Click Through Rate Relation to Niche

I am using 2 Google Adsense ads per page, one on the main page at "content bottom", and one inside articles as a vertical 2 ads inside the content at the top.

I don't think my ad placement can be any better. Also my ads blend in with the site theme. So I don't think there is much else I can do to improve CTR.

I am afraid that the topic I have, programming, provides a bad CTR and thus bad revenue. I'm getting a very low CTR on average, how is your CTR?

Should I be getting more CTR in this niche?
I know like in a gaming site CTR would be dead low for example.

Any tips on improving my ad placement or ad types or colors? (site in Sig)

 

I suggest you just try to see how it goes first. Don't assume.
Maybe you can put a small 125 x 125 on the section where it says Articles on your site.

As for your forum, maybe you can try what DP is doing right now.
Put some text links below the first post for members, or you can put a large rectangle box under the first posts for higher CTR.

 

Technology topic, including software development, that attract very tech savvy visitors don't do good in adsense.

 

You are correct,I got more donation instead adsense clicks on my development software website.Now I removed all adsense ads and replace with big button donation. And glad that's work

 

The thing is that, When you make tech savy websites, the most visitors do have knowledge about 'Adsense'. So they are unlikely to click your ads. Coz they dont wanna you earn money?? huh!?

 

You have a good site structure and blending ads, but I think the poblem is your link colour. I find it horrible when I see red all over the place, red is used to attract people's attention, reading should be relaxing for the eyes, a clean template and and easily readable colour and font should be used. I suggest you go to library and rent a book on advertising principles or something related. Changing all that red would improve user experience, bounce rate and possibly click-through rate

 

Hmm interesting stuff.
So, You're saying, more ads possibly on main page, and via articles (since I haven't reached ad limit yet).

Also, red color might not help CTR hmm. Yes I do plan on redesigning it a bit.

BTW, tech savvy people, do not click as many ads, not because they are not interested, but because they use the web so much that they have become adsense-blind. I'm considering, maybe even a little contrasting colors at least somewhat, or maybe trying image ads for a bit (any opinions about that?).

A donation button, heh, well I dunno about that, that would be a little odd.

 

I read a few books about advertising and using different advertising strategies, and also how we react to color and everything. I also was in advertising program for a semester at college. A good website to take example of is BBC. When you click their articles, you see everything is white, an image or two and the lettering is done in grey with an easy to read font. Small details like picking up the right writing font good sizes of titles and colors can make a big difference.

And yeah, my parents made me realise when I was 16 that I would be ashamed to ask a friend or someone I know to 'donate' to my website... Anyway good luck with your ads and tell me how it goes!

 

Ah I see, yeah, that's a good example.

So what color themes would you recommend?

 

In your links in general like navigation you could try putting them a darker blue to see how it goes. Also on your main page I noticed every 4 lines theres a social button of -(share, add comment,read more)- it looks like a lot to me, instead of leaving the 'share' button and similar links, it makes more sense to put it at the end of the article page, because 1 line of links on every 4 lines looks like spam lol. Also all those links that were in red, changing them in a darker blue would definitely be better than red. Red is usually used to draw attention because something could be important, for example important news or an important release, a special promotion, etc, using it like regular text is stressful for the eyes. Like I said, you could try to put your links in dark blue and maybe have a poll on your site and ask your users if they like it better, it's up to you

 

I see, I guess you're right. I was just using red because its a color of the theme, and I thought Red attracts attention so, more CTR and attention to ads I thought.