Written on June 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 am by Darren Rowse

How to Optimize Ads on a Blog for Higher Profit [VIDEO]

Video Posts 60 comments

“What is the best way to utilize ads on a blog and maximise their potential profit?” – Question from @RyanBarr on Twitter.

This video post looks at 5 factors that help to make an ad be more profitable on your blog – it’s based on an older post here on ProBlogger where I presented an equation for AdSense success.

The five factors are:

  1. Traffic
  2. Ad Positioning
  3. Ad Design
  4. Relevancy (between reader intent, the content and the ads)
  5. How much are ads paying

While I originally came up with this equation with regards to AdSense it relates to all kinds of advertising on blogs as well as affiliate programs to some degree. The principles are introductory but a good place to start for those just starting with making money from blogs.

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60 Responses to “How to Optimize Ads on a Blog for Higher Profit [VIDEO]” - Add Yours

  • BlogSEOExpert - SEO for Blogs

    June 23rd, 2009 12:27 am

    Hi,

    [I have posted this comment in another post, and I observed that many people found it interesting. Since this is also an advertisement related post, I am posting it here again so that more readers can benefit]

    A good strategy to place adverts is to overcome ad blindness.

    If you are using wordpress, you can try out the “All in One Adsense and YPN” plugin.

    You can provide your adsense (or Yahoo) account number / code to it, and it provides many location options within the article where you can choose to place your ad.

    And the best part is – you can choose to place the ad at a “random” location. This means that the ad unit would be placed at different locations for different page loads.

    This is extremely useful: Your regular readers become ad-blind in a short time, and stop noticind the ads as they appear on the same place. With this “random” feature, you can remove the effect of ad-blindness!

  • The Bad Blogger

    June 23rd, 2009 12:47 am

    BlogSEOExpert – SEO for Blogs – that’s a great tip, anyway, is all comes down to the target traffic to that particular Adsense site, the more traffic you are getting, then the only work needed is to “test” your ads with the rest of the 4 factors.

  • Zach Dunn

    June 23rd, 2009 12:48 am

    Thanks for this!

    I’m still working things out, but so far I’ve seen an increase for Adsense after relocating them to the “pause points” and blending them in (in a non-sneaky way) to the design colors.

    It’s a slow increase, but it’s these bit by bit tweaks that help in the long run I suppose. Until then, it’s direct sales through BuySellAds that generate the majority of my ad income.

  • Michael Aulia

    June 23rd, 2009 12:55 am

    I found that putting the ads on top rather than on the “pause” stage works better on my blog. Mostly maybe because my readers have already gotten their answers on my posts so the won’t need to click on ads

  • Roger Ewing

    June 23rd, 2009 1:06 am

    Great video Problogger. You are an articulate chap. I am saving this one.
    Thanks for sharing.

  • BLOGERCISE

    June 23rd, 2009 1:09 am

    I’ve always found that it the quality of traffic that is important. I see so many people blindly attempt to drive traffic through all kinds of different crazy schemes only to get a CTR of 0.01% whereas I prefer to get quality traffic, sometimes only 100 hits in a day, but the targeting is so good I might get a CTR of 10-20% and $10 or so (for a given page).

    Obviously once you have many well optimised pages and regular traffic you can start to see some good returns. I always say to beginners, aim for quality over quantity. Your quality pages have a whole lifetime of earning ahead of them, much more preferable to continuously try and drive traffic that doesn’t even convert!

    Good luck :)

  • Debajyoti Das

    June 23rd, 2009 1:17 am

    Wow… Great Tips…

    Actually … I have tried many tips from various resources… and from my own experience… the best is to use a 336×280 block just below the post title (with the heading “advertisement” ofcourse) … That always works the best for Search engine Traffic the Best … It will give an avg. CTR of 2-3%.

    Another Nice Plugin is there To Show Adsense to Only Search Visitors. This will ensure Better CTR and Conversions Leading to More eCPM. this will also protect the publisher from being smart priced.

  • Ali

    June 23rd, 2009 1:20 am

    Hi,

    Thanks for this helpful post.

    Although I have an irrelevant question here but I wish to have an answer since I reached a dead end so far.

    I can see problogger’s ads on the right sidebar are hosted by Google and its 125px X 125px image ads and My question is, how you did that?

    When I go to my Adsense Get Ads tab. I can’t find the option to choose a square 125px X 125px ad from the ads format section!

