The combination of Advertisements and Blogging is not a natural one. But then again the passion of blogging alone does not quenches the hunger in the belly. So willingly or unwillingly bloggers have to display Advertisements on their Blogs. It all started not very long ago, when the coined term “Make Money Online” caught fire. And fast forward today, we have massive amount of blogs just created to display advertisements. So much so that, ads started to serve blind to the visitor’s eye.
It became second nature for visitors to ignore any page they come across as Sales Page or In Your Face Ads, there by increasing the bounce rate if these sites to alarming level. Few bloggers burnt there hand by promoting Affiliate Links too heavily and getting the stick from Big Daddy Google in their SERPs. Soon there was a new need. To display Advertisements in a way that is less obtrusive and yet help keep the money flowing in. Let us try to understand some ways in which we can show Ads without irritating Visitors.
Avoid Showing Ads on Front Page
Front page of your blog is usually the most popular page and the primary entry point to you rest of the Pages. The main aim of this page should be to reduce the Bounce Rate to a minimum. Showing Ads in the front page hurts in 3 main ways. First, it makes your site looks like a Ad promoted site, which reversely affects the perception quality of your content. Second, it takes up important screen real estate. Third, Affiliate ads are harmful for your SERPs.
Show CPM Ads in a Empty Corner of your Blog
What is it with the CPM (Cost per Impression Ads) anyway? Isn’t it a marketing gimmick. Just another cleverly thought out plan to squeeze more money from the Advertisers by charing them not for the number of clicks but the number of times the Ads are displayed. So, if you are going to be paid only for the display of Ads and their click ratio are very low, why not keep their exposure to the minimum. Place them in a place where they won’t fight for attention against your Blog’s Content. Such place would be bottom of sidebar (better if you have a three column layout), Below Comments on Individual Posts, Footer Widgets etc.
Avoid Large Ads above the line
My first mistake was to use a 350 pixel wide rectangle Adsense Code on my individual posts, just below the Title Line. It seemed like a good idea. Well, the Ad has a stats of getting the maximum rating, displays very vividly and would eventually be good for me. However I was horribly wrong.
What I did not realize was, my Website’s Bounce Rate was increasing dramatically. I figured this was the most important reason. It was simple. Most of my Visitors entered the site via Google Search Pages, which means they land directly to the page of their interest. Now imagine this, seeing a large rectangle Adsense Block right between the Title Line and the post content immediately following it. Before any chance of engaing with the flow of the topic, I am breaking it. This would be more prevalent in case of Smartphone and Netbook Users. Now that I know the mistake, I would be rectifying it and would advise you also.
Use the Content Block between the Post and Comments
You should be looking out for User Action on your Blog to devise a strategy for placing Ads. One important place is End of the Post. At the end of the post there is a sure shot possibility of any three of the following actions to happen:
- Looking for Related Content
- Looking for Engagement via Comments
- Bounce out of your Website
The key point here is that, one of this action is gauranteed to happen. Which means the Visitor’s click ratio here would be the greatest and can effectively be used.
Avoid Ads in other Pages (Categories, Archives, Authors, Tags etc)
Best way to manage your Ads would be to keep it confined to Individual Post Pages and Sidebar. However you can also include Header Banner as they fetch good money. Apart from that, your Blog should look like Ad free one.
You may ask why. The logic again remains the same. The front page is important as it gets the maximum visibility. On the other hand individual psots are the ones where the main content lies. So apart from these two sections, other sections should be Ad Free and help Visitors navigate the blog.
Make use of In Text Advertising
In text Advertising are a nice way to save Screen Real Estate taken up by Ad Blocks. Also the display of the Ads in that case are initiated by the Visitor itself making then have a higher Click Ratio. More importantly, they are less obtrusive and good on the Eye.
Avoid Tons of Affiliate Links
Some Blogger thinks a statement at the end of the post declaring “This post contains Affiliate Link” is enough. However they do not realize the decrease in teh value of SERPs that happen over time. When the next Pagerank Update happens, they are found asking questions and reasoning why their Pagerank decreased?
Your webpage is a representation of a chain in the Algorithm the Search Engine Crawlers uses to determine the Usefulness of a links coming in and going out. Avoid using tons of Affiliate links. If your affiliate Product keytext appears 20 times, do not go blindly and add the link to all twenty occurence.
Have a nice Day..!!
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Ugh, I liked! So clear and positively.
Thanks
I really like your article
the points you made were very informative and easily understandable…