...dsense adsas they view websites. The question that this article seeks toanswer is what can be done to recapture the revenue that isbeing lost?In a word - experiment. Gone are the days when you could throwup some great content and cash in by throwing some Adsensepanels above the fold integrated into your text. The mantra ofthe past couple of years has been blend - blend your Adsensepanels into your content. Common wisdom and experience dictatedthat the closer your Adsense pane...

...ls resembled your content, thebetter your click-through ratio. Trick the user and all that...This strategy will suffer from lower and lower conversion rateson high-value content sites with a high returning visitor rate.You see, the more familiar a reader is with your site and itslayout, the easier it is for her to identify your Adsense panelsand filter them in favor of your content. This is not a newtrend; it is simply the culmination of several factors.First, Adsense has achieved world domination or something closeto it. Adsense is everywhere and its format is static andunchanging. There are only so many panel sizes and each of themis branded plainly with Google's label. Sure, you can varycolors, borders, and link colors but that darn Google name isstill tacked on to the corner of every panel. Second, Internetadoption rates in the English speaking countries is slowing.With less new users coming online each day the pool of Adsenseneophytes is shrinking. Every day a larger percentage of usersbecome desensitized to the presence of Adsense and that Googletag on the corner of each panel. Finally, as I previouslymentioned, if you provide high-value content your readers willreturn and the more familiar a user is with your site, theeasier it is for her to filter your Adsense ads.What can be done to turn the tide back in the favor of thehumble website owner? Don't be afraid to experiment withAdsense. While the panels remain relatively static you can varycolors and borders. The key with experimentation is to makesubtle changes. Your Adsense panels should continue to blendwith your content overall. Well blended content captures newreaders every time. What you want to do is create a situationwhere the user, especially returning readers, stop and processyour changes. You want her mind to note that the Adsense panelis different but only slightly. Those borders that everyonematches with the page's background color can be made to beslightly darker or lighter than the page background color.Nothing too garish mind you - just a slight difference thatmakes the reader pause and consider what she is being presentedwith.The same approach can be applied to text color and link color.Subtle changes can work wonders for improving click-throughs.The idea here is that we have trained the reader's mind toexpect Adsense panels to be blended very deeply into ourcontent. Now, their mind is presented with panels that arestanding out just a little more than usual and once they noticethis, they will process the Adsense text and hopefullyclick-through.Varying the panel type and size you are using can also help toimprove your click-through ratio. Every change you make to yoursite layout causes readers to work at processing the changesthis requires attention. This simple act draws the reader'sattention to the panels and hopefully creates a click event. Thekey to sucessful testing is to make only one change per day sothat you can effectively assess what effect the change has. Ifyou make two or more changes you will have no clue which changecaused your reader's behavior to differ from the past. MyAdsense resources page listed below has some great pointersconcerning how to effectively test changes to your Adsensepanels.My next suggestion will shock and anger many - heresy some willclaim but I stand by it nonetheless. There are other options!Adsense isn't the only game in town. In fact, there arethousands of other fine affiliate programs that you can join andintegrate into your content right along with Adsense. Granted,you will have to work a little harder and this is the true evilthat Google has perpetrated upon us. Adsense is so easy that wehave become lazy in matters of monetization. Break the Googlechains that bind you! Do some research. Yes, work and find anaffiliate program that matches your niche and promote the hellout of it. I suppose if you are happy with your Adsense earningsyou can stick with Google solely but consider the money you areleaving on the table.Almost any piece of great content can be matched with a suitableaffiliate offering. There are literally thousands, perhaps eventens of thousands of affiliate programs available. Find one ortwo that match your niche and give them the same billing yougive Adsense on your website. You might just be surprised. Aquarter-per-click is nice when coupled with a conversion rate of1.5% and some decent traffic but consider a $5 or $10 affiliatecommission that only converts ten percent as often. You willquickly discover that adding a program or two has no effect onyour Adsense earnings but does provide a welcome new revenuestream!For additional resources concerning how you can defeat Adsenseblindness, visit my page on Adsense Blindness Resources.