It's debatable if the ads are raising funds to support freewares like TortoiseSVN, but the ads is confusing the users. The first thing the user sees in the Download Page is the link to VisualSVN, which I suppose to be another company selling similar product.

Of course, the user would be clicking on the link especially when the download links are only shown after the user scrolls down. I assume this would generate good money for them and gets the user confused in the website of another product.

Is this something right? I'm not sure. What I know is TortoiseSVN is a good software.

Update: Forgot to mention about AdSense's Competitive Ad Filter, which is good to filter out competitor's ads, but if the user is not there for that product, would they be interested to buy a car in a software website? Very unlikely, though possible.

We sent you a message earlier this week reminding you to accept
our updated AdSense Terms and Conditions. However, the message was
sent in error, as our records show that you have already accepted
the new Terms and Conditions.

We sincerely apologize for the miscommunication and any confusion
caused. Please be assured that no further action is required on
your part, and you may continue to access to your account as
normal.

As you may know, we recently updated our AdSense Terms and
Conditions to reflect upcoming product changes and ensure that
they're consistent with policies across Google.

We noticed that you haven't yet accepted the new Terms and
Conditions. To review them and indicate your acceptance, please
log in at http://www.google.com/adsense and follow the
instructions. Please be aware that all publishers must accept the
new Terms and Conditions in order to continue their participation
in the AdSense program.

You can find more information about some of the changes in the new
program terms by reviewing

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=81794

. Unfortunately, we're not able to further interpret the meaning
of the Terms and Conditions for you. If you have additional
questions, you may wish to contact an attorney.

We appreciate your understanding.

I was asked to follow the instructions after I log in but I don't get any instruction at all. Is anyone experiencing the same thing?

P.S. I'm glad I my blog is finally up again. It has been down for almost a week!

Sometimes, I am really curious whether there is anyone reading my blog. From Google Analytics, over 80% of the traffic came from search engines, mostly from Google. Am I really write for search engines only?

Since I share my full feed, there is no point for the readers (i.e. you) who read at RSS readers come to visit my site.

I think the best motivation for a blogger to continue writing is for him to know that he has followers. And, I don't get much comments on my blog.

Setting Up FeedBurner

Simple. Create an account at FeedBurner. Add in your current blog feed, then get a new feed link from FeedBurner. E.g. http://feeds.feedburner.com/enriiblog

Obstacles

I have been promoting the default WordPress RSS link all the while and I think I could have a few readers subscribed to my feed. I think it is not appropriate to ask everyone to switch to the new feed link provided by FeedBurner.

Moreover, if I ask you to use this new feed link so that I can track you, would you like use it? Nobody likes to be tracked.

The WordPress Plugin

To solve the problem, I installed the FeedBurner FeedSmith WordPress plugin (gbyeow suggested me to install this years ago, but I didn't do it until now). The plugin will automatically redirects your original feed link which looks like http://blog.enrii.com/rss/ to http://feeds.feedburner.com/enriiblog.

So, you will need to enter the FeedBurner feed link into: WordPress admin page > Settings > FeedBurner.

There are users reported some .htaccess issues in the older version. It seems like we no longer need to do anything with .htaccess with the latest version of FeedSmith.

OK, It's working now!

Now I know how many people subscribed to my feed.

What else could you achieve with FeedBurner?

• Link to AdSense account - If you already have an AdSense account, adding ads into your feed can be done in a few clicks.
• Email subscription - If you have readers who do not use any RSS readers, they could subscribe to my post via email.
• Put subscriber's tag (FeedCount) - A small tag that you could put on your blog to show everyone that you have many subscribers.

Do you use it?

Just a note, if you are not aware, FeedBurner is now part of Google.

The collection process was really easy. It only takes 10 minutes. It would have taken more than a month if you were to wait for Google to deliver the cheque to you, and to wait for the cheque to clear.

What do you need?

1. CIMB Bank Western Union Money Transfer slip
2. CIMB Cash Deposit slip (if you want to deposit the money into your account)
3. Your Malaysian Identity Card

What information do you need to fill?

1. Your first and last name
2. Your address
3. Your phone number
4. Google's name (Google Inc.)
5. Google's address (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA)
6. Payment amount
7. Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN)

You could get most of the information from payment history page in Google AdSense, except for your own details.

One problem with this payment method. There is no notification from Google when they issued the payment. That means, you will have to check the payment details from time to time to find out.

I believe many of you have enjoyed this facility. What do you think?

I also added a ShopCloud to my sidebar. If you are interesting in any kind of computer software, do have a look!

What do you think about the new advertising concepts?

If you have been using it for a long time, how's the response?

I did not expect the procedure is so simple. I could easily get it done in only a few clicks. But I had a too complicated mind.

The simple way

1. Go to My Accounts tab.
2. In Account Settings, click on the "edit" link beside Payment details.
3. Select Setup Western Union Cash.
4. Click continue.
5. Enter your payee name in the correct order.
6. Tick the checkbox at the bottom.
7. Click Save changes.

The hard way

There is a part that made me nervous:

In order to ensure that your Western Union payment is issued properly, please provide us with the proper ordering of your Current Payee Name, shown above. If needed, you may include your middle name or initial with your first name. The names you enter below must match the contents of your Current Payee Name. If you need to update your payee name, please contact us.

I was thinking that I need to enter my name correctly. Since I have always receive cheques with my surname at the back, I think I need to make sure I enter it correctly so that it will match exactly like what's in my identity card.

Original payee name: Eng Lee Teh
Surname: Teh
Given name: Eng Lee
Name in identity card: Teh Eng Lee

So, I manually requested Google to change my Payee name.

Changed payee name to: Teh Eng Lee

After a few hours, when I got the notification from Google telling me that my payee name has been changed. I get back to the Setup Western Union Cash page and enter my payee information. I entered "Eng Lee" as my given and "Teh" as my surname and finish the steps.

Then, I went back to Account setting page to reconfirm my payee information, I saw "Eng Lee Teh". I realised how silly I am.

Finally, I had no choice but to get back to the Setup Western Union Cash page and entered "Teh" as my first name and "Eng Lee" as my last name.

I know I'm silly, but when will the world learn that Chinese has their Surname at the front? Can't they just allow us to enter our payee names in a single box?

For good or for bad? If you have any concern regarding my ads placements, voice it here!

Dear EngLee,

Thank you for applying for the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program. It is currently in beta and we are accepting a very limited number of new publishers, but we will let you know when we launch to the general public or if we are able to invite you to join the beta before then. To maximize your chances for approval, please make sure:

You have a valid U.S. Social Security or Tax ID number, and web site content that is predominately in English and targeted at a U.S. user base.

Your site provides a good user experience. Please see our complete list of guidelines for a positive user experience here:

https://publisher.yahoo.com/legal/prog_policy.php.

Your site does not contain problematic content. Please see our guidelines for displaying our ad results here:

https://publisher.yahoo.com/legal/prog_policy.php.

Thanks again for your interest. We look forward to welcoming you into our program when it is open to the public.

Sincerely,

The Yahoo! Publisher Network Team

Again, they mention about valid U.S. Social Security number. Looks like I'm just wasting my time.

I signed up for Text Link Ads long time ago, but didn't really put it on my site. They introduced a new program, AuctionAds, which will display live eBay auction ads at your site. I just receive their email giving away USD 5, just for signing up as publisher.

If you are interested, just follow this link: AuctionAds Promotion (Ends on 20th of May 2007)