Top 10 Heritage Perennials

Posted by T ZAMAN in Heritage, perennials

2007 was the final year for the Top 10 Heritage Perennials program. We’re building something completely new for this part of the website, featuring all NEW perennials. It’s coming soon!

In the meantime, gardeners may like to know which plants we featured in the past as our Top 10 picks, so the archive will remain here for your interest. They are still great selections and most of them are widely available. Enjoy!

Top 10 Archives

If you'd like to view our Top 10 selections from previous years, we've archived them below.

Hope you enjoy!

2007 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
2006 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
2005 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
2004 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
2003 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
2002 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
2001 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
2000 Top 10 Heritage Perennials
1999 Top 10 Heritage Perennials

Read more...

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Google Adsense Tips, Tricks, and Secrets- PART 2/2

Posted by T ZAMAN in adsense money, adsense Secrets, AdSense tips, adsense tricks

Site Design and Integration

Once you know you are going to put adsense on your website you’re going to have to consider where to put it. If this is new site it’s easier, if it’s an existing site it’s more difficult. While there are some people who will be able to do it, in most cases I’d say if you just slap the adsense code in, you’ll end up with a frankensite monster (props to Tedster of WMW for the buzzword). While every website is different, Google has published some heat maps showing the optimal locations. No surprise that the best spots are middle of the page and left hand side. Now I’ve done really well by placing it on the right, but you should know why you’re doing it that way before hand, and be prepared to change it if it doesn’t work out.

Google has also has published a list of the highest performing ad sizes:

336×280 large rectangle

300×250 inline rectangle

160×600 wide skyscraper

From the sites that I run, I do really well with the 336 rectangle and 160 skyscraper. My next best performing ad size is the 728 leaderboard, I don’t really use the 300 inline rectangle too often. So really it depends on how well you integrate these into your site. Placement can have a dramatic effect on performance. TIP: When working on a new site or new layout you may want to give each location it’s own channel for a little while until you understand the users behavior.

Another ‘trick’ that can increase your CTR is by blending your adsense into your body copy. For example if your body copy is black, remove the adsense border and make the title, text, and URL black.TIP: Try changing all of your page hyperlinks to a high contrast color (like dark red or a bold blue) then change the adsense title to the same color.

The one area where I’ve found blended ads don’t perform as well is forums, especially ones with a high volume of repeat members. Regular visitors develop banner blindness pretty quickly. One ‘trick’ to keep the ads from being ignored is to randomize the color and even the placement. As with any of the decisions about location, placement and color it’s a trade off. How much do you emphasize the ads without annoying your visitors. Remember it’s better to have a 1% CTR with 500 regular visitors as opposed to a 5% CTR with 50 visitors. TIP: For forums try placing the adsense ads directly above or below the the first forum thread.

Using Images

One of the latest ’secrets’ to make the rounds is using images placed directly above or below an adsense leaderboard. This has been used for a while but came out in a digital point forum thread where a member talked about quadrupling their CTR. Basically you set up the adsense code in a table with four images that line up directly with the ads. Whether or not this is deceptive is fuzzy and very subjective. Obviously four blinking arrows would be ‘enticing people to click’ and be against the adsense TOS. However placing pictures of 4 laptops over laptops ads isn’t, so use your best judgment here and look at it from the advertiser or Google’s perspective. If you have a question as to your implementation being ‘over the line’ write to adsense and ask them to take a look.

As far as using the images, I’ve done it and can tell you it definitely works. You get the best results when the images ‘complete the story the ads are telling’. For example if you have ads about apple pies, use pictures of freshly baked apple pies, instead of granny smith, Macintosh, pink lady, and braeburn apples. TIP: Don’t limit yourself to using images only on that size ad unit, it works just as well with the other sizes, like the 336 rectangle.

Added:
I got a little criticizm for this and rightly so, as I wasn’t specific as I could have been. Do not use very identifiable brand name or products for your images. Use generic non-specific stock images whenever possible and appropriate.

Multiple Ad Units

Another way to increase ad revenue is to use multiple ad units. According to Google’s TOS you are allowed to post up to three ad units per page. Similar to standard search results the highest paying ad units will be served first and the lowest being served last. If there is enough of an ad inventory, place all three ad units. However you should pay attention to the payouts. Current assumption is you get 60% of the revenue (on a $0.05 click you get $0.03). So if a click from the third ad unit is only paying between 3 to 5 cents you may want to omit it from your page. This is one are where giving your ad units channels does have value. If one ad unit is getting a higher percentage of click throughs you’ll want to make sure the highest paying ads are being served there. TIP:Use CSS positioning to get your highest paying ads serving in the location with the highest CTR.

