Web publishers are discovering that Google Adsense is a great way to generate revenue from their content rich sites. Google Adsense provides a simple sign up process and a simple system that generates cut-and-paste code that will display ads on
site that are matched to site's content. With 15 minutes of effort and a brief wait for approval, a webmaster will be set to receive about half of his potential revenue stream from Adsense. The other half of revenue takes a little thinking and work.AD LAYOUT The shape of ad will have a great affect on clickthrough rate. If you choose to use a format that is very familiar and easily ignored, like a traditional banner ad shape (468 by 60 pixels), your performance will be poor. If you choose a newer format like a tower (120 wide by 600 tall) you will see better performance. www.CFNewbie.com utilizes this format. You will also see higher clickthrough rates as overall size of ad grows. If your site allows it, go with biggest and newest shapes that Adsense offers.
COLOR The color of your Adsense ads can affect way users respond. You can be subtle and blend into rest of page and may draw people to links as they appear to offer more information rather than standing out screaming come buy something. The subtle approach can be accomplished by selecting standard Google Adsense color scheme closest to your site's scheme or you can match exactly using custom pallet.
You may want to attract attention to your Adsense ads. You can do this by selecting or creating color schemes that stand out. You will also want to use mulitple color scheme feature by selecting several color schemes by holding down your control (Ctrl) key and clicking up to four choices. The varying color schemes may get more notice than a constant color scheme.
POSITION The position of your Google Adsense ad can have affect on how well ad performs. Avoid blindspots and consider how a visitor exits a page. The most likely blindspot to avoid is traditional spot for banner ads. Visitors will likely ignore a banner shaped ad at top or bottom of your page. They will likely ignore a tower placed at top of right or left column if content extends beyond length of ad. In case of content rich pages, it would be wise to test placing non-banner shaped ads at end of page where reader is done with a page and ready to exit. ChristianMusician.com uses this technique effectively at end of articles, offering reader more articles and relavent ads. It's always a good idea to give your visitors a path through your site that is relavent and valuable to both you and them.
