Written on February 8th, 2010 at 01:02 am by Daniel Scocco
9 Tricks I Used To Triple My AdSense Earnings In 30 Days
Guest post by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips.
I have been using Google AdSense to monetize my blogs and websites for as long as I remember. In fact it was the first method I ever tried (I made a whooping $15 on my first month… back in 2005). Over the years I migrated to other methods (e.g., direct sponsors and affiliate marketing), which made AdSense become merely an inventory filler. I was still making around $1,000 monthly from it, but whenever I could I would use other methods over it.
Then some months ago I started noticing an upward trend on the CPC of my sites, and I figured that I should give AdSense another try. I started applying some tricks here and there, and the next month I made over $3,000 with it (that is combining all my sites). I was pleasantly surprised, and I decided to keep using it actively on some sites.
In this article I want to share with you the tips and tricks I used to triple my AdSense earnings in one month.
1. I added units to my Big Websites
Daily Blog Tips and Daily Writing Tips are my largest websites in terms of traffic. They are getting close to one million monthly page views (combined). Despite that I was not using AdSense on them, mainly because the direct sponsorship model was working relatively well.
Some months ago I decided to load some AdSense units on the sites, however, and the results were very positive. Around 70% of the boost I generated to my earnings came from these two sites. At the same time I managed to keep the other monetization methods working fine, and no reader ever complained about the new ads (more on that later).
Even if your blog is already making money with direct sponsors and affiliate marketing, therefore, you could still manage to increment your earnings by strategically adding some AdSense units.
2. I added units to my Small Websites
As many webmasters do, I have a bunch of small websites scattered around the web. Some are on free hosted platforms like Blogger, and others are self hosted sites that I abandoned along the way. Most of these sites still get traffic, however. Not much, but combined the numbers get decent.
I figured that adding AdSense units to all these sites could yield some money, and I was right. The main reason is that, since these are abandoned sites and don’t have loyal visitors, I can place the units very aggressively. The result was a very high CTR (Click-through rate), which compensates the small traffic levels.
Don’t underestimate the earning potential of small websites, especially if you are willing to place AdSense units aggressively.
3. I used the Large Units
If you want to make money with AdSense you’ll inevitably need to use one of these units: the 336×280 large rectangle, the 300×250 rectangle, the 120×600 large skyscraper or the 728×90 leaderboard.
Whenever I tried to use smaller units the results were disappointing. Even if I positioned them aggressively the CTR was just too low.
All four units mentioned above can produce good results, but the best performing one is by far the 336×280 large rectangle, and that is the one I used to boost my earnings.
4. I placed the Units above the Fold
My first trial was to place the 336×280 large rectangle between the post and the comments section of my blogs. The results were OK. I then decided to try placing them below the post titles for one week, and the CTR skyrocketed. In fact I still need to find a placement/unit combination that will beat placing a 336×280 unit below post titles.
I knew this rule, but I guess I needed to test and get confirmation. The rule is: if you want to make money with Google AdSense, you must place your units above the fold.
5. I Focused on Organic Traffic
My main concern with adding a large AdSense unit right below my post titles was that some of the loyal readers could get annoyed with it. At the same time I knew that loyal readers become ad blind quite fast, and that the bulk of my money would come from organic visitors (i.e., people coming via search engines to my posts).
To solve this problem I decided to display the large rectangle only on posts older than seven days (using the Why Do Work WordPress plugin). It worked like a charm, as loyal readers don’t even notice the ad units when they are browsing through my recent posts, and organic visitors almost always see the ads because they usually land on posts older than seven days.
6. I started using AdSense for Search
I was not sure how much money I would be able to make with AdSense for Search, but I was not happy with the search results provided by WordPress, so I decided to give it a shot anyway.
Currently I am making around $60 monthly with AdSense for Search. It is not much, but if you sum it over one year we are talking about $720. On top of that the search results are as relevant as you’ll get, so it is a win win situation.
7. I started using AdSense for Feeds
Another AdSense product I decided to try was the AdSense for Feeds one. I opted to display the ads below my feed items (you can also place them on top, but this would be too intrusive in my opinion). The results here were pretty good, both in terms of CTR and earnings.
You obviously need a large RSS subscriber base to make this work, but I am guessing that even with a couple thousand subscribers you could already make $100 monthly from feed ads.
8. I played around with section targeting
Section targeting is an AdSense feature that allows you to suggest specific sections of your site that should be used when matching ads. You can read more about it here.
I found that on niche and small websites section targeting can help a lot. Often times Google was displaying unrelated ads on these sites because there weren’t enough pages. After using section targeting I managed to increase the relevancy of the ads and consequently the CTRs.
