I started Three Wheel Revolutionwith the intent of using Google Adsense exclusively on the site. I liked the idea of contextual advertising, where Google scanned my site and determined the most appropriate ads to display, and I liked the fact that I would have one advertising account. So I set up Three Wheel Revolution to a great extent to take advantage of the ad formats that Google offers. I even went so far as to pick my theme based largely on this. But soon into the website’s public existence I started to have a change of heart.

The first thing that bugged me was that I was getting ads for all sorts of non-related products. I was getting ads for Spyder paintball guns, and mobility scooters, and cars. Since my niche was somewhat new, I didn’t expect ads for my specific focus, but nothing was getting close. Another thing that prompted change was, simply, no one was clicking on any ads placed in a certain place. I had purposefully designed the website to be able to place an ad between the navigation bar and the main content, thinking this would get the most looks, but in two weeks I didn’t get one click. The last thing that motivated change was that at first I was getting ads that paid based on the number of impressions, in other words, if you saw the ad I made money, but after a week or so Google changed that to only ads that pay when they are clicked. Google claims that there is a process by which Google determines what ads would make the site the most money, but I’ve come to believe that Google actually determines what ads cost their advertisers the least.

So my “income” from Google dropped to nothing for about a week. That’s when I implemented change.

The first thing to go was any ad format that hadn’t ever earned me a penny, from clicks or impressions. The side bar ads went out, as well as the footer ads. The only Google ads I kept were the large rectangles on the main and post screens that from time to time loaded a Cadillac ad that I got impression pay from. Though I left this, it was only to keep “some” money coming in, until I could find a better way.

I searched out an Affilliate. I wanted to advertise something I knew and I could sell to my viewers honestly. Thankfully I discovered that my favorite online motorcycle accessories store had an affiliate program. It only pays if someone buys something, but I can promote it on my site effectively because it is relevant to the site’s topic and because as a satisfied customer I give the recommendation weight. I would have replaced the side bar ad space with an ad from them, but it was two colorful, and I thought it would detract from the look of the site. So I settled on the footer banner that I use now. The color scheme fits in well, and it is non-intrusive enough to not take away from the content. I used the now open to side bar space to move up some navigation links, which I believe will get people moving through my site, and, effectively, looking at more ads that way.

The third thing I did was to learn to use the Google Adsense filter. With the filter you can “weed out” innaproriate advertisers by blacklisting them. I’ve noticed a huge improvement in the last 48 hours after implementing this strategy, I get almost exclusively motorcycle related ads now, and today I had my first click through in over a week.*

You may wonder, if all of these changes are for the better, why I haven’t changed this site’s ad placement as well. Well, two reasons, really. The first is that I get more relevant ads here, though for a lot of sites for companies I would rather you not use, since I’m trying to get you to sign up with the companies I use. The second is that, by leaving the layout the same, I can visually demonstrate through the differences in layout the progress Three Wheel Revolution was gone through.

So, at three weeks into it, would I recommend Adsense. Sure. You might get much more relevant ads than me, and, despite all I have written, it is still the only source of advertising income I have yet to see.

 *In the short space of writing this and editing it (a couple of hours) I have received two more clicks on Adsense ads.  Not a lot, but better than any other day so far.

Go to AN Hosting by clicking here.

Click on the “Get Started!” button.

In the field under “Select Domain Name”, enter the name you are interested in.  Remember NOT to enter “www.” first.

Choose the extension. 

Press the “Continue” button.

When the Screen comes up and tells you Congratulations — Domain Available, press the “Continue” button again.

The next screen will introduce you to AN Hosting’s own statistics program. Look it over and decide for yourself if you want to pay extra for it. I use third party statistic programs, so this site won’t provide any information of how to use AN Hosting’s stats program.

If you want to order the stats package, click “Yes! Add this to my account.”

If you just want the basic hosting plan, like me, click “No thanks, just hosting.”

The next page is your account information entry page, you’ll be asked your name and address, as well as credit card information. When you’ve entered the required information, press the “Continue” button.

The next page confirms your order before submitting it. You will need to check the box indicating that you have read the terms and conditions, which may be found by clicking on the hyperlink “terms and conditions.” When you are satisfied with everything, press the “Continue” button and your order will be processed.

That’s basically it. You will receive a couple of emails welcoming you to AN Hosting and providing you with links to your new account. One will be https://secure.mpcustomer.com. This is your business account, where you can upgrade you account, add another domain, etc. You won’t use this much. The other link is to your new website’s control panel. Here is where you will set everything up for your new site.

I’ll go into all that in a later post. Just jot down your login name and password somewhere handy in the mean time, and relax. It takes a few days for the new domain name to register on the internet. Until then you won’t be able to access it. This would be a good time to review exactly what you want to do, or write some posts down so that when you do launch your site, you’ve got good stuff for your viewer to read.

But you have probably noticed by now that the color is not the only difference. On Three Wheel Revolution, I don’t include ads in the side bar as I do on this site, and you may also notice that the footer banner ad on Three Wheel Revolution is not a Google ad at all. I go over in another post why I chose to change the layout of Three Wheel Revolution, mostly due to advertising decisions, but for now you need to know that how this site is laid out is the same format that Three Wheel Revolution started as, and I have left this site’s layout alone in order to provide you with a comparison between the two sites.

Once I determined my niche, I went in search of the perfect theme. All the themes I have experimented with come from a site called Theme Viewer. My criteria was straight forward; I wanted a theme that had two side bars on the same side. The reason I wanted this layout was because I had seen another site that had done something I thought at the time was brilliant; this other site had two side bars side by side, they used the outside bar for navigation information, and the inside bar for advertising. Think about it, every time a person moved their eyes and pointer from the main content to the navigation bar and back, they must cross the advertising section. Great! I also wanted to find a site that supported widgets. With all the great plugins I was learning about, and with Wordpress’s newest release supporting widgets, it seemed best to set myself up with a theme that could use them.

So I began my search and combed dozens of pages of two-side-barred, widget ready themes until I found the theme that I now use. Though I had limited my criteria to the previously mentioned two things, I was pleased to find that the theme I chose also had the following benefits: It was fast loading, it loaded content first ( a must for search engine optimization), and the files were laid out in an easy to understand manner, making modification easy. And it looked clean, and that translated into professional.

It was a good place to start. In a latter post I will go into more detail as to how I set about modifying the theme to suit my needs and why I made the changes I did.