AdSense enables you to earn money by placing targeted text and image ads on your blog.
Google automatically chooses which ads to show based on your blog's content, and you earn money when visitors view or click on these ads.
Please click on the "Table Of Content" on the right hand side of this blog to learn more.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Eleven Google Adsense Strategies & Tips
So that you will have them handy as a frame of reference, you’ll want to bookmark the Google Guidelines for their search engine: www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
To get you on your way, here’s a handy list of tips for using AdSense: Making Money with AdSense
Tip #1: Start now!
It’s as easy as falling off a log to generating revenue with Google AdSense. After you're accepted to the program, just add a few lines of html code to your site (Google shows you how once you're accepted) -- and voila!
Within a few minutes, your site will begin displaying AdWords, and so you can start making money. Each day you wait means you don’t make the bucks you could. So start now.
Tip #2: Make content pages for your site -- and put AdWords on them.
Assuming your page is a decent one, the more pages you have displaying AdWords, the more money you'll earn.
If you already have a website, display AdWords on more pages.
And always, always, always focus on making more great content pages. I suggest that you budget time each week for creating pages (and sites) on topics you love. You'll find more on creating AdSense content pages in Tip #8.
And it’s especially good if these content pages are very clearly focused. Then, Google will be able to serve highly relevant AdWords to your users. This means your visitors will be more interested in the ads, which results in higher click through rates -- and more money for you!
Tip #3: Whenever you can, use higher paying keywords.
Obviously, you'll earn more if the average AdWord that Google displays pays more per click.
The question is: how do you get Google to display higher paying keywords?
Well, for one thing, don't get greedy and create pages of unrelated keywords just because they pay more. In other words, don't create a page on 'cell phone plans' on your motorcycle tire site just because 'cell phone plans' pays more than ‘motorcycle tires.’
How to find out which keywords pay best? If you're a Google AdWords advertiser, you can log into your AdWords account and experiment.
If you're not an AdWords advertiser, use a free tool at the pay-per-click search engine, Overture.
Overture’s tool lets you see what advertisers are paying on Overture for each keyword. Sure, Overture and Google don’t pay the same. But they’re not all that different, and this tool can give you a general idea of which keywords will pay more than others.
(Also, don’t’ forget Google’s commission, so you have to allow for their cut on the amount an advertiser pays for each click.)
Tip #4: You want to make new pages with higher paying keywords (while keeping it real and releveant).
Sometimes, selecting different keywords on the same topic can really make a difference in earnings.
Pretend you have a gardening site and you want to create some new pages.
By carefully selecting which topics to focus on first, you can dramatically increase your income.
With the Overture tool mentioned above, you can find out that 'water gardening' currently has a maximum price of $0.50, while 'gardening zone' is only $0.05. That means you can earn 10 times more by creating a page on 'water gardening' than 'gardening zones'! Which one to choose…yeah, that’s tough!
What you want to do is use information to decide which relevant keywords to focus on as you go through the process of making new pages for your site.
Tip #5: Build a new site on high paying keywords.
This is one of my most lucrative pieces of advice: create a brand new site to take advantage of Google AdSense by deliberately selecting a topic with high paying keywords.
Then, of course, you deliver dynamite content on that topic.
But how do you know what the highest paying keywords are? I'd recommend checking out this resource.
Tip #6: Pull in qualified traffic to your site.
Basic marketing 101 says if you get more qualified visitors to your site, more people will naturally click on the displayed AdWords, and you'll earn more.
If you go back and read all the tutorials on this website you’ll find some good info.
Tip #7: Think about segmenting your sites: making some pages for high search engine traffic, other pages to sell products, and still other pages just for Google AdSense.
To implement this, you’ll need to recognize that different pages on your site can have different purposes. You may have pages designed to sell specific products. Others may be designed to rank high in the search engines (but don't ever try to trick the search engines). Still others can be designed for Google AdSense.
Now, once you know which pages you're creating for AdSense, your job is simple; select an appropriate keyword (or key phrase).
Then you’ll use that keyword as the file name and put dashes between the words. In the example above, you would use the file name 'water-gardening.html' for your water gardening page.
Best case scenario is that you’re able to select keywords that are the highest paying keyword on the topic. By tweaking the file name, you may be able to improve your AdSense results dramatically.
Tip #8: Knock yourself out to make high quality information pages.
The ideal Google AdSense page should have great content about a very specific topic. Take pains to be very clear about what the topic is, and carefully choose the keyword (or key phrase) describing the topic. Users don’t like vague pages that don’t make it very clear what the page is all about.
Don’t even think about trying to 'trick' AdSense. (I talked about that earlier, remember? They have penalties, including getting kicked out.) Don't create a page on one topic and give it a file name about a different topic—that’s too confusing.
In a nutshell, you want to make sure the page you create offers great value to people interested in the topic. When you provide excellent information on a specific topic, your visitors will benefit and will be more likely to click through to relevant AdWords.
Tip #9: Select vertical AdWords format.
Everyone’s seen way too many horizontal banner ads up top. Thus, Google recommends you choose the vertical -- not horizontal -- format to display your AdWords. I agree. People have become "banner blind" to a horizontal format. Plus, Google has "trained" us to click on relevant text ads on their own site and they use the vertical format.
Tip #10: Make sure you display AdWords prominently.
It’s to your financial advantage to put the AdWords near the top of your page on the right. Make sure there is enough "breathing room" -- i.e. white space around the ads -- so that they will easily attract your visitors.
Tip #11: Just don’t do it--don't cheat.
I know it’s tempting, because it seems so easy and it’s just sitting there waiting for you to do it, but do not click on the AdWords displayed on your own site to increase your revenue. Google (rightfully) frowns on this.
Plus, Google has some of the smartest engineers around, and they are very good at detecting this kind of fraud. And really, for an extra $1, is it worth getting kicked out of a money-maker like AdSense? I think not…
In closing, I want to say that these strategies can help you maximize your revenue from Google AdSense. And I hope you’ll have a whole lot of fun creating content pages on topics you have a passion for.
So what’re you waiting for? The sooner you go to Google Adsense and get started, the sooner you’ll be getting those revenue checks in the mail!
To get you on your way, here’s a handy list of tips for using AdSense: Making Money with AdSense
Tip #1: Start now!
It’s as easy as falling off a log to generating revenue with Google AdSense. After you're accepted to the program, just add a few lines of html code to your site (Google shows you how once you're accepted) -- and voila!
Within a few minutes, your site will begin displaying AdWords, and so you can start making money. Each day you wait means you don’t make the bucks you could. So start now.
Tip #2: Make content pages for your site -- and put AdWords on them.
Assuming your page is a decent one, the more pages you have displaying AdWords, the more money you'll earn.
If you already have a website, display AdWords on more pages.
And always, always, always focus on making more great content pages. I suggest that you budget time each week for creating pages (and sites) on topics you love. You'll find more on creating AdSense content pages in Tip #8.
And it’s especially good if these content pages are very clearly focused. Then, Google will be able to serve highly relevant AdWords to your users. This means your visitors will be more interested in the ads, which results in higher click through rates -- and more money for you!
Tip #3: Whenever you can, use higher paying keywords.
Obviously, you'll earn more if the average AdWord that Google displays pays more per click.
The question is: how do you get Google to display higher paying keywords?
Well, for one thing, don't get greedy and create pages of unrelated keywords just because they pay more. In other words, don't create a page on 'cell phone plans' on your motorcycle tire site just because 'cell phone plans' pays more than ‘motorcycle tires.’
How to find out which keywords pay best? If you're a Google AdWords advertiser, you can log into your AdWords account and experiment.
If you're not an AdWords advertiser, use a free tool at the pay-per-click search engine, Overture.
Overture’s tool lets you see what advertisers are paying on Overture for each keyword. Sure, Overture and Google don’t pay the same. But they’re not all that different, and this tool can give you a general idea of which keywords will pay more than others.
(Also, don’t’ forget Google’s commission, so you have to allow for their cut on the amount an advertiser pays for each click.)
Tip #4: You want to make new pages with higher paying keywords (while keeping it real and releveant).
Sometimes, selecting different keywords on the same topic can really make a difference in earnings.
Pretend you have a gardening site and you want to create some new pages.
By carefully selecting which topics to focus on first, you can dramatically increase your income.
With the Overture tool mentioned above, you can find out that 'water gardening' currently has a maximum price of $0.50, while 'gardening zone' is only $0.05. That means you can earn 10 times more by creating a page on 'water gardening' than 'gardening zones'! Which one to choose…yeah, that’s tough!
What you want to do is use information to decide which relevant keywords to focus on as you go through the process of making new pages for your site.
Tip #5: Build a new site on high paying keywords.
This is one of my most lucrative pieces of advice: create a brand new site to take advantage of Google AdSense by deliberately selecting a topic with high paying keywords.
Then, of course, you deliver dynamite content on that topic.
But how do you know what the highest paying keywords are? I'd recommend checking out this resource.
Tip #6: Pull in qualified traffic to your site.
Basic marketing 101 says if you get more qualified visitors to your site, more people will naturally click on the displayed AdWords, and you'll earn more.
If you go back and read all the tutorials on this website you’ll find some good info.
Tip #7: Think about segmenting your sites: making some pages for high search engine traffic, other pages to sell products, and still other pages just for Google AdSense.
To implement this, you’ll need to recognize that different pages on your site can have different purposes. You may have pages designed to sell specific products. Others may be designed to rank high in the search engines (but don't ever try to trick the search engines). Still others can be designed for Google AdSense.
Now, once you know which pages you're creating for AdSense, your job is simple; select an appropriate keyword (or key phrase).
Then you’ll use that keyword as the file name and put dashes between the words. In the example above, you would use the file name 'water-gardening.html' for your water gardening page.
Best case scenario is that you’re able to select keywords that are the highest paying keyword on the topic. By tweaking the file name, you may be able to improve your AdSense results dramatically.
Tip #8: Knock yourself out to make high quality information pages.
The ideal Google AdSense page should have great content about a very specific topic. Take pains to be very clear about what the topic is, and carefully choose the keyword (or key phrase) describing the topic. Users don’t like vague pages that don’t make it very clear what the page is all about.
Don’t even think about trying to 'trick' AdSense. (I talked about that earlier, remember? They have penalties, including getting kicked out.) Don't create a page on one topic and give it a file name about a different topic—that’s too confusing.
In a nutshell, you want to make sure the page you create offers great value to people interested in the topic. When you provide excellent information on a specific topic, your visitors will benefit and will be more likely to click through to relevant AdWords.
Tip #9: Select vertical AdWords format.
Everyone’s seen way too many horizontal banner ads up top. Thus, Google recommends you choose the vertical -- not horizontal -- format to display your AdWords. I agree. People have become "banner blind" to a horizontal format. Plus, Google has "trained" us to click on relevant text ads on their own site and they use the vertical format.
Tip #10: Make sure you display AdWords prominently.
It’s to your financial advantage to put the AdWords near the top of your page on the right. Make sure there is enough "breathing room" -- i.e. white space around the ads -- so that they will easily attract your visitors.
Tip #11: Just don’t do it--don't cheat.
I know it’s tempting, because it seems so easy and it’s just sitting there waiting for you to do it, but do not click on the AdWords displayed on your own site to increase your revenue. Google (rightfully) frowns on this.
Plus, Google has some of the smartest engineers around, and they are very good at detecting this kind of fraud. And really, for an extra $1, is it worth getting kicked out of a money-maker like AdSense? I think not…
In closing, I want to say that these strategies can help you maximize your revenue from Google AdSense. And I hope you’ll have a whole lot of fun creating content pages on topics you have a passion for.
So what’re you waiting for? The sooner you go to Google Adsense and get started, the sooner you’ll be getting those revenue checks in the mail!
How do I start using RSS feeds?
Well, the first thing you’re gonna need is a news reader. There are many different versions of these, some of which are accessed using a browser, and some of which are downloadable applications. All allow you to display and subscribe to the RSS feeds you want.
My top picks for news readers, listed by the operating system they work with, are:
1. Mac OS X: http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/ This is a simple yet elegant Mac-like aggregator that any one can use, yet it’s powerful.2. Windows: http://www.sharpreader.net/ A very simple tool, but it delivers the goods.3. Linux: http://www.nongnu.org/straw/ The best very aggregator for GNOME.4. Web: http://www.bloglines.com/ Enough said.
Now, after you’ve chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left hand side.
The RSS button typically looks like this example from the BBC (http://www.bbc.com) page:
If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways: you can either drag the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader, or you can cut and paste the URL into a new feed in your news reader.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality that automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. To make absolutely sure, check the details on the homesites of those browsers.
RSS feeds are a great way to get free content streaming onto your pages.
The only downside is that most of the free RSS feeds are news-oriented or entertainment-oriented, so if you run, say, a site that focuses on the latest video games, your audience may not really care that they can get the latest news streaming in there.
As far as the nitty-gritty, each RSS channel can contain up to 15 items and is easily parsed using Perl or other open source software. If you want more details, I suggest you check out Jonathan Eisenzopf's excellent article in the February issue of Web Techniques.
But you don't really have to worry too much over the details, since a simple Google search on “free open source RSS feed scripts” will produce the code you need to create your own RSS channel.
The next step, once you've created and validated (http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/1/ ) your RSS text file, is to register it at the various aggregators, and start watching your traffic really spike. This happens because now any site can grab and display your feed regularly, which will drive traffic straight to your site.
It gets better—if you update your RSS file, all the external sites that subscribe to your feed will be automatically updated. What could be easier, other than watching those nice, fat checks from your Google AdSense ads roll in? Well, if you use RSS feeds, they’ll work together!
My top picks for news readers, listed by the operating system they work with, are:
1. Mac OS X: http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/ This is a simple yet elegant Mac-like aggregator that any one can use, yet it’s powerful.2. Windows: http://www.sharpreader.net/ A very simple tool, but it delivers the goods.3. Linux: http://www.nongnu.org/straw/ The best very aggregator for GNOME.4. Web: http://www.bloglines.com/ Enough said.
Now, after you’ve chosen a news reader, all you have to do is to decide what content you want. For example, if you would like the latest BBC News Entertainment stories, simply visit the Entertainment section and you will notice an orange RSS button on the left hand side.
The RSS button typically looks like this example from the BBC (http://www.bbc.com) page:
If you click on the RSS button you can subscribe to the feed in various ways: you can either drag the URL of the RSS feed into your news reader, or you can cut and paste the URL into a new feed in your news reader.
Some browsers, including Firefox, Opera and Safari, have functionality that automatically picks up RSS feeds for you. To make absolutely sure, check the details on the homesites of those browsers.
RSS feeds are a great way to get free content streaming onto your pages.
