Top 5 AdSense Tips for Forums
My firm is in charge of managing my forums, some of them very successful both financially and performance wise. This combination is very hard to achieve and even if we managed to do this, we might be flirting with some Google AdSense rules.
For any successful Forum, there are two things to keep in mind, Ad optimization and keeping the user experience at a high level. Because of the very nature of a forum where the topics discussed are broad, it becomes hard to achieve good ad targeting. Based on our experience and with suggestions from Google, these are the five tips you need to follow in order to achieve AdSense Nirvana. If you have a website or a blog instead of a forum, you might want to check out these AdSense optimization tips for a website or a blog.
Before I offer my insight, let us check out the Six Adsense optimization tips for forums from Google. These six tips are:
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Format is important for multiple ad units
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Display your ad units where repeat users will notice them
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Place a leaderboard immediately after the last post
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Use horizontal link units
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Opt-in to image ads
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Be sensitive to your forum community
Besides the above mentioned tips, Google also gives us a heatmap they use to visualize effective ad layout on forums.
These are all great tips. However, we will analyze some of these in more depth besides providing you with additional insights to help make a better decision on optimizing the ads on your forum.For any successful Forum, there are two things to keep in mind, Ad optimization and keeping the user experience at a high level. Because of the very nature of a forum where the topics discussed are broad, it becomes hard to achieve good ad targeting. Based on our experience and with suggestions from Google, these are the five tips you need to follow in order to achieve AdSense Nirvana. If you have a website or a blog instead of a forum, you might want to check out these AdSense optimization tips for a website or a blog.
Ad Placement Tips for Forums
Eye tracking studies like the ones cited here have shown that people tend to look at the top left or top center of a site first, then track to the right and down the right side, slanting back up across the page to just below the upper-left corner and down the left side … all in an instant.
Based on these eye tracking results, suggestions from Google and my own personal experience, I will tell you the five best spots to place your Google AdSense ads on a forum. The list shown below is not necessarily in order of importance. Again, each forum is unique. Experiment , experiment and experiment but keep the suggestions below in mind.
Tip # 1: Place a Google Site Search box beside your forum logo.
Visitors to your forum most likely came in through a search engine. Most people expect a search bar on the top right side of a website. This rule applies to a forum too. Your visitors want to search for something, so give them a search bar.
Tip # 2: Place a 728 x 90 Leaderboard directly below the navigation bar of your forum and above the content area.
This was the most successful spot in all the forums I have helped manage — having a leaderboard directly below your forum’s navigation bar. This spot is above the fold and will hold the most attention of your forum visitor. Make sure this spot is both text and image.
Tip # 3: Place a 160 x 600 Wide Sidescraper on the right hand rail or margin within the content of your main body.
Although Google does not place this spot among the hotter spots, the user’s attention according to our eye tracking results tell us otherwise. Another reason which should convince you is that this spot will be beside the scroll bar of your browser. So when the user is going there to scroll the page down, they will definitely see this spot which might be serving an ad which will help your forum visitor.
Tip # 4: Place a 336 x 280 large rectangle on the left hand side of your content area.
Square and rectangle ads placed within the content area are the most clicked spots for a regular website. This rule would apply to a forum too. Make sure this spot is ‘float:left’
Tip # 5: Place a 200 x 90 or a 180 x 90 link ad on the top left side of your blog
According to Google, this is the area listed on their heat map as the hottest spot. We are allowed one link unit a page, so place the link unit ad here with 5 ads per unit. Make sure you have some content below this link unit such as top posts or commenters or whatever. If you don’t have a 2 column blog with the sidebar on the right hand side, then place the link unit first on the top right of your sidebar and then below it place the 160 x 600 skyscraper.
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July 22nd, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Just look stunning! As AdSense gurus tell newbies that white space is crucial to monetization, good half of the themes are really superb.
July 23rd, 2010 at 7:56 am
I agree with one of the guys above: tips value more than a $100 worth book. Incidentally, they perfectly describe my practice, except #4, which I grossly overlooked - that’s a guru-ish one.
July 24th, 2010 at 3:17 am
People will love that you have all of these videos on a similar topic in one location so that they don’t have to go searching for different videos on this same subject, they are all right on your site, making this one powerful site!
August 14th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
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August 15th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I have seen many niche-websites, packed with AdSense. In my own experience, the best CTR is attained with 1 or 2 blocks, in the “hottest” areas. Sometimes, less IS really more!
August 18th, 2010 at 2:21 am
I once had a system on the server to randomly differ between various AdSense layouts on the same page. Doing so I was hoping to add some good variety to keep the ads at least somewhat interesting and notable.
