How to improve CPC (Cost per Click) on Google AdSense

Many think that the only way to increase CPC is to hunt for high paying keywords. Well, in reality, this is totally inefficient. The soundest ways to work on improving CPC imply targeting the right market, enriching content, improving CTR, tracking, testing. All these done, there's nothing else left than trusting AdSense's payment system.

When hearing about CPC boost, everybody thinks of high paying keywords, pick some and then build pages around them. Well it's not like that at all, do not go for it blindly! Artificially created sites around some keywords won't do you any good! High CPC goes beyond just high paying keywords. Media Partners Bot analyses much more than your keywords to serve the ads to your page. And we'll see what are these parameters.

Earnings per click cannot be kept very well under control, all that one can do is to create the premises for attracting high-paying ads, but even doing your best in this direction will not bring absolute certainty on a steady high CPC. For sure, there will be fluctuations.

First of all, there is the class of ads that AdSense will serve your pages. Apparently, it takes into account the following parameters when showing ads of a certain cost:

* Everything related to webpage content: context, keywords, theming
* Quality traffic — sites generating quality traffic will earn more, for the rate of conversion is estimated as bigger.
* The age and size of a site.
* The Page Rank.

Some of the factors that will influence further the CPC on your site (and over which you have little, if any, control):

* advertiser’s budget
* seasonal fluctuations
* campaigns launched and ceased
* changes of competition for keywords (new advertisers)
* the smart pricing algorithm — if the estimated conversion rate of an ad is lower than expected, the earning per click will lower.

What to Do?

Of the parameters mentioned above, let us see what parts are under your control:

1. Create authentic, valuable, well-thematized webpage content. The potential of conversion of your content is analyzed. Put your marketing skills into creating pages that pre-sell. Good content will increase also your CTR attracting thus higher CPC ads.

2. Strive for improving CTR. Any action in this direction will be beneficial. Adsense will serve higher value ads to sites registering high ads CTR, for thus its profit will increase too. From this, higher CTR, higher possibility of conversion, thus higher CPC.

3. Study AdSense's payment system and analyze your site from the perspective of “smart” pricing.

4. The choice of the right keywords and phrases (not just the highest paying ones).

You can make a good profit from using phrases containing keywords that pay well instead of simple keywords, that way you get into a niche where the competitivity is lower and the chances to get higher CPC are greater.

5. Target the right markets. Businesses with a higher profit margin will afford to spend more on marketing.

6. Tracking, testing, previewing. Track the activity of your pages, see which perform better, concentrate on the type of content that generates good or at least decent earnings, optimize pages and use the preview tool to see what happens, if the resulting ads are as expected.

Remember to always preview the geographically targeted ads. Some of these might be lower paying.
Common Mistakes

Keep in mind! There are some mistakes that people do while trying to increase CPC.

* Chosing highly searched for keywords.

*

Keyword popularity has nothing to do with their potential for conversion to money. Popular keywords, ones that have many searches, are not necessarily high paying ones.
* Using URL filter to block filter what they think are low-paying ads.

They do this in hope it will bring in place some ads with a higher value. In fact, this is an erroneus judgement, for thus, they block the highest bidders.

According to the bidding rules of the system, it's only the highest value ads that will show. Blocking the ads served will determine AdSense to serve the next highest paying ones. Make sure you always track and test when blocking ads.
* Doing everything they can to increase traffic as much as possible.

Wrong again! You should look for ways to increase targeted traffic. AdSense analyzes the quality of the traffic and the possibility of conversion. Targeted traffic is more likely to convert well.
* Trying to increase CTR by artificial methods, obtaining a huge increase in CTR in a very short while will more than sure be interpreted by AdSense as click fraud and will not only be ignored at payment but you won't get away with it click fraud cases are penalized by account disabling.

42 Ways to Make More Money With Adsense

1. Remember: Adsense doesn't make you money; traffic makes you money
2. Write posts that link to good content on higher-ranked sites in your niche. If your traffic is low, click on those links yourself - webmasters will take notice.
3. Post on forums in your niche and add your site to your signature
4. Submit articles to article directories
5. Use Technorati Tags
6. Submit your best articles to Digg and Del.icio.us
7. Comment on other blogs with similar themes to yours
8. Become a regular on several similarly-themed blogs you like
9. Use Google Sitemaps
10. Write about well-known people in your niche
11. Use a blogroll, but only add sites that you would really recommend. Less is more.
12. Read Problogger
13. Remember: Good content + good advertising = traffic
14. Choose a niche you're passionate about
15. Post/write an article/add content every day (update: or don't)
16. Make your content unique and useful
17. Be timely: break news, comment on new information, become a valuable source of interesting new stuff
18. Be yourself. If you're funny, be funny; if you're not, don't try to be. Be confident that your personality will draw like-minded readers.
19. If you can't think of anything interesting to post about, find something interesting to post about.
20. If you can't find anything interesting to post about, keep looking.
21. You just read something interesting that has nothing to do with your site's theme. Find a way to make it relevant. Use it as an example or integrate it into a story. Use it.
22. Read Copyblogger
23. Remember: Traffic + Adsense = Money - So don't get kicked out
24. Read the Adsense TOS and don't break it
25. While you're at it, RTFM
26. Do NOT encourage readers to click Adsense ads
27. If you're placing a picture specifically to subtly draw attention to Adsense Ads, make sure the ads are clearly distinguished from the image (borders or a line between the two)
28. If you're unsure if your ads comply with the Adsense TOS, ask them for a review
29. Better yet, design your ad concept on a hidden page and have Google review it first
30. Remember: Traffic + Adsense optimization = More Money
31. Study the Google Heat map
32. Place site-relevant pictures near your ads
33. Color images are often better than black-and-white
34. Animations are lame
35. Integrate your ads with your site design
36. Place ads between blog posts
37. Place ads in blog posts
38. Consider borderless Adsense ads
39. Use wide ad formats
40. Be Patient: Time, trial and error are what you need to succeed
41. Give your Adsense implementation a few weeks (at least) before drawing any conclusions
42. Use channels. You are going to want to know which ads are being clicked and which aren't.

Google's Click Fraud Woes

Google has been under a lot of pressure these days to become more open about their efforts towards combating click fraud. Google's main source of revenue is online advertising via their AdWords program. AdWords allows advertisers to have their ad shown when a particular keyword is searched for in Google or if the same keyword appears in the content of a website that subscribes to Google's AdSense program. Each advertiser submits the maximum amount of money that they are willing to pay Google if someone clicks on their ad and is directed to their website. Advertisers compete for ad placement using an auction mechanism. Google shares their advertising revenues with webmasters that subscribe to AdSense making it one of the most popular methods for monetizing a website.

Click fraud is committed when an Internet user clicks on a pay per click (PPC) ad for the sake of generating revenue for a particular website or in order to deplete a competitor's advertising budget. Such behavior is against Google's Terms Of Service (TOS) and any webmaster found violating the TOS is promptly and permanently banned by Google. However, this is where things get a bit tricky for publishers and advertisers.

First of all, Google does not release to the public any information about their mechanisms for detecting and preventing click fraud. Google claims that releasing such information would make it possible for hackers to abuse their system. Many webmasters however maintain that they have been dropped from the system even though they have done nothing to violate Google's TOS. Some people claim that something as simple as a single user who clicks on too many AdSense ads is enough to get you banned. Of course this is very worrisome for webmasters since anyone who dislikes them can easily have their site disqualified and banned by Google.

In addition, advertisers are using 3rd party companies to try and measure how much click fraud is taking place on their ads. Some are finding that click fraud rates are more than 40% which is very high. As a result advertisers are asking Google to become more open about their click fraud prevention methods and also to do more to prevent it. Google had to recently settle a click fraud suit for 90 million dollars the money going to advertisers while recently another class action suit begun brewing in Pennsylvania. In its efforts to appease advertisers, Google has recently added an option in Adwords that shows the number of detected fraudulent clicks for which the advertiser is not charged. In addition, Google has recently joined forces with Yahoo! (who also have similar advertising programs with their Yahoo! Publisher Network) in order to better define and combat click fraud.

Click fraud is a very real threat for both publishers and advertisers. Publishers must take steps to prevent attacks on the sites. There exists free software such as Adlogger that can help immensely. AdWords advertisers unfortunately have to wait until Google becomes more open and cooperative. For the time being, the most they can hope for is to increase awareness of the click fraud problem via class action law suits. At the end of the day, chances are that market economics will eliminate the problem as large amounts of click fraud will result in a drop of PPC prices which in turn will make it less desirable for fraudsters to try an abuse the system.

What you Need to Build an Effective Adsense Site

One of the greatest lies about making money online is this: Build a site, put up some Adsense ads on it and you will be raking in the dough. If only that were true, but unfortunately it isn't that easy.