Adsense in RSS

With the growth of blogs and RSS feeds you’re starting to see adsense included in the feeds now. IMHO this doesn’t work, and here’s why:

You only get to place one ad unit.

You have no control over finding the ’sweet spot’ for the ad unit.

The ads are usually poorly targeted (this is getting better).

People develop ‘banner blindness’.

I know people like being able to read full postings in their feed reader, and there are at least a dozen other reasons for full posts from pleasing your users to mobile offline computing, all of which are completely valid. However if your website depends on generating adsense revenue to survive, then bring them to the site and show them the ads there.

Affiliate Sites

Placing Adsense on affiliate sites is tricky. Are you giving up a $10, $20, or $30 sale for a $1 click? This is something you have to test on your own to figure out. If you aren’t converting now it’s definitely worth a try. I like to use adsense on my article pages. For example let’s say you had an affiliate website where you sold shoes. You’re going to need some related articles to ‘flesh out’ the site. Things like ‘getting a shoe shine’ or ‘finding a shoe repair shop’ these are excellent spots for adsense. While you won’t get rich, they will usually provide a small steady income and cover things like hosting costs.TIP: If you find you have pages getting more than 50 clicks per month add more pages about this topic, and link the pages together. Mine you logs for the search terms used.

PPC Arbitrage

This is a dicey subject so I’m going to steer clear of precise examples. Basically you bid on low volume uber niche terms at a very low cost. You set up landing page that contains high payout ads for the related general topic. You are looking for terms with a large gap between the price you are bidding on adwords and the price you are getting on Adsense. If you pay $0.10 a click and get $1.00 a click you make $0.90 each click. To get your adsense ad approved you will need to ‘add some value’ along the way. You can make a killing or get taken to the cleaners with this one, so make sure you know what you are doing before you try it.

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Introducing video units. Good or Bad?

Posted by T ZAMAN in ads with video, adsense video, interactive adsense, video ads

Good.

It's simple. The more interactive the ads become, the more chances of people noticing them, which means an increase of the amount of clicks you'll get.

So what's it all about?

Introducing video units:
"AdSense isn't just for ads anymore; it's also a place to get video content for your site -- and earn extra revenue at the same time.

We're excited about the launch of video units -- a new way to enrich your site with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player. Simply embed a snippet of code and have relevant YouTube partner content streamed to your site. You can choose categories of video to target to your site, select content from individual YouTube partners, or have video automatically targeted to your site content. Companion and text overlay ads are relevant and non-intrusive. To further blend the YouTube player into your site, you can also customize the color scheme and layout as well as choose from three different player sizes.

If you're looking to build "stickiness" with your visitors, show quality YouTube partner video on your site, and earn extra revenue along the way, and want to know more, then review our common questions about video units."

How do I earn with video units:

"When you place a video unit on your website, you'll earn revenue from two types of ad formats: companion ads, which sit above your video content within the player and can be either text or image-based, and text overlay ads, which appear in the bottom 20% of the video content area. Ads on video units can be paid on either a cost-per-click or cost-per-thousand impression basis."

What kinds of ads will appear in the video unit?

"Video units may display two types of ads:

* Text overlay ads, which are displayed in the bottom 20% of the video as it plays
* Companion ads, which appear above the video content within the player

The ads displayed can be either contextually targeted or site-targeted, and may be paid on either a cost-per-click or cost-per-thousand impressions basis."

How do I add a video unit to my page?

"Once you have linked your YouTube account and AdSense account, it's easy to add a video unit to your page. Just follow these steps to customize and implement your player.

1. Sign in to your account at http://www.google.com/adsense.
2. Select the AdSense Setup tab, then choose video units as the

product.
3. You'll be directed to the YouTube website to customize your video unit. If you're not already logged in to YouTube, you will need to do so.
4. Enter a name and description for this player that will help you remember it in the future.
5. Customize the colors and layout of the player to fit your site.
6. Choose the type of content you'd like to display in this player: automated content that's automatically targeted to your site, or content from specific categories or providers.
7. Click the Generate code button.
8. Copy the code in the box and paste into the HTML source of your page where you'd like to display the video.

Once you've saved and published your page to the web, you'll see targeted videos start to show up right away."

What kind of video content can I choose?