The only downside is that most of the free RSS feeds are news-oriented or entertainment-oriented, so if you run, say, a site that focuses on the latest video games, your audience may not really care that they can get the latest news streaming in there.
As far as the nitty-gritty, each RSS channel can contain up to 15 items and is easily parsed using Perl or other open source software. If you want more details, I suggest you check out Jonathan Eisenzopf's excellent article in the February issue of Web Techniques.
But you don't really have to worry too much over the details, since a simple Google search on “free open source RSS feed scripts” will produce the code you need to create your own RSS channel.
The next step, once you've created and validated (http://www.webreference.com/authoring/languages/xml/rss/1/ ) your RSS text file, is to register it at the various aggregators, and start watching your traffic really spike. This happens because now any site can grab and display your feed regularly, which will drive traffic straight to your site.
It gets better—if you update your RSS file, all the external sites that subscribe to your feed will be automatically updated. What could be easier, other than watching those nice, fat checks from your Google AdSense ads roll in? Well, if you use RSS feeds, they’ll work together!
Using RSS Feeds for Content
We live in the information age, and there’s just no getting around it. Information and news happens every single day, and savvy site surfers will expect you to update your content regularly. In fact, they’d prefer you to do that daily, or even hourly. And yes—I mean 24/7 hours.
But you gotta sleep, right? And have some time off occasionally. So instead of spending every waking hour relentlessly surfing around from site to site looking for content, wouldn’t you prefer it to be streamed in to your site? Well now you can, thanks to a very clever service, RSS.
RSS works so well that a lot of site owners swear it stands for 'Really Simple Syndication'. Why is it simple? Because you just select the content you like and have it delivered directly to your site.
If you’re a busy person—and who isn’t, these days—RSS feeds can take the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by streaming in the very latest information that you are interested in.
So where do you get this good stuff? Well, if it’s news you want, most of the major news sites provide it since it is growing rapidly in popularity. A few news services that provide it are Guardian, New York Times and CNN.
But you gotta sleep, right? And have some time off occasionally. So instead of spending every waking hour relentlessly surfing around from site to site looking for content, wouldn’t you prefer it to be streamed in to your site? Well now you can, thanks to a very clever service, RSS.
RSS works so well that a lot of site owners swear it stands for 'Really Simple Syndication'. Why is it simple? Because you just select the content you like and have it delivered directly to your site.
If you’re a busy person—and who isn’t, these days—RSS feeds can take the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by streaming in the very latest information that you are interested in.
So where do you get this good stuff? Well, if it’s news you want, most of the major news sites provide it since it is growing rapidly in popularity. A few news services that provide it are Guardian, New York Times and CNN.
Blog and Ping—not just funny names
Some of the very biggest buzz words on the internet right now are Blogging and Pinging. Many internet gurus claim these are the essentials for attracting visitors to your site and consequentially making those bucks through AdSense.
The best kind of blog lets readers put in their 2 cents worth. People love to be able to voice their opinions, and tend to get frustrated when they can’t. Thus, the best blog is an online discussion web site that allows both you the web owner and your readers to voice their opinions on a specific subject.
So where do you begin? Well, for one thing, your blog needs to be specific to succeed, unless you’re a celebrity. People will go to Paris Hilton’s site to read just about any fool thing she writes off the top of her head, but don’t think you can do that. I know it’s not fair, but that’s how it is.
If you’re not famous, you need to focus on a niche topic. For instance rather than run a Blog on dogs why not specialize in black labs or some other breed? I guarantee you, if you put a cute picture of a black lab with a red bandana around her neck up, you’ll have all the other black lab owners dropping by to tell stories about their own dogs.
Pinging, is how you tell the entire Blog community as a whole that your Blog site is up and running. Most Blog software has a feature that does this for you when a new post or comment has been made.
To put Blog software on your own server and running it independently on your site, I have found Wordpress to be excellent software and this can be downloaded at wordpress.org.
The best kind of blog lets readers put in their 2 cents worth. People love to be able to voice their opinions, and tend to get frustrated when they can’t. Thus, the best blog is an online discussion web site that allows both you the web owner and your readers to voice their opinions on a specific subject.
So where do you begin? Well, for one thing, your blog needs to be specific to succeed, unless you’re a celebrity. People will go to Paris Hilton’s site to read just about any fool thing she writes off the top of her head, but don’t think you can do that. I know it’s not fair, but that’s how it is.
If you’re not famous, you need to focus on a niche topic. For instance rather than run a Blog on dogs why not specialize in black labs or some other breed? I guarantee you, if you put a cute picture of a black lab with a red bandana around her neck up, you’ll have all the other black lab owners dropping by to tell stories about their own dogs.
Pinging, is how you tell the entire Blog community as a whole that your Blog site is up and running. Most Blog software has a feature that does this for you when a new post or comment has been made.
To put Blog software on your own server and running it independently on your site, I have found Wordpress to be excellent software and this can be downloaded at wordpress.org.
Blogging
“Blog” is internet shorthand for “web log.” They’re like online diaries. Unlike a real diary, however, the entire world gets to read them.
You should seriously look into keeping a blog, or inviting others to blog on your site. Blogging is one of the hottest new forms of contents, and many readers find it positively addictive. In fact, it’s grown so fast that many traditional news sources such as newspapers and TV stations are seeing an increase in declining readers and viewers (it was already declining due to the internet, but it got worse) because users are finding out they can go online and read a reporter’s personal blog, which often gives juicy details that are not reported in formal news stories.
So people seek out blogs to get the real scoop. What does that mean for you? It means you should capitalize on it.
An easy way to start getting experience with writing a blog, before you get yours up and running, is to go to blogger.com and set up a practice blog.
Building a Virtual Content Kingdom to Display Ads On
So now you’re ready to build your content-rich kingdom and start raking in the bucks, right? Sure you are! You don’t have to be a great writer, you just have to know where to get good writing. And heck, it really doesn’t even have to be great. Just good.
Here are the steps you’ll want to take:
1. Pick a domain name – this requires some thought, since even though it’s not as critical as it used to be to have a catchy domain name, it still matters to some users. Once you’ve picked one, check with an affordable registrar to see if it’s available. If your favorite choice isn’t available in .com format, consider being flexible and having it in .net, .biz, .org, or some other form.
2. Reserve the domain name. Web.com and many, many others offer that service.
3. Get web hosting. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a good web host. Think of it this way, if your site is down, you're not making any money. Prices and services vary greatly, but fortunately you don't have to spend a fortune to get good web hosting. I recommend checking out Host Gator, which is a reliable yet affordable host. Get one of their unlimited domain plans, and then you can keep adding more sites to your Adsense kingdom without having to buy hosting each time.
4. Set up your new domain, including your e-mail addresses.
5. Design your site, and start building pages.
6. Get some content. If you don’t want to write it yourself, check out: ezinearticles.com goarticles.comelance.com to hire a freelance writer who will write articles for you. Browse project postings first to see what other people usually ask for these articles—they are very popular.Or just get The Article System which builds your article sites automatically!
7. For good RSS feeds, check out feedster.com. Also be sure to check out a great tool called RSS Equalizer.
8. Sign up with Google AdSense
9. Update content at least weekly.
10. Go to mailbox, get checks :-)
Here are the steps you’ll want to take:
1. Pick a domain name – this requires some thought, since even though it’s not as critical as it used to be to have a catchy domain name, it still matters to some users. Once you’ve picked one, check with an affordable registrar to see if it’s available. If your favorite choice isn’t available in .com format, consider being flexible and having it in .net, .biz, .org, or some other form.
