Help appreciated...

i've only had my blog running for a week or two, but i'm consistently getting over a hundred unique visitors a day...yet almost no clicks. part of this has to do with the topic, i'm sure (it's not a "made for adsense" site, just something which interests me)

can you give me some guidance regarding the ad placement and/or color scheme, etc.? thanks.

Big East Basketball

 

It might help to make the ad unit blend in with your page, so it looks like part of your content. The way it is now, the ads really stand out as ads.

 

oh, ok. i wanted them to stand out so that people would notice them. i guess that was the wrong strategy. thanks. i'll fix that.

 

popular consensus says that blend-in ads work better than contrasting ones.

 

I would suggest you adding horizontal banner (468x60) at the top of your text column or after first article.

 

It looks much better than before now that you have blended it in. The real question is how did you get 100 uniques a day after only two weeks?

 

I'd match the border with background - white page, white ad background, white border.

 

It looks better now, but I'd suggest that you make the link color for the ads the same as the link color on your page (blue) so they blend in even better. And plus people will know for sure that the ads are links.

 

cool. i'll change the link color and border.

yesterday i got up over 150 uniques. i post on some sports message boards which is where most of my traffic came from. and i have been getting a ton of hits from here http://www.thirtyseven.com/newsroundup/newsRoundupListGenerator.php?

it appears to be some news gathering service for the pennsylvania area...or something like that. i can't access the website directly...wanted to check it out from curiosity.

i didn't post on my blog or any message boards today so my traffic is way down.

 

Yep, first thing I saw was the (apparently) default Google ad color scheme, and promptly ignored it. Blend it in!

 

Try adding to some directories and submitting to Search engines.
Thats the best bet longterm, where as posting in forums/ groups is oneday business.

 

Posting on message boards can be a great way to get a massive amount of traffic but MOST of the traffic doesn't stay very long on your site.

What you need is deeper links with interesting content and a consistent update schedule. You also need to grab users once they come in -- I'm changing all my blogs homepages to reflect an index of popular posts. If they come from a message board and see no content, don't expect them to return.

Also, message board users tend to be geeky and tend not to click links. You're better off targeting the newbie Internet users rather than the ones who "ignore" ads completely.

 

Don't get me wrong, I do sometimes click on ads, but not if they annoy me. That's why I urge you to make them blend in, rather than stand out. Everyone who's done this has seen large increases in clickthroughs.

 

I agree. I clicked on an ad today, actually, and was even planning on making a purchase from that advertiser.

Note to AdSense users: if you're going to support anyone online, support the AdWords companies' products first! Let them know that you're supporting them for supporting the program.

 

maybe put a adunit between each post...
see my blog

http://seoyoursite.blogspot.com/

 

Definitely a good idea, freshprince. Make sure that you don't make your ads too "offensive" to the eye by integrating the colors as well as possible.

Also, try to work with other sites and blogs to help each other generate GOOD consumer traffic. Just spamming yourself to message boards and random users will generate traffic that doesn't convert into interested customers for your advertisers.

Remember, you are a middle man. You're looking to bring customers to products they want. If your customers are not interested in your advertisers, or your advertisers have to pay for non-customers, you'd not doing your job. Focus on your job -- to mate the right people with the right companies.

Once you figure out how to do that, you'll find yourself earning what you deserve.

 

thanks again for the suggestions. i'll try to implement a few of them later today. i'm at least starting to get some clicks lately...