I finally added it to one of my higher trafficked pages (within the content) just to see how it will pan out.

The first week…

I had deplorable click-thru rates and less-than-stellar earnings.

I was tempted to take it down, but then I remembered a situation where the earnings got better with time so I decided to be patient.

Next week…

Earnings were up a bit and the click-thru rate began to improve slightly (still lower than my overall average but better).

Week three…

The click-thru rate surpassed my personal average and the Page RPM (earnings per 1,000 impressions) is also better than my site’s average.

Due to the AdSense terms and conditions, I am not allowed to reveal my CTR or Page RPM.

So What Happened?

Could this unit have attracted a placement advertiser?

Maybe.

Of course, it’s hard to really know for sure, but sometimes when this happens it’s because a placement advertiser has outbid the contextual ads that are displayed.

For those who don’t know, Placement Advertisers can bid on an individual unit on your site directly and they outbid all the contextual ads.

So imagine an AdWords advertiser telling Google…

Hey, I want to put my ad on this particular page.

In order to land that spot, they have to outbid all the other contextual advertisers — which of course earns Google and the Publisher more money.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’ve noticed this before with other new units.  They’ll start out with terrible earnings, but as the unit matures, the Page RPM (earnings per thousand views) begins to pick up.

Many times this could be due to Placement ads taking over that spot.

Understanding The Different Ads

Contextual ads are the most popular kind of ad.  These display because the content on your site is relevant to the ad.   There is an auction taking place behind the scenes and the highest bidders (along with other quality signals) win the placement.

Placement ads are not as common, but can you earn you the most money since they advertiser has to outbid all the contextual ads.

Interest-based ads are shown based on your visitor’s web surfing activities.  So if they just went to Overstock.com to do some shopping, they may see an Overstock ad on your site instead of an ad that is related to your content.

You can actually turn off Interest-based ads in your account, but I’m not entirely sure why this is even an option since my units are still showing Interest-based ads. I see them myself and I also notice earnings from “Interest Based Ads” in my account.

So that’s always been a bit of a mystery to me.  If anyone has insight on this, I’d love to hear it.

How to Check Your Earnings Breakdown

To see how much you’re earning with the various kinds of ads, go to the Performance Reports tab and click “Targeting Types.”

This will display a pie chart and reveal what percentage of your earnings come from Contextual, Placement and Interest-based ads.

Most of you will find that you earn more from Contextual ads.  If you are earning more with Placement, congrats because you are really maximizing your earnings and you’ve attracted the attention of advertisers who want to advertise on your site specifically.

By the way, to ensure your units are available to placement advertisers, always create a Custom Channel for your units and opt to target it.

Wait it Out

So the moral of the story is experiment and be patient with the results — especially if you are adding a unit to a high-trafficked page.

Remember, advertisers love pages that get a decent amount of traffic and have units in a prime location (especially if it’s a larger unit.)

So don’t be so quick to remove a new unit for low performance.  It may pick up in the long run.

———————————

Need more tips?  Check out this overview of Google AdSense.

I joke, but I’ve read so many complaints about their various products in recent weeks and most of them involve reporting.

From quirks in the Google Webmaster Tools backlink reports to Analytics not reporting, you name it.

Last month I began receiving more “low-AdSense-earnings” Facebook messages and emails than I normally do.

I don’t obsessively check my earnings like I used to, so it had literally been a couple of weeks since I logged in. Now I was curious.

The Case of the Missing Impressions

At the end of January, I decided to check my account.  I expected my earnings to be far above November and December for two reasons…

1. My traffic had increased quite a bit since November and December (the norm around this time of year).
2. After the Holidays are over, advertisers tend to spend more in this niche — which positively impacts my earnings.

After I logged in I was quite surprised to see that even though traffic was way up, my earnings were not.  In fact, my January earnings were on pace to be less than December’s.

So I investigated a little more and noticed that impressions for one of my highest traffic units were not being recorded.

It started around January 18th and as of today, there are still sporadic issues.

What’s interesting is that on one day, one of my units won’t track properly and another is working fine.  But on the next day, the unit that was tracking properly will stop tracking and the other one begins reporting properly again.

Then on January 20th, I noticed a large increase in my earnings for that day.   My click-through-rate was normal, so it was as if they were playing catch-up with earnings that had not been reported previously.

And finally, on February 5th I logged in and saw this message…

It was nice to finally get some kind of acknowledgement that there are issues — even though it was pretty obvious something was not quite right.

Be Patient

If your earnings are low and your traffic, click-through rates and eRPM (revenue per page) are “normal” (obviously normal is relative), there could be issues with the reporting.  However, Google assures that everything is still being recorded.

Meanwhile the Google forums are also on fire with complaints about low earnings in 2013.  Some people are reporting “stuck” impression reports like me and others are noticing lower eRPM (revenue per page earnings), a decrease in click-through rates, etc.

More Delays

Then there’s Google Analytics…

Since last summer I’ve been experiencing intermittent issues with delayed reporting.

Apparently I’m not alone.

Some people claim that their accounts have stopped reporting data altogether.  See the post below…

What about you?  Have you noticed anything strange with any of your Google accounts recently?

Sunil attended one of the AdSense in Your City events where you can gather tips and advice for making more with the AdSense program.

One of the representatives took a look at some of his sites and suggested he move his ads below the fold for better SEO.

This certainly falls in line with what we’ve been hearing this year.  In January and October Google launched the “Top Heavy” search engine algorithm update that targeted sites that had too many ads above the fold.

Google even updated their heat map to reflect the optimal placement for ads.

The darker colors reflect the placement for “strongest performance” while the lighter colors represent weaker performance.  I don’t know if you realize this, but this map has changed quite a bit over the years.

Previously there was a lot more orange and red slots in the header and navigation areas.  So needless to say there is a lot less “heat” on the map than there used to be.

Now, I realize the heat map is more about reflecting optimal placement for ad performance and not necessarily optimal placement for SEO, but it is interesting that the heat map has “cooled off” over the years as Google continues to emphasize having too many ads above the fold is not optimal for SEO.

The Conflict

But here’s where it gets interesting.

Literally less than two days after my conversation with Sunil, I get an email in my inbox from Google telling me I could increase my earnings by 68% if I add more ads above the fold.

So why are people being told one thing at the AdSense in Your City Event, and then emailed a message like that soon after?

Well, it’s partly because The Google Search Quality Team (now called The Google Knowledge Team) and AdSense Optimization team have two different goals.

The GKT’s goal is to improve search quality while the AOT’s goal is to help you make more with AdSense.  So you can see where conflict might arise with Webmasters.

So when Sunil told me the AOT suggested he lower the placement of some ads, I thought it was great that the two teams are now sending out messages that align with one another.

However, after receiving the AdSense optimization email just days later, it’s clear there is still inconsistent messaging going around.

At least caution Webmasters that having too many ads above the fold could be harmful for SEO.  That way their message aligns with what the GKT has been emphasizing.

What do you think?

Now that my account has been upgraded, I wanted to publish a video that highlights some of the ARC features.

In addition, you’ll learn more about some of the common AdSense reports and how to maximize your earnings through Placement targeting.

You Will Also Learn…

• Why you shouldn’t block too many ads
• Info about auctions and ad pricing
• How some Publishers are also making money from CPM ads (impressions only)

Email Subscribers:  Click here to watch the video.

Well, in case you haven’t heard, Google is about to roll out a new version of their Ad Review Center (ARC).  Now you’ll have even more control over the ads that appear on your site.

If you’ve already enabled the ARC, then you can review and approve ads that appear on your pages today, but soon you’ll be able to do even more.

For example, instead of reviewing/blocking ads by group, you can review individual ads.

And for Placement-targeted ads (ads by advertisers who pay to place ads on your pages specifically), Google will show you the ads that will likely get the most number of impressions in advance.  So you’ll know which ads your readers will see most.

