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Where To Place AdSense Ads For Earning The Highest Revenue?

August 18, 2012 by

I have seen Google AdSense ads placed at various spots on several sites, including spots that are known to have ad-blindness. In the case of WordPress sites, and other sites that use ready-to-use themes and templates, I find some typical patterns followed by publishers for placing ads.

Whether webmasters knowingly do so or not, I have strong reasons to believe that these ads are not placed as per the choice of the respective site owners, but they are placed according to the design of the themes or templates that finally give the look and feel of the sites.

It otherwise means that the ads are not strategically placed so that the site owners are able to generate the maximum Click Through Rates (CTR) and ad revenue. In fact, some personalized tips from the AdSense team advise the publishers that they lose as much as 60% (or more) of their ad revenue because of ads that are placed at spots that do not give good conversion rates for ads.

Earn More Money By Placing AdSense Ads Closer To Your Unique Content

The most preferred locations for AdSense ads are spots indicated in the Google AdSense heat map. But that need not be the ultimate guide for optimized ad placing in view of the fact that the actual structure of site templates vary vastly and the ad units placed nearest to the content get the most content-specific ads served and in most cases they attract the best ad rates per click.

However, the pattern followed by some AdSense publishers show that their decisions on where ads are to be placed are dictated by the designers and developers of their themes and plugins. This observation is typically true of WordPress sites as well as publishers using Blogger/ BlogSpot platforms both of which I have been using.

The reasons why some publishers follow these wrongly conceived ad placement ideas are as follows:

  • There are several WordPress themes that are predesigned to accommodate AdSense ads. If you make a Google search for AdSense ready themes, you can find hundreds of them, both free themes as well as commercial (premium/ paid) themes. So, most publishers just place their ads in the predesigned widget areas and ad spots without thinking whether these ads are placed at the appropriate places to attract maximum ad clicks.
  • There are several WordPress plugins that make it possible and easier for publishers to place AdSense ads at the desired locations, especially aimed at those who either do not want to mess around with the code of theme files or do not know how to place ads in between codes in theme files. But these plugins too do not tell you which ad spots are the best for your content, or by placing the ads in which spots you can earn more.
  • Most WordPress themes, as themes and templates designed for other CMS software, have built-in provisions for placing text widgets in predesigned spots. AdSense ads can be placed using these widgets also. Again, these also need not necessarily be the most paying ad spots.
  • Some publishers who can customize their themes place their ads at spots where they find the most suitable for placing ads and that too at locations that can be easily customized without breaking the theme’s functions. Unfortunately, these easily customizable areas need not be the best paying ad spots.
  • Some others who can afford to pay for custom designed themes place AdSense ads at locations mostly decided by their designers. Such designers need not necessarily be experts in optimizing ad placement for maximum AdSense revenue. This is not to say that theme designers do not know AdSense Optimization. There are good designers who take care of not only ad placement, but also other aspects of how a well-optimized site should function.

Well, I am quite aware that several of my readers are well-versed with AdSense optimization, theme designing, content writing and similar aspects and how these together can work wonders just like a well-oiled machine to generate the highest revenue out of their sites.

So, in a sense, this small how-to tutorial is written to help the beginners who are new to blogging, AdSense, WordPress, theme designs, etc. and also experts who might have overlooked these aspects. So, here below are a few handy tips that can help those who are new to AdSense as well as blogging.

