AdSense Optimizer Plug-in Review
11 Jun
As one of the goals of my latest project was to try and increase my AdSense earnings, I wanted to find a way of managing the adverts with minimal additional work as I add content.
Some WordPress themes have built in features for this, but as the theme I chose for my new blog was without them, I needed to find some other way of handling my AdSense ads within my content and sidebars.After reading up on and trying out several different WP plug-ins I settled on AdSense Optimizer. Having set it up and used it over both the initial blog build and my first few posts, I thought it might be of use to post a quick review of its features. Who knows it may be just what you have been looking for for your own blog project!
What is AdSense Optimizer?
Putting AdSense code into an HTML widget in your blog’s sidebar is straightforward enough, but what if you want adverts in every post, or in the middle of longer posts, or banner ads etc? What if you want to customise the appearance or colour scheme of your ads, what if you wanted to do that after your blog already had 100 posts?
All of the above things could take a considerable amount of work up front, or require in-depth skills to change your theme’s code, and also the thought of altering them retrospectively is not an enticing prospect!
AdSense Optimizer is a useful plug-in that can handle most of this work for you and give you the flexibility to easily experiment with ad placement, ad type and ad colour schemes.
Another useful aspect, is that since AdSense has strict rules on how many advert blocks can be visible on a single page, AdSense Optimizer can help you to stay within the rules. If the rules were to change in the future, it could also help you to get your blog back into compliance.
How do I Install?
Installation was painless and it did not interfere with any plug-ins I already had installed. I searched for the plug-in and used the auto-install functionality in WP, but you can just as easily download from the link above, unpack and manually copy the files into your plug-ins directory. The site also has fairly comprehensive setup instructions once you have the plug-in installed.
How Flexible is it?
Very flexible, has to be the answer to that question. Once you have put in your AdSense publisher ID and an AdSense tracking code if you want to use one, you then go on to set up what type of ads you want to display and where you want to display them.
First off, in the “Adjust Your Ads” section you can pre-define eight different ad types, name them for easy reference, set the colour scheme etc.
Then, under “Where to Show Ads”, you can set where the above ad types appear within both individual posts, and on pages with multiple posts, such as your home page and archive pages.
One other nice feature worth mentioning is the ad test. If you turn this on, then when logged into your blog as an admin you can test click your own ads without upsetting the powers that be at the big G.
All really simple and straightforward, but also very flexible.
Associated Plug-ins
One other thing that I wanted to do with my new blog was to have an AdSense category bar right across the top of the page carrying five AdSense categories. I achieved this using the AdSense on Top plug-in which is available from the same site, and requires AdSense Optimizer to be installed first.
I’ve already seen how much time and effort the AdSense Optimizer plug-in is going to save me on my new blog project, so if you are using AdSense on an existing WP blog or new project you might want to give it a try.
If you already use this plug-in or you have your own favourite plug-in for AdSense, do leave a comment a let us know what you think.
Great Review Des.
Though i am not using adsense, but i prefer to do it manually instead.
Thanks for sharing this great review.
~Dev
Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..10 Best Marketing Tips that Will Blow Your Mind
Hi Dev,
do you edit your theme’s code to insert whatever ads you use into your posts or just edit each individual post?
I’m interested to know why you prefer the manual approach.
Des,
Yeah, i edit the theme (single file) to insert the ads code.
I prefer manually because, Plugins always slow down the blog.
Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..How to Build a Strong Community Around Your Blog
Thanks Dev,
I’m not too hot on WP coding yet so I do have to rely on plug-ins for quite a lot of stuff. I try to keep them to a minimum for performance reasons as you point out.
Hi Des,
This is very useful information. On my home blog I have an auto Adsense plug-via WordPress Direct which I will leave as is, experience being, both mine and other bloggers who blog about blogging that the visitors to our sites tend to shy away from clicking Google ads. I am however gussying up some other sites (stale ones with some aged domains) and will definitely replace the auto-plugin with Adsense Optimizer, as well as some of the other sites which are not blogger directed.
Des, every time I visit here I find something that I can apply to my IM efforts. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Valentina´s last blog ..Those Doggone Blogging Blues – Having Nothing More To Say
Hi Valentina,
I’m glad you find the info useful. It would be great if you let us know how you get on with Optimizer if you give it a try.
Cool find and great review Des. While I haven’t used adsense for years (still have $33 sitting in my account) and most likely never will on a main blog, I may indeed on others; thanks for the heads-up.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Attention Commenters: VALID Email Addresses PLEASE!
Hi Dennis,
I would like to increase my AdSense results, but am very wary about making it too big a part of my overall plans.
I’m also trying out a single block of image only ads on here for the first time. Although, as Valentina pointed out, for most visitors to a mainly AM related blog, you are preaching to the converted. But I’m interested to see what results I get in any case.
Des,
Are you planning adsense on blogs where you’re also planning affiliate sales?
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Attention Commenters: VALID Email Addresses PLEASE!
Hi Dennis,
my latest project is 50/50 AdSense and Amazon. However the particular niche is for fairly low cost items on Amazon, so I’m not too concerned about losing affiliate click throughs to AdSense, as they may actually earn me as much as an individual sale.
Ah nice, anticipated my next move, lol.
Is it really that low though, I mean adsense is not much more then pennies usually.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Attention Commenters: VALID Email Addresses PLEASE!
Hi Dennis,
Well, the average item price is about $10, so unless I get a multiple sale, then at 4% an Amazon sale for this particular niche will also be pennies. I’ll have to get working on the traffic I reckon!
Des,
Do you know Paula and Wanda from AffiliateBlogOnline.com?
They make thousands each month from Amazon. If you’re serious, you might want to check them out.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..6 Blogs – 6 Blog Themes. All the Same or All Different? It’s a Branding Issue…
Hi Dennis,
I have visited their site before, but to be honest I’d forgotten how much great Amazon related stuff they have on there. They are in my RSS reader now, thanks for the heads up!
Their awesome people too, generally speaking. Never be afraid to ask questions in the comment section, or even via email.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..6 Blogs – 6 Blog Themes. All the Same or All Different? It’s a Branding Issue…
Be careful with adsense on top if you use drop down menus. It’s recently been brought to my attention that placing it underneath is against their TOS.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Attention Commenters: VALID Email Addresses PLEASE!
Thanks Dennis, useful info that I was unaware of. You can see why they might not like you to do that, as it would be very easy for people to click through by mistake.
That’s exactly it.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Attention Commenters: VALID Email Addresses PLEASE!
I’m just starting to put adsense on my blog
I hope this information can be very helpful
thanks for sharing
rososusilo´s last blog ..How to Make Money From Blogging
You’re welcome rososusilo,
thanks for visiting!
Great post, i will try use this plugin for my site .
Eseotips´s last blog ..Top 10 of SEO Tips
this is defenitely better than all other plugins i know. thank you for that.