Ad Sense Tips and Tricks

By Carrie Spry

There is a common myth that simply putting Ad Sense on your website will get you some instant cash. If you are one of the millions who have tried this.you know it's not that easy. Many people simply create the ads and place the code on their site without giving them another thought.

How should you customize your ads to maximize your profits? Let's talk about location first. Where should your ads be place for best performance? The center of the page is the best location followed by the upper left hand side bar, just below the header and directly below your text at the bottom of the page. Places you should avoid are the right hand side bar, above the header, and lower left hand sidebar.

Next you need to think about style. One of the last things you want is a border. This separates the ad from your text and makes a visual stopping point when reading your page. When creating the ad, always make the background and border the same color, this eliminates it. Speaking of backgrounds, where ever you are placing the ad, make sure it's background color is the same as the background color you are using. If you have different areas with different background colors, change it for each ad.

The title link should be the same color as all other title links in your site/area you are working with. This will draw the surfer's eyes to it as a click-able link. The text should be the same color as the text you are working with. Also, the little URL at the bottom should be the same color as the text.

Here's another trick, don't treat your ads as ads and your customers won't either. Pretend your ads are links to relevant content, which they are, and give them the same look and feel of your site. Web Surfer's have developed something called banner blindness, which means they don't even see ads anymore, particularly image ads. Their brain simply blacks out that area of your site.

Here are a few more tips that may help you along the way. Avoid image ads, opt for the text only version. Make sure that you maximize your ads. At the time this article was written you are allowed 3 text ads, and 3 ad link units, these are the two I use. Be sure that you use them all on your pages.

Ad links work the best when placed in navigational areas. The border and background color should be the same as the background in the areas that the link unit is to be placed. The title color should be the same as the rest of the navigation links. Horizontal units can be placed just below the header or just above the footer. Vertical units can be placed in the middle, above, or below vertical navigational areas.

If you have larger font on your site, create link units with only 4 links. If you have smaller font, create link units with 5 links. You may want to also consider changing the font on your site to be more in-line with the ads.

About the Author: