internet toolkit
Make Sense of Google AdSense – and make money!
As a successful web publisher looking to get to the next level, you are probably thinking about trying a number of different approaches to increasing revenue – especially your passive revenue, the money that just “shows up” from time to time while you focus on other things. You may be considering various forms of internet advertising. And you should.
Internet advertising has exceeded all expectations. The technology keeps advancing, and the popularity and ubiquity of the medium is incredible. Most companies can benefit from the Internet because it allows the chance to reach a global audience at never-before-possible speeds, with many kinds of filters to make sure the right audience sees the right message, and costs that are often surprisingly low. But many businesses make money online in ways that have very little to do with their own actual business, but with systems that connect various companies and offerings together.
You may be wondering how to make money easily with online advertising, and you have come to the right place!
The secret is that taking ads is a much more profitable strategy then placing ads for most websites. And the best way to make money with this right now is “hiding in plain sight” from the world’s most popular search engine company.
While there are many ways to approach online advertising, it makes sense the best would be offered by the ultimate search engine company, the company that is setting out to organize all of humanity’s vast amounts of information – Google. This method is Google Ad Words, and it’s sister program, Google AdSense. With Ad Words, Google makes a lot of money. With AdSense, web publishers – that’s you! – can reach a lot of people and make a lot of money too!
In this report, we’re going to focus in on how to make sense of, and a lot of money with, Google’s AdSense program.
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AdSense Money Machine
Want to make five or ten or twenty thousand dollars a month automatically and be paid by one of the biggest Internet companies in the world?
We’ll describe what AdSense is, how it works, how to get started, how to maximize the program, and where to go from here! Ready?
First let’s examine what AdSense is and how it works.
What is Google AdSense?
Google AdSense is an ad-serving program that places ads that “make sense” – specifically, that make sense based on relevant content, and assumptions about who might be interested in that content. AdSense is an application of the broader concept of Contextual Marketing. Contextual Marketing is just what it sounds like. On a website about custom cars, you might have an ad for fancy wheels or car care kits. On a website about off-roading, you might have an ad for durable truck tires or spotlight rigs. A hockey site might advertise hockey sticks…and a tennis site, tennis shoes. Contextual Marketing just means aligning the ad serving with the context/nature of the website and its audience, the same way like items are grouped in a store. And the “context” can be cut much finer than website level, it can be page level, article level, and so on, so the ads always match the material they are appearing near, and thus, appeal to the interest of the reader/buyer at any given moment.
So what’s in it for you – the website publisher/owner? That’s easy. Every time a visitor to your site clicks one of these ads, you make money. The better the ads are targeted, the more clicks you get, the more money you make. AdSense displays easy-to-read, text-based, relevant ads that don’t overshadow the content of your website or annoy visitors. Actually, you have seen hundreds of these ads yourself, as you’ll realize in a moment.
Today there are probably only a few places in your website that can directly make you money, if any. The magic of Google AdSense is this: It allows you to earn money through every page of your website. On top of that, with algorithms
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AdSense Money Machine
used to align ad content with page content Google automatically selects and displays ads for your website that are likely to generate the highest revenue for you.
AdSense is an application of AdWords beyond Google.com
Making “sense” of AdSense means understanding that it is really an offshoot of the older Google model, AdWords. But they are not the same thing.
Google AdWords
If you have ever searched on Google, you have seen AdWords.
Google AdWords are the small text ads that are displayed on the side of the search results in Google. These ads are contextual of course – in this case the context is the search terms you entered. The ads will be served based on what you’re looking for. So, if you do a search on “printing services” you will get ads for printing services along with your search results!
How does this generate money for Google and the advertisers?
Google AdWords works on a model known as pay-per-click. When someone clicks on an AdWords ad, the advertiser of that ad has to pay Google a certain amount. It’s easy to track and fully automated.
We say “certain amount” because that amount is different all the time and is subject to market forces – in this case, bidding. Something has to determine the placement of those ads, and what determines it is how much the advertiser offers to pay per click. When you submit this kind of ad to Google, you submit it with a bid – which is compared to other bids for similar keywords. It’s an auction style process.
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AdSense Money Machine
The position of the AdWords ads is based on the bidding amount of keywords of an ad. Obviously, the higher the bid, the higher the position the bid buys you. For instance, if the highest bid for the keywords “Internet marketing” is 80 cents per click, you can get top position by bidding 90 cents. Then every time someone clicks on your ad, Google would charge you 90 cents, and you would retain the top position until someone else bids more for the same search word placement.
Google AdSense, as stated earlier, is an extension of Google AdWords. It takes the AdWords concept and moves it off of Google’s search page and onto thousands of other web pages. The ads that are displayed on the websites are Google AdWords ads.
It’s good for the advertiser, who gets more and broader displays, for Google, who charge more for this program, for you, who will make money from the clickthroughs on your pages, and also for the consumer, who will see cool ads for stuff they are probably interested in!
So how exactly are you making money from all this? You earn a share of the pay-per-click amount, every time a visitor clicks on the ad. So you just need to get ads on your site…
How the Ads Get On Your Site
Once you join the AdSense program – and Google approves your site or sites, which we’ll cover in detail shortly – the actual process of displaying ads on your website is extremely simple. You are provided with a small HTML script, which you can paste anywhere on your webpage. You may paste this code any number of times and on multiple pages, and watch the ads get served! Google automatically places AdWords ads that are most relevant, from its extensive advertiser base. Google employs various sophisticated algorithms to determine the relevancy of the ads to your content.
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AdSense Money Machine
Before we get into how Google assesses sites, and whether a few or many placements of that magic script will deliver optimum results, let’s review the advantages of AdSense.
Advantages of the Google AdSense system
Google AdSense is simple to use and manage. Once approved, displaying ads on your webpage does not take time and requires minimal technical knowledge.
Google AdSense is very smart about ad selection. The ads that are displayed are only those that are relevant to your content, and Google has strict quality control on the general quality of the ads.
Google AdSense uses text-only ads. Far from being low-tech, text ads are more effective than flashy ads. The clickthrough rate of text ads is proven to be higher than that of animated ads! More clicks equals more money, and text ads equals more clicks. Also…text ads are very “low weight” and very fast loading. The AdSense program will not slow your website, or your visitors, down. You can also use graphic ads.
Google AdSense programs: Choose your weapon(s)!
Google currently (mid 2005) offers three programs: AdSense for content, AdSense for search, and Premium AdSense.
AdSense for content
AdSense for content is the main AdSense program – contextually targeted ads are displayed on your webpage, and you get paid for every click. These ads are specifically targeted to the content of your webpage. Consequently, if you change the content of your page, the ads that are displayed would also change. AdSense allows you good control over what ads get served, since there might be some obvious problems if it didn’t. These include:
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AdSense Money Machine
Blocking Ads – you choose
While the ad selection is automatic, you can block unwanted ads – such as those from your competitors. You just tell Google which companies to block from your sites.
Reviewing and filtering Ads – semi-automatic
Google has its own strict policies for ad content (no profanity, no racial discrimination, etc). These are filtered out automatically from your point of view. Additionally, you can choose to block additional content through custom filters. This is slightly different than blocking an advertiser, since with this method an advertiser you generally allow may submit ads that would individually be filtered out.
Allowing the publisher to select an ad
In the rare case where Google’s content engines can’t make a clear match of ads to pages, they will let you pick which ads you want served. If you don’t pick, you’ll get public service spots.
