Need Template and Adsense advice

[colinn]

I have looked around this forum, and become interested - I'm going to give this a try!

Right now, I would be grateful if someone could point me at a free 3 page template that is good for use with Adsense.

Problem is, I've never used Adsense - so any tips or help at optimising my site for Adsense would be useful. Thanks in advance for all advice.

 

[Systreg]

Welcome to Acorn, Colin.

You could do worse than read through the topic link below for some ideas and advice, there are also some links to Adsense templates on there:

http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/mini-sites/15996-making-domain-earn-1-week.html

 

[colinn]

Umm, yes -
Actually, it was reading that thread that got me excited. But this is a Catch22 situation - I don't know about Adsense, and a lot more, but I want to get into the minisite game.

Until you submit a site, and have it approved, you can't get into the Adsense club. I tried submitting a site, but it was not approved. I am sure it was the template that messed up - I can't work out how to change the labelling on the buttons, so "about us" leads to the second page, which is about something else, not"us"! And Adsense tells you that everything on the site must work as described.

I have a rudimentary knowledge of HTML, but I work from examples - so I can put hyperlinks and pictures in my text, change fonts and so forth, but ftp, building offline without a site builder etc. is beyond my ken, as is how to modify templates. I'm not very good as a mechanic, I'm a driver.

I asked my ISP for help - they don't "do" Adsense, they asked me for suggestions of what I need.
I don't know which template to pick, or what makes one better than another for Adsense. I need a doctor, or something.

Please don't ask to look at my site. There's a lot of work there, and if there's one thing I have learned from here, it has to be original. If someone were to lift my content,and get to Google before me, they would be the "original" and I would be the plagiarist. I am not up for a rip-off this week.

 

[leelee]

Does it matter too much what the site/template looks like to use adsense?

I have a site that is less than half finished with adsense running on it.

 

[colinn]

I'm learning some things fairly quickly ...

Re - that half-finished site - you can get away with that if you already have Adsense, but if you don't have Adsense, Google inspect your proposed site before they will let you start. If the half-finished site did not have any bad links and contained original material, it would probably be approved anyway.

I have been approved to use Adsense - I submitted another site from another ISP - but I still have a problem.

I'm setting up in the parking space. The ISP provides a 3 page parking template, which is big enough for a minisite - but the button titles cannot be changed by the user, only enabled or disabled. They were unaware of domaining, but I have explained minisites to them, and they are keen to help.

They have a very small range of templates for parking, all a bit cheesy, so they are developing a new template to appeal to domainers wishing to use Adsense on a 3 page minisite.
Now I have Adsense approval, I have been able to try it out on the minisite I have ready - and the spiders will not climb aboard if I use any of the original range of templates.
I have access to the beta test of the new template the ISP is developing, and if I use that the ads appear in seconds. Unfortunately, they also appear in areas of the template that the developers have placed scripts in, which I cannot access yet - so if I use that template, the developers get my revenue!

I was originally asking about templates so that I could show my ISP what was needed.
They have started work to improve things, but it takes time to build appropriate controls into their website. They have acted on suggestions, installed a new editor, and are being most helpful.

In the meantime, I have discovered that the right template is very important
- Adsense spiders are very sniffy sometimes. Yes, it matters - I just wish I knew enough to say why it happens.

 

[storebuilder]

I'm not very good as a mechanic, I'm a driver.

And what is needed in this situation is a mechanic. You need to learn the rudiments of building sites or pay someone to do it for you. Or make a friend who can do it for you.

The real problem here is that you are going into something that, whilst from the out side looks extremely easy is in fact very complex. There are many talents required to build successful websites and being "web savvy" is a prerequisite.

There are no "adsense spiders" - there are search engine spiders and they will index your content once you have a link pointing to your site - if you have no link no spider can find your site.

The template you use does not matter, but the content you fill it with does.

Rather than trying to bend an ISP into something that they really don't have much clue about try finding a hosting provider that supports "fantastico" and get wordpress installed. Then you can drive along to your hearts content.

 

[GreyWing]

There are some adsense tips on youtube I'm not sure how succesful they are but there are always some with tips etc on there on how to mke it perform.

 

[storebuilder]

Forgot to mention that if you search on google you can find some ready made adsense templates for wordpress and this would seem to me to be the route with the smallest learning curve for a beginner.

Your best adsense block is a rectangle top left with your content flowing around it. Check google for "adsense content hotspots" or similar which will give you the best positions to place your 'ad's.