2. Reserve the domain name. Web.com and many, many others offer that service.
3. Get web hosting. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a good web host. Think of it this way, if your site is down, you're not making any money. Prices and services vary greatly, but fortunately you don't have to spend a fortune to get good web hosting. I recommend checking out Host Gator, which is a reliable yet affordable host. Get one of their unlimited domain plans, and then you can keep adding more sites to your Adsense kingdom without having to buy hosting each time.
4. Set up your new domain, including your e-mail addresses.
5. Design your site, and start building pages.
6. Get some content. If you don’t want to write it yourself, check out: ezinearticles.com goarticles.comelance.com to hire a freelance writer who will write articles for you. Browse project postings first to see what other people usually ask for these articles—they are very popular.Or just get The Article System which builds your article sites automatically!
7. For good RSS feeds, check out feedster.com. Also be sure to check out a great tool called RSS Equalizer.
8. Sign up with Google AdSense
9. Update content at least weekly.
10. Go to mailbox, get checks :-)
Maximize your Click-Throughs With Placement
Yeah, size matters, but so does placement…particularly as far as Google AdSense ads are concerned. Remember how I said to use the skyscraper format for ads, putting them in the margins as opposed to banner ads across the top or bottom?
Well, guess how much difference that can make. Go on, guess. OK, I’ll tell you. Poorly placed ads, such as banner ads down at the very bottom of the page, might have a click-through rate of about 2.3% on a good day.
But well-placed ads, such as a nice skyscraper ad in that critical upper-left quadrant we talked about, can have a click-through rate as high as 40%.
And that’s for the same ad. Yes, the very same ad can have a click-through rate of an abysmal 2.3% or an awesome 40%. It has nothing to do with the ad itself and everything to do with where you put it.
Another neat trick to maximize click-through is to massage the colors of the ads so that they fit in with the colors of your site. Ads that are seen as “fitting in” get more clicks than ads that clash.
Well, guess how much difference that can make. Go on, guess. OK, I’ll tell you. Poorly placed ads, such as banner ads down at the very bottom of the page, might have a click-through rate of about 2.3% on a good day.
But well-placed ads, such as a nice skyscraper ad in that critical upper-left quadrant we talked about, can have a click-through rate as high as 40%.
And that’s for the same ad. Yes, the very same ad can have a click-through rate of an abysmal 2.3% or an awesome 40%. It has nothing to do with the ad itself and everything to do with where you put it.
Another neat trick to maximize click-through is to massage the colors of the ads so that they fit in with the colors of your site. Ads that are seen as “fitting in” get more clicks than ads that clash.
Put web links where people will see them
If you’re putting web links in, make sure they’re where people will see them—not in that bottom right-hand Corner of Death! Yes, people notice links in web content. They’re usually bright blue and underlined, so people notice them. Many people even read links before they look at headlines.
Now that you know that, make it easy for them to get to your links by consistently presenting them in list form or by slamming them right up against the left-hand margin.
Don't put your links in a sentence or they might end up in the invisible right-hand area of the content. Yes, this means you can’t use the old "click here" convention, but for a good reason: it never worked very well anyway.
Here’s an example of a good way to put in links:
There are several cool skateboarding sites you might want to check out. They really rock and they’ve got some great gear you can pick up for not a lot of bucks.
Skateboard.comSkatefreak.netLiv2skat.biz
Here’s an example of a bad way to use links:
If you want to read about the latest in cool tricks, check out skateboard.com. For the lowdown on which pro skaters are doing what and dating who, you want to see skatefreak.net. And one of my very favorite places to read blog is liv2skat.com.
Now that you know that, make it easy for them to get to your links by consistently presenting them in list form or by slamming them right up against the left-hand margin.
Don't put your links in a sentence or they might end up in the invisible right-hand area of the content. Yes, this means you can’t use the old "click here" convention, but for a good reason: it never worked very well anyway.
Here’s an example of a good way to put in links:
There are several cool skateboarding sites you might want to check out. They really rock and they’ve got some great gear you can pick up for not a lot of bucks.
Skateboard.comSkatefreak.netLiv2skat.biz
Here’s an example of a bad way to use links:
If you want to read about the latest in cool tricks, check out skateboard.com. For the lowdown on which pro skaters are doing what and dating who, you want to see skatefreak.net. And one of my very favorite places to read blog is liv2skat.com.
Using Traffic Equalizer
Traffic Equalizer is a tool that many site developers use to increase traffic to their site and thus put them on a level playing field with the big boys. TR boasts that they drive highly targeted buyers to your site.
In a nutshell, you import a list of keywords, you fill in a few form fields, and the program automatically creates optimized pages. They claim it’s very search-engine friendly. It is a program that quickly generates hundreds or thousands of pages that are specially designed to rank well on search engines for huge lists of keyword phrases. You've probably seen these types of pages before. They feature an ad on top and then there are listings that look like a directory or a search engine. All you have to do is make a list of keywords, type them into Traffic Equalizer and the software crawls search engine data to bring back the top results for that keyword. Then it lists those sites and inserts your site at the top...and voila! It creates pages that are supposedly designed to rank well for search engines.
The thing is, some of the pages it produces can look a bit clunky.
You should always put Traffic Equalizer pages on a separate domain, on a separate IP, even on a separate server. Keep it as far away from your website as possible. More on why later.
Traffic Equalizer provides a template that’s…well, not great-looking. And here’s the thing: many users are saying that when they use that original template, unmodified, their pages and in some cases their entire website are getting dropped from Google's index. The work-around here is for you to create a new template, with your own graphics. Change the colors and add some of your own new text. You want to change this from being easily recognizable to Google.
Traffic Equalizer runs a support forum...for product owners. So if you get TE, be sure you take full advantage of it to get tips and such. Mind you, in those forums you’ll see posts from users who’ve gotten banned from search engines. What you want to do is look for people who are getting tons of traffic from Traffic Equalizer and find out their secrets.
There are also some helpful sites, such as http://www.webtrafficstrategies.net/cb_templates which offer different templates for TE.
Google’s Guidelines
I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I didn’t caution you that improper use of TE could get you in trouble with the AdSense program. That’s why I’ve listed some cautions above. Here’s what Google has to say about it in their guidelines:
"Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
In a nutshell, you import a list of keywords, you fill in a few form fields, and the program automatically creates optimized pages. They claim it’s very search-engine friendly. It is a program that quickly generates hundreds or thousands of pages that are specially designed to rank well on search engines for huge lists of keyword phrases. You've probably seen these types of pages before. They feature an ad on top and then there are listings that look like a directory or a search engine. All you have to do is make a list of keywords, type them into Traffic Equalizer and the software crawls search engine data to bring back the top results for that keyword. Then it lists those sites and inserts your site at the top...and voila! It creates pages that are supposedly designed to rank well for search engines.
The thing is, some of the pages it produces can look a bit clunky.
You should always put Traffic Equalizer pages on a separate domain, on a separate IP, even on a separate server. Keep it as far away from your website as possible. More on why later.
Traffic Equalizer provides a template that’s…well, not great-looking. And here’s the thing: many users are saying that when they use that original template, unmodified, their pages and in some cases their entire website are getting dropped from Google's index. The work-around here is for you to create a new template, with your own graphics. Change the colors and add some of your own new text. You want to change this from being easily recognizable to Google.
