Making Money on Google
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Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................4
Chapter 1 ........................................................................................................................6
Google AdSense-What is it?........................................................................................ 6
Understanding AdSense .......................................................................................... 7
Getting Ads on your Site .......................................................................................... 8
Google AdSense Options ........................................................................................ 9
AdSense for Content ...........................................................................................9
AdSense for Search........................................................................................... 10
Premium Service for Google AdSense............................................................... 11
How Much Money can be Made with AdSense? .................................................... 11
Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................................14
Getting Started with AdSense.................................................................................... 14
What Comes Next ................................................................................................. 15
Keyword Research ................................................................................................17
How to Research Keywords............................................................................... 18
Tracking is Important ............................................................................................. 19
Chapter 3 ......................................................................................................................20
Do s and Don ts .........................................................................................................20
Do s .......................................................................................................................20
Don ts ....................................................................................................................21
Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................24
Taking it to the Next Level-How to Maximize AdSense Profits ................................... 24
Increasing your Clickthrough Rate ......................................................................... 24
Titles ..................................................................................................................25
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Ad Placement ....................................................................................................25
Blending Ads .....................................................................................................25
Placing Ads on Blogs ......................................................................................... 26
Placing Ads on RSS Feeds................................................................................ 26
Check for Relevancy.......................................................................................... 27
Section Targeting ..............................................................................................27
Tags ..................................................................................................................28
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................30
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Introduction
Whether you are just getting started with your online business or you are already a
successful online publisher, you are probably considering a variety of different methods
that will allow you to increase your revenue. Passive revenue, money that you earn while
you attend to other tasks, is by far the best option. There are, of course, many different
options, including Internet advertising.
Internet advertising has certainly evolved and changed over the years, currently offering
incredible opportunities. Regardless of the exact type of business which a company is
involved in, they can benefit from Internet advertising because it provides them with the
opportunity to reach an audience around the world at a speed that was previously
unheard of. Perhaps even better is the fact that the cost of Internet advertising is quite
low, especially when compared to other traditional advertising mediums, such as print,
radio and television.
If you are wondering how you can generate passive income through Internet advertising
by connecting offers and different companies then you have certainly found the right
place.
The real key to achieving success with Internet advertising is accepting ads instead of
actually placing ads. As a web publisher you already have the ideal situation to begin
generating passive income.
Currently the most effective and profitable strategy for success with Internet advertising
is utilizing ads that essentially hide in plain sight. While there are many different sources
for such ads, the most popular search engine company around, Google, is without a
doubt the best way to reach a large audience as well as generate income.
Google uses two methods, Google AdWords and Google AdSense. AdWords is the
most profitable method for Google while web publishers such as yourself have an
opportunity to generate a lot of income through AdSense.
In the next few sections we are going to focus on exactly how to understand and begin
generating money through Google s AdSense program.
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If you are ready to begin generating large amounts of money automatically every single
month, then you are in the right place. We are going to explain what AdSense is,
describe how it works and how you can get started quickly in easily. We will also go into
detail regarding how you can maximize AdSense in order to generate even more
income.
Are you ready to get started?
Let s go!
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Chapter 1
Google AdSense-What is it?
Google AdSense is a type of program that is specifically designed to place ads based on
relevant content. Assumptions are made regarding the audience that might have an
interest in that content. As a result, the ads that are created based on the content
actually make sense, hence the name of the program. If you have been involved in
Internet marketing and advertising for awhile you may be familiar with the term
Contextual Marketing.
This type of marketing is based on matching ads with the nature or context of the
content on the website as well as the audience that visits that website. For example, if
you have a website about gardening, then you might have an ad on your website that
advertising organic seeds. Or, if you have a website about fly-fishing then you might
have an ad for fishing lures or fishing resorts.
Google AdSense takes this concept and broadens it. With this program, the context of
the ad can be adjusted to a finer level than just the website. It can be adjusted according
to the page, the article that is on the page, etc. As a result, the ads will always align with
the content that appears near them. The idea behind this is that they will be of greater
interest to the reader.
