Successful Sites

Chances are, if you implement the SEO techniques we discussed, pay attention to your ad units, pay attention to placement - well, to everything else we discussed - your blog/web site will do pretty well for itsself. Remember, however, that no blog will suddenly jump from non-earning, to earning you a bundle. In fact, most professional bloggers have at least five blogs, and have been at it for a year before they decided to quit their “regular” job. Mew? You ask? Yep. Blogging is absolutely, unequivocably, not a get rich quick type of thing. Plan on at least a year, before you’re earning reasonable income from the blog. Think I’m kidding? Go read some of the information over at problogger.net, the home of one of the most successful bloggers out there (Darren Rowse). I’ve been at this - regularly - for about five months, now. I’m not making enough to live off of, yet, trust me. In fact, I’m barely “supplementing” my income with it. Do I hope to eventually make enough to live off of? I hope to. Will I? Probably not. Amateur Blogging is never about the money. If it’s about the money for you, go read Darren’s blog at Problogger.net. If it’s about the love of blogging - if you’d keep blogging even if you couldn’t earn money at it - then stick with the three sites about amateur blogging: Amblogger (Vince Chan), SmackDash (Justin Shattuck), and my blog, MindBlog (Eric Scalf).

Unsuccessful Sites

So you’ve been at this for about five or six months, and your CTR is less than 1%, and the money is barely trickling in (less than a dollar a week). WHY?! Well, it’s time to analyze your site. First off, how busy is it? Are the ads overriding the content? Have you optimized your ad placement? Are your ads blended? Do you have content that people want to read?

The trick is to start looking at your blog, from the view of a reader. In fact, if you have friends, or trusted readers, ask some of them to go and take a look at your site and tell you what they think of it. Ask what they think of your content, your layout, your ad placement, etc…

How do you Fix Your Site?

Take the information you get from other people, and use to to re-do your blog. Here are some things you might want to look at:

• Ad Placement: Are ads overriding your content? Are they in good places for click-through?
• Ad Colors/Blending: What do your colors look like? Are they blended in to your site? If you’re using a border on your ads, try removing it. Play around!
• Layout: Is your layout easy to navigate? Can people find where they’re supposed to click, fairly easily?
• Keeping Readers Around: Are you drawing readers in past the initial entry? Try using tools like “Related Posts” plugins, or “Recent Posts” etc…
• Making Entries Skimmable: Are you keeping people on the page? The average person spends sixteen seconds on a single entry. Blog readers don’t read, the term is a misnomer. They should be called “blog skimmers”. Make your entries easy to skim and read. Use a lot of lists, bullet points, short paragraphs, etc…
• Using Links Effectively: Are your links prominent? If you’re using a lot of links to other blogs, etc… you’ll want them there, but you’ll want them sort of hidden in the middle of paragraphs and sentences. You want people to click deeper into your own blog, not to others’ blogs. Now I’m not saying don’t use links to others’ posts, but use them sparingly (if you reference a post twice, only link to it once, towards the end of the article). Make your affiliate and money-making links (including links to your own blog) more prominent. Early in the post, and at the beginnings of sentences.
• Titles: How are your titles? Good use of SEO and keywords?
• Keywords: What’s your keyword density? THINK KEYWORDS! Look at my SEO Techniques post, and image that the words “SEO” and “Keyword(s)” were your keywords. THAT’S density.
• Incoming Traffic: What are you doing to get traffic? If you’re mostly using surf-for-click programs, you’re out of luck. The average surf-for-clicks surfer doesn’t even read the blog they click on to. They just want the credits. Leverage free advertising space. Use your e-mail signature. Place your blog in your Usenet/newsgroups signature (every time I make a post on Usenet, I have my blogs in my .sig. I get clicks from there!) Use forum sigs. Use every amount of free space you can think of.

All of these techniques, and more, are legitimate ways to getting better traffic, and more clicks on your ads. There’s one rule to follow at the beginning… “With more traffic, comes more clicks.”

Now, that rule is not always accurate. Many studies show that some blogs with high traffic perform poorer than blogs with lower traffic. Why? It depends on the topic, and the audience. But, at the beginning, more traffic = more clicks.

Spend time on your blog. Spend a LOT of time on your blog. If you had the blog set up, the template and layout complete, the ads set, etc… and it only took you a week of three hour nights, then you didn’t spend enough time on it. A month of three hours nights is a good start. The thing is, you never stop evaluating your blog. Ever. The moment you stop is the moment you fail.

There is one important thing to remember in the constant evaluation of your blog. Once you get the main things initially set, make only minor changes. This adage does not count if you do a total re-design, however. I would suggest no more than one total re-design, and one partial re-design a year. A partial re-design is keeping the same general layout, but changing things like location of items (move categories list, move links list, etc…) or color scheme.

Expanding and Exploring

Did that previous section seem to come to an abrupt end? It did. It flows into this one, though. If your blog is failing, then it’s time to start expanding and exploring. Perhaps your niche is too narrow, and it’s time to widen it. Start seeing which posts draw in the most traffic.

A perfect example: If I were to expand this blog (I’ve actually fairly recently narrowed it), then I would look at the posts drawing in the most traffic. The top two are posts on building home made wifi antennas, and implementing GTD in Thunderbird. They pretty well trade off the top spot, as far as search traffic. Were I to expand this blog, I’d likely start taking a more lifehacker approach (by the way, look for a possible lifehacker blog beginning around August of this year, as my fiance and I get a home, together), and talking about GTD and various implementations of it. Another approach would be going into the “home made tech” arena, and talking about making your own technology, ala hack-a-day.

The other method is to expand into other blogs. Remember, just because one failed, does not mean another will. Is there something else you’re interested in, or knowledgable in? Try writing a blog about that. You can always start with a generic, pre-made template, and if it takes off, put more time into it. Most professional bloggers have between five and ten blogs, all successful. What they’re not telling you is that they may have gone through as many as twenty or thirty, just to find those five. As an amateur blogger, don’t give up. First off, if you’re not getting a lot of traffic and ad revenue, and it’s making you want to close your blog, then perhaps you shouldn’t have been blogging on that subject in the first place.

Want an example on that? Simple. I make around two dollars a week from this blog. That’s right. I never said I was making a lot of money. I have, however, managed to bring this blog from making two dollars a month to making that per week, so I consider that a success - especially as blogs about blogging are notoriously poor earners. If I was told that I could no longer run any ad/revenue systems on this blog, I would still continue to blog. Perhaps I would broaden my focus, again, but I would continue to blog about blogging, write series, and bring information to bloggers.

The point I’m trying to make is, if you’re an amateur blogger, then money should be a low end concern. Sure, everyone wants to make money from blogging, but if you’re not in it for the love of blogging, you’re not in it to be an amateur. I’m not saying that making money from your blog is wrong. I’m not even saying that using it as your sole means of income is wrong. I’m just saying that you should never blog about a topic, purely for money. The professional blogs I enjoy reading, I enjoy because the bloggers obviously enjoy their topic. The non-pro blogs I enjoy reading? Again, because the bloggers enjoy their topic.

If your current blog isn’t making a lot of money, then find another topic you enjoy blogging about, and start a new blog about it. Spend time developing that blog, and see where it goes. Did it fail, despite everything? Try another. Then, another. Give each one a year or so (in other words, you can open more than one new blog at a time) before shutting them down. Even when you shut them down, don’t remove them. Leave them online, with the ads. You’ll still make some income, from time to time.

Expand. Explore. Dive in, headfirst, and don’t worry… the blogging pool is deep.

So What’s Next?

That’s all, folks. That’s it for the Advanced Monetization Series. I’ve enjoyed imparting knowledge to you, over the course of this series. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning. As always, do not be afraid to ask questions! I wish you success in blogging, my friends! By the way, stick around, the “Tips for New Bloggers” series will start in just about a week. Even if you’re not a new blogger, you still may find some useful tips! Stay tuned!

Why is SEO Important?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It’s all over the Internet, these days. Most people think it’s a good idea. Some think it’s bunk (for blogs). Personally? I noticed an increase in traffic from search engines once I implemented some simple SEO techniques. An increase in search engine traffic, means an increase in general traffic, and - potentially - income. Additionally, SEO techniques will increase your ranking in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). There are a few searches for which I’m page one, result one. General SEO also helps out your readers. Some of the techniques I’ll describe, below, will allow your readers to more easily pick out the articles in which they are interested. Overall, SEO will help boost your unique traffic, and your return traffic - two things that are very important to monetization.

Setting Up Meta Tags

Meta tags. Some of you are already shaking your heads, confused. Meta tags are the tags that exist within the <head> portion of your web page. They define keywords, descriptions, etc… of your blog. There are quite a few meta tags, but the two of particular importance are the “keyword” and “description” tags. These tags define your blog, to search engines. The first thing that goes into a search engine database is the title tag, then the meta description, and meta keyword.

