LESS IS MORE WITH ADSENSE

I made a (for me) surprising discovery about Adsense recently - less really is more:

a) I'd been advised by a respected SEO mentor that the presence of Adsense deprecates your page quality ranking with Google (irony or what?), so to go easy.

Usually, I take SEO advice with a healthy pinch of salt until I can test it empirically, there is just so much reported wisdom that is not substantiated by scientific observation.

Unfortunately, I couldn't test this hypothesis statistically right now - there's just too much else going on. In particular, the addition of many new inbound links - which tend to swamp the effect of on-page factors.

So instead, I tracked and analyzed my individual ads' contributions - and found such a skew in their performance that it was a no-brainer to cull the weaker brethren.

b) There is a psychological phenomenon called "ad blindness".
Apparently the more ads we are exposed to, the more likely we are to ignore ALL of them. This understanding motivated me to cull the weaker ads ruthlessly, and sure enough the total clicks and revenue improved.

c) Following the "minimalist" concept a little further, I also experimented with substituting link ads for text ads. To my surprise, I scored more clicks and revenue from a links banner at the top of the page than I did from an ad banner in the same position (whether text only or text/image mixed).

d) On the back of that discovery, I eliminated an eBay shop window which was earning pennies - and the Adsense clicks went up yet again!

e) Most significantly of all, my affiliate ad clicks also increased when I cut down the Adsense - and that means real money. I earn $25 to $100 commissions on those, AND the possibility of repeat orders, which puts the Adsense pennies firmly into perspective.

Maybe I should eliminate the content next, so there are NO distractions at all!
Sadly, many a true word spoken in jest there - it's a devious but effective black hat tactic....

Bottom line:

1) Track and test for yourself - even very simple tests can reveal valuable insights.

2) Treasure your credibility like gold (which it is).
Nobody listens to folks forever pitching - you gotta give before you get.
So cut back on what you sell and stick to offers that you KNOW are good 'uns.

3) Adsense is a last resort best used to monetize a failed site until you can sell it.
If the traffic is good, then you will do better with the following options:
a) selling your own products
b) selling good affiliate products via Clickbank, Commission Juncrion etc.
c) selling the traffic for higher returns (CPA offers, link sales, private PPC deals)

Technorati : adsense, advertising income, monetization
Del.icio.us : adsense, advertising income, monetization

REVOLUTIONARY NEW WEBSITE MONETIZATION SYSTEM - PAY PER PLAY

I've just signed up for a new website monetization system: PPP - which stands for "Pay Per Play".

You add a snippet of code to your site (just like adsense), but instead of displaying an ad, a 5 second audio clip is played.

"So what?", I hear you ask already. Well, the system has some unique features which tempted me and which should also interest other webmasters with material traffic volumes.

1. It is lucrative and the income is wholly predictable.

You are paid for every unique visitor - even if their speakers are off. No click through is required. The proportion who do not listen is already figured into the pricing. In addition to their own traffic revenues, affiliates earn overrides on the income of every site they recruit to the network.
And on the income of any sub-affiliate they recruit.

2. It is non-intrusive.

There is nothing displayed on your site associated with the audio clips - so you will still be able to monetize the visitors again through AdSense or other contextual ads, affiliate offers, your own product ads and lead capture forms.
The audio ads are very brief and do not compete with the visual content of your site. The audio clip only plays once per visitor - so if they click around your site, they won't hear it again.

3. It is non-competitive

The ads do not cost you real-estate - they exploit a previously unused dimension. The ads are complementary rather than competitive. There is no mechanism to divert your traffic away from your site.

The audio ads will be contextually related to your website content. Failing relevant content, then generic content suitable for all will be played.
Since there is nothing to click, the ads are likely more for corporate branding purposes - such as "Drink Coke!"

4. The system already has momentum.

Folks are watching TV ads less and less - and increasingly they are on the internet instead of watching TV. The TV advertisers want these eyeballs back.
Major brand name TV advertisers worldwide are aleady signed up. Names like Harley Davidson for example.

It is also backed by a major search engine - as yet undisclosed for commercial reasons.

I intend to use PPP on sites presently reliant on Adsense and banner income primarily. I may hold off for sites with lucrative monetization in place already - that decision will depend on the results of experimental split-testing.

While the program doesn't officially start until Feb 1, 2008 - they are presently building their network to command larger bid prices for the ads. To incentivize the network build, the affiliate scheme generously rewards recruiters.

So sign up now and tell others. The affiliate scheme should prove very interesting for the early birds. Do the math!

For details see:

http://4mostip.com/presents/PPP

Technorati : advertising income, monetization, pay per play
Del.icio.us : monetization advertising+income pay+per+play

Free Gift + Free VRE membership site

Here's a little gift for you today - something I find
rather useful in my daily life.

It's called Promo Buddy and helps keep track of my promotions,
activities and resources, tools, media etc etc.

Promo Buddy is an integrated set of 36 databases (FileMakerPro) -
designed by internet marketers for fellow internet marketers.
They are well thought through and easy to use.
RRP is $97 but to you NIL - I can't get the price down any further, sorry!

After Roboform and Edit Pad and MS Office, I rate Promo Buddy
among the most useful applications software I have.

a) if you don't already use Roboform to keep track of passwords
and fill out forms on-line then you really should -
Download your free Roboform Lite version here

b) Edit Pad is the Rolls Royce of text editors
Download your free Edit Pad Lite version here

c) Gates doesn't need my help to market Office!!


The catch? Here it comes......and it's not so bad,
as you'll soon see.

To download Promo Buddy you need to join a
free membership site Niche Content Websites
now in pre-launch by my friend Detlev Reimer.
Sign-up requires your email to subscribe to Detlev's mailing list.

BUT he won't abuse it and you can cancel at any time.
(Detlev is one of the good guys - reliable, straight and always over delivers.)

Promo Buddy is yours to keep anyway - with Detlev's blessing.
He's happy to let you have it free because he is confident that
many visitors will stay and most will later upgrade.

Why is he so confident?
To (mis)quote Mark Joyner:
Detleve has found a target market of very thirsty folks
and is making them an irresistable offer.

His VRE membership site provides a new
Adsense niche content site free each month,
complete and ready to upload with accompanying
PLR articles to publish to pull traffic.

Each website comes with on-line translations in 12 languages,
which multiplies the revenue potential.

Upgrade options provide more free sites each month (4, 8 or 12).
But you can prove out the quality with the
one site per month free membership
(and even stay with that permanently).

I just tested the first site and had my copy
branded, uploaded and operating in under an hour,
including learning the system from scratch.
The next one will take under 10 minutes.

The content was good quality information for
an easily targetable, highly competitive niche.
Keyword Elite shows excellent
Adwords keyword value ($8.18-$10.22),
so I anticipate good Adsense(or similar)income.

If Detlev can keep up this quality,
I'll be upgrading for sure.

Here's the link - Niche Content Websites

Enjoy,

With best wishes,

Steven Henderson
www.StevenHenderson.ws

PS Detlev uses Mike Filsaime's Butterfly Marketing script -
so expect to see a OTO as you enter.
(I often skip OTO's on free sites and return under a different
email address later if I'm still interested!!)