"There are three ways to choose video content:

* Selecting individual content providers, YouTube partners who have chosen to distribute their videos to publisher websites along with targeted ads
* Selecting content categories, topics and themes of video content you'd like to show on your site
* Automatic targeting, in which the video content you display will be automatically targeted to the content of your site. You can assist the targeting by providing relevant keywords."

How often is content in my video units updated?

"Video content is updated frequently and automatically to help ensure there's always something new and interesting for your users to watch."

How will my users interact with the video unit?

"Each video player features standard YouTube video controls, allowing users to play and stop the video at any time. While the video plays, they can click on either overlay or companion ads, and the advertiser's site will open in a new window or tab.

All video units are user-initiated, so they won't be intrusive to your site's visitors. Users also have the option to minimize the overlay ad if they'd prefer."

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Perennial plant

Posted by T ZAMAN in annus, disambiguation, flowering plants, perennials

"Perennial" redirects here. For other uses, see Perennial (disambiguation).

A perennial plant or perennial (Latin per, "through", annus, "year") is a plant that lives for more than two years.[1] When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants. Scientifically, woody plants like shrubs and trees are also perennial in their habit.

Perennials, especially small flowering plants, grow and bloom over the spring and summer and then die back every autumn and winter, then return in the spring from their root-stock rather than seeding themselves as an annual plant does. These are known as herbaceous perennials. However, depending on the rigors of local climate, a plant that is a perennial in its native habitat, or in a milder garden, may be treated by a gardener as an annual and planted out every year, from seed, from cuttings or from divisions.

The symbol for a perennial plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus is, , which is also the astronomical symbol for the planet Jupiter. [2]

Life cycle

Perennial plants can be short-lived (only a few years) or they can be long-lived, as are some woody plants like trees which can live for over 3,000 years. They can vary in height from only a few millimeters to over 100 meters tall. They include a wide assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the highly diverse flowering plants like Orchids and Grasses.

Plants that flower and fruit only once and then die are termed monocarpic or semelparous. However, most perennials are polycarpic, flowering over many seasons in their lifetime.

[edit]
Structure

Perennials typically grow structures that allow them to adapt to living from one year to the next. These structures include bulbs, tubers, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others. They might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Annuals produce seeds to continue the species as a new generation while the growing season is suitable, and the seeds survive over the cold or dry period to begin growth when the conditions are again suitable. Many perennials, in contrast, have specialized to survive under extreme environmental conditions: some have adapted to survive hot and dry conditions, or to survive under cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and often do not flower and set seed until after a few years of growth. Many perennials produce relatively large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants or more quickly develop leaves for photosynthesis. Annuals tend to produce many more seeds per plant since they will die at the end of the growing season, while perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds but can produce seeds over many years.

The dahlia is a perennial.

[edit]
Growth

In warmer and more favorable climates, perennials grow continuously. In seasonal climates, their growth is limited to the growing season. For example, in temperate regions a perennial plant may grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, with the foliage dying back in the winter. These plants are deciduous perennials. Regrowth is from existing stem tissue. In many parts of the world, seasonality is expressed as wet and dry periods rather than warm and cold periods. In some species, perennials retain their foliage all year round; these are evergreen perennials.

With their roots protected below ground in the soil layer, perennial plants are notably tolerant of wildfire. Herbaceous perennials are also able to tolerate the extremes of cold in temperate and Arctic winters, with less sensitivity than trees or shrubs.

[edit]
Benefits in agriculture

Switchgrass is a deep-rooted perennial. These roots are more than 3 meters long.

Although most of humanity is fed by seeds from annual grain crops, perennial crops provide numerous benefits.[3] Perennial plants often have deep, extensive roots sytems. These root systems can hold soil to prevent erosion, capture dissolved nitrogen before it can contaminate ground and surface water, outcompete weeds (reducing the need for pesticides), and help to mitigate global warming by carbon sequestration. These potential benefits of perennials have resulted in new attempts to increase the seed yield of perennial species[4], which could result in the creation of new perennial grain crops. [5]

[edit]
Location

Perennial plants dominate many natural ecosystems on land and in fresh water, with only a very few (e.g. Zostera) occurring in shallow sea water. Herbaceous perennial plants are particularly dominant in conditions too fire-prone for trees and shrubs, e.g., most plants on prairies and steppes are perennials; they are also dominant on tundra too cold for tree growth. Nearly all forest plants are perennials, including the trees and shrubs.

Perennial plants are usually better competitors than annual plants, especially under stable, resource-poor conditions. This is due to the development of larger root systems which can access water and soil nutrients deeper in the soil and to earlier emergence in the spring.

