I might be the last to have noticed this, but Google’s new News Customization feature is REALLY COOL.

Keyword search phrases with four words are the most effective at converting browsers into customers. Four-word phrases for keywords in the top 100 group of words that produced the highest traffic rates converted 38.28 percent of unique visitors into customers in December 2004. Three-word phrases converted 21.89 percent of unique visitors into customers. The conversion rate for five-word phrases takes a considerable dip to 9.69 percent.

[Source:How Keyword Length Affects Conversion Rates]

Last weekend I demonstrated to the FriendsinBusiness.com forum how to make a 500+ page website in one day. Today I can finally report on the first week of AdSense income from HuntingArea.com, since AdSense channel results now show up to Saturday the 26th, I can proudly say that my new site has officially earned it’s first week’s income — Ok, so 3.50 isn’t exactly rolling in dough, but in my experience it’s pretty good for the first week on a site that hasn’t been included in any search engine results yet.

Thanks to the forum exposure, HuntingArea.com got a nearly instant Alexa.com ranking, though it started in the 2 million range. It’s now at 1,404,045 for the three month stats, but my weekly pageview rank is at a respectable 281,276.

I’m getting ready to go on a vacation in two days, so I won’t be repeating the experiment for at least two weeks, but when I get back, I have a few new tricks I’ve learned that I want to try on my next 1 day site.

I’ll be sure to blog the results.

Or at least it seems that way. The weather here has finally hit double digits on the plus side (in celsius, of course). Yesterday David spent hours playing in the wet snow, till the water seeped through pretty much everything he was wearing and he started getting cold.

Even then, all he wanted was dry clothes and mittens so he could go back outside.

On Friday I was walking to the convenience store when I heard some trumpeters playing “Were you there”. It brought back enough memories of church-going days that I walked down the road to see what was happening.

One of the local churches was having an outdoor service for Good Friday, with a pretty decent turnout, from what I could tell. (I bet they were all glad for the warmer weather too.) I watched the event till they finished singing “The Old Rugged Cross”, then went to the store to buy coffee and cream.

Today I’m waiting for Ian to wake up so we can hide some easter eggs. In the mean time, I’m just blogging off the top of my head….

Oh yeah, if my rant about Mike Chen’s secret weapon meant anything to you the other day, give this link a click. The phenomenon known as Sam Freedom is giving away copies of Secret Weapon Lite if you sign up before the 28th.

I’ve been playing with a Pay Per Click tool tonight, and I’ve found some rather interesting things.

Keyword: dead bodies
SEL FindWhat
Url: www.shopping.com
Title: Dead Bodies At Shopping.com!
Description: Find, compare and buy Personal Care and other Personal Care products at Shopping.com. Read product reviews and compare prices with tax and shipping from thousands of online stores.
Price: $0.05
————————————————–
Keyword: dead bodies
SEL FindWhat
Url: www.MonsterMarketPlace.com
Title: Shop For Dead Bodies Large Selection
Description: MonsterMarketplace features over 2000 merchants. Compare prices on Dead Bodies and save
Price: $0.05
————————————————–
Keyword: dead bodies
SEL SearchFeed
Url: -
Title: Dead Bodies On eBay
Description: Dead Bodies auctions on eBay. Register for free to begin buying and selling today.
Price: -
————————————————–
Keyword: blood
SEL GoClick
Url: www.finance-box.com
Title: Finance-box.com is a large personal finance directory with Blood quality sites.
Description:
Price: $0.01
————————————————–
Keyword: blood
SEL SearchFeed
Url: shopping.com
Title: Blood At Shopping.com!
Description: Find, compare and buy Computer Games and other Video Games products at Shopping.com. Read product reviews and compare prices with tax and shipping from thousands of online stores.
Price: $0.03
————————————————–

Now, you’re probably wondering what the heck I was searching for… well, I have no pressing need for either blood or dead bodies, but I was using the tool to research keywords related to funeral arrangements. Still odd, perhaps, but not disgustingly so.

But hey, at least I know where to shop if I want realistic props for a halloween party.