One of the most popular advertising choices in the blogging world is Google AdSense, and if you’re going to use Adsense, it’s imperative that you read Google’s rules about Adsense.
VERY IMPORTANT: If you don’t follow the guidelines and you get caught doing something wrong your account will be suspended. There are thousands of people who have, and have had a difficult time trying to get reinstated.
What is Google Adsense?
Google Adsense offers a commission when a visitor clicks on one of their advertisements. There doesn’t have to be a sale involved, you get paid for the amount of clicks on the ad and commissions accrue until you have $100 in your account.
Google then double checks that everything is all above board and you get paid.
Simple!
What you get paid for each click varies.
Car insurance companies and some specialist lawyers pay big money for advertising with Google; in the highly competitive car insurance niche for example you could get between $45 and $50 for one click!
Most other products don’t pay anywhere near that, but even if you’re not in such a lucrative (and highly competitive) niche you can earn perhaps between two to five dollars per click, which can accumulate quickly.
Of course you have to have a high amount of traffic, as with any other kind of advertising to make money.
What are CTR and CPC?
Your Adsense earnings will be calculated on how many visitors (which are classed as impressions) your blog gets x the click through rate (CTR) x Google’s “smart” pricing factor.
Click-through-rate (CTR) is the ratio of clicks per impressions (page visits) and is normally around 1% to 5%.
Cost-per-click (CPC) is the earning you get per click. While traditionally it refers to the amount advertisers pay for each click, it can also mean the amount publishers get for each click.
“Smart” pricing is Adsense’s way of determining what a click from your site is worth. If clicks from similar sites in your location are valuable because they convert, you’ll be paid a good percentage of the CPC (usually between 60-70%).
Confused?
Don’t be, the best advice we can offer is to check Google’s Adwords keyword tool.
When you’re looking for keywords for articles you can see how much advertisers are paying for those particular keywords and obviously the more they’re paying the more you can receive.
NEVER BE TEMPTED: Don’t ever click on Adsense ads on your own site! Your site will be banned.
Integrating AdSense Ads into Your Site
Google offers a large number of ways for you to customize their ads.
There are different sizes and layouts, you can use text-only or text and graphic ads, or graphic ads only.
If you don’t like the colors, you can change them to integrate with the colors of your website.
Just don’t try to trick any of your readers into thinking that Google adsense ads are something else.
Consequently many bloggers leave Adsense ads in their original electric blue color to be safe.
You can put Google Adsense ads anywhere on your page, in the center of an article, in the sidebar or above or below your content.
When planning where to put Adsense ads you have to understand that advertising placed “above the fold” on a page tends to do better than those placed towards the bottom.
If you have affiliate banners that are already bringing in a steady income, it’s best to leave them above the fold and put the Adsense advertising in another position.
Placing any advertising on your blog is like doing a jigsaw puzzle without the picture, it will take a lot of experimenting before you find which ads work best in which positions.
You may even find that different sizes and shapes work better on your site, so don’t be afraid to change all your banner and Google ads around until you find the optimum positions.
Google has an ad rotation tool that you can use to find the best positions for your Adsense ads.
Don’t overdo any advertising, Google is beginning to examine sites that are overloaded with ads and they’re already penalizing owners who have more ads than good content.
If your site looks cluttered to you, then the chances are you have overdone it.
When visitors come to your site you want them to focus on your content initially and that’s exactly what Google wants them to do too. People are weary of advertising, so make your site look as user-friendly as possible.
Google ads are triggered by the page’s content, geographical location and a number of other factors. Don’t be tempted to write an article about car insurance to try and get those $45 clicks if your site is about growing roses! Your readers will be scratching their heads and Google will know exactly why you did it.
But I Do Not Advocate The Use of Google AdSense
Now…just because I have written this blog post DOES NOT mean I advocate the use of Google AdSense.
In most cases, I don’t!
I don’t use AdSense on this blog and I never will. I think it can cheapen a site especially sites in the blogging or make money on-line niche.
Have you made a good income from Google AdSense?
Please share your views in the comments below.
