Change Your Website Ad Placement and Type - EARN MORE !

All Ad Positions Available  (Click on Image to View Full Size)

You spend hours writing your blog, nurturing it from its first day, wasting hours obsessing and looking at the Google Analytics Dashboard, going the extra mile to answer every comment and question on your blog and now you would like some returns for all this hard work. I mean who wouldn't? But even here you have to be very careful! Depending on ad placement and their quality, ads can make or break you!

No i am not exaggerating go back and look at your browser history. If recognize a website that you didn't feel comfortable visiting, open it and check out their ads. I wouldn't be surprised if the ads were what you found wrong with the website. 

So here is a detailed analysis of these ads so that you don't make the same mistakes that many (including me) bloggers make. I will discuss each add position i have marked in red individually and tell you what ads could be placed and what ad type to prefer over others.

**Note : Remember to Follow @randomrational for continuous updates!**

Banner Ads

This is the ad that you place directly below the header or/and just above the footer. Most people go with a full size banner ad here because it will not affect their layout much if placed here. Care should be taken that these ads don't take too long to load since they tend to be pictures or animations and will affect the page load time greatly. They generally are chosen to be either CPM or ads that are bought for a period of time. CPC ads are not preferred since unless the banner ad content is directly matching your content clicks will be sparse.

Banner Ad 1 - This ad is perfectly suited for the "ads that are bought for a period of time." They are also one of the most visible portion of the website so if you have decent traffic, you should be able to nail a deal which gives you more that the conventional CPM type ads.

Banner Ad 2 - This ad space is one of the least visible area and thus perfect for those CPM (You will have to use one of the ad networks to get this ad as no sane advertiser will buy this spot unless your website is getting very high traffic!).

Widget Ads

These ads are those ads placed in the sidebar areas of your website where all those widgets are placed. Usually only one sidebar is present and thus i will group together widget ad 1 and 3 as one unit and widget ad 2 and 4 as another.

Widget Ad 1 and 3

This is the area of your website just at the top of your sidebar or just below your subscribe buttons. These areas are highly sought after by advertisers and they will pay you money on a monthly basis to put their ad at this area. A CPC ad will also do good here but the best types of ads to place here are a grid of button linking to other websites(of similar niche). The problem with this is that it is difficult to find these advertisers especially since we are limiting to your niche. **Warning : Don't place ads/buttons that are not of your niche here as they affect's the impression that the user has on the whole on the website.

Widget Ad 2 and 4

These ads generally appear at areas towards the end of your post content and as such are moderately good for CPC ads. The important thing is to blend the ads into your website theme so that the user doesn't notice that it is an ad at first glance.

Ads in the Post Area

These are ads that are present in your content or post area. They have high visibility and one of the highest CTR rates if the ads are matched to the content.

Text Ad 1 & 2

Both text ads 1 and 2 are almost similar except for the slight variation in position. Having either ad 1 or 2 is fine but both will definitely affect negatively. These adds tend to have very high CTR so go for the CPM ads. I would recommend ad 2 over 1 since it is less obtrusive that ad 1 though the CTR might be slightly lesser. Here try to make the ads flashy so as to draw the eyes to the ad. That with the correct ad content will surely generate high amount of clicks.

Inline Ad

I admit that these are a great opportunity but they are very irritating and keep poping up whenever i hover my mouse over them. Though i hate them many have had success with them so use them if you don't mind irritating the reader. (Sorry if i am biased against them but they irritate me so much!)

Ads In Between Post Content

Placing ads between post content is a risky move. It tends to break the flow of the article and if you loose the attention of the reader, you loose him completely right there but they do have quiet a bit of CTR. Internal links to your own website instead seems to be a better idea to me since you will manage to keep the reader longer in the website. (I don't use these so i don't have much experience and am speculating)

Ads Between Posts

Placing ads between posts is pretty much a waste if you use Text ad 1 or 2. If you are not it is worth considering but i highly favor Text ad 1 or 2 over these. These tend to get glossed over by many as they search the site for what the user is looking for!

Those are all the add positions that i could think of. Are there any more that you have used and found success? Share with us by leaving a comment!

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