9. I tested with Different Colors and Fonts
If you enabled both image and text ads on your units you should be able to customize the colors and fonts. I did some testing with both of these factors, and it helped to increase the numbers. Nothing dramatic, but it was definitely worth my time.
You just need to track your CTR for a couple of weeks. Then change the color or font and track it for another week, seeing if you can beat the original CTR. If you can, keep the new format. If you the performance decreased, try a new color or font and track the CTR for another week, until you find the optimal combination.
On my sites the best results came from making the ad units merge with the look of the site, but on some sites contrasting colors perform better, so testing is a must.
Daniel is the owner of Daily Blog Tips. He is also the author of the Make Money Blogging ebook, which you can download for free by signing up to his newsletter.
133 Responses to “9 Tricks I Used To Triple My AdSense Earnings In 30 Days” - Add Yours
Michelle
February 8th, 2010 1:42 am
Some good tips. I really go back and forward on my feelings toward adsense. Like you used to I tend to use them as “filler” when no other form of monetisation is immediately apparent.
I have tried different colors and one color combination that seems to work well for me is dark blue links, with grey blurb and url. Each site/blog is different though!!
I would love to make a bit more from adsense for search, it is so dismal. I only keep it on because I think search adds functionality to my site.
Nimit kashyap
February 8th, 2010 1:45 am
thanks for sharing some good tips.
Andrew @ Blogging Guide
February 8th, 2010 1:46 am
Hey Daniel,
Great advice – thanks.
I like you have several blogs dotted around (on the back burner) and I do have AdSense on them but I have never taken the bullet and added them to my main blogs.
With you sharing the Why Do Work WordPress plugin, I think I should start adding AdSense to my main sites and test the results.
Thanks again.
Andrew
Eat Smart Age Smart
February 8th, 2010 1:46 am
Wow – this is execellent information.
I’ve not been making that much with Adsense myself and actually removed it from another big site, but after reading Daniel’s tips I will have to reconsider adding them back to my sites.
I think the concern with adsense is some times the quality of the ads is quite poor so you have to wonder if the ads aren’t turning off your readers.
That said, in your article you reveal other units (like the search) that I’ve not yet explored and will have to consider.
Thanks so very much for sharing!
Krizia
Todd - Home Construction Improvement
February 8th, 2010 1:46 am
Thanks for sharing your success. I too wrote a guest past several months ago here on PB about my increased success. The large rectangle ads make a huge difference especially when they are above the fold. People have to continue testing and trying new things or they are loosing out. I too have been able to break that $3k mark and it’s a very nice monthly earning.
Keith
February 8th, 2010 1:55 am
It seems everything points to having significant traffic. Which I personally think many bloggers forget about when starting a site, adsense won’t make you any significant income until you start getting significant traffic, search traffic, not referrals.
Deb Ng
February 8th, 2010 2:03 am
Hi Danielle,
Awesome tips! To be honest, I was about to give up on Adsense but began playing around with it a couple of months ago. By placing link units at the top of each blog post, I was able to triple my Adsense earnings. This combined with other sources of revenue has enabled me to work on my own stuff, without having to rely too much on client work.
To me, the key is the content. You can place Adsense everywhere but if you don’t have good content no one is going to want to come by anyway. So I focused on adding more content (and I mean good content, not fluff) and it’s working – not only revenue-wise, but traffic-wise.
Something else that’s important to note is how long it takes to see results. A mistake some bloggers make is to expect the traffic and revenue to roll in immediately. This rarely happens. It takes months – even years for that to happen.
Thanks, Daniel. When I read posts like this I dont fee so dirty for using Adsense.
Deb Ng
February 8th, 2010 2:04 am
Sorry, I meant Daniel (as we do know each other) not Danielle.
Daniel Wong
February 8th, 2010 2:07 am
Most of these tricks are not useful to webmasters who has low traffic, these won’t make any significant changes, but I do appreciate you for sharing these tips.
You mentioned the large squares have greaet CTR.. is it text or image? Which one do you recommend?
Kris Roxas
February 8th, 2010 2:08 am
Hey Daniel,
Awesome post! I dedicated a post to it on my blog =) I basically summarized this post, and sent them back here. Thanks for the tips – keep ‘em coming!
Kris Roxas
Mike
February 8th, 2010 2:18 am
Great tips, i was actually looking for something like that to increase Adsense earnings.
Sam Nash
February 8th, 2010 2:19 am
Does anyone know of a Wordpress or Drupal plugin that allows you to choose whether you put Adsense or Amazon on a story by story basis?
Jon
February 8th, 2010 2:20 am
After fiddling around for many months, I found the best results are achieved with a single AdSense unit, the large rectangle, placed between the post title and the post content. I don’t worry about my regular readers, since ads become invisible to them.
