I first started using Google AdSense in March 2009, but didn’t make my first $100 (which is the required amount for payout) until January 2010. The only places I had ads were in my feed and in my posts between the where the post ends and the comment box. It wasn’t until January 2011 that I noticed a big difference. Why? I had started with an Ad Network and needed to add their ads to my site. They had an option to input default ads when the ad network ads weren’t showing. So I added in my Google AdSense code. It was crazy seeing how big of a difference it made in my earnings! We are only 5 months into 2011 and I’ve already beaten my 2010 earnings and then some!
How I did it is pretty simple. I’ve shared this with a few other bloggers to see if it would make a difference to them and many of them have told me that it has helped them tremendously.
Here’s what I did:
On Your Blog:
- Under your header, put a 728 x 90 banner. Make sure to select Image only. Don’t use Text/Image ads.
- In your right sidebar above the fold, put a 300 x 250 Image Ad. Remember don’t use the Text only or the Text/Image ads.
- Down your right sidebar towards the bottom, put another 300 x 250 Image Ad OR in your footer, put a 728 x 90 Image Ad.
You are only allowed to have 3 AdSense ads on your site at one time as I recently discovered thanks to Real Mom Reviews. It’s important to make these ads image only! The above the fold ads are the most crucial and will be most likely the ones that earn you the most money. They are prime real estate on your site.
In Your Blog Posts:
Add a 300 x 250 Image/Text Ad between where the posts ends and the comments begin. The plugin I use to do this in WordPress is called Advertisement Management.
In Your Feed:
I have my feeds set to partial (Look under the Reading Setting in WordPress) and have the Text/Image Ads selected.
Thankfully, AdSense pays for my increased hosting costs. I now pay $105/month to host my site so this money is very helpful to keep my site up and running. I know that not everyone likes the look of ads or some people have a beef with AdSense and I respect that. Personally I don’t mind them and if it helps to keep your site up and running and earn some extra money I say go for it!
Here’s some feedback from Jen at Makobi Scribe who also tried my tips….
Simply Stacie shared a few Google AdSense tips with me to help improve my monetization efforts. I had originally had text and images showing, and I did not have a footer or ads after each post. Once I had changed these items, my income from Google Adsense QUADRUPLED!! I got more clicks on the pictures, it made my site look better, and I have more cash flow headed my way. Every penny helps once you are paying for your own hosting! Thank Simply Stacie so much for sharing!! I also want to mention that Google Adsense is my backup adserver, so you can imagine how her tips helped my primary!!
Stacy at Survey Junkie also gave them a try….
I started using Google Adsense about 4 months ago and I wasn’t sure were to put the ads so I had 1 ad in my posts and 1 in my feed. Needless to say I wasn’t all that impressed so when I moved to WordPress and my Theme wasn’t compatible with Adsense. Once I changed my theme Stacie made sure that I gave Adsense another try and she helped me better understand how things work and that placement and ad type are also important.
It only took me about 20 minutes to set up all of my ads and get them going. Now 5 days into using Stacie’s Adsense suggestions I have already almost made more in 5 days then I did in 4 months. I am amazed at the earning potential here. Not only will I soon be able to cash out for the first time but at this rate I will be able to cash out monthly. Yay!! All thanks to my favorite friend and blogger, Stacie 
Skye from Real Mom Reviews also implemented these tips….
I made an increase of more than 1400%!!!
Do you use AdSense on your site? If so, how do you like it?
About Stacie
Stacie, I am going to try this right now, next I have to figure out how to get more traffic.:) I love how you share your success stories with other bloggers. Thank you so much.
Madison
Finally got all 3 banners set up! Nothing in the rss or posts yet. So far my 2 day total with 2 banners is $3.73. My previous 6 months total was $8.46! Thanks again for all the tips, I will for sure let you know how this goes with all 3 banners up!
Awesome tips on ad placement, especially between the end of posts and comments. I’ll have to play with my widgets and plugins ASAP.
