Forum Moderators: martinibuster
With this in mind, I thought it would be nice to have one thread that puts all the best tips and advice together from old and new members - for the benefit of old and new members.
It's also my hope that we can put together a high impact thread worthy of being bookmarked and referred to, as well as to take the wind out of the sales (pun intended) of those who sell $75 overpriced Adsense eBooks that never deliver on what they promise. [And at the same time, hope those same opportunists don't violate the copyright on this thread and produce another eBook based on this information]. :-)
To start, here's 3 of my best AdSense tips.
1. Google's Heat Map really does work and deserves the full attention of those who've ignored it. It's really helped me improve my CTR. [google.com...]
2. When it comes to content, take the time write the best article you can. Don't write a bunch of rehashed garbage that's already been copied 100x before by lazier webmasters then you. Write something fresh and recent with new sources. Also, don't make the article short just because you don't like to write. Write until you've exhausted the subject. This will help you avoid duplicate content penalities, increase the stickyness to your site, and put out more 3,4,5, etc. keyword combinations that you can pick up traffic on.
3. Clear off the clutter, eye candy, bells and whistles and unnecessary links from each page. You want visitor's eyeballs to focus on 2 things: Your Content and Your Ads. Trimming the fat also reduces the low value places for visitors to go. You want them to either continue surfing your site or to exit through an ad. I've reduced the clutter and low value links off many of my pages which really helped my CTR and proved to be worth the time it took.
One Final Note: I think it's okay for members to repeat tips as it validates the importance of such tips and shows some priority as to what publishers can focus on.
Thanks,
Freedom
2. Only use 1 ad block per page to keep the highest paying clicks in view and avoid .03 clicks (not worth leaving your site for .03 in my opinion)
3. Blend ads in to design (but still displayed prominently) as to not offend your visitors
[edited by: MediaSpree at 1:14 pm (utc) on July 21, 2005]
Use an adlink in addition to an adblock, and consider placing it at the end of your page's text. If the text you've written is sufficiently focused on your keywords, the adlink should have no problem with relevancy. The adlinks really work great and seem to add significantly in many cases to the bottomline. They sometimes subtract from the number of clicks you'd receive from a single adblock, but the dollar amount earned at the end of the day can be greater.
2.
when placing adblocks, consider choosing alternating color schemes so repeat visitors to certain pages will see a different ad appearance on repeat visits. this might help alleviate ad blindness.
1. Use the channels agressively to test and do more testing - keeping in mind you can't compare just 1 day against another - you have to look at bigger blocks of time.
2. Match your ad style to your page style sheet. I have had big jumps in my CTR in doing this
3. Your traffic sources can impact your CTR. If you are bringing generic, run of network traffic to your site, you will have lower CTR. If you bring targeted traffic focused on your topic to your site, you will see higher CTR
2. Keep each page on a single topic (where possible) and split large content into multiple pages - lots of highly targetted ads and good proportion of ads to content (obviously don't drown your content with ads).
3. Read the posts on this forum carefully - sometimes there is gold in what seem to be throwaway comments.
2. Test.
3. Test.
I was already doing fairly well with Adsense and I thought I was at my max as far as tweaking my page design to work with the ads.
One tip from another member of this forum doubled my adsense income (by doubling my ctr)
It was nothing "secret", the same information could have been found on the Google heatmap or any of the posts above, but I just never tried it or tested it because I thought I was at my "max" and was almost too jaded to test new things.
So test :)
2. Use channels to track pages which are triggering different keywords than the bulk of your site. See if you're getting a better EPC for those pages. Make more pages like that.
3. Those Adlinks can work. Give them a try.
3. Periodically monitor for content theft. This can be done a number of ways, including back-tracing links to your site, monitoring your serps, doing searches for unique text on your pages, and using a content monitoring system. This may not overtly seem to be an adsense tip, but do you really want the unique value of the content YOU created to start popping up elsewhere on other adsense sites, thereby diluting it's value (ASA, will google ever devise a registration system so site/content owners can at least certify that, on a certain date, the content was on their site and not on a thief's. this would even be a good revenue stream since many webmasters would pay a nice fee for the added protection)
Beyond that I'd say:
1: Do not prejudge your pages! It's amazing to see that pages you had little expection for turn out to pay very well.