Personally I hate mini sites because they give the impression that you can easily make a quick buck, which, whilst some good domain names undoubtedly can do that, the majority of mediocre domains can't pull enough traffic to make it work which is why I'd advise you to think about "fleshing it out" and building a 50 page or so site to begin with.

Once you have your first site done like that you can start to investigate which keywords you are getting traffic for and move on to your next site.

I don't mean to come off like a jerk with the "mechanic" line, but really, so many people see an easy route to quick cash when the reality is totally different.

Think about it - if it was that easy to put up a few pages on a few domains and rake in the cash....

I'm not saying it's not doable but those who do make it work usually have really good names that have a lot of type in's.

There is a big difference between those that have really good names that they can monetise easily and those that don't.

 

[colinn]

Storebuilder, no offence taken - you are right about needing a mechanic - I am a mechanic, but my skills are 20 years out of date, and I have never before needed to relate to the Internet - but with this game, I need to learn new skills, and I am learning fast.

My host's mechanic is telling him porkies about his templates, and I need to tell him that. Using Amaya tells me this ...

There are crawlers which are separate from the standard Google "search spiders" - it tells you that they exist within Adsense, and Google Analytics - those crawlers are separate.

I have learned enough in a couple of weeks to now believe that my innovative plan is being obfuscated by a mechanic that is not telling my host the full story.

There are two problems here. I need a semi-automated solution to optimise my minisites for Adsense.
I think my host needs a new mechanic - but I only found out today.

 

[storebuilder]

There are crawlers which are separate from the standard Google "search spiders" - it tells you that they exist within Adsense, and Google Analytics - those crawlers are separate.

.

And if that information were correct - how does it help?

 

[colinn]

Well, it works like this -

The Adsense crawlers identify the site from meta tag settings in the document head.

Because I have to use the template provided, I can only input the tags through my host's system, because the template is the document head.

It appears to me that the host's system is not setting the Google ID tags correctly.

The host's mechanic is telling him that the problem is due to the system being unable to set the publisher tag in the templates, but I do not think that is strictly accurate. I believe that is only necessary on a site which has not been registered with Google. I may be wrong.

No tags or bad tags in the head, and the Adsense crawlers don't put Adsense on the site. That's why it matters.

 

[storebuilder]

Google will determine what ad's to display on any given page by a combination of domain name, page title, page description and page content.

If you've pasted the adsense code on the page where you want the ad's to appear then that's all you need to do.

 

[grantw]

You need to forget about adsense and spend a few months learning basic html. Download some free css templates, look at the code behind them, change them, break them, fix them etc etc

Grant

 

[charlie]

parking programs like namedrive and sedo will use the same adsense architecture so if you want to make money from adsense clicks only - see these pages - they only need one keyword and your off.

but if you want to retire on your adsense you'll have to make your own pages (lots) with unique and relevant content.

like everything there arent quick wins, its either time and effort or a lot of cash. if you dont want to code the pages - get your wallet out and invest in some single word generic .coms

 

[colinn]

I hear what you are saying, people, but I am trying to exploit a cheapskate solution - I get 3 pages and a crummy template for £3.40 a year, and all I need is to get the Adsense working.

HTML is a rusty skill with me, but i am quite able to get along. The content is good, and completely original. Those are not the problems ...

I have worked out what is wrong - the site is propelled by PHP dynamics.
I have found an example on Google for how to make Adsense work with PHP, but it needs extra code in the head, which I cannot access, and a static file on the site, which I cannot upload (this is supposed to be parking space, after all).

So, can anyone suggest a way around that?

 

[colinn]

Just to enlarge on what I said above, now I know what to look for -

I have found half a dozen examples of how to get round the problem using the PHP echo function.
I have tried these in various ways, in all cases some part of what I am inserting is treated as text, so that what code is there is turning to gibberish.

If anyone can tell me how to interrupt the PHP code in the body, so that I can insert a statement and script, I would be truly grateful.

 

[bensd]

Why are you using php for a simple 3 page minisite?

 

[storebuilder]

If you fight against the technology and try bending it to uses it was not intended for without expert knowledge your inexperience will mean you spend all of your time seeing ghosts.

Put your domain on standard hosting and upload a simple HTML page with the adsense code you want to display. When you have done that you will have made progress.

You could spend another month easily trying to make something work for what it was never intended for in the first place.

Stop reinventing the wheel and start listening.