Make
Money With Google AdSense
Interested in making money with Google?
Here's your complete guide to getting started along with some
info on how to maximize your earnings, why some accounts are disabled and even
alternatives to AdSense.
If you want to jump to the various sections, use the table of
contents on the right.
Below is an AdSense check I scanned from 2006. At the time, it
was the largest check I had received in the three years I had been in the
program.
I blurred out my address, account number and bank info for
privacy reasons, of course.
Note: Google now pays me by direct deposit, so I no longer have
paper checks to show. That is why the screenshot is so old.
Here's a more recent screenshot. It's important to note that
this is from this site, my blog, Website Babble, Napturally Curly and three
YouTube channels. This is not from just one website.
This is one of my highest payments from AdSense, but I will be
honest and say this is way above average for most people.
My earnings aren't typically this high anymore due to all the
Google changes, but I still earn what most would consider a yearly salary from
AdSense.
AdSense is a nice way to monetize your traffic, and very easy to
implement. It's one of my top earners and has been since 2003. (See the video
about my earnings further down.)
Google.com earns most of its revenue by allowing other website
owners to advertise on their search results pages.
All this is managed through a program they call AdWords(pay per click marketing).
You see these ads displayed above the free/organic results and
along the right side of the page on Google.com.
These are called Sponsored Results, and the
advertisers are paying a certain amount of money per click for these ads.
It's an auction-based system that allows advertisers to compete
for those spots. Whomever has the highest bid and most "quality" ad,
gets the top spot and so forth.
Now you can earn a share of the revenue that
Google earns from AdWords by displaying these same text or image ads on your
site. When someone clicks, you earn roughly 68% of the click and Google
gets the rest.
This program is called AdSense.
It's a great program that can help you drive additional income
to your website -- especially if it's mostly content based.
So if you are one of those people that doesn't like the idea of
paying for a site, this is an excellent way to earn your money back and then
some.
Please make sure you read this entire article. AdSense is not a
get-rich-quick scheme and it takes a lot of work to make money. Don't think
that just because you join, you are guaranteed to make big money.
Here's a video I did some years back. The reason I still show it
here is the concept is still exactly the same.
The biggest difference is it takes more work to build up
traffic. Nevertheless, AdSense still works just as well as it did back when I
created this video.
The commission you receive per click depends on how much
advertisers are paying Google for the particular ad. You will earn a share
of that amount. I've heard of earnings anywhere from 2 cents to $15 per
click.
Getting over $1 is probably very rare, although it does happen
from time to time. However, you will find that most of your earnings will be on
the lower end of the spectrum.
It's important to note that I cannot estimate how much
you will earn based on your traffic. People always want to know what the
average amount is per click.
No one knows the answer to this except Google, so don't let
anyone try to tell you any different. It would be impossible for myself or any
AdSense publisher to give this information because the ads all cost different
prices and we have no idea what advertisers are paying.
However, there are some niches that obviously pay more. So it is
logical to believe that keyword phrases like sex, make money, etc.
may earn you more per click since these are highly competitive keywords that
are searched for quite a bit on
The more competitive the search term, the more the advertisers
pay and the more you earn as a publisher.
Even though Google will not reveal how much you are earning for
each ad that is clicked from your site, you can still login to your account at
any time and see the total amount of revenue you've generated that day, week,
month, year, etc.
For example, if you see that you've made $12.60 today from 9
clicks then you can calculate that your average click-thru commission was $1.40
per click. That's as detailed as their stats will get. Also
remember, that's only an average. You won't know how much each specific
ad brought in.
The amount you'll earn also depends largely on the amount of
targeted traffic you receive to your own site, how well the ads match your
audience's interests, the placement of the ads on your pages, and of course the
amount you receive per click.
Ideally, you should create a site on a topic you know a lot
about. That way you'll have a much easier time creating a generous amount
of content on that subject.
Before you even begin your site, make sure you've come up with a
topic that you feel you know plenty about. That way it will be easiest to
write a lot of content.
The more content you have, the better chance you have getting
accepted into the program. Also, the more content and traffic, the
greater the earning potential.
If you want to make a lot of money, prepare to write a lot of
content and learn how to market your site. Don't expect to throw up a 10 page
site and make $1,000 per month. That's unrealistic.
