When I first started blogging one of the first ad services I signed up to was Google Adsense. Shortly after that, I stopped using it. It took me about one year (1 year!) to finally get enough to earn the $100 I needed to get a cash out. As time goes on I’ve been able to earn payments faster (every other month) and this month I will receive $200 and last month I got $100.
Please Tell Me How!
It’s not easy and really every blog is different. One of my blogs was making $20-$25 a month, but with a theme redesign, it took a hit. Here are some tips that will help you earn more money with Google Adsense.
Location Location Location! Sidebars usually just don’t convert. To get the most with Google Adsense I would suggest putting them inbetween, or actually IN your posts. As people are reading your content they will also see the ads. In the sidebar, its less likely to get clicks. For those with their own self hosted Wordpress, you can read my post about Adsense Ready Wordpress Themes.
Bigger Isn’t Always Better. Google Adsense is a basically bidding system. Advertisers bid on keywords that you use on your blog. Different keywords earn different bids. However if you have a large block of adsense, advertisers essentially don’t have to bid as much to get a spot. What does that mean? When someone does actually click your Adsense ads, you get less $.
To Blend or Not To Blend? Readers aren’t stupid, if you have a black background, and have white adsense, it’s going to stick out. That’s not necessarily a good thing. You want clicks to your Adsense, but you also want it to look good.
Track and Experiment. When you create a new ad block, make sure to put it in a channel. Therefore, when you get ad clicks, you know where it’s from. If you find that some aren’t earning enough, try moving it around. As I’ve said, each blog is different and it will be rare to produce the same exact results twice.
The Right Theme. For Adsense it can be about the right theme. I work mostly on self-hosted Wordpress blogs. For Wordpress I have found 18 Adsense Ready Wordpress Themes by Dosh Dosh. However they do have Adsense ready blogger theme’s. Just give it a quick Google search and find something that would be good for your blog.
You can see the Prosense Wordpress Theme in action at Its All Free Online. By just changing my wordpress theme, I’ve been able to double my Adsense earnings. This has allowed me to advertise it a bit, which gives me more visitors, and even more earnings!
Have you tried Google Adsense?
~ Matt
Thanks for the tips. I have mine in the sidebar and don’t get a lot from it, but am so resistant to putting it in posts simply beacuse I don’t like the look of it. It’s so hard to balance the design and getting value from ads. Hmmm…
I have been trying to earn with adsense, because I spend WAY too much time blogging (if truth be told I am spenging WAY too much time reading other peoples blogs–I guess that’s blogging too? No?)
If I earned some money it would be justified.
I think you have great tip there with putting it in the posts, but doesn’t that annoy people? It does me, but I would still click on it if it was something I was interested in.
So how do you put it IN the post itself?
Thanks in advance!
The Queen
Well the trick with these tips is that it isn’t based on the traffic. Its for optimizing adsense. With my website ItsAllFreeOnline my traffic remained the same, but I ended up making twice as much money because it was optimized better.
Thanks for the tips. I use adsense, but have had limited success. I will try some of your tips and see if traffic on the ads picks up!
I have a confession. I only put Adsense on my page to make myself feel better about the time I spend there. I can pretend that I’m trying to earn money. I can’t tell you the last time I checked my stats but I think I had a whopping $.37 (that’s cents people!!).
I;ll have to try putting it in between posts to see if that helps at all.
i did hav adsense, but i removed it, my blog isnt booming or anything, so i just didnt really have a need for it.
Honestly, I’ve been avoiding it. I’ve never been a big fan of seeing the ads between posts and have never clicked on one, I’m surprised that many people do.
I added adsense right after I started blogging in April 2008. I have made a little over $10 so far. Better than nothing I guess, but I would certainly like to make more! Thanks for the tips!
I didn’t realize that about the Wordpress themes. There’s also a plug — AdMan, I think — that will drop an Adsense block into the middle of posts, or wherever you want. I’ve been having trouble getting it to work with newer versions of Wordpress, so not sure what’s up with that.
One other good tip for Adsense is the forums that exist through Google (I think) for Adsense users. There’s a lot of information if you sign up for iGoogle, then do a search for “Adsense” gadgets.