Adsense is the highest paying ad-network in the online world. If you want to earn more using your adsense account, you need to place your ads wisely. Because a good ad placement may lead to lots of dollars in your bank balance.

So here is a guide which helps you in optimizing your ads for your blog. Place your advertisements in these positions and it is sure to see a considerable increase in your adsense revenue.

Blog – Homepage

We will find below two types of optimization depending on your Homepage’s layout and structure.

Homepage 1

• Place 728×90 banner image ads above the fold for placement targeting, to receive with high brand value and clickthrough rate (CTR).
• Place 160×600 skyscraper ads below the navigation bar. Set them to display text and image ads.
• Depending on your page length, you can place a 728×90 ad unit in the middle or at the end of the page.

Homepage 2

• Place 728×90 banner image ads above the fold for placement targeting, with high brand value and clickthrough rate (CTR).
• Place 300×250 ads below the right navigation bar to attract the user’s eye. Set them to display text and image ads.
• Depending on your page length, you can place a 728×90 ad unit in the middle or at the end of the page.

Blog – Article Page

We will find below two types of optimization depending on your Article Page’s layout and structure.

Article Page 1

• Place 336×280 rectangle ads (text + image) on the upper left of the content, embedded in the text.
• Place 336×280 text ads below the content.
• Place 160×600 skyscraper ads below the left navigation bar, set to display text and image ads.

Article Page 2

• Place 336×280 rectangle ads (Text+Image) on the upper right of the content, embedded within the text.
• Place 336×280 text ads below the content.
• Place 300×250 rectangle ads below the right navigation bar. Set them to display text and image ads.

Big Gains From Small Edits

In the world of Email marketing, there is always room for improvement.  Sometimes, the biggest improvement can come from the smallest of edits.

The most minor adjustments to your email template have the potential to cause click-through (the % of people who actually click on a link) and open rates (the % of people who open and view an email instead of just ignoring or deleting it) to suddenly skyrocket, and in turn, drive large amounts of sales, traffic, sign ups, or conversions. However, the only way to truly learn from your template adjustments is to implement them one at a time utilizing classic scientific procedure. By isolating your adjustments, you can learn which varying factors improve your campaigns and which hurt them.

A/B Split Testing for Email

The best approach for this experimental improvement is commonly referred to as A/B Split Testing: a function available within most email marketing services.

The actual process for Newsletter A/B Split Testing  involves splitting a small, randomally selected subset of your mailing list subscribers into two groups. Then, each groups receivs an email that is nearly identical, save a small tweak that you are testing. For example, you might test different subject lines to see how that affects open rate. Once the results are measured, you then send out the “winning” variation to the all the users who didn’t receive  one of the original test emails.

To reiterate, the only difference between the two emails going to the two small test groups should be the single factor that you are testing.

An Example

Acme, Inc. would like find out which color link attracts the most clicks. In the current version of their newsletter, link is displayed in a big red font with no special decoration.

In order to find out if this is the optimal presentation for clicks, they up an A/B test that includes two identical newsletters except for this big red link. Email #1 would include the standard big red link link with no special decoration while Email #2 would include a blue link with no special decoration.  While it may tempting to experiment with decorating the link or creating a special button, that should be saved for the next test in order to keep the currently tested color variable completely isolated.  The reason for only testing one tweak at a time is so that there is no doubt about what caused the increase.  To continue testing ways to improve click-through rates, further A/B tests could be done.

But links are not the only thing that can be tested in newsletters.  Other potential variables include:

• Subject-Line: Test subject lines to increase open rates.
• From-Line: Test which “from” address results in the highest open rate.
• Landing Page: Find out which landing page to link to by seeing which one results in a higher conversion rate
• Time of Delivery: The time of day that email is sent could have a significant impact on open rates and recipient activity across all metrics.
• Presentation of Calls to Action: Not getting enough clicks? Try testing the color of and style of buttons.
• Just About Every Aspect of A Newsletter: Almost anything in a newsletters can be tested for improvement.

Remember: scientific testing is the only true path to improvement in your campaigns.  While there are many preachers of best practices out there, what works for most may not work for your list. The only way to be sure is to test test test.

For some marketers, especially B2B companies, the holidays may be a time of year when things slow down, which can be the perfect opportunity to thoroughly cleanse your PPC account and get it to deliver more bang for your buck. On the heels of my blog post on landing page optimization, here are 10 ways to make your PPC campaign more profitable.

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1. Make changes that matter.


Don’t just look for what is not performing well in your campaign, look for areas that would have a big impact on your ROI if it were working better. See what campaigns and ad groups within each campaign represent the greatest share of your overall paid search budget.

Once you’ve identified the most critical areas of your campaign to optimize, start by taking a look at your Quality Score. Improving it will help you reduce your cost-per-click in relation to the position of your ads. This involves looking at each keyword’s CTR, associated ads and taking some of the following steps:

2. Create better targeted ad groups.


Look through your ad groups to find keywords with low Quality Score or low CTR and see what ads are showing up for them. Consider placing these keywords in another ad group with ads that are more relevant. In the case of broad match keywords, use the “See Search Terms” report to find some common queries you are getting clicks for. If some of the keywords that often get clicks are relevant to you, consider using them as a phrase or exact match in the same or new ad group.

Besides using the “See Search Terms” report to better target relevant keywords, use it also add to list of keywords that you do not want to target.