The look-and-feel of Ads can be customized
Ads shouldn’t look out of place or be jarring on your website. Google allows you to customize colors and layout. You can choose options provided or have your own custom layout and color applied to the ads. The advertisers have no control over this; as the material appears on your site, you can and should select how it looks.
Tools for analysis
Tracking and analyzing the performance of any marketing campaign is critical. Google AdSense provides a range of comprehensive online reports that allow you to monitor and analyze your earnings as well as the performance of ads by
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AdSense Money Machine
many metrics, including size, color, and so forth, so you can make adjustments to maximize the value of the placements.
AdSense for Search
This is another program whereby Google allows you to ad a Google Search box to your website. By doing this, visitors to your site can search the entire internet from your website itself. In a way, your site becomes a host to Google. Except you make money!
The search results page that is displayed when a visitor on your website searches through the search box on the site itself, also displays Google Ads (AdWords ads) next to the usual listings, just as it would on Google.com. If the visitor clicks on any of these Google Ads, you get paid as well. Thus, with AdSense for search you can enhance your income potential beyond what just the content of your actual site can provide.
AdSense for search offers all the same options and controls as AdSense for content. These include ad customization, ad filtering, monitoring and tracking results, and so on.
Google AdSense Premium service
The AdSense Premium service provides advanced functionality and features, provided your website qualifies for it – which in fact very few sites do.
As a base requirement, your website should received at least 5 million search queries or 20 million page views a month to qualify for the Premium service. (We’re betting if your sites qualify for this level of service, you already know all about AdSense!)
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AdSense Money Machine
How much can I make with AdSense and how do I get started?
You’ve seen the nutty claims by so-called “internet experts” that strategies and programs they have devised enable surfers to earn thousands of dollars within a matter of days! Or minutes!! No such thing.
However, there are several lucrative programs that can provide an extremely generous income with comparatively little effort – Google AdSense is absolutely one of them.
But it takes some time, and it takes some planning, like anything real does. The rest of our report is all about unlocking that potential.
To start understanding the potential, think about how you make money with this program. Each time someone clicks an ad on your pages, you get a percentage of what Google is paid for placing that ad.
Revenue (or Income) from an Ad
=
Clickthrough value of the ad * Payout Rate * Clickthrough rate of the Ad * Webpage traffic * Frequency of Ad
In the above equation, Clickthrough value is the amount the advertiser pays per click for the Ad (this figure varies); the Payout Rate is the percentage of revenue to be paid for every click fixed by Google (this figure varies); Clickthrough rate is simply the # of times the ad is clicked on in a certain period of time divided by the # of times it is displayed during the same period; Webpage traffic is the # of visitors to your website; and Frequency of Ad is the # of times this particular ad appears on your webpage.
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AdSense Money Machine
Let’s put some figures into the above equation and see what the income is. The figures below are for a single day:
Clickthrough Value 􀃆 30 cents or $0.30 (The advertiser pays 30 cents per click for the Ad, to Google)
Payout Rate 􀃆 50% or 0.5 (This is an assumption based on what many experts believe to be the current payout rate for most deals)
Clickthrough rate of the Ad 􀃆 the ad is displayed 100 times within the day and clicked by 20 people 􀃆 the clickthrough rate would be 0.20
Webpage traffic 􀃆 1500 visitors during the day
The Income per day from a single ad would be = 0.30 * 0.5 * 0.20 * 1500
= $202.5
If you consider this to be the average income per day, the total revenue generated within a month would be more than $1,350. This is incredible, considering you basically did nothing to earn that money. We know of cases where people have earned even more than $25,000 a month with AdSense, which is a large sum to anyone.
Our goal is to equip you to get started on the road to making money with AdSense.
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Adsense Money Machine
Part 1: Join the AdSense Program
Understanding Google policies
We discussed earlier how rewarding the Google AdSense program can be. However, joining the Google AdSense program is not that easy or everyone in the world would do it (which would defeat its purpose, ultimately). You have to be approved by Google in order to create your AdSense account and start earning money from it.
How do you get approved? Google famously has never publicly published details of its approval process, there are tips you should follow to ensure a high possibility of getting approved.
The good news is that Google does publish its policies and you do not need to be a member to read them. You should read them and be certain that you are in 100% compliance with them, not only when attempting to start your AdSense account, but once you are already a member. They update these policies regularly and a violation will get you suspended. A list of Google AdSense policies can be seen at: http://www.google.com/adsense/policies
Content – The Key to AdSense!
As stated earlier, we cannot say exactly how Google decides to accept or reject a site. However, one thing is for sure – the main criterion for approval is always the content of the website!
Most sites get rejected simply because they do not have any – or enough – good content. What constitutes “good” content? We can say what it is not. The types of websites that only have links and “filler” content aimed at attracting Search Engines, and sites that do not offer any informational content but solely focus on their own products and services. Google is one of the smartest companies on the Internet, and they can easily tell “junk” content from “real” content, even if many web surfers themselves can’t.
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Google approves websites that have significant real content. These could be in the form of informational articles, analyses of various topics, and much more. For business websites that solely focus on selling their products and services through their website, including informational articles about their industry is smart, and this data is usually pretty easily available.
Another reason why most business websites do not qualify for the program, is that most businesses are specialized, and these websites are most likely to get Ads from their competitors, as only those ads would be relevant. As discussed, competitor ads would be blocked by you, filtered by Google, or both, so an AdSense program that serves no ads makes no sense!
Similarly, websites that focus only on links for generating search engine traffic do not have any content at all, according to both common sense and Google. These sites may rack up fairly high traffic scores and so forth, but they do not qualify for AdSense.
One of the best and simplest strategies is to include at least 30 to 40 informational articles of 400 to 450 words each and update them from time to time. Writing these articles yourself may be a daunting task. However, the good news is that there are considerable websites that offer articles for free, and plenty of professional writing resources who can not only write high quality material for you, but can especially optimize that material to work well with search engines and the “qualification” processes for systems like AdSense.
We’ve developed a 5-Step plan for success.
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Adsense Money Machine
Part 2: The 5-Step Plan to Success
Once you’re accepted, you want to maximize the opportunity. In this section, we look at some of the most effective strategies for generating optimum revenue from the Google AdSense program.
Step 1 - Formatting Ad Blocks
You can let Google decide for you the type of ads that will be displayed on your webpage, but as the website publisher, you may be in a better position to decide what ads suit the content of your website and how you would like them displayed. To the extent possible, whether chosen by Google or you, make the ads seem like part of the site itself.
Most internet marketing experts believe that the ads on your website have a high probability of getting clicked if they blend in with the rest of the content of your web page. Factors such as color scheme, font size and type, and the appearance of your ad should match your web page. Borders are optional and we think often you should opt out – why put a box around the ad that says “Hi! I’m an ad!”?
Also, regardless of other design choices, text links should be blue. Why are text links blue? For the same reason Henry Ford said of the Model-T “They can have any color they want so long as it’s black.” They just are.
Though we think text ads are generally better than graphic ads, also known as image ads, Google does offer them with the program.
Actually, you don’t need to struggle much with whether graphic ads or text will be better on your pages, as Google’s technology will suggest whether an image ad or a text ad will be more suitable and which will earn you maximum revenues (since you earn part of they earn, they have motives to get this mix right).
However, it remains totally up to you whether you wish to run image ads or text-based ads. You can select only image ads, or text ads or a combination of both
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AdSense Money Machine
these formats on your entire AdSense account or on one page at a time based on your discretion.
Step 2 - Ad Placement
“Location, location, location.” It is true in real estate and true in advertising, including web advertising. Since the “location” of the user is your site already, the “location” of the ad in this context means on which pages, where on the pages, and so on. As noted, the less an ad looks like an ad, the more effective it is likely to be.
