Which blog design tends to work best in getting people to click on ads?

It's not always an easy answer.

Most bloggers seem to be in agreement that a design that has the content on the right side, and the side column(s) on the left, tend to monetize the best.

Psychology of the Eye

Read an old article of mine, "Psychology of the Eye", which discusses what people tend to see first when they visit website for the first time.

Basically, people tend to read a webpage from the top to bottom, and from left to right. I also defined a principle called, "Contrast Focus" that says people to focus on colorful objects when placed against a dull, drab background. By using contrast focus, and the left-to-right principles, you can make someone's eye land on something.

The design of this blog, which uses two side columns, and one content column, has become the most successful design I've come up with. The AdSense unit positioned exactly where you see it now, in the second column, towards the top, tends to get the highest click-through-rate for me, than in any other area.

AdSense actually provides guidelines on where to place their creatives in the most effective places. What I'm showing you now, falls in line with the suggestions. They have other suggestions as well. You can read an older article of mine, "Best AdSense Placements", for more discussion on this.

Notice also that my blog design uses very little color. It's large pretty drab. If anything is catching your eye, it's either AdSense creative (using bright blue links), or the title of the first article, not necessarily in that order. The bright blue links contrasting against the mostly drab-white page design, are saying, "Hey look at me!"

Two Columns versus Three Columns

I've found that three column designs, set up exactly like this one, monetizes better than the two column design. For reasons that I still haven't been able to understand, the eye seems to notice the AdSense creative much more when its in a three-column design like this, as opposed to a two-column design.

I think there's something in our subconscious telling us that the middle column is likely the column containing the content. And so, our eye tends to rest on the AdSense creative. However, our rational thinking is saying, "no, the much wide column on the right is likely where the content is."

In the end, your eyes ignore the left-most column, but fights between looking at the middle column and the right column.

Pretty Blogs versus Drab Blogs

A very attractive blog is good for about 15 seconds. After that, people look for the content. If that content is weak, then all the work you did (or money you spent) was for just 15 seconds of eye candy.

A drab design, using mostly white, grey, or black colors, tend to work best. Now, I realize that many of my blogs use other colors, I don't make everything in shades of grey. Instead, use this particular blog to understand the basic concepts, and then you can explore ways to variate that.

The reason is because of "contrast focus", which I described above. By creating an otherwise boring looking design, you can use color most effectively. Banner ads become much more visible against an all grey, or all white page. AdSense creatives stand out much better. You'll get higher click-through rates because of this.

People will visit your blog because you have great content, not because you have a pretty design. So, utilize lots of the whites, greys, and blacks, to give your ads more visibility.

Use White Space Effectively

Placing a lot of white space in between objects helps people see where one ad ends, and another one starts. The more space you put between two objects, the most people will tend to see them.

It's the same "contrast focus" principle. People's eyes don't want to look at the white space. Hence, the more white space you put between two ads, the more likely they'll see both ads.

Labels: Blog-Design