As you probably know, one of the most common ways people get started with making money online is by creating niche sites and monetizing them with AdSense. These sites usually target one specific keyword phrase and 2-5 additional related keywords and by getting and exact match domain (EMD) it is fairly easy to get high rankings in the search engines depending on the competition and that translates into free traffic to the site and by putting AdSense ads you can make money. How much money depends mostly on the traffic and your ads location.

I am not going to go over how this process of building AdSense sites is done (I may write about that at a later stage) and whether or not if it is a good way to start your online business.

I just want to share with you the best AdSense ready WordPress Theme I found and use for all my niche sites. There is a big debate about what type of site is better, a WordPress site or a simple HTML type of site. I don’t know what others are saying and I don’t really care since I don’t see any simpler, easier or faster way to build these type of websites than to use WordPress.

The problem starts when you need to find a good WordPress theme to use for your AdSense sites. There are tens of thousands WordPress themes too choose from but most of them are of very low quality and not really optimized for adding AdSense and other ads to your sites.

Finding and using a theme that is specially designed to built to work with AdSense and allows easy integration and insertion of AdSense ads (or any other ads for that matter) is crucial for me and I assume it will be just as important to you.

HeatMap Theme Overview

HeatMap Theme Review

When I first got started I really wanted to find a good WordPress theme that will make it as easy as possible for me to insert the AdSense code into various placements throughout my site. I didn’t want to touch the code of the theme in order to have the ads show where I wanted them to show.

The best theme I found after testing several different themes is called the HeatMap Theme (as you probably figured already). When I first started using the Heatmap theme I only used the free version of the theme and I loved it and didn’t really see any reason to upgrade to the pro version.

But, after the update to version 4 I decided to get the pro theme for some testing and now that version 5 is out there is no question that you should get the pro version as the amount of added features you will get with the Heatmap Theme v5 pro theme compared to what you get with the free version is amazing.

HeatMap Theme Options

All of the various options of the theme can be controlled and tweaked through the options screen. With v5 the change is that you can now collapse all the options and there is no longer the need for scrolling and looking for the specific options you want to update as was the case with v4.

As you can see in the screenshot above, all the options are divided into different topics so it would be easy to understand and find which options to update and/or change. A great addition to v5 is the ability to shut down the SEO settings of the theme so it won’t interfere with any SEO plugin you will be using (and you should be using WordPress SEO by Yoast).

Another great addition to v5 and one that is in sync with the changes to the search engine algorithms is the added social network icons and sharing buttons that you can add to every post. No need for any external sharing plugin.

HeatMap Theme Ads

What makes the Heatmap Theme so great (at least for me) is the ability to add as many ads as I want and to do so very easily using the built in ads positions.

Adding ads is as simple as copy and pasting the ads code (AdSense code or any other ad code you want to use) into the boxes. You can (and should) give a name to each ad you create and select on which pages you want the ad to appear on. It is that simple.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you have the ability to add up to 20 different ads and I would dare to say that it is more than what you would ever need on whatever blog you will create.

HeatMap Theme Widgets

The widgets is how you will insert your ads into the theme on various locations without the need to know or touch any coding. It is as simple as drag and drop. Here is an image with all the different ad locations on the new Heatmap Theme v5:

There are more than 20 readymade ad locations that you can use and as much as I tried, I couldn’t find a place that I wanted to put an ad in that wasn’t pre created for me. These 20 plus ad locations have been tested and chosen as they cover all the ad locations you can use on a WordPress blog.

After you add your ads they will appear under the available widgets in the widgets section of your WordPress admin panel with the names you gave them (so each ad you create should have a unique name and a name that would make it easy for you to know which ad it is). Once the ads are created, all you need to do is to drag and drop the specific ad you want to the specific location you want it to show on your blog/site using the following pre-made ad locations:

As you can see, you have complete control over where your ads will show and you can decide where to show them from over 20 different locations. There is no need for special plugins and it really is as simple as drag and drop.

HeatMap Theme Demo

I really think that every premium WordPress theme should have a demo site that can show the theme in action, live. And with the new Heatmap Theme v5 you can now access a really great demo site that really shows all that you can get with this theme.

You can access the demo site by clicking on the image below and you will see the following navigation bar at the top:

Live Example Sites

As you can probably guess from how this is called, you will be able to pick from different live sites that are running the Heatmap Theme including a site that shows how WP Robot integrates with the theme (which is great if you are using WP Robot for your auto blogs).

Ad Layout

The second demo option you can play with is the different ad layouts you can create.

v5 Pro Skins

The final demo option (and the one which I think will be used the most) is the different pro skins you can use with the Heatmap Theme in order to make it look just the way you want. 10 new ultimate skins have been added with v5 to the already existing 24 skins that v4 supported giving you a total of over 30 skins to chose from.

To Sum It All Up

I have tried various different WordPress themes for my AdSense and niche websites and I can really say that the Heatmap Theme has been the best and that was prior to the new Heatmap Theme v5 which is much better than the earlier versions and really makes it an easy choice.

The Heatmap Theme is very fairly priced in comparison to other WordPress premium themes ($70 for unlimited domains and a lifetime membership) and with the great support forum and the constant updates it really is one of the best purchases I made.

So if you are into building and monetizing niche websites, affiliate review sites, amazon sites and/or AdSense sites than I really think you could benefit from using the Heatmap WordPress Theme v5 and its great features.

You May Also Find This Useful

Since I started looking into building sites and monetizing them with WordPress I figured I will share with you 2 blogs I found on this topic that I’m sure could help you quite a bit and provide you with some useful information:

AdSense Flippers

I will just quote from the about us page as I think that tells it all about the site:

“At AdSenseFlippers.com, you’ll find the exact strategy we’ve implemented to build a business from $30 per month in December 2010 to almost $15,000 in August 2011.  The information, the steps and tools we use…everything.  The best part?  It’s laid out for you…ABSOLUTELY FREE!”

Niche Pursuits

Spencer Haws owns more than 200 niches websites that he mostly monetizes with AdSense so you can learn plenty from him and his past experience.

100K AdSesne Blueprint

This is an eBook that is all about using AdSense to monetize niche websites. I read it myself and loved it and I know that other marketers that I respect have recommended it also. If you are looking for an eBook that will provide you with an actual blueprint than I’m sure you will love this.

Anything I Missed?

If you know of other great AdSense resources than please share them with us by commenting below. I can assure you that it would be greatly appreciated and I will also thank you in advance. THANKS!

To your success (and mine ),