Not Making Enough Money? Then Change the Channel

Trying to make (Ad)Sense of it all.

This is a post about AdSense, about split testing, about tracking your click throughs, about monetization and of course about niche sites and search engine marketing.

How to avoid learning nothing from your next marketing campaign

When I build a niche site I have a process that I follow and this process has come about through trial and error and is now at a point where I have files on my desktop that I simply upload and the site is half built. Part of this process obviously involves monetizing the sites. Now there is a gamut of affiliate programs that I am associated with and AdSense of course is one of them, not that it's an affiliate program per say, but you get my drift.

When I first started building sites I logged into my AdSense account and created the three AdSense blocks that I wanted on my sites, they being a box ad, a banner ad, and a skyscraper ad. I copied the HTML into a text file on my desktop and of course when it came time to add these blocks I simply cut and pasted them into the relevant field.

The WordPress plug-in I use to automatically add the AdSense blocks to pages/posts that I specify is called Whydowork AdSense and is available here and I highly recommend it for a no fuss easy to use plug-in. Anyway on with the show...

What I ended up with was a whole bunch of sites with AdSense all tied in to the same channel.

What Channel has the best shows?

Well this is an issue because I now have no idea! The result of the AdSense cut and paste methodology was that I had one AdSense channel and the results tell me nothing, and provide me no insight into what is, and what is not working.

How can you effectively split test if nothing is split?

This is where channels come into play. Now I never knew about the channels when I started so ignorance created so much work for me later on. Work that I am hoping you will avoid by reading this. I actually remember setting up AdSense for the first time and after creating the ad it asked me if I wanted to add it to a channel or create a new one? I remember thinking 'ummm, no,yes? I don't know, best not touch it I think. LOL (idiot)

What I failed to realise is that for each AdSense block you create, a new channel needs to be added, so my cut and paste methodology was promptly thrown out the window.

By creating a new channel for each site, you are able to track the clicks and page views and thus get an insight into what sites are the most effective and can help you optimize the next site effectively. When I realised the error of my ways it was too late. I had promoted only two sites out of the ten I had built but in my AdSense account it simply showed 2345 page views and 37 clicks. What sites were clicked, which site pages were viewed? Were they the same sites that got clicked each time or was it shared across the board? Were the two sites I promoted the ones getting all these page views or was it a combination of all of them? Do you see why channels are so important?! Cause I certainly didn't when I started. What resulted was hours of manually removing all the AdSense code from each site and then recreating and adding them via the relevant channel.

The advantages to this extend beyond the tracking and testing capabilities as you now have the ability to tweak and change the look of Ads through individual channels, so if you change the font and background colour on site A, you can simply make the same changes via the relevant channel in your AdSense account.

Channels are not just limited to AdSense either.

A lot of programs offer the ability to create channels that allow you to effectively analyse the results of your marketing efforts, including ClickBank, paydotcom and the eBay partner network just to name a few and I highly recommend learning how to effectively set up and use these channels before creating your own niche sites.

Choose different affiliate programs and test accordingly.

As I mentioned earlier, I have created a system for building sites that takes the process down to about an hour or two (researching the market and potential keywords takes about 2 hours just to put it into perspective) but within this system lies a huge floor that ironically was only realised after learning about the AdSense Channels. The issue is that all the sites are the same. Granted they are promoting COMPLETELY DIFFERENT goods and services, but generally they are laid out the same, have the same call to action, the same exit points, and the same affiliate/associate programs attached, so how can I learn what is working the best?

Yes, now I have lots of AdSense channels so I can see EXACTLY what sites are making me the most money and getting the most clicks, but what if they all perform badly?

Split testing continues...

What needs to happen is split testing from a marketing point of view, but also split testing from a site design point of view. To really get a picture of what strategies are bearing you the most fruit, you really need to split test on both sides of the fence.

It's all good and true to build 100 identical sites and then market them 100 different ways to find the most profitable method, but what if simply adding affiliate x to the footer, and changing the positioning of the AdSense block increased your click throughs and resulting profits? With your identical site set up, you will never know!

So remember to create a new channel for each and every monetization strategy you use and keep track of your marketing results so that you can get the most out of every campaign in the future.

Alex Whalley is the Keyword Blogger and blogs about Keyword Research, on and off page optimisation and niche site marketing.

Visit http://www.alexwhalley.com for more advice, insights, tips and techniques on how to get the most profitable keyword for your next marketing campaign.