Hi, I am relativly new to AdSense and have recently set it up on my fairly high traffic music social networking website (currently around 2000 visitors per day). www.House-Mixes.com I have placed various adverts around the site so far but my CTR seems to be very low (well under 1%), my eCPM is just over $1. Can anyone give some advice on where and what kinds of adverts i should be using to maximise my clicks / profit. Many thanks in advance! Paul Hinett http://www.house-mixes.com
hi Paul, Firstly, love the site! Secondly, and maybe this isn't the answer you were hoping for, but it would seem that your adsense units have actually been placed pretty well. The best that I can advise is to have a play around with sizes, link colours, positions etc and make sure you track every change that you make Only make one change at a time and track the performance of that change. Then compare it against how the ad was before It does take a bit of time, but it's worth it in the end!
I think you missed an important point man ... honestly , social network traffic its good ( its really good but isn't '' focused '' traffic ... I mean your visitors come there just because someone invited them , or they are look about someone .. those peoples aren't looking for ads or for some other things ... they are focused on the site per se ... ) .... So adsense I think is bad idea for social network ( at least for one network arleady with some traffic ... ) I think better you can try to look for other ways to monetize your site ....
that is so true - I literally have just come straight back to make the same point! gutted I missed it!! you may want to explore other means of advertising - for example selling banner space. As you have quite high traffic through your site, if you find someone looking to buy music related adspace you could be onto a winner! (thatnks for pointing that out)
Well it's not actually a social network site, it's a website for DJ's to upload mp3 mixes free, and music fans to listen to the mixes they have uploaded too. So the main reason for people to come to the site is to listen to music and upload music rather than to chat and make friends.
essentially though, it is a means of social networking - however, a site like yours functions similar to that of a social network site in terms of ad CTR and eCPM etc i would definitely recommend at least exploring other more suitable means of advertising....maybe combine the two if you like adsense, that's what I do anyways
Hi and thanks for your comments! What would you think is the best way to find companies willing to pay for advertising space? Do i contact them or do i advertise on my site? Also, what kind of pricing structure would I use for a site with my kind of audience / traffic stats? Thanks again!! Paul Hinett
What kind of website do you run? Is it social networking? How many visitors do you get visit your site per day on average? Thanks. Paul
there are various different methods - there are forums here dedicated to it! - I use buysellads.com - Digital Point 'Buy/Sell Advertising' Thread - Sitepoint marketplace - I also advertise on my own sites - and also, value click media hope this helps
You want to put little square pictures (of record album covers for example) next to each Adsense ad (4). That will help with the CTR I'm sure. But don't do it to mislead people - Google will catch you.
thanks for the comments so far, very helpful! However, will i not get into trouble for placing images next to the ads? doesn't this vialate the Google T&C's ?? Thanks, Paul
Hi ads next to images are not allowed anymore. I think you have a wonderful site! ( I like the music!! ) But... it is not a site to click ads. People click ads in general because they want more information or more services... At your site they want to listen music, so why to click an ad and leave? Maybe you can try to switch to dj gear affiliates or whatever dj/music/rave affiliates... Good luck!
Thanks for the comments Eka! Appreciate it!! I think i'm going to accept that AdWords just isn't going to make me a millionaire. I've earned an average of 10 dollars per day so far so thats around 3500 dollars for the year...will go towards the cost of the hefty server needed to keep things running. I will definetly look into the other options I have available to me though. Thanks everyone! Paul
I have only placed them in several places. on the homepage, on the genre listing pages, the left hand menu and a few other places once logged in. Is there somewhere obvious you think I should be placing one that I have missed? Thanks.