16 Quick and Easy Tips to Increase AdSense CPC

Is AdSense working for you? Are you frustrated at your inability to make big money from AdSense regardless of your best efforts? Wonder if you will ever make real money from your blog? Well, read on, for I'm going to show you how to increase AdSense CPC the quick and easy way.

But before that, let's quickly walk you through the basics. CPC means "Cost Per Click". What's that? It means advertisers who use the AdSense program pay Google every time someone clicks on their adverts. When you join the AdSense network, you will be running AdSense ads on your blog or web pages and get paid 68% of the bid price for the advert - the rest goes to Google.

So if Google gets paid $4 for every click made on a specific ad for a certain keyword, you will get paid $2.72 every time a visitor to your website clicks on that ad, the one that is placed by Google on your web page.

Now, if you want to make real money from the AdSense program, you should try to maximize the CPC price. This means having the right kind of adverts on your web pages, the sort that make you the most amount of money per click.

You cannot decide the CPC of the ads that are placed on your blog. All you can do is to build your website or blog in such a way that Google places high value adverts or those with higher CPC on your web pages. Google decides where to place the ads through an automated system.

Why Click Through Rate (CTR) Matters

There is another important thing you need to keep in mind in this context, apart from the CPC. It is called the CTR or the Click Through Rate. The CTR is the percentage of visitors that click on the ads on your web pages.

Ideally you will want more visitors that click on the ads than those who just read your blog posts and ignore the ads completely. You will want a higher CTR in order to increase AdSense CPC. Is that clear enough?

So, if you have a CTR of 4% with a CPC of $1.5 - which indicates that 4 visitors of every 100 click on your ads - that is much better than a CTR of 2% with a CPC of $2.40. With the first, you will make $20.40 a day if you have a daily traffic of 1,000 visitors, and with the second, you will only make $16.32 a day from a daily traffic of 1,000.

So, it's not enough to have a high CPC, you also need a high CTR. That's why, to make big money from your blog, you will need to focus on increasing AdSense CPC as well as the CTR.

Now, before I give you tips on boosting your AdSense CPC, let's try to understand why your current AdSense CPC is so low.

Reasons why your AdSense CPC is Low

1. Niche
   Your website or blog belongs to a less profitable niche, one where your audience doesn't click on the ads. So if you have a blog that covers politics, for example, it's not your fault that you have a low CTR, it may have to do with your niche. Now, real estate blogs on the other hand, they have high CTRs.
2. Geography
   It has to do with where your audience comes from. If much of your audience is located in a country where the clicks don't cost much, then you will have a low CPC as well.
3. Mobile
   Maybe your website isn't mobile friendly as yet. Since the Mobile-Friendly update launched on April 21, 2015, Google penalizes websites that are not mobile friendly, through lower position on the SERPS and lower CPC values.
4. Programmatic media buys
   Programmatic buying by advertisers has resulted in a massive slump in income for many bloggers that depend on Google AdSense for a living. Nothing you could do about that.
5. Blocked advertisers
   You may have blocked a few advertisers for many reasons. You may have blocked your competitors from advertising on your site and you may have blocked a few companies whose policies you don't agree with. Well, the problem with that is that you will get penalized for this by AdSense through lower CPCs.
6. Video
   You may have a successful YouTube channel, but the placement of YouTube ads on your website or blog has meant that the money is going to YouTube and not to AdSense. So you have a lower CPC.
7. Poor targeting
   It's the advertisers' fault! They have no clue on how to target the right blogs for their products or services. So you have a men's fashion blog and for some strange reason you get adverts for women's fashion and accessories. Well, it's poor targeting by the advertisers, not your fault, but that lowers your CTR and CPC.
8. Economy
   There is little you can do when there is a recession in your country or across the world and people are just not buying enough. So advertisers have no choice but to limit their marketing expenditure and your CPC suffers as a consequence.
9. Seasonality
   It could be a seasonal thing. If you have a blog that offers match day predictions for the English Premier League, you won't have too many visitors during the off season when there are no matches played. So you will have a lower CPC at this time. Similarly, if you promote gifts or greeting cards on your website, you will have high CPC ads during the Holiday Season, and lower CPC ads for the rest of the year.
10. Ads sizes
    Not all ads are the same. Some ads convert much more than others. Not having enough converting ads can reduce your CPC. Pay attention to the size of the ads - there are some sizes that convert better.
11. Improper ad placement
    You have violated AdSense ad placement policies in some way without actually realizing it, and have been penalized by Google for it. Google has strict policies on the ads, and they frown upon the practice followed by some publishers where they trick users into clicking on the ads. This has to be avoided at all cost.

So, these are the 11 reasons why your AdSense CPC is low. Now, how can you increase AdSense CPC?

Here are 16 Quick and Easy Tips to Increase AdSense CPC

1. Optimize your content for high value keywords - Do your keyword research and identify the best paying keywords within your niche. The way AdSense works is that advertisers bid for keywords. There are some keywords that get the best bids and have a much higher value. Those are the keywords that you should focus on and optimize your content for.
   
   There are some keywords that could be worth $100 or more per click. Do your research on them and include them as naturally as possible in your content. In the US, the best paying keywords are available in categories such as business services, bail bonds, casino, lawyer and asset management. Create content relevant to such popular niches and optimize your articles and blog posts with the best paying keywords.





2. Focus on long tail keywords - It's not enough just to have the best paying keywords. You should do your research on SEO tools such as Google Keyword Planner and SEMRush and identify the best paying long tail keyword phrases which are relevant to your readers. Include these keywords in your content. Make sure to use the best SEO practices to optimize your content with these keywords - but keep it natural, don't stuff keywords without considering the grammatical correctness and the flow of the writing.
3. Create engaging, high quality and profitable content - The quality of the content is the most important thing to be considered. You should have a clear idea of what your readers are looking for and provide them with the right kind of solutions to their problems. You should write content that creates value to a highly targeted audience, who are looking for information within a niche. The content should be SEO friendly and placed prominently on Google's SERPs. The higher the traffic, the more people that read your content, the higher will be your AdSense CPC. As simple as that!
4. Make good use of the AdSense Ad Review Center - The AdSense Ad Review Center is a tool that allows you to review individual ads so that you can decide whether to block them or to display them on your web pages. This gives you a much higher level of control and transparency over the ads that appear on your website or blog. It gives you complete control over what sort of products, services or brands are promoted on your website or blog. You should make use of this tool to display adverts from high paying advertisers only. Remember - not all AdSense adverts are supported by this tool. Ad Review Center only allows you to block ads at the product level and not at the website level.





5. Figure out the best ad sizes - The right kind of ad sizes and placements bring you the best paying CPCs. There are some ad sizes that are very effective for certain platforms, such as mobiles and tablets, but not so successful on other platforms, such as laptops. Choose the best ad sizes for various platforms and experiment with them till you get a CPC that you are comfortable with.
6. Use Smart Pricing to your advantage - Advertisers of today want higher ROI and want real clients. Google understands this and makes an accurate projection on the conversion rate of the ads before deciding which ads to serve and where to place them. This is based on a "Smart Pricing" model which Google uses these days. You can use Smart Pricing to your advantage by displaying relevant ads, attracting high quality traffic to your blog and creating amazing content.
7. Make use of the Competitive Ad Filter - the Competitive Ad Filter is similar in a lot of ways to Ad Review Center discussed earlier. The purpose of this tool is to filter out any unwanted ads and to prevent them from appearing on your site. You can use this tool to block ads from your competitors. You can block entire AdSense accounts or specific domains. Now, this doesn't do much for your CPC, but it ensures that your competitors don't display their ads on your site. The last thing you want is for your customers to be led to your competitors' websites.
8. Follow Google's Mobile-Friendly guidelines - Since April 21, 2015, Google has made the mobile-friendliness of a website as one of the premier rankings factors for its algorithm. You have to optimize your website for the mobile; if you don't you will get penalized by Google in a big way. You must have a responsive web design.
   
