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IP tagging is here and is available to all premium users. You can add a name to any IP address and those visitors will be identified by that name instead of their IP address when you are viewing your visitor and session log. If you click their name, it will show more details (including their IP) and all visits from that visitor, as it has before. Here is a screenshot. – notice the ‘username’ at the top!

Currently, it is still grouping this data by the current IP instead of their “user name”. The plan is to test out grouping it by that user’s name instead, but the performance may be poor. I’ll keep you updated.

To start using this feature, click the new ‘IPs’ link from your user homepage. This has replaced the old ‘IP Ignore’ link, and instead those two features have been combined. Meaning, when you add an IP to your site, there is a checkbox indicating whether or not you want to ignore the IP address or just name it.

A related but much more important announcement is you can now track an unlimited amount of CUSTOM data on a per session basis. User names, cookie values, session ids, shopping cart ids, ad campaigns… you get the idea. Anything you want associated with a visitor, can now be logged to pMetrics. This data will be shown to you when you view the details of a session (as indicated in the screenshot from above, which is actually just a simplified version of this more advanced full data tracking). We have been testing this on pMetrics since earlier today, you can see the results here.

There is a lot more information here, including how it works and code examples.

We are open to your suggestions on how to improve it. We considered doing this on a per ACTION level as well, in fact it is already designed to be flexible enough to add that in easily, but there is definitely some concern with data storage if we were tracking that much additional data on your visitors. If there is a demand for such a feature, we may decide to implement it.

Note that full custom data tracking is PRO only. (Our upper end premium package). Interested in upgrading? You can do so here!

As many of you know, at the end of last month, I suddenly found my best performing site banned from AdSense. Any attempts by people in my company to reason with the AdSense representative “Scott” proved completely futile. We came out far more confused then we had gone in.

Finally, we just gave up trying to appease Google. We started on an adventure to find a real alternative to AdSense, and finally, a month later, we’ve actually found it. I can’t promise that this will work for every site out there, and I plan to test this solution on other sites in the future, but for now, I’ll share this bit of good news that I have discovered.

Basically, we’re now matching previous AdSense revenue with a combination of alternative ad partners. Next month, we think that we will significantly surpass AdSense revenues.

So what combination of ad partners are we using? Here they are:

New Partners

1. AdBrite
2. Kontera ContextLinks
3. AuctionAds

Old Partners

4. BlogAds
5. TextLinkAds

Of the three new partners, AdBrite and Kontera make the largest, most consistent amount. Together, they are just about at the daily level that AdSense had been at when I got the boot. The cool thing is that, unlike with AdSense, I have the distinct feeling that both Kontera and AdBrite are taking intentional, manual (human!!!) steps to help optimize my performance, serve better ads, and improve my eCPM. It feels good, for once, to have the sense that your ad publisher is on your side!

I haven’t really been able to completely figure out AuctionAds, and it surely isn’t consistent, but it is bringing in some money, with occasional surges. We’ll let it run for about 2 more months and see if we can figure the system out, tweak it, and hopefully make it competitive with Kontera and AdBrite. It would be fantastic to have a tripartite revenue backbone, so that if any one member went down, I’d be losing less than 1/3 of my revenue.

The great thing about the Kontera, AdBrite, AuctionAds system is that each ad network compliments the other. Kontera is a link based advertisement. AdBrite is your typical boxed text ad. AuctionAds rotates ads from eBay. The only substantial tip I have at this point is to make sure to turn off interstitial links on AdBrite because they compete with Kontera, and Kontera has a much better payout for that type of ad.

So there you have it. I’ve found a real alternative to Google AdSense. I can’t make any guarantees, but I’m willing to bet that this model scales well enough across niches that you too could try it out and realize AdSense-competitive revenue as well. I’ll be doing some testing across some of my low-traffic sites over the next month to see how it compares to AdSense at that level. Report forthcoming.

And the great thing about this alternative is that 1) it is liberating to not depend on a single company and 2) you have much more room for expanding your ad partnerships (these three ad networks do not have the anti-competitive rule set that Google imposes).

We’re all familiar with the oversaturated niches. Anything mainstream American is oversaturated. Cell phones, gadgets, celebrity. Anything mainstream techie is also oversaturated. SEO, PHP, web development, blogging.

Some of the oversaturated niches still have room to squeeze out decent profits. But many of you might be looking for alternative niches to explore. And rather than wrecking your brain trying to think of that one under-represented main-stream product, it might be worth thinking outside of the box a bit.

Before I move on, let me just say one thing: there’s a reason for niche oversaturation. Niches that are oversaturated have at least two things going for them. First, they have high advertiser representation. Second, they have a proven readership/client base. In other words, there is excess money being thrown around in these niches.

If you’re going to explore some alternative niches, you need to be aware that some of the value in conquering these newer niches lies in longer-term equity. Sure, there can be immediate profits, but when you explore alternative niches, you are partially betting that these niches will grow, expand, and perhaps become mainstream (along with mainstream advertisers).

One very nice way to do alternative nicheing is to identify a mainstream niche and then throw an ethnic spin on it. Think celebrity is oversaturated? Why not become a major player in the Latino Celebrity market? Having trouble breaking into the soccer/futball market? Why not do a blog on Latino futball players.

By adding an ethnic angle to any niche, you increase the level of specificity and decrease your competition. If you play your cards right, you can have a much easier time breaking into a popular sub-market for a popular niche.