Make Sense of
Google Adsense and make money!
A
successful web publisher looking to get to the next level, you are probably
thinking about trying a number of different approaches to increasing revenue –
especially your passive revenue,
the money that just "shows up" from time to time while you focus on other
things. You may be considering various forms of internet advertising. And you
should. Internet advertising has exceeded all expectations. The technology
keeps advancing, and the popularity and ubiquity of the medium is incredible.
Most companies can benefit from the Internet because it allows the chance to
reach a global audience at never before- possible speeds, with many kinds of
filters to make sure the right audience sees the right message, and costs that
are often surprisingly low. But many businesses make money online in ways that
have very little to do with their own actual business, but with systems that
connect various companies and offerings together.
You
may be wondering how to make money easily with online advertising, and
you have come to the right place! The secret is that taking ads is a
much more profitable strategy then placing ads for most websites. And
the best way to make money with this right now is "hiding in plain sight"
from the world’s most popular search Engine Company.
While
there are many ways to approach online advertising, it makes sense the best would
be offered by the ultimate search engine company, the company that is setting out
to organize all of humanity’s vast amounts of information – Google. This method
is
Google
AdWords, and its sister program, Google AdSense. With AdWords, Google makes a
lot of money. With AdSense, web publishers – that’s you! – can reach a lot of people
and make a lot of money too! In this report, we’re going to focus in on how to
make sense of, and a lot of money with, Google’s AdSense program. Want to make
five or ten or twenty thousand dollars a month automatically and be paid by one
of the biggest Internet companies in the world? We’ll describe what AdSense is,
how it works, how to get started, how to maximize the program, and where to go
from here! Ready? First let’s examine what AdSense is and how it works.
WHAT
IS GOOGLE ADSENSE?
Google
AdSense is an ad-serving program that places ads that "make sense" specifically,
that make sense based on relevant content, and assumptions about who might be
interested in that content. AdSense is an application of the broader concept of
Contextual
Marketing. Contextual Marketing is just what it sounds like. On a website about
custom cars, you might have an ad for fancy wheels or car care kits. On a website
about off-roading, you might have an ad for durable truck tires or spotlight
rigs.
A
hockey site might advertise hockey sticks…and a tennis site, tennis shoes.
Contextual
Marketing just means aligning the ad serving with the context/nature of the website
and its audience, the same way like items are grouped in a store. And the "context"
can be cut much finer than website level, it can be page level, article level,
and so on, so the ads always match the material they are appearing near, and
thus, appeal to the interest of the reader/buyer at any given moment. So what’s
in it for you – the website publisher/owner? That’s easy. Every time a visitor to
your site clicks one of these ads, you make money. The better the ads are
targeted, the more clicks you get, the more money you make. AdSense displays
easy-to-read, text-based, relevant ads that don’t overshadow the content of
your website or annoy visitors. Actually, you have seen hundreds of these ads
yourself, as you’ll realize in a moment. Today there are probably only a few
places in your website that can directly make you money, if any. The magic of
Google AdSense is this: It allows you to earn money through every page of your
website. On top of that, with algorithms used to align ad content with page
content Google automatically selects and displays ads for your website that are
likely to generate the highest revenue for you.
ADSENSE
IS AN APPLICATION OF ADWORDS BEYOND GOOGLE.COM
Making
"sense" of AdSense means understanding that it is really an offshoot
of the older Google model, AdWords. But they are not the same thing.
GOOGLE
ADWORDS
If you
have ever searched on Google, you have seen AdWords. Google AdWords are the
small text ads that are displayed on the side of the search results in Google.
These ads are contextual of course – in this case the context is the search
terms you entered. The ads will be served based on what you’re looking for. So,
if you do a search on "printing services" you will get ads for
printing services along with your search results!
HOW
DOES THIS GENERATE MONEY FOR GOOGLE AND THE ADVERTISERS?
Google
AdWords works on a model known as pay-per-click. When someone clicks on an
AdWords ad, the advertiser of that ad has to pay Google a certain amount. It’s
easy to track and fully automated. We say "certain amount" because
that amount is different all the time and is subject to market forces – in this
case, bidding. Something has to determine the placement of those ads,
and what determines it is how much the advertiser offers to pay per click. When
you submit this kind of ad to Google, you submit it with a bid – which is
compared to other bids for similar keywords. It’s an auction style process. The
position of the AdWords ads is based on the bidding amount of keywords of an
ad. Obviously, the higher the bid, the higher the position the bid buys you.
For instance, if the highest bid for the keywords "Internet
marketing" is 80 cents per click, you can get top position by bidding 90
cents. Then every time someone clicks on your ad, Google would charge you 90
cents, and you would retain the top position until someone else bids more for
the same search word placement. Google AdSense, as stated earlier, is an
extension of Google AdWords. It takes the AdWords concept and moves it off of
Google’s search page and onto thousands of other web pages. The ads that are
displayed on the websites are Google AdWords ads. It’s good for the
advertiser, who gets more and broader displays, for Google, who charge more for
this program, for you, who will make money from the click through on your
pages, and also for the consumer, who will see cool ads for stuff they are
probably interested in!
So how
exactly are you making money from all this? You earn a share of the
pay-perclick amount, every time a visitor clicks on the ad. So you just need to
get ads on your site…
HOW
THE ADS GET ON YOUR SITE
Once
you join the AdSense program – and Google approves your site or sites, which we’ll
cover in detail shortly – the actual process of displaying ads on your website
is extremely simple. You are provided with a small HTML script, which you can
paste anywhere on your webpage. You may paste this code any number of times and
on multiple pages, and watch the ads get served! Google automatically places
AdWords ads that are most relevant, from its extensive advertiser base. Google
employs various sophisticated algorithms to determine the relevancy of the ads
to your content. Before we get into how Google assesses sites, and whether a
few or many placements of that magic script will deliver optimum results, let’s
review the advantages of AdSense.
ADVANTAGES
OF THE GOOGLE ADSENSE SYSTEM
Google
AdSense is simple to use and manage. Once approved, displaying ads on your webpage
does not take time and requires minimal technical knowledge. Google AdSense is
very smart about ad selection. The ads that are displayed are only those that
are relevant to your content, and Google has strict quality control on the general
quality of the ads. Google AdSense uses text-only ads. Far from being low-tech,
text ads are more effective than flashy ads. The click through rate of text ads
is proven to be higher than that of animated ads! More clicks equals more
money, and text ads equals more clicks. Also…text ads are very "low
weight" and very fast loading. The AdSense program will not slow your
website, or your visitors, down. You can also use graphic ads.
GOOGLE
ADSENSE PROGRAMS: CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON(S)!
Google
currently (mid 2005) offers three programs: AdSense for content, AdSense for search,
and Premium AdSense.
ADSENSE
FOR CONTENT
AdSense
for content is the main AdSense program – contextually targeted ads are displayed
on your webpage, and you get paid for every click. These ads are specifically targeted
to the content of your webpage. Consequently, if you change the content of your
page, the ads that are displayed would also change. AdSense allows you good control
over what ads get served, since there might be some obvious problems if it didn’t.
These include:
Blocking
Ads – you choose
While
the ad selection is automatic, you can block unwanted ads – such as those from your
competitors. You just tell Google which companies to block from your sites.
Reviewing
and filtering Ads – semi-automatic
Google
has its own strict policies for ad content (no profanity, no racial
discrimination, etc). These are filtered out automatically from your point of
view. Additionally, you can choose to block additional content through custom
filters. This is slightly different than blocking an advertiser, since with
this method an advertiser you generally allow may submit ads that would
individually be filtered out.
Allowing
the publisher to select an ad
In the
rare case where Google’s content engines can’t make a clear match of ads to pages,
they will let you pick which ads you want served. If you don’t pick, you’ll get
public service spots.