   Advertisers like websites that are mobile friendly. Some pay more for mobile clicks than for desktop clicks and other prefer to advertise exclusively on the mobile. This is especially true of local businesses within a certain geographical area. So, to increase your CPC, make your website more mobile friendly.
9. Experiment, mix and match, try out new things with your ads - Google AdSense has a special called "Experiments" which allows you to try out different things with your ads. You can do split testing on different ad formats, try different advertisers, make changes to the font type and background color, change ad sizes, change color schemes, block certain ad categories, etc. and find out what works and what doesn't. When you feel comfortable about something, stick to it for the long haul.
10. Make use of the Google Ecosystem - Google likes publishers who are loyal to its platform. So join the Google Ecosystem, be a part of it. This means being on Google+, making use of Google Webmaster Tools, creating a Google Business account, having a YouTube channel of your own, using Google Docs, and so on. Spend more time on the Google platform, use more Google resources to earn Google's trust. Earning Google's trust is a surefire route to a higher CPC.
11. Focus on certain high paying geographical areas - You should always focus on high CPC regions where advertisers pay more for clicks. So if your content is aimed at audiences within the United States, Sweden, Japan, Norway or Netherlands, you will most certainly have a much higher CPC compared to targeting countries such as India, South Africa, Bangladesh and Indonesia. You might want to purchase local domain addresses and created content specific to the high CPC region. You may even want to narrow down your geographical region to just cities - for example, any content focused on New York City, Dallas or London gets high paying ads.
12. Make use of information from both Google Analytics and Google AdSense and link them for a better insight into your web traffic - Both Analytics and AdSense provide you with excellent information on your web traffic, revenue earned and deliver useful reports. Connect your Google Analytics and AdSense accounts for a better insight into your traffic, and get a sense of the audience behavior on your site - what they click more, where your highest CPC traffic is located and so on.
13. Show only relevant ads - You should make sure that Google serves only the most relevant ads on your web pages. The way to do that is to make your content SEO friendly and easy to crawl for the search engine bots. You can start by focusing on the basics such as headings, meta tags and formatting your content. Also, turn off the remarketing ads in favor of contextual ads. All of these things could increase your CPC over time.
14. Reduce the number of ad units on your blog - Try something different such as reducing the number of ad units on your blog. By reducing the supply, you can have the advertisers bid more for the limited space, which can lead to an increase in your CPC. It is about making the supply/demand mismatch work to your advantage.
15. Use the Matched Content feature on AdSense - Google has a content recommendation service called as Matched Content for AdSense. So it this is available only to major publishers, but you can try and find out if you qualify for it or not. This involves replacing your local article recommendation engine with that of Google. The idea is to promote only the most relevant and most profitable content on your site to your visitors.
16. Allow Placement Targeting - Advertisers are always willing to pay more for quality placement. Google has made it possible for advertisers to target specific sections within your website or specific formats. This is called as Placement Targeting. For this you will have to group the ads into Custom Channels - as many as 500 URLs - and give advertisers easy access to relevant content on your website.

Final Thoughts

I have discussed why your AdSense CPC is low and given you 16 quick and easy tips on increasing it. However, there are no hard and fast rules here. If none of the steps given above work, try something else to increase AdSense CPC. Just keep experimenting till something sticks. Hope you enjoyed reading this. As usual, I look forward to your questions and suggestions. Just send them in the comments below.

7 Legit Ways To Make Money Online Blogging in 2017

We've all heard those stories of someone that started a little blog one day and ten years later they've given up their day job because their blog is drawing in so much money for them they don't even need to get out of bed in the morning. The funny thing is, with a lot of hard work and time spent on getting your blog up and running, you can actually make a pretty penny out it. So, if you're interested in learning how to make money blogging then read on, I'll warn you now though, you're going to have to be seriously dedicated to get this running!

Sell digital products

A really simple way to make money online is to sell things online. Whether you're looking at selling digital goods or physical ones, you need to think closely about where your skills and strengths lie. Setting up a blog that is geared towards selling your goods might seem like a great idea but it's better to set up a blog and add the odd link to other work that you're doing. People read blogs for the stories and information, not to be sold goods left, right and centre, so keep this in mind when you're starting out on the blogging journey.

Some commonly sold digital goods include: 

• eBooks 
• Audiobooks
• Pictures & Videos
• Digital music
• Software programs
• Website themes

Sell physical products

The other great thing to remember is that knowing your audience will make all the difference when you're selling goods online. Running a blog about cars and motorsport and trying to sell homemade paper flowers just won't mix. If paper bouquets are your passion and you know they're good enough to sell, then the best thing for it is to set up a secondary blog that focuses on something more in keeping with what you're selling. Remember though, don't push the sales from the get go. If people feel like they're being sold to, they won't be interested. If your goods are just supporting what you're saying in your blog then you'll find a lot more enquiries fly your way!

Some of the physical goods that you can sell:

• Clothing
• Jewelry
• Handmade goods
• Household Items
• Electronics

Sell Advertising space

A really common way to make money from a blog is to sell advertising. The more traffic you have flowing through your page, the more likely you are to draw advertising agencies in and this can be a really quick way to make a little bit of extra money. If you're finding other ways of making money through your blog then you might want to think about using advertising space to your own benefit by advertising your own products! Taking people from your blog to your selling page will only generate a little bit of extra business for your sales. Sure, advertising someone else's websites might bring in the cash at the point of sale but would you make extra money from sales of your own goods? Just something to consider!

Sell online courses and eBooks

If you're really feeling confident in the topic of your blog then you might want to consider doing some form of educational documentation. Whether you do a few online courses or write an ebook, if your followers really respect your expertise in the field you're talking about then they will flock to what you have to offer. Obviously, the best products to sell will vary massively depending on the type of blog you run. Factual blogs will work well with eBooks, lifestyle blogs might offer some one to one coaching sessions and online courses might be best for those that are thinking about a change of scenery in the workplace. If in doubt, ask your readers what they'd like and whether they'd be interested! There's no better feedback than the people you're already writing for.

Freelancing

If you're reading all of these tips and thinking 'that doesn't apply to me' then worry not, you're not alone! We've all got our own areas of expertise and very often, the job you do for your career can make you some extra money at home. Whether you're coming from a financial background, web design or bookkeeping, they're all skills that are highly sought after for a lot of people. The great thing about advertising these skills on your blog is you're more likely to pick up a job that directly corresponds with your interests. Sick of making up advertisements for big businesses and fancy helping out a local dealer? Well your blog could be the perfect place to get business like that running. Before you know it, you could be a freelancer running your own business!

Here are some ideas:

• Freelance writing
• Data Entry
• Virtual assistant work
• Web Development
• Marketing

Affiliate marketing

If all else fails then there's always the opportunity to sell other people's good through your blog. This doesn't necessarily include actively selling their goods in that you don't have to deal with the postage and packaging though! Affiliate marketing is an amazing way to make money from blogging if you're smart about how you go about it. Picking your affiliates sensibly and going for products that will actually hold the interest of your readers, a simple plug about the product at the end of the post might be all it takes. You might choose to go a little more in depth and focus an entire post on one product although this does depend on the sort of blog you run! Make-up and fashion blogs do exceedingly well at this sort of sales (and they often get free gifts out of it as an added bonus!)

