One of them was the non-existing option to pick site categories and provide information to potential advertisers. Google now has introduced the Google Ad Planner which changes this slightly. The service seems to be in a testing phase with webmasters being invited by email. Every website that has been added to Google Webmaster Tools can be added to Google Ad Planner which then offers a basic interface to add information about the website.

This includes a small 250 character description, the selection of an advertising url directly on the website, up to five categories that describe the website’s contents (Computer & Electronics category alone has dozens of subcategories to choose from, the accepted advertising forms and the option to share Google Analytics data with Google Ad Planner (only unique visitors and pageviews which are estimated by Ad Planner).

It is obviously to early to tell if these information will make any difference at all as they only seem to affect so called placement ads on a website. Placement ads are ads that are placed by Adwords customers directly on the website. This stands in contrast to contextual ads that are placed globally on websites. Contextual ads usually make up the bulk of ad placements on a website whereas placement ads pay better.

Interested webmasters can take a look at how their website is displayed by visiting the Google Publisher Center.

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Usually, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is very critical of big corporations who intrude on people’s privacy, but their criticism was not very harsh. Why? Because Google has developed a web browser plug-in that permits users to opt-out of this scheme.

The plug-in is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox and modifications to browser preferences in Chrome and Safari also allow people to opt-out. Google also maintains an ‘Ad Preferences Manager‘ which allows this tracking cookie to be disabled until the next time cookies are wiped.

There are several reasons to disable these cookies. Firstly, you may not entrust Google with your details. Secondly, adverts based on past browsing may be displayed to other users of the computer… not perfect if, for example, you were buying a present for a family member and they are suddenly swarmed with advertisements about it!

Most tracking cookies can be disabled if you modify browser settings. In Firefox, for example, in Preferences>Privacy, you can refuse to ‘accept third party cookies’.

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Many people own lots of domains which they keep around to sell at a higher price, or they simply haven’t gotten around to developing it, and as such, the “weight” of these webpages are lost, even if someone gets to the page they’ll just see an empty canvas, or some sort of “pricing inquiry notice”.

In this case Google Adsense for domains is a great resource for grabbing that extra buck, since it’s set and forget you won’t really need to do anything, and in the end if you only get a few dollars daily from it, it’s still better than nothing, and lets you use your domains to their full extent.

The interesting thing about Google’s system here is that it differs from the usual select an ad and show method because of the specialized nature of parked domains. In fact, you will have to create CNAME records and configure some stuff at your registrar, only then can you customize and choose keywords. Following all that, your domain will have a sleek Google-like look, with keyword relevant ads served, so ideally this should be a page worth something, even if all it has is ads (it will also have a search box).

I am interested to try this out in practice, I have a couple of domains standing still, although I am not totally convinced about the money making capabilities here, I think you can make more by actually developing a site. Obviously I don’t have as much time as I’d like, so this will be a fun project. If you have some experience advertising on parked domains please share with us!

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The Inside Adsense blog made an announcement today that changes this restriction. Adsense users can now switch from the default Google Adsense font selection to either Arial, Verdana or Times. This makes it easier to use the same font for the display of Adsense units that is being used on the rest of the website. It is most likely that using the same font to display the Adsense unit and the content on the website will yield higher revenue.

It is probably a good idea to test all three new font combinations on the website to find the one with the best results. Fonts can be changed for single ad units or globally in the Adsense account. A click on the My Account link in the top menu and a selection of Ad Display Preference will open the menu where the font setting can be edited globally. Individual ad units can be changed by clicking on Adsense Setup > Manage Ads > Edit Ad Settings.

Being able to change the default font face is definitely a step in the right direction. Premium publishers have still an advantage as they can change the font size and other settings as well which are still locked for non-premium users.

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A regular reader is one that views at least three pages on my website in 14 days. I’m not sure how this is going to be tracked, probably through the use of cookies. This is a test only and it could turn out that my regular readers are clicking the ads and the ones that are referred from other websites are not.