Accessing The New Ad Review Center

If you’re already using the ARC, the new functionality may be available now or will be available soon.

If you haven’t used this feature yet, login to your AdSense account and click the Allow & Block tab. Now opt in to sign up.

You’ll have to wait a week or so before the ARC becomes available after opting in.

Warning: Don’t Minimize Your Earnings

Remember, there are two kinds of ads that appear on your site:  Contextual and Placement.

Even though you will be able to, Google recommends not putting Placement-targeted ads on “review status” because they won’t be a part of the ad auction. 

This could potentially lower your overall earnings because you’ll have fewer ads competing for real estate on your site.

The reason this is important is because one of the biggest keys to success with AdSense is attracting Placement-targeted advertisers.  They outbid the Contextual advertisers because they want to advertise on your site specifically, thus earning you more per click.

I don’t have a very high click-thru rate with AdSense, but my sites attract a good amount of Placement advertisers and my Page RPM (revenue per page) for those ads is almost double the amount I’m earning for Contextual ads.

In English, that just means I am earning quite a bit per click for many of the ads I host, so it makes using AdSense very worthwhile and has even caused me to reconsider pricing for my 3rd party/private ads as of late.

Reminder: You can check how much you’re earning for Placement ads by viewing the Targeting Types report in the Performance Reports section.

Even though I actually use AdSense less (number of units overall) and my click-thru rates have decreased over the years (probably due to ad blindness), my Page RPM keeps increasing and continues to drive my earnings up.

So always make sure your custom channels are targeted and available to advertisers who may want to advertise on your site specifically.

Once you’re on this screen, click the name of the channel under the “Name” column and set the targeting to “yes” as indicated below.

Google wants to make sure your site is always available to Placement advertisers because that’s how you and Google will make the most money.

That is why they recommend that you not place these ads on “review status” when the new ARC rolls out.  Of course, it’s up to you, though.

Say What???

In case I’ve confused the heck out of you with the amount of detail here, don’t worry.  You don’t have to review the ads that appear on your site or even understand Placement-targeted advertising when this launches.

In fact, you don’t ever have to open the Ad Review Center if you don’t want to.

If you’re perfectly happy with how AdSense is running on your pages, then just sit back and let Google do the ad management as they have in the past.

Nevertheless, if you’re interested in having more control over the kinds of ads that show on your pages, the new Ad Review Center will be right up your alley.

And as far as Placement advertising goes, the take-home lesson is don’t “hold” those ads for review.  Wait until they are live to review them so you don’t drive down the cost of your ad space in the auction.

So what about you?  Has the new ARC rolled out to your account yet?

You may not realize it, but Google has quite a bit of documentation on these topics to help AdSense publishers keep their accounts in good standing.

Preventing Invalid Activity

While there’s nothing you can do to completely protect your account from sabotage, the following article has some tips and guidelines that may help you guard against invalid click activity.

Click here for more details.

Pay special attention to the tip about “partnering with untrusted websites.”  They used the example of paying for traffic from questionable sources.

Often times these services send artificial traffic via bots which can generate false impressions and clicks on your ads.  That’s a surefire way to get banned from AdSense.

Always do your homework before signing up with any “traffic generation service.”  If it isn’t clear how they are generating the traffic to your website, that should always raise red flags.

Notice Anything Suspicious?

Google encourages you to monitor your traffic logs, and if you notice any reports that indicate suspicious IP addresses, referrers or requests, complete this form.

Analytics does not provide visitor IP information, but you can use a service like PIWIK or the WordPress StatCounter plugin to obtain such information.  Your web hosting control panel should also provide more detailed log info should you need to research visitor information.

A lady once told me she was able to get her AdSense account reinstated after producing a report with her appeal that showed a pattern of suspicious activity from an IP address on the day she was banned.

How to Appeal Your Disabled Account

Let’s face it.  Sometimes Google gets it wrong and disables accounts owned by people who were playing by the rules.  If you feel your account has been wrongfully disabled, you can appeal using this form.