Traffic Equalizer runs a support forum...for product owners. So if you get TE, be sure you take full advantage of it to get tips and such. Mind you, in those forums you’ll see posts from users who’ve gotten banned from search engines. What you want to do is look for people who are getting tons of traffic from Traffic Equalizer and find out their secrets.
There are also some helpful sites, such as http://www.webtrafficstrategies.net/cb_templates which offer different templates for TE.
Google’s Guidelines
I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I didn’t caution you that improper use of TE could get you in trouble with the AdSense program. That’s why I’ve listed some cautions above. Here’s what Google has to say about it in their guidelines:
"Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
About Keyword Density Ranges
With the decline of meta-tags, keyword density ranges have become very important. They’ve also become very controversial. Here’s the thing: you want a high enough keyword density—at least 7%--that your keywords rank highly in the bigger search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, DogPile, and HotBot.
But, as we discussed, you don’t want your keyword densities so high that they turn your content into over-hyped gobbledygook, nor do you want to raise a red flag when the spiders come crawling over your content. If your keyword density is 20% or more, the search engine will most likely red-flag you for “keyword stuffing” and penalize you by moving you down in the search results.
Thus, keyword density ranges are controversial. To make things worse, different search engines have different algorithms. One of them might thing an SEO keyword density of 18% is fine, another may not.
The only way a search engine can figure out just what your page is about is to search for the keywords you use. Those keywords don't necessarily have to be right there on the page—they can be in the title and in links that will lead to the page. Having said that, though, keywords that appear on your page are certainly the most common way that search engines use to decide what your page is all about. Keyword density refers to the ratio of keywords to the total number of words on the page.
Now I want you to look again at the paragraph above. There are 95 words total, and I used the word "keywords" exactly five times. The keyword ratio for the paragraph, then, is 5 divided by 95 times 100, or about 5.26%. Easy math, correct? You bet.
But how much does that stuff matter?
Well, it’s not a matter of life and death, but it’s pretty important. You see, when a search engine compares two pages to figure out which one ought to rank higher, keyword density will factor into it—usually pretty significantly. In fact, all other factors being equal (which is pretty much impossible, but let's pretend), the page with the higher keyword density will generally rank higher.
However, simple as Keyword Density is, it can also get really complex in a hurry. Do plurals or other stemmed variations of your keyword count as keywords? Should stop words, which are those common words you see all the time like "a" or "the," be ignored when calculating density?
Should you include off-page content, like meta tags and titles, in your calculations? What about keyword frequency or keyword proximity or keyword prominence? And like I’ve said before, bear in mind that if your keyword density gets too high, search engines just might realize it and penalize your page.
But now, hold on. Even though keyword densities are getting to be a complex science with lots of complicated algorithms, you can do it...
But, as we discussed, you don’t want your keyword densities so high that they turn your content into over-hyped gobbledygook, nor do you want to raise a red flag when the spiders come crawling over your content. If your keyword density is 20% or more, the search engine will most likely red-flag you for “keyword stuffing” and penalize you by moving you down in the search results.
Thus, keyword density ranges are controversial. To make things worse, different search engines have different algorithms. One of them might thing an SEO keyword density of 18% is fine, another may not.
The only way a search engine can figure out just what your page is about is to search for the keywords you use. Those keywords don't necessarily have to be right there on the page—they can be in the title and in links that will lead to the page. Having said that, though, keywords that appear on your page are certainly the most common way that search engines use to decide what your page is all about. Keyword density refers to the ratio of keywords to the total number of words on the page.
Now I want you to look again at the paragraph above. There are 95 words total, and I used the word "keywords" exactly five times. The keyword ratio for the paragraph, then, is 5 divided by 95 times 100, or about 5.26%. Easy math, correct? You bet.
But how much does that stuff matter?
Well, it’s not a matter of life and death, but it’s pretty important. You see, when a search engine compares two pages to figure out which one ought to rank higher, keyword density will factor into it—usually pretty significantly. In fact, all other factors being equal (which is pretty much impossible, but let's pretend), the page with the higher keyword density will generally rank higher.
However, simple as Keyword Density is, it can also get really complex in a hurry. Do plurals or other stemmed variations of your keyword count as keywords? Should stop words, which are those common words you see all the time like "a" or "the," be ignored when calculating density?
Should you include off-page content, like meta tags and titles, in your calculations? What about keyword frequency or keyword proximity or keyword prominence? And like I’ve said before, bear in mind that if your keyword density gets too high, search engines just might realize it and penalize your page.
But now, hold on. Even though keyword densities are getting to be a complex science with lots of complicated algorithms, you can do it...
Likes and dislikes of Googlebots
What’s a Googlebot? It’s one of the little web-searching spiders (automated) that I talked about in the last section. And these spiders have definite preferences, so you want to make sure your content is good spider food.
Spiders like:
Neat code—less lines of code than lines of text (or more lines of text than lines of codes.)
Normal keyword densities of 3-7%.
Lots of backlinks on pages that link back to your home page. (Top sites have an average of 300 backlinks.)
Original content not found anywhere else.
Quick downloads of sites, which means not a lot of dynamic URL's to other sites.
Site maps.
ALT Tabs for images.
Link partners who are contextually relevant to your page (i.e., if your page is about buying real estate, links might about be how to get loans, how to prospect for deals, how to start a corporation…but not about pet gerbils, latest fashions, or cell phones.)
New content every time the spider comes to check up on your site.
Spiders do not like:
More lines of code than text.
Nested tables.
Super-high keyword densities, which they call “keyword stuffing”.
“Doorway pages” that act as a portal and which just happen to have super-high keyword densities.
Too many backlinks to your home page from within your domain.
Duplicate content from another site—regardless of who stole what from whom.
Lots of dynamic URLs that cause a site to take forever to download.
Repeating the exact same words in your linking text, which the spider will interpret as automated link swapping. (Interestingly, it’s fine for the spiders to be fully automated, but they hate it when we do that!)
Stale content that never changes
Spiders like:
Neat code—less lines of code than lines of text (or more lines of text than lines of codes.)
Normal keyword densities of 3-7%.
Lots of backlinks on pages that link back to your home page. (Top sites have an average of 300 backlinks.)
Original content not found anywhere else.
Quick downloads of sites, which means not a lot of dynamic URL's to other sites.
Site maps.
ALT Tabs for images.
Link partners who are contextually relevant to your page (i.e., if your page is about buying real estate, links might about be how to get loans, how to prospect for deals, how to start a corporation…but not about pet gerbils, latest fashions, or cell phones.)
New content every time the spider comes to check up on your site.
Spiders do not like:
More lines of code than text.
Nested tables.
Super-high keyword densities, which they call “keyword stuffing”.
“Doorway pages” that act as a portal and which just happen to have super-high keyword densities.
Too many backlinks to your home page from within your domain.
Duplicate content from another site—regardless of who stole what from whom.
Lots of dynamic URLs that cause a site to take forever to download.
Repeating the exact same words in your linking text, which the spider will interpret as automated link swapping. (Interestingly, it’s fine for the spiders to be fully automated, but they hate it when we do that!)
Stale content that never changes
What is Search Engine Optimization?
You’ve probably heard of SEO, since it’s very hot right now. It stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a site by designing the site content so that the site ranks high in the search results of a search engine.
The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that a user will visit that site. Let’s face it, most people are lazy. They’re not going to spend time clicking and scanning tons of pages of search results. Therefore, where a site ranks in a web search is absolutely critical for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to make sure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine. To understand how this works, you need to know a little bit about how search engines work. Typically, a search engine sends out a spider to fetch as many documents as it can. Then another program, called an indexer, reads these documents and makes an index based on the words each document contains. Each search engine uses a unique proprietary algorithm to create indexes so that hopefully only meaningful results are returned for each query.