Membership sites

Finally, offering a membership to your blog will allow people to check out extra content on your blog. This is a great way of making money when you're a well established blog as you're basically offering a bonus to people that pay for it while still keeping up with the basic info for people that have followed you from the start.

If you're thinking about starting a membership site but don't know what to do, here are some ideas:

• Offer exclusive downloads each month via email (i.e. apps, graphics, recipes etc.)
• Exclusive educational videos, blog posts, webinars, or courses
• Downloadable guides or books 
• Offer Expert advice

Making money through your blog is a great little bonus at the end of the month, however if you're really serious about it then you need to work hard and be dedicated to the cause. A sporadic blog that has no focus is much less likely to bring you any extra pennies in compared to someone who does weekly blogs and has specific themes on different nights. If you intend to make money out of your blog then your best bet is to sit down, give a good hard think as to the type of blog you're running and what goods you can offer in tandem with this. After you settle in, keep in mind that making seriously big bucks out of your blog means you have to be in it for the long run.

20 Best Sites with High Quality Free Stock Photos

In today's online business world, tons of people have a need for quality free stock photos for their blogs, company websites, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of businesses who are settling for the corny stock photo of yesteryear, either because they don't know their options or think they are too hard to find.

That's where the good news comes in: good stock photos don't have to be expensive or hidden deep in the crevices of the internet. In our digital age, there's plenty of solid material out there - if you know where to look. Read for more good news? We have your back, and have taken the hassle out of finding these stellar stock images.

We're confident that this collection of resources will help you find exactly what you're looking for, whether it's adorable animals, minimalist interior design, and anything in between.

20 of the Best Sites to Download Royalty Free Stock Photos

1. Negative Space

One of the best things about Negative Space is that they are constantly updating their free stock photos every week. With Negative Space, you never need to worry about copyright restrictions, so you can use them for your project without having to jump through hoops.

Negative Space has a large selection to choose from, and the interface is very user-friendly. It's easy to sort through the photos in order to find exactly what you need.

2. Death to the Stock Photo

The founders of Death to Stock are dedicated to making beautiful photos more accessible. They knew how important it is for those running blogs and online businesses to not spend all of their profit on images for their websites.

The format is simple: just give them your email to get a new bundle of great stock pictures monthly, then just use the ones that apply to your current project. Easy!

For businesses with some extra funds to invest, Death to Stock has an affordable Premium membership which gives you access to their entire library of photos (instead of just the pre-selected ones they send), plus some of the profits from the membership are used to further the resource by financing photographers and their projects.

3. Picjumbo

Picjumbo is unique in that all of the photos come from a sole photographer, Viktor, who shares his photos from his home in the Czech Republic.

He updates the selection of photos really frequently, so there is always a fresh batch of high-quality graphics to download. To take it a step further, Viktor offers affordable paid packages for businesses that use stock images frequently. He also has a nifty plugin for the Photoshop and Sketch programs for just under 8 bucks.

4. Stokpic

Stokpic is another example of a photographer deciding to give away his photos for free. Ed Gregory decided to share 10 new photos bi-weekly that you can use in any way that suits you.

The easy user interface allows you to browse his categories like architecture, fashion, and nature.

5. Kaboompics

The site's creator, Karolina, is a Polish web designer. She is the creative engine behind this extensive stockpile of high-quality pictures. The images address a wide variety of topics. As with the rest of the sites, users can use Karolina's pictures for anything they need.

A quick visit to the About page of the site shows how big of a reach it has; during our visit to the page, the Image Downloads ticker stood at a whopping 5,051,906.

6. Startup Stock Photos

Startup Stock Photos is a company that operates on simplicity. They share pictures they're taking anyway in order to help businesses find a cheaper way to gain traction online.

You don't have to be a startup business to utilize their images, which is fine by them. The images are free, but they wouldn't say no to a donation.

7. Freerange

Freerange photos derive from a community of in-house as well as external talent.

At Freerange, their principles and motivations are clear: "Freerange Stock was formed with the goal to provide quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use. For free. We feel that free stock photos can be good photos." Can't argue with that.

8. Libreshot

Every photographer brings his/her own unique style to this fun brand of art. At Libreshot lives a very unique collection of free stock photos.

9. Fancy Crave

The images on Fancy Crave come without copyright restrictions, and they're free of all the corniness of typical stock photos.

Attribution is not legally required, but they note that it is recommended if possible.

Fancy Craves selects two fresh photos to upload daily, keeping things current and providing beautiful photos to suit all needs.

10. Unsplash

The creativity of the title matches the creativity of their photos. They have pages and pages of quirky, one-of-a-kind images for you to choose from.

As you've likely come to expect, these images are able to be used without any copyright restrictions.

11. StockSnap

The photos on StockSnap are of superb quality and most of them are especially great for use as backgrounds.

The selection is so interesting and versatile that it's easy to find yourself on page 50 of photos all of a sudden. And yes - they're free.

12. SplitShire

SplitShire is an Italy-based organization that offers pages of incredible free photos for you to use at will. Their philanthropic mission is simply: "Helping you to be awesome out there with great content."

13. Life of Pix

Life of Pix was created by Leeroy Advertising Agency (Montreal, Canada) and they have a real knack for supplying great pictures. Naturally, these cool graphics are fine for you to use - no strings attached.

If pictures aren't enough for your unique project, they have a sister company called Life of Vids.

14. Pexels

Unlike most of the other listed sites, Pexels handpicks their favorite photos from a pool of free image sources to ensure that you're seeing only top-tier work.

The images that survive their rigorous selection process are then able to be used in any way you see fit. The site also makes searching for your perfect stock photo as easy as possible.

15. HubSpot

HubSpot is a bit different from the rest; there's somewhat of a shortage of high-quality free stock photos available to those who need solely business-themed graphics. Hubspot has a healthy selection of corporate-style images that are perfect for a professional project.

16. Gratisography

The images on Gratisography lie a little further on the wacky side. These creations come from photographer Ryan McGuire, who is known for seeing things a bit differently. His work is significantly quirkier than some other sites (i.e. fake moustaches, pineapples wearing glasses, gummy bears in cereal) but you never know when you project might just call for something out of the ordinary.

17. Jay Mantri

Jay Mantri is yet another good-guy photographer who chose to share his amazing photos with the world. His work is quite sophisticated, and a lot of shots leave you wondering how he did it.

This is one artist we'd say to go check out anyway, even if you don't have a specific need for scenic, high-class images.

18. ISO Republic

ISO's Republic's mission is to supply only the best digital images for online businesses of all kinds.

One visit to their site will tell you immediately that they are serious about the quality of their content. The photos are top-notch quality, and while the subject matter varies, they all maintain a similar level of sophistication.

Similar to some previously listed sites, you have an option on ISO to register for their email list to get extra content not posted on the site.

19. New Old Stock

This free stock photo site embodies classic elegance. They deal exclusively in old photos, usually in black and white. Web designers and history buffs alike will enjoy their large compilation of antique photos. Though there are some unique challenges to the redistribution of old pictures, the site only posts those that have no evidence of copyright issues.

Their rules are slightly more stringent than other sites, so just make sure to read up on it before using these photos for commercial purposes.

20. Pixabay

Pixabay is our final choice of free stock photo collection. It has a great archive of plenty of public domain photos (so you can use them without worrying about copyright issues). Thank goodness they have an intuitive search mechanism since they have just shy of a million awesome graphics.

Unlike some other sites, it offers a more advanced search that allows you to filter your query as much as you need so you can always find exactly what you want.

How to Use AdSense Custom Channels to Increase RPM

If you want to boost the AdSense revenue, then you have to try and use all the tools at your disposal to increase the RPM and take your income to new heights. AdSense custom channels are some of the best tools that you can use in this regards. The best thing about these custom channels is that advertisers love them and you can easily adapt them to your needs!