Ok so far in 3 days my total is $9.31! I’m not sure how to get anyone to click ads in my feed though. I just checked and it’s there, but I have $0 from that. Any ideas? lol
Thanks so much again for sharing. I am the tech support person for my sister’s blog and I just set her’s up last night and my friend wants me to help her get set up because it’s Greek to her. lol
Interesting-I don’t use AdSense, but I’ll keep it in mind. I’m here via the Stumble hop-I stumbled you and my URL is http://chattywomen.com/pennythoughts/2011/05/24/fight-the-ma-affiliate-tax/.
They cancelled my adsense in the first month. I made like %100 and they decided I was “Cheating” and they cancelled me. Oh well.
I stumbled you, please stumble me. Also, Thanks for attending Stumble Tumble Tuesday. Please come back next week!
http://stillblondeafteralltheseyears.com/2011/05/menswear-american-prep-outfits-modeled-by-women-over-45-bloggers-do-it-better/
The Chief Blonde
That’s terrible! Did you read the terms and make sure you didn’t have a bunch of key words or competitor ads? I’d try again, use a new email address. lol
Not worth it is it? I’ll just work to extra hours at work…teehee And then I won’t have their spammy crap all over my blog. I mean…is it worth it?
The CHief Blonde
(and no…my family went nuts clicking my ads and now Google thinks I am a horrible scammer!)
OMG! lol I just added adsense to my sister’s blog and she told me she was going to click them herself and I told her she can’t! lol I explained what would happen, but told her she could click on mine whenever she went to my blog, but not to over do the clicking. lol
I know your family was trying to help you out, but now I can see how they thought that.
I do think it’s worth it. If I can make $100 a month, that gives me extra money. I don’t work, it’s just my husband, so I need to help in anyway that I can. So yep for me it’s worth it
Great advice! I’m still shying away from the above the fold placement because I don’t want them to compete with my own artwork, but I did choose a bigger ad on my sidebar with the image only option today.
-:¦:- Stumble Tumble Tuesday: Bring me some brains! -:¦:-
Great tips. I can’t use AdSense in my State. Totally stinks because I was earning money and was close to the $100 payout when our state passed a Law against it. *STUPID* lol
I don’t get that! How can your state pass a law against adsense? That is crazy!
Great tips!!
I stumbled you. My post is http://booksyourkidswilllove.blogspot.com/2011/05/summer-of-reading.html
For some reason, I cannot get accepted into Google Adsense.
I would love to be a part of Adsense!
I’ve applied 2 times, and both times I was told I couldn’t be accepted.
The reason was that my blog “directs to other sites” or something. It really stinks
You have a google adsense text ad on your blog right now! Maybe you were trying to sign up with a different email addy? Instead of trying to sign up, try to log in and see if you can.
If you can’t send google adsense an email telling them what is going on and see if they will help you
Good Luck!
After I left this comment, I tried, and it worked. I tried setting it up, and it says it is. I just don’t see it. Do you know where I would see the ad?
I switched to wordpress, and cant figure out how to get my banners back..
WAHHHH
Try that Advertisement management plugin and see if that works. The other plugin I use is for my theme. Maybe someone else knows how to get it to work with the A Theme.
Hi! My google adsense was cancelled but now I am back and remove a community that makes my adsense illegal. Anyway, mine is blogger and there are only two choices: “image/text ads” and “text ads”. I choose “image/text ads” because I can’t find “image only” or is it only in wordpress? Thanks..
You need to login to your Google Adsense account directly and get the codes from there. It can’t be done from Blogger.
Yes, thank you Stacie. I’ve done it!
Hi Stacie! Thanks for posting this. I need your help. I do not know how to add the ad under the header as well as on my posts. I installed the advertisement management.
Thank You Stacie! I checked my adsense account and I have made payout! WOO HOO!!!!
I do have a question though. I don’t get what they mean by channels. I just put like coupons, groceries, kraft, dove, women, stuff like that. Was that right? lol I’ve tried to read up on what channels they have, but nothing tells me, so I’m not quite sure.
