By Chip
What blogger wouldn’t like to make some money from their blog? But if you paste a bunch of ads all over your site, your regular readers might get sick of your blatant commercialism. How do you get the best of both worlds?
Kiltak recently shared a secret with me on this topic — and since he basically stuffed money into my pocket, I think it’s fitting that for my first guest post at [GAS] I share this little tip with you:
Find a few posts on your blog that continue to get the most traffic well after they were posted, and place a 300×250 Adsense ad unit within the text of the post, floating in the upper right. It’s important that the post’s text wrap around the ad. You also want the ad to blend in, so use colors and styling that match the content of your site.
The beauty of this approach lies in an understanding of the difference between the habits of your regular readers and those that visit your post later. By waiting at least a week after posting, your loyal audience will have already read the entry and moved on, so they won’t be bothered by the ad. By picking a steadfastly popular post, however, you’re guaranteed to get some click-thrus.
The pot gets even sweeter for posts that get most of their recurring traffic from Google. There’s a very good chance that whatever the user was searching for will be found with a nice blue link in that ad unit, right in front of their faces.
Caveats: Adsense TOS does not allow you to place images next to an ad unit, so you have to be careful about pictures that are close to the top of your post. Remember that some users run in a smaller resolution than you do, too — which might move a left-justified image up next to the unit. Also, Adsense limits you to three ad units per page, so you have to avoid exceeding that number. Which leads to my next point.
Instead of pasting the Adsense script code directly into your post, you might want to alter your blog theme to do this for you automagically. On Chip’s Quips and Chip’s Tips, I added a category called “Wildly Popular“. My theme code looks for that category when rendering posts, and if I haven’t already placed three ads on the page, it inserts one inside a

. So now, all I have to do is monitor popular content (I use Google Analytics) and when I see a post that has grown long legs, I just go add it to the “Wildly Popular” category.
No doubt others have discovered similar approaches. If you have evidence of prior art, just post a link here in the comments.

Posted by Nadeesha Cabral in Google Adsense
Relative content and a smaller scope does really good.
As you may know, AdSense for content displays the relative ads picked up from your content. Diversified blog posts or very long blog posts about random things will often force AdSense to display irrelevant ads or public service ads. To prevent this from happening, keep your blog posts clear and concise and in a relatively small scope. If you tend to post larger posts, split them up if you can afford it.
Section Targeting for non-niche bloggers
If you’re a blogger finding it hard to follow the earlier tip, and if you’re a non-niche blogger, try section tageting. Section targeting allows you to tell AdSense to display ads relative to a specific part of your blog or blog post. For and example, if you blog about mobile phones and happened to mention NASCAR as well, you can target the mobile phone ads by highlighting content about mobile phones.
Want to know how to do section targeting? Read this section of AdSense help.
Consistent ad word density
Although this might make a blog look a bit spammy, a good content writer can always make it happen. But overdoing this will only make you lose your readers. If you keep a good density of ad words throughout your posts, you can get the relative ads you are targeting. It’s almost like writing for a search engine spider targeting search engine traffic.
Experiment frequently and evolve!
Web page tend to have declining revenue from AdSense if they don’t evolve. If your blog has repeating visitors, the same ad blocks with the same placement unchanged for months could make them virtually invisible towards your ad placements. Don’t do that! Experiment frequently. Even if you have a CTR of 35%, that doesn’t mean, through experimentation you can make it 45%.
Keep an eye on all your AdSense statistics, channels, CTR(as I said before) and try to pull off the best possible recipe. Also, be patient. Some successful AdSense publishers I know had to wait for an year or so before they started making money from their blogs and web sites.

Posted by Nadeesha Cabral in Google Adsense
Quality, not the quantity!
Except for having 14 different Ad Blocks throughout your site, stick to 2-3 well-performing ad units. Off the first tip, this will help you earn more and reduce the clutter.
These ad block types might change from blog to blog depending on your blog design. But most of the time, the medium and the large types out-perform the others. D’oh!
Blend it with your content.
Although Google’s Ad Sense FAQs state that it’s good to have contrasting Ad Blocks, I respectfully disagree.
Don’t treat Ad Sense blocks as a separate part of your site. They are IN you site so that makes them a part of your site. If you’re expecting to create a spammy blog, go ahead, contrasting can do you wonders. And also, can make your site wonderfully amateurish. But if you’re planning to run your blog for a blog time, blend, blend, blend!
If you bend in your ad blocks with the existing site content, readers will anyway read them as a part of your blog. May it be deliberate or accidental. Contrasting would either make them read it or make them ignore it at the first glance. All in all, blending it with the content is the safest bet.
Ad block colors
Have a contrasting border and if possible, keep the link color blue. Getting the ad block background to blend with the site content and border to be contrasting would give you the edge in catching the eye of the reader.
And the blue links? People are used to blue as the link color. Which means, if it’s blue, they know there’s something to click there. But if these changes feel like you’re ruining the flow of your blog design, you can safely ignore these two things.

