Informer's World

Several software tools support the removal of metadata. A recommendable one is jhead. It is a free open source program that runs on a variety of operating systems (Windows/Linux/BSD/Mac). Because jhead is a command line tool, it is particularly suitable to be used with batch files.

Less experienced users should adhere to this step-by-step guide (Windows):

1- Create the directory C:\jpeg.

2- Copy all pictures whose metadata you want to remove to C:\jpeg.

3- Download the program file jhead.exe to C:\jpeg.

4- Click on "Start" and then "Execute...".

5- Windows 95/98/Me: Type command.com and click on "OK".
Windows NT/2000/XP: Type cmd.exe and click on "OK".

6- Change to C:\jpeg. To do so, type the following (the words in brackets are instructions to be executed, not to be typed):
c: (press return)
cd\ (press return)
cd jpeg (press return)

7- To remove all metadata of all JPEG files in "C:\jpeg", type:
jhead -purejpg * (press return)



If you prefer programs with a graphical user interface, you should try IrfanView. It is a free program for Windows that allows you to view and edit images. Besides IrfanView itself, you need the plug-in "Lossless JPG Transformations". More detailed information about how to install this plug-in can be found on IrfanView's homepage.

Less experienced users should stick to these instructions:

1- Download IrfanView and its plug-ins and install them.

2- Create the directory C:\jpeg.

3- Copy all pictures whose metadata you want to remove to C:\jpeg.

4- Start IrfanView. In its menu bar, click on "File" and then "Thumbnails".

5- A new window has opened. In its left column, select C:\jpeg. The right column will now show small preview images of all pictures of C:\jpeg.

6- Select all pictures. To do so, click on "Options" in the menu bar of the new window and then "Select all".

7- In the same menu bar, click on "File", "JPG Lossless Operations" and then "Lossless transformation with selected thumbs...".

8- A new window has opened. In the section "Transformation", select "None (can be used for optimizing and cleaning)".

9- In the section "JPG APP marker options", select "Clean all APP markers".

10- Finally, click on "Start"

 Digital cameras and image manipulation programs add hidde

Metadata in JPEG Files.

The JPEG file format is the format most used for storing and transmitting photographs on the Internet. In addition, a large number of digital cameras store pictures as JPEG files. However, many users are likely to be unfamiliar with the fact that a JPEG file can contain other data besides the actual photograph.

The JPEG file format allows it to embed additional information called "metadata" in the file header. (Other image file formats can contain metadata, too.) The purpose of these metadata is to provide additional and useful information along with the picture. Image manipulation programs and especially digital cameras take advantage of this feature.

Metadata can be embedded in different ways. A common way is to store them according to the Exif specification, which has been created by the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA). Other popular specifications are the IPTC headers defined by the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) and XMP developed by Adobe Systems. More detailed information about these metadata formats as well as descriptions of other metadata formats can be found on ExifTool's Tag Names page.

Among other things, the metadata section of a file can contain information about:

make and model of the digital camera

time and date the picture was taken

distance the camera was focused at

location information (GPS) where the picture was taken

small preview image (thumbnail) of the picture

firmware version, serial numbers, name and version of the image manipulation program, etc. ...

Should Metadata Be Removed?
If you intend to publish JPEG files on the Internet, you might want to remove all metadata to reduce the file size of the JPEG files. Depending on what kinds of metadata are stored in the file, the reduction can range between a few bytes and several kilobytes. For example, if you have a website with metered bandwidth or if you have visitors with dialup modems, you might be interested in saving as much bytes as possible.

