Three Lucrative Adsense Tactics To Experiment With

Increasing your AdSense earnings is often about using tactics rather than increasing traffic. Yes, traffic matters a lot; but building traffic is slow and implementing potentially lucrative tactics can happen overnight.

Listen Up!

These three tactics can take a low or mediocre CTR ad and turn it into an absolute cash cow. Of course, they may not work all the time - you need to test them for yourself.

==> Using the "This Can't Be Related" Image Technique

Images draw the eyes. When people look at a page, the first place their eyes go are the pictures. Then their eyes go to the things near the pictures.

It only makes sense then to put your AdSense ads near pictures. Unfortunately, AdSense is adamant that you can't put ads next to anything that looks related to what advertisers might be selling.

That's okay. Just put images that can't possibly be related next to your ads.

For example, a giant photo of you smiling while looking at the camera. Make it stylish and classy, then put the ads somewhere near the picture.

It can't possibly be related to the ads, as it's not about a product or even about the content. But it'll still draw the eyes and likely increase CTR.  Just like I added a few unrelated pics of our cute dog onto this blog.

==> The Below Quotes Technique

Quotes also draw the eyes. In fact, people will usually read enlarged quotes before reading most areas of the article.

Put quotes throughout your article in enlarged text. To see good examples of how this works, just look through a few magazines or newspapers to see how professional editors do this.

Then put a small AdSense block right under the quote. That quote will get read, people will see your ad and the CTR might shoot through the roof.

==> The High Contrast Technique

A lot of people say to blend your ads into your layout. But a very effective technique can be to go for high contrast instead.

For example, let's say your site layout is primarily blue. Instead of making your links blue as well to blend in, why not make them bright red to really draw attention to them?

This will really get people to look at your ads. They still might not click, but at least you're getting the views now.

Any one of these three techniques can take your CTR and give it a powerful boost. The exact results vary from site to site and niche to niche.

Remember to carefully read the Terms of Service for AdSense to make sure you're not inadvertently violating any clauses. Whenever you experiment with controversial techniques, you really need to be well versed in what's allowed and what's not. Reread the Terms of Service (even if you've already read them a while back) before trying these techniques.

What is Adsense Placement Got To Do With Anything?

What Are the Best Placements for High Click Through Rates (CTRs)?

Over the years, webmasters have tested literally hundreds of different placements for their AdSense ads to find which ones get the highest click-through rates. Instead of starting your own testing from scratch, it can really help to start with a proven placement and make improvements from there.

Here are four placements that have been proven time and time again with high CTRs.

==> The "Above the Fold Double Sidebar" Placement

Above the fold, put two small placements in your sidebar. This will basically look like two ads right on top of one another.

This creates the impression that the ads themselves are part of your navigation. Because it's above the fold in places where people are used to looking for navigation bars, your ads get a lot of visibility.

Split test left versus right to see which gets you the highest clicks.

==> The "Look At This Ad First" Placement

According to the Google Heatmap and many webmaster anecdotes, this placement often makes the most money. Unfortunately, it does detract aesthetically from the site.

The ad unit is placed above the content, dead center in the page with no text wrapped around it. In order to read the article, the person has to actually scroll down past the ad.

In other words, they're forced to look at the ad. This generally results in pretty high CTRs.

==> The "Right Under Top Nav Banner" Placement

If you have a top navigation bar, placing a banner ad right under your navigation bar can get very high click-through rates.

People who glance at your top navigation bar are also very likely to see your ad. In fact, some people may even just accidentally click on your ads.

Experiment with text ads versus image ads in this placement. Also experiment with using text links.

==> The "Inside Content Large Rectangle" Placement

This placement usually doesn't get as high a CTR as the "Look At This Ad First" placement, but it's aesthetically more pleasing to the eye and still performs very well.

It's ideal for sites that want to earn income now, but still want to build a long-term brand. Rather than optimizing just for getting the most clicks possible now, you're getting as many clicks as you can while still building some customer loyalty to your site.

Basically you place a large rectangle either on the left or right hand side of your page and have the text just wrap around the ad. This gets very high click throughs and looks quite decent.

These are four of the top tried and true placements for getting good CTRs on AdSense. As always, results will vary based on your site and niche, so always split test for yourself.

Great Tools for Adsense Bloggers

With AdSense being one of the most popular ways to earn an income online, there have been quite a few tools released to make webmaster's lives easier.

Here are three of the coolest tools for setting up, using and managing AdSense ads.

==> The AdSense Sandbox Tool

What kind of ads will show up on your site? What kind of ads are already showing up on your site? What kind of ads are showing up on your competitor's site?

The AdSense Sandbox tool will give you a whole array of ad listings to look through.