Posted by Nadeesha Cabral in Google Adsense
Have one AdBlock right-in-the-face of the visitor. This is usually called “above the fold” placement. Because I want to be clear and concise in my description, I invented the term”right-in-the-face”!
Have one AdBlock that catches the visitors eye right when he/she visits your page. Without scrolling, and without getting distracted by something flashy. This helps you to actually get a reader to read your ads, and increase the chances of that user earning you some bucks.
Suppose that you’re enjoying a huge traffic spike from StumbleUpon; some of those users will only stay in your site for under 1 seconds before they click the ‘Stumble!’ button again. Getting them to read one of your ads is a sweet deal!

Posted by Nadeesha Cabral in Google Adsense
Keep an eye on the CTR and evolve!
Keep your eye on CTR. CTR means the click-through rate and you can spot that in your AdSense dashboard. If you get around 1-2 clicks per 100 impressions, that means you are not doing very good converting your traffic into revenue. (Impressions mean the number of times a page with your AdSense ad code had been viewed) This tells you whether it’s time to evolve or not.
Rotate your blocks around the blog a bit and see whether CTR improves. If it doesn’t improve even then, you need a new approach. Perhaps, change of ad block units and all. Keep evolving. That’s the only way to stay on top of your game.
Make use of the channels
Many bloggers don’t use AdSense channels or use them poorly. If you already use AdSense channels to track the performance of single pages in your blog, well, you can take a step further and create different channels for different ad blocks. This way you can see in what shapes and forms your AdSense revenue is generated from and exploit it.
This helped me gain some valuable expertise into maximizing my AdSense revenue. And it had been very helpful in getting these AdSense tips straight. So, please do consider tracking AdSense block per channel. Might be a hassle but it’s worth every single second sacrificed!

Posted by Nadeesha Cabral in Google Adsense
Why?
1. It’ll confuse your readers and give the impression that you’re a sellout.
2. Your earning will significantly drop.
Since you can probably figure out number one, I’ll shed some light on to the number two. Yes, It’s True! More AdSense units mean lesser payouts. Suppose there are 3 units of ad blocks in your page. (AdSense TOS only allow you to have a maximum of 3 ad blocks per page, by the way) Hypothetically that the same ad is displayed throughout. If the top block pays you $0.20 for a click, the next one would pay you $0.15., and the bottom one will only pay $0.10! (Please note that those are hypothetical values. These rates differ for various reasons) So if you have adsense blocks crawling throgh out your pages, I recommend having only 1-2 ad blocks per page. Not only will it remove the clutter, it will also increase your revenue.
Of course, Google won’t tell you this directly. They get a fixed rate per click from advertisers. To the extent of my knowledge I don’t see Google getting reduced payouts depending on the ad placement. But have to research a bit to be sure. It only matters to the publisher. I found this out by only experimenting with my Ad channels after some top-notch bloggers revealed it.

Google, being the undisputable leader in search engines from then until now, is placing a high importance on the quality and relevancy of its search engines. Most especially now that the company is public property. In order to keep the shareholders and users of its engines happy, the quality of the returned results are given extreme importance.
For this same reason, doing the wrong things in the Adsense and other forms of advertisements, whether intentionally or unintentionally, will result in a severe penalty, may get you banned and even have your account terminated. Nothing like a good action taken to keep wrongdoers from doing the same things over again.

So for those who are thinking of getting a career in Adsense, do not just think of the strategies you will be using to generate more earnings. Consider some things first before you actually get involved.
Hidden texts. Filling your advertisement page with texts to small to read, has the same color as the background and using css for the sole purpose of loading them with rich keywords content and copy will earn you a penalty award that is given to those who are hiding links.
Page cloaking. There is a common practice of using browser or bot sniffers to serve the bots of a different page other than the page your visitors will see. Loading a page with a bot that a human user will never see is a definite no-no. This is tricking them to click on something that you want but they may not want to go to.