Another reason why you might want to consider removing all metadata beforehand is that metadata can give away potentially sensitive information. This information can mean a thread to your privacy or to other legitimate interests (e. g. the interest of journalists to protect their sources). The following fictitious and real-life examples try to illustrate the problematic nature of metadata information:

Many digital cameras embed a small preview image (thumbnail) of the picture in the header of each JPEG file. This makes it possible to quickly browse the pictures. Not all image manipulation programs update this thumbnail along with the main picture. The consequence could be that an edited picture retains the original unmodified version of the picture as an Exif datum. In some cases, this may only be inconvenient; in other cases, this could create a significant information leak. For example, a supposedly anonymized picture of a person still shows his or her identity in the thumbnail. Another, more embarrassing example is the case of television personality Cat Schwartz (e.g. TechTV). Schwartz had published a photograph of herself on her personal blog. Because the program she had used to edit the picture did not update the thumbnail, the thumbnail revealed more nude facts than originally intended.

The following real-life case happened in February 2006: The Washington Post published an interview with a computer hacker: Invasion of the Computer Snatchers. The hacker had agreed to be interviewed only if he was not identified by name or hometown. In addition to the interview, a disguised picture of the hacker was published. Unfortunately, the picture contained IPTC metadata about the city and state where it was taken. With all the details mentioned in the article, it could be possible to track down the hacker.

Other kinds of metadata could have meant a comparable thread: The Exif datum "location information (GPS) where the picture was taken" enables one to exactly locate the place where the picture was taken. The Exif datum "distance the camera was focused at" allows at least to calculate the exact position of the photographer if one knows the location of the photographed object.

A fictitious example: Bill does not want to go to uncle Linus' birthday party. He would rather go to a concert of the Rolling Stones. He tells his uncle that his boss wants him to work overtime to finish an important project. At the concert, Bill's friend Steve takes a picture of Bill. Bill publishes the picture on his homepage. Weeks later, uncle Linus visits Bill's homepage. He examines the Exif data "time and date the picture was taken" and discovers that Bill did not work overtime, but went to a concert on the day of the birthday party.

Fingerprint of Digital Cameras
Many users may also not know that digital cameras leave an individual fingerprint in each picture. This allows to reliably link pictures to the camera with which they were taken -- in much the same way that forensic examiners can link bullets to the gun that fired them.

Professor Jessica Fridrich and two members of her Binghamton University research team exploit the fact that every digital camera produces tiny imperfections (noise) within a picture. Each camera has a characteristic way of producing noise (even cameras of the same make and model) due to inevitable irregularities during the manufacturing process of the camera and its sensors. Although the digital noise is largely invisible to the human eye, the team around Fridrich have developed algorithms to analyze the noise and thus to determine the individual fingerprint. According to Fridrich, the technique is accurate 99.99 percent of the time. A limitation is that it requires multiple pictures taken by the same camera to determine the fingerprint; a single picture is not sufficient.

With the help of the fingerprint, it is possible to tell if a picture was taken by a certain camera. It is even possible to detect image tampering. While unchanged regions of a picture keep their digital fingerprint, regions that have been tampered with lose their characteristic noise. Even if a picture has been compressed to a smaller file size (e.g. to send it by email), the fingerprint remains detectable.

Whereas Fridrich needs multiple pictures for her analysis, a technique developed by Nasir Memon of Polytechnic University in Brooklyn requires only a single picture. Memon's technique relies on the fact that different digital camera manufacturers use different interpolation algorithms. An interpolation algorithm is used by digital cameras to give each pixel of a digital photograph the correct color. As these algorithms leave telltale traces in the pictures and vary from company to company, Memon can match a picture to a camera brand with an accuracy of 90 percent.

Software tools that are capable of removing digital fingerprints do not seem to exist.


Digital Watermarks
Something that should be distinguished from digital fingerprints is digital watermarking. Among other things, digital watermarking is used to prevent -- or at least expose -- picture altering. Digital cameras equipped with digital watermarking technology append an extra stream of identifying data to each picture, which is usually invisible. If the picture is changed, these data and therefore the digital watermark are corrupted.

Cameras with watermarking technology are mainly purchased by professionals who need to prove that the pictures they have taken are unaltered (e. g. crime scene investigators). Just like digital fingerprints, digital watermarks could make it possible to determine if a picture was taken by a certain camera.

Although software tools that can remove digital watermarks do not seem to exist, digital watermarks are not really a problem. Simple countermeasures are to use only digital cameras without watermarking technology or with the option to disable watermarking.

