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The Adsense Code What Google never Told You About Making Money with Adsense Index RAVE REVIEWS ...................................................................... v LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR............................................... xvii INTRODUCTION ................................................................... xxi 1 GETTING STARTED WITH GOOGLE ADSENSE ..................... 1 1.1 THE BASICS: BUILDING YOUR SITE.................................. 3 1.2 NAMING YOUR SITE.......................................................... 3 1.3 CHOOSING A HOSTING SERVICE .....................................4 1.4 DESIGNING THE SITE ....................................................... 5 1.5 CREATING CONTENT.........................................................5 1.6 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ..................................... 6 1.7 LINKS ................................................................................ 6 1.8 ADSENSE - MAKING THE MONEY! ................................... 7 1.9 GOOGLE POLICIES ........................................................... 7 1.10 AS EASY AS 1-2-3! .......................................................... 8 2 HOW TO "TWEAK" YOUR ADS TO MAKE THEM "CLICK"! ...11 2.1 AD FORMATS: "DRESS" YOUR ADS FOR SUCCESS! ...13 2.2 DON'T "LOOK" LIKE AN AD ............................................. 13 2.3 MEET THE ADSENSE FAMILY......................................... 14 2.4 TEXT ADS - GOOGLE'S FINEST....................................... 15 2.5 IMAGE ADS - BUILT TO BE IGNORED ............................. 22 2.6 LINK UNITS - GREAT LITTLE STOCKING FILLERS .......... 23 2.7 EXPANDED TEXT ADS - SHRINKING CONTROL OR EXPANDED INCOME?............................................ 29 3 USING COLORS TO INCREASE YOUR CLICKS ................ 33 3.1 DESIGN YOUR WEBSITE TO HIGHLIGHT ADSENSE ...... 35 3.2 MAKE THE BORDER GO! ................................................36 3.3 TEXT IS DESIGN TOO!..................................................... 39 3.4 BLUE IS BEST .................................................................40 3.5 WHERE DID MY URL GO?................................................ 41 3.6 DELIBERATE MISMATCHING.......................................... 41 4 HOW TO MAXIMIZE VISIBILITY AND RESPONSE ............ 43 4.1 AD PLACEMENT WHERE TO PUT YOUR ADS?................. 45 4.2 GO WITH THE `FLOW'..................................................... 45 4.3 ABOVE THE FOLD .......................................................... 47 4.4 USING TABLES ............................................................... 48 4.5 COMPLEMENTING YOUR ADS......................................... 50 5 CONTROLLING YOUR ADS ...............................................53 5.1 ATTRACTING RELEVANT ADS......................................... 55 5.2 KEEP THE TITLE, DIRECTORY AND HEADLINES RELEVANT................................................................... 55 5.3 FINDING KEYWORDS ..................................................... 56 5.4 KEYWORD DENSITY........................................................57 5.5 KEYWORD PLACEMENT.................................................. 57 5.6 KEYWORD FRAMES........................................................ 58 5.7 SECTION TARGETING .....................................................59 5.8 NO `BAITING'................................................................... 60 5.9 CHANGING METATAGS .................................................. 61 5.10 INVITING THE ROBOT................................................... 61 5.11 PUBLIC SERVICE ADS................................................... 61 5.12 BLOCKING ADS ............................................................ 63 5.13 "ADVERTISE ON THIS SITE" .........................................63 5.14 DOES LOCATION MATTER FOR CPM ADS?.................. 69 6 CATCH FICKLE VISITORS WITH THE GOOGLE SEARCH BOX ..................................................................71 6.1 FINDING MONEY WITH SEARCH.....................................73 6.2 LEARN HOW TO ADD GOOGLE SEARCH TO YOUR WEB PAGE ...................................................... 