What is Google Ad-Sense, Really?
Let's take a look exactly what Google Ad-Sense is and what it is all about. Ad-Sense is a program for webmasters which was implemented by the famous Google some year ago.
Essentially, a webmaster ( a person who owns and builds one or more websites or blogs ) Sign up for an account with the program, and once they are approved, they paste the Google Ad-Sense code into the pages on their websites or blogs.
Google then start serving ads to those websites or blogs, based on the keywords that it finds in the text of the page. When a visitor click on one of those ads, webmaster earns money - usually a few cents for each click. However, when a site has a great deal of traffic, and the webmaster knows which keywords are the more profitable to target, there is a lot of money to be made.
It sounds simple enough, but it's not really that easy. First you have to be approved - Google is picky. The good news is that once one site or blog is approved, you have a Google Ad-Sense account, and you do not have to seek Google's approval to use Ad-Sense on any other site/blog that you own.
Once you are approved, you have to know which keywords to target – the ones that will make you the most amount of money per click, and how to write (or have written for you) content that draws those high paying ads. Often, this is the hardest part for what are known as ‘Ad-Sense publishers.’ When we get into this, the secrets will start unfolding.
Finally, you have to learn how to drive traffic to your Ad-Sense site. Without the traffic, you won’t get any clicks, and without clicks, you won’t be earning any money.
This is the second hardest part of being an Ad-Sense publisher. There really aren't any secrets here – it is just a matter of learning to use some basic, proven site promotion techniques.
You may have heard gurus say that it isn't wise to build Google Ad-Sense sites anymore. If you haven’t heard this, there will come a point when you will. But that really isn't true. In fact, there are thousands of people just like you that are making very nice livings from the Google Ad-Sense program.
Usually when a guru says that you should not use Google Ad-Sense, they generally mean that you are better off not using it when you are promoting your own product, and your website is tightly focused on that product. However, you can use Google Ad-Sense for a site that was built specifically for the Ad-Sense program, or on sites that you are using to promote affiliate products as well.
You should also note that many successful Ad-Sense publishers have more than one website. They typically have numerous websites, on a variety of topics on which they display the Google ads. However, there are also those that simply have one high traffic website, from which they earn revenue from the Ad-Sense program.
Regardless of this, all Ad-Sense publishers start with just one website, and grow from there, and this is what you will be doing as well.
Preparing To Set Up an Ad-Sense Account ?
The hardest part of getting started with Ad-Sense is getting Google to approve your website. In fact, for many, it is easier to get a $100,000 bank loan than it is to get a free Google Ad-Sense account. The key is to be prepared before you apply.
You cannot start using Google Ad-Sense on your pages until you are approved. This means that you must prepare to open an account, before you apply for an account.
The very first thing you must do is read Google’s Terms of Service (TOS). If your site doesn't fall within the guidelines that Google sets out, it will be denied. Furthermore, even after you are approved and you start running Google ads on your site, if you break the TOS, you will be removed, and possibly banned, from the program.
Specifically, what you are looking for is the Program policies, which can be found at http://adsense.google.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on Program Policies. The first thing to note is that Google will not accept any site that is not complete.
This means that you cannot have any pages that are ‘under construction.’ All of the pages must be complete, and all of the links must be working correctly. Make sure that all of your graphics are also appearing correctly, because even a broken graphic can prevent you from getting approved.
Google also has a set of Quality Guidelines that must be adhered to before you can be approved. These guidelines, along with the program policies, will tell you exactly what you cannot have on your site, and what is expected of you and your site in terms of meeting the qualifications for a Google Ad-Sense account.
One mistake that so many would-be Ad-Sense publishers make is not reading the TOS, the Program Policies, and the guidelines. Google lays these out in very specific terms, so there is no doubt as to the rules. They are also very serious about these rules.
Often, people skip this step in the preparation – reading the rules – work hard to build a site, only to be disapproved by Google, or to be approved, but then banned from the program later.
