Blogger Tips For Beginner
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10.20.2006
I'm pretty new to using adsense. However, I've picked up a few things so far, and here are my top tips and advice:
1. There is a lot of advice out there on ad placement, size etc. There are no hard and fast rules but the consensus seems to be:
1. There is a lot of advice out there on ad placement, size etc. There are no hard and fast rules but the consensus seems to be:
- Try to blend your ads with your site, use a color scheme that fits in.
- If possible, insert ads in your content e.g. wrap your text around them. Ads that appear just at the top, bottom or side are easily ignored or subconsciously filtered.
- If possible, use wide ads.
- Consider using adlinks. If placed correctly, they can look more like menu items than ads, and are highly targetted to your content. Note that you will only receive money if users click on the results of the adlinks page (i.e. two clicks required).
2. To begin with, adsense delivers only cost-per-click (CPC) ads. This means you only get revenue when a visitor clicks on an ad. To also receive cost-per-impression ads, an advertiser has to choose to advertise on your site. If you have only CPC ads, and a low clickthrough rate, you wont get much revenue even with good traffic. Interestingly, this very blog started receiving some cost-per-impression ads after only about 1 week of being up. My website squidsquid.com has received no cost-per-impression ads, despite having considerably more traffic. It seems a little unlikely that an advertiser chose to advertise on my relatively unknown blog, but maybe. The only other explanation is that some adwords advertisers have an automated system of delivering cost-per-impression ads, dependant on the content (i.e. the advertiser 'automatically chooses' to advertise cost-per-impressions on your site).
3. Depending on the type of site you have, it may be difficult to target your ads (e.g. I have a comedy site about giant squid - adsense ads for "giant squid on ebay" are unlikely to have high clickthrough rates)! However, if you cant or dont want to change your content overly (and I dont think you should), then other factors that have a strong influence on the content of the ads are alt tags, your page title and your page filename. These can all be used to target the ads more appropriately.
4. Further reading:
3. Depending on the type of site you have, it may be difficult to target your ads (e.g. I have a comedy site about giant squid - adsense ads for "giant squid on ebay" are unlikely to have high clickthrough rates)! However, if you cant or dont want to change your content overly (and I dont think you should), then other factors that have a strong influence on the content of the ads are alt tags, your page title and your page filename. These can all be used to target the ads more appropriately.
4. Further reading:
- Scan through this longish article for some tips (there are quite a few advertising plugs for products there also).
- Check out this reasonably good article about how to increase your blogger traffic and adsense revenue.
10.15.2006
To get listed correctly in the search engines each page of your site that you want listed needs to be optimized to the best of your ability. Since the keywords that you decide to target will be used throughout the optimization process choosing the right keywords is essential. If you choose the wrong keywords you will not be found in the search engines. If you are not found in the search engines how will anyone find your site?
Since the keywords you choose to optimize your pages with are so important we have put together some tips to help you make sure that you make the right choices. You should utilize these tips when selecting keywords for each page that you plan to submit to the search engines.
1.Think "specific keyword phrases" not "keywords". Why? Due to the extreme amount of competition for general terms in the search engines, if your keyword phrases are too general it is very unlikely you will rank well in the search engines. You stand a far better chance to rank well for specific phrases where there is less competition. The resulting traffic, since it is more highly targeted, should also be much higher quality too!
2.Try to think like your target audience. What would they search for when looking for the page you are optimizing? It is very easy to fall in the trap of coming up with a short list of what YOU would search for, but what about everyone else? They will not necessarily use the same keywords as you. You should try to come up with as many keyword phrases as you can think of that relate to the page you are optimizing. Try asking a few friends and family what they would search for when searching for a site like yours.
3.Check out your competition for ideas. Do a search using keywords that you already know you want to target and click through on the top sites that come up. Once on the site view the source HTML code and view the keywords they have in their meta tags - this should give you many more ideas! Make sure to only use keywords that relate to YOUR site or page. To view the HTML code simply click the 'View' at the top of your web browser then select 'Source', or 'Page Source'.
4.You should develop a list of keyword phrases, following the tips on this page, for each page that you optimize for the search engines.
Since the keywords you choose to optimize your pages with are so important we have put together some tips to help you make sure that you make the right choices. You should utilize these tips when selecting keywords for each page that you plan to submit to the search engines.
1.Think "specific keyword phrases" not "keywords". Why? Due to the extreme amount of competition for general terms in the search engines, if your keyword phrases are too general it is very unlikely you will rank well in the search engines. You stand a far better chance to rank well for specific phrases where there is less competition. The resulting traffic, since it is more highly targeted, should also be much higher quality too!
2.Try to think like your target audience. What would they search for when looking for the page you are optimizing? It is very easy to fall in the trap of coming up with a short list of what YOU would search for, but what about everyone else? They will not necessarily use the same keywords as you. You should try to come up with as many keyword phrases as you can think of that relate to the page you are optimizing. Try asking a few friends and family what they would search for when searching for a site like yours.
3.Check out your competition for ideas. Do a search using keywords that you already know you want to target and click through on the top sites that come up. Once on the site view the source HTML code and view the keywords they have in their meta tags - this should give you many more ideas! Make sure to only use keywords that relate to YOUR site or page. To view the HTML code simply click the 'View' at the top of your web browser then select 'Source', or 'Page Source'.
4.You should develop a list of keyword phrases, following the tips on this page, for each page that you optimize for the search engines.
