Here are some of the easiest and most overlooked ways to optimize AdSense sites:

1. Test out different ad display formats to see which ones get the best results. The most recommended is the “Large Rectangle”, which is 336 pixels by 280 pixels. Most people report their highest click through rates come from the Large Rectangle. But you may find you get different results based on how your pages are laid out and what type of content you have on your pages. The way you can tell of course which display formats work best for you is to try them all and compare click through statistics on the same days of the week, when nothing else on the page has been changed.

2. Make sure you create a color palette for your ads that integrates well into the design of your site. You may think that “sore-thumb” ads attract more attention, but in reality people have learned to distinguish and ignore ads that stick out after years of being exposed to banner advertisements. All bad looking ads really do is make bad, unprofessional looking websites. Contrary to wide speculation, site visitors are much more likely to read ads that fit in well and look like they belong as part of the page’s content. But, if you don’t believe me, try an palette that really fits your page for one week and then one that really clashes for one week and compare the click through rates of the two. If you get more clicks on the sore-thumb, stick with it.

3. If you have a large site with consistent design you should not waste time putting the AdSense script into each page by hand. You should instead use server side includes (SSI), PHP includes, or ASP includes, depending on which your host makes available to you. With includes you simply put the AdSense script into a single file and then a link to it in the template you use for creating your pages. Whenever a person visits the pages the host will automatically insert the code into each page. Many newer website owners have not yet discovered the power of includes to speed up the process of making and changing pages. If this includes you, taking the time to learn includes will save you hundreds or thousands of hours over the course of time.

4. Give serious consideration to making AdSense more prominent on your page. Many site owners try to hide their AdSense as if they’re ashamed of it. Particularly, consider placing your AdSense at the top left where people will see it first upon visiting the page. If they came to your page looking for specific content and they see it first in the AdSense ad, there is a great chance they will click on the ad right away, making a deposit in your AdSense account.

Hopefully you have found at least one new thing you can do to optimize AdSense sites you own. Optimize AdSense sites can be a wonderful thing for you and your site visitors because they provide very relevant links to the content people are looking for on your sites. The better you fit your content into a tight niche category, the more value your AdSense will have for your visitors and the more click throughs you’ll get. In the ultra-competitive Web business environment, you need every advantage you can get to maintain high click through rates.

Pay special attention to any tips you get on how to optimize AdSense sites. They may not all work for you, but each thing you try in an effort to optimize AdSense sites pushes you a little closer to optimizing profits. After all, profits are why you use AdSense in the first place. The more you learn by reading, trial, and error, the more quickly you’ll be able to optimize AdSense sites you create in the future.

Even those website visitors who do not buy your products are there because something on your site appealed to them. Provide them with an opportunity to subscribe to a newsletter on the same topic that appealed to them and you can hold on to them just as if they were already a customer. Likewise, of course, you want to provide each paying customer with this newsletter that appeals to them in the same way as the products you sold to them. These people are the most likely people to be interested in the topic of the newsletter, as they’ve already shown a willingness to make a purchase related to that topic. This means they will be the most likely people to read each edition of your newsletter as you email it and thus see whatever advertisements or promotional materials you place in that newsletter.

One of the great aspects of retaining customers in this fashion is that it is so inexpensive. Even if you do not write the articles in the newsletters by yourself, paying a few dollars for a high quality article that goes out to thousands of proven customers is about the cheapest high-turnover advertising medium conceivable. Most of the newsletter management is handled almost completely by scripts you have installed, so maintenance time and costs are very low. As long as you remember to keep your newsletters interesting and related to the niche of your website, you can be sure your advertisements will get a high readership from a very well-targeted market.

Any time you are offering a new product, service, or reason why loyal subscribers would be interested in visiting your site, you just mention it in your newsletter and you have nearly free advertising with high conversion ratios. In fact, if you build loyal subscriber lists by providing highly entertaining content, it is not uncommon for your subscribers to forward the newsletters to people they know who may be interested in that topic. Since that topic is directly related to your site niche, you have just achieved viral marketing and customer retention at little or not cost.