Google Earth is probably the first and only desktop application to have AdSense Ads. These ads are is now showing in at least two different places inside the application:

Figure A: When you search for a location or business, the ads are displayed in the search results itself.

Figure B: When you click a placemark (any red pin on the map), the ads are displayed next to the review /address of that location. Google makes an exception

I find this interesting because Google policies strictly don’t allow software developers to integrate AdSense ads in their desktop applications. If that policy changes, we could see more and more of Office 2010 Starter or FeedDemo like applications that are completely free to the end-user but supported by web advertising.

How to Send Bulk Emails using Gmail
Since the web interface of Gmail doesn’t support personalized emails, you should connect your Gmail account with Microsoft Outlook (via POP3 or IMAP) and also import the Gmail address book into your Outlook Contacts.

Now you can use the mail merge feature of Outlook to send personalized messages to every single Gmail contact from the desktop.

This may sound like an easy plan but there’re strict sending limits and, if you aren’t careful, Google may even block your Gmail account temporarily for up to 24 hours and you’ll neither be able to send nor receive any emails during that lock-out period.

Email Sending Limits in Google Apps
If you are using Gmail with Google Apps, you cannot send messages to more than 500 unique email addresses per day.

For instance, if you send one email to Person A and another one is addressed to Person B and C, you have already exhausted three slots (out of 500) even though only two messages left your Inbox.

Email Sending Limits for Gmail users
If you want to send bulk mails using a regular Gmail account, the rules are similar.

You can only send out emails to a maximum of 500 recipients during a 24 hour* period but if you are using a desktop client (like Outlook), that limit is reduced to 100 messages in a day.

[*] The Gmail help site mentions this limit as 500 recipients per message but a Google employee on the Gmail support site has confirmed that this cap is not just per message but per day.

Workarounds for sending mass emails

With all these limitations in place, Gmail is obviously not the best option for reaching out to a very large customer base. However, if you have no other option, it may be a good idea to plan well in advance.

For Gmail: Distribute the mail merge process over 2-3 days so that you never exceed that 100 messages per day quota.

For Google Apps: You can either upgrade to a Premier edition or create multiple accounts in Google Apps as each will have its own 500-recipients limit.

The first public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 is now available as a free download on microsoft.com/office. And other then Office, you can also download Visio 2010 beta and Project 2010 beta for your Windows computer.
This is the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 edition so you get to experience Publisher and Infopath 2010 as well in addition to the regular Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook applications.

The Office installer weighs around 700 MB in size but you need around 3 GB of free space on your hard drive for the installation.

You can either upgrade your current version of Microsoft Office to Office 2010 Beta or select the Customize option during installation and set your current version of Microsoft Office to coexist with Office 2010 Beta.

All products require online activation after installation. In case of Office 2010, you can enter the serial number inside Word 2010 and it will automatically activate all other Office applications. Project and Visio will require separate activation since they use a different set of keys.

The beta version of Office 2010 will expire in October 2010. And other than English, Office 2010 is available for download in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.

The first public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 (v. 14.0.4536.1000) is now available for download on both MSDN and Technet.

If you are not a subscriber, don’t hit the torrents yet because Microsoft may announce the general availability of Office 2010 beta sometime today itself. Update: You can download Office 2010 now.

Microsoft Office 2010 – What’s New
Here’s a quick visual guide to some of the new features of Microsoft Office 2010 that you’re likely to find useful once you get access to the software.

#1. Save Office Documents to the Cloud
With Microsoft Office 2010, you can directly upload documents to your Windows Live SkyDrive account and access them from any other computer.

SkyDrive provides 25 GB of free online storage and, since the service is integrated with Office Web Apps, you can view and edit these documents anywhere in the web browser without requiring Microsoft Office (even on a Mac).
#10. Outlook gets social
When you open an email message inside Outlook 2010, it will show you related information such as email attachments, pictures, meeting requests and all previous email messages that you may have exchanged with that person (something like Xobni). There’s a green add button that lets you "add that person to your online social networks from Outlook" but the service isn’t live yet. Until then, you can use these add-ons to make your Outlook more social.