You may be wondering how you can benefit from this. It is really quite simple. Each time
that a visitor to your website clicks on one of the ads that has been placed on your
website, you earn money. The more highly targeted the ads, the more clicks you will
receive and consequently, the more money you will earn.
One of the great benefits of this program is that the ads are text-based and very easy to
read. Although the ads are relevant to the content on your site, they do not overshadow
it. Furthermore, they do not irritate visitors. You have probably seen a ton of these ads
yourself.
No matter what type of website you have, AdSense offers you the opportunity to make
money on every single page. The algorithms of the program will automatically select and
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then display the ads on your website in order to generate the most revenue possible; so
that once you have it set up there will be very little work for you to do.
Understanding AdSense
While AdSense is a part of Google, if you are really going to understand it is important to
realize that AdSense is really an extension or a spin-off of AdWords, an older model that
Google produced. While one is an offshoot of the other they are not the same thing;
however.
Most people have seen AdWords on Google whether they realize it or not. These ads
are the small text based ads that appear on the side of Google s search results. Like
Google AdSense, AdWords is contextually based, meaning that what appears is based
on the terms that you entered. For example, if you do a search for web design services
you will see ads for web design services right along with your regular search results.
You may wonder how this produces money for the advertisers and Google. AdWords is
based on a pay-per-click model. This means that when a web user clicks on an ad, the
advertiser pays Google a certain amount of money. The program is fully automated, so it
is quite easy to track.
The exact amount of money that is paid by the advertiser will usually vary from one time
to the next because advertisers bid on the placement of ads for specific terms. The
process gets started by the advertiser submitting an ad along with a bid to Google. Ads
for similar keywords are compared in an auction type format.
The actual position of the ads is based on the amount that is bid on the keywords for that
ad. Ads with higher bids are placed in higher positions. For instance, if the highest bid for
the terms  web design services is 70 cents per click, then you can access the top
position by bidding 80 cents. Every time a visitor clicks on that ad you would be charged
70 cents by Google. You would be able to keep that top position until someone else bids
a higher amount of the same keyword placement.
As we discussed a bit earlier, AdSense is a spin-off of AdWords. Really, it takes the
same concept of AdWords and then uses it on other web pages beyond the Google
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search page. The advertiser receives the benefit of have a broader display for their ads
while Google is able to charge more for the service. The web publisher is able to make
money from the clickthroughs on their pages. The visitor even receives the benefit of
seeing highly relevant ads for items that they will most likely have an interest in.
Now, it s time to get down to the really important question of how exactly you make
money from the program. It s really very simple. Every time someone clicks on an ad on
your site, you earn a portion of the pay-per-click advertising amount. All you need to do
to get started is to have ads placed on your site.
Getting Ads on your Site
The first step in getting ads on your site is to join the AdSense program. Google will
need to approve your site, but we will cover the details on that in just a bit. Many
publishers new to the idea of AdSense are concerned that the process of getting set up
to have ads placed on their site is complex, but it s really very simple and does not take
a lot of time.
After you have joined the program you will be provided with HTML script that you will be
able to paste anywhere you like on your site. You can paste this script any amount of
times that you want and even place it on multiple pages if you wish to do so. Google will
then automatically serve or place ads that are relevant to the content of your page from
their advertiser base. A variety of different algorithms are used by Google in order to
ensure that the ads are placed on your site are relevant to your content.
Really, the AdSense program provides you with a number of important advantages:
" It is simple to manage and use. After you are approved, the process of having
ads displayed on your site does not take up any of your time. Furthermore, you
do not need a lot of technical knowledge to get started.
" Only text based ads are used. This is an important advantage because they are
actually more effective than the flashier types of ads that you may have seen
elsewhere on the internet. Studies have shown that the clickthrough rate of
these ads is much higher than ads that are animated. Of course, more clicks
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means that you earn more money. Furthermore, text based ads load faster than
flashy ads, meaning that your visitors are not bogged down waiting for your web
page to load.
" Google uses a very relevant system for ad selection. The ads that will be placed
on your site will be highly relevant to your content to ensure the best results.
Furthermore, Google AdSense offers a variety of different options from which you can
choose in order to take advantage of the most benefits possible on your website.