Now let's talk about building your website.
Creating Your Site
Get a domain (yoursite.com) and then sign
up for a web host and build your pages. I
highly recommend using WordPress to create your site because
you just pick a theme and your site is up and running.
Once you have selected your theme, you can add AdSense ads by
either using a free AdSense plugin or you can use the WordPress Text widget to
easily add ads to your sidebar.
If you want to learn more about WordPress I have a video here.
Once you have 20-30 pages on your site, go tohttp://adsense.google.com to
apply.
When you are accepted, simply copy and paste the provided HTML
code into any page that you'd like to show the ads. You can opt to display text
ads, image ads, or a combination of both. It's up to you.
You can either display the ads vertically along side the page
like Google does or in a banner-like formation horizontally across your
pages. You can even customize the colors to match your site's theme.
Here are some tips for achieving success with Google AdSense.
Build Traffic
You're not going to make anything with AdSense if you don't have
enough traffic. Please don't think this is some easy, get-rich-quick program.
This takes work and it all starts with getting visitors.
Experiment
Test ad sizes, images vs. text, play around with colors, you
name it. I personally like to have my ads match the background of my site so
they blend more.
Some people prefer to make their ads stand out by using
bold/contrasting colors, but that never worked well for me. I think it's
because they look so much like ads.
To display the ads vertically along the right side of the page,
just copy this code into your site and paste your AdSense code where indicated.
<table align="right" width="300>
<tr>
<td>INSERT ADSENSE CODE HERE</td>
</tr>
</table>
<tr>
<td>INSERT ADSENSE CODE HERE</td>
</tr>
</table>
You can change the width of the table to suit your needs, just
remember that it needs to be wide enough to fit whatever AdSense code you
selected. You can also switch the alignment by changing the align attribute
from "left" to "right."
Create Channels
Channels allow you to see what units are working best. So if you
are adding an AdSense unit to your header, you should create a channel called
(name it Header, for example) so you can track its performance in
your reports.
I think it's important to maximize your click through rate (CTR)
so you can attract more advertisers (just my opinion based on logic.) So I
remove channels/units that perform significantly lower than others.
Advertisers want to advertise on sites that will give them the
most clicks, right? So it makes sense to optimize your account's
CTR as much as you can.
So how do you create channels?
When you are creating a new ad unit, you are presented the
option of creating a custom channel on the first screen...
Set Units to "Targeted"
When you target your custom channel units, you make them
available to Placement advertisers who may want to advertise on your site
directly. These advertisers pay more so you earn more per click.
It's super easy to set this up.
Just click "My Ads" from your account, then select
"Custom Channels". Click the channel you want to target and click the
box for targeting as illustrated below...
Avoid Free Hosts
I know times are tough economically and a lot of you don't want
to pay for a website. But the facts don't lie. Successful website owners invest
money. Period.
I have yet to open up a magazine and see a successful site
featured hosted on Blogger.com or another free host. Never. And I've been out
here since 1998.
If you want the search engines and people to take your site
seriously, you have to own your site. And if you don't do this, I question your
dedication.
Even if it means you have to wait and save your money for 6
months to buy a domain and hosting. I'd rather you do that then take shortcuts
with free hosting.
The other problem with free hosts is they can remove your site
without warning. This happened to a gentleman just last week who emailed me.
There was nothing I could do. If you don't own your site, you don't own
your income.
More AdSense Tips
Watch the video below to discover more ways to increase your
AdSense earnings.
Just remember, success with AdSense is all about how well you
bring in targeted visitors to your website.
People often ask me about the best theme or design for AdSense.
That really depends on your goal. If you want to add AdSense to
your header then you should find a design that makes it easy to add the code.
I use the Magazine Pro WordPress theme on
my hair site. It has a header widget built in
that is large enough to fit the 728x90 unit so adding the banner was a breeze.
Changing to this theme more than doubled the earnings for
that site because I was able to add the large, header unit. Larger units
typically earn you more, especially when they have good, visible placement.
People often ask me why their earnings are so low and there are
many reasons for that.
1. Not enough traffic
If your site has less than 500 visitors per day, it's going to
be difficult to make much with AdSense. You have to remember that only a small
percentage of people will click on your ads (1-2%) so if you have 500 people
coming to your site in a day, that's 5 clicks.
