Gold Star Partner Showcase

A few weeks ago, we announced the Gold Star Partnership Showcase as an opportunity to publicly recognize some of our amazing AdSense partners.



We asked you, our blog readers, to submit your sites for consideration and to tell us why your site should be featured. After carefully reviewing each submission, we've selected three publishers that we believe clearly demonstrate the qualities we were looking for:

• Exhibiting original, engaging and useful content for users
  
  
• Adhering to the AdSense policies
• Testing and trying new ways to optimize AdSense ad placements
  
  

We'll share the stories of these three publishers over the coming weeks. Today we'd like to highlight Brandon Cornett, founder of HomeBuyingInstitute.com:

---

Site: HomeBuyingInstitute.com

Vertical: Real Estate

Name: Brandon Cornett

AdSense publisher for: 3-5 years



Tell us about your site:

“The Home Buying Institute is an educational resource for home buyers. In addition to publishing in-depth tutorials on the home-buying process, we conduct our own consumer research. We share all of this information with our readers, and at no cost. We also publish a real estate news blog that is currently included within Google News.”

What makes homebuyinginstitute.com a great AdSense partner?



“We publish unbiased information and advice for home buyers. We are not trying to sell them anything, like most housing-related websites. We are dedicated to creating a smarter class of home buyers and homeowners, to reduce the chances of another housing crisis.



We are currently finishing a major content overhaul. Over the last few months, we have been updating and/or expanding every single article on the site. More than 200 new articles have been published since March 2011.”

Why do you love AdSense?

“Revenue. Simplicity. Reach.”

---

Finally, we want to thank everyone who took the time to submit their site for consideration! It's always great to see the vast array of sites in the AdSense network, and we hope you'll continue to develop and optimize your sites.



Posted by Julia Riley, AdSense Strategic Partnerships

Read more

Sulit.com.ph lifts revenue by 50% using Custom Search Ads on the Search result pages.

Sulit in Filipino means “worth it” and refers to the deals available on Sulit.com.ph. The site helps users in Philippines locate, buy, and sell products online. Co-founder RJ recently spoke to us to describe how he optimized AdSense performance and revenue by moving from AdSense for Content to Custom Search Ads on the search result pages of Sulit. As a refresher, Custom Search Ads is a special feature that allows publishers to monetize their search results pages with targeted and customizable search ads similar to those found on Google.com.

Inside AdSense: Can you tell us a little about how and when www.sulit.com.ph got started?
RJ: Sulit.com.ph started as a project for my then-girlfriend and now-wife Arianne and I in 2006. We launched it as an experiment to understand the online market potential for our business and we wanted to determine which category the users were looking for and where we could invest as an online business.

After a few months, the traffic to the website started to grow which made us decide to push through with the classified ads site. The decision to move ahead with Sulit.com.ph proved to be a great call as Sulit has become one of the most visited websites in the Philippines today. Our purpose was to help connect Filipino buyers and sellers online, in a marketplace if you may.

IA: What role does AdSense play in your business?
RJ: By November 2006, the traffic to the website had started to increase. Since this was a bootstrap project, we did not have any business model in place at the beginning. I was using AdSense on some of my smaller websites and understood the value of having AdSense on our site. So we decided to monetize the site by using AdSense. We signed up for an account in November 2006 and got our very first AdSense check in February 2007. It was easy to use and the returns helped us grow our experiment to a full blown corporation. AdSense served as our primary revenue source while we were growing the business.

IA: Why did you decide to try out Custom Search Ads on your pages?
RJ: I received an optimization tip from the AdSense team suggesting I maximize revenue by changing from AdSense for content to AdSense for search on my search result pages. AdSense for content was an effective system as it displayed related ads to the content of a webpage. AdSense for search takes the relevancy to a whole new level and hence its more effective. The code allows us to display ads related to what the user is actually searching for. It benefits us by providing value to our users. When our users see related ads and no clutter on our search result pages, we guarantee return and loyal visitors which in turn helps our business grow.

