It is easier to use a plugin to display Google Adsense ads across your website than to manually input the code on each post. It is also more effective to embed ads within the posts as opposed to solely displaying them on the sidebars with Widgets. I use the plugin called All-in-One Adsense and YPN to manage the advertisements that appear within my posts.
You can view the developers website at: http://www.linewbie.com/wordpress-plugins/all-in-one-adsense-and-ypn
I chose All-in-One over other Adsense WordPress plugins because it is the most customizable and the developer updates it, which is necessary because new versions of WordPress are released several times a year.
The customization options for All-in-One include the following (from the Settings page):
Adsense ID and Channel number
Ad type: Text, Image, or both
Cornerstyle: Square, Slightly Rounded, Very Rounded
Ad sizes to display: 125×125, 180×150, 234×60, 200×200, 250×250, 300×250, 336×280, 120×600, 160×600, 120×240, 468×60, 728×90
Color options.
Number of Ads to Show per Page: 0, 1, 2, 3
Number of Ads to Show per Post: 0, 1, 2, 3
Ad Positioning: random, left, right, center, top left, top right, top center, bottom left, bottom right, bottom center
Add space between ad and blog text: 0-15 pixels
Code before/after ad (html or text): whatever you want
Don’t Show On These Pages (check box): Home, static pages, post pages, category pages, archive pages
Only let myself see the ads (useful for testing)
Don’t show ads to myself (for avoiding accidental clicks)
The options above in bold are extremely important. First know that Google Adsense only allows you to display up to three ad blocks on each page. But you don’t always want three!
Here’s why… The commission from someone clicking on an advertisement is based off the price that the advertiser pays Google. The higher the cost of the ad, the more you make. The cost-per-click is most expensive for the top placement.
Adsense displays ads that are relevant to the subject of your post. Let’s say for example I write an article about “North Carolina Real Estate Brokers”. A real estate agency that pays for NC real estate keywords might be paying top dollar per click (sometimes higher than $5 a click depending on the area).
However, the difference in price for each position can be substantial. For example, to be in the number one ad position for “real estate broker” could cost $4.25 per click. But position number 5 only costs $0.25. And position number 9 only costs $0.05.
In that hypothetical, but not uncommon, situation–it is better to only have one ad unit that, say, displays five links. Past the fifth position, the cost of the ad drops by several dollars, and so does your affiliate commission.
Do you see what I mean? Too many advertisements can flood the page and turn off your readers, and they can also take away from the money you could earn by having less ads. I prefer that my readers click on top position ads (position 1 through 3) so I only display one or two Adsense blocks on my website.
I recommend All-in-One for Google Adsense. This plugin is to specifically manage the Adsense ads on my website and does not handle my affiliate advertising campaigns.
Understand that Adsense is only a small portion of this site’s advertising revenue. I continue to use it however because I like the relevancy of the ads that Adsense displays. Also, using Google services makes my website more visible to Google’s search engine.
You can see All-in-One Adsense Plugin in action right here on this page.
View the #plugins tag for a complete list of the WordPress plugins in use at AdventurePaul.com.
