IF you are looking to earn some money from running advertising on your website then you need to get your adverts in front of people.
One of the best ways is to place the adverts close to the footer of your articles as it then gives people something to click on, and so earn you some pennies.
I use this feature on my French site, for example, on this article about preparing your house for winter if you go past the list you will see the ads.
Placing them here takes a little work in TypePad but once done you will see that every article has the ad block in this area.
A couple of things are important, the main one is that you can only do this if you have a Pro account with TypePad as we are about to work with advanced templates.
The other is that I am using Google Adsense, but naturally you could place any other affiliate or pay-per-click scheme.
So from the top here is how I did it.
Log into your TypePad account and go to Manage your Design and you should see the name of the current template you are using.
You need to convert it to an advanced template, then apply the design, which will then allow you to play with the actual code.
The way that TypePad website pages are put together is by drawing different elements on to a page, for example, typelists, favourite books and the colours you have picked for footers.
Basically it means you can make one change of these elements and then cascade them through the whole of your site.
So now if you click on Edit Current you will see a list of the different Templates your site uses.
The one little problem we have here is that the Template we are after is not there, so you need to pick up a copy of entry-individual from TypePad.
Then copy and paste it in to your favourite text editor and look for the following code:
</MTEntryIfExtended>
</div>
It is about a third of the way down. Then from earlier get the small block of code from Adense and paste it just after the >.
Quick tip here, use a block style ad from Adsense and keep the link and text colours the same as those on your site.
Now save this, I call mine ‘entry-individual’ and head back to your TypePad account and still within the Edit Current section create a new template module and name it entry-individual.
Once saved it should come up at the foot of the page. Now take a break.
There are only a couple more steps you need to take, the first of which is to edit the Archive Template called Individual Archives.
Again you will see a page of code but all you are looking for is:
<$MTWeblogIncludeModule module="entry-individual"$>
Delete the words Weblog and Module (the one with a capital M), then save.
What this has done is instead of dragging in the default file, it will look for your entry-individual, with the Adsense code, and so display this on your website.
You are likely to get a message asking you to publish the site which you should do as this will then allow your changes to cascade through the site.
And that is it – each of your articles should be displaying Ads by Google at the end of the story and hopefully begin to earn you a few pennies.
One thing to remember is that the site is now using Advanced Templates so should you need to change elements then you are going to have to do so via tweaks of the code.
A final tip. Adsense works by reading through your web page and placing relevant ads, with the best-paying ads displayed first.
So if you have some Adsense code in the left-hand column the most lucrative ads will be here yet you are going to have more eyes, and potential clicks, looking over the ads at the end of your article.
Personally I would drop the ads from the left-hand column, have your first block of code at the foot of your articles and if you want, put a smaller Adsense block in the right column.
Please feel free to post any questions, comments or suggestions below.
Thanks for this Craig. Confused on a couple of points.
Once I've created the new Adsense code, where do I paste it into my template?
Also, where is the Individual Archives button?
Posted by: pieman | October 21, 2005 at 05:39
Hi
In your copy of entry-individual, which you get from the TypePad site mentioned, you place the Adsense code just after the right-pointing arrow head on the /div, just after the code called 'entryifextended'.
This will place your adverts just above the footer line with the date, category and permalink.
The Individual Archive will only be displayed once you have converted your design to Advanced Templates.
Then you will get a list of the templates your site uses.
Hope this is clear.
Posted by: Craig McGinty | October 21, 2005 at 11:53
Still not quite there... When I go to save the 'entry-individual' template I am asked to name an 'output file' What should I name it?
Posted by: pieman | October 26, 2005 at 07:06
You've got me with that one. Once you have prepared your entry-individual file within a text editor and placed your adsense code at the correct position you can just save this to your PC.
Then go into your TypePad account and go to Design and Edit Current and you should have a list of the templates your site uses.
Make sure you are working on the Advanced Templates.
Then create a new template module, paste in the code you have prepared above and save it as entry-individual.
Finally make the tweak to Individual Archives and publish your pages.
Hope this helps.
Posted by: Craig | October 26, 2005 at 08:55
OK - have now done everything correctly (I think) and republished several times. No ads are showing up just yet. Does it take a while before they kick in?? Hope I haven't made a total arse of it...
Posted by: pieman | October 27, 2005 at 10:57
Hi Craig,
I just wanted to drop by and say thank you for all your help. I have a lot of work to do and think I need a lie down already. Still kids' TV beckons so I may not make it.
Linda
Posted by: Linda | September 29, 2006 at 16:16
Thanks so much for your help. For future peep trying this - I found the 'advanced template' part the key as I wasn't on it already. so first thing's first, make sure you are on an advanced template (not obvious to find but check out the tips in the RHC which I followed). when you've done that - it's a quesiton as Craig says as cutting and copying the code you have created. the only mistake i made was to forget about case perfect: if it says entry individual don't put Entry individual or entry-individual etc. thanks again!! I'll give you my first profits (NB profits!!!)
Posted by: clare cook | August 13, 2008 at 16:01
Hi Clare, glad you were able to work it all out. Other thing I should mention is the importance of keeping a back-up of your templates.
Can just be as simple .txt files but at least it means you can roll back should something go astray.
All the best, Craig
Posted by: Craig McGinty | August 13, 2008 at 21:38