Independent Digital

Where should I place Google ads on my pages?

Certain locations on the page are ?hotter? than others. In the accompanying image (below), we notice that the colors fade from dark orange (strongest performance) to light yellow (weakest performance). Also, ads placed above the fold tend to perform better than ads placed near rich content and navigational bars because users are focused on those areas of a page.

Always put your users first when deciding on ad placement. Consider how they will navigate the page, and what will be most useful and visible to them. Sometimes this will call for the ad to be placed other than where expected.

Tip number eleven to follow. If you want to advertise your website for free then have a look at goFreeClick free text ads.

Making AdSense fit your forum site

Ad placement and format are crucial when designing successful ads for a forum site.

• Placement. Display your ad units where repeat users will notice them
• Forum regulars usually skip the header and go straight to the thread, so ad units above or below the first post can be more effective than ads next to the logo
• Put a leaderboard at the end of the last post which gives the user a ‘next step’ when the content ends. Avoid placing it after the footer
• Formats. Adapt your design for multiple ad units and limited space
• Multiple ad units allow you to use a variety of formats to fill ad space on your site. Skyscrapers above the fold on the left side of your forum produces better results than elsewhere. However, when using multiple ad units throughout the page, the leaderboard is still the best. See the image below:

  

• Place horizontal link units just below the header as these offer a wider range of relevant topics to browse

Always be sure to blend the ads so they don’t appear overly intrusive - but then be careful not to blend them so well that they mislead your users!

Consider using image ads to increase the pool of ads to display on your site. Forums tend to have lower clickthrough so use CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) ads that can improve revenue without the need for clicks.

This is the final of the eleven hot tips on how to make money with google adsense. If you want to advertise your website for free then have a look at goFreeClick free text ads.

Maximize your success with other Google products

• Use Sitemaps to get your site included in Google’s search results. Have a look at Googles? webmaster guidelines for ideas on how to develop your content and structure your pages. Particularly regarding submitting your URLs to Google sitemaps
• Reach new customers with Google’s AdWords. Google adwords allows you to create your own ads. You choose keywords to help Google match your ads to your audience and pay only when someone clicks on them
• Integrate Google’s interactive maps into your site’s data using Google Maps API. The Maps API allows you to embed geographical information into your site using JavaScript and is a great way to enhance your current site content
• Increase interactivity on your site with Blogger. Blogger can help you interact with your readers to create a community on your site
• Enable your users to work together more effectively with Google Apps for Your Domain. With Google Apps for your domain you can provide your users with applications to help them become more productive. You can use your own colour scheme, branding and content in programs such as Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar and Google Page Creator which are all hosted by Google. There is no hardware or software to install or maintain
• Keep your filter list small. Filtering is a quick and easy way to prevent unwanted ads from being displayed, however, filtering also decreases the number of ads that can appear, thereby decreasing your potential earnings as well. So consider reducing the number of filtered ads
• Attract advertisers to your site with Onsite Advertiser Sign-up. Onsite Advertiser Sign-up makes it easy for advertisers to bid and display ads on your site. When using Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, your ad units will display an ‘Advertise on this site’ link that takes advertisers to an informational landing page detailing how to advertise on your site
• Emphasize important content with section targeting. With section targeting, you can help Google determine what parts of your content are important so that your site can show more targeted ads. Google?s technology detects whether section targeting will improve your results and implements automatically only if you’ll earn more revenue

Section targeting might be a good fit for your site if:

1. You’re familiar with HTML
2. You want to help guide the crawlers to specific section(s) of your page
3. The sections you want to target contain a significant amount of text

• Test your success with channels. Use channels to measure the effects of any changes you make on your site. The more you test, the better you know the effects of the ads. The better you know the effects of the ads, the faster you’ll realize your revenue potential
• Create report templates to simplify and save time. When you’ve designed an experiment, save a report template for that experiment. Report templates allow you to customize and save the specifications for a report for quick access in the future

Tip number ten to follow. If you want to advertise your website for free then have a look at goFreeClick free text ads.

Refer users to new products to generate more revenue

A referral button on your site will direct users to Google products like AdSense and Pack as well as products from Googles? extensive base of AdWords advertisers. You are paid when the user connects to the referred product.

• Choose sub-categories for better targeting. You can control the ads that display on your site by selecting sub-categories which improves your ad targeting and can also increase your referrals earnings
• Designate back-up ads for your ad slots. Select the ad that you would like displayed but also add additional categories or keywords so that you can be sure that relevant ads will always show on your site
• Try displaying only image-based ads. You do limit your available ad inventory by only showing image-based ads but you may prefer its aesthetic appeal

Best practices for any type of referrals

• Experiment. Try various text links and button designs to see which performs best on your site
• Customize your text links. Change the size and font of the text
• Choose relevant products to refer. The referral product that is most relevant to the content of your site will most likely perform best.
• Rotate referral units when you rotate content. Always check to see that your referral unit is relevant to your content

Tip number nine to follow. If you want to advertise your website for free then have a look at goFreeClick free text ads.