The Title Tag

The <title> tag defines your blog’s title. Notice the “name” up on the top of the screen when you’re viewing a blog? Not the top of the blog, but the top of the window. In Internet Explorer, it will say: BLOG TITLE - Microsoft Internet Explorer. It’s similar for every browser. What should you set your title to? There are three possibilities, and these are listed from the least effective (in SEO) to the most:

• Your Blog’s Title on Every Page (such as: “MindBlog”)
• Your Blog’s Slogan, and Title on Every Page (such as: “Amateur Blogging for Amateur Bloggers >> MindFyre”)
• Your Blog’s slogan and title on the main and archive paces (as above), and your entry title and blog name on individual entry pages (such as: “Advanced Monetization Series: SEO Techniques >> MindBlog”)

The majority of blogging systems will allow you to display the post title (somehow) in your blog’s title tag. For WordPress, this is as simple as the following code (note that this sets up option three, fully, including static and entry pages):
<title><?php if ( is_home() ) { bloginfo('description'); } wp_title(); ?> » <?php bloginfo('name'); ?></title>

The above code will display your “Slogan >> Name” on the main index and archive pages, and will display “Entry title >> Name” on individual entries and WordPress “pages”. Other blogging systems (such as MoveableType) should have equivalent code.

Why is this important? When someone is searching in search engines, the link displayed will show the TITLE tag for that page. You will get more clicks if people can know ahead of time the title of the entry they’re clicking to. It works like this. You want to learn how to use a GTD (Get Things Done) in Mozilla’s Thundebird. So, you go to - say - Google, and seach for: GTD Thunderbird. The search results pop up. You see three choices:

• Implementing GTD in Mozilla Thunderbird >> MindBlog
• Technology With a Twist >> TechBlog
• Blog Archive >> SomeBlog

Which are you most likely to click on? Personally, I’d be clicking on the first option - the one that specifically states it’s about what I’m looking for. If that option wasn’t availible, I’d probably try the second option, as it seems to be about technology, and therefore germaine. If the second wasn’t there, I’d try my search at another engine, or use different terms. See my point? Enhanced Click-throughs.

When I changed my title tags to be the above, about a week later, my search engine traffic exploded (comparitively). Particularly, the entry on GTD in Thunderbird I used as an example, above. To this day, it’s one of the most read entries on this blog. It’s all thanks to the Title tag. Use your title tags effectively, and you will see an increase in search engine traffic.

The Meta Description Tag

What is it? Put very simply, it’s a description of your blog. The tag exists like this:
&ltmeta name=”DESCRIPTION” content=”Your description goes here” /> (The “/” is for XHTML compatibility that states that every tag must be closed. Since there is no &lt/meta> tag, you demonstrate the closure of the tag by adding a “/”.)

What should your description tag contain? On your main and archive pages, your description should be a general description of your blog. A sentence or two, at most. For instance: “MindBlog: Amateur Blogging for Amateur Bloggers, contentrating on blogging and blogosphere information targetted to the amateur blogger”.

On your individual entry pages, the description tag should change, somewhat. On these pages, you should have your description either contain a short excerpt of the post (WITHOUT HTML), or - at least - the title of the entry. Normally, we would use WordPresses the_excerpt() function. Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems with this. First off, the_excerpt can only be used within the post loop. Although you can open a post loop within the header, there exists another issue. The the_excerpt function will display any HTML within your entry. I am currently exploring a way to sanitize this (remove the HTML formatting), and will update once I figure it out.

Why use the_excerpt? That function displays the first 20 or so words of your post. If you are writing for SEO, the first 20 words should contain your main keywords for the post in question. This is perfect for the description tag. For now, however, don’t worry about the_excerpt, as it currently causes issue.

Instead, I suggest using your entry title in the description tag. As with the <title> tag, you need to set it up to display a general description on the main pages, and the entry description on the entry pages. This is easily accomplished with the following code: <meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="<?php if ( is_single() ) { single_post_title(); } else { ?>Your Description Goes Here, Mine is, Blogging, Politics, Opinions and more at MindFyre<?php } ?>">

Using the above technique, search engines are better able to classify your posts in their results, leading to increased traffic (and income).

The Meta Keywords Tag

The Meta Keywords tag contains several keywords (between 15 and 20) relating to your blog. For instance, with mine, I might use the keywords: “blogging, blogosphere, blog, blogs, amateur blogging, wordpress, technology, writing for blogs, blog writing, entries, posts, articles” and so on. Make sure your keywords actually pertain to your blog. Using keywords that have nothing to do with your site is considered “illegal” by search engines, and may result in your being removed from their rankings.

Your Meta Keyword tag will not change from page to page, and is set in the header section. It exists, as follows:
<meta name="keywords" content="your, keywords, go, here" />

I suggest sitting down and really giving thought to your keywords. What words, or (very) short phrases, describe your blog and its content?

Pulling it All Together

As explained above, placing each of those meta tags, and the title tag, appropriately in the header, will result in increased search engine traffic, will enable search engines to better classify and rank your blog within their results pages, and may actually increase your ranking on search engines.

But What About Page Rank?

Page Rank is important, but it is not the end-all, be-all of search engine optimization. Besides, page rank only applies to Google. There are hundreds of other - well used - search engines out there that will be indexing your site.

Entry Titles

Writing an effective entry is important, but having an effective entry title is just as important. This will affect your meta description tag, your title tag, and your visitors ability to find articles. If you take a look at my blog, you see that I list each category the entry falls under, a colon, and the title of the entry. In other words: “Blogging, AdSense, WordPress: New AdSense Plugin for WordPress”. This enables people to see what the entry is generally about when they’re looking at the page (or search engine results), and - once capturing their attention with the categories - then show them the full subject of the entry.

Here’s some title tips:

• Don’t use “cute” titles. I used to do this, and those entries get much less traffic than the regular, explanatory titles I use now. In fact, I’ll be going back, eventually, and changing the titles in my old entries.
• Do use descriptive titles. In other words, titles like “New AdSense Plugin for WordPress,” or “Implementing GTD in Mozilla Thunderbird,” or “SEO Techniques.” This allows your perspective reader (or searcher) to determin what the entry is actually about. If you insist on using “cutesy,” or less “cold” titles, you could do something like “How I set up GTD in Thunderbird” or “Some SEO Techniques I use” or “I Just Installed a New AdSense Plugin”. Stay descriptive.
• Place Keywords Before Full Title. In other words, precisely as I demonstrated in the first paragraph of this section. If you don’t want to display the categories the post falls in, the use descriptive terms, like: “Plugins, WordPress, AdSense: New AdSense Plugin” or “GTD, Mozilla, Thunderbird: Implementing GTD in Thunderbird” or even “SEO, Monetization, WordPress, Blogging: SEO Techniques (with code for WordPress users)”.
• Don’t worry about long titles. If they break your layout, edit your CSS so they’ll work. Long titles are fine, especially when they’re descriptive.

Using the tips and techniques above, you should be able to write effective entry titles and generate more clickthroughs from search engines, and even from your feeds.

Writing Entries for SEO

Now you’re saying “Oh No! Now you’re going to tell me how I should write?!” No, not really. I’m going to give you some tips, but they won’t change your writing style, much. Really, the only main tip is “THINK KEYWORDS”.

Once you know what the post will be about, determine a few (three or four) basic keywords for the post. Take the two most applicable keywords, and do your best to work them into the first couple of sentences. Then, generously sprinkle all of your keywords throughout your first paragraph. In the rest of the entry, try to use each keyword at least one or two more times. Why? Keyword density will increase search engine rankings. In fact, for some search engines, this (keyword density) is the primary thing they use in determining the ranking for each of your entries/pages. You don’t really have to change how you write. Just work in certain words a bit more.

Using an SEO Company/Consultant

A lot of websites (and even a lot of bloggers) use SEO consultants. I’m using one for all of my sites, actually. Keep in mind, that unless you get involved in a case study (as I was lucky enough to), you’ll wind up shelling out some money. For an amateur blogger, this may not be something you wish to do. If you open a pro blog, I suggest considering it. Are SEO consultants all they’re cracked up to be? Some are. For instance, every single tip I’ve given in this article was revealed to me by my SEO consultant. I’ll eventually have even more techniques I hope to share. Keep in mind, though, that not all SEO companies are reputable. Some warning signs of a dis-honest/dis-reputable company:

• Link Farms: These are general a bad idea
• Link-filled landing pages: These are ALWAYS a bad idea, and are generally considered grounds for removal by most search engines (and especially be Google)
• Hidden links: Again, grounds for removal. Only one thing will get you removed quicker:
• Hidden Text/Keywords: Ever seen a web page where the content stops, but the page continues - seemingly blank - for a while? Click and drag over that section. Often, a lot of keywords will pop up, highlighted. Why? They’ve “hidden” the text. This will get you yanked from the majority of search engines the minute they discover you’re doing it. It’s a very bad idea. If an SEO consultant recommends it, get the heck away from them as quickly as possible!
• Pay For Links: You pay the company to place your link on each and every single of their pages, and some of their clients’ pages. Normally these links won’t be hidden, but sometimes they are. The thing to realize is that non-related links usually don’t do much for you, and too many non-related links could be viewed as link farming. My suggestion? Don’t freaking pay for massive link-backs, unless it’s with a network where 95% (or better) of the pages in question are somehow related to your blog.

