Google AdSense is an advertising program that allows you to place advertisements on your website, blog, or YouTube videos and earn money when visitors click on them. The ads are generated by businesses that use Google’s AdWords program, which you feed onto your blog or website using a special AdSense code.
Because it is so popular, the Google AdSense program can be one of the quickest ways to generate income for new websites or blogs.
Pros and Cons of Making Money With Google AdSense
The Google AdSense program offers several significant benefits, including:
1. It is completely free to join.
2. Because the eligibility requirements are simple, you can monetize your website or blog even if it is new.
3. There are numerous ad options available, many of which can be customized to match the look and feel of your site.
4. If you reach the $100 threshold, Google will pay you monthly via direct deposit.
5. You can use one AdSense account to run ads on multiple websites.
6. There are options for running advertisements on mobile devices and RSS feeds.
7. You can easily add it to your Blogger and YouTube accounts; however, to run AdSense on your videos on YouTube, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time.
However, there are a few disadvantages to using AdSense:
- Google has the ability to terminate your account in an instant, and it is not very forgiving if you violate the rules.
- To make money online, you need traffic, just like any other form of income.
- When people click on an AdSense ad, you make money, but they also leave your site, which means you miss out on making money with higher-paying affiliate products or your own products and services.
- It may or may not pay more than other similar ad programs.
AdSense is a great way to monetize your site, but it’s not a get-rich-quick or make-money-doing-nothing scheme. Furthermore, Google has rules that some bloggers appear to overlook when reviewing the terms of service. As a result, many website owners discovered the hard way that they had violated a Google policy and had their accounts permanently suspended.
Types of AdSense Ads
Google provides several ad types to run on your website, including:
- Images: Image ads are graphic advertisements. They are available in a variety of sizes. You can select an ad feed that includes both text and image ads.
- Rich Media: These are interactive advertisement formats that can include HTML, video, and flash.
- Text: Text ads use words and come in a variety of sizes, either as an Ad Unit (one offer) or a Link Unit (list of offers). The color of the box, text, and link can all be changed.
- Video
- Animated Image
- AdSense for Search: You can now include a Google search box on your website or blog. When a user enters a term and performs a search, a search results page with AdSense ads appears. You can change the color scheme of the search results page to match your website.
Google AdSense Payments
Google pays you via direct deposit or checks once your earnings reach or exceed $100 per month. If you do not earn $100 in a given month, your earnings roll over and are added to the following month. When you reach the $100 threshold, Google will pay you on the next payment period. You can view your current earnings, which ads are generating the most clicks and other useful information in your AdSense account.
Making Money With AdSense
Making a significant amount of money with AdSense necessitates a strategy. Here are some pointers for increasing AdSense revenue:
- Use honest, organic traffic-building website marketing techniques: Search engine optimization and article marketing can help you get free traffic to your website.
- Read and adhere to Google’s rules: Webmasters are required to follow Google’s webmaster policies as well as the AdSense program policy.
- Have a leaderboard ad below your header/logo: Rather than placing an ad at the top of the page, place it near your logo, where it is more likely to be noticed.
- Test ad types and placement to find the options that lead to the most income: Begin with standard sizes (300250, 72890, and 160600), then alternate between them to see if one size results in more clicks than another.
- Have great content your target market wants to read: Ultimately, money is made by providing valuable content and quality traffic to your blog or website, whether through AdSense or other monetization methods.
- Don’t click on your own ads or ask others to click on them: Incentives for clicks, the purchase of Pay Per Click (PPC) space, or the use of a program designed to drive traffic to AdSense pages are all prohibited. Remember that Google isn’t very forgiving when it comes to breaking the rules, so make sure you follow them.
- Max out your ad placement: Each page allows for three standard ad placements. Use them all to get the most out of them.
- Make sure your website/blog is optimized for mobile (responsive): People use mobile devices in large numbers. Also, ensure that you’re using responsive ads so that Google can send appropriate ad sizes to mobile devices that visit your site.
- Have ads above the fold: This is the part of your page that can be viewed without scrolling.
- Include in-content ads for visibility: This means including ads within your articles, which can increase clicks because they are visible while reading the post.
- Monitor your results: Google can be overwhelming in terms of tools and feedback, but do your best to analyze your data to see what it says about your results so that you can make the most of your time and effort.
- Read email from Google: This is especially important if Google is sending you a warning about something on your site that it doesn’t like. Failure to respond to Google’s complaints will result in program termination.
Advanced AdSense Tips
Once you’ve got ads running on your site, you’ll want to make the most of your AdSense program. When you’re ready to increase your AdSense earnings, consider the following suggestions:
- Enable placement targeting: Advertisers can now choose where their ads appear.
- Run experiments: AdSense allows you to A/B test your ads.
- Set up custom channels: This gives you a better idea of what is and isn’t working to generate revenue on your site.
- Experiment with link and box colors: If your colors match your theme, experiment with different combinations to see how they affect results.
Other Programs Besides AdSense
Media.net and InfoLinks are two ad network programs similar to AdSense. Some may require a traffic threshold, so you should wait until your website is established and receives regular traffic before applying.
Most have similar rules to Google, such as limiting the number of network ads per page (usually three) and terminating you if you click your own ads. You can run multiple ad networks on your site without violating the terms of service in most cases, but you should read the rules of each network before doing so. Furthermore, you don’t want your site to become so cluttered with ads that your readers can’t find the content.
Other Income Options Besides Ad Networks
Ad networks, particularly AdSense, are excellent choices because they are free to join as a new blogger or website owner and are simple to use. They are, however, not the only ways to monetize your website. In fact, as your site’s traffic grows, other monetization methods may be preferable. Here are some other ways to make money that you can use instead of or in addition to ad networks.
- Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate programs, like ad networks, are usually free to join and simple to integrate into your website.
- Coaching or Consulting: You’re in a good position to help people beyond the information on your website or blog because you’re an expert in your field. Coaching or consulting can provide more in-depth assistance.
- Sell Your Own Product or Service: Creating your own product or service, rather than promoting someone else’s through affiliate marketing, can earn you much more money. This is especially true for low-cost information products or online courses. Ebooks and freelance services are two other options.
- Sponsors: Other companies will pay to sponsor your website if you have a lot of traffic and influence over your audience. They can sponsor your entire website or just a specific page or post.
As you can see, there are numerous ways to monetize a website or blog. However, many require a significant amount of traffic before you can make money. AdSense is a good starting monetization option in this case. You don’t need to create anything; you can join the day you start your blog or website; it’s free, and adding the ad code to your website is simple.