Then there are general design and usability factors to consider.
If your webpage is cluttered and you can’t dispense with any content, you may want to break it down further into sections or more pages to provide easier reading. This also gives you the potential benefit of placing additional ads.
As noted, we generally recommend text-based ads. However, text-dense sites may actually do better with image ads. If your site has very few graphics, you may want to balance it out by putting image-based ads. In the monotony of a lot of dense written information, image-based ads and graphics provide what’s called visual relief. This can also prompt clicks.
Where should you put the ads? The chances of your ad getting noticed by the visitors to your site increases greatly if you place ads as close to the top of your webpage as possible.
If you choose to place so-called ‘skyscraper’ ads – in magazines these would be called columns – on the sidebars of your webpage, it would be wise to place them on the right side of your principal content areas. The reason for this is the visitor to your page (in most languages) will read from left to right, he or she will chance upon the ad ultimately, if not consciously then at least out of habit. Their eyes will go there. From the left, they can visually “skip” the ad when they start reading next to it.
Your ads should be placed in such a way that it matches the links to other
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websites on your site. If you already have a links section on your site, put the AdSense links in that section or list. This is not dishonest – if it were Google would not allow it.
Obviously if you have a “most popular” area on your website, such as a page that is updated daily with some kind of material that people bookmark to revisit often, place your ad(s) there instead of somewhere else that may get less traffic. For many websites the home page is not actually the most accessed area. If you don’t know what the traffic pattern is on your sites, it’s easy to find out – ask your hosting provider about usage logs.
One more thing: While some affiliate marketing programs encourage host sites to encourage clicks directly, it is not appropriate to expressly ask your readers to click on the ads served by the Google programs. Not only is it unprofessional and arguably unethical, it also annoys people and moreover Google AdSense actually prohibits any such activity. You can neither directly solicit clicks nor can you do anything considered deceptive to encourage clicks.
In conclusion, the emphasis is always on quality of content on your web pages.
Good and interesting content makes your site better, more acceptable to Google, more likely to win with AdSense, and therefore more profitable for you!
Step 3 - Researching Keywords
After you are done choosing the right format and location for your AdSense ads, don’t sit back and wait for the money to roll in just yet. The next important step is to choose the right keywords for your web pages. These will influence both who visits your site, and how AdSense assigns ads to you.
The number one mistake most website publishers make is to constantly choose high-paying (i.e. expensive!) keywords assuming that it will yield them more income. While it is tempting to choose such keywords to get higher rankings on search engines, be prudent when it comes to selecting the right keywords that go with the AdSense ads that are to be displayed.. Remember the goal here is
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AdSense Money Machine
clicks, not SEO rankings. This is a case where you often do not get what you pay for.
Consider this scenario. Your webpage talks about wine tasting courses. You review search phrases and keywords with “wine” in it and you find “wine rack” is in the top three and available, so you buy it. The corresponding ads also focus on buying wine racks online, wine storage and building your own wine racks. After a week when you check on the statistics of your webpage and AdSense account, you see that you are losing visitors and your income is dipping! The keyword selection is faulty in this case even though it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Why? The visitors to your webpage were actually looking for wine racks and have landed on your webpage talking about wine tasting courses instead. The wine course types want to sign up for the courses, maybe buy a book on wine, or a wine of the month club. They don’t want to build a wine rack. Think strategically, not tactically.
Just because a keyword is high paying and is seemingly related, does not mean it is totally relevant and you need something relevant. Relevance is more important than value! In the above case, you could have – and should have – chosen wine tasting tour, wine tasting party, wine tasting event, wine tasting class, wine tasting school, course tasting wine and so on. You are interested in relevance more than popularity. Tasting is a match. Racks are not.
Let’s look at some of the ways in which you can research your keywords for AdSense ads:
• You can check out the popularity of various keywords if you already have an account with Google AdWords. This way you will get an idea of the popularity of various keywords as well as the cost and returns that entail.
• Google AdWords also has a tool known as the AdWords Keywords Tool which can sometimes help you search for alternate keywords and variations.
• Another tool known as Keyword Analyzer can generate numerous key phrases that are typed by Internet users in different search engines.
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• Consider getting a WordTracker account. They have an excellent tool that suggests top 1,000 most popular keywords. This tool can also help you create a list of relevant keywords for your webpage. You can learn a lot from a small investment here.
• Another great idea is to search for top 100 keywords on 7search which will give you an idea of high-paying keywords.
Your clickthrough rate will be boosted tremendously by including the right keywords in your web copy, of course. Keywords occurring in your ads are usually highlighted on the search engine results page. This also helps in drawing additional attention to your ad.
The URL of your webpage is also an integral part of achieving success on Google AdSense program, as it is on the Web generally. Current wisdom holds that the keywords in the URL are equally if not more important than the ones featured in the actual webpage content or in metatags. If you change your ordinary URL to a keyword rich URL relevant to your market, it is possible to raise your CTR as much as 200% or more without doing anything else.
Obvious domain names with the keywords that you want might be expensive to purchase from a broker, but you can also buy used domain names that are no longer active, often for just a few dollars per year.
Step 4 - Developing Content
Let’s assume you have good ads, good placement, and good traffic.
This step is all about how to tweak your pre-existing content to support the most effective profitability from your new AdSense program.
One major mistake many web publishers make now is to lard up their pages with a bazillion keywords for so-called “search engine optimization.” Do not fall into that trap and clutter your webpage with high-profile buzzwords that do not contribute to the value of your webpage or the experience of your intended audience. Remember, we’re focused here on clicks, which means bringing
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AdSense Money Machine
relevant readers to your site and giving them a good experience that puts them in an inquisitive or buying frame of mind.
As a general rule, all content shifts should make some kind of sense. You may well be able to make connections between articles on sports, to articles on sports medicine, to articles on herbal supplements which feature ads for those products. On the other, a web page on bicycles should not have ads for other kinds of pumps, if you know what we mean.
Before you decide to add that magic Google AdSense code on any page of your website, you should have dealt with the following two important steps:
• High quality textual content
Ensure that your web pages have enough textual content so that the AdSense program can set up ads that are relevant to the content on your pages. If you have very little content, it will be difficult for Google to determine the focus of your page and end up displaying only public service ads that do not earn any revenue.
• Use different page titles for different pages
Have unique page titles based on the specific content of each page. Avoid generic or vague page titles such as ‘Untitled Document’ or ‘Page 1’. Be crisp and precise and avoid using long phrases and difficult words in the page titles. If your page has a very long title, it might get banned from some search engines, so be pithy.
Step 5 - Tracking and Reports
Tracking the results of your marketing efforts can help you focus your efforts and make adjustments to win.
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AdSense Money Machine
Google offers a great free tracking feature known as ‘Channels’. You can use these channels to track ads on specific URLs or to categorize ads based on their formats, keywords, location on web page and so on.
You can choose from two channel types offered by Google.
URL Channels
This will help you track the performance of your web pages without altering your ad code. All you need to do to track your performance is to enter a full or partial URL in the channel and you’re done. A full page URL will track the performance of the specific page having that address. If you want to track all the pages on a specific domain, you need to enter a top-level domain name.
Custom Channels
Custom channels are used to track the performance of your webpage based on the criteria that you specify. You can choose what specific factor you would like to track and customize the channel according to your requirements.
As the name suggests, custom channels are very flexible, and if you have ever used any kind of data reporting tool you will find setting them up easy and logical. You can have up to 50 custom channels!
