The brain trust over at Google has come up with a little wacky, off-the-wall idea about Internet ads. Make them less annoying.
No, that’s it. That’s the whole plan. Seems like someone should have thought of that one a little earlier.
But bloggers can cash in with Google’s AdSense network. Instead of posting blinking lights, cheap animation and a bobbing and bouncing monkey (or the paper football, although I totally rock at that one) Google matches vertical or horizontal blocks of text with the content of the web page. The ads don’t blink or jump around. Instead, they match or relate to the topic at hand, so the reader isn’t seized with the immediate need to get it off the screen right now no matter what it costs.
Traffic goes up, income goes up. Making money on the Internet - it may be the World Wide Web’s Holy Grail. Still, despite the simplicity, there are several steps savvy bloggers can take to give AdSense added oomph.
Here are some other almost obvious tips:
1. Don’t make it boring. Boring equals bad. More importantly, boring drives readers away in two clicks. No one wants to read for three days straight why organizing your closet via season, not color, makes sense. Try to keep content fresh and continually updated. The more often people check in to see what else is going on in your world, the more often you hear cha-ching. Wash-rinse-repeat a few times, and you have created a loyal and happy reader.
2. Make it easy to read. People cannot read blue text on a black screen! Keeping the layout simple and clean is the easiest way not to screw anything up. A general rule calls for placing an advertisement “above the fold,” or in place on the first portion of the screen before any scrolling is required.
3. Think about ad placement. Don’t try to squish a horizontal advertisement into a vertical one. Google provides plenty of ad options from including a link to placing an ad in the middle of some text so no need exists to use the wrong ad. If you don’t know what size to make an idea, going too wide will look the best.
4. Listen to your readers. Most of them are not to hesitant to give an honest opinion of a new advertisement type or content or anything else for that matter. If moving all your ads to the bottom of a rambling ode to your dead parakeet causes income to crash, then, well, maybe you shouldn’t do that. Consider making small, gradual changes and watching your traffic numbers.
5. Remember why you started blogging. Bloggers blog for fun, for release, for a creative jolt and any other number of reasons. But, usually, not because the idea of sitting at the computer makes them think of a dentists’ drill. If it stops being fun for you, your readers will likely realize it. And who wants to be around that guy? If you find your self in a slump, give yourself permission to take a day or two off. Then, think about why you do this and what you want out of it. Plus, it’s totally an addiction, so after a day or two you will be itching to get back.
Just because it took surfers years to almost literally rising up in arms against pop ad is no reason your blog can’t start earning money now. Follow these tips and let Google’s AdSense do most of the work.