3. Curate your negative keyword lists.


Add negative keywords to your list so that your ads show for more relevant searches. You can find these in the “See Search Terms” report.

4. Use broad match modifiers.

If you have not done so already, add the new broad match modifier to your ad groups. This type of matching is more flexible than phrase and exact match while doing a better job of targeting than broad match. Bid on this match type higher than you would on broad match, and lower than phrase and exact match.

Your CTR does not only rely on your keywords, so it’s important that your ads get users to click.

5. Test your ads.


Look for ways to make your ads stand-out against your competition and test different ideas. Let ads compete against each other and gather sufficient data before eliminating one or more ads. When you come across a test result in one ad group, consider applying what you learned to other ad groups.

Everything I’ve listed so far is primarily meant to increase your CTR. But what about making sure that each click is the best click you can get?

6. Filter out unwanted clicks.


Provide information in your ad copy that will deter your most common unwanted customers. For example, if your services start at $5,000, consider using that in your ad copy. This may go against our strategy of increasing our CTR, but its benefits may outweigh the loss by increasing the value of each click.

7. Use match types to control bids.

Look at broad match keywords that are consuming a lot of your budget, without delivering the goods in the form of conversions. Consider reducing your bids on some of those broader keywords and increase bids on phrase and exact match keywords that are delivering good results.

8. Show ads at the right time.


After doing some preliminary testing by showing ads throughout the day and days of the week, configure your bidding schedule to get your ads more attention when it counts.

I’ve covered most things leading up to the click. Now let’s look at what to do about what visitors see after they click on your ad.

9. Improve device targeting.

Make sure that if you are targeting mobile devices that you are sending traffic to a mobile-friendly page and that this mobile traffic is in a separate campaign from your desktop computer targeting.

10. Conduct landing page optimization.

Work on continually improving the conversion rate of your landing pages. At the end of the day, no matter how cheaply you can generate traffic to your website by improving Quality Score or how well you can filter out unwanted clicks, if your pages are not focused on turning each visitor into a client, then you will always be spinning your tires in the mud. If you need a few tips to get you started, check out 84 Tips For A Killer Landing Page Design.

Below is a demonstration of the effects of conversion optimization on ROI:

ibibo.com, a social networking site focused to India, has made a tie up with MTS India to offer social networking for MTS MBlaze customers.

ibibo.com has also launched ‘MyVoice’ which enables users to post voice status updates directly from their phones irrespective of GPRS enabled or not. This service is very simple – first register your mobile phone with this service, and to record and upload the voice status SMS ‘RECORD BEEP’ to 58247 or 5676746. Or you can just click one link on web. SMS will cost Rs3/SMS from most of the operators.

After that they will receive an incoming call from ibibo asking to record their message like voice mail. The audio of recorded message will be uploaded as a new ‘beep’ on ibibo immediately with a status of “I have recorded a new voice beep on ibibo. To listen, sms PLAYBEEP <code> to 5676746 or go to link given by ibibo”.</code> [via telecomtalk]

Increase Web traffic with Existing Traffic by Keeping them Coming Back

Every visitor to your web site is a precious potential client. It was hard work to get that site visitor there in the first place, so you should make every effort to encourage the potential client back.

The bottom line is that if the visitor found what they were looking for quickly and easily, they are much more likely to come back to your site. Here are six additional techniques you can use to help bring visitors back to your site. They are:

1. Email Newsletters
2. Bookmark Buttons
3. Periodic Updates
4. Games
5. Contests
6. Message Boards

A newsletter is perhaps the best tool for bringing people back to your web site. To have a newsletter all you need is a simple form on your web site to collect user’s email addresses and an email client. That’s it! It you want to go even more low tech, just have a bit of text that says, “Email us at youremail@yourdomain.com to Join our Newsletter.”

Once you have a few people to send a newsletter too, try to think of ways that you could provide useful information to potential clients. Maybe you will offer discounts to newsletter members, or perhaps send them articles on topics related to your site. Always have a link for subscribers to opt-out. And don’t forget to request newsletter readers to visit your web site in every newsletter you send out.

A bookmark button reminds people visiting your site that they may want to visit your site again. When people bookmark your site, they are of course more likely to come back. Bookmark buttons can be easily created in javascript. Here is some source code for you:

http://javascript.internet.com/miscellaneous/bookmark-page.html

Periodic Updates could be a quote of the day or an image of the day or perhaps a new articles every month or week. Anything that will make visitors want to come back for the next update will suffice. Once you have determined what your periodic update is, remind your visitors to come back for the update. It won’t do much good if your visitors don’t know about your updates.

Games in Flash or javascript can be quite simple, yet quite entertaing. A perfect exmple is those Orbitz ads. If you don’t know what I am talking about, Orbitz has Flash game ads that include golfing, pitching, piloting blimps and other fun things. They are really simple and are designed to get clicks more than repeat business, as the games are ads, but on a web site, similar games would get visitors come back.

Contests are great for web promotion and brining people back to web sites. People who enter the contest you may sponser will want to come back to see if they won. Also, if it is a user submital contest, people will want to come back to see the winning entries – especially if they have won! You may even get people sending word of your contest to their friends. Viral marketing, where friends tell friends and so on, is extremly effective.

Message boards can become a second home for some people. If you have an active board, people will come to your web site just to see what people have posted.