The trick to putting up an Adsense site that actually makes money is this: You need to have a site that displays ads with the most profitable keywords available and get traffic to your site the cheapest way possible.

So how do you know what are the most profitable keywords? You can use the Google AdWords Traffic estimator. The basic functionality is available for anyone to use, even without an AdWords account. Just enter your keywords in the text box at the top. You can leave all the other fields blank for now. Push the Continue button at the bottom of the page and you will see how much each of your keywords costs to get the #1-3 spot in Google AdWords.

How does this help you to find profitable Adsense keywords? First of all, you are splitting the price of the keyword with Google every time someone clicks on your ad. The actual percentage is not know, but most experts agree that it is about 50%. If a keyword costs $20 for the number 1 spot and someone clicks an ad on your page that uses that keyword, then you will get somewhere around $10!

You should know that high priced keywords do not mean high levels of traffic. The traffic estimator will also tell you the number of clicks per day that each keyword is getting in the number one spot. What you need are keywords that are a balance between the most money and the most clicks per day.

Another thing you need to know before building an Adsense site is which keywords to use to bring in the most traffic. You don't want to go up against ten million other sites that are all talking about the same thing that you are. What you need is a niche topic, something that people are hungry for information about. Here is a step by step process for finding a niche topic.

1. Download a free keyword tool from http://goodkeywords.com.
2. When you get it, enter the most general keyword about your topic that you can find. It will give you a list of related keywords from the Overture search engine along with the number of times each one of those keywords was searched for in the last month.
3. For every keyword that the Good Keywords gives you, enter the following search into Google: allintitle:yourkeyword. Look at the number of results that Google displays for each keyword.
4. Divide the number of results by the number of searches and you will come up with what is commonly referred to as the R/S ratio. In economics, this is called Supply/Demand.
5. Look for keywords that have a high number of search, but a low R/S ratio. I wouldn't choose any keyword unless there were at least 1000 searches per month and an R/S ratio of 2.0 or less.
6. Take the most profitable keywords in this group and build your Adsense pages around them.

Alright, so you have the most profitable keywords that are in high demand. You now need to have some content related to each keyword in order to get Goggle to put the right kind of ads on your page. You can either write this content yourself, or you can go to one of the many free article websites on the net and grab some free articles related to your keyword. Just make sure to give the author credit for the article, it's not nice to steal.

Once you have your article, start putting your Adsense ads in the middle of the article, about once every few paragraphs or so. I have found that this is the most effective way to get people to click on your ads. You are allowed up the three sets of Adsense ads per page, so place them wisely.

That is really all there is to making a profitable Adsense site. Just find the best keywords, get some articles about them, add your Adsense to them, drive traffic to these pages, and start making money.

9 Myths and Facts about Google Adsense

1. Myth: Since wide ads (336x280, 300x250 and 250x250) are effective in many websites, it must also be doing the same thing in my website.

   Fact: Not really. Every website has its own characteristics; you cannot just follow what people said and then hope that your CTR will drastically increase. Try to do your own experiments with various ads and placements. Perhaps ads unit that are not effective in another website are your most profitable ads.

2. Myth: It's profitable to develop website that's targeting high paying keywords.

   Fact: Perhaps, if you really are a Search Engine Optimization expert. It is correct that when these high paying keywords are clicked, you will get a huge amount of money. But do you realize how many people out there who also think the same thing? I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands; and you will face bloody competition to reach the top position in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages). Without top position in SERPS, there will be no visitor; without visitor, there will be no one who clicks on your ads. I have another suggestion for this approach, read it in How to Increase Your Google Adsense CTR.

3. Myth: High Traffic + High CTR = High Income.

   Fact: It is a perfect equation if only there is no smart pricing. High income depends of several factors, such as smart pricing and what type of website you run. Some types of websites (such as forum) have high traffic but they do not generate many incomes from Google Adsense. Smart pricing also affects it. I have seen many websites with high traffic, high CTR, but totally low income.

4. Myth: Be careful if your traffic suddenly increases (perhaps because a popular website features one of your articles), Google might think you are doing spamming.

   Fact: Nonsense. Google is able to detect your visitors from their IP addresses (if you are not net savvy, just imagine IP address as your phone number; every time you make a phone call, it will be recorded on your phone company). If you're doing spamming, there is big possibility that all these IP addresses will be exactly the same. Beside that, Google is able to detect who your referrer is (where your visitors know your website from). If they find out that a popular blog/website is linking to your website, they will surely understand. So, don't worry about this.

5. Myth: If Google suddenly bans your Adsense account, there is no chance you will be able to defend yourself.

   Fact: Some people agree with this, but some other give contradictory facts. Many webmasters complained that Google never gave them warnings and suddenly terminated their accounts. In fact, Google even didn't give them any explanations what their fault was. Strangely, some other webmasters gave contradictory facts. Firstly, Google always gives two warnings before they finally close an Adsense account. Secondly, if you can prove that you never break Google Adsense TOS (Terms of Service) such as doing click fraud, then they will reactivate your account.

6. Myth: Google Adsense will make you millionaire within a couple of months.

   Fact: Wake up! It's not time for daydreaming! You must treat Google Adsense as a real business. And just like another real business, it takes times and efforts to be successful. Darren Rowse from Problogger shares how long he took to get six figures check from Google Adsense in here: www.problogger.net/archives/2005/09/01/im-a-six-figure-blogger/

7. Myth: Repeating visitors will stabilize your Google Adsense incomes.

   Fact: Big mistake. In fact, repeating visitors even easily suffer ads-blindness. Since they regularly visit your website, they know where exactly you put your ads (except you rotate those ads everyday), and will avoid them. Getting new visitors everyday is more effective for your Google Adsense incomes.

8. Myth: The only way to monetize your Google Adsense account is by placing their ads in every website/ blog you owned.

   Fact: Fortunately, no! There are many ways to use your Google Adsense ID (known as “Publisher ID”) now. One of them is by using it for “revenue sharing”. What is that? There are some forums that ask you to enter your Publisher ID when you register in their websites. They will use this ID to generate Google Adsense ads that will be displayed in every thread you participate in. If these ads are clicked, they will split the income: 50% for you, 50% for them. One of the forum that provide this facility is forums.digitalpoint.com

9. Myth: People who got tens (or even hundreds) of thousands dollars from Google Adsense must own a single website that is visited by millions of visitors a day.

   Fact: Not all of them. In fact, many of them even admitted that they got those checks by developing many small websites. For them, it is easier to generate $40,000 from 40 small websites than generate $40,000 from a single website.

Common AdSense Mistakes

In my experience with thousands of my AdSense Gold customers, I've noticed that new AdSense publishers tend to make the same mistakes. I made them too when I was new to AdSense.

I've decided to discuss 3 of the big mistakes with you so that you can have a head start and avoid these AdSense pitfalls. They are:

1. Selecting the wrong topics
2. Having too many topics on the same site
3. Trying to make a quick buck with bad traffic

Selecting The Wrong Topics

When I first started out with AdSense, I was one eager beaver. I wanted to create as many pages as I could, and I didn't care what topic they were about as long as it wasn't adult or gambling.

I put up a site on Old Time Radio Shows, and I was excited to see that I made a few dollars a month with it. What I didn't realize at the time is that my $0.10 clicks were the bottom of the proverbial AdSense barrel in terms of earnings.

I didn't know then that it paid to research the good, high paying topics. So I just put up sites on whatever I could think of that seemed easy to rank for in the search engines.

I was shooting myself in the foot! Once I realized that I could do a little keyword research and find out how much the keywords were worth, then I started focusing on the higher paying niches and started seeing the $1, $2, $5, $10 clicks and up. I don't get that much with every click, but often enough to keep me very happy!

So research your topics first using the AdWords Traffic Estimator Tool, or a good high paying keywords list such as Keyword Explosion.

Too Many Topics on One Site

Another mistake I see newbies make very often (and I made myself when I was a newbie) is having too many topics put on one website. I've seen sites that target everything from alphalpha to Zoro!

That's a bad idea for two main reasons:

1. It makes it hard to optimize your site.

   You want your domain name to be targetted to the topic of the site (a great search engine optimization technique). If you have every manner of topic on the site, you can't do this and lose out on the power that a great domain name can have with the search engines.

2. Google's Smart Pricing doesn't like it.

   If you're not familiar with it, SmartPricing is what Google uses to figure out how much your page is worth in relation to the ads showing on the page. The more Smart Pricing likes your pages, the more you will get paid per click.

   One of the things I've seen with Smart Pricing is that it likes tightly focused, targetted sites. You might have a lot of pages on one site, but they need to be related to each other.

“But I can't afford more than one domain right now,” you might protest.