Don’t let this happen to you. These are rules that you must not only adhere to for approval, but must continue to adhere to in order to stay in the program. You don’t want to spend days and weeks building sites only to get kicked out of the program later. Google is very serious about this.
Once you've read the rules, and you understand them, the next part of preparation is doing research to find out which topics will be the most profitable for you, and getting the site built. We will cover these topics in more depth in a later article, but for now, you just need a website that will be approved by Google.
Remember that you only have to get approved for one site in order to get in the program, and from there on, you can publish as many sites as you want, on a wide variety of topics, and use Google Ad-Sense on them, from the one account that you have been approved for.
While many just put up a website that will meet Google’s standards, without doing any research in order to get approved, you could also take a little longer, and go ahead and build a site that you can use to target the high paying keywords.
This is totally up to you, and it really doesn't matter much which direction you go, as long as the site will get you approved for a Google Ad-Sense account.
Applying For a Google Ad-Sense Account ?
Once you are prepared to apply for a Google Ad-Sense account, it is as simple as filling out a form. But there are some aspects of that form that can be a bit confusing.
Here, we will go over filling out the form, so that Google will approve you without any problems. You can find the form to apply for an AdSense account at:
The first thing that the form asks for is the URL of your website. Note that even if you have multiple sites, Google only wants to see one. So, list the URL of the site that you have set up for the purpose of being approved for Google Ad-Sense, and enter the URL like this: www.yourdomain.com.
You do not have to include the http:// part of the URL, and don’t include any sub pages of the URL, such as www.mydomain.com/mypage.html. Google wants to see the main page of the site, at the top level domain.
Next, Google wants to know what language your site is published in. If your site supports multiple languages, this is fine, but this isn’t what Google wants to know. They want to know the primary language of the site – this would be the language that you used to write the pages, such as English.
The next question on the form throws a lot of people into a tail spin. It asks if you are setting up an individual or business account.
Here is a way to simplify this question: If you do not have an office or business that currently has 20 or more employees, you are an individual. It doesn't matter what your future plans are. Next, select the country that you live in.
The following part of the form asks for your information: name, street address, city, and state. It is important to note that when Google pays you, the check will be made out to the name that you put here, and sent to the address that you put here. So, use the information that you need to use here in order to receive the check, and to cash or deposit the check.
After your name and address, Google wants your telephone number. They probably won’t call you, but sometimes they will, if there is a problem or a question. Give a good phone number where you can be reached. You do not have to provide a fax number.
Here, you can also choose to receive Google’s newsletter – or not. Choosing not to receive the newsletter will not have any affect on whether or not you are approved.
Product selection confuses many as well. Choose both: Ad-Sense for Content and Ad-Sense for Search. This means that you can run both, but don’t have to run both.
You can have Google ads appear on your pages (Ad-Sense for Content) and you can also include a Google search box on your pages (Ad-Sense for Search), and when people use those search boxes, and click on sponsored ads in the results, you get paid for those clicks as well.
Following this, there are five check boxes, all of which must be checked, before you can submit the application.
By checking these boxes, you are saying that you will not click on the ads on your pages, that you will not encourage visitors to click on your ads (incentives), that you are able to receive checks that are made out to you, that you will not place ads on pornographic sites, and that you have read the Ad-Sense program policies.
Finally, you submit the form, and prepare to wait. Your site will be checked by a live human being. Approval is manual, not automated, and it can take up to three business days (72 hours) before you hear from a Google representative. That contact usually comes via email
Choosing Your Ad-Sense Site Niche Topics ?
Now that you've built a site that has met Google’s approval, and you have a Google Ad-Sense account, you need to learn how the experts select topics for their Google Ad-Sense sites. Choosing the right topics is the difference between success and failure!
Let’s take a look at the various tools that you will use, and how you will use them. First, you need keyword research tools. You can find out what the top keywords that are being searched for are with a web based tools such as Word Tracker, at http://www.wordtracker.com. There is a fee for using this tool.
