How to select grahic or text adsense ad

From a commentator: "I wonder, is there a way to get AdSense to display more graphic ads? I think those are MUCH more likely to be clicked."

Let's leave aside of whether graphic or text AdSense ads converts better and just concentrate on how to get graphic AdSense ads.

When you sign into Google AdSense dashboard and click on the AdSense Setup tab and select Ad Unit, you will get a drop down menu that gives you 3 choices -

Text and image ads (default)
Text ads only
Image ads only



Well, if you are convinced that image ads convert better than text ads, all you need to do is to select Image ads only rather than the text ads only.

My own preference is for contextual text ads as I feel that text ads are less obtrusive than graphic ads which I feel are more jarring. However, my choice of the 3 options is to select the default - text and image ads as I trust Google's ad algorithm can select the best option for the situation.

Why you should put a leaderboard ad unit at the footer of your site

The advice for best result for your ads is to put it above the fold (the part of your page which is first seen by visitors without having to scroll down vertically. So some will have the impression that putting a leaderboard ad unit in the footer of a page is a bad idea as it is very much less visible, and the chances of the ads there being clicked on is very low. That is true. But from examination of my earning reports, CPM ads (cost per 1000 impressions) (click BACK button to get back to this page) are frequently displayed in the leaderboard ad unit in the footer. And even when there is no click on the ad, I get earning for the impression.

I didn't expect much clicks from the leaderboard in the footer because it is below the fold and less visible unless the visitor happens to be in an individual post page which is a short post. However, I see from my reports, there are still clicks on ads in leaderboard ad units in the footer. So why waste that opportunity? Put a leaderboard ad unit in the footer and earn from CPM ads and sometimes get some clicks too.

How to improve earnings from AdSense

The content of this post has been transferred to How to improve earnings from AdSense

How to get ads more relevant to your site content

The content of this post have been moved to Getting AdSense ads relevant to your site content

Generating revenue from your blog via AdSense

What is Google AdSense

AdSense is the very successful advertising arm of Google which gets their revenue from displaying contextual ads (ads relevant to the content of the site). Because their text ads are usually relevant to the site, many people do not mind having their ads on their sites. Further, it may also be useful to the site visitors as it may point them to information that they are seeking.

Before Google AdSense came into the scene, site owners have to seek advertisers for their site and getting payment from the advertisers. Now, site owners need only sign up for an AdSense account, generate scripts, copy and paste them into the template to put contextual ads on their site, and Google take care of the rest. It is practically a paste and forget operation. Plus there are ways to earn from putting Google search box and from referrals. If you want a way for your visitors to search your site, you can use the Google sitesearh box, the script for pasting into your site can be obtained from your AdSense account. You can learn more about the various ways of earning from AdSense from the post

If you have a website, you can apply for an AdSense account by clicking on the text link "Generate revenue from your site. Google AdSense" at the top of the right sidebar. It normally take only a few days for them to approve your application.

If you don't have a website, starting a blog with Google Blogger is very easy and is free as long as you don't mind having the URL as a subdomain of blogspot.com. If you want your own domain name, you can always register a domain and either use Blogger's Custom Domain in which case you don't have to pay for hosting of your blog. You just have to pay the yearly renewal fee for the registration of the domain. And you can use the New Blogger template with the new features.

You can also use a third party to host your blog and use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to publish your posts. In this case, the files are saved in your web host servers, and in addition to the yearly renewal fee of the domain, you will have to pay monthly/yearly hosting fees. At the moment, the New Blogger can only support blogs that use their own web host the use of the old classic Blogger template, and the new features of the New Blogger like Layout and drag and drop of the Page Elements (widgets) will not be available.

Different people have different needs and opinions and there are advantages and disadvantages of both, but I myself prefer to use the free blogspot.com for my blogs as then, I do not have to trouble myself with the renewal of the domain name fee and the hosting fee, plus if anything happened to me and I am not able to renew either, the blog will still be on the web.

If you are new to Blogger, this "online book" Dummies Guide to Google Blogger would be a good reference for you.

You can find help in clicking on the label "adsense" or using "adsense" as a search term in the sitesearch box of the following blogs to find help on how to generate the script for the AdSense ads, searchbox or referral text/buttons in the following blogs:

Dummies Guide to Google Blogger

Blogger Tips and Tricks

Testing Blogger Beta (now New Blogger)

and if you are still using the old classic Blogger template, at

Dummies Guide to Blogger