Err, another word of warning. A lot of SEO companies use spam (unsolicited e-mail) to draw you in. 99.9% of thsse will not be 100% reputable/honest. A good rule of thumb is to go on recommendations from people you trust, and not from random e-mails. In fact, I have had several thousand spam offers from SEO companies. Only one unsolicited piece of e-mail was from a reputable one. That one company sent me an e-mail stating that they had analyzed my website and had noticed a few broken links, and things that could use some attention. They then specified each thing in the e-mail. They closed off by stating that if I felt this was an intrusion, to feel free to ignore it, but if I was interested in an SEO company, to please consider them and e-mail them for more information (or visit their website). I looked, I asked some people, and they’re above-board.

My Personal Situation with SEO

I started working with an SEO consultant back at the beginning of February. I am not paying for this service. Essentially, the consultant was looking to do a case study on a few different web sites (or web masters) and eventually release a report on their traffic and earnings increased. I signed up for, and was accepted into, the case study. This study does not just concentrate on MindBlog. Rather, it concentrates on any and all websites and techniques I use to earn income, online. My other site, MindSpeak, Canine Mind, and the newly created MindFaith (which has not been publically opened, yet, hence the lack of a link), will all fall under the pervue of this study - as will any other site I open for the purposes of earning money, online.

“Wait! I thought you were an amateur, doing this!” Yes, and no. I never claimed I wasn’t doing this for the money. I did, however, say that were something to happen where I could NOT use my blogs to earn money, I would still keep blogging in them. That is the biggest difference between an amateur and professional blogger. The only “professional” site I have (that is, solely there for the income) is Canine Mind. You’ll notice, however, that it is not a blog.

Should you be interested in getting consultation from my SEO consultant, please contact Suzanne Fyhrie Parrott, at One Way Advertising & Design. For contact information, please visit the One Way Contact Information Page. For a quote, please visit the Quote page. Please note, the case study is currently closed to new applicants, so any SEO consultation would be on a for-fee basis.

So What’s Next?

This time, we looked at several SEO techniques, and specific code for implementing these in WordPress. The good news is that in doing this article, I have been inspired to write a WordPress Tips and Tricks series. The WordPress Series will be my fifth series written for this blog. It’ll be a while in coming, as I have a very lengthy “tips for the new blogger” series to write, after this one. Stick around, though, and you’ll see it.

Next time will be the last entry in this series, and we’ll discuss putting it all together. We’ll talk about successful and unsuccessful sites, as well as figuring out why the site is unsuccessful, and how to fix the problems, therein. Then, we’ll touch on expanding and exploring your income realm on the Internet. I might even tell you what made me decide to go from no income on my blogs, to adding ad units, etc… Then again, that’s a fairly lengthy explanation - perhaps I’ll save it for an entry, all its own. We’ll see.

Stay tuned!!

Tracking Your Earnings

If you don’t know why you should track your earnings, then perhaps you need to reconsider reading this series. Seriously. Tracking your earnings not only tells you where you’re making your money (which ad systems are performing best), but also how you’re making your money (which ad units and placements perform best). Every single ad system out there allows you to track your earnings. Some are as simply as listing the amount you’ve made per month/quarter. Some let you track ads by channels. This discussion will concentrate on ad systems with channels. Ad systems without channels are only going to give you certain information. You should already know what to do with that. Channels on the other hand…

Using Channels to Track Ad Revenue

What are Channels?

Channels are the term given to a specific method of tracking ad revenue. With AdSense, you can assign a “channel” to a single ad unit, or multiple ad units. You can create channels that cover your entire blog/site (I have one channel for each of my domains that are AdSense enabled), or you can create channels for each individual ad unit. With AdSense, you can create up to 200 channels, which gives you some pretty good freedoms on tracking.

With Chitika, you can create a seperate channel for each individual ad unit (as with AdSense), but you have absolutely no limit on the number of channels you can create. This makes it insanely easy to track which ads - or even which ad enabled entries - are performing the best.

Why Use Channels?

Without channels, you only know the total conversion for all ads, the total CTR, and the total revenue generated across all of your units. With channels, you are able to get that information for each individual unit. This enables you to determine which type, design, and style of ad unit performs best in each location. For instance, I have created a seperate channel (on AdSense) for each type of ad unit I use, and for each change I make to that ad unit. For example:

• A channel for the header unit on the main page
• A channel for the units inline with content on the individual entry page
• A channel for the links unit up top
• A channel for the sidebar ad unit

Every time I make a change to any ad unit, be it a color change, or a size change, I create a new channel. For instance, when I first had an ad unit by my comments, I had a 300×250 medium rectangle with a specific color scheme. It had its own channel. When I changed the color scheme, I created a new channel for it. When I changed the size (to a 120×240 veritcal banner), I created a new channel. Why? Because I could load AdSense and generate a report that allowed me to compare those ad units side by side. This would allow me to see if the medium rectangle with the original color scheme performed better than the new color scheme. In other words, I was able to tell which version of the ad unit had the highest conversion. Over time this is very valuable information, as you’re able to go back to the best performing ad units.

How to Use Channels

Very simple. In AdSense, create a channel for each type of ad unit. Then, every time you make a color, or type change, make a new channel. Since you have a limit of 200 channels, you can go back and delete the channels for the low performing ad units that you no longer use (over time). When it comes to the individual entry ad unit (inline with the content), I have one channel covering ALL of those units, on every entry. Why? Because I have well over 200 entries on the blog, and the way the code is set in the blog, I couldn’t create an individual channel for each.

Another example: With my Chitika units, I create a seperate channel for each and every ad unit, as Chitika allows easy channel creation. For Chitika units in individual entries, I create a channel based off of the title. When you insert Chitika into an entry, simply assign it a channel based on the title. To do so, where you insert the channel name, simply put: “<?php the_title(); >” This will name the channel, precisely the title. The only time this will not work is when you have quotes, or slashes (” or ” or \ or /) in the title. This enables you to tell which entries are generating the most revenue with Chitika. Perfect for a product blog.

Make Judicious Use of Channels

Each Seperate Unit

As discussed before, you should assign a channel to each and every seperate ad unit, if possible. In some cases, you simply won’t be able to. For example, my content inline ad units. Because of the way I have to insert the code, and the way AdSense assigns channels, I’m not able to do a unit for each and every entry unit. I have to do them all in one channel. For me, this works out pretty well, as I’m a topical blog, and not a product blog.

Each Seperate Topic

If you have multiple topics on your blog, you could consider a seperate channel for each topic. In AdSense, this isn’t too difficult, provided you insert your ad code into each entry, by hand. Just have a seperate ad code for each topic, with the channel name in place. For a blog covering multiple topics (say technology, gaming, blogging, and music), you can track - over time - which topic is performing the best, and concentrate more on that topic.

Each Seperate Product

This is primarily applicable to Chitika, as their system can be product specific. This gives you the ability to track which products are the best performers, giving you insight into the buying trends of your audience, telling you what you can hype up more often, or what types of products to concentrate on.

Pay Attention to Conversion

You should pay particular attention to the following numbers: CTR (Click Through Rate) and CPC (Cost Per Click). CTR gives you a percentage, telling you how often people are clicking on that particular ad/unit. CPC tells you how much you’re making on each click (on average). There are other numbers to pay attention to, as well, but those two are - by far - the most important.

CTR is More Important than CPC

While CPC (Cost Per Click) is important, your CTR (Click Through Rate) is more important. Certainly, if a particular ad unit is habitually generating low paying ads, you should take steps to draw in higher CPC ads. However, do NOT foresake CTR in favor of CPC. A high performing ad - that is, an ad with higher CTR/click through - will often generate more revenue (err, that is, money) than ads that have a lower CTR, but a higher CPC (cost per click). Why? Even though the first ad unit is generating a lower pay out per click, the fact that you’re getting more clicks on it will usually make up for, and surpass, the difference in cost.

COMPARE CHANNELS

I can’t stress this enough. When you create a channel for each change to an ad unit, make sure you go back fairly often and compare those channels. Doing so will help you determine which version of the ad unit is performing the best. You can always go back to an ad type that was performing better, but if you don’t compare the channels, you’ll never know.

Change or Remove Poor Performers

When you notice that a particular ad unit is performing poorly, change it. If not ad unit is performing well in that place, then flat out remove it. For instance, I used to have an ad unit by my comments, and a unit on the main/archive pages between the fifth and sixth entries. There were both very poor performers. I removed them, completely. I haven’t notice a difference in earnings, as other units have continued to perform better over time. Additionally, once you remove units - or enough time has passed that you know you’re not going back to an earlier version of the unit - you can remove the channels (in AdSense. Chitika does not allow the removal of old channels).

