Incase you are new to Adsense, I will briefly highlight some of its finer points.
Adsense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site
content. Every time someone sees an advertisement on your website and clicks on it, you will make
money. Sometimes it's only a few cents. Sometimes it's a few dollars. It all depends
on the individual ad.
Adsense is considered a very powerful tool to many website owners. If you go to
most websites/blogs these days, you will see Adsense ad blocks incorporated
somewhere on the page. Did you know that there are many people that make a full
time living from Adsense alone?
Adsense makes it pretty easy for you to start earning revenue from every page on
your website almost instantly. "If you can copy and paste you can put Adsense on
your website". As with any good tool, Adsense has the power to help you generate a
very nice income when it is used properly.
Let's start off by taking the time to get to know Google Adsense and learn how to
use it properly. You would be surprised how many people skip this part and then
they are literally shocked when they don't make any money!
If you take a little time to become familiar with the program it will greatly benefit
you in the long run, by helping you maximize your earnings. In this course I am
going to cover the basic points that you need to start using Adsense and making
money with it. Google wants you to be successful in your
Adsense endeavours, so they have made it as easy as possible for you by putting up
several tutorials to help you get started.
They will teach you all about Adsense for content and search. They have great case
studies, optimization tips a blog and a forum where you can
learn what works, what
doesn't and get help if you need it. They provide all of this for free so why not take
advantage of it. So, let’s set the ball rolling:
Lesson 1:
In this lesson we will talk about building web pages with good content and why they
are an important part of making money with Adsense.
This lesson assumes that you already have a website or at least a basic theme in
mind for your Adsense pages. There are two ways that you can get started using
Adsense. The first and easiest way is to put Adsense ads on existing pages that you already have in place. You can do this by following the steps inside your account under the "Adsense Setup" tab.
With this method you can start earning money with Adsense fairly quickly. In fact
you'll be amazed at the results you will be able to achieve in a very short period of
time. The second method will take a little more time.
You will be building web pages specifically for Adsense ads. These pages will be built
with high paying keywords and high quality content.
Start by doing a keyword search to find some popular subjects, keywords or phrases
related to the theme of your website. Select the ones that have highest number of
searches. This means that more people are typing these terms into the search
engines. The higher the number, the better.
There are many tools that you can use to find profitable keywords and phrases. For
quick and easy results I like to use the keyword selector tool at Yahoo Search
Marketing. It will give you a count of how many times any keyword has been searched for in the last 30 days. Remember the higher the better!
Now start writing articles with original content based on the keywords from your
search. If you aren't a writer don't worry. There are many ways that you can get
content for your site. You can use private label articles that you purchase, or hire a
ghostwriter from a site like eLance.com or freelancer.com.
Once you have the content ready you can start building web pages around the
articles that include your Adsense blocks.
Lesson 2:
In this lesson we will go over the layout for your pages and why they are a key part
of your Adsense earnings.
With Adsense you can place up to 3 ad blocks on your web page. You will find
different theories on whether or not, it is most effective to have your ads blend in
with or stand out from the content on your page. While some would say they have
better results when the ads stand out, in my opinion it is best to try and make them
blend in with the rest of the site as much as possible so that your visitors will see
them as content rather than advertisements.
Try mixing the ad blocks throughout your content to create a natural flow through
the page. The proper positioning of your ads should be done with great care. The
goal is to position your ads where your visitors are most likely to click on them.
According to research, the first place most people look when they visit a website is to
the top left of the page. Although it may seem to be a good idea to add bright borders, colours or links to make your ads pop out on the page you will want to take in to consideration what your visitors are looking for, when they come to your site. If they are there looking for information or a solution to a problem, they would be more likely to click through on a link that appears to be content rather than one that looks like an ad. If they are there shopping for a product you may do better to have your ads stand out. Key lesson here is...
“Always keep your visitor in mind when you are building your pages”.
Google has run tests that show horizontal ads tend to receive more clicks than
vertical ones. The idea being that a person is more used to reading horizontally. So
they are more likely to be attracted to this layout. The larger rectangular ads that
read horizontally have been proven to get more clicks simply because they are easier
to read and look more like blocks of content rather than advertisements.
Another tip for ad placement: There are certain areas to place ads that are thought
to be more likely to encourage a greater click - through than others. For instance:
above the page footer, below the navigation at the top of the page and on the top
left hand side of the page.
Keep in mind that near the middle above the main content is thought by many to be
best place to put your ad blocks.
