I’ve been reading a bit about how people can make money off their Web site by joining up with the Google AdSense program, but I really don’t understand how it all works. Do I need to find advertisers? Do I bill them for showing up on my site? Or does Google do all this? Thanks a million (hopefully!)
You’re not alone in being interested in the terrific Google AdSense program. Leveraging its powerful page analysis system, Google’s AdSense program automatically matches the best possible advertisements with the content on your Web page, making the ads magically quite relevant to your content.
Behind the scenes, it works like this: an advertiser goes to the Google AdWords system, signs up, and creates one or more advertisements that they want to pay to have appear either on Google’s search result pages or on “content pages”. Those content pages are Web sites run by individuals and organizations that include AdSense, which is the “consume” side of this equation.
What makes this more interesting is that advertisers don’t pay to have their adverts show up on either Google or separate content sites, but instead pay when the ads are clicked by customers, what we call “pay per click” or PPC. A percentage of the amount that the company pays Google for displaying the ad is then shared with the AdSense-enabled web site owner.
If, say, the advertiser pays $1.00 for a visitor to their site through AdWords, then Google will pay a percentage of that amount (the exactly amount has not been stated by the company) to you, perhaps $0.20, perhaps more.
I realize that $0.20 doesn’t sound like much money, but if you have a few hundred visitors a week, and some percentage of them click on these adverts, you could easily make $20-$50 or much (much!) more from your site each week, without having to do any work other than add the special AdSense code to the pages in the first place.
It’s simple, easy to accomplish, you never have to negotiate (or even talk) with advertisers, you don’t have to bill anyone at all, and every month or two you’ll get a nice little check from Google corporate. Nice!
So let’s talk about the exact steps required to actually get going with the AdSense program. First and foremost, you need to sign up for the AdSense program, which you can do by clicking in the cheery button:
Note that when you sign up, you’ll need to specify a Web site or weblog that you plan on incorporating AdSense: not every site is approved, however, so make sure yours has valuable and unique content and a design that doesn’t include too many advertisements.
Once you’re approved, it’s time to log in and configure your new AdSense advertisement to include on your site!
When you first log in, you’ll see the following navigational bar:
Click on “AdSense for Content” and you’ll be ready to configure your ad. Now, don’t worry: configuration is pretty easy and kinda fun too, you get to pick colors, sizes, and much more.
Once you’ve clicked on the “AdSense for Content” tab, your next step will be to decide what type of advertisements you want Google to serve up on your own pages:
I suggest you start out with a text “Ad unit”, as shown here: the other type of content adverts are less generally useful, less flexible, and typically also have a much lower payout, according to the grapevine. When you are ready, note that you can learn more about the different formats by clicking on any of the last three lines in that view.
The next section of your task is to specify the format and layout of your AdSense ad, and there are a rather amazing number of different size and format options. Google has a helpful AdSense Ad Format Reference Page that’s worth a quick peek.
Here at Ask Dave Taylor, I use a Leaderboard (728×90) on the top of the home page and a Large Rectangle (336×280) on this very page. Your layout will inevitably be different and you might choose a different layout entirely. Further, you are allowed to have up to three different ad units on a given page, so you can experiment with them one atop the other, adjacent to each other, or interspersed with your content. Just try to remember that if there’s no content, there’s no page. 🙂
Now that you’ve picked an ad layout size (and yes, you can change it at any time too) it’s time to have the most fun: changing the color scheme of the ad itself. My handy tip: use a border color that’s the same as the background color of your page (as I do on this page) so that it’s less overt that the ads are actually advertisements. It helps people not gloss over them and, hopefully, click on the ads a bit more frequently.
The built-in color schemes are nice too, of course, if you want to use them, but just as with the sizes, I strongly recommend that you experiment with different color schemes and see if you get a better percentage of clickthrus and greater revenue. Perhaps every Sunday night you can change to another color scheme and then track week-by-week what works best?
The next step is to specify an alternate Ad URL or color, and a specific channel for your ad:
The idea behind alternate ads is that sometimes no advertisers have bid on advertising for the keywords, leading Google to a pickle: what to display? By default, it instead displays public service ads (PSAs), but if you want to create an HTML snippet that produces the same size content, you can use that instead, or, you can simply have a solid box in the color of your choice that blends into the design of your site.