Google AdSense Options
AdSense for Content
This particular offering is the main stay of the AdSense program. It incorporates ads that
are contextually targeted. The publisher is paid for every click. The purpose of these ads
is to utilize ads that are targeted for the content of your page. In the event that you
change the content on your page the ads will also change. The primary benefit behind
this option is that you as the publisher receive a fair amount of control over the ads that
are served on your site.
Control options include:
Blocking Ads
The selection of ads under this category is automatic, but you have the option of
blocking ads that you do not want. For example, you can specifically block ads from your
competitors. All you have to do is let Google know that you want to block ads from those
sites.
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Filtering and Reviewing Ads
This particular option is semi-automatic. Google does have their own policies regarding
blocking racial discrimination, profanity, etc. In other words, such ads will be
automatically filtered out. You can also opt to block further content through customized
filters. This is a bit different from blocking a specific advertiser because with this method
it is possible that ads from an advertiser would otherwise allow will be filtered out.
Publisher Selection
In some rare instances, Google s engines are not able to make a relevant selection of
ads that match a page s content. In this case, you have the option of choosing the ads
that you want to be served. If you do not make a selection, you will receive public service
spots instead.
Along with these different options, you also have the opportunity to customize how ads
look and  feel. For the best results, ads should not appear out of place on your site. To
avoid this problem, Google makes it possible for you to customize the layout as well as
the colors for ads.
Of course, tracking a marketing campaign and analyzing is critical to the success of any
ad. Google offers a variety of different online reports that give you the opportunity to
monitor your earnings. You can also analyze the performance of the ads on your site so
that you can make adjustments to color, size and other elements in order to maximize
their placement.
AdSense for Search
The AdSense for search program allows you to place a Google Search box directly onto
your website. By doing so, you bring your visitors the opportunity to search the Internet
without ever needing to leave your website. When a visitor to your site searches for
something, they receive a search results page along with Google Ads right next to the
listings. When the visitor clicks on these ads, you get paid. It s as simple as that. Not
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only are you able to enhance your site and provide a valuable service to your visitors but
you are also able to maximize your profits as well.
Premium Service for Google AdSense
In order to utilize this service, your website will need to qualify. The basic requirement is
that your site must receive at least 20 million page views per month.
How Much Money can be Made with AdSense?
If you spend any amount of time on the Internet at all you probably have already
encountered plenty of people who claim they have just the right program or strategy that
will enable you to earn literally thousands of dollars within a week or less.
Now, we both know that there is no such program or strategy that can produce those
kinds of results.
With that said, there are some programs that can be quite lucrative and which can
provide you with a good income with relatively little work. Google AdSense is definitely
one of those programs.
It should be pointed out that making money with Google AdSense does take some time.
You also need to plan for it, but that is true with anything that is going to pay off well.
In order to understand the type of potential that is possible through Google AdSense,
consider how money is made through this program. Every time a visitor clicks on one of
the ads on your site, you receive a percentage of the amount that Google is paid for that
ad.
Let s look at a simple equation to get a better idea.
Income = Amount Advertiser pays per click for the ad x the Payout Rate
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 x Ad clickthrough rate x Traffic x Ad frequency
Put in those terms, it probably sounds a little bit confusing, but once we plug some real
numbers into this equation, it will become quite clear very quickly, the real potential that
is possible through Google AdSense.
Income = Amount Advertiser pays per click for the ad x the Payout Rate
x Ad clickthrough rate x Traffic x Ad frequency
$.40 (amount advertiser pays to Google for the ad) x 50% (payout rate) x 0.10
(clickthrough rate) x 200 visitors per day (traffic) x 100
The income that would be produced from a single ad per day would be $400.00.
Now, there are a couple of assumptions made in this equation that would depend upon
your unique circumstances. For example, in this equation we have used a clickthrough
value of 40 cents. The actual amount that the advertiser pays to Google for the ad might
be less or it might even be more.
The 50% payout rate may also vary from one deal to another. While a 10% clickthrough
rate is a good goal to shoot for there may be times when your clickthrough rate is lower
or higher. This equation will also depend upon the exact amount of traffic that your
particular site receives.
