This is the part 5 of the Ultimate guide in Make money online with minisites using PPC, which is all about adding in PPC ads (Google Adsense) in your minisite effectively. In the last few parts, we’ve already setup your wordpress minisite and have installed and used the complete web design of the site. This is the most important part on this whole process, as even if you get a lot of traffic, if people don’t click the ads then you don’t earn much.

PPC ads with Google Adsense

PPC is the main life revenue stream of a minisite, if done correctly you could earn a lot of passive income. I use Google Adsense on all minisites as this is because it’s one of the easiest to apply to and is credible (it’s Google, you’ll get paid). What’s important is the CTR (Click Through Rate), which means that Out of how many people that come, how many of those click ads. So I’ll go thru my personal techniques to increase CTR.

Step 1: Where to place PPC ads

You have to think about where to place the ads in the page to ensure that it makes the most clicks. What you’d want is to place ads as close to the content as possible, however, I believe that you can’t just clutter all close to the content as it will look really dirty. You’d want to spread your ads around to make it look like a nice website than a minisite. My favorite areas to place ads are:

• Header (Usually placed beside the logo of the minisite)
• On top of content (Best to be on top of the title of the content or in the middle of the title and the actual content)
• Wrapped around the content (The paragraph wraps around the PPC ad)
• After Content (Bottom of each article / post)
• Sidebar (in the Widget section)

I don’t usually want everything cluttered into one area, it would be best to spread them all out to get the credibility of a website than a minisite.

Step 2: How many Ads are acceptable

You’re allowed to put 3 Ad units and 3 link units, provided that they’re not close to each other.

Ad Units can either be text or image or both, they come in variety of sizes. My favorite sizes are the 336×280, 300×250, 120×600 and 160×600. These are what I found most effective in my minisites.

Link ads are great as it can be blended in as normal links in a minisite, all it takes is blending it in the web design. My favorite sizes are 200×90, 728×15 and 468×15. When used well, these can earn a great deal of PPC revenues.

Step 3: Header

Ad Unit

Some WordPress themes allow you to ad ads beside the logo, either a 468×60 or 728×60 Ad Units. This is great as this is the part where it fits in the first load of the page (before scrolling). It gets a good number of clicks on my minisites.

Link Unit

If you look on the top part (black background) of the header, see how it’s disguised as links to the website but is actually link ads. Usually 728×15 or 468×15 would fit well on the header depending on the space allotted to you by the wordpress theme.

Step 4: On top of Content

Ad Unit

Ad units are great on top of the content, this is because it’s one of the places where the visitors would see first and in the area that they spend most time on. You could chose to have either an image, text or both ads in it. What’s recommended is that if it was text ads then it has to be the same font and color as the rest of the content in your minisite. I get great CTR on this but I found that Link ads do better in this area.

Link Ads

Link units are one of my favorite type of ads on top of the content, it can blend in so well that you won’t even notice that it’s an ad. There’s a special type of link ads that is one of my favorite that I use on almost all minisites that I build. It is the one that is the same as the image above. Here’s how to have it placed in your minisite:

!!!! Insert Google Adsense code Link Unit (200x90) here !!!!


 



!!!! Insert Google Adsense code Link Unit (200x90) here !!!!

All you need to do is first open the "Post Layout" under Settings in the right side of your dashboard. Copy and paste the code given above on the "Before the content" Section of Post Layout. You'll have a similar design as the image above (or like the one I have here in TechFilipino on top of this post).

Step 5: Wrapped Around the Content

Ad Units

What's great about this style is that as users fix their eyes on the content, the ads will also get a chance to capture their attention too. I found that it works well with those minisites that I have that has a lot of contents or text in it. Here's the code to wrap the content around the PPC ad:

!!!! Insert Google Adsense code Ad Unit (336x280 or 300x250) here !!!!

All you need to do is first open the "Post Layout" under Settings in the right side of your dashboard. Copy and paste the code given above on the "Before the content" Section of Post Layout. Make sure to check a post to see if the ad is in the right place. A 336x280 or 300x250 would fit well in this area.

Link Units don't really fit in this area (in my opinion).

Step 6: After the Content

Ad Unit

This is probably one of the supporting ads in the list, end of article usually isn't the most effective but can do pretty well to support the top PPC ads. I personally use 468x60 Text and Image ads in this, as I found that it doesn't need too much scroll (than the taller ones) and can fit pretty well with the content. All you need to do is first open the "Post Layout" under Settings in the right side of your dashboard. Copy and paste the code given above on the "After the content" Section of Post Layout. Check a post to see if the ad is in the right place.

Link Unit

I don't really use this much anymore as I use two link ads on the header, but usually you could add a link ad that are 468x60 on the bottom of the post. Again my thought is always, the less the scroll the better it can be seen or clicked.

Step 7: Sidebar

Ad Unit

Ad Units are the most effective in the sidebar. You could add ad units like 336x280, 300x250, 120x600 and 160x600 (Depending on the width of the sidebar). I always use both text and image ads for my sidebar ads. Depending on the width of the sidebar and how many columns are available are all what you need to consider when you choose the ad size. You can add these ads by using the Widget function (under "Appearance") and using the text widget to insert the Google Adsense code.

Link Unit

Link Units fit only to themes that have a very narrow sidebar. All you need is simply follow the background color and the text color for the ad and it should work out well for you. It is going to look more like navigation which will encourage accidental clicks.

Step 8: AD Design

Whenever I make ads, what I usually think about is the the color of the text and the background. Your main goal is to blend the ad in the minisite, so that it doesn't distract readers too much. This can be done by using the same background color as the website and the font color of the closeby texts. The more the ads look like normal links, the more people are more likely to click it.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 - Domain Name
• Part 2 - Installing WordPress
• Part 3 - Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 - WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 - PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 - Writing Minisite Contents