I have recently consolidate all my sites into a single hosting company, which is Hostnine. But I discover a weird problem with the adsense tracking software, Adspytracker.

The software can be installed easily with no problem but it is not tracking the impressions and clicks.

In fact, I installed 2 more tracking software to test the result. One is Showclick, which comes from Niches In A Box.

The other one is a script from Kelvin Hui, who is the Asia equivalent of Joel Comm. This is the script that I got when I purchased the Publishing Business package from him a couple of years back.

Much to my dismay, both of them are not tracking impressions and clicks too.

So the problem is probably with Hostnine.

To test my assumption, I subscribe to the Hostgator Baby package. Then I installed all the three software. And the result … they all worked properly!

I can see the tracking results for all the three software from Hostgator.

So what happen?

I am only assume that the some server setting at Hostnine is incompatible with the scripts. The problem is Hostnine Helpdesk (and many other hosting firm) do not provide support for third party scripts. This means that I need to do the troubleshooting and figure out the cause myself, in order to tell Hostnine Helpdesk what to do to fix it.

Since I am not that technical inclined and this is a time consuming process, I decide to stick with the current setup (Hostnine and Hostgator) for the time being.

Since there are many other Adsense tracking script out there, I can’t assume they will not work with Hostnine. But on the safe side, my advice is to go with Hostgator or other hosting firm if you really use a tracking script for Adsense.

But at least I am glad that other tracking scripts such as  Adtrackz and Powerlink Generator are working fine on Hostnine.

If you Adsense earning is on the decline, this may be the reason. Watch the video to see what Joel Comm has to say.

Reason Why Your Adsense Earning Is Declining <== click this link

Google Adsense is one of the easiest way to make money online. To protect the program integrity, Google has many rules that all Adsense participants must adhere to. However, many new publishers do not bother to read through the terms and conditions.

As such, here are a few of rules that all publishers should know:

1) Do not click on your own ad

This is clearly the #1 rule when playing the Adsense game. Clicking your own ads can get your Adsense account terminated. While accidental clicks do happen, try to minimize it as much as you can.

To prevent accidental click, I usually turn off the javascript option in my Firefox browser when I am doing some test or fixing errors.

2) Do not put picture(s) next to Google ads.

This used to be very effective in getting a high CTR but Google has already cracked down on this practice. Better remove any picture near any Google ads.

3) Do not explicitly request your site visitors to click on the Google ads

This is a big no-no. It is ok to say sponsored ads but sentence like “Please click the ads to support our site” is as good as asking for trouble.
4) Do not put Google ads in pop up windows

Regardless it is a pop up window, float in window, slide in window, pop under, exit pop or whatever, you must not put Google ads in them. Use them for collection name and email address instead.
5) Do not advertise your Adsense sites in traffic exchange

I am not sure why this is not allowed but since it is part of Google terms and conditions, just follow it.

There is another type of exchange called “Adsense Exchange”. Basically it works like a traffic exchange. You have to view and click other members’ ads to earn credit, so that your ads will be click by other people.

Stay away from such exchange as it can cause unusually high CTR that attracts unwanted attention from Google.

This is not exhaustive and I will be adding more to it soon.

The Adsense team has posted two articles on the topic of Adsense revenue fluctuation.

Diagnosing and treating revenue fluctuations (Part I)

Diagnosing and treating revenue fluctuations (Part II)

Very informative article and every Adsense publisher should at least take a look.

Image ads are graphical ads. Unlike traditional banner ads, image ads are also targeted to the appropriate audience, just like text ads. A publisher that has a combination of image ads and text ads has a greater revenue generating potential.

Image ads are only for Adsense for Content pages and not available for Adsense for Search results pages.

There are 8 major formats of image ads.

1. Leaderboard (728 x 90)

2. Banner (468 x 60)

3. Skyscraper (120×600)

4. Wide Skyscraper (160×600)

5. Small Square (200 x 200)

6. Square (250 x 250)

7. Medium Rectangle (300 x 250)

8. Large Rectangle (336 x 280)

You can see the examples here: Image Ads Examples

You can choose to run only image ads, but Google recommends selecting both, thereby giving them a better chance to target the right advertising for your page, generating more revenue for you.

