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When Adding Text Ad Blocks is an AssetThere are several prominent opinions on combining different revenue streams within a particular site. The two that get the most attention are: 1. Only use one kind of income generation per page. Some people believe that you should optimize a page for one thing only, and not let any potential distractions get in the way. 2. Combine various types, as long as they are topically relevant, and as long as your page has the space to do so. I have found a reason for using the second strategy, which no one else has mentioned. It applies specifically to text ads, which may be one reason it is not being noticed as much. Many site builders are drawn into the habit of using image ads when they can, feeling they are catchier and will draw more clicks. In actual fact, text ads tend to draw more clicks, as well as having many more search engine pagerank benefits than image ads. Text ads are simpler to create, and can be fit to practically any space without editing. So as my business has progressed, I have found fewer and fewer reasons to use image ads. Recently I installed some complimentary text ads into a series of my websites. I have some affiliate programs that pay well, and I wished to get a little more mileage out of them - do more of what works, right? So I went through all my websites, and started to see where the ads would work, putting health ads onto health sites, business ones onto business sites, etc. One of my goals is to phase out AdSense on a couple of my sites that they do not work terribly well with anyway, so I figured I'd install some other ads and see which did better, then remove the ones that did not perform. The result was immediate, and sort of surprising until I figured out why - My AdSense income tripled overnight. Literally - I installed the ads, and within less than 2 days, the average earnings jumped. Sites that had never earned well started showing up in the daily reports. Sites that had previously done well started doing even better. There is a logical reason for this. You see, you can optimize all you like, but some topics require certain explanatory pages for which there are no complimentary keywords that are in demand. Google does its best, but often the words it picks out are unrelated, or a stretch. So when I went through and put ads for a few of my more successful affiliate programs, suddenly EVERY page had keywords that Google COULD display relevant ads for. What kind of keywords can Google find for a page about large family humor? I mean, that someone will pay for? But when I put in an ad for a Parenting book, suddenly there was a keyword Google could make something of. Sometimes there just is no way to easily optimize a page in a way that makes high demand keywords relevant, even if your site IS well optimized. The addition of targeted text ads is a way to give Google something to fasten onto. Get the right Google Ads on the page, and the clicks will come. And incidentally, my affiliate programs are getting better results too. The key to combining revenue streams is to combine them intelligently. Then there is no reason not to use more than one per page. Written by Laura Wheeler |
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