By Flexo

Several weeks ago, I installed a new design at Consumerism Commentary. Theoretically, this was going to be a good move, from a fluid table-based design to a static CSS-based, compliant design. The fixed center column for text required that I rethink the placement of my AdSense ads, however.

I moved the two large almost-square ads from within the article text to the sidebar, while keeping them relatively the same distance from the top of the page. I believe that this move is the cause of a 40% decrease in my AdSense income over the past few weeks.

It would have been nice to test this design without losing money, but there is no way that I know of to replicate my traffic and visitors’ ad-clicking behavior on a test site. This glorious experiment failed gloriously.

I won’t be moving back to my old design, but I will likely make some slight changes to make the center column with the main article content fluid and drop the almost-square ads back there.