Thread: AdSense Monetization and Themes

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to get some discussion going about theme layout and maximizing AdSense income. I'll start by adding that I am NOT an AdSense expert, but I'd like to become one.

In other threads the Google hotspot map has been mentioned, but I'd like to ask for people's opinion on standard site layouts and how well they work for you. I've always used either two or three column designs, 2 col with sidebar navigation to the left, or 3 col content-sidebar-sidebar.

Are these the best or worst layouts? What works for you and drives AdSense income?

My current Adsense income is nothing major, as it stands I'm looking at $150 per month if levels stay the same. Each day so far my earning have increased by a few $ so with some luck that will continue.

I've served up 23k impressions 6.3k of those are from the good old 336x280 box. This has performed best for me within a left justified column, where the main website content is in the centre.

Originally Posted by elbandelero

I've always used either two or three column designs, 2 col with sidebar navigation to the left, or 3 col content-sidebar-sidebar.

Are these the best or worst layouts? What works for you and drives AdSense income?

I think the key is to have the ads in-content, or as close to in-content as possible.

I tend to go with 3 columns because that lets me use two in-contend ads and one or more ads on a sidebar. The sidebar ads don't perform well, but I do enjoy the slight revenue boost.

One thing I would like to test is the effects of width alternatives in the center column. Specifically, does a center column that is the same width as an AdSense large rectangle (336px) outperform a wider center column?

I've tried moving the content column to the left and that didn't seem to do a lot for CTR. I had thought that a wide skyscraper ad between the content and the navigation would do well, but it didn't turn out that well.

If I had uniformly longer content, I could put three ads in the content of each article. That would be optimal. Unfortunately, many of my articles are so short that they would look completely ridiculous in that layout.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

I had thought that a wide skyscraper ad between the content and the navigation would do well, but it didn't turn out that well.

I noticed that to. I almost dont have click on that place. Incontent positioned ads are perfoming much better.

Since I am using 468x60 for in content, I am hoping that when change them to 336 x 280 Large Rectangle will have much better effect.

On my period-drama website (don't ask), I'm using a bit of PHP code to randomly float the 336x280 ad blocks to either the left- or the right-hand side (always in-content) on some pages. Have a look at some of the articles and/or reload them to see the ads switch positions. The idea is that this should prevent banner blindness with respect to one particular part of the pages on the site; if you consistently have ads in one area (e.g. a certain column), users will quickly "learn" to ignore that column. Mix it up!

That's one of the most interesting ideas I've come across in a long time, I can see how difficult it is to ignore the ads. Do you just use a randomizer with only two options, or a rotator script. The reason I ask is that every time I refresh the page I'm seeing the ad on the other side, it doesn't seemto be very random and I'm wondering if long term readers could develop ad blindness if the position is always left-right-left-right vs left-left-right-left etc

Neat idea I see it rotating around on this page

http://www.perioddramas.com/articles...rl-earring.php

It's a simple bit of PHP that should give a totally random 50:50 split, although there might be some effect with your browser caching the page. Don't forget that "left,right,left,right" is just as (un)likely as "left,left,left,left" or "right,right,left,left" or indeed any other sequence of (in this case four) sides.*

However, the main idea is that if visitors read several of the articles on the site, the ads should appear pretty much randomly on different sides of the articles, because the browser-caching effect won't be there with different article pages.

* The winning lottery-number sequence 1,2,3,4,5,6 is just as likely to come up as 31,17,6,43,12,23 or any other particular sequence of six numbers that you might specify.

Originally Posted by Dr. Stavros

It's a simple bit of PHP that should give a totally random 50:50 split, although there might be some effect with your browser caching the page. Don't forget that "left,right,left,right" is just as (un)likely as "left,left,left,left" or "right,right,left,left" or indeed any other sequence of (in this case four) sides.*

However, the main idea is that if visitors read several of the articles on the site, the ads should appear pretty much randomly on different sides of the articles, because the browser-caching effect won't be there with different article pages.

* The winning lottery-number sequence 1,2,3,4,5,6 is just as likely to come up as 31,17,6,43,12,23 or any other particular sequence of six numbers that you might specify.

Mmmm, I see where you're coming from, so I need to disable the caching plugin or find a client-side randomizer that won't conflict with the ad.

Originally Posted by elbandelero

Mmmm, I see where you're coming from, so I need to disable the caching plugin or find a client-side randomizer that won't conflict with the ad.

Well, I don't know about all that. I simply use a bit of code that says:

Code:

<div class="float<?php if(rand(0,1)){echo "left";}else{echo "right";} ?>">
<?
include "adsense-336x280-large-rectangle.php";
?>
</div>

...and then the AdSense code is in that included .php file, and my CSS file says what the "floatleft" and "floatright" classes mean.