BW Griggs
Adsense blindness is a topic that is becoming more relevant with
each passing day based on the enormous success of Google's
Adsense program. The amazing success of the Adsense program has
led to what seems like universal adoption of Google's ad serving
technology. The problem is that the ubiquity of Adsense is
causing more and more people to unconciously filter Adsense ads
as they view websites. The question that this article seeks to
answer is what can be done to recapture the revenue that is
being lost?
In a word - experiment. Gone are the days when you could throw
up some great content and cash in by throwing some Adsense
panels above the fold integrated into your text. The mantra of
the past couple of years has been blend - blend your Adsense
panels into your content. Common wisdom and experience dictated
that the closer your Adsense panels resembled your content, the
better your click-through ratio. Trick the user and all that...
This strategy will suffer from lower and lower conversion rates
on high-value content sites with a high returning visitor rate.
You see, the more familiar a reader is with your site and its
layout, the easier it is for her to identify your Adsense panels
and filter them in favor of your content. This is not a new
trend; it is simply the culmination of several factors.
First, Adsense has achieved world domination or something close
to it. Adsense is everywhere and its format is static and
unchanging. There are only so many panel sizes and each of them
is branded plainly with Google's label. Sure, you can vary
colors, borders, and link colors but that darn Google name is
still tacked on to the corner of every panel. Second, Internet
adoption rates in the English speaking countries is slowing.
With less new users coming online each day the pool of Adsense
neophytes is shrinking. Every day a larger percentage of users
become desensitized to the presence of Adsense and that Google
tag on the corner of each panel. Finally, as I previously
mentioned, if you provide high-value content your readers will
return and the more familiar a user is with your site, the
easier it is for her to filter your Adsense ads.
What can be done to turn the tide back in the favor of the
humble website owner? Don't be afraid to experiment with
Adsense. While the panels remain relatively static you can vary
colors and borders. The key with experimentation is to make
subtle changes. Your Adsense panels should continue to blend
with your content overall. Well blended content captures new
readers every time. What you want to do is create a situation
where the user, especially returning readers, stop and process
your changes. You want her mind to note that the Adsense panel
is different but only slightly. Those borders that everyone
matches with the page's background color can be made to be
slightly darker or lighter than the page background color.
Nothing too garish mind you - just a slight difference that
makes the reader pause and consider what she is being presented
with.
The same approach can be applied to text color and link color.
Subtle changes can work wonders for improving click-throughs.
The idea here is that we have trained the reader's mind to
expect Adsense panels to be blended very deeply into our
content. Now, their mind is presented with panels that are
standing out just a little more than usual and once they notice
this, they will process the Adsense text and hopefully
click-through.
Varying the panel type and size you are using can also help to
improve your click-through ratio. Every change you make to your
site layout causes readers to work at processing the changes
this requires attention. This simple act draws the reader's
attention to the panels and hopefully creates a click event. The
key to sucessful testing is to make only one change per day so
that you can effectively assess what effect the change has. If
you make two or more changes you will have no clue which change
caused your reader's behavior to differ from the past. My
Adsense resources page listed below has some great pointers
concerning how to effectively test changes to your Adsense
panels.
My next suggestion will shock and anger many - heresy some will
claim but I stand by it nonetheless. There are other options!
Adsense isn't the only game in town. In fact, there are
thousands of other fine affiliate programs that you can join and
integrate into your content right along with Adsense. Granted,
you will have to work a little harder and this is the true evil
that Google has perpetrated upon us. Adsense is so easy that we
have become lazy in matters of monetization. Break the Google
chains that bind you! Do some research. Yes, work and find an
affiliate program that matches your niche and promote the hell
out of it. I suppose if you are happy with your Adsense earnings
you can stick with Google solely but consider the money you are
leaving on the table.
Almost any piece of great content can be matched with a suitable
affiliate offering. There are literally thousands, perhaps even
tens of thousands of affiliate programs available. Find one or
two that match your niche and give them the same billing you
give Adsense on your website. You might just be surprised. A
quarter-per-click is nice when coupled with a conversion rate of
1.5% and some decent traffic but consider a $5 or $10 affiliate
commission that only converts ten percent as often. You will
quickly discover that adding a program or two has no effect on
your Adsense earnings but does provide a welcome new revenue
stream!
For additional resources concerning how you can defeat Adsense
blindness, visit my page on Adsense Blindness Resources.
About the author:
Bobby consults and develops but rarely sleeps. He covers several
loan payments with his Adsense check each month and he is the
author of Affiliate
Success: eBay, a neat piece of software that has nothing to
do with teaching people how to become eBay super-sellers!
Rather, it helps turn eBay affiliates into super-affiliates
using the eBay Developers Program and API. Learn how
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