Friday, November 25, 2005
Google adsense, how to make money
Adsense is a Google program that helps you earn advertising revenue from every page of your website or blog. Google Adsense requires no monetary investments, and it only takes a little bit of time to implement on your website. In this article, Clint Dixon explains how to implement Adsense most effectively.
The Google Adsense program allows you to display ad units from Google advertisers on your website(s), as well as the implementation of the Google search bar for Adsense revenue. Basically you earn money whenever someone would do a search through the Adsense Search bar as well as any ads that are displayed and clicked. So as you can see, there are several ways that Google will help you earn revenue through the use of their Adsense programs on your website or blogs, and when done properly, it can generate substantial revenue for you or your business.
Signing up for Adsense is easily done through Google. Once you are approved, then you're able to select the ad code you will use on your website. The code comes in simple HTML, and is applied to your web pages with simple cut and paste work, so this is truly made for ease of implementation.
Now before getting to the actual cut and paste, there are some things you can do initially to help you increase revenue. The first is adding the ability to track the different areas you earn Adsense revenue from. You may have several websites, or a website and blog, from which you display the Adsense ads. By assigning channel names to your campaigns, you can track which is earning the most for you.
Log into your account, and under Adsense for Content tab, select the Channels link. By using channels you can track the effect of different changes you implement on your pages. The mantra here is the same as in Adwords: test, test, test. And test some more to discover what works best for you and your users. You also have custom URL selection ability, to track entries of sites easily.
Next you will want to work on the colors of your ads. Go up to the top of the page to the Adsense for Content tab and select Ad Colors. There are several pre-made color schemes you can pick from, as well as having the ability to create up to 100 of your own custom palettes.
You are able to have your ads match your current website, make them look like text content. You could also have them stand out from your website. The choices are endless through the offering of various colors and templates.
I have enclosed Google screen shots of the recommended methods of using Adsense ads on your website.
After deciding what ad colors you want to use, you then need to decide where to place your ads on your webpages or blogs. Here is where Google again is kind enough to give users information on how to make more money with their services.
Google has taken results from a heat map study and placed them into a screen shot below.
Using the heat map image above, look at your website's current layout. This will allow you to place ads where users are more likely to click. However, an important aspect to remember is what your users like about your site as it is currently. By thinking about your users and how they have interacted with your website in the past, you will be able to decide where you can profitably but non-intrusively place your ads.
For example, a website which has pages of content, such as articles, may want to place ads at the bottom after the content. This will not interupt the regular user's flow over the page, and it will recieve better click through rates than elsewhere because that is where users end up when they are done read and ready to leave the page.
As I have said before: test, test, and experiment. Try new things while staying within Googles Adsense Terms of Service (TOS).
Most often you will want to use multiple ad units on your pages to earn the best return on investment. However, there is a limit of three ad units per page. You also need to remember about your users, since adding too many ads to your pages may turn off a great many who liked your website due to it's lack of ads. Pages where you can use multiple ad units to maximize revenue include pages with lots of text, especially those which require a scroll down the page in order for a user to finish reading. This also includes message boards and forums pages, particularly within threads and pages where there are only small ad size formats such as the 125 by 125.
Often times webmasters will use the filter option to stop unwanted ads from displaying on their websites. However, this is actually a mistake. With filtering, you are decreasing the number of ads that can show, thereby decreasing your earnings potential.
To maximize the amount and variations of ads served to your pages, remove URLs from your filter list. If you find you need to filter ads instead of using the Top Level Domain to enter into your filter list try adding the exact destination URL to your filter list.
Once you have mastered the above starting blocks to Adsense, you will want to learn some advanced methods to earn revenue. I will cover some of the ideas and tricks I have learned over the past year to maximize revenues.
First, optimize your content. While Google will accept just about any website into the Adsense program, no matter how poor the quality (as long as the site does not violate the terms of service), it is a good idea to have your content of the highest quality in order to draw out the most relevant ads through Adwords to be displayed on your pages. For Adsense publishers, high quality original content will generate highly relevant ads, which in turn will draw more clicks on the ads presented. Another way to help Google present the most relevant ads is to optimize the back-side coding of the pages, much like you would SEO the page for Google front page free results rankings.
