If you are a member of the DigitalPoint Forums you have probably noticed how the background color of the header Adsense banner changes with each page view (when not a SiteMatch image ad). This done to reduce banner blindness.

AdsenseJuggler is a new webmaster tool which alternates Adsense Colors for you.

You input all your regular Adsense information and choose what portion of the views you would like to have your colors changed. You then change your Google Adsense code to the code they provide for you.

Now your visitors will sometimes see a random predetermined color scheme, which in theory, should grab their attention and get them to click on the ads.

The website admits that this tool might not be for every website, mainly because the random colors might not flow with your website’s design. But I guess the whole point of this tool is that it makes the banners NOT flow with your website so viewers actually pay attention to them. It really probably depends on the the type of website you are using the code on but I could see it working well on forums.

If you are struggling with Your Google Adsense CTR you might want to give AdsenseJuggler a try and see if it works.

The HTML tags to emphasize a page section take the following format:

<!– google_ad_section_start –>

<!– google_ad_section_end –>

You can also designate sections you’d like to have ignored by adding a (weight=ignore) to the starting tag:

<!– google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) –>

More often you might want to use the “weight=ignore” tag.

Take a look at your webpage with Adsense and see what types of ads are being displayed. Maybe there is a particular section of text that is triggering a few ads unrelated to your page or some ads that tend to yield low per-click payouts. You can figure out which keywords tend to yield higher per-click payouts using the Google Adwords Keyword suggestion tool and the view bids feature.

Using the ignore tag could be just the solution for more relevant and higher per-click ads.

In an article named “Ads and Subtract” by Holly Sanders it says:

The search giant has notified a number of Web publishers in the last few days that they will be dropped from its popular “AdSense” program starting June 1.

The cut-off notices jolted the online ad world, where hundreds of thousands of people make money in exchange for allowing Google to place ads on their Web sites.

The easy money has led to a rise in “made-for-AdSense” Web pages that critics say clutter up the Internet and divert online searches. These content-free sites, which often are nothing more than links to other sites and a bunch of Google ads, exist solely to exploit AdSense.

The article also talks about the basics of how made-for-Adsense are used and the main reason for the crackdown:

Although Google still makes money off of these sites, they don’t like them because they hurt the quality of search results and reduce the “click through” rate for advertisers.

I probably won’t be doing another Adsense Arbitrage Case study any time soon.

Since I’ll be talking about Adsense Arbitrage every once in awhile on this blog I wanted you to realize I’ve actually tried it myself! Lastly, I do not consider myself an Adsense Arbitrage “expert” and I presently DON’T DO IT AT ALL (nor do I endorse the practice). Nevertheless, you can learn from my past and if I experiment more with it in the future.

How I setup my first PPC arbitrage page:

∙ First, I did keyword research via the Google Adwords keyword suggestion tool and discovered that “weight loss” keywords generally command pretty high CPC rates to get the top positions in Adwords.

∙ Secondly, I created a webpage and placed Adsense ads on the left, top and bottom of an article about losing weight (note that this page was not exactly pretty and was quickly setup just for an experiment).

∙ Then I used SpyFu.com and the other keyword research tools to generate a list of 800+ keywords related to “losing weight” in a matter of minutes. Remember, SpyFu.com allows you to spy on competitor’s keyword lists! I used these keywords in a new MSN Adcenter pay-per-click campaign.

Here are the results of my very first try at PPC Arbitrage:

The time it took to setup the landing webpage: 5 to 10 minutes

The time it took to research and generate the keyword list: 10 to 15 minutes

The time it took to setup the MSN Adcenter ads: 15 minutes (mainly because you can only add 200 keywords at once)

The money spent on this campaign in January 2007: $223.04
The money made on Adsense clicks in January 2007: $369.14
(with about a 74.8 % ad CTR).

Total Profit: $146.10

Now we are not talking about a huge amount of profit from this but it took me well less than an hour to setup this campaign. Suppose I setup 10 other pages making a similar amount! Suppose I setup 100 additional pages each making similar amounts of profit each month!

