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Three Easy Ways To Make More Money With AdSense

For many publishers, Google AdSense is a major source of revenue. But most don’t put a whole lot of thought into the details of this revenue source, taking a “set it and forget it” approach to display advertising.

Tweak #1: Set Your Text vs. Image Preference

There are two primary ad types that fall under the display advertising umbrella: 1) image / rich media ads and 2) text ads. The difference is pretty obvious, but below are a couple screenshots of these two ad types in action.

Within AdSense, you have the option to choose whether your ad units will display:

Text ads only

Image/rich media ads only

Text & image/rich media ads

In our experience, text-based ads will generate more clicks and therefore more revenue for your site than image ads. But of course each site is unique; for some, image ads may deliver the superior performance. So if you have any of your ad units set to “Image/Rich Media Only” there might be an opportunity to boost revenue by bringing text ads into the mix. (The trade-off is that text ads often look less “clean” and can lower the quality impression your site makes.)

The best approach is to give Google the most flexibility to optimize your earnings for you; let it serve both text and image ads, and you’ll get the highest performing ads regardless of appearance.

How To Get There: AdSense Home >> My Ads >> [Click on Ad Unit Name] >> Select “Ad type” Dropdown

Tweak #2: Experiment With Font & Colors

If you do include text ads in your display advertising efforts, you’ll want to spend some time experimenting with the color scheme you use. The default colors you set when you set up your account are just the beginning; you can (and should) experiment with countless settings for your ad appearance.

Each site is different; often, a color scheme that blends your ad units into the rest of the site will deliver the best results. But in many cases a sharp contrast–for example, red links on a site with a green color scheme–will result in a big jump in the CTR and earnings.

How To Get There: AdSense Home >> Ad Units >> [Click on Ad Unit Name] >> Find “Ad style” Field >> Select Desired Setting

Tweak #2a: Create Some Custom Layouts

Above we showed you the path to several options for your text ad appearance. But the options AdSense provides you with are really just the tip of the iceberg; with the custom settings option you have the ability to assemble endless variations on your ad unit. Specifically, you’ll have the ability to customize:

Border color

Link color

Background color

Text color

URL color

Font type

Font size

Corner styling

Again, experiment liberally here by including both combinations that you find visually appealing and others that offer more contrast while perhaps being less aesthetically pleasing. Simply changing color schemes is of course no guarantee to boost revenue, but if you experiment enough the odds are that you’ll come across a winning combination.

How To Get There: AdSense Home >> Ad Units >> [Click on Ad Unit Name] >> Find “Ad style” Field >> Click “Use custom settings” >> Experiment!

Tweak #3: Pick Your Targets

Google is always striving to serve ads on your site that are most likely to generate clicks and earn you (and them) revenue in the process. And it generally does a pretty good job of matching up ads with publisher websites.

But there are ways for you to help out by narrowing down the types of ads that can appear on your site.

As a rule of thumb, the greater the overlap between content (the original material on your site) and creative (the ads) the greater the CTR and the higher your earnings. So Google will generally serve ads for products and services that are at least tangentially related to the topic of your site. You can lend a hand in this process by telling Google to avoid certain types of ads that might be irrelevant (or undesirable for the image of your site).

How To Get There: AdSense Home >> Allow & block ads >> General Categories

Note that you can get incredibly detailed here, diving into the specific sub-categories. For example, within the Apparel category you can drill down to Jerseys and Knit Shirts:

If you get into this, be sure to keep an eye on a couple of extremely helpful stats that AdSense provides. Comparing the % Ad Impressions and % Earnings fields tells you a lot about what’s working: if the former (% Ad Impressions) is much smaller than the latter (% Earnings), those types of ads are performing very well.

There are a few variations of this process that might be productive as well:

Banning Specific Advertisers. By selecting “Advertiser URLs” you’ll have the option to make sure certain undesirable (or competitive) ads don’t show up on your site.

Banning “Sensitive” Categories. Be sure to check out the “Sensitive categories” option; this dashboard lets you approve or disable certain types of ads with which many publishers may be uncomfortable (for example, “get rich quick” ads or pharmaceutical ads).

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Publishers: Are You Making These Seven Common Monetization Mistakes?

Website monetization is far from an exact science; there’s no manual handed out to each webmaster with the specific steps needed to get the most out of his/her site. With so many variables to each individual site, it’s often easy to overlook some of the easier tweaks that can be made to boost your site’s earnings. Below are seven common mistakes website owners make.

