How much revenue are you earning from Google Adsense? Lets be honest, how many people actually make six figure monthly incomes from the Adsense program? Google themselves will tell you that whilst these people exist, they are still in the minority. Anyone, however, can use the Adsense program to develop a steady and regular complimentary source of revenue.
If you run a website or blog and aren't already using the program, then you are missing out on some of the easiest money you will ever make! The Adsense program couldn't be simpler, webmasters receive a special code from Google which they place on their sites to display targeted ads. Whenever a visitor clicks on one of these ads, the webmaster earns a commission. Unlike other online businesses, there is no selling involved. From the webmasters point of view the program is simple, the more people click your ads, the more money you will have coming in.
Although this is an excellent and easy way to generate an income, many sites are not maximising their Adsense potential. There are a lot of basic things people can do to increase their Adsense revenue. None of these tactics are new, but that's a good thing, as they have stood the test of time.
The question is how can you increase your Adsense revenue without increasing the number of web visitors?
The key to earning an income with Google Adsense is to have your ads match the rest of the site, making them look like part of your content. Avoid placing your Adsense blocks to look like blatant advertisements. Blending is the key.
Here are six simple tips to help you increase your adsense revenue.
1) Location, location, location - As with real estate, the location of your adsense blocks is critical. Where possible ensure the ad blocks appear in the top part of the page, or above the fold. Blend your ad blocks into your content, as close to the middle of the page as possible.
2) It's all in the shapes - Choose you ad formats wisely. Whilst the leaderboard (728x90) and wide skyscraper (160x600) Most of the time people opt to use the Leaderboard (728x90) or Wide Skyscraper (160x600) style ads. Whilst these are often the easiest to incorporate into your site, they are not always the best in terms of click through rate. The Large Rectangle (336x280) has been found to perform consistently well in terms of click through rate. Place one of these within your content an your off to a good start.
3) Don't use the border - One of the keys to blending is to get rid of the border. You do this by setting the border colour to the same colour as your background.
4) Change your site wide font - Again, this deals with blending. Change your web style (preferably using CSS) to reflect the font used by adsense. I like to use Arial 10pt.
5) Colour blending - The third point that deals with blending. Make sure the colours in your ad blocks match the colours of your site. For example, if you hyperlinks are orange, make the links in your ad blocks orange. If you background colour is green, make the background of your ad blocks green.
6) Limit the options - Possibly the best way to increase your click through rate, this is also one of the sneakiest. Leave your visitors with very few options through which to leave you site. If a link doesn't need to be there, get rid of it. If there are few links, besides your ad blocks, when a visitor is ready to leave and is looking for a link to click on, the likelihood of them clicking is increased.
A lot of these things can be handled in the site design stage, and they don't take a lot of time to get it right. Increase your traffic, increase your click through rate, and you will increase your revenue!
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