You can compare the performance of different ad formats and the relevancy of ads. You can also compare how ads on one page are performing when compared with ads on other pages. You can do so by assigning each group of pages to a specific channel and eventually comparing results in your customized channel reports. You can also see where your clicks are coming from by assigning a channel to each of your separate pages. Also, it is a good idea to name your channel in such a way that it is easy to identify different channels in reports, especially if you are using a dozen or more.
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AdSense Money Machine
Server Logs
In addition to the ‘channel’ program offered by Google to track your AdSense ads on your web pages, you can also use any of the various high quality external AdSense tracking software packages to track your performance in greater detail (except actual revenues – you need to get that from Google). One major advantage of such software is that it runs locally, which enables you to access specific information that Google doesn’t track. Be aware that none of these third-party software solutions are “endorsed” by Google currently but most of them guarantee to operate within AdSense guidelines. Just make sure they do, because you don’t want to lose your account status over a technical violation by a third party.
Some of the information you can obtain by using tracking software:
• Referring website of all your visitors
• The type of web browser they are using
• Where the actual ad-clickers are coming from
• Search keywords typed in by the visitors to your website that eventually brought them to you
You should use a combination of Google channels and a reliable AdSense tracking program so as to get comprehensive information about your AdSense account.
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Adsense Money Machine
Part 3: Summary and Additional Resources
AdSense Do’s and Don’ts
Now that you know what AdSense is all about, we can offer the following do’s and don’ts – which more or less summarizes everything we’ve said so far.
Do’s
The first rule of using AdSense is to follow their terms of service. Google has exceptional monitoring ability, and if they find any violation of their TOS, your account will be suspended, rendering all your efforts moot.
Consider having a number of informative pages about varying topics but with a consistent theme for your website. That way you will have more ads to choose from and can possibly maximize your CTR.
Use keywords to your advantage. Higher paying keywords will usually but not always yield more rewards. Think relevance. Also use variations of keywords for added advantage.
Provide unique information on your web pages. The more specific the content of your website is, the more targeted your ads will be, and the more effective. Always focus on providing good quality information!
Experiment with various ad formats on your web page and choose those that suite your website. You can choose to display ads with different formats on one page.
Position your ad block in such a way that the ad is visible and yet it does not put off the readers. Ideally, place your ad in the top section of your webpage which can be viewed without scrolling down.
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Use the Google AdSense preview toolbar to your advantage and see how the ads will appear on your website. Get a hands-on feel of how the visitor to your website will view your web page.
Use Google channels and other external tracking software to evaluate your performance on a routine basis.
Don’ts
Do not resort to fraudulent or deceptive means for generating clicks on the ads that are on your page. Some of the methods that are prohibited by Google AdSense are:
• Automated clicking programs
• Repeated manual clicks
• Using robots to generate clicks
• Clicking your own ads
• Tricking your visitors into clicking on your ads by using fraudulent means
Don’t have confusing layers of content. Content on your web page should not hide the ad text and URL. At the same time, it is advisable that you use same font type, size and color (background and font) for both the ads and the content on your web pages so that your ad does not announce itself as an outside ad. Ideally, your ad should look and feel like a part of your website.
Don’t have broken links on your site. Your website should not contain any broken links and should be easily navigable. Also, the content on your web pages should be informative, of high quality and the ads should be relevant to the content.
Don’t have old or illegal information on your site. Be careful about outdated information, plagiarized text and obscene or offensive material. Avoid using any of these on your web pages.
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AdSense Money Machine
Two More AdSense Opportunities: RSS and Blogs
Adding Google Ads to your RSS feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has gained huge popularity on the Internet. RSS is an XML document format that organizes and stores news-like content from various sources into one source. Think of it like a newswire service, the kind of stuff that scrolls along the bottom of cable channels. A large percentage of the “news” items you find on any website that is not a major news portal got there through an RSS feed.
Google has introduced a specific program known as AdSense for RSS. Although, it is under beta testing currently (mid 2005), you can join this program now and start making money with it. RSS offers a variety of interesting content options that most websites themselves can’t match.
Google AdSense for feeds has its own set of policies. These can be accessed at:
http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=20134 Like the AdSense program, you must follow all guidelines in order to be accepted for the AdSense for feeds program.
Placing AdSense ads on your Blogs
Blogs are similar to RSS feeds in concept except they usually have one author rather than an aggregate of sources of the material they contain. Blogs (short for Web logs) are simple webpages where you can write articles and other content on a variety of topics, and both the famous and the unknown use these online diaries to share their thoughts, post pictures, and so on. The public can view this content and even comment on it in most cases.
Due to the considerable amount – and unlimited range – of content on Blogs, it may make sense to place AdSense ads on them. In fact, it is much easier to generate revenue from Blogs as compared to other web pages, at least in theory.
• First, blogs are full of content, most of which is original most of the time. The content may not be “good” from a human reader perspective but it is
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usually “good” according to Google’s scans. Thus, getting approved by Google AdSense may be easier.
• The content presented on the blog, in many cases, is quite diverse which, unlike a website that needs to be “about something” can be excused by the “everything and nothing” nature of most blogs. Consequently, the possibility of Google finding targeted ads that are relevant may increase.
• Google AdSense works only with those websites that are already indexed by Google. Blogs get indexed far more easily than regular webpages. Some blogs get indexed in as few as two to three days of submission. Thus, the chances of getting approved by Google AdSense increases
• Blogs can be created at practically no cost – much cheaper than commercial websites.
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Adsense Money Machine
•
Summary
There are no “magic bullets” or “get rich quick” schemes that work. As an experienced Web marketer or publisher, you already know that.
But there are some ways to make really significant “passive” money on the Internet, and especially with Internet advertising. Of these, one of the best, and most legitimate, is Google AdSense, which you now know all about.
When you’re ready to get started with your AdSense program, the preceding information, combined with the following additional resources, will help you make the most of it!
Further AdSense Resources
Whether you have one website or 100, RSS feeds or no, blogs or no, below is a list of great tools, software, scripts, and other resources that can help you win in your Google AdSense campaign.
Tools and Scripts
These are tools that would help you in a variety of areas such as seeing what ads appear for specific keywords, tracking and analyzing clickthroughs and revenue, scripts and much more.
AdSense Preview tool from Google – Preview your AdSense Ads
AdSense Desktop – Tool for analyzing Google AdSense statistics •
AdSenseLog – Another tool for analyzing AdSense stats •
AdSenseCharts – Chart generator for your statistics •
Revenue Checker for Google AdSense – Checks and monitors revenue •
Google AdSense Sandbox Tool – shows what Ads would appear for specific keywords or content
•
AdSense Web Tool – similar to the one above •
AdSense Tracker – Statistical Analysis and tracking •
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•
AdSense Monitor – AdSense tracking script
SysSense - A utility that puts your AdSense information in the Windows system tray
•
AdSense Notifier – places AdSense information in a status bar •
AdSense™ Tracker - Another good tracking tool •
•
Google AdSense Tracking Script – Another tracking script
AdSenseMasterFlex 2.0 - Script •
asRep: Google AdSense tracking script •
AdSense Information Websites and Tutorials
AssociatePrograms.com - AdSense Forum •
Digital Point - AdSense Forum •
Google AdSense Charts & Graphs •
Google AdSense Preview Tool •
Google AdSense Sandbox Tool •
GoogleRankings.com •
How to Boost Your AdSense Revenue •
JenSense - Making Sense of Contextual Advertising •
Search Engine Forums - Contextual Advertising Forums •
Search Engine Watch - AdSense Forum •
V7N Web Development Community - Google Forum •
Web Pro World - AdSense Forum •
Webmaster World - AdSense Forum •
Googlest
As a successful web publisher looking to get to the next level, you are probably thinking about trying a number of different approaches to increasing revenue – especially your passive revenue, the money that just “shows up” from time to time while you focus on other things. You may be considering various forms of internet advertising. And you should.