Is this specific Adsense Arbitrage still profitable? The short answer is no. I’ve paused the MSN Adcenter campaign. After a couple months the PPC amount I was getting from Adsense on that page dropped substantially to where it was barely breaking even. Why? IMO, the page eventually was given a low quality score (no outgoing links except Adsense and poor content on the page). Does it mean Adsense Arbitrage no longer works? Of course not. Hundreds of people are still making loads of money through this practice. This was only one small test.

Also be sure to read my What is Adsense Arbitrage post where I talk about how some Adsense accounts may be getting shut down for using this practice. Lets face it, while it might make you some money, it’s not worth getting your account banned. It also may not create much value for the advertiser depending on the setup of the page your are sending traffic.

Have you ever tried to run a profitable Adsense Arbitrage campaign? Please share with us your results!

You could purchase low cost keyword ads via MSN Adcenter and then send them to a landing page you create with Google Adsense ads on it. The goal with PPC arbitrage is for the visitor to click on your Adsense ads so in most cases you want to add enough text so that Adsense knows what type of ads to display and nothing else. Remember that the Adsense ads shown are based on the webpage’s content.

If you set a maximum bid of $0.07 a click on your MSN Adcenter Ads, you need to average a per-click-payout on your Adsense ads of something higher than that. Your views to click conversion ratio will also play a part in the equation.

1. The first step would be to do your keyword research.

Just try and think of random terms that might command a high cost-per-click and plug them into the free Google Adwords Keyword research tool (i.e. lawyer related keywords, finance related keywords, online degrees, weight loss, and personal improvement services etc.) Enter a high CPC into the keyword suggestion tool such as $100 and then sort the displayed results by highest CPC.

2. Next, you would want to join Google Adsense if you have not done so already and then create a webpage based on these higher paying keywords.

3. Then setup an account with MSN Adcenter.

You could also consider trying some of the even smaller PPC networks but the volume is usually to low.

4. Create a new keyword campaign and bid on hundreds or even thousands of related keywords using a very low maximum bid-per-click, usually somewhere between $0.05 and $0.10 per click.

The trick is creating high volume and bidding a low maximum cost-per-click. Because you are bidding at a low CPC you will need hundreds or thousands of keywords to usually get the volume needed to make good money.

The reason you are using Google Adsense on your landing page is because Google Adwords is the most widely used pay-per-click network which commands the highest bids.

As you can see, it’s not rocket science but not all PPC arbitrage campaigns are going to be profitable. You may lose some money initially and experimenting is key. Always choose a low maximum cost-per-click for your ads and set a fairly low maximum amount you are willing to spend per day. You can always raise this amount later.

Some people claim that the less Adsense Ads on a page the better, and it may be true depending on placement. I personally have not done enough experimenting with this. They say this because of what is called the bid-gaps.

Suppose you find a keyword that commands a high CPC of $3.00 to $5.00 for the first three positions but after the first three positions the CPC falls to $0.65, $0.30, $0.15, $0.10, $0.10 etc. The difference between these high CPC positions and the lower CPC positions is considered the bid gap. Remember that Google Adsense only pays you a percentage of what the advertiser pays for these clicks.

Now suppose you have several different Adsense ad spots on your website for a total of 9 different ads. A couple of them may give you a high CPC payout while most of the other ads only make you $0.15, $0.10 or less per click.

In this theory, the more Adsense you might have on the webpage, the higher the chance of the visitor clicking on a lower paying ad. All I can say about this is to experiment! Try adding just a couple of well placed Adsense ads as a test for a few days followed by a landing page with more ads and compare the differences in payouts and conversion ratios.

IMPORTANT: Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about Google banning Adsense accounts for Arbitrage or creating those MFA (made-for-Adsense) websites. I have not seen a whole lot of facts shown yet to back up this speculation but if your considering starting your own Arbitrage test I’d proceed with some caution. I would not be at all suprised if they are banning some accounts and it’s probably better for internet advertising as a whole anyway.

The first to break the news (that I’m aware of) was JenSense and but it’s now being blogged about everywhere. One counter argument made by the well known “ShoeMoney” can be found here (basically saying that you should wait for more facts to come in before panicking etc.)