AdSense and Images - what's the latest?

It seems this topic has quickly cooled since late January and I'm assuming the majority of people have now removed the images next to their ad blocks.

I remember when I first was hearing suggestions about this as a method to increase CTR's and it seemed like a logical thing to do at the time. I over a period of days added images to almost every page I had at the time. I then later changed to an animated bar on some of the pages and was in progress of doing a comparison of the two methods to see how each would produce. I thought at the time I was seeing an increase of 1 -2% in CTR's.

Then came the rule definition with regard to using pictures and graphics next to AdSense ads, and for me shortly after that a polite note from Google that a page (or pages) on my site was in violation and I had 3 days to correct it. It was actually a page with static images that was called out but I wasn't taking any risks and began an immediate removal of all images from my site. Boy what a couple of days that was. My eyes were ready to fall out of my head by the time I was finished. I notified Google and received a nice thank you and clean bill of health about 6 days later.

Well here we are in the later half of March and the results have been interesting. My CTR's have actually gone up since going back to my original layout without graphics. My CTR's are up a solid 2% on average from where I was in December and January, and March looks to be the best earnings month I've had to date since starting on this adventure in April 2006.

I think what I've learned from this, is that no matter what the idea is, just because it works for someone else, doesn't mean it will work for you. You need to continue to test and see what is best for you site. Another thing I've learned is don't go running off buying the latest thing out there. Chances are, you already know how to do what you are going to be told in the latest email or download being offered. They in some cases just motivate you to actually do something with it.

All I'm saying is proceed with caution before you buy the latest "flavor of the month" or next hugely promoted launch that you receive. Have you ever noticed how if you are on more than a few lists, almost everyone of them promotes the same thing? Occasionally I have seen something that is really a "fresh" idea come along and they are worth a second look but buyer beware because you can get sucked in quickly if your not careful by all the hype with a new launch.

One thing I didn't regret buying was Joel's book (free plug Joel :D ), because it was very affordable and I did find very useful information to help me increase my AdSense earnings and for the cost of the book, I felt it was a great deal. I can't say the same for a number of other things I've tried since. Let common sense prevail, you won't regret it.

The old adage still holds true...if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. There is no magic bullet for AdSense, but with time and patience (and not getting yourself banned), you can earn a nice passive income with the program.

Technorati Tags: AdSense, Google AdSense Earnings, Make Money With AdSense

AdSense update for March

Back in January, I wrote about a situation that had arisen around the use of graphics and AdSense and my site which you can read here http://wm8c.blogspot.com/2007/01/adsense-picture-update-january-12th.html . I had gotten called out about the use of graphics next to my AdSense ad units which came about with a change in policy at Google on my main site at http://www.wm8c.com.

Well I am happy to report that it has made no difference in CTR on my site, in fact my February CTR's have actually increased by about 1.5% since removing the graphics. Now this is not necessarily going to be a typical result for all sites as every one is unique, but for me it made no difference at all. In the end I would say that I actually came out ahead. Goes to show you that every idea is not always a good one for every site and the importance of good testing for your particular site.

Another topic that I touched on back in December and January was smart pricing and what it had done to my site. Well, I am happy to report that my site seems to be recovering nicely from that hit and I am on track in March so far to be at or above my earnings last November when it hit. My site visitor stats are continuing to climb and so are the earnings. I don't think that the smart pricing is totally lifted, as my eCPM's are still about half of November but the traffic increases are making up the remaining difference as well.

In a post that I will do shortly, I will cover a recent addition of Kontera to my main site and my initial reactions to that program.

Labels: AdSense, AdSense Graphics, AdSense TOS, AdSense Violations

Adsense and Graphics - latest update from my own sites

After more than two weeks and no more pictures or graphics by my AdSense blocks, my CTR's have only dropped about 1% since removal of them. Now were I getting 1000 clicks a day, I might be upset about that, but since my traffic at my main site is only about 350 uniques a day, that amounts to about 3 clicks a day potentially lost. Were those clicks each worth a dollar it would add up quickly though.

