Advice from someone in the $300/month range.

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Like many before me, I want to give back to this community, since I have gained so much from it over the past couple of years. I believe this is my first post. Just a little advice for whatever it's worth (most of this is not new information, but sometimes saying the same thing in different ways can be helpful to some). I'm not making mad-money like some of the other users I've seen on here, but I'm at $300+ per month in Adsense revenue for a community-driven niche content site, which I think is a respectable return.

1) Before you do anything, and also as you go through the process below, make sure you understand the Adsense TOS and do not violate it. Contact Google if you aren't sure, but spare them your beginner questions by reading what they've already published (in the TOS, FAQs, etc.).

2) Categorize your ad integration strategy and make progress on each of the following fronts:

a. Figure out where you want to place Adsense on your sites. Start with the Google Heat Map, and check out the new Forums Heat Map as well, if you run a forum. (I would have put up a link to these, but I see since I'm a newbie poster I'm not allowed to post links yet! )

b. Figure out the best ad formats (leaderboards, adlinks, rectangles, etc.) and the best color schemes which work for your site.

c. If you have a site that offers registration (such as a forum site), consider implementing code that will allow you to suppress some amount of ads for your users who are logged in. You should throttle the number of ads for your loyal / registered users, and infuse a bit more ads for all the "guest" traffic you're getting. My site also has a subscription model and I throttle it even more for subscribers who are logged in.

d. Create all manner of Adsense Channels and experiment with items a. through c. above. Put code in server-side includes so that you have a good site template with which you can easily make changes and create new content. Analyze the results and make changes to the extent you are satisfied you are maximizing value with what you have. After a few iterations, STOP TINKERING, and proceed to item e. below.

e. Educate yourself on SEO. Sign up for DP's Keyword Tracker, and submit your request for a Google Analytics invitation code as soon as possible (it took a couple of months for me to get my invitation). Learn about meta-tags and site descriptions and submit your site to the appropriate search engines and directories.

f. Engage in reciprocal links with sites that relate to yours (but don't compromise your own site by agreeing to pollute it with flashy/annoying site banners from other sites... consider creating your own text-based directory based on your subject matter, and categorize it appropriately). Do it on a human level and interface with your correspondents directly and honestly.

g. Create new article-based content regularly. Make sure your own TOS allows for the repurposing of community-submitted content (such as message board threads) to the extent that you can edit it and publish it into an article on your site. Consider, as I have done, offering your volunteer staff an incentive by creating an Adsense Channel for them and giving them the profit for those particular ads. I give them 100% of revenue from a leaderboard ad near the top of the page on the articles they contributed. In order to participate in the program they must contribute at least 5 articles to my site. I keep all the ad revenue for the other couple of ads on the rest of the page for myself. I offer them a $10/month minimum, in case their leaderboard totals don't exceed that.

h. Get your Website's article content into Google Sitemaps. Did it help me? Not 100% sure, but it certainly did not appear to cause any harm.

i. Consider alternate publication channels in order to broaden your audience (RSS feeds, podcasts, etc.), and get yourself into those search outlets (feedster, podcast.net, etc.)

j. Read up on usability and information architecture. Make sure your template is widely accessible and easy-to-use. Categorize your content in a way that is logical... just use common sense.

k. Keep reading the www.0058.net forums!

Good luck to you and thanks to the people before me who posted the same / similar advice... really helps accelerate progress! I hope this post helps others in a similar way.