Suggestions on forum using adsense

Hi,

I've been using Adsense since October and I've pulled in about $700.00 since then, I just wanted to know if anyone has any suggestions for the site, http://www.btnhboard.com/forums

I have one ad on the portal page (first page that the users see), this page seems to have the highest Page CTR out of all my ads (higher than the others but still extremely low), some of the other ads are placed inside of every thread after the last post.

I would like to get my Page CTR up some more, I think from reading around I could be definitely getting more out of this, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Any suggestions are welcome, thanks.

I had my average daily page impressions in here but I don't know if that's allowed, don't want to get banned from the program, hopefully someone can still give some good advice, thanks again.

 

you might want to try placing some (generic) images above the banner, that always increases ctr.

 

I noticed that Google picked up on the word "harmony" and is giving you dating site ads. Maybe that's what you want -- maybe not.

I also notice that your HTML page title, BTNHboard.com, is not helpful from an SEO standpoint or ad standpoint. Try making the title more descriptive of your site and you'll get better search rankings and better ads.

Also there is no permanent content on the home page that describes what the site is about. If you had such text, use Google section targeting to try to focus ad relevancy.

 

Yeah, I've been thinking about doing this but I haven't decided where or how I want to do it, things are a little cramped already and I don't want users complaining about it.

The eharmony ads aren't what I wanted, but since I'm not sure if people are actually clicking for that specific site, I'm not sure if I should filter that. Most of the time they're showing some sort of Hip Hop relavent ads, I think I might filter it for a week and see if I notice any changes in my stats.

Thanks, I overlooked this. I already had a custom title on the forum index but I completely overlooked the portal page, it's adjusted now.

I don't know if this would work for a portal page with forums, the text that shows on the main page comes from a seperate forum as a post and then it's displayed on the portal as a news block. I'll check into this also.

Thanks

 

I just looked at your site again. Wow! Did you notice how your ad relevancy improved after that simple change to your HTML page title? The ads are actually about your site topic now. Your CTR should improve dramatically.

 

Those ads actually display all the time, it must be that you just viewed it at the wrong time I suppose. It seems like it shows only that during the early morning or late night, there are usually all hip-hop ads on the main page.

Either way, hopefully that helps some, though today has been one of the lowest days in terms of $ for the last few months.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the eHarmony ads; your target audience may very well be clicking on that particular ad! (Yes, it helps a lot to know who's visiting or likely to visit your site and what OTHER interests they may have.) I might worry if they STOP showing, but not so much. The ads are definitely much more relevant. Your next steps would be to blend the ad in with the background and to use the competitive ad filter.

 

I'm going to find out if those are infact the ads that are getting the clicks, so I disabled them and will see how my stats go for the next few days. I already have channels setup (probably not done right), and I'm using the ad filter.

As far as the blending goes, it shows white on white for me, you can see no borders or anything, so I'm confused what you mean about this.

Thanks

 

Your 728x90 leaderboard is white, but the background surrounding it is not. From reading your source, it looks like the background (for class .page) is #EDEDED. You'll want to use that color instead, so that the ad blends in.

 

Wow, you were right..I checked on another PC with a regular monitor and the colors didn't match at all...this whole time my flatscreen was showing white on white...thanks lol, I'm sure this will help, it should be fixed now, can you check it out for me?

 

Yep, it's perfect now. You can probably adjust the brightness/contrast settings on the flatscreen to fix that problem. (Unless it's fried...) Try resetting it from the onscreen menu.

 

i run adsense on a very high traffic forum and have played with many different ad placements, here's whats worked best for me.

On your portal page i'd run a skyscraper on the left column in the highest position (just move your login box to the right hand column.

I'd lose the rectangle ads in the middle top and instead use a (728x15) 5 text link block. Add the code so it rests right at the top of your 'news' block so it blends in tight with the layout.

For your forum itself i'd suggest:

Forumhome:
(728x15) 5 Links - replacing the top 768 leaderboard
Leaderboard (728 x 90) - Just above your shoutbox table

Forumdisplay:
(728x15) 5 Links - Just above the first 'New Thread' button
Leaderboard (728 x 90) - Above the 'Display Options' box

Cant advice on the showthread/postbit page as im not registered to see it.

Overall from my experience with adsense on forums i found that the members quickly become blind to the ads and ignore them altogether, thats why i favoured the plain text ads. They can easily blend in with the layout and give the impression they are a navigational menu for the forum.

Best of luck