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed tracking your earnings using channels, and paying attention to CTR vs. CPC. Next time, we’ll talk about some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques, and why this is imporant (and even vital) to your blog/site. For you Wordpress users, I’ll include some code to make this easier. Stay tuned!

Product-Specific Entries

This particular section is especially important if you write a product-oriented blog, but it is also important to you if you write a regular blog. Anyone can stick in a product entry, every now and then. If you’re talking about the latest book you’ve read, or the laptop you recently purchased.

If you write a gadget, or product-specific niche blog, then adding an advertisement (via Chitika eMiniMalls, or Amazon Associates) for an individual product is simple. Just make certian your ad matches to the product you’re writing about. As a matter of fact, if you do write product-specific entries, regularly, you should probably be using Chitika or Amazon Associates links, judiciously.

If you write a regular blog, then it’s still pretty easy to write a product-specific entry, every now and then. Perhaps you just bought a new MP3 player, or finished a great book. Simply write an entry about the product/book/movie/whatever, and include Amazon Associates, or Chitika code within the entry. Make sure you’re recommending the product, and point out the things you really like about it. In other words, make people think that this is something they shouldn’t miss out on. Just remember to do it in a personable manner. Make it sounds like you really like the product (if you’re pimping a product you don’t like, then you’ve got problems), and make the entry seem to come from the “heart,” so to speak. In other words, don’t sound like a marketing guy, or a commerical.

Writing Entries for Affiliate Links

Say you’ve joined up with a great affiliate (in this case, let’s use Vonage), and you want to pimp them, and hopefully generate some money through your affiliate link. Start by getting the affiliate link code. Then, go and write your entry. How? Again, don’t sound like a commercial.

Let’s say you’re using Vonage. If you don’t have Vonage, perhaps a friend does. In this case, my friend (let’s call him “C”) has had Vonage for a while, now. I can simply start by talking about the fact that I was discussing Vonage with C, the other day, and he had great things to say. I then segway into the fact that I looked into them, and liked what I saw. Then, I use an affiliate link with text along the lines of “Take a look at what they have to offer,” or similar. So long as you don’t directly violate the terms of service, you’re good to say what you’d like in the link. Take some time to discuss the product from a personal point of view, then pimp the offerings, then link it.

Using Specific Topics to Generate Ads

Using specific topics, or keywords, to generate specific ads is a pretty important thing to know. Why? You can use specific keywords to generate ads with a higher PPC (pay-per-click). Take some time and use the resources availible to you (I prefer the program Adwords Accellerator) to research keywords and how much they “pay” (i.e. how much it costs to run an ad on that keyword. You’ll get a percentage of that amount). When doing this research, make certain you don’t look at the most expensive level. Each keyword has various pricing levels associated with it. I like to look at the levels right in the middle, for a good idea of how much an ad with that keyword would generate. It’s unlikely you’ll get the highest paying ads for a keyword. It’s fairly unlikely you’ll get the ones right in the middle, either, but it’s a much better change.

When you’re choosing keywords, make sure you compare the keywords to the topics you cover on your blog. You don’t want to suddely write an article about self-sealing stem bolts, just because it has a high PPC. When doing your research, start with the keywords associated with your blog, and then mine deeper into more specific keywords, along the same lines.

When you write an article about a specific keyword, you want to make certain you have good keyword density. Imagine my keyword for this post was “keyword.” Get the idea? Okay, you don’t have to go that dense with it, but having your keyword(s) in the post title, a few times in the first paragraph, in most major heading (h1 and h2 headings), and a few times throughout the article, and you’ll be doing good. Just research, find the best keywords, write the articles with good density, and there you go.

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed targetting entries to product-specific ads, and targetting your entries to generate ads with a higher PPC. Next time, we’ll discuss tracking your earnings, why it’s important, and how to do so. Stay tuned!

Read Your TOS

The first step in this article is the most important. Find your ad program’s Terms of Service, and READ THEM. Read them, learn them, know them. Read them, already? Go back and read them again. In fact, read them EVERY time you make ANY changes to ANY ad unit.

Does that seem like overkill? Well, yes, it is. But it’s not without its purpose. Knowing the TOS inside and out, means you know what you can do, without violating it. For instance, every. single. ad. system. prohibits you from asking people to click on your ads. Some ad systems will let you label your ads with various things. For instance, the affiliate programs I’ve joined, allow me to label those ads as “partners,” or “affiliates,” as I am considered an affiliate partner. Some ad systems, like Google’s AdSense, will only allow certain terms like “Sponsored Links” or “Advertisements.” The trick is to know what you can and can’t say, and what you can and can’t do. Once you’ve learned that, you’re good to go.

Ad Placement

We’ve talked about ad placement, before, but this time we’re discussing it as it relates to getting people to click. First and foremost, people are more likely to click an ad that resides within content (where content flows around the ad), then they are an ad that exists outside of content. While I can’t give you specific numbers (Google’s TOS prohibits it), I can tell you that my content inline (look at the top-left of this entry, if you’re reading it on the permalink page) ad unit has a much higher CTR than the ad unit on my sidebar, or the ad unit above the content on the main page.

Anywhere you have dynamically updating content is a good place to put an ad. If you have a flickr badge on your sidebar, try placing a small image unit (if possible - these will most likely be affiliate links) directly above, or below it. If you have a “Recent Comments” section on the sidebar, place a small (125×125, or so) ad unit above/below those. If you place it above the content, put it between the header and the content. In other words:
RECENT COMMENTS:
[ad unit, here]
{content goes here}.

Again, blend in your ad.

Another trick is to place link units within your blog roll, or link rolls. If you divide your links into sections, then place a link unit at the beginning, or end, of a section, somewhere.

Obviously, a lot of these tricks get people to click on the ads, as they think they’re a part of your site. Personally, I don’t think that’s as underhanded as people think it is. For instance, every Google unit has an “Ads by Google” statement on it. If people miss that, it’s really not my fault.

The placement of your ad units can also come in to bear if you’re deciding to place it to the left or right of ads. If you’re doing something at the beginning of your content, and wrapping the content around it, then by all means place the ad to the left of the content. Why? Because the eye naturally reads from left to right (when reading English text). (Then again, there’s another school of thought where, since the eye reads from left to right, sticking a blended, wrapped ad on the right, will make people see it, as they read the content. Ever get the feeling that monetization is not an exact science? Good, now you’re beginning to understand, young grasshopper.)

Drawing Attention, Without Drawing Attention

If you’re looking at that heading and going, “huh?” then you’re not alone. It works like this… You’re subconciously convincing the reader to click on an ad, without outright telling them to. Fortunately, no ad service has outlawed this kind of subconcious direction… yet.

One thing you do have to be careful of, though, is that most systems have a clause that states you cannot “call undue attention” to your advertisements. What constitutes “undue attention?” Well, for example, I’m treading on the thin line of it, here. If you look at the main ads on the permalink pages, you’ll see arrows on the right and bottom pointing toward the ad unit. Is this calling attention to the ad? Yes. How is it not calling “undue” attention? I’m using the arrows to seperate the ads from the content. Readers know the ads are there, already.. it’s fairly obvious those units are ads. Placing the arrows simply makes it easier to keep your eye on the content, and off the ad. The amazing thing is that when I implemented the arrows, I noticed an immediate increase in CTR, that has yet to go back down. While the arrows are dividing the ad from the content, they are also subconciously drawing the reader into the ad, and therefore the reader clicks.

Let’s get more in depth with this subconcious attention-getting, by looking at three different methods:

Using Text to Direct Attention

In essence, this is precisely what I’m doing with the arrows. These are HTML entities, that the browser renders as text. I could also have used some creative CSS to slightly shape my opening paragraphs into a slight arrow, pointing towards the ad. This is easiest to do with static content, as you can easily control the layout of that text, line by line. One method to do this in a blog is to use hard returns in your first few lines (For those of you unfamiliar with the term “hard return,” you can cause a hard return by pressing “enter” in your favourite blog editor, or by inserting a <br />). Another trick is to use the words “see above.” For instance, if you’ve written enough so that your current text is below the ad, you can refer back to something in the first few lines by saying “see above,” or my personal favorite, “(see above)”. This gets people to look, at first, directly above, and thus, see the ad.

Using Images to Direct the Eyes

Take a look at this webpage for radar detectors. Notice how the image of the radar detector “points” toward the text? You can do the same with an image pointing toward an ad. You have to be really creative in this, however, as your images will often not easily fit beside ads. Often an image pointing up, is a great idea to place below an ad. It’s hard to find a fitting image, but when you do, you can easily move attention in towards the ad.

