Make Money with Google Adsense

Google AdSense ads are just like the AdWords ads you see on the right-hand side of a Google search results page... except they are on YOUR site. Google uses its advanced, proprietary technology and algorithms to determine the content of each of your site's Web pages. It then delivers ads that are contextually relevant to your audience. (As you'll soon see, the content on the PAGE is more relevant to AdSense than the overall SITE.)

AdSense's advantages

- You don't have to waste time choosing different ads for different pages.
- You don't have to mess around with different code for various affiliate programs.
- You're free to concentrate on providing good content and Google does the work of finding the best ads for your pages from 100,000 AdWords advertisers.
- It's suitable for beginners or marketing veterans.
- AdSense provides simple, easy-to-understand stats.
- If you have affiliate links on your site, you ARE allowed to add AdSense ads.
However, with your affiliate links, you must not mimic the look and feel of the Google ads.
- You can filter up to 200 URLs, so you can block ads for sites that don't meet your standards. You can also block strong competitors.

If you own a small web site you can now plug a bit of code into your site and almost instantly relevant text ads that are likely to appeal to your visitors will appear on your pages.

If you own several sites, you need to apply only once. This makes AdSense much simpler than joining a bunch of affiliate programs.

Disadvantages One problem is inappropriate ads. You don't want spammy junk advertised on your site. Google's standards probably aren't as high as yours. You can filter out 200 URLs, but in some industries that won't be enough.

The stats Google supplies are inadequate. They're easy to understand at a glance. However, they don't tell you which ads people are clicking on, which keywords are involved, or which web sites are involved. That's frustrating.

Also, I'd like to be able to identify and block ads that have very low payout rates, without doing a lot of sleuthing and messing around.

The minimum payout is $100, which is regarded as too high by sites which don't receive much traffic. That won't worry experienced webmasters.

Also, sites that want to display AdSense ads may not include "other content-targeted and/or text-based ads on the pages displaying AdWords ads." However, human beings review the sites. Rejected sites have been able to appeal successfully.

Another disadvantage is that Google doesn't want you to share your stats with other webmasters. The AdSense Terms and Conditions say:

"Confidentiality. You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google's prior written consent. 'Google Confidential Information' includes without limitation: ... (b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to you by Google..."

A big disadvantage of the service is that Google doesn't say how much its AdSense partners will receive. You'll just receive an unknown share of the revenue.

How Much Can You Earn?

The payment you receive per click depends on how much advertisers are paying per click to advertise using Google's AdWords service. Advertisers can pay as little as 5 cents per click and as high as $10 or $12 in profitable niches, perhaps even more sometimes. You earn a share of that.

So your payment rates can vary enormously.

One webmaster has reported earning 70 cents per click, another 49 cents, and another as high as $2 per click. The owner of a large site reported averaging about $4 CPM (per 1,000 AdSense impressions, or displays) and a better click-through rate than he had received on FastClick or Tribal Fusion banners. Another AdSense user told me he is earning $50 CPM.