Let's say that you have 3 ad blocks on your page, but still want more. What can you
do? Here comes Google's link units to the rescue. You are allowed to add these in
addition to standard 3 ad blocks without breaking any of the Adsense rules. These
link units are a great way to incorporate ads that can look like they are a natural part
of your sites navigation menus, but when they are clicked on they take the reader to
a page of targeted ads that are related to the topic of your site.
I know this is a lot to think about, but it is very important to take the time to think
about your page layout. If you get stuck for ideas just start surfing. See what other
sites are doing. Where they are putting their ads. You will get some great ideas!
Lesson 3:
Incorporating Google Search on your pages for extra revenue:
The Adsense for Search program is a great way of increasing your website revenue
while helping your customers search your site at the same time.
Tell me....
Have you ever been to a website and seen a Google search box on it?
Did you know that every time you type in a search from someone else's site and
then click on one of the results that are returned, the website owner is getting paid
by Google? Think about that for a minute. By using Adsense for Search you can
actually get paid for giving people exactly what they are looking for!
This makes Adsense for Search a very powerful tool that you can use to increase
your Adsense income. Not only does it add more functionality to your site, it also
ensures you that you are giving visitors to your website precisely what they are
looking for. But it doesn't stop there. You can use it in conjunction with Adsense for
Content and you can include ad blocks that will be targeted to your visitors search
term on your search results page. These ads are gold because they will be relevant
to whatever your visitor types in the search box not just to the content of your web
pages.
Are you beginning to see the power of adding a Google search box to your website?
Adding the Google search box to your website is very simple. Google has complete
instructions on their website. All you have to do is copy and paste to code that
Google provides you with into your HTML wherever you want it to show up on your
page. Then you customize the search results page to suit your website’s theme,
include your Adsense ad blocks and you are all done.
Lesson 4:
Google Adsense has many ways that they filter the ads that are shown on your
website. It is a good idea for you to become familiar with each of them so that you
can have a better understanding of how the ads are displayed on your site.
Why is this so important?
Because, if you know how the filters work, you will be better able to edit the content
on your site to get the highest quality of ads on your pages. The higher the quality of
the ad, the bigger the payout on your click through's.
Say for instance you discover a high paying keyword like "quick cash" that you want
to target your Google ads to, but Adsense keeps displaying ads that aren't exactly
what you were hoping for.
Then you know it's time to tweak your pages to make sure that the keyword that you
are targeting is repeated enough in the text so Adsense will display the highest
quality ad on your page. It takes some time and experimenting, but once you
understand how the filters work it will make your job easier.
Google has also provided a handy little filter called the.... "Competitive Ad Filter"
You can use it to keep certain ads from showing up on your site.
Adsense will actually allow you to specify competitors or advertisers whose ads
should not be displayed on your page. How great is that? Let's say you are selling a
specific product from the page where your ad blocks are displayed. The last thing
you want is someone selling the same thing to advertise on that page.
Keep in mind:
Although these filters are great tools that you can use to help boost your earnings be careful not to filter everything or you may end up losing money by missing out on
relevant ads that get filtered out.
If you want to learn even more about filters you can log in to your Adsense account
and click on the help link at the top of the page. Then type in "Filtering Ads". It will
bring up a list of different topics related to filters. It's important to learn how to use
them effectively so that you can achieve maximum results.
Lesson 5:
Let's talk about getting traffic and tracking it to improve your results.
Really, there is no way I can go into every aspect of getting traffic to your
site and converting it to clicks, but what I can do it go over the basics with you and
hopefully give you some ideas that you can use.
There are many different strategies that you can use to make sure you squeeze the
maximum amount of profits out of the Adsense program.
Most importantly is traffic generation. Since the revenue that you generate from
Adsense is based on the cost per click (CPC) and cost per thousand impressions
(CPM) It stands to reason that the more traffic you have to your website, the better
your chances are of achieving higher click through rates and making more money;
which I assume is your ultimate goal!
Getting traffic can be a challenge to any webmaster. Here is a brief list of some of
the different methods that you can use:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Traffic exchange programmes- Link exchange
programmes - Writing and submitting articles to directories - Pay per click programmes -
Blogs, weblogs or online forums - Email marketing.
Once you start getting traffic you want to do everything you can to convert that
traffic in to clicks on your Adsense ads. Like we discussed in lesson one, a well laid -
out web page with good content is the best place to start. It will help keep your
website visitors interested and they will be more apt to stay longer, come back often
and click on your ads more.
There are other tips and tricks that you can use to get people to click on your ads.
Like adding pictures that are related to that type of ads that you are showing to draw
more attention to the ads, but make sure that you adhere to the Adsense terms.