What are AdSense custom channels?

When you hear about Google AdSense custom channels, you will most likely be confused in regards to what they are and what they do. But despite the name that can confuse some people, the reason why they were created is that they offer a really good value for AdSense users. Simply put, these custom channels are designed as a reporting tool, and they enable you to manage your ad inventory without that much of a hassle.

You can also use them to turn the ad inventory into a solution that advertisers can target. As a result, you will be able to boost the AdSense revenue in no time. Aside from that, you can also generate a lot of competition for the advertisers. Of course, you do need to have a good amount of traffic to be appealing to the advertisers. But if you use this tool adequately, the overall results can be downright unique. The custom channels are designed to work with a variety of content hubs as well as publishers. But of course, you have to put all your knowledge to the test.

AdSense custom channels A/B testing and analytics

In case you want to boost your revenue with custom channels, you will have to figure out which are the best ads you have, and then you add them into custom channels. You can find the Custom Channels in the Advanced Reports section.

Here you can filter the type of ads you want to track, and you can also view an overview, active views, engagements, clicks and even custom information.

Thanks to the AdSense custom channels, you will get to track things like page performance for that ad, what surrounding content was the best, ad placement results, ad size performance and other relevant info. All these things do add up very well, and they are bound to bring you a unique and distinct set of features.

A/B testing is also easy to do with AdSense custom channels. You track the performance of a text ad against another text ad, or you can opt for a more complex ad test. In fact, you can even make image to text ad comparison if you want. The idea here is to use the power of reports to see which type of ad delivers the best performance.

Depending on your niche, some types of ads will work better when compared to others. So, the idea is to pick the right one that suits your needs. It's the best approach and one that does pay off immensely in the end.

How can you track what blog portion delivers the best revenue?

This is a very good question and a tricky one to answer as well. There are many reasons why you may be unable to answer this adequately. However, it all comes down to a single comparison. For example, you have a site about technology and another one about healthy eating. Both of them are blogs, but the healthy eating one delivers a much better RPM when compared to the technology one.

Obviously, when you do A/B testing and see this, you will most likely focus on creating more healthy eating content and less tech content. But your task is to figure out what went wrong with the technology blog too. You can use the power of AdSense custom channels to figure out what caused that issue. Studying the performance over time will help you see what is wrong and this way you can adapt the situation to your advantage.

Creating a targetable ad inventory with AdSense custom channels

AdSense custom channels offer your online assets to the advertisers so that they can be targeted without a problem. Basically, the companies that have a video ad about their phone repair services will want an ad slot on your phone-related pages, not on the homepage or anything else. The idea is to opt for targeting, and that's where AdSense custom channels excel very well. Besides, advertisers have a limited budget, so they do want to get the very best results from you.

What type of benefits do you get from this? First, you will see that allowing advertiser targeted ads will bring in more competition for ad location and better performing ads. You will also work with advertisers that are knowledgeable and know what they want. Google said they select the best performing ads for your page, so obviously this will help you as well. Plus, advertisers can do smart pricing and earn more money by getting targeted audiences. Simply put, everyone wins with this type of approach, and that's what manages to deliver the very best outcome.

How can you set up AdSense custom channels?

You need to figure out what you want to measure and share to the advertisers. Basically, you create an ad unit, and you can add that to the AdSense custom channels. You can add multiple ones if you want, that is up to you to make the right pick.

Simply put, you go to My Ads in the AdSense console > Content, and then you select Custom channels. Here you will have to press the New Custom Channel Button. Add a name to the custom channel, and then you can select the ad units that you want. It's important to let these ad units targetable; you will have a small option related to targeting under this.

You can also remove ad placements if necessary. If you want to see the performance, you just need to go to Performance Reports > Advanced Reports > Custom Channels.

How to optimize ad placement channels?

There are some methods you can use to achieve this. Edit some of the best performing channels and as we mentioned above, mark them as targetable. This will offer you a list with some interesting features. You will see the fields that are shown to advertisers. You can also pick where ads appear, and if necessary, the ad location can be for multiple places if you want.

At this point, you will also need to opt for a description of your website, and you should also tell the advertisers why they should be interested in placing ads on your site. Make sure that you harness all your copywriting power. It's not an easy thing to do, but it may be able to pay off extremely well in the end.

A good idea is not to make all your channels targetable. What you want is to target solely the ones that are valid for you, as that's what will make things shine for sure. It's a very important idea to try and focus on the most important channels at first. If this does work very well for you, then you can adapt it to the most important channels as you see fit.

Keep testing

It's always important to keep testing, because the more you do that, the better the results will end up being for you in the end. AdSense custom channels are designed to be an analytical tool, so it doesn't matter how many channels you have. If you have around 500, that's great, if not, experiment and try to create as many channels as you can.

You shouldn't expect each channel to deliver its best performance. It will take quite a lot of time and effort to adapt everything to suit your needs. But the idea here is that the more you focus on interacting with the audience, the better the results will be for sure. As long as you know how to handle all of this, the experience will be great, and your site will benefit from that.

Plus, you shouldn't expect AdSense custom channels to deliver the best possible value right off the bat. These things do tend to take quite a bit of time for them to work adequately. At first, it may be a bit simple, but as time passes you will see that the results get increasingly better.

The reason is simple, it will just make things a lot better for you, and the AdSense custom channels performance will increase too. Plus, you get to learn what's wrong and opt for what is meaningful. While it can take some time and effort to set up everything adequately, AdSense custom channels do work very well. So, try to create and adapt AdSense custom channels to your needs, then the AdSense RPM will increase exponentially!

How to Create a Blogger Account?

Are you wondering how to create a Blogger account? Many of us do, because Blogger is one of the most popular blogging platforms out there and it can provide us with an extraordinary, fun way to express ourselves in the online world. Not only is it Blogger a very large blogging website, but it's also full of categories that you can blog on. You have complete control over what you want to blog, and that does make Blogger an amazing platform to begin with. Yet you do have to wonder how to create a blog on Blogger! We are here to help you understand all of that and so much more as fast as possible, thanks to a detailed guide that will showcase all the necessary instructions in a very easy to read manner.

Creating a Google account

What you need to know here is that Google owns Blogger, and because of that you will need to use a Google account to sign in to this platform. You can create a Google account now and then you will be able to continue to the platform without a problem. By creating a Google Account you will be able to access a wide range of Google apps and services like Drive or Mail for example. Visit the page above and share all the necessary information in order to create the necessary Google Account. Thankfully, the process is very easy and it will take only a few minutes of your time. In case you already have a Google Account, you will need to sign on the Blogger page.

Creating your blog

Once you are located on the Blogger page, you will need to press the New Blog button in order to start a blog. You will receive a new window where you will learn how to create a Blogger account. This will enable you to share all the necessary information.

• Make sure that you add a title for your blog in the Title area. This is very important because it will allow you to entice the visitor to read more about you and your content. So, try to make the title relevant and appealing
• In order for users to find your blog, you will need to create an Address for it. Your blog will have a blogspot.com address, but you will need to choose what goes before blogspot.com. Basically, you can opt for something like abcdef.blogspot.com or anything like that. Remember that this can be modified in the long run. The great thing here is that you will immediately be able to see if that address is available or not. This means you will have the ability to check the address availability really fast.
• The next step will require you to choose from any of the presets that are available at this point. Starting with a Template is a good idea, but do remember that this can be modified afterwards as well. So it's a good idea to just pick a template and move onward.

Once you have the blog title, address and template ready to go, you will have to press the Create blog! button. This process will take a little bit until it's completed properly, so just wait for a few seconds as the new blog will soon be added to the blog list. So, if you were wondering how to create a blog on Blogger, this is the simplest way to do it.