If that's the case, the best thing you can do is to create subdomains for each of the categories that your site targets.

For example, if you have a site that targets "alphalpha" and "Zoro", have two subdomains:

http://alphalpha.mydomain.com/

http://zoro.mydomain.com/

Do not have the subdomains link to each other either. That way Google seems them as seperate "mini-sites".

Be Careful What Kind of Traffic You Send To Your Sites

Not all traffic sources are created equal. There are a lot of sites out there selling "one hundred thousand visitors to your site for $49.95!" and the like.

What most of these sites do is use software to "simulate" a visit to your site. They are not real people. I've tested this extensively with a couple of vendors who sell this kind of traffic, and not once have I ever gotten any "real" people.

The problem is that sometimes those bots goof and "click" the ads by following the links.

Google sometimes sees those clicks as fraudulent, and many a new AdSense publisher has lost his account because of it.

So beware of shady or "too good to be true" traffic promises, they will only hurt you!

Focus on search engine optimization and link trading, that's where you're going to get the most bang for your buck.

Google Adsense: The Money Maker

If ever you felt you need more money to augment your current income, Google Adsense is your answer. To be sure, simply displaying Google Adsense ads in your website will not fetch you cash. Of course you need a website, preferably one that concerns a fair amount of populace, but that is just the beginning. It is important that you strive hard to bring sizable traffic to your site.

What is Google Adsense?

Briefly, Google Adsense is all about display of Adwords ads on content sites that are part of Google network. In effect, two things happen in conjunction with one another. First, PPC (pay per click) advertisers using Adwords ad campaign have to opt for placement of their ads in content sites (the other option is search sites). Second, individual website owners must enroll with Google to qualify for displaying Adwords ads.

Google Adsense is thus an interface whereby enrolled web publishers agree to place Google Adwords ads on their websites in return for revenue that results when those ads are clicked on. In other words, the money so collected by Google from Adwords advertisers is shared between Google itself and website owners where the clicks have occurred. Google Adsense is therefore a win-win situation for both parties at no additional cost to website owners.

Let us now explore how you can maximize your earning through Google Adsense.

How to present your Google Adsense ads

For an answer, we will turn to Google Adsense help center. There is a pictorial presentation, called 'heat map', that elucidates ideal places for locating Google Adsense ads. In short, here are main points to consider:

• Ads appearing above the fold tend to perform better.
• Place ads directly above (the hottest place) and below content.
• Place ads as close to content and navigational pane, left side being more preferable.
• Place Google Adsense ads on content pages, if not on all pages of your website.
• Combine multiple ad units on every content page, focusing specially on rectangular boxes and skyscrapers and even link units, the latter in case of space constraint.
• A big advantage with Google Adsense ads is that you can use any color combination to display the ads. Experts suggest it is better to merge ad background with background color of your webpage. Further, consider using same color for text and link as that of your webpage.

Maximize gain with Google Adsense ads

Like any money-making venture, you have to work incessantly to maximize your earnings from Google Adsense ads. After you have ensured proper appearance of Google Adsense ads on your webpage, the next thing to consider is organizing the ads in such a way that viewers are enticed to click on them. The main issue here is theme (or shall we say 'niche') of your content page and that of Google Adsense ads must coincide. For example, if the content page relates to the niche 'traveling in Himalayas', the Google Adsense ads shown need to center around this niche.

But all niches may not be popular. Therefore the trick is to discover those niche keywords that people frequently search for. There are many free and paid tools in the market that let you unravel popular search terms. None is more elaborate and helpful than the Adwords Keyword Tool. When you use the tool, try to dig out your niche keywords and build keyword-enriched content pages. Google Adsense ads appearing in those content pages are likely to be more successful in terms of visitors' inclination to click on them.

Adsense - Google's bounty

There are many tales that do the rounds as to how much Google Adsense will fetch you. A recent story (Google's hidden payroll, USAToday.com, March 28, 2006) cites quite a few examples of more than thousand dollars income per month through Google Adsense. Google itself flaunts success stories aimed at new publishers. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that web publishers can indeed reap rich bonanza with Google Adsense.

How To Get More Money From Google AdSense

Google AdSense can actually help you get more money online by simply displaying Google ads on your website. But you can maximize your online income by optimizing your website as you still push through with Google AdSense. Here are 20 ways to make maximize your website's potential online income with Google Adsense.

1. Focus on driving more targeted traffic to your website. The money this traffic will give you will be more than what Adsense can actually give.
2. Optimize your website to get only the most targeted traffic.
3. It is important that you know the Google AdSense Guidelines.
4. Keep in mind the Google AdSense TOS and follow it by heart.
5. Be familiar with the Google Heat map – you need this!
6. Submit posts on web content that you find relevant on – do this on high ranking websites closely related to your own website.
7. You can also post comments on forums about stuffs that are relevant to your website's theme.
8. Blogs are also a good option to join. They will help increase your website's popularity.
9. Your website certainly needs a Google sitemap, so have one!
10. Web Content must be first in the list of your priorities in your website.
11. Web Content must be relevant and useful to your target market.
12. Add more relevant content on your website whenever possible.
13. Make sure your website has a valuable source of information about interesting topics related to your website's overall theme.
14. Always have something interesting on your website to attract more site visitors.
15. Be familiar with Copyblogger – it makes sense.
16. Do not actually push your site traffic to click on the Adsense ads.
17. The Adsense ads can be reviewed – if you are unsure about its legibility.
18. Interesting and attractive yet relevant images can be placed close to the ads.
19. Quit the idea of animations on the website.
20. Integrate the ads with your website design – it looks coordinated.

Don't rely too much on the money that Google AdSense is giving you right now. You can have more money - legally. All you have to do is remember these tips and follow them by heart. These tips are proven effective in terms of increasing online income as you endeavor with Google AdSense. While you utilize Google Adsense on your website, be sure to find more ways to earn money without depending too much on AdSense.

Best Placement Format That Can Increase Your Profits

The google Adsense program is a fantastic way for anybody no matter his or her Internet experience or technical level to make significant, steady income on the Internet, almost as an autopilot.

For Example, some of google Adsense great benefits include:

• You don't have to sell anything and deal with customer complaints like in Ebay businesses our worry about payments or be forced to refund these payments for whatever reason.
• You wont have to invest countless hours trying to contact potential JV partners and dealing with possible rejections.
• You don't have to buy over-rated private label ebooks everybody else is trying to sell.
• Or spend lots of time researching possible profitable Niches, only to find that the seats have already been taken by savvy Internet marketers.

But how does the Google Adsense program work?

Simple, you apply to google using your website or blog and you get accepted. You can find details about this process at google's website.

Google places ads on your web pages. These ads are closely related to the contents of that page. For example, if you have a page on bad credit repair, google will only place ads relating to “bad credit repair” on that page.

This policy works very well to your advantage. It maintains the quality of your site by keeping a uniform content. Visitors searching for particular keyword information arrive at your site and click on the google adsense ads. You will make money as long as the visitor clicks through, whether they buy item or not. You can also profit from the cost per-1000 impressions or cpm.

The above explanation sounds simple, but why are many people disappointed by their google adsense earnings? Well. The problem can be narrowed to poor Ad placement.

According to google help center: you should ask yourself the following simple questions before designing your google adsense pages:

1. What is the visitor trying to accomplish by visiting your website?
2. What do they do when viewing a particular web page?
3. Where do you suppose they are focusing their attention?
4. How can you blend your ads into this area of focus without appearing to be selling them something?
5. How can you keep your pages clean, uncluttered and professional looking to captivate your visitors' attention?

In summary, most savvy Internet marketers agree on the following optimal google adsense ad format and strategies:

1. Concentrate on only one google adsense ad format - the large rectangle (336 x 280). Thus format has proven to attract a higher click-through-rate (ctr). Why, you may ask? Basically because these types of ads look like normal web links that your visitors are used to clicking on. They will automatically click on them, and of course you will make money.
2. Choose a google adsense ad palette that matches your site's theme. That is, if your site has a white background, then choose white color for your ad boarder and background.
3. Place google adsense ads at the top of your page, where visitors can see them-quickly.
4. Include 3 to 4 unique images that will make visitors focus on the adsense ad area. Best placements are beneath the images.
5. Remember to optimize your web pages with appropriate keywords. Observe the following basic rules as much as possible, as you build your website pages:
   • Choose 2 to 3 keywords per page.
   • Choose keywords with high-bid amounts as primary keywords.
   • Use the primary keyword in your title, and then repeat title in the body of your article, especially within the first paragraph.
   • Bold your primary keyword and other keywords about 4 times within the body of the article.
   • If this is a blog post, hit the return key a couple of times at the end of article, and finish with primary keyword all by itself.
   • Last but not the least, placing a google search box on your website can increase your adsense revenues dramatically.