“AdSense is a Scam!”

People often claim AdSense is a scam when their accounts become disabled.

AdSense is far from being a scam. Google actually wants AdSense Publishers to succeed because the more quality, relevant websites their advertisers have access to, the more revenue Google can potentially earn.

That’s why they have an AdSense Optimization Team — a task force dedicated to helping publishers maximize their earnings so Google can ultimately earn more.

My point is, Google really has nothing to gain by disabling AdSense accounts for “no good reason.”  So I’ve never understood the scam complaints I often receive in the comments of my YouTube videos.

If Google disabled your account, it’s because they believe there’s a risk or evidence it has produced invalid clicks — which is not fair to their advertisers.

You have to realize that the AdWords advertisers are Google’s customers and top priority — not us, the AdSense publishers.

If they suspect click fraud or notice any strange patterns with our AdSense accounts, they will do what is necessary to ensure their advertiser’s money is not being wasted on invalid clicks.

Unfortunately this sometimes results in people’s accounts getting wrongfully disabled.  That is why they allow you to appeal.

At the end of the day, Google is doing what’s best for their business and that is protecting their top revenue source — which is the AdWords advertisers.

It’s impossible to protect your account 100% of the time, but if you follow the guidelines on the articles above, you can minimize the chances of your account becoming disabled.

*** Please note that these earnings are from 5 websites and my 3 YouTube channels! ***

If you follow me on YouTube, you probably saw my video about my phone call with Google.

As stated, I didn’t learn too much from that call, but I did implement three things that seem to have made a difference in my earnings over the last few weeks…

1) I Removed Low-Performing Units

Low-performing units drive your overall click through rates down, which could impact how many AdWords advertisers you attract.

The 468×60 unit has always performed pretty poorly for me, so I’m not sure why I stuck with it for so long.   Perhaps it was because it fit well in that space, and I never took the time to try anything else.

Nevertheless, I replaced all of those units with a 300×250 unit and it raised my click through rate by up to .6% on some channels.

That may not sound like much of an increase, but my earnings for those units have been positively impacted since the change.

2) I Now Use Text and Image Ads

Image ads don’t always convert as well as text ads on my sites, but what I’m noticing is that I seem to earn a lot more per click (on average) now that I have enabled them on all of my units.

In the past, I’d only enabled image ads on some of my units.

3) I Changed the Text Ads to Match the Link Color on My Site

For awhile I was using a different color for the headline/title of my text ads.  The idea was to make the ads pop a bit.

This strategy worked great at first, but I noticed my CTR was starting to drop.  So I changed the headline to match the color of the links on my site.

————————————————

As you know, it’s impossible to prove exactly how much these changes impacted my earnings.  A lot may have to do with the ads that show up and some of this may be pure coincidence.

However, this is the time of year when my traffic is typically lower yet my AdSense earnings are higher than ever.  So I felt it was worth noting here on my blog.

These tips may not be ground-breaking, but they remind you how important it is for you to experiment and constantly monitor your channels. 

What works today may not work as well next month.  And what works for me, may not work for you.

Experimentation is key.

Update: March 4, 2012:  I broke my daily earnings record again and hit the $400 threshold as shown below.

If you’re new to AdSense and/or interested in learning how to maximize your earnings, I dedicate an entire chapter to helping you earn more with AdSense in my Niche Website Success book.

Tai approached me at the end of the session to let me know that he recognized me from YouTube.  He eagerly opened his laptop and revealed his recent earnings with the YouTube Partner program.

His excitement was refreshing, and he really wanted me to share his story with my audience.

Even though Tai’s YouTube earnings aren’t through the roof (yet), they are proof of what is possible.  If you can earn $30 per month then why can’t you triple that next month, and then triple it again the following month?

I can recall my first $14 commission check I earned back in 1998.  I was still in college, so $14 felt like a million dollars.