I am a much stronger supporter of channels, however. Channels let you organize your AdSense results by Web site (if you have more than one site) or by areas of your site. On this site, for example, I have a channel for “home page leaderboard” and another for “large rectangle” so I can compare how each format is doing, rather than just guessing in the aggregate. It’s much easier to start correctly than to retrofit this sort of thing, so take the time and set up a basic channel or two to begin categorizing your results.
Finally, you’ve made all the settings you need and it’s time to grab the HTML snippet that’ll generate the ad block on your own site!
Your specifics will be a bit different from what you see in this screen shot, but the code will generally look identical. Just select all the text in the box, then use Edit –> Copy to get that code into your copy/paste buffer.
Now open up a page where you’d like to include the AdSense code, or a template if you’re working with something like a weblog system, and paste in the new code by using Edit –> Paste.
Save your template and rebuild your site, or, if it’s just a page, save the page back onto the server and bring it up in your web browser. That’s it!
Important Warning: do not click on your ads!
I think one of the most common mistakes that new AdSense participants make is to click on an advert or three to “make a quick buck”. Sounds good in theory, but you’ll end up kicked out of the AdSense program if you click on ads shown on your own pages, which is not a good strategy for earning money!
Anyway, that’s the basic set of steps. Don’t delay and don’t wait for tomorrow: pop back up to the beginning of this article to sign up for AdSense, then go through these steps and you can start turning your cost center of a Web site into a revenue generation system, modest or otherwise!
.. and who knows, maybe you’ll see one of my own advertisements on your site!
One final tip: If you’re serious about increasing your AdSense earnings, you might want to consider buying a copy of my friend Joel Comm’s AdSense Secrets. It’s jam-packed with great advice and ideas about maximizing your clickthru rate and traffic.
Dave – I am very much interested in starting in the AdSense – but I may have some “dumb” questions. I dont have a webpage or a blog so I would have to create one just for the AdSense purpose. This is where I am a little lost. Do I create a general/generic page just for the Ads? And of course that is my very first step after creating a gmail account. Please Please help!!
Lost in URL!
Susan
Hi Dave,
I somehow end up at your site when I’m doing searches. Thought I would ask you a question. I want to place an AdSense unit within the content as you have a top your site here. I have searched a few sites but the instructions seemed really complex. Thought you could help me out.
Thanks in advance
i want to make a money earn more money. so what can i do?
so give any work for me.i will make it perfectly. i want to earn more. i waiting for your reply with good news to earn money to me.
HI
I AM TRYING FROM A VERY LONG TO PLACE ADSENSE CODE IN WEBPAGE.I DO NOT HAVE ANY SITE BUT I WAS TRYING TO PASTE THE AD CODE IN CLICKBNK’S SITES BUT WHEN I COPY THE ADSENSE CODE AND IN THE WEBPAGE GO TO VIEW OPTION — SOURCE AND TRYING TO PASTE THE CODE BETWEEN THE BODY TAGS MY AD DOES NOT APPEAR.EVEN WHEN TRIED TO FIND THE AD CODE IN HTML AGAIN THERE WERE NO TRACES NO GOOGLE AD.I DO NOT HAVE ANY KNOWLEDGE OF WORDPRESS AND WYSIWYC ETC.I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS BEING USED MY WEBPAGE.PLEASE TELL ME STEP BY STEP.HOW CAN I SAVE THE PAGE BACK TO THE SERVER.
can i use google ads with yahoo sitebuilder and yahoo webhosting????
Well, I have stubble upon your each time I needed a real answer…
Right now I do look forward to attending your conferences but I first have to make a little money so I can attend.
In mean while How do I get started…
Thank you…..
Google adsense is the best when compared to Yahoo. Yahoo is only limited to US and UK publishers. There is no such limitations in Google adsense.
I have been using Adsense for the last few months and am finally seeing some income! I think that it is an excellent service and google is doing an amazing job of making both itself and me MONEY!
The worst part is that I got banned from AdSense, and I really didn’t make click fraud.