Adsense Advertiser Alternatives

Many people have started using Google's AdSense program, but there are some who find it a bit too uncertain or simply not suiting their own requirements from an ad program.

But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.

AllFeeds

AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don't. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.

MarketBanker

MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There's also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense's and they're just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.

BidClix

BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it's also very flexible.

Chitika

RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there's an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn't. That means there's a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.

AdHearus

AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn't stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There's a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it's a breeze.

AffiliateSensor

AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There's integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA's (Public Service Ads).

Kanoodle Bright Ads

Kanoodle's offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.

TargetPoint

TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site's overall performance and better revenue. It's free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.

Clicksor

Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven't made that much, your earning roll over to the next period.

Niches - How to Find a Good One?

Choosing a niche market is a very important step that will really be the difference between possible success and failure.

What should be considered when choosing niches? One of the most important points is whether there is demand for products in that particular niche and what type of competition there is.

It is best to choose certain niches that are focusing on a specific area that is popular and in demand.

Niches like Internet marketing for example although very popular are saturated and to succeed in this market will take a lot of work, as the competition is strong.

Focusing on certain areas of a general niche will normally offer greater rewards. For example instead of targeting health, focus on children's health, women's health, pregnancy, etc.

Offer interesting content that is searched by many people looking for help on specific areas.

Look at forums and discussion boards to see what type of questions are being asked. See if it is possible to find a hot topic and answer those questions whether it is in the form of an ebook or a website closely themed to give information on a specific subject.

Almost certainly there will be a lot of information already available on any niche chosen, so try to be different and offer something unique.

There are many places to visit to find out whether you chosen niche is popular. Visit sites like Ebay, take a look at the subheadings, look at what's hot and want it now sections to find what people are searching for.

Dmoz is another site that will give ideas of what's in demand, go to a general topic and then see how many results are given for subheading to see what is in demand.

Amazon can also offer an idea of what's selling, look at the bestseller lists, to find the latest hot topics.

Use a keyword tool to do some research regarding the number of searches per month on your chosen niche, to get an idea on how many people are looking for information on that subject.

Go to Google and do a search for your chosen niche and on the results page see how many Adwords ads appear on the right of the page. This will give an indication of how popular the topic is.

If there are many ads, then it is a popular niche, and there are many advertisers. This will mean that if thinking of using Adwords as part of the promotion process, then to achieve a good position will probably be expensive depending on the chosen niche.

If there are only a few results in the Adwords section, this doesn't mean that the niche won't be a success. Perhaps it is a new topic that has suddenly become popular and also it will be possible to get a good position in the Adwords results for a low cost per click. (wmtips remark: you can also use our Adsense Preview Tool to examine Adsense Ads for specific keywords.)

Use search engines to see how many searches are being carried out to find popular niche

5 Ways To Improve Your AdSense Earnings

There are undoubtedly some webmasters who are making a good living out of AdSense. However, there are many webmasters who are not achieving the levels of AdSense income that they had hoped. Is there a way we can learn from the successful webmasters?

Here are 5 proven ways used by webmasters to improve their AdSense earnings.

1. Concentrate on the best performing format of AdSense ad.

   There are currently twelve different formats which webmasters can use for their AdSense ads. From research, the one format that works well for the majority of websites is the Large Rectangle (336X280). This same format also appears to result in higher CTR (click-through rates).

2. Blend the AdSense ads into the website.

   It is recommended that you blend AdSense ads into your site by appropriate us of colors. For example, if your site has a white background, use white as the color of your ad border and background. The idea is to make the AdSense ads look like they are part of the web page. It has been found that this approach results in more clicks from people visiting your site.

3. Place AdSense near the top of the page.

   It is advised that you place AdSense ads where they can be seen quickly by site visitors. Therefore it is suggested that AdSense ads appear at or near the top of the page. AdSense placed at the bottom of the page, almost as an afterthought, appear to attract very little click activity.

4. Place images near to your AdSense ads.

   Images placed near to AdSense text ads has been shown to have a dramatic effect on click-through rates. CTR improvements of several hundred percent have been recorded by using this device. It is thought that the image attracts the eye in a similar way to a photo in a newspapers draws the reader to the associated caption. Software is now available to make adding images to AdSense ads easy to implement.

5. Automate the insertion of AdSense code.

   One approach of successful webmasters is to create AdSense sites with large numbers of pages. By saving AdSense HTML code in a text file, this can be called into other pages in the site by using SSI. This is a huge time saver if you are using automatic page generators to create AdSense sites.

These are some of the tips that have worked well for webmasters who have grown their AdSense income. A final tip is to ensure your site focuses on a specific topic or niche, as opposed to being too broad in its content. This will ensure that the AdSense ads shown on your pages are of direct interest to your page viewers, which in turn will result in better CTR.

Note that these tips can only be guidelines. As in every area of internet marketing, the number one tip is to test and monitor. Do try these tips on your AdSense sites, but make sure you monitor the results.

There is no doubt that the AdSense model is workable. And you can improve your AdSense earnings if you simply implement some of the tips outlined here.

Avoid Getting Banned From Adsense

Borrowing a sentence and distorting the same partially from a US Court case against Google, if it is said that “The web is becoming increasingly ‘Googlized”, it would not be wrong. Existing in a web space without Google has virtually become unimaginable. Whether you may need getting fully indexed by Google, or monetizing your site through adsense or ranking high in Google search results or be it getting page rank for your pages; what ever be your reason, you are going to need Google. After all, it has become a sort of objective source of finding content on the internet.

Google adsense and controversies

Rise and rise of Google is not entirely unaccompanied by corresponding increase in litigation and protests over its terms of service. Some of these terms are plainly monopolistic; but you can not wish it away in a fair marketplace.

Those, who have adsense as revenue model for sustenance of their site, would always dread of having a mail like that your account was found to be related to invalid clicks and publishers disabled for invalid clicks are not allowed further participation in the program. Those banned from adsense have a unanimous complaint that they were not served with any warning or were not given any data by Google to substantiate claims of fraudulent clicks. Google on the other hand insists on protecting integrity of its proprietary technology and refuses to divulge any details.

Actually the whole system of adsense is so made up that anyone with just a basic understanding of the internet and search engine ranking can dynamically insert a javascript provided by Google in his website and earn substantial income that is very attractive considering that it takes no much time and one can work from comfort of his home in his free time. This view further gets strengthened when one comes across many “made for adsense sites” on the net that apparently seem to be doing well.

Of course, a unanimous argument is emerging that Google should explain its actions in more transparent way as to when it blocks adsense account or removes a site from its index and what irks the people most it that they are unable to find out how they can regain the lost indexing or page rank. Limiting myself only to the issue of disabling of adsense account in this article, let me opine very clearly that it is good. Nobody has right to cheat ad publishers and it is good that Google takes it seriously.

What can lead to banning from adsense?

Google is not known to take click fraud lightly as they also are to retain the advertisers interest in their mind. But I have seen that they are open to reason. I personally know at least ten webmasters whose account has been restored. If this disabling has happened to you, first action you must take to write them a mail giving all the reasons with some evidence as server log, files etc to strengthen your claim. It is definitely difficult regaining account from Google but if you are honest, it is not impossible. I think more often is the case where the person suffering the ban was doing something they shouldn't have been doing.

Some of things, you must avoid to avoid disabling of your account is signing up under multiple names, clicking yourself or through any network on ads appearing on your publishing network, generating robotized clicks through many enticing programs available on the net, expressly encouraging a visitor to your site to click an ad, having a site that is based on adsense arbitrage. I have seen many sites that expressly state something to the effect that their services are free but to help them sustain please click the ad. To mind, it is like playing with fire and such publishers can face disqualification any time. When you are buying a domain, please satisfy yourself that it is not previously blacklisted by Google. Remember when Google bans a site, it does not deliver ads to any other url which was previously running on same adsense pub-id.

One major reason of getting banned from adsense is get rich quick. A new webmaster, in case, he does not have much content on his site would barely get 10-30 visitor on his site, which are not sufficient to help him earn from ad clicks. What he should do at that stage is to build good content but he is soon tempted by con men on the net selling something like “Automated Adsense Software”. This is biggest scam happening where many new webmasters are trapped. Most of the time such software would steal content through scraping methods and creates thousand of content pages. As such search engines are cluttered with duplicate and useless content and you are risking getting banned from Adsense as this violates the terms of adsense.

Warnings by Google

Many webmasters whose sites have been banned, grudge that they never got any warning. Remember it is up to you to take precaution at the right time and keep checking the logs. Google will not give you any warning. However on a more personal note I have seen Google give warning or sorts. I saw a site which ultimately was banned, had high value ads being offered and gradually started getting low value ads and more and more of “Public Service ads” even when similar sites were served paying ads. This may be was Google's way to telling that something is amiss.