Multiple submissions. Submitting multiple copies of your domain and pages is another thing to stay away from. For example, trying to submit a URL of an Adsense as two separate URL’s is the same as inviting trouble and even termination. Likewise, this is a reason to avoid auto submitters for those who are receiving submissions. Better check first if your domain is submitted already an a certain search engine before you try to submit to it again. If you see it there, then move on. No point contemplating whether to try and submit there again.
Link farms. Be wary of who and what are you linking your Adsense to. The search engines know that you cannot control your links in. But you can certainly control what you link to. Link farming has always been a rotten apple in the eyes of search engines, especially Google. That is reason enough to try and avoid them. Having a link higher than 100 on a single page will classify you as a link farm so try and not to make them higher than that.
Page rank for sale. If you have been online for quite some time, you will notice that there are some sites selling their PR links or trading them with other sites. If you are doing this, expect a ban anytime in the future. It is okay to sell ads or gain the link. But doing it on direct advertisement of your page rank is a way to get on search engines bad side.
Doorways. This is similar to cloaking pages. The common practice of a page loaded with choice keyword ads aimed at redirecting visitors to another “user-friendly” page is a big issue among search engines. There are many seo firms offering this kind of services. Now that you know what they actually are, try to avoid them at all costs.
Multiple domains having the same content. In case you are not aware of it, search engines look at domains IP’s, registry dates and many others. Having multiple domains having the same exact content is not something you can hide from them. The same goes with content multiplied many times on separate pages, sub domains and forwarding multiple domains to the same content.
Many of the above techniques apply to most search engines and is not entirely for Google only. By having a mind set that you are building your Adsense together with your pages for the human users and not for bots, you can be assured of the great things for your ads and sites.
Not to mention avoiding the wrath of the search engines and getting your Adsense and site account terminated altogether.
More on google.com/adsense

WHY PEOPLE USE ADSENSE
Whether you should join the Google adsense program or not - is entirely up to you. However, if you have some free ad space on your Blog or website, Surely you should join Google adsense.
Here are a few reasons for you to consider about adsense:
1. No need to change outdated ads on your website - everything is done by Google.
2. Google adsense serves you ads no popup etc.
3. Display well written content related advertising, that will match your site subject.
4. Save time finding advertisers for your ad space.
5. One simple code to paste on your pages.
6. You can change the color of the adsense ads displayed, so that they fit your current site layout.
7. Google adsense is easy to join, most websites with original content gets accepted.
However, a few general guidelines you can use to understand the earning potential of Google Adsense:
Your daily adsense earnings are determined by 4 things:
1 .The number of clicks on the Adsense ads.
It is most important factor you are not allowed to click on your ads at your website or blog means be fair.Because such occurrence will not benefit to you. you will be banned and your earning will be lost.
2. The number of page views
The more page views (visitors) to your website, the higher is the chance that you will get clicks on your adsense ads. It should keep in mind that quality visitor will generate you with better revenue.Always design your website, and write your content to a targetted audience.
3. Your CTR (Click Thru Rate) = page views divided by clicks in percentage.
Higher rate of CTR (Click thru Rate) is a measurement of how well you are doing as Adsense Publisher. Highter CTR also means well targeted contents.Therefore higher revenues for you.

Guest Post By Mark Wielgus
Last month my adsense earnings were over $700 dollars, which means I’ve got a long way to go to catch the higher earners, but also that I know a thing or two about adsense.
I thought I’d share what I think is “My Best Adsense Layout Ever!” for three reasons.
• Show off “My Best Adsense Layout Ever!” (thanks Mr. Obvious, lol)
• Help anybody struggling to earn with adsense see a proven money making layout.
• Listen to any constructive criticism to help all of our adsense incomes improve So Let’s See That Hot Adsense Layout Please
There she is. Perty ain’t she?
The rundown on the adsense.
1. Google search box above the banner
2. Large rectangle after the title and before the content
3. Link unit above the vertical menu (people usually click the first link first)
4. Small adsense block at the end of the menu
5. Footer is covered by a leaderboard
The Rundown On the Layout
1. Width no wider than 760px
2. Make menu text look similar to ad unit, but leave space between them
3. 2 column layout
Simple, yet elegant, and maximizing your adsense units.
Only Listen To Advice From Your Visitors
I presented a good starter template, however each site is unique and has unique visitors. Therefore it is up to you to test what works best for your site.
Never settle with any default layout or adsense colors, rather, let your visitor tell you what they like to click on by constantly using adsense split testing.
Seriously, even the hard fast “blend your ads” rule isn’t always true, and I’ve found I sometimes get a higher click through rate by using a contrasting color. Test, test, test!
In Conclusion
That is “My Best Adsense Layout Ever!”. Hopefully if you’re struggling to make an adsense dollar you have something to start with now, and if you disagree that is the best adsense layout ever, let me know in the comments why!
I look forward to hearing from you.