The
look-and-feel of Ads can be customized
Ads
shouldn’t look out of place or be jarring on your website. Google allows you to
customize colors and layout. You can choose options provided or have your own custom
layout and color applied to the ads. The advertisers have no control over this;
as the material appears on your site, you can and should select how it looks.
Tools
for analysis
Tracking
and analyzing the performance of any marketing campaign is critical. Google AdSense
provides a range of comprehensive online reports that allow you to monitor and
analyze your earnings as well as the performance of ads by many metrics,
including size, color, and so forth, so you can make adjustments to maximize
the value of the placements.
AdSense
for Search
This
is another program whereby Google allows you to ad a Google Search box to your website.
By doing this, visitors to your site can search the entire internet from your website
itself. In a way, your site becomes a host to Google. Except you make money!
The
search results page that is displayed when a visitor on your website searches through
the search box on the site itself, also displays Google Ads (AdWords ads) next to
the usual listings, just as it would on Google.com. If the visitor clicks on
any of these
Google
Ads, you get paid as well. Thus, with AdSense for search you can enhance your income
potential beyond what just the content of your actual site can provide. AdSense
for search offers all the same options and controls as AdSense for content.
These include ad customization, ad filtering, monitoring and tracking results,
and so on.
Google
AdSense Premium service
The
AdSense Premium service provides advanced functionality and features, provided your
website qualifies for it – which in fact very few sites do. As a base
requirement, your website should receive at least 5 million search queries or 20
million page views a month to qualify for the Premium service. (We’re betting
if your sites qualify for this level of service, you already know all about
AdSense!)
HOW MUCH CAN I MAKE
WITH ADSENSE AND HOW DO I GET STARTED?
You’ve
seen the nutty claims by so-called "internet experts" that strategies
and programs they have devised enable surfers to earn thousands of dollars
within a matter of days! Or minutes!! No such thing. However, there are several
lucrative programs that can provide an extremely generous income with
comparatively little effort – Google AdSense is absolutely one of them. But it takes
some time, and it takes some planning, like anything real does. The rest of our
report is all about unlocking that potential. To start understanding the
potential, think about how you make money with this program. Each time someone
clicks an ad on your pages, you get a percentage of what Google is paid for
placing that ad.
REVENUE (OR INCOME) FROM AN AD
=
Click through value of the ad * Payout Rate * Click through rate of the Ad *
Webpage
traffic * Frequency of Ad
In the
above equation, Click through value is the amount the advertiser pays per click
for the Ad (this figure varies); the Payout Rate is the percentage of revenue
to be paid for every click fixed by Google (this figure varies); Click through
rate is simply the number of times the ad is clicked on in a certain period of
time divided by the number of times it is displayed during the same period;
Webpage traffic is the number of visitors to your website; and Frequency of Ad
is the number of times this particular ad appears on your webpage. Let’s put
some figures into the above equation and see what the income is. The figures below
are for a single day:
Click
through Value 30 cents or $0.30 (The advertiser pays 30 cents per click for the
Ad, to Google) Payout Rate 50% or 0.5 (This is an assumption based on what many
experts believe to be the current payout rate for most deals) Click through
rate of the Ad is displayed 100 times within the day and clicked by 9 people
the click through rate would be 0.09 Webpage traffic 150 visitors during the
days Frequency of Ad at 100. The Income per day from a single ad would be =
0.30 x 0.5 x 0.09 x 150 x 100 = $202.5 If you
consider this to be the average income per day, the total revenue generated within
a month would be more than $6000. This
is incredible, considering you basically did nothing
to earn that money. We know of cases where people have earned even more
than $25,000 a month with AdSense, which is a large sum
to anyone. Our goal is to equip you to get started on the road to making
money with AdSense.
