My website gets 250,000 visits per month...suggestions please...

Hello,

As the subject says, I get 250,000 visitors per month. My adsense isn't doing as well as I assume it could be. If anyone has suggestions as to how to put adsense to better work, I sure would appreciate it!

The url is www.defend.net

Thanks in advance,

Tim

 

Homepage:

Your AdSense 468x60 ad at the bottom is wasted -- completely outside of the heat map and probably neven seen. Also, the blue border is terrible -- you definitely want to blend the ad better.


Inside pages:


I'd recommend a flat link unit at the top before all your content. Also, I'd recommend using CSS div's to throw a nice 336 medium rectangle on the right of your content -- don't overdo it.

Nice website, you can make a nice fortune off of monetizing it properly.

 

dadasays, thanks! I'll work on adding that.

Much appreciated!

Any additional ideas are welcomed!

Tim

 

A wide banner above the intro and a linkunit below will do much better than your current layout. They may break your layout, but if you want money from this, your visitors need to actually notice the ads and what's written on them.

 

The 468 at the bottom is, as someone else said, totally wasted. Get rid of it, it's just there and taking up space. Sign up for a CPM network and put a leaderboard down there and cash in on the impressions you're getting. Keep the leaderboard at the top. I'm not sure why that isn't converting, as it actually looks pretty good. Maybe even better would be to get rid of the borders on the leaderboard and just leave the banner position there.

P.S. Your links on the left column are all out of whack on my Firefox. When I hover over it with my mouse pointer the underlines do crazy stuff. Might want to look into that.

 

jackburton2006 - got the firefox issue fixed. Strange problem that was. I also dropped the 468 at the bottom. Any specific CPM you would recommend? As far as the leaderboard at the top, I just put that there after mihaidamianov made the recommendation. Will be interesting to see how it does. Thanks!

mihaidamianov - I added the leaderboard to the top. Thanks for the suggestion.

Tim

 

With your numbers, and site topic, you SHOULD (I stress "should" because you never know) be able to get into pretty much any network of your choosing. I'd go with TribalFusion, as their rates are the best in the business. Then sign up for Fastclick and Casale next. Great if you can get into all three. You can chain them up -- run TF and use Fastclick and Casale as your defaults, or however you see fit.

So yeah, the leaderboard. That's a nice spot, should bring you some nice conversion rate. For your inner pages, I notice you use 468 ad links. Go with leaderboard ad links instead, as then it'll blend in more with your navigation links. Or you could just put another leaderboard banner up there. Personally I'd go with the leaderboard, or a 336 box at the bottom of the articles. Those always convert well.

P.S. Hey just noticed -- how ya doin', fellow Houstonian?

 

No problem. Wait a couple of days and then tell us by how much % has your CTR increased. Oh, and you owe us a beer.

PS Also keep in mind that some CPM networks might be picky about ads that are not showing in the first screen [without scrolling].

 

Here's the world's best kept secret when it comes to ad networks: They all say they require their ads to show up "above the fold", but they don't really mean it.

 

If it helps I just changed adsense on my site, www.magxzine.com, with a lot of success.

Check out the center adsense. I am hitting great numbers with it. If I only had your traffic numbers I'd be making $125 per day.

Great domain name btw

 

I would change the text color of your ads to a complimentary but contrasting color. This makes them stand out from the rest of the page and causes the reader to notice them. I just usually red. I find that it works with just about color scheme on a site.

 

Go get four pictures of martial-arts action stuff - guys in mid-kick, smashing boards with their heads, etc. Make sure you own the copyright to them. Stick them above your first Google ad block in the center of the page - make them roughly correspond to where the ads show up. Make sure they don't touch the ad, however, there needs to be a small but visible border. Try this out at the very least - my bet is it would dramatically improve click rates.

 

Thanks for all the excellent input and advice. When I get the time I will work on those tips. As far as the images, I saw that on the pig site and apparently that was working well so I'll definitely give it a try.

JackBurton - since you're in Houston you should stop in sometime and try out a martial arts class! Thanks for all the tips...

Tim

 

Poor Jack he offers you some good advice and now you're going to beat him up!

 

I would, but I'm REALLY wimpy. LOL.

BTW Be careful about putting images next to the ads. Google has said many times that they require a bar be placed in-between your images and your ads in order to separate them.

 

It doesn't necessarily have to be a bar, but it does have to be a "visible border." So yeah, be careful about it. Your ad has a grey border around it though so I think if you put the images a little above it (with some visible white space between them) it would be fine. You can e-mail Adsense and ask them to approve it, which is generally a good idea.

 

WTF? A bar is a visible border.

 

Heh, yeah if you have a line or a bar between the two you are definitely safe. I'm just saying you don't have to do it that way exactly. They haven't really said a specific thing to do, just that the ad needs to be differentiated from the pictures somehow. At least from people's posts claiming their sites were reviewed and given the OK, you can do that with blank space as well if it's a different color (so if your background is a different color from the ads and the picture, and you put the pictures enough above the ads that people can see the different color, they won't look like the pictures are part of the ad).

 

I just finished signing up for all three ad networks that you recommended. Will be interesting to see the difference it will make. Thank you very much for the suggestions!

Tim