    Are these ads generated by Google Affiliate network? which I can’t see a signup link on it. “I don’t know why!”

    Thanks in advance for your advice.

  • Ryan McLean

    June 23rd, 2009 1:33 am

    This is a great introductory post and I will use this information to increase my income

  • Blogger Templates

    June 23rd, 2009 1:56 am

    Yup, is much easy to watch a video tutorial that to read a text.
    Congr. Darren

  • kosmo @ The Casual Observer

    June 23rd, 2009 1:58 am

    My click rate is horrendous … but I’m slowly trying to implement some options to try and improve it – mostly changing the location a bit.

  • Joshua

    June 23rd, 2009 2:13 am

    I agree with Darren on the 5 factors, and I like to add something not of a factor but a way to increase your profit even more by using the above 5 factors.

    Choose a high paying niche, because if you are getting 5 cents average per click, then its very hard for you to earn $50 average, meaning you will either getting like 10,000 traffic per day, if not you will not be earning a lot out of it.

    You can check it out at the Free Google Adwords Tools to find out the highest paid niche per click.

    Trust me, its going to be easy when you want to use Adsense for a living in choosing a high paying niche.

  • Salman

    June 23rd, 2009 2:14 am

    Hi Darren,
    Is there any other alternative competing with adsense paying out same like adsense.Please tell

    Regards
    Salman
    http://www.tips4blogging.co.cc

  • Asswass

    June 23rd, 2009 3:33 am

    I think the main problem is that when the majority of your readers are also bloggers, they won’t click on ads anymore since they know what they are. I personally don’t click on Adsense because I feel that they aren’t attractive enough. It’s different with private advertising though. It seems that private advertisers of big blogs tend to design better and more clickable ads.

  • Internet Marketing Mastermind

    June 23rd, 2009 4:06 am

    Thanks Darren.

    This is definitely something worth spending
    my time reading.

    However, can you rely on Adsense as a consistent
    source of traffic?

    Igor

  • Stock Traders Blog

    June 23rd, 2009 4:13 am

    Thanks Darren. I try to resubmit this again. Your video is certainly a good help for me to get start when I am ready to place ad on my blog.

    http://www.stocktradersblog.com

  • Internet marketing

    June 23rd, 2009 5:28 am

    Another interesting post Darren. I will definitely look into all this and check out how they all fit in my blogs.
    But I agree with you relevancy is very important.

  • العاب

    June 23rd, 2009 6:02 am

    this is a visualization of something you’ve written about before . Great !!

  • Havoc Marketing

    June 23rd, 2009 7:31 am

    Hi Darren,

    As you mentioned the five points in your short video presentation. They are all important to get a higher CTR.

    I also think that tracking your ads performance is very important too and thinking like a website/blog visitor and coming up with new ideas also helps. Experimenting and being creative will make the difference.

    Thanks and looking forward to your next post.

    Mani Raj
    Havoc Marketing

  • Hooshmand Moslemi

    June 23rd, 2009 9:40 am

    Making money by putting ads on your blogs or web pages and selling advertisement space is a controversial topic.

    Many gurus have written tons of e-books and guides on how to optimize and monetize your site by advertising like AdSense.

    Many people believe that such monetization model like AdSense is dead and does not work anymore. However, there are still some people earning 4-5 figure income each and every month from AdSense.

    As you mentioned Darren, the number one factor for making real money from ads is traffic and it must be highly targeted. Once we get that traffic, we should convert it to what we desire. It could be a click generating some cents here and there, or it could be leads and sales brining more profits.

    Regardless of the needed action, position, ad design and relevance of the ad is also important.

    This video is quite helpful to figure out how to optimize ads for higher profits. Thanks for sharing with us your valuable tips and secrets.

    To Your Success!

    Hooshmand

  • Brokenjava

    June 23rd, 2009 10:26 am

    Nice to learn something from video tutorial. Honestly i setup my first domain helped by video tutorial on youtube..

  • Increase Your IQ

    June 23rd, 2009 12:15 pm

    It seems that people have started coming to a standstill when it comes to “Adsense tips”. Really, it’s been burned out.

    So you can’t really tell me much more then I have heard of read before on the topic of adsense.

