how to earn with adsense

Interested in
making money
with Google?
Here's your
complete guide
to getting
started along
with some info
on how to
maximize your
earnings, why
some accounts
are disabled
and even alternatives to AdSense.
If you want to jump to the various sections, use the
table of contents on the right.
Below is an AdSense check I scanned from 2006. At
the time, it was the largest check I had received in
the three years I had been in the program.
I blurred out my address, account number and
bank info for privacy reasons, of course.
Note: Google now pays me by direct deposit, so I no
longer have paper checks to show. That is why the
screenshot is so old.
Here's a more recent screenshot. It's important to
note that this is from this site, my blog, Website
Babble, Napturally Curly and three YouTube
channels. This is not from just one website.
This is one of my highest payments from AdSense,
but I will be honest and say this is way above
average for most people.
My earnings aren't typically this high anymore due
to all the Google changes, but I still earn what most
would consider a yearly salary from AdSense.
What is Google AdSense?
AdSense is a nice way to monetize your traffic, and
very easy to implement. It's one of my top earners
and has been since 2003. (See the video about my
earnings further down.)
Google.com earns most of its revenue by allowing
other website owners to advertise on their search
results pages.
All this is managed through a program they call
AdWords (pay per click marketing).
You see these ads displayed above the free/organic
results and along the right side of the page on
Google.com.
These are called Sponsored Results, and the
advertisers are paying a certain amount of money
per click for these ads.
It's an auction-based system that allows advertisers
to compete for those spots. Whomever has the
highest bid and most "quality" ad, gets the top spot
and so forth.
Now you can earn a share of the revenue that
Google earns from AdWords by displaying these
same text or image ads on your site. When
someone clicks, you earn roughly 68% of the click
and Google gets the rest.
This program is called AdSense.
It's a great program that can help you drive
additional income to your website -- especially if it's
mostly content based.
So if you are one of those people that doesn't like
the idea of paying for a site, this is an excellent
way to earn your money back and then some.
Please make sure you read this entire article.
AdSense is not a get-rich-quick scheme and it takes
a lot of work to make money. Don't think that just
because you join, you are guaranteed to make big
money.
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How Does AdSense Work?
Here's a video I did some years back. The reason I
still show it here is the concept is still exactly the
same.
The biggest difference is it takes more work to build
up traffic. Nevertheless, AdSense still works just as
well as it did back when I created this video.
How Much Can You Earn With AdSense?
The commission you receive per click depends on
how much advertisers are paying Google for the
particular ad. You will earn a share of that
amount. I've heard of earnings anywhere from 2
cents to $15 per click.
Getting over $1 is probably very rare, although it
does happen from time to time. However, you will
find that most of your earnings will be on the lower
end of the spectrum.
It's important to note that I cannot estimate how
much you will earn based on your traffic. People
always want to know what the average amount is
per click.
No one knows the answer to this except Google, so
don't let anyone try to tell you any different. It
would be impossible for myself or any AdSense
publisher to give this information because the ads
all cost different prices and we have no idea what
advertisers are paying.
However, there are some niches that obviously pay
more. So it is logical to believe that keyword
phrases like sex, make money , etc. may earn you
more per click since these are highly competitive
keywords that are searched for quite a bit on
The more competitive the search term, the more
the advertisers pay and the more you earn as a
publisher.
Even though Google will not reveal how much you
are earning for each ad that is clicked from your
site, you can still login to your account at any time
and see the total amount of revenue you've
generated that day, week, month, year, etc.
For example, if you see that you've made $12.60
today from 9 clicks then you can calculate that your
average click-thru commission was $1.40 per click.
That's as detailed as their stats will get. Also
remember, that's only an average. You won't know
how much each specific ad brought in.
The amount you'll earn also depends largely on the
amount of targeted traffic you receive to your own
site, how well the ads match your audience's
interests, the placement of the ads on your pages,
and of course the amount you receive per click.
Ideally, you should create a site on a topic you
know a lot about. That way you'll have a much
easier time creating a generous amount of content
on that subject.
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My Google AdSense Earnings
I have been receiving monthly
checks from Google since 2003
(yes that's me holding the same
check from above), and I've
read numerous success stories
of websites earning 5 digit
incomes per month with
AdSense.
Now, I will admit, a 5-digit commission in a single
month is not the norm for most participants,
especially today because it is more difficult to get
traffic than it was years ago.
My sites have been around for a long time and I have a great
deal of traffic so that's a big reason why I earn 4
digits per month.
I promote my sites on social media, create YouTube
videos etc. Making a lot of money with AdSense is
all about numbers. The more traffic you have, the
greater the earning potential.
My checks weren't always this large. I think my
first month's earnings in 2003 totaled less than $20.
However, as my traffic increased, so did my checks.
I cannot emphasize this enough. AdSense is NOT
an overnight get-rich-quick opportunity. Even
though this may look easy, please don't
underestimate the amount of work I've put into
my sites over the years.
Video About My Record AdSense Month
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Creating Your Website for AdSense
Before you even begin your site, make sure you've
come up with a topic that you feel you know plenty
about. That way it will be easiest to write a lot of
content.
The more content you have, the better chance you
have getting accepted into the program. Also, the
more content and traffic, the greater the earning
potential.
If you want to make a lot of money, prepare to
write a lot of content and learn how to market your
site. Don't expect to throw up a 10 page site and
make $1,000 per month. That's unrealistic.