Even so, you can clearly get an idea of the potential that is offered by Google AdSense.
When you consider that this is a per day amount and figure the amount that could be
generated in an entire month, the amount of passive income that you could bring in each
month is astounding. While we cannot guarantee that you will earn any specific
amounts, there have certainly been cases where people have earned in excess of
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$25,000 per month using this program. No matter how you look at it, that is a lot of
money!
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Chapter 2
Getting Started with AdSense
The first step in getting started is to join the AdSense program. As we mentioned earlier,
you must be approved by Google in order for your account to be created and begin
earning money.
The next question for most people is what do you do to get approved? You can find out
by visiting the policies that Google has published on their site
at http://www.google.com/adsense/policies.
The primary element for being approved by Google involves the content on your
website. Almost all websites that are not approved are ultimately rejected because of
their content. Either they did not have any or not enough content. Or, in some cases,
they did not have good content. This means that the content was not informational, that
it was primarily based on attracting search engines. Google has achieved its level of
success by being able to easily and quickly discern junk content from quality content. Do
not try them on this. Take the time to ensure that you have good content on your site.
As a result, websites that are approved by Google are those that have a decent amount
of real content on them. This content could take on a variety of forms and might include
many different topics, but the key point is that the content must be present.
There is another reason why some websites will not be approved. If your website is
highly specialized then it would be difficult to find ads to place on your site. In this case,
usually the only ads that would be available would be from competitors so it just would
not make any sense to put AdSense ads on the site.
Other sites which are typically disapproved include those that exist for the sole purpose
of creating search engine content. For the most part these sites usually do not have any
real content, which leads us back to the primary reason why many sites are not
approved.
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So, now that we have discussed the importance of having content on your site, how
much content is enough content? That is a good question. One or two articles is usually
not going to cut it. You need at least 30 articles on your website and each article should
be around 400 or so words long. You do not want to go above that because anything
above 450 or 500 words is just wasted effort.
Also critical is making sure that you update your content on a regular basis. It is not
enough to place three dozen or so articles on your website and then leave them there
forever without updating them. If this seems like a daunting task to you, especially with
all of the other tasks that you need to handle, keep in mind that it can be made easier by
simply hiring someone to create quality, original content for your website. The cost is
really quite negligible when you consider the benefits that you receive in return by
ensuring that your website remains updated, such as more quality ads, increased traffic,
etc.
What Comes Next
After you have been accepted by Google the next step is to make sure that you take
every opportunity possible to maximize the program for the best results. One way to do
that is by formatting your ad blocks. You may recall that earlier we discussed the fact
that Google will allow you to choose the types of ads that will go on your site as well as
how you want those ads to be displayed. The ultimate goal is to make the ads seem as
though they are actually a part of your site. Under no circumstances should your ads be
jarring to the rest of the site or overtly stand out. This may be surprising to you at first,
but you have a greater chance of having a visitor click on the ads if you situate them in
such a way that they blend in with your content. There are many different ways in which
you can do this, including using elements such as font type and size, color scheme, etc.
We do need to point out here that Google AdSense does make graphic or image ads
available. For the most part, text ads are going to produce better results because they
do not look as much like ads, but just in case you are curious, they are made available
by Google.
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Ad placement is another critical component. In addition to determining how you want the
ads to look, you also need to determine the best place on your site to place the ads.
There is an old real estate adage that says the most important thing is  location, location,
location. In terms of online advertising, it could be said that these ads are much like
virtual real estate. It all depends on where you place them as to what kind of results you
are going to receive.
Remember that the more an ad stands out as an ad, the less likely it is that a visitor will
click on it. So, your goal is to make ads look less like ads. You really need to analyze
your pages on an individual basis because what works on one page may not work so
well on another page. For example, suppose you have a lot of text on a particular page.
This is one instance where you might find that an image ad will actually perform more
effectively. This is something that you will need to decide on an individual basis.
