Forum Moderators: martinibuster
A. Go to the Google AdSense site.
B. Click on Common Questions under the login box area.
C. Then click on AdSense for Content (the first link) on the page you are sent to.
READ ALL OF IT.
D. Next on the left menu in that same page, click on Optimization Tips.
READ ALL OF IT, and FOLLOW IT. PAY ESPECIALLY CLOSE ATTENTION TO PLACEMENT IN THE "HEAT ZONES".
It is not only important where you put your AdSense links. (And here comes the hard part - because this is what creates traffic etc.)
1. You will have to reevaluate existing ads on your site. If you have popup ads and other flashing banners etc., get rid of them. The general public is sick to death of seeing these and will appreciate (and read) your AdSense ads with more frequency if they are not distracted by everything else on the page in terms of ads. (Say with me here, I know this is a leap of faith on your part).
2. Evaluate YOUR CONTENT and create BY YOURSELF more content that is pertinent, helpful, precise and not stolen. This is what keeps people coming back and bookmarking your site and spreading the word to others... not seeing the same thing they saw on a hundred other sites, but something new, unique and different on YOUR site.
3.) Sell a 3rd party Product or Products on your site? Write reviews. (Honest ones that you will be respected for.)Provide all kinds of information about the product. For example, if you sell widgets, on the same page, make sure to offer all kinds of good information: how your widget will make the customer's thingamabob work better. WHy it's a great value compared to Company X's widget etc. Show your widget in action (video or flash is awesome).
4.) Don't be boring or use overly complicated slang or language. Don't use awful colors and stick to the 256 web safe color palette if possible.
5.) It's really important that you use good web design. Group items in easily readble chunks. If you don't have an idea about good design - just look it up on Google and seek out web design rules or principles.
6.) Don't use hyperlinks in bright colors (vivid blue) in bright color AdSense boxes (vivid orange) ;0) YOU know who you are!
7.) Get rid of borders and see if you find yourself getting a better return.
8.)Where you are in the search engines is extremely important with respect to how much you can plan on earning. If people can't find you, they can't read your ads. Make sure each page has a clear title tag, description tag and at least 3 simple keywords.
I'm sure others have more tips to give you newbies! IncrediBILL? EFV?
Good Luck all,
:)
However, I have truly made an effort to (read) and impliment all the suggestions you have offered here.
My site is content full and updated every couple of days
I rank in the top five at google under my main keyword
My average visits per day range from 5/9 thousands
I have a bi-monthly newletter which I post to 5 thousands subscribers
In all my articles I have placed adsense ads in the "Heat" spot just under my title and teaser paragraph with no border and blue links
ALAS! and this is my dilemma! My CTR is a mere 3.0% and earnings on a good day is just under 10 bucks...
Please, I am not scared to put in the hard work to increase my earning potential... but I am at a loss as to what else I need to do... help?
1: 3c clicks
2: Boring and uninspiring ads
However you place or blend your ads if they don't look interesting or are irrelevent then why would anyone click on them? Even if they do you need a lot at 3c
Just my experience, I know others do really well
I just took a quick look at your site and would guess that the problem is that your site just isn't a good match for AdSense. People going to your site are looking for news or information about Elvis. They aren't looking for products or services. So even when you get relevant ads, you aren't going to get much clicking.
If you are willing to put some work into writing reviews of books about Elvis, movies with Elvis in them, and Elvis's records (maybe you already have, and I just didn't explore enough), then one option would be to be an Amazon or other affiliate. I'm earning $150-200 month from Amazon, on top of AdSense, and my site gets less traffic than yours (and I work on it very part-time).
In all my articles I have placed adsense ads in the "Heat" spot just under my title and teaser paragraph with no border and blue links
But there's a lot of good advice in bamamamma's post which seems to add up to Make Great Websites and You'll Make Money. Scrapers come and go but solid websites only get more popular.
I want to add something to evaluating your content:
Make sure it's well written, flows nicely and has no spelling errors. You want to look like you know what you are talking about and it's a bigger plus if you actually do.
