Choosing WordPress Blog Skin - 3 Column WordPress Theme to Perform Better with AdSense
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Why Does 3 Column WordPress Theme
Works Better as Blog Skin
For Google AdSense Program?
The answer to this question lies in the fields of visual psychology. Most of the three column WordPress themes are following this sctructre:
- major column (for the blog posts)
- navigational column (to display recent posts, categories)
- outer column (used for newsletters, banners, etc)
The navigational column is very functional and there is nothing new in putting AdSense ads there. However for the WordPress solutions that allow more freedom in placing ads wherever you wish it is possible to reach wise combination of ads at the top of the post and at the side of the post - so that ads wrap the post and have great trend to clicks.
For example, have a look at the screenshot below…
… and you will see that AdSenses at the top and to the left of the post wrap the text. Moreover, the ads to the left of the text are positioned (in the navigation column) right on top of the Recent Posts section that is very interesting to people who read the blog content and want to read more. And the outer column - on the screenshot you can see just a tiny portion of it carrying the banner - makes the eye satisfied with some sort of blatant ad.
So what happens is that the blog visitor sees outer column to carry ad and sure the eye is not putting much attention to it. But everything inside the blog post looks to be worth of attention, because it is like text or textual links of high importance (Recent Posts’ links).
Hence, this type of visual trick gives more credit to the AdSenses inside. For more real case examples please visit these two blogs to see the ads display - Free Forex Trading Info and Free Online Poker Info
P.S. As you can understand now - the 2 column WordPress theme makes this visual trick impossible, as the eye is puzzled with seeing ads and useful navigation in the same column. This creates more distraction to the column. And with 3 column WordPress themes all negative ad-blindness falls upon the outer 3rd column.