2: As much as possible try to get targetted traffic. Well targeted traffic can really affect CTR and earnings.
3: Broaden your view of your content topic(s). Some very well paying, very relevant, subjects are completely missing on many sites.
Often, it isn't any kind of stretch to include some or all of these sub-topics. It's just that they don't pop up often in general discussions, so some (I'd say many) webmasters don't realize the value of commenting on them on their websites.
[copyscape.com...]
I add minimum 10 pages, max 30 pages of real, absolute original content everyday. (I am a journalist)
All new pages indexed within a week of adding, and the extra visitors and revenue from adsense on those pages help me recover cost instantly.
Usually, the site's growth in pages and therefore, revenue keeps me above and ahead of almost all EPC/ eCPM fluctuations. Let me say it again, invest in original content, if you can.
Also, experiment with different topics for content. I create 30-40 pages of content on a similar topic for a new section. You will make amazing discoveries about your site's revenue potential.
In the worst case, it took me two months to recover my investment. Best case? A single week.
Bigger the site, bigger everything else gets. Bigger eCPM, more revenue (Just my experience, I could be wrong).
Nothing, absolutely nothing that even falls near TOS boundaries. Stay safe, theres too much money to be made.
Don't be tempted to splatter each and every page on your site with three adsense banners, one adlinks banner and a google search box! Use channels to track every banner, and if it isn't paying then dump it. The resulting increase in CTR will probably feed through to an increase in earnings.
2 - "Experiment"
Don't be afraid to experiment with different banner types and placements. If it doesn't work then restore it to the previous version. If a banner doesn't work on a page, don't assume that the page will never work with adsense. Give it a few weeks then try something different inthe way of banners/adlinks.
3 - "Don't assume the ads selected are always the best payers"
Google targets ads based on what they *think* will be the best financial bet - not on highest bidder. This usuallyworks well, but you may find that there is some really bad targetting on occasions. Use the adsense preview tool to look at the ads that appear, and if they are scrapers, directiories or webmasters buying traffic as opposed to people selling things then consider dumping them. WARNING - this is against the conventional wisdom, but the technique has worked well for myself and others here. It won't work for everybody, so if you intend trying this please be careful to dump advertisers sparinglyand slowly.
2. Listen to the pros.
3. Never give up.
2/. Plough your income back into content. Think of every $ you don't spend on pizza now as $10 next year.
3/. Read the posts here, but not so much that you don't have time for content.
2) advertise your high EPC pages with link on the low epc pages
3) split long pages into several smaller pages with one ad block on each page. Optimize for slightly different keywords (within subject) on pages.
2. Create a separate site to target high paying keywords only. When Adsense doesn't know which ads to pick, it seems to draw conclusions from the surrounding site.
3. Write about things people are actively searching for. This should be obvious, but so many sites seem to forget.
2) READ THE ADSENSE FORUM FROM END TO END, OR SEARCH IT, as almost anything you might want to know has probably been discussed a bazillion times before plus a ton of helpful tips.
Here's something you won't find posted ANYWHERE or in ANY BOOK...
3) If you have a site generating dynamic pages then you should issue a unique page name for every page displayed if possible.
Why you might ask?
Because if the AdSense MediaBot perceives some content that triggers PSA ads and decides your page "my_display_page.html" doesn't meet the content filter requirements then "my_display_page.html?page=2", "my_display_page.html?page=3", etc. may be penalized as well and the whole series of pages shows PSAs.
Because if the AdSense MediaBot perceives some content that triggers PSA ads and decides your page "my_display_page.html" doesn't meet the content filter requirements then "my_display_page.html?page=2", "my_display_page.html?page=3", etc. may be penalized as well and the whole series of pages shows PSAs.