Also, I did not mention ---- you know, if the amount of ads available are low in the first place for your subject, no amount of tweaking will really help. The best thing to do in THAT situation is to explore other methods of income generation for your website.
That's my BIGGEST dilemma! How DO I make adsense work for me? There must be a way to better what I reaping now!
Forget Amazon most Elvis fans can purchase Elvis at Wal-mart at half price and no shipping charges.
Initially I earned a bit from Amazon but it disappeared this year when fans could buy Elvis over the phone.
I have the traffic and a very loyal fandom... so any suggestions would be most welcome... thanks, Lea
I searched for that famous singer. I saw only 3 ads on the results. There isn't anything you can do about the low income/CTR (IMHO). There simply isn't a large enough advertiser pool to get competition going.
You gotta find something that you are interested in and can be knowledgable about that has a least 30 ads listed when you do a search.
It is better to put your on-site links in the same window instead of target="blank". And i guess your site is too crowded. Too many "Stuffs" for me when i looked at the site.
Maybe you should redo the template?
Have you looked at your site critically?
1. The pages are too wide. With a 19" monitor full screen at 1152 x 864 the page only just fits without any horizontal scroll bars.
2. It is very slow loading.
3. Opening every page in a new window is taking the **$$!
4. You have VERY annoying pop unders.
5. If you hadn't said there was Adsense I wouldn't have found it on the righthandside.
6. That was the only Adsense ad I could find...ok I only looked at about 10 pages.
7. Isn't using Clicksor and Adsense on the same page against Google's TOS?
You have all the stuff you require, it needs a lot of TLC and a serious re-design to make it user friendly.
After 5 years I know my site is a little crowded but that's what attracts the fans.. information.
As to unique visits... is there a link you can offer where I can get that information...
My page impressions are well over 15 thousand a day I do believe.
I know I can do it... I know I can do it...
thanks... as I don't see my site on any other computer screen but my own ... and I have a very fast connection I didn't realise the problem of slow uploading... thanks
I was always told to have every page open in target-blank is this a no-no? Okay that can be fixed.
Okay... now that you have seen mine... let's see yours... maybe if I get to see a high earning site layout I can impliment the changes to my site...
I just had a look at your site on a 14" monitor with an 800 x 600 resolution...you'd better do the same!
OK, I think the average for new purchases is 17" or the equivalent TFT but there are still a lot of 14/15" users.
I have a 2 mbps connection and the site is still slow, it should rock and roll at that speed:-))
I've just checked your images which are ok and G reports your index page at 45k therefore you must have a slow server...or mine's wilting under the heat here today!
I only open new pages in target_blank when it's leading off my sites from a link/recommendation page so the user needn't use the back button to return to my sites. I always have pages on all my sites open in the same window.
I'll sticky you my stuff...
Tell the people that it might be worth travelling there. Travel might be an interesting topic for advertisers.
And how about contemporary equipment. Tell your visitors about old "antique" record players used back in the fifties. "Antique" stuff might be a topic for advertisers.
I'm sure, you will find many more topics related to elvis.
I just had a look at your site on a 14" monitor with an 800 x 600 resolution...you'd better do the same!
14"? 17"? Now I know why you're all complaining all the time as you can't get anything done on those tiny screens, to be blunt, YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT IN THE HECK YOU'RE DOING! No wonder you're behind the curve :)
After my cat yakked on and fried my old 19" HP90 Monitor and smoked all the circuits (i mean there was SMOKE pouring out of it, $500 tube in the trash) with kibble and barf the replacement was an adequate 19" ViewSonic [NEW!] for a paltry $150. Yes, it's still a tube, but the cat still needs a place to recline while I work and warm his paws.
Got a flat screen on my other computer, a laptop (obviously flatscreen, but I dont need the cat sleeping on that one) and I wouldn't (and haven't) designed anything for less than 1024 which is the laptop size. My pages are actually expandable to fit the whole page so they stretch to fit the biggest screens and shrink to fit the little ones but some things get a little crunchy at 800x600 but it's still usable.
