Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I think one of the problems is that people don't come to my site to buy widgets; they just want to read about them. They can do this without clicking any ads, so as content has improved and increased my visitors have also increased. The problem is that my earnings have flat lined (possibly going down a bit depending on the timeline you look at)
I assume this is an issue that affects many smarter people that I, so I'm asking for general advise.
I know that I can get more money by making larger ads, putting them in more noticeable locations, making the color stand out, etc... But I don't it to look like a spam site.
If I provide free in-depth technical widget content that’s hard to find anywhere else, can I afford to have more noticeable ads? Or will viewers hate it as much as an Adsense spam site that has no content?
Thanks in advance.
Mitchell
Sitemaps are important . . . but sometimes a pain with tons of pages broken up into tons more . . .
See if you can have something that builds them for you
Agreed, and I don't do it either but it is something that we may all have to consider as AdSense plunges deeper into the cellar. Free registration with a little demographic information can be very helpful and, if you are offering good content, is a reasonable "price."
Content sites have to stand up for themselves. Our content has value and we should not be too shy about asking the user (and advertiser) to recognize that.
I have not had AdSense on my site for the last 15 days or so because the CPM has fallen beyond what I consider the value of my content to be. If Google can fix it, fine. If not, that's fine too. My site predates Google and AdSense. It was OK for awhile but life goes on.
Making ads blend in with your pages is spammier than making them stand out, and it's a disservice to advertisers who want "qualified leads" and not accidental clicks.
I'm in the rare position of disagreeing with you. Ads that blend in make a site look more professional. Google actually recommends that you do just that to increase overall performance.
From Google's "Tips For Maximizing Your Google AdSense Revenue":
1. Show your ads above the fold.Placing ads above the fold (the section of your page that is visible without scrolling) will make the ads more readily visible to your visitors and increase the opportunity for clicks.
3. Customize ad color combinations.
Try using custom color combinations for your ad units. This allows you to ensure that the text, background, and border colors of your ads complement your website. You can choose from a wide variety of colors to create your own custom color palettes, or select from over 20 pre-defined combinations. When using color palettes, we recommend making:
- The background color of the ad the same as or similar to the background color of your page.
- The border of the ad a color that is prominent on your page.
- The title of the ad a color that is similar to the text on your page.
- The URL of the ad a color similar to other link colors on your page.
They say nothing at all about making your ads stand out, quite the opposite.
What do you expect Google to say? After all they blend the ads as much as possible on their own serps. Well I suppose they could always intermix them with the serps... :)
Sure, blended ads probably do perform better that way on some sites. That doesn't make the practice any less spammy, or make it "professional".
It's all to often just a way to trick the reader into thinking they are just part of the site navigation.
Doing the ads that way makes the page look more professional though. Not so cluttered. I do put a light colored thin line around the whole ad to help separate the ad from the text. It just looks more polished.
What do you expect Google to say?
Pretty much exactly what they want webmasters to do. Why wouldn't they? Does anyone expect Google to give explicit instructions that could somehow be detrimental to the AdSense or AdWords programs?
Sure, blended ads probably do perform better that way on some sites. That doesn't make the practice any less spammy, or make it "professional".It's all to often just a way to trick the reader into thinking they are just part of the site navigation.
How I look at Adsense:
1. Advertisers WANT you to click their ads. The publisher does not write the content or the text that is bolded in the Adsense box.
2. They all say "Ads by Goooogle" above the ads. There is no way to trick the reader with a legitimate content site. They see a hyperlink on a page and say..."That topic sounds good, I would like to know more about that". That was the intent of the advertiser when writing the ad copy :)
3. The only way to trick a visitor is to have Adsense spammed above the fold on a mostly blank page, then scroll waaay down to find keywords slapped on the page to trigger the appropriate keywords for Adsense.
4. Ad blending to integrate is the only way I would use this program. The site must look professional. Bright yellow adsense ads would turn off our content visitors who are looking to shop. The point is to make the ads attractive enough for people to want to click. Once they click, the advertisers' site must sell the product!
Does anyone expect Google to give explicit instructions that could somehow be detrimental to the AdSense or AdWords programs?
Actually, they've said and done a number of things that are detrimental to the AdSense and AdWords programs, such as:
1) Encouraging ads that don't look like ads.
2) Slipping questionable "content" into the content network (such as DomainPark).
3) Allowing publishers to use their AdSense code on multiple domains without approval of each.