PART 1: JOIN THE ADSENSE PROGRAM
Understanding
Google policies
We
discussed earlier how rewarding the Google AdSense program can be. However, joining
the Google AdSense program is not that easy or everyone in the world would do it
(which would defeat its purpose, ultimately). You have to be approved by Google
in order to create your AdSense account and start earning money from it. How do
you get approved? Google famously has never publicly published details of its approval
process, there are tips you should follow to ensure a high possibility of
getting approved. The good news is that Google does publish its policies and
you do not need to be a member to read them. You should read them and be
certain that you are in 100% compliance with them, not only when attempting to
start your AdSense account, but once you are already a member. They update
these policies regularly and a violation will get you suspended. A list of
Google AdSense policies can be seen at: http://www.google.com/adsense/policies.
CONTENT
– THE KEY TO ADSENSE!
As
stated earlier, we cannot say exactly how Google decides to accept or
reject a site. However, one thing is for sure – the main criterion for approval
is always the content of the website! Most sites get rejected simply because
they do not have any – or enough – good content. What constitutes
"good" content? We can say what it is not. The types of websites that
only have links and "filler" content aimed at attracting Search
Engines, and sites that do not offer any informational content but solely focus
on their own products and services. Google is one of the smartest companies on
the Internet, and they can easily tell "junk" content from
"real" content, even if many web surfers themselves can’t. Google
approves websites that have significant real content. These could be in the
form of informational articles, analyses of various topics, and much more. For
business websites that solely focus on selling their products and services
through their website, including informational articles about their industry is
smart, and this data is usually pretty easily available. Another reason why
most business websites do not qualify for the program, is that most businesses
are specialized, and these websites are most likely to get Ads from their competitors,
as only those ads would be relevant. As discussed, competitor ads would be
blocked by you, filtered by Google, or both, so an AdSense program that
serves no ads makes no sense! Similarly, websites that focus only on
links for generating search engine traffic do not have any content at all,
according to both common sense and Google. These sites may rack up fairly high
traffic scores and so forth, but they do not qualify for AdSense. One of the
best and simplest strategies is to include at least 30 to 40 informational articles
of 400 to 450 words each and update them from time to time. Writing these articles
yourself may be a daunting task. However, the good news is that there are considerable
websites that offer articles for free, and plenty of professional writing resources
who can not only write high quality material for you, but can especially optimize
that material to work well with search engines and the
"qualification" processes for systems like AdSense. We’ve developed a
5-Step plan for success.
PART 2: THE 5-STEP PLAN TO SUCCESS
Once
you’re accepted, you want to maximize the opportunity. In this section, we look
at some of the most effective strategies for generating optimum revenue from
the Google AdSense program.
Step 1
- Formatting Ad Blocks
You
can let Google decide for you the type of ads that will be displayed on your webpage,
but as the website publisher, you may be in a better position to decide what ads
suit the content of your website and how you would like them displayed. To the extent
possible, whether chosen by Google or you, make the ads seem like part of the site
itself. Most internet marketing experts believe that the ads on your website
have a high probability of getting clicked if they blend in with the rest of
the content of your web page. Factors such as color scheme, font size and type,
and the appearance of your ad should match your web page. Borders are optional
and we think often you should opt out – why put a box around the ad that says
"Hi! I’m an ad!"? Also, regardless of other design choices, text
links should be blue. Why are text links blue? For the same reason Henry
Ford said of the Model-T "They can have any color they want so long as
it’s black." They just are. Though we think text ads are generally better
than graphic ads, also known as image ads, Google does offer them with the
program.
Actually,
you don’t need to struggle much with whether graphic ads or text will be better
on your pages, as Google’s technology will suggest whether an image ad or a
text ad will be more suitable and which will earn you maximum revenues (since
you earn part of they earn, they have motives to get this mix right). However,
it remains totally up to you whether you wish to run image ads or text-based ads.
You can select only image ads, or text ads or a combination of both these
formats on your entire AdSense account or on one page at a time based on your
discretion.
