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Wow, a Google Adsense optimization guru overnight! Recently my technique of placing images next to the Google ads section has been mentioned here, here and here (SE Rountable, wow!).

Ok, some disclaimers first. What I am going to discuss now is something that has not been proven to be allowed by Google. I’ve sent Google an email, and I am still waiting for the reply. Meanwhile, let’s talk about how to do it.

Placing images next to adsense section isn’t something new, and I for sure am not the first to do this. For those of you who haven’t tried that, let me tell you it does increase the CTR, and it is allowed by Google:

Publishers are still welcome to place images above the ads. The only exception is if it’s in such a way that it looks like the images are part of the ads.

When something like that comes to our attention, we’ll ask that the publisher place a visible border between the ads and the images, to make it clear that the images are not being served by Google on behalf of the advertisers. We generally do not ask publishers to remove the images completely, we just ask that they add borders to avoid confusion.

(Quoted from here)

Pay attention to the statement the only exception is if it’s in such a way that it looks like the images are part of the ads. It seems that my technique has clearly violated this term. But let’s just wait for the response from Google for the final answer. If it’s a no from Google, I would remove it the next minute.

But why would I do it in the first place? It’s quite arguable that placing images next to the ads equals tricking your readers into thinking that the ads are part of your web site. Let’s just be frank. The “Ads by goooogle” in the image clearly shows my readers that those links are ads, but at the same time, it also makes the readers think that the images are part of the ads. It brings pros and cons, both to the advertisers and the publishers. I will just let Google to decide whether this is okay.

So I am going to show you how to do it. Be careful though, since it has not yet been authorized by Google to implement this, you might end up wasting your time.

1. Decide what type of ads you are going to serve. In my case, it’s a medium rectangle, and it’s very likely to serve 3 ads in the box.

2. Design some images with the same number of ads (in this case 3). I got those nice icons from Zeldman here.

3. Get this script and rename it to rotate.php. I got it from here (down at the moment).

4. Place the script together with the images you have created.

5. Place the image next to the ads. You may load the image by calling the script directly (as in <IMG src=”http://www.example.com/images/adsenseimages/rotate.php”>).

Remember, this technique seems to have clearly violated the TOS of google Adsense. You are not encouraged to do this.