If you don’t want to use a fee based tool, you will have to do more manual work, and use a free tool such as the one found at Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) at http://www.overture.com.
When you get here, you would click on resources, and then on the Keyword Selector tool. You would have to type keywords in, and then the tool will tell you how many searches were performed for that keyword the previous month.
It is much faster and easier to use the fee based tool at Word Tracker, however. But finding the most frequently searched for keywords isn't enough. Once you have a good list of what people are searching for the most, the next step is to find out how profitable those keywords are.
Not all frequently searched for keywords are profitable, and if you hope to make a full time living with Google Ad-Sense, you need high paying keywords.
Now, before you rush out in search of a list of high paying keywords, note that even if there was such a list, it would constantly be changing, just as the list
of frequently searched for keywords changes. Furthermore, you don’t seriously believe that other Ad-Sense publishers are going to share such a list, if one even existed, do you? They wouldn't You have to find this information yourself.
Here is where having a Google Ad-Words account will come in handy. You can see what the advertisers are paying to get in the top position of the search results for their keywords. Simply log in to your free Google Ad-Words account, and click on ‘tools.’ Next, click on Keyword Tool.
Enter your keywords, and then in the drop down box below that, select ‘Cost and Ad Position Estimates.’ Type 5.00 in the last box, and hit ‘calculate.’ Now, Google will display possible keywords, based on the main keyword that you entered. Next to each keyword, you will see the estimated average CPC (cost per click) and the estimated position.
You want to view the CPC for the keywords that will fall into the top five on position, stated as 1 – 3 or 1 – 5. As of this writing, using the keyword phrase ‘weight loss’ you would see that the estimated CPC for hoodia weight loss is 3.43. Now, as an advertiser, that is what you would pay per click for an ad that is being run when that keyword phrase is searched for.
As a publisher, however, you would not make 3.43 per click. Google wants their share as well. Google doesn't state what percentage is earned by the publisher, however. It varies, and how that percentage is figured is Google’s secret, and they are not sharing that information!
You basically have to pull a percentage out of the air to work with. Try using 30% as a guide.
Once you start getting clicks, you can then look to see what the estimated CPC is in Ad-Words, and then see how much you were paid for that click in Ad-Sense to find out how much Google is paying you per click for that keyword. Again, this varies from one keyword to the next, so there are no set guidelines here.
Building Your Ad-Sense Sites in Step-by-Step ?
Once you've been approved for a Google Account, by building a site that Google would easily approve, and you've selected a high paying topic for your site, you are ready to get to work and build your first profitable Ad-Sense website.
If you have not already done so (you should have), you really need to go and read the program policies that Google has set, as well as their webmaster guidelines. This will help you to build a better site, and to avoid issues that can and will get you banned from the Google Ad-Sense program.
Your site should be full of content that uses your keywords. A keyword density of about 2 to 3% is great. This means that your keyword should be used approximately 2 to 3% of the time in your content. So, for a page that has 600 words of content, the keyword would appear twelve to eighteen times (600 x 2% or 600 x 3%).
There is more to it than targeting keywords. The content must be accurate. It must be readable and understandable by visitors. It must be unique.
You should use all of the search engine optimization techniques as possible when building your site. Not only will this attract the right ads, but it will also help your site to move up in the search results, for the purpose of driving traffic to your site.
You want your site to look nice, to be informative, and to load fast. You want it to attract the right ads. You do not want anything on your pages that will irritate your visitor, such as blinking, blinding text or music.
Make it a site that you would want to visit, and then ask an uninterested party, such as your neighbor (not your best friend or your mother) if it is a site that they would want to visit, if they were interested in the topic.
Now, you are ready to place the Ad-Sense code on your pages. Log in to your Ad-Sense account. Click on the Ad-Sense Set up tab at the top of the page. First, click on Channels, and set up a Channel for the topic of your site. This will come in handy later on, when you are analyzing which of your sites is pulling in the most money.
