Save money and Make money

**Elaine** · 27-02-04

Time for me to give a little back to the forum, for all the help I've received in the past.

Just been checking the 'paid for inclusion companies' - I used Webwurld a few weeks ago for a few pages and paid the UK price - now the dollar being weak its far cheaper to use a US company.

UK price £26 , US price $39 or £20.90 GBP - guess what I'm doing tomorrow.

And for all you Google Adsense punters - I've just moved mine from the right hand side of my webpage to the left-hand side - my site menu is across the top of the page, clumsy, but it works - and my click through rate has more than doubled and therefore my earnings have gone up accordingly - Tuesdays was nearly treble my usual figures - the change is quite dramatic.

My only concern is that Google might assume I'm doing something naughty and send me a 'dear john' letter - and honestly everything is above board.

Try it - it works!!

**tomj** · 27-02-04

cheers for that!

does the increased ctr have anything to do with the path the human eye takes when viewing something.

When I read something I scan from left to right, therefore, anything of interest to me on the left gets picked up quicker!

However, I'd worry that by taking peoples attention so early will loose me money elsewhere on the site??...or is that just me?

**tshirtsuntan** · 27-02-04

I was thinking that but people are conditioned into reading headlines first (think of newspapers etc.) so as long as you have an interesting headline then I wouldn't worry about them seeing the adwords on the left.

The headline will buy you another 5 - 10 seconds. After that, If folk don't find anything interesting they're gone anyway.

**drivetowin** · 28-02-04

Elaine

Interesting to see your results from moving the Google ads.

You may want to look at your new site in Netscape and Opera as it is not displaying correctly.

**spatny** · 28-02-04

Hi,

It doesn't view well on a mac with Explorer, Safari or Netscape either

Sorry

**Elaine** · 28-02-04

Yes I was worried it might reduce my 'other' earnings - but it doesn't appear to be having any impact, so far. But it is something I'll be watching closely - if it does I'll simply remove the ads from some pages.

Re other browsers and operating systems - I used to worry about this - and spend endless hours trying to figure out how to create a site that everyone could see - then realized over 95% of my visitors use windows and one of two browser sizes - so that's what I concentrate on and I've stopped beating myself up over this.

**pericom** · 28-02-04

I changed my leader board style to the table with 4 verticals.

My CTR was: 2.2% now it gets 7%

**Ballswinger** · 28-02-04

Elaine,
We've been submitting to inktomi using an Australian site for the past 3 years. Using the AU $ saves even more !!!

Works out about £16.83 !

**NaturalInstinct** · 28-02-04

Originally posted by Elaine

Re other browsers and operating systems - I used to worry about this - and spend endless hours trying to figure out how to create a site that everyone could see - then realized over 95% of my visitors use windows and one of two browser sizes - so that's what I concentrate on and I've stopped beating myself up over this.

I couldn't agree more... Time spent making sure that everything is compatible with discontinued browsers can be better spent on marketing, new ideas etc. If people want to use netscape they have to understand that they are not going to be able to see every website perfectly.

**SillyJokes** · 29-02-04

Originally posted by NaturalInstinct
I couldn't agree more... Time spent making sure that everything is compatible with discontinued browsers can be better spent on marketing, new ideas etc. If people want to use netscape they have to understand that they are not going to be able to see every website perfectly.

I find it hard to right off so many potential customers in this way.

And imagine if the whole web looked a bit weird then you happen on a website that looks good because it has been made most browser compatable - you're gonna love it and be even more likely to buy/action.

And don't you just love it when the first thing you read on a website is that it would look a lot better on someone else's browser and your screen is the wrong size to boot?

**Ecco** · 02-03-04

Coding for multiple platforms is a great learning technique that can then be applied back to the IE masses in more streamlined code. By focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of other platforms, similar themes in MS soon become apparent.

You learn stuff, you bring happiness to people who loathe MS products, and most importantly you improve the experience for your MS visitors, and therefore increase revenue.

Don't beat yourself up about it, but I wouldn't discount cross browser compatibility so lightly.

**stevey** · 02-03-04

I agree with Elaine and NaturalInstinct.

I would rather spend the rest of my time marketing and thinking about site design and usability for the 95% than sweat too much about the other 5%... Life is too short and it can end up one BIG PAIN IN THE $£XZSW%$!!!!! getting your site right for every browser and every platform. Also search engines can be rather tempermental to slight changes, etc... This may not appeal to all the perfectionists out there but just my experiences....

stevey