by DiTesco

Created on: March 17, 2009

Gone are the days when AdSense was a huge Money Making Machine. While it is no longer so, it is still one relevant source of extra income, specially for those that just begun on monetizing your website. AdSense is very reliable and unless you violate their program policy, it is a recommended program for everyone to use, regardless whether your are a pro or on your first footsteps.

In order to take advantage of the AdSense program, there are some things that we can do to optimize our earnings. I will skip the part that says that we need traffic to make money on AdSense. Why? Because, this is almost a given. Understand though that having traffic alone will not generate instant AdSense income neither success. Not all sites are designed the same way and sometimes it is necessary to see which type of format, placing, etc. works best for you. There are however some useful tips that I can recommend in order to improve your AdSense earnings:

Blending, Ad Location, Creating Channels, Separate accounts, Filtering, and Avoiding Using Standard Banner ads.

Blending: Try and make the ads as transparent as possible. Make the ads look like they are part of your site. Use the same background, title colors, etc - it can result in a higher CTR (Click Through Rate) and therefore having the chance to make more money. Google does a pretty good job at providing you with the tools to customize the ads to match your site right off the bat; however, you can customize them even more provided you know some basic HTML/CSS.

Location: Is very important! Place your ads in places where people can and will see them. The higher up on the page, the better (above the fold).

Creating Channels: Once you have created a channel, not only does it let you track how a specific ad has been performing, you can also use it to optimize your ads for the marketplace. You can enter information, such as placing of the ad, keywords, etc. This way, an advertiser has more detailed information about your ad unit and can bid or place ads directly to you your website.

Filtering: This is something that many AdSense users generally forget. You know that AdSense is contextual advertising and the chances that competitive ads will appear on your website are greater. It also is likely that you will get very low paying ads if you do not filter junk AdWords campaigns. Filter your ads as much as possible to eliminate competitors and junk advertising.

Create separate accounts: if necessary. This is a tip most people aren't aware of. If you have multiple sites and use one AdSense account for all your sites (which you can), and, if one of your sites has an extremely low CTR and your other site has a high CTR it will hurt your earnings. If you must create a separate account (with a different identity - just make sure it's real!) for the site with a poor CTR. As an alternative, try removing ads from your low CTR site and analyze your earnings.

Don't use banner ads exclusively. Banner ads have been around forever, people know them and most importantly of all people hate them. I'm not saying don't use them, however, skyscraper ads, rectangle ads, square ads and specially text ads, tend to work better.

These simple but effective tips will enhance greatly your revenue potential for AdSense. And remember, do not click on your own ads. If you get caught (and you will), Google will ban your account and you will loose all the earnings you have made.

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