We run a network of sites that offer news, business directory, features (videos, competitions, special offers and sales), dating, hotels along with a few other bits...
Our revenue from Adsense is rather pathetic, so I was wondering if anybody had a similar web site or anything... What works best for you? Link units? Ad units? Image Ads? Text ads? Just a bit of info on what works for you...
Thanks!
johnmoose
12:51 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
Welcome! What works for me doesn't have to work for you. It just depends. Make use of channels to see what works for that particular site and page and keep testing and experimenting.
christophile
1:10 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
Hi john, yeah i thought that might be the case but just wondered what you were doing that worked as whatever I'm doing isn't. Hmm... back to the drawing board..
HuskyPup
1:30 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
Our revenue from Adsense is rather pathetic
Define "pathetic" in approximate CTR and EPC terms, note approximate!
netmeg
1:46 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
Actually, not to put too fine a point on it - if someone has a similar site or is working in a similar niche and has found a way to make it work, why would they share it with potential competition?
My *best* stuff dies with me.
explorador
2:22 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
What works for me doesn't have to work for you.
True. In fact whats working for me with one website is not working on the others.
christophile
2:34 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
Nah netmeg you misinterpreted me, I don't want to steal your traffic!
I just wanted a basic idea of which kind of ads attract most clicks, e.g text ad, img ad...
But anyway for now I've just changed the colour scheme of the ads to make them fit in with the site more, and made them more trackable so I can see where the few clicks they get actually come from...
[edited by: christophile at 2:37 pm (utc) on Jun 29, 2010]
christophile
2:36 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
huskypup...
CTR < 0.05% thereabouts
We're getting around about £20 a month
Lapizuli
3:09 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
I'm more of a niche writer, so take what I say with a grain of salt....My immediate thought is that if your search traffic to each of the sites is not very targeted, which it might not be with those topics, you should expect a low CTR, which means that you need a LOT of traffic to make good money, either by clicks or by impressions - and at that point, anyway, you may do better selling advertising. If your traffic is low, you can either work to increase it or try to "nichify" the content - add useful, original articles - or both.
Webmasterworld does have site review available with subscription, I believe...though I can't find the link right now.
christophile
3:20 pm on Jun 29, 2010 (gmt 0)
Ah, I see what you mean lapizuli, thanks your post has given me a few ideas...
dataguy
6:55 pm on Jul 6, 2010 (gmt 0)
To use a popular phrase: location location location. I've tested link units over the years but could never get them to pay more than ten cents in CPM. Recently my account rep told me where to put them (right over the main content) and they have added more than $2.00 to the page CPM without affecting the CPM of the other ads.
Of course the topic of your content has more to do with CPM than location, but location can not be discounted.
Alan_Mater
9:22 am on Jul 7, 2010 (gmt 0)
You probably need to create niche websites to be able to find a reasonable amount of success in adsense. Your traffic becomes more targeted and the ads being shown match what the people are searching for.
IanTurner
9:33 am on Jul 7, 2010 (gmt 0)
Run split tests on your ads - try 3 different colour schemes together - find out which works best, then try 3 different variants on that scheme.
I find in general that larger ad blocks tend to get higher click through rates, but they have the annoying habit of ruining the look of your site. It is a case of balancing user experience with ad click throughs to get the best compromise.