Mistake #1: You’ve Turned Off AdSense Text Ads

For a lot of website owners, Google AdSense (or another ad network) is a primary source of revenue. Yet many have a far-from-optimal implementation of AdSense on their websites, which means they’re effectively leaving money on the table with each visitor that comes through. One of the biggest decisions relates to serving text ads or image ads on your site: you have the option of showing only image-based ads on your site or including text ads as well.

Many get uncomfortable serving text ads, feeling that these are too “spammy” and indicative of a lower quality site. That’s probably true; a site with slick flash ads images just seems to be of higher quality than one with text ads only (note the comparison above). But it’s also undeniably true that text ads work. They make more money, all else being equal, than image-based ads. So utilizing exclusively image ads means that you’re leaving money on the table in exchange for the higher indication of quality that comes by not having text ads all over your site.

For some properties, the “brand value” derived from showing only images may make it worthwhile. But be aware that this decision costs you a significant amount of cash revenue; make sure you know just how much it costs you.

The general piece of advice here is to conduct ongoing experiments with your monetization strategies. Don’t be afraid to be constantly testing sizes, colors, layouts, and other factors in an effort to find just the right mix.

Mistake #2: You’re Running Default Color Schemes

Another easy win on the display ad side can come from literally adding a bit of color to your site. If you’re running AdSense (or a similar display ad network) on your site, odds are that you’re running the default color scheme that was in place when you initially activated your account.

Experiment with different color schemes with your AdSense ads; try colors that both blend and clash with the rest of your site and see how the CPMs change as you vary the colors.

Mistake #3: Your Site Is Suffering From “Banner Blindness”

Websites that make money primarily through display advertising often put surprisingly little thought into the layout of their page–where the content, ads, and other “calls to action” are physically located. That can have the undesirable side effect of limiting the revenue potential of your site, especially if you’re making money on a CPC basis. If you put your ads in a place where visitors are unlikely to notice them–and therefore unlikely to receive the advertisers’ messages–the performance is going to be poor.

You may be surprised at how important the page layout is, and how significant the improvement in revenue can be by thoughtfully placing banner ads within a page.

Mistake #4: You’re Missing Out On Email Addresses

If you’re not collecting email addresses and building a contact database, you need to reconsider your strategy. Email addresses are easily monetized in many verticals; there is almost always someone who would be happy to pay you for access to your audience (not to mention the fact that it provides you the flexibility to market your own products / services).

Launching a newsletter is the easiest way to encourage visitors to give you their email address (as well as generate additional pageviews by making transient visitors into repeat users). Even if you’re not quite ready to start monetizing these email addresses, you can certainly start collecting them immediately (which will increase your payout down the road).

It’s important to note that you need to also be careful about communicating your intent to monetize email addresses to your audience before you collect them; if you don’t let them know that you may send them third party advertisements from time to time, you could be setting yourself up for legal headaches.

Mistake #5: You Only Have A Single Tier Premium Package

If you sell a “premium” product or service on your site, there is a lot of work you can put into optimizing that entire process. One of the most significant changes you can make includes adding multiple tiers of service. At its simplest, this would be having both a “base” level (say $19 / month for this example) and a “gold” level that includes more features at a considerably higher price point (say $99 / month in this example).

The reason: there is a part of just about every demographic that will always pick the highest pricing tier and highest level of service. The presence of a higher pricing tier will also help to enhance the apparent value add of the lower tiers; users will feel they’re getting a bargain by taking only some of the features at a much lower price point.

Mistake #6: You’ve Overlooked In-Text Ads

Another monetization technique that perhaps gets a bad rap is in-text ads. You’ve probably seen these somewhere: linked text within a piece of content that display ads when hovered over. These text ads can be extremely effective when implemented correctly in the right niche, allowing you to reach an audience that would be otherwise banner blind.

In-text ads aren’t going to be a good fit for every site, but if you run a property in a niche with high CPC and CPM rates, you might be pleasantly surprised at the impact that throwing in text ads can have on your overall earnings.

Mistake #7: You’re Too Proud To Beg

If you have an affiliate marketing relationship in place, or if you have any kind of products / services that you sell on your site, let your audience know what they can be doing to support you (i.e., making you money by supporting your affiliate advertisers). This can be as simple as firing off an email that lets them know what they can do to make you money. Of course, you’ll want to put some thought into how you phrase it; you’ll probably be much more successful if you ask them to help you keep your content free as opposed to asking them to fund your vacations. This can be particularly effective if you provide high quality content to your audience for free; if they recognize the value you add at no cost to them, they are likely to be willing to support you.

A lot of website owners feel uncomfortable emailing their audience and asking for support. Don’t. You’ll be surprised at the response you get; being straightforward about your affiliate marketing relationships and aggressive in asking your audience for support can pay big dividends.