In terms of exactly where the ads will be noticed the most, it is generally best to place
ads as close to the top of the page as you can. Why, you may ask? This is the first place
the visitor is going to look and in the event that they decide to exit the page without going
all the way to the bottom you avoid the chance that they may not ever even see the ad at
all.
Another option would be to place them on the side of your webpage. In this case, most
people place the ads on the right side of the page because most people read from left to
right.
Another factor to consider is pages that you update on a regular basis. Ads should
absolutely be placed on those pages because it is those pages that most visitors are
likely to visit first as well as bookmark. Even if it s not the home page, it can still be
tremendously helpful to place an ad there if it is the most popular page on your site.
At this point we do need to cover something quite important that you may not be aware
of if you are just starting out with Google AdSense. Under no circumstances should you
directly ask your visitors to click on an ad. It is inappropriate, unprofessional and even
unethical. Your visitors will very quickly become annoyed and you could even be at risk
for losing your acceptance to the program as Google expressly prohibits this.
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Keyword Research
After you have decided where you want to place the ads on your site, there is still
some more work that needs to be done. This involves a bit of research. You will
need to do some research to determine the appropriate keywords for your
website. This is actually very important because it will impact the types of visitors
that arrive on your site as well as the way in which AdSense determines the ads
that will be assigned to your site.
Most people who are just getting started make the same mistake. They assume
that very expensive keywords will generate more income for them. This is
actually not the case. It can be quite tempting to go this route, but when you
choose keywords you need to keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to get the
most clicks possible. Let s look at a couple of examples.
Suppose you choose a keyword that has a pay rate of $0.80, but it is not highly
focused for your website. As a result, you receive only a handful of clicks. To
make matters even worse, traffic to your site begins to drop.
Now, let s suppose that you choose a keyword that has a pay rate of $0.30 and it
is very targeted to your website. Your traffic begins to pick up and receive far
more clicks. Even though the pay rate for the keyword is actually much less you
come out farther ahead because you are receiving more clicks.
The important key is to make sure that the keywords you select are relevant to
the content on your web page. Suppose that you have a webpage with content
about heirloom roses. Good examples of highly relevant keywords would be
heirloom rose seeds, heirloom rose varieties, heirloom rose catalogues, etc. Bad
examples would be gardening catalogues, rose bouquets, etc. The keywords you
select should be highly relevant and highly targeted.
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How to Research Keywords
There are many different ways in which you can research keywords for the
AdSense ads that will be placed on your site.
One method that you can use is to research different keyword popularity through
your Google AdWords account. This is a particularly good method because it will
not only help you to research keywords but will also help you to research cost as
well.
AdWords Keywords Tool is an excellent tool that can be used for researching
keyword variations and alternates.
Keyword Analyzer is another helpful tool that will give you a variety of different
key phrases that have been entered by users on different search engines.
WordTracker is considered to be one of the best tools on the market. Their tool
will suggest the top 1,000 keywords. It is also a great tool for discovering the
most relevant keywords for your particular site.
Keep in mind that selecting the right keywords really is very important. When you
select the most relevant keywords you will notice that your clickthrough rate
increases accordingly.
Good content goes hand in hand with good, relevant keywords. If you already
have a website with existing content then all you need to do is to fine tune that
content in order to maximize your potential profits. One of the most common
mistakes that many people make is to lavish keywords on their website. There is
no doubt that optimizing your website for search engines is a good idea but you
do not want to run the risk of overdoing it. Your website should not be so
cluttered with keywords that they overshadow the content of your page. The
whole idea is to provide a good experience for your visitors so that they will be
encouraged to click on ads, not so that they will be so offended by your site that
they immediately choose to exit it without even looking around.
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The content you place on your site should be informative and useful. It should
make sense. Everything should also be relevant. In addition, you need to make
sure that you have enough content on your site that Google has an easy time of
placing relevant ads. They should not have any problems determining the focus
of your site.
Furthermore, you need to make sure that each of your pages has a different
page title. The title of each page should be specifically based on the content for
that page. You should never have page titles that are vague or generic, such as
Page 2, etc. Page titles should not be long, but should instead be precise and
descriptive.