Important: Before installing Office 2010

1. If you are installing Office 2010 beta for the first time, the default settings will upgrade your existing copy of Microsoft Office. You can however customize this setting and install Office 2010 alongside an older version of Office.

2. If you already have Office 2010 Technical Preview on your computer, make sure you completely uninstall this edition before attempting to installing Office 14 beta. In case you still have trouble installing Office, use the cleanup utility to remove all traces of the previous version of Office from your system.

If you are using FeedBurner to syndicate the RSS feeds of your blog, you can now easily track all the incoming traffic from feed clicks through Google Analytics.

Just open your FeedBurner dashboard, click the title of your RSS feed and choose "Configure Stats" under the Analyze Tab. Tick the options that say "Item views", "Item click" and "Track clicks as a traffic source in Google Analytics" and save.


This is useful data because, for instance, it will help you understand if people who subscribe to your feed inside Google Reader are more engaged than your "My Yahoo!" subscribers (or vice-versa).

Traffic from clicks inside your RSS feed will be included under "All Traffic Sources" and "Campaigns." in your Google Analytics reports. Select "Ad Content" from the segment drop down in the traffic source data table and it will show you the incoming traffic from your RSS feed segmented by specific feed readers or email clients.

This page describes in detail how stuff is classified as Halal or Haram according to Islam. And its not just about food, the term Halal can refer to any action that is permitted under the Quran while prohibited actions are known as "Haram".

A Search Engine for Muslims (and your Kids)

Extending the Halal and Haram concept to the Internet, Ramadan Kareem has created a search engine called I am Halal that might just prevent you (Muslims and Non-Muslims alike) from "accidentally" bumping into any explicit (or "Haram") content on the Internet.

Unlike Safe Search in Google which simply removes all adult sites from search results, I-Am-Halal, which uses search results from Yahoo, employs a double-layered filter.
When you type a search query (e.g. sex) that can potentially retrieve "haram" search results, the search engine would require you to confirm whether you really want to see those search results. When you say yes, it will fetch the relevant pages but will still filter out content that is not deemed as family-safe.

The search results page will also contain thumbnail images of web pages alongside the site links and description. And in addition to websites, you may also use IAmHalal.com to search for images and news stories on the web.

I am actually quite impressed with "I Am Halal" and, other than the religious side of things, this is something good for your kids as well. For instance, if they type a query that is bound to return explicit results, the search engine would simply refuse to work for that query

The draft, fruit of a campaign by women activists, was introduced in the house early this year by then information minister Sherry Rehman, who won special plaudits from both sides of the house during speeches after the bill -- already approved by a 16-member standing committee on law with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani cited as its minister-in-charge -- was passed without a debate.

However, some members from the both treasury and opposition benches voiced fears about the possibility of misuse of the new law, particularly in rural areas to settle scores -- though some others dismissed such concerns -- and called for an effective implementation, possibly with amendments in other relevant law and rules governing police.

The bill is the second passed by the present 19-month-old lower in three months, the first being a private bill adopted by it in early August -- and later by the Senate -- to provide for monetary and other relief to sufferers of domestic like women, children and other vulnerable persons such as the elderly and domestic servants.

It will be followed by another pro-women bill, designed to make provisions for their protection against harassment at workplaces, which was put on the agenda of the house on Monday but was put off because of an opposition walkout to protest against the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf that the government later decided not to bring for approval.

‘Harassment is one of the most common issues faced by the women of Pakistan,’ a statement of objects and reasons accompanying the new bill said. ‘They face intimidation in the marketplace, in buses, at bus stops and at workplace.’

It said this issue alone inhibited most women to move out of their houses for education, availing medical facilities and earning a livelihood.

The statement said that although the PPC already had some sections that ‘attempt to address sexual harassment to a certain extent, (their) the terminology is vague’ and open to interpretation.