And since the the ads are relevant we’ve seen more click and this helps us to continue providing this free service through the revenue we generate through AdSense.

IA: What were the results? Would you recommend this strategy to other publishers?
RJ: It surprised me that it is possible to serve advertising that gives value to our users. It allowed us to add more development resources in tweaking and adding more innovative features to Sulit.com.ph which is helping to get more and more users to use the website.

I’d recommend that other publishers who have a search based site consider optimizing revenue by adding Custom Search Ads on the search results. If the ads are appropriately positioned, it will provide a great user experience and also ensure that you maximize your Google AdSense returns. I would also recommend that you test the ad units on your site since you the publisher will know how the user responds, and navigates through your site best.

Since the implementation of Custom Search Ads on our site we’ve seen a 50% increase in our overall revenue through AdSense, which is fantastic!

If you have a search-based site, we encourage you to learn more about Custom Search Ads and apply to use the feature.

Posted by Amrita Kamat, AdSense Partnerships Specialist

Read more

Targeted link units bring in 25% of MyPlayCity’s online revenue.

MyPlayCity.com offers more than 350 full-version, downloadable games, all for free. Ksenia Kazak, director of marketing and PR, shared her experience with growing MyPlayCity’s revenue and improving AdSense performance just by adding link units to their pages.

Inside AdSense: Tell us a little more about MyPlayCity. When did it launch?

Ksenia Kazak: We created the site in 2006, and today have more than one million visitors daily. We offer casual games, which are easy to play, small, colorful and suitable for all ages. None of our games have time limits, and users can download them and play for as long as they want, for free. It’s great for our users, because gamers usually have to pay for their games.

IA: How do you use AdSense on your site?

KK: We’ve used AdSense from the very beginning – it was a clear choice for us. We’ve used features like AdSense for search, AdSense for feeds, and we recently implemented AdSense for games which has worked really well for us. From time to time we’ve tried using other ad networks, but they haven’t worked as well as AdSense – it is our main source of revenue.

IA: Why did you decide to start showing link units on your site?

KK: We learned about adding link units as we were setting up AdSense on our site. We’re always eager to try new things, so we decided to give link units a go. We learned that we could add up to three link units in addition to the three AdSense for content units we already have on each page, so we decided to give it a shot.

We wanted to ensure the site would stay user-friendly and create a positive user experience. So, we thought carefully about ad placement, as it’s important to us to emphasize our content and build a loyal user base that will keep coming back. Following recommendations from the AdSense team, we implemented a wide 728x15 format with four links on the top and bottom of the pages.

IA: What were the results? Would you recommend this strategy to other publishers?

KK: The link units are very efficient in terms of revenue – they bring in 25% of our total online revenue. The ads are quite targeted and they generate a huge user interest. Compared to our other AdSense for content ads, the link units perform very well. With this additional revenue from link units, we’ve been able to add more games to our collection. We’re able to improve our site and bring in a larger audience that’s increasingly loyal.

In terms of placement, our link units at the top of the page perform well, as users are more likely to see them there, yet they do not distract from the page content. At the same time, the link units also work really well at the bottom of the page, as users tend to scroll down to change the language of the site. It’s another opportunity for users to find the links. The AdSense team recommended using four link units instead of five, since the font is larger and they are more visible to the user.

I’d recommend other publishers adding link to their sites, as they are an excellent solution in limited space. They take up very little room, but the revenue is significant.

If you’d like to add link units to your site like MyPlayCity, sign in to your account today.

1. Once you’re signed in to your AdSense account, click the “My Ads” tab in the new AdSense interface
2. Scroll to the bottom of the ‘size’ drop-down and select your link unit size. We recommend trying one of our top-performing sizes: 728x15, 160x90 or 468x15
   

Once you've updated your pages, link units will appear immediately. If we haven't yet crawled your page, we may initially show your alternate ad or a 'View ads about' search box in the link unit.

