Placing Ads
There are quite a few ad types you can put on your site. For our purposes we'll concentrate on the top two, contextual and affiliate ads.
Contextual ads are ads that when placed on your site automatically read the content of your pages and show the most relevant ads possible. We talked about this earlier in the Picking A Topic section. Based on the popularity of your site, it's conversion rate and the amount of bids on a keyword relative to your site, you will make a certain dollar amount per click for these type of ads. There are a handful of companies offering this type of ad service. The most popular is Google Adsense, which we recommend.
Affiliate ads are ads for a specific product or service that pay for conversions. That is you don't get paid for clicks you only get paid if the surfer buys something on the target site. Once again there are a few companies out there offering this service. LinkShare Corporation and Commission Junction. Both are top quality services and we recommend joining both.
Now that you have some ads picked that you want to display it's time to decide on where to put them. In general ads perform better when placed in certain spots on your site. There is a map of this made by Google called a Heat Map. Take a look at the following graphic.
This is Google's heat Map. The darker the color the better the ad performs on the site. Ads placed directly above the content perform the best, with the upper left and bottom coming in a close second. You should use the map as a guideline as not all sites are the same. This can vary based on the design of your site which you may not be able to change if you are using a blog or template for example. Most good templates and blogs will have ad space in them that is optimized according to this layout.
Don't go crazy with ads either. You should not put them everywhere there is room or clutter up your site with them. Think of yourself when doing the layout and what would draw your eye and make you click as opposed to what would make you leave the site immediately and never come back. Always think of the surfer and what they are there for and place the ads accordingly.
The best performing ads are ads that are integrated into your site. The ad type should match the content of your page and when possible pick colors that match those of your site. You may need to experiment with placement as well. Feel free to move ads around and change things up if they are not performing for you. Ask your family and friends for their opinion on the site and specifically the ad placement. Once again, every site is different depending on content and ad type so you may have to continually adjust things until you find the right combination that works for you.
