Some of you may put Google Adsense (those ads at the bottom at this article) on your blog because it is easy to do and you're curious as to what all the media interest is about. Yet most people can barely make a few cents on their blogs after several months. I understand that many of you probably don't care about your Adsense income because it's just for fun anyway. However, if you took the steps to put Adsense on your blog, why not take a few extra steps and do it well to maximize your earning potential? So in this article, I will talk about a few simple and effective ways to increase your Adsense earnings.
Note: If you don't already use Google Adsense on your blog and are interested in trying, you can click the Adsense button below to sign up for the program.
Not increasing your traffic
The single most effective and most often given advice to increase your Adsense revenue is by attracting more visitors to your blog, since the more people read your blog, the more chances there are that people are going to see and click on the ads. However, for a personal blog, that is often not an achievable or desired method. For example, the subject matter on your blog may be very personal and does not appeal to a large audience, and you're happy to keep it that way. But aside from increasing traffic, there are other ways to increase your earnings with Adsense.
5 Simple Changes You Can Make
1. Less is good. You don't have to flood your blog with Adsense to increase your earnings. In fact, I recommend not doing that because your readers probably wouldn't want to be bombarded with advertisements. Another reason is that since Adsense links are sold to the highest bidders, Google automatically sorts and displays the highest paid ads on your blog. So if you have only one advertisement, it will guarantee that those are the highest paying ads.
2. Keeping on topic. The links in Adsense are determined by the keywords in the webpage it is on. If your subject matter varies widely (typical of personal blogs), then the ads shown may seem random to the reader if you just put Adsense on your frontpage. For example, if you have an article about your car, an article about your pet, and another article about your garden, then people reading your rant on gardening probably wouldn't be interested in the ads about cars. Thus it is best to put Adsense in each article's own webpage (as is done here at The Elders Tribune). However, this is largely dependent on the capability of your blogging system. Some let you do this easily, while others only display your posts as a long list.
3. Move it higher. You probably know that advertisements on the front page of newspapers are the most expensive. That is because the front page has a lot more exposure. Likewise, it is best to put your Adsense ad where people can see it. Specifically, the nearer the top of your blog's page, the better. A good place to put it is at the top of your blog's sidebar.
4. Move in closer. People come to your blog to read what you wrote. If you put your Adsense near the content area, more people will catch a glimpse of it. For example, I put our Adsense ads immediately after each article so people that finish reading can see the relevant ads.
5. Good design. Either complement or supplement Adsense's design with your blog's design. Don't let it stick out like a sore thumb. Making your Adsense stand out abnormally is not attractive and has the opposite effect of putting people off. You may even lose readers by doing that.
If your blog's traffic is not at least a few hundred visitors a day, then there's only so much that can be made from Adsense. If that's the case, perhaps it's better if you try other methods to make money online. However, if your blog has sufficient traffic and you'd like to read more about optimizing your Adsense earnings, then the Google Adsense Help Centre may be of interest to you. They offer more tips and guides to increase your Adsense earnings.
Mon, 2007-08-20 14:00
Paul:
I took advantage of one of your tips: I moved my Adense ad from the bottom of the side bar to the middle. I wouldn't think of putting it at the top--it would ruin the blog design.
I agree with Dem in Utah that readers of "elderblogs" probaby don't click on those ads; I surely don't. So why do I have Adsense at all? Just curious to see what will happen--and nothing has. If I needed to make money, I wouldn't expect to do it with my blog. It's a lot of fun, however.
Mon, 2007-08-20 16:15
Yes, this is more for fun than anything because elderblogging just doesn't make money. That's why there're more blogs on Paris Hilton than anything elder-related on the internet.
Mon, 2007-08-20 13:02
Atta boy, Paul. You amaze me how you seem to keep up to date with everything...glad you pointed out the cut and paste thing here! How do you do it?
As for adsense, I'm just not that interested and in fact have thought I'd like to delete those from my posts. I think they clutter the looks up, and besides I think the audience likely to be attracted to a site marked "elder" are not likely to be clicking these things anyway. By the time we arrive here in "elder" territory, we've wised up by experience.
Mon, 2007-08-20 16:17
That's exactly why very few advertiser target the elder population. They simply gave up trying.
I have removed the top adsense last month and the one at the bottom is the last. I tried to put it as much "out of the way" as possible while remaining to have some effect. Having said that, I'd like to keep it on since I want to see how it fair here given more time.
You can try www.copyscape.com to search if anyone copied your blog. But in this case, "Michelle" (if that's her real name) posted my article right on her front page.
Mon, 2007-08-20 11:58
Theories....
It's all in good faith I'm sure but it seems to me that the best any of us can do is speculate. A pinch of trffic plus a handful of well hidden ads minus the anxiety potential clicker has plus sum of all quality content equals a successful adsense revenue. It can all be debated. One endless circle of he says she says. Fact of the matter is of course you MIGHT make decent money with your adsense page. Fact: you probably won't make enough money from it annually to rise above the poverty level. I myself have many adsense pages a few spam sites and one or two blogs. I have scattered adsense ads accross all of them. I make some money, not alot but some. Now, I did find one site that had endless speculation about making money with Adsense. So if your still on your quest of "FREE" money check it out at www.moetizationweekly.com.
Mon, 2007-08-20 13:03
Michelle, if you are dismissing my ideas, then why are you copying and pasting them directly on to your blog? Actually, I noticed that all the articles on your blog are copied from somewhere.
Perhaps I should add #6, never copy and paste other people's work. Content is the key in any blog. If you're just going to copy and paste other people's work, your blog will merely be the shadow of other people.
Nevertheless, I will answer your questions in case anyone else is interested.
This is definitely not meant to make you rich. I'm merely commenting for people that have a blog for personal use, are passionate about it, and have Adsense already on it. Many people just slap on Adsense wherever it is convenient. This guide is just to present some ideas to make Adsense better without a overhaul.
As I've said in the article, if you really want to make money, there's much more to learn about and there are other professional resources available as I've pointed to one from Google themselves.
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