How to Make Money with Google AdSense
81Five things you should know to make money with AdSense
Google AdSense can be a very effective way to make money online, but if it's your intention to make money with AdSense, it helps to get educated on how to do it successfully and sustain the earnings over a long period of time
Place Ads Where People Will See Them
We've all heard this about real estate. Location. Location. Location. With Adsense the same is true. Place ads in locations where people will see them. Usually the best spots to place ads are at the top of the page and in the content. The ads should be formatted to complement the content of your site. However, getting the placement and formatting of AdSense ads optimized doesn't guarantee success. You'll have to do more. Keep reading.
Select Topics with Many Advertisers
AdSense matches ads to the content of your pages. So, the simplest thing to do is to create content where AdSense has existing advertisers to place on your pages. In general, the more advertisers there are to match to your content, the more money you will make and the better liquidity you will see so that your earnings fluctuate less. AdSense typically places the most valuable ads in the order the page loads. Generally, this means that the ads at the top of the page will pay more when clicked than the ads at the bottom of the page, but it stands to reason for sites that place three AdSense ads on a page, that if there are more advertisers, the fill rate of each spot will be higher and the amount earned with each ad spot will drop less if there is substantial competition among advertisers.
Understand Who Clicks on Ads and Where They Come From
If you are hoping to make money from AdSense, you'll have to attract people that click on ads. Did you know that people that begin their search on AOL and ASK are among the most likely to click on ads and on HubPages, they generate some of the highest CPMs. They are 210% more likely to click on ads than the average visitor to the site and generate CPMs 312% more than the average source of traffic. The trick is to understand the demographics of their site so you can create content that they will search for - Quantcast shows it has women with kids, higher income and less college education.
AdSense Home Page
Create Content that Lasts
I've written before about evergreen content. It's very important to an AdSense centric monetization strategy for two reasons. First, related to what I just covered, search engine traffic generates the most people that click on ads, and second, each piece of content is like putting a little money in the bank that will generate the equivalent of interest on a bank account. Each month you get a dividend because the content is relevant for a long period of time. When the article is nolonger relevant, this is like emptying your bank account and seeing the dividends stop. You want to create content that will endure and pay dividends for years to come.
Lessons Learned with AdSense
We've seen thousands of publishers try and earn money with AdSense and the many mistakes they make.
The top three mistakes
- They create spam content to trick search engines. While this can be lucrative in the short run, it doesn't last. This includes very short articles where the ad is the only thing to click on, to writing articles about something that is solely designed to get traffic from search engines (stuffing keywords in to the page, hiding links, linking to a page with misleading anchor text - just a few tricks we see)
- Some of the most well intentioned and helpful people struggle to understand how to write content for search engines and therefore never get traffic or make money.
- They focus on getting traffic that doesn't convert well with AdSense. I mentioned that AOL is some of the best performing, but StumbleUpon and Digg is among the worst. There is value in getting traffic from these sites that will indirectly help your AdSense earnings, but focusing for the quick burst of traffic won't translate to AdSense revenue quickly.
- I'll add a fourth mistake. People need to study their analytics. Did you know that Google Analytics is integrated with AdSense? You can study your users, what they search for to land on your site and how much each visitor is worth. Doing this will help you learn more quickly on what's working for you. You can integrate your Google Analytics in HubPages to get this information.
I understand how to make money with AdSense?
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Comments
Thanks, Paul. How can you tell in GA what each visitor is worth? How can you tell something is profitable vs. just getting a lot of traffic? Or is that usually going to be the same?
Thanks!
Paul, this is something I know very little about. I write Hubs based on what I find interesting in the moment or to share something I was interested in researching. I am one of those Hub readers who doensn't often click on ads. I am not a spontaneous buyer because I don't have that kind of money.
I appreciate reading this Hub because it informs me about something that made me curious, even if I don't intend to follow up on your suggestions. I've always wondered if and how people make money online. This clarifies it a bit more.
