pay per click
Case Studies
Throughout this book, I’ve been explaining all the different ways that you can optimize your site and boost your revenues. In this chapter, I’ve collected some examples. All of these are real sites that employed the techniques that I describe in this book to make more money. I’ll talk you through them so that you can see exactly what they did, why they did it — and how you can do the same.It can take some courage to make your ads the most important thing the user sees when he looks at the page, but that’s the approach that JourneyAustralia.com takes. You can’t miss these ads! They’re right above the fold and slap-bang in the middle. They’re the first thing the reader sees even before he knows what the site is about.Note too the picture right next to the ad unit. That helps to keep users’ eyes in the ad zone, but you have to be very careful doing that. Google’s ban on “misleading” images is vague enough for them to act on any picture placed next to an ad unit any time they want. That doesn’t mean they will but you don’t want to give them an opportunity. JourneyAustralia.com seems to have found the right sort of image to use. If you’re not sure about your image though, it’s best to leave it to one side. The strategy of placing an ad unit in the middle of the page though is very simple. It’s about as subtle as a slap in the face but it can be very, very effective. Do you have the courage to try it?Few sites do a better job of integrating their ads with the text as FreeAfterRebate.info. The ad units have lost their borders, the text matches the text of the content and the background color is the same as the background color of the Web page. The content itself is short as well. In fact, it looks a lot like an ad! That’s a great strategy to use. Instead of blending an ad unit into a Web page, you can create content that matches the ad unit. I’m not sure whether this is what FreeAfterRebate.com did but there’s no reason why you couldn’t do it. First, you’d decide on the format of your ad units, then you’d create very short articles that follow the appearance of those units. Because you wouldn’t be able to include much more than a headline, a sentence or two of text and a link, you could really only use this strategy on pages that discuss products, or home pages that offer teasers to longer articles. Look too though at the way this site uses an image. Instead of placing a picture right next to an ad unit, FreeAfterRebate.com puts it above the ad unit. That’s another great solution to copy.Gifts-911.com Gets Emergency Treatment With Multiple Ad Units
The most Adriana Copaceanu’s site Gifts-911.com had made in one month was $31.19 — not much more than a dollar a day. She put a main ad unit above the fold, a second unit at the bottom of the page and an Ad Link unit on the right. After making the ads more prominent and adding more of them, revenues doubled the following months and reached as high as $200 in the month after that! That’s was so simple. It’s a great example of how just a small change in AdSense can yield massive results. Could Adriana do more? Probably. But this is a pretty good start!
Check out Gift-911.com at www.Gifts-911.com.FireFox Plugin Reviews — Getting Your Clicks Faster
This blog offering tips and reviews for users of Firefox also has some pretty good examples for users of AdSense. Just see how long it takes you to find the ads in the screenshot below. Do you notice how you just don’t spot them right away? But as you read the content — and it’s great content — you just can’t miss them. Again, the ad unit’s text and background colors match the design of the blog’s content, blending the ads in perfectly. And by placing the ads inside the articles, users can’t help but read them. There are a couple of other things to watch out for though. First, the referral button is right in the middle of the article. But it’s an article about Firefox so that’s likely to get a lot of clicks.The second thing to look at is the fact that this blog also uses Kontera’s ad system. All of the links relate to Internet terms — the topic of the blog — and by just moving the color up a tone from the color of the content, they stand out and look inviting. That’s a great mixture of ad unit blending, referral buttons and contextual ad systems that can bring great results.
OffshoreBankingCentral.com Brings Home The Bacon
One of the great things about optimizing your AdSense ads is that with a little bit of thought, you can really come up with some very clever ways of blending the ads into the page.It’s easier to do this with some ads than others. Leaderboard text links, for example, can be very useful. A lot of people turn their nose up at horizontal text links. They think that because they’re so small not enough people will see them to click on them. While vertical link units can be easily integrated into a list of links, there’s no good place to put a horizontal unit. That’s a big mistake. OffshoreBankingCentral.com shows just how powerful a well-blended horizontal link unit can be. This site has two sets of ads: a vertical ad unit on the left separated from the rest of the page with a gray background (I’d be interested to know how well those ads perform but I suspect they’d do better with a white background); and horizontal link unit at the top of the page. That link unit just does an outstanding job. The unit displays four links right beneath the navigation bar. Each one of those links contains either the word “offshore” or the word “banking.” Even though “Ads by Google” is still there right next to those links, they still look like another line of navigation links leading to relevant parts of the site. I think there’s a very valuable lesson there about the value of link units.While it’s true that link units contain very little information, used correctly that can be an asset. Had there been another line or two describing the site those links lead to, it would have been clear that those links are ads. As it is, they’re perfectly blended. How can you copy what Offshore Banking Central did? Easy. Create a very simple navigation bar made up of links rather than tabs and place your horizontal link unit directly beneath it. You’ll need to make sure that you’re hitting the keywords in just the way you want but if you pull it off, you should see some fantastic results.You have to look hard to spot the ads at SudokuLinks.com. The entire site consists of a series of vertical columns, filled with links. One of those columns is a vertical AdSense column which is placed in the middle of the page, not at the side where it would be ignored.This is certainly a striking example of one way to blend an ad unit into a Web page but I doubt it’s going to work for everyone. You might be able to follow this strategy on a Resources or Links page on your website but clearly the biggest problem is the lack of content. The only content on the page consists of a small column right beneath the ad unit explaining how to play Sudoku. That could be the sort of thing that drives down click value; Google prefers sites with lots of content rather than pages that contain nothing but links. But you could still use this strategy on a site with dynamic content by, for example, placing teasers to articles in vertical or horizontal columns, that match the AdSense unit. And you could make those content columns more obvious than pushing them to the bottom of the page. In general though, this looks like an extremely effective strategy. If you can make it work for you, you should see some great results.
