How to Use Adsense - Basics

Adsense - Aim High for the Sky...

Image: The u.s. federal courthouse building in downtown Minneapolis by drouu

Many web master and blog publishers attempt to make an income with the Internet’s most popular advertising program - Google’s Adsense. In theory it’s easy to implement - just sign up with Adsense, select the advertisement type (search, link, content, etc) and it’s html/javascript code and then paste it in your web site or blog. Then wait and perhaps hope, that visitors click and buy so that you receive an income. Though many are probably struggling to hope to make a reasonable income, not least due to the huge number of sites/blogs now actively participating.

Also, the Adsense and Webmaster polices required by Google need to be adhered to and maintained. Unfortunately web/blog owners have violated polices (or seemingly), e.g. too many ads, altering code, and clicking on their own ads for example. Often they might find out when their minimum payment ($100 USD) is due, perhaps after several months of their ads being displayed. Hence caution is required to remain within the boundaries of those polices.

However, much has to be implemented to optimize a site to entice visitors to click on the ads. The site has to have a bit of popularity (or ideally authority) so that there are a reasonable number of consistent visitors. Techniques such as search engine optimization, web/blog promotion (e.g. in forums, blog directories, comments in other sites, etc), and perhaps article submissions, generally need to be actively employed. The site’s content itself needs to be suitable (popular or relevant) to attract high paying relevant ads that are likely to appeal to visitors, and hence generate income.

Ideally the ads should be blended in and placed suitably within the site, without diverging too much from the site’s content and theme. I have found this can take a bit of trial and error, particularly with selecting the ad colors and size, without the risk of the all too common ad blindness. Moreover, the use of the Adsense channel reports (url and custom), in addition to aggregate reports, particularly for larger or multiple sites should be employed. Here you can analyze for suitable ad sizes and positioning (e.g. banner ads, box, ads, vertical placement, etc, - i.e. you use custom channel analysis) and analyze the site’s specific entry points (url, or page, domains, etc - i.e. you use url channel analysis). These reports can be further customized within Adsense, e.g. by ad, ad unit, or page, and more, and you can set up the reports to be emailed to an email address.

Also for blogs, additional html/javascript modifications may need to be added to the template to enable ads to be placed at positions not already situated within the template (called elements in the blogger platform). Currently there is no easy template method to place ads within the title header, footer, and within individual posts. However excellent tutorials (e.g. Blogger Buster and Blogger New Tips) exist to demonstrate how to place such ads. Also, site owners need to consider their competitor ads appearing (or not appearing), by perhaps carefully selecting the url’s to not display if they want. Currently you can select to prevent 200 url’s to not display.

There are a couple of Google advertisement types:

Google Adsense Search - The user enters a search term in the search bar, and the results are displayed with pay per click ads on Google's server. There is also the more advanced Custom Search at Google Co-Op (which connects to your adsense account). Custom Search is where you can define url’s to search, host results within your site if you want, define specific search terms, and utilize xml formats to refine your search terms. Visit this excellent tutorial by Dosh Dosh on how to set up the basic Custom search function. You can also use Google Analytics to track search activity.

Google Adsense Content - Comes in different sizes (e.g. 125 x 125 or 768 x 250) and orientations with descriptions (boxes, leader board, banner, etc) either with an image or text or both. These are commonly referred to as ad units which can typically display 1 to 4 ads depend on the overall size you choose. There are also the basic link text link units - i.e. a line of 4 to 5 ad links.

Google Referrals - These are typically text or small box ads, which when clicked refer the visitor to a site, and if they sign up, you get a portion of income, sometimes once the visitor reaches a certain income level. Google products (e.g. Google Software, AdWords) are referred to, but you can also select other products, services, and web sites as referrals.

So to have reasonable success for generating revenue from Adsense, it requires quite a bit of work and analysis. Web Site/Blog policy compliance, promotion and search optimization, to attract and maintain visitors. Then the testing and analysis of optimum ad types, sizes, and site placement including possible html/javascript template editing, followed by tracking visitors, through customizing and analyzing ad channels through the reporting features. So to really earn, you need to learn how to use adsense from a basic overview...

Below are adsense related sites which I have found to be helpful -

Adsense Forum at Digital Point (Ask for Adsense help- Visited by thousands of helpful members)
Inside Adsense (Popular Adsense Blog relating to diagnostics, applying income formulas, policies, optimization, and more...)
Adsense Tips (Links to Tips, Tools, Widgets, Demo's, Plugins, Charts, and more...)
Adsense A/B Split Testing and at Digital Inspiration (Learn how to toggle between two ad sizes/text-image/colors at the one position)
Boost Adsense Income (By Allan Gardyne - Founder and CEO of Associated Programs; More optimization tips and general review)

pcsourcepoint - Freeware, Internet News and NZ links

How to Use Adsense - Basics