I started to notice Google Adsense page getting auto refreshed.

I have seen it 3 times in last 10 hours. First 2 times, I thought I must gave hit the refresh button. But, third time around, I saw the page was getting refreshed.

I have to figure out what is the time interval for auto refresh.

BBpress is light weight forum created by makers of WordPress. It’s easy to install and has the same interface as WordPress.  Displaying Adsense ad within bbpress takes about 2 minutes.

Follow the steps to display adsense ad just above and below the Page Navigation

Sample Adsense in bbPress

Steps to Insert Adsense Code in bbPress

Instructions below is for the default theme kakumei.

• FTP into directory where bbpress forum is installed.
• Navigate to /example.com/bb-templates/kakumei
• Open the File topic.php
• Find the following line of code that contains php_topic_pages (array…… )
• Insert the Adsense code just below that  line
• This will display the ad above the forum topic, before posts starts
• To insert the ad after the posts (before navigation page)
• Insert the adsense coede below the line that contains “class=rss line…..php topic_rss_link”
• Refresh the Topic in the fourm and you should see the ads.

There are 2 plugins that will allow to insert adsense code in bbpress. If you want to insert the code between posts then use adsense for bbpress plugin.

From Adsesnse Blog

“The font size you choose will be applied to the body of the ad, with the title scaled appropriately. In order to fit the ad text correctly, the actual font size will vary for each format size, font face, and user-specific settings such as browsers and operating systems. In addition, some formats sizes currently have very limited room, so the font size application will be most apparent in cases where the number of ads appearing in your ad units varies automatically in order to maximize your performance.

Your ads are currently set at the default size for AdSense, which is the equivalent of ’small’. You can select a new font size on an account-wide basis in the Ad Display Preference section of your My Account tab, or on an individual ad unit basis for new and existing ad units.

If you’re creating new ad units, you can choose between the AdSense default font size, your new account-wide font size (if you’ve selected one using the instructions above), or a separate size. To update existing ad units you’ve created using the Manage Ads feature, visit the ‘Manage Ads’ page under your AdSense Setup tab. Any font size changes you make on an individual ad unit basis will be maintained even if you change your account-wide default in the future.”

This is one of the long awaited feature by most of the publishers. Go ahead and start testing the Font Size and check how ads perform for Small, Medium and Large Font Size.  I think, Medium and Large will perform better then current default small size.

Test Combination for Adsense Font Size

1. Small with your existing font size for page text
2. Medium with existing font size for page text
3. Large with existing font size for page text

1. Small with large text size ( increase the font size of post contents)
2. Medium with Large text size
3. Large with Large text size

I expect the combination in BOLD to perform better.

Based on which performs bets in above testing, you can change the Font Family of the Ads. Overall there are many possible test combinations available, it takes atleast 1 week to test single combination. Plan to spend atleast 1 to 2 months. Keep a spreadsheet with Ad Unit, Combination, CTR and Revenue for every combination. Run each test for atleast 1 week, if you don’t have enough traffic.

Google Adsesne is the best way to make money if you are just starting out as a blogger. When I started out, I was able to get first payment in second month of a brand new blog. I never had any blogging experience before. One fine day I decide to create a blog using Blogger and in matter of few minutes, blog was created.

So, when I created the first blog on July 2007, I was typical new blogger. Wrote some 15 articles in 10 days and I was expecting traffic to be automatic. So, that how it all started. You might wonder how I was able to generate more than minimum payment with brand new blog. Keep following this blog. All the details I learned and came across will be posted.

Now, I have learned a thing or two about blogging world and what works for my blogs and what doesn’t. Testing various adsense ad units and placements is never ending. Almost every day I get new idea concerning Adsense unit placement. But, I haven’t really made a record of different testing with ad units and ad networks. So, I’m going to use this blog to keep track of various testing I did with adsense and other ad networks.

Adsense Medium Rectangle (300×250)

Most of the blogger run 125×125 ad units in the sidebar. Pretty much most of the well known bloggers have 4 to 10 units of 125×125 ad units. If you have sponsors willing to advertise in your site, then its good idea to have button ad units. But for blogs that don’t have advertisers, having 125×125 in sidebar will not be of much help.

So, I decided to use one single medium rectangle adsense unit in the sidebar. I used it in various places in sidebar – above the fold, below fold, …. According to Adsense TOS, we cannot say CTR or any other details. Along with medium rectangle, I use Large Rectangle, Banner. Adsense for search within blog posts.

After observing the stats for few months, number of clicks on medium rectangle was less compared to other ad units, but revenue was more than other ad units. So, I knew readers click the ads on sidebar.

In next article, I will explain how I doubled the adsense income using medium rectangle ad unit.