  • kris @ make money

    June 23rd, 2009 1:36 pm

    Hey Darren,

    Good post you really covered the essentials of monetizing with ads. Personally I have found the most important to be traffic and relevancy. Placement coming in at a close second. Really people need to investigate other options besides adsense when trying to monetize I have found affiliate marketing to be much more properous then adsense though I still use adsense on a couple of blogs and make a few hundred monthly it doesn’t compare to what I am making through other means online. I got to tell ya I liked the bookshelf behind you in your last video much better then a white wall it gave your video a much more personal look. I just started with the video marketing after getting carpal tunnel from writing too many articles every day. Thanks for the tips keep up the good work.

  • Harrison Schmidt

    June 23rd, 2009 3:30 pm

    Good video post Darren.

    I hope facebook starts an adsense like ad network so webmasters can add facebook ads to their sites. That would hopefully drive adsense payouts up(I hear they are only 25% of what they actually get which means you are laving 75% on the table, but there is a lot of value in being able to just put ads on your site and not have to go to companies and ask them if they would advertise with you).

    Above the fold ads are important as mentioned, and footer ads.

  • Yeast infection

    June 23rd, 2009 10:18 pm

    Mostly maybe because my readers have already gotten their answers on my posts so the won’t need to click on ads

  • ITrush

    June 23rd, 2009 11:14 pm

    looks like there’s something wrong with the video Darren – ‘invalid parameters’. please check, can’t wait to view it.

  • Making Money Online

    June 24th, 2009 2:24 am

    Great video Darren! We have really been working hard trying to figure the best way to monetize our different blogs with ads and you have given us some very sound advice.

    I definitely think the relevancy of your ad to your post is probably the most important aspect, as there is little or no chance of someone clicking on your ad if it has nothing to do with your post.

  • Max

    June 24th, 2009 4:55 am

    Thanks for this video, I’m just starting out, but my Adsense revenue has increased after changing them like you suggested.

  • Shop2Profit

    June 24th, 2009 4:21 pm

    Great Tips, thanks a lot.

    As we all know targeted marketing, and your video is really great and helpful – as usual :)

    Thank you again.

  • Timothy Carter

    June 24th, 2009 5:32 pm

    Wow Darren, I really never truly realized some of the easy tweaks that can be made like this. I’m looking forward to implementing what I just learned. Thanks a ton!

  • bisnis internet

    June 25th, 2009 7:18 pm

    Thanks for the video and sharing. You are master of blogging tips.

  • Jason J Horsley

    June 26th, 2009 4:27 am

    As always Darren, your insight is invaluable. We intend to work hard on our monetization after we spend a bit more time learning how to increase our overall traffic. When you are as new, both conceptually and age-wise, as we are, the traffic thing is the most tedious part of the process. At least for us it has been, but proper ad layout seems to be paramount. Learning along the way!

    Posts on traffic, traffic, traffic….here I come! lol

  • shravan mishra

    June 26th, 2009 8:54 am

    Great tips, I’m gonna try them straight away

  • mlgreen8753

    June 26th, 2009 11:42 am

    Great advice, any tips on video optimization? I plan on doing a lot of video advertising on Adwido and I want to make sure my efforts are effective.

  • james oh

    June 26th, 2009 1:28 pm

    Great tips and I believe these tips will definitely profiting to all members of my network. Great Thanks to every one .

  • Mark

    June 27th, 2009 2:53 am

    Wow, a great bunch of tips in that video. I’m going to try those out.

  • Dean Saliba

    June 29th, 2009 7:23 am

    Great video. I enjoyed it so much that I think my readers might be interested in this. I hope it is OK to point them to this video. :)

  • Cynthia

    June 29th, 2009 7:46 am

    Thanks so much. I’m running my site full time now, and am trying hard to get some money in. We target professional women 25-40, so we want to get cosmetics, spas, etc….. onto our site :)

  • liveabeautifulife

    June 29th, 2009 6:46 pm

    awesome tips! hopefully my ads earnings will increase by following your tips =)

  • William from Jobs or Business

    June 30th, 2009 12:26 am

    This is a very useful video. It is very important how do you spend your money on the advertisements. I will also try a few tips on my blog.

  • teratips

    June 30th, 2009 7:28 am

    Hi,

    Thanks for this helpful post.
    http://www.teratips.com

  • Get Affiloblueprint review | Earn Online

    June 30th, 2009 6:58 pm

    These 5 tips are great. Especially the Ad positioning. As soon as I changed my site layout to the Ad placement suggested by you Darren, I saw an increase of 20-30 % on my clickthrough rate. Thanks so much. More power. You’re the Best

  • Nathaniel

    July 1st, 2009 6:07 am

    Excellent breakdown Darren, I wouldn’t expect much of anything less than this from you. I am going to re do and re design all of my ads as we speak – thanks for this simple yet comprehensive look at ads.

