Million Dollar Portfolio

Are the ads sitting on your site becoming stale?

I just checked my Google Adsense stats and they are horrendous. It’s no wonder GOOG (the stock) has been tumbling end over end. I don’t think people click on the ads anymore. I get plenty of traffic and I know my ads are relevant, which brings me to make a point.

A while ago I stumbled onto a site after doing a search for something and it had to be the ugliest thing I had ever seen. I don’t remember what it was or where, but I remember thinking, this is terrible, why would anyone make a site this ugly. And then it hit me. Adsense ads were all in well place locations. So, this site had been built purposely for the sole reason of getting people there from searches in the hopes they would click other ads that were actually relevant. Pretty sneaky and it probably works. I didn’t click the ads, but I’m sure others do.

That brings me to my next point. How often do you change your ads/affiliate companies? I try to give any new ad program at least a month before pulling the plug. The internet is a fast paced place and ads start looking the same to readers. Loyal readers of your blog are most likely to ignore your ads altogether, which is fine, at least it should be because retaining readers should be more important than getting clicks on your ads. When your readers are loyal, you can suggest products and services and because they trust you, they are more likely to use them and use your links to sign up for them.

For example, my best earner is Text-Link-Ads. Currently I make $15 a month per link. It’s not a lot but it is what it is. With 10 spots available, guess what? That puts my first milestone target right on the money. Remember when I talked about goal setting, one of my goals is to have this blog earning $100 a month. That’s the first stop on the money train for me. If I can make $100 a month, I can make $1000 a month.

So, that all being said, I’ve removed Adsense from my front page. I haven’t decided if I am going to keep it elsewhere, but I have other sites that get more clicks form Adsense than this one so it’s not that big a deal. In place of Adsense, you can now see my Top Spots widget. A spot on there is $15…hey just like TLA…imagine that! That’s the only real change I’ve made to my ad structure for now. I’m giving everything else a little more time. By the way, I also recommend NeverBlueAds for affiliate ad placement, and Dedicore.net for web hosting.

Find out what I am doing right now by following me on Twitter! If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

Don’t forget to enter my August Affiliate Challenge to win a Flip Mino Ultra Black Camcorder.