Adsense and forums
Where do you put AdSense when you manage a forum? It’s the question I’m thinking about for some days now. I’m trying different approaches every once in a while until I’m satisfied.
Just before you we get started, note that forums.webscriptz.be isn’t getting a lot of visitors, this is basically because I have to deal with big competitors in the same niche of the web. Also because I’m not promoting the place because, well I’m short of time and I don’t want to spend money on something that I can earn myself by doing the work AdSense does.
I’ve got my little theories on where to put AdSense on my blog, I don’t have the very best of designs for phpbb3 but I’m thinking positive.
Header
Put your ads in the header or replace the header if you like. In my case the header was a zen something and so doesn’t go very well with web masters and programming.
I’ve putten it there because the links are right under it and users notice them very quick and maybe want to click or do it by accident. One way or the other I got the click if they missed the link for the board.
Footer
Bad place, even if I have done it on the blog, it displays so I get the impressions but it doens’t make any money. On a forum it is even more wrong to put it there because, well, how many times do you scroll till the bottom of the page?
In between forums and categories
One of the best places even if I don’t do it (yet! don’t have the time you see=> got to learn stuff), but it consumes pace and ripes the layout a part.
After the first post of a topic
A great place because the ads will be (hopefully) more accurate on the subject at hand and so users will tend to click on an ad if they see that it’s relevant to their problem or could maybe offer a solution.
But note that at all times for google adsense, stick to the rules because you don’t want to be kicked. It’s always tempting to stretch the rules but google will notice everything. And don’t over advertise your forum because if you have users that want to be on your forums and you overload them with ads they will not be pleased. They could go away or begin using software that blocks advertisments.