If you havent yet got a Google AdSense account for your site, now may be time to do so. AdSense is becoming increasingly popular with small and middle-sized websites who wish to cash in on their site popularity. And with the latest updates that have been made to the AdSense service, there is now no excuse not to join.
If you didnt already know AdSense is Googles context targeted Ad delivery program. Basically the Search Engine giant is giving you the chance to display the adverts that you may have seen to the right of your search results on your own site. Whenever someone clicks through one of the Ads you get an undisclosed, but worthwhile, portion of the money the subscribers to Googles AdWords program are supplying Google to promote their site on paid listings. The script is easy to customize, simply adjusting the settings in your Account settings and then pasting the raw code into your site.
However I expect that most of the people reading this article already have a good idea about what AdSense is and what it does. What you are really interested in is what Google has done to change its service, right Well when I logged on to the AdSense site a few days ago, the first thing that popped up was a copy of the new TOS (Terms of Service). I read through it, and clicked accept to agree with the new terms and conditions. When I got into my account page I was greeted by two welcome sights: A new type of Ad box, and even better yet a new payment method.
The new Ad Links box are not just the typical textual Ads. Rather they give you site-targeted topics, which a visitor can click on to go to a list of related advertisements. What this means in real terms is that rather than four or five adverts on a page you can give your visitor access to maybe 50, all of which could earn you money. This is a very exciting development, and one that could potentially benefit everyone.
There are some downsides that I have to point out however. At the moment the maximum size of the Ad Links box is 200*90, with a maximum of five topics. This is fine for people who use the smaller Ad Units, but for those who use the biggest rectangle possible this could be a problem. The other fact to consider is how long it may take your visitors to adapt to the new layout. I have no evidence to back this up, as Ive only been experimenting with the new system for two days now, but it does seem that, in the short term at least, you will be seeing a decrease in revenue from your AdSense account as the visitors get used to the new layout.
The most beneficial changes Google has bestowed on us, however, has to be the changes in the payment system. A real boon to the non-US based publishers such as myself has to be the supply of local currency cheques. Now you can elect to receive your check in Pounds Sterling, Indian Rupees, Euros, Turkish Lira or any of 43 local currencies. There is also the option to sign up for the beta of the new EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) payment option, which will deposit money directly into your back account.
So those are the changes that Google has made to its AdSense program. But as ours IS to wonder why, maybe I can make a comment of the possibility of why this update has come this week. Is it coincidence that at the same time as Google was updating its program Yahoo has announced its own textual Ad serving service, based on its Overture Paid Inclusion search engine Personally I dont think so. But competition is almost always a good thing, and who knows, maybe Yahoo may even spur Google into giving people the Ad tracking capabilities that many publishers have been crying out for.
Daniel Robson runs where he hands out his freeware as well as loudly voicing his opinions on pretty much everything.
Ive been working with Googles Adsense program for a while now. If youre not already in the program, why not take a look at it now at . I really like Adsense. It makes me money and its easy to work with. Just some simple copy & paste into your webpage and youre done. Right
Wrong! You can do it that way if you want. Who knows Maybe youll get lucky and get a lot of clicks. But if youre really serious about making a lot of money with the program, youre going to have to tweak it a little.
Ive invested quite a bit of time experimenting with the program. When I first signed up, I got some clicks and made a tiny bit of money. That wasnt good enough. I knew there must be a way to get more of my visitors to click on the ads.
Google has a strict policy about not pointing to the ads in any way or asking people to click on them, so there were two things I couldnt do. What else was there
Then I remembered reading an article once that discussed the psychological impact of colors on the human mind. I started researching everything I could find on the subject.
After a lot of reading, many tests and periods of watching my clicks go up and down, I found the one color combination that seemed to work the best.
Testing previously done at supermarkets had revealed that the same product could pull more sales from just changing the colors of the label. What were these colors Red and yellow! The combination of these two colors has an immediate impact on the person who sees them. They make your eyes stop and focus. They pull your eyes right to that part of the page. They grab your attention! Im not sure exactly why the combination of red and yellow does this, but it does. On one of my sites, I changed my Adsense ads to a bright red border and a yellow background with black text and URL.
My click through rate more than doubled with just that one simple change. Thats what worked on my site. Your sites color scheme may work better with a slightly different color combination. Try lots of different color variations. Make a change in the morning and let it ride for the whole day. The next morning, try a different set of colors. Change the border, background, text. Change everything you can. Most importantly, keep detailed records of the color scheme you used, click ratio and revenue generated.
After youve done all the experimenting you want to, go back to the most profitable one and let it run for a week or so and see how it does. Im always trying different colors even after my run of good clicks with red and yellow. There are a lot of color combinations to choose from. You never know when youll find just the right one.
(c) Brad Bahr - All Rights reserved
About The Author
Brad Bahr is the author of the NEW eBook: How to Really Make Money on the Internet. Its filled with no nonsense, practical information. To get your FREE copy of the book, go to ==>