Now let's talk about building your website.
Creating Your Site
Get a domain (yoursite.com) and then sign up for a
web host and build your pages. I highly
recommend using WordPress to create your site
because you just pick a theme and your site is up
and running.
Once you have selected your theme, you can add
AdSense ads by either using a free AdSense plugin
or you can use the WordPress Text widget to easily
add ads to your sidebar.
If you want to learn more about WordPress I have
a video here.
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How to Join AdSense
Once you have 20-30 pages on your site, go to
http://adsense.google.com to apply.
When you are accepted, simply copy and paste the
provided HTML code into any page that you'd like
to show the ads. You can opt to display text ads,
image ads, or a combination of both. It's up to you.
You can either display the ads vertically along side
the page like Google does or in a banner-like
formation horizontally across your pages. You can
even customize the colors to match your site's
theme.
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Tips on Succeeding With AdSense
Here are some tips for achieving success with
Google AdSense.
Build Traffic
You're not going to make anything with AdSense if
you don't have enough traffic. Please don't think
this is some easy, get-rich-quick program. This
takes work and it all starts with getting visitors.
Learn more about traffic building here.
Experiment
Test ad sizes, images vs. text, play around with
colors, you name it. I personally like to have my
ads match the background of my site so they blend
more.
Some people prefer to make their ads stand out by
using bold/contrasting colors, but that never worked
well for me. I think it's because they look so much
like ads.
Read a blog post I wrote where my readers and I
discuss our best performing ad units/sizes .
To display the ads vertically along the right side of
the page, just copy this code into your site and
paste your AdSense code where indicated.
<table align="right" width="300>
<tr>
<td>INSERT ADSENSE CODE HERE</td>
</tr>
</table>
You can change the width of the table to suit your
needs, just remember that it needs to be wide
enough to fit whatever AdSense code you selected.
You can also switch the alignment by changing the
align attribute from "left" to "right."
Create Channels
Channels allow you to see what units are working
best. So if you are adding an AdSense unit to your
header, you should create a channel called (name it
Header, for example) so you can track its
performance in your reports.
I think it's important to maximize your click
through rate (CTR) so you can attract more
advertisers (just my opinion based on logic.) So I
remove channels/units that perform significantly
lower than others.
Advertisers want to advertise on sites that will
give them the most clicks, right? So it makes
sense to optimize your account's CTR as much as
you can.
So how do you create channels?
When you are creating a new ad unit, you are
presented the option of creating a custom channel
on the first screen...
Set Units to "Targeted"
When you target your custom channel units, you
make them available to Placement advertisers who
may want to advertise on your site directly. These
advertisers pay more so you earn more per click .
It's super easy to set this up.
Just click "My Ads" from your account, then select
"Custom Channels". Click the channel you want to
target and click the box for targeting as illustrated
below...
Avoid Free Hosts
I know times are tough economically and a lot of
you don't want to pay for a website. But the facts
don't lie. Successful website owners invest money.
Period.
I have yet to open up a magazine and see a
successful site featured hosted on Blogger.com or
another free host. Never. And I've been out here
since 1998.
If you want the search engines and people to take
your site seriously, you have to own your site. And
if you don't do this, I question your dedication.
Even if it means you have to wait and save your
money for 6 months to buy a domain and hosting.
I'd rather you do that then take shortcuts with free
hosting.
The other problem with free hosts is they can
remove your site without warning. This happened
to a gentleman just last week who emailed me.
There was nothing I could do. If you don't own
your site, you don't own your income.
More AdSense Tips
Watch the video below to discover more ways to
increase your AdSense earnings.
Just remember, success with AdSense is all about how well
you bring in targeted visitors to your website.
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Best Designs / Themes for AdSense
People often ask me about the best theme or design
for AdSense.
That really depends on your goal. If you want to
add AdSense to your header then you should find a
design that makes it easy to add the code.
I use the Magazine Pro WordPress theme on my
hair site . It has a header widget built in that is
large enough to fit the 728x90 unit so adding the
banner was a breeze.
Changing to this theme more than doubled the
earnings for that site because I was able to add the
large, header unit. Larger units typically earn you
more, especially when they have good, visible
placement.
Read more about how to find a great theme for
AdSense.
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How Come I'm Not Making Much Money
With AdSense
People often ask me why their earnings are so low
and there are many reasons for that.
1. Not enough traffic
If your site has less than 500 visitors per day, it's
going to be difficult to make much with AdSense.
You have to remember that only a small percentage
of people will click on your ads (1-2%) so if you
have 500 people coming to your site in a day, that's
5 clicks.
Also, most clicks will earn you less than $1, so
hopefully you can see that it takes a great deal of
traffic to build up income with AdSense.
2. Not enough relevant ads displaying
Some niches have more, relevant ads that Google
can display. This will drastically impact your click
through rate. If the ads aren't relevant to your
content then your visitors aren't going to click.
That's why it's important to make sure your site
has a lot of content so you can help Google display
the most relevant ads. Granted, sometimes there
aren't relevant ads available, and there's nothing
you can really do about that.
However, just having a few sentences with some
images is not helping Google find the best ads
because you have so little content.
3. Low paying niche
Let's face it. Some niches pay more than others. If
you have a finance site, the ads will probably pay
more than the ads on an entertainment site.
So the niche you are in plays a big role in how
much you can make. That's why it's hard to
estimate how much anyone can earn with AdSense.
There are just too many differ