7 Adsense Affiliate Tips: Avoid These Mistakes

People are bragging about how much money they are making from the Google AdSense affiliate program... But, you've been at it for awhile and you still haven't seen a big commission check in the mail yet...

With these seven AdSense affiliate tips, you can increase your AdSense income... Up until now, no one has ever pointed out what may be preventing you from reaching your earnings objectives.  Could it be that you've been given the wrong information?

We'll look at seven mistakes that AdSense publishers make and how they should be handled.  And don't worry; the suggestions for improvement are within the AdSense terms of service so you won't get banned from using them.  After you are done reading about these mistakes, you should be able to identify if you need to make the necessary changes to your site.

So then, here are the seven mistakes AdSense affiliates make and tips to correct them...

(1) Creating Sites for the Purpose of Showing AdSense Ads

M.F.A. or "Made for AdSense," is the other term which people use to describe a site which was built for the purpose of earning AdSense affiliate commissions.  The primary purpose wasn't to serve the people of a niche market online.  No.  The site was created for the owner to make easy money from people who click ads because there is nothing else of value on that site.  No content, no real products being sold...

Tip #1: If you have a thin affiliate site, then start thinking about the market you are targeting and fatten it with information most helpful to them.

(2) Placing Ads on Blinds Spots

When the web was young, the 468 x 60 pixel banner ads where on almost every site...usually at the top before the real content below.  They were effective back then, but Internet surfers have become so used to them being ads, that now a days they ignore anything in that location.  So, placing AdSense ads in this region doesn't get as many click thrus. 

Tip #2: The best places to place your ads would be within the written content; however testing will give you a scientific answer to exactly where your site will get the most clicks.

(3) Making AdSense Ads Look Like Ads

People tend to ignore anything that looks like an ad.  The AdSense Setup tab in your account allows you to change the colors of the words, borders and background of the ads you will place on your site.  If you choose colors that clash with the colors of your site, then it will draw negative attention to those ads. 

Tip #3: For your ads, you should use colors which blend in with the color and content of your site.

(4) Not Knowing Where a Click Came From

People aren't using what AdSense calls "Channels" to help publishers track click-thrus.  These channels are assigned by you and help you figure out if clicks are coming from a specific ad format, region of your web page or an entire site.  With this click thru data, overtime it will help you determine which placement works out the best or which needs improvement. 

Tip #4: Take a closer look at the features available on your AdSense Setup tab and start creating and adding channels to your AdSense ad codes.

(5) Optimizing a Site with the Wrong Keywords

Money from the AdSense program comes from advertisers who use Google's AdWords advertising system.  They bid on keywords for placement and one of the ways price is calculate is by how much competition there is for that search term.  The greater the competition in general, the higher will be the price.  Which means, AdSense affiliate sites that have content with those keywords will most like be paid higher for clicks.  If a site is on a less popular topic, then those keywords will return a smaller commission. 

Tip: #5: To increase the pay a click delivers, make sure the content you have on your site is appropriately optimized for the higher paying keywords.  Many tools are available online to help you discover the profitable keywords or keyword phrases that should be on your site.

(6) Killing Potential Affiliate Sales

AdSense wasn't meant to replace the income a website can generate with your main products or the other affiliate products you are promoting.  The only exception would be if your site focuses on providing pure information.  Having AdSense links will make it easier for any potential buyers to leave your site.  You may earn a few cents when the visitor leaves your site, but you may have made a few dollars if the visitor stayed and turned into a buyer.   Sometimes AdSense ads will out perform the product you are selling directly. 

Tip #6: To find out if AdSense or your main product makes you more money, you have to do some testing and tracking.

(7) Not Collecting Opt-ins

Even before email marketing was born, a mailing list in the offline business world generated billions of sales for mail-order and direct marketing companies.  Successful businesses online regularly collect opt-in email addresses to stay in contact with their customers and send them promotional messages to generate additional backend sales and profits.  Many sites built to make money displaying AdSense ads don't make the effort to also collect the email address of their potential customers.  Try not to make that mistake. 

Tip #7: Put up an opt-in form on your site and offer your visitors a free report related to the topic of your site so you can collect their email addresses.

Summing Up

These are the seven AdSense affiliate mistakes that when identified and corrected, can improve your click thru rate and overall site income.  Once you've overcome the inertia to make these critical changes, soon you will be able to brag about the money you are making to people who doubted you could have a successful online business.

Copyright © 2008 by Leroy Chan, All Rights Reserved.