Step 2
- Ad Placement
LOCATION,
location, location." It is true in real estate and true in advertising,
including web advertising. Since the "location" of the user is your
site already, the "location" of the ad in this context means on which
pages, where on the pages, and so on. As noted, the less an ad looks like
an ad, the more effective it is likely to be. Then there are general design and
usability factors to consider. If your webpage is cluttered and you can’t
dispense with any content, you may want to break it down further into sections
or more pages to provide easier reading. This also gives you the potential
benefit of placing additional ads. As noted, we generally recommend text-based
ads. However, text-dense sites may actually do better with image ads. If your
site has very few graphics, you may want to balance it out by putting
image-based ads. In the monotony of a lot of dense written information,
image-based ads and graphics provide what’s called visual relief. This can also
prompt clicks. Where should you put the ads? The chances of your ad getting
noticed by the visitors to your site increases greatly if you place ads as
close to the top of your webpage as possible. If you choose to place so-called
‘skyscraper’ ads – in magazines these would be called columns – on the sidebars
of your webpage, it would be wise to place them on the right side of your
principal content areas. The reason for this is the visitor to your page (in most
languages) will read from left to right, he or she will chance upon the ad
ultimately, if not consciously then at least out of habit. Their eyes will go
there. From the left, they can visually "skip" the ad when they
start reading next to it. Your ads should be placed in such a way that it
matches the links to other websites on your site. If you already have a links
section on your site, put the AdSense links in that section or list. This is
not dishonest – if it were Google would not allow it. Obviously if you have a
"most popular" area on your website, such as a page that is updated
daily with some kind of material that people bookmark to revisit often, place your
ad(s) there instead of somewhere else that may get less traffic. For many
websites the home page is not actually the most accessed area. If you don’t
know what the traffic pattern is on your sites, it’s easy to find out – ask
your hosting provider about usage logs. One more thing: While some affiliate
marketing programs encourage host sites to encourage clicks directly, it is not
appropriate to expressly ask your readers to click on the ads served by the
Google programs. Not only is it unprofessional and arguably unethical, it also annoys
people and moreover Google AdSense actually prohibits any such activity. You
can neither directly solicit clicks nor can you do anything considered deceptive
to encourage clicks. In conclusion, the emphasis is always on quality of
content on your web pages. Good and interesting content makes your site better,
more acceptable to Google, more likely to win with AdSense, and therefore more
profitable for you!
Step 3
- Researching Keywords
After
you are done choosing the right format and location for your AdSense ads, don’t
sit back and wait for the money to roll in just yet. The next important step is
to choose the right keywords for your web pages. These will influence
both who visits your site, and how AdSense assigns ads to you. The number one
mistake most website publishers make is to constantly choose high paying (i.e.
expensive!) keywords assuming that it will yield them more income. While it
is tempting to choose such keywords to get higher rankings on search
engines, be prudent when it comes to selecting the right keywords that
go with the AdSense ads that are to be displayed. Remember the goal
here is clicks, not SEO rankings. This is a case where you often do not get
what you pay for. Consider this scenario. Your webpage talks about wine tasting
courses. You review search phrases and keywords with "wine" in it and
you find "wine rack" is in the top three and available, so you buy
it. The corresponding ads also focus on buying wine racks online, wine storage
and building your own wine racks. After a week when you check on the statistics
of your webpage and AdSense account, you see that you are losing visitors and
your income is dipping! The keyword selection is faulty in this case even
though it seemed like a good idea at the time. Why? The visitors to your
webpage were actually looking for wine racks and have landed on your
webpage talking about wine tasting courses instead. The wine course types want
to sign up for the courses, maybe buy a book on wine, or a wine of the month
club. They don’t want to build a wine rack. Think strategically, not
tactically. Just because a keyword is high paying and is seemingly related,
does not mean it is totally relevant and you need something relevant. Relevance
is more important than value! In the above case, you could have – and should
have – chosen wine tasting tour, wine tasting party, wine tasting
event, wine tasting class, wine tasting school, course tasting wine and
so on. You are interested in relevance more than popularity. Tasting is a
match. Racks are not.