Go4th.org Takes AdSense Forward
Go4th.org also uses vertical columns, but this site has a much heavier focus on content and still manages to blend the ads in well. In fact, placing a vertical ad unit on the side of a blog has become pretty much a standard layout for many online publishers. You have a sidebar full of links, a link unit under the blog entry headline and a skyscraper on either the left or the right. It’s the obvious way to lay out a blog page, and it works. But that doesn’t mean you still can’t be creative and come up with new ways to blend those ads into the page and make them more attractive to users. Go4th.org does this in a really interesting way. The blog entry — or rather, the articles that the site posts — are positioned in a wide space in the middle of the page sandwiched between two sidebars. The sidebar on the left is where the ads go. The sidebar on the right contain a bunch of links to external sites. And this is where things get clever... The design of each of those areas is exactly the same. Even the “Ads by Goooogle” line has been copied and turned into “May lead to external sites.” That helps to draw the two parts together, an idea which is polished off by putting the word “More” above the ads and “Links” above the external links. Those ads just don’t look like ads any more; they look like the same sort of recommended links that are on the right hand side.This isn’t the only place that the site blends ads well into the page. There’s a second set of ads at the bottom of each article entry. What’s nice about these ads is that they follow a little author bio that includes links itself. That helps users get used to reading content that contains links and might be ads. Could the site get more clicks by replacing that banner ad unit with a square unit at the beginning of the article? Maybe. But that’s exactly the sort of thing that can easily be tested.If you wanted to use a similar strategy on your site though, all you would need to do is put two sidebars on your site, make sure that they both look exactly the same but put ads in one and links in the other. Easy!The challenge for AdSense publishers is to persuade people to look at your ads without letting them realize that what they’re looking at is an ad. One general strategy to do that is to camouflage them on the page. DogToysMart.com does this in a truly fantastic manner. It’s got the usual vertical ad unit in a sidebar and a link unit at the bottom of a list of other links. But above each section, the site also has a very neat header which it carries into the ad sections. So the left-hand side bar contains sections called “Information”, “Resources” and “Sponsored Links.” “Sponsored Links”? You got it. That’s where the link units are. The right-hand sidebar does the same thing, calling the links in its ads “Featured Sites.”But it’s in the middle of the page that this technique works the best. There’s an introduction, a section marked “New Products”, a section marked “Featured Sites” and a section marked “Recommended Reading.” By sandwiching the ads between two sections offering valuable products, the site makes the ad section looks like it contains something valuable too. It looks like it’s been put there by the site itself and not by a third party and I’m sure it’s going to deliver great results. The moral of this story is that one method of promoting your ads is to put them between two other valuable areas instead of at the bottom of the article or whatever it may be. That might require that you create those sections specially for the purpose... but it could well be worth the effort.Matching Articles To Ads... And Cell Phones
The usual way to blend ads into the site is to do 3-Way Matching: to make the ads match the rest of the site in terms of background color, font color and font size. It is possible to take a different approach though: you can make the site match the ads — or at least elements of it. Chris at GetACellPhone.com provides a fantastic example of this. He’s put one ad unit in the left-hand column but right above it and right below it, he’s also put introductions to two articles. The headline of each article is a link to the rest of the piece further in the site and matches the headline of the ad. That makes the ads look like links to articles, and it’s a great idea. What I really like about this set-up though is that there’s no space between the two introductions and the “Ads by Google” line. It makes the articles look like the ads, leaving the ads free and clear. As a strategy, it’s very easy to copy, but I’d take it further. You can match the color of the URL under the ad to the color of the links on the rest of the page and restrict the size of the introduction to just two line — just like the ads. Make the rest of the page look like the ads and you’ll do some great matching.Brewing Up Profits With Herbal Tea
Some of the most effective optimization strategies are very simple. Some are very creative. At TeaHerbalTea.com, we get both types. The site has three ad units above the fold: a banner ad immediately beneath the header; a horizontal text link above the content; and a large rectangle embedded in the content. But look at how each of those units is blended into the site. The banner’s background is lime-green, the same color as the site’s background, the titles match the color of the site’s header and the URL is kept just a tone or two above the background to make it almost invisible. The unit embedded into the article follows a similar strategy. The title of the links match the title of the article, the description is kept black and the URL is a light color so that it almost disappears into the background.It’s in the text links though that things get really interesting. The site has been designed so that it looks like there are little tabs above each of the links. That’s great idea. Would Google like it? It’s hard to say. So far, it’s not doing this site any harm, and it’s not an image, but you might want to clear it with your friendly AdSense rep before you put in your site.It’s worth asking about. The site’s ads don’t end there though. There’s another ad unit below the fold in the middle of the page, a Google search box at the bottom of the page and even a couple of referral buttons and an Amazon ad on the left. And with that second square ad unit turning up such well-targeted ads, there’s a great chance that they’ll get clicked. If you’re wondering about that “Ads by Google” logo in the first embedded ad unit, Google does have a habit of testing different approaches on its ad units. It looks like they were doing a little experiment here. Let’s hope they keep it; it looks a lot better than the long “Ads by Gooooooogle”.Whispy Makes Ad Units Disappear!
Sometimes, you really don’t have to do too much to get the sort of optimized ads that bring fantastic results. Whispy.com has done a great job of blending its ad links into its site. First, it’s used links in different colors. In general, that’s not a good idea; your users expect to links to be blue so that’s the color you should make them — and the color you should make your ad links too. But Whispy is only using two different kinds of blue: a bold blue which functions as the title for the profiles, which link to the content; and a lighter blue for the links in the sidebars. When the user sees ad links in exactly the same color, he’ll just assume he’s looking at more content links. This is a very simple strategy that anyone can copy: just make sure that your ad links are the same color as the rest of your other links... and hide those ad links in a list of content links. Very simple. Very, very effective.
Mixing AdSense With Kontera On DealOfDay.com
Ever since Google changed its policy to allow publishers to combine different ad programs on the same page, finding ways to make the most out of multiple ad units has proved an exciting challenge. I talked about how I blend horizontal ad units into my forum on DealOfDay.com but recently, I’ve also been playing around with adding Kontera’s ads on those pages too. Earning revenue from forums isn’t easy. I’m more likely to plan a forum as a way of supplying a service to my readers and building a community than as a way of earning income. People are just too focused on looking for answer to their questions to spend their time clicking ads. CPM ads often do better here. But blending AdSense into the forum can work very well. And now I’ve found that adding link ads helps even more. Notice how the two sets of ads look different and offer different things too. The AdSense ads look like category headings. In fact, this thread category was specifically about bargains on baby products, so I couldn’t have asked for a better keyword there.
The Kontera ads though focus on specific products. That’s their strength, and that’s why it pays to use highly targeted terms when you’re using Kontera (so “Tylenol” not “painkiller,” “Playstation” not “video game system”). The result on this forum was that I got to offer my readers a range of different types of ads... and picked up two different kinds of income.
Google Ads And eMiniMalls At GPSReview.net
Of course, Kontera isn’t the only extra revenue source that you can use with AdSense units. For many sites, Chitika’s eMiniMalls can make a very profitable addition. GPSReview.net is a great example of the sort of site that can benefit the most from Chitika’s services — as well as a great example of the right way to do it. And again, it’s a very simple optimization. The first thing to note about the site though is that it’s product-related. Sites that focus on products are always going to be the best option for eMiniMalls. Chitika produces very specific ads that will appeal most for people looking for products rather than simply further information. That’s what AdSense does, and like Kontera, it’s why Chitika’s ads work so well with Google’s.
That doesn’t mean though that you can only put eMiniMalls on product-related sites. You can put them on any site. But publishers with pages that talk about products are likely to see the best results with them. There’s no reason, in fact, that you couldn’t add a sub-directory to your website that offers reviews of the products related to your topic. So if you blog about television shows, you could offer DVD reviews. If you write about mortgages, you could offer reviews of home furnishings. If you write about coffee, you could offer information about coffee machines... and provide ads that let people buy them. Once you’ve done that, you’d be able to copy what Tim Flight of GPSReview.net has done on his site. Tim has put a big leaderboard right across the top of the page. By giving it a frame that matches the rest of the site, he’s done a great job of blending it in and it’s in a very prominent position. And do you see how it’s only showing one ad? That’s probably because he’s been site-targeted by an advertiser who’s prepared to pay a premium to be sure of appearing on Tim’s site.Tim has then placed a small eMiniMall between the title and each content article so that it looks like part of the post. It’s totally unmissable — and raised his income by 200 percent! Personally, I’d have gone a little further and experimented with a well-blended AdSense half-banner at the bottom of each post to give readers a place to go if they don’t want to go to the article. (On the article itself, Tim prefers to use another eMiniMall, followed by a Recommended Product Unit, an exclusive link unit supplied by Chitika to select publishers). I’d also want to put a small link unit in the sidebar... but that’s just me. Even keeping it simple though, Tim’s GPS site is earning him great revenues. With AdSense though, you should always be looking for ways to earn even more.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
google marketing
Staying Up To Date And Learning The Latest AdSense Tips
AdSense changes all the time and lots of people are following those changes. They’re talking about what those changes mean for publishers and how you can take advantage of them. They’re also discussing the new contextualized advertising systems that appear from time to time and commenting on how well they work. Most serious publishers pay close attention to these blogs and other sites. They’re an invaluable source of first-hand information from people who have been there and done that. They’ll save you a huge amount of time — and money. I’ve put a short list of some of the most important sites to look at below. This isn’t meant to be a complete list — that would be way too long — but these are a good place to start. They’ll keep you in the loop and make sure your questions get answered.