My question:
I have been playing around with Smarty to produce dynamic pages. Is there anything wrong with having
redwidgetdisplay.php
bluewidgetsisplay.php
etc.?
2.Targeted Content For Visitors
3.Give bullets and see the ads if they are proper.
Some people with major graphical layouts can't move their adsense around to experiement without major redesign.
I have an all CSS design and it takes me 2 minutes.
2) Mix advertising and content. This stops visitors from getting ad blindness
3) Don't play with the adsense code.
3) If you have a site generating dynamic pages then you should issue a unique page name for every page displayed if possible.Why you might ask?
Because if the AdSense MediaBot perceives some content that triggers PSA ads and decides your page "my_display_page.html" doesn't meet the content filter requirements then "my_display_page.html?page=2", "my_display_page.html?page=3", etc. may be penalized as well and the whole series of pages shows PSAs.
Won't this harm search engine rankings? Unless you mean formatting your dynamic urls to not use querystrings (like webmasterworld does).
2. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Try to replace your google ads with affiliate ads over time. The greater the number of affiliates you use, the less chance that losing one will harm your overall income. That's the biggest risk with Adsense. Look to see what ads are appearing on a page and being clicked through often (using channels), then find an affiliate program similar to that ad (you can use the same ad copy!). This is a lot of work, but sooo worth the insurance, and probably the extra income in the long run.
3. Don't ever talk about your ads to friends, family, strangers or anyone else who might come across your site. The only place you should do it is right here on webmasterworld, where you can guard your anonymity. People WILL click your ads, whether maliciously or not, and the last thing you want is someone you spoke to doing it. It will haunt you later.
I have been playing around with Smarty to produce dynamic pages. Is there anything wrong with having
redwidgetdisplay.php
bluewidgetsisplay.php
Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I would use Apache rewrite rules so the outside world sees "redwidgetdisplay.html" instead of "redwidgetdisplay.php". Masking the technology can save you from many headaches, especially when a vulnerability is found in PHP (which happened not too long ago) the hackers won't immediately spot your web site as a target.
Won't this harm search engine rankings? Unless you mean formatting your dynamic urls to not use querystrings (like webmasterworld does).
Won't harm your rankings the way I do it, or the way WebmasterWorld does it.
The media bot won't think "my_display_page_2.html" and "my_display_page_3.html" are the same and just tacking a number onto the end doesn't seem to impact the SERPs at all.
Think of AdSense as somewhat of a window into the soul of the search engine and fixing the targetting on AdSense will have SEO benefits as well. If your AdSense ads are completely off target your SERPs can't be as good as you think either.
Fix your spider food, <title> <h1> <h2> content etc. to highlight the page content properly and reinforce the right keywords and not only will you fix AdSense targetting but you will most likey improve your SERPs.
2) Make your pages validate. Otherwise you may find that one syntax error means that the spider ignores vast chunks of content, resulting in poor targetting.
3) Force yourself to take a break very now and again. Don't take it so seriously and don't expect it to pay the bills or the mortgage, for example. Walk away and do something else for a while - maybe a couple of weeks. Then come back with fresh eyes and try again.
2. Be fair to advertisers. If you try to artificially boost your clickthrough rate by disguising ads as content or overwhelming the visitor with ads, your clicks won't convert well for advertisers. This may result in higher "smart pricing" discounts for your clicks (meaning less money for you), and you'll be a poor candidate for site-targeted CPM ads.
3. Think long-term. Ask yourself what will happen if you're dropped by AdSense, if advertisers get more control over where their ads appear, if "smart pricing" becomes more aggressive in cutting revenues for sites whose clicks don't convert, or if other changes affect the status quo. It's tempting to go for the quick and easy money, but unless you have the technical and business smarts to earn a lot of money that way, you'll probably be better off with content that can earn revenue in multiple ways over the long haul.