Combining these two methods together can give you the best chance at making the most revenue. You will still need to test them to get the right combination for your site.

Google Adsense for Search is different than Adsense for Content. However it can improve your earning power with the Google Adsense program.

Simply place the standard Google search box on your site and the user can then search the web or even your site. When you feel more comfortable, you can change the look of the Google search box, essentially customizing it by changing the colors and using your logo. When your visitors click on the search result, you will get paid.

The best thing about Google Adsense for Search is that you can track what your visitors are searching for. You can see the top 25 searches performed from your website by clicking on the Advance Report from the Reports tab and specifying a date range.

Here is an example of how a Google Adsense for Search looks like: Blisspublisher.com

Go here for more details about Google Adsense for Search

Google Adsense pays you approximately 30 days after the end of the month in which you become eligible to receive payment. You become eligible for payment only when your Adsense account reaches at least $100.00.

Suppose, for example, you started in January and at the end of the month you had not yet accumulated $100.00 in your Google Adsense account.  You would then need to wait and see if your January and February earnings combined equal $100.00.  If they do, you would be paid approximately 30 days after the end of the month of February, that is, you could expect payment near the end of March.

You can use Adsense for Search in your website to increase your earning as well. If your earnings for Adsense for Content do not reach $100.00 in time for the current payout, but when combined with your Adsense for Search earnings and the total meets the payout minimum, you will be paid accordingly.

You will find the complete payment schedule and other details here:

Adsense Payment Guide

The location of your ads is an important factor in your Adsense earning. You want  as many people to see and click your ads as possible (without any incentive or direct instructions).

Consider these questions.

What are they looking for?

Are they there to read or merely browsing?

If they are there to read an entire article, say, you might try placing your ads at the bottom of the page so they will have something to do next.  Some publishers swear by placing the ads at the top left of the page because they think customers look there first.

There is some truth here. According to research and many Adsense gurus, the top left corner is where most users start looking when they reach a new page.

However, this does not means it will wonder wonder for each and every site. Testing is the key here. Try different ad locations and different colors for a week and note the differences in your reports.  If possible, invest in a tracking software like Adspytracker to track the activities on your sites.  You will gain insights into how your web visitors behave and capitalize on this knowledge quickly and correctly.

Google Adsense offers various payment options for publishers.  The most common being checks. You can choose the currency you want. If you are not from US, it is preferable to choose your local currency. This will avoid the lead time needed to process your checks.

Electronic Funds Transfer (ETF) is offered in 26 countries whereby your payments are deposited directly into your bank account in your local currency.

Click here to see the full list.

You will need to sign up for  this option after your application is approved by signing into your account. You then click the edit link adjacent to the payment header.  After you fill out the bank information, Google Adsense will make a small test deposit into your account.  This is for security purposes to assure the account is really your own.

Watch your account for the test deposit to post, usually within just a few days.  After you have received the deposit from Google, log back in to your account and in the Payment Details section, click Verify Account.  You then will need to enter the amount of the test deposit.  If you do not complete this step, your payments will be on hold.  Once you enter the test deposit amount correctly, your bank will be approved and selected as your form of payment.

Adsense is the component from Google that allows webmasters to place ads on their site and get paid a small commission for each click. The way the ads are being shown is completely automatic. Google has develop the Adsense alogrithm to determine the content on your website very accurately.

As far as relevance of the ads on your site is concerned, Adsense is, so far, the most accurate. However, you can still do your part to help Google display more targeted ads on your sites. Lets look a few factors that can help you get the most out from Google Adsense.

1) Ad Positioning

Where you put your AdSense link boxes and banner ads is vitally important. Most of the time, the position on the top-left corner of your side will get more clicks than the one near the footer area. Try to display your Google ads without having your visitors use the scroll bar. This is commonly known as “above-the-fold” area. If you really want to use sub-prime positions, then you should use more than one.

2) Use Google Links

The ad links you put on your site can appear as if they were just another menu bar. By adding Google links to your menus, you can get a higher clickthrough rate than you expect. Many people do not realize that the links they are clicking do not belong to you and yet they often find them very useful.