These indexers compute the keyword density.
Keyword density refers to the how often a certain word appears in a given document. It’s given as a percentage. Let’s say you have a site about running shoes. A keyword density of 7% on “running” on that web page means that out of 1000 words, 70 of them are “running.”
Unfortunately, the quick-buck con artists have figured this out, and they will put up a site that has a front page that is totally littered with keywords. To give you an idea, a normal key word density for the main key words is about 3 to 7%. What these people will do is have something insane like a 25% keyword density on their front page. Then that page ranks #1 in search engine results when users search for that word. Once the user is on the entry page, they’re likely to enter the site. Pornographers do this by putting up sites that have content like:
Sex, sex, sex. Sex is here. You want sex. We have sex. Pix of sex, lots of sex.
See how annoying that gets?
Search engines used to use meta-tags to search for web sites. This was nice, since the meta-tag was a hidden area of your page where you could put all the relevant keywords and not have to worry about making your content sound awkward by overusing certain words.
The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that a user will visit that site. Let’s face it, most people are lazy. They’re not going to spend time clicking and scanning tons of pages of search results. Therefore, where a site ranks in a web search is absolutely critical for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to make sure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine. To understand how this works, you need to know a little bit about how search engines work. Typically, a search engine sends out a spider to fetch as many documents as it can. Then another program, called an indexer, reads these documents and makes an index based on the words each document contains. Each search engine uses a unique proprietary algorithm to create indexes so that hopefully only meaningful results are returned for each query.
These indexers compute the keyword density.
Keyword density refers to the how often a certain word appears in a given document. It’s given as a percentage. Let’s say you have a site about running shoes. A keyword density of 7% on “running” on that web page means that out of 1000 words, 70 of them are “running.”
Unfortunately, the quick-buck con artists have figured this out, and they will put up a site that has a front page that is totally littered with keywords. To give you an idea, a normal key word density for the main key words is about 3 to 7%. What these people will do is have something insane like a 25% keyword density on their front page. Then that page ranks #1 in search engine results when users search for that word. Once the user is on the entry page, they’re likely to enter the site. Pornographers do this by putting up sites that have content like:
Sex, sex, sex. Sex is here. You want sex. We have sex. Pix of sex, lots of sex.
See how annoying that gets?
Search engines used to use meta-tags to search for web sites. This was nice, since the meta-tag was a hidden area of your page where you could put all the relevant keywords and not have to worry about making your content sound awkward by overusing certain words.
Conglomerating the best content...
If you can make your site into the ultimate content resource on issues related to your topic, I guarantee you you’ll attract and retain a loyal audience. Your site will become known as a The Place for anyone who wants information on your subject. For example, Harry Knowles has made aintitcoolnews.com into The Site for movie reviews and advance spoilers. Since you’re the expert on your topic, you can evaluate sites and other resources (eZines, directories, books, offline publications) and sniff out the best ones to list along with your rating and opinions.
This sort of content is like the old book reports you used to have to write for school. Read up thoroughly on your subjects, then hit the high points of a topic. Or, consider writing a summary of three separate article that have the same theme.
Reviews of movies, books, music
This is perhaps the easiest category to get content for. If you have friends who are movie, book, or music fans, they’ll probably write reviews for free just for the thrill of seeing their stuff on a site. Also, this is a never-ending source of content, since there are always new movies, books and music coming out. Contrast that with dog breeds—once you’ve written everything there is to say about every known breed, you have to wait for them to come up with a new breed!
If you want to have some fun, you can review movies yourself. And actually, if you’re running your Google adsense site as a business, you may even be able to deduct the cost of movie tickets from your taxes. Check with a tax consultant to make sure, though.
Music is easy, too, especially if you live in a town that has lots of live music or festivals. If not, you can buy used cd’s online, listen, and review. In fact, you could even hire a high-school kid to do this, but check their writing skills first. Books are a little harder, since they take more time to review and cost more than cd’s and movie tickets. However, you can paraphrase what others have said if you’re clever and don’t violate copyright.
Interviews
This is a category you might want to get a freelance writer for. Go to elance.com and browse the profiles of Service Providers to see who does interviews, then talk to them. Many freelancers specialize in celebrity interviews, and that’s what you want.
Interactive features - polls, feedback, discussion groups, forums, chat
This is one of the most popular types of sites for kids, teens, and young adults because they get to give their opinions (which many kids don’t get to do enough of at home, according to them) and they get to talk to others.
So, if you want to run this kind of site, bear your target market in mind. It’s worth paying a few bucks to a freelance writer or graphic artist to come up with fun games that are constantly changing, or new polls, since people will come back time and again to give their opinions. And don’t forget surveys—people love to take surveys.
This sort of content is like the old book reports you used to have to write for school. Read up thoroughly on your subjects, then hit the high points of a topic. Or, consider writing a summary of three separate article that have the same theme.
Reviews of movies, books, music
This is perhaps the easiest category to get content for. If you have friends who are movie, book, or music fans, they’ll probably write reviews for free just for the thrill of seeing their stuff on a site. Also, this is a never-ending source of content, since there are always new movies, books and music coming out. Contrast that with dog breeds—once you’ve written everything there is to say about every known breed, you have to wait for them to come up with a new breed!
If you want to have some fun, you can review movies yourself. And actually, if you’re running your Google adsense site as a business, you may even be able to deduct the cost of movie tickets from your taxes. Check with a tax consultant to make sure, though.
Music is easy, too, especially if you live in a town that has lots of live music or festivals. If not, you can buy used cd’s online, listen, and review. In fact, you could even hire a high-school kid to do this, but check their writing skills first. Books are a little harder, since they take more time to review and cost more than cd’s and movie tickets. However, you can paraphrase what others have said if you’re clever and don’t violate copyright.
Interviews
This is a category you might want to get a freelance writer for. Go to elance.com and browse the profiles of Service Providers to see who does interviews, then talk to them. Many freelancers specialize in celebrity interviews, and that’s what you want.
Interactive features - polls, feedback, discussion groups, forums, chat
This is one of the most popular types of sites for kids, teens, and young adults because they get to give their opinions (which many kids don’t get to do enough of at home, according to them) and they get to talk to others.
So, if you want to run this kind of site, bear your target market in mind. It’s worth paying a few bucks to a freelance writer or graphic artist to come up with fun games that are constantly changing, or new polls, since people will come back time and again to give their opinions. And don’t forget surveys—people love to take surveys.
Political Opinion
Using political opinion on your site can be tricky. People are deeply divided these days and have strong opinions. If you do run a political site, you’ll probably want to carve out your own niche. Even then, be prepared for flamers from very different view points.
On the other hand, if you can manage to run a site that actually features a somewhat well-mannered debate, you’ll have a huge hit on your hands. Be prepared to moderate this type of site.
News Stories
Your site can become a news source for the latest developments and happenings in certain niche area by providing timely news on topics of interest to your readers. I’m not saying you can be the next CNN or MSNBC, because that takes building a huge operation. But what you can be is, for example, the CNN of the karate world, or the ABC News of the bonsai tree hobbyists. What you’ll want to do is create a separate section of your site to deal with industry news. Or, devote an entire site to news updates. There are many ways of presenting news:
As a feature article
As short news clips, with a link to the full story
As news stories, where each item is explained at length
However you decide present the news, make sure you give it your own personal style. Check out salon.com. Has its own style, doesn’t it? Now look at drudgereport.com. That’s another style. Make yours interesting, personal, chatty, fun, unique, or all of these – just make it yours.
