I’ve experimented with AdSense on non-blog sites, and I was amazed that subtle little changes can radically increase your income, sometimes even doubling it.

Example: Although I was reluctant to add Google’s Ads on the top of the website (replacing the banner ads that were already there), when I did so, my Google AdSense revenue doubled. Adding square ads in selected content doubled our revenue again, even though the square ads only appear on article & recipe pages.

Also, background color and placement make a huge difference as well. In some locations on your site, having Google Ads with the same background color as the surrounding area will out-perform ones with a different background color, and sometimes it’s the opposite… even on the same page!

Sometimes making the Google Ad in this page in the sidebar match the background will make a difference, plus the ads appear less intrusive.

Also, ads AFTER the content has worked well for us. People read the page and then want some place to go. Having Google Ads at the bottom of the page gives people a place to go which we get paid if they go there. That might be worth experimenting with as well.

So, in summary, for those who are using AdSense, start experimenting on its placement and the colors, and you could wind up increasing your revenue just by making a small color or placement change.

Alex has done some great experimenting already and given you the results. Don’t forget to experiment on your own site too, because each site is different, with different layouts and different audiences.

Sometimes its the little things that make a huge difference.

(This article was inspired by an article by Alex King called Building alexking.org 2.0, part 11: Monetization.)