Using Wording to Call Attention

Remember my comment about using the “see above” text (see above, heh)? You can use wording to direct people towards ads. Remember, you can NEVER use terms like “click,” unless they fall within a sentence and are 100% germaine to your topic at hand. You can never ask a reader to click an add. Ever. So how do you convince clicks with wording? It’s a refined science, actually. A lot of people use entries about how they’ve changed, or moved, or added ad units to their blog, to call attention to them. Some people simply use words that will often mimic ad text (if you get a lot of the same ads, then this will work for you). Using wording to call attention to ads is extremely difficult to explain, or demonstrate. This is the true “subliminal” portion of our discussion. The trick is to somehow plant the idea of clicking on an ad, without actually telling them to click on an ad. It’s difficult, but once you master it (and no, I haven’t), you’ve got it made.

So What’s Next?

This conversation, we discussed convincing people to click on ads, without actually outright asking them to. Next time, we’ll talk about how to target your entries to get the ads you really want. Stay tuned!!

Bigger is Not Always Better

Although most men argue that this isn’t true, most women will agree it is. Errr.. wait. My apologies, I forget we were discussing ad sizing. Technically, however, this is a very true axiom when it comes to ad units. Bigger is not always better.

In selecting the size of your ad units, you should select the most appropriate size for the area, making certain to leave a little “white space” (or blank space) around the unit. Also, when placing units within content, make sure you leave enough room for the content to wrap around the unit (sides, bottom, and/or top). When placing ads between entries, make sure you don’t choose a huge ad size. You don’t want the ad to overshadow the content.

Don’t Overshadow

Your ad unit should never over shadow your content. Your ad should attract just enough attention so that people know its there, but not detract from the content around it. Now, there are actually three schools of thought on this subject. The first says that you should blend all ads with your blog. Even sidebar ads should not have a border, should have the same background color as the sidebar, and should be made as unobtrusive as possible. The folks who use this method swear by it, and (often) claim that not only is it the best method for generating clicks, but that other methods will actually drive traffic away from your blog.

The second method says that you should make every ad unit stand out. Give every unit a border, make the background color the polar opposite of the background on which it sits, and use a unique link color. There’s an extreme to this school of thought, as well. It says that not only should you make your ads stand out, you should use the most garish and conflicting colors you can. This way more attention is drawn to your ad. The folks who use this method, swear by it (notice a pattern, here), and (often) say that the blending in folks don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

The third method is a combination of the two. Ads that are inline with content, between content areas, or anywhere around main content, should be blended in. At the very outside, ads between content can have a muted border color. The other ad units - sidebar, etc.. - should stand out, but not garishly so. In other words, those units should have borders, and even differing background colors, but should not make you wonder what new sort of LSD the designer was taking when they placed the ad. The folks using this method rarely ever swear by it (whoa! Trend breakers!!), and are often just using it to test which style performs better. There’s a flaw to that, though.

Remember my comment, before, that “what’s good for the goose is not, neccisarily, good for the gander?” Well it applies here, too. Ad units will perform differently based on size, location, type, colors, etc… Just because a blended ad performs well when it’s mixed in with content, does not mean it will always perform well on the side bar. Just because a side bar ad performs well when it stands out, doesn’t mean it will perform well anywhere else. Just because an ad performs well when it makes you think you’re on drugs, doesn’t mean that it will perform well, anywhere, ever. heh. What I’m trying to say, is that if you’re trying to decide between blended and stand-out ads, you need to test each ad unit, individually. Let your content-inline ad stand out for a month, and then let it blend in for a month. See what gets the best CTR. You’ll probably know pretty quickly whether or not a change was a good idea, but try to give each change at least two weeks, and preferrably a month, to see how it’s going to perform once people get used to it.

Whoa, you know what? In this section, I intended to talk about ad sizes, and instead spoke about ad colorization. Well, let’s continue on with the colorization, shall we? I’ll get back to the sizing in a minute.

Color Options: Blending In vs. Standing Out

Ad colorization is one of the big “what works best” type of scenarios in the blogging world. Like I said, above, those who use each method, swear its the best. The trick is finding out what works the best for each of your ad units.

Blending In

The trick to blending in us to use similar colors. In other words, if your links are orange, use orange links in your ads. If your background is green, use a green background in your ads. If you’re actually using orange text on a green background, then please, for the love of all that is holy, stop taking the drugs.

For a good idea of blended ads, take a look at the ad units within my individual entries, on this blog. Those units are designed to blend in. Same background color, same text color, same link color, no border, there you go. Why no border, you’re probably asking? Simple, even a border draws attention and screams “AD UNIT!” For an even better idea of blended ads, take a look at the sidebar at MindSpeak. Those ads actually blend in with the background, on the sidebar.

The majority of bloggers who use blended ads, say that they draw the most clicks. I have to agree. There are a lot of other tricks you can use to draw the eye to the ads. We’ll discuss those in the next conversation. Personally, I say blend your ads, they tend to perform better, and they make it easier on the eyes when reading the content.

Standing Out

The trick to standing out? Well, there really isn’t one. Just go with color schemes that are different from your standard blog colors. Personally, I suggest using polar opposite colors. If you blog background is white, make the ad background black. Blog text, black? Ad text, white. Blog links, blue? Ad links, red. Find a designer’s color wheel online (a good Google search should get you one), and use it to determine opposite colors. Oh, when selecting your border color, you could use one different than the background color, but I suggest making them the same. It just makes the ad look better.

Back to Sizing

Okay, let’s go back to what I was saying, before. Not overshadowing the content.

Let’s say you have a 500px wide content area. You could easily use a 300px wide ad unit, but using a 400px wide ad unit would dramatically decrease the content area, beside the ad. Additionally, you don’t want ads to show further than your content, AND, you don’t want to “cover” your content with an ad. By “cover,” I don’t mean actually hiding content text with an ad, I mean.. Well, imagine this. You have a 500px wide content area, and you have a 160×600 wide skyscraper running down one side of your content. Doesn’t seem too bad, you still have 340px of content area beside the ad unit, but… You have an ad displaying beside the content, all the way down the page. That’s pretty annoying, and makes it a bit more difficult to read the content. Besides, you want the reader’s eye to take in the ad unit at a glance. You don’t want them to have to continually re-focus between content and ad unit. It’s annoying to the reader, and it both loses traffic, and ad conversion. Keep your ads tight, blended, and not over shadowing.

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed ad sizing and coloring. Next time, we’ll talk about how to convince readers to click on your ads, through the subtle use of placement, graphics, and other tidbits - without violating the TOS of your ad provider. Stay tuned!

Type of Ad Units

There are numerous types of ad units, including the most popular:

• Image Ads
• Text Ads
• Image and Text
• Product-Specific
• Affiliate Banner
• Link Units

Let’s take a quick look at each of the above types, so you’ll have a good idea of what you’re looking at when you get around to choosing and placing units.

Image Units

Image units come in a variety of sizes, and display - obviously - images. While there are image/text combinations (and alternations) - we’ll get to those in a minute - image units display only images. These units are most popular as banners toward the top, middle, or bottom of a page, or as skyscrapers on the sidebars. Google (I’m not sure about YPN or MSN) offers the ability to choose whether you want an ad unit to display only text, only images, or either. Most people choose image only when they are using the ad unit for a banner on a less-targetted blog. I have no image-only units on this blog.

Text Units

Text units, obviously, display text ads. These are the “standard” AdSense style ads. These ads come in the widest range of supported sizes, and offer the highest amount of customization. Text ads blend in very well with most content sites, and display the most highly targetted advertisements. These are the most popular style of ad unit. I have no text-only units on this blog (although I have used them in the past).

Image and Text

The second-most popular style of ad unit are the image and text units. These units display either image ads, or text ads, depending on which is availible and most appropriate for the page at hand. Normally, you can expect text ads, unless there is a highly targetted image ad (with reasonable cpc) availible. The only reason this is the second most popular style is that only certain ad units will support both images and text. In general, any unit that supports image ads, will also support text. All Google Adsense units on this blog are capable of displaying both image and text ads. The top banner, inline content ad, and sidebar skyscraper are all capable of displaying both images and text, although normally only the top banner or inline content units will do so.

Product-Specific

Product-specific ad units are specific to the Chitika eMiniMalls and Amazon Associates programs. These units are designed to display - in a variety of sizes and formats - links and information on specific products (such as specific equipment, clothing, books, cds, etc). Other types of product-specific units include the generic Amazon Associates links that, when moused over, expand to show product information, as well as certain AdGenta ads that are keyword targetted to specific targets. If you have a product-specific blog, or a tightly targetted niche blog, these units will probably be very beneficial to you. At this time, I am not utilizing product-specific ad units in this blog, with the possible exception of an occasional Amazon Associates link or highly targetted Adgenta ad.

Affiliate Banners

Affiliate banner ads are image ads that come in a variety of sizes (virtually any size you can conceive of), and link to specific affiliate programs. Normally these units will be used to advertise specific products or services, through an affiliate program manager (such as Commission Junction or Click Bank). These units are often placed as banners (above and below content), or in various places on the sidebars, etc. I am currently using affiliate image banners to replace Google AdSense ads when no Google ads are availible to be shown, as well as on the right-hand sidebar, in the “partners” section. I also have a single half-banner unit directly below my “related posts” link, advertising an affiliate partner that I particularly like.