Also, most clicks will earn you less than $1, so hopefully you
can see that it takes a great deal of traffic to build up income with AdSense.
2. Not enough relevant ads displaying
Some niches have more, relevant ads that Google can display.
This will drastically impact your click through rate. If the ads aren't
relevant to your content then your visitors aren't going to click.
That's why it's important to make sure your site has a lot of
content so you can help Google display the most relevant ads. Granted,
sometimes there aren't relevant ads available, and there's nothing you can
really do about that.
However, just having a few sentences with some images is not
helping Google find the best ads because you have so little content.
3. Low paying niche
Let's face it. Some niches pay more than others. If you have a
finance site, the ads will probably pay more than the ads on an entertainment
site.
So the niche you are in plays a big role in how much you can
make. That's why it's hard to estimate how much anyone can earn with AdSense.
There are just too many different variables.
People often ask me why they can't get approved for AdSense.
It's tough to answer because I do not work for Google, so I can only guess.
Many times it's because there are not enough pages on your
website. I tell people to shoot for at least 20-30 pages at the very minimum,
and make sure your content is very niche -- centered around ONE topic.
Google doesn't like sites that cover too many different topics
because it's hard to target ads. The more focused your content is, the better.
In addition to more content, aim for longer articles (at least
700 words or more). Google does not like "thin" content sites that
look as if they were created just for AdSense. Put some meat on those bones and
make it look as if you put some effort into your website!
Also, check your grammar, spelling, layout etc. Remember you are
partnering with Google and they don't like to see messy sites with
poor/confusing navigation structures.
Recently, a lot of publishers have been getting their accounts
disabled for "fraudulent or potential fraudulent click activity."
This has frustrated a lot of AdSense publishers because many
claim they have done nothing wrong and how in the heck does Google define
"potential" click fraud?
No one really knows.
Remember, Google earns most money from advertising.
The ads that appear on your pages are costing someone money every single time a
click is registered.
Google monitors clicks very closely --
especially if your account is new.
So if they sense A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G out of the ordinary or feel you
are getting traffic from places that may may produce bot/automated/fraudulent
clicks, they will disable your account to protect their advertiser's money.
They used to disable when they confirmed fraudulent
clicks, but now they will disable even if they see potential risk
with your account -- whatever that means.
Then they refund the advertiser their money -- which is why you
don't receive a check for money earned if you are disabled.
Unfortunately no one really knows exactly what the threshold is
for determining your account has "potential fradulent clicks."
And to make things worse, their communication when you are
disabled is automated and there are usually no warnings -- which is unfortunate
and frustrating for people who have done nothing wrong. There's also no way to
reach out for definitive answers and appeals usually fail.
Nothing is Guaranteed With AdSense
As frustrating as it is to get disabled from AdSense, keep in
mind, Google never promises us anything and they will do what they can to
protect their own revenue.
If that means disabling accounts they feel are at risk of
producing click fraud, they will do it.
I know that's a tough pill to swallow and I can imagine it does
feel horrible to get your account disabled, but when we all
"accepted" the terms and conditions upon signing up, that is
basically what we were agreeing to.
There are no guarantees with
AdSense and we are all at risk of losing our accounts.
Now I do believe that the system has kinks, and I believe some
innocent people are disabled, but that's why you cannot put all your
income eggs in one basket. Google has to protect their advertiser's money.
No one is safe from getting banned... not even me... and it's
just one of those things that comes with the territory if you decide to join
the AdSense program.
Google will always safeguard their advertisers because they are
their customers -- not us. And if they feel their money is being wasted
on fraudulent clicks (even if it's only potential), they won't stand for it.
I am often asked why AdSense earnings change so often and
drastically. Read why there are so many highs and lows with your
earnings.
Here is a basic summary of key information that will help you
get approved and manage your AdSense account.
If you were disabled from the program, here are some alternate
programs you can try...
Don't ever depend on AdSense as your main income source.
Diversify and learn to make money in other ways.
Make More With AdSense By Creating Niche
Websites
One of the keys to succeeding with AdSense is to build a niche
website that targets a narrowly defined topic.
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