Next, click on palettes, and create a color palette that matches your site well. You want your Google ads to blend into your site. If they stand out like a sore thumb, they will get fewer clicks, simply because people really do try to avoid advertisements.
You want the ads to look like content on your site. Once you've set up a palette that matches your site, click on products. Choose Ad-Sense for content to create your ad units.
Here, you can choose ads that are enclosed in a box, or ads that are more free standing, but still just text links. It is a good idea to choose the link unit to add above or below your navigational links, and you can design your site navigation links to look just like the Google link units.
You can use the ad units (boxed in) on other sections of your site. Those who have been in the Google Ad-Sense game for a while have done years worth of testing on the topic of ad unit placement. Ideally, you will use ‘text ads only’ as your setting.
Then, place a skyscraper on one side of your page, and a rectangle ad unit at the top of your page.
Note that Google has limits as to how many Google ads can be used on your page! On one page, you may have three ad units, two search boxes, one link unit, and two referral units.
The hardest part of getting started with Ad-Sense is getting Google to approve your website. In fact, for many, it is easier to get a $100,000 bank loan than it is to get a free Google Ad-Sense account. The key is to be prepared before you apply.
You cannot start using Google Ad-Sense on your pages until you are approved. This means that you must prepare to open an account, before you apply for an account.
The very first thing you must do is read Google’s Terms of Service (TOS). If your site doesn't fall within the guidelines that Google sets out, it will be denied. Furthermore, even after you are approved and you start running Google ads on your site, if you break the TOS, you will be removed, and possibly banned, from the program.
Specifically, what you are looking for is the Program policies, which can be found at http://adsense.google.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on Program Policies. The first thing to note is that Google will not accept any site that is not complete.
This means that you cannot have any pages that are ‘under construction.’ All of the pages must be complete, and all of the links must be working correctly. Make sure that all of your graphics are also appearing correctly, because even a broken graphic can prevent you from getting approved.
Google also has a set of Quality Guidelines that must be adhered to before you can be approved. These guidelines, along with the program policies, will tell you exactly what you cannot have on your site, and what is expected of you and your site in terms of meeting the qualifications for a Google Ad-Sense account.
One mistake that so many would-be Ad-Sense publishers make is not reading the TOS, the Program Policies, and the guidelines. Google lays these out in very specific terms, so there is no doubt as to the rules. They are also very serious about these rules.
Often, people skip this step in the preparation – reading the rules – work hard to build a site, only to be disapproved by Google, or to be approved, but then banned from the program later.
Don’t let this happen to you. These are rules that you must not only adhere to for approval, but must continue to adhere to in order to stay in the program. You don’t want to spend days and weeks building sites only to get kicked out of the program later. Google is very serious about this.
Once you've read the rules, and you understand them, the next part of preparation is doing research to find out which topics will be the most profitable for you, and getting the site built. We will cover these topics in more depth in a later article, but for now, you just need a website that will be approved by Google.
Remember that you only have to get approved for one site in order to get in the program, and from there on, you can publish as many sites as you want, on a wide variety of topics, and use Google Ad-Sense on them, from the one account that you have been approved for.
While many just put up a website that will meet Google’s standards, without doing any research in order to get approved, you could also take a little longer, and go ahead and build a site that you can use to target the high paying keywords.
This is totally up to you, and it really doesn't matter much which direction you go, as long as the site will get you approved for a Google Ad-Sense account.
Applying For a Google Ad-Sense Account ?
Once you are prepared to apply for a Google Ad-Sense account, it is as simple as filling out a form. But there are some aspects of that form that can be a bit confusing.
Here, we will go over filling out the form, so that Google will approve you without any problems. You can find the form to apply for an AdSense account at:
The first thing that the form asks for is the URL of your website. Note that even if you have multiple sites, Google only wants to see one. So, list the URL of the site that you have set up for the purpose of being approved for Google Ad-Sense, and enter the URL like this: www.yourdomain.com.