Great hub Paul - short and sweet and packed with useful info
Thank you Paul for more tips. I've learned so much here in the year and a half that I've been here on hubpages and I understand what I'm not suppose to do, now it's just a matter of coming up with the right type of hubs.
Again thanks for sharing your know-how
kindest regards Zsuzsy
I still don't get it. After 3 months I only have $8.95 in my adsense account. I understand what you said about ad placement, but that's all I understand. Thanks for the info. I really get confused when I go to my adsense account. I don't understand a lot of the things on it.
Superb Hub, Paul (as usual). Your insight into ASK and AOL is priceless. I am profoundly aware that my own personal approach to Hub writing actually runs counter to the wise recommendations you have made. Can you tell me if there is any more demographic and psychographic profile info available on this specific group of websurfers, as I can't readily find anything that is overly detailed. Thanks!
Thanks for the imput on adsense...While confusing, this article did help with a few of the questions I have. Writing content for adsense, I believe, is esiaer said than done.
@Hal I tried to find more information about AOL and Ask users as well. I was curious what they search for and how we can create more content to attract them. The short answer is it appears that they do a lot of navigational type queries. For example, they look for things like "AOL Mail" or "WebKinz". Perhaps AOL has taught users to search for sites rather than to type in a url. Then they land on a page and the paid listing is the most relevant link for them to click.
I have to say that my personal intuition was that they were less sophisticated users that spend less time online and come with more of a purpose to complete a task rather than surf around. I don't think the "purpose" piece is right, but may have more to do with how AOL is setup. I don't even know if AOL still has a client.
@Lela To get Google Analytics to report on your adsense, you'll have to link AdSense to Google Analytics first. http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer
Once you have data, you can go to Google Analytics and run all sorts of reports. One of my favorites is to run the Traffic Sources report and then to click the AdSense tab to see the CTR and CPM of each source.
I appreciate this hub but I'm not sure I'm ever going to make any money writing here; the beauty of it is that I love to write here so it's my daily writing exercise and, if I make some money in the long run, the gov will get half so who the hell cares? God, I'm sounding like Pam!
I AM looking into this. I haven't made a dime with google ad sense. I must, must, must be doing something wrong!
I still think that if I actually got round to doing my OWN web page, I could do much better--maybe! But, I would still have to come here because I like y'all!
background color and positioning of ads helps too.
Thanks for your reply, Paul. Although AOL Pictures, Xdrive, Bluestring, and MyMobile were shut down this summer, the AOL client is still apparently alive, although I truly wonder what type of websurfer would ever consider using that in this day and age. Indeed, AOL has recently named a new Products & Tech President whose responsibilities include developing the AOL client, but again, I wonder just for who? I guess that there must be far more sheer net neophytes out there than even I can imagine. Since that seems to be the case, then the AOL newbie appeal might be an interesting direction to examine for any Hubber who would like to get their Adsense income up. It might even be worth it (bite my tongue) to get an AOL account and see just how that shadowy alternate dimension operates, in order to determine how to best "bait the Hub Hook" for them! :)
Nice hub. I would like to learn more about Google adsense.
@hal. I'd love to know what you discover about targeting AOL visitors if you go down that path and make a hub on it. The funny thing is, I can see the Digg and Slashdot traffic to it already.
Oh yeah. The Digg/Slash mobs would be all over that in a minute. I'll put my AOL research hat on right now and start working on it. I want to get some strong hard evidence so it might take me a few weeks, but the Hub is coming! :)
Awesome, Hal. Google analytics is full of juicy data on this if you cross reference it with AdSense data. I smell a hit:)
My eyes are flicking back and forth like Lt. Cmdr. Data: Working... working... :)
Thanks this was a big help
Is it Theoritical or Practicle I am nowhere !!!!
I use Google Analytics on my website and on my hubs, I know that the data that I get is only between 70% to 85% accurate, but it is still better than not tracking or testing visitors to your blog or website.