It said the new amendment was ‘in the same spirit’ as of the PPC’s original section 509 and other relevant clauses providing protection to women but that it ‘elaborates and specifies what constitutes harassment of women in public, private and workplaces’.

‘This amendment will not only make public and work environment safer for women but will open up the path for more women to pursue livelihood with dignity,’ the statement said. ‘It will reduce poverty as more and more women will get the courage to enter the job market.’

The existing brief section 509 of the PPC on the subject of ‘word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman’, defines the culprit as one ‘intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen, by such woman or intrudes upon the privacy of such woman’.

The proposed new section 509 with modified title of ‘insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment’, additionally defines the culprit as one who conducts sexual advances, or demands sexual favours or uses verbal or non-verbal communication or physical conduct of a sexual nature which intends to annoy, insult, intimidate or threaten the other person or commits such acts at the premises of workplace, or makes submission to such conduct either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, or makes submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual a basis for employment decision affecting such individual, or retaliates because of rejection of such behaviour, or conducts such behaviour with the intention of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

The house suspended some rules to take up the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Bill immediately after the standing committee on health presented its report on the draft based on a Musharraf-era ordinance and adopted it without a debate to honour Pakistan’s iconic kidney transplant surgeon Dr Adeeb Rizvi, who had campaigned for framing such a law and was present in a visitors’ gallery to witness the proceedings.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Speaker Fehmida Mirza and members from all parliamentary groups made brief remarks after the vote to congratulate the house for adopting the important bill, which will become permanent law after its passage by the Senate, and to praise Dr Adeeb’s services in the field.

An identical bill introduced in the previous National Assembly on Aug 17, 2007 could not be taken up for a vote before the house ran out its tenure but it was saved in the form of an ordinance promulgated by then president Pervez Musharraf on Sept 4 the same year.

The ordinance is one of 37 Musharraf decrees which need parliament’s approval by Nov 28 to remain in the field after losing the cover of the former military president’s controversial Nov 3, 2007 emergency proclamation held unconstitutional by a Supreme Court ruling on July 31.

The bill provides for a regulatory mechanism, including a high-level federal monitoring authority and evaluation committees, for the removal, storage and transplantation of human organs and tissues for therapeutic purposes and prohibits the practice of their sale to foreigners which gave Pakistan the reputation of a virtual kidney bazaar where rich foreign patients could buy kidneys from poor people for transplantation at local kidney centres.

The new law will allow a voluntary organ or tissue donation by at least an 18-year-old living donor to any other ‘genetically and legally related’ person, who is a close relative such as a parent, son, daughter, sister, brother and spouse, with authorisation from an evaluation committee of specialists in the field helped by local notables to be set up for every medical institution and hospital where at least 25 transplants are carried out annually.
‘In case of non-availability of (such) a donor …, the evaluation committee may allow donation by a non ‘close blood relative’ after satisfying itself that such donation is voluntary,’ the bill says.

‘In the case of regenerative tissue, i.e. stem cells, there is no restriction of age between siblings,’ it further says.

The bill also provides for donation to be effective after death if a person aged at least 18 years, authorises any medical institution or hospital approved by a 10-member monitory authority headed by the health minister and including heads of organisations of the medical profession and specialists.

It says transplants and removal of human organs ‘shall only be carried out’ by recognised professionals after a written certification from an evaluation committee.

The bill prescribes an imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine of up to one million rupees for those involved in the removal and human organs without the prescribed authority as well as their sale. Contravention of other provisions of the law will be punishable with up to three years of imprisonment or with a fine of up to Rs300,000, or with both. A medical practitioner convicted for unauthorised removal of human organs for transplant will also be liable to ‘appropriate action’ by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, including removal from its register for three years for the first offence and permanently for the subsequent offence.

Earlier, Minister of State for Law and Justice Mohammad Afzal Sandhu introduced a bill seeking an amendment in the Code of Civil Procedure aimed at checking what its statement of objects and reasons called ‘frivolous litigation’ by enhancing the amount of compensatory costs to be awarded by a court to Rs100,000 from the existing Rs25,000.

