I’m not sure if this is ironic, enlightening, or somewhere in between, but I definitely think that it is some food for thought. As an aspiring blogger looking to supplement my freelance writing income, I’m always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to monetize my blog. Beyond the Rhetoric has been around for over a year now and I can say with pride that it has experienced a substantial level of growth since its inception. My current RSS subscriber count is up to 47, I get over 8000 visitors a month, and both my Technorati and Alexa rankings are the highest best they have ever been. These numbers may pale in comparison to someone like John Chow, but they are quite the achievement for the “rookie blogger.”

To some people, Google Adsense is the be-all and end-all when it comes to making money blogging. Clearly, this is not really the case, because there are an abundance of other options out there like Text Link Ads and PayPerPost. But in the end, you still want to maximize your potential income from Adsense and there are several schools of thought on this.


Many have said that the inline 300 box — as I’ve used it above — is the most lucrative ad placement. I know that this has been true for this blog, particularly when compared to the 468×60 banner I used to place at the bottom of posts. It’s also important to integrate the ads so that they match the color scheme of your site and so on. But an issue that has come up is just how far should you go with placing your ads? The rookie blogger will just fill the page with ads, cramming as much money-making potential into that virtual real estate, but is this really the best strategy?

Jane May wrote some time back that less is more when it comes to Google Adsense. This is because advertisers bid on certain keywords and the top bidder gets the top spot in the ad placements, the second highest bidder gets the second spot, and so on. If you fill your website with ads, you’re allowing the cheaper bids to get in, and thus, you make less money with each click. Makes sense, right? Well, check out this “optimization report” that I got from Google:

June 2007 Optimization Report

Dear Publisher,

Here is your optimization report for the month of June. After an automatic review of your sites, we think you might be able to improve your monetization using the following tips:

Placing more than one ad unit on a page often generates more revenue.
Many of your sites only contain one ad unit.
How can I fix this? Dismiss this tip.

We hope these tips are helpful, and encourage you to experiment using different layouts and formats–no two sites monetize the same way!

Sincerely,
Google Adsense

So, which is it? Should I be placing fewer Adsense ads or should I be placing more? Well, here’s my gut reaction to the “optimization report.”

The auto-bot that sifts through your site and provides this report probably doesn’t recognize the other ad networks you may have running on your blog. As such, it might not notice the AuctionAds I have on the sidebar and most definitely doesn’t know whether a post is sponsored by ReviewMe or not. As such, this bot probably “thinks” that I really only have one ad running on each page, and if this were true, it would be correct to say that I am not maximizing the income potential of each page.

I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. So, my response to this suggested change is… to simply keep the status quo. I’ll continue to run the single 300 inline box alongside the other ad networks. What about you? What suggestions for Google Adsense optimization have you received?