• www.JenSense.com
Jen’s contextual advertising blog is a great read. She’s always coming up with useful information and sometimes manages to dig up a real scoop (like what lies behind Smart Pricing). This should definitely be in your favorites.
• www.ProBlogger.net
Darren is a blogger making a healthy six-figure income with his online thoughts and his advice about how to do the same thing. If you’re running a blog, you really need to be reading it... and if you’re not running a blog, you’ll still find enough great advice to keep you busy too.
• www.AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php
Forums are a really great place to swap ideas and most importantly, ask questions. Publishers who are old hands at making serious money with AdSense are usually more than happy to share their knowledge. The forum at Associate Programs is a great place to pick up tips about everything from links to marketing.
• http://Forums.DigitalPoint.com
And the forums at Digital Point are at least as good, if not better, with plenty of information on AdSense.
Talking AdSense at AdSenseChat
Finally, there’s my own forum at www.adsensechat.com. You’ll find plenty of people here swapping advice and sharing news about AdSense and other contextualized advertising systems... including me.
I don’t want to blow my own trumpet too much here, but if you’re finding this book useful you’ll certainly find AdSense Chat useful. It’s like having your book updated constantly with several thousand smart, experienced AdSense users in addition to my own contributions. Discussion threads range from how to make use of the latest releases from Google’s stable (you can be sure that in the time it takes you to read this book, Google will have brought out something new that I’ll need to discuss in the next edition) to what’s happening with Chitika and all the other contextualized programs.I can’t stress enough how important forums like AdSense Chat are to publishers. I can only update this book once every six months or once a year. It’s just too much work to do more often than that. But the forums let publishers talk AdSense all the time. It gives me new ideas, lets me see what problems other publishers have encountered and — more important — lets everyone weigh in with answers.Part of being a successful AdSense publisher means visiting forums, posing questions, reading responses and adding your own experience. We want to know what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been doing it.
Staying Up To Date And Learning The Latest AdSense Tips
AdSense changes all the time and lots of people are following those changes. They’re talking about what those changes mean for publishers and how you can take advantage of them. They’re also discussing the new contextualized advertising systems that appear from time to time and commenting on how well they work. Most serious publishers pay close attention to these blogs and other sites. They’re an invaluable source of first-hand information from people who have been there and done that. They’ll save you a huge amount of time — and money. I’ve put a short list of some of the most important sites to look at below. This isn’t meant to be a complete list — that would be way too long — but these are a good place to start. They’ll keep you in the loop and make sure your questions get answered.
• www.JenSense.com
Jen’s contextual advertising blog is a great read. She’s always coming up with useful information and sometimes manages to dig up a real scoop (like what lies behind Smart Pricing). This should definitely be in your favorites.
• www.ProBlogger.net
Darren is a blogger making a healthy six-figure income with his online thoughts and his advice about how to do the same thing. If you’re running a blog, you really need to be reading it... and if you’re not running a blog, you’ll still find enough great advice to keep you busy too.
• www.AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php
Forums are a really great place to swap ideas and most importantly, ask questions. Publishers who are old hands at making serious money with AdSense are usually more than happy to share their knowledge. The forum at Associate Programs is a great place to pick up tips about everything from links to marketing.
• http://Forums.DigitalPoint.com
And the forums at Digital Point are at least as good, if not better, with plenty of information on AdSense.
Talking AdSense at AdSenseChat
Finally, there’s my own forum at www.adsensechat.com. You’ll find plenty of people here swapping advice and sharing news about AdSense and other contextualized advertising systems... including me.
I don’t want to blow my own trumpet too much here, but if you’re finding this book useful you’ll certainly find AdSense Chat useful. It’s like having your book updated constantly with several thousand smart, experienced AdSense users in addition to my own contributions. Discussion threads range from how to make use of the latest releases from Google’s stable (you can be sure that in the time it takes you to read this book, Google will have brought out something new that I’ll need to discuss in the next edition) to what’s happening with Chitika and all the other contextualized programs.I can’t stress enough how important forums like AdSense Chat are to publishers. I can only update this book once every six months or once a year. It’s just too much work to do more often than that. But the forums let publishers talk AdSense all the time. It gives me new ideas, lets me see what problems other publishers have encountered and — more important — lets everyone weigh in with answers.Part of being a successful AdSense publisher means visiting forums, posing questions, reading responses and adding your own experience. We want to know what you’ve been doing and how you’ve been doing it.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Low Ad Relevance
Low Ad Relevance
If your ads aren’t relevant, people won’t want to click them. Try Section Targeting to focus Google on the ideas you want to emphasize. (If that works you might want to take things a little further by turning each section into a different page. That will give even more ads and more opportunities to earn). Alternatively, you can play with the keywords on your page, change the title of each page so that they include a keyword you’re trying to target or include more section titles. All of these options should help to keep your ads on track. It’s also possible that at least part of your site requires users to log in. Google’s AdSense Crawler can’t do that so it can’t tell Google which ads to serve on those membership pages. So you get irrelevant ads. The solution is to use the Site Authentication link under your AdSense Setup tab. You’ll have to confirm that the site is yours but once you’ve done that, it’s just a question of providing the crawler with a username and password.
Too Many Public Service Ads
Public service ads are another sign of a keyword problem. You might not be hitting the keywords you want, or it could be that there simply aren’t any ads for the keywords you’re aiming for.
The first thing you need to do is make sure that you’ve got something to show instead of public service ads, nice though they are. You can specify an alternate URL to show, use GoogleAdSensePlus or try Google Backfill to make sure that you’re still earning even when the keywords aren’t working. Your next step though, is going to be to fix the problem. Make sure that Google does have ads for the keyword you’re targeting (you can use one of the preview tools such as googleadspreview.blogspot.com to do this). If nothing comes up, you’ll need to throw different keywords onto your page. If something does come up — and it’s not what you’re getting — you can just use all of the keyword strategies I mentioned earlier to dump those PSAs.My Ads Have Disappeared!
When Google made it possible for publishers to name their ad units and change them all automatically without repasting the code, it wanted to make sure that publishers didn’t accidentally delete them. So Google didn’t create a delete feature. Instead ads that aren’t shown for seven days are automatically made inactive. If your ads are on a page that gets no traffic at all — perhaps because it’s a test page or because it’s just been built — those ads might disappear. You’ll need to make the ads active again... and look at them at least once a week until you show the page to users.
Too Few Ads In A Unit
Sometimes a four-ad ad unit will only show one or two ads. There’s nothing you can do about this and it’s not really a problem. If you’re getting just one ad, you could be earning by CPM instead of cost-per-click. If you’re getting two ads — as Google likes to serve them sometimes — you just have to hope that they’re doing it because it pays better. With AdSense, you don’t get to control everything!
If your ads aren’t relevant, people won’t want to click them. Try Section Targeting to focus Google on the ideas you want to emphasize. (If that works you might want to take things a little further by turning each section into a different page. That will give even more ads and more opportunities to earn). Alternatively, you can play with the keywords on your page, change the title of each page so that they include a keyword you’re trying to target or include more section titles. All of these options should help to keep your ads on track. It’s also possible that at least part of your site requires users to log in. Google’s AdSense Crawler can’t do that so it can’t tell Google which ads to serve on those membership pages. So you get irrelevant ads. The solution is to use the Site Authentication link under your AdSense Setup tab. You’ll have to confirm that the site is yours but once you’ve done that, it’s just a question of providing the crawler with a username and password.
