5 Tips for Improving AdSense Referrals Earnings

How do you get more readers to click through and sign up to referrals?

Here are five tips that I’ve used:
1. Give a Recommendation

One of the differences between the AdSense referral program and their normal advertising program is that you can actively promote and encourage readers to click your referral links. This is because you don’t get paid per click but only when the reader meets the required action. So no one is out of pocket if you encourage your readers to click or label the buttons as recommendations. In fact if you do recommend the product (genuinely) you’ll increase your chances of conversion as you’re really pre-selling the product (and all affiliate or CPA programs work best with some pre-selling).
2.Relevancy is Key

The only reason that AdWords and AdSense referrals work reasonably for me is that my blog is on the topic of making money online. If I were to put them on any of the other blogs I’m involved with the conversion would be terrible. I’d steer clear of the program altogether unless you have readers who would naturally be interested in the topic.
3. Use Your Allowance of Two Referrals a Page

Google recently changed the rules to allow publishers to use two referral links per page instead of the previously allowed single link. I have one text link positioned at the bottom of individual posts and one in my sidebar (for AdSense). I find that the ones at the bottom of posts work best.


4. Use a Pre-Sell page

One of the problems with the AdSense referrals program is that the text links are difficult to incorporate into a post. They are not html but are a script and you are hampered in changing the wording of how the link appears. Also if you’re already using your two links on the one page (like I am) you can’t put a third link into your post. The way I get around this is to have an AdSense ‘pre-sell’ page. On this page I simply explain what AdSense is, share how it works for me and include a button to sign up for it. I can’t tell you the exact CTR on this page but it’s over 400 times better than the CTR on either of the other links appearing on my blog! Whether this converts to signups I’m unsure as AdSense don’t allow us to track signups on a channel by channel basis (and I’ve only used this pre-sell page for a month now so it’s too early to tell if it leads to readers getting to the threshold at a higher rate than the other buttons).
5. Help Your Readers Meet Thresholds

Lastly, consider how you might help those who do click through to meet the conversion thresholds. This is why on my Pre-Sell page I also have a link to my AdSense Tips pages which will help those starting out with AdSense to perform better (earning both them and me more money).

Simple Intro to Increasing Traffic to Your Blog

Increasing traffic to your blog is fundamental to your blog's success on the Internet. As you'll soon find, it isn't all that hard to increase traffic to your blog, but it does take time.

The first and most important rule for increasing traffic to your blog is to post, post and then post some more. Posting new and unique content on a regular basis to your blog is crucial to success.

Another critical method for getting traffic to your blog in through by establishing links to your site on other people's webpages. This servers two purposes for your blog. First, a link on someone else's site can be clicked on thus bringing a visitor to your site. Secondly, links on other sites pointing to your site factor into the equations that Google, Yahoo and MSN use to determine the order in which sites are listed in searches conducted on their site. These types of links are referred to as "inbound" links.

When you try to develop inbound links it is important to make sure that the links are relevant. For example, if your blog is about cars then it doesn't do a lot of good to have an inbound link from a website about vacation spots. Your goal is to get inbound links on sites similar to your blog or, at a minimum, sites that target the same type of people (age, gender, interest, etc.) as your blog.

To begin developing inbound links, do a search for other blogs that are relevant to your blog. If your blog is about cars then search "cars" in Blogger Search or Technorati (two of the bigger blog search engines). Browse through the results that you get and make a list of those that you think are well designed and interesting. In order to get a link on those blogs you will most likely have to give something in return and usually the easiest thing to give is a link to them. So from that list add a link on your blog for each of the blogs that you liked. Then, after doing so, email the owner of each of those site and write something along the lines of:

"Hello, my name is John and I write for Crazy Cars, a blog about cars. I've recently added a link to your site on my homepage because I feel that my readers are in a very similar demographic to that of your site. If you get a chance check my site out and if you like what you see please link back.

Thank you, John"

Remember that these blog owners don't owe you anything for you linking to them, but often if you ask nice you'll get a link back.

Another way to build inbound links to your blog is by submitting your blog to blog and web directories. These directories contain literally thousands of websites and very rarely will someone come to your site by clicking on a link in one of the directories. However, including you blog in these directories can in many case help your ranking in search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc). Don't spend too much time doing this but if you have a little free time they are worth looking into.