Some additional link units tips and best practices from the AdSense team:

• Try wider formats with fewer links – for example, 728x15 (4 links), 160x90 (4 links), or 468x15 (4 links).
• Effective placements include the top of the page (after navigation and before page content) and at the bottom of the page (at the end of an article). Horizontal ad link units usually work better for this (728x15 and 468x15 formats).
• If the horizontal format is not adapted to your site, you can use vertical formats (such as 160x90 or 200x90) to fill small spaces in the sidebar. Or try wrapping text around the ad units inside an article to serve as a content breaker.
  

Posted by Jane Brinkley - AdSense Optimization Team

Read more

Tell us about your experience with our customized suggestions

Many of you have opted in to receive our customized suggestions about your AdSense implementation. When publishers opt in to this communication, we regularly send them best practice tips that are relevant to their specific site, to help them optimize and earn more with Google AdSense.

Take a look at how publisher Johnny Hayes now earns 51% more with AdSense on his site, funcheapsf.com, as a result of implementing one of the tips we sent him. You can also learn how publisher Eric Bort’s AdSense revenue increased by more than 200% on his site surgerysquad.com by making a change we recommended via email.

How do you sign up to receive personalized performance suggestions?
Step 1. Go to your account settings, and in the Personal settings section, click "edit"
Step 2. Check the box next to "Customized help and Suggestions"
Step 3. Click "Save"

For the publishers who’ve already opted in:
We'd love to hear your story as well. Tell us about your experiences with the tips we’ve sent you and the increase in AdSense revenue you’ve seen. Also, let us know any feedback you might have regarding our customized suggestions, so we can keep improving how we provide you with tips and advice.

If you haven't yet opted in, don’t miss out on additional earnings - opt in today! Make sure to check that the contact information in your account is up-to-date, so we'll be sure to reach you.

Posted by Nathaniel Kolenberg - Inside AdSense Team

Read more

How integrating new ad sizes helped CareerPlanner.com increase revenue by 165%

In 1997, CareerPlanner.com founder Michael Robinson decided to pursue his passion of helping people discover their true career directions. He initially wanted to go into high schools and work directly with students, but decided instead to start a website so that he could keep his day job. Today, CareerPlanner.com helps high school students, college students, and adults alike discover their optimal career paths and learn how to start careers or make career changes.

In 2007, Michael and CareerPlanner.com's top graphic designer realized that 2.5 million visitors per year weren't purchasing any CareerPlanner.com products. "These visitors were clearly looking for something, but it was not anything we offered," says Michael, so they decided to give AdSense a try. Today, AdSense is on over 95% of CareerPlanner.com’s pages and the site receives over 5.5 million visitors a year. The revenue from Google AdSense now helps fund CareerPlanner.com’s Research and Development efforts, IT expansion, as well as special marketing projects that they always wanted to try but could never afford.

Getting more out of AdSense

Following advice from the AdSense team, Michael decided to update his AdSense ad units with the goal of increasing performance. Instead of the three 120 x 600 skyscrapers that had been running one on top another down the right side of each page, Michael began running one 160x600 wide skyscraper on the left column, one 300 x 250 medium rectangle in the center, integrated into his content below the fold, and one 160 x 600 wide skyscraper on the right column. Michael also changed the color scheme of the ad units to match the color scheme of his webpages. Initially, Michael made these changes to 75% of his pages. Within one month, his AdSense for content revenue increased 80%.

The initial revenue growth CareerPlanner.com saw in the first month inspired Michael to take the time to implement the same changes on more of his pages. Today, Michael has optimized 99% of his pages and increased his AdSense for content revenue by 165%.
"The best news," says Michael, "is that since we have made the optimization changes, our Google AdSense revenue has been setting new records every month."

Sign in to your account to upgrade your ad units like CareerPlanner.com today!

Posted by Jane Brinkley - AdSense Optimization team

Read more

Surgery Squad lifts CTR and enhances revenue with a simple optimization procedure

Surgery Squad adds a third ad unit to its pages to boost performance and AdSense earnings by 200%.