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How Is Monetization Measured?

As mentioned above, the amount of money you make from your website depends on 1) the volume of traffic and 2) average revenue derived from each visitor or pageview. Think of it as this formula:

Total Revenue = Pageviews x Revenue per Pageview

So the most meaningful way to measure how effectively you’re monetizing your traffic base is through Effective CPM, or eCPM. Put another way, this metric measures Total Monthly Revenue per 1,000 pageviews. So if your site has an eCPM of $3 and generates 1,000,000 monthly pageviews, you would have total monthly revenue of $3,000.

It follows that if you want to increase your bottom line revenue, there are two primary routes to do so: 1) increase your traffic or 2) increase your eCPM.

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How Much Do Websites Make?

As in many areas of business, there is a wide range when it comes to the revenue of websites. Websites that serve a relatively unattractive demographic and are poorly monetized may have eCPMs of less than $1 (meaning they generate less than $1 in total revenue for every 1,000 pageviews on the site). Websites that attract highly sought after demographics and are monetized very well can see eCPMs well in excess of $100.

Obviously, this range of eCPMs can result in very different top line revenue for two hypothetical websites of comparable size:

1,000,000 monthly pageviews x $1 CPM = $1,000 monthly revenue 

1,000,000 monthly pageviews x $100 CPM = $100,000 monthly revenue

There are a number of factors that determine how much money you can potentially make from your website:

1. Value of Audience: Different advertisers have very different ideas of quality; one company’s target market may be wholly unattractive to someone else. Generally, the wealthier an audience, the more attractive.

2. Presence of Relevant Monetization Sources: Basically, you will be able to more effectively monetize if your website operates in a niche where there are multiple companies / advertisers willing to spend to reach your audience. If no one is looking to reach your audience, it doesn’t matter how qualified they are.

3. Monetization Efficiency: This essentially refers to how well you take advantage of the opportunities available to you, and how well you get the most possible revenue out of your audience.

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5 Ways To Monetize Your Site

There are several different ways to go about monetizing a website, and different strategies will work more effectively for different types of sites. The general strategies for Web monetization are listed below.

1. Display Advertising

Most websites out there utilize display advertising to generate part of their revenues; this stream includes the banner ads that you see dozens of times each day.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Many sites operate under an affiliate model, whereby they attempt to send referrals to a partner merchant. If the referral ultimately generates revenue for the merchant, the affiliate gets a cut of the check.

3. Lead Generation

In certain niches, sites can generate qualified leads for third parties who are willing to pay on a per lead basis for information on individuals whom they believe may ultimately become paying customers.

5. eCommerce

Online stores are another moneymaker for many websites; selling goods or services online is a way to generate revenue from your traffic. Many websites operate exclusively as ecommerce sites, while others may incorporate an e-store into a content-heavy site.

5. Subscriptions / Premium

Some sites make their money primarily by selling access to their content. This can be a tough niche to break into–many major publishers have been moving away from it in recent years–but if the nut is properly cracked there can be a big pay day.

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15 Ways To Make Money On Fiverr

Fiverr.com has exploded as the premier source of micro outsourced services on the Internet. Thanks to a multi-million dollar advertising campaign, it is increasingly very hard to find people who haven’t at least heard of Fiverr. Not surprisingly, more and more businesses, both online and offline, are using the services offered on Fiverr.

As Fiverr’s ability to draw clients continues to explode, the good news is that there is more and more demand for whatever services you offer to the global market for digital services. Here are just fifteen ways you can make money on Fiverr.com. Sure, it may seem you aren’t getting paid much but if you are able to knock out these services in a very short period of time, and stack them with valuable extras, your income from Fiverr might translate to quite a hefty stash of cash.

1. Offer ebooks or reports you’ve written

Most of the services on Fiverr require that you work on a custom job for you to get paid. In other words, the client sends you specifications and you produce fresh materials based on those specifications. One of my most favorite ways of making money online turns that business model on its head. Instead of you working on new materials for every $5 order that comes your way, you can instead write a book or report once and sell it again and again to different customers. As long as you clearly spell out that you’re not selling resale rights to your work and that you retain all copyright, you should be good to go.

2. Offer social media services

It is not a surprise that a huge chunk of services offered on Fiverr involve Twitter posts, Facebook promotions, or Google Plus promotions. People are desperate to get traffic to their websites and they don’t mind paying $5 to drive traffic to their web pages.

3. Write quickly and get paid

If you are able to write very quickly, you can get paid handsomely. Seriously. If you are able to knock out 400 words in 12 minutes or less, you can rack up a base rate of $25 per hour. Not too shabby. The key is to write high quality materials so your buyers will keep coming back.

