Any thoughts on my ads placement?

Hey guys,

I haven't had much success with Adsense lately. My site is performing quite poorly. You can see the link to my site in my signature.

Does anyone have any thoughts on improving placements/colours? I used to have them blended into the theme (they looked damn nice) but I'm trying the ugly colours to see how they perform. I wasn't pleased with the performance when they were blended.

Thoughts?

 

The only thing that you have above the fold is a small link unit (you can see a little bit of the ad on the right, but not enough).

It's really hard to fit it in when you are using images as content, by maybe try to get a 336x280 above the fold. These seem to work best.

 

I've thought about putting my 336 above the fold, but then the only content a new user can see is a giant ad off the bat. I'm worried it'll make my bounce rate go way up, which is pretty counterproductive!

I put a banner ad at the top there for awhile but it did really poorly... the link unit does better.

My theme is not optimal for Adsense in general, but it's the best pet theme I've ever found.

Thanks a lot though, if you have any other ideas let me know.

 

Put your rectangle ad on the right top.
thats for me . it will be good. improve ctr

 

I'd like to, but I lack the coding skill. My latest post/comments etc block is not a widget.

 

If you cant change it. then your ad placements is still good.
But the IMpression will get into low because they have to scroll down to see the ads.

 

With that position (right top) I only get 0,70 CTR, so it's not that good.

 

what is CTR? is it important in Adsense earning?

 

I would loose that giant header. It is a bunch of wasted space. I would also optimize your websites title tag's and make at least image description 200 words. I did a site:www and site:site.com and only returned 41 pages out of a bunch more. Use web master tools from google to submit your blog's sitemap/rss feed to index faster. Your tag cloud could be in a space by itself to encourage more clicking on it. I would get rid of the adsense text links, because those usually bring in 1-5 cent clicks. Would add a 728x90 banner after reducing the header on top. Get rid of that entrecard and join a media exchange such as funpageexchange.com - Also would looking to getting a random image script that will show 5-10 images of random ones on top, linked to the wordpress entry. The tag cloud and that would increase your page views. I would add a 336 or 250x250 block to the right below the tag cloud. Maybe 234x60 below each of the individual pictures, but keep it off the main page. You don't want the ad's to blend in to much, because then they become back ground noise. What you want to do is look at your blog right when you load it and ask a few friends to do the same and ask them when they load you site where do they look? Also, when they are looking at the picture or for picture where do they look the most, because that is the spots to place the advertisments to grab the users attention. Also, keep in mind that adsense is meant to drive traffic away from your site so it will cause a bounce rate if they start to click upon the adverts. One other tip is to track both image only, and text only ad box's for a week each and find out which payouts out better for your niche. I found certain niche's pays penny's for image ad's, but more for text ad's and visa versa. If you are going to use link units, put those into a seperate tracking channel, so you can monitor the payout on those, if it keeps to 1-5 cents per click, loose it, it is wasting good page views and bigger clicks on other advertisments.

 

I already submit my sitemap to Google... dunno why more aren't being indexed. Low inbound linking to anything but my home page is part of it I'm sure. That and my posts are generally so brief, like you said.

I'm not pleased with the size of the header either, but I don't have the skills to do anything about it.

A random image script is a good idea actually. I'll look into implementing one of those.

Very good suggestions overall though, thanks a lot! I think I'm going to have to hire someone to fix up my header arrangement, maybe nuke that Latest Post/Latest Comments/Tag Cloud box altogether.

 

That header is taking lot of space...