____________Frugal Confessions said:

Hello Everyone!

 

Okay--I took the advice, and changed my adsense to the block form 336X280 (mentioned above) as well as went with text only, blended to my color (take a look at my site to see what I mean). Originally I had a rectangular banner with images underneath every post title.

 

The experiment worked! It took me from July 2010 until February to earn my first $100 google payout, and just this month I have earned over $20!!!! Woohoo!

 

Just wanted to let you all know that you may want to try it out as well.

I've had an odd month.

I implemented the same change early last month and it was a very surprising month where I made about 1/2 to a payout.  I kept the ad up unchanged and this month, while traffic has been slower my SE traffic has more than doubled but I don't even think i've made enough to buy a coffee.

I am confused as to the very different results given the SE improvement and lack of other changes.

I have to tell you, this month has been miserable for me as well and I was doing quite well before - so I'm not sure what's up. I have noticed Google testing a lot of different ad formats within the same ad block and I have no idea if that is what is doing it.

I actually thought it was that the content on my front page was producing lower quality ads and lower payouts - but now I'm not sure. Both clicks and revenue to click are down.

I implemented the same change early last month and it was a very surprising month where I made about 1/2 to a payout.  I kept the ad up unchanged and this month, while traffic has been slower my SE traffic has more than doubled but I don't even think i've made enough to buy a coffee.

I am confused as to the very different results given the SE improvement and lack of other changes.

Okay--I took the advice, and changed my adsense to the block form 336X280 (mentioned above) as well as went with text only, blended to my color (take a look at my site to see what I mean). Originally I had a rectangular banner with images underneath every post title.

The experiment worked! It took me from July 2010 until February to earn my first $100 google payout, and just this month I have earned over $20!!!! Woohoo!

Just wanted to let you all know that you may want to try it out as well.

She's looking at a lot of non profit sites that don't use ads like nfcc.org. Grant it, our organizational structure is another round of debates.

You've all given me lots to chew on.

This is just me, but if I land on a site with an Adsense bar below the title from Google, I immediately hit the back button on my mouse.  It is at that point that my mind thinks "there can't be anything of value here" because for 98% of sites with that monetization structure, there isn't anything of value.  It's kind of like the webmasters who use search phrases as the sole topic title, never caring about how spammy it looks from the SERPs.  These sites were a top target by Google in its recent "farming" update.

All things considered, I take seriously sites with advertising that isn't the "usual."  Image ads in the top right for branding/site sponsorship show that the site is large enough to have serious commitments with advertisers, and such placement is usually the mark of a high quality site.  Secondarily, 125x125 ads on the right or left as minor sponsors are also common among top sites.  I think you'll notice that few sites with aggressive advertising placement are linked from the upper echelons of each niche, as they are generally considered to be "MFA" sites that don't offer readers much of anything.  Before I joined the challenge, I thought this way too, as I had never actually bothered to read an article on a site with above the content but below the title placement.  Now I realize that there are a few blogs here with quality content that fit this mold, though most every other site with such monetization is usually a pile of junk.

Take from that what you will.  I've always subscribed to the idea that less aggressive monetization placement is better, though that may not be the prevailing thought.  I'm more interested in longevity and brand building than immediate returns, so I've never really placed ads in areas other than usual.  To that end, I don't sell links either, so maybe I'm just too much of a purist.

 

What do you do for income if I may ask?

My colleague and I are having a disagreement about the use of ads on the
site. Her position is that ads "cheapen" the site's value and may lead
readers to question our credibility.  I don't agree with her, but I'm
having trouble convincing her otherwise. She feels that a site with ads
makes her not want to visit the site.

What do you do for income if I may ask?

I think there are plenty of sites out there that take ads too far and make the reader experience pretty bad.  But I don't think ads cheapen the site.  I don't think less of the NYT or the Wall Street Journal for their ads and they have them all over.

That said, if you have a product or service that yours that you offer then you may not need ads and you may be better off without them.

Also, can you filter the type of ads? I do agree that ads to sites that present topics we disagree with might be misleading.

Just realized that's not quite what you asked. Go to Adsense. Click Performance Reports. Click the arrow by "Entire Account By Day". Click "Ad Units".