Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for Higher CTR

Google Adsense is perhaps the easiest way to attract advertisers from
across the globe to your blog. Just submit your blog to Google for
approval. If Google likes what it sees, it will place contextual ads
linking to products likely to appeal to the readers. Each time a
reader clicks a link, the advertiser pays Google a small fee, and
Google splits that with you.

The next interesting question - How to Make Money with Google Adsense
? Here are The best Google Adsense Tips and Tricks for making more
money (profit) from Google adsense program.

a. Strictly follow the rules mentioned in Adsense policies. You will
always earn more revenue from Adsense by playing it clean.

b. Never modify the Google Adsense HTML code.

c. Don't ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads. Do
not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don't
label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or
"advertisements.".

d. Don't click on your own ads - Google is much smarter than you
think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are
testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some
precautions. Or you can use the unofficial Google Adsense Sandbox Tool
that is accessible from Firefox, IE and other browsers to see what
kind of Google ads will be served based on content (website address
URL) or keywords.

e. Don't place ads in pop-up windows, error pages or even empty pages.

f. Don't start a "adsense asbestos" or "home equity loan rates"
website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You
will never make money out these "made-for-adsense-only" websites.
Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don't waste
your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.

g. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content

h. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in
middle of the content - visitors read the long content and then they
are looking for more resources.

i. Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options. If you
still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support
image ads - Choose either the 300x250 medium rectangle or the 160x600
wide skyscraper - or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.

j. Google Ads without background color and borders always perform
better. Make the border color and background color same as your page
background color.

k. Always put ads above the main fold. Make sure that the ad unit with
the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code
that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled
before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the
best placement on your page.

l. Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade. If your text
is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.

m. Go Wide - The large rectangle is the best paying adsense format
(336x280) - The Google Adsense Publisher team also feels that the best
formats are the wider ones - the ad formats that contain the widest
individual ads. Try using the 336x280 large rectangle, 300x250 medium
rectangle, or 160x600 wide skyscraper.

n. Placing images next to ads or above ads does help in attracting
user attention.

o. Blend AdLinks with other navigation links or place horizontal
adlinks at the top of your webpage. AdSense publishers are permitted
to click on link unit topics on their web pages, provided that they do
not click on any Google ads on the resulting page.

p. Organize an Adsense Party for your friends and colleagues - Request
them to navigate your website, watch their activity - it will provide
vital clues about which regions on your website draw more user
attention. Try putting ads near those areas. (Thanks Darren)

q. You can put upto 3 adsense units on a page. Try putting a large
skyscraper on the right navigation sidebar of your website. That area
is close to the browser scrollbar. You can also add 2 AdSense for
search boxes, 1 adlink unit and 1 referral button per product (i.e., 1
AdSense referral button and 1 Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral
button).

r. The first few lines of your content are an important factor for
determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That's the right
place to put keywords in bold (strong or <b> tags) or header tags (h1,
h2, etc).

s. Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results
in a new browser window, so you won't lose your visitors. Click the
Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add
target="google_window" to your form tag.

t. Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So
you know where to put it.

u. Don't syndicate full content. If people can read everything from
the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where
your ads are.

v. Use URL channels to determine performance of individual pages. I
track my most popular pages with Google Analytics, Statcounter and
create a channel for each of the URL. You can even track Adsense
Clicks with Analytics

w. For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to
get better focused ads

x. Block low paying advertisers with Filters. Why to loose a visitor
for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to
discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.

y. The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users
are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted
through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify
additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most
sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.

z. Not everyone has a RSS reader. Use RSS to Email services like
FeedBlitz, Bloglet or Rmail to let users subscribe to your blog by
email.

Remember, you are the best judge when it comes to choosing ad formats.
Even Google doesn't offer the best advise always. For instance, in the
visual heat map, Google suggests that webmasters are best served by
positioning ads on the upper left-hand side of a Web page. But on the
Google homepage, you will find ads on the far right.
Source:http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/09/z-adsense-tips-for-increasing-revenue.html