Other units on the same page diluted CTRs enough to dilute earnings.
The AdSense for Search ($20/mo) and for Feeds ($10/mo) are very small compared to the main AdSense ($800/mo), but I figure they come for free.
VikingBlogger
February 8th, 2010 2:24 am
Pretty basic tips, although, everybody should follow them.
Melvin
February 8th, 2010 2:28 am
Im seeing the same trends as well. I have a couple of technology sites with good traffic but I really haven’t implemented Adsense before.
I tweaked the design to suit Adsense and I started growing my adsense rev as well..
Nick@Subject2.com
February 8th, 2010 2:29 am
That seems like a great idea to have adsense show up on a certain number of days afterward. I personally don’t like the spammy feel I think adsense gives but I completely agree with you that any traffic after the first few days is search traffic and worth putting adsense on that for sure.
great stuff!
Chio
February 8th, 2010 2:31 am
Hey,
These are great tips. I always had one, middle gray ad on my blog with a black themplate. It wasn’t too agressive, but it was enogh so everyone notices it, and ads were very related to my content, so that’s good.
A few days ago, I placed the 728×90 at the bottom of my page, because I saw on other sites that they usually appear as image ads.
Since my blog is 3 months old, I don’t earn a lot, yet, heh! I’m still getting about 100 visitors daily and in order to really earn money with Adsense, you should have at least 1000 visitors daily!
Great post!
Debojyoti
February 8th, 2010 2:42 am
That shows that you still can depend on Adsense. Basic but Good tips. Actually I also wrote a post on Adsense which has some more Advanced tips. But these are great too.
Vivek
February 8th, 2010 2:43 am
thnaks for sharing this information with us. I am using google adsense from last 5 months but doesn’t get to much from it. not a single in 15 days or a month. i have a preety good traffic from both organic and inorganic. Can you have any suggestion for me what should i do.
Harsh Athalye
February 8th, 2010 2:44 am
Daniel,
Surely some useful adsense tips there and since they are coming from an experienced blogger, they are worth trying too. As a reader, I can say that Ads are by default annoying for reader. So only those ads will work best which seamlessly integrate with the content and don’t feel out of the place.
Keep more such posts coming! Thanks.
Jackie Lee
February 8th, 2010 2:51 am
Are you not concerned that your account will be smart priced? I took adsense off a lot of my smaller sites because at one point I got smart priced. I’m a little gunshy about putting it back up now that I’m earning well per click on the sites it’s on again. Any ideas?
The Casual Observer
February 8th, 2010 2:57 am
I use the Who Sees Ads plugin to hide ads from regular visitors.
Jewelry Secrets
February 8th, 2010 3:30 am
Excellent blog! I never thought about not having adsense show on new blogs. Very insightful! Great tip!
rick
February 8th, 2010 3:36 am
Great post…can always find an audience when you talk about increasing Adsense revenue..Like many bloggers, I have gone from all Adsense, to no Adsense, and now to using Adsense as one of several revenue streams.
One think I’ve discovered…
Many bloggers (myself included) use Adsense when first starting out. It’s the easiest way to monetize your site.
After awhile, we learn about other affiliate programs and decide Adsense is not cutting it, and remove them.
As we become more established we decide to give Adsense another try and find out you can make a “decent” amount of money from it.
What changed?…
In the beginning, we use Adsense because it is the easiest program to start with. However, with only a marginal amount of traffic, no revenue generating program will be successful. It is easy to blame Adsense, so we stick with that excuse.
Later in the development of our site (and ourselves) we decide to “give” Adsense another chance…and walla..you can actually make money now! You can probably see where I’m going with this. Adsense, or for that matter any revenue program, will do better as our site(s) mature and traffic increases. During the phase, we also have read/learned what phrases like “hot zones”, “blending”, and “above the fold” mean.
While blog monetization programs can improve over time, the real difference is made by improving the blogger.
Agent Deepak
February 8th, 2010 3:42 am
I have always been so horrible at Adsense. I hope these tips add some sense to my Adsense.
Ricardo
February 8th, 2010 3:57 am
great basic tips but you need traffic to make it work and scale… anyway adsense is so 2000 and it is sometimes the best way to lose great reader :-)
Sudeep
February 8th, 2010 4:15 am
All well said about Adsense very simple measures to be taken and results take you extreme levels. Thanks for sharing Daniel.
Benjamin
February 8th, 2010 4:56 am
Great! Thanks for the tip on using “Why Do Work” to manage your adsense displays!
I’m going to try using this plugin as soon as I get the current series of posts I’m writing completed.