Tracking is Important
Another mistake that is commonly made is failing to track results. The only way
you will know if you need to make adjustments in order to increase your profits is
to track your results. Fortunately, Google offers a really good tracking feature.
Even better, it s free. This tool can be used to track the ads that appear on
certain sites. This tool is known as Channels.
URL channels offer you the ability to track your web site s performance without
changing any of the code for your ads. The only thing you need to do is to enter
either the full URL or even part of the URL in the channel.
Custom channels offer the opportunity to track your site s performance according
to the criteria that you have specified. The factors that you specify are entirely at
your discretion. This is a very flexible tool that will allow you to track exactly what
you are interested. You can track literally dozens of channels at the same time.
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Chapter 3
Do s and Don ts
Now that we ve covered what Google AdSense is and how you get your ads set-up, it is
time to delve into the subject a little deeper and cover some strategies that you should
definitely use as well as some tactics that you should steer clear of.
Do s
1. It is imperative that you follow Google s terms of service. We have briefly touched
upon the fact that Google has an exceptional quality control system. This is to
your benefit because ensures the relevancy of the ads that are placed on your
site. This is a two-way street; however. In addition to a strict quality control
system for the ads that are placed on your site, Google also has the ability to
monitor those ads. If they find that you have violated their terms of service in any
way then they can and will suspend your account. Naturally, this is something
that you do not want to have happen, so it is really best to make sure you read
those terms of service and abide by them.
2. Do take advantage of the opportunity to experiment with the ads and find out
what works best for your site. Keep in mind that it may take a few tries before you
discover the combination that will produce the best results for you. Everyone s
site is different, as they should be, and consequently what works for someone
else may not be right for your site. The only way you will know for sure is to play
around with it and give it some time to find out. Don t worry if you do not
experience outstanding results the first week. This is the learning phase. As long
as you are continuing to tweak things you will discover what will work for your
site.
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3. Do take advantage of the opportunity to learn as much as you can about
AdSense. Google offers a number of informative tutorials and you can find out a
lot simply by playing around with it. Don t stop there. Take advantage of every
opportunity that you have to learn more about this program. The more you are
able to educate yourself about AdSense, the more success you will be able to
enjoy. Also, remember to simply have fun! AdSense is completely free and let s
face it, there just are not many ways left in the world where you have an
opportunity to earn money without investing some of your own. If you are
persistent and dedicated to learning more, it won t be long before you will be able
to see your profits add up.
4. Check the links on your site from time to time to make sure that they are not
broken. This is not only annoying to visitors but it can also drive down your
rankings as well. If you have difficulty remembering to do this you might set up an
automatic reminder in a program like Outlook so that you can be reminded to do
it on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Don ts
1. One of the biggest no no s that we need to cover in this section is in regards to
clicking on your own ads or encouraging people you know to click on your ads.
Google has a very impressive fraud detection system and the only thing that
trying to drive up your profits by clicking on your own ads will do for you is have
your account suspended. It is much better to play by the book and let your
revenue accumulate naturally. If you spend the time setting up your ads correctly,
ensuring that you have quality content and in general being willing to learn as
you go then you should have no need to try to artificially boost your profits. Just
so that we are clear about this particular topic, these are all methods that are
considered to be fraudulent by Google and could cause you to have your account
suspended:
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" Clicking on your own ad
" Using automated clicking programs
" Using robots in order to produce clicks
" Using fraudulent methods to trick visitors into clicking on the ads
2. While this would seem like it should be a no-brainer, you would be surprised at
the number of people who try it. Do not place ads on pages that are empty.
Remember that you must have content on your pages.
3. Never place ads in places where they simply will never be seen. Always keep
visibility in mind when you are determining where you will place ads on your site.
4. Under no circumstances should you have information on your site that is illegal.
This includes the use of text or content that is plagiarized. Along the same lines,
avoid using any content that would be considered obscene. Remember that you
do not want to irritate visitors to the point that they choose to leave your site. You
want them to stick around and click on ads.