3) Less use of Leaderboards and Skyscrapers Ads

Google AdSense comes in all shapes and sizes. You can put it across the top of your website (a leaderboard) or down the side (a skyscraper), and there are plenty of other choices. A leaderboard ad will usually perform well at the top than at the bottom. Skyscraper type of ads seems to be less effective now that it once was. However, if the ads are relevant, you can still get reasonable clickthough rate.

4) Square and Rectangle Ads are more effective

Most of the time, the square and rectangle ads give you the best result when placed in a prime area. In fact, most publishers like to add a rectangle or square ad right into the content. This can result in pretty high clickthrough rates.

5) Filter out competitors’ ads

The AdSense manager gives you the option to remove competitors’ ads from your site. You can do this if the ads being display are in direct competition with your offer. However, this can be pretty tedious if you are competing in a niche with thousands of competitors having the same or similar products.

The most important factor is still test and track. Without testing and tracking, you do not know what is working and what isn’t. Use a tracking script like Adspytracker to track your website activities and continue to fine-tune your site until you maximize the profits you get from it.

Affiliate marketing programs are very good way to boost your income online. You don’t need products to sell, you just have to market them in your own web site and you don’t have to worry about processing the customers’ payments and the shipment of the products.

Many Adsense publishers like to incorporate affiliate products into their websites as additional source of incomes. Most of the time, the commission gained from an affiliate product sale is equal to many Adsense clicks.

Putting up affiliate products related to your niche also present your visitors with more choices. In fact, your affiliate product can be even more targeted to your web visitors than those ads from Google.

Having more choice can be a double edge sword. By having affiliate products on your web pages, your visitors’ attention is diluted. They may not click on your Google ads as often as you like. This will result in a lower click through rate, which can affect your commission from Google.

As such, you need to put tracking procedure in place to see if your Google ads are being click more often than your affiliate product ads.

However, the most important factor is your conversion rate. Are you earning more from Google Adsense or affiliate sales? A lower click through rate on your affiliate product ads may still help you earn more income than Google Adsense. This is precisely why you need to do testing and tracking.

Once you determine which is earning you more money, you will want to move the more profitable ad to the prime position of your website. This is usually the top-left corner of your website but again, only testing and tracking can determine if that is the case.

Maximizing the profit potentials from both affiliate products and Google Adsense require some experiences. With constant testing and tracking, you can be sure you will be squeezing out the maximum amount of profit from your websites.

This is one technique I learnt from Liz Tomey aka The Adsense Girl.

Lets assume you are in the Golf niche. So you write 2 articles on improving golf swing. They must be related. You can call them Improve Golf Swing Part 1 and Improve Golf Swing Part 2.  Part 2 can be a continuation of Part 1 or a standalone article but related to Part 1.

Put one article on your site (e.g. Part 1).  Make sure  you put Adsense ads next to your article.
Next,  make sure you make reference to your first article in your second article. Take part two of your article and submit it to ezine publishers and article directories.

In this way, your second article is driving traffic back to the first article of your site. In this way you will profit when someone clicks on your Google Adsense ads when they visit the web page containing part one of your article.

Like I say, it need not be strictly part 1, part 2, part 3, etc. Each article can have a separate name but make sure they are related. I personally prefer the article on the site to be an extension the submitted article.

Alternatively, write a long article (about 1000-1500 words). Then take the initial portion  (about 400-500 words) and submit it to ezine publishers and directories.

I know for a certainty that my Adsense account has been slapped with the Smart Pricing policy.  There are more and more 0-1 cent clicks in my Adsense report.
Yesterday I came across a very good article on Adsense Smart Pricing.

Read the fill post here: How To Get Worthless Adsense Clicks

The little paragraph on reversing Smart Pricing convinced me to pull out the Google ads from my IM-related blogs and websites.

In fact, I am now starting to evaluate which other blogs/websites should I replace the Google ads with other sources of advertisment revenue.

I will wait for another week or 2 to see if there is any significant improvement in my Adsense earning  per click. I certainly hope so.

How do you maximize your site?

By earning some few dollars per click from displaying Adsense ads on it. Many are now realizing that good money is made from this source of revenue. Try the simple mathematical computation of multiplying those clicks for every page on your website and you get a summation of earnings equivalent to a monthly residual income with that little effort you have made.

Google Adsense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant and text-based Google ads on their website’s content pages and earn money in the process. The ads displayed are related to what your users are looking for on your site. This is the main reason why you both can monetize and enhance your content pages using Adsense.

