The
Adsense Opportunity...
Adsense just might be the simplest and most assured way to
make money on the whole of the Internet.
It is certainly the most sure-fire way that I can think of
to make a few hundred bucks a month; but many people earn much,
much more than that, and the elite group are known as the Fedex
Club or UPS Club because Google sends their monthly checks by
courier ... and to qualify you have to have earned at least
$10,000 for the month. Then there are reported to be businesses
earning 6 figures a month from Adsense ... but that’s an
opportunity of a different scale, of course. One of the gurus,
John Reese, recently posted a video showing his Adsense income
in the 12 months to March 2006 ... with websites he set-up just
12 months earlier he generated $500,000, which isn't too bad, I
suppose.
However! While making a few bucks can be simple, going
beyond this can start dragging in more and more
complexity. You’ll see what I mean as you read the
explanations. I find it to be still very worthwhile, even as
the complexity of the techniques I use and the investment (to
buy into those techniques) increases; to give it some
perspective, when I got involved I made my full investment back
easily in the first month, although that’s more
difficult to do these days. And, the investment isn't huge in
conventional terms.
The 3 Primary
Opportunities
I’m going to describe 3 separate opportunities with Adsense
on separate pages, namely:
-
Adsense using a Content Site
-
Adsense using a Blog
-
Adsense using software that automatically generates
a Content Site ... potentially, with 1000’s of
pages (which used to be a great idea but now offers
some major disadvantages)
But first, an introduction to this incredible program from
Google (currently being copied by Yahoo ... and probably
others, soon, which will make this more competitive and
potentially even more lucrative).
What Is
Adsense?
In the GoogleCash section of this web site I explained the
concept of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, and
explained in some details the particular form of it
practiced by Google, called Google Adwords. Essentially,
people can place adverts on Google’s Search Engine results
pages, and they pay Google every time someone clicks on
their ad (and is taken to their website). For some popular
search terms where there are big bucks associated with the
marketplace, the amount an advertiser pays Google can be as
high as $50 per click. However, this is very rare. Far more
common are cost-per-click amounts in the $0.05 to $0.30
range; although there are plenty in the $0.75 to $3.00
range.
If you think of this from a perspective of Google’s
advertisers, they only want INTERESTED people to visit their
web site – candidates likely to buy their products or
services. If they sell fly-fishing gear, they don’t want
people who are primarily interested in reclining chairs to be
clicking on their ads - which costs them money per click - then
declining to buy anything when they visit their site. It’s
important to the advertisers, therefore, that their ads get
shown ONLY to people clearly interested in their type of
product.
So naturally, Google aims to show their ad only to people
who search on words or phrases (keywords) associated with the
advertiser’s products. When you search on Google, you’ll see
these ads – called Adwords – on the right hand side of the
results screen, and you’ll notice they mostly relate very
closely to the subject matter of your search. The ad might even
include the keyword you searched on, in the headline or one of
the text lines of the ad.
Google Ads on Your Website =
Adsense
Well, you can take this to another level; in addition to
searching on Google’s search engine, where else can an
advertiser be confident of finding people interested in their
products?
Of course … visitors to web sites that focus on the relevant
topic. For example, people who visit websites on fly-fishing
are likely to be candidates to buy books and videos on
fly-fishing, to buy rods and reels and lines and flies and
clothing and fly-tying equipment and supplies and … you see the
picture, I’m sure.
So Google developed a program called Adsense where a web
site owner lets Google place topic-relevant Adword ads on their
web site, and in return Google shares the pay-per-click
fee with the owner of the website every time a visitor clicks
on an Adwords ad.
For example, on one page of one website I own, I’ve earned
about $12 so far today (as I write this) from this type of
arrangement; the lowest value share-of-a-click contributed
$0.07, the highest contributed $2.87.
This may not seem much except if this was consistent, it’s a
car payment every month, or a hefty student loan repayment
every month, from just that one site (many sites do less than
this, to be fair). But now ... when you consider that some
people have literally hundreds of sites doing this,
with hundreds or even thousands of pages on each site … you can
see how it can add up to serious money. I don't want to give
you the wrong impression though; like everyone else in
this business, I have many, many pages on those same sites that
haven’t generated a single cent in weeks. In fact, the majority
of pages on my sites generate very little.