5. Do not use your site in conjunction with any ad network that utilizes a method
that could put your AdSense account into jeopardy. For example, you should
make sure that you are not using any other types of ads on your site that include
pop-ups. It simply is not worth it to jeopardize your account by using these types
of ads from any other source. Keep in mind that even though they may be from
another source, you could still run the risk of having your AdSense account
cancelled. If you obey the rules with AdSense then you will typically find that you
have no need to utilize such questionable ads from any other sources.
6. Do not make any changes to your AdSense code once it has been generated. To
be more specific, you should not alter any portion of the code. Not for any
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reason. This is an absolute violation of the AdSense terms of service and if you
violate this term then you could quickly face the reality of having your account
terminated.
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Chapter 4
Taking it to the Next Level-How to Maximize AdSense
Profits
Are you ready to really make some money with Google AdSense? Once you have had
an opportunity to get your ads placed and play around with them to find out what works
best for your site it is time to begin maximizing your potential profits from AdSense.
Increasing your Clickthrough Rate
First, you may recall that in a prior section we discussed the importance of your
clickthrough rate. It is one of the elements that determine how much profit you earn from
the AdSense ads on your site. Obviously, the more clicks you have on the ads on your
site, the more money you are going to make. Now, while you should never use any
unethical or even questionable methods to generate more clicks on your site, you do
need to pay attention to your clickthrough rate.
When you are first getting started you may ask yourself what constitutes a decent
clickthrough rate. If this is your first website and you are getting a clickthrough rate of 3%
that might seem like a pretty good rate to you. If you do a little research; however, you
will discover that at a minimum you should be getting a clickthrough rate of 6%. It s not
even unheard of to get a clickthrough rate of 15% and maybe even more.
Of course that is not going to just happen on its own. It s not magic. The good news
though is that it is not unachievable to obtain that kind of clickthrough rate. Begin by
concentrating on driving more traffic to your site by offering good, quality content and
using other methods to drive traffic to your site, such as posting articles on article
directories and other areas where targeted readers will usually visit.
By increasing the amount of traffic that your site receives, this should automatically
increase the number of clicks that you receive. That does not necessarily increase the
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clickthrough rate; however. There are ways in which you can work on increasing the
clickthrough rate in order to maximize your profit potential.
Titles
One of the ways to increase your clickthrough rate is to pay attention to the titles that
you place on your pages. Specifically, you need to make sure that you do not place any
titles such as  Advertisements or  Sponsored Links on your site directly above your
AdSense ads. There is no need to  advertise your ads! It really is redundant at any rate
because Google will place  Ads by Gooooogle there.
Ad Placement
Placing your ads  above the fold is another way that you can increase your clickthrough
rate. Above the fold means that the ads are visible without the visitor needing to scroll
down in order to see them. In addition, when you use this method the ad will load without
the visitor needing to wait for the entire page to load in order to see the ad. This method
alone can greatly increase your clickthrough rate. Remember that the more visible your
ads are the more clickthroughs you will receive.
It is also a good idea to utilize some free space all the way around your ads. You should
not place the ads in such a way that your content and your site is cluttered up. When a
page appears to be too cluttered, visitors tend to become easily overwhelmed and do
not know where to go next. As a result, many visitors will just leave the page. Make sure
that your pages are visually appealing and are not cluttered in order to increase your
clickthrough rate.
Blending Ads
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It is also important to ensure that the colors you use with your ads correlate with the
color scheme that you have used on your site. Ideally, you should match the colors to
the colors of your site. When you match the colors you will be able to better blend the
ads in with your site, which helps to avoid having them stick out. The ads should ideally
look like any other links that you use on your site. Essentially, the more the ads look like
they are just another part of your site, the more you will be able to raise your
clickthrough rate.
Along with matching the colors, you also need to pay attention to matching the font of
the ads to the font(s) that you have used on your website.
You can also blend the ads in with your site even further by removing borders from the
ads. When you use a border on your ads, it practically causes them to jump out and
shout  Hey, I m an ad!
One thing that you do need to make sure that you do not do; however, is try to cover up
the  Ads by Gooooogle text or any other text for that matter with your background color.
This is a term of service from Google and if you try to blend out those elements you
could have your account terminated.