You do not have to include the http:// part of the URL, and don’t include any sub pages of the URL, such as www.mydomain.com/mypage.html. Google wants to see the main page of the site, at the top level domain.
Next, Google wants to know what language your site is published in. If your site supports multiple languages, this is fine, but this isn’t what Google wants to know. They want to know the primary language of the site – this would be the language that you used to write the pages, such as English.
The next question on the form throws a lot of people into a tail spin. It asks if you are setting up an individual or business account.
Here is a way to simplify this question: If you do not have an office or business that currently has 20 or more employees, you are an individual. It doesn't matter what your future plans are. Next, select the country that you live in.
The following part of the form asks for your information: name, street address, city, and state. It is important to note that when Google pays you, the check will be made out to the name that you put here, and sent to the address that you put here. So, use the information that you need to use here in order to receive the check, and to cash or deposit the check.
After your name and address, Google wants your telephone number. They probably won’t call you, but sometimes they will, if there is a problem or a question. Give a good phone number where you can be reached. You do not have to provide a fax number.
Here, you can also choose to receive Google’s newsletter – or not. Choosing not to receive the newsletter will not have any affect on whether or not you are approved.
Product selection confuses many as well. Choose both: Ad-Sense for Content and Ad-Sense for Search. This means that you can run both, but don’t have to run both.
You can have Google ads appear on your pages (Ad-Sense for Content) and you can also include a Google search box on your pages (Ad-Sense for Search), and when people use those search boxes, and click on sponsored ads in the results, you get paid for those clicks as well.
Following this, there are five check boxes, all of which must be checked, before you can submit the application.
By checking these boxes, you are saying that you will not click on the ads on your pages, that you will not encourage visitors to click on your ads (incentives), that you are able to receive checks that are made out to you, that you will not place ads on pornographic sites, and that you have read the Ad-Sense program policies.
Finally, you submit the form, and prepare to wait. Your site will be checked by a live human being. Approval is manual, not automated, and it can take up to three business days (72 hours) before you hear from a Google representative. That contact usually comes via email
Choosing Your Ad-Sense Site Niche Topics ?
Now that you've built a site that has met Google’s approval, and you have a Google Ad-Sense account, you need to learn how the experts select topics for their Google Ad-Sense sites. Choosing the right topics is the difference between success and failure!
Let’s take a look at the various tools that you will use, and how you will use them. First, you need keyword research tools. You can find out what the top keywords that are being searched for are with a web based tools such as Word Tracker, at http://www.wordtracker.com. There is a fee for using this tool.
If you don’t want to use a fee based tool, you will have to do more manual work, and use a free tool such as the one found at Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) at http://www.overture.com.
When you get here, you would click on resources, and then on the Keyword Selector tool. You would have to type keywords in, and then the tool will tell you how many searches were performed for that keyword the previous month.
It is much faster and easier to use the fee based tool at Word Tracker, however. But finding the most frequently searched for keywords isn't enough. Once you have a good list of what people are searching for the most, the next step is to find out how profitable those keywords are.
Not all frequently searched for keywords are profitable, and if you hope to make a full time living with Google Ad-Sense, you need high paying keywords.
Now, before you rush out in search of a list of high paying keywords, note that even if there was such a list, it would constantly be changing, just as the list
of frequently searched for keywords changes. Furthermore, you don’t seriously believe that other Ad-Sense publishers are going to share such a list, if one even existed, do you? They wouldn't You have to find this information yourself.
Here is where having a Google Ad-Words account will come in handy. You can see what the advertisers are paying to get in the top position of the search results for their keywords. Simply log in to your free Google Ad-Words account, and click on ‘tools.’ Next, click on Keyword Tool.
Enter your keywords, and then in the drop down box below that, select ‘Cost and Ad Position Estimates.’ Type 5.00 in the last box, and hit ‘calculate.’ Now, Google will display possible keywords, based on the main keyword that you entered. Next to each keyword, you will see the estimated average CPC (cost per click) and the estimated position.
