The Pilgrim's Progress...

("...from This World, to That Which Is to Come: Delivered under the Similitude of a DREAM")

One of the first things I experimented with in my Blog was to add Ads.

Of course Blogger has direct ties to Google's AdSense so that's the first place to start. PLUS everyone seems to say AdSense delivers results. First sign up for an AdSense account, a task easily done thru the Google account created by joining Blogger. Once signed-up, clicking on My Account at the Blogger Dashboard shows AdSense as one of My Services that can be accessed with a click. From there, clicking the AdSense Setup tab will show the three types of AdSense advertisements of immediate interest to me:

AdSense for Content,
AdSense for Search and
Referrals.


AdSense for Content (which are display ads targeted by Google to a Blog's particular content) was the first thing I tried because such ads can be inserted in a Blog quickly as an added Page Element.

(Adding AdSense Page Element: . . .Although it might be confusing and I'm not sure it's necessary, I'll try a short explanation --- The Add a Page Element is found under the Template tab on the Blogger page where you customize your Blog. . .That is, the page with the Posting, Settings and Template tabs. You get to THAT Blogger page -- when SIGNED INTO your Blogger account -- by either selecting the Customize link displayed on your Blog or selecting the Posts, Settings or Layout link displayed for your Blog in Dashboard. Click on Add a Page Element and a list of New Page Elements, including one for AdSense appears. Clicking on ADD TO BLOG opens a window for customizing the AdSense Ad. Once created, the AdSense page element can be moved around the Blog to your heart's content. Getting to this point shouldn't be a problem for anyone somewhat familiar with Blogger.)

One either can add AdSense for Content Ads quickly as a Page Element or have AdSense generate the HTML code for the Ad and then YOU place it in the Blog as an HTML New Element.

Anyways. Thing is the AdSense Ads I added and moved around my Blog were embarrassingly STUPID. One doesn't select the Ad content. . .Google decides what to advertise based on its analysis of the Blog content. If you don't yet have much content, there isn't much to analyze. For the first several days, my Ads were about COTTON??? The AdSense analysis must have been confused by frequent use of the word "Gin." It was so dopey I removed the Ads.

I concentrated instead on the other two types of AdSense Ads and other advertisers' (like Amazon and iTunes) Affiliate programs. For these Ads, the AdSense or the advertiser's site generates the required HTML code and YOU have to place it in the Blog as an HTML New Element. More on that later...


Finally, I found AdSense has Section Targeting, which highlights specific text areas in a Blog for emphasis during the AdSense content analysis. The targeted text areas must be delimited with special HTML tags (<!--google_ad_section_start--> and <!--google_ad_section_end-->) by YOU editing the HTML code directly (Not Recommended For Novices). When I finally reinserted the AdSense for Content elements I used such tags to highlight paragraph or sentence-sized areas in the first chapter of 'The History of Gin' that featured more ad-worthy words, such as video game, Princeton, etc.... Eventually my Section Targeting seemed to lead to fewer advertisements for COTTON stuff.

I also saw the Ad content improved as I posted more. On adding Chap. 2 - 'Ginger in Wombderland', advertisements related to pregnancy popped up. But I'm not so sure I want the occasionally Strange content of the chapters to determine the Ad content like that. . .I probably will be doing lots of Section Targeting.