SurgerySquad.com educates patients about what takes place during surgical procedures through interactive, virtual surgery modules. Creator Eric Bort recently spoke with us to describe how he’s optimized Surgery Squad’s AdSense performance and revenue by simply adding a third ad unit to his pages.

Inside AdSense: Can you tell us a little about how Surgery Squad got started?
Eric Bort: I launched Surgery Squad in August 2010 after having spent more than a decade developing corporate training and e-learning programs. As part of these programs, I’d created some virtual surgeries which were well-received, so I decided to make a website devoted to this topic. People have lots of questions about surgeries. They want to know, “What happens to my body while I’m asleep on the operating table?” It’s a very intriguing topic from a human perspective.

IA: What role does AdSense play in your business?
EB: We’ve used AdSense on Surgery Squad since its launch, because we’ve previously seen a lot of success with AdSense on some of our other sites. AdSense is currently responsible for all of Surgery Squad’s revenue. It was really quick to set up – once our account was approved, we were up and running within 10 minutes. And with the breadth of advertisers in the network, I know that AdSense will always have high quality ads to display.

IA: Why did you decide to add another ad unit to your pages?
EB: I received an optimization tip from the AdSense team suggesting I maximize revenue by adding an additional ad unit to my pages. Initially, I was wary of overwhelming visitors with ads, because it’s very important to me to create a good user experience. But I decided to give it a try because I know how important it is to test new strategies and see what works best. So, I added a third ad unit to all my pages, toward the bottom of each page.

IA: What were the results? Would you recommend this strategy to other publishers?
EB: I was surprised to see the new ad unit performing just as well, if not better, than the other two ad units. I think it’s due to visitors who scroll down to the bottom of the page to add comments, and then find ads they want in addition to our content. Our clickthrough rate has increased substantially. It’s amazing. Our eCPM has also increased 168 percent and our overall revenue earnings have grown by more than 200 percent. With this additional revenue from AdSense, we’re able to cover our costs and sustain our business. To know these costs are covered is hugely important when you’re running a small business.

I’d recommend that other publishers consider optimizing revenue by adding new ad units. If presented in the right way, ads can enhance the user experience. But it’s really important to test and see what works best with your content, format, and user behavior. Have the patience to wait and see what works and what doesn’t.

If you want to add an additional ad unit like Surgery Squad, sign in to your account today.

Posted by Meredith Blackwell - Inside AdSense team

Read more

New Interface Wednesdays: CrowdGather gets more efficient with the new AdSense interface

CrowdGather uses the new AdSense interface to efficiently track and improve performance across its large network of forums.

CrowdGather.com is a leading, publicly traded network of online forums, consisting of tens of thousands of online communities. Sanjay Sabnani, CEO of Crowdgather, recently sat down with us to share his site’s story as well as some tips on using the new AdSense interface to track and improve performance.

Inside AdSense: Tell us about the origin of your site.
Sanjay Sabnani: In 2002 I acquired my first forum, GenMay.com (short for General Mayhem), a place for off-topic humor, where gamers hang out. General Mayhem grew pretty rapidly and I started acquiring more forums, which ultimately led to the creation of CrowdGather one year later. CrowdGather now receives 5 million unique visitors a month and 90 million monthly page views across its tens of thousands of communities, including hosted forum sites Lefora and FreeForums.org.

IA: What role does AdSense play in your business?
SS: I used Google AdSense from the get-go on GenMay.com, and began using it across the entire CrowdGather network once it was established. AdSense was the first ad network I had found that I actually understood and could implement and it became a very easy way to begin to monetize. These days, AdSense is a key component for us, and we’ve worked on optimizing it across our network. We’ve found that AdSense displays the most relevant ads out of any contextual partner we’ve worked with. Since forums are very text-rich and the ads are so relevant, AdSense converts very well.

