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In my last post I talked about 4 Widget Ad options that bloggers should test in the lead up to Christmas - in this post I want to give a few quick tips for beginners to keep in mind as they test and optimize these types of ads.

1. Keep Ads Relevant to Content

To make any kind of product ad or affiliate program work the product that you advertise needs to match what you’re writing about as closely as possible.

Most of the widget ad units mentioned in the last post allow you to choose what product (or at least category of product) that will be featured in the ad - so make sure you choose products carefully to match your blog (and individuals posts) topics.

2. Position Prominently

These Widget Ads work best when your readers see them. Now there’s an obvious statement if I ever heard one - yet I see so many ads on blogs that are likely to go unseen. Make sure your ads are in a part of your blog that will be seen by readers.

This means putting them above the fold, as close to content as possible or perhaps even underneath posts (people pause at the end of a post and look for something to do - an ad can work well there despite it being low on the page).

Avoid putting them in sidebars unless you have no other option to do that.

3. Multiple Ad Units Per Page

A logical way to increase the earnings of these types of ads is to show more than one per page. If you have one high on the page include a second one lower on the page also.

Don’t fall into the trap of stuffing your blog with too many ads - but don’t be afraid to have more than one on a page.

4. Blend Your Ad Units

Each of the widget ads can be customized in terms of size and design so don’t just let the ads sit on your page in their default appearance.

I find that ads that blend into your blog’s design a little work best. Try making the colors of links in ads the same color as links on your blog, remove borders (or at least make them the same color as your blog background) and where given the choice use fonts for the ads that don’t clash too much with your blogs font.

5. Track Your Results

Most of the widget units mentioned in the previous post have the ability to be tracked in one way or another. Utilize this and work out what works best for your blog. You will find that some ad positions, design and products will work better than others - once you work out what works best stick to it.

What tips would you ad? What have you found works best with Widget Ad Units on Blogs?

Remember - this is a time of year where those using the web are in a buying frame of mind and are more likely to click on product ads that they might see. Here are four options that present products visually:

1. Shopzilla Publisher Program

This program has been something I’ve experimented with more and more of late and it’s producing quite good results. It presents publishers with a variety of widget type ads with a large variety of options in terms of design, sizes and types of ads.

2. Chitika

Regular readers know that I’m a big fan of Chitika. It’s my second largest earner from blogs (2nd only to AdSense) and performs brilliantly on product related sites - particularly at this time of year.

As with all of these types of ad units it does best when you can make the ads show products that relate to what you’re writing about (using the ‘keywords’ feature that they’ve built in). Payment for these ads is on a CPC (cost per click) basis (although premium publishers also get an impression based bonus).

Chitika offer a variety of ad units including their eMiniMalls, Linxx (in text ads), Multiple Product Units (pictured below) and more.

Also check out their ‘premium ad unit’ that shows special ads only to those arriving on your blog from search engines. The ads that these premium ad units show are contextually relevant to the keywords that people are searching for in the search engine - they are doing very very well for me.

3. WidgetBucks

This is another CPC based widget ad unit that many publishers have found to convert well. You again get a good range of options when it comes to design and sizes. Here’s how they look (I chose a Christmas theme).

The only downside of WidgetBucks is that not everyone will be able to see the ads - if your readers are not within geographic areas that they serve ads to they’ll get impression based ads instead.

4. Amazon Associates Widgets

The Amazon associates program has quite a few widget type ad units that will help drive people into their store and increase the chances of earning you an affiliate commission. Of course these differ from other ads featured in this list in that you only earn something if people make a purchase.

Some of the ad units include: Deals Widget, Search Widget, Carousel Widget

There are plenty of other types of widgets to choose from also.

When These Widget Ads Work Best

The above options won’t work equally for everyone. While this time of year increases your chances of earnings with all of them - they all work best when there is relevancy between what you’re blogging about and what is displaying in the ads.

Blogs with a product related focus (or posts with a specific product being featured) will always out perform putting these ads on a general focused blog.