I emailed Google 3 times, and they keep saying that “I was harmful for their advertisers”, so I’m left out of the AdMoney :P. Just Me, my palm and pda blog (in spanish of course … if you are interested, translate with google or something) and my trusty visitors.
Good post, keep going.
Greetings from Mexico.
80%? Where did you get this figure from, Curtis? What I have heard from pretty reliable sources is that it’s closer to 66%/33%, where the 66% is paid to the AdSense publisher, and 33% (or perhaps even less) is retained by Google…
Slightly interesting. Most useful info on this topic is available on hundreds to thousands of sites, and it mostly not available on any one or two particular sites. My advice is to read widely and carefully in order to not get suckered. Ultimately, be conscious always that Google will consistently take the vast majority of any revenues any advertiser pays — somewhere around 80%???
ok. Someone with real stats correct me. Pls.
This is great information, but I think I might have the stupidest question in the world. How do I make a website and where do I do it. I love blogging and have at least 3 places where I do it, which is Yahoo 360 (which is about to phase out as rumors would have it), Myspace, and MyChurch.org. I don’t know if any of these places would be already acceptable or if I would have to create something new. Come to think of it, I think I may have a blogger account with Google as well. I’m totally in the dark about this kinda thing. Please help, I’d like to get started as soon as possible. I have great ideas of what I’d like to do. Thanks in advance.
I have question,I hope you will kindly reply for this.
Suppose I have a website with URL “www.xyz.com” and I have google adds on my site.And some one type “www.xyz.com” in browser and enter in to my site and then click on google adds present on my website,Then will i get money for that.
But you said that if I click on ads shown on your own pages,then i will be kicked out from google adsense programe.What do you really mean by that.
We recieve over a 1000 impressions a day which comes to several dollars a day. Are we missing something? Shouldn’t we be generating a bit more revenue?
My request for Adsense membership was turned down twice.
Please suggest me what should I do?
Should I remove some content?
Hi dave, please i would like to know if i have to host my website before optimizing it for the google program or i just have to go and register and place my work with them as an attachment.
Hi dave, i would like to know if the website has to be hosted by me before it has to be optimized for the google adsense program or i have just have to send the website as an attchment.
how can i be paid by google adsense here in Nigeria or let me say how will the cheque get to me and how do i convert it. pls i need an urgent answer.
Dave, great info, great site, Im in the process of HOPEFULLY following the same model. Excited about the future!
-Andy
hi,
i need an advise on how is the real omplementation on making money with google adsense?? i have created my own website http://www.staynise.com but it seem like doesnt work. i have asked a few frens on this. they said need to have multiple page. for example need to create 10 website n each website can be visited around 200 hit.. so it mean all is 2000 then it paid by google… im blurr how to integrate those 10 page in our adsense account??? pls guide me on this..thanks..
Dave: How do we know that Google is paying us for clicks on our page from countries other than the US such as from .co.uk, etc. as these ads only appear on our page when I travel to other countries and open our page there.
Google, upon being questioned, is reluctant to furnish further information.
Great article Dave! I have already signed up for the adsense program. Keep up the good job!
Nice post. I have included AdSense on my site. It would be nice to make a few bucks.
my site is activated from google adsense i m unable to paste code in website i tried many times but i failed can u help plz
Well done Dave. Very helpful infos for starters.
Elaine, there’s a tab in your Google account that says ‘AdSense for search’ follow that link copy/paste that code to your website and you’ll have google search box on your website.
How can I add your google search to my website
Thanks Dave for the info. I have joined AdSense a month ago. I like it and I hope, that my account will be bigger very soon 🙂
Another great one, Dave. As usual, I really appreciate you taking the time to write these blogs and answer people’s questions. I’m happy to report that I am one of those who’ve not experienced the “Death of Adsense.”
What makes a website in more traffic?
Its content , design,or both?
What may be the links(AdSense) provided in a site?I am so interested in blogging and please try to help me!
i did purchse the cds which googlemoney programme and google cash so i didn’t enter inthe subject and they didn’t give the details
so how can i start a job what can i do to start my job what to do i start first
thanks for information
i really want add googleads on my site
i intersted to make money from that.