You want to view the CPC for the keywords that will fall into the top five on position, stated as 1 – 3 or 1 – 5. As of this writing, using the keyword phrase ‘weight loss’ you would see that the estimated CPC for hoodia weight loss is 3.43. Now, as an advertiser, that is what you would pay per click for an ad that is being run when that keyword phrase is searched for.
As a publisher, however, you would not make 3.43 per click. Google wants their share as well. Google doesn't state what percentage is earned by the publisher, however. It varies, and how that percentage is figured is Google’s secret, and they are not sharing that information!
You basically have to pull a percentage out of the air to work with. Try using 30% as a guide.
Once you start getting clicks, you can then look to see what the estimated CPC is in Ad-Words, and then see how much you were paid for that click in Ad-Sense to find out how much Google is paying you per click for that keyword. Again, this varies from one keyword to the next, so there are no set guidelines here.
Building Your Ad-Sense Sites in Step-by-Step ?
Once you've been approved for a Google Account, by building a site that Google would easily approve, and you've selected a high paying topic for your site, you are ready to get to work and build your first profitable Ad-Sense website.
If you have not already done so (you should have), you really need to go and read the program policies that Google has set, as well as their webmaster guidelines. This will help you to build a better site, and to avoid issues that can and will get you banned from the Google Ad-Sense program.
Your site should be full of content that uses your keywords. A keyword density of about 2 to 3% is great. This means that your keyword should be used approximately 2 to 3% of the time in your content. So, for a page that has 600 words of content, the keyword would appear twelve to eighteen times (600 x 2% or 600 x 3%).
There is more to it than targeting keywords. The content must be accurate. It must be readable and understandable by visitors. It must be unique.
You should use all of the search engine optimization techniques as possible when building your site. Not only will this attract the right ads, but it will also help your site to move up in the search results, for the purpose of driving traffic to your site.
You want your site to look nice, to be informative, and to load fast. You want it to attract the right ads. You do not want anything on your pages that will irritate your visitor, such as blinking, blinding text or music.
Make it a site that you would want to visit, and then ask an uninterested party, such as your neighbor (not your best friend or your mother) if it is a site that they would want to visit, if they were interested in the topic.
Now, you are ready to place the Ad-Sense code on your pages. Log in to your Ad-Sense account. Click on the Ad-Sense Set up tab at the top of the page. First, click on Channels, and set up a Channel for the topic of your site. This will come in handy later on, when you are analyzing which of your sites is pulling in the most money.
Next, click on palettes, and create a color palette that matches your site well. You want your Google ads to blend into your site. If they stand out like a sore thumb, they will get fewer clicks, simply because people really do try to avoid advertisements.
You want the ads to look like content on your site. Once you've set up a palette that matches your site, click on products. Choose Ad-Sense for content to create your ad units.
Here, you can choose ads that are enclosed in a box, or ads that are more free standing, but still just text links. It is a good idea to choose the link unit to add above or below your navigational links, and you can design your site navigation links to look just like the Google link units.
You can use the ad units (boxed in) on other sections of your site. Those who have been in the Google Ad-Sense game for a while have done years worth of testing on the topic of ad unit placement. Ideally, you will use ‘text ads only’ as your setting.
Then, place a skyscraper on one side of your page, and a rectangle ad unit at the top of your page.
Note that Google has limits as to how many Google ads can be used on your page! On one page, you may have three ad units, two search boxes, one link unit, and two referral units.
Once you are prepared to apply for a Google Ad-Sense account, it is as simple as filling out a form. But there are some aspects of that form that can be a bit confusing.
Here, we will go over filling out the form, so that Google will approve you without any problems. You can find the form to apply for an AdSense account at:
The first thing that the form asks for is the URL of your website. Note that even if you have multiple sites, Google only wants to see one. So, list the URL of the site that you have set up for the purpose of being approved for Google Ad-Sense, and enter the URL like this: www.yourdomain.com.