Internet advertising has exceeded all expectations. The technology keeps advancing, and the popularity and ubiquity of the medium is incredible. Most companies can benefit from the Internet because it allows the chance to reach a global audience at never-before-possible speeds, with many kinds of filters to make sure the right audience sees the right message, and costs that are often surprisingly low. But many businesses make money online in ways that have very little to do with their own actual business, but with systems that connect various companies and offerings together.
You may be wondering how to make money easily with online advertising, and you have come to the right place!
The secret is that taking ads is a much more profitable strategy then placing ads for most websites. And the best way to make money with this right now is “hiding in plain sight” from the world’s most popular search engine company.
While there are many ways to approach online advertising, it makes sense the best would be offered by the ultimate search engine company, the company that is setting out to organize all of humanity’s vast amounts of information – Google. This method is Google Ad Words, and it’s sister program, Google AdSense. With Ad Words, Google makes a lot of money. With AdSense, web publishers – that’s you! – can reach a lot of people and make a lot of money too!
In this report, we’re going to focus in on how to make sense of, and a lot of money with, Google’s AdSense program.
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AdSense Money Machine
Want to make five or ten or twenty thousand dollars a month automatically and be paid by one of the biggest Internet companies in the world?
We’ll describe what AdSense is, how it works, how to get started, how to maximize the program, and where to go from here! Ready?
First let’s examine what AdSense is and how it works.
What is Google AdSense?
Google AdSense is an ad-serving program that places ads that “make sense” – specifically, that make sense based on relevant content, and assumptions about who might be interested in that content. AdSense is an application of the broader concept of Contextual Marketing. Contextual Marketing is just what it sounds like. On a website about custom cars, you might have an ad for fancy wheels or car care kits. On a website about off-roading, you might have an ad for durable truck tires or spotlight rigs. A hockey site might advertise hockey sticks…and a tennis site, tennis shoes. Contextual Marketing just means aligning the ad serving with the context/nature of the website and its audience, the same way like items are grouped in a store. And the “context” can be cut much finer than website level, it can be page level, article level, and so on, so the ads always match the material they are appearing near, and thus, appeal to the interest of the reader/buyer at any given moment.
So what’s in it for you – the website publisher/owner? That’s easy. Every time a visitor to your site clicks one of these ads, you make money. The better the ads are targeted, the more clicks you get, the more money you make. AdSense displays easy-to-read, text-based, relevant ads that don’t overshadow the content of your website or annoy visitors. Actually, you have seen hundreds of these ads yourself, as you’ll realize in a moment.
Today there are probably only a few places in your website that can directly make you money, if any. The magic of Google AdSense is this: It allows you to earn money through every page of your website. On top of that, with algorithms
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used to align ad content with page content Google automatically selects and displays ads for your website that are likely to generate the highest revenue for you.
AdSense is an application of AdWords beyond Google.com
Making “sense” of AdSense means understanding that it is really an offshoot of the older Google model, AdWords. But they are not the same thing.
Google AdWords
If you have ever searched on Google, you have seen AdWords.
Google AdWords are the small text ads that are displayed on the side of the search results in Google. These ads are contextual of course – in this case the context is the search terms you entered. The ads will be served based on what you’re looking for. So, if you do a search on “printing services” you will get ads for printing services along with your search results!
How does this generate money for Google and the advertisers?
Google AdWords works on a model known as pay-per-click. When someone clicks on an AdWords ad, the advertiser of that ad has to pay Google a certain amount. It’s easy to track and fully automated.
We say “certain amount” because that amount is different all the time and is subject to market forces – in this case, bidding. Something has to determine the placement of those ads, and what determines it is how much the advertiser offers to pay per click. When you submit this kind of ad to Google, you submit it with a bid – which is compared to other bids for similar keywords. It’s an auction style process.
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The position of the AdWords ads is based on the bidding amount of keywords of an ad. Obviously, the higher the bid, the higher the position the bid buys you. For instance, if the highest bid for the keywords “Internet marketing” is 80 cents per click, you can get top position by bidding 90 cents. Then every time someone clicks on your ad, Google would charge you 90 cents, and you would retain the top position until someone else bids more for the same search word placement.
Google AdSense, as stated earlier, is an extension of Google AdWords. It takes the AdWords concept and moves it off of Google’s search page and onto thousands of other web pages. The ads that are displayed on the websites are Google AdWords ads.
It’s good for the advertiser, who gets more and broader displays, for Google, who charge more for this program, for you, who will make money from the clickthroughs on your pages, and also for the consumer, who will see cool ads for stuff they are probably interested in!
So how exactly are you making money from all this? You earn a share of the pay-per-click amount, every time a visitor clicks on the ad. So you just need to get ads on your site…
How the Ads Get On Your Site
Once you join the AdSense program – and Google approves your site or sites, which we’ll cover in detail shortly – the actual process of displaying ads on your website is extremely simple. You are provided with a small HTML script, which you can paste anywhere on your webpage. You may paste this code any number of times and on multiple pages, and watch the ads get served! Google automatically places AdWords ads that are most relevant, from its extensive advertiser base. Google employs various sophisticated algorithms to determine the relevancy of the ads to your content.
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Before we get into how Google assesses sites, and whether a few or many placements of that magic script will deliver optimum results, let’s review the advantages of AdSense.
Advantages of the Google AdSense system
Google AdSense is simple to use and manage. Once approved, displaying ads on your webpage does not take time and requires minimal technical knowledge.
Google AdSense is very smart about ad selection. The ads that are displayed are only those that are relevant to your content, and Google has strict quality control on the general quality of the ads.
Google AdSense uses text-only ads. Far from being low-tech, text ads are more effective than flashy ads. The clickthrough rate of text ads is proven to be higher than that of animated ads! More clicks equals more money, and text ads equals more clicks. Also…text ads are very “low weight” and very fast loading. The AdSense program will not slow your website, or your visitors, down. You can also use graphic ads.
Google AdSense programs: Choose your weapon(s)!
Google currently (mid 2005) offers three programs: AdSense for content, AdSense for search, and Premium AdSense.
AdSense for content
AdSense for content is the main AdSense program – contextually targeted ads are displayed on your webpage, and you get paid for every click. These ads are specifically targeted to the content of your webpage. Consequently, if you change the content of your page, the ads that are displayed would also change. AdSense allows you good control over what ads get served, since there might be some obvious problems if it didn’t. These include:
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Blocking Ads – you choose
While the ad selection is automatic, you can block unwanted ads – such as those from your competitors. You just tell Google which companies to block from your sites.
Reviewing and filtering Ads – semi-automatic
Google has its own strict policies for ad content (no profanity, no racial discrimination, etc). These are filtered out automatically from your point of view. Additionally, you can choose to block additional content through custom filters. This is slightly different than blocking an advertiser, since with this method an advertiser you generally allow may submit ads that would individually be filtered out.
Allowing the publisher to select an ad
In the rare case where Google’s content engines can’t make a clear match of ads to pages, they will let you pick which ads you want served. If you don’t pick, you’ll get public service spots.
The look-and-feel of Ads can be customized
Ads shouldn’t look out of place or be jarring on your website. Google allows you to customize colors and layout. You can choose options provided or have your own custom layout and color applied to the ads. The advertisers have no control over this; as the material appears on your site, you can and should select how it looks.
