In case you are not aware, AdSense is a program from Google which
lets you place advertisements on your website. You will then be paid in
proportion to the number of visitors your site receives.
Some people make millions from AdSense while others are able to make only a handful of dollars.
Of course traffic is the main source of income for not just AdSense
but any sort of revenue generation method. But there are certain tips
and tricks that will help you earn more money even if your traffic stats
don’t skyrocket.
1) Ensure ads are available
Some niches have a large number of ads available. Examples are technology, gadgets, media and news.
Other niches have very few ads. Examples are parachuting, bungee jumping, and quantum physics.
It is necessary to choose a niche that has a monetization potential.
If you start a blog on quantum physics, you will get fewer ads because
there are very few ads in this niche in AdSense.
Do some research first to ensure your blog’s niche really has ads available.
A quick and easy way to do this is to Google the respective keyword.
If the search results contain a decent number of AdSense ads related to
that keyword, well and good — otherwise, choose another niche.
You should, of course, repeat the Google search a couple of times
until the number is large enough to draw satisfactory conclusions.
2) Blend the ads with your blog
Blending AdSense ads with your overall design is a technique most AdSense publishers recommend.
AdSense ads are customizable i.e. you can adjust their font and
color. So most bloggers tweak them to match their overall blog design.
This has two advantages:
- The ads don’t look out of sync as they match with your theme. It demonstrates professionalism.
- People won’t be able to recognize instantly that they are ads. They will confuse them with your site’s content and hence are more likely to click on them resulting in more revenue. Yes this method may sound a bit unethical but it works.
And don’t overdo this. Too much blending when the ads stop looking like ads is not permitted under AdSense’s policies.
3) Use the ads within your content
Bloggers have found that using ads within your posts result in higher
clicks than when they are used in the side bar. The reason is obvious.
More people will read your articles than those who will read your
sidebars.
Darren Rowse says this in a video:
“One night I took my ads off my side bar, where I thought they were
doing really well, and put them into my content. I aligned my content
around the ad and overnight my AdSense earnings doubled, tripled.”
Always put your ads where your readers’ eyes would naturally go on your page.
4) Put the ads above the fold
Even the top-notch websites have an average time of visit of two
minutes or so. Wait a moment and let that sink in. Don’t think if you
are getting thousands of visitors that you will necessarily get people
to stick around your site. There are millions of websites on the
Internet and of course people don’t spend all their online time on your
site. Their mouse is always hovering on the back button.
Put your ads where people can instantly see them as soon as they land
on your home page. Don’t put them beneath the fold where people will
have to scroll all the way down to see them. That would dramatically
decrease your number of clicks.
5) Think from the readers’ perspective
If your blog is written in the English language and you are
attracting an audience who is used to the reading of English (a language
that is written from left to right with the first sentence beginning at
the top of the page), then the top left portion of your blog is where
your readers will look first. Hence placing an ad there should have good
affects.
On the other hand if your blog is in Urdu, (which is written from
right to left) the top right portion of your page would offer the most
conversions.
Not all bloggers are willing to place an ad in their most prominent
position. Perhaps you will want to use your logo or a list of your best
posts in such places.
So see which approach suits you.
6) Use enough keywords
AdSense ads are targeted ads which means they are targeted according
to the blog on which they appear. AdSense is designed to show camera ads
on a photography blog and mobile phone ads on a gadget blog. But being
designed for something and actually performing its designed purpose are
two different things.
You will have to spoon feed the AdSense program to show the kinds of
ads you want it to show. Just as you use keywords to spoon feed search
engines, you should do the same to inform AdSense about your niche.
Insert the relevant keywords in headings, sub-headings, in bold letters and also sprinkle it here and there.
The AdSense bots will then understand which ads to display — after
all, you don’t want display ads about a clothing sale on a tech blog.
Have you used AdSense? How has been your experience with it? Do you know of any good tips to improve your earnings with AdSense?