And I remember thinking, “If I can make $14, I can make $28.  And when I made my first $100 I knew I could double that and so on.  There’s something so motivating about seeing the fruits of your labor no matter how small the amount.

Tai’s Story

You have to meet Tai in person to appreciate his energy, but you’ll get a sense with his colorful e-mail below.

Yo Lisa,

It was good meeting you at the WordPress Meetup this past weekend!!!

Thanks for all your words of encouragement for a beginner such as myself in the internet marketing biz.

When I first got into internet marketing in late 2009, I thought that Adsense was a joke and a scam cuz I had never met anyone in real life who had made money from it.

But then I ran into your YouTube video on “How To Make Money With Google Adsense” at the beginning of this year and I liked how you kept it real and it didn’t sound like a bunch of hype and B.S. so I put aside my limiting beliefs and gave it a try.

I don’t have a lot of time because of my day job so I got motivated to do youtube videos for my fitness niche after I watched your “44 YouTube Videos & 8400 Subscribers” since it’s easier for me to demonstrate on video how to work out versus writing about it.

I took my sweet ass time to implement your advice but after making over 80 youtube fitness videos, I finally got invited to monetize my youtube videos 4 months ago, however, my retarded ass never bothered to submit my videos to youtube for monetization until 2 months ago when I asked my girlfriend to set aside a day to submit all my fitness videos for monetization on 8-21-11 and BAM!…

Immediately I started making money the very NEXT day!  (See Below) I couldn’t believe it!

I know you and others have been saying it all along that it was not B.S., but for some reason it seemed more real when the adsense money started rolling in.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not a whole lot as you can see in the screenshot below, however, it is a HUGE start for me and has boosted my confidence tremendously simply by knowing that I’m gonna be making at least $30/month of steady passive income without me having to do anything.  And it’s only going to get better with time.  WHOOOPEEEE!!!!

I’m ballin’ now! lol 

Looking back in retrospect, the biggest mistake I made when I first got started was I didn’t have enough belief that it would work for me and the other thing was that I did not take enough ACTION!

Let your audience know that they got to get off their ass and TAKE ACTION!!!!!

Whoever takes more action and implements more of what you talk about will simply get more results.

I will keep you posted with my progress so that you’ll know that someone out there is listening and taking action!!!  BOOYAH!!!

Peace
Tai “The Asian Wonder”
Your Online Personal Trainer
www.PersonalTrainerTai.com

I hope you weren’t offended by Tai’s choice of words, but I wanted to post the e-mail “as is” for effect and realness.   As you can probably tell, Tai’s an energetic person and now he is channeling that energy to improve his online business through video.

Just Do It!

The biggest takeaway from Tai’s story is obviously, just do it!  Even if you have no interest in YouTube and the partner program, this message can apply to any venture.

How many things have you put off because you feared failure or you assumed it wouldn’t work?   Are you sabotaging your business because you lack belief and confidence?

I hope Tai’s story provides the motivation you need to get moving on tasks you’ve been putting off!

I was playing around in the AdSense Performance reports as I often do, and decided to create a few graphs showing the breakdown of different earnings by category so we can compare our stats.  Here are the ones I focused on:

- % of Earnings by Unit Size

- % of Earnings by Ad Type

- % of Earnings by Targeting Type

- % of Earnings by Product

If you haven’t switched over to the new interface (which isn’t so new anymore), then you’re missing some great reports — especially if you’re a stat junky like me.

In November, they will be shutting off the old interface and you will be forced to use the new one. So you might as well get acquainted if you haven’t already.

So let’s start with the first report I ran…

One of the reasons I redesigned my static site was because I wanted a column to accommodate larger widgets, images and the 300×250 AdSense unit.  Many of you told me how well the  unit converted for you and boy were you right!

My CTR (click through rate) for the right column unit on 2 Create a Website increased by 65% and my Page RPM (page revenue per 1,000 impressions) increased by 59% in August.  I also switched from all text ads to text and image ads.  The new 300×250 unit was the biggest reason for my record month in August 2011.