As for using Google Adsense, I would suggest not putting all of your eggs in one basket if you really are serious about earning a full time income online. My personal favorite method is building a subscriber list of targeted customers.
I have had horrible experience with Google adsense. I have made money but they are iffy when it comes to adsense revenue. Depending on adsense revenue is not the thing to do. That is my sage advice. I am deadly serious.
Wait, did I smell something about AOL? Don't dis AOL, they're the only reason I have interwebz... D: Darn you, dial-up! You have thwarted my attempt at internet acceptance once again! lol
Nice Paul, "How to make money with Adsense" might also include removing Adsense components from pages that have little or no ctr to lessen any smart pricing effect.
The program penalises accounts (
Very informative hub, I definitely know more about Google Adsense now than I did before.
A nice and informative article. But the best trick to stay on top with adsense which I feel is not to use any tricks! Use genuine content and ecologically optimise your site.
Awesome Hub Paul I am new to trying to make money with Adsense, I'm goig to try some of your technique and see what I net.
Good advice. Keep it up sake.
Thanks. Very useful.
Very useful hub on adsense. Had been using Digg and Yahoo Buzz after check Hub Traffic Sources. Now after reading your article, I will begin using Ask.com and Aol to help increase traffic. Thanks, for the excellent Hub.
You mention you can integrate Google Analytics and Hubpages, which is great and I've done that long ago. Related to this hub, a new feature they are beta testing with Adsense is integrating it with Analytics as well. However, it often requires an additonal javascript code to be placed at the top of the pages you are tracking. Is there any plan to have that integrated with Hubpages also?
You hit the nail on the head when you said adsense revenue can be compared to an interest dividend payed on a bank account. If you earn 1000 in a year it's comparable to having 20 thousand in an account and which pays 2% interest.
It's the easiest way to get to be a millionaire although you can never take out the million.
If you created 200 hubs to make make your 1000 in adsense that almost like saying you made 100 dollars for each hub you created. That 's not a bad deal if you think a hub takes anywhere from 1 to several hours to research and write.
good info
Nice Adsense overview and tips.
Good article for those are looking to use Adsense for revenue. But overall, if you are looking to build a steady income stream online, then Adsense should not be your main revenue source because its not difficult to tamper with by others, and there are many who have lost their Adsense income overnight. You can't discuss with Google. So its good as long as it lasts.
I was looking for the "Five things..." and I counted. You have more than 5 things and they are sound advices. Thank you!
From the poll, I see that more than 75% of the people believe they know how to make money with AdSense.
For those who write to make money and have not figured it out yet, here's 1 more thing you might want to consider. Choose a topic that is consumer-biased. Go check out online shopping sites for writing ideas. One of my favorite research ground is Amazon and to figure out what sells and what not.
Your ideas are great. Ive tried them and am making more money especially at a time when the world is in an economic comma.
Thanks alot.
Been asking question about Google adsense... Thank you very much for this information.. It helps a lot!
That last point is interesting - I had done a little bit of adsense / analytics but hadn't really looked into it deeply. One of the big challenges I have with Adsense is that it doesn't open in a new window. For any long-term sustainable online business, I believe that list building should be the first priority... whether it's a prospect list, existing customer list, or whatever. Since Adsense can't open in a new window, that means as soon as they click, if they haven't signed up, then they're not going to... whereas with other ad systems (and ads in general) that open in new windows, it's possible to still get the lead when they return back from wherever they clicked out to.
That said, I do have some sites where I focus more on Adsense... niche seasonal sites that do very well in the right season, and also full of people who are very unlikely to signup for a list - so it works out.
On the StumbleUpon thing, I think that's because Stumblers are already prepared to click either "Stumble" and get out of there, or "I Like It!" and so their awareness isn't brought down to the content level with the intent to stay there. StumbleUpon visitors are almost like a scattershot hoping that something hits.