Sammy
February 8th, 2010 5:01 am
Are Google ads a distraction to sites that rely on affiliate sales? I’ve considered remove all adsense ads to see if my sales revenue is impacted. Appreciate any thoughts!
Free Classifieds Blog
February 8th, 2010 5:06 am
Good tips. But I don’t like putting image ads. Image ads are bonanza for AdWord advertisers. One advertiser takes over all the pixels of a large ad. And the best performing image ads from the AdWords advertisers prospective are those that look like simple Text ads, sneaky.
You ask any adword advertisers, and I can also ell you from my own experience, that we as adword advertisers like image ads in content networks. So, if you’re doing both, it is a constant battle between AdSense and AdWords. We like to be paid high in AdSense and want to pay least in AdWords. Quite a quandrum!
GirlWithCurls
February 8th, 2010 5:26 am
This was a really helpful post. Thank you!
Valentina
February 8th, 2010 5:26 am
Very interesting. I like the idea of placing Adsense on posts older than 7 days – as you say then you don’t tick off the loyal readers and the organic traffic is typically time delay by 7 days or more (did not know that … but then my organic is only just beginning to imrove). The other thing that I am definitely going to implement is the “abandoned” small sites – I too have a few and some continue to get traffic. Would you recommend putting up something fresh now and then?
Thank you for some excellent tips.
best…………..valentina
Kim
February 8th, 2010 6:51 am
Great tips! I’ve found adsense disappointing in the past but it might be time to give it another try.
Markus
February 8th, 2010 8:19 am
Thanks Daniel, great article again and I’ll try the tips. Thanks for sharing.
Ali R. Khan
February 8th, 2010 9:07 am
Another Tip That I want to Add is: Keep Tryin…Keep Trying with Different Combination…
Critique Direct
February 8th, 2010 9:32 am
I don’t mean to be too in your face with this, but let’s just say I definitely have a different view on this. Great post though…
Daniel Scocco
February 8th, 2010 9:45 am
@Daniel Wong, usually I leave them with both images and texts. On some spots and sites I do test with “only text” to see if it improves the eCPM.
Tom
February 8th, 2010 9:48 am
Also, increase traffic through constant backlinking and being social (twitter, facebook, etc…)
Daniel Scocco
February 8th, 2010 9:53 am
@Vivek, what kind of traffic are you currently getting?
@Jackie Lee, you can combat the smart pricing problem by using the “competitive ad filter”. You’ll need to spend some time identifying the cheap advertisers, but it might be worth it.
@Sammy, this should be easy to test. Track your total income (affiliate + adsense) for a couple of months, then remove AdSense and track the total affiliate income for another couple of months. Then figure which one was higher.
Technology Slice
February 8th, 2010 9:58 am
Nice list of steps all webmasters should go through.
chris
February 8th, 2010 11:02 am
I found number 5 very helpful. I never really thought about this, but I can see where it would be annoying. There really is a lot more to being succesfull at adsense than I thought. Thank You
Trabajo
February 8th, 2010 11:30 am
For better results use 336×280 adblock and following colors:
Link Color: #3D81EE
Text Color: #A1A1A1
Url Color: #CC0000
The Adsense Consultant
February 8th, 2010 11:52 am
well I thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog post! The best thing that I have found that I have learned about the Adsense program is that I still haven’t figured it all out yet! – LOL! You’re right! You have to continue to experiment with placing your ads.
Dana @ Blogging Update
February 8th, 2010 12:19 pm
Number 5 seems new things for me. I will try it for my adsense strategy from now on.
Cemil | Online Business Blackbook
February 8th, 2010 12:38 pm
I have toyed and tested using the big adSense blocks just below the title, however did not notice much different in CTR.
Looking at the website from a readers perspective I was a little annoyed at how I had the title and ads and had to scroll down before I got to any of the content.
I might try and use the bigger ad blocks again and see whether my CTR improves.
my diabetes
February 8th, 2010 1:37 pm
thank you for your suggestions through this interesting article helped me to increase revenue through adsense.
Steve Youngs
February 8th, 2010 2:07 pm
I am completely disillusioned with adsense (or any other advertising that requires a visitor to take some form of action before I get paid). In 2 years of using adsense I have earned a total of $2.79. I figure at that rate I’ll get my first cheque from google in about 75 years from now. Can’t wait!
I’m not saying that you can’t make money from adsense, just that I never have. :-(
Kind regards,
Steve.