Maybe the best thing about how to create a Blogger account is that the entire process is very easy to do. Even beginners will have no problem creating and setting up an account. The customization options are plentiful here, so you shouldn't have any problem setting your account really fast!

Starting to post

Although the blog address will be available, you can't call that a blog unless you start writing content in there. Obviously, you will need to learn how to write a post on Blogger, and we are here to help you with that right now.

In order to start writing, you will need to click the Create a new post link or you can press the New Post button. Once you do that, you will gain immediate access to the post editor and here you can write the blog as well as make any necessary changes to content that you already wrote.

Write a title for your post

Your post needs to have a title. Towards the top of the Blogger editor you will see that there is a Post title box. Add in the desired post title there. This shouldn't eat up a lot of your time, just try to come up with a post title that is enticing, very easy to use and a delight to read for your audience. A catchy title can be great. Don't opt for the clickbait title that you can see nowadays, make your title feel informative and fun to read as that's what you want. If you want to write a first post, you need to make it introductory. Write about the goals you have, the type of content you want to add and so on. It will not be easy to write down the first words, but if you create a good title it will be easier for you to translate thoughts into words!

Start the writing process

You can create a Blogger post in 2 ways. You can either write the post in HTML or you can use the word processor included here. You have a button located in the top left corner which helps you switch between any of these two writing models. The HTML editor helps you create better web content and you can also use it to insert some special web functions. On the other hand, the word processor is more than qualified to offer you all the extra help you might need here.

Customizing text

If you want, you will be able to customize the text you want without a problem. You will have the ability to use the toolbar located on top of the editor to modify the text as you see fit. This includes formatting, color, size, alignment and so on. You have a Normal drop-down that helps you change the type of content you want to add, so you should consider changing between the desired heading type as you see fit. This also changes the way search engines process your content, so keep that in mind.  If possible, try to break the content into easy to read pieces. Use the Headings in a strategic manner.

Add an image to your post

If you want to make your blog post enticing, you should try to add at least an image. These images make posts a lot easier to read and it's a good idea to make the most out of images if you want to share a great experience for your audience. You will have an "Insert Image" button right above your text editor, on the toolbar. There are multiple options, you can either upload them from your PC/Mac, you can share a link or you can use your webcam to take a picture if you want. However, if you link to other websites, make sure that you showcase their copyright or just refrain from doing that to begin with. There are many sites who do not agree with the idea of having their content stolen, so try to stay away from that!

Modify the post settings

If you look on the right side of your Post Editor, you will be able to access some Post settings. Remember that these make it easy for you to customize your post right before you choose to publish it!

• Labels are useful if you want to group multiple posts which are very similar to one another.
• Schedule allows you to publish your content at a later date. It can come in handy if you don't want to share multiple articles at the same time.
• Permalink is an option that allows you to select the way your post will be linked to in the future. Usually it will maintain the title structure, but there are other link types you can choose from as well.
• Location enables you to add a location tag for your post. It's a very good tool for those that move/travel often
• Options allows you to modify some features like the user ability to comment on a post for example. You can also choose the way your HTML code is interpreted here as well.

Previewing

A great thing about previewing your post is that you will be able to see how it looks when a reader will access it. This is the right time when you need to check your post for any errors, be it grammar or structural ones.

Save the post for later

This is not the same as scheduling. When you save the post for later, it means that the post just isn't finished at this time and you will continue to work on it at a later time. You can see this as a draft for your future post.

Publishing the post

If you double or triple checked the post and there are no errors, then you are good to go. Still, it's a good idea to go through it at least one more time to ensure that all the content you want is there and you don't have to make any more changes. Add all the necessary labels and tags, make sure that you inserted any links, images and other information that you might need.

Once everything is ready, you will just have to press the Publish button located at the top of the panel. This is when Blogger will automatically redirect you to the Posts page. Here you will see the post right on top.

Don't believe that your work is done at this point. In fact, it's far from that. You still have a long way to go before you properly optimize and improve your blog. After all, people won't be drawn in to your blog if you have just a single one to begin with. Work hard to write great posts as they will be able to make your blog stand out in the long haul.

Of course, you do need patience. Writing a good blog does require time and you shouldn't rush the content creation. Prioritize quality over quantity all the time. If you don't do that, the experience will be very well worth it in the end.

How can you expand your blog?

As we mentioned earlier, writing a single post is great but it won't draw in a lot of traffic. If you want to write a good post, one that will bring in lots of readers and views, you want to post as often as possible.

Quality content will always bring in traffic. Update the blog as often as you can. If you can share at least a post per week, you should do that. A good stream of posts will always come in handy, so make sure that you always write some good, enticing content that will help populate your blog.

If possible, we recommend you to create a post Schedule as this will help you better optimize the way you post. This way you will be able to prepare your content beforehand, so you can have it ready when you want to create a new post. The best approach is to write more than 1 post at a time. One can be posted and the others can be kept for a later date if you so desire.

Write for a niche

Generalized content works but it won't really deliver good results for your audience. If you want to get the best results, we recommend you to find a niche as fast as possible. Not only does a niche help you target specific users, but it will also help you become an authority on that topic. We recommend you to research a niche and become an expert on it. This is the best way to create a large audience for a niche and from here to reaching success in blogging will be just a small step.

Don't rush the content creation process, especially if you write for a niche. Creating redundant content will just keep people away. As long as you take your time and focus on results for your audience, the experience will be an amazing one. Of course, use the proper content structure in order to cater to the needs of search engines, all while maintaining the content relevant for humans as well!

Reader interaction

Once you learn how to create a blog on Blogger you can create more than a blog in order to reach multiple audiences. But the idea here still remains, you will need to interact with the audience. The community will grow more and more as you put out content, so make sure that you always interact with the audience.

Read the comments and moderate them, make sure that you remove spam. Also, reply to people that are interested in what you write. This will help create and nurture a community around your content, which can be very interesting to do!

Advertising your blog

Your blog will need advertising if you want it to grow really fast. One of the best ways you can do that is by sharing it with people anywhere you can. From social networks to social media or any other location, all of these are great places where you can share your blog. We recommend you to try and do the following:

• Post a short headline and a link to your article on Twitter
• Single Blogger is a Google Product, make sure that you use the Google buttons in order to share on Google Plus and perform other similar actions.
• Encourage readers and friends to share your Blogger posts on Facebook and anywhere they can. This will help you reach a large audience really fast.
• Make sure that you comment on forums and other blogs. Link to your post there if it's meaningful for that particular topic. This type of practice is called backlinking and it's very good for SEO.

Place ads

Ads are very important if you want to monetize the blog. You won't be able to monetize your blog with AdSense unless you have a blog active for around 6 months, so keep that in mind. You also need to have at least 18 years of age and you also have to obey the TOS. AdSense allows you to receive payments based on the amount of impressions generated by your blog.

Blog customization

You can modify just about anything you want on Blogger, it all comes down to you to make the right changes! For example, you will be able to press Layout and then you can modify the block content for each section of your blog. You also have the ability to Add a Gadget if you want. Blogger has lots of add-ons to choose from, all of which can help you better define your blog!

If you want to customize your Template, keep in mind that there are multiple customization options to choose from. You can also keep the template you have now. Programmers can press the Edit HTML button so they can modify the CSS and HTML code.

Stat tracking

Blogger has a dedicated option named Stats where you have the ability to monitor the blog performance. Here you have the ability to see the amount of views you get. This way you can identify what posts are performing better than others. As a result, you know what content works great for your audience in the longer term!

