How do I insert Adsense tags inside WordPress posts?
You can easily add Adsense units to a WordPress blog by editing the template files. But the problem with this approach is that you will not get any control on the individual posts. For example, sometimes you may need a referral ad to be inserted in a specific post.
Now if you directly insert Adsense tags in your post, you will find that they are changed to garbage by tinyMCE editor. Even if you turn off tinyMCE, Adsense units won’t work! This is due to the post content processing by filters.
There are numerous Adsense plugins for WordPress available out there which lets you add Adsense units inside a post. But in this post, I will look at a different plugin. It is called “Script Enabler”. This plugin allows you to embedd script tags inside a post by disabling filter processing on script tags. The advantage here is that after enabling this plugin, you can simply copy paste the Adsense ad unit code into your post!
Google Adsense team in India
Here is a happy news for Adsense publishers in India. Google Adsense recently started operations in Hyderabad, India. Hopefully this will mean better support for Indian Adsense publishers.
Now the only thing Google Adsense need to do in India is to enable direct bank payments. This will be a boon for Indian Adsense publishers since current courier fee of $25 is too much in Indian context. Especially when your Adsense income hovers around the $100 mark! 
Replacing WordPress search with Google search and adsense
WordPress by default provides search functionality out of the box. But instead you may want to use Google site search. The reason is simple, Google search can be monetized. If the user clicks on ads displayed after search you get paid!
Integrating Google site search is simple provided you are OK to have the search results on a different page. Just copy and paste the code generated by Adsense. But if you want to integrate Google search inside WordPress, things become a bit complicated. Initially I tried creating a WordPress page and then tried integrating Google search inside it. It didn’t work.
Then I came across this cool plugin called MightySearch. Using it is pretty simple,
Installation: Upload mightysearch.php to wp-content/plugins/ directory and activate it. Go into your Google account and get the form & search result code. Paste both code into MightySearch.
How to use it: Just create a new page, for example “Google Search”, so that the post slug will be “google-search”, and reachable at URL for example: http://yourdomain.com/google-search/ . Then type either one of the following text anywhere in your page to call the search form or/and search result;
<!--mightysearch--> - to call both search form and search result on the page <!--mightysearch_form--> - to call only search form on the page <!--mightysearch_result--> - to call only search result on the page.
Video ads on Adsense
Adsense is piloting video ads with a select set of publishers.
This time, we’ll be working with a larger set of content providers, grouping together video content from providers such as Warner Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment together with quality ads and offering them as playlists which publishers can select from and display on their AdSense sites. Participating publishers range from small to large, and cut across many different types of content.
As the bandwidth availability is increasing everywhere, streaming videos is no longer an issue. Google obviously wants to be the first in trying video ads on a large scale! Interestingly this time small publishers are also included in the Adsense video beta testing program.
Picasa referrals being retired
There won’t be any Picasa referrals since it will be merged with Google pack referrals. But currently if you are using them, they will continue to be supported.
To make for an easy transition, we’ll upload new Pack referral options that feature Picasa. To transition to these new referrals, you should generate a new referral unit, choosing Google Pack as the product, and select one of the new Pack units that features Picasa.
Strange behaviour in Adsense reports
I noticed a rather strange behavior recently in my Adsense reports. The impression count displayed on the overview page was different from the monthly report. The monthly figure was more than what is shown on the overview page for “this month”.
I thought this is because the monthly figure database was updated first and later overview database was populated. But sometime later I found that overview page showed bigger page impressions than the monthly report! When I checked about 5 minutes later both counts were same!
It is a small thing, but when you are checking your reports check monthly and all time reports as well. One of them might give you the latest view of your Adsense account!
Google adsense image baiting is not allowed
Google has recently clarified that images or photos cannot be used near adsense ad units to lure Web site visitors to click them. For example, following type of usage is a strict no-no after this clarification (incidently this is used in a lot of blogs).
From the adsense blog,
We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn’t actually being offered. That’s not a good experience for users or advertisers.
After this announcement I can see a lot of sites/blogs frantically changing their ad unit placement. I wonder what effect the change will have on their ad click rates!