Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I didn't want to devalue the site and their ad exposure by adding affiliate stuff or adsense ads, so...I decided to put one skyscraper ad on the right hand side of each page.
WOW. I was instantly making 1500 a month. I then hired a SEO guy to get me more traffic and paid him 50% of the adsense revenue. He royally screwed me with redirects and other stuff (I'm clueless when it comes to programming stuff--I have a nursing degree if that says anything).
So, the Big G gave me the big boot. (still not back yet) My traffic went down about 60% and my adsense revenue went down about the same.
This was horrible!
So, I decided to make some changes. I switched over the software that powered my site 4 days ago. While doing that, I also changed up my adsense ads.
I changed the right hand skyscraper ad from yellow with red text, and black url, to white background with blue text/urls, which matches the rest of my site. I also added a wide banner to the top of my site pages, and under the navigation, blending it in with the site, and using a white border and background, and the ctr on that is twice the side one that was twice the old one.
Doing that, the last three and a half days have beat any week's total since I was booted from G.
If this isn't just some CRAZY, FREAK 3 days, then it's going to be a tremendous help with monetizing my site and finally making it profitable. I've been putting ALL of my money back into the site and am close to finished with that.
IF I EVER get back into google, and this keeps up, I'll finally be where I want to be.
So, what's the moral of this story?
Don't mess with the Big G (even if it wasn't REALLY you).
And TOY with your adsense colors and layout, and see what works best. You might just be surprised.
I set on the same settings for over a year and never changed them. I could have doubled or even tripled my money over that time period...
It's worth a try!
[edited by: shortbus1662 at 8:12 pm (utc) on July 31, 2005]
Your story is one that's been posted here many times, and never fails to inspire. Some of us "old timers" who've used AS for many months now know the power of testing ad combinations, positions, and color changes.
Let me give you one piece of advice: never assume that what you're getting now is the best it can be. Keep testing and track those stats carefully. I once thought I had the best possible layout, only to find that I was leaving money on the table by stopping my tests. Always test! Good luck! Let us know how it goes, ok?
[edit]Oops, sorry... have a brainstutter there. You're not new, but welcome anyway! LOL[/edit]
Now get rid of those skyscrapers and banners and put a nice little 4-ad block smack dab in the visual hot spot and don't use borders and match your site colors exactly.
If you're getting any pages with >$1.00 clicks then use adwords to bring more visitors.
Get some more subjects going and you'll be well on your way to the UPS club.
Ignore all i've said if you've got a forum :)
But I could use that center block on my other site pages. I do get more than a dollar a click for some words/pages, without looking I'd say the 15 month (or however long it's been) avg is about 65 cents...maybe?
(PLEASE delete if saying that violates the TOS)
Didn't you say that you were booted from adsense? Or did you just mean your were booted from the search engine? A bit confusing there.
And yes, do keep testing.
Ann
I noticed when I did a spider sim, from here at WW, it showed more text stuff for cars, e fax stuff, and other stuff not related to my site, so I viewed the source.
I discovered he had added hidden links to about 20 sites of his own as well as hidden links to 4 sitemaps he made for my site that were all java redirect on mouse hover.
I gave him the boot, but it was too late. Actually, I'm assuming as soon as I fired him, he told google about the pages, and they booted me before I had a chance to delete all of them (cause at the time, I didn't even know how).
Anyway, no use crying over spilled milk. I've gotten right and hopefully, the Big G will love me again...
I hope you all the best.
Ann
This change has definately got me excited and has rejuvinated my efforts at making my site a better place for my visitors.
I'm the kind of person who is never satisfied with what I have. Sadly, I (like many others I'm sure) didn't apply that same thought to my adsense until now.
I want to OWN my market/niche on the internet. Not because I want the power/glory, just because I know there are some really "bad" people in the industry and I can help a lot of people avoid that, and also help the ones who got jobbed the first time around. Plus, my site is just dang better!