Learning how to create a Blogger account is really easy and you can feel free to create multiple blogs if you want. Just make sure that you write content for all of them. Plus, you can also monetize each one of your blogs if you so desire. Take your time and make sure that you provide valid information for your readers. This should be the main reason to create a Blogger account in the first place!

How to Get a Disabled Gmail Account Back

It can be a frustrating experience when you find your Gmail account is no longer active. Having your Gmail account disabled means losing access to the products by Google that were linked. There are several reasons why your account may have been ended that are mostly due to the Terms of Service policies by Google itself. So, if you have violated one more of the polices either intentionally or not, you can find yourself with a disabled Gmail account.

Adding to the frustration is that Google will often disable the account with no warning. However, the good news is that there are simple methods for getting your account back online.

Gmail Account Temporarily Disabled

This is generally the easiest to overcome as Google believes that your account may be compromised. To rectify the situation, you will be asked to provide your mobile number or recover email identification. If you do either, they will send you a text message that will allow you to access your account quickly. You will need to do so within a 48-hour period otherwise it will become more difficult to get back your account.

Gmail Account Disabled Due To Perceived ToS Violation

If your Gmail account disabled included a terms of service (ToS) violation warning, then you will need to fill out their contact form so the process of getting your Gmail account back can begin. You should read the ToS thoroughly so that the violation will not happen again and provide the email address. If you do not get a response, repeat the step every two days until you do.

Gmail account disabled - Google contact form screenshot

Once they have responded, the next step should be to get your Gmail back so that you can gain automatic access to all the Google products including AdSense. You can also visit the help forum where you can open a 'Gmail account disabled' topic. Just focus on the Gmail account itself first as that is the key to the rest of your Google services. You'll want to discuss the issues that you are facing and why this needs to be resolved as quickly as possible. If the Top Contributor pings your thread to the staff at Google, then you should expect your account to be back online in 48 hours or two business days.

Gmail Account Disabled Due To Serious ToS Violations

If the Gmail account disabled was due to a serious violation of the Terms of Service agreement, as well as the Google policies that oversee your account, then you will have considerable difficulty in getting your account back. Such violations would include your AdSense account being involved in click fraud, for example. Serious violations that are clear will make it virtually impossible for your account to be restored.

If what happened was not considered a serious violation, then you should be able to get your account up and running within 24 to 48 hours depending on the circumstances. It pays however, to keep all your important data and information outside of your Google accounts in case of getting a Gmail account disabled result. By protecting yourself, the impact will be easier to handle until you can get your account back online.

5 Best Custom Blogger Contact Form Widgets

In the past, adding a custom contact form for Blogger was quite a complex process, and many bloggers were forced to use third party websites. However, even after Blogger launched its own contact form gadget, it was still considered as highly inadequate. This is because the official gadget would only be implemented on the footer the sidebar. Most bloggers preferred having a separate blogger contact form placed on its own page to make their blogs appear well arranged and more professional as well.

Having a well laid-out Blogger contact form is very important. This is the tool that visitors, companies, and brands can use to contact you and it is simply a must-have feature for every blogger. If you are not comfortable with sharing your main email address directly on your blog, then a custom Blogger contact form offers an effective way in which people can easily reach you.

Why you should use a Blogger Contact Form?

If you are still stuck on third party providers, you should definitely consider switching to the official custom contact form for Blogger since it has various unique benefits, like:

• Messages are delivered immediately - As the blog administrator, you will receive a message immediately the visitor clicks send.
• Reliable - It is the official form developed by Blogger, which makes it more trustworthy and reliable way to initiate contact as compared to using third-party services.
• Questions - The contact form offers a platform for your visitors to ask specific questions that they might have regarding the blog you wrote or your business in general. It can be an excellent way of capturing leads and even lead to conversions if you are selling a certain product or service.
• Feedback - Visitors can easily comment on your blog by leaving their feedback through your contact form. This feedback can help you determine which post to do next or what areas to address based on the visitors' comments.
• Information or service request - For those who are using the blog as a way of marketing a product or service, potential clients can use the custom contact form for Blogger to reach out and request additional information.

How to Add Blogger Contact Form Gadget

Before adding a custom Blogger contact form to a static page, we need to add the default contact form in the blog's sidebar to make it functional:

1. Log into your Blogger dashboard and go to "Layout" > click on the "Add a gadget" link on the page elements area.

2. Select "More Gadgets" below the "Basics" tab and click the "+" button to add the Contact Form Gadget.

Hiding Blogger Contact Form from the Sidebar

Once the contact form has been added, next step is to hide it so that it will appear only in the static page.

1. Go to "Template" and press the "Edit HTML" button. Once the code editor opens, click anywhere inside the code area and press CTRL + F keys (or Command + F for mac) to open the search box.

2. Type or paste the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

3. Just above the ]]></b:skin> tag, add this CSS code:

#ContactForm1{display: none !important;}

4. Click the "Save template" button on the upper left side and view your blog. The contact form widget should be gone.

Adding Custom Blogger Contact Form in a Static Page

Finally, now that we enabled the functionality of the contact form, let's add a custom contact form in our Blogger blog...

1. Go to "Pages" and click the "New page" button. If you already have a Contact us page, just click the "Edit" link below the page title.

2. Once the Page editor opens, fill up the page title with Contact/Contact Us or any title you want to show. It is recommended doing this before anything in order to make the permalink SEO friendly.

3. Click on the HTML tab as there we will add the code to make the custom Blogger contact form work. On the right site, change the Page settings to hide ("Don't allow" or "Don't allow, hide existing") the reader comments, then click the "Done" button:

4. Below are 5 custom Blogger contact form styles. Pick your favorite and copy the code provided, then paste the code inside the HTML box of your page editor:

Simple Contact Form

<style type="text/css">
.contact-form-widget{margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:600px;max-width:100%;padding:40px 0}.contactf-name,.contactf-email{float:left;width:48.25%}.contactf-name{margin-right:3.5%}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email,.contact-form-email-message,.contact-form-name:hover,.contact-form-name:focus,.contact-form-email:hover,.contact-form-email:focus,.contact-form-email-message:hover,.contact-form-email-message:focus{width:100%;max-width:100%;margin:0 0 20px;padding:10px 15px;font-size:12px;letter-spacing:1px;color:#444;background:#F3F3F3;border:medium none;-webkit-box-shadow:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email{height:37px}.contact-form-email-message{height:170px}.contact-form-button-submit,.contact-form-button-submit:hover{width:13%;height:30px;font:normal 12px Arial;letter-spacing:1px;color:#444;display:block;outline:none;margin-bottom:20px;text-align:center;background:#E6E6E6;border:0;cursor:pointer}.contact-form-button-submit:active{outline:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none}.contact-form-cross{border:medium none!important;box-shadow:none!important;padding:0!important;height:11px !important;width:11px !important;}
</style>

<div class="widget ContactForm" id="ContactForm22"><div class="contact-form-widget"><div class="form"><form name="contact-form"><div class="contactf-name"><input class="contact-form-name" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-name" name="name" size="30" type="text" value="NAME" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "NAME";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "NAME") {this.value = "";}'  /></div><div class="contactf-email"><input class="contact-form-email" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email" name="email" size="30" type="text" value="EMAIL" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "EMAIL";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "EMAIL") {this.value = "";}'/></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="contactf-message"><textarea class="contact-form-email-message" cols="25" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email-message" name="email-message" rows="5" value="MESSAGE" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "MESSAGE";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "MESSAGE") {this.value = "";}'></textarea></div><input class="contact-form-button contact-form-button-submit" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-submit" type="button" value="SEND" /><div class="contact-form-error-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-error-message"></div><div class="contact-form-success-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-success-message"></div></form></div></div></div>