Let’s
look at some of the ways in which you can research your keywords for AdSense ads:
• You
can check out the popularity of various keywords if you already have an account
with Google AdWords. This way you will get an idea of the popularity of various
keywords as well as the cost and returns that entail.
•
Google AdWords also has a tool known as the AdWords Keywords Tool which
can sometimes help you search for alternate keywords and variations.
•
Another tool known as Keyword Analyzer can generate numerous key phrases
that are typed by Internet users in different search engines.
DISCOVER HOW TO TURN YOUR WEB SITE'S CONTENT INTO
CASH!
•
Consider getting a WordTracker account. They have an excellent tool that
suggests top 1,000 most popular keywords. This tool can also help you create a
list of relevant keywords for your webpage. You can learn a lot from a small
investment here.
•
Another great idea is to search for top 100 keywords on 7search which will
give you an idea of high-paying keywords. Your click through rate will be
boosted tremendously by including the right keywords in your web copy, of
course. Keywords occurring in your ads are usually highlighted on the search
engine results page. This also helps in drawing additional attention to your
ad. The URL of your webpage is also an integral part of achieving success on
Google AdSense program, as it is on the Web generally. Current wisdom holds
that the keywords in the URL are equally if not more important than the ones
featured in the actual webpage content or in meta tags. If you change your
ordinary URL to a keyword rich URL relevant to your market, it is possible to
raise your CTR as much as 200% or more without doing anything else. Obvious
domain names with the keywords that you want might be expensive to purchase
from a broker, but you can also buy used domain names that are no longer active,
often for just a few dollars per year.
Step 4
- Developing Content
Let’s
assume you have good ads, good placement, and good traffic. This step is all
about how to tweak your pre-existing content to support the most effective
profitability from your new AdSense program. One major mistake many web
publishers make now is to lard up their pages with a bazillion keywords for
so-called "search engine optimization." Do not fall into that trap and
clutter your webpage with high-profile buzzwords that do not contribute to
the value of your webpage or the experience of your intended audience.
Remember, we’re focused here on clicks, which means bringing relevant readers to
your site and giving them a good experience that puts them in an inquisitive or
buying frame of mind. As a general rule, all content shifts should make some
kind of sense. You may well be able to make connections between articles on
sports, to articles on sports medicine, to articles on herbal supplements which
feature ads for those products. On the other, a web page on bicycles should not
have ads for other kinds of pumps, if you know what we mean. Before you decide
to add that magic Google AdSense code on any page of your website, you should
have dealt with the following two important steps:
• High
quality textual content Ensure that your web pages have enough textual content
so that the AdSense program can set up ads that are relevant to the content on
your pages. If you have very little content, it will be difficult for Google to
determine the focus of your page and end up displaying only public service ads
that do not earn any revenue.
• Use
different page titles for different pages. Have unique page titles based on the
specific content of each page. Avoid generic or vague page titles such as
‘Untitled Document’ or ‘Page 1’. Be crisp and precise and avoid using long
phrases and difficult words in the page titles. If your page has a very long
title, it might get banned from some search engines, so be pithy.
Step 5
- Tracking and Reports
Tracking
the results of your marketing efforts can help you focus your efforts and make adjustments
to win. Google offers a great
free tracking feature known as ‘Channels’. You can use these channels to track
ads on specific URLs or to categorize ads based on their formats, keywords,
location on web page and so on. You
can choose from two channel types offered by Google.
URL
CHANNELS
This
will help you track the performance of your web pages without altering your ad code.
All you need to do to track your performance is to enter a full or partial URL
in the channel and you’re done. A full page URL will track the performance of
the specific page having that address. If you want to track all
the pages on a specific domain, you need to enter a top-level domain
name.