My advice is to take some of those sweaty piles of cash Google mails you every month and invest in a real screen of 19" or more, trust me you'll love it and you'll buy me a beer :)
[edited by: incrediBILL at 9:40 pm (utc) on June 23, 2005]
Okay... will do... I do have a list of every home Elvis ever lived in and will do a travel guide from around the world to include Elvis museums as well... thanks for the idea
I have since narrowed my site pages ...
Keep it coming I think with your educated advice I can earn a little extra to help cover my huge hosting costs
Back to topic a little.. I optimize for 1024x768 and it will go down to 800x600 but I never worked on a screen higher than 1024 :(
14"? 17"? Now I know why you're all complaining all the time as you can't get anything done on those tiny screens, to be blunt, YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT IN THE HECK YOU'RE DOING! No wonder you're behind the curve :)
What good are your ads doing if you have to scroll to the right to see them?
What good are your ads doing if you have to scroll to the right to see them?
I said I shrink the page to fit, but don't design for it, on most pages it's A-0K, in a couple there is a little extension to the right. The trick is the page is multi-segmented so mostly everything looks flawless regardless.
Secondly, you'll never scroll right to find my ads, they are in the left and top so they slap you in the face immediately under the navigation.
That's why I don't worry about it :)
W3schools' statistics give, as of june 2005, a 28% of browsers that still use 800x600 resolution.
Also, due the technical nature of the site, it might very well be that for the average user this value is even higher.
Don't hurt those users!
Think that technically illiterate users tend to have a higher CTR!
Remember, my site uses my own personal "SPANDEX" design, one site fits all :)
I use spandex too but am beginning to wonder whether fixed-width is probably better?
What's the general consensus on that?
I had the real-estate, why should I scroll?
If it was irritating me I figure it wasn't making my visitors happy so I spandex'd the site.
FYI, I used to do GUI design for work a rather large software company and we did spandex resizable windows in our code even back in 1990. I've always been a fan of make your design fit the user, not make the user fit your design.
Now this is sounding very suss?
But I would like to know what size Elvis should be?
Remember I work in Frontpage... thanks,
Sure, you could get away with 1024x768+ on a gaming website. It could depend on your audience. But there are so many ways to make a site look good and fill a screen at 800x600 that I see no reason not to.
I feel a lot better knowing that my layout is consistent for everyone, too.
That site is 800x600 and cleverly appears to fill the space up. Maybe it looks bad at 1600x1200 but while my screen will go to that resolution my human eyes could never read the text.
due the technical nature of the site, it might very well be that for the average user this value is even higher.
I think this is a common misconception. Often the least experienced, least techie people have the better screens and even computers.
They just bought them last week, shiny and new, upsold to them by the salesman to far more than they will ever need, whereas those for whom they are just a tool often struggle on with older kit.
I have seen people who essentially need a word processor, barely know how to use email, don't know what an address bar is and have never really navigated to anything that is not on their ISP's home page with computers and screens that made me weak with jealousy.
These are people I come into regular contact with and perhaps that has effected my decision making on this but I bet there are a lot more. I know of at least one person running 800x600 on a 19" monitor because they have bad eyes.
I wish they would all toss the old hardware away but I bet you that a few of them might get new hardware yet continue to use 800x600 resolution.
I have been running mine for 7 years unofficially. 3 years offically ( as a "real" business)....
Just a quick side note of a near CATastrophe:
Literally 30 minutes after sending that post in this thread about how my cat smoked my old 19" monitor the other day, I was in the other room and heard my wife yelling and running with the cat in hand. It appears Barfy The Monitor Slayer was sitting atop my current 19" monitor about to wheeze his lunch all over the vents on top and she grabbed him before barfageddon started and ran him off to the bathroom to defuse the vomitile situation.
If he keeps this up I'll definitely have to INCREASE MY EARNINGS as I'm going to need a monthly monitor expense as part of doing business!
And don't tell me to get rid of the cat because if I did that where would you get all these cool cat stories?