What to do when banned from adsense?

Google bans publishers guilty of fraudulent clicks for life and does not allow then to rejoin the program. I would also like to share from my experience that such is Google's reputation that many advocates who claim to specialize in fighting your case against Google to regain the account also would agree to take your case if you satisfy them that you are a victim and did not do any act against the terms of service.

There is no record of Litigation with Google being fruitful on this account. Google has its proprietary technology to detect such click frauds, which Google does not disclose. This stand of Google that it is not open to disclose its proprietary technology has been upheld by various courts. If you are the one whose account has been disabled, I don't want to appear distressing to you but from my own experience in dealing with such cases, I must say generally ‘something' is there which leads to Google disabling the account. If you are sure you did not indulge in such acts, must look around. May be some competitor did it to hurt you.

However if the banning of adsense, happens, then what are the suggestions, remedies or alternatives? Please go on to read the article from the link given in the signatures.

Ten Good Reasons for using Adsense

Why is Adsense so popular? What is the difference between traditional banner ads and Adsense? In this article, I'll give you ten good reasons for using Adsense.

1. Displaying relevant ads

   Adsense contains a vast advertiser base and its technology can deliver ads that are highly relevant to the content of the page. For example, you blog is about cars. Adsense will automatically selects those cars related ads and shown on your blog. Studies have proved that the percentage of clicks is higher for relevant ads than random ads. More clicks means higher revenue for you, too!

2. One contact point and that's it

   Another advantage is that after you've created a blog about cars, later maybe you want to create another blog about movies also. All you need to do is to use the same Adsense code then that's done. Unlike traditional advertising, you'll have to contact different companies for different kinds of ads. You only need one contact, Adsense.

3. One time registration only

   As a Webmaster, you may own several blogs. However, you only need to register with the Adsense program once. After you've registered, if you continue to create another blogs later, you don't need to register with Adsense again.

4. Credibility of Google

   With the backup from Google, one of the largest search engines in the Internet, you don't have to worry of not getting pay or being cheated by those fake “earn money online" companies.

5. Support different languages

   Now you may wonder, is Adsense supports my language or not? Don't worries Adsense supports different kinds of language, not only English.

6. Combine your blog with Google search engine

   Apart from earning revenue from ads, joining the Adsense program also enables you to place a Google search box on your site. On one hand, your readers don't have to switch to Google to search something that they're interested; they can search that in your site and make them stay longer. On the other hand, when your readers search it from your site, the results shows up with ads also and you'll get paid when your reader click on it.

7. Customize the appearance of ads

   Traditional banner ads made your site looks “ugly" as you don't have much control on its appearance. Let's say you already have a banner on your site and you probably don't want so many banners on it. With Adsense, you can customize the appearance of ads to make it more suitable for your site. If your site is mainly blue, you can choose the color of the ads to be blue also.

8. Text-based ads

   Adsense offers you text-based ads as well as traditional graphic banner ads. According to studies, most readers are already getting sick and tired of the traditional graphic banner ads. Automatically, they tend to ignore these banner ads and developed the banner ad blindness behavior. By using text based ads, webmaster doesn't have to face the problem of banner ad blindness and the click through rates will be expected to be much higher, too.

9. Keep track of the performance of ads

   You can place your ads in different locations on different pages. Adsense enables you to assign different channels to different ads. As a result, you'll know which location's ad has the highest number of clicks in your site.

10. Customizable reports

    Finally, Adsense provides a large range of reports to you. You can analyze these reports and make the corresponding adjustments to improve you site. The reports are customizable, too.

10 Great things NOT to do with Google AdSense

There is no question that you can make some good money with Google AdSense, but you're setting yourself up for disaster if you make any of these Top 10 mistakes!

1. Do not use fake information when opening your Google AdSense account.

   Google says that's a no-no and they will cut your account off and keep all the money you may have earned. Besides, trying to hide your true identity can cause serious problems with the I.R.S. or whoever your tax authority is.

2. Do not hack or modify Google AdSense code other than to change the parameters that Google authorizes you to change.

   Any attempt to bypass Google's built-in algorithms not only poses a danger to the integrity of the network, but it threatens the financial modle that Google operates under. You're not dealing with some Mom-and-Pop company here, and Google has the legal muscle and deep enough pockets to drag you through every court in the land if you damage their business with your hacking antics.

3. Keep AdSense ads off of your registration, confirmation, and all "thank you" pages.

   Don't ask me why you can't put your ads there. It makes sense to me that those would be wonderful locations. Google thinks otherwise, however, and doing so is a hanging offense according to their Terms of Service.

4. Do not display AdSense ads and a competitor's ads (like Overture's) on the same page at the same time.

   That just makes plain good sense. Google doesn't demand 100% SITE loyalty from you, but they do insist that their own ads not be cluttered up by offerings from their competitors.

5. Don't "beg for clicks" or provide any incentive for clicking on your Google AdSense ads.

   This is a biggie and you see this rule violated all the time. Any of the “get paid to do stuff” sites that put Google ads in the member's control panels are walking the plank and they don't even realize it. Even those sites with the polite little messages asking you to “help keep my site running by clicking on our sponsor's ads” are asking to be cut off if those happen to be Google ads.

6. Never click on the ads running on your own site, even if you are genuinely interested in the product or service and are thinking of buying it!

   Nothing screams FRAUD louder than a webmaster running up his or her own click counts by happily clicking on ads fromtheir own site. The Google Gods can track this activity and it won't be long until you find yourself getting a goodbye note from their fraud team.

7. No misleading labeling

   Google is very specific about what text can be placed around their ads. Their Terms of Service state: "Publishers may not label the ads with text other than 'sponsored links' or 'advertisements.' This includes any text directly above our ads that could be confused with, or attempt to be associated with Google ads."

   This is to keep visitors from becoming confused and barking up Google's tree when they clicked on an ad that led to a porn site instead of the recipe site they were expecting to visit.

8. Avoid keyword spamming and other divisive tricks.

   You may be tempted to buy one of those “generates thousands of key-word rich pages in seconds” programs that are so popular these days but I'll tell you this: Their days are numbered. Google is wise to such shenanigans and they will be hot on your trail.

   Other prohibited gimmicks include:

   • "Sneaky" page redirects that send a visitor off to a different site then they were expecting to visit.
   • Multiple sites, domains, pages, etc. which have substantially duplicate content.
   • Hidden text or links of any type.
   • Excessive outbound links on any page. Google recommends no more than 100. I'd keep it way below that.
   • And here is a nugget of wisdom straight from Google's mouth: "Do not participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your website may be affected adversely by those links."
9. Don't advertise anything on Google's prohibited items list.

   It's a lot shorter lists than PayPal's or eBay's, but it includes a lot of the same stuff like hacking/cracking content, porn, illegal drugs, gambling sites, beer or hard alcohol (I guess wine is OK), weapons, and the other usual stuff.

10. And the 10th dumbest thing NOT to do with Google AdSense is to let the other nine things stop you from running an honest site that's designed to make the most out of this very profitable opportunity that Google offers!

AdSense optimization tips for forums

Owning and operating a forum can be a tricky task. Not only do you have to struggle with the many obstacles of establishing the forum such as working on your initial member build up, getting rid of problem members early, and making sure your forum is easy to use, but there is also the major problem of monetization.

Forums are traditionally considered to be more difficult to monetize (if you are using ads to monetize the forum) than a regular website – mainly because of the type of visitor a forum receives. Typically, a lions share of the visitors on a forum are going to be from members who are there to participate in conversations, not click on ads. Regular forum members know what they are looking for and subsequently develop a very strong “ad blindness” which is difficult to overcome.

It is for this reason that many forum owners completely throw out the idea of using Google Adsense ads to monetize their forums.

But this is a mistake.

Forums, if optimized correctly, can experience clickthrough rates that rival those of normal websites. Of course, you need to go through the process of optimizing.
Adsense Optimization for Forums - The Basics

There is no end to downloadable guides on Adsense - and most of these guides are well worth their money in my opinion. But most of these guides all cover the same basic principles. I don't want to spend too much time on things that you already know, so I'm going to cover the most basic principles quickly. These basics tend to apply to both forums and regular websites.

First, always test and record your changes. This is a rule that applies to anything that you do with your website, not just to Adsense optimization. Never assume that you know what is going to work best on your site - let your visitors decide that for you. You should test ad sizes, colors, formats and locations to see which perform the best. If possible, setup split testing on your site and track your results using Google's channel tracking.

Be sure to give each version of your ad enough time to get real results. You should aim to give your ad at least 500 views (preferably 1,000 views) before making any changes. 100 ad views is certainly not enough to make any good judgment on.

