Okay, I Give Up!
What is the secret? Notice how the ads on my blog are surrounded by way too much white space, whereas on other blogs the post text wraps neatly around the ad box? What is the secret to doing that? I’ve tried some different things, and I always end up with way too much white space.
You’ll also notice that I only show three posts per page now, instead of 10 as before. I’m using the AdSense Manager plugin and apparently it is supposed to show only 3 ad blocks per page (though I would sometimes see 4) and then it still put empty space in two other slots, which isn’t very desirable. Thus, the switch to 3 posts per page, which I don’t really like at all.
Anyone willing to share the secrets?
The AdSense terms of service only allows 3 content ad units per page and, apparently, an AdSense algorithm will allow no more than that, even if you try to use more. If you use provide space for more than 3, AdSense will not “serve” ads to the extra spaces.
Before I quit using AdSense, I had the number of posts shown on a page limited to 5. Three of them would have ad units and the other 2 would either have link units or no ad at all.
Before I quit using AdSense on the blog, I had started using the “div” tags for the ads, which I had formated to act as containers using in-line CSS. I was doing this for every post that had ads. This is what allowed the text to “flow” around the ad.
Before I used the “div” html containers, I had a third column just for the ads and used 2 or 3 tall ads (120X600 or 160X600). It was a lot less work.
Yeah, I know AdSense only allows 3 ad units per page, but when I had 10 posts showing per page, 4 ad units would sometimes show. So, the same night I added AdSense, I also changed the posts to 3 per page so I wouldn’t violate the TOS. I don’t know why it would display 4; it did not do so on a consistent basic, but enough that I thought it best to change the posts per page (and thus the ad units per page) to 3 just to be sure I would be safe.
I thought of having the ads just in the sidebar, but I’d rather have them by the post, like several other blogs do, like the big guys. I’ll try the “div” tags again. I’m sure I tried that, but I might not have done them right.
Thanks!
Hey Dan, yeah I was going to say try added the adsense codes around different ‘div’ tags as you said. Otherwise, maybe try a different layout. Instead of using the block add, try a banner add 468×60.
Tried different sizes too, but they all came out looking awkward.
I think I have now achieved success! I used a DIV tag with a float: right style. (I cheated a bit by taking a peek at ChrisBlogging’s site.)
Also, I wrote a loop into the page for the posts that keeps a count. Then, set it so only the first three posts will call the plugin and display an ad unit. That way, no fourth unit should appear ever. The additional benefit is that there is no empty space where the ads don’t display but where the plugin would still carve out a block. So, now I can put my original number of posts (10) on a page and not worry!