This Is A Game That Anyone
Can Play!
So ... who can do this?
It’s simple. Anyone with an appropriate web site or a
Blog.
“Appropriate” meaning, Google have some standards of
morality they apply to this. And, if you have a website on a
topic where no-one is willing to pay to run an ad ... then
there won’t be any Google Adwords ads to appear on your page,
and no-one will be clicking and making you money. For example,
I just performed a Google search on "sculpting with toe jam."
I'm not too astonished to discover that there are no Adwords
ads campaigns associated with that keyword (the whole
phrase is termed a "keyword," by the way). So I could build the
most incredible website, jam packed (sorry) with practical
hints and tips and photographs on sculpting with toe jam, the
correct equipment to use, etc and no ads would show. My Adsense
income would be zilch.
On the other hand, I see from www.pixelfast.com/overture (key in the
phrase in the top left-hand box, then enter the "code" that
tells Overture you're not a robot, and you'll see what I
mean) that the Overture Pay-Per-Click maximum bid for toe
fungus is (at the moment) in the 60 cent range. Google's
maximum bid will probably be higher. The chances are
that I could build a web site on the topic of toe fungus,
and make money from Adsense!
Just Ask And (Usually) You Shall
Receive
As a web-site owner or a Blog owner (you DO have to have the
site or the Blog first, in order to apply), all you have to do
is apply to Google. It takes about 5 minutes to give them the
information they want. Then you wait ... and if you’re
approved, you’ll get an e-mail from them within a couple of
days. If you’re not approved (which seems to be a rare event
these days) you can tweak your site or your Blog then re-apply.
Your previous rejection doesn't seem to count against you.
Once approved, you log-in to your Google account, and
tell Google which type of ads you want to run (blocks of ads
can be in a tall skinny column, for example, or a small
rectangle, or a large rectangle; you can choose to have just
text ads or image ads, of different sizes, too). You also tell
Google what colors you want to use for the text in the ads, the
background against which the text will be displayed, and the
borders around the ads. When you’ve finished, Google spits out
a snippet of “code,” you cut-and-paste it onto your web pages
or Blog template, and that’s it. Google visits the website or
Blog where you place Adsense, decides what the “theme” is
of your web page or Blog page, and whenever someone views the
page, Google places the appropriate type of adverts where you
placed the code.
For example, on a page about fishing lures on a website
about fishing, you’ll probably gets ads inviting you to click
to visit a website selling fishing lures; or perhaps less
specifically you’ll get ads relating to other fishing
equipment, or fishing clothing, fishing trips, fishing books,
etc. They call this contextual advertising, for obvious
reasons.
Now, Google doesn’t always get it right; sometimes there are
mixed messages on a page and it comes up with inappropriate
ads, sometimes there simply aren’t any ads relating to what it
sees as the theme of the page ... but generally speaking it
does pretty well. And the feedback I hear is that Google is
still head and shoulders above Yahoo in this regard.
Adsense Without Traffic Is Like
Fish Without Chips
So, that's the Adsense side of the story; but there is
one additional ingredient in the recipe, and it's a
doozy. In addition to a website or a Blog, and the Adsense
code, you need to have visitors; the more traffic, the
more clicks; the more clicks, the more Adsense money you
make.
Lack of traffic is the single biggest cause of low income
for Internet Marketers. I go into the whole issue of getting
traffic to your site on the page devoted to Content Rich sites,
and the page dedicated to "Tools of the Trade."
But that’s it. Adsense Ads + interested traffic = money
in your pocket.
Except, beyond the basics, there is a LOT of room for
refinement here. And the refinement can make 200%, 300% or more
difference in your income from Adsense. This is not
trivial!
For example, you naturally want to choose a website theme or
Blog theme that attracts ads with a significant value per
click. You will want to lay-out your pages to make the ads
generate a much higher click-through rate. You should choose
color schemes and ad formats that increase click-through
rates.
