Google Ads


Many bloggers find Google AdSense a good source of additional income to help defer the cost of running a server or paying ISP costs.

AdSense provides contextual ads for your blog's visitors (Figures 15a and 15b). For example, if you've written a post about taking your dog to the vet, the ads may be for veterinary products, dog breeders, dog beds, and other dog or vet-related products and services. The ads displayed change according to the content of the page on which they appear. You earn a small amount when a visitor clicks on a Google AdSense ad.

Figure 15a. As shown in this example from Miraz's blog, AdSense for Content displays ads related to the content of your blog.


Figure 15b. In Maria's blog, the ads appear as text in the page footer. Although this isn't as profitable a placement as the sidebar or top of a page, it earns some revenue and doesn't distract blog visitors.


As we explain in this section, it takes only a moment to include AdSense code in your blog.

Tips

  • These instructions assume you have already visited www.google.com/adsense, set up an AdSense account, and followed the instructions to create the AdSense for Content code for your blog. If you haven't done these things, do it now. You can find instructions on the Google AdSense site.

  • Be sure to consult the Google AdSense terms and conditions for information about what you may and may not do with AdSense code.


To add AdSense code to your blog's sidebar

1.

Follow the instructions on the Google AdSense site to create and display the AdSense for Content code for your blog (Figure 16).

Figure 16. Your AdSense code appears in a box like this.


2.

Click in the Your AdSense code box to select the code.

3.

Choose Edit > Copy or press (Windows) or (Mac OS) to copy the code to the clipboard.

4.

Open sidebar.php for your theme in a text editor.

5.

Position the insertion point where you want the Google ad to appear.

6.

Choose Edit > Paste or press (Windows) or (Mac OS) to paste in the contents of the clipboard (Figure 17).

Figure 17. Paste it into the theme file.


7.

Save the edited file.

8.

View your blog to see the ads (Figure 18).

Figure 18. The ad appears when you view the blog.


Tips

  • In most themes, the sidebar items are in a list. To maintain this formatting, you should precede the AdSense code with <li> and follow it with </li> (Figure 17).

  • When setting code options, be sure to specify dimensions for the ad that correspond to the ad location. For example, a vertical layout works best in the sidebar (Figure 18) while a horizontal layout works best in a header (Figure 15a) or footer (Figure 15b).

  • In general, visitors tend to notice and click on ads high up on the page. You can find more detailed recommendations for positioning ads at www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=17954&topic=371.





WordPress 2. Visual QuickStart Guide
WordPress 2
ISBN: 0321450191
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 142

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