Following on the five tips on AdSense for content optimization our Sydney team presented a couple weeks back, now let’s turn to AdSense for search. As you may know, we recently integrated Custom Search Engine into AdSense for search to provide additional customization options and improved targeting. Whether you’ve already implemented an AdSense for search box on your site or you’re just getting started with this feature, we recommend these five optimization tips:Place your search boxes in visible locations.Integrate your search boxes in easy-to-find locations, such as under the header or in your left navigation. Also, keep the placement of your search boxes consistent on all your pages, so users will know where to look if they need help finding something.Add two search boxes to content-rich pages.For pages with a lot of content or which require scrolling, try placing one search box at the top of the page and another at the bottom. A box at the top of the page will allow users to perform a search immediately, and a box at the bottom will provide a search option to users who’ve just finished reading your content. You can also track and compare the performance of each search box by creating custom channels.Host your search results on your own site.To keep users on your pages, you can host your search results and ads within your own pages. If your users don’t find what they’re looking for in the search results or ads, they’ll still be able to to navigate to other sections of your site using your site’s template. In addition, you can further integrate your search results into your site by customizing the colors of the results page.Add a search box to your search results pages.Similar to #3, try placing a search box on your search results pages so users can perform additional searches from your site.Customize your ad locations.Place ads at the top and right sidebar of your search results pages. This layout offers added visibility, and our tests have shown that these ad locations can improve monetization.After you’ve optimized where search boxes are placed on your site, don’t forget to try new targeting options such as keyword refinements and vertical search. To generate AdSense for search code and take advantage of these features, sign in and visit your AdSense Setup tab. You can also find more information in our Help Center.Posted by Sandra Tsui - AdSense Publisher Support
Quick Money or Residual Income
When people starts making money online, they may face a situation like this many times, where they have to decide whether to go for making some quick money right now or go for slow but steady residual income which will come with time.
Many people ask me how do I make money from this blog? Some advertisers who want to buy advertising space on my blog ask me why it always shows ’sold out’ or ‘not available’, even when I have Kontera and Casale Media ads running on my 125×125 banner space.
How do I make money? Or which type of money I prefer to make?
I try to make the “one time money” as well as “residual money” from my blog. Only two of my six 125×125 banners are sold to direct advertisers. On other four, I run banners from advertising networks (currently, Kontera, Casale Media, TNX, and ValueClickMedia) which make me residual income.
So, I have to choose whether I have to go for $50/month (one time) sort of revenue or should I increase my number of referrals on these advertising networks. These 4 networks combined makes me some good residual income (in middle $XXXX), as total number of referrals in these 4 network (combined) are more than 1000.
Other than these I make residual income from NeverBlueAds (making in $1XX/month), Market Health (making $3XX/month) and LE Cash (making $2XX/month). All these earnings are residual. Means, even if I stop promoting them today, my referrals will keep making money for me for the life time. If I keep promoting them, it will just increase with time.
But than, that does mean I never go for short term money. I do keep three banners (two 125×125 and one 468×60 footer) for sale, which bring in $150/month. Also, I do make one time money from various offers. Like for example I made $2XX from this pepperjam post and another $2XX from this back links post.
There are many other posts which are earning me good money as well. For example this and this post combined bring in around $5XX every month with CJ. And, this link still brings in $6XX in Adsense referrals (which is expiring soon). Then, this post on LPWhiz is making me around $48/month in residual income.
There are many other similar posts which I have made in the past, or similar programs which I have discussed in the post, which have either earned me some lump-sum in one go or they keep earning me residual income as of today.
So what sort of income do I prefer. Well, I prefer money coming in as residual income, but I also don’t want to leave any chances of earning the money in one go. But when there is a trade-off, I prefer residual income.
Residual income takes time and patience. Only one in ten or one in 20 of your referrals will actually make you money in long term. So, be patience and keep earning. Best of luck.