IA: I understand you’ve recently started using the new AdSense interface. What do you like about it?
SS: The new interface is like a monitoring system to ensure that all goes well across the CrowdGather network. For a network like CrowdGather comprising tens of thousands of online communities, the detailed performance reports are important tools for tracking individual site performance. We’re always looking to see if any one particular site is acting differently than the rest of the network. With the new interface, we’re able to track traffic down to that individual subdomain level which is valuable for us, since before it was all lumped together as a blanket effective CPM.

Based on the quicker feedback, we’ve been able to adjust the overall positioning and placement of the AdSense units across our network more rapidly. Before, we’d look at aggregate data for a few weeks to decide if a certain location was performing better on a certain community. Now we’re able to play around a lot more quickly, and get that feedback much quicker, in terms of testing.

IA: If you had to sum it up, what would you tell other publishers about the new interface?
SS: We can see all this data more rapidly, and get an overview of the week to see the revenue direction. The new interface has made AdSense a bigger part of our analytics routine.

If you’d like to see how the new AdSense interface can help reduce time spent managing and monitoring your account, sign in to your account and switch to the new interface (you can get there from the link in the upper corner that says “Try the new AdSense interface”). To learn more about the new reporting functionality, visit our Help Center.

Posted by Meredith Blackwell - Inside AdSense team

Read more

UpTake.com Raises its revenue to new heights with AdSense

UpTake uses the new AdSense interface to perform 10 times more analysis in the same amount of time.

UpTake.com is a search engine designed to take the time and guesswork out of the travel decision process by organizing, filtering, and tailoring recommendations on destinations, hotels, restaurants, and attractions from thousands of travel websites to individual consumer needs. UpTake’s Director of Online Marketing, Brian Piepgrass, recently shared the site’s story and gave us some tips on how using the new interface has helped the UpTake team save time managing their AdSense performance.

Inside AdSense: How did your site come about?
UpTake: We wanted to create a new kind of website for helping travelers find information they need, and take a lot less time doing it. We’ve become one of the web’s largest independent travel research sites, averaging 3 million unique users each month. Today, our vision is rapidly expanding to include family travel, international travel as well as pre-trip planning.

IA: What role does AdSense play in your business?
UpTake: UpTake started using AdSense about two years ago, and the revenue generated from AdSense plays a key role in helping us grow. AdSense has the ability to deliver relevant ads in many more destinations for us, including in dozens of small- and medium-sized markets such as Modesto and Fresno. AdSense also picks up on the semantics of individual travel pages. On romance-specific pages, for instance, AdSense might include ads for hotels with Jacuzzi suites or honeymoon packages. Without AdSense, a lot of pages wouldn’t have ads and the pages would not be as relevant. We’d have to have our own sales force go out and sell all these ads.”

IA: I understand you’ve recently started using the new AdSense interface. What do you like about it?
UpTake: The new AdSense interface has been a key time-saver. It used to take a half-hour to pull the kind of report that now we can pull in a matter of 30 seconds. We feel way more in touch with how things are trending. If revenue goes down we can much more easily figure out why and where and then go fix it. One of our favorite features is the ability to take out-of-the-box reports and tailor them specifically to our customers. We can just click on the name of a report and update to today. The system is also smart enough to know we want to see what happened last month, and we can save 20-30 reports.

IA: If you had to sum it up, what would you tell other publishers about the new interface?
Uptake: We can do 10 times more analysis than we ever used to be able to do in the same amount of time.

If you’d like to see how the new AdSense interface can help reduce time spent managing and monitoring your account, sign in to your account and switch to the new interface (you can get there from the link in the upper corner that says “Try the new AdSense interface”). To learn more about the new reporting functionality, visit our Help Center.

Posted by Nate Deoms - Inside AdSense team

Read more

Display both text and image ads for an easy change with big impact

FunCheapSF.com is an online resource for finding free or affordable events in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founder Johnny Hayes recently shared his site’s story with us and gave some tips on an easy and high impact way that he’s optimized his revenue -- by enabling both text and image/rich media ads.