    -Nathaniel

  • Jason

    July 1st, 2009 7:45 am

    Great video Problogger. I liked it alot, il probely watch it more then once.
    Thanks for sharing.

  • Teeth Whitening

    July 1st, 2009 8:44 pm

    These 5 tips are great. Especially the Ad positioning.

  • Tehseen | Ijaar

    July 3rd, 2009 1:46 am

    I cannot agree more with #2 Ad-Positioning.

    I had heard about it before but always ignored it. But I finally moved one of my ad units a little bit, and it seriously doubled my revenue.

    Also, the 336×280 units have been a much higher paying size for me than any other one.

  • Mathew

    July 3rd, 2009 5:43 am

    nice to get the information. is that really work.? I want to use the way, so please give me some suggestion as I am going to do that for first time. Thanks in advance

  • teratips

    July 3rd, 2009 5:53 am

    Darren you looks very young in stead of the posts description
    my blog about blogging and money making tips

    http://www.teratips.com

  • Free Success E-Book

    July 3rd, 2009 5:26 pm

    Hi Darren,

    You are right, I am impressed.

    My blog currently running Adsense and Click Bank products, the problem I am facing now is I am not able to drive traffic to my blog, I do offer many very good e-book on self help and money making to download for free, but seems like still not enough drive more traffic for me.
    My blog is about self help & Self Improvement.

  • jo

    July 4th, 2009 2:42 am

    as a noob on adsense, I found these tips useful.
    but actually I still have trouble in traffic :(

    Jo

  • tunepal

    July 4th, 2009 4:21 pm

    i guess traffic is everything.

  • neon

    July 5th, 2009 2:19 am

    Thank you for your information and services so it worked.

  • Alison Moore Smith

    July 6th, 2009 2:36 pm

    Seriously, Darren. I was sitting here working with my daughter. While I was waiting for her to complete something I started thinking

    One of my new blogs isn’t really monetized with the exception of a few ad blocks in the sidebar. I really like the look of my site now and I like the topic. It’s just fun and interesting for me. The last thing I want to do is glop is up with tons of ads that readers have to scroll through (as if they would!). Still, I was wondering if I could monetize it in a way that would not intrude on the content OR the aesthetics.

    Thought, “I have a minute, I’ll search on ProBlogger.”

    Didn’t have to search far, did I. Right there on the front page you address my question. I think you’re channelling me.

    Thanks for the great resource you provide. Always timely.

  • ArticleControl

    July 7th, 2009 5:58 pm

    Hi Darren,

    Thank you so much for the video tutorial. I am always getting something valuable from your blog. Keep up the good works.
    Best Regards,
    Christina.

  • misty

    July 8th, 2009 7:33 am

    Hi Darren,

    In summer 2007, I was very excited to have found your Blogging Tips for Beginners. However, I have quickly learned that most people are only interested in the actual posts rather than clicking on the Google Ads on the blog. There are some people whom I have interviewed have indicated that they would almost never click on the Ads on a blog, myself included. Any comments? Thanks.

    http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/14/blogging-for-beginners-2/#comment-1365520

  • utkemonster

    July 9th, 2009 12:43 am

    Darren,

    AsktheBuilder.com is by far in my opinion the best optimized site for ads. They/he mix adsense and chitika perfectly. They don’t seem to push direct ad sales via 125×125 as most blogs do, but they cover a low tech topic and a probobly a low tech audience so ad networks probobly work very well.

  • Katherine

    July 9th, 2009 8:06 am

    I’ve been wondering about this for some time. It seems to me that before I change my current setup, I should work on building more traffic. I figure since it’s listed at number 1… I bookmarked it and plan to return, though.

  • Resveratrol Ultra Pure

    July 14th, 2009 4:59 pm

    Placement of ad is important and it play important role in click rate. Less ads and in content is best place for better clicks and better price per click ;)

  • Mike from Drop Ship

    July 14th, 2009 5:17 pm

    Very informative video. The points have been explained appropriately and can be used to improve the profits. Thanks.

  • Ed Hardy bags

    July 22nd, 2009 10:18 pm

    Thank you so much for the video tutorial. I am always getting something valuable from your blog. Keep up the good works.


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