In the next post on the series, “How to make a Blog” we shall cover the topic of “Selling and Marketing Your Own Products”
The previous blog posts in the ‘how to make a blog’ series:
Part One: How To Make A Blog: Getting Your Niche Right Is Crucial
Part Two: How To Make A Blog: Finding The Best Keywords For Your Chosen Niche
Part Three: How To Make A Blog: Monetizing with Affiliate Products
Part Four: How To Make A Blog: Monetizing with Digital Products
Part Five: How To Make A Blog: Choosing a Domain Name and Hosting
Part Six: How To Make A Blog: The Tools I Use To Make A Full-Time Income
Part Seven: How To Make A Blog: Are you Content with Your Written Content?
Part Eight: How To Make A Blog: Perfect Your SEO Habits
Part Eightb: How To Make A Blog: 12 Steps To Boost The SEO Of Your Blog Posts
Part Nine: How To Make A Blog: How To Get Hundreds Of Backlinks Every Day
Part Ten: How To Make A Blog: How To Market Your Blog To Generate Income?
Part Eleven: How To Make A Blog: How To Grow Your On-Line Income With List Building
Part Twelve: How To Make A Blog: How To Build An Effective Squeeze Page
Google Adsense is one of the best source of online income but very difficult to get all the eggs in one basket. They disable the account without any reason.
Azam
Best source of income? I think that would depend upon your niche. It’s not for the ‘make money on-line’ niche.
Andrew
Since Google Analytics along with their adwords-network is one of the best and cheapest tracking software any person with a website or blog can benefit from and is extremely important when it comes to your Marketing- and Business Strategy. One should be aware of the terminology that Google analytics offers in order to understand what you’re doing.
Thanks for sharing the post, It explains the basics of Google analytics and adwords and should be great for any newbie trying out Google Analytics.
I’m not surprised you don’t recommend adsense to the ‘make money online’ type of sites. The whole economics behind adsense, is that someone is prepared to pay you a lower amount for clicks, so that they can then sell the visitors eproducts for higher amounts. Without that relationship, adsense wouldn’t work.
In most topics, i.e. leadership styles which I write about – I have no chance of starting up a business similar to the ones who advertise, so I settle with putting up adsense on my leadership articles.
However in the make money online niche – startup cost are very low, so there’s no excuse for someone not starting up their own ebook affiliate account!
Simon,
I think you are saying Adsense works for you and your niche – right?
Andrew
Exactly – In my niche (leadership & management), I’m simply not in the position to generate cash flows using other methods, because those would involve becoming a consultant or running conferences, which are a rather big leap from blogging!
Simon,
What about your own products on Management?
My first blog was about management and I created some products specifically for managers.
Andrew
Google is the best source of income for different websites and bloggers and undoubtedly it is one of the best ads as compared to other ads. It has become very strict in proving the authority to show its ads in the website now a days.
Rob,
Another one to use is Chitika – you can use it alongside Adsense.
Andrew
Corinne
I really think it depends upon the niche you are in. Most people come on-line for information and that’s what I try to provide…rather than ads to click on.
Andrew
I’ve also heard that they disable accounts rather often. Honestly, I haven’t tried it because everyone I know has made very little from Google Adsense but it might be worth looking into in the future. Thanks for the good post.
Cynthia
You do have to get lots and lots of traffic to make it worthwhile (and the right niche).
Andrew
The concept of an AdSense on my blog is slowly starting to clear up.Thank you for posting this. I will definitely use this for my new blog.
Google ad-sense is one of the best way to earn through the website and like it there are lots of ads publishing sites that lets you keeps the ads in your site and give you commission as per CTR and CPC.
My Adsense income dropped more than 70% since October 2011 until now, but I don’t lose faith with them. Not yet!
Can you tell us which niche is suitable for monetizing a blog with Google Adsense, not all niche is good for Adsense earning, you know.
Trung
There are far too many niches to list that are suitbale for monetizing a blog with Google Adsense.
Andrew
Google is considered a notorious friend because of its regular algorithm updates. Is it is possible to earn from Google Adsense in presence of the these updates?
Maja
Yes of course…but you need excellent content first to bring in the traffic.
Andrew
Google Adsense is a great stepping stone if you are interested to earn some money from your blog, although I believe that it depends on the niche you have. Also, it takes quite an effort to earn big because you must also have a huge huge amount of traffic coming to your blog in the first place.