Many people fear the use of the “unsubscribe” link when they try to build loyal subscriber lists. This should not be the case. This link provides a service to subscribers who are no longer interested in your newsletter. More importantly, any spikes in the percentages of subscribers unsubscribing can be an alert to you that something needs fixed or refined. You will then be able to investigate matters to determine if you need to make your articles either more interesting, more colorful, or more niche specific to keep your subscribers loyal.

Or, in some cases maybe you just need to give them more bonuses or good deals on your products. Free giveaways or sweepstakes, where allowed by law, can keep people reading your newsletters. Consider giving away free ebooks if they are of a high quality. Coupons are sometimes a good idea too. Having a super-sale for the first few customers to read the newsletter on a regular basis is a time-proven subscriber retention and readership booster.

Sometimes your articles may be well-written and right on topic, but your tone is turning people off your newsletter. Generally speaking, keeping the tone of your newsletter lighthearted, when applicable, will keep more of your readers. For most topics people will find this refreshing. You can diversify your tone for your topics to keep people guessing. Sometimes be humorous. Other times, be wacky. On sad topics, pull their heart strings and then end with a bright outlook for a better tomorrow. On anger-inducing topics, end with a call to action.

First of all, the old rule of the pre-Internet era still holds true, if an affiliate program requires you to pay them money before you can earn money, the program is likely a scam. At best it is untrustworthy. The whole concept is that you will be given commissions for increasing another company’s sales. Now by what kind of logic would you pay a company to allow you to increase its sales? You’re doing the  company just as profitable a favor as you are doing for yourself, so a legitimate affiliate program wouldn’t be asking for your money too. There are plenty of free programs on the Internet, so join one of those.

Internet affiliate programs that charge you a fee to join the program are not to be confused with those that you can join for free that refuse to send you payments until you have reached a certain level of sales. In fact most do this to protect themselves from having people join their programs who are not competent or serious about making sales. It costs a lot of administrative and postal money for these companies to have nonperforming affiliates, so they protect themselves by requiring you to have earned a certain amount of money before they send you a check. If you’re making regular sales this will never have an impact on you. If you’re not making regular sales, you can’t really complain that are not sending you a regular check.

Most online affiliate programs operate in essentially the same fashion. You are assigned a member number or code that is added on to links you supply to the company so that the company, or a third party, can keep track of the website visitors you send and record any sales that result from your link. Cookies are sent to the website visitors computers so that if they return and buy from that company later you will still receive credit for the sale. Internet affiliate programs vary widely on how they use cookies and for how long those cookies remain in effect. Great affiliate programs may give you credit for referring a customer for up to 180 days. Some of the more greedy merchants will only give you credit for up to 15 days after the initial referral of a website visitor.

Most of the better systems also feature an account administration login area. This area allows you to keep your contact and payment information up to date. It may also give you statistics about your sales and how much money you’ve earned. These statistics can provide you with very useful feedback to help you improve your income. For example, you can see how many people viewed your affiliate link on a certain page and what percentage of them clicked on that link. You may also be able to see what percentage of those who followed that link made a purchase, and how much the average purchase made through your affiliate link was worth. The best programs will even give you information about when a customer returns the items they bought. This can all be useful in helping your provide links that will turn your website visitors into happy affiliate partner customers. So, the more useful the stats provided, the better you’ll be able to optimize your website profits.

Not all affiliate programs require you to make a sale. Some of them will pay you for generating leads such as getting people to opt-in to a mailing list. Or, subscription service programs may continue to pay you monthly as long as the person you referred keeps his or her subscription active.

If you have any doubts about affiliate programs, you can always play it safe by only affiliating with the major companies you know. or by checking with the local Better Business Bureau. They don’t usually pay as high of a commission because they don’t have to do so. On the other hand, like buying a franchise, your customers are already familiar with the company so you may generate a lot more sales with major companies to make up for the lesser commission rates.