The Best Spots For Placing AdSense Ads

  • Instead of the commonly used above the fold option (at the top of everything else on the site), AdSense publishers must place larger ad units such as the 728×90 ad banners closer to the rest of the content of the posts or pages, even though they can still be above the fold, that is the spot just above the beginning of the post. This position is more preferable because when ads appear as the first item at the top of the page, they rather respond to the nearest content that are common to all pages like the general site description, site title, navigation elements, etc. This tends to make AdSense think that all posts and pages are similar and either lesser number of ads will be served, or irrelevant and less-paying ads will be served, and that can drastically reduce your click through rates (CTR) and consequently your overall advertising earnings can decrease. You can still use the same spots for non-AdSense ads, and earn quite a good amount of extra advertising income as many advertisers prefer this slot from where you moved your main AdSense banners.
  • Ads that appear on top of the pages are typically placed in the header section, or above the header. Moving larger ad units just above your post or page content will bring AdSense ads closer to the content.
  • Side bars are another preferred spot for placing ads. If you are placing ads on your side bar, try placing them almost at the top of the sidebar. Do not place more than one large ad unit on the side bar. If you feel like placing more ads, you may place an ad link unit below the main ad, but after a few other widgets on the side bar.
  • Placing ads within posts and pages will bring AdSense ads closest to your unique content and they can get you the highest click through rates, the highest rates per ad, almost a sure possibility of ads being served and hence the highest overall advertising revenue from AdSense.
  • Though Google allows three ad units and three ad links per page/ URL, do not try to use all of them unless your posts and pages have large amounts of textual content. Sites such as photo blogs, video blogs, etc. that do not have much text-based content may do well by placing lesser number of AdSense ads per post, keeping a balance between your content and the ads being displayed. That otherwise means, you may reduce the number of ads, if you have lesser text-based content.
  • And here is a confusing piece of advice that can come from Google AdSense. Often you will find notifications or personalized advice/ tips from AdSense team telling you that you are losing opportunities to earn more from a large number of ad servings because you do not place all the allowed number of ad units and link units. My personal advice is: Don’t jump for that, just ignore it. The reason is, if you follow the advice, in most cases where the sites are not rich in unique content, soon you will get another notification telling you that you do not have enough content to place all those ads and they will tell you to remove some ads so that the ads are content-oriented and proportionate to the content of your site.

It is expected that those who follow the above steps can earn over 60% more than their current AdSense incomes, as various notifications, blog posts and Google AdSense guidelines show, and as revealed by top AdSense money makers.

However, what you find above is NOT a complete solution, and you can find many more other options to improve your AdSense revenue. The final answer to how to earn the maximum from AdSense depends on your unique content, spots where you place the ads, the structure of your themes, and several other factors.

In view of the above observations (which at any cost is not a sure formula to earn more from ads), it is for you to experiment with placing ads at various spots and observe how each ad unit returns revenue and to decide on which option pays you well. Keep on observing and experimenting; that is the name of the game to earn more!

And here are two most important practices that you may avoid:

  • Do not place ads (especially ad links) in such a way that your visitors are misled to believe them as your other links and click on them. AdSense policies specifically tell you not to do so.
  • Most site users suffer from what is referred to as ad-blindness. It is especially true of ads above the folder almost at the top, sometimes at the footer and sidebar where several other ads, links, etc. clutter and compel the visitors to ignore them. Placing ads in spots that are known to induce ad-blindness can reduce your ad revenue drastically.

Come back soon for more useful info on AdSense

Filed Under: Blogging, How-to, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Browser Wars get Hotter

March 23, 2011 by

Now that all three major players have come out with their latest browser versions, the Battle of the Browsers has just flared up a little more. There is Google chrome version 10, Microsoft IE9 and the Mozilla firefox 4. And the initial outlook is that Microsoft have erred in leaving out the Windows XP users. By releasing IE9 which works only on vista and upwards they have left out about 50% of the internet users out of the loop. And firefox seems to have benefited directly from it. At the time of writing this article within two days Mozilla claims about 7,373,811 downloads and counting. Compare that to IE9′s about 2.5 million downloads.
DOwnload Firefox

No Doubt Microsoft has come out with a vastly improved product than their last version namely IE8 . There is major improvements in various aspects like speed, stability, looks, customization and all . All the same microsoft had a lot of catching up to do too. But leaving out the majority internet users seems a little foolish. Microsoft justifies there being no version for windows XP by stating that modern graphics and security infrastructure of browser requires a modern operating system to utilize the latest hardware and software enhancements. And by utilising the enhancements in Windows 7 they have indeed come out with the best browser from its stable. All said and done Microsoft loss is Mozilla’s gain and firefox is bound to close in on the browser leader sooner than later.

