I’m interested in learning how to write better for my blog — perhaps you are also. An example of a sub-optimal use of AdSenseon a blog.
(How to interpret an Eyetools Heatmap)
- AdSense optimization: how AdSense positioning affects viewing and clicking on Google ads (which most pro-bloggers use as revenue to support their blogging efforts;
- Other topics as decided by the community.
The Community of Learning would be an interactive discussion forum and would focus on one or two main topics each month, which would have real eyetracking data to back up the points being explored. Darren asked about "the use of bold/italics/underline or other formatting etc. in the middle of posts and articles and how that would affect reading," but there are a number of issues that could be focused on.
The background:
Darren Rowse got me thinking about how AdSense revenue supports a lot of blogs, and how optimizing a blog’s use of AdSense can have a big impact on revenue.
As a result, Eyetools collected eyetracking data on a number of blogs that use AdSense to illustrate how AdSense position, design, integration, etc. affects viewing (and thereby clicks). The intent was to put this together in a little report focusing on how to optimize AdSense revenue for blogs.
An interesting thing happened though. In talking to Darren about the AdSense findings, he started mentioning other things that he wished he knew so that he could produce a better blog — like how writing and design decisions affect reading of his blog (and blogs in general). BUT, despite my overall pride related to how we’ve been able to get our pricing down from $15k a study to $1000 to $2500 for many companies, our pricing was way out of most blogger’s league. As Darren said, he has "probably $50 – $100."
And this got me thinking about a "Weblog Community of Learning" that would focus on eyetracking data related to weblogs.
The Community of Learning would be an interactive discussion forum and would focus on one or two main topics each month, which would have real eyetracking data to back up the points being explored. Darren asked about "the use of bold/italics/underline or other formatting etc. in the middle of posts and articles and how that would affect reading," but there are a number of issues that could be focused on.
Probably the first month would focus on optimizing AdSense on blogs (backed up by eyetracking data showing how various placements, treatments, etc affect viewing and clicking), but then the forum would delve into other areas. It wouldn’t be free — it would probably cost somewhere between $30 – $50 per month, but at least that’s a lot closer to being affordable to a typical blogger, and it would provide access to data that costs a whole lot more than that.
I’m curious if people would find this valuable. If not, then it’s not worth putting the effort in to getting it set up. But I hope it is of interest to people now — it would be a lot of fun focusing on this.
Let me know what you think! You can email me at "greg.blog at eyetools.com" or comment here.