Make sure to use the
The Google Adsense program allows you to display ad units from Google advertisers on your website(s), as well as the implementation of the Google search bar for Adsense revenue. Basically you earn money whenever someone would do a search through the Adsense Search bar as well as any ads that are displayed and clicked. So as you can see, there are several ways that Google will help you earn revenue through the use of their Adsense programs on your website or blogs, and when done properly, it can generate substantial revenue for you or your business.
Signing up for Adsense is easily done through Google. Once you are approved, then you're able to select the ad code you will use on your website. The code comes in simple HTML, and is applied to your web pages with simple cut and paste work, so this is truly made for ease of implementation.
Now before getting to the actual cut and paste, there are some things you can do initially to help you increase revenue. The first is adding the ability to track the different areas you earn Adsense revenue from. You may have several websites, or a website and blog, from which you display the Adsense ads. By assigning channel names to your campaigns, you can track which is earning the most for you.
Log into your account, and under Adsense for Content tab, select the Channels link. By using channels you can track the effect of different changes you implement on your pages. The mantra here is the same as in Adwords: test, test, test. And test some more to discover what works best for you and your users. You also have custom URL selection ability, to track entries of sites easily.
Next you will want to work on the colors of your ads. Go up to the top of the page to the Adsense for Content tab and select Ad Colors. There are several pre-made color schemes you can pick from, as well as having the ability to create up to 100 of your own custom palettes.
You are able to have your ads match your current website, make them look like text content. You could also have them stand out from your website. The choices are endless through the offering of various colors and templates.
I have enclosed Google screen shots of the recommended methods of using Adsense ads on your website.
After deciding what ad colors you want to use, you then need to decide where to place your ads on your webpages or blogs. Here is where Google again is kind enough to give users information on how to make more money with their services.
Google has taken results from a heat map study and placed them into a screen shot below.
Using the heat map image above, look at your website's current layout. This will allow you to place ads where users are more likely to click. However, an important aspect to remember is what your users like about your site as it is currently. By thinking about your users and how they have interacted with your website in the past, you will be able to decide where you can profitably but non-intrusively place your ads.
For example, a website which has pages of content, such as articles, may want to place ads at the bottom after the content. This will not interupt the regular user's flow over the page, and it will recieve better click through rates than elsewhere because that is where users end up when they are done read and ready to leave the page.
As I have said before: test, test, and experiment. Try new things while staying within Googles Adsense Terms of Service (TOS).
Most often you will want to use multiple ad units on your pages to earn the best return on investment. However, there is a limit of three ad units per page. You also need to remember about your users, since adding too many ads to your pages may turn off a great many who liked your website due to it's lack of ads. Pages where you can use multiple ad units to maximize revenue include pages with lots of text, especially those which require a scroll down the page in order for a user to finish reading. This also includes message boards and forums pages, particularly within threads and pages where there are only small ad size formats such as the 125 by 125.
Often times webmasters will use the filter option to stop unwanted ads from displaying on their websites. However, this is actually a mistake. With filtering, you are decreasing the number of ads that can show, thereby decreasing your earnings potential.
To maximize the amount and variations of ads served to your pages, remove URLs from your filter list. If you find you need to filter ads instead of using the Top Level Domain to enter into your filter list try adding the exact destination URL to your filter list.
Once you have mastered the above starting blocks to Adsense, you will want to learn some advanced methods to earn revenue. I will cover some of the ideas and tricks I have learned over the past year to maximize revenues.
First, optimize your content. While Google will accept just about any website into the Adsense program, no matter how poor the quality (as long as the site does not violate the terms of service), it is a good idea to have your content of the highest quality in order to draw out the most relevant ads through Adwords to be displayed on your pages. For Adsense publishers, high quality original content will generate highly relevant ads, which in turn will draw more clicks on the ads presented. Another way to help Google present the most relevant ads is to optimize the back-side coding of the pages, much like you would SEO the page for Google front page free results rankings.
Make sure to use the