Tools for analysis
Tracking and analyzing the performance of any marketing campaign is critical. Google AdSense provides a range of comprehensive online reports that allow you to monitor and analyze your earnings as well as the performance of ads by
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many metrics, including size, color, and so forth, so you can make adjustments to maximize the value of the placements.
AdSense for Search
This is another program whereby Google allows you to ad a Google Search box to your website. By doing this, visitors to your site can search the entire internet from your website itself. In a way, your site becomes a host to Google. Except you make money!
The search results page that is displayed when a visitor on your website searches through the search box on the site itself, also displays Google Ads (AdWords ads) next to the usual listings, just as it would on Google.com. If the visitor clicks on any of these Google Ads, you get paid as well. Thus, with AdSense for search you can enhance your income potential beyond what just the content of your actual site can provide.
AdSense for search offers all the same options and controls as AdSense for content. These include ad customization, ad filtering, monitoring and tracking results, and so on.
Google AdSense Premium service
The AdSense Premium service provides advanced functionality and features, provided your website qualifies for it – which in fact very few sites do.
As a base requirement, your website should received at least 5 million search queries or 20 million page views a month to qualify for the Premium service. (We’re betting if your sites qualify for this level of service, you already know all about AdSense!)
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How much can I make with AdSense and how do I get started?
You’ve seen the nutty claims by so-called “internet experts” that strategies and programs they have devised enable surfers to earn thousands of dollars within a matter of days! Or minutes!! No such thing.
However, there are several lucrative programs that can provide an extremely generous income with comparatively little effort – Google AdSense is absolutely one of them.
But it takes some time, and it takes some planning, like anything real does. The rest of our report is all about unlocking that potential.
To start understanding the potential, think about how you make money with this program. Each time someone clicks an ad on your pages, you get a percentage of what Google is paid for placing that ad.
Revenue (or Income) from an Ad
=
Clickthrough value of the ad * Payout Rate * Clickthrough rate of the Ad * Webpage traffic * Frequency of Ad
In the above equation, Clickthrough value is the amount the advertiser pays per click for the Ad (this figure varies); the Payout Rate is the percentage of revenue to be paid for every click fixed by Google (this figure varies); Clickthrough rate is simply the # of times the ad is clicked on in a certain period of time divided by the # of times it is displayed during the same period; Webpage traffic is the # of visitors to your website; and Frequency of Ad is the # of times this particular ad appears on your webpage.
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Let’s put some figures into the above equation and see what the income is. The figures below are for a single day:
Clickthrough Value 􀃆 30 cents or $0.30 (The advertiser pays 30 cents per click for the Ad, to Google)
Payout Rate 􀃆 50% or 0.5 (This is an assumption based on what many experts believe to be the current payout rate for most deals)
Clickthrough rate of the Ad 􀃆 the ad is displayed 100 times within the day and clicked by 20 people 􀃆 the clickthrough rate would be 0.20
Webpage traffic 􀃆 1500 visitors during the day
The Income per day from a single ad would be = 0.30 * 0.5 * 0.20 * 1500
= $202.5
If you consider this to be the average income per day, the total revenue generated within a month would be more than $1,350. This is incredible, considering you basically did nothing to earn that money. We know of cases where people have earned even more than $25,000 a month with AdSense, which is a large sum to anyone.
Our goal is to equip you to get started on the road to making money with AdSense.
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Adsense Money Machine
Part 1: Join the AdSense Program
Understanding Google policies
We discussed earlier how rewarding the Google AdSense program can be. However, joining the Google AdSense program is not that easy or everyone in the world would do it (which would defeat its purpose, ultimately). You have to be approved by Google in order to create your AdSense account and start earning money from it.
How do you get approved? Google famously has never publicly published details of its approval process, there are tips you should follow to ensure a high possibility of getting approved.
The good news is that Google does publish its policies and you do not need to be a member to read them. You should read them and be certain that you are in 100% compliance with them, not only when attempting to start your AdSense account, but once you are already a member. They update these policies regularly and a violation will get you suspended. A list of Google AdSense policies can be seen at: http://www.google.com/adsense/policies
Content – The Key to AdSense!
As stated earlier, we cannot say exactly how Google decides to accept or reject a site. However, one thing is for sure – the main criterion for approval is always the content of the website!
Most sites get rejected simply because they do not have any – or enough – good content. What constitutes “good” content? We can say what it is not. The types of websites that only have links and “filler” content aimed at attracting Search Engines, and sites that do not offer any informational content but solely focus on their own products and services. Google is one of the smartest companies on the Internet, and they can easily tell “junk” content from “real” content, even if many web surfers themselves can’t.
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Google approves websites that have significant real content. These could be in the form of informational articles, analyses of various topics, and much more. For business websites that solely focus on selling their products and services through their website, including informational articles about their industry is smart, and this data is usually pretty easily available.
Another reason why most business websites do not qualify for the program, is that most businesses are specialized, and these websites are most likely to get Ads from their competitors, as only those ads would be relevant. As discussed, competitor ads would be blocked by you, filtered by Google, or both, so an AdSense program that serves no ads makes no sense!
Similarly, websites that focus only on links for generating search engine traffic do not have any content at all, according to both common sense and Google. These sites may rack up fairly high traffic scores and so forth, but they do not qualify for AdSense.
One of the best and simplest strategies is to include at least 30 to 40 informational articles of 400 to 450 words each and update them from time to time. Writing these articles yourself may be a daunting task. However, the good news is that there are considerable websites that offer articles for free, and plenty of professional writing resources who can not only write high quality material for you, but can especially optimize that material to work well with search engines and the “qualification” processes for systems like AdSense.
We’ve developed a 5-Step plan for success.
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Adsense Money Machine
Part 2: The 5-Step Plan to Success
Once you’re accepted, you want to maximize the opportunity. In this section, we look at some of the most effective strategies for generating optimum revenue from the Google AdSense program.
Step 1 - Formatting Ad Blocks
You can let Google decide for you the type of ads that will be displayed on your webpage, but as the website publisher, you may be in a better position to decide what ads suit the content of your website and how you would like them displayed. To the extent possible, whether chosen by Google or you, make the ads seem like part of the site itself.
Most internet marketing experts believe that the ads on your website have a high probability of getting clicked if they blend in with the rest of the content of your web page. Factors such as color scheme, font size and type, and the appearance of your ad should match your web page. Borders are optional and we think often you should opt out – why put a box around the ad that says “Hi! I’m an ad!”?
Also, regardless of other design choices, text links should be blue. Why are text links blue? For the same reason Henry Ford said of the Model-T “They can have any color they want so long as it’s black.” They just are.
Though we think text ads are generally better than graphic ads, also known as image ads, Google does offer them with the program.
Actually, you don’t need to struggle much with whether graphic ads or text will be better on your pages, as Google’s technology will suggest whether an image ad or a text ad will be more suitable and which will earn you maximum revenues (since you earn part of they earn, they have motives to get this mix right).
However, it remains totally up to you whether you wish to run image ads or text-based ads. You can select only image ads, or text ads or a combination of both
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these formats on your entire AdSense account or on one page at a time based on your discretion.
Step 2 - Ad Placement
“Location, location, location.” It is true in real estate and true in advertising, including web advertising. Since the “location” of the user is your site already, the “location” of the ad in this context means on which pages, where on the pages, and so on. As noted, the less an ad looks like an ad, the more effective it is likely to be.
Then there are general design and usability factors to consider.
