Google Adsense can be a gold mine for any blogger or site owner looking to make money. But most people who use this service make little or no money. There is definatly a knowledge gap here. This article is the first in a series looking to address this gap, so that every blogger or site master can maximize their earning potential.
A few years ago, Google launched its advertising program, known simply as Adsense. This advertising program turned the online world on its head. Adsense has provided a potentially limitless income stream to every blogger or website owner on the planet.
It would seem at first glance that all that would be required to make a fortune would be to throw up a blog and plaster it with Adsense adverts and the sky is the limit. Ironically, whilst this is nearly true, there is much to learn about Adsense.
The sad fact is that most people who use Adsense make virtually no money. The truth be told, the first three months of my Adsense account, I made all of $15. Not much at all, and certainly nothing to get excited about. I have learned that there several techniques to using Adsense which all bloggers and webmasters need to know in order to maximize their money making potential.
The first thing to know is that you wont earn a penny from Adsense without traffic. Traffic is the cornerstone to making money from a blog or a website. It may sound boring, and not what you were looking to hear, but there is nothing more important from a website or blog owners perspective than traffic. You need to use back linking, social networking sites, forums, keyword rich content and anything else that you can think of to generate traffic. It is likely that your Adsense click through rate will be something like 1 percent without following the tips below. At 1 percent you will need substantial traffic in order to produce even a modest income from your site.
Traffic aside, there are several things you can do to your site to maximize the income generated from your traffic.
The golden rule is to never let your Adsense ads go unlabelled. You should put a text bar across the top of your Google ads. This will help draw attention to them and make them look more like an intentional integrated part of your site.
A popular label to put above your Adsense ads is ‘Sponsored links’ or words to that affect. In the past I have used ‘Like this site, Google recommends…’ or just ‘Google recommends’ or even ‘Recommended links’.
A word of caution here, you do not want to find yourself banned from Adsense. Remember that encouraging readers to click on your adverts is a breach in the terms and conditions. If you are in any doubt about the comments you want to write then check the terms yourself, or email Google to check yourself.
Placement of the adverts is also essential. If your site is a blog then placing the adverts at the end of each article, or in-between each article then your readers will naturally continue to read down and see the adverts. This will be especially effective if you have labeled your adverts.
Sun, Dec 28, 2008, by HT Lewis
Money Making