Update: Adsense and other NewbAffiliates!
This week has been really busy for me, I had 2 tests and an interview. However, I have still been working diligently on this blog, and I have been brain storming on ideas. One of the things that I have realized is that if I am going to be successful at this, then I am going to have to network. I think that it is real important, as an Affiliate Marketer/Blogger, to take in the fellow marketers and bloggers that have the same dream as yourself. I believe that there is plenty of room at the table for many people to make money, and a career out of Affiliate Marketing. While doing some promoting of this blog (commenting on other blogs, social bookmarking, reading other blogs) I ran across some one who is doing almost exactly what I am doing! I thought that this was really cool. His name is Eric Mitz and he has a blog called The $1000 Affiliate Experiment, and he, much like myself was also inspired by Uberaffiliate.com. He has been at it for around 3 months now and in my opinion, he is doing pretty well! Make sure to check out his blog.
Adsense
As you can see, I have put up a little experimental Adsense block over on the right side there. I figured I would throw it up there to see what happens. Also, it lets me experiment with Adsense and see the various option I have and to get a grip on how things work. So far I have actually gotten a few clicks! This was unexpected and pretty exciting for me, even if it is only a couple of dollars.
So, this got me thinking. As you can see, the Adsense code that I have there has picked up on the fact that I have been talking a lot about credit cards. Well, it’s pretty damn obvious that NO ONE really cares about signing up for a credit card when they are reading this blog. So why did I get some clicks? Perhaps they were by accident! (or pity lol) But, lets go with the possibility of people simply accidentally clicking on my Adsense ads. The great thing is, accident or not, I’m going to get paid for it, so why not try and optimize the amount of “accidents” people make when they are at my blog? Well for starters I have changed the color of the adsense block to better blend in with my links and flow better with my overall design. Perhaps this will lure the readers of my blog to accidentally, or other wise, click on my ads! The next thing that I could do would be to move the Adsense block directly into my blog posts, like this site has done. Now, I don’t think that I am really ready quite yet to move the ad block into my blog post, but perhaps it is something that you may be interested at your own blog or site that could help your Adsense profits. Just remember, “accidents” pay just as much as purposeful clicks do!
Tags: adsense affiliate marketing accidental clicks uberaffil
February 5th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Andrew:
Its actually quite easy to add an Adsense block inside your post. WordPress actually has a few plugins that will do this automatically. The one I use is “Shylock Adsense”. Type that into Google and give it a try.
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February 6th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for the link. I’ve been browsing around your blog a little bit today and there is some good stuff.
I agree with the networking thing. Im a pretty shy guy in person (and even online to an extent), so I never really know what to say to people to get a conversation started.
Yesterday, though, I decided to IM one of my affiliate managers and just introduce myself, say hi, etc. Turns out he is a super nice guy and didn’t waste any time in recommending some high converting offers for my web sites.
I would highly recommend to just start talking to people, the worst that could happen is the ignore you, and you move on.
$1000 Affiliate Experiment’s last blog post..Earnings Report: January 2008
February 6th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
A word of warning on being devious with your AdSense though - if Google were to visit your site while patrolling their AdSense users and see 1. a site with obfuscated advertisements and 2. someone writing about how they were going to make the adverts easier to accidentally click on, they may noy be amused.
I seem to recall there being clauses in the AdSense agreement covering this. I’m not saying you shouldn’t make the adverts blend better with your site - that’s just innocent visual aesthetics. Personally I don’t mind adverts within the post, as long as they are one of the small blocks like you’re currently experimenting with, and as long as you don’t have too many such blocks per post.
Just my 2c (+GST)
PS CommentLuv hated my vanilla posts feed, so let’s see if it likes a feedburner one…