In this first part, we discuss topics like getting started with blogs, choosing niche topics and the general rules of blogging. In Part II, you’ll learn about various methods to make money from blogs, using advertising and affiliate programmes. The concluding part III will feature advanced techniques for tracking readers, optimizing your blog for getting more traffic and how to convert those “staring eyeballs” into “serious money.”

A blog is an online website, in which posts are arranged in reverse chronological order. The activity of posting contents on a blog is called blogging, while the person who writes content is called a blogger. The entire universe of blogs and bloggers is called the Blogosphere.

Blogs gained much popularity during the US 2004 Presidential elections. Merriam-Webster also voted “blog” as the most requested definition of the year 2004. According to Technorati, a service that tracks the Blogosphere, there are 45.5 million blogs and a new blog is added every second. That’s double the rate at which Pakistani population is growing.

Even when there are millions of blogs already in existence, there’s no such thing as missing the boat. It’s still a perfect time to start a blog. After all, only a few percent of those blogs are actually putting effort to create good content. It is even possible that few blogs cover topics that you want to blog on.

This ‘Professional Blogging as a Career‘ series aims to help you turn your blog into a cash cow.

So let’s get started. Google Blogger, MSN Spaces and Yahoo 360 are popular services for creating blogs quickly. These services even provide professional looking web-design templates, incase you wish to change the default look-n-feel of your blog without requiring any programming skills. The only caveat is that you do not own the blog domain and the blog URL will end either in blogspot.com or spaces.com/username depending on the blogging service you choose.

Always invest good time in choosing a blog platform since migration to a different blog platform is not only tough (and sometimes impossible), you risk losing your site visitors and search engine rankings. For giving a more professional touch, you can consider buying your personal web domain name and install the Wordpress blog platform. Wordpress is free to download, community support is excellent and millions of users are already using it. Another good alternate is the Movable Type publishing platform.

Once you have a good blog domain, the next question in your mind is – what should I blog about? Since I want to make “real” money, should I blog about Asbestos related lung cancer or NYC lawyers, since these topics attract the top-paying advertisements? Or should I write about my cat, activities of my school-going daughter or what my wife cooked the last night?

Choosing a niche for your blog can sometimes be the toughest part. But here’s a simple answer – write on topics that you are passionate about. Think of topics that really interest you, topics on which you can continue to write for months to come.

Your blog can be just about anything ranging from shoes, cooking, technology or even about the latest happenings in your city. You will always find readers who are interested in your topics, provided you keep supplying them with good content. But if million other bloggers are already covering your favourite topics, study their blogs and research areas that they are neglecting. Then you will have just discovered your niche.

To be really successful as a blogger, you always have to keep your momentum going. New bloggers tend to write too many posts in a short span of time, or write infrequently over a long period but the real target should be to write regularly. Publish at least one good post per day. Visitors will revisit your website in the hopes of seeing new updated content, it becomes your duty not to disappoint them.

Once your blog is up and running, there’s a big urge to send an invite to friends and relatives. Before doing that, ensure that you have written at least 10-15 good articles. All links must work and there should be no “Under Construction” pages. This may give a bad impression and visitors may not bother visiting you in future.

There are a couple of rules that bloggers must strictly follow. Most important, if you quote from another website, always give credit and a hyperlink back to the original story. For images, the issue gets a little more complex. Always check the image licence before using it on your blog. Do not hotlink images, since it is equivalent to stealing someone else’s bandwidth. If you plan to use someone else’s image with permission, store a copy on your own server.

To display advertisements on your blog, you can either partner with existing advertising programmes (like Google Adsense, Chitika, etc) or contact prospective advertisers directly (say you have a popular blog about Shoes, then Nike or Reebok could be interested in showcasing their products to your visitors).

