Google AdSense
can be an absolute goldmine for anyone who is willing to invest some
time in learning how to use it effectively. A lot of people who start
using Google AdSense tend to get turned off by it within the first
couple of months because they just don’t seem to be making the money
that they had expected.
Arm yourself against making the typical newbie mistakes and read our
tips below so that you’ll know just how you can make some good cash off
of AdSense.
1. Where Does AdSense Make Sense?
Perhaps the biggest mistake that those who use AdSense make is that they throw
ads on every type of website imaginable. Don’t waste your time, effort and ads on sites that won’t be bringing in the cash.
Let’s take a tech info website for example. If you run a site that
provides high level tech advice, then there’s a very low chance that
anyone visiting your site will bother with your AdSense ads. Why?
Because these people just don’t generally click on those types of ads.
They know about AdSense, and they didn’t come to your website for
anything but the information written on your site. They want answers to a
problem, and then they want to get out.
Let’s say you have a website that’s more geared towards sales,
however. This would be a better type of site to have ads on as people
will be far more likely to click on the advertisements you put up.
It may take a bit of trial and error since some
niches
tend to do better than others when it comes to these types of ads, but
generally speaking, if your blog or website is about selling things,
then AdSense will work better for you.
2. “SmartPricing:” Anything But Smart
Whenever possible, you have to avoid Google’s “SmartPricing” scheme.
With SmartPricing, Google gives advertisers a discount based on how
popular or “valuable” your website is. They tend to base this on your
site’s click through ratio.
So if your
website
has a high click through ratio, then the perceived value of your site
is high so then the cost per ad click is higher. If your click through
ratio is low, however, the value of your site is “low” so you get less
money per click. The difference between a SmartPriced site and a
non-SmartPriced site can be anywhere from a couple cents to several
dollars in difference.
One way to avoid this is to post your AdSense ads only on your
older posts. Why? Because anyone who regularly visits your site isn’t
going to click on your ads. If you post them on your older posts
however, you’ll be able to possibly keep your click through ratio pretty
high. There are a lot of resources out there about how you can change
the coding of your website or blog to keep your ads only on your older
posts.
Another way to avoid the dreaded SmartPricing is to display your ads
to those who have landed on your page through a search engine only. You
can again tailor your blog using the “function” file to change where the
ads are displayed.
3. Choose The Best Keywords
Google is all about keywords, so in order to make the biggest profit
you need to choose the best CPC keywords out there. You can use a number
of great tools out there to help identify what the high paying keywords
for your niche are, and there are several lists supplied for free, such
as www.rumler.com.
Keywords
also determine what kind of ads are going to show up on your website or
blog. Nothing’s worse than visiting a website that’s cluttered with ads
that don’t even make sense. Target your keywords so that you’ll be able
to “influence” what types of ads will show up on your blog or site.
Make sure that these keywords are on your website or blog entry, but BE
CAREFUL. If the keyword density is too high, you WILL be penalized by
Google and can even be tossed out of their AdSense program.
TIP: Read Google’s terms of service. Once you’re out of the program,
you’re pretty much out for good. Follow the terms of service, stay in
their good graces, and write great
content so you’ll continue to get visitors who’ll click on your ads.
4. Choose Big Ads
AdSense
advertisements
come in a variety of formats, so you can tailor the formats to see
which works best with your blog. Having an advertisement that looks good
on your blog or site is important, but keep this in mind: the large
336×280 rectangle sized advertisements has long proven to give the best
payout. Maybe this is because the ad is right in any visitors face, or
maybe it’s because that size can display video ads (which are increasing
in popularity). Either way, it may be a good idea to start out with an
ad around that size.
5. Monitor Your Success
No matter what you do with your
blog
or website, you need to keep track of how successful your ads are
doing. If you don’t monitor your ads, then you will ultimately fail.
You’ll be able to pin point which ads work, which don’t, and over time
you may discover that certain ads work best at certain times throughout
the year while others work best at other times.
One of the best things that we can suggest is that you look at your
top 1/5 of pages, and then you take a look at your bottom 1/5 of pages.
Why are the top 1/5 of pages making more money? What are you doing
right? Try to take what seems to be working with the top 1/5 of your
pages and then incorporate those ideas and methods into the bottom 1/5.
You’ll also be able to quickly see whether or not your chosen
keywords are making money. If your keywords aren’t working, change them
up! You should always do a top keyword run at least once a week to make
sure that your site is up to date and current.