Inside AdSense: How did FunCheapSF.com come about?
Johnny Hayes: I moved to San Francisco without a job and couldn’t find much work, so I had a lot of time on my hands. I spent my time hunting down cheap and free things to do in the city and, starting in 2003, began emailing my friends with a weekly list of activities. More friends found out and wanted to be added to my email list, so I decided it was time to make a real website.

IA: How did you get started with AdSense?
JH: I began using AdSense in March 2007. It was my first source of online advertising revenue. As content developed on my site and traffic grew, my AdSense revenue grew as well.

IA: Why did you decide to opt in to both text and image/rich media ads?
JH: Several months ago, I received an email from AdSense letting me know that I hadn't opted in to displaying text ads and was only displaying image ads.

I had originally chosen to only show image ads because I figured they were more aesthetically appealing to my readers. But Google’s reasoning – which made sense to me – was that even though there’s tons of advertisers using image ads, there’s a bunch more out there who are specifically bidding on text ads. If I’m only showing image ads then I’m leaving the text advertisers out of the auction. And since these text ads would only be shown on my site if they outbid image ads, why not offer this space to them?

So I decided to give the text ads a shot. It seemed like an easy thing to do that might have a positive impact on my revenue with virtually no downside.

IA: What were the results? Would you recommend this strategy to other publishers?
JH: After enabling both text and image ads on my site, I saw a 51% revenue increase and nearly a 60% increase in average eCPM. It was an easy change with a big impact. And using AdSense means I don't have to worry about the laborious task of finding and managing advertisers myself and can instead focus my time on what I like to do – writing good content, putting together a great site and growing my business. I just plugged in the AdSense code and rarely have to think about it again.

I would say to other publishers that it’s worth giving the option for both text and image ads a try. It's pretty easy to set up – I just followed the instructions in the email I had received from AdSense and it took just a few minutes. Also, set up channels to track your ads so you can see specifically which of your ad locations and ad types are monetizing well, and continue with that.

If you want to give text and image ads a try like Johnny, click here to upgrade your units now!

• Once you're signed in to your AdSense account, click the "My Ads" tab in the new AdSense interface
  
• Select all ad units
• From the "Actions" dropdown, edit ad type to "Text & Image / rich media ads"
• Set up custom channels to monitor the impact on your AdSense performance

Check out the images below to see where to enable both text and image ads in your account using the new AdSense interface:


Posted by Meredith Blackwell - Inside AdSense team

Read more

A success story made possible by AdSense

Today, we bring you a success story from India, CarDekho.com, an auto portal, who made it big in the Indian online space thanks to AdSense.

Cardekho.com is one of the top auto portals in India that assists new and used car buyers to make informed buying decisions by offering them a variety of research tools and reviews. Co-founders Amit and Anurag launched Cardekho in March 2008, like every new business venture, were struggling to monetize. Luckily, Anurag discovered AdSense and was delighted by the prospect of finding revenue without needing VC funding.

They experimented with various products and features, and found the most success using the features highlighted below:

• Filtering options help them eliminate irrelevant ads. They use this feature carefully and intelligently so they don’t unnecessarily block good revenue.
• Top banner above-the-fold (beside the logo) ad placement is the top earning slot for them.
• Placing ad units in the “F pattern” helps them optimize visibility of ads.
• Showing text ads when content on the page is mostly images and image ads when content on the page is text-heavy. This helps make the page look better and improves ad visibility.
• Channels tell them how their ads are doing and how well they can perform if placed somewhere else on the site.

Because of their AdSense revenue, the CarDekho team can focus their efforts on providing useful and quality information on their website to ensure a good user experience, rather than worrying about monetization.

Amit, co-founder, shares, “AdSense is a must-have for all sites looking forward to a sustainable and profitable business model. It may not be the primary source of income as you scale your business model to earn from other sources. AdSense does add to considerable amount of revenues generated without having to worry about hiring a sales team to sell inventory...Had it not been for AdSense, CarDekho would not have come this far without VC funding.”

Have a success story of your own? We’d love to here it. Fill out this form to let us know how AdSense has helped you and your business!

Posted by Sheeba Eustachius - AdSense India

Read more