Hundreds of you have asked for more information about adding advertising to your forums, or more specifically about adding AdSense to Simple:Press.

I’d like to say “don’t bother!” but I think you deserve more than that.

Why “don’t bother?” Because forums are notoriously hard to monetize, though there are a couple of ways to get reasonable results.

Before I explain those, I’d like to look at some of the ways to add AdSense to Simple:Press forums. I mention AdSense, but of course any advertising scheme can be added in the same way.

Easy Ways To Add AdSense To Simple:Press

❶ Sidebar

It is usually better to disable sidebars on pages, so this option is a poor one. Also Sidebar click-thru rates are usually pretty poor, but this is an easy option – just paste your code into a text widget.

❷ Footer

Edit footer.php in your theme, or add one of the many plugins that let you drop code into your footer.

❸ Other Theme Files

You could edit the page template, or other files, but I cannot see the point.

❹ Forum Page

Simple:Press creates a blank page, usually called forum, though you should normally change this to your-site-topic-forum. You should enter some introductory text on this page, and it is also the best place to easily add AdSense code. If you wrap your text in <div id="sforum"><div class="sfloginstrip"> Your text & AdSense code <\div><\div>, the text will pick up your Simple:Press skin styling. You can also use div to wrap position styling round your AdSense code. If you do this, be sure to test thoroughly on forum lists, forum details, etc to make sure it is positioned OK on every type of forum page.

Harder Ways To Add AdSense To Simple:Press

№𝟙 Enzyme Descriptions

As previously mentioned.

№𝟚 Edit Simple:Press Files

This gives you the most flexibility, but be careful to thoroughly document your amendments, as you will have to reapply them if you upgrade. Also, change the description in sf-control.php to add a link to your documentation, as a reminder on the plugins admin page.

There are lots of options for placing your adverts. Simple:Press has many files, so finding the exact point can occasionally be difficult. However the Simple:Press support forum is second to none, so if you need to know exactly which file to edit for a particular location, ask in their forum. To start you off, I have placed advertising easily just above the statistics block. Simply edit forum/sf-pagecomponents.php, and search for function sf_render_stats(). Paste your code immediately after the { and your advert will appear above the statistics. As the statistics block outputs an HTML table, you have many other options for exactly where you position your code.

Getting AdSense Revenue From Simple:Press

As I said at the beginning, forums are notoriously difficult to monetize, but there are some things you can do to get a little reward for your efforts. It goes without saying, that unless you are super-responsive in your forum, you will struggle to get traffic. Traffic building using the forum needs to be a separate topic, but one solid tip is to answer every question as best you can, then ask a follow-up question to encourage further debate.

Some worthwhile ways to monetize that traffic are:-

⑴ Don’t Bother

Oh No, not that one again! I actually mean: don’t focus on earning directly in your forum, focus on reference and summary pages outside your forum, or blog posts, that show high eCPM. Look at the AdSense earnings in your Google Analytics summary, and sort it in descending eCPM order (hint: add it to your Dashboard now, then you can see the highest performing pages easily). In the forum, ensure that your answers direct readers to your top performers. Their are refinements to identifying the best targets, and I’ll cover this another time.

You can take this a stage further, by using the techniques I listed for adding AdSense code, to add your own adverts for your top performing pages.

⑵ Use Adsense For Feeds

This needs a full article in it’s own right. Encourage me to do one by commenting below – but try to be creative, not just “I want it”. If you can’t wait, just put your “all forums” feed through FeedBurner, then market your monetized feed. It’s never a great earner, but it’s easy, and worth the minimal effort.

⑶ Use AdSense For Search

Again, this merits its own complete article. Basically, you switch off the Simple:Press search in the options, and setup a custom search engine for your site(s). Using the techniques listed above for adding code to your forum, add your own monetized search forms, being careful not to exceed the AdSense maximum. Then promote your search engine – in my experience a very good earner!

The AdSense for Content scheme dominates my thoughts, perhaps because, for many sites, it is the main earner. But AdSense Referrals can also bring significant income, and the product list has grown tremendously from the original Google product line.

Not that there is anything wrong with the Google products. Firefox, and most of the applications in the Google Pack have been my firm favorites since the day they were launched.

There used to be an issue with WordPress, adding line breaks in the AdSense Referral code, which made it unusable, without a plug-in (Script Enabler). The latest WordPress version certainly has no problem now. I have tested this with 2.2.3, though slightly earlier versions will probably work.

AdSense Referral can be used on pages with AdSense for Content and AdSense Search boxes, though you need to be careful of overloading the page and making it look spammy. However you monetize your site, if you put revenue before value for your visitors, then they, quite rightly, will look elsewhere in future.

Google includes limits for the number advertising units you may place. You should not see these as goals. One well placed unit is usually better than slapping in the maximum allowed. By there nature, Google for Content adverts rotate depending on how many advertisers are bidding for the type of content you provide.

Blog platforms like WordPress can occasionally present a problem here, because several pages are often presented together on the blog page, category, author, tag and search results pages. Though you have written individual articles, when several are presented as a list, they are regarded as a single page for advertising purposes.

There are several ways round this, and none is better than another. Your visitor profile is unique, and the way they respond to adverts depends not only on their demographic, but your content and design. You should try different options, and monitor your results to see what options and combinations work best for you.

Your options include:

• Use a “legal” number of adverts in fixed positions by amending the header, footer, sidebar or page layout templates in your theme.
• Use a “legal” number of adverts in fixed positions by adding text widgets in your theme configuration.
• Use an add-on, such as Adsense-Deluxe, to control the number of adverts as the page is rendered
• Only include adverts in the body of posts below the <!--more--> command.

A recent addition to AdSense Referrals, means you can now set up a basket of keywords to select from the ever-expanding range of products. Google will automatically rotate the adverts for your chosen keywords or categories, and will even serve the best performing ones if you ask it.

If you want to know more about a particular web business opportunity – AdSense Referrals, AdSense for Content, or any other form of monetization in the context of your website or business plan, I am happy to give you advice. Just add comments below, or email me via my Contact Page.