You might also think you could also use headlines associated
with huge arrows pointing to the ads and saying “click here and
I’ll love you for ever” but ... not too surprisingly, Google is
less than happy with any overt encouragements to click; if they
catch you, they’ll warn you once, if you don’t respond, your
Adsense account is likely to be suspended.
How Do You Know Which Keywords
Carry Big Bucks?
It’s in the areas of refinement that you can start spending
money.
For example ... how do you know which are the keywords with
the big dollars attached? If you go to the Pixel/Overture site and key in a
search term such as “dog training” (then key-in the code
they’ll give you) you’ll see that a Pay-Per-Click search
engine called Overture has maximum bids in the $5 range (at
the time of writing), 2nd bid in the $2 range, etc. The
chances are, Google Adwords bids will be higher
because Google commands a much higher audience. Now, search
instead on the term “dog photos” and you’ll probably find
ads with a much lower max bid, because advertisers don’t see
a solid sales opportunity in people searching for dog
photos.
So if you have a word in mind, you can easily get some sense
of whether there’s value in it.
But ... that's fine to check a keyword you already have in
mind. But how do you know WHICH words to look for, to begin
with? This is where you can start spending your money.
You can always guess, of course; what’s popular? Xbox? Check
with Overture .... yep, max bids in the $3 range. Ipods? Not as
pricey but OK. Try mortgage broker ... or health insurance.
You’ll find very healthy max bids, in the $5 range.
Sideline: By the way ... we check with
Overture, even though we're more interested in Google, and even
though Google will be different, because Google simply doesn't
make their bid data readily available. So we use Overture to
get a good idea of what's going on. However ... there is ONE
piece of software that CAN find Google bids, as you'll see in a
second.
So you COULD guess but instead ... there’s a beautiful
new piece of software call Adsense Dominator that gives you
more than 100,000 keywords with their Adwords maximum bids. And
a lot more information besides, aimed at helping you find
topics where you have a better chance of getting traffic from
the free Search Engines. If you’re serious about the Adsense
opportunity, after reading the 3 specific opportunity pages
I’ll point to in a minute, then take a serious look at this
software.
How Do You Squeeze The Most From
An Adsense Page?
Still on the separate-you-from-your-money theme, you can buy
an excellent eBook by a chap called Joel
Comm, called “What Google never told you about making money
with Adsense.” Joel is generally acknowledged as THE expert
in squeezing Adsense dollars from a web page and website,
and this is generally acknowledged to be THE book. It’s well
written and filled with valuable know-how; it’s worth
buying, I recovered my investment in about 3 days.
Give Yourself A Pay Raise Every
Day ... By Tracking
You’ll also find that if you get serious about Adsense
income it’s worth buying some software to track every ad on
every page of every web site. Google does some tracking for
you; but it's not good enough for you to optimize your pages
and sites effectively. When you track comprehensively, you’ll
find the pattern of clicking leads you to some “optimization”
techniques that can make a major difference in the number of
clicks you’re getting. Joel explains it all in his book, and I
trusted him and bought Adsense Gold to do the tracking ... he’s
right, a) it works like a charm, b) it pays for itself in
next to no time (but only if you’re seriously into this
game).
OK, now it’s time to repeat ... there are 3 most common
ways of gaining Adsense income, and I have a page set up for
each of these to dive into the details..
- Adsense on a Content-Rich theme site. Build a
content-rich theme site on a relevant topic, and put
Adsense on all appropriate pages. Incidentally, you do NOT
have to write the content yourself!
- Adsense on a Blog. Start a Blog, and put Adsense in the
template so it appears on all pages. Again, there are ways
around having to write the content yourself.
- Adsense on sites generated by software. If the above
still seems a bit too much like hard work, or else if you
want to make a serious run at some serious money ... use
some software that will, in minutes, generate a web site
with hundreds, even thousands, of web pages suitable for
Adsense ads. But be aware! You are engaged in a bit of a
battle with the Search Engines if you take this route, and
can even find yourself moving towards what’s called “Black
Hat” techniques!
Finally, if you already have a site and want
to apply for Adsense and make some very easy money
...
click below; it’ll take you directly to the simple application
page.
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