The Real 6 Secrets Behind Google Adsense’s High Earnings

I know the title sounds rather sp@mmy, but NO — I am not going to try and sell you any eBook with ground-breaking-success-tips and I am not going to try and talk you over into signing up with Adsense under my referral. This post is based on my personal experience with Adsense only, and after being their publisher since summer 2005, I came a long way — from $X a month to high $XXX a month and now I want to share my knowledge, hoping it will help you, the beginner, and you’d not need to waste 2 years of trial and error.

So, let’s get started — for the sake of the example I will use my own websites as a demonstration. Tip 1: Target the NON-webmasters oriented traffic. It took me over 2 years to realize this simple rule. The thing is, webmasters mainly maintain an Adsense account themselves, and therefore quickly develop “Adsense Blindness”. They detect the ads, regardless them being blended in or standing out and skip them. Those who are not familiar with Adsense all that closely, click much easier assuming its a part of the content. Good example would be my Free Ecards website, where the CTR on the front page varies between 15% to 25%. Apart from being placed exactly in according to Google Adsense heatmap, the other explanation to the high Click-Through-Rate is that visitors to that site are mainly NOT webmasters, and therefore believe the adverts are a part of the site. Tip 2: Use Google Adsense heatmap. What I have learnt from Steve Pavlana, is that you should either make money confidently (and this means prime positions are reserved to adverts) OR, not make money at all. A “shy” tiny banner at the footer is waste of time and space. If you don’t want your kids to inherit your inactive Adsense account, study the heat map and place ads on the red zone, in the middle. You might consider changing the entire design FOR Google Ads, to ensure the desired ads format fits exactly where you need it. This was yet another mistake I was making as a beginner. I used to chose designs I like and then trying to insert Google Ads into it, which mostly looked bad. Now, I choose the design that will make my Adsense stand on primarily positions and I design my sites this way. Another good example og Adsense-friendly design I made is my hosting guide (currently under development). They key is — Adsense should be the FIRST thing visitors sees upon landing on your website. Tip 3: Size matters, use the High CTR Ads Formats Unlike other networks, Google offers a huge variety of ads formats. Google Adsense help center confirms that the most effective formats are the 336×280 Large Rectangle, the 300×250 Medium Rectangle, and the 160×600 Wide Skyscraper. On my practice, Medium Rectangle and Wide Skyscraper worked best, along with (728×15_4) Link Unit at the top, where typically top navigation would be placed. I’d suggest the bigger links size, because they are slightly more visible. The biggest earners online such as Steve Pavlina and John Chow implement implemented the 300×250 format right in the middle of the (visible portition of the ) page, so I guess it’s safe to say they work well for many other publishers. Tip 4: More Traffic — More Clicks. Simple. While it’s impossible to make decent money with little traffic, the good news are — it’s also impossible to make little money with big traffic. The more visitors (especially first time visitors), the more people get to view relevant Ads, the bigger are the chances to collect clicks. They key to success lies in traffic, in massive daily traffic, but then again, no traffic on earth will help you if the ads are not in prime position.

Tip 5: Traffic From Search Engines Brings More Clicks. This is yet another simple trick. People who come from search engines, seeking for “something”, are NOT looking for this particular “something” on YOUR site. They don’t really care where to get what they want, so once they landed on your website from, let’s say — Google, there is a big chance that the ads displayed will be related to their search term, and if you were a good publishes and placed the adverts right in their face, the chance they will continue their quest further is quite big. It is actually very well known that SE (Search Engine) traffic is best for Conversion (i..e it converts to sales and clicks better). Tip 6: Darker Layout “Hide” Adsense Better. Based on the last 50,000 clicks, I an confidently say that my sites with dark layout cpnvert better. The avarage CTR on Laurel Wreath and Digital Photography websites are much higher compared to sites with same structure but lighter background. I also learnt that mild pastel colors are better for CTR because pastel design appear less “commercial” to most visitors. Following these 6 simple tips can already help you with doubling the income in a matter of weeks, if not days. Just remember that in order to make Adsense perform best you need to have unique, quality, interesting content first. You need a LOT of content, because when you have a lot of written text on each page where Adsense is placed, your Ads don’t appear as if they dominate the page and moreover Adsense has more keywords to chose from. Good luck and hope it will help the beginners to get started!