Link Units

These units were originally created by Google and display links to information pages. In other words, you get a list of links (four or five links, per unit) that each link to a seperate page containing ads and links to advertiser sites. You are paid when someone completes a total click through (clicks on a link unit link, and a link on the following page). Link units are often used where space is at a premium, within the links section of a site, or in a header area (posing as navigation links). I currently utilize link units at the top of the page, directly below the header. I am reluctant to move the link units elsewhere, as they perform reasonably well. As Google only allows one link unit per page, I have to make a decision as to which is the best placement. I am considering trying a placement on main/archive pages, and an alternate placement on individual entries and WP “pages”.

We’ve taken a look at the primary styles of ad units. In the next section, we’ll dive in to each seperate size.

Image, Text, and Image/Text Units

In this section, I will discuss the sizing options - and top placement locations - for image, text, and image/text units. I will be covering Google’s ad sizes, as well as Chitika. As some units are only capable of text, prior to each unit size, I will designate options in the following methods:

• (T) - Text Only (Will never display images)
• (C) - Chitika (Unit size also exists in Chitika’s catalog)

Any unit without a pre-designator can be assumed not to exist in Chitika’s catalog, and will display both text and image ads. Please note that the text/image designation is Google’s. I do not know YPN or MSNs designations.

• (C) 728×90 Leaderboard: This unit is considered the “full size banner” that sites often display at the very top, or very bottom of their website. This unit displays between five and six text ads, and is also capable of displaying image ads. This is the third most popular size for image ads (actually, it is tied for third with 160×600 wide skyscraper). This is a semi-popular size, although most people opt for the next size down, which is easier to integrate directly above content. This unit exists in Chitika’s catalog, and provides more product information beside the product image (outside of tabs) than any others (excepting the skyscraper versions).
• (C) 468×90 Banner: This unit is considered the standard banner and header ad unit. This unit is most often displayed directly above the content area of websites, between blog entries, and directly above the page footer. This is the most popular ad unit for images. This unit displays around four text ads. This is also one of the most popular Chitika sizes. I use this unit on my main page, directly above the content.
• (T) 234×60 Half Banner: This unit is a text-only unit. This unit is often used between posts, or above/below certain content boxes (such as my related posts box). This unit normally displays two text ads.
• (C) 120×600 Skyscraper: This unit is the second-most popular vertical unit, and is the fourth most popular image unit. This unit is most often used in narrow side bars, or directly beside content areas.
• (C) 160×600 Wide Skyscraper: This unit is the most popular vertical unit, and is tied for third as the most popular image unit. It is also one of the most popular Chitika units. This unit is most often used in side bars, or the side of pages. Like the 120×600 skyscraper, it displays between four and six text ads. I use this unit size on my right hand sidebar.
• (T) 120×240 Vertical Banner: This unit is best thought of as a small skyscraper that does not do image ads. This unit is popular in sidebars, as well as directly beside content sections (such as comments). This unit displays two text ads. I formerly used this size beside my comments.
• (T) 125×125 Button: This is one of the most popular ad sizes for tossing randomly around a page. This unit is a small square that displays only one text ad. This is used often inline with text areas, as the ad it displays will often be highly targetted to nearby content.
• (C)(T) 250×250 Square: This unit is popular amongst Chitika users, and is often used for incline ads in smaller content areas. This unit displays between two and three text ads.
• (C)(T) 180×150 Small Rectangle: This is another popular inline unit, often used within content. This unit displays between two and four text ads.
• (C) 300×250 Medium Rectangle: This is the most popular AdSense ad unit, and the second most popular unit for images. This unit is most often used within content sections. On this site, I use this ad unit within the content, displaying to the left of individual entries, with the content wrapping around the ad. This ad is the highest performing ad unit style on this website.
• (T) 336×280 Large Rectangle: This unit is often used on article sites, or websites where there are no sidebars, as it takes up the most amount of space. This unit is almost always used within content, although it is occasionally used directly below content.

The following ad unit sizes are unique to Chitika eMiniMalls, and do not exist within Google/YPN/MSN:

• 160×160 Small Square: This is similar to Google’s 125×125 button, with a bit more surface area. This is a popular unit in sidebars.
• 336×160 Rectangle: This unit is not all that popular, although it is used.
• 468×180 Blog Banner: This unit was pioneered for use by bloggers. This unit is standard banner-width, and is twice as tall as standard banners. This unit is rarely used above content. It is most often used between blog posts, or at the end of individual entries (before comments). Although this unit was pioneered for bloggers, it is not the most popular Chitika unit.

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I highly suggest you long into your ad system account and take a look at the examples of ad units provided. This gives you a much better idea of what size the units appear, and where they will fit. Additionally, be prepared to make quick changes from unit to another, in case one doesn’t fit in your template. ALWAYS refresh your template when you make a change to an ad unit, to make certain that the change looks appropriate.

Link Units

Let’s take a look at each of the link unit sizes. Please remember that each of the below sizes can be set to display either four, or five links per unit. Also, remember that placement is key on link units, as most systems only allow one link unit per page.
Horizontal Link Units:

• 468×15: This size is the “banner standard” for horizontal link units, and is what I am using on this blog (in my header).
• 728×15: This size displays the same amount of information as its smaller cousin (the 468×15 link unit), it simply spreads it out a bit more, with more space betwen links.

Vertical Link Units consist of 120×90, 160×90, 180×90, and 200×90 sizes. These units all display the same number and style of units, the links are simple spaced differently. This units are popular in sidebars.

Placing Units, Suggestions and Resources

First and foremost, on deciding where to place ad units, I suggest you take a look at the availible heat maps. Google has created a standard heat map for websites, as well as a blog-specific heat map. From this author’s experience, the following areas are the “hottest”:

• Top Left: Where the header normally lies, the very top left is where most eyes land on your page, initially. It is often difficult (and tacky) to work an ad unit in here, however.
• Left Sidebar, Top: At the very top of the left sidebar. This is considered the beginning of “content” on your blog. Although most people elect not to use this location, it’s a hot area.
• Right Sidebar, Top: The location most people expect to see ads, and the location that most people will look to for ads.
• Inline With Content, Left: To the left of the content, set to where the content wraps around the ad unit. This is a very hot area, and will result in the ads being the first thing people see when they start to read an individaul entry.
• Header Navigation: This is the most popular location for link units, although some consider it underhanded. Apparently a good number of people click these link unit ads, thinking they are a part of the blog’s navigation system (despite the prominant “Ads by Google” attached to each unit).
• BlogRoll/LinkRoll: This is the second-most popular location for link units. By working a link unit into the list of links to other blogs and sites, people often click, expecting another site. There is no other way to view this than to view it as “hiding” the ad, and hoping that people won’t notice it’s an ad unit.

If you’re wondering where you should place units, let me give you some examples between my old ad layouts, and my current:

Originally, I had the following units:

• 468×90 Banner, directly above content, on all pages
• 120×240 Vertical Banner, right sidebar, top
• 468×90 Banner, between 5th and 6th entries on main page and archive pages
• 728×15 Link Unit, header navigation area
• 250×250 Square: Beside comments

I was getting pretty poor performance from my ad units. I then entered into a case study conducted by One Way Design, and followed instructions. I changed my units to the following:

• 468×90 Banner, above content on main and archive pages, and WP “pages”
• 468×15 Link Unit, header navigation area
• 160×600 Wide Skyscraper, right sidebar, top
• 300×250 Medium Rectangle, inline with content (to the left) on individual entries
• 120×240 Vertical Banner, beside comments

Upon making the changes, I noticed an immediate improvement in my Click-Through Rate (CTR). Although Google’s terms of service prohibit me from disclosing specific percentages, I can say that my CTR increased by over 100%, and I started generating a number of clicks per day, as opposed to only a few per week. Since that time, my CTR has only gone up on all units except the vertical banner beside comments. I have since removed that unit, as it was not performing at all, and it seemed pointless to keep it.

Place you ad units for maximum exposure, and for maximum blending. This will greatly increase your ad performance. I’ve proven it on this blog, and I’ve proven it on my new political blog, MindSpeak. MindSpeak, in fact, is only averaging 11 unique visitors per day, yet I’m averaging a few clicks per week from that blog. For only 11 unique visitors per day, that’s freaking exceptional!

Ensuring Ads are Targetted Appropriately

With some systems, there’s not much you can do to ensure your ads are appropriately targetted. Google’s AdSense, however, includes a function called “section targetting” that allows you to specify which portions of your site Google should pay attention to, and which to ignore. By using certan HTML comment commands, you can instruct Google’s ad spider to pay attention only to your site content, and not to the stuff on your side bar. How? Simple.

