I'm new here so i'm tossing in my contribution as a house warming tidbit. these are all tips that i personally used to get my monthly adwords checks from $180 av to $700 ave a month... I had to do different things to break the $700 mark. but these are the keys... 1) the last time I personally clicked on an ad was in DIGG. AND it was ACCIDENTAL. Then i realized that the time before was an accident too! I was just trying to bring my browser window to the front and hit a stinkin picture ad in the while area! So... now i do vertical skyscrapers to the far right along the scroll bar. this TRIPPLED 300% my CTR! 2) Place adsense ads as close to where people click on a page as possible. In a forum, you'd put your adsense ad next to the POSTREPLY button because people have dirty mouse track balls. Get it? This increased my cash by about 60% any ways... im adding more tips in my blog...
skyscrapers's are one of the smaller CTR ads out there. I never look at the side-bar when i'm reading a blog or website, the content I want is in the middle so that's where my eyes usually stay. 300% increase with a skyscrapers seems a little off, but if it's true congrats.
effe, this only works with PICTURE skyscrapers slammed against the right scroll bar... and ofcourse only for peeple who dont have a scroll wheel mouse =)
Lokki, Welcome! - Key thought is always that you give away PRECIOUS VALUABLE information so that your readers feel OBLIGATED to click on your ads just as a way to say thank you. People do that you know! =) ps... I even say a simple blank page for downloading one link with a small adsense ad on it. It made you want to click the ad just to say thanks for the free download!
Hmm, many people still think that skyscraper ad is low in CTR, but I guest that didn't apply to you. Congrats.
Hmmm... Yeah, it looks like black hat tricks, or at least grey hat tricks. And Google prohibits it, but it's strange. It says people shouldn't click in your ads accidentally, but it says you should blend perfectly your ads and content. Hmmmm... I get (in 5 or 6 blogs and sites) +400 visitors per day, but today my earnings are only US$ 1.19. I've already got about 800 ~ 1000 visitors in a day and my values aren't so different - people don't wanna click. I mean, they like to read (average time in site is increasing), but they don't wanna click. I don't say I'll use such techniques, but, I'll pay attention what our friend'll say - maybe I start to understand how to create interest in my visitors, without asking clicks, it's obvious.
i had a forum awhile back and i placed my ads in the forum description ( everyone thought they where sub forums LOL ) i also placed them in the shoutbox and thread description... if my board was active i probably would of made alot of money.. but it did increase my CTR... theres no rule against hiding your ads by google link a little bit.. infact in most books i read they say to make it hard for the bored surfer to see, just dont make the ads by google text the same color as your background.. might get in trouble for that lol... i made it the same color as the descriptions.. and put the ads by google text under the status bar fold so the only way surfers would see it is when they scrolled down my page ( not much content down there LOL ) the lazy surfer only looks for valuable content.. so putting all my valuable content above the status bar did wonders for my CTR
I think you should then select colors for your ads GA for the red color bar similar to your sidebar. And people may mistakenly think GA ads that can link is 1.
sparkah's tips are black hat, basing your revenue on accidental clicks is a terrible business strategy and will land you in the smart pricing penalty box in the long term, or worse, you might get that dreaded "site harmful to advertisers" email from Google. Don't use them if you plan on being a serious web entrepreneur.