21 Reasons Why Your Users Click On Your AdSense Ads
July 31, 2007 by Gaman · 19 Comments
- They are genuinely interested in it
- They see highly relevant ads to your content
- They thought it’s part of your content
- It’s an accidental click
- Because they notice it
- They want to support your site
- They are tricked into clicking it
- Because you opt for image ads which potentially have a higher value than the corresponding set of text ads.
- They thought your link unit was part of your navigation menu
- They thought the AdSense ads were part of the search result when you use AdSense For Search
- You rotate colour palettes which add freshness to your ads
- You use more wide ad formats than their taller counterparts
- You use multiple ad units if you page contain lots of text
AdSense Optimisation Tips for Forums
July 29, 2007 by Gaman · 5 Comments
Over at the Inside AdSense blog, the team give out tips to help forum owners improve their AdSense performance. I quote the suggestions below.
- The welcome box ad
Many forums have a message above the fold on their pages welcoming users to the site and encouraging them to register. Placing a large (336×280) or medium (300×250) rectangle next to this message catches users’ attention right when they walk through the door (so to speak). By the way, these are our best performing ad units, and may also increase the number of site-targeted ads on your pages. - The forum post ad
Based on previous testing, integrating ad units into your page content can improve clickthrough rate (CTR). It also provides a better online experience, since your users see relevant ads side by side with normal content. In forums, the highest visibility content is often the first post, so it makes sense to place the ads here. Again, large and medium rectangles are your best bet!
The Single Most Important Number That Could Make or Break Your Business
July 27, 2007 by Gaman · 8 Comments
After I’ve written the 8 unusual tricks to boost your AdSense CTR, an interesting discussion in the comments ensued where a reader suggested that as long as you have lots of traffic you’ll have clicks. In response, I wrote that CTR is more important than your traffic; higher CTR makes you more money with less traffic.
Another reader wrote, having a 5% CTR with 1000 visitors is better than 100% CTR from 10 visitors. When it comes to AdSense, common sense dictates that the more traffic you have the bigger your potential income would be. That I totally agree.
However, I think there’s one important number people tend to overlook in their quest to increase traffic and hopefully make more money from it. The number is your CTR itself.
8 Slightly Unusual AdSense Tricks to Boost Your CTR
July 17, 2007 by Gaman · 20 Comments
I’ve written a couple of articles about making money with AdSense and this one is no difference. But this time, I’ll talk about tricks that seldom get mentioned anywhere. Learning about making money from AdSense is a continuous process and it doesn’t stop after we read an article or two.
Some of these tips might be new to you and some may be not. I hope this article serves as a reminder on things you can experiment with to improve your AdSense click through rates.
- Use Fewer Less AdSense to Improve CTR
The theory is that with less ad inventory available on your site, the fiercer the competition among advertisers. This will drive your CPC nowhere but up. In contrast, showing more ad units allows lower-bidding advertisers to appear on your site. This will effectively reduce your CPC, (or CPM for a site targeted ad units). Read more about this here.
How to Set AdSense for Search to Search Your Site by Default
July 13, 2007 by Gaman · 8 Comments
When you set up the AdSense for search with SiteSearch enabled, the search box will default to web search instead of SiteSearch. It’s likely that most users who use the search box on your site use it to search pages within your site, not the Internet.
To set the search box to search pages on your site by default, visit the ‘AdSense Setup’ tab in your account and select ‘AdSense for search’ as your product. On the code generation page, you’ll see a sample search box under ‘Search box style’ that changes as you customise the layout.
Just click the radio button for SiteSearch within the sample to default your search box to SiteSearch.
What to Do If Your Are Banned from AdSense
July 12, 2007 by Gaman · 7 Comments
To set the record straight, I think publishers who are violating AdSense term and policies on purpose deserve to be banned. As an AdWords advertiser myself, I don’t appreciate paying someone who has no intention of offering me a good return on my investment.
AdSense publishers only make money when the AdWords publishers make money. As long as the supply and demand is kept in balance, everyone will be a happy camper.
AdWords has added a new feature recently which allow advertisers see the domains where their ads are being served within Google’s content network i.e. AdSense publishers’ sites. So it’s more important than ever for publishers to create good quality sites where AdSense ads are shown.
On the other hand, I am curious to know whether there are innocent publishers who are banned from AdSense for violating the program term and policies because of others wrong-doing but they were unable to prove so.
10 Don’ts to Help You Avoid Having Your AdSense Account Banned
July 11, 2007 by Gaman · 11 Comments
AdSense account banning could happen to anyone regardless of how big or small they are as a publisher.
This was what had happened to Henry and Wilson, a twin from Baltimore who was pulling $200,000 monthly from AdSense. Then it all came down crashing last month when they were banned by Google for invalid clicks barely a few days before the next payment was supposed to arrive.
If you think this will never happen to you, think again. Here are the 10 things you should do to prevent AdSense banning.
- Familiarise Yourself with AdSense Program Policies
Unlike other program policies, this one is actually readable without all the technical mumbo jumbo that make your head spin.
How to Make More Money from AdSense with Fewer Ad Units
July 9, 2007 by Gaman · 11 Comments
You may have noticed that I’ve removed two AdSense ad units from Sabahan.com since 4 July 2007. These are the medium rectangle 300×250 which appeared on the main page, and the banner 468×60 shown below each post.
I did this to see if I could make more money from AdSense by showing fewer ad units.
The premise is that with less ad inventory available on your site, the competition among advertisers is fiercer. So if you only show 4 ads in an ad unit, the AdSense system will target the highest paying ads to the ad unit and shows them first, working down through the auction results to fill in the rest of you ad units in order.
On the other hand, showing more ad units allows lower-bidding advertisers to appear on your site. This will effectively reduce your CPC, (or CPM for a site targeted ad units).
10 Tips to Help You Make Money With Google Referral 2.0
July 6, 2007 by Gaman · 22 Comments
Now that Google has made their Referral program available to everyone, I’d like to share a few tips to help you make more money from it.
While making money from Google referral isn’t much different from making money from other pay per lead/pay per action affiliate programs, certain restrictions apply when it comes to recommending Google’s referral products to your users.
Things You Should Know When Promoting Google Referral 2.0
Google AdSense Help states that you are allowed to endorse or recommend the products you’re referring on your site. However, AdSense program policies don’t permit you to encourage clicks or draw ‘unnatural” attention to the referral units you’re displaying on your site. So you are not allowed to use language such as “Click here”, “Visit these links to support our site”.
Google AdSense Referrals 2.0 Review
July 6, 2007 by Gaman · 3 Comments
As you may know, Google has rolled out AdSense Referrals 2.0 program for the international AdSense publishers recently.
This main different between this and their “normal” AdSense program is that, you only get paid when your visitor click on the ad AND perform certain action.
This is also known as pay per action or pay per lead. In this case you get paid when your user completes an online lead form, make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, download a trial software and so on.
The good thing about Google Referral program is that you can select offers available in specific countries, reducing the chance of sending unqualified lead to the merchants. For example, if your website is targeted towards the American audience, you can choose to display offers valid in the US only.