4. Use marketing software to get paid

There are all sorts of traffic generation software that you can use for a few minutes to promote clients’ sites. If the software doesn’t take much work to set up, you can make $5 for as little as a minute. That leads to a gross rate of $300 an hour.

5. Create digital drawings

If you know how to use automated photo-based drawing tools, you can create digital drawings in no time flat. People are always looking for custom graphics based on their pictures.

6. Research 

Get paid to use Google for a research project. As long as you make sure that your research is tightly focused, you should be able to do research in a very short period of time.

7. Become a virtual assistant

Depending on the country you live in, you can probably make a decent living selling an hour or two of your time doing virtual assistant work for clients you find on Fiverr.

8. Alter pictures

If you know how to clear the background off a picture using Photoshop, you can make some serious coin through Fiverr. People are always looking to get the background cropped off their pictures so they can use those pictures online.

9. Design business cards

Companies are always in need of business cards and there is no shortage of demand for people with fairly basic graphics skills who can design business cards.

10. Take pictures with signs

One of the easiest ways to make money off Fiverr is to take a picture of you holding up a sign standing next to a landmark in your area.

11. Design flyers

As the online entrepreneurship boom continues to grow, the needs for graphic design has increased exponentially.

12. Write a review

If you are a fast writer and can knock out a 400 word review in less than 12 or 10 minutes, this can be a great gig to offer. People are always in need of reviews since consumers often buy products or services after reading a review.

13. Make a video testimonial

If you look presentable and can speak professionally in front of a camera, you should offer video testimonials. This type of gig is constantly one of Fiverr’s top sellers.

14. Use software to produce SEO diagnostic results

There are tons of software that diagnose how healthy a site is in terms of SEO. You can buy such a piece of software and offer to do custom diagnoses on Fiverr. Since these software packages don’t take too long to operate, you can make quite a bit of cash.

15. Use software to find SEO keywords

The same analysis for SEO diagnosis above applies to SEO keywords. The big difference is you’re producing a report composed of keywords. There’s a huge demand for this service.

Regardless of your skill level, there something you can offer the global market for outsourced services. Get started on Fiverr today and start turning your spare time into spare cash.

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10 Easy Ways For Everyone To Make Money With Social Media

Even though it’s a relatively new industry, there are already a number of ways to make money with social media. Every major social media outlet has in some way helped users turn their hobby into a business or turn their business into a bigger business. Here are 10 common ways people make money with social media.

1. Tantalize Customers With Your Product On Pinterest

Small businesses can benefit in big ways from getting users to “pin” photos of their items on to their Pinterest boards. Create an account, engage in the community by pinning other people’s photos and upload photos that entice people to buy your product.

2. Copywriting

Twitter and Facebook can be great ways to show off your language and grammar skills. Prove yourself to be adept in the language of your choice to get yourself hired to write for a living.

3. Editing

Editors in particular have found success marketing themselves on social media, since services like Twitter and Facebook are great proofs of concept for their skills with the written word.

4. Manage Social Media

There are a lot of companies seeking someone to handle their social media presence. Sadly a fair share of those positions are internships, but there are also many paid opportunities out there. Search “social media” on job boards to find results in your area.

5. Comedy Writing

A lot of new comedians birthed their career on Twitter. 140 character jokes or funny insights can gain you a lot of attention, so if you’re a particularly clever wordsmith consider giving comedy a shot to make money with social media.

6. Promote Posts

Get your sales pitches in front of more eyeballs with promoted posts, available through almost any social media service. It’ll cost you a little cash, sure, but it could net you huge rewards.

7. Become An Amazon Affiliate

When you join Amazon’s Affiliate Program, any sales made from a link you provide to Amazon will net you a small percentage. Cultivate a following and promote specific items on your blog, then include an affiliate link to the item on Amazon so that when a follower purchases something you’ll get paid.

8. Demonstrate Your Musical Abilities On SoundCloud

SoundCloud is one of the best places to get your music noticed, and I’m not just talking about the near-impossible goal of becoming a rock star. If you know how to come up with a catchy jingle, you can post it on SoundCloud to get clients flocking to you to create music for their commercials, radio ads, etc.

9. Innovate

These are just the known ways to make money with social media. The field is so new that many more avenues are likely to open up in the future. Consider how you can utilize social media services to grow your career or even create a new one altogether!

10. Sell Your Art

Tumblr and Instagram (Tumblr especially) are great places to post original artwork and get a lot of responses and shares. If your art starts going viral, you can turn that interest into income by selling prints and other merchandise through an online store like Etsy or Big Cartel.