@Everton – Thanks for stepping up and answering Mark’s comment! Shocker you did a fantastic job. (#);)

Google wants to make the most money possible – nothing wrong with that. At same time wants to give best CTR for advertisers – again nothing wrong with that. So, if you’ve got a sidebar unit that’s getting a low CTR which is bringing your site’s average CTR down then google will put it’s higher priced ads on a different site that has a higher CTR – that’s Smart pricing. So, by removing an ad unit that has a low CTR you can improve your site’s overall CTR meaning your best ad slots will get higher priced ads which in many cases will mean you will make more money, even though you’ve lost the income from the sidebar unit.

Same applies to sites as smart pricing is done at an account level – i you have a site with a poor CTR then remove adsense as it will affect your earnings on sites with higher CTRs.

Sounds like Everton’s someone I should get to know.

I, too, recently learned about those AdSense tags from their forum. You may have noticed on my blog there’s plenty of ads that have a drum flavor to them because, duh, of my blog’s theme which has nothing to do with drums! So I’m planning on testing those tags out very soon.

Not sure I understand the suggestion to remove the ad in the sidebar though. That’s so common and a perfect spot for it. If you’re making money on it, then why not keep it?

The All-in-one SEO plugin is something I’m trying to tame myself. Guess I should modify all my posts before I get too much farther down the road and save myself the extra work.

Wow. I knew some little tips and tricks for ad placement, but you’re really breaking it down into a science. Thanks for the tips, I’m sure they’re useful for every user but I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to break down my little ol’ site for me.

I think over the next month or two I’m gonna do a lot to try and implement a lot of the advice you have and see how it affects what I already have going. (I’m sure we all can guess what effect it will have). Thanks again!

Anyway, I think even before considering your traffic mix or choice of topics, there are things you can do to improve your adsense earnings if you are serious about trying to make some cash:

- lose the sidebar ad as it will bring your average CPC down because of Adsense Smart Pricing
- evaluate whether you need the big header as it’s pushing your content and ads down, and it’s creating ‘noise’
- consider losing the left-hand column as it’s creating noise around your main ad unit, and is taking up part of the hotspot. Removing it would also give you space to put the best performing 300×250 unit in the hotspot
- add section targetting to your site – vital
- consider your theme colours. In EVERY test I’ve done on usuability at work, blue links always work best as they scream ‘click me’ to novice internet users. They will draw more attention and the rest of your site would benefit as well. The same goes for white backgrounds – makes things easier to read

And yeah, I think you’re right in-regards to being “ad-blind”. That’s a good term too.

We have to think about what kind of people are reading our sites. Are they ad-blind in general? I think the people who come to the site I amentioned above are a very special demographic, one of the few that is not blind to ads yet.