Right from the start.

If you have ads on your site from the beginning, your readers aren’t going to complain when you add them in. (Though my advice to the whiners would be to read the article in their RSS aggregator.)

Unfortunately, when you’re starting out, there aren’t a lot of options for ads. You have the ubiquitous AdSense, then you have affiliate programs, and a sprinkling of smaller ad networks.

My advice: Use AdSense in the beginning, and see how well it works with your site. Use some affiliate programs lightly as well (for products you recommend, not just because it’s an affiliate program). Eventually, when your site gets to a reasonable level, transition from AdSense to direct-selling ads (e.g. 125×125 ads).

Two of the most common AdSense placements on blogs are

1. A rectangular ad (such as the 250×250 unit) in the post, floated to the left, with the text wrapping around it.
2. A 468×60 “banner” unit between the post title and the content.

In some posts, though, the floated ads get in the way of other elements, such as images. Suppose you want to have an image floated to the right, at the top of your post. That could conflict with your ad, couldn’t it? If the image is wide enough, it would run right into the ad. Or what if you wanted to have a wide image above the content, like on Copyblogger? That left-floated ad would get in the way. What’s the solution? No, you don’t need to switch to a 468×60 ad, which often doesn’t perform as well as the floated ad. It’s time for a little WordPress magic. (more…)

Do you know how Google AdSense picks the ads that show on your site? It’s done through an automated auction process.

AdSense’s robot scans your page for keywords, then it queries it’s database for advertisers that match the keywords. Next, the auction begins. The advertisers one-up each other until one of them wins the auction. Obviously, you’ll have better results if there are more advertisers, as you’ll end up with a higher payout as the advertisers try to outbid each other. If there’s only one advertiser interested in the keywords Google finds, then they’ll put-out their minimum bid (like one cent) and win. Thus, you’ll make pretty much nothing.

Content is the secret. Write well, and write often. Also, the topics you write about will be a major factor in your earnings. Your site’s topic directly affects the keywords Google will find in your articles. So, AdSense isn’t for every site.

Also note that your site’s audience must be the sort of people who click ads. That’s partly why I haven’t had great success with AdSense.

The problem with AdSense is people tend to ignore them. As a webmaster, you have to continually update your ad placement to prevent this “banner blindness.”

How can you tell what the best placement and ad format is? You use A/B Testing. When you A/B test, you randomly show your readers one ad or the other, and track which gets more clicks. It’s easy to do, and will improve your earnings.

First, generate to ad code snippets. Make sure both ad formats are assigned to unique (and descriptive) channels. That way you can tell how many clicks each ad block gets. For example, put your 200×200 square ad in a channel called “200×200 AB Test” and your 250×250 ad block in “250×250 AB Test.” Paste the generated codes into notepad for later use. (more…)

Google AdSense is the biggest and most-used ad network among bloggers. As you’ll know already, it’s based off a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model where the placement of the ad units drastically affects earnings. Want to make more money off your ads? Keep reading.

So how should you place your AdSense blocks? The three most important rules to remember are

• Pick a good ad format, as they tend to have different click rates.
• Position the ads near content or navigational elements, where people will notice them.
• Style the ads so they blend-in. If your ads are obviously ads, your users’ eyes will steer around them. If your blog has black text with blue links, then your ads should too.

Of course, there’s more to it than that. (more…)