Too Many Public Service Ads
Public service ads are another sign of a keyword problem. You might not be hitting the keywords you want, or it could be that there simply aren’t any ads for the keywords you’re aiming for.
The first thing you need to do is make sure that you’ve got something to show instead of public service ads, nice though they are. You can specify an alternate URL to show, use GoogleAdSensePlus or try Google Backfill to make sure that you’re still earning even when the keywords aren’t working. Your next step though, is going to be to fix the problem. Make sure that Google does have ads for the keyword you’re targeting (you can use one of the preview tools such as googleadspreview.blogspot.com to do this). If nothing comes up, you’ll need to throw different keywords onto your page. If something does come up — and it’s not what you’re getting — you can just use all of the keyword strategies I mentioned earlier to dump those PSAs.My Ads Have Disappeared!
When Google made it possible for publishers to name their ad units and change them all automatically without repasting the code, it wanted to make sure that publishers didn’t accidentally delete them. So Google didn’t create a delete feature. Instead ads that aren’t shown for seven days are automatically made inactive. If your ads are on a page that gets no traffic at all — perhaps because it’s a test page or because it’s just been built — those ads might disappear. You’ll need to make the ads active again... and look at them at least once a week until you show the page to users.
Too Few Ads In A Unit
Sometimes a four-ad ad unit will only show one or two ads. There’s nothing you can do about this and it’s not really a problem. If you’re getting just one ad, you could be earning by CPM instead of cost-per-click. If you’re getting two ads — as Google likes to serve them sometimes — you just have to hope that they’re doing it because it pays better. With AdSense, you don’t get to control everything!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Troubleshooting — What To Do If You’re Not Getting The Results You Want
Troubleshooting — What To Do If You’re Not Getting The Results You Want
Troubleshooting — What To Do If You’re Not Getting The Results You Want
Follow the advice and strategies I lay out in this book and you should find that you get the results you want: a big fat check every month from the nice people at Google. But it doesn’t always work out that way. There will be times when you’ll be scratching your head and wondering why things just aren’t going the way you’d like them to. When that happens, check out the list of problems here and see if you can find a solution. And if you can’t find a solution here, check out AdSenseChat.com. Whatever I’ve missed here, you should be able to find there.
23.1 Low Revenues
This is the bottom of line of AdSense advertising and if your revenues are low then it couldn’t be clearer that you’re doing something wrong. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a bit of work to make clear what exactly it is that you’re doing wrong. If your revenues are much lower than you’d like then there are a number of different possible reasons and you need to check each of the following in turn:
Your traffic levels. If you don’t have the traffic, you won’t get the revenues. A low level of traffic could be one reason why you’re only making a low level of income.
Your CTR. Increasing your traffic might not raise your income as much as you want if your clickthrough rate isn’t all it should be. Once you’ve checked your traffic levels, take a look at how much of that traffic you’re converting into clicks.
Your click price. When the ads change all the time it’s not always easy to figure out how much each click is worth but if you divide your daily income by your daily clicks you can get an idea of how much you’re earning per click. If that figure is hovering around five cents, you’re not making much — and you need to be making more.
You won’t be able to make a move until you’ve figured out which of these potential problems is yours, and it’s likely that your problem will be a mixture of more than one of them. Your first move then, when you’re not making the money you’d like, is to check each of these possibilities. Your next move is to solve the problem you’ve found.
Low Traffic Levels
If your problem is that your site isn’t getting the traffic it needs, there are a whole range of different options you can take. I’ve covered the basic ideas in Chapter 20 — and you can take another look to see if there’s anything you’ve missed — but you also might want to try one of the courses or books that specialize in generating traffic. It might cost you a few bucks but when it comes to making money with AdSense just about any investment is worth the effort. You should be able to make it back in no time.
Low Clickthrough Rates
When your clickthrough rates are very low, you’re really in AdSense territory. This is all about getting the right ads in the right places. There all sorts of possible strategies that you can do and again, you’re going to have to check each one in turn.
Are you using the right ad units?
Compare your site to the case studies in this book, to other sites on the Web and to the recommendations I make about where to put each of the different kinds of ad units. Those examples and recommendations should be your starting point. If they don’t work for you though, you’re going to need to do some experimenting. This can take a bit of time, but it’s well worth the effort. Try replacing an ad unit with one of a different
Are you using the right colors and font size?
This is a very easy one to fix. If the colors of your ads don’t match the colors on your site, change them.
Are there better places on the page to put your ads?
Even if you’re getting the right ads and they’re well-blended, if no one sees them, no one will click them. Check to make sure your ads are in the most prominent positions. If you think you might do better if they were in different spots, move them and follow the results.
Low Click Price
Raising your click price is one of the trickiest challenges in AdSense. Because Google decides how much to charge advertisers for a click on your site, you can only affect their decision indirectly. Again there are a few things that you can do:
1. Target different keywords
Different keywords pay different amounts. It’s possible that your site is bringing up the lowest paying terms in your subject. Browse keyword sites such as Overture.com to see what people are paying for words in your field and try creating a page that focuses on the highest paying term. If that page brings in good revenues, you’ve got a keyword problem — and that’s easy to fix. If you’re still getting a low click price, you’ve got a low Smart Price rating, and that’s going to take a bit more work to fix.
2. Buy better traffic
Your Smart Price suffers when your users click but don’t buy. One solution is to buy better targeted traffic that’s more likely to be interested in what your ads are offering. For example, you could try working backwards and target your traffic to the ads you’re currently showing.
3. Build better content
Or it could be that people are clicking your ads not because they’re interested in them but because they’re not interested in what’s on the page. Good quality content will deliver high quality clicks from people who are motivated to buy from your advertisers.
There are no shortcuts to building great content. You can try to focus on a topic that genuinely excites rather than building a site just for the money. You could try buying in some professionally
written articles by taking a freelancer from eLance, and seeing if that raises your click price. Or you could just take another look at what your best competitors are doing — and do the same.
4. Remove poor-performing ads
Your Smart Price is affected by all the sites in your account. One poor-performing site then can bring down your prices across all your sites. If you own lots of different sites and your ads aren’t getting the price you think they deserve, one strategy could be to remove the ads from the sites that you think aren’t doing so well. Whichever strategy you choose, the goal will be to get more of the users to click on the ads to buy from your advertisers. You should start to see a change in your price within a couple of weeks.
Troubleshooting — What To Do If You’re Not Getting The Results You Want
Follow the advice and strategies I lay out in this book and you should find that you get the results you want: a big fat check every month from the nice people at Google. But it doesn’t always work out that way. There will be times when you’ll be scratching your head and wondering why things just aren’t going the way you’d like them to. When that happens, check out the list of problems here and see if you can find a solution. And if you can’t find a solution here, check out AdSenseChat.com. Whatever I’ve missed here, you should be able to find there.
23.1 Low Revenues
This is the bottom of line of AdSense advertising and if your revenues are low then it couldn’t be clearer that you’re doing something wrong. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a bit of work to make clear what exactly it is that you’re doing wrong. If your revenues are much lower than you’d like then there are a number of different possible reasons and you need to check each of the following in turn:
Your traffic levels. If you don’t have the traffic, you won’t get the revenues. A low level of traffic could be one reason why you’re only making a low level of income.
Your CTR. Increasing your traffic might not raise your income as much as you want if your clickthrough rate isn’t all it should be. Once you’ve checked your traffic levels, take a look at how much of that traffic you’re converting into clicks.
Your click price. When the ads change all the time it’s not always easy to figure out how much each click is worth but if you divide your daily income by your daily clicks you can get an idea of how much you’re earning per click. If that figure is hovering around five cents, you’re not making much — and you need to be making more.