This can help you start your campaign with certain advertisers blocked, or to optimize your page a bit more if you're finding a lot of irrelevant ads.

The sandbox tool can be found here:

http://tools.digitalpoint.com/adsense-sandbox.php

==> AdSense Notifier

It can be very addictive to watch money coming in. How many times a day do you track your stats? Many webmasters will check their AdSense earnings as much as five times, ten times, even twenty times a day.

How much time does this take? Even if it just takes a minute or two each time, they add up. Also, every time you check your stats you're interrupting your work flow. It takes energy and time to get back into the flow.

You're also more likely to go off on other distracting activities (i.e. email, Facebook) after you start checking your stats.

AdSense Notifier is a free Firefox plug-in that will completely handle this for you. Basically, it'll check your AdSense earnings for you every 15 minutes and display it for you in the lower right corner of your browser.

This way, you'll always know exactly how much you've made today without having to break your workflow.

This tool can be downloaded here:

http://code.mincus.com/3/adsense-notifier/

==> Alternate URL

If you have PSA ads displaying on your sites but you don't want to go through the trouble of setting up another ad network or finding affiliate products for all of your sites, Alternate URL is the perfect answer.

Alternate URL will find the best alternatives to AdSense for your website and place alternative ads on your site for you anytime a PSA ad would display. The revenue is split 50/50 with you and you're paid by PayPal every month.

If you run just one main site for the majority of your income, you'll probably want to find your own affiliate ads or use another ad service for your PSA ads. But if you have hundreds of sites that make up your income, Alternate URL will be a lifesaver.

You can register at:

http://www.alternateurl.com

These are three of the coolest, most unique tools available to AdSense publishers today.

Is it a good idea to enable Image Ads?

There are three different settings that you can choose in AdSense for different types of ads to display: Text Ads Only, Text and Image Ads or Image and Rich Media ads. Which one should you choose? Will one result in higher click throughs and conversions? Here are the pros and cons, as well as the approach you can take.

==> The Pros and Cons of Text Ads

There are a few big things text ads have going for them.

First of all, there's a ton of inventory. That means it's unlikely that Google will have to show a Public Service Ad (PSA) because they don't have enough ad inventory.

People are also less likely to have "banner blindness" towards text. If your ads are well positioned and have good fonts / colors, you have a very good chance of getting read and getting clicked.

They can also blend into your overall site layout a lot more, resulting in a better-looking site. You can make it look like an integrated part of the design, rather than a glaring advertisement.

The downside of text ads? They don't stand out. There's nothing that grabs attention about them. Once someone is used to the AdSense ads on your site, it can become very easy to just skip over them.

==> The Pros and Cons of Image Ads

Image and Rich Media ads have the main benefit of being able to draw a lot more attention. They can use animation, giant headlines, etc. to get your user to click on the ad.

However, it's important to remember that only one ad will be displayed. In other words, that one advertiser has to perform well enough to make up for showing one ad instead of 3-4 text ads.

For some users, image ads means reduced banner blindness because they're used to text ads. For other users, it means more banner blindness because they're just so used to graphic ads.

==> Remember ...

Keep in mind that it's in Google's best interest to help you make more money. The more you earn, the more they get as commissions.

Google works on an eCPM auction model. In other words, the ads that make you the most money per thousand impressions will over time be shown more often, while losing ads will be phased out.

That said, the auction process could take a long time. So to answer the question ...

==> Should You Run Image Ads?

The answer is yes. But split test them against text ads. You can do this either using a split testing script like Google Website Optimizer, or just running each for a week or two and switching them out.

Figure out which one works better for your site. Then run with the winner going forward. This is definitely a test that should be done, because the difference can be quite dramatic.

What is Adsense?

If you have been doing any sort of blogging for a while, then you will probably know what Adsense is and how Adsense works.

Using Adsense is a great way of generating some income on your blog, without having to put in any extra effort.  Adsense is the advertising platform run by Google, and by allowing Google to place relevant ads on your site, your visitors will hopefully click on the ads and you will get paid according to the number of clicks your site generates.

If you are using Blogger it is relatively easy to put Adsense on your site, as there is an Adsense gadget that you can add to your blog which will automatically do this for you.  If you have a Wordpress blog, you will have to create your ad within Google Adsense and then copy the code over to your blog.  Keep an eye out for pluggins on Wordpress which also make this process a whole lot easier.

There are a few rules that you will need to follow when using Google Adsense, so make sure you read the fine print well when opening your account.  You will have to have a good quality and relevant website before Google will place their adverts on your site, so there is a bit of work to be done initially.

I hope this blog will help take the confusion out of placing ads on your sites and will help you to grasp the concept of 'What is Adsense?'and 'How does Adsense work?'

Happy Dogging, I mean Blogging!

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