4) Not being more aggressive about policing scraper sites and the like.
Over time, experience and feedback from disgruntled advertisers (or gun-shy potential advertisers) may lead to a less freewheeling attitude; we'll see.
Actually, they've said and done a number of things that are detrimental to the AdSense and AdWords programs, such as....
Then any problems (either real or perceived) lie at the feet of Google, not the publishers who follow their guidelines.
As for me, I won't build a site with content of ANY kind that looks out of place, including ads. Google agrees and apparently so do advertisers based upon the number of them that contact me directly commenting on the quality of traffic from my sites and offering to pay me a premium if I'll replace the AdSense block on a given page with their own exclusive ads.
My job is to provide users with high-quality content that is useful in its own right (I try my very best not to produce any other kind) and then place AdSense ads on it in order to achieve two objectives:
1 - Make money for myself via clickthroughs.
2 - Provide advertisers with the opportunity to make money for themselves when a visitor clicks through to their landing page.
Every page on every site I own has dozens of other links to click giving visitors lots of choices in regards to where to go next. The advertiser writes the ad headline and copy (with Google approving it). It's the advertiser's responsibility to make the sale after the visitor hits the sale page. If that doesn't happen often enough there are two possibilities:
1 - The landing page is offering something a bit different from what was described in the ad.
2 - For some reason the landing page isn't "selling" the product or service being advertised well enough.
Google's mediabot determines whether or not a given page is appropriate for a given ad. If Google were to take your excellent advice in regards to "helper keywords" ad mismatches could be virtually eiminated.
Google has also provided explicit guidance for using the ads on my pages. I follow their advice and do very well as do most of the advertisers. The rest of the advertisers have some work to do if they want to profit profit from PPC advertising.
Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to use AdSense in this situation but it may be better for your bottom line.
Have you thought about using IntelliTXT ads on your content. The ads are then embedded within the content.Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to use AdSense in this situation but it may be better for your bottom line.
For now, I'm very happy with AdSense and the way it supplements my affilate earnings. If that changes at some point I'll switch to something else. The main reason I like AdSense so much is because I can make it blend in with my sites so well.
IntelliTXT ads are ugly and clumsy IMO.
Note: Place a space above and below the ad so the "Ads by Google" text doesn't blend with the article... you want them to know it is an advertisement but not knock them in the head with it.
Have you thought about using IntelliTXT ads on your content. The ads are then embedded within the content.Unfortunately, you wouldn't be able to use AdSense in this situation but it may be better for your bottom line.
You peaked my curiousity, so I went and looked at IntelliTXT which is very cool.
Their main testimonial site has AdSense PLUS IntelliTXT in their articles. Either Google has no problem with mixing these two as there is no confusing what IntelliTXT does vs. AdSense, or nobody has reported that site to Google yet.
You peaked my curiousity, so I went and looked at IntelliTXT which is very cool.
I considered using IntelliTXT, but I quickly decided that the IntelliTXT ads would be distracting and annoying to my readers. (They might not be so bad if the ad boxes displayed only during mouseover, but they stay on the screen--obscuring the underlying text--for a few seconds after the cursor is taken off the link. In that respect, they behave like interstitial ads, but they're even worse because they make the reader wait during midsentence instead of before the page displays.)
because they make the reader wait during midsentence
Hmmm, your readers read with their mouse?
If you're just reading it doesn't interfere at all, but if you're interested in the link most people would've clicked it before that little mouseover comes up, it seems sluggish to me.
If you're just reading it doesn't interfere at all, but if you're interested in the link most people would've clicked it before that little mouseover comes up, it seems sluggish to me.
If you move your mouse over the link, the ad box sits there for a few seconds (or so it seemed when I tried it) after you move the mouse away. That does interefere with reading if you don't want to click on the ad.
The New York Post has gone with them. Myself and one of my clients is also looking closely at them.
The real question is "DO THEY GENERATE REVENUE?"
Good question - don't have the answer yet. I do like the suggestion of having the "X" at the bottom though and will pass on to them.
Good question. I am starting a 30-day test this week, so we shall see. They have the potential to generate a nice piece of incremental revenue without taking up additional real estate.
/jh
"This is democratization of content," said Jim Pitkow, CEO of Moreover. "The benefit is that small publishers now have a choice as to if and how they make money from their content."
Moreover have been testing them for about 6 months according to Pitkow and tests have been positive.
More info here [news.com.com].
