RT Cunningham from Untwisted Vortex had a post today about the gullibility of gamers in regards to online advertising. He points out how it is his belief than visual ads are far more likely to generate revenue than simple text-based ads. He's correct and now I'm going to let you in on one of my secrets to success online.
When most people think about making money online the first thought that comes into their mind is Google AdSense. AdSense is good for when you are starting out but it is not where you want to be six months later.
AdSense is sort of the "white paint" of online advertising. Why do I call it that? Think back to your first apartment, what color were the walls? Odds are that they were plain white walls, paint on top of sheetrock. That white paint does the job but it is very boring. That apartment does not feel like a home until you either repaint or hang up some pictures.
Those pictures you hang up are akin to image ads on a website. They break up the monotony of the blank white wall and raise interest in those who enter the room. Not all pictures on your wall are designed to evoke desire in the viewer. Just as a website covered in ads is very annoying so is a wall covered in posters. You need to find a good mix of images that blend in with the wall and those that do not.
The perfect mix for your own site is up to you. I try to add a couple of related images to each post on this blog and if I find an ad unit that feels like it belongs in the post I include it. If I can't find something that fits well I am likely to drop it at the very bottom of the post or at the very beginning. Why there? Because an out of place ad unit in the middle of an article is very distracting and annoying to the reader.
Placement of ads is an art form but it's not my secret.
When most people pick the ads that will appear on their site they often think only of the visitor and what will appeal to them. This works when the visitors have money to spend but what do you do when kids come to your site? You can make some money with kids clicking AdSense units but those ads give you about a penny per click. I'd rather the kid go to one of my other sites and look around rather than get paid one penny for the traffic by a third party.
I could drop the AdSense entirely but, at the moment I only show AdSense to readers who arrive via a search engine. I do this because regular readers do not click on ads and those who are searching for something will.
So, how do you make money with the more important affiliate ads? Those ads require the clicker to buy something before you get paid. If you have kids clicking on those ad units (and not buying things) how do you make your money? It depends on the age of the kid.
If the kid is a teenager or older there is a chance they might buy something online. If they are younger than 12 odds are they can not buy anything online and thus that click earned you nothing. You might be thinking that penny is better than nothing but you are wrong and not thinking things all the way through.
As a part-time computer technician I can't tell you the number of families I know of that do not even use the most basic of Windows security; the login. Yes, I know far too many people that have everyone use the same account on the "family" computer. This is the secret.
Those ads are designed so that the visitor will click on them and they do, in large numbers every day. They are not designed to make money off of the kid; they are designed to make money off of the parents.
Picture this:
You have a kid on the Internet looking for Nancy Drew books. While perusing Google they find their way to one of my sites to read something about Nancy Drew books. Mixed throughout the article are links to various Nancy Drew books that I write about. These links lead to Amazon (as one example) and once clicked on leave a cookie on the computer the kid is using. In the end the kid buys nothing. You might think I have failed but I have not.
Several hours later Mom goes on the computer and pops over to Amazon to buy some things. Unless she has clicked on another Amazon affiliate link my cookie is still on her machine. She makes a purchase and I get the sale! Now multiply that out by 100 and you will see what one article on this site can do.
Note: I use Nancy Drew and Amazon as examples. I do not have a page where these two things are used on this site.
See, the problem is that too many webmasters only look at the primary visitor when monetizing their site. They never think about that secondary user who may never go to your site but will be browsing with your cookies on their computer.
There you have it, just one of the secrets of my online success. Use it in good wealth.
Ever since I became a Pro member at MyBlogLog I have enjoyed looking at what my readers click on and where they click it from. One of the most useful bits of information is gleaned by seeing what AdSense banners people click on from what articles.
The first picture is taken directly from my AdSense account and only shows clicks, everything else is blacked out. The second shot is from MyBlogLog which shows the two AdSense Adblocks I run on site (now only one). 
What the heck? Did Google just discount 22 of my clicks? That is a lot more than 10%!