How much you will be earning will depend on how much the advertisers are willing to pay. It will depend also on the keywords required. If the keywords the advertiser have chosen are in high demand, you could receive more dollars per click. On the other hand, low demand keywords will earn you just a few cents per click.

How can you start making profits out of your website using Adsense?

1. Sign up for an Adsense account. It will only take a few minutes of your time.  If you do not have a site yet, go to blogger.com and open  a free account. Go through its tutorial to understand how to make blog posts.  Post some useful content each day for 5 days.  After that, apply for the Adsense account.  When the online application prompt for the website URL, enter your blogger.com URL. This will help you get approved in a shorter time.

2. When the site is accepted, you will be receiving a clip code to include in your web pages. You can insert this code on as many pages or web sites that you want. The AdWords will start appearing immediately after.

3. You will be earning a few cents or some dollars per click when someone starts clicking on the AdWords displayed on any of your web pages. Trying to earn false revenues by repetitively clicking on your own ads is a no-no. This will result in a penalty or the possibility of your site being eliminated. The money you have already earned may be lost because of this.

4. View your statistics. Adsense earnings can be checked anytime by logging into your web site account.

Once you got your account working, you may still want to pattern them to the many sites that are earning more money than you are. It is important to note that there are factors affecting how your website will perform and the amount of money it will give you.

It is a common practice that when a site earning money, the tendency is for the owner to want to make more out of what they are getting already. It usually takes some time combined with trial and error to attain what you want for your Adsense contents.

Time and some important factors that you can practice and use.

How do you increase your Adsense earnings?

1. Choose one topic per page. It is best to write a content for your page with just a few targeted phrases. The search engine will then serve ads that are more relevant which will then result in higher clickthoughs.

2.  Using white space around your ad. This can make your ad stand out from the rest of your page so visitors can spot them easily. There are also other choices of colors you can use, provided by search engines, which can harmonize the color of your ad with the web page color.

3.  Test your ad placement. It is recommended to use the vertical format that runs down the side of the web page to get more positive results. You can also try both horizontal and vertical formats for a certain period of time to see which one will give you better results.

4.  More content-based pages. Widen the theme of your website by creating pages that focus more on your keyword phrases. This will optimize the pages for the search engines. It can not only attract traffic but also make them more relevant for the AdWords to be displayed.

5. HyperVRE.  This is the perfect tool to be used for creating lots of Adsense revenues. HyperVRE has all the tools necessary to quickly achieve a keyword-rich site that can rank high in the search engines. This will also produce a flow of traffic to your site of highly targeted visitors. And the best part is. It is FREE!

Adsense is really making a huge impact on the affiliate marketing industry  nowadays. Because of this, weak affiliate merchants have the tendency to die faster than ever and ad networks will be going to lose their customers quickly.

If you are in a losing rather than winning in the affiliate program you are currently into, maybe it is about time to consider going into the Adsense marketing and start earning some real cash.

Google is readily providing well written and highly relevant ads that are closely chosen to match the content on your pages. You do not have to look for them yourselves as the search engine will be the doing the searching for you from other people’s source.

You do not have to spend time in choosing different kind of ads for different pages. And no codes to mess around for different affiliate programs.

You will be able to concentrate on providing good and quality content, as the search engines will be the ones finding the best ads in which to put your pages on.

You are still allowed to add Adsense ads even if you already have affiliate links on your site. It is prohibited, however, to imitate the look and feel of the Google ads for your affiliate links.

You can filter up to 200 URLs. That gives you a chance to block ads for the sites that do not meet your guidelines. You can also block competitors. Though it is unavoidable that Adsense may be competing for some space on web sites that all other revenues are sharing.

Owners of small sites are allowed to plug a bit of a code into their sites and instantly have relevant text ads that appeal to your visitors appear instantly into your pages. If you own many sites, you only need to apply once. It makes up for having to apply to many affiliate programs.

The only way to know how much you are already earning is to try and see. If you want out, all you have to do is remove the code from your site.

The payment rates can vary extremely. The payment you will be receiving per click depends on how much advertisers are paying per click to advertise with the use of the AdWords. Advertisers can pay as little as 5 cents and as high as $10-12, sometimes even more than that too. You are earning a share of that money generated.