Contact form with CSS rainbow divider

<style type="text/css">
.contact-form-widget{margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:600px;max-width:100%;padding:0}hr{position:relative;height:.75em;border:0;overflow:hidden;margin:0}hr:before{content:"";display:block;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;height:.75em;width:5.1em;background:#C4DD83;box-shadow:5em 0 0 0 #F4FCC9,10em 0 0 0 #FDCD78,15em 0 0 0 #ED786F,20em 0 0 0 #D99DBF,25em 0 0 0 #C39EDC,30em 0 0 0 #679DE2,35em 0 0 0 #62C2E3,40em 0 0 0 #F4FCC9,45em 0 0 0 #FDCD78,50em 0 0 0 #ED786F,55em 0 0 0 #D99DBF,60em 0 0 0 #C39EDC}.contactf-name,.contactf-email{float:left;width:49.25%}.contactf-name{margin-right:1.5%}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email,.contact-form-email-message,.contact-form-name:hover,.contact-form-name:focus,.contact-form-email:hover,.contact-form-email:focus,.contact-form-email-message:hover,.contact-form-email-message:focus{width:100%;max-width:100%;margin:25px 0 0;padding:10px;font-size:15px;color:#ccc;border-color:#E8E8E8;border-width:2px 2px 4px;-webkit-box-shadow:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email{height:40px}.contact-form-email-message{height:100px}.contact-form-button-submit,.contact-form-button-submit:hover{margin-top:25px;width:100%;height:40px;font-size:15px;color:#fff;text-align:center;text-shadow:0 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0.25);background:#EE786F;border:0;border-bottom:2px solid #D4685C;outline:none;cursor:pointer;-webkit-box-shadow:inset 0 -2px #D4685C;box-shadow:inset 0 -2px #D4685C}.contact-form-button-submit:active{top:1px;outline:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none}.contact-form-cross{border:medium none !important;box-shadow:none !important;padding:0 !important;height:11px !important;width:11px !important;}
</style>
<div class="widget ContactForm" id="ContactForm22"><div class="contact-form-widget"><hr><div class="form"><form name="contact-form"><div class="contactf-name"><input class="contact-form-name" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-name" name="Name" size="30" type="text" value="Name" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Name";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Name") {this.value = "";}'/></div><div class="contactf-email"><input class="contact-form-email" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email" name="E-mail address" size="30" type="text" value="E-mail address" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "E-mail address";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "E-mail address") {this.value = "";}'/></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="contactf-message"><textarea class="contact-form-email-message" cols="25" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email-message" name="Type your message here..." rows="5" type="text" value="Type your message here..." onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Type your message here...";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Type your message here...") {this.value = "";}'></textarea><input class="contact-form-button contact-form-button-submit" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-submit" type="button" value="Send Message" /><div class="contact-form-error-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-error-message"></div><div class="contact-form-success-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-success-message"></div></div></form></div></div></div>

Blogger Contact Form with CSS Ribbon

<style type="text/css">
.widget.ContactForm{z-index:1}.contact-form-widget{margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:600px;max-width:100%;padding:25px 0;background:#EBEBE3;-webkit-border-radius:2%;-moz-border-radius:2%;border-radius:2%}.contact-form-widget .form{width:91%;margin:0 auto}.ribbon{font:16px Arial;text-transform:capitalize;text-shadow:0 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,0.25);position:relative;background:#6B5F53;color:#fff;text-align:center;padding:1em 2em;margin:0 -16px}.ribbon:before,.ribbon:after{content:"";position:absolute;display:block;bottom:-1em;border:1.5em solid #584C40;z-index:-1}.ribbon:before{left:-1.7em;border-right-width:1.2em;border-left-color:transparent}.ribbon:after{right:-1.7em;border-left-width:1.2em;border-right-color:transparent}.ribbon .ribbon-content:before,.ribbon .ribbon-content:after{content:"";position:absolute;display:block;border-style:solid;border-color:#42362A transparent transparent;bottom:-1em}.ribbon .ribbon-content:before{left:0;border-width:1em 0 0 1em}.ribbon .ribbon-content:after{right:0;border-width:1em 1em 0 0}.contactf-name,.contactf-email,.contactf-message{text-align:left;margin-top:25px;color:#a1937b;font-size:13px}.contactf-name,.contactf-email{float:left;width:100%}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email,.contact-form-email-message,.contact-form-name:hover,.contact-form-name:focus,.contact-form-email:hover,.contact-form-email:focus,.contact-form-email-message:hover,.contact-form-email-message:focus{width:100%;max-width:100%;margin:10px 0 0;padding:10px;font-size:12px;color:#aaa;border-color:#DBD6D1;border-width:1px;box-shadow:none;-webkit-border-radius:5px;-moz-border-radius:5px;border-radius:5px}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email{height:35px}.contact-form-email-message{height:100px}.contact-form-button-submit,.contact-form-button-submit:hover{margin-top:25px;width:100%;height:37px;font:normal 12px Arial;outline:none;letter-spacing:1px;color:#fff;text-align:center;cursor:pointer;text-shadow:1px 1px 0 #ffe8b2;color:#7c5d1b;border:1px solid #d6a437;background:#febd4b;background:-webkit-gradient(linear,0 0,0 100%,from(#fed970) to(#febd4b));background:-webkit-linear-gradient(#fed970,#febd4b);background:-moz-linear-gradient(#fed970,#febd4b);background:-ms-linear-gradient(#fed970,#febd4b);background:-o-linear-gradient(#fed970,#febd4b);background:linear-gradient(#fed970,#febd4b);-pie-background:linear-gradient(#fed970,#febd4b)}.contact-form-button-submit:active{color:#7c5d1b;border:1px solid #d6a437;background:#febd4b;background:-webkit-gradient(linear,0 0,0 100%,from(#febd4b) to(#fed970));background:-webkit-linear-gradient(#febd4b,#fed970);background:-moz-linear-gradient(#febd4b,#fed970);background:-ms-linear-gradient(#febd4b,#fed970);background:-o-linear-gradient(#febd4b,#fed970);background:linear-gradient(#febd4b,#fed970);-pie-background:linear-gradient(#febd4b,#fed970)}.contact-form-cross{border:medium none!important;box-shadow:none!important;padding:0!important;height:11px !important;width:11px !important;}
</style>
<div class="widget ContactForm" id="ContactForm22"><div class="contact-form-widget"><h2 class="ribbon"><strong class="ribbon-content">Shoot Me an Email</strong></h2><div class="form"><form name="contact-form"><div class="contactf-name">Your name:<input class="contact-form-name" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-name" name="Name" size="30" type="text" value="Name" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Name";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Name") {this.value = "";}'  /></div><div class="contactf-email">E-mail address *:<input class="contact-form-email" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email" name="E-mail address" size="30" type="text" value="E-mail address" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "E-mail address";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "E-mail address") {this.value = "";}'/></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="contactf-message">Message *:<textarea class="contact-form-email-message" cols="25" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email-message" name="Type your message here..." rows="5" value="" placeholder="Type your message here..." value="Type your message here..." onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Type your message here...";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Type your message here...") {this.value = "";}'></textarea><input class="contact-form-button contact-form-button-submit" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-submit" type="button" value="SEND MESSAGE" /><div class="contact-form-error-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-error-message"></div><div class="contact-form-success-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-success-message"></div></div></form></div></div></div>