You do not have to include the http:// part of the URL, and don’t include any sub pages of the URL, such as www.mydomain.com/mypage.html. Google wants to see the main page of the site, at the top level domain.
Next, Google wants to know what language your site is published in. If your site supports multiple languages, this is fine, but this isn’t what Google wants to know. They want to know the primary language of the site – this would be the language that you used to write the pages, such as English.
The next question on the form throws a lot of people into a tail spin. It asks if you are setting up an individual or business account.
Here is a way to simplify this question: If you do not have an office or business that currently has 20 or more employees, you are an individual. It doesn't matter what your future plans are. Next, select the country that you live in.
The following part of the form asks for your information: name, street address, city, and state. It is important to note that when Google pays you, the check will be made out to the name that you put here, and sent to the address that you put here. So, use the information that you need to use here in order to receive the check, and to cash or deposit the check.
After your name and address, Google wants your telephone number. They probably won’t call you, but sometimes they will, if there is a problem or a question. Give a good phone number where you can be reached. You do not have to provide a fax number.
Here, you can also choose to receive Google’s newsletter – or not. Choosing not to receive the newsletter will not have any affect on whether or not you are approved.
Product selection confuses many as well. Choose both: Ad-Sense for Content and Ad-Sense for Search. This means that you can run both, but don’t have to run both.
You can have Google ads appear on your pages (Ad-Sense for Content) and you can also include a Google search box on your pages (Ad-Sense for Search), and when people use those search boxes, and click on sponsored ads in the results, you get paid for those clicks as well.
Following this, there are five check boxes, all of which must be checked, before you can submit the application.
By checking these boxes, you are saying that you will not click on the ads on your pages, that you will not encourage visitors to click on your ads (incentives), that you are able to receive checks that are made out to you, that you will not place ads on pornographic sites, and that you have read the Ad-Sense program policies.
Finally, you submit the form, and prepare to wait. Your site will be checked by a live human being. Approval is manual, not automated, and it can take up to three business days (72 hours) before you hear from a Google representative. That contact usually comes via email
Choosing Your Ad-Sense Site Niche Topics ?
Now that you've built a site that has met Google’s approval, and you have a Google Ad-Sense account, you need to learn how the experts select topics for their Google Ad-Sense sites. Choosing the right topics is the difference between success and failure!
Let’s take a look at the various tools that you will use, and how you will use them. First, you need keyword research tools. You can find out what the top keywords that are being searched for are with a web based tools such as Word Tracker, at http://www.wordtracker.com. There is a fee for using this tool.
If you don’t want to use a fee based tool, you will have to do more manual work, and use a free tool such as the one found at Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) at http://www.overture.com.
When you get here, you would click on resources, and then on the Keyword Selector tool. You would have to type keywords in, and then the tool will tell you how many searches were performed for that keyword the previous month.
It is much faster and easier to use the fee based tool at Word Tracker, however. But finding the most frequently searched for keywords isn't enough. Once you have a good list of what people are searching for the most, the next step is to find out how profitable those keywords are.
Not all frequently searched for keywords are profitable, and if you hope to make a full time living with Google Ad-Sense, you need high paying keywords.
Now, before you rush out in search of a list of high paying keywords, note that even if there was such a list, it would constantly be changing, just as the list
of frequently searched for keywords changes. Furthermore, you don’t seriously believe that other Ad-Sense publishers are going to share such a list, if one even existed, do you? They wouldn't You have to find this information yourself.
of frequently searched for keywords changes. Furthermore, you don’t seriously believe that other Ad-Sense publishers are going to share such a list, if one even existed, do you? They wouldn't You have to find this information yourself.
of frequently searched for keywords changes. Furthermore, you don’t seriously believe that other Ad-Sense publishers are going to share such a list, if one even existed, do you? They wouldn't You have to find this information yourself.