You won’t be able to make a move until you’ve figured out which of these potential problems is yours, and it’s likely that your problem will be a mixture of more than one of them. Your first move then, when you’re not making the money you’d like, is to check each of these possibilities. Your next move is to solve the problem you’ve found.
Low Traffic Levels
If your problem is that your site isn’t getting the traffic it needs, there are a whole range of different options you can take. I’ve covered the basic ideas in Chapter 20 — and you can take another look to see if there’s anything you’ve missed — but you also might want to try one of the courses or books that specialize in generating traffic. It might cost you a few bucks but when it comes to making money with AdSense just about any investment is worth the effort. You should be able to make it back in no time.
Low Clickthrough Rates
When your clickthrough rates are very low, you’re really in AdSense territory. This is all about getting the right ads in the right places. There all sorts of possible strategies that you can do and again, you’re going to have to check each one in turn.
Are you using the right ad units?
Compare your site to the case studies in this book, to other sites on the Web and to the recommendations I make about where to put each of the different kinds of ad units. Those examples and recommendations should be your starting point. If they don’t work for you though, you’re going to need to do some experimenting. This can take a bit of time, but it’s well worth the effort. Try replacing an ad unit with one of a different
Are you using the right colors and font size?
This is a very easy one to fix. If the colors of your ads don’t match the colors on your site, change them.
Are there better places on the page to put your ads?
Even if you’re getting the right ads and they’re well-blended, if no one sees them, no one will click them. Check to make sure your ads are in the most prominent positions. If you think you might do better if they were in different spots, move them and follow the results.
Low Click Price
Raising your click price is one of the trickiest challenges in AdSense. Because Google decides how much to charge advertisers for a click on your site, you can only affect their decision indirectly. Again there are a few things that you can do:
1. Target different keywords
Different keywords pay different amounts. It’s possible that your site is bringing up the lowest paying terms in your subject. Browse keyword sites such as Overture.com to see what people are paying for words in your field and try creating a page that focuses on the highest paying term. If that page brings in good revenues, you’ve got a keyword problem — and that’s easy to fix. If you’re still getting a low click price, you’ve got a low Smart Price rating, and that’s going to take a bit more work to fix.
2. Buy better traffic
Your Smart Price suffers when your users click but don’t buy. One solution is to buy better targeted traffic that’s more likely to be interested in what your ads are offering. For example, you could try working backwards and target your traffic to the ads you’re currently showing.
3. Build better content
Or it could be that people are clicking your ads not because they’re interested in them but because they’re not interested in what’s on the page. Good quality content will deliver high quality clicks from people who are motivated to buy from your advertisers.
There are no shortcuts to building great content. You can try to focus on a topic that genuinely excites rather than building a site just for the money. You could try buying in some professionally
written articles by taking a freelancer from eLance, and seeing if that raises your click price. Or you could just take another look at what your best competitors are doing — and do the same.
4. Remove poor-performing ads
Your Smart Price is affected by all the sites in your account. One poor-performing site then can bring down your prices across all your sites. If you own lots of different sites and your ads aren’t getting the price you think they deserve, one strategy could be to remove the ads from the sites that you think aren’t doing so well. Whichever strategy you choose, the goal will be to get more of the users to click on the ads to buy from your advertisers. You should start to see a change in your price within a couple of weeks.
Monday, October 18, 2010
What To Do If Your AdSense Account Gets Closed
Most of the mistake people make at AdSense hit them in the wallet. Some mistakes though can hit where it really hurts and get your account closed. So what should you do if you get that dreaded email from AdSense informing you that your account has been shut down? Well, the first thing to remember is that you’ve pretty much got no power at all. Google’s Terms make it very clear that they have the right to kick someone out of their program whenever they feel like it and you have to prove your innocence. But the people at Google aren’t a nasty bunch and they will listen to you if you feel you’ve been hard done by. Your first step then should be to send them an email asking why you’ve been banned. The most likely reason will be invalid clicks. That might not mean that you’ve accidentally clicked your own ads. Google accepts that accidents do happen and takes occasional clicks like these into account. They’ll show up as clicks in your stats but you won’t earn revenue from them. Nor do you need to inform them every time your cursor accidentally lands on one of your ads.
But if it’s more than occasional, you could be in trouble. It’s possible that someone else might have been clicking ads on your site repeatedly —
perhaps a competitor hoping to hit your earnings or a family member who didn’t know it was forbidden. It’s also possible that someone has stolen your AdSense code and placed it on their own site. It sounds strange, but publishers have been concerned about this so Google now lets you create a list of Allowed Sites. Only those click on those sites will count towards your income. And at least one publisher has been banned because the previous owner of the domain had clicked his own ads before the domain was sold.
Whatever the reason, the next step is to appeal. Google has an official appeal form. It’s available at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?contact=invalid_clicks_appeal Be sure to fill in all the fields in the form and provide as much information as possible. Be polite. Remember, Google’s system has detected a strange pattern in your click rate and is acting to protect its advertisers from paying for nothing. When advertisers start to feel that Google isn’t looking after their budget, none of us will make money. If Google has made a mistake, you want to help the company correct it, not annoy it so much it won’t want you back. Someone will read your form, and you want to stay on that person’s good side. Provide proof of your innocence if you can and show that you’re genuinely trying to help them get to the bottom of the problem. If you spotted a click spike in your stats, tell them when you saw it and what you think might have caused it — if you have any suspicions. If you happen to know the IP address of the source of the multiple clicks, block it, supply it to Google and tell them you’ve blocked it. And remind Google that you think its service is great and that you’d like to keep using it. There are plenty of stories around about publishers who got banned but were reinstated after appeal. If you can produce a good explanation of the events that led to your site being banned, there’s a good chance that you’ll be allowed back in. And if all else fails and you find yourself cut off, there’s always Yahoo! Publisher Network combined with Chitika and Kontera ads.
It’s unlikely you’ll make as much as you did with AdSense, but you will still make something.
Most of the mistake people make at AdSense hit them in the wallet. Some mistakes though can hit where it really hurts and get your account closed. So what should you do if you get that dreaded email from AdSense informing you that your account has been shut down? Well, the first thing to remember is that you’ve pretty much got no power at all. Google’s Terms make it very clear that they have the right to kick someone out of their program whenever they feel like it and you have to prove your innocence. But the people at Google aren’t a nasty bunch and they will listen to you if you feel you’ve been hard done by. Your first step then should be to send them an email asking why you’ve been banned. The most likely reason will be invalid clicks. That might not mean that you’ve accidentally clicked your own ads. Google accepts that accidents do happen and takes occasional clicks like these into account. They’ll show up as clicks in your stats but you won’t earn revenue from them. Nor do you need to inform them every time your cursor accidentally lands on one of your ads.
But if it’s more than occasional, you could be in trouble. It’s possible that someone else might have been clicking ads on your site repeatedly —
perhaps a competitor hoping to hit your earnings or a family member who didn’t know it was forbidden. It’s also possible that someone has stolen your AdSense code and placed it on their own site. It sounds strange, but publishers have been concerned about this so Google now lets you create a list of Allowed Sites. Only those click on those sites will count towards your income. And at least one publisher has been banned because the previous owner of the domain had clicked his own ads before the domain was sold.