You cannot use pictures of people looking or pointing to the ads or in any way
indicating that people should click on the ads. The best thing you can do is make
sure the graphics incorporate nicely into the site design in a way that will enhance
the ads without shouting out "CLICK ME".
Lesson 6:
Do you remember in the beginning of this course when I said that Adsense wants
you to be successful with their program?
Well it's true! They have provided you with most of the tools you will need to make
your Adsense business a success.
Tools like the reports you can use to track the performance of your ads. You will find
all of the stats from your campaigns under the reports tab inside your Adsense
account. There you will be able to learn things like the total number of clicks and
impressions for all of your ad units\blocks. You will also be able to view your
effective CPM (cost per thousand impressions).
Let me take a minute to clarify CTR's and CPM's for you.
The CTR (click through rate) for Adsense is the total number of clicks that you
receive for your ad units\blocks. It's broken down by individual ad units. The number
of clicks is then divided by the total number impressions for that unit to return your
CTR. The higher your CTR's the more revenue for you.
The CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) effective CPM is calculated by dividing your
earnings by the total number of page impressions that you receive, and then
multiplying the final figure by 1000. Be careful not to confuse your effective CPM
with your earnings. Effective CPM is generally used for testing various channels to
find out which ones are performing the best. If you need to know more about CTR's
and CPM's login to your account and check out the help files.
The reports can be displayed in different ways. You can view them by the day,
week, month or since your last pay check. You can also search for a specific date
range. You can customize the reports for advanced performance and tracking by
setting up different channels for more in - depth results. For instance you can set up
channels to test one page against another, one ad format verses another, keywords,
or even whole websites to see which one performs the best. There are so many
options available with channels that we can't go into them all, but I'm sure you get
the idea! Adsense usually updates the stats every hour, so you can be pretty sure that you are getting up to date reports.
Lesson 7:
In this final lesson I want to share with you some extra tips for getting the best
results from your Adsense endeavours:
1) When you are running an Ad Sense campaign, it is important to make sure that
you are testing all of the different possibilities to make sure that you are getting the
highest click through rate. Try to test different layouts on different pages to see what
works the best. To achieve proper result from your test it is important to use pages
that receive similar amounts of traffic.
2) Although testing is necessary, there are certain areas for your ads that are thought
to be more likely to encourage a higher CTR's than others. For instance, above the
page footer, below the header or navigation bar or on the top left hand side of your
page are thought to be very good. Typically the area in the middle above the main
content is thought to be best.
3) Take the time to provide quality content and make regular updates to your site to
help ensure you have steady flow of traffic to your website. This will help you receive
more ad impressions and more clicks.
4) Keep in mind that visitors can enter your website through a number of different
pages. So it is a good idea to incorporate Adsense on as many pages of your website
as possible. This will increase your overall impressions and hopefully your earnings.
5) Be sure to test the shape, size and colour of your ad blocks. You can control and
customize every aspect of the ads so that they blend in with or stand out from the
rest of the content on your website.
6) Test the positioning of your ad blocks to help ensure maximum click through rates.
Test different positions on different pages to see which layout achieves the highest
CTR. This will help you discover which areas of your pages that your visitors are
attracted to. Finding the proper position for your ad blocks will be a key factor in
your overall earnings.
7) Using different ad formats will provide different results for different websites. For
Instance, in most cases the wider ad formats like the large rectangles have been
proven to yield a higher CTR and be more effective than the slimmer skyscrapers
and banner formats. However, this may not be the case for your website - that is
why it is so important to test your results.
8) When you are trying to target specific keyword to attract a higher quality Google
ad for your site, make sure that the keyword is repeated enough in the page so that
Adsense knows exactly what the page is about. Be careful though. You want to make
sure that the content still makes sense and is useful. Remember Google takes many
different aspects into consideration while serving ads.
9) When Google has no ads to display on your site, they will automatically show PSA's
(Public Service Ads). If you don't want the PSA's to show on your site you can choose
to have the ad block filled in with a solid colour, your own graphic or use the
Collapsing ad units code instead.
10) Don't panic if you don't see any ads displaying on your new pages. It can take a
few hours before Google’s web crawlers find pages that have Adsense code on them.
You might see some PSA's at first but these will soon get replaced with targeted
Adsense ads that will earn revenue for you. If you continue to see PSA's after the
first day or two, you may want to make sure you didn't violate any of the Adsense
program’s policies.
I hope you have enjoyed and learned a lot from these lessons. There is so much
information available about Google Adsense and although, I couldn't cover everything
in this report, I hope I have given you enough information to get you started in
the right direction.
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