We will first discuss the popular advertising programmes and then suggest a few other approaches to generate income from your blog.
BlogAds are the pioneer in blog advertising. BlogAds generally pay well and also provide you the liberty to choose which ads are displayed on your blog. The other big advantage is that BlogAds offer a fixed payment irrespective of the number of site visitors. But the downside is that you can gain entry into the BlogAds network, only when your website receives a decent amount of traffic and some advertiser is willing to sponsor you. That could be a huge requirement for a new blog but established bloggers should consider BlogAds, provided they find sponsors.

The biggest and most famous player in web advertising is Google. Their Google Adsense programme is hugely popular because it offers contextual ads, meaning Google spiders scan the content of the webpage on which Google Ads would be displayed and then show ads based on the context of the content. Contextual Ads offer very good returns, as site visitors are more interested in knowing about products that are related to the content they are reading. For example, someone reading about cars will show more interest in advertisements about car loans than in software like Microsoft Office. Google algorithms make sure that your site visitors see only relevant ads.

Getting Google Adsense ads for you blog is very simple. There are absolutely no pre-requirements like finding sponsors or site traffic levels or geographic location except one – your blog should stay away from topics like gambling, piracy or sexual content. Once you fit the bill, applying is a one step process. Google engineers review your site the next day and send you a small “ad code” that you can integrate in your blog. Ads start getting displayed almost immediately.

Google Ads can be either “Pay per Click” or “Pay per Impression”. Their reporting system is almost real-time – you can check at any time of the day what your earnings have been since the start of the day. Google even has the largest pool of advertisers, so you can virtually write on any topic and Google will find relevant ads for you. Also.

Chitika is another player though relatively new. Chitika Comparison Shopping Ads are generally more popular on product related blogs that write about gadgets, clothes, software since Chitika displays merchandise from Shopping.com. Chitika Ads, known as Chitika eMiniMalls, are presented in an interactive ad unit – one can compare prices from different merchants, read the main features of a product and even search the shopping database – everything inside one ad.

Chitika is known to offer good returns but there’s one drawback. Though anyone can apply for their programme, Chitika won’t pay you for traffic from India, Pakistan and some other countries. That means if a site visitor in Pakistan clicks a Chitika ad, the site owner won’t receive any benefit. Sites that primarily receive traffic from US, UK can consider Chitika as a good alternative.

TextLinkAds and Adbrite are other popular site-targeted non-contextual advertising programmes. They are extremely popular with gambling, adult content and file uploading sites like rapidshare or megaupload. The reason that these programmes are popular lies in the flexibility and small entry-level requirements – an advertiser can choose to run his ad on your site, for just one day or maybe seven days and immediately calculate the conversion ratio. No bidding competitors and the ad is guaranteed to run on the blogger’s website. These programmes are particularly popular among small advertisers or who do not fit the Adwords Policies. Recommended.

So we have looked at advertising, now let’s examine some different approaches to make money from blogs.

Become an Affiliate – Companies like Amazon, ClickBank, Commission Junction offer affiliate programmes – the way they function is that you promote a product like a book or a software on your blog, your readers visit the merchant’s website and when they actually buy it – you get a commission ranging from 5% up to 50% of the sale proceedings. Remember, the ratio of a site visit converting into a product sale, is very low.

Donations – Don’t be surprised, you can actually make good money from Donations – There are a lot of “good people” on planet earth who are willing to share their fortune (maybe just 0.00001%) provided they enjoy reading your blog and probably benefit from the blog content. For example, if you wrote about some fuel saving tip and if it actually worked, people may be interested in sending you a token of appreciation via Paypal.

There’s one more option ‘Sell your Blog as a Brand’ – If you are a popular blogger and have a huge fan following, it’s time to capitalize on it. Start selling T-shirts, coffee mugs, handbags with your logo and your fans will actually buy them. CafePress is a popular choice here – When someone makes a purchase, Cafepress sends you a commission.

Or if you can write eBooks on your favourite subjects, Blogs can be a good selling place.

The software is currently available for most BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 phones though an iPhone version of Latitude is still in the works – you can visit google.com/latitude from your mobile browser to know if Latitude is supported on your phone on not.

