Wow, Simple But REALLY Nice Blending of Link Units!

[Sam Freedom]

Gosh I wanted to keep this one to myself!

http://mowlog.blogspot.com

Ain't the subtlety sweet?

Sam

[witchblade32]

Very nice. Blends in perfectly with the navigation.

[flyer]

Nice job. How long until Google decides it's "too well blended" and demands they change it?

[Sam Freedom]

That's a good question, because Google wants
users to make sure the links are seperate from
any images near it. Perhaps they want their
links differentiated from other links so that visitors
don't think that ALL the links on the page must also
be from Google.

Sam

[RSG]

If you think this is sweet, try this one:

http://www.3d-perfection.com/train-sim-links.html

[Sam Freedom]

Thanks for that...beautiful.
I wonder if that's asking for trouble!
Sam

[Sam Freedom]

I've been wondering. That mowlog site has not only
the best blending I've seen around, but the unit links
are just INTENSELY relevant! They all say RAILROAD!
Has anyone else found anything even close?

Thanks..
Sam

[BobsStuff]

Interesting, but all I see is another directory site. A page of links to elsewhere. It seemd more like a site developed just for google adsense. I think it is easy to blend links into other links. Nicely done, but still nothing but links.

Do these directory sites really give a decent return on time invested?

[Chuck Brown]

Interesting, but all I see is another directory site. A page of links to elsewhere. It seemd more like a site developed just for google adsense. I think it is easy to blend links into other links. Nicely done, but still nothing but links.

Do these directory sites really give a decent return on time invested?

I agree with Bob. Another site lacking in value. Pass thru sites don't do much for me. It's one thing if they are structured and searchable. But a site like that one is like a bag magic tricks. Click here. Now click here. Which cup is the coin under? Oops...you clicked on an ad...and I make money. (yawn)

The railroad site is cool, though. It's nicely implemented and relevant.

Here's another one that looks great:

http://thefreemusicdirectory.com/

c-

[Sam Freedom]

Chuck Brown said....The railroad site is cool, though. It's nicely implemented and relevant.

Here's another one that looks great:

http://thefreemusicdirectory.com/c-

Nice example, Chuck. I like how the page is kept within one screen - that gives me some ideas. Quick, short, to the point articles. A lot of people enjoy hearing themselves talk so when they think of articles, they come up with these 2-3 page things, but it's just striking me now that what you showed us holds a very important lesson.

Also, they have Adsense on the contact us page. Isn't that against TOS since there's no content?

And lastly, again we have an example of blending link units to mimic user-defined links. What I want to know is how is that done in such a way to keep the size uniform throughout any effort to change the text size of the screen in general? I'm a little green in that area...is it CSS?

Thanks,
Sam

[Chuck Brown]

Also, they have Adsense on the contact us page. Isn't that against TOS since there's no content? And lastly, again we have an example of blending link units to mimic user-defined links. What I want to know is how is that done in such a way to keep the size uniform throughout any effort to change the text size of the screen in general? I'm a little green in that area...is it CSS?

I only WISH i knew CSS. Maybe someday I'll be able to take a one-day course. I hear it's not that hard. I have begun using it just a little for font consistency throughout the site. But I can't do site structure.

Personally, I put nearly all my sites in a 770 pixel master table (center-justified). I used to do full screen width, but it was too restricting to site design. Graphics don't resize well, in my experience. It was too much of a time waster for me. I like having some texture on my sites.

I didn't do anything special to create those similar links. I just used nested tables for the structure, and matched the font type and size. It think they look very nice flowing like that. And I can't see why the Adsense folks would object in any way. If there was a LARGE title that said "Ads by Google", and then all the other info underneath was smaller (i.e., clearly a sub-class of information), then I could see it. But, when the title following it (Info & Resources) is clearly the exact same class of category title as "Ads by Google", that (according to every standard of information formatting...online and offline) should be considered separate.

This is the only site I can think of where I have done this. I actually go with the horizontal Adlinks format almost exclusively. But I thought this looked good, so I left it that way.

And, no...I believe with the latest Adsense TOS update, ads are now allowed on contact pages, thank you pages and the like...I think that changed about a month ago. Either way, they've never given me any grief about it when it's built into the site structure like that.

c-

[Sbabb]

I'm currently adapting one of the free CSS-based layouts from http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/

Their "Skidoo Too" layout is 100% CSS-based and it is structured so that the middle column (where the main "spider food" content usually lives) comes before the left and right columns in the page source. That may help with search engine ranking. It even degrades gracefully in browsers that don't understand CSS and it has an alternate stylesheet for print-based output so that you get something more printer-friendly.

Some time spent poking around that site and their various layouts could give you a pretty good CSS layout education.


Scott

[RSG]

I only WISH i knew CSS. Maybe someday I'll be able to take a one-day course. I hear it's not that hard.
Change your stylesheets on the fly: http://editcss.mozdev.org/

There's no better way to learn CSS.

[Sam Freedom]

I'm currently adapting one of the free CSS-based layouts from http://webhost.bridgew.edu/etribou/layouts/

Their "Skidoo Too" layout is 100% CSS-based...

Sbabb/Scott, that is just awesome...what a great value and resource, thank you so much. I love good clean well-coded templates...only because I know the hassles of the opposite. And that Gargoyle layout is just awesome! Thanks, Sam

[elitemktr]

I'm getting professional Adsense coaching just by observing these profound examples. Thank you Chuck and all others who've contributed!

[vdramesh]

I have come across this site http://www.whispy.com while casual browsing. Nice integration of Link Units also.

[elitemktr]

Good link you just posted. I like how the Adsense Ads are framed right smack in the middle of the page. It's like you can avoid them. then of course the clever blending of the adlink unit on the left.

Agreed. very good. I wonder how they're doing with those... It's too bad we can't uncover stats of certain sites somehow...

[Chuck Brown]

I have come across this site http://www.whispy.com while casual browsing. Nice integration of Link Units also.

I can't imagine how anyone spends any time at that site. Talk about text link overload. :o

c-

[mgrcentral]

Re the railroad site - doesnt that violate:

"This would include ads that mimic Google ads or otherwise appear to be associated with Google on your site."

in the TOS?

[steve17]

You know alot of these sites are nice like people said and they push the envelope but I wonder if these are the sites and format they submitted to get approved?

Steve

[Sam Freedom]

I can't imagine how anyone spends any time at that site. Talk about text link overload. :o c-That's the point, Chuck! You want people LEAVING your site...and hopefully it's via Adsense!

To be a bit more analytical, sites like that are heaven to
aficionados. They click on one link, read the article then
do a back page and click the next link and read the next
article...then they see a bunch of links on the left and one
unit says GOOGLE so they associate the positive results
of Google with a "sure thing" on the link units and there's
your ka-ching. ;-) Sam