You may remember me mentioning how well the 728×90 AdSense unit has been performing on this blog. Since then, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how I added it.
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!
Hi Lisa, I really like the idea about the Thesis theme. I also use this theme myself, but havn’t got as much good results as you have. So thanks again for all the information!
WordPress Theme really works amazing and with this additional tips it would be awesome. Thanks for sharing. surely I switch to thesis as soon as possible.. Well, here’s my question: Do you people really earn the most of your income from AdSense?
Thanks for your article ! I’m now changing my theme to Thesis to improve the performance.
Really great video, just what I was looking for. Thanks!
If you have online games, you have to be careful to keep the ads far enough away from them to prevent any accidental clicks. This is something Google does not like and therefore has to be put into consideration when designing the layout. Also any popups, such as a social media “add this” icon that may overlap the ad should be adjusted for that can also cause invalid clicks. I do not overpopulate my site with ads and take the point of view as a visitor. If I am a visitor and see an ad that I like, I have to consciously move the mouse over to find more information about that ad.
Good info but you aren’t using Thesis now. I can see its Genesis theme now. 🙂 Anyway nice income Lisa. I will earn that amount too just a couple of months from now. 🙂
LOL, yeah I should probably update this post huh? Thesis 2.0 came out and it’s HORRIBLE. Won’t be going back to Thesis.
Hi Lisa, I honestly learn enough form you making money Adsense Ads. Please how can I palace Google Adsense ad on my Microsoft FrontPage site?
Hi Lisa, does this work with thesis version 1.8.4? I’ve followed what you have said and nothing seems to be changing in my header area.
Thanks.
Hi Lisa, thanks so much for this clear explanation. I swear I’ve been googling away forever trying to figure out how to change the background color of my feature box! I knew it would be simple, but nobody had explained it. So THANK YOU.
Thank you for your banner TIPS. But sometimes people do not care about the banners installed on our blog. So, I was more focused on blog content.
This is not working on my thesis site. The feature box css works it comes up as a gray box but never populates adsense. I know sometimes it take times for ads to populate but I left, went to the gym, came back home, still nothing going on. Please help. Email me please. I am using Thesis 1.8 so not sure if this tutorial is still applicable to that version
Whew! After several months of trying to figure this out, I have finally did it! I have just finished setting up my own implementation of a 728×90 adsense banner along with my bio pic on the header.
I could have finished this sooner but I had problems with OIO publisher. The adsense unit which was a filler ad for an OIO ad slot loaded very slowly. I just recently thought of using the php code of OIO instead of its javascript code and now it loads very fast!
I’m keeping my fingers crossed and I hope this translates to an increase in my adsense earnings.
Thanks again Lisa for the excellent tips, especially with the css code. I don’t think I could have done it without your example as reference.
Great! Glad I could help, Jay!
I followed your advice, as I will here, last time on one of my sites as a test and so far so good, making some money, of course not a lot but it is a start, nice one Lisa. I need to fix this ASAP before I jeopardize my Adsense account.
Hi, Lisa,
My focus right now is building two sites out that are strictly Adsense sites, and someone has recommended using the ctr theme in spite of the absence of support and the owner. I’ve also been seeing recommendations for Clickbump as well as HeatMapTheme above in this thread (new to me – haven’t looked at that one yet).
I have Thesis – like it very much – but wondered if you have any input about ctr or the others as being useful for Adsense and yielding high ctr %?
Thank you,
Christine
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Hi Lisa
I tried adding the code to my custom_functions.php and nothing happen, so I will try the plug-in…hope its not to complicated.
Thank you for this article, because I’ve been searching google all day to learn how to add adsense to my site.