• Useless to advise against any click on the ads on your own sites, as it's too common!
• The best you can do is to constantly watch the activity on your sites. There are also click-monitoring software that can automatically report any peculiarity (or generate a message through the internet client of the possible offender, who is ussually discouraged in such cases). Whenever you notice something out of the ordinary let AdSense™ know.
• Don't ever check your stats on any computer other than your own, and keep secrecy around your AdSense™ activity.
• If you suspect a certain static IP you can block it via .htaccess.
o Filtering IPs via a .htaccess file seems a smart and logical step to take to prevent fraudulent activities from competitors (and there are ways you can find out their IPs, such as sending them an email from a pretended customer and reading their return headers).
o You can disable ads for your own IP to be safer.
• A very good measure would be to implement clicks limit (like 1-3 clicks from same IP for same ad a day).
When suspecting click fraud on your site, the first action advisable would be to temporarily disable the ads displaying on your site to prevent it from happening again and then reporting it to AdSense™.
More on Adsensehowtos.com

Guest Post by Tushar Agarwal
Whenever some one starts a blog with a single goal of make money online through their blog, the first thing that comes to mind is Adsense. Yes, the oldest PPC network started by Google that allows bloggers and webmasters to display other ads related to their blog niche and when some visitor clicks the ads, they get paid.
Adsense was a huge success in its initial days. Lots and lots of people registered with them and made fortunes. The pay-per-click rate was good and the ads shown were relevant. But, like everything, Adsense too had some limitations.
1. Payment only by check - This was the main factor that reduced the popularity of the Adsense. The payment was only made by check which took months to reach Asian countries like India. There was no option of payment by PayPal.
2. Minimum payout was high - The minimum amount you were required to reach for the payout was $100. And for the beginners, this amount took months to reach. So, new bloggers stopped using Adsense.
As a result, new ad networks came up that offered various payout options and much lesser minimum payout amount. Bidvertiser, Adbrite are some of the networks that still exist. Bloggers and webmasters are using them and still making money.

But I feel that Adsense is still the best PPC in the modern era. No matter what is their minimum payout and the payment options are less, Adsense still have the edge over other networks. Reasons :
1. Ads for every niche - Adsense is so old and reliable that majority of the companies and firms like to advertise with them only. So, they have ads to display in blogs of almost every niche which makes it quite popular.
2. Good PPC rates - Adsense offers much better PPC rates that other ad networks. So, you can see account balance increasing fast if your blog enough traffic.
But remember, neither click your ads nor ask your friends to do so. Google will catch you for sure and will inform you when your account will reach $100 i.e. when you will be eligible for your first payout. So, while you are busy celebrating about the check you will be receiving, Google will ban you from Adsense permanently.
Guys, I still trust Adsense as the best money making option for new blogs. All you need to do is to follow some guidelines and avoid every fraudulent activity and you will succeed. Happy Money Making.

Effective CPM
Effective cost-per-thousand impressions (eCPM) is a useful way to compare revenue across different channels and advertising programs. Essentially, effective CPM represents your estimated earnings for every 1000 impressions you receive.
Effective CPM doesn't represent how much you have actually earned -- rather, it's calculated by dividing your earnings by number of page impressions, then multiplying by 1000. For example, if you earned $0.15 from 25 page impressions, then your eCPM would equal ($0.15/25)*1000, or $6.00. If you earned $180 from 45,000 impressions, your effective CPM would equal ($180/45,000)*1000, or $4.00.

Naturally, Google™ has entered the game. Blogs are the kind of sites that Google™ like: lots of links, fresh, new, rich content. Besides, they are still a not very explored ground with good potential in advertising.
Blog Optimization for AdSense™
Generally, the optimization principles are the same as for websites in general and the rules to be observed also, but because blogs are a particular form of web publishing, there are certain peculiarities on several main topics:
Qualify for Google AdSense™
First and foremost, keep up-to-date with Google™ AdSense Program Policies.
• Theme relevance. By their nature, blogs may mix several themes. Theme irrelevance might be a reason of rejection.
• Topic. Because of their openness to comments, blogs are exposed to occurence of offensive content. Filtering should be applied.
• Traffic. Low traffic might be a rejection ground.
Increase targeted traffic