A harsh reality for anyone starting out at the online game is that in most cases the money will come in, in cents rather than the big bucks you are dreaming about. Regardless of the idea, or model you are getting into, unless you have a preexisting audience, you are probably going to have to do things the hard way. Now I am hardly any sort of authority on the topic, there are plenty of people who have made quick bucks from Adsense, but you can bet your ass that there are plenty of people who have tried and not as much as made the first hurdle…for Google Adsense that is making your first $100 check.
Turning those cents into your first buck.
1) When is too much too much. You may know what I am getting here, but if you don’t…think of a Website that covers it’s side bars, its banner, and has a massive block of ads before you actually get to any content. I know how much it annoys me when I am looking for content, and all I see is a block full of adds, or even worse a dreaded pop-up advertisement. I think it is important to place ads strategically on a page, but I thinks there’s a line that you shouldn’t cross. Sure splattering your page with every ad you can fit may get the odd extra click from accidental or lazy mouse masher, but the main issue here is you are annoying your users. If they are annoyed, they are less likely to come back. I don’t think it’s a good idea anyway…if you think otherwise feel free to leave a comment.
2) Let it flow. Adsense text links are content related ads, so I think it’s a good idea if they are colored like the rest of the content on your site. Most people will realise that they are ads, but at least it lets the page flow. You want to send the message that, yes, you are advertising but it’s not too offensive. It’s very easy to color Adsense ads using the Google ad creation wizard or various plug-ins if you are formatting it at the other end.
3) Google ads can actually be useful to your users. It’s amazing how good Google ads are at targeting your content. So in many cases the ads are in fact very relevant and uses may in deed want to click your ads, so there’s not really any need to ram them in the face of your users, see first point.
4) Content. Good content is very important. Firstly, you want return users, it will increase your page impressions and click rates. Secondly,the ads are based on the content, so if don’t have anything worth reading, or using, the ads that relate to it may not be great either. Thirdly, no one will link to rubbish. And getting links from other sites is very important for you to build a page rank and user base. This is just common sense isn’t it. Why is anyone going to go to Website that doesn’t have anything good on it.
5) Careful placement of ad units is worth the thought. Think where your eye leads you when you first open a Webpage. Try and place your ads effectively to avoid ad blindness. Ad blindness is where users often don’t see your ads because their mind is so trained into seeing ads in certain spots, they no longer absorb ads in certain locations. Close to content, with out being offensive is a plenty good rule of thumb.
6) Read, read, read. There are some great resources out there. Read and observe what other successful sites are doing. Darren who runs the blog Pro Blogger has some very good articles on Adsense. I really enjoy reading what he has to say, and you do feel like you are being educated in the process.
So that’s all I have to say on the topic. File it, the one millionth Adsense article on the net, I hope it at least makes a little sense.
5 Responses to “Google Adsense…or is that Ad cents?”
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Very rightly said, the blog should look presentable and not a fish market selling everything and your audience has to scroll up and down and left and right to find content. I would always give priority to a clean blog than to stuff it with ads.
your site is good and informative, i’ll keep coming for updates.
thanks bro
@ Raj - Thanks for your kind words.
Adcents is really tough for newbie blogs. I still haven’t made my first dollar on it yet.
I think when it comes down to it, if you have the traffic, you will get the dough.
When I fist came into the world of business and the internet I assumed that money was easy to be made - how wrong was I!
It hink 99% of people who use adsense will make about $30 a month max - and this can be after months of hard work.
Making it online is tough - often tougher than making it in the real world
You are right, it takes some time before you get some good bucks… My feeling is that it is a combination of valuable content and a lot of backoffice work to market this to get traffic.