How To Make Use Of AdSense Alternate Ads Feature

On the page where you select the AdSense Ad format and color for your Ads, there is an option below to choose what to display if no relevant ads are available. Currently AdSense gives us three options - ‘Show public service ads’, ‘Show non-Google ads from another URL’ and ‘Fill space with a solid color’.

The ‘Show public service ads’ is the default option and most publishers leave it that way. The last option ‘Fill space with a solid color’ just fills the Ad space with the desired color and is of not much use.

Instead of showing Public Service Ads (PSAs) or filling space with a soild color, why not try to make that wasted Ad space more useful By useful I mean something that will help you earn money unlike PSAs.

For example: You could use that Ad space to display your Affiliate Programs.

Here I will show you how to use this wasted Ad space to display your Banner, which when a user clicks and registers , gets you $25!

First login to and click ‘Get banners & text links’ which can be found under the ‘Affiliate Program’ tab and then select a Graphical banner depending on the AdSense format you are using.

For example, if you are using the AdSense Leaderboard, then choose the 728×90 TLA Graphical banner. After selecting the banner size you need, you can find the code you need on the bottom.

Now create a new html page and put your code in it like this:

Make sure you include the target=”_blank” so that when the banner is clicked the destination page opens in a new page and not within the AdSense Ad format itself!

Once you have created and saved your HTML page, you will need to upload it to your server.

Now go back to your AdSense setup page where you select tha Ad format and colors for your ad, and select the ‘Show non-Google ads from another URL’ option and in the text box, simply enter the fully defined path to the saved HTML page.

For example:

mple.com/banner/tla.html

Now click Continue to add your alternate ad selection to your AdSense Code.

Instead of Text Link Ads , you can try out other Affiliate Programs too in this way (or may be even Chitika eMiniMalls) and make some extra money instead of displaying the useless PSAs that pay you nothing.

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Posted on February 20th, 2007 | Category: Make Money Online |

19 responses so far,

Ah John, But using “_blank” would make you coding invalid under XHTML1.0 Strict!

Great article though, I’ll be taking note of it.

@kakashi, you need to save the file you create to your server, so that you can link to it on the alternate ads page.

@Scott, though it will be invalid as per XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.1, John hasn’t used a DOCTYPE and it will so be assumed as HTML, where target is valid. Also, since it will be in an iframe, the validation of the main page isn’t effected.

Lastly,

@John, you will want to use in the body tag to ensure that unncessary padding is not added to the page, thus pushing the ad down. By default I think the padding is 2px.

No probs, but you haven’t updated your post

Hey John,

Thanks for the great writeup; been meaning to do this for a while, but it just never got prioritized. Maybe it’s time.

Just saw Everton Blair’s suggestion for using OpenAds as the Ad link so you have more control and flexibility for what’s shown, which looks like a great idea.

Have an awesome day! Dan

Adsense is great. I believe if used correctly it can make you a good amount of money. I totally support Google Adsense and I appreciate the extra tip you have provided us. Thanks!

You can put just about anything in the HTML file Ashish.

You’re welcome Ashish

@ Chatca it should not go wrong if you follow the steps correctly. Maybe you just need some guidance.