Thanks!
Thats awesome!
I’m not sure what they mean about channels either. So far the ads that I have seen on my site have been ok.
Channels are a way to filter your ads. What I do is name my ad based on where the ad is located on my site. You can then look at your ad channels on Adsense account to see what “channels” are performing better than others. Hope that helps!
This is very interesting I was wondering how it would work but I’ve not done anything. I don’t pay hosting fees or anything and I’m fairly new to blogging again. I’m trying to use the blog as an aid to our Etsy site so not sure how that works with all this either =/
I just recently joined the Lady Bloggers Society and was out visiting some of the blogs I seen there =) I’m going to follow you via GFC =)
http://www.mylipstickjungle.com/2011/06/i-tested-out-simply-stacies-google.html
Yay!! thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome. Thanks for sharing this info with us!
hi thanks for sharing. but i have a question. how can i improved the traffics? i have blog http://nokiadloads.blogspot.com i submitted my sitemap in google,yahoo and bing already but no traffic at all.
I’m on blogger, and thanks to others’ tips, I went directly through my adsense account to set up the image only ads. We’ll see if it makes any difference!
Oh wow! When I logged into my adsense account to set up my ads the new way, my earnings were at $.02 for the day. Now just 2 1/2 hours after putting the image ads above the fold my earnings are up to $2.32! THANK YOU for the advice!!!
What am I doing wrong. I put my ads up where you suggested about 4 days ago and only made $0.15… What URL do I put in the Backup ads box on AdSense?
I’m not sure! I know some days I won’t make very much and then other days I will make more. Just give it a little more time and see how it goes. I don’t know the algorithm they use to figure out how much each site/ad makes.
I’m not familiar with the backup ads box- I don’t think I filled that in on mine. Sorry I’m not much help!!
Thanks for the tips! I *think* i’ve done it correctly– we’ll see what happens! (I’m on Blogger so it was slightly trickier- )
I have a question. You say to put a 300X250 Image Ad just above the Fold, What is the fold?? I am so new to this! Thanks, Shawna mommy2rylie@ymail.com
Above the fold is what you see on your screen without having to scroll down. Its prime real estate on your blog for advertising.
Thanks so much!
Can you explain just which option in ad management to choose for each thing? I’m ghaving trouble figuring out which one to choose for each location. Thanks!
Oh, and do you just copy & paste the script from adsense? When I tried I just got “page cannot be displayed” boxes.
Hi Stacie,
I might need a bit of help. I did what you said but now they won’t show up at all? They’re more like blank spaces. Not sure how to fix it. I could use your professional help!
TIA!
Whirlwind of Surprises
Stacie, I just had to come back and thank you. I couldn’t make enough money on Ad Sense to save my life. It took me EIGHT months to earn enough at the end of last month for a check ($100). I switched to WP and had my web designer apply what you talk about in the post and now I am only 10 days into the month and already made about half of what it took me to make in 8 months. Thanks a million!!!
I have WordPress.org Genesis but I can’t figure out how to place my ads like you said. is their a certain plug in I need?
Hey Stacie,
Thanks for the post. Question for you. You say “You are only allowed to have 3 AdSense ads on your site at one time” but I count 4..
1.) Header
2.) Sidebar Above the fold
3.) Sidebar below the fold/footer
4.) In actual blog post…
Can you let me know what I am missing? I obviously want to take full advantage without breaking any rules.
Thank you!
I’m not with Adsense anymore but when I was only 3 would show so when a post was open the footer wouldn’t show Google Adsense ads. It would just be empty.
Ah, ok, thank you. That explains things.
BTW, I put up 3 ads last night, I’ve already made 80 cents. Woohooo!
This might be a dumb question. But if you use two adsense ads that are the same size do you make two separate ad units or do you use the same code?
Same code
I can’t select “image only”. Only “text” or “text & image”
Thanks for this useful tips. i will try to implement the same.
How do you add them into feedburner? I just finally decided to start using adsense again but am not sure how to get them into my feeds.
Thanks!