CUSTOM
CHANNELS
Custom
channels are used to track the performance of your webpage based on the criteria
that you specify. You can choose what specific factor you would like to track
and customize the channel according to your requirements. As the name suggests,
custom channels are very flexible, and if you have ever used any kind of data
reporting tool you will find setting them up easy and logical. You can have up
to 50 custom channels! You can compare the performance of different ad formats
and the relevancy of ads. You can also compare how ads on one page are
performing when compared with ads on other pages. You can do so by assigning
each group of pages to a specific channel and eventually comparing results in
your customized channel reports. You can also see where your clicks are coming
from by assigning a channel to each of your separate pages. Also, it is a good
idea to name your channel in such a way that it is easy to identify different
channels in reports, especially if you are using a dozen or more.
SERVER
LOGS
In
addition to the ‘channel’ program offered by Google to track your AdSense ads
on your web pages, you can also use any of the various high quality external
AdSense tracking software packages to track your performance in greater detail
(except actual revenues – you need to get that from Google). One major
advantage of such software is that it runs locally, which enables you to access
specific information that Google doesn’t track. Be aware that none of these
third-party software solutions are "endorsed" by Google currently but
most of them guarantee to operate within AdSense guidelines. Just make sure
they do, because you don’t want to lose your account status over a technical violation
by a third party. Some of the information you can obtain by using tracking
software:
•
Referring website of all your visitors
• The
type of web browser they are using
•
Where the actual ad-clickers are coming from
•
Search keywords typed in by the visitors to your website that eventually brought
them to you. You should use a combination of Google channels and a reliable
AdSense tracking program so as to get comprehensive information about your
AdSense account.
PART 3: SUMMARY AND
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
AdSense
Do’s and Don’ts
Now
that you know what AdSense is all about, we can offer the following do’s and don’ts
– which more or less summarizes everything we’ve said so far.
Do’s
The
first rule of using AdSense is to follow their terms of service. Google has exceptional
monitoring ability, and if they find any violation of their TOS, your account will
be suspended, rendering all your efforts moot. Consider having a number of
informative pages about varying topics but with a consistent theme for your
website. That way you will have more ads to choose from and can possibly
maximize your CTR.
Use
keywords to your advantage. Higher paying keywords will usually but not always yield
more rewards. Think relevance. Also use variations of keywords for added advantage.
Provide unique information on your web pages. The more specific the content of
your website is, the more targeted your ads will be, and the more effective.
Always focus on providing good quality information! Experiment with various ad
formats on your web page and choose those that suite your website. You can
choose to display ads with different formats on one page. Position your ad
block in such a way that the ad is visible and yet it does not put off the readers.
Ideally, place your ad in the top section of your webpage which can be viewed without
scrolling down. Use the Google AdSense preview toolbar to your advantage and
see how the ads will appear on your website. Get a hands-on feel of how the
visitor to your website will view your web page.
Use
Google channels and other external tracking software to evaluate your performance
on a routine basis.
Don’ts
Do not
resort to fraudulent or deceptive means for generating clicks on the ads that
are on your page. Some of the methods that are prohibited by Google AdSense
are:
•
Automated clicking programs
•
Repeated manual clicks
•
Using robots to generate clicks
•
Clicking your own ads
•
Tricking your visitors into clicking on your ads by using fraudulent means Don’t
have confusing layers of content. Content on your web page should not hide the ad
text and URL. At the same time, it is advisable that you use same font type,
size and color (background and font) for both the ads and the content on your
web pages so that your ad does not announce itself as an outside ad. Ideally,
your ad should look and feel like a part of your website. Don’t have broken
links on your site. Your website should not contain any broken links and should
be easily navigable. Also, the content on your web pages should be informative,
of high quality and the ads should be relevant to the content. Don’t have old
or illegal information on your site. Be careful about outdated information, plagiarized
text and obscene or offensive material. Avoid using any of these on your web
pages.
