Through a lot of trial and error with ad placement, blending, and more, I’ve managed to bring in about 50% of this blog’s income using Google AdSense. Overall I am very happy with their targeted advertising service, but I’m always on the lookout for other ways to generate income.

AuctionAds has been receiving a lot of praise lately because people are having success with it.  I, on the other hand, have not had any success displaying auctions on this site.  I think the big reason I haven’t had much success is due to the subject matter covered here, which doesn’t tend to mesh well with eBay auction ads.  I talk a lot about free software and web-based applications, so there isn’t really anything to target and sell.

Today I ran across a post by Scott Andrew Bird entitled 7 Ways to Optimize AuctionAds, where Scott covers several things that have helped him find success using AuctionAds. One of the ideas that I found particularly useful is his tip to Display AuctionAds alongside AdSense:

When it comes to placement, the usual rules apply (take a look at Google’s ‘heat map’ to see the highest-earning areas of your site). Taking this a step further is the placement of ads in relation to their competitors.

I’ve found that placing AuctionAds alongside their Google AdSense counterparts to be particularly effective.

The ads seem to feed well from each other, and the ad content is always good.

I suppose this is probably allowed by Google because they don’t look very similar.  Have you found success with AuctionAds?  If so, what tips do you have to recommend?