The Revenue Scout

This is a post for those both new to Adsense and those who’ve been using it for quite some time, but who haven’t really seen that much in terms of earnings. Of course, those more knowledgeable in Adsense might get something out of it too.

Before I reveal the 3 tips to exploding your adsense income though, I thought I’d share a few don’ts.

Don’t go after the top paying keywords

This is something a friend and I tried when we first discovered adsense. After finding a few high paying keywords about finance, we set up 2 sites in the category. We thought we’d make thousands. However, it didn’t work out like that. In fact, I don’t think we made over a $100 over the course of a year.

So try to stay out of the top categories. They’re very competitive and unless you have some unique method of getting a piece of the pie, you probably won’t do too well.

Note I said probably, never say never as that unofficial James Bond movie stated. If you really think you can compete for traffic and are determined to go at it, credit to you. I’ve just had more success is less competitive keyword niches though, but that’s something I’ll cover in a future post.

Don’t try and cheat the system

To the second don’t, which is don’t try and cheat the system. Having read around a good few forums over the last year, I’ve seen many people complain about having their account suspended.

Why were they suspended?

Well, some had legitimate problems, while others had been clicking on their own ads. Then they had the nerve to complain when they got found out!

No matter what you do, Google will find a way to catch you, so don’t do it.

Ok now for exploding your income

1. In line ads are usually best

In line ads are ads that fit into the content body. They look like this:

The square or small square are usually best format for this.

Making this one change (along with making the ad fit the sites colour scheme) saw my adsense earnings go from $3 a day to $15. It might not seem much, but that’s an increase of 500% and it certainly built up over the month.

Of course this doesn’t mean that should be the only ad you have, try testing a few different formats in different places. The skyscraper is usually a good choice along with the half banner and button.

In fact, the button and banner ad used to work well with an image nearby to draw the users’ eye, but Google no longer allow you to do that

The link units are also very good, placing horizontal blocks under the top links usually perform well.

Of course with everything, test and see which performs best and where.

2. Make the ad blend in

This goes hand in hand with in line ads but it should also be applied to every other ad you have on your site.

The background and border should be the same as the area you plan to place the ad. The link and URL should be the same colour as your main links, although I have had some success making the link and URL stands out slightly more but it’s definitely something you should test. The text should be the same colour of your main font colour, basically whatever colour your main content is written in.

Here’s an example:

As you can see both the in line ad and the link unit matches the main colours of the site.

3. Make use of the competition filter… not just for competition

The ‘competition ad filter’ allows you to block specific ads.

Why is this good?

Well if you see an ad that doesn’t quite fit the content of your site, you can simply block it and make sure only the most relevant ads are displayed. This can increase the CTR quite significantly.

To find out more about the feature and how to use it, have a read of Google’s ‘Competitive Ad Filters’ guide.

Well, that about covers it for now. But Adsense is something that’s easy to test, so if I come across any new tips or improvements, you’ll hear about them.

Till next time

The Revenue Scout

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 12:48 am and is filed under Adsense. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.