August 31st, 2010 at 6:25 pm
your great tips are still very accurate
September 7th, 2010 at 5:51 am
Here is a simple instruction on how to setup your adsense for feeds. I used PowerPoint instead of recording live to hide some personal details on my adsense account. If you have any question, feel free to post a comment.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:12 am
Your total number will always be correct but when you look at your reports with a channel break down things will get displayed multiple times and not add up to correct total.
September 17th, 2010 at 8:13 am
As AdSense gurus tell newbies that white space is crucial to monetization, good half of the themes are really superb.
September 17th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
People will love that you have all of these videos on a similar topic in one location so that they don’t have to go searching for different videos on this same subject, they are all right on your site, making this one powerful site!
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:55 am
I recently attended an event where a presenter talked about the reasons that they didn’t use email marketing as part of their online business.
October 2nd, 2010 at 1:56 am
One of the main reasons that he presented was that he didn’t think that people coming from a newsletter would click the ads on his site.
October 21st, 2010 at 6:53 am
There’s still so much about ad placement that I didn’t know. If used correctly, it could certainly do wonders for your traffic.
October 22nd, 2010 at 5:59 am
Please no nasty comments and just suggesting google/yahoo images because believe me I’ve tried :
October 28th, 2010 at 5:00 am
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October 30th, 2010 at 12:38 am
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October 30th, 2010 at 5:07 am
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November 8th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Hi I really admired your blog post. Don’t stop the awesome work!
November 26th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I made some decent money with Adsense before but now it got banned. They are so strict nowadays.
December 7th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I would like my tv to sit about a foot higher. Does anyone have ideas about how to do this? I would rather not install some kind of shelf in the armoire that would involve screwing or nailing it in.
January 2nd, 2011 at 1:44 pm
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January 2nd, 2011 at 1:47 pm
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February 2nd, 2011 at 12:32 pm
I still see a lot of sites that could use a good deal of Adsense optimization. It’s in the little areas that they seem to miss it.
February 7th, 2011 at 8:22 am
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February 7th, 2011 at 8:24 am
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March 2nd, 2011 at 4:33 am
[...] right and 15pixel margin between the logo. This Banner will also work well in a forum situation. To check out the best Adsense Ad layout for a forum click this link. If you are using this next to your logo make sure you only display images as I have found text [...]
March 15th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Very nice will help me on my forum for sure. ty for info
April 1st, 2011 at 3:15 am
I recently found a fantastic store that sells quality fabrics at great prices and am looking to learn how to make a few dresses for the summer and skirts for the fall. It’s so much cheaper! Anyway, if anyone has some great websites that have open discussions, tips, and information about measuring, sewing, different types of fabrics and all the other ins and outs of at-home fashion design, they would be much appreciated. =)
June 2nd, 2011 at 4:54 am
Perhaps I got ultra subspecies due to the fact of unfortunate practice took place in our part of the world early this yea…
June 2nd, 2011 at 3:51 pm
These are good tips but I have always found forums hard to navigate and find good threads.
June 10th, 2011 at 5:51 am
I was hoping to add some good variety to keep the ads at least somewhat interesting and notable.
July 30th, 2011 at 1:19 am
tips are very nice.it is great helps to me.thanks for sharing these nice tips.
August 4th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
By implementing on these adsense tips the website owners can earn more.
September 6th, 2011 at 10:23 am
Thanks for the tips. I have been wondering how one would implement adsense into a forum.
September 9th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
ive been thinking about adding a tech forum to one of my sites and if i do i will definately use this tips, great stuff
October 3rd, 2011 at 8:22 am
Google’s Adsense program is a great way to cover your hosting costs and make money from your site while continuing to provide free content to your users. More and more webmasters are getting started with Adsense everyday so in this blog post we’ll give Adsense some top tips to get you on your way to Adsense success.
October 3rd, 2011 at 8:42 am
it is, most people end up somewhere in between. Having 100 websites leaves you with maintenance, management and content issues. Having one website leaves you open to all sort of fluctuations (search engines algorithm’s, market trends, etc….
November 23rd, 2011 at 6:25 am
Actually , I don’t know much about adsence and only from this post i came to clear about it . I got many of info which are very usable and we have to care because might be by it the site will block . with care we have to use . thanks for give such kind of information and i appreciate your great job .
December 3rd, 2011 at 6:05 am
In this post we present an ultimate collection of resources, tools and tips to help you make the most out of Google AdSense. Among other things, this post covers various Google AdSense tools, Firefox-extensions, WordPress-plugins and related resources.
December 14th, 2011 at 1:00 am
I have not covered adding smileys to posts and dont plan to in the near future I’m afraid.
December 20th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
I have been trying to find the best tools to use my adsense account. Thank you fir the post.
January 12th, 2012 at 7:40 am
Great forum Adsense tips. I think if you follow some of these ideas you could improve earnings.
- Robert
January 25th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Can you explain how to start up with forum??
February 2nd, 2012 at 2:37 am
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