Filed Under: Reviews, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Nokia E7 – Latest smartphone

March 15, 2011 by

The much awaited Nokia E7 is finally out and we did a spec and feature search of this new smart phone which has been pitted against the likes of Samsung Galaxy,Htc touch,Sony’s Experia etc.
Nokia E7 Smartphone

It has got a 4″ AMOLED touchscreen display with clearback technology for outdoor viewing.Then there are Orientation sensor (Accelerometer), Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity sensor and Ambient light detector. The other striking feature is the slide out full QWERTY keyboard. Plus there is finger touch support for text input, UI control and handwriting recognition. You can create, edit and share office docs and view PDF files with Adobe Reader.

Its easy to set up your calendar and sync it with Microsoft Outlook. Plus you may get emails direct from Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, Ovi Mail and others. On the social networking front there is support for live updates from Facebook and Twitter on the home screen itself. You can update your status across all your social networks at the same time, follow your conversations easily with threaded SMS chats.

Then there are Apps like Ovi Maps with free lifetime GPS navigation and voice guidance, F-Secure Anti-Theft for Mobile, Vlingo, the voice recognition app, World Traveler app and many apps at Ovi Store – business, messaging, entertainment and more.
nokia E7

On the entertainment front besides the video and music players and FM there is HDMI out to view HD videos and images on your compatible TV. You can watch and upload videos straight to YouTube too. Then you can capture high-resolution photos and HD video using the 8 MP camera.There is Dual LED flash and face recognition software too. Plus there is a Secondary VGA camera for video calls.

Its powered by 680 MHz ARM 11 processor and 16 GB of internal memory . A drawback is the absence of memory card slot. The OS is Symbianˆ3 as opposed to the Android offered by the competitors. Nokia claims you can enjoy over 250 new features from the Symbianˆ3 operating system.

Filed Under: Gadgets, Reviews, Technology Tagged With: ,

Google faces malware scare

March 8, 2011 by

Android, which had lately become the second most used mobile operating system in the world market and is bound to overtake Symbian has been lately found to be under malware attacks. It has been revealed that many Android apps may be sending personal information like IMEI numbers, phone numbers, E-mail addresses and other information to advertisers.

Google Android Logo

Google Android Logo

In the latest attack this past week Google has admitted about 260,000 devices had been affected by these malicious apps before Google removed them. Now Google has activated a remote kill switch to remove about 60 odd apps found to be Trojans. This has raised a global concern about the mobile and personal data security on Android Phones. Experts advise having a good antivirus to be installed on the devices and to exercise caution while installing apps from the Android market.

Filed Under: Apps, Reviews, Tips and Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Browser Wars

February 24, 2011 by

Internet browsers have become the most used application of an average computer user. Gone are the days when one had to be content with the default IE that came shipped with the windows OS . Not long time back IE boasted of about 60-70% usage share of the browsers.The latest figures show they have been pegged down to about 43% with Mozilla firefox coming in second with about 27% share.

Today users have many options like Mozilla Firefox ,Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera , Apple Safari etc to choose from . And as in any market competition has meant user has become king with all of the above browsers claiming to be the better one with great features on offer.

One may compare the browsers on the basis of indicators like speed, average CPU usage, page load time, cache performance,memory usage etc.

Over the time what we have found is firefox is the right contender to be numero uno . They introduced us to the tabbed browsing and user customization through installable addons and plugins. And there are too many features incorporated to be briefed here. And google chrome claims to be the fastest out there.

We would like to go into the details of the browser shootout but that would come later . For now our personal rankings are as follows.
1. Firefox
2. Internet Explorer
3. Chrome
Safari,Opera follows suit.

Comments and views on the same are welcome

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Migrating your blog to WordPress – video tutorial

January 25, 2011 by

Here is another very short YouTube video on how to move a blog, i.e., migrating your blog to WordPress from other blogging software such as TypePad or Blogger. Please note that you can find many tutorials like this on the Internet, and you will find many more articles posted by professional bloggers. The most important thing is that many of them may not give you the complete idea, and it is for you to understand each step before you move your well-established blog. If you mess around things that you do not understand you may neither have your established old blog nor the new blog on WordPress. So, backup every thing before you prepare yourself to move.