If your webpage is cluttered and you can’t dispense with any content, you may want to break it down further into sections or more pages to provide easier reading. This also gives you the potential benefit of placing additional ads.
As noted, we generally recommend text-based ads. However, text-dense sites may actually do better with image ads. If your site has very few graphics, you may want to balance it out by putting image-based ads. In the monotony of a lot of dense written information, image-based ads and graphics provide what’s called visual relief. This can also prompt clicks.
Where should you put the ads? The chances of your ad getting noticed by the visitors to your site increases greatly if you place ads as close to the top of your webpage as possible.
If you choose to place so-called ‘skyscraper’ ads – in magazines these would be called columns – on the sidebars of your webpage, it would be wise to place them on the right side of your principal content areas. The reason for this is the visitor to your page (in most languages) will read from left to right, he or she will chance upon the ad ultimately, if not consciously then at least out of habit. Their eyes will go there. From the left, they can visually “skip” the ad when they start reading next to it.
Your ads should be placed in such a way that it matches the links to other
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websites on your site. If you already have a links section on your site, put the AdSense links in that section or list. This is not dishonest – if it were Google would not allow it.
Obviously if you have a “most popular” area on your website, such as a page that is updated daily with some kind of material that people bookmark to revisit often, place your ad(s) there instead of somewhere else that may get less traffic. For many websites the home page is not actually the most accessed area. If you don’t know what the traffic pattern is on your sites, it’s easy to find out – ask your hosting provider about usage logs.
One more thing: While some affiliate marketing programs encourage host sites to encourage clicks directly, it is not appropriate to expressly ask your readers to click on the ads served by the Google programs. Not only is it unprofessional and arguably unethical, it also annoys people and moreover Google AdSense actually prohibits any such activity. You can neither directly solicit clicks nor can you do anything considered deceptive to encourage clicks.
In conclusion, the emphasis is always on quality of content on your web pages.
Good and interesting content makes your site better, more acceptable to Google, more likely to win with AdSense, and therefore more profitable for you!
Step 3 - Researching Keywords
After you are done choosing the right format and location for your AdSense ads, don’t sit back and wait for the money to roll in just yet. The next important step is to choose the right keywords for your web pages. These will influence both who visits your site, and how AdSense assigns ads to you.
The number one mistake most website publishers make is to constantly choose high-paying (i.e. expensive!) keywords assuming that it will yield them more income. While it is tempting to choose such keywords to get higher rankings on search engines, be prudent when it comes to selecting the right keywords that go with the AdSense ads that are to be displayed.. Remember the goal here is
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clicks, not SEO rankings. This is a case where you often do not get what you pay for.
Consider this scenario. Your webpage talks about wine tasting courses. You review search phrases and keywords with “wine” in it and you find “wine rack” is in the top three and available, so you buy it. The corresponding ads also focus on buying wine racks online, wine storage and building your own wine racks. After a week when you check on the statistics of your webpage and AdSense account, you see that you are losing visitors and your income is dipping! The keyword selection is faulty in this case even though it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Why? The visitors to your webpage were actually looking for wine racks and have landed on your webpage talking about wine tasting courses instead. The wine course types want to sign up for the courses, maybe buy a book on wine, or a wine of the month club. They don’t want to build a wine rack. Think strategically, not tactically.
Just because a keyword is high paying and is seemingly related, does not mean it is totally relevant and you need something relevant. Relevance is more important than value! In the above case, you could have – and should have – chosen wine tasting tour, wine tasting party, wine tasting event, wine tasting class, wine tasting school, course tasting wine and so on. You are interested in relevance more than popularity. Tasting is a match. Racks are not.
Let’s look at some of the ways in which you can research your keywords for AdSense ads:
• You can check out the popularity of various keywords if you already have an account with Google AdWords. This way you will get an idea of the popularity of various keywords as well as the cost and returns that entail.
• Google AdWords also has a tool known as the AdWords Keywords Tool which can sometimes help you search for alternate keywords and variations.
• Another tool known as Keyword Analyzer can generate numerous key phrases that are typed by Internet users in different search engines.
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• Consider getting a WordTracker account. They have an excellent tool that suggests top 1,000 most popular keywords. This tool can also help you create a list of relevant keywords for your webpage. You can learn a lot from a small investment here.
• Another great idea is to search for top 100 keywords on 7search which will give you an idea of high-paying keywords.
Your clickthrough rate will be boosted tremendously by including the right keywords in your web copy, of course. Keywords occurring in your ads are usually highlighted on the search engine results page. This also helps in drawing additional attention to your ad.
The URL of your webpage is also an integral part of achieving success on Google AdSense program, as it is on the Web generally. Current wisdom holds that the keywords in the URL are equally if not more important than the ones featured in the actual webpage content or in metatags. If you change your ordinary URL to a keyword rich URL relevant to your market, it is possible to raise your CTR as much as 200% or more without doing anything else.
Obvious domain names with the keywords that you want might be expensive to purchase from a broker, but you can also buy used domain names that are no longer active, often for just a few dollars per year.
Step 4 - Developing Content
Let’s assume you have good ads, good placement, and good traffic.
This step is all about how to tweak your pre-existing content to support the most effective profitability from your new AdSense program.
One major mistake many web publishers make now is to lard up their pages with a bazillion keywords for so-called “search engine optimization.” Do not fall into that trap and clutter your webpage with high-profile buzzwords that do not contribute to the value of your webpage or the experience of your intended audience. Remember, we’re focused here on clicks, which means bringing
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AdSense Money Machine
relevant readers to your site and giving them a good experience that puts them in an inquisitive or buying frame of mind.
As a general rule, all content shifts should make some kind of sense. You may well be able to make connections between articles on sports, to articles on sports medicine, to articles on herbal supplements which feature ads for those products. On the other, a web page on bicycles should not have ads for other kinds of pumps, if you know what we mean.
Before you decide to add that magic Google AdSense code on any page of your website, you should have dealt with the following two important steps:
• High quality textual content
Ensure that your web pages have enough textual content so that the AdSense program can set up ads that are relevant to the content on your pages. If you have very little content, it will be difficult for Google to determine the focus of your page and end up displaying only public service ads that do not earn any revenue.
• Use different page titles for different pages
Have unique page titles based on the specific content of each page. Avoid generic or vague page titles such as ‘Untitled Document’ or ‘Page 1’. Be crisp and precise and avoid using long phrases and difficult words in the page titles. If your page has a very long title, it might get banned from some search engines, so be pithy.
Step 5 - Tracking and Reports
Tracking the results of your marketing efforts can help you focus your efforts and make adjustments to win.
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AdSense Money Machine
Google offers a great free tracking feature known as ‘Channels’. You can use these channels to track ads on specific URLs or to categorize ads based on their formats, keywords, location on web page and so on.
You can choose from two channel types offered by Google.
URL Channels
This will help you track the performance of your web pages without altering your ad code. All you need to do to track your performance is to enter a full or partial URL in the channel and you’re done. A full page URL will track the performance of the specific page having that address. If you want to track all the pages on a specific domain, you need to enter a top-level domain name.
Custom Channels
Custom channels are used to track the performance of your webpage based on the criteria that you specify. You can choose what specific factor you would like to track and customize the channel according to your requirements.
As the name suggests, custom channels are very flexible, and if you have ever used any kind of data reporting tool you will find setting them up easy and logical. You can have up to 50 custom channels!
