Massaging Ad Placement To Increase Click Through Rates

I provide a variety of SEO services for my clients, but most of these have first been hatched on my own sites and blogs before being exported. After all, can I really recommend something that hasn’t been tested and tried by me?

Maximizing CTR

One area where I seem to get more calls for help than others involves the placement of Google ads or similar type advertisements. On static HTML pages you go with Google’s recommendations and hope for the best, but when it comes to blogging, trying a number of different approaches seems the best way to go.

Admittedly, this blog is my worst example of ad placement, simply because I haven’t approached the blog all that seriously as far as its set up goes. MK|SEO exists primarily to provide SEO for other sites and to showcase some of my work. I realize that this is a poor excuse, but AdSense just isn’t a biggie here for me here.

Google Lends A Hand

Getting back to ad placement, if you are using AdSense you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the Adsense Help Center where Google has set up optimization essentials and strategies to help you succeed. After all, if they click through while on your site and at greater numbers, then Google can prove to customers that AdSense works (and they make more money, ‘natch!) Whether sales are converted or not is a different discussion.

A Nifty Plugin For AdSense and YPN!

My most recent strategy is to test a WordPress plug-in which allows ads to appear within the body of the article. I’ve tried this in the past, but was always dissatisfied with the results until I came across the All In One AdSense and YPN plugin, which makes configuring ads a snap. What I like best about this particular plugin is that it serves ads where you want them — left, right, center, upper, lower, random, etc. — lots of choices and places for them to appear. YPN, btw is Yahoo! Publishers Network. The plug-in can be used for other CTR programs, not just these two.

I’ve only used the plugin for two days on three different sites, but I am already seeing an increase in CTR which spells more money for me. This is especially good news as AdSense lost its sheen for me me three years ago when my income suddenly dropped. Though I don’t expect to make a bundle off of AdSense again, there is room for growth and I plan on optimizing my blogs to take advantage of my discovery.

In conclusion, I can tell you that massaging your ad placement from time to time makes good business sense. I’ll know better in a week or two whether the AdSense/YPN plugin consistently brings improved results, but for now it is off to a good start.

Making money through your site is more difficult than a few years back, but if you update your mindset you can succeed and make money online.

Is Your Blog Mobi Ready?

Mobile devices continue to catch on in popularity and may someday match or even surpass personal computer usage. Accessing the internet is easy with many of the PDAs (personal digital assistants) currently available, including such hand held devices as Blackberry, iPhone, Treo, iPod, to name a few. Even if you don’t own a PDA, some of the visitors to your WordPress blog could be finding your site with a mobile unit.

So, the question for you today is this: is your blog mobi ready?

Chances are it isn’t, but thanks to a simple little WordPress plug-in you can make your blog mobi ready without resorting to purchasing a *mobi extension.

Andy Moore developed a plug-in which, when activated, can make your blog easily readable with a PDA. The WordPress Mobile Plugin is something I discovered when a client asked me if his two blogs were mobile readable (they were not) and what we could do to make it so. Googling for that answer I came across Andy Moore’s plugin.

I don’t own a PDA, so confirming any blog as being mobi compliant can only be done with an emulator. Try the tool before downloading and activating the plugin and then come back and take a second look once you’re ready to roll. You’ll see the difference, observing your blog the exact same way that people with a PDA see it — a nifty tool that goes hand in hand with the plugin.

I hate to lose customers and/or visitors to this blog. Now that I know that the plug-in works and that the emulator confirms this, I can reach more people than ever before. If you aren’t mobi ready, then the competition already has a leg up on you.