Whatever the reason, the next step is to appeal. Google has an official appeal form. It’s available at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?contact=invalid_clicks_appeal Be sure to fill in all the fields in the form and provide as much information as possible. Be polite. Remember, Google’s system has detected a strange pattern in your click rate and is acting to protect its advertisers from paying for nothing. When advertisers start to feel that Google isn’t looking after their budget, none of us will make money. If Google has made a mistake, you want to help the company correct it, not annoy it so much it won’t want you back. Someone will read your form, and you want to stay on that person’s good side. Provide proof of your innocence if you can and show that you’re genuinely trying to help them get to the bottom of the problem. If you spotted a click spike in your stats, tell them when you saw it and what you think might have caused it — if you have any suspicions. If you happen to know the IP address of the source of the multiple clicks, block it, supply it to Google and tell them you’ve blocked it. And remind Google that you think its service is great and that you’d like to keep using it. There are plenty of stories around about publishers who got banned but were reinstated after appeal. If you can produce a good explanation of the events that led to your site being banned, there’s a good chance that you’ll be allowed back in. And if all else fails and you find yourself cut off, there’s always Yahoo! Publisher Network combined with Chitika and Kontera ads.
It’s unlikely you’ll make as much as you did with AdSense, but you will still make something.
The Biggest Mistakes That AdSense Publishers Make
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The Biggest Mistakes That AdSense Publishers Make... And How To Avoid Them
Clicking on your own ads isn’t the only bad luck AdSense publishers have run into. There are lots of different ways that you can make a mistake when using AdSense and while some of them Google will be pretty quick to tell you about, others you’ll only feel in your pocket. Here are some of the biggest mistakes you can make when using AdSense. Be aware of them...and beware of them! Big Mistake #1: Not Being Familiar With Google's TOS On the one hand, this is an easy mistake to make. The terms of service change all the time and what’s legal one day could be illegal the next — and you could know nothing about the change. On the other hand though, if something you’ve been doing is suddenly made illegal you probably shouldn’t be doing it anyway. The bottom line is to check the TOS regularly and to make a habit of browsing the AdSense forums. Even if you miss a change, it’s unlikely that other people will. It’s a mistake not to stay informed. Big Mistake #2: Inviting Others To Click Ads That clicking your own ads is a mistake is pretty clear. There’s no reason to do it and no excuse for doing it.
That also includes asking other people to click on the ads for you. For site owners used to asking their users to support their sponsors, this can take some getting used to. Once the ads are up and optimized, there’s nothing more that you can do to persuade people to click. If you’ve got a line on your website that asks people to support your sponsors or if you’ve been asking people to click on your ads in any sort of way, you’re making a giant mistake. That’s the sort of mistake that can get you banned. Big Mistake #3: Using The Wrong Ad Blocks Those first two mistakes will get you banned. The remaining mistakes will “only” cost you money. Choosing the wrong ad blocks is one of the easiest mistakes to make. Almost any block can fit in almost any space but only one block will give you the highest revenues possible. Use this book as a guide to which blocks suit which locations best and check out the case studies to see how other people are using a similar spot. Even if you’re happy with your results so far, it’s always possible that you could do even better. Sitting on your laurels with the wrong ad block is certainly a mistake. Big Mistake #4: Using The Wrong Colors Exactly the same is true of your choice of colors. Forget about looking for some nice contrast or coming up with some snazzy design, you want the colors in your ads to match the colors on your site. The background color should be the same as the background of your site and the font colors should match too. Any other color is usually a mistake. Big Mistake #5: Poor Page Placement Some places on your page are much more powerful than others. You want to put your ads where your users are going to be looking, not where they’ll make the page look good. That might be at the beginning of an article, in the sidebar, at the top of the page, next to an image or any one of several dozen other spots.
Don’t be shy about putting your ads front and forward. As long as they’re blended into the site, they won’t be anything like as obtrusive as you think. They’ll be right in front of your users and attractive enough to click. Big Mistake #6: Not Using AdLink Units A common mistake that people make when they first start using AdSense is to assume that only the ad units are worth taking. That’s a big mistake. Clicks on AdLink units make up a serious part of my AdSense earnings. When used properly, they should be a serious part of your AdSense earnings too. Don’t overlook AdLink units just because they’re small. Put them in the right place and you’ll find that they can be very, very powerful Big Mistake #7: Not Checking And Analyzing Stats One of the biggest differences between AdSense publishers who get the big checks and AdSense publishers who earn pennies is that the big earners are addicted to reading their stats — and they understand what they’re reading. It’s very tempting once you’ve set up your site and put on your ads to just kick back and look at the bottom line. But the other lines tell you what’s working and what you should be doing. Read your stats carefully and regularly. Big Mistake #8: Ignoring Channels If you’re not sure how to use channels, don’t let it ride. Read the chapter on channels again, build some and play with them. For some people channels can look a little scary. You have to build them from scratch, you might not be too sure which channels you should create or what you should do with the data the channels should give you. None of those is a good excuse. Channels are easy to build and they give you heaps of information about the way each of your Web pages is operating that you just couldn’t get anywhere else. If you’re not using channels, you need to start. Big Mistake #9: Not Keeping An AdSense Journal When you were at school and your English teacher told you to keep a journal, you probably groaned, ignored her... and made up a month’s worth of entries the day before you were supposed to bring it in to class.When you’re trying to make a lot of money with AdSense, keeping a journal is vital. It’s the only way to keep track of your changes and what happened when you implemented those changes. Every time you use a different ad block, push a different keyword or try a new location on the page, write it down, wait a week and write down the effect. If you’re doing the same thing time and time again because you forgot what happened when you did it last time, you’re wasting your time and your money. Big Mistake #10: Building Huge Sites Overnight It’s possible to go from no site to AdSense site in just a few minutes (plus the time it takes to get the confirmation letter). But it will take a little while longer to build the sort of massive site that keeps users coming back and builds a loyal base. Sure, you can use free books to fill dozens of pages and you can use already prepared content, but neither of these methods are as good as creating a huge site filled with original material. That takes time. Rush it and it’s more likely you’ll end up with a lot of trash that kills your clicks and ruins your Smart Pricing than a quality site that makes you money. It’s better to be small and good than big and bad. Big Mistake #11: Building Throwaway Sites And if it’s a bad idea to build large trashy sites, it’s a terrible idea to build small, trashy sites. Check out the AdSense forums long enough and there’s a good chance that you’ll come across plenty of publishers who believe not in creating good quality sites but in building small garbage-y ones and trying to squeeze as much revenue out of them as possible. The advantage is that you can throw up a lot of them in a small amount of time and for little cost. The disadvantage is that the returns are small too — and most important, they’re just no fun to do. I thoroughly enjoy managing every one of the sites I’ve created. It’s because I enjoy them that my users enjoy them. That keeps them coming back and it keeps them clicking. And it keeps me coming back too.
If you’re building throwaway sites just to make a quick buck, you’re working too hard... and that’s a giant mistake. Big Mistake #12: Doing AdSense Halfway This was the big mistake that I made for a long time. It’s also the big mistake that about 95 percent of AdSense publishers are making. They create their site, put up an AdSense, maybe they’ll optimize it a little (and maybe not), and then they’ll wait for the checks to come in. Making a lot of money with AdSense will take a lot of work. It can make you more money than most people will make in most full-time jobs but it’s not the sort of thing you can throw up in a morning and then spend the afternoon shopping for your beach house in Cancun. You can start earning in the morning. But if you want to make real money, you’re going to have to go all the way. Anything less is a big mistake.
Big Mistake #13: Only Using AdSense Don’t get me wrong, I still think that AdSense is the greatest way to earn money from a website short of buying Google.com. But ever since Google changed it TOS to allow other kinds of advertising systems on AdSense pages — even other kinds of contextualized advertising systems — I’ve been happily mixing, matching and earning even more. You should certainly use one of the text link services like Kontera. You can use Chitika’s eMiniMalls if you have a good product-related site. You can recommend affiliate products. You can mix different payment systems so that your pages are earning by impression, by click and by sale. You should have every base covered and every income stream up and running.
