Using Adsense Custom Channels on Blogger

It’s very important to track your ads and Blogger doesn’t allow using customs channels by default. This step-by-step article will equip you to place your Google Adsense Ad code along with Adsense Custom Channels on Blogger.

1. Get the Ad code
All of you know that this is done from the Setup tab in your adsense dashboard. What’s important is setting up the custom channels when you do this. Name your channels such that you can easily figure out which ad units they represent. An easy way keep mistakes at bay is to follow a naming convention like this: SiteName_Position_Size_Colour (ex: - mysite_toprt_336x280_blue)


Getting the ad code from Adsense Setup

2. Blogger Layout
Log into your Blogger account and navigate to the Layout tab and then to the Page Elements tab. Now, you will be able to see the layout of your blog.


Navigating to Page Elements in Blogger

3. Adding a Gadget
You will be able to see many “Add a Gadget” links in your layout like the one shown below. Click on any one of these and you will see a pop up window with many gadgets to choose from. From this list, select the “HTML/JavaScript” gadget.


Finding the "Add Gadget"

Choosing "HTML / JavaScript"

4. Pasting the Code
On selecting the “HTML/JavaScript” gadget, you will be shown a pop-up like the one shown below. It will have spaces for a title and content. Leave the title field blank and paste the ad code that you generated in step 1 into the content space provided. Press save and the pop up window closes.


Pasting the Adsense Code

5. Placing the HTML/JavaScript Gadget
You have just now created an HTML Gadget. By default, this gadget would be placed just below the “Add a Gadget” you started off with in step 3. Now you need to move it to the best position for maximum CTR. How do you do it? Just click this gadget, drag and drop it to the desired position.


Default position of the newly added gadget


Moving the gadget to a desired position

6. Previewing and Saving
Now press the preview button and a pop-up with how you blog would look after the changes, would open up. You can look at the preview and see how your das would look. If you are not happy with the placement, close the preview window and go back to step 5. Use a different position now.


Previewing your blog using preview button

Once you are happy with the position, close the preview window and hit the save button!

The preview and save buttons

You are done with implementing adsense with custom channels on your blogger blog. Now it’s time to view your blog and start looking at some detailed adsense reports!

Hope you will find this post useful. Please let me know if you have any questions.

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14 Simple Mistakes that Will Get You banned from Adsense!

"To err is human, to forgive is devine"
But when it comes to these mistakes, Google seems not to be divine!
Are you doing any of these by mistake? Google won't spare you either!

Google wants all adsense publishers to follow their program policies and they are pretty strict at that. Once a publisher is banned means he is banned for life!

Did you know that you get banned from adsense by doing any / all of these? Are you doing any of these by mistake?

1. Clicking your own ads
Most of the publishers who start off new do this. It’s like killing the goose that lays golden eggs. It’s simply not worth the risk!

2. Using tools that artificially increase clicks / impressions
There are tools and browsers that can do this. Keep away from them.

3. Asking friends to click
Again, one of the most common mistakes. I have seen it posted at many forums, ‘Click mine, I will click yours’. Friends, you have got a long way to go. Think long term. You can earn huge with Adsense.

4. Joining click exchange sites
As you may be aware, there are a number of such places on the Internet. While they can give you some instant money, they are not advisable for long term. Stay away from them; they are against the TOS.

5. Giving incentives for users to click on ads
There are some sites that say, ‘you can download the stuff we have, but do us a favour by clicking our ads’ It takes just minutes before you get banned if someone from Google sees this. How does someone from Google see this, you thought, right? Imagine you are an advertiser with Adwords, will you report such a site to Google if you happen to see one?

6. Support us by clicking
Asking users to support a site by visiting their sponsors is yet another way to get you banned.

7. Placing ads under confusing heading
Placing ads under a heading? Are you using a different heading than the ones that are allowed? Sponsors and Advertisements are the ones that are allowed. One of the mistakes is to place it under a heading like ‘Suggest resources’

8. Inviting unwanted attention towards ads
Using gimmicks to invite attention to your ads is against the TOS. You may use a different colour for your ads to make it stand out!



9. Displaying ads in sites that do not comply with TOS
Do not place your ads on site pages that has any / all of the below content!

10. Displaying ads on pages that have look alike ads
Users should not confuse other ads that look alike Google ads.

11. Placing ads next to images
While this would have worked wonders some time back, you should not do this as it's against the TOS now. Users could confuse the ads as the description of the images and click on them. A click should arise from genuine user interest.

12. Making ads look the same as your own links
While you need to take care to blend your ads with the site, be careful that it shouldn't be confusing for the users. They should be able to distinguish your own links from ads.


13. Placing ads close to navigation where they can be accidentally clicked.
Keep ads away from points in your site where the user interact with clicks. This can include a point that is very close to a navigation menu, near a java script menu that passes over the ads and anything similar.



14. Editting the Adsense code!
Editting the adsense code that you have copied from the Adsense account can also get you banned!

While this list is not exhaustive, these are the easiest ways to get banned from adsense. Stay tuned for that article that shows how you may get banned without even knowing about it.

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Understanding Terms in Your Adsense Report

Once you have logged into your adsense account, you are provided access to a hand full of reports. As you know, it’s very important to track your reports. I have been getting many queries from new users regarding the terms that appear in these reports. Here comes the answer to these queries.

Page impressions
It is the number of times a page displaying Google ads is viewed. This is irrespective of the number of ad units on that page. For example if your page has 2 ad units and it gets viewed 5 times, you will have 2 as your page impression and 2*5 = 10 as your ad impression.

Clicks
A valid click is a click that results from genuine user interest and results in the user getting directed to the advertiser’s website. The number of such clicks is shown below this head.

Page CTR
CTR stands for Click through Rate. It is the percentage of users who click on your ads. Suppose you have 500 visitors and 25 of them clicks on your ads, then your CTR can be calculated as: CTR = (25/500)*100 = 5%

Page eCPM
eCPM stands for cost-per-thousand impressions. It is calculated by dividing total earnings by the number of impressions in thousands. For example, if you generate $400 from 10,000 impressions, your eCPM would be $400/ 10, or $40.00This comes in handy while you compare different channels and advertising programs.

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