Filed Under: Blogging, How-to, video Tagged With: , , , ,

Video: Blogger to WordPress migration

January 25, 2011 by

Here is a short but very lucid video clip by Amit Agarwal, one of the most successful blogger and the founder of Digital Inspiration. It explains how you can migrate your blog from Blogger (blogspot.com) to WordPress, without losing your Google juice, RSS readers, etc. For more clarity and step by step instructions go to the post entitled Migrate your Blog from Blogger to WordPress

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Filed Under: Blogging, How-to, video Tagged With: , , , ,

Get free reviews for your site

January 23, 2011 by

Yes, you read it right! I am interested in writing free reviews for your site or blog if your site is about technology including information technology (IT), and marketing, blogging, WordPress or other publishing platforms and content management systems, SEO, web-designing and related topics.

If you are the owner or admin of any such blog or site, you can contact us with the relevant details about your site with a reference to your most popular posts or articles. Of course, it will help me to give more information about your site to our readers if you give a little more data including how old your site is, the number of visitors and ranking, and other data that you want us to highlight on your blog or site.

Do not shy away if you are a new blogger or do not have many visitors. I emphasize on this because, I have come across many new blogs that have the potential to become some of the most popular blogs of the future. I especially want to introduce them to our visitors. You will not only get more exposure but backlinks also to your blog or site.

Please do not construe this offer as an offer to write paid reviews. I do not write paid reviews, no matter how big or small your site is. So, the sole criterion is the inherent merit of your site and the contents published in your site. In other words, by writing about your site, we want to introduce our readers to useful sites/ blogs.

If interested in a free review, contact us. This is a limited time offer, and will be withdrawn after some time.

Filed Under: Blogging, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

How to add Tweet Button from Twitter

January 20, 2011 by

Would you like to add the authentic, official Tweet Button from Twitter.com to your blog or website? It is the best choice if you want to avoid plugins that can increase your pages load time (increased page load time is not good for SEO) and eat up your server’s valuable storage space? If yes, this button is for you.

The benefits: It allows your visitors to share your content on Twitter without leaving your site or blog and helps you promote your Twitter account at the same time.

There are three buttons to choose from and you have the options to customize them if you wish. Given below are the simple steps to add Tweet Button to your website/ blog:

1. Choose your button that suits your taste from the three buttons showing vertical count, horizontal count or the only the button showing no count, and customize it (if you like) with your Tweet text that people will include in their tweets automatically.

2. You can optionally recommend up to two Twitter accounts for your users to follow after they share content from your website, including your own or your friends or associates.

3. Once you have done the above steps, you can just copy and paste the self-generated code into your site or blog! Done!

Here below is a simple Tweet Button with no count. Try it.

Button with vertical count is below:

Button with horizontal count is below:

Make your own Tweet Button at Twitter.

Filed Under: Blogging, How-to, Plugins Tagged With: , , , ,

How to beat the low-traffic syndrome?

January 6, 2011 by

Well, traffic is the life-force of any blog or site. It is especially so if you are a blogger and started blogging with dreams of building up a blog that is visited by a lot of people who are interested in the unique content that you create. Your enthusiasm may last a few days till you are hit by the biggest dampener of your blogging spirit – very low traffic or almost no visitors on certain days.

It happens because of a few things. First and foremost, it takes a few days for your blog to be indexed by search engines that sent the bulk of traffic to most sites. Even if you submit your blog or site to search engines this may happen. Links exchanges and other means of link building also help, though link exchanges are not counted by search engines like Google for your link popularity computation. Commenting on other blogs and sites helps a lot, but mostly in the form of clicks from visitors to those blogs who find your views interesting. The maximum benefits from the SEO point of view comes when your links are picked up by other blogs and quoted to show some important views expressed by you, or to recommend your blog otherwise. However, all these take time. But you have to continue link building, and keep updating your blog with new compelling fresh and unique content.

Posting some content every day, many times a day, or at least as frequently as you can, helps in many ways, because, as soon as you post something, search engines are alerted and your blog is crawled and indexed. A regular practice like this can boost your traffic in a very short duration of time. When more visitors come in, it provides a psychological boost to your enthusiasm to blog more and more.

Reading inspirational and motivating posts in other blogs and authentic sources like WordPress can motivate you and lift your sagging spirits. Today I read such an article published by WordPress.com titled Challenge for 2011: Want to blog more often? and that made me write this post. It is really inspiring because it gives you tips to think and concentrate on ideas to blog about.

Filed Under: Blogging, How-to, SEO Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,