Joel Comm
02-18-2006, 02:44 PM
Building a successful AdSense publishing business is very easy. All you have to do is make sure that your users can see your ads... without seeing that they’re looking at ads.
That’s easy, right?
If it was really easy, the latest version of my AdSense Secrets book would run to a lot less than 200 pages of strategies and ideas!
I’ve just been thinking about one of the techniques that I’ve seen people use, and I’m wondering how it could be done better. The idea is that when a user reaches a Web page, the first thing he’s going to look at are the images. He’ll ignore the images on banner ads because they’re so familiar, but any other kind of picture will attract the eye right away.
Only after he’s finished soaking up the pics will a user start to read the content.
So if you put a picture next to your ad units, you’ll draw the user right to your ads.
That’s the theory and I think it works... provided the picture is right.
The problem is that whatever image you use is never going to relate directly to the ad. Unless you’re prepared to change the image every time Google changes the ad, there’s always going to some sort of disconnect.
That means you’ve got two choices: you can either go for an image that’s got little to do with the sort of ads you’re going to get but which looks attractive anyway; or you can go for an image that links with the theme of your site so that there’s always some sort of connection to the ads you’re getting, even if the image doesn’t exactly illustrate them.
For example, you could have a nicely designed floral border at the top of your page and draw one of the leaves down to where the ads are. The user’s eye would follow the line of the flowers to the ads. Or if you had a site about surfing for example, you could put a picture of a surfboard or a wave next to the ad. Most of your ads would be about surfing so they could be seen as an illustrating the ads.
Which one of these methods would work better? I think it depends on the site and the sorts of ads it gets. Putting a picture of a product next to ads about products could work very well, I think. A more general image might be better for sites that get more general ads though.
That’s easy, right?
If it was really easy, the latest version of my AdSense Secrets book would run to a lot less than 200 pages of strategies and ideas!
I’ve just been thinking about one of the techniques that I’ve seen people use, and I’m wondering how it could be done better. The idea is that when a user reaches a Web page, the first thing he’s going to look at are the images. He’ll ignore the images on banner ads because they’re so familiar, but any other kind of picture will attract the eye right away.
Only after he’s finished soaking up the pics will a user start to read the content.
So if you put a picture next to your ad units, you’ll draw the user right to your ads.
That’s the theory and I think it works... provided the picture is right.
The problem is that whatever image you use is never going to relate directly to the ad. Unless you’re prepared to change the image every time Google changes the ad, there’s always going to some sort of disconnect.
That means you’ve got two choices: you can either go for an image that’s got little to do with the sort of ads you’re going to get but which looks attractive anyway; or you can go for an image that links with the theme of your site so that there’s always some sort of connection to the ads you’re getting, even if the image doesn’t exactly illustrate them.
For example, you could have a nicely designed floral border at the top of your page and draw one of the leaves down to where the ads are. The user’s eye would follow the line of the flowers to the ads. Or if you had a site about surfing for example, you could put a picture of a surfboard or a wave next to the ad. Most of your ads would be about surfing so they could be seen as an illustrating the ads.
Which one of these methods would work better? I think it depends on the site and the sorts of ads it gets. Putting a picture of a product next to ads about products could work very well, I think. A more general image might be better for sites that get more general ads though.