Adsense, a Great Opportunity

     One of the best and easiest ways to monetize your blog is with Google's AdSense. It's a great blog ad program, easy to join and for you to manage and gain some ad revenue with little effort! You can enroll to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on your blog. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a pay per click (PPC) or per-thousand impressions basis. They're also currently testing a cost-per-action based service.  Google uses its search technology to supply you with ads based on your blog's content, the reader's geographical location, and other factors. AdSense has become a great method of placing advertising on a blogs because the ad design/colors are chosen by you and the ads are less intrusive than most banners, with content of the ads relevant to your blog.

Initially, when you set up AdSense ads on your blog and it has not yet been crawled by the Mediabog, AdSense will temporarily display advertisements for Adsense or charitable groups.  These are known as public service announcements (PSAs). (Note that their Mediabot is a separate crawler from the Googlebot that maintains their search index.)  This also may happen if your content contains keywords objectionable to Google.  AdSense also offer a variety of ad sizes and types to fit your design needs. You should also experiment with different ad sizes and colors to determine which work best and to prevent ad blindness by your readers.  There is also a referral program, where you can choose the category and ad.

The program helps deliver easy advertising revenue to sites and blogs that don't have their own advertising sales program.  Your goal should be, when you have increased your readership, to establish your own ad program and to sell ad space directly to advertisers.  In the meantime, you can maximize your AdSense revenue in several ways, such as:

1. Use a wide range of traffic generating techniques like online advertising, networking and directory listings. 
2. Continue to add valuable content to your blog that will attract AdSense ads which pay out the most when they're clicked.
3. Use copy that encourages clicks on ads. Note that Google prohibits the use of phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. Phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements". But, NEVER click your own ads or ask friends to.  Don't post on forums asking other bloggers to click your ads.
4. Vary ad location, size and colors on your blog to keep reader interest .

It's an easy program to join, and easy to maintain. Google also offers many "Helps" to improve your participation, such as ad placement on your blog.  Check it out and give it a try, then share you successes and questions here so others can learn.  We'll go into specific AdSense topics in several future posts.

To sign up for AdSense, click here.  Don't just blog, Blog To Great!

Comments

[Liane Schmidt]

I completely agree. Nice post.

Best wishes.

Sincerely,

-Liane Schmidt.