The Biggest Mistakes That AdSense Publishers Make... And How To Avoid Them
Clicking on your own ads isn’t the only bad luck AdSense publishers have run into. There are lots of different ways that you can make a mistake when using AdSense and while some of them Google will be pretty quick to tell you about, others you’ll only feel in your pocket. Here are some of the biggest mistakes you can make when using AdSense. Be aware of them...and beware of them! Big Mistake #1: Not Being Familiar With Google's TOS On the one hand, this is an easy mistake to make. The terms of service change all the time and what’s legal one day could be illegal the next — and you could know nothing about the change. On the other hand though, if something you’ve been doing is suddenly made illegal you probably shouldn’t be doing it anyway. The bottom line is to check the TOS regularly and to make a habit of browsing the AdSense forums. Even if you miss a change, it’s unlikely that other people will. It’s a mistake not to stay informed. Big Mistake #2: Inviting Others To Click Ads That clicking your own ads is a mistake is pretty clear. There’s no reason to do it and no excuse for doing it.
That also includes asking other people to click on the ads for you. For site owners used to asking their users to support their sponsors, this can take some getting used to. Once the ads are up and optimized, there’s nothing more that you can do to persuade people to click. If you’ve got a line on your website that asks people to support your sponsors or if you’ve been asking people to click on your ads in any sort of way, you’re making a giant mistake. That’s the sort of mistake that can get you banned. Big Mistake #3: Using The Wrong Ad Blocks Those first two mistakes will get you banned. The remaining mistakes will “only” cost you money. Choosing the wrong ad blocks is one of the easiest mistakes to make. Almost any block can fit in almost any space but only one block will give you the highest revenues possible. Use this book as a guide to which blocks suit which locations best and check out the case studies to see how other people are using a similar spot. Even if you’re happy with your results so far, it’s always possible that you could do even better. Sitting on your laurels with the wrong ad block is certainly a mistake. Big Mistake #4: Using The Wrong Colors Exactly the same is true of your choice of colors. Forget about looking for some nice contrast or coming up with some snazzy design, you want the colors in your ads to match the colors on your site. The background color should be the same as the background of your site and the font colors should match too. Any other color is usually a mistake. Big Mistake #5: Poor Page Placement Some places on your page are much more powerful than others. You want to put your ads where your users are going to be looking, not where they’ll make the page look good. That might be at the beginning of an article, in the sidebar, at the top of the page, next to an image or any one of several dozen other spots.
Don’t be shy about putting your ads front and forward. As long as they’re blended into the site, they won’t be anything like as obtrusive as you think. They’ll be right in front of your users and attractive enough to click. Big Mistake #6: Not Using AdLink Units A common mistake that people make when they first start using AdSense is to assume that only the ad units are worth taking. That’s a big mistake. Clicks on AdLink units make up a serious part of my AdSense earnings. When used properly, they should be a serious part of your AdSense earnings too. Don’t overlook AdLink units just because they’re small. Put them in the right place and you’ll find that they can be very, very powerful Big Mistake #7: Not Checking And Analyzing Stats One of the biggest differences between AdSense publishers who get the big checks and AdSense publishers who earn pennies is that the big earners are addicted to reading their stats — and they understand what they’re reading. It’s very tempting once you’ve set up your site and put on your ads to just kick back and look at the bottom line. But the other lines tell you what’s working and what you should be doing. Read your stats carefully and regularly. Big Mistake #8: Ignoring Channels If you’re not sure how to use channels, don’t let it ride. Read the chapter on channels again, build some and play with them. For some people channels can look a little scary. You have to build them from scratch, you might not be too sure which channels you should create or what you should do with the data the channels should give you. None of those is a good excuse. Channels are easy to build and they give you heaps of information about the way each of your Web pages is operating that you just couldn’t get anywhere else. If you’re not using channels, you need to start. Big Mistake #9: Not Keeping An AdSense Journal When you were at school and your English teacher told you to keep a journal, you probably groaned, ignored her... and made up a month’s worth of entries the day before you were supposed to bring it in to class.When you’re trying to make a lot of money with AdSense, keeping a journal is vital. It’s the only way to keep track of your changes and what happened when you implemented those changes. Every time you use a different ad block, push a different keyword or try a new location on the page, write it down, wait a week and write down the effect. If you’re doing the same thing time and time again because you forgot what happened when you did it last time, you’re wasting your time and your money. Big Mistake #10: Building Huge Sites Overnight It’s possible to go from no site to AdSense site in just a few minutes (plus the time it takes to get the confirmation letter). But it will take a little while longer to build the sort of massive site that keeps users coming back and builds a loyal base. Sure, you can use free books to fill dozens of pages and you can use already prepared content, but neither of these methods are as good as creating a huge site filled with original material. That takes time. Rush it and it’s more likely you’ll end up with a lot of trash that kills your clicks and ruins your Smart Pricing than a quality site that makes you money. It’s better to be small and good than big and bad. Big Mistake #11: Building Throwaway Sites And if it’s a bad idea to build large trashy sites, it’s a terrible idea to build small, trashy sites. Check out the AdSense forums long enough and there’s a good chance that you’ll come across plenty of publishers who believe not in creating good quality sites but in building small garbage-y ones and trying to squeeze as much revenue out of them as possible. The advantage is that you can throw up a lot of them in a small amount of time and for little cost. The disadvantage is that the returns are small too — and most important, they’re just no fun to do. I thoroughly enjoy managing every one of the sites I’ve created. It’s because I enjoy them that my users enjoy them. That keeps them coming back and it keeps them clicking. And it keeps me coming back too.
If you’re building throwaway sites just to make a quick buck, you’re working too hard... and that’s a giant mistake. Big Mistake #12: Doing AdSense Halfway This was the big mistake that I made for a long time. It’s also the big mistake that about 95 percent of AdSense publishers are making. They create their site, put up an AdSense, maybe they’ll optimize it a little (and maybe not), and then they’ll wait for the checks to come in. Making a lot of money with AdSense will take a lot of work. It can make you more money than most people will make in most full-time jobs but it’s not the sort of thing you can throw up in a morning and then spend the afternoon shopping for your beach house in Cancun. You can start earning in the morning. But if you want to make real money, you’re going to have to go all the way. Anything less is a big mistake.
Big Mistake #13: Only Using AdSense Don’t get me wrong, I still think that AdSense is the greatest way to earn money from a website short of buying Google.com. But ever since Google changed it TOS to allow other kinds of advertising systems on AdSense pages — even other kinds of contextualized advertising systems — I’ve been happily mixing, matching and earning even more. You should certainly use one of the text link services like Kontera. You can use Chitika’s eMiniMalls if you have a good product-related site. You can recommend affiliate products. You can mix different payment systems so that your pages are earning by impression, by click and by sale. You should have every base covered and every income stream up and running.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
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AdSense Prohibitions, Mistakes And Problems
Google is very protective of its AdSense program and is a pretty strict ad provider. It has a relatively long page of Terms and Conditions (www.google.com/adsense/terms) and monitors sites pretty closely. While YPN usually sends a warning to sites that it believes have broken its terms and conditions, Google has been known to cut people off right away. And that can be pretty painful.
I do recommend that you read the AdSense Terms and Conditions. I realize that they’re not much fun and they’re hardly a gripping read, but they are important, especially when you start really pushing your ads to their limits. To make it easier for you though, I’ve gone through those terms and pulled out the most important restrictions contained in them. This list is not a replacement for reading the Terms page — you’re still going to have to do that. They just might make it clearer so that you’re less likely to make a very costly mistake.
