Adding AdSense to Your Blogger Blog

Okay, so you signed on to Blogger, set up your blog, and got the word out.
You’re getting some visitors, and the great response you’re getting makes
you think it might be time to put AdSense on that blog. Let the fun begin.
The one drawback with adding AdSense to your Blogger account is that you
can show only three AdSense units on your blog at any given time. So, when
you’re placing ads on your blog, be very selective about where you place
them. Now, if you paid attention in Chapter 3, you know that your most effective
ad placement is above the fold, at the very top of the page, on the righthand
side (preferably in a sidebar), or within the text on the page. With these
guidelines, you can place your ads for the most attention and the best results.
AdSense as a page element
You can place AdSense in your blog in one of two ways. The first (and probably
easiest) way to add it is as a page element. Page elements are like the
building blocks of your Web site. You can choose which elements you want
to appear in your blog template by pointing and clicking the desired element.
Here’s how to ad AdSense with this method:
1. Point your browser to www.blogger.com and log on to your Blogger
account with your username and password.
You’re automatically taken to the dashboard — essentially the Control
Panel — for the blog.
2. From the Dashboard, select the Layout tab for the blog that you want
to add AdSense to.
You can have more than one blog with Blogger.
3. On the Page Elements page , click the Add a Page
Element link.
4. Locate AdSense in the list of available elements — or widgets — and
click the accompanying Add to Blog button.
The Configure AdSense dialog box appears
5. Make your selections in the Configure AdSense dialog box and click
Save Changes.
Here’s where you can tweak things like ad size or colors. You can even
change your publisher ID, the number that identifies your AdSense
account so that you’re properly compensated when visitors click your
ads.
Clicking Save Changes closes the Configure AdSense dialog box and
you’re returned to the Blogger layout page. You can see your new
AdSense widget immediately below the Add a Page Element link.
After you create the widget, you can move it around by clicking and dragging
it anywhere — anywhere on the sidebar, above the footer, or below the
header, that is. You can’t move the widget to the main post area of your blog.
If you want to place ads within the area that’s reserved for your blog posts,
you have to do it through the settings for the post page. Here’s how:
1. Log in to your Blogger dashboard (see the previous steps) and select
the Layout tab under the blog you want to change.
You’re taken to the Page Elements page of your blog layout.
2. Locate the Blog Posts section of the layout page and select the blue
Edit link,
The Configure Blog Posts dialog box appears.
3. Select the Show Ads between Posts check box, see Figure 13-5.
Additional options for configuring inline ads become visible immediately
below the check box,
4. Configure your ad preferences — size, color, and publisher ID — and
then scroll to the bottom of the dialog box and click Save Changes.
Ads now appear between your blog posts, according to the preferences
that you selected.
You can’t use these gadgets to put ads directly in the text of your posts, but
you can use them to put ads between your posts.
One other method for adding AdSense code using widgets that gives you a
little more flexibility is to add the code using the HTML/JavaScript widget.
The HTML/JavaScript widget works in much the same way as the AdSensespecific
widget.
1. On the Layout tab, make sure you’re in the Page Elements view and
then select Add a Page Element.
2. Select HTML/JavaScript from the list of available widgets.
The dialog box changes to a text editor,
3. Open AdSense and generate the code for a new ad.
If you need a reminder on how to create ads, I covered that in Chapters 6,
7, and 8.
4. Copy the ad code.
5. Return to the Blogger HTML/JavaScript editor, enter a name for the
ad — this can be whatever name makes sense to you — then paste
the ad code from Step 4 into the Content text box.
6. Click the Save Changes button.
The dialog box disappears and you’re returned to the Page Elements
view of your blog, except now you should see an element labeled HTML/
JavaScript.
You can move this element around the header, footer, or sidebar of your
blog, just as you would any other element, by clicking and dragging it to
the desired location.
That’s all there is to it. The big difference between using the HTML capabilities
and Blogger’s built-in AdSense capabilities is what you can do with the
ads. Blogger’s AdSense customization elements are pretty slim. By using
Blogger’s HTML capabilities, on the other hand, you can create more customized
ads on the AdSense Web site and then paste them into your blog.
The Choose a New Page Element dialog box appears,