Monetize Your Site with Google AdSense

Sunday 8th, August 2010

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Is making a few cents or dollars per click from displaying Adsense ads on your site is really worth it? Is it possible to make decent money from Adsense? Of course it is, and in fact, it's easier than you think!

What the...is Google AdSense?

Here is how Google defines its program:

Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, text-based, unobtrusive Google AdWords™ ads on their website's content pages and earn money. Because the ads are related to what your users are looking for on your site, you'll finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages.

The amount of money earn per click depends on how much the advertisers pay. If the keywords the advertiser choses are popular, he needs to pay higher price, so his ads are displayed more frequently than his competitor's ads. If your site focuses on the popular keywords, you could receive several dollars per click. The most competitive keywords are those related to loans, health and insurance. Ads displayed on those kind of websites are very expensive - sometimes you can get even $30 or more per click. Conversely, low demand keywords are worth just a few cents per click.

How does Google AdSense work?

Sign up for a new Adsense account. Don't worry, it takes just a couple of minutes.
When your site gets approved (usually takes up to two days) you will receive a snippet of code to place on your web pages.
You get paid when your visitors click on your Adsense links. Remember, don't ever click on your own ads. Google will know immediately and will ban you in no time. Once you get banned, there is no way back. Therefore, make sure you read and understand their rules.
You can check your earnings whenever you want. Just log into your Adsense account. Check your stats on a regular basis. Experiment with the ads placement and colors, and check the result. Here is what your statistics consist of:

Impressions - how many times the ads have been displayed on your site
Clicks - how many times and ad has been clicked
Clicktrhough rate - the percentage of the number of clicks, out of the number of impressions
Your earnings - how much have your earned

Is Google AdSense for you?

If you own a website that receives a decent amount of traffic, you should definitely sign up for AdSense. If you don't, why wouldn't you create a blog or website? It's really easy to do with all those tools we have available today. There are many tools, like Affiliate Website Builder, that allow you to create websites optimized for Adsense and other affiliates in no time. Thanks to such tools you can create a big empire of money-earning sites relatively easily.

Don't go for high paying words if you don't have much experience in internet marketing. High paying niches (like loans, insurances, health, etc.) are occupied by very strong competition, and you have no chances whatsoever to compete with them in search engines. It takes years, a lot of money spent on promotion, and lots of time to rank high in search results for high paying words. If you're just starting off, focus on a niche that has weak competition, and relatively high popularity. Finding untouched and profitable niches isn't easy. But fortunately, there are many books written on the topic. One of my favorites is Niche Navigator.

How to increase your AdSense earnings

Build your page around specific keywords - write content with a few targeted keyword phrases. Don't forget to include your keywords in meta tags (title, keywords, description), link anchors, and heading tags (h1, h2, h3). Google will then serve ads that are relevant to your content, which will result in higher clickthrough rate.
Surround your ads with white space - this will ensure that your ads ads stand out from the rest of your content, so visitors can see it clearly.
Make your ads look as integral part of your website. Ad's link color should match the color of your links. Same goes to text color and font.
Experiment with your ad placement. Google recommends vertical skyscraper format that runs down the site of your website. Test out different formats to discover what works best for your website. Review your statistics often.
Once your website begins to earn money, create a new website to double your income. Repeat the procedure to quadruple your income, etc.

The best part is there are no limits as for the amount of websites that you can have. If you remain patient, income generated by Adsense will replace your job income. That's what I like about passive income - you don't have to work for your money. Unlike your daily job, your Adsense income has nothing to do with your time. So once your Adsense income gets high enough, you can quit your job and spend your valuable time doing what you really enjoy.

Good luck!