At the beginning of your main content area, on every page, ad the following command, “<!– google_ad_section_start –>”. At the end of the content section, add the closer command, “<!– google_ad_section_end –>”. This will cause Google to pay more attention to, and place more weight on, the content within that section, when it targets ads to your site.

We’re not through yet, though. Now you want Google to ignore information on your sidebar, header, and footer. Why? Because that information is specific to your blog, and is often not related to your content. To cause Google to ignore this information, you need to add ignore tags to the header, each sidebar, and footer. At the beginning of the header (after the <body> tag), sidebars, and footer sections, add “<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –>”. Then, at the end of the header, sidebars, and footer sections, add “<!– google_ad_section_end(weight=ignore) –>”. This will cause Google to ignore content that doesn’t much matter in the general targetting of ads to your blog.

If you’ve had your blog for a while, it will take a bit for Google to realize you’ve added these tags, and take appropriate action. In three to six weeks, you should notice the relevance of your ads improve dramatically.

Other Locations for Advertising

There are many other locations for placing ads. The three most popular are:

• Within Content (sentences, etc..)
• RSS Feeds
• E-mails/Newsletters

Within Content

This is a great place to market affiliate programs. By using generic text links within your content, you can easily link to an affiliate site, or even a specific product in Amazon’s catalog. In fact, Amazon has a special program allowing you to create a “generic” link to an Amazon product. Then, whenever someone (who has Javascript enabled) mouses over that link, it expands and shows product details. Additionally, if you market specific affiliates, you can use their keyword and text links within entries.

RSS Feeds

A lot of bloggers are starting to place ads within their RSS feeds. You have to be rather careful when doing this, as not all systems are designed for RSS feeds. For instance, to run contextual ads within RSS, you’ll have to sign up for a service like Pheedo, or Google AdSense RSS. Unfortunately, these systems normally require you to have a good many feed readers (around 100+). As a general rule, if you have fewer than 50 readers, you should stick to not displaying ads in your RSS feeds, unless your content is being permissably displayed on another site, from your feed. If you do decide to place an ad in your RSS feed, I highly suggest making it an affiliate banner, and placing it at the END of your entry (and I highly, highly suggest placing it below your copyright notice, if you have one). Personally, I’ve been debating placing an affiliate banner in every fifth entry I write, but I’m not sure it’s such a good idea. RSS feed advertisements are a fairly new thing, and the jury is still out on them.

E-mails and Newsletters

First off, most ad systems do not allow you to place their ads within e-mails. Usually, only affiliate programs (and even then, some do not) will let you e-mail an ad. If you’re going to place any ads in e-mails, I highly suggest you do it within newsletters, and ONLY newsletters. Make certain you ensure that you are not violating TOS by placing an ad within an e-mailed newsletter. Nothing pisses ad systems providers off more than violating this particular restriction. Also, do NOT use javascript to mask your affiliate links. With phising protection so common, now, your link may be viewed as a potential e-mail scam.

Be Inventive

Be inventive. What other places can you think of to show ads? What about to market affiliate links? Drop a comment with your suggestions. Oh, and before you suggest IRC, or any other chat service… Most chat operators/moderators get more than a little upset if you start dropping your link in their chat channels/rooms.

So What’s Next?

This time, we discussed where to place ads, and went down all of the ad units, discussing placement opportunities and options. In our next conversation, we’ll discuss blending your ad units, including sizing the units, and the colorization options. Next time, I’ll be a little off-the-wall (well, I’m always a bit off-the-wall, I suppose), so stay tuned!

How to Choose

There are several factors to consider in choosing the appropriate monetization options for your blog. The most important things to consider are:

• The type of blog you’re running (Niche, product-oriented, generalities, etc…)
• Your blog layout (which ads will work and flow, best)
• Demographics (the age range, income, and interests of your reading audience)
• Preference (your personal preference plays a big roll in this

In the following sections, we’ll dicuss each of this considerations in greater detail, as well as how they related to your overall choice(s), and each other. Let’s go!

Type of Site

The type of blog you’re running has a lot to do with your ad choices. First and foremost, you need to figure out what type of blog you’re running. Some of the questions to answer are:

• What niche are you targetting with your blog?
• If you’re targetting a niche, is it a more general niche, or is it oriented to specific products (product types, or actual specifc, individual products)?
• If you’re targetting a more general niche, would it make sense to promote product-specific ads within your blog? (Some niches, like blogging, it does not make sense to promote specific products. Some niches, like web design, general computer technology (i.e. software), it does make sense to promote certain products, or product types.)
• If you’re not targetting a specific niche, then what topics do you primarily cover?
• Does it make sense to target specific products in these topics?
• Do your topics actually have an ad base (politics, for instance, does. The sex life of a twenty year old, probably does not)?

Once you answer these questions, you’ll have a general idea of the type of site you’re running, and the best options for it. For instance: If you’re targetting a niche of digital cameras, it would make sense to run both general ads (AdSense/YPN/MSN), as well as product-specific (eMiniMalls), and certain affiliate programs. If you’re targetting a specific product niche (say, a radar detector blog), you’re probably going to do better with product-targetted ads, and affiliate programs. If you’re a more general blog, you might consider something like AdGenta or Amazon Associates, so that you can target specific keywords, or products in posts that would support such things.

At all times, unless you’re running a topic with little ad base (i.e. the sex life of a mollusk twenty year old guy questioning his sexual orientation), then it makes sense to have a general system in place such as AdSense, et al - UNLESS having such ads would not flow with your layout, or would make your blog overly ad-laden.

Layout

Another, fairly important consideration, is your layout. What types of ad units would your layout support? For instance, will your layout support skyscrapers, or general text ad units, or is it better geared towards image ads, banners, and/or inline affiliate links? Will your layout flow well with the addition of certain kinds of ad units.

Once you figure out where your ads will be displayed, you can then figure out what size of ad units to use, and which programs offer those types of units. Additionally, you can decide whether you want primarily text-based ads, image ads, or a mixture of both. You should also consider the color scheme of your layout, and whether or not certain ad systems will support custom colorization. Once you nail down the layout portion of your blog, the ads should fall more in line.

Demographics

What kind of people read your blog? Do you know? You can probably get a good feel on this by visiting the websites and blogs of commentors and/or paying attention to the writing style. Additionally, by viewing your statistics, you know from which countries your visitors are coming, what sort of searches are leading them to your blog, and what websites they’re coming in from (referrals). You might even consider a series of polls.

Why is this important? Perfect example: If your reader base is a bit older (baby boomers, etc..), then you likely wouldn’t want to market the latest technology. If your reader base is young, then health insurance, certain books and music types, etc… wouldn’t be germaine. By determining who your readers are, you can figure out what your readers want, and market more effectively.

Preference

Personal preference is a BIG consideration in monetizing your blog. To put it very simply, you probably won’t display things you think look bad. You also may not like the interaction of certain ad systems (eMiniMalls, for example). Look at each at system, and the units they support, and decide whether or not you’d like to see that ad system/unit every time you visit your blog.

How/What I Decided

In MindFyre, I first looked at my blog, and then at my demographics. In the blog, I’m primarily discussing blogging, and some general technology. The majority of my readers are other bloggers who are more interested in blogging and blog-related topics, than they are in - say - technology and the latest gadgets. Also, I determined that the majority of my readers are of the 25 - 40 crowd (a wide age range), primarily technologically inclined, from the United States, and have good eyes and ears for spotting snake oil salesmen (i.e. bunk products).

Using this information, along with the layout of my blog, I decided that monetizing through Google AdSense was my best bet (general, contextually targetted ads). I also decided to try a few specific affiliate programs from Comission Junction - specifically, web hosting providers and VOIP providers. I originally decided not to use product-specific progams like Adgenta and Chitika eMiniMalls. Eventually, however, I decided to give Chitika a chance, using them to replace Google ads when AdSense did not have any ads to display. Thus far, I’m not too thrilled with Chitika, and am looking for a replacement. I also elected to utilize Amazon Associates, as I occasionally reference specific books. I am also monetizing via Amazon on my store. I’ve had decidedly more success with the store method, than with inline Amazon ads in my blog.

All in all, I spent quite a while considering all of the options, and eventually trying several, before deciding on what’s working. While I’m probably nowhere near my final decision on ad systems, I seriously doubt there will be a lot of changes in the future.

What’s Next?

This time, we discussed choosing the ad systems that were right for you, by looking at some important choices. Next time, we’ll talk about ad placement in your blog, and how to make the most of the availible space. Stay tuned!

• General Recap of Options
• Choosing the Right Options for Your Blog
• Ad Placement
• Ad Blending
• Convincing Clicks (how to, and how not to violate TOS)
• Targetting Entries
• Tracking Earnings and Stats
• SEO Techniques
• Putting it All Together

As you can see, this will be a pretty involved series. Each topic above will consist of at least one full entry (some I may break up into two, although my current outline allows for a single entry for each). During this series, I will share my knowledge, as well as the knowledge of others. I will do everything I can to give you an idea of how certain changes have affected my own earnings.

