by: Alli Ross
There are many adsense tips floating around the internet. Here are some adsense tips that can drastically increase your CTR (click-through-rate) and your profits. These are simple changes that only take a few minutes to implement but can make drastic changes to your bottom line.
Lots of people say to make your ads blend in. However, some people are having a lot of success by making their links stand out. The most effective style seems to be having your links Amazon.com blue, while your other links are a less-noticeable color. A good example can be seen at www.lockergnome.com.
Another tactic that is working very well is placing images directly above your ads. This simple technique has been known to increase CTR by 400%. To keep the images fresh, some people randomize related images on their site using PHP code. You can see an example of these images at
http://www.how-to-make-money-online.info/
Google has cited the 336x280 large rectangle as the most effective ad size. Pay close attention when Google gives advice on how to increase your profits, they have a wealth of statistics and research that back up their findings. However, nothing can replace your own testing. Every site is different.
Place ads where your visitors will likely be focused. Study your web page. Where do your eyes seem to focus? How do your eyes scan over the page. Adsense ads often do well when placed near navigation and other hot spots.
Check out this heat map by Google - http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?pagetips.html
- Weave your adsense into your content, aligned to the right or left. This is shown at lockergnome.com.
- Place link units in the top left-hand corner. This part of the website has shown to be clicked on more than any other part of the page. You can see an example at lockergnome.com. (Look at the links at the top, towards the left in blue.) This is the most valuable piece of real estate on your web page.
- Take advantage of the "alternate URL" feature to avoid Public Service Ads that seep money away from your website.
- One of the best things you can do is add additional pages to your site. A web site with thousands of pages and tons of content often does very well in the search engines. You can get free content from article directories. You could also use public domain content, which is a favorite tactic of John Reese. Or, you could use content in the creative commons. This is getting easier than ever now that Yahoo and others have created a search engine specifically for content in the creative commons.
Succeeding with adsense is largely determined by the amount of traffic to your site. However, there are many adsense tricks that you can employ to get the most revenue possible out of your site. Often times, this means doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling your earnings. The key is to find out what works for your web site. Testing and tracking is the key to increased revenue!