Make Money Twice as Fast
This article will show you how a smart 15 minutes can double your ad revenue.
This guest post was written by Shaun Connell, the webmaster of Make Money, a free resource for individuals who want to understand the business theory behind making money online.
The bottom line of a business is profit, and the e-business is no different. Incredibly enough, sometimes we completely miss this simple concept. Given this, website oriented and designed to effectually increase profits serves the ultimate purpose of the website-based business, and is justified. Or, to be cliche: show me the money.
Beautiful but Stupid
Incredibly, there are often huge flaws in web design that completely ignores the proven ways of maxing profit without cutting into style. I honestly have no idea why this happens, but it’s incredibly predominant, even in “Adsense Optimized” web design. Even beautiful sites miss web usability. This costs thousands.
You can double your profit and make money twice as fast if you simply rework your design on basic principles of web-usability. Figure out what works best, then do it. Figure out where to place your ads, then place them there. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes, and can end up making you tens of thousands over time.
How Readers Read
Jakob Nielsen is a usability expert, or, maybe I should say he is the usability expert. He’s the foremost expert on making websites work. Literally. Getting visitors to stay longer, make a sale, subscribe to the newsletter, click an ad…this is who Jaokob Nielsen is. He wrote a report regarding a reading pattern study recently done, explaining some outrageously important findings.
Unfortunately, visitors don’t read all of our pages. They don’t read every word. They skip a lot, and scan for highlights. Visitors ignore almost everything. This means that some areas of the page are seen more than others, meaning that some places are better for advertisements than others.
It’s vital. And it tells us something that can be used to make money at twice the rate you were before.
In 15 minutes you could save up to 15% or more on your ad placements…
1. Middle Ads
Advertisements in the middle means outrageous amounts of extra clicks, and extra earnings. You can multiply your advertisement earnings by simply targetting the traffic in the middle, directly under your article titles. It works. It’s the best place for a single ad block.
2. Left Sidebar Ads
Incredibly, the biggest bloggers in the industry usually have a sidebar on the right with their advertisements, instead of on the left. The left converts more…way more. Money is literally being left at the table. This isn’t just about ads. Subscriptions, navigation links… an incredible amount of extra traffic and earnings is simply being forgotten because of the lack of fifteen minutes of preperation.
Do your homework, analyze the best places to place your ads, then do it. It only takes a few minutes of follow up, especially if you use wordpress. In 15 minutes, you could double your advertiser earnings.
Now go do it.
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Jim Karter on July 9th 2008 in Blogging, Earning Money
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21 Responses to “Make Money Twice as Fast”
Sponsored links from google adsense.
Chris responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 4:31 am #
Great article. I have wondered why most Wordpress layouts have the sidebar on the right, is there is major reason for that? I’m looking to change my blog theme/layout and I’d consider a left sidebar, especially if there’s extra clicks to be had there.
Halim-Belajar SEO responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 5:53 am #
I totally agree about some reader just scan and not read throughout some content, just to find important point inside the content.
Usually there will click ads when felt satisfy with the post and want to continue surfing to related link in adsense.
Zak Show responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 6:11 am #
To be honest, I already know about these info and I agree with our guest blogger Shaun Connell.
BTW Jim, how I can apply for a guest post?
Everyday Finance responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 7:09 am #
Help!
So, I upgraded my standard blogger template to a newer custom free one from eblogtemplates, which looks much better and has much better functionality, but the ECPM dropped precipitously. I’ve tried Adsense on the right, between posts, on top of the title, etc. but to no avail. Neither of the templates had a left hand column, but I prefer the new one since it at least has 3 column (both ad sets on left).
Can anyone recommend good free or cheap Blogger templates out there that have 3 columns with the text in the middle so I can get some ads on the left?
Thanks!
harshads responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 11:48 am #
It’s a great article for a newbie.I totally agree with what author has to say about ads placement.
Nice guest post.
Ankit responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 12:35 pm #
I totally agree with Shaun when he says that middle ads work a great deal. But fail to understand why does Wordpress has most of its themes which are dominated by rightside bar!!!
massage lover responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 12:36 pm #
There is an problem.
Per adsense tos you cannot do such misleading placement of ads such as just below article titles.
Go to adsense blog and you will see its forbiden by adsense team.
Left sidebar is ok but only if you have no similar link.
Also you don’t want to have 50% Ctr you need no more than 15% and there is no need to do this to archive such ctr,
So embded ads on the text -below the title but ads should not be labeled as this title and everything will be fine
Make money responded on 09 Jul 2008 at 10:24 pm #
left or right, I dont think that will have any effect… :??:
Halim-Belajar SEO responded on 10 Jul 2008 at 12:28 am #
Left sidebar ads is not quite good for CTR and often ignored by most of visitor.
Carol responded on 10 Jul 2008 at 9:06 pm #
I have read that the most effective place for banners (standard size) usually would be right before main content. That is the place where people usually look before they read content.
More Friday Links » Self Made Minds responded on 11 Jul 2008 at 8:05 am #
[…] A great analysis and heat map on how people read web pages Thanks to Jim Karter) […]
Lex responded on 11 Jul 2008 at 9:07 pm #
Jim, your blog is awesome. Every time I come back I learn something fantastic. Many thanks, Alex Newman.
52 Blogs that Accept Guest Posts | PiggyBankPie responded on 14 Jul 2008 at 4:50 am #
[…] Jim Karter Recent Guest Post: Make Money Online Twice as Fast Topics: Make money online PageRank: 2 Alexa Rank: […]
$100 dollars daily responded on 15 Jul 2008 at 4:09 pm #
You can multiply your advertisement earnings by simply targetting the traffic in the middle, directly under your article titles..
>> this is absolutely true!
If not yet tested the left side bars for Adsense, I have to consider this idea (changing for example the blogger template)
Free Link Exchange responded on 18 Jul 2008 at 2:02 pm #
nice article, i will really implement this
Stop Blogging? responded on 10 Aug 2008 at 12:14 am #
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How to STOP Blogging: Part 2 | Make Money Online responded on 18 Aug 2008 at 10:51 am #
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Make Money With Affiliates Programs- How to STOP Blogging: Part 2 responded on 30 Aug 2008 at 5:48 pm #
[…] your ad location to the left, and you’ll increase your click-through rates. You can literally make money twice as fast in just a few […]
articlesubmission responded on 20 Sep 2008 at 2:57 am #
Hi Jim Sir
Good post, according to me, for 3 column sites, on the left side we have to put some links and just below that adsense links(160*60) is to be there, the in the middle first 336*280 ad and just below this content must be there and at right side, search bar should be right, below this 780*90 ad code, this wl gets good results.
kouji responded on 24 Sep 2008 at 12:07 am #
i think the left sidebar idea’s spot on. as a blog reader, i tend to skim that part less often, while the right sidebar if any gets quite ignored. am thinking of making changes accordingly.
accounts responded on 16 Nov 2008 at 4:06 pm #
I have actually experimented on side bar navigation and thing right side bar for ads does improve CTR.