Placing Ads on Blogs
If you are running a blog and plan to place AdSense ads on your blog, then there are
some special considerations that should be made. The best place to position ads on
your blog is directly inside the post. This can be done editing the blog template. Through
this method every post that you make on your blog will have ads that are highly targeted
displayed. For the most part, it is generally best to put the ads at the top of your post.
Placing Ads on RSS Feeds
RSS, Really Simple Syndication, has become so popular that Google has now
introduced a program specifically for the purpose of serving ads on RSS. If you are not
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familiar with RSS, it is a particular format that organizes and then stores content that is
news related from a variety of sources into one place. In many ways, it is much like a
newswire service.
As a result, you now have the opportunity to make money through your RSS feed as well
as your blog or your regular website. As is the case with serving ads through your
website, or your blog for that matter, there is an entirely different set of policies regarding
placement of ads on RSS feeds. Make sure you review those policies and follow them.
Check for Relevancy
You should also keep in mind that while Google is extremely good at targeting highly
relevant ads, you should not just assume that they have succeeded. You need to check
back after the ads have been served and make sure that they are relevant and targeted.
This is absolutely imperative as your efforts to generate income will depend upon the
interest of your visitors in the ads that are placed on your site. Keep in mind that if the
ads hold no interest for your visitors they will not click on them.
If your site has information and content about parrots and the ads that are served to your
site are about organic gardening supplies then you can bet that your visitors will just
ignore them. Consequently, you will not be able to generate any income through the
AdSense program.
Make sure that you check your site and ensure that the ads that have been placed on
your site are relevant to your site s content.
Section Targeting
One way that you can avoid having untargeted or irrelevant ads placed on your site is to
consider whether there are areas of your website that contain information that is
necessary but completely untargeted. If that is the case then you need to ask Google
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AdSense to simply ignore those areas. Common examples of areas that may need to be
ignored include the navigation menu, privacy notice, etc.
You can also request Google AdSense to emphasize certain areas as well. These areas
include sections that are extremely important and highly targeted. This is an excellent
method for increasing your clickthrough rate.
If you are interested in asking Google AdSense to either ignore or emphasize certain
areas of your website, you can go to the control panel in AdSense and find more
information about the specific HTML code that you can simply cut and paste around
those sections to be ignored or emphasized.
Tags
As you probably know, your title tags are extremely important to the success of your
website. Of all the elements on your website, the most important element for every page
is the title. Title tags are important to visitors as well as search engines. The title tag is
the first thing that visitors will see when your website comes up in search engine results.
As a result, you need to make sure that all of your title tags are keyword rich as well as
interesting.
Meta tags are also critically important. Your Meta tag should be somewhere between
150 and 200 characters. The Meta tag is what visitors will see when they are on search
engines and trying to locate something. The Meta tag is also used by the AdSense robot
when it is performing an analysis for your pages. This is one of the elements that the
robot uses to determine which ads should be served to your page.
Whenever possible you also need to make strong efforts to avoid any URLs that are odd
looking. This most commonly happens when you have a website that receives
information from a SQL database. In these cases you might have a URL that looks like
the following:
Mydomainname.com/search.php?s=c4144
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If that is the case you need to check your software to find out whether an option exists to
turn on a function known as Rewrite Engine. This option gives you the opportunity to
literally rewrite the URL and create something much better, such as:
Mydomainname.com/articles/how-to-take-care-of-a-parrot.html
Do you see how much more effective that is?
Furthermore, you need to try to make your URLs as keyword rich as possible as this will
provide critical information that is needed by the Googlebot to effectively serve relevant,
targeted ads to your page.
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Conclusion
While there are no magic solutions that will help you to get rich quick on the Internet,
there are plenty of ways to generate passive income online. This is particularly true with
Internet advertising.
If you are already a web publisher or you are strongly considering starting your own
website, whether for business or personal reasons, there is absolutely no reason why
you should not take advantage of the opportunities presented by AdSense to generate
income.
One of the absolute best methods, if not the best method, is Google AdSense. Now that
you are completely familiar with the program as a result of the preceding information,
you will be able to make the most out of the opportunities that are provided by AdSense.
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