Before we begin, I must make the statement that my own earnings are not, by any means, spectacular. At the time of beginning this series, I am drawing in around two to four dollars a week from Google ads. This is primarily because this blog does not make a lot of money (ads about blogging notoriously pay low), and my political blog is too new to generate more than three or four clicks per week. Over time, I am absolutely confident that my earnings will increase, as I noticed a dramatic increase since implementing many of the techniques described within this series. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that whenever possible, I will use referral links. If you sign up for an account through my referral links, I will receive a small incentive from the ad service for referring you. Your earnings will not be affected. Again, while my income may not be spectacular, since implementing the techniques described within this series, I have noticed a dramatic increase in ad revenue and click-through rates (CTR).

Let’s get started…

Recap of Monetization Options

In the Amateur Blogging Series, I introduced you to several monetization options. In this series, I will explain them a bit more in depth, including my own success with them, and the most appropriate types of blogs for the services. I will also try to give the general opinion I hear from other bloggers on each service.

Google AdSense

By far, the most popular method of monetizing your blog is Google AdSense. AdSense is a contextually targetted ad system that displays both text and image ads in a variety of formats. These formats range from small link units, to full banner and skyscraper ads, with - pretty much - every concievable size in between.

The majority of my earnings come from Google AdSense, and I have it implemented on both of my blogs. I will likely be implementing it on all blogs and websites I bring online, in the future. Since AdSense delivers targetted ads, the ads are more likely to relate to your blog content, and therefore drive clicks.

AdSense ads are contextually targetted. This means that AdSense “bots” spider your blog/website and select the prominent keywords from your text. Then, the AdSense system delivers ads directed by those keywords. Thus, your displayed ads are pretty well tailored to your blog content. AdSense has its good and bad points in this arena. For instance, ads on the main index/archive pages of your blog will likely be less targetted than the ads displayed on individual entry pages. To counter this, however, AdSense has a feature called Section Targetting, which allows you to specifically target sections of your pages.

Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) and MSN Ads

Yahoo’s Publisher Network is very similar to AdSense. Although YPN is currently in the beta stage. For an overview of how YPN operates, see the Google section, above. YPN, according to most bloggers, does not target ads as tightly as AdSense, thus making it a better fit for more loosely targetted (personal-style, or multi-topic) blogs. There are a few people who swear that YPN pays out less per click than Google AdSense, but this author cannot confirm that information.

The Microsoft Network (MSN) is coming out with its own version of contextually targetted ads. Unfortunately this ad system is too new to list any specific information about it, other than the fact that it will operate similarly to YPN and AdSense.

Chitika eMiniMalls

Chitika eMiniMalls is a system designed for highly targetted, or product-specific, blogs. This system is designed to display - in a variety of ad formats - product-specific ads. In other words, by selecting keywords (product names, or even general types of products), the system will display one specific product per ad unit (with multiple keywords, products will be rotated, each time the ad unit is displayed). This unit will display general information and specifications about the product, as well as offer the best deals availible for the product (listing price and website, with links), as well as offering an optional search page so people can search for items without leaving your website.

Chitika eMiniMalls is primarily designed to operate in a non-contextual sense, meaning it can be used alongside AdSense, YPN, or MSN. The blog owner selects which ads to display, by entering keywords into the ad unit code. Additionally, Chitika allows selection of categories (as opposed to specific keywords), which will display a rotating selection of ads based on the category topic. Chitika works best for blogs that are targetted toward specific products, or niches (such as a cookware blog, or a digital camera blog, or even a hardware/technology blog). Chitika can be used in more general blogs, although usually with less results.

Personally, I use Chitika as a backup when Google fails to display ads (as sometimes happens). I then use Chitika to display generic ads, or ads based on general categories related to technology. Chitika does not perform well on this type of blog. In the future, when I open more product-oriented blogs, I hope to use Chitika with great success. Bloggers who utilize Chitika on targetted blogs swear by the system and its earnings - which are typically higher than AdSense (on a per-click basis).

Chitika is also - supposedly - coming out with its own version of contextuall targetted ads (much like AdSense, YPN, and MSN). It is unknown when this system will be unveiled, although it most assuredly will not be compatible with AdSense/YPN/MSN.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are programs that are designed to let a blog (or website) sell a specific product. In other words, you display a link (or ad) for a specific product, and when people make a purchase (or generate a lead) through your link, you get paid a percentage (or flat fee). There are numerous types of affiliate programs. I’ll cover two, primarily: Amazon Associates, and Comission Junction.

Amazon Associates

Amazon.com is a leading online e-tailer. Amazon sells everything from books to technologies to home products. By signing up for the Amazon Associates program, you can place code on your website to display information about specific products (specific books, music, or items). Whenever anyone makes a purchase through you Amazon Associate links, you earn a comission. The comission changes based on how many sales you generate per quarter.

Amazon Associates is a great program for targetted blogs, allowing you to display specific products and specific product information on your blog. Additionally, Amazon can be used for any blogger (even general bloggers) who wish to reference specific books, or products they may have purchased and/or are recommending. If you see a blog that has books listed in the sidebar - especially with an image of the book - they are likely linking through to Amazon. Additionally, there are storefront scripts for Amazon-based “stores” that enable you to run your own store on your server. The most popular model of these is to rotate Amazon Associates IDs. Usually, your ID will be used 90% of the time, and the developer’s ID will be used 10% of the time. My amazon-based store is like this. Amazon is a pretty decent affiliate choice, and is one of the more versatile options out there.

Comission Junction

Comission Junction is an affiliate system designed to market you to affiliate programs, and vice-versa. In joining CJ, you enter your site details, along with your payment information. You are then able to browse their vast catalog of affiliate programs. When you find an affiliate program you like, you can elect to join the program. At that point - if accepted to the program (some affiliates auto-accept all applicants, some review each applicant) - you are able to use the affiliate links on your website.

CJ affiliates run the gammit from technology companies (web hosting providers, VOIP providers (Vonage is a big one)), to specific products (i.e. living room furniture, car insurance, etc). The majority of the plans pay in one of three methods:

• Percentage per Sale (You are paid a certain percentage of each sale generated - much like Amazon)
• Fee per Sale (You are paid a flat amount for each sale. This can range anywhere from one dollar to over one hundred dollars, depending on the product/company)
• Fee per Lead (You are paid a flat amount for each lead (a “lead” is when someone submits their information to the company, normally for a sales call, later))

CJ provides multiple methods of displaying affiliate links and banners. The most popular is to rotate affiliate banners in a specific location. You have full control over how often each banner is shown, as well as weight control (which banners are shown more often than others). CJ, during the selection process, also lists which banners are paying out the best, with average payouts over 7, 14, and 30 days listed for each.

Comission Junction is definately a viable method for marketing on your blog, particularly if you can find affiliate programs in the same general topic area as your blog.

Other Programs

There are a veritable plethora of other affiliate progams availible on the Internet. These run the gamit from standard programs, such as the above, to e-book programs, to pornographic and adult-oriented programs. Often, a company that has never had an affiliate program can be approached about starting an affiliate program, if you are excited about marketing their product. Search around and see what you can find.

Adgenta

Adgenta is the brainchild of the Qumana crew. Adgenta is designed to interface with the Qumana blog editor, allowing you to insert keyword-targetted ads into your blog posts. I use Adgenta sparingly on this site, although if you look you can usually find an ad here and there. Adgenta is a viable method of marketing highly targetted ads/products in individual entries. The program pays out much like Google and Chitika, on a pay-per-click basis. Since Adgenta is a fairly new program, they have a slightly smaller ad base, and occasionally it can be difficult to find ads on specific topics. Keep trying more and more general keywords until you finally find one that will fit.

Other Systems (Kanoodle, Orange ads, Etc…)

There are many, many other ad systems out there, the majority look and pay like AdSense/YPN/MSN. There are also several systems that specialize in displaying advertisements in your RSS feeds. My advice, especially if you do not have at least 150+ readers of your feed, is to bypass this option. One of the more popular systems of this nature is Kanoodle (BrightAds). Keep in mind that you will not be able to use these ad systems (usually), alongside Google’s AdSense, YPN, or MSN. Do your reasearch before using one of the lesser known systems.

So What’s Next?

This time, I welcomed you to the series and recapped several of the monetization options availible. Next time, we’ll discuss choosing the ad system that is right for your blog by taking a look at the type of blog you’re running, your layout, the demographics of your visitors, and your personal preferences. Stay tuned!!

Running from tomorrow, until April 5th (every Mon, Wed, and Fri), this series picks up, with monetization, where the Amateur Blogging Series left off. If you’re wanting to learn more about monetizing your blog - including ad system information, ad placement, colorization, making the most of your units, and SEO techniques - then this series is for you. Join the MindBlog team as we unveil the secrets behind advanced monetization.