Raffy
February 8th, 2010 4:17 pm
Thanks for the wonderful tip. I’ve been using adsense for around 1 year and a half now but im still experimenting on the combination. Sometimes I combine 336X280 and 160X600 but still getting cents in one day. Now Im using image ads but seems viewers are blind with this ads. Its very frustrating. I will try your advise and hopefully I can earn bigger this time. I wish anybody out there can visit my website and give me an advise. Thanks for sharing!
Your-Vitamins
February 8th, 2010 4:27 pm
Great tips, I plan to start implementing the Search right away. Thank you!
Bob
February 8th, 2010 4:34 pm
Great tips. I will try this. thanks for sharing.
Adsense Tips
February 8th, 2010 4:36 pm
I agree the 336×280 large rectangles are the best performing for me however I’ve not had any real success with adsense on feeds.
I also started with adsense back in 2005 falling far short of the minimum amount required to generate a check – I’m pleased to report that my adsense earnings have increased by far more than tenfold since those days.
Jaspal
February 8th, 2010 4:37 pm
Hi Daniel
nicely put up .. i was unaware of the fact that small sites with large ad units can actually make a good amount of money .. i will surely try that …
Your writing has been really great every post of your has gave me a hint or clue for becoming a better blogger.
Great work..
Sammy
February 8th, 2010 4:52 pm
Thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a try!
Marc
February 8th, 2010 5:03 pm
Thanks for the tips, I will try the larger Adsense block below my title like you suggested and see how it goes. I used to have the 468×60 block but the CTR was meh.
John
February 8th, 2010 5:56 pm
Do you Know some thing called ad blindness that’s what I have on my blog
Blasting Mind
February 8th, 2010 6:09 pm
Placing Adsense below post title is indeed a great way to improve your earnings.
Great Post! :D
reviewmylife
February 8th, 2010 6:41 pm
Thanks for posting this. In particular I didn’t know about the section targeting. I’m definitely going to use this to see if I can make my ads more relevant. The WordPress plugin sounds interesting, I’ll have a look at that. And I’m going to give the large rectangle a go. I’ll be busy this week :)
Robby G
February 8th, 2010 7:03 pm
Very useful advice, but again, 1 million page views per month is something most of us can only wish for for now. But it’s definitely a good way to make some money once we’re up there in the game. Cheers.
hokya
February 8th, 2010 8:32 pm
nice tips
thanks for sharing
however, i still couldn’t make any money using AdSense for Search… :-(
i wonder why
Kudo
February 8th, 2010 8:48 pm
I wonder what`s a good CTR? 1%, 5%, 10% or more. Could you give us some examples?
Roy
February 8th, 2010 9:25 pm
so many people have given up on Adsense. I know someone with 4,000 uniques a day who was hardly making anything off Adsense, but this has given me some fresh ideas. Thanks a mil!
Greg Swan
February 8th, 2010 10:15 pm
Thanks for a great strategy! It’s nice to see an actual case study of what’s working for adsense. Testing and tracking is time consuming and there are many variables to consider. I’m excited to implement this strategy.
Traffic Ninja
February 8th, 2010 11:18 pm
When I start reading the title , I thought its something great tip which I am going to get , but seriously i am a bit disappointed after reading this, adding adsense to your acount is ofcourse not an idea . it is mandatory .
Wholesale Dropship
February 8th, 2010 11:26 pm
Brilliant tips. Hard work and consistent efforts are the key to making money online. Experimentation is another important aspect.
BloggerDaily
February 8th, 2010 11:41 pm
Wow. This is absolutely inspiring! Now I realize what’s my next step to increase the earning.. Thanks!
Tom - marketing tips
February 9th, 2010 12:53 am
Good tips.I use Adsense on my blog as well.People are used to click on blue links, so it is a good idea to keep the links blue on Adsense as well.
Daniel Scocco
February 9th, 2010 1:21 am
@Kudo, a “good CTR” is a relative term, as it what is good for a normal blog will be low for a mini website that was built around adsense. Additionally the CTR will be connected with your niche, traffic sources and the like.
I can give you some ball park numbers though. On mini websites, where the single goal is to generate adsense clicks, a good CTR would be anything over 5%.
On normal websites and blogs (i.e., where you can’t just focus on AdSense), a CTR of 2% or 3% is already pretty good.
CTRs around 1% are more average, but if you don’t have organic traffic and don’t position your units smartly you won’t reach even that.
Amanda@Twin Talk
February 9th, 2010 1:34 am
I can’t figure out how to change the color of my adds on Adsense, and how to change the unit size. Do you know of a tutorial for this?
vijay
February 9th, 2010 1:53 am
Thanks Daniel for posting great tips.
Here is my top tip for making more from Adsense:
Posting a large or medium rectangle just post title in left or right corner works best always.
