Here is a neat little code tweak that will integrate AdSense into the posts you make with Simple PHP Blog for the Modern theme. In the themes/modern/themes.php file, look for the following:

    // Display BODY TEXT
    $blog_content .= $entry_array[ 'entry' ];

$entry_array[ 'entry' ] contains your blog entry, so all we have to do is to put the AdSense code into this variable in order to have it display automatically. The catch is that Google only allows you to display a maximum of 3 ad boxes on a page at a time, so there needs to be a way to determine how many have been displayed. This can be determined by looking at the $entry_array[ 'count' ] variable, which contains a numeric value of the current entry we are processing (0 = first entry, 1 equals second entry, etc). With that in mind, changing the above code to:

// Display BODY TEXT
if( ( $entry_array[ 'count' ] == 0 or $entry_array[ 'count' ] == 1 ) and $mode == 'entry' ) {
   $blog_content .= '<center><script type="text/javascript"><!--
   google_ad_client = "pub-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
   google_ad_width = 468;
   google_ad_height = 60;
   google_ad_format = "468x60_as";
   google_ad_type = "text";
   google_ad_channel = "";
   google_color_border = "ffffff";
   google_color_bg = "ffffff";
   google_color_link = "5977b3";
   google_color_text = "4d4d4d";
   google_color_url = "5977b3";
   //-->
   </script>
   <script type="text/javascript"
      src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
   </script></center>';
}
$blog_content .= $entry_array[ 'entry' ];

Ads will now automatically displayed on the first two posts displayed on a page. The key to this is the line:

if( ( $entry_array[ 'count' ] == 0 or $entry_array[ 'count' ] == 1 ) and $mode == 'entry' ) 

This checks to make sure we are only adding the AdSense code to the first two entries, as well as making sure it IS an entry (and not a comment).

Writing a good blog post is a little bit of science and a little bit of art. Having a bit of creativity along with an approach to getting text on the screen can go a long way in getting interesting and informative information to your readers.

Write about what you know

If you're a lifelong resident of the city, don't think you can get away with writing about living in the country. People will be able to read between the lines and determine that you probably don't know what you're talking about. It would be like that salsa commercial--"New York City!" Ahem... anyway, back on topic. If you write about what you know, you shouldn't have any problems coming up with content. You will likely have formed a point-of-view about a subject that others would probably be interested in. For instance, if you're a dog lover, you have likely formed an opinion on what type of flea spray works best to keep the pests out of your house (and boy could I have used you a few months back--they were biting us like CrAzY!).

Use good punctuation and grammar

I probably should say attempt to use good punctuation and grammar, as my grammar isn't perfect. Use a spell checker, and make sure to read your posts before hitting the "Submit" button. If you have another set of eyes nearby, have them take a look and see if they can spot anything you might have missed. Try not to use run-on sentences even though it is very similar to the stream-of-consciousness idea I mention below because although it may sound good in your head it may not be the best way for your readers to understand your point and you may change topic and that should probably be handled in another sentence instead of the same one and I like chocolate ice cream. Dude, wait--what?

Look elsewhere for inspiration

Sometimes it is a good idea to take a look around for a topic to add to your site. Sometimes I'll do a search on AdSense, or blogging, or occasionally something completely unrelated looking for ideas to write about. The key here is to not waste too much time doing so--I can easily waste an hour in front of the PC accomplishing nothing and forget my goal of looking for an idea. Make sure to read books and magazines about your topic. If there is any kind of social group that gets together regularly that is related to your topic, make sure you join up. You may even be able to post their meetings online.

Just Write!

One of my biggest mistakes when writing an entry is to ponder too long about what I'm going to write about. Sometimes it is a good idea to put these thoughts that cause you to procrastinate on hold and start typing. I made that mistake today. I'd been thinking about what to write and was browsing other sites looking for ideas, when I decided to stop wasting time and now words are flowing onto the page. If you don't have an idea of what to write about, a good tactic is to start writing in a stream-of-consciousness style, which is writing about any fleeting thoughts that you may have. Often times these fleeting thoughts turn into several different topics that would make great blog entries. Make a note of these and start writing about one of them. Save the other ideas for future posts. Instead of no ideas for an entry, you now have several! (This is the inspiration for the picture in this post--hopefully the words will flow like water--water on Mars to be exact!)

The AdSense Notifier is a great tool that allows you to track your earnings right in your Firefox browser. Using this tool can show you your earnings to date, as well as Impressions, Clicks, Click Through Rate, Cost Per Impression, and Revenue Per Click.

I love it. I used to have the bad habit of constantly checking on my AdSense earnings by going to Google, and this has helped me limit that time-wasting activity. I only have a few minor gripes about the tool. One being that it can only refresh every 15 minutes at a minimum, so it is not quite real time. Two is that it has went down on me before; all of the readouts went to 0 for a few hours.

The only requirement is that you have the Firefox browser installed. I recommend it over Internet Explorer as it is more secure and it has many great extensions available besides the AdSense Notifier. You can get Firefox at GetFirefox.com, and the AdSense Notifier is at: AdSense Notifier.

You can see what your PageRank is with this tool. Normally, you need the Google Toolbar to see this information, but this tool allows you to view it without installing anything.

PageRank Lookup Tool © SEO Chat™ URLs Separated by newline (100 max) Enter Captcha To Continue To prevent spamming, please enter in the numbers and letters in the box below Report Problem with Tool.

Content is a big deal.

Google AdSense delivers ads to your site's viewers by analyzing the content of your site. In other words, it is contextual advertising. With that in mind, you will not get any advertisements related to your site unless you write specific content. For instance, on this site, you will often see ads for AdSense related companies. Also, if your site is mainly imaged based, there will not be enough text for your site to have AdSense display any content at all, besides "generic" advertisements.

Topical Site Content.

Some sites will be making a lot of money, and others will not, even though they may have a very similar layout and the same amount of text. The reason one is making more dollars could be the topic of the "winning" site. Certain topics will automatically bring higher traffic than other topics. In many cases, having a broad topic that is covered in many other websites provides a low payout, due to the fact that the market is saturated. Having a site focusing on a specific niche can oftentimes make a lot of money.

Quality Over Quantity.

Ok, maybe the heading should be Quality and Quantity. Having informative and high quality content that users cannot find elsewhere will drive your traffic through the roof. If users cannot find your information anywhere else, they will come back again and again to your site. Of course, having a lot of this high quality content will bring users back even more.

Update Your Site.

Frequent updating will update RSS readers, and give you more opportunities to submit your entries to blog catalogs and social bookmarking sites. This in turn will cause your website traffic to increase. More traffic equals more exposure to your advertisements.