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Top 10 Ways to Get Awesome Web Traffic Using Blogs

Posted by T ZAMAN in SEO, Tips

Like many important people before you - perhaps you've underestimated the power of blogging. Blogs can be used, not only as the single easiest way to get a listing in the search engine for your desired keywords, but also serve the fantastic purpose if building a relationship with your quickly growing list of readers, listeners and viewers.

After a light lunch today, I was left in the greatest mood. So I figured I would sit down and share with you 10 ways you can share my success and popularity using blogs.

1. Use a keyword specific blog title and description. When creating your blog, I just used the free service www.blogger.com you're asked to title or name your blog and give a short description. Take this chance to think a little.

Ask yourself:

a) Who do you want to read your blog?
b) What is your interest or topic - what will you enjoy writing about?

If you have a poetry blog for example - use the word poet or poetry in your title and description. You can research the popularity of your keywords use Overture's free tool here: http://inventory.overture.com

2. Try to update often (short daily entries work great) using hand written or bot generated keyword rich informative content. Give your visitors something they want to read. I love to write so I create all my original posts, but if you have a site that needs traffic or a topic that you don't know much about you can set up an automatically updating feed using other people's blog posts, or articles. Each entry is seen as its own html page, so the engines see your blog as a multi-paged site, that is updated regularly and rich in links and keywords.

3. Create an interesting profile. Searchers and fellow bloggers love the fact you're a real person, this helps to build personal relationships. Again, put a little time and effort into this one. Tons of people peek at your profile, and Blogger.com keeps track of all your views, so open up and share a little. Everything on your profile page is taken as a searchable keyword. Things like: what you like to do, your favorite movies and music, etc. Each one will get you listed under that topic in the blogger.com directory.

4. One way to jump right in and get visitors and feedback immediately is by posting to similar blogs and linking back to your blog. Say you have a poetry blog: you can use Blogger's search tool and your keyword - in this case "poetry" or "poet." (Another way to get a quick high listing is to search Google for example "poetry blog.")

You can post a comment on their blog, just a short personal remark will do. Keep it polite, no one wants to hear negative criticism. Blogs are more personal than chartrooms or forums, and often contain personal views and opinions of the author, so don't go stepping on toes. The point is to make contact, build relationships, and

exchange links. More links to your blog equals more free targeted traffic for you.

5. RSS is your friend! Create an RSS feed, by hand or using Feedburner. This gives your readers the option to subscribe to your blog with just a click. What this means to you is 100% deliverability of all the content you write by the readers request - your posts are sent directly to your subscribers via their RSS reader otherwise known as an aggregator. They are personally notified every time you post to your blog. And best of all, no spam complaints ever, and they get every update you make - no blockers or filters. Total word freedom!

6. Spread your feed by submitting to RSS directories. This is a one time deal, and you can either search and do it manually or use the tool I used: RSS Automator (it finds and submits to tons of different directories for you).

Only submit each blog once. This is a lasting deal that could mess up your good standing if you do it multiple times. So to be sure you get a listing, only submit to directories once. (This is not the same thing as pinging; you can ping every time you update your blog.)

7. Ping your blog every time you update using pinging services like pingomatic.com and pingoat.com. This lets the directories know you have updated and added a new post to your blog.

8. Create a personalized or branded RSS reader/aggregator. Talk about top of mind awareness. You don't have to be a programming genius for this one (though it helps.) There are a couple services that for a small one time fee will customize a reader for you, with your logo, header and graphics, and preload it with any media you want. So with this you're sure to be seen and remembered every day. Check out one of the best services here: http://www.tristana.org/publishers/specs

9. People love to read you, but hearing you is even better. Give Podcasting a try - there are tons of ways to get started here. I would personally recommend http://www.Libsyn.com for all your Podcasting needs. It uploads, stores, hosts, and sets up the RSS and pings for you. Like Podcasting for dummies. Then just submit your podcast to different directories and readers like Apple iTunes, and ipodder.org.

10. Radio is great but now you can create a following by imitating the idiot box. Give your subscribers another way to obsess using Video-meets-Blogging or "The Vlog." This is a medium that is far from saturated. The possibilities are endless, and you're only limited to what you limit yourself. Though it has not been promoted too widely, the new Apple iTunes Podcasting feature supports Vlog subscriptions as well.

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Pretty-Mail.com-Make money Free

Posted by T ZAMAN in Free Money, Make money, Pretty-Mail.com, PTC

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