Nowadays with the economy being so bad many, many people are heading to the internet to find ways to make money online. New blogs and websites are popping up every day, but just putting up a website or blog will not make you any money.
If you are looking to make money from your blog or web site, Google AdSense can be a powerful way to get started. Learning about the program can not only generate revenue, it can help you gain a better sense of your audience and focus your web site accordingly. People who are just getting started with web publishing can get the equivalent of a college course in web marketing just by exploring the possibilities AdSense offers. The difference is that the program is free and, if you play your cards right, could actually pay big dividends and your passive income can explode.
What Is It?
AdSense is an application that scans your web page’s content and finds keywords – words or phrases commonly used by people who use search engines. The application then places ads on your page that match those keywords. To be most effective, you need to be extremely conscious of the keywords on your pages. Before publishing content, it’s a good idea to check for the most common keywords used to search for your page’s topic. AdSense has a free service that allows you to do just that.
Though Adsense can generate image and video ads, content-rich web sites are usually best served by AdSense text ads. People tend to be suspicious of flashy web advertising and tend to eschew banner ads. The wonderful thing about text ads is that they feel like casual, friendly suggestions.
So that’s an overview of how the program works. There are many other ins and outs that you can learn about on the AdSense information page. But in order to get the benefits of the AdSense program, you have to own a web site and it needs to be generating traffic. If nobody is clicking your ads, you’re not making money.
How Much Can You Make?
The potential for profit with AdSense is unlimited. Traffic is one part of the equation; another is the value of your topic and keywords to advertisers. Companies that advertise through Google bid on keywords based on which ones they think will generate the most clicks. Google then pays users of the AdSense program a commission on what the advertisers have paid for the privilege of having their ads associated with those keywords. Depending on how valuable your keywords are, the amount you make per click could be as little as 2 cents or as much as 15 bucks. The more traffic you have to your site, the more this adds up.
There are some bloggers who are very, very successful with Google Adsense. My favorite make money online blogger, Grizzly earns thousands of dollars every month solely from this program, so it is doable.
How Do You Join?
Because so many people have abused AdSense in the past, Google has tightened its standards for sites allowed to use the program. If you are using a free blogger service or are using a free web hosting service, you don’t qualify for AdSense.
Happily, there are many services out there where you can put up content on their web servers and still earn money from the AdSense program. One such service is HubPages. Their interface is extremely user-friendly and includes many free tools and applications that will help you maximize your site’s potential for AdSense profits.
How Do You Generate Traffic?
The best way to get people to visit your site is to find a niche topic that you enjoy writing about and researching. Ideally, this niche will be something that a lot of other people are interested in as well and are seeking information on. If you don’t already have that niche in mind, you will need to do research. In fact, doing research is the only way you will learn how much you can learn about the earning potential of a particular niche.
Once you’ve found a topic, you should learn about SEO – Search Engine Optimization. This is a style of writing that incorporates keywords into the text. The more keyword-rich your content is, the higher it will rank on search engines. Ideally, you want to be in the top-10 ranking. If your site is about kittens, for example, you want anyone who searches for information about kittens to see your site in the 10 listings on the first page of their search results. People generally don’t look beyond that first page.
It’s also important to update your page with original content on a regular basis. If your site becomes stagnant, it can drop off the search engines’ radar.
Keeping Content Fresh
If you have found a niche market that you enjoy writing about, you may not need to worry about updating your site; writing meaningful, relevant articles will be a pleasure. But if you’re having trouble incorporating keywords into your writing in a way that sounds natural, there are content provider sites where you can purchase articles on your topic for very little money. Sites likeTextrboker.com and vWorker have thousands of freelance writers, many of whom are adept at SEO writing. For five to twenty bucks you can have original content written to your specifications. These sites also give you full usage rights; you own the material and can even credit yourself as the author if you wish.
Have Fun
By generating ads based on content, Google AdSense allows site owners to make money – sometimes a lot of money – publishing content that is meaningful to them in ways that go beyond profit. Making money online doesn’t have to be a cynical exercise in avarice. With AdSense, you can generate profits by following your bliss.
So this is just a brief overview of the program. I hope to provide more tips and in depth information in future posts on how to really make money with Google Adsense.
