Having been an avid AdSense user over the past few years, naturally I’ve looked for different ways to get the most out of the program as I’ve grown accustomed to the many ways of WordPress. Each time you think you’ve run out of ways to utilize AdSense or AdSense statistics on your blog, out comes another bad-ass plugin.

So here are the top five I’ve used in a concise list.

1. AdSense Deluxe - This has been, by far, the most useful plugin I’ve ever used as far as AdSense is concerned (thus its placement on this list). If you want to place AdSense ads in your blog posts but you’ve been getting screwed up results, try this bad boy. You can do so from a nice little control panel. Want to make global changes to a specific ad set? No problem, edit it from the panel! Want to see how the ads will look on your blog? No problem, use the preview tool!
2. AdSense Widget for WordPress Sidebar - Now this plugin requires the Wordpress Sidebar plugin but makes adding AdSense ad blocks to WordPress a peice of cake. Not only is it easy to install, but it’s also very customizable — colors, size and h2 tags are all modifiable.
3. AdSense Sharing Revenue & Earnings System - Because I also use WordPress Mu to host bloggers with a friend of mine (www.zeroblogs.com), it is excellent to have a plugin that handles revenue sharing for all users. Although I did have to modify the plugin myself to make it partner-friendly, it made the actual revenue sharing portion a breeze. If you want to do AdSense sharing on a WordPress Mu site of your own, I highly recommend this plugin.
4. Author AdSense - Here is a similar plugin to the AdSense Sharing Revenue & Earnings System. You can do basically the same thing with this plugin, except the interface is a bit different. It works as it says it does though, so I felt it mention-worthy.
5. Google AdSense Earnings - For those of you who use WordPress but don’t have FireFox and can’t use the awesome and fantastic Adsense Notifier add-on — you’re in luck. The plugin allows you to put your username and password in for Google AdSense and get your current statistics. Not only that, but you can also display your stats to the public! Be careful, don’t display too much or Google will end you.

JenSense confirmed it, and I read it on ProBlogger. You can now run other contextual ad services on the same page as your Google AdSense ads, so long as they don’t resemble the AdSense ads and both services allow it:

I followed up with Google on the situation, to find out of the removal of the clause would mean that competitor’s ads would be allowed on the same page as AdSense, provided they didn’t resemble or mimic AdSense ads, and that the AdSense terms would eventually be updated to reflect this policy change. And the answer is yes!

Unfortunately, the YPN network is still not allowing other services to run ads on the same page:

Update: I spoke with Yahoo Publisher Network on this issue, and they say that as of today, page level exclusivity still exists. This means you still cannot run YPN on the same page as another contextual ad network. However, they will listen to publisher feedback on this issue and take it into consideration for future YPN terms updates.

Now personally, I don’t think you should ever have too many ads on a given web page. Three or four ads are plenty and, depending on how you’ve blended them into your design, still have the ability to look tasteful. It’s when you throw in even more ads and different networks that it becomes more annoying to look at.

What I do recommend is testing a few services at once to see which end up bringing back good revenues. For me, I will always stick with AdSense as it is not only easy to use but it has also paid me well.

AdSense gives you the option to display or not to display the “Advertise on this site” text that is shown on all of your AdSense ads. In this article, you will learn what it is for and how to disable it.

The “Advertise on this site” link on your Google ads is part of the Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up program. Using this link, advertisers can set up an ad campaign on AdWords that will target its ads directly to your site and only your site. Here is the description from the Google AdSense Help Center:

Onsite Advertiser Sign-up is an extension of Google site targeting that makes it easier for advertisers to bid on your site.

When you use Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, your ad units will display an ‘Advertise on this site’ link that takes advertisers to an informational landing page with details about your site and the Google AdWords advertising program. Advertisers who sign up through this page will be guided to create an ad targeted specifically to your site, and only your site. When more advertisers create and target ads to your site, you’ll benefit from the competition as it drives your potential earnings up.

You can customize the landing page advertisers see with the logo, color scheme, and site description of your choice, to provide advertisers with the best idea of what your site’s all about. For instructions, see our entry on How do I customize my Onsite Advertiser Sign-up page?