I was in Karachi last month for a conference and my family members were able to track my journey using the computer that’s in our living room. Latitude probably helped in reducing my mobile "roaming" bill as well because earlier, if I were to drive to another city, my mom would call me every few hours just to know where I was – now she can just locate me through the Internet.

Google Latitude Tips & Tricks

Tip #1. You don’t want a stranger to know that you are inside a bank’s ATM so make sure that you don’t approve every incoming friend request on Latitude even if the request has come from a person who is listed as a contact in your email address book. Only family members and close friends should be part of your Google Latitude network.

Tip #2. Google Latitude determines your current location using the nearby cell phone towers. If, for some reason, Latitude is unable to detect your exact location, you can set it manually on your phone.

Tip #3. Google Latitude is a data intensive application and I don’t really recommend it if you have a pay-per-byte data plan on your phone.

Tip #4. You don’t need a mobile phone to broadcast your current location via Latitude. If you have a web browser with Google Gears and you’re inside a Wi-Fi zone, Latitude can still detect and update your location on the Internet using the GeoLocation API.

Tip #5. If you are travelling with a laptop and there’re no wireless access points nearby, you can manually update your location on Latitude though this iGoogle Gadget.

Tip #6. Google Latitude can drain the battery of your phone more quickly as the application attempts to update your location as you move around. Please keep point this in mind if your phone battery is low.

Tip #7. Entering a pub but don’t want mom to know about it? Make sure you either hide the location in Latitude or set it manually to a different place.

Tip #8. Google Latitude won’t work inside an airplane so prior to boarding the aircraft, you can set your status in Google Latitude to something like "Boarded flight American Airlines 4815 to New York – On time – ETA 5:30 PM." You can now switch off the mobile phone but your Latitude status will help family members who are planning to receive you at the airport.

Tip #9. Google Latitude can bring some piece of mind. For example, if your kids have just joined kindergarten, you can mute the ringer of your mobile phone and drop it somewhere inside their school bag. This will help you keep track of the school bus and you’ll always know where your children are.

The only piece missing here is a Google Latitude API – that means you can’t update your current location on Google Maps from external apps like Twitter or Facebook.

The Google AdWords system assigns a "Quality Score" to every advertiser who is participating in the ad auction and this score is determined by the quality of the advertiser’s website, the historical CTR of his ads on Google and a couple of other factors.

For instance, the Google ad system is likely to assign higher Quality Scores to Sony.com or Amazon.com for the keyword "digital cameras" than an advertiser xyz.com who is trying to promote his eBay auction on the AdSense network.

Google than computes the final rank (or ad position) of each advertiser using their respective quality scores and the maximum amount they are willing to pay for a single click (CPC).

Ad Rank of an advertiser = Quality Score * Maximum CPC Bid


Coming back to our original example, let’s say four advertisers are bidding in an auction to show up on a web page that is about "digital camera".

The advertiser Sony.com has been assigned a score of 8 by Google and they are ready to spend a maximum of $16 per click. Amazon has an even quality score (9) but they have specified their maximum CPC as $14 and so on.

Now the ad position (column 5) of various advertiser in an AdSense unit is determined on the basis of Ad rank (column 4) but the actual cost (or CPC) that these advertiser have to pay per click to Google is not always in that order.

As Dr Varian explains (time 05:50), the price that an advertiser has to pay (his actual CPC) is equal to the Ad Rank of the advertiser just below him divided by his own CPC bid.

So in the case of Sony, they’ll have pay 126 (the Ad Rank of Amazon) / 16 (CPC Bid of Sony) and this is equal to 7.88.

The click cost for Amazon will therefore be 120/14 = 8.57 which is more than that of Sony but the Amazon ad will still show up below the Sony ad since the Ad Rank of Sony is higher.

Google will share a fixed portion of ad revenue (or click price) with the AdSense publisher (where these ads are shown) and therefore a click on a Sony ad will fetch him less revenues even though the ad occupies the top slot.