Adsense optimization experts seem to agree that overall there is one ad size and color combination that seems to win most split tests. This ad size is the 336 x 280 ad size, with a blue headline (#0000CC), black text (#000000), and a dark grey url (#666666).

Although this is not always true, often blending your ads appearance into the content of your pages is a good way to increase your clickthrough rate. The reason behind this is simple: people have developed ad blindness. In general, if they recognize something as an ad, they will simply ignore it and move on to what they believe to be regular content. By blending your ads into your site, your website readers will be more likely to read the ad, and subsequently click it.

Now be sure to never "trick" your website users into clicking on an ad. Never use text that would mislead the person into thinking that the ad is part of your content, and never tell the user to click the ad in any way. Also, Google no longer allows publishers to place images next to their Adsense ads in a way that would make the images look like they are part of the ads.
Moving on to More Advanced Optimization Strategies

You know that 336 x 280 ads tend to have the highest clickthrough rates, and you know that you should blend your ads into your site. But users are getting used to these techniques and are growing a new "blindness" to these ads. What can you do to better increase the performance of your ads? Here are a few advanced optimization strategies.

Give Your Users an Obvious Ad and then Feed them a Blended Ad. This is one of my new favorite optimization techniques. The concept behind this technique is simple: when a user scans a page for content, often they will initially scan it and identify where the ads are on the page. If you give your user an obvious ad, they will become blind to that style of an ad, but not necessarily other ads on the page.

I have included an example of this from an earlier version of DebtManagementTalk.com – an Adsense revenue sharing forum that relies on having fairly high Adsense clickthrough rates.
AdSense on forums and message boards

Now this isn't necessarily the best example of this principle in action (this site doesn't necessarily lend itself to this technique), but using this method did produce an increase in revenue.

The ad on the left is obvious. It has a big border, looks like an ad that you would see on many sites, and is in a common location. When a visitor is scanning the page, they will see the obvious ad and assume that other ads on that page will appear the same. Notice that just to the right of the obvious ad is a Google ad that blends into the page much better, is styled differently, and doesn't look anything like the obvious ad.
Source Order Your Ads to Get the Highest Paying Ads Listed First

There is a rather significant problem with the example above. When you use multiple ad units on one page, Google will typically serve up the highest paying ads first and the lowest paying ads later.

In the example above our obvoius ad, which was inserted not to create a lot of clickthroughs but rather to set a "tone" for ad design throughout the page, appears first in our source code. This means that this "diversion ad" will hold the best paying clicks, but will probably rarely be clicked on.

It is not always true that ads that appear first on your page will earn you the most money. When optimizing your Adsense ads, try setting up channel tracking on each of your ads to see which ad spot gets the most clicks and which ad spot receives the most money per click. Once you have determined this, you should rework your code to try and get the ad with the most clicks to appear in the spot of the ad that receives the most money per click.
Watch Out for Cannibals

This goes along with the topic that I just talked about, but there are a few more things to consider. If you have an ad that realizes a lower amount of revenue per click and outperforms your ads that have a higher revenue per click, your ads are said to be cannibalizing each other.

A classic example of this is with Google's Ad Links. Many people include Ad Link units on their page because they are so easy to “blend” into the content on your site. However, ad link units also typically have a lower revenue per click than regular ads.

If you have an adlink unit that is getting a significantly higher number of clicks - and your users leave your page for good, you may be losing money.

Cannibalization can also occur when you place other types of ads on your website. Do you have another approved contextual ad unit on your page that is not as profitable as Adsense? Is it taking clicks away from your adsense ads?

Not all competiting ads will cannibalize each other, which is why it is important to always test your results.
Finally, Sometimes a Redesign is in Order

Most forum designs, unfortunately, are not designed to work well with Adsense. They tend to have fluid layouts which do not fit Google's fixed ad sizes well, and it is often difficult to blend the ads in such a way that it flows with the rest of the content on your page.

There may come a point when you have tested, tried, and incorporated every conceivable ad variation, style, and color on your website only to see marginal improvements. If this is the case, you may want to consider an entire redesign of your forum.

I ran into this problem with DebtManagementTalk.com. Since the site is a revenue sharing forum, it relies heavily on the ads performing well. Although Google's terms of use restrict me from saying what the clickthrough rate was on the site, I can say that it was lower than I had desired, and much lower than what the members on the site were looking for.

Through using the techniques I listed above, I was able to make small improvements to the ads performance, but the overall performance was still less than desirable. It was time for a redesign.

DebtManagementTalk.com moved from a fluid (full screen) layout to a fixed width layout. The colors were changed to be more vibrant and to offer more possible color options with the Adsense ads. The discussion layouts were stylized differently to allow for a much more natural incorporation of ads.

Although testing is still ongoing, the redesign improved the Adsense revenues on the forum significantly.
Adsense and Forums Can Work with Work

Forums obviously have the potential to bring a very large amount of traffic, and contrary to what many people believe about forums, they can actually incorporate Adsense ads very effectively.

It simply takes steady efforts of optimization, recording your changes, and an obsessive desire to always beat your best ad performance.

4 Tips to Improve your AdSense revenue

How many times have you seen an ad campaign running for “Google Adsense” that makes it sound so easy to make revenue by just copying and pasting their code onto your website? After all the research I have done on Google Adsense, I finally realized how it is not that easy just to copy and paste. There is much more beyond this that must be done in order to make Google Adsense revenue.

The following are techniques that must be implemented in order to really make money with Google Adsense:

1. Design a website that is Google Adsense friendly. In other words, make sure that your website has much content that is keyword rich and make sure your keyword density is decent. Make sure that you are using the most beneficial keywords for your niche. Try to choose keywords that cost more for pay per click. For example, if a keyword such as “dog training” cost $2.00 per click to run an ad campaign, you can be well assured that you will make around half of that per click. By choosing the top competitive keywords, you will increase your Adsense revenue considerably. Once indexed, Google will then be able to known what correct ads to place on your website.
2. Generate traffic to your website using a number of different techniques.
* Writing articles

By writing articles at least once a week and submitting them to article directories such as Ezine. The more article directories that you submit to, the more back links you are creating for your website. You can pay for article directory submission, which can cost as little as $80 every quarter.
* Search Engine Directory Submissions

By submitting your website URL to search engine friendly directories, you are creating back links back to your website. Make sure that you only submit to search engine directories with a Google page rank of four or higher. You can pay around $11.00 per website to submit to 100 directories with a page rank of four or higher. Create ads: By publishing classified ads, you are advertising your website and creating back links back to your website. US Free Ads and Domestic Sale are two places that you can submit your ad to for free.
Just remember back links, back links, back links!
3. Google Adsense ads can be published and designed in a wide variety of formats. When displaying your ads, decide upon a size that would be best suitable for your website. There are different sizes to choose from. There are also different fonts and colors you can use to create your ads. Try to use a color that blends in well with your website. Also, although borders can be used, many web publisher's state on forums and blogs, that once they removed their borders, they had more clicks on their ads.
4. When displaying ads on your website, it is best to place them in a place where visitors can review them. One good place to display your ads is somewhere at the top of your website. A lot of web publishers use the top left corner for displaying Google Adsense. However, when you go to a website, what is one of the first things you look at? Could it be how the website is navigated by its menu? That is why another great place to display your ads could be near the navigation menu.

Earning revenue with Google Adsense takes time, patience, and trial and error. The more you read about how Adsense works for others, the more you will understand how it will work for you.

AdSense Arbitrage is Dead?

It appears from a series of posts in the forum at WebmasterWorld indicates that Google could finally be cracking down on AdSense arbitrage. Some owners of AdSense accounts involved in arbitrage claim to have received emails from Google advising them that they have an unsuitable business model for AdSense and that their accounts will be disabled within a few weeks.

In essence AdSense arbitrage involves bidding for advertising on Google AdWords at very low "per click" prices, then directing that traffic to a site designed with the primary purpose of having the visitors click on similar advertisements but hopefully those a much higher bid price, sourced through Google's AdSense contextual advertising program.

It can be argued that the key to successful arbitrage is to not provide any substantial or quality content on the landing web page. This means that when a visitor comes they are more likely to want to leave immediately and click on one of the AdSense ads to make a quick exit.

Jennifer Slegg, who keeps a blog on contextual advertising at JenSense.com, sheds some light on the reason for this latest action. “From a business perspective, it does make perfect sense for Google to make this move, since so many Google AdWords advertisers refuse to advertise on the content network because there are so many “Made for AdSense” style sites as well as those doing arbitrage. So in the long run, it could mean more money for publishers if/as advertisers return to the content network.”

So just how widespread is arbitrage? We're not just talking about a few dollars here. I did a quick search on “AdSense arbitrage” yesterday (yes, at Google's very own search engine), and there at the top of the results is a product being promoted with the bold claim, “How I Use Google Adwords to Drive Traffic to My Adsense Sites Making Me $1,324.79 a Day on AutoPilot.” That's big dollars.