For awhile, the 728×90 unit was winning consistently, but it tied for 2nd place last month.

Text ads have always performed best for me so this is no shocker.  But I will say that text and image ads on my static site outperform my blog by far.   Text ads performed so poorly on my blog, it wasn’t even worth the time and space.

My blog tends to receive traffic from a lot more savvy users (particularly IMers, seasoned Webmasters and bloggers, etc.) compared to my static site.   In general, these people are less likely to click on ads.  And of course, traffic has a lot to do with it as well.  My static website receives a lot more traffic than my blog.

The 728×90 unit is the only one that converts here.  I don’t get that many clicks, but my Page RPM (page earnings per 1,000 impressions) is fairly high and makes it worthwhile.

Contextual Ads

I would imagine most of you probably earn more from contextual ads like me.  These are the ads that are simply targeted by page content.  In general, ads with the best bid and quality score end up on your site.

Placement Ads

Placement ads can earn you more per click because these advertisers are willing to outbid all the contextual advertisers to place an ad on your site specifically.  It’s very important to ensure your site is optimized and accessible to placement advertisers.

To do this go to “My Ads”, click “Custom Channels” and click the channels you want to make “targetable.”  Next to Targeting, check the box that reads “Show this custom channel to advertisers as a targetable ad placement.”

Prior to doing this, (last Summer) my percentage of earnings from placement ads was 6% of my overall earnings.  It is now 12%.  That’s a 100% increase.  So make sure you set your channels to “targetable” and become accessible to people who want to bid exclusively on YOUR site.

Interest-Based Ads

These are ads that show up based on where the user has visited.  So if they were on a car website before coming to your site, they may see a car ad even though your website is not about cars.

I have turned off Interest-Based ads in my account (Under “Allow and Block Ads” / “Advanced Settings”), but I learned that 3rd party networks can still serve them up.  So that explains the 7% in earnings even though I have opted out of Interest-Based ads.

This report shows that most of my earnings come from the Contextual ads and images on my site.  Hosted AdSense for Content is related to the YouTube Partner program and other 3rd party ads that may show on your site.

This breakdown has been pretty consistent for me over the years. There was a slight increase in the Hosted AdSense for Content over the past year (YouTube),  but nothing major.   I combined Search and Feeds because they were roughly the same and so low compared to the other categories.

What About You?

So how does your breakdown compare?  Any similarities?

Keep in mind, the reporting Interface doesn’t breakdown the percentage.  I just did some simple math to figure that out, and I created the pie charts in Excel to make everything easier on the eyes.

I’d love to hear from you.  Let’s chat!

So I thought I’d create a video showing how to use the Thesis Feature Box function that is built right into the theme. (The code is located below the video.)

Even if you don’t use the Thesis WordPress theme, you can still apply some of the logic to your own blog (especially the CSS code).

You would still use the same CSS info on your stylesheet.css file. However, instead of using the code I provided for the custom_functions.php file below, you will add <div id=”feature_box”> INSERT BANNER CODE HERE </div> to the appropriate location of your header.php file, for example.

Here’s the CSS Code to Add to custom.css (Your Stylesheet)

This will add a 100 pixel gray box below your header.  Feel free to adjust the color, height, add a background image, etc.

#feature_box {
display: block;
margin-top: 30px;
padding: 0px;
border: none;
background-color: #ddd;
height: 100px;
position: relative;
}

If you don’t use Thesis, you would add this code to the stylesheet.css file of your WordPress theme.

Here’s the Code for Your custom_functions.php File

add_action(‘thesis_hook_feature_box’, ‘leaderboard’);
function leaderboard() {
?>
INSERT BANNER CODE HERE
<?php
}

Non Thesis users would add <div id=”feature_box”> INSERT BANNER CODE HERE </div> to the appropriate file (header.php) since you don’t have a custom_functions.php file.

You may have to add a width or adjust other attributes in the CSS code to get it to work with your theme.

Happy AdSense Earnings!