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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:

1. Format is important for multiple ad units

2. Display your ad units where repeat users will notice them

3. Place a leaderboard immediately after the last post

4. Use horizontal link units

5. Opt-in to image ads

6. 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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