If your results remain stagnant, it can help if you try and build simple and uncluttered pages so that the ads can catch the visitor’s eyes more. It sometimes pay to differ from the usual things that people are doing already. It is also a refreshing sight for your visitor once they see something different for a change.

Publishers also have the option of choosing to have their ads displayed only on a certain site or sites. It is also allowed to have them displayed on a large network of sites. The choice would be depending on what you think will work best for your advantage.

To get an idea if some Adsense ads you see on the search engines has your pages, try to find web pages that have similar material to the content you are planning to create and look up their Adsense ads.

It is important to note that you cannot choose certain topics only. If you do this, search engines will not place Adsense ads on your site and you will be missing out a great opportunity in making hundreds and even thousands of dollars cash.

It is still wise to look at other people’s information and format your Adsense there. Just think about it as doing yourself a favor by not having to work too hard to know what content to have.

Topic to be avoided includes gambling, firearms, ammunition, tobacco or drugs. If you are being offered more cash in exchange of doing Adsense with these kinds, it is just like signing your own termination paper.

With all the information that people need in your hands already, all you have to do is turn them as your profits. It all boils down to a gain and gain situation both for the content site owners and the webmasters or publishers.

Make other people’s matter your own and starting earning some extra cash.

Most webmasters know that Adsense generates a sizeable source of additional advertising income. That is why most of them use it to go after high paying keywords. They have with them the lists that tells what the keywords are and have already used various methods of identifying them. And yet, after putting up these supposed-to-be high paying keywords into their pages, the money they expected to come rolling in is not really coming in.

What is it that they are doing wrong?

Having the pages is with the proper keywords is one thing. But driving visitors to those pages is another matter and often the factor that is lacking.

The thing is, to get visitors to your high paying keyword pages, you need to optimize your site navigation.

Stop for a moment and think about how visitors are using your website. After a visitor has landed on a certain page, they have the tendency to click on another page that sounds interesting. They get there because of the other links that appears on a page that they initially landed on. This is site navigation. It is all about enabling visitors to move about your site. And one way of maximizing your Adsense earnings.

A typical website have menu links on each page. The wording on these links is what grabs a visitor’s attention and gets them to click on one of the links that will take them to another page of that website. Links that have “free’ or “download” are oftentimes good attention-grabbers.

This navigation logic can also be applied to driving traffic to your high paying pages. There are some websites that are getting a lot of traffic from search engines, but have low earnings. The trick is to try and use come cleverly labeled links to get the visitors off that pages and navigate them to the higher earning ones. This is one great way of turning real cheap clicks to real dollars.

Before you begin testing if this same style will work for you and you website, you need to have two things. Something to track and compare and some high earning pages you want to funnel your site traffic to. An option is to select a few of your frequently visited pages. This is ensuring fast result to come by.

Now, the next thing to do is think of ways to get visitors viewing a particular page to try and click on the link that will take them to your high earning pages. Come up with a catchy description for that link. Come up with a catchy and unique description for the link. Think of something that people do not get to see everyday. That will trigger their curiosity enough to try and see what that was all about.

You can also use graphics to grab your readers’ attention. There is no limitation to what you can do to make your link noticeable. If you are after the success of your site, you will do everything it takes just to achieve that goal. Just be creative. As far as many Adsense advertisers are concerned, there are no written and unwritten laws to follow regarding what they write. Just as long as you do not overstep the guidelines of the search engines, then go for it.

Also remember that it is all about location, location and location. Once the perfect attention grabbing description has been achieved, you have to identify the perfect spot on your page to position that descriptive link to your high paying page.

There is nothing wrong with visiting other websites to see how they are going about maximizing their site navigation. “Hot pages” or “Most read” lists are very common and overly used already. Get to know the ones that many websites are using and do not try to imitate them.

Another way of doing it is to try and use different texts on different pages. That way you will see the ones that work and what does not. Try to mix things around also. Put links on top and sometimes on the bottom too. This is how you go about testing which ones get more clicks and which ones are being ignored.

Let the testing begin. Testing and tracking until you find the site navigation style that works best for you site.

Meantime, check out this adsense tracking  script:

Ad Spy Tracker