this day, whenever he can have a guitar around he’ll bring it. Depp states that he uses his approach to music to help him in the craft of acting. He approaches a character just like he approaches learning a song. How this works is the following. In order to learn a song, you have to observe and listen to very carefully over and over again. What in the song corresponds to the movement you are going to use on your finger? What is the rhythm of the song? What is the mood of the song? Does the tempo speed up and slow down? How does the song make me feel? What personal connection do I have to the song? If you ask all of these same questions about the character you are playing you will be in pretty good shape. A large part of acting is character study, looking into yourself and looking into what the character is about. Music can help get you there.

Jennifer Lopez Story

Jennifer Lopez came and spoke to my acting class about 6 years ago. Just a refresher but J-Lo is a triple threat of acting, dance, and singing. She told our class that she would never have made it if it hadn’t been for your combination of all three. She told our class very seriously. “If you have any ounce of acting talent, make sure you make the most of it.” By learning music, you expand the number of roles that you can play. Equally, it gets the creative and artistic juices in your mind flowing. That can only be good for you as an actor.

The music process as an acting tool

The same qualities and techniques that make a good musician also make a good actor. Nobody is a naturally good musician, it is your ability to practice, how good you are at that and how much you do it that make you a quality musician. You can’t be a great musician without practice. Take that lesson into your own personal acting training. There are exercises that you can do by yourself (Strasberg sense memory) and there are exercises that you can do with a partner (Meisner’s repetition exercise). But the most important part about learning how to do these practicing techniques is that you are properly trained in how to do them. You can’t learn it from a book, actually doing it on your own is often dangerous because you are likely to do it wrong. So you have to be properly trained to even know how to practice.

How do you get an Academy Award?

The joke for the person looking how to get to Carnegie Hall is “practice, practice, practice.” That is the same way of how to become a great actor. Natural ability is nothing without the ability, willingness, and discipline to practice.

by: Cleveland Cavs

For similar stories, visit http://www.sykwinds.com the blog of SYK at http://www.seizeyourfame.com .