Make sure your news is relevant, useful to your reader, and timely. Old news ain’t no news at all, it’s history! So how do you get news? By:
Subscribe to eZines on your subject or topic
Sign up for e-mail news delivery services
Register to get regular press releases on your topic
Surf the web for new news items
Get news from newspapers, magazines and books
Go to conferences, workshops or seminars and write about what you see and who you talk to
On the other hand, if you can manage to run a site that actually features a somewhat well-mannered debate, you’ll have a huge hit on your hands. Be prepared to moderate this type of site.
News Stories
Your site can become a news source for the latest developments and happenings in certain niche area by providing timely news on topics of interest to your readers. I’m not saying you can be the next CNN or MSNBC, because that takes building a huge operation. But what you can be is, for example, the CNN of the karate world, or the ABC News of the bonsai tree hobbyists. What you’ll want to do is create a separate section of your site to deal with industry news. Or, devote an entire site to news updates. There are many ways of presenting news:
As a feature article
As short news clips, with a link to the full story
As news stories, where each item is explained at length
However you decide present the news, make sure you give it your own personal style. Check out salon.com. Has its own style, doesn’t it? Now look at drudgereport.com. That’s another style. Make yours interesting, personal, chatty, fun, unique, or all of these – just make it yours.
Make sure your news is relevant, useful to your reader, and timely. Old news ain’t no news at all, it’s history! So how do you get news? By:
Subscribe to eZines on your subject or topic
Sign up for e-mail news delivery services
Register to get regular press releases on your topic
Surf the web for new news items
Get news from newspapers, magazines and books
Go to conferences, workshops or seminars and write about what you see and who you talk to
Regular updates are critical to your site
Nothing is deader than a website that looks like somebody’s forgotten about it. Regularly updating or modifying your site content gives you a big advantage over the competition. Web surfers will keep on coming back to your site if they notice that there’s always something new to see, learn, or enjoy each time.
What Kind of Content Should I Put Up?
Any kind you want, of course, since we’re talking about the internet. But seriously, you’ll want to give this topic some consideration, since there’s more interest in some topics than others.
You know the people who are your audience, since ideally you’re talking about something you know about. For instance, if you’re talking about Ultimate Frisbee, it’s because you play it. So you know what other Ultimate people are like, and what they want to know and what they find entertaining.
Once you know that, you can decide about which types of content will best serve their needs and how to go about finding or creating it. Here are some general categories to get you started with your brainstorming:
Editorials
Feature articles
Political opinion
News stories
Art galleries
A conglomeration of the best content
Reviews of movies, books, music
Interviews
Interactive features - polls, feedback, discussion groups, forums, chat
What Kind of Content Should I Put Up?
Any kind you want, of course, since we’re talking about the internet. But seriously, you’ll want to give this topic some consideration, since there’s more interest in some topics than others.
You know the people who are your audience, since ideally you’re talking about something you know about. For instance, if you’re talking about Ultimate Frisbee, it’s because you play it. So you know what other Ultimate people are like, and what they want to know and what they find entertaining.
Once you know that, you can decide about which types of content will best serve their needs and how to go about finding or creating it. Here are some general categories to get you started with your brainstorming:
Editorials
Feature articles
Political opinion
News stories
Art galleries
A conglomeration of the best content
Reviews of movies, books, music
Interviews
Interactive features - polls, feedback, discussion groups, forums, chat
Am I Going to Make a Lot of Money Off of This?
While Google or myself can’t guarantee results, since a lot of your success lies in your own hands, I wouldn’t have written this book if I didn’t believe in the power of Google AdSense. A lot of webmasters are making a lot of money off of AdSense, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be one of them.The amount of money you can make with Google AdSense depends largely on what user needs your Website fills. For instance, a site about women’s issues could possibly make some serious bucks on AdSense because of the high level of competition for related keywords.The CPC (cost per click) is the amount you get paid every time a user clicks on one of those ad banners. CPC rates for competitive keywords can be more than $1, which translates directly to your site’s earning potential within the program. However, if you’re in a less competitive market, you’ll make less money—that’s just a fact of life. Still, it’s unusual to see anyone using Google AdSense report earnings of less than an effective $1 CPM (cost per 1000 impressions), and the average runs in the range of $4-$5 CPM. Some people are making an effective CPM of $15 or more with AdSense. Oh, and best yet, this is all after Google takes its commission.About that commission…commission is definitely one thing is that’s a little bit ambiguous with AdSense. Google doesn’t publicize it’s “cut”, and only displays the publisher’s cut in proprietary member reports, so getting good, accurate information on this has been difficult.To date, comparisons of AdWords rates with AdSense earnings add up to commissions of between 40% and 60%. People speculate all the time on user boards as to why Google refuses to publish its commission rates, but no one has the answer. It might have something to do with legal reasons or it could just be that Google wants to retain the ability to change rates without having to send out an announcement about it each time, which costs money. Beyond that, Google has historically been fierce about safeguarding their technology—which I don’t blame them for!
How do I Get Started with Adsense?
It’s easy to get started with AdSense and it only takes a few minutes. You fill out one single online application and that’s it. Once you're approved, it takes only minutes to set up AdSense; all you have to do is copy and paste a designated block of HTML into the source code for your site. Once you do that, targeted ads will start showing up on your website.To fill out the online application, go to:https://www.google.com/adsense/app-single-1?apply=Click+Here+to+Apply/What are Users Saying about AdSense?It’s one thing to hear about all the great advantages Google AdSense offers, including how it can make money for you in your sleep. But it’s another thing to hear comments from real, live people. Here are a few of my favorites.“We’re seeing this impressive new revenue stream without incurring any cost. We’re maximizing our previously unsold inventory, and our revenue per page figure continues to grow.” - Scott Zucker, Executive VP and COO, Intelligent Content Corp, PetPlace.com“It took no time at all to copy and post the code on individual pages, and it fits well with our content management system and with the look and feel of all our pages.” - Steve Larson, Founder, Our-Hometown.com“Instead of spending money to hire an additional sales rep to sell ad banners, Google ads have become a virtual sales tool for us. Now we’re able to reap thousands of dollars in additional advertising revenue each month that we would very likely have missed without Google AdSense.” - Robert Hoskins, Editor and Group Publisher, Broadband Wireless Exchange“Google shows targeted ads reflecting the sorts of information and services SeatGuru visitors want. For a small business like mine, this is the best approach to advertising. You set it up easily, it automatically serves relevant ads, and it takes very little of my time.” - Matt Daimler, Founder, SeatGuru.com“At the beginning I was very concerned that I might lose traffic to competitors. I only used AdSense on a limited number of the site’s pages, and I watched the stats very carefully. If the traffic, pages per visitor, or conversion rates dropped I knew I could easily pull the ads...Since implementing AdSense, our ad revenue has increased more than tenfold, and 100 percent of my available inventory is now sold through AdSense.” - Vik Kachoria, Entrepreneur, Real Adventure
What Kinds of Ads Will I Get on My Site?