While I was writing this comment, I did have one idea that is a little sneaky but could be used to monetize StumbleUpon traffic. My favorite is an on-exit unblockable popup, usually with a subscribe box. But I wonder, what if the popup were the entire width / height of the content part of the browser, and it included quality content and Adsense... I wonder if that might increase StumbleUpon Adsense clickthroughs. (and for that matter, Adsense clickthroughs in general). That would be interesting to test.
Very informative and helpful...Thanks!
Thanks, for a well written article. Adsense can provide useful if used correctly.
I can figure the above out but what I can't do is figure out my primary URL! How do I do that?
Some pretty good basic guidelines. I'd like to add: have patience! And don't set your expectations too high, so that you won't get discouraged.
Nice hub, google adsense can be a very, very nice earner, its just a question of getting exposure
hey Paul,
Nice hub and good advice. One thing that is missing is a qualification of the potential. Is this how to make $10 a month or #10,000 a month? I'm sure it depends on many things, including what terms you target and how hard you work, but I think people want to know what the potential is. It's hard to get people to do a job if they don't know what they'll be paid when it's done. BTW, I've seen lots of claims about how much can be made (and they very pretty substantially), but I don't believe them because there's no proof.
Fantastic hub. I am going to use a lot of the advice you have given!
Thanks Paul for your hub. I will follow these tips.
Paul, thank you, i can understand follow you say
Dude Amazing content ..But I tried most of the tricks yet am not very successful ! :D
I can make money with my Hubs? :S I need to read this again! Thanks for the info.
Thanks for your guidelines. You are very kind.
I have not tried google Adsense before but your article is making me want to try but personally I find the ads annoying when I'm reading pagings. I guess I'm not the target market :)
Thanks for taking the time to compile all of this information. It's really helpful to a newbie like myself! I'm a writer first, but, if I can make money while enjoying one of my passions (and possibly fund my others : ) ) then I definitely want to make that happen!
Thanks Paul - can you tell us how to check our Hub Pages clicks in our Adsense account? Or maybe even make a hub on it LOL? Thanks, that would be so helpful!
Looked at AdSense for a little, got scared and ran away. Thanks for the info. I'll give it another try for sure.
Good Hub.........!!
hubs like these can fetch u good bucks but ultimately they do fade away as technology changes.. so we should update them quite often...
check out of there are any other programs like adsense which are more worthy and are good at customers
thanks
heya!
I'm Ronne,and ive been trying for ages to get my adsense account activated..but i hav some ca-pub number on the affliation settings page.
but they are still asking me to resubmit..again and again..
plz help me out!
Very nice hub! I just submitted my application to AdSense, but I have a feeling I may get rejected. I appreciate the advice :)
I wish you would write endlessly on this kind of topic as you obviously have a wealth of vital,interesting and useful information on the subject!
Every little tip I find on such pages as this one and others, I try to use and have found them all to add up to become real-time differences in the perfomance of a Hub. No one tip, if practised, will make an earth-shattering difference, but all tips, together, just might!
guys, if I were to write a hubpages like this, I would consider title like "Why My Google Adsense Makes More Cents Than Yours!"
This is a very good example on how you can get more people to visit your website. More traffic means more CTR and more $ into your pocket.
I admire Paul who created this hubpage. You too can create a hubpage that sticks!
Cheers!
Thank you for the advice, makes sense.
*hugs*
Sib
it is all easier said than done. how do you do words building in your blog to be adsense friendly? mine is a flop show! ireally want an effective solution for this puzzle.
nice
I have been using Adsense for a while still finding your article interesting and usefull.
Thanks for the information about adsense, Stumbleupon, and Digg.
good post. One question though... i heard that you can apply for adsense through hubpages without having any content on it and still be approved. IS this true? I am new to the community and have no clue where to start >_<
Paul,
Great information. I've been investigating how to increase my Adsense profitability. I can see that I have doing some things wrong. Thanks!
Hi - Lots of great advice. Thanks - Tasco
Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the info