Minimal Contact Form

<style type="text/css">
.contact-form-widget{margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:600px;max-width:100%;padding:25px;background:#fff}.contact-title{text-align:center;font:41px fantasy;color:#121212;margin-bottom:25px}.contactf-name,.contactf-email{float:left;width:47%}.contactf-name{margin-right:6%}.name-icon img,.email-icon img{background:transparent!important;border:medium none!important;box-shadow:none!important;padding:11px 0!important;width:16px !important;height:16px !important;}.name-icon,.email-icon{position:absolute;z-index:1}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email,.contact-form-email-message,.contact-form-name:hover,.contact-form-name:focus,.contact-form-email:hover,.contact-form-email:focus,.contact-form-email-message:hover,.contact-form-email-message:focus{width:100%;max-width:100%;margin:0 0 25px;padding:10px 10px 10px 25px;font:bold 16px cursive;text-shadow:0 1px 2px #ddd;color:#121212;background:transparent!important;border-color:#121212;border-width:0 0 2.5px;-webkit-box-shadow:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email{height:40px}.contact-form-email-message,.contact-form-email-message:hover,.contact-form-email-message:focus{padding:10px!important}.contact-form-email-message{height:150px;border-width:2.5px!important}.contact-form-button-submit,.contact-form-button-submit:hover{background:#121212!important;width:30%;height:37px;font:bold 13px "Lucida Grande";letter-spacing:2px;color:#fff;text-align:center;border:medium none;cursor:pointer;display:block;margin:0 auto;outline:none}.contact-form-cross{border:medium none!important;box-shadow:none!important;padding:0!important;width:11px !important;height:11px !important;}
</style>
<div class="widget ContactForm" id="ContactForm22"><div class="contact-form-widget"><h2 class="contact-title">Get in touch.</h2><div class="form"><form name="contact-form"><div class="contactf-name"><div class="name-icon"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlZ6e6ydM0WCT9iYWOq6ZPqww0m9DB7xfGXMC8AO-7koybRJdHYl7G7clKhGDwRj9GRhlLvISBkK5qFaol_3rRG46MCQTLkcsW_dRTqMsG425kCVuRtg8AcENxb9MZzfgtvXszrypxqcRG/s1600/avatar%25281%2529.png" width="16" height="16" /></div><input class="contact-form-name" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-name" name="Name" size="30" type="text" value="Name" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Name";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Name") {this.value = "";}'  /></div><div class="contactf-email"><div class="email-icon"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAXUumYqfCQfWtCk3Co-6QJREEkujOi1M7i1sfdoY_l3rdBYvrsQ0eQGGTSGnuAcfPXh21x9mmIonFXfXNjnx6Lefq49ivEPDDE7wK4GQf6HWscXjUVHCi8BpdHaOYoK4QKAB8X0jnM3aC/s1600/envelope%25281%2529.png" width="16" height="16" /></div><input class="contact-form-email" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email" name="E-mail address" size="30" type="text" value="E-mail address" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "E-mail address";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "E-mail address") {this.value = "";}'/></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="contactf-message"><textarea class="contact-form-email-message" cols="25" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email-message" name="Type your message here..." rows="5" value="Type your message here..." onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Type your message here...";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Type your message here...") {this.value = "";}'></textarea><input class="contact-form-button contact-form-button-submit" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-submit" type="button" value="SEND" /><div class="contact-form-error-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-error-message"></div><div class="contact-form-success-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-success-message"></div></div></form></div></div></div>

Contact form with speech bubble

<style type="text/css">
.contact-form-widget{margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;width:600px;max-width:100%}.contactf-name,.contactf-email{float:left;width:50%}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email,.contact-form-email-message,.contact-form-name:hover,.contact-form-name:focus,.contact-form-email:hover,.contact-form-email:focus,.contact-form-email-message:hover,.contact-form-email-message:focus{width:100%;max-width:100%;margin:0 0 15px;padding:10px;font-size:14px;color:#777;background:#E2DEDB;border:1px solid #CBC7C4;-webkit-box-shadow:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none;-webkit-border-radius:20px;-moz-border-radius:20px;border-radius:20px}.contact-form-name,.contact-form-email{height:33px}.contact-form-email-message{height:130px}.contactf-message{position:relative}.contactf-message:after,.contactf-message:before{border-bottom:50px solid transparent;border-left:80px solid #E2DEDB;bottom:-32px;content:'';position:absolute;right:50%;margin-right:-100px}.contactf-message:before{border-left:80px solid #CBC7C4;bottom:-34px;right:50.3%;margin-right:-101px}.cbluebutton{margin-top:25px;width:30%;height:35px;float:right;font-size:15px;color:#fff;display:inline-block;text-align:center;background:linear-gradient(to bottom,#339ad9 0%,#224bbc 100%);box-shadow:0 1px 1px rgba(34,75,188,0.5);border:0;-webkit-border-radius:20px;-moz-border-radius:20px;border-radius:20px}.cbluebutton span .contact-form-button-submit{background:linear-gradient(to bottom,#52b1e2 0%,#397fd0 100%);font:bold 16px "Helvetica Neue",sans-serif;height:35px;width:100%;color:#FFF;text-shadow:0 1px 1px #224BBC;display:inline-block;box-shadow:0 1px 1px rgba(255,255,255,0.3) inset;cursor:pointer;outline:none;-webkit-border-radius:20px;-moz-border-radius:20px;border-radius:20px}.contact-form-button-submit:active{top:1px;outline:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none;box-shadow:none}.contact-form-cross{border:medium none!important;box-shadow:none!important;padding:0!important;width:11px !important;height:11px !important;}
</style>
<div class="widget ContactForm" id="ContactForm22"><div class="contact-form-widget"><div class="form"><form name="contact-form"><div class="contactf-message"><textarea class="contact-form-email-message" cols="25" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email-message" name="Message" rows="5" value="Message" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Message";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Message") {this.value = "";}'></textarea></div><div class="cbluebutton"><span><input class="contact-form-button contact-form-button-submit" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-submit" type="button" value="Send" /></span></div><div class="contactf-name"><input class="contact-form-name" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-name" name="name" size="30" type="text" value="Name" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "Name";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "Name") {this.value = "";}'  /></div><div class="contactf-email"><input class="contact-form-email" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-email" name="email" size="30" type="text" value="E-mail" onblur='if (this.value == "") {this.value = "E-mail";}' onfocus='if (this.value == "E-mail") {this.value = "";}'/></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="contact-form-error-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-error-message"></div><div class="contact-form-success-message" id="ContactForm1_contact-form-success-message"></div></div></form></div></div>

5. After you added the code, click the "Publish" button on the upper right side. Now you should be able to see the Blogger contact form live on your static page. To ensure that everything works fine, you can send a message as a test. The message should be delivered to your inbox in a matter of seconds, just make sure that you're checking the email that you're using with your Blogger account.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Custom Contact Form for Blogger

Where do the messages go?

Once a visitor asks a question or sends feedback through the Blogger contact form, it is instantly delivered to the email associated with your Blogger account. If a blog has several administrators, then all the individual administrators will receive the comments or questions asked by the visitor.

What is the benefit of using a separate "Contact Us" page?

Even though it all comes down to your personal preferences, your blog will look more professional if it has a separate page for the custom contact form for Blogger. It gives you credibility and also offers you the chance to add a specific call to action in the new "Contact Us" page.

Is it possible to add extra fields?

Unfortunately, no. You can't add custom fields such as website, phone number or mailing address since Blogger uses special tags in order to transfer data. In any case, the default fields are well laid-out and will help you to get the basic information you need about your visitors.

I have installed the Blogger contact form, but it is not working. What could be the problem?

There are several reasons why you may be having trouble setting up your contact form. The simplest way to troubleshoot is to countercheck the email you linked to the blog and also reinstall the form again.

Ultimately, by using the custom Blogger contact form you gain from consistency in the type of information you request and also reduce spam since you will not have to display your email directly on the blog.