Obviously, there are some kinds of ads you wouldn’t want to have on your site, such as pornographic ones or ads for sleazy multi-level marketing schemes that scream “Make $30,000 a month just for watching TV!” in big red letters.Well, you can put your mind at ease. Google has an ad review process that checks the ads they send to your site. This process ensures that the ads that you serve up are family-friendly and that they comply with Google’s strict editorial guidelines.Google’s ad-screening team combines sensitive language filters, input from site owners like you, and a team of linguists with good old common sense to filter out ads that could be inappropriate for your content. And if that’s not enough, you have to capability to block competitive ads and choose your own default ads. That’s another nice feature: Google basically lets you run your own show.Another thing you might be concerned about is whether the ads will clash with the look, feel, and colors scheme you’ve got going with your site. Don’t worry. You can customize the appearance of ads and choose from a wide range of colors and templates. Same thing goes for your search results page. And reports are customizable, too. Google provides flexible reporting tools that allow you to group your pages any which way you want.That means you can view your results by URL, domain, ad type, category and more so that you can figure out where your earnings are coming from.
What Can it do for Me?
In three words, earn you money. More relevant ads on your pages translates into more clicks—and more money that you will receive. When users click on an ad, Google will pay you. If you’ve set up your own sales team, you’ll get an additional benefit: AdSense complements their efforts. It doesn’t compete with them. With AdSense, you get a reporting page that gives you a breakdown on how your ads are doing and what they’re bringing in.Google has a huge advertiser base, so they have ads for all kinds of businesses and for just about every type of content no matter how broad or specialized it is. And since Google provides the ads, you don’t have to spend time talking to your advertisers.AdSense represents advertisers that span the spectrum. These advertisers range from large global brands to small and local companies. And ads are targeted by geography so global businesses can display local advertising easily. One more thing: you can use AdSense in many languages.So how does AdSense figure out how to do all this targeted advertising? Well, AdSense has the ability to deliver relevant ads because the gurus at Google understand how web pages really work and they’re continually refining their technology to make it smarter all the time.For example, some words can have several different meanings depending on context. You’ve seen this happen with “two” and “too” and “to.” Google technology is smart enough to understand these distinctions from the context that the word appears in, so you get more targeted ads.When you put a Google search box on your site you start making money off of web searches that people do on your site. This ability to search off of your page keeps them on your site longer—since they can search from right there where they are—and it will only take you a few minutes to get AdSense up and running. The best part is that AdSense is free for you to use!
Posted by How To Build Wealth With
Posted by How To Build Wealth With
Acceptance into the AdSense program
Here’s the thing you need to know: Google has no strict criteria for acceptance into the AdSense program, and AdSense doesn’t hit you with a minimum traffic requirement. The only criteria they’re really sticky about is the standard “acceptable content” requirements, and that’s pretty standard almost anywhere.Google AdSense says they’re serious about attracting quality content sites, and because of that they only allow AdSense members to serve ads on pages with actual content on them (it can’t be a page of ONLY ads). They have a variety of ad styles from you to choose from, including banners and skyscrapers.(Note: banners are those horizontal ads that run up top and down bottom. Skyscrapers are the tall ads that run vertically, on the left or right of your page text.)Once you’ve been accepted into Google AdSense, you’ll be able to get the AdSense advertisements on any site you own using the same ad code, provided you obey the Google guidelines. (And that’s very, very important—more on that later.)Your reporting doesn’t occur in real time, but I’d say it’s pretty close. The stats are updated regularly throughout the day. You can also view reports based on a domain or site basis if you run the AdSense on more than one site.Before you sign up, you really ought to read the lengthy and detailed FAQ on the AdSense site.
What is Google Adsense?
Google AdSense is a fast and absolutely ridiculously easy way for people with websites of all types and sizes to put up and display relevant Google ads on the content pages of their site and earn money.Because the Google AdSense ads relate to what your visitors came to your site to read about, or because the ads match up to the interests and characteristics of the kind of people your content attracts, you now have a way to improve your content pages AND make some serious bucks off of them.Google AdSense is also a way for site owners to provide Google search capability to visitors and to earn even more money by putting Google ads on the search results pages. Google AdSense gives you the ability to earn advertising revenue from every single page on your website—with a minimal investment of your time.So what kind of ads do you have to put up? That’s the good part—you don’t have to decide. Google does it for you. AdSense always delivers relevant ads that are precisely targeted—on a page-by-page basis—to the content that people find on your site. For example, if you have a page that tells the story of your pet fish, Google will send you ads for that site that are for pet stores, fish food, fish bowls, aquariums…you get the picture.If you decide you want to add a Google search box to your site, then AdSense will deliver relevant ads targeted to the Google search results pages that your visitors’ search request generated.
How To Build Wealth With Google Adsense
You’ve probably heard a lot about Google AdSense, but if you haven't tried it yet you might not
know exactly what it is. Well, for one thing, it’s a one of the most popular ways to make money online without having to do a whole lot. If you’ve read Robert Kiyosaki’s book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” you know that passive income is the best kind of income to have.Passive income is basically money that you earn without having to work for it. Unless you've experience it, this may sound like some kind of “pie in the sky” get-rich-quick scheme, but this kind of earning power is for real. In fact, I would reasonably guess that almost every billionaire on earth uses it to keep cash coming in while he or she jets off to parties and resorts and whatever else billionaires do!The best example of passive income in the "physical" world is real estate. When you own an apartment building and hire a property manager and a maintenance crew to take care of it for you and collect the rent, all you have to do is cash the checks that come in each month.Of course this doesn’t just happen overnight, or everyone would be doing it. In the case of the apartment building owner, it took time, money, and knowledge to set up an "S" corporation, find a building to buy, put up the cash to buy it with and get a loan for the rest, renovate it, then screen and hire the property manager and maintenance crew. But once that was all done, checks began rolling in with little or no effort.Well, Google Adsense is the online equivalent of that scenario. You’ll have to invest a little bit of time in learning about it, and a little more time setting it all up, but once you get it set up you can look forward to seeing those nice checks roll in. That's what this site is all about. You'll find dozens of step-by-step tutorials and strategies to help you set up your own profitable AdSense business.Please click on the "Table Of Content" on the right hand site of this blog to learn more.
You’ve probably heard a lot about Google AdSense, but if you haven't tried it yet you might not
know exactly what it is. Well, for one thing, it’s a one of the most popular ways to make money online without having to do a whole lot. If you’ve read Robert Kiyosaki’s book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” you know that passive income is the best kind of income to have.Passive income is basically money that you earn without having to work for it. Unless you've experience it, this may sound like some kind of “pie in the sky” get-rich-quick scheme, but this kind of earning power is for real. In fact, I would reasonably guess that almost every billionaire on earth uses it to keep cash coming in while he or she jets off to parties and resorts and whatever else billionaires do!The best example of passive income in the "physical" world is real estate. When you own an apartment building and hire a property manager and a maintenance crew to take care of it for you and collect the rent, all you have to do is cash the checks that come in each month.Of course this doesn’t just happen overnight, or everyone would be doing it. In the case of the apartment building owner, it took time, money, and knowledge to set up an "S" corporation, find a building to buy, put up the cash to buy it with and get a loan for the rest, renovate it, then screen and hire the property manager and maintenance crew. But once that was all done, checks began rolling in with little or no effort.Well, Google Adsense is the online equivalent of that scenario. You’ll have to invest a little bit of time in learning about it, and a little more time setting it all up, but once you get it set up you can look forward to seeing those nice checks roll in. That's what this site is all about. You'll find dozens of step-by-step tutorials and strategies to help you set up your own profitable AdSense business.Please click on the "Table Of Content" on the right hand site of this blog to learn more.
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