74 6.3 TO SEARCH OR NOT TO SEARCH ................................. 75 6.4 HOME PAGE SEARCHING............................................... 76 6.5 CUSTOMIZING YOUR SEARCH........................................ 76 7 ADSENSE AND FIREFOX REFERRAL PROGRAMS .............79 7.1 REFERRING FOR ADSENSE ........................................... 81 7.2 FIRING UP FIREFOX........................................................ 83 8 USING MULTIPLE AD BLOCKS ......................................... 85 8.1 HOW MANY ADS IS TOO MANY? ................................... 87 8.2 WHAT TO DO WITH THREE AD UNITS .......................... 88 8.3 WHERE TO PUT THE SEARCH BOXES .......................... 89 8.4 GOOGLE IS MEAN WITH THE LINK UNITS .................... 89 8.5 PUT REFERRAL BUTTONS NEAR AD UNITS................... 89 8.6 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER .......................................... 90 8.7 PUTTING MULTIPLE ADS IN ARTICLES...........................90 8.8 PUTTING MULTIPLE ADS IN BLOGS................................91 8.9 PUTTING MULTIPLE ADS IN MERCHANT SITES ............ 92 9 BUILDING CONTENT......................................................... 95 9.1 WRITING CONTENT.........................................................97 9.2 MAKING BUCKS WITH BLOGS ..................................... 98 9.3 ADDING ADSENSE TO YOUR BLOG ................................. 99 9.4 OLD CONTENT................................................................101 9.5 VOLUNTEER WRITERS................................................... 104 9.6 BUILD THOUSANDS OF PAGES WITH OTHER PEOPLE'S CONTENT.......................................................105 9.7 ADD PUBLIC DOMAIN WORKS TO YOUR SITE ............... 108 9.8 ADSENSE IN RSS FEEDS ............................................... 110 9.9 USE YOUR NEWSLETTER TO DRIVE TRAFFIC! ........... 111 9.10 BUYING CONTENT/ HIRING WRITERS ........................ 112 9.11 AUTOMATED CONTENT ............................................... 112 10 RESPONSE TRACKING: YOUR HIDDEN POT OF ADSENSE GOLD! .......................................................... 115 10.1 HOW TO TRACK WITH CHANNELS ..............................119 10.2 HOW TO CREATE A CHANNEL..................................... 120 10.3 HOW TO READ YOUR SERVER LOGS .......................... 123 10.4 TRACKING TOOLS ....................................................... 128 11 SMART PRICING... AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR INCOME .............................................................. 133 11.1 WHAT GOOGLÈ HAS SAID ABOUT SMART PRICING.. 136 11.2 WHAT ELSE DO WE KNOW ABOUT SMART PRICING?137 11.3 STRATEGIES TO BENEFIT FROM SMART PRICING ...... 138 12 HOW TO MAKE ADSENSE WORK WITH INTERNET COMMUNITIES .............................................................. 141 12.1 GOOGLE'S FORUM HEAT MAP .................................... 144 13 HOW TO READ YOUR VISITORS LIKE A BOOK............... 149 13.1 MAKING SENSE OF STATS, LOGS AND REPORTS.......151 13.2 THE MOST IMPORTANT STAT OF ALL......................... 151 13.3 OPTIMUM CTR ............................................................ 152 13.4 ADSENSE ARBITRAGE................................................ 152 13.5 WORDTRACKER.......................................................... 154 14 WHAT TO DO BEFORE YOU APPLY TO GOOGLE ADSENSE ....................................................... 157 14.1 DON'T BUILD A WEBSITE THAT SPECIFICALLY TARGETS SEARCH SPIDERS, WITH NOTHING UNIQUE TO OFFER HUMAN VISITORS. .................................................... 160 14.2 DON'T BUILD A WEBSITE JUST TO MAKE MONEY FROM ADSENSE........................................... 160 14.3 PROVIDE TARGETED CONTENT THAT WILL HELP GOOGLE ADVERTISERS TO CAPITALIZE YOUR TRAFFIC.......................................................... 160 14.4 DON'T BUILD A WEBSITE SPECIFICALLY TO TARGET HIGH-VALUE KEYWORDS UNLESS YOU PLAN ON DEVELOPING QUALITY CONTENT!...................... 