You do not get paid a referral fee for sign-ups as a result of people using this link, so there’s no benefit there. The benefit is in having people advertise directly on your website. So as it might be helpful, it can also be a pain if you do not WANT the text there in the first place. Here’s how to remove it:

1. Sign in to your Google AdSense account.
2. Click on the My Account tab.
3. Scroll down to find the Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up section. Click edit.
4. On the Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up page, uncheck the box next to Include me in Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up.
5. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

That’s all there is to it! In a few days, the text will disappear and you will be one step closer to being an AdSense guru!

As you may have realized by now, I like to throw a lot of relevant keywords into my posts. You’ll notice them highlighted in bold randomly throughout the text. Ever wonder why? Well, it’s because I know that AdSense will pay me more if I use the right keywords.

Google AdSense relies on keywords throughout your document as a part of its algorithm for displaying contextual ads. Words in bold are typically given more weight in this decision, therefore I bold them. If, for instance, you wanted to talk about ducks on your website, I would advise you to bold keywords like the following:

• Duck
• Donald Duck
• Duck Unlimited
• Duck Hunting
• Anaheim Duck
• Mighty Duck
• Rubber Duck
• Horny Duck
• Daffy Duck
• Howard the Duck

You might laugh, but it’s true. How do I know this? Because, according to Overture, these are the most searched-on keywords for the term ‘duck.’ So later on when people begin to search for my article, not only wil will my posts come up more often but my ads will be more relevant when they do.

“But where did you get those Overture keywords?”

Simple. I downloaded a piece of software from Softnik Technologies called Good Keywords and any time I want to look up a keyword for its possible inclusion or highlighting, I use the “Keyword Suggestions” feature and up comes a list of relevant keywords (left image).

It will even show you the amount of times each term is searched for per month. This is an excellent feature, and one people usually pay money for. Thank you Overture.

But wait, there’s more. You didn’t think I would stop with one method, did you? The next method I use to generate decent keywords is to use the AdWords Keyword Tool. If you’re familiar with AdWords, great. Otherwise, use the link at the bottom of this page to get yourself an AdWords account.

Now once inside AdWords, find the Keywords Tool under Campaign Management > Tools. Now you can perform a search on your desired keyword. When searching, make sure the “use synonyms” checkbox is checked and you have “Cost and ad position estimates” selected in the dropdown. Next, put $100 in the “Calculate Estimates using Max CPC” box. Perform your search.

When the keywords come up, sort them by “Estimated Avg. CPC.” Now you can see what people are paying for the top positions on Google searches, and therefore what will most likely lead to higher payouts from the ads on your websites. In addition, I also recommend searching by “Global search volume trends” to see which ads pay higher in which months. I recommend playing around with it to get the best results.

Another outstanding service I use to determine where to best PLACE my ads is CrazyEgg.com. With this service, you just place a bit of javascript code at the bottom of whatever web page(s) you want to track and it will not only keep track of your hits but also your clicks. In order to better track your clicks, CrazyEgg implemented an amazing tool called the Heatmap (displayed below). With this tool, you can see which areas are really hot (white hot) and which are colder (blue hot).

This is a recent example from my Adsense-Fire.com tracking. Notice the top right area where the tabs are. Placing an ad in this area is a fantastic idea as people are more likely to see the ad right below the tabs, since it is such a high-traffic click area. Similarly, it would be a smart idea to place an ad under the logo (top left) or in the vicinity of the Mailing List area.

It’s always better to track your clicks over a larger span of time or clicks, like say .. one month or 1000 clicks. With CrazyEgg, you can do it either way and you will be able to more accurately see where the white hot areas are.

For now, I hope that helps you get the better paying keywords for your content. There will be more tips on this later. Good luck!

- Scott

Just thought I’d let all of you AdSensers know that Google AdSense’s program policies have changed. You can click here to read the new policy, or take a look at the sections that will most likely affect you here.

Referrals

This one I felt was pretty cool and should help a lot of people out.

Up to two referral units from each referral product or offering may be displayed on a page, in addition to the ad units, search boxes, and link units specified above.

Competitive Ads & Services

I feel this is a necessary clarification, as some people wonder whether they may even have other ads on the same pages as their AdSense ads. You can! Just make sure those ads are in no way mistakable as an AdSense ad or you’re in violation of the terms, buddy.

“Competitive Ads and Services In order to prevent user confusion, we do not permit Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colors as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.”

Read more on this here.