• One individual or entity cannot hold more than one AdSense account; all accounts will be closed.
This is important if you have many sites covering different topics and are worried about the effects of Smart Pricing. You might want to open a separate account in a spouse’s name or open more than one business.
• You cannot modify the JavaScript or other code provided in any way.
Google is pretty strict about this. Cut into the code and you risk the axe.
• Web pages cannot contain solely ads, a Search Box or a referral button.
Blank pages with nothing more than AdSense ads are pretty rare; pages which contain only ads of different types are much more common. Google is working against these sorts of things and you’ll probably find yourself if not banned, then almost certainly Smart Priced out.
• Ads cannot appear on pages that are “under construction,” used for registration, chat, contain adult, objectionable or illegal content. And they can’t be used in emails either.
If you have a site that’s in any way morally objectionable, then AdSense isn’t for you. That’s the bottom line. More relevant for most people though is the idea that you can’t put AdSense on every page of a website. There are all sorts of pages on many people’s sites that really don’t contain any content, like password pages or error messages. You can’t use them as places to put ads.
• You cannot generate searches, clicks or impressions by any method other than genuine user interest.
So no automatic bots or clicking your own ads or any of that nonsense. That’s just fraud and Google will spot it in a second.
• You cannot display anything on your Web page that could be confused as an AdSense ad.
That’s an interesting rule that prevents people from putting up affiliate links that look like ad units to try to cash in on Google’s brand. In theory, this rule could cause a problem for someone who blended the ads into the page by making link lists that looked similar to ad units. As long as those links aren’t ads though, and as long as you don’t write “Ads by Goooogle” on them, I doubt if Google would have a problem with them.
• You cannot put related images right next to an AdSense unit.
The old strategy of using images related to the ads to draws to ad units has gone. Google doesn’t want any picture next to an ad unit that looks like it’s part of the ad. There’s no clear definition of how far the images should be or how it defines ‘confusing’. The best bet is to use common sense, and if you’re going to put an image near ad unit, make it a logo, unrelated to the content of the ad unit or some part of the site.
• If you’re using a Google Search box, you cannot use any other search service on the page.
Again, Google wants a monopoly of services on your site. You can’t offer your users the option of searching through Google or Yahoo; it’s either-or, not both-and.
• You cannot put anything between the ad link and the ad site.
So if you were thinking of trying to capture your lost traffic by redirecting ad clicks to another of your sites, think again. But who thinks of that?
• You cannot communicate to advertisers directly concerning the ads on your site.
That would have been quite useful. You could have written to an advertiser and suggested ways in which they could make their copy more effective for your users. Of course, you could also suggest they advertise directly on your site and cut out the Google middleman... Interestingly though, you can do all of this on your “Advertise on this site” landing page.
• You cannot change the order of the information in an ad unit.
This is pretty well covered by the ban on changing the code. But again, it might have been nice to put the ads that are most likely to get the most clicks at the top of the list, even if they pay less. But putting the ones with the highest bid price there though isn’t a bad idea either.
• You cannot reveal your click-through rates or any other information about your site performance.
Which is why I haven’t quoted my own CTR figures in this book. But you can reveal the amount of Google’s gross payments to you, which I have done. These rules are all pretty straightforward and for the most part, easy to follow. Usually, if someone has been banned from AdSense it’s because they’ve clicked on their own ads and Google didn’t believe that it was an accident. That’s just rotten luck.
AdSense Prohibitions, Mistakes And Problems
Google is very protective of its AdSense program and is a pretty strict ad provider. It has a relatively long page of Terms and Conditions (www.google.com/adsense/terms) and monitors sites pretty closely. While YPN usually sends a warning to sites that it believes have broken its terms and conditions, Google has been known to cut people off right away. And that can be pretty painful.
I do recommend that you read the AdSense Terms and Conditions. I realize that they’re not much fun and they’re hardly a gripping read, but they are important, especially when you start really pushing your ads to their limits. To make it easier for you though, I’ve gone through those terms and pulled out the most important restrictions contained in them. This list is not a replacement for reading the Terms page — you’re still going to have to do that. They just might make it clearer so that you’re less likely to make a very costly mistake.
• One individual or entity cannot hold more than one AdSense account; all accounts will be closed.
This is important if you have many sites covering different topics and are worried about the effects of Smart Pricing. You might want to open a separate account in a spouse’s name or open more than one business.
• You cannot modify the JavaScript or other code provided in any way.
Google is pretty strict about this. Cut into the code and you risk the axe.
• Web pages cannot contain solely ads, a Search Box or a referral button.
Blank pages with nothing more than AdSense ads are pretty rare; pages which contain only ads of different types are much more common. Google is working against these sorts of things and you’ll probably find yourself if not banned, then almost certainly Smart Priced out.
• Ads cannot appear on pages that are “under construction,” used for registration, chat, contain adult, objectionable or illegal content. And they can’t be used in emails either.
If you have a site that’s in any way morally objectionable, then AdSense isn’t for you. That’s the bottom line. More relevant for most people though is the idea that you can’t put AdSense on every page of a website. There are all sorts of pages on many people’s sites that really don’t contain any content, like password pages or error messages. You can’t use them as places to put ads.
• You cannot generate searches, clicks or impressions by any method other than genuine user interest.
So no automatic bots or clicking your own ads or any of that nonsense. That’s just fraud and Google will spot it in a second.
• You cannot display anything on your Web page that could be confused as an AdSense ad.
That’s an interesting rule that prevents people from putting up affiliate links that look like ad units to try to cash in on Google’s brand. In theory, this rule could cause a problem for someone who blended the ads into the page by making link lists that looked similar to ad units. As long as those links aren’t ads though, and as long as you don’t write “Ads by Goooogle” on them, I doubt if Google would have a problem with them.
• You cannot put related images right next to an AdSense unit.
The old strategy of using images related to the ads to draws to ad units has gone. Google doesn’t want any picture next to an ad unit that looks like it’s part of the ad. There’s no clear definition of how far the images should be or how it defines ‘confusing’. The best bet is to use common sense, and if you’re going to put an image near ad unit, make it a logo, unrelated to the content of the ad unit or some part of the site.
• If you’re using a Google Search box, you cannot use any other search service on the page.
Again, Google wants a monopoly of services on your site. You can’t offer your users the option of searching through Google or Yahoo; it’s either-or, not both-and.
• You cannot put anything between the ad link and the ad site.
So if you were thinking of trying to capture your lost traffic by redirecting ad clicks to another of your sites, think again. But who thinks of that?
• You cannot communicate to advertisers directly concerning the ads on your site.
That would have been quite useful. You could have written to an advertiser and suggested ways in which they could make their copy more effective for your users. Of course, you could also suggest they advertise directly on your site and cut out the Google middleman... Interestingly though, you can do all of this on your “Advertise on this site” landing page.
• You cannot change the order of the information in an ad unit.
This is pretty well covered by the ban on changing the code. But again, it might have been nice to put the ads that are most likely to get the most clicks at the top of the list, even if they pay less. But putting the ones with the highest bid price there though isn’t a bad idea either.
• You cannot reveal your click-through rates or any other information about your site performance.
Which is why I haven’t quoted my own CTR figures in this book. But you can reveal the amount of Google’s gross payments to you, which I have done. These rules are all pretty straightforward and for the most part, easy to follow. Usually, if someone has been banned from AdSense it’s because they’ve clicked on their own ads and Google didn’t believe that it was an accident. That’s just rotten luck.
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