161 14.5 WEBSITES THAT RANK HIGHER IN A GOOGLE SEARCH ( SERPS) WILL GET A BETTER PER-CLICK PAYOUT THAN WEBSITES WHICH RANK LOWER FOR THE SAME SEARCH TERM ........................................................................ 162 14.6 INCREASE `READINESS TO BUY'................................ 162 14.7 DON'T CUT CORNERS! ................................................164 15 RECOMMENDED RESOURCES: TRY THESE TOOLS AND ADSENSE UTILITIES (SOME ARE FREE!) ...............165 15.1 TEST YOUR METTLE WITH THE ADSENSE SANDBOX' 167 15.2 GOOGLE ADSENSE PREVIEW TOOL........................... 168 15.3 OVERTURE BIDTOOL ................................................. 168 15.4 OVERTURE KEYWORD SUGGESTION TOOL .............. 169 15.5 ULTIMATE SEO TOOL ................................................. 169 15.6 GOOGLE ADWORDS TRAFFIC ESTIMATOR AND BID TOOL...........................................................169 15.7 KEYWORD RANKINGS TOOL ...................................... 169 15.8 MASS KEYWORDS SEARCH........................................170 15.9 GUIDE TO GOOGLE-FRIENDLY DESIGN...................... 170 16 KEEPING TRACK OF WHAT WORKS - AND WHAT DOESN'T WORK - FOR YOU! ........................................................171 16.1 A SAMPLE ADSENSE JOURNAL ................................. 175 17 OTHER CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING PROGRAMS ........ 179 17.1 KONTERA - MAKING YOUR WORDS PAY ....................181 17.2 CHITIKA - ALL MALLS, MORE MONEY.........................182 17.3 CONTEXTCASH - AFFILIATE REVENUE THE EASY WAY ........................................................ 183 17.4 YAHOO! PUBLISHER NETWORK ................................ 184 17.5 ADBRITE .....................................................................185 17.6 KANOODLE - BRIGHT ADS.......................................... 186 17.7 SEARCHFEED............................................................. 186 18 GETTING TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEB SITE......................... 189 18.1 ADVERTISING .............................................................191 18.2 RECIPROCAL LINKING ............................................... 192 18.3 SEND A FRIEND ..........................................................193 18.4 OFFLINE MARKETING................................................. 193 18.5 PROMOTING YOUR BLOG ...........................................193 18.6 PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLICITY........................... 194 18.7 LEARN FROM A PRO .................................................... 196 19 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION................................... 197 19.1 ROBOT.TXT ................................................................. 199 19.2 TITLES AND URLS ........................................................ 200 19.3 LINKS........................................................................... 200 19.4 CREATE GATEWAYS.................................................... 202 19.5 AUTOMATIC SUBMISSIONS ......................................... 202 19.6 SEO TOOLS ..................................................................203 19.7 A WORD ABOUT CLOAKING......................................... 205 20 ADSENSE NO-NOS .......................................................... 207 20.1 WHAT TO DO IF YOUR ADSENSE ACCOUNT GETS CLOSED............................................................ 212 21 STAYING UP TO DATE AND LEARNING THE LATEST ADSENSE TIPS ................................................. 213 22 CASE STUDIES ................................................................ 217 22.1 FREEAFTERREBATE.INFO - UNMISSABLE ADS ............ 219 22.2 GREAT IDEAS FOR INTEGRATION FROM THE IDEA BOX .......................................................... 220 22.3 GIFTS-911. COM GETS EMERGENCY TREATMENT WITH MULTIPLE AD UNITS ........................................ 221 22.4 - A PRIZE WINNING DESIGN ........................................ 223 CONCLUSIONSTELLAAWARDS............................................... 225 FOR OUR READERS ............................................................. 229 LEGALESE .................................................. ....................... 231