Finally, and maybe the biggest key to increasing blog traffic is to write interesting and excellent content. The most powerful way to get people to your blog is to write content that your readers want to read. This will not only make people want to come back but it will also make them want to tell others about your blog. Anyone can get someone to come to their blog once but getting someone to come back again and again, that is the key to increasing your blog traffic.

So post often, build links so people can find you and then make sure to keep it interesting. They'll come...for now, work hard and be patient.

Making Money From Blogging

For most of us blogging is just a hobby, just something we do in our spare time for fun. But there are a select few bloggers out there who are making mad money from their "hobby".

And there's no reason that you can't get in on the action too. In fact, a cover story entitled "Blogging for Dollars" was in a recent issue of Business 2.0. I read the article and was less than impressed with Business 2.0's tips on how readers can make money from blogging. In fact the tips were so rudimentary that it was almost embarrassing that someone thought those tips alone could help. Well they tried...and they bring up an interesting point, how does one go about making money from blogging?

Over the next few weeks I'll be discussing some of my thoughts on the issue. For now if you have anything you'd like to see covered, post a comment and let me know.

Also, before we get started be sure to review some of my previous tips on increasing traffic to your blog because without traffic there is not going to be much money to be made.

Blogger + Adsense Hack: Show ads after each post to earn more from your blogger beta blog!

This trick surprisingly increased my earnings 4 times from last few days!
I have modified my blog code to put adsense ads between post title and post body!
Well this kind of ad placement will surely result in higher payout! But I’m demonstrating how to do that for blogger beta only! You can apply similar hack for other blogging platform! (Google for help, are contact me if u get stuck)

#Steps for placing ads in every post!
1. Log in to your blogger beta account!
2. From your dashbord, click on “Layout”
3. Next click “Edit HTML”
4. Now Check “Expand Widget Templates” (by default it is unchecked)
5. Now search for post.body in codes. (Better use your browsers built-in search feature)
6. By default it should appear in your layout code only for once and you should reach the line…

<p><data:post.body></data:post.body></p>

7. Now if you want to put your adsense codes between post title and post body paste it above the line you found in step 6 or below the line to show ads after posts!
8. Wait its not over yet! You have to modify adsense codes a little-bit. But don’t worry about the TOS as this modification will not be visible after template gets saved. (In-fact I’m doing this only)
9. Your Google Adsense Codes will have following lines!

<script> type=’text/javascript’><!–
…..
//–>
</script>

just replace highlighted < with &lt; and > with &gt;
If you have any doubt about this please read note at the end!
10. Its time to hit preview button!

#Tips: Using Blend template for Adsense!
From day one, I have been using Blend template for Google Adsense. But in above hack you must use that! I feel so because your ads will appear in every post and end-user experience may degrade if your color scheme is annoying!

#Note: How modification to the Adsense code is not against its TOS?
First you can open your blog and cross-check its source code using browsers “view source” option to see Adsense Codes back to what you have got!
Now if you know about HTML then in HTML laguage, we just used HTML Character Entities.
What gets stored in blogger database is actual code!
So don’t worry be happy & rich

Google AdSense Goes Rounded

Google AdSense has introduced an option which lets you customize the look of your ad by rounding edges. You can either change your ads with slightly rounded corners, very rounded corners or keep it square (default). Screenshot:

You’ll find this new option to choose corner style while generating your ad code in your AdSense dashboard. Alternatively, you can also inject appropriate line into your current ad code to round it off (remove text within brackets):

google_ui_features = “rc:10?; for very rounded corners
google_ui_features = “rc:6?; (for slightly rounded corners)
google_ui_features = “rc:0?; (square corners)

Since it’s new and different, novelty will certainly play it’s role in getting clicks. This might be a right opportunity to try your luck experimenting with colors and background colors. Usually, ads blended into the content delivery good results above the content. However, you can try blending out below or in the sidebar section. Share your results through comments.

Google’s Offical AdSense blog also reads that they’re working on more choices to customize your ad formats. I’m expecting a way to change fonts and dimensions of ad. Good Job, AdSense Team