If that is the case and my earnings drop a lot I will turn it back on because that’s how I make my living. I hope that it turns out to be beneficial to everyone. Less ads is always nice and if the earnings remain stable I will definitely keep the plugin. Hope you can understand my motivation to do it that way.

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It is to early to really say if this will turn out to be a lasting effect of if advertisers in turn will spend more money which results in higher earnings per click. I’m a bit skeptic that advertisers will really increase their bids on keywords and have the feeling that this drop will remain as it is for a very long time.

Several webmasters already decided to move away from Adsense and use other ways of monetizing their website. This is unfortunately not an option for many.

I compiled a list of tips that might help in this situation:

• Don’t panic ! This is probably the most important tip. We need more time to analyze the impact on the webmaster community and discover strategies on how to cope with this situation.
• Blending might not be the best option anymore. Most webmasters did blend their ads to fit into the site design. They were able to do this because it did not really matter where the user clicked on the ad. Even the whitespace was clickable. This is different now with only the title and url clickable
• Be patient when you try different ad units and color schemes. Try those for at least 1-2 days before you draw a conclusion. We all know that Adsense earnings rise and fall on a daily basis and it is essential to test ad units for a certain time. My suggestion would be to test them on at least two weekdays.
• Take the time and look for Adsense alternatives. It is always a good idea to look around and have alternatives if Adsense earnings remain on these low levels. A good starting point is Darrens Problogger blog and webmaster forums like Webmaster World and Digitalpoint
• Making Ads stick out. I’m currently testing different color schemes and a early conclusion that I can draw is that the color red seems to be excellent for a higher click through rate. I would suggest to change colors and ad units and test those as well. Title and URL have different sizes in many ad units which means that the clickable area is different as well. Some ad units do not display the URL at all which means that the only clickable area is the title.

Feel free to add additional tips and alternatives to Adsense. I would also be interested in your observations.

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There are some and they can be applied to most websites and those websites will earn good money from those tips but they are probably not the ultimate way either. Most tips will tell you the following:

• Use the large or medium rectangle and / or the wide skyscraper for best results.
• Blend the ads
• Add them as close as possible to your content

If you apply the ads this way you will get good results. A click through rate between 2-5% for instance but you never know for sure if this is indeed the best ad unit for your website.

It is also important to note that the best paying ad unit might not be one that you want to put up on your blog because it might turn visitors away from your site. Back to the topic, how would you find out which Adsense ads work best for your blog ?

The obvious answer is of course to try them all out and come to a conclusion afterwards. The not so obvious way is what I’m going to explain now. I would suggest that you try this out if your blog reaches at least 1000 page impressions per day, the more the better of course. It does not make much sense to try out different ad units and positions if your blog gets 50 visitors per day because this does not lead to data that you can rely on.

Wordpress Plugin:

A great way to test out different ad units, location and appearance is to use the excellent Wordpress plugin Adsense Paster if you happen to use Wordpress.

Adsense paster rotates ad units that you create in text files randomly which means that you can test several units without having to alter the code by hand.

General Method:

The following method has been found at the digital alchemy blog and can be used to test several ad units.

Factors:

Some factors that you should consider are:

• Ad unit size. Test out different sizes such as large and medium rectangle, half banner, full banner, the squares and so on
• Ad appearance. Blend units, make them stick out, use borders, don't use borders, alter link color, ad text, url color..
• Ad location. Let it float on the top left spot of your articles, on the top right spot, alone on top and the article below, at the bottom..
• Ad a second ad unit and see if it impacts revenue

Channels:

You have to setup channels to be able to track earnings. Every ad unit should get an own channel. Make sure you track the performance for several days - workdays are best for most sites - and remove ads that do not perform that well from your site.

Section Targeting:

Make sure you use Section Targeting which emphasizes certain parts of your website. You need to edit the source code of your blog and add the following code from google to it. You can add that code in single.php, index.php and page.php before and after the function that displays your blog post. It would look like the following in single.php

You can also deemphasize parts of your blog by using google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) instead of google_ad_section_start which is useful to deemphasize the sidebar for instance.

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