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However I heard stories about how cms and adsense do not work together so I was wondering if anyone can shed some light onto this? Is anyone here earning well using Mambo or Joomla? What is the CTR like?
IF anyone here used it, I would like to know too, since my next project will be on joomla.
thank you
Anyone else who is using Mambo/Joomla and doing well with regards to adsense?
Joomla as any other good cms allows SEF urls and has couple of adsense components to make an easy integration or you can paste adsense blocks into typed content directly.
Joomla supports custom templates and you can have lightweight joomla template with little graphics or a heavyweight with flash animations, etc. There are quite a few free templates readily available too.
So my opinion is that you will do as good with joomla as with a static html site.
I was wondering because of the fact the php or css might influence the ads that are being displayed. Like how framed pages present a problem. Or anything similar. Or the ads do not capture the content properly and start displaying irrelavant ads.
Is it difficult to make your own Joomla! template?
You need basic PHP and HTML knowledge to make a joomla template. That said there is plenty of differently styled free templates where you just replace the images with yours. Search google on joomla templates, most of the sites have preview or screenshots.
As for increasing CTR the only way is to experiment with ads placement and colours. Each site is different.
[edited by: albl at 12:26 pm (utc) on April 22, 2006]
I'm still trying to wrap my head around Bill Clinton doing the Macarena and Cheese. -LH
Thank you albl!I was wondering because of the fact the php or css might influence the ads that are being displayed. Like how framed pages present a problem. Or anything similar. Or the ads do not capture the content properly and start displaying irrelavant ads.
Is it difficult to make your own Joomla! template?
You can use OpenSEF and it's possible to place Google Adsense on a framed page, just make sure you check that button when generating your code.
Albl: Hmmm, so I should not compare my CTR and CPM with my previous layout? This is interesting because I have been very demoralized since then. However, I did see an increase in page impressions. As for earnings, I can't say because I think like what you say, it's still wee too early. But I really appreciate the insight you are providing me! Thank you!
I'm not exactly sure what this question means. Joomla / Mambo allow you to create your own templates and place ads pretty much anywhere you want. So they are flexible when it comes to ad placement. Google also does an excellent job of ad targeting. My site does very well from a CTR standpoint, if that is what you mean.
If you're talking about other aspects of Joomla (SEF), this is probably the wrong forum. But I will tell you that Joomla is pretty much a php / mysql / apache CMS (right now). Because it's database driven you can get into some trouble creating duplicate content.
I've been using Mambo / Joomla for a little over 2 years now and I'd gladly join in a conversation of the pitfalls / highlights of that particular CMS. Just sticky me if you post it in the right forum and want my opinion. That kind of discussion will get lost in this forum.
Update: Been monitoring my CTR/CPM and it plunged. Like way plunged. Got a feeling that I am doing something wrong or like what Albl said, I gotta wait a bit. But this plunge is way deeper than I would have liked it. Anyone has any insight?
You've got mail.
Just make sure that your site has SEO-friendly URLS and titles. Wordpress doesn't have an option for meta tags but the search engines seems happy with having nicely descriptive URLS.
Leva
I think right now what I am having trouble with is ad placement. Cannot seem to find a place where I can get a decent CTR. Compared to my previous site, the CTR I'm having now is at an all time low.
Why don't you put the ads in the same place you had them before then? If CTR was so good, it would seem sensible to put them in the same place. If your current template doesn't support that position, find one that does.
The system used to create the site, be it Dreamweaver, Frontpage or a CMS like Joomla shouldn't make any difference to your earnings.
What albl said is right though. If you have gone from mysite.com/friendly.html URLs to a CMS style of "option5=ID7=string8" kind, then Adsense may be having difficulty serving well targetted ads. Unless you use a module which generates SEF friendly URLs, it will take a while for Google to re-index your site and serve appropriate ads.
I use SEF, and all seems well.
Anyhow, thanks for the positive feedback. Just what I needed. Was kinda afraid that I did the wrong thing by migrating over. But the template handling was really getting quite tricky.
What ad placements are you all using anyway?
It is also necessary to edit the 'locations' file or the new locations can't be used. Just make sure that an untouched copy of the template is saved in case of major mistakes.
I began using Mambo in February 2005, switched to Joomla shortly after it became available. I only use the built-in SEF. Ads generally have good targeting and average CTR is over 6%.
Anyhow, why not use OpenSEF. It allows your URLs to have your page titles.
I've changed it to one which displays numbers like /0/1 kinda thing. Is it friendly enough? Or should I change it to like a really friendly one?
OK, so you're using the built in one. You could also try one of the "really friendly" ones, like SEF Advance or similar.
I use both, and to be honest it doesn't seem to make a deal of difference to the quality of the ads - they're all pretty well targetted.
BUT, as stated earlier, if you've suddenly changed your site from friendly .html URLs over to the /0/1/ kind, it will take Adsense a while to figure out your new pages. You might see ads for purple potatoes for a week or so 'til it figures out your site's about blue widgets.