And over at WebmasterWorld this week, one forum member joined the discussion about the account closures with this comment, “Got the same email here. I just reached my 70k-month... That sucks.”

Jeremy Luebke of Marketingpilgrim.com had this to say, “This move is long overdue. The quality of the traffic coming from the Adwords content network has been terrible for years. There is not a single campaign any of my clients run on the content network where they are willing to bid more than the minimum bid. I'm sure by doing this, Google is hoping to restore confidence on both the advertisers end and the end user.”

This has all happened during May of 2007, so if you are reading this some time later you should catch any latest developments on the sites mentioned above.

What does this mean for web site owners and other advertisers? For webmasters using arbitrage or other dubious techniques this is a wake up call. In the long term quality will be rewarded and the rubbish will be thrown out.

I think these webmasters had to know this change had to come one day. As one forum user known as “potentialgeek” wrote, “For those who've been making money off arbit, if you're honest with yourselves, you must have known you built your business on sand, and guessed this time of hard rains would eventually come and wash it all away”.

For advertisers, Google's AdWords and AdSense programs just took a big leap forward in terms of quality. I am excited to see what difference this makes.

No doubt there are many webmasters looking for a new strategy right now. Let's hope they have learned a lesson and develop some new strategies based on good techniques and quality content.

Instead of using advertising for AdSense arbitrage perhaps these webmasters could use their advertising expertise to direct traffic to sites that contain real content that is of value to visitors. And how could they make money doing that? Well, the old-fashioned way of course. They could actually sell one of their own products or services. And if they really have nothing of their own of value to sell, perhaps they could recommend good quality affiliate products.

It's another day, another development, in the online business world. I think it's been a good day for all concerned. It's been a good day for the quality of Google's advertising network. And it's been a good day for the average Joe Citizen, who will not be taken to so many trashy web sites whenever they click on an advertisement.

How to Not Get Banned for Adsense Arbitrage

Would you believe a rumour that tells you that Google is going to ban the publishers that practice Adsense Arbitrage? Well, then I suppose you don't agree with me that Google would commit suicide. After all, the Adword/Adsense system that Google uses is arbitrage.

What Google wants to get rid of are the sites that convert poor for the advertisers. Imagen yourself paying dollars per click to get visitors to your site and you see your ad on one of those crappy "Made For Adsense" websites. Chances are that you want to take your ads of those sites right away. There's no quality content on those sites that gives the searcher the information he or she is looking for.

Google is going after publishers that return bad ROI for the advertiser. Google has never said that they are going after Adsense Arbitrage publishers.

Suppose you use an Adwords campaign to send traffic to your website With Adsense ads. If that website has quality content on it and is relevant to what the searcher has typed in the search bar, then you are doing exactly what Google wants you to do. Give relevant quality information to the searcher. You are NOT violating Google's TOS.

The Quality Score of your Adwords campaign will improve and as a result you will pay less CPC (Cost per Click) and your ad will be displayed higher in the Sponsored Links.

What would be the result if you optimize your website to a quality website? Besides the traffic you get from your advertising campaign, Google will love to index a website like that. They need quality information for the searchers.

Affiliate marketers using PPC advertising are practicing arbitrage, because they often invest few cents to earn dollar commissions. Of course, in this case the amount of CPC that they pay depends on what niche they advertise in. And very often the searcher ends up on a landing page with a product review. If that review is relevant to what the searcher searches for, the advertiser and affiliate is doing exactly what Google wants. Again, this will increase the quality score of the Adwords campaign.

Conclusion

Adsense Arbitrage is not a "bad" thing that will get you banned from Google Adsense. On the other hand, building crappy websites, such as the MFA (Made For Adsense sites), and sending traffic from a Google Adwords account to those sites is not recommended anymore. A logical thought is that Google will never index those sites and will let the advertiser pay high CPC in case of arbitrage. Will this cost you your Adsense account? That's up to Google to decide....

Do's and Don'ts for AdSense Publishers

Google Adsense has made a huge impact on internet advertising and it is not short of being a revolution. The fact that more and more people are using Adsense today is the proof of its success. It is a concept that can provide businesses, small and large with a good ROI and generate targeted traffic by creating a high visibility over the internet.

You should start applying Adsense if you have been losing money instead of gaining in any kind of affiliate programs. Google through its Adsense service is providing high quality and relevant ads, which match up to the content on your website. To add to this is the search engine, which will take care of most of the searching. Another salient point is that you will not have to spend too much time choosing various types of ads for your website pages. Google's Adsense process makes it easy for you because it doesn't involve codes like it is the case for several affiliate programs.

AdSense is something on the lines of a set and forget arrangement thanks to the state-of-the-art technology used by Google. Here are some strategic tips of what to do with Google Adsense and what not to do with it.

1. While working on Adsense, you should try and avoid default settings, instead work towards customizing your ads.
2. When you are writing the content, think about your reader and then target your content through Adsense.
3. One mistake that most businesses or people make is looking at AdSense as a competitor; instead you should look at it as a partner that is going to help generate revenue for your business and create visibility over the internet, and in fact provide you with a winning edge over your actual competitors.
4. You need to position the ads correctly. This is highly important if you want to profit you're your Adsense campaign. You need to place your ads where you feel there is a higher probability for people to see it.
5. With Google, you can place three instances of AdSense code per page. You should use this to your advantage but remember you need to also bring a variety to the implementation.
6. If you have implemented the code on your Adsense ads then refrain yourself from clicking on the ad. Note: Google is extremely sensitive to click fraud.
7. One of the things that many people try is game the system. Google is aware of most of the things or tricks that people apply and is notorious for pursuing people caught doing a click fraud.

Here is a list of Don'ts:

1. Don't try to implement your AdSense code in a place where people won't be able to see it.
2. There are many people who try to offer incentive to visitors so that they click on the AdSense ads. This is a no-no!
3. Never beg people to click on your ad
4. Never place your AdSense ads on empty pages.

The Google Adsense ads can be easily customized, which is one of the reasons for its popularity. They can also be placed anywhere on your web page but it is always advisable to place them where people will be able to see them and click on them. You can always experiment a little with themes & colors and of course the placement but you should never go overboard. Too much of experimentation can kill the main purpose.

But before you can start with Google Adsense, you need to be aware of the rates, which can vary. Your Adsense strategy should revolve ideally around the rates because you will receive your payments per click and it will all depend on how much you are willing to pay per click to place an advertisement using AdWords. The minimum that advertisers pay is around 5 cents and it can go to as much as $10, and even more. For example: lawyers are paying around $75 for using the keyword mesothelioma.

You can sign up for your Adsense account by clicking on the below mentioned URL: https://www.google.com/adsense/

What you need to know about AdSense Fraud

Many small businesses and sites that don't have budgets for large and flashy advertising campaigns view Google Adsense as a life saver. All they have to do is sign up and Google will send content-relevant text, image and video ads their way. The potential advantages are enormous as the ads are an unobtrusive means to generate income and increase traffic.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, however, so along with greater revenue and increased visibility, you also have to deal with the repercussions of potential Adsense Fraud. According to Adsense-tips.org, most Adsense fraud is committed by Adsense publishers, as the temptation of easy money is too great to ignore.

In an attempt to explain the phenomenon, Sofizar.com created four categories of fraudsters. The category titles are light-hearted, but Sofizar assures us that this in no way reflects any leniency felt towards the scoundrels.