You can compare the performance of different ad formats and the relevancy of ads. You can also compare how ads on one page are performing when compared with ads on other pages. You can do so by assigning each group of pages to a specific channel and eventually comparing results in your customized channel reports. You can also see where your clicks are coming from by assigning a channel to each of your separate pages. Also, it is a good idea to name your channel in such a way that it is easy to identify different channels in reports, especially if you are using a dozen or more.
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AdSense Money Machine
Server Logs
In addition to the ‘channel’ program offered by Google to track your AdSense ads on your web pages, you can also use any of the various high quality external AdSense tracking software packages to track your performance in greater detail (except actual revenues – you need to get that from Google). One major advantage of such software is that it runs locally, which enables you to access specific information that Google doesn’t track. Be aware that none of these third-party software solutions are “endorsed” by Google currently but most of them guarantee to operate within AdSense guidelines. Just make sure they do, because you don’t want to lose your account status over a technical violation by a third party.
Some of the information you can obtain by using tracking software:
• Referring website of all your visitors
• The type of web browser they are using
• Where the actual ad-clickers are coming from
• Search keywords typed in by the visitors to your website that eventually brought them to you
You should use a combination of Google channels and a reliable AdSense tracking program so as to get comprehensive information about your AdSense account.
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Adsense Money Machine
Part 3: Summary and Additional Resources
AdSense Do’s and Don’ts
Now that you know what AdSense is all about, we can offer the following do’s and don’ts – which more or less summarizes everything we’ve said so far.
Do’s
The first rule of using AdSense is to follow their terms of service. Google has exceptional monitoring ability, and if they find any violation of their TOS, your account will be suspended, rendering all your efforts moot.
Consider having a number of informative pages about varying topics but with a consistent theme for your website. That way you will have more ads to choose from and can possibly maximize your CTR.
Use keywords to your advantage. Higher paying keywords will usually but not always yield more rewards. Think relevance. Also use variations of keywords for added advantage.
Provide unique information on your web pages. The more specific the content of your website is, the more targeted your ads will be, and the more effective. Always focus on providing good quality information!
Experiment with various ad formats on your web page and choose those that suite your website. You can choose to display ads with different formats on one page.
Position your ad block in such a way that the ad is visible and yet it does not put off the readers. Ideally, place your ad in the top section of your webpage which can be viewed without scrolling down.
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AdSense Money Machine
Use the Google AdSense preview toolbar to your advantage and see how the ads will appear on your website. Get a hands-on feel of how the visitor to your website will view your web page.
Use Google channels and other external tracking software to evaluate your performance on a routine basis.
Don’ts
Do not resort to fraudulent or deceptive means for generating clicks on the ads that are on your page. Some of the methods that are prohibited by Google AdSense are:
• Automated clicking programs
• Repeated manual clicks
• Using robots to generate clicks
• Clicking your own ads
• Tricking your visitors into clicking on your ads by using fraudulent means
Don’t have confusing layers of content. Content on your web page should not hide the ad text and URL. At the same time, it is advisable that you use same font type, size and color (background and font) for both the ads and the content on your web pages so that your ad does not announce itself as an outside ad. Ideally, your ad should look and feel like a part of your website.
Don’t have broken links on your site. Your website should not contain any broken links and should be easily navigable. Also, the content on your web pages should be informative, of high quality and the ads should be relevant to the content.
Don’t have old or illegal information on your site. Be careful about outdated information, plagiarized text and obscene or offensive material. Avoid using any of these on your web pages.
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AdSense Money Machine
Two More AdSense Opportunities: RSS and Blogs
Adding Google Ads to your RSS feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has gained huge popularity on the Internet. RSS is an XML document format that organizes and stores news-like content from various sources into one source. Think of it like a newswire service, the kind of stuff that scrolls along the bottom of cable channels. A large percentage of the “news” items you find on any website that is not a major news portal got there through an RSS feed.
Google has introduced a specific program known as AdSense for RSS. Although, it is under beta testing currently (mid 2005), you can join this program now and start making money with it. RSS offers a variety of interesting content options that most websites themselves can’t match.
Google AdSense for feeds has its own set of policies. These can be accessed at:
http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=20134 Like the AdSense program, you must follow all guidelines in order to be accepted for the AdSense for feeds program.
Placing AdSense ads on your Blogs
Blogs are similar to RSS feeds in concept except they usually have one author rather than an aggregate of sources of the material they contain. Blogs (short for Web logs) are simple webpages where you can write articles and other content on a variety of topics, and both the famous and the unknown use these online diaries to share their thoughts, post pictures, and so on. The public can view this content and even comment on it in most cases.
Due to the considerable amount – and unlimited range – of content on Blogs, it may make sense to place AdSense ads on them. In fact, it is much easier to generate revenue from Blogs as compared to other web pages, at least in theory.
• First, blogs are full of content, most of which is original most of the time. The content may not be “good” from a human reader perspective but it is
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AdSense Money Machine
usually “good” according to Google’s scans. Thus, getting approved by Google AdSense may be easier.
• The content presented on the blog, in many cases, is quite diverse which, unlike a website that needs to be “about something” can be excused by the “everything and nothing” nature of most blogs. Consequently, the possibility of Google finding targeted ads that are relevant may increase.
• Google AdSense works only with those websites that are already indexed by Google. Blogs get indexed far more easily than regular webpages. Some blogs get indexed in as few as two to three days of submission. Thus, the chances of getting approved by Google AdSense increases
• Blogs can be created at practically no cost – much cheaper than commercial websites.
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Adsense Money Machine
•
Summary
There are no “magic bullets” or “get rich quick” schemes that work. As an experienced Web marketer or publisher, you already know that.
But there are some ways to make really significant “passive” money on the Internet, and especially with Internet advertising. Of these, one of the best, and most legitimate, is Google AdSense, which you now know all about.
When you’re ready to get started with your AdSense program, the preceding information, combined with the following additional resources, will help you make the most of it!
Further AdSense Resources
Whether you have one website or 100, RSS feeds or no, blogs or no, below is a list of great tools, software, scripts, and other resources that can help you win in your Google AdSense campaign.
Tools and Scripts
These are tools that would help you in a variety of areas such as seeing what ads appear for specific keywords, tracking and analyzing clickthroughs and revenue, scripts and much more.
AdSense Preview tool from Google – Preview your AdSense Ads
AdSense Desktop – Tool for analyzing Google AdSense statistics •
AdSenseLog – Another tool for analyzing AdSense stats •
AdSenseCharts – Chart generator for your statistics •
Revenue Checker for Google AdSense – Checks and monitors revenue •
Google AdSense Sandbox Tool – shows what Ads would appear for specific keywords or content
•
AdSense Web Tool – similar to the one above •
AdSense Tracker – Statistical Analysis and tracking •
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AdSense Money Machine
•
AdSense Monitor – AdSense tracking script
SysSense - A utility that puts your AdSense information in the Windows system tray
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AdSense Notifier – places AdSense information in a status bar •
AdSense™ Tracker - Another good tracking tool •
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Google AdSense Tracking Script – Another tracking script
AdSenseMasterFlex 2.0 - Script •
asRep: Google AdSense tracking script •
AdSense Information Websites and Tutorials
AssociatePrograms.com - AdSense Forum •
Digital Point - AdSense Forum •
Google AdSense Charts & Graphs •
Google AdSense Preview Tool •
Google AdSense Sandbox Tool •
GoogleRankings.com •
How to Boost Your AdSense Revenue •
JenSense - Making Sense of Contextual Advertising •
Search Engine Forums - Contextual Advertising Forums •
Search Engine Watch - AdSense Forum •
V7N Web Development Community - Google Forum •
Web Pro World - AdSense Forum •
Webmaster World - AdSense Forum •
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