Couple of months back I also wrote my best post to increase Adsense revenue:
http://www.etechbuzz.com/tips-to-earn-more-revenue-from-adsense/
Thanks,
Vijay
Jess
February 9th, 2010 2:10 am
Thank you very much for these tips…. I was really looking for something like this my adsense revenue is pretty bad since 3 month ago :(
Brandy
February 9th, 2010 2:20 am
Wow, so much useful information here. I love the idea of the plugin you use, going to install it on my business site and blog to see how well it works for me, will have to track the progress on my blog too via blog posts to help more bloggers do the same (if it works for me). My stats combined are not as high as yours, but I do see a decent revenue coming in from Adsense using it on 2 of my 3-4 websites, going to add it to all my sites today and track progress!
Thank you for all your wonderful tips!
Jahangir Alam
February 9th, 2010 2:33 am
Brilliant article. Really enjoyed the tips for maximising AdSense CTR. Have few websites which I will try using the tips given.
Keep writing as I believe these will help every internet marketer to grow better.
Thanks
Jay
DJ
February 9th, 2010 2:35 am
Great information!
I am currently experiencing with Adsense on my site and need all the help I can get!
Aleksandra
February 9th, 2010 3:02 am
Thanks for the tips…I’ve been looking at it for a while, but have not dug into. You got me inspired – thanks…PS any suggestions on the best WP plugin for that?
Raihan
February 9th, 2010 3:30 am
Really useful for adsense monetization. I am also having adsense section in my top place to get maximum exposure. But then also I get very few clicks. Do not understand wot is the reason behind this.
The Adventurous Writer
February 9th, 2010 3:58 am
Hi Daniel,
I’m not sure if I missed this….my apologies if I did…….but can you post links to the blogs on which you used Adsense links? I’m curious to see what effective ones look like.
Thanks,
Laurie
Santosh Puthran
February 9th, 2010 4:23 am
Good tips.
But with google adsense one can hardly make money unless there is a huge traffic on the website. It is usually when the user searches using search engines and lands on the blog, the google adsense ads becomes relevant.
Regards,
Santosh Puthran
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews
February 9th, 2010 6:09 am
I have been hunting for that Why Do Work plugin for a while. Recently I was digging through the DBT archives, and I noticed the ads which inspired me to look for the plugin.
It’s really a great balance of monetizing vs. user experience. Having ads constantly shoved in your face gets old quick, but only coming across them when reading old articles doesn’t feel nearly as intrusive.
This are some awesome adsense tips. There haven’t been a lot of posts recently about how to optimize adsense because affiliate marketing has been so hyped up. I’m glad to see even the A-list guys still use adsense sometimes :)
Eric
February 9th, 2010 8:18 am
This all seems like it could work pretty well for some basic earning to add up over time. I prefer to stick with very minimal or no ads on my blog yet as I’m still working out content and building a decent amount of readers.
What do you think?
Daniel Scocco
February 9th, 2010 9:02 am
@Eric, waiting until you are getting good traffic to start worrying about monetization is a valid strategy.
Greg London
February 9th, 2010 9:23 am
Cool information. I did not know that the bigger ads performed better. I will have to go through my sites and and see what I can do to update these things.
Wei Yang
February 9th, 2010 9:52 am
Good tips on ad block placements – I will have to try it with some of the smaller blogs I’m running.
With regards to point #9, I recently started using YieldBuild for testing colors and fonts. The results were actually pretty good. My write-up from the experience is here:
http://comefortheride.com/optimizing-advertising-banners-with-yieldbuild/
Eric
February 9th, 2010 10:25 am
@Daniel, Do you think that placing an affiliate link in posts every now and again on a blog that has a good amount of readers is a bad strategy if the article is not asking them to buy anything but is promoting something that has to do with the topic at hand?
Marcelo Pereto
February 9th, 2010 10:42 am
Thanks for the tip.
I use 729×90 (text only) below the title. And 300×250 between the post and the comments.
Works well.
Thanks,
Marcelo
Daniel Scocco
February 9th, 2010 12:05 pm
@Eric, that tactic can generate some revenues, but it will hardly match the money you can make with more directed efforts.
Wil Gee
February 9th, 2010 1:50 pm
The difference between success and failure is very hard to understand. We have a section of one of our sites that is basically devoted to Adsense revenue, it looks like hell but we found a sweetspot for ad placement. Both my business partner and I hated the look of the page and completely redesigned the it in theory making it more user/site friendly. It was a total epic fail to the tune of at least $500 per month in lost revenue. We went back to the old page style.
Daquan Wright
February 9th, 2010 2:50 pm
Nice post, of course you need traffic to make any decent amount of money. Everything else really takes a back seat to traffic it seems.