TWO
MORE ADSENSE OPPORTUNITIES: RSS AND BLOGS
Adding
Google Ads to your RSS feeds
RSS
(Really Simple Syndication) has gained huge popularity on the Internet. RSS is
an XML document format that organizes and stores news-like content from various
sources into one source. Think of it like a newswire service, the kind of stuff
that scrolls along the bottom of cable channels. A large percentage of the
"news" items you find on any website that is not a major news portal
got there through an RSS feed. Google has introduced a specific program known
as AdSense for RSS. Although, it is under beta testing currently (mid 2005),
you can join this program now and start making money with it. RSS offers a
variety of interesting content options that most websites themselves can’t
match. Google AdSense for feeds has its own set of policies. These can be
accessed at: http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=20134
Like the AdSense program, you must follow all guidelines in order to be
accepted for the AdSense for feeds program.
PLACING
ADSENSE ADS ON YOUR BLOGS
Blogs
are similar to RSS feeds in concept except they usually have one author rather than
an aggregate of sources of the material they contain. Blogs (short for Web
logs) are simple webpages where you can write articles and other content on a
variety of topics, and both the famous and the unknown use these online diaries
to share their thoughts, post pictures, and so on. The public can view this
content and even comment on it in most cases. Due to the considerable amount –
and unlimited range – of content on Blogs, it may make sense to place AdSense
ads on them. In fact, it is much easier to generate revenue from Blogs as compared
to other web pages, at least in theory.
•
First, blogs are full of content, most of which is original most of the time. The
content may not be "good" from a human reader perspective but it is usually
"good" according to Google’s scans. Thus, getting approved by Google
AdSense may be easier.
• The
content presented on the blog, in many cases, is quite diverse which, unlike a
website that needs to be "about something" can be excused by the
"everything and nothing" nature of most blogs. Consequently, the
possibility of Google finding targeted ads that are relevant may increase.
• Google
AdSense works only with those websites that are already indexed by Google.
Blogs get indexed far more easily than regular webpages. Some blogs get
indexed in as few as two to three days of submission. Thus, the chances
of getting approved by Google AdSense increases
•
Blogs can be created at practically no cost – much cheaper than commercial
websites.
SUMMARY
There
are no "magic bullets" or "get rich quick" schemes that work.
As an experienced
Web
marketer or publisher, you already know that. But there are some ways to make
really significant "passive" money on the Internet, and especially
with Internet advertising. Of these, one of the best, and most legitimate, is Google
AdSense, which you now know all about. When you’re ready to get started with
your AdSense program, the preceding information, combined with the following
additional resources, will help you make the most of it!
Further AdSense Resources
Whether
you have one website or 100, RSS feeds or no, blogs or no, below is a list of great
tools, software, scripts, and other resources that can help you win in your
Google
AdSense
campaign.
TOOLS AND SCRIPTS
These
are tools that would help you in a variety of areas such as seeing what ads appear
for specific keywords, tracking and analyzing click throughs and revenue,
scripts and much more.
§ AdSense
Preview tool from Google – Preview your AdSense Ads
§ AdSense
Desktop – Tool for analyzing Google AdSense statistics
§ AdSense
Log – Another tool for analyzing AdSense stats
§ AdSense
Charts – Chart generator for your statistics
§ Revenue
Checker for Google AdSense – Checks and monitors revenue
§ Google
AdSense Sandbox Tool – shows what Ads would appear for specific keywords or
content
§ AdSense
Web Tool – similar to the one above
§ AdSense
Tracker – Statistical Analysis and tracking
§ AdSense
Monitor – AdSense tracking script
§ SysSense
- A utility that puts your AdSense information in the Windows system tray
§ AdSense
Notifier – places AdSense information in a status bar
§ AdSense™
Tracker - Another good tracking tool
§ Google
AdSense Tracking Script – Another tracking script
§ AdSense
Master Flex 2.0 - Script
§ AsRep:
Google AdSense tracking script
ADSENSE INFORMATION WEBSITES AND
TUTORIALS
•
Google AdSense Charts & Graphs
•
Google AdSense Preview Tool
•
Google AdSense Sandbox Tool
•
JenSense - Making Sense of Contextual Advertising
•
Search Engine Forums - Contextual Advertising Forums
•
Search Engine Watch - AdSense Forum
• V7N
Web Development Community - Google Forum
• Web
ProWorld - AdSense Forum