1. Place ads in prime locations. For example, ads buried in busy portions on a webpage will rarely be clicked on. Ads positioned low on a site, requiring viewers to scroll down, don't generate as much revenue as ads situated on the top fold of your website. The 'fold' is the portion of your webpage first displayed when loaded. It's a term borrowed from the newspaper industry, where the most important information is placed 'above the fold' of the paper itself.
2. Attach a relevant image to your ad. Our minds process visual images immediately, so your viewers are primed for the textual ad information accompanying the picture.
3. Use ads relevant to your site. Placing baby formula ads on a website about gaming won't garner much revenue; however, it would do well on a webpage about motherhood.
4. Keep track of the revenue each individual ad brings in. If an ad isn't yielding much, look to replace it. This does require consistent monitoring, but it will maximize your returns.
5. Consider employing geotargeted ads. Geotargeted ads aim for specific locations and languages. Although those living in the United States comprise the majority of web users, there are still millions of viewers outside of the U.S. When advertisements are geotargeted, they load for people who are in specified areas and/or have specific language preferences.
6. Investigate contextual advertising programs. Contextual ad programs scan the text on the website the user is viewing for keywords. These keywords then generate pertinent ads on the screen or as separate pop-ups. Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network are examples of this type of advertising (see Resources).
