One on our websites, www.voodoochilli.net I have noticed that sometimes the Google Adsense adverts change to a new format I haven’t seen before. This seem quite random and there doesn’t appear to be any pattern or relation to content of the site affecting the ad format.
Compare the following two images. The first one is the average sort of ad we get, and the second one is the new type. It’s bigger and bolder and I think it could be quite effective.
I have had to shrink the images of the ads down a bit so they fit on this blog properly, but you get the idea. I should also point out these are the 480×60 ads.
Every now and then you find a blog that stands out from the rest, and this one is a prime example
Just today I added a tags feature on Voodoochilli.net. Tags are a way of social networking allowing people to find out what’s popular. I found this project particularly interesting as it really does show what real people are posting on the site. Following a simple set of rules, the end result is really quite revealing.
I have been doing a lot of research about this lately, there are loads of sites telling you how to make thousands from the google adsense affiliate program. They all make it sound so easy. In reality you have to put in a lot of hard work. From my research there are three main factors which will enable a high payout from google:
Lots of traffic
There are untold strategies to boost traffic to a site, including well optimised pages and keywords (meta data), inbound links, paid advertising etc. in my opinion the best way to drive visitors to a site is to have decent content. If you offer something to your visitors, be it information or advice or the free use of a service you will undoubtedly get a certain level of traffic
A good click through rate (CTR)
Positioning of ads can help increase this, either by blending in your ads or making them stand out from your content. Some people place images next to the ads, which apparently increases CTR by attracting more attention to the advert.
High paying keywords
Now this is tricky. Making a site only to generate high paying key-worded ads is a bad idea, and not allowed by google. This doesn’t stop people doing it though! I personally think if you don’t know what you are talking about, then don’t bother writing about it. Pick a subject you are interested in, your visitors will have a far more informed and enjoyable visit and will keep coming back.
One way of increasing the keyword price is by using section targeting. This allows you to emphasise or ignore certain content from the site. Results aren’t immediate as you have to wait for google to re-crawl your site before there is any noticeable difference.
As mentioned in my first post I am going to use various techniques and tricks to boost traffic to this blog. I have already placed a few subtle links on a couple of my other websites that get visited by search engines regularly so some work is already being done. Next I really need to “keyword up†this site. Before simply loading the site full of keywords I need to identify what keywords are needed to be effective. What sort of person am I trying to get to visit this blog? Many people do this try to imagine the average visitor (if there is such a thing) and even name them. I won’t be going that far, but I think I have a pretty good idea of the average web person – they are a bit like me.
The sort of terms I am likely to type in a search engine such as google when looking for a site like this are as follows:
“web development discussionâ€
“web dev blogâ€
“php discussion boardâ€
“html and css blogâ€
After writing this piece I will place similar keywords into the title tags, meta tags and alt tags of the site. I should also consider naming image files and directories to match. As content is king, simply by listing these words in this content I am increasing the potential of someone reading this.
After the site is key-worded I need to start researching and finding other sites to share links with. This is an ongoing process but we should start seeing some results soon.