I find it interesting that Google feels that surfers might be fooled into clicking on an ad by using "misleading" graphics. By using "good blending" are we not trying to "fool" them, which is fine to do and in fact Google even tells you how to do it? If that were not the case, then ad blocks with huge pink borders would work just as well as the good blending techniques do in "fooling" someone into clicking on an ad would not be done by all of us using the program?

To me the pictures and graphics were nothing more than attention grabbers like ad banners (before the advent of banner blindness) do with bright colors, flashing graphics, etc. You never thought that you weren't clicking on an ad, but it "caught your attention", and I feel in most cases short of the "pointing arrows or click me to support this site" type graphics, it was no different by lining graphics up with the ad blocks.

It was simply a eye catcher to say to the visitor, "hey I'm an ad but I might have what your looking for so look here before you continue on down the page". It's just using good advertisement techniques. How are they any different than the backgrounds for ad blocks that draw a persons attention to them but those are still OK? Next to them, under them, what's the difference? I'm guessing this will rage on for a while as the rules continue to evolve. I guess I give the average surfer more credit than that.

I just checked my CTR's for yesterday and they were up 2% from the previous two days. I'm starting to think my initial data that told me the pictures helped increase my CTR's was flawed, at least on my main site, as removing the pictures and graphics has not made enough difference to really matter. I'm sure with every site that this will vary, but what it does at least say is that with good blending, the pictures only marginally helped improve it beyond that for me. I know when I first started to blend last year, my CTR's quadrupled immediately following and with some final adjustments after that, increased another 1% to where they currently are. I guess I just need to find another adjustment to get another 1 or 2% back now

It'll be interesting to compare a full months worth of data to see if that trend holds. Then at least if it does, there will be less to be angry about for those that thought the pictures made a "big difference" all things being equal over good quality blending alone.

Technorati Tags: AdSense, AdSense Graphics, AdSense Pictures

Latest AdSense policy updates and explanation

Many people have heard the latest from Google regarding AdSense and pictures but yesterday, they released the entire new policy update on the AdSense site. The part I was most interested in was this as there are some subtle changes and a better "description" of the picture allowances than the original email they sent out explaining it.

From Google's Site the new version can be found here but these two lines I think are paramount for those who have used pictures or graphical gimmicks on their sites. This is under the Encouraging clicks section of the page:

May not direct user attention to the ads via arrows or other graphical gimmicks
May not place misleading images alongside individual ads

The two partial sentences that I put in bold are of special interest to many. It has always stated that you could use arrow or pointers but it's now expanded to include "graphical gimmicks". I have seen and used some different graphical gimmicks in the past and low and behold I was warned last week to remove them as well some images that I had aligned with the ad blocks. The new changes how ever do not disallow the use of backgrounds for the blocks if you choose to do so good news for the people doing that.

I would suggest great caution if you continue use pictures of graphics that line up with you ads. If it helps anyone, to be honest when I removed the graphics, I saw less than percent drop in CTR so not much of a hit.

Technorati Tags: Google Adsense, Adsense Pictures, Adsense Graphics

Adsense picture update - January 12th

Well it finally happened. I have received a letter from Google about a policy violation and guess what it referred to? Pictures next to the AdSense ads. Here's what I received yesterday:

"Hello,

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as www.wm8c.com/acne_treatment.htm.

Publishers may not implement Google ads in a manner that disguises the ads in any way, for instance, by formatting neighboring content to look similar to the ads, or by making ads look like games or forum threads. Additionally, publishers may not attempt to associate specific images with the individual ads appearing on their sites. Such an implementation may confuse users who assume that the image is directly related to the advertiser's offerings.

Please make any necessary changes to your web pages in the next 3 business days. We also suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) to ensure that all of your other pages are in compliance."

Now I love this program and I am grateful that it wasn't the dreaded banning letter and I immediately made the changes as requested. If you've read my blog recently, you would know that I had already switched from the pictures I was using, to a slow colored animated graphic. Evidently, this is also not acceptable with the new AdSense guide lines regarding graphics.

My advice? If you like AdSense, remove the graphics before they come knocking. It's not worth the risk to wait for them to tell you that you are in violation.