I wonder about a few things - there is a lot of speculation that image ads dont pay as well, and it might be that the lower eCPM and lower CTR for image ads might reduce the eCPM of the text ad block. On preview - I never heard of a site about "blocked drains" lol
If you have a MFA site I can see no reason why this would not work because you are in fact "tricking" the average guy into thinking the links are content. If your site has any content worth reading then there is no point in this strategy. This is clearly MFA.
I would have thought as long as you stick to the adsense TOS - 3 ads per page - it shouldnt matter where or how they're placed.
I need to point out to alot of people, that you are putting an ADSENSE IMAGEad next to a TEXT ad, also adsense. IF you put two square blocks next to each other, you'll see this happens naturally from googles ad placements, all he is suggesting is that you force it to display thatway, as it produces a better CTR
Seriously...all you worried warts are noobs. The dude is giving some good advice and you'll worried about nothing. There is nothing in adsense that says you can't place two ads next to each other. Ofcourse if he has a MFA that's his choice to risks his account. However props to him for getting the idea out. Even though this is an old idea that's just been tweaked to work with the terms of service.
I would suggest only having a text and image add as the text ad on the left will blend in with your website and the visitor should see them as links and not just an ad, whereas I have great ctr on the image ad.
Correct here is my complete setup: High Quality header on my website along with good navigation at the top of my website just below the header. Right below the header you then place a text ad to the left centered and an image ad to the right making sure that both ads and the header are the only things above the fold. Below that I have good quality content, my blogs are not just created to bring in adsense income however with good quality content and my ads being related and being blended in it increases ctr. Newbies give it a try and see for yourself, as I say I have been using this method a long time and have had no problems.
This trick was out long time ago. Some said it works, some said not I tested it and actually it does work but not much
Aaronlamont1, Do you mind telling me how you set it out? I mean... Do you have a blogger blog? and if yes? How did you manage to put 2 widgets side-by-side like you showed in the screenshot. Also...If you have a look at my blog you'll see that I attempted it but couldn't really replicate your placement. Can you help out? anyone? Because I actually quite think its a good strategy.
I am not sure if you are able to add the two placements side by side using a free blogger blog. I had my own domain name and free hosting that I used so I was able to position the ads myself more freely, try even using the size down and see if they will both fit in. My ads were fully visible above the fold there is a small piece of your ad below the screen, also try to blend the text links in more.
Dude. I thought of this "trick" forever ago. Notice how I said trick? Has to be against TOS. Not worth the risk. PS: I get a pretty dang good CTR with my layouts and I even have the words "sponsored links" above most of my ads.
Interesting.. looks cool to me. Hmm, thinking of rearranging my ads hoping to come up with more clicks .. wheww
Like I said before I have been using this for over a year now, its nothing new but very little people do it.
First of all you will need to boost your CTR (click through rate). The CTR depends on psychological factors such as color and location where you placed your Adsense units. I recommend you to read this post on DP about it. See this post about increasing your Adsense CTR. Secondly you will of course ask yourself how to increase the CPC of your advertisements. Because once you have a high CTR the next thing that determines your money is simply the price of the click. To understand how you can boost it you will need to understand the factors of the Coster per Click and then how to optimize the CPC. See this link.
No I don't think it's anything illegal. I've seen a lot of sites and blog using that kind of placement.