1. The Regressive Fraudster or ClickMonkey: this bottom-feeder fraudster lacks both the ambition and the brains to make a success of his or her endeavours. With the aid of clickbot software and a few registered domains, ClickMonkey goes about creating a straw empire. He or she interlinks sites to fabricate popularity and PageRank, and begins clicking happily away. There are so many clicks in fact, that the account is banned before the poor monkey sees any profits. ClickMonkey may retire, defeated and broken, or may experience renewed vigour and surge back in the guise of.
2. Wanna-Be Fraudster or Bozo: Slightly more sophisticated than the ClickMonkey, Bozo makes the correct assumption that Adsense earnings are proportional to Google's profits. They target keywords that have high paying potential. Bozos create pages with content relevant to the profitable keywords. Then they go to town with clicking, often recruiting those near and dear to them to give them a hand. Bozos are foiled by failing to take Google's 45 day inspection period into account. Google analyses click-through rates and becomes curiously suspicious when they see that most clicks are generated from only a few addresses. Bozos don't pass inspection and either retire wiser, but none the worse for wear, or return as,
3. The Almost There Fraudster or the SmartAlec: SmartAlecs adopt a similar strategy to Bozos by targeting certain keywords and creating sites with supporting content. The difference is that SmartAlecs make friends with IP addresses from around the world. His or her new-found friends do all the clicking and SmartAlec rests assured that Google will never catch on because of the vast numbers of diverse IP addresses used. Unfortunately for SmarAlecs, they fail to take click-through rates into account. As soon as they exceed the limit, Google sits up and takes notice. After that it's a short walk to the sin-bin where the account is banned. Having come this far, however, aspirant fraudsters are often reluctant to give up and make one final attempt as,
4. Fraudster Maestro or Satan's Spawn: The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so Satan's Spawn (SS) is criminally ingenious. SS knows all about keywords, click-through rates, inspection periods and which countries have the highest pay rate per click. SS is an immaculate schmoozer and can sweet talk anyone online into clicking his or her links. He or she uses tactics like asking people to check that the links work, offering free screensavers (who doesn't at least click for a look at free screensavers?) and outright deceit, for example, some SS might claim that clicking in a link will fill a bowl of food for starving children in Africa. This is grossly unfair to charitable sites that do actually feed the world's starving, but being a spawn of Satan, it's reasonable to assume that he or she doesn't care. The current Adsense market is worth over $5 billion per year, of which conservative estimates place fraud at 20%. This means that Adsense fraud costs legitimate companies over $1 billion per year. It's no wonder that aspirant fraudsters persevere until they get it right. It's not known as Filthy Lucre for nothing.

Considering the size of the market, it's unreasonable to expect Google to take sole responsibility for seeking the fraudsters out and ensuring that punitive measures are enforced. All advertisers and sites that make use of Adsense should actively combat the phenomenon. Tracking software is an effective weapon in the fraudster war, but sites need to make it known at the outset that they use tracking software. This not only serves as a warning against attempted fraud but also provides some measure of legal cover against lawsuits for violation of privacy.

It's also advisable to invest some software that analyses all of the activity on your site. This allows you to keep track of all your visitors, how long they stayed on your site, what they did etc. This is obviously similar to tracking software, but can have additional benefits for your site by highlighting areas that need attention or that should be emphasised. If your budget is not as flexible as you would like it to be, analytics make more economic sense as they can perform dual tracking and analysis functions.

Recommended sites:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdSense
• http://www.labnol.org/internet/blogging/google-adsense-click-fraud-india-how-invalid-clicks-are-generated/2408/
• http://www.sofizar.com/adsense-fraud.php

Increasing traffic to your websites is the best Adsense trick

This article will give you several different ways to increase your Adsense income. The first step is to log into your Adsense account and look at your last months states. There are three key areas that contribute to your earnings: Impressions, Clickthroughs and Effective CPM.

Improving your stats in any, or preferably, all of these three key areas will increase your Adsense earnings.

Impressions are the number of times your web pages with Adsense ads have been viewed. You improve impressions by creating more traffic to your web pages.

Here are several ways to increase traffic to your pages:

• Create more web pages, with relevant, focused content.
• Create more links to your web pages.
• List your website/s under relevant categories in more directories.
• Set up a directory of relevant sites on your website and accept relevant reciprocal links.
• Write relevant articles, with your site information in the 'resource box' at the end of each article, and submit them to article directories

The next area that will improve your earnings are increasing your "Clickthroughs".

Clickthroughs are the percentage of viewers who click on your Adsense ads. You can increase Clickthroughs by increasing the relevance of Adsense ads on your site, and by tweaking the format and placing of your ads.

Although you can't dictate which Google Adsense ads show on your site, you can influence the relevance of the ads by maintaining a tightly focused website. If every page on your site focuses tightly on the site topic, its more likely that the Adsense ads will too.

For example, if every page of your site is about fishing, and the word 'fishing' appears several times on every page, its likely that your Adsense website ads will relate to fishing.

The best way to tweak your ad format and placement is to invest in an Adsense Tracker, and test, test, test! People who have done this tend to suggest that the best format is the large rectangle, with background and border the same color as the page behind it, so that the ad blends into the page.

The best placement is towards the center or top left of the first screen of the page. Try these suggestions first, and then track and test, to be sure of what works best for your pages.

The next way to make money with Adsense income to generate effective CPM.

Effective CPM is a measure of your average earnings, per thousand clicks. You can increase your Effective CPM by selecting topics that attract high bids from Adsense advertisers, and building pages and whole websites on higher paying topics. Look for top paying keyword adsense words to use for your campaigns.

Although Google doesn't release information on Adsense bids, you can get a good idea of the top paying topics by looking at information on Adwords bids, or, for that matter, bids on pay-per-click search engines like Overture.

There are a number of keyword research tools available, both free and paid, that can help you find high paying topics.

So now you have the basics of increasing your Adsense income. Here is the basic formula:

• Build pages and websites on high paying topics for the best Effective CPM.
• Format and place your Adsense ads for maximum Clickthroughs.
• Promote your sites to drive targeted traffic to your Adsense web pages for maximum impressions.

101 High Paying AdSense Keywords

For a typical blogger or website owner, we make money when someone clicks on one of the Google Ads on our site, or per 1000 impressions of the AdSense links. For most of us, we already know how hard it is to get people to click on these links and even if they do, sometimes the chosen ads are low paying ones because of the keywords used on our page.

So to help maximize profits, here is a list of 101 high paying Google AdSense words you can try and use to target the keywords in your content to. It is assuming that as the website owner, you will receive roughly 50% of the total cost per click (CPC) that Google charges its advertisers, but you should check this with Google to find out the actual value (if they'll tell you).

N	Keyword	CPC
1	AdWords	$9.41
2	available domain name	$12.97
3	addwords	$10.92
4	AdWords campaign	$14.63
5	AdSense	$12.43
6	buy domains	$8.84
7	buy domain name	$17.10
8	bachelor degree on line	$14.36
9	best webhost	$8.68
10	bulk email marketing	$11.77
11	bankruptcy	$5.72
12	cheap domain name	$9.16
13	car insurance	$22.89
14	credit cards	$10.93
15	crm software	$15.96
16	car loans	$11.79
17	construction estimating software	$5.80
18	domain names	$17.57
19	debt	$13.18
20	degree education on line	$12.44
21	dell computer	$5.79
22	degree	$6.37
23	debt management	$7.15
24	database software	$3.13
25	email marketing	$13.24
26	ecommerce hosting	$11.81
27	education degree online	$14.69
28	earn money online	$3.04
29	free domain name registration	$5.81
30	free credit report	$9.57
31	flowers	$4.83
32	financing	$4.50
33	gas prices compare	$6.19
34	google news	$2.07
35	graphic design degree	$12.58
36	graduate degree program	$7.93
37	hosting providers	$14.25
38	how to get a web site	$5.83
39	hp computer	$7.52
40	interest credit	$15.53
41	insurances	$17.67
42	interior design degree	$14.17
43	java software	$1.69
44	keyword tracking	$4.37
45	knee support	$1.57
46	life experience degree	$8.36
47	lung cancer treatment	$6.10
48	loans	$9.86
49	merchant account	$10.55
50	microsoft certification	$4.88
51	mba degree online	$15.78
52	master degree on line	$11.51
53	marketing software	$8.28
54	network monitoring software	$11.45
55	nursing degree	$8.81
56	norton anti virus software	$4.01
57	Norton virus protection	$3.85
58	online accounting degree	$27.50
59	online paralegal degree	$19.45
60	online degree	$13.74
61	online psychology degree	$20.78
62	online college degree	$14.10
63	payroll software	$7.95
64	pay per click	$8.18
65	personal domain name	$10.26
66	project management software	$10.80
67	quicken	$3.46
68	quick money	$3.32
69	register domain	$9.03
70	register domain name	$8.31
71	register a website	$10.47
72	register url	$8.69
73	student credit card	$10.54
74	survey software	$9.51
75	scheduling software	$7.60
76	shopping cart software	$5.23
77	travel insurance	$6.76
78	tax software	$6.89
79	teaching degree	$12.72
80	turbo tax	$5.47
81	University Degrees Online	$10.98
82	unlimited web hosting	$8.31
83	university degrees	$5.68
84	undergraduate degree	$4.71
85	voip phone system	$9.57
86	visa credit card	$11.83
87	voip billing software	$8.21
88	virus protection	$5.58
89	website domain names	$12.65
90	web domain name	$10.62
91	web host rating	$9.75
92	web site register	$13.04
93	web hosting	$13.03
94	web design software	$2.57
95	web space provider	$6.62
96	yahoo domain	$7.70
97	yellow page advertising	$6.56
98	yahoo domain name	$9.00
99	your site	$2.57
100	zire pda	$2.16
101	zenith television	$1.55

NB: The dollar values were correct at time of publication; please recheck keywords using Google's Keyword Tool for the most up to date values.