Optimizing Your Ad Chain

I often see webmasters asking questions about the right way to set up their ad chains. They will throw out a list of advertising networks they are members of, and ask which is the best way to optimize their ad chain to increase revenues. This is truly a valid question. However, the answer may not be the same for all websites.

There are many factors that may lead one webmaster to choose a different ad chain order than another webmaster. Some of the things to consider are: Read the rest of this entry »

Content and Ad Placement

How do you decide where to place content on your pages? I’m not talking about page layout from a 2-column or 3-column perspective. I am talking about where you place content to generate the most attention. Thinking particularly about things like where to place links (internal and external), where to place internal ads (e.g., newsletter sign-up forms), and where to place contextual ads like Google’s AdSense ads.

One of the best resources I’ve found to help with this type of decision is the Google Adsense help area. And when thinking about how to place content on your page, I’ve found the Google AdSense “heat map”to be an invaluable resource for ideas. It is not a big stretch to use this heat chart in coming up with placement of your own links. They have already done the research to determine the most effective spots for their ads. You can use their hard work to determine the optimum position for your newsletter sign-up form, for internal links to help increase your pages per visitor, or for placing affiliate links on your site.

As they mention at various times in their help section, please experiment to determine what layout is most effective on your site.

To Pop or Not To Pop

As an avid web user I’ve never been a fan of pops. Popunders, popups… it does not really make a difference. I can deal with them. As a publisher, I recognize the revenue value of running pops. I’ve run them on the four of my sites, I generally do not run them on my newer sites.

I think I’d like to stop running them on all of my sites, but I have an issue. Popunders have come to represent a significant portion of the revenue stream for the sites in question. The general belief is that popunders and popups bother web users to the point of driving them away on the visit they are making and discouraging their return in the future. Pop supporters will tell you that users who don’t like pops will have a pop blocker in place and will not be affected by pops in the first place. I believe that popup blocker or not, users who are tired of pops may be reluctant to stay on my sites, or to return if they get a popunder (I run one from Casale and one from FastClick per 24 hours per unique user).

So I have some reluctance to dropping the popunders. If the revenue lost from popunders will be made up from additional page views and return visits, my decision is simple. The only way to truly get this answer though is to give it a whirl, something I will do starting in early January (after my high traffic season on FoodClassics.com).
I will surely post back my results after a couple of months of the effort.