This article provides a quick basic introduction to Google Adsense ads, which are probably the easiest way to get started making money with your site.
I'm sure you've seen Google Adsense ad panels on many sites across the Internet.
We have Adsense ads on this site, in the sidebar that runs down the right hand side of every page. It's the white box that has "Ads By Google" at the top, followed by little ad blurbs and blue links to 4 or 5 merchants.
If you're new to publishing on the Web, let's take a minute and explore how these ads work, and how you can make money with them.
Getting Started
STEP ONE: The first thing you need to do is create a good website with at least a couple dozen pages of quality articles on some specific subject.
Double check everything. Make sure your site is neat and tidy, the links all work, spell check your articles etc.
STEP TWO: Once everything is in order, go to Google and take the Adsense Tour as an introduction.
STEP THREE: Then, be sure to read the Adsense policies. This is important, no kidding. You want to make sure you are complying with Google's policies so you can continue earning easy money from them for years to come.
STEP FOUR: When you've read the policies, go ahead and apply for your Adsense account.
If you have a respectable useful site with at least a couple dozen pages of informative content, you'll most likely be accepted.
If for any reason you aren't accepted, read the email from Google carefully, politely ask any questions you may have, make the changes they suggest, and apply again.
Installing The Ads
Once you have your publisher account, you'll be able to get the code you need to install Adsense on your site. If you're confused at all about how to get your code, you might find our step by step instructions (with screenshots) helpful.
You'll be given about a dozen lines of code. You don't need to understand this code, you just copy and paste it in to any of your web pages.
If you have a Publisher-For-You account, you can paste the code one time in to an Adsense form (within the Ad Manager) and your Adsense ads will be added to every page on your site.
Relevant Ads
The miracle of Adsense ads is that they are automatically relevant to the topic of your pages, without you having to do anything at all.
If you drop your Adsense code in to a site about fishing, your Adsense ads will be about fishing. If you install the ads on a site about car repair, the ads will also be about car repair.
This "targeted" advertising means the ads add value to your site, and are useful to your visitors. It also means your visitors are much more likely to click the ads, making you money.
How Do I Get Paid?
You make money when your visitors click on your Adsense ads. Your readers don't have to buy anything, just click on the ads, and visit the merchant's site.
We should mention here that you should never click on your own Google ads, even though that might seem clever at first.
Google has already thought of this, has tools in place to detect it, will consider clicking your own ads click fraud, and will boot you from the program.
You also can't ask your readers to click the ads.
Be sure to read Adsense policies, so you understand these issues.
How Much Do I Get Paid?
Google doesn't reveal the exact formula by which your earnings are calculated. This can be disconcerting at first, but you do get to used it, and Google is after Google, so there's not much we mere publishers can do about it.
Google will mail you a check as soon as you've earned $100.
Speaking generally, your Adsense income will be determined by how many visitors you have to your site, and what the topic of your site is.
If you have a new site with low traffic, you won't make a lot of money at first. Some, but not a lot. But there's really no work or selling involved either, other than just building your site as you normally would.
Your Adsense income will grow right along with the size of your audience, so your main focus should be on increasing the traffic to your site.
Some Variables
Some ads on Google are expensive for advertisers to buy (you make more money on these ads) while other ads are less expensive (you make less money).
You can get a general idea of the pay per click ad market using this tool, which shows how much advertisers are paying at Yahoo's ad network.
As you experiment with this tool, you'll see that advertisers may be paying $5 per click for some ads, but only 10 cents per click for other ads.
Ideally, you'll want to create sites on the more expensive topics. But that's where most of the competition for traffic is too, so it's a trade off.
If you're a new publisher, I wouldn't worry about this too much for now.
Instead, focus on creating a good site on a topic that interests you, and get as much traffic to your site as you can.
Options
Yahoo has an ad network similar to Google's Adsense.
I haven't used it yet, and so won't comment on it. My general understanding is that their program is much like what I've described above in regards to Google.
Again, if you open a Yahoo account, you should read the policies for both Yahoo and Google accounts carefully to see how you are allowed to use these ads.
Getting Started, The Easy Way
Google Adsense ads are great, and a wonderful starting place for new publishers.
You set it up on your site one time, and then relevant ads are included within each of your articles ever after.
People click on the ads, you make money.
Google Adsense is simple, useful to your visitors, and if you have enough visitors, profitable too.
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