Here is where having a Google Ad-Words account will come in handy. You can see what the advertisers are paying to get in the top position of the search results for their keywords. Simply log in to your free Google Ad-Words account, and click on ‘tools.’ Next, click on Keyword Tool.
Enter your keywords, and then in the drop down box below that, select ‘Cost and Ad Position Estimates.’ Type 5.00 in the last box, and hit ‘calculate.’ Now, Google will display possible keywords, based on the main keyword that you entered. Next to each keyword, you will see the estimated average CPC (cost per click) and the estimated position.
You want to view the CPC for the keywords that will fall into the top five on position, stated as 1 – 3 or 1 – 5. As of this writing, using the keyword phrase ‘weight loss’ you would see that the estimated CPC for hoodia weight loss is 3.43. Now, as an advertiser, that is what you would pay per click for an ad that is being run when that keyword phrase is searched for.
As a publisher, however, you would not make 3.43 per click. Google wants their share as well. Google doesn't state what percentage is earned by the publisher, however. It varies, and how that percentage is figured is Google’s secret, and they are not sharing that information!
You basically have to pull a percentage out of the air to work with. Try using 30% as a guide.
Once you start getting clicks, you can then look to see what the estimated CPC is in Ad-Words, and then see how much you were paid for that click in Ad-Sense to find out how much Google is paying you per click for that keyword. Again, this varies from one keyword to the next, so there are no set guidelines here.
Once you've been approved for a Google Account, by building a site that Google would easily approve, and you've selected a high paying topic for your site, you are ready to get to work and build your first profitable Ad-Sense website.
If you have not already done so (you should have), you really need to go and read the program policies that Google has set, as well as their webmaster guidelines. This will help you to build a better site, and to avoid issues that can and will get you banned from the Google Ad-Sense program.
Your site should be full of content that uses your keywords. A keyword density of about 2 to 3% is great. This means that your keyword should be used approximately 2 to 3% of the time in your content. So, for a page that has 600 words of content, the keyword would appear twelve to eighteen times (600 x 2% or 600 x 3%).
There is more to it than targeting keywords. The content must be accurate. It must be readable and understandable by visitors. It must be unique.
You should use all of the search engine optimization techniques as possible when building your site. Not only will this attract the right ads, but it will also help your site to move up in the search results, for the purpose of driving traffic to your site.
You want your site to look nice, to be informative, and to load fast. You want it to attract the right ads. You do not want anything on your pages that will irritate your visitor, such as blinking, blinding text or music.
Make it a site that you would want to visit, and then ask an uninterested party, such as your neighbor (not your best friend or your mother) if it is a site that they would want to visit, if they were interested in the topic.
Now, you are ready to place the Ad-Sense code on your pages. Log in to your Ad-Sense account. Click on the Ad-Sense Set up tab at the top of the page. First, click on Channels, and set up a Channel for the topic of your site. This will come in handy later on, when you are analyzing which of your sites is pulling in the most money.
Next, click on palettes, and create a color palette that matches your site well. You want your Google ads to blend into your site. If they stand out like a sore thumb, they will get fewer clicks, simply because people really do try to avoid advertisements.
You want the ads to look like content on your site. Once you've set up a palette that matches your site, click on products. Choose Ad-Sense for content to create your ad units.
Here, you can choose ads that are enclosed in a box, or ads that are more free standing, but still just text links. It is a good idea to choose the link unit to add above or below your navigational links, and you can design your site navigation links to look just like the Google link units.
You can use the ad units (boxed in) on other sections of your site. Those who have been in the Google Ad-Sense game for a while have done years worth of testing on the topic of ad unit placement. Ideally, you will use ‘text ads only’ as your setting.
Then, place a skyscraper on one side of your page, and a rectangle ad unit at the top of your page.
Then, place a skyscraper on one side of your page, and a rectangle ad unit at the top of your page.
Note that Google has limits as to how many Google ads can be used on your page! On one page, you may have three ad units, two search boxes, one link unit, and two referral units.
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