I’d like to test AdSense sometime…after I’ve built up a little community.
Online Earning
February 9th, 2010 3:04 pm
Thanks Darren,
It’s really open-eye sources, and will do most helpful with my adsense earnings.
C.L
Gamers Plaza
February 9th, 2010 3:04 pm
Cool worth to try
Tek3D
February 9th, 2010 3:44 pm
Thanks very much for the advice. I also have Adsense on my page but the earning from them is very low. I’ll try your tips :)
Naveen Reddy
February 9th, 2010 8:39 pm
Thanks for good tips on adsense.I will follow your tips on my blog
proson
February 9th, 2010 9:00 pm
Wow, a good source of income. That reminds me that entrepreneur is someone willing to take risk, someone’s willing to experiment new things a little bit and what you just have done is basically that
Thanks for it.
Opajdara
February 9th, 2010 9:28 pm
Thanks for yet another useful post.
Esoteric Articles
February 9th, 2010 11:07 pm
I have heard that the squares in Google Adsense are particularly effective, what is your experience concerning this?
Mens Tennis
February 9th, 2010 11:10 pm
I’m going crazy with adsense and this was really helpful… I hope that implementing some of these tips will help… too bad my blog is on blogger and I can not use the plug in but I added adsense below the post title to see if I get better result :)
investor business daily
February 9th, 2010 11:26 pm
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
The Adventurous Writer
February 9th, 2010 11:55 pm
Hi Daniel,
I’m not sure if I missed this….my apologies if I did…….but can you post links to the blogs on which you used Adsense links? I’m curious to see what effective ones look like.
Thanks,
Laurie
StarMars
February 10th, 2010 12:45 am
I wasn’t aware of this section targeting until now. I might look into it in the future.
Aglolink
February 10th, 2010 3:00 am
I Focused on Organic Traffic, I’ll get it and making more hit on my post!
blazonry.com
February 10th, 2010 6:50 am
I highly recommend #9, testing different ads. It made a huge difference for me.
I’m really impatient so instead of testing for a few weeks and then trying a different format for a few weeks, I used PHP to test 2 ads simultaneously. It gives side-by-side results to compare the same day.
I wrote up a simple tutorial on how to test this way. It’s at:
http://www.blazonry.com/php/adtest2.php
audrey
February 10th, 2010 9:43 am
Well, I guess it’s true that some people get a good amount of traffic whatever they write about. And you know how to use ‘em well. You know a lot more about AdSense than anyone else. I’ve bookmarked this for future reference.
Sparen
February 10th, 2010 10:03 am
I never really paid much attention to the larger units and always tried to optimize placement instead. I’m pretty surprised that the size matters that much…ah, well, I’ll stop here ;) Thanks for poiting out the obvious I never tried before!
Fitness Trainer Certification
February 10th, 2010 10:14 am
Adsense, still pays. I would argue with anyone on that. However, a common error that is made by publishers is failure to test, re-test and test some more. It is surprising how little changes can yield BIG results…even for experienced publishers.
Davor Gasparevic @ Internet marketing ebooks
February 10th, 2010 10:46 am
Thanks for the 8. I must admit (and I am ashamed) that I knew about this for a long time, because I too had, and still have, the problem of irrelevant ads. Now I will definitely check this out at last and try it on my own sites and blogs. It can’t hurt.
This is why I keep coming to these major blogs, many times I read something that I already know, but for no obvious reason I actually never tried, tested, applied or implemented. Then, after reading the post, I feel an impulse to “Just do it”.
Thanks
Daniel Scocco
February 10th, 2010 11:14 am
@Adventurous Writer, the two big sites are: http://www.dailyblogtips.com and http://www.dailywritingtips.com
Malaysia Company Formation
February 10th, 2010 12:21 pm
I shall certainly try out some of your good suggestions on my website. Many Thanks!
you are the love of my life
February 10th, 2010 6:20 pm
Oh that’s really so nice of you that you have shared such a valuable tips with us.Google Adsense has become the most popular online contextual advertising program and proper custom integration with Wordpress can help to increase Adsense earnings.Good job.
Tania Tyler
February 11th, 2010 12:36 am
Thank you. After reading this post, i installed WhyDoWork on my blogs. In just a couple of days my Adsense earnings are going up.
Surveyosity
February 11th, 2010 1:51 am
For now, I only have Adsense on two of my blogs. Thanks to your post, I’ve gone back and looked at one of them and changed the Adsense block and display. We’ll see what that does. Thanks again for the post.
WebpageLottery
February 11th, 2010 4:05 am
Use your website theme color for your ads, and make the ads look like links to your site. They work well. Try it.
Earn Money Travel Writing
February 11th, 2010 4:43 am
Tip 5 – Focusing on organic traffic is the biggest key for having a successful Adsense site. People who arrive through search are already laser targeted (providing the site is configured well to ensure that optimal ads are showing). Focusing on bringing in search engine traffic exclusively (rather than chasing social traffic or developing a large readership) has helped my Adsense earnings skyrocket over the past year.
scheng1
February 12th, 2010 1:41 am
Very interesting, especially the big rectangle Google Ad for posts older than 7 days.
Make Money on the Internet
February 13th, 2010 1:45 pm
I’d like to see screenshots of where you placed the Adsense units and the colors you tried…
Chris
Fashion Girls Photo Gallery
February 14th, 2010 3:00 am
Use your website theme color for your ads, and make the ads look like links to your site
but sometime blue link is great.
Themepremium
February 15th, 2010 8:03 am
Its always nice to read from Daniel. Though personally adsense for feeds always bring disappointment for me, I will rather prefer using some affiliate ads instead of google ads.
Houston Librarian
February 16th, 2010 12:05 pm
Three times zero is still zero unfortunately.
vijayakumarpeta
February 18th, 2010 1:10 am
I followed your advice and placed large rectangle ads below the post title my CTR got increased by 5 fold. Thanks for the tips. I appreciate your help.
Matt
February 18th, 2010 11:21 am
Thanks for the tip, I’m going to test these on mys site.
Make Money with Google Adsense
February 19th, 2010 10:22 am
Daniel, this is very insightful stuff. Daily Blog tips is a great blog, it’s good to see you contributed to Problogger with more useful content for us.
Paula from Affiliate Blog Online
February 19th, 2010 4:28 pm
I have about 15 or so blogs doing pretty much nothing but they are getting some traffic so I am going to give these tips a go.
Felicia Cay
February 21st, 2010 8:25 am
Interesting post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll likely be coming back to your blog. Keep up great writing. Have a excellent day!
Fantastic Netbooks
February 21st, 2010 11:17 am
Thanks for the tips, I have been using Adsense on my netbooks blog and have had pretty low CTR.
I especially like the tip about showing Adsense ads for posts older than 7 days so will give that a go plus using bigger ads and making sure they are above the fold.
Thanks again,
Tom
Paula from Affiliate Blog Online
February 22nd, 2010 8:44 pm
I took your advice and added the large 336×280 ad to about 15 or so of my low traffic blogs. It’s been a couple of days and I have already seen the income almost double for each of those days. It was well worth changing to the large ad and putting it above the fold. I will be looking at implementing a few more of your tips over the next few days. Thanks for the info!
PaidSurveys
February 24th, 2010 10:47 pm
Even though Adsense search gives very low income but surely it should not be missed.
Is it OK to put the Adsense below the post titles?
Surgery Houston
February 25th, 2010 3:14 pm
Organic traffic is great. Everyone wants to have it. It’s tough to make it synthesize out of the clear blue though.
Teddi
March 1st, 2010 8:25 am
Excellent article. I got here from someone tagging it on tagfoot. I am bookmarking it to refer to it later. Definitely things I need to do. I do some but I need to do more.
Teddi
Chaibi Alaa
March 4th, 2010 3:02 am
This really useful, I’m trying to choose the right sizes .. Also, what is limit of adsense blocks I can put on same page ?
Build Web Traffic
March 5th, 2010 3:21 pm
On each page you can have up to 3 ad units and 3 link units. If you look around you can find case studies about ad placement, ad units, and ad colors to find which ones have historically performed well. I would also suggest testing your own. This is because each website is different from topic, to colors, and amount of content. There is no way that the best strategies apply for every website the same way. Each website is unique and should be tested to yield your best results. Thanks Darren for sharing.
Davor Gasparevic @ Ebooks Blogspot
March 6th, 2010 9:14 am
Technically, it’s not Darren, but Daniel – you obviously missed out the fact that this is the guest post by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips :)
Cheers
marketer
March 22nd, 2010 2:05 am
I didn’t know all these tips for adsense. Thx for sharing them with everybody, this will hopefully improve my earnings.
Jayna Landquist
March 28th, 2010 12:12 pm
Finally, Finally…I’ve been looking for this information for a long time. Thanks
Kartik
April 5th, 2010 7:09 pm
Superb Article.
Living On Dividends
April 27th, 2010 4:10 am
Would you know how to display one column wide ads, with 2 links stacked on top of one another within the Google Ad (like on mahalo.com).
I think conversion would be through the roof with a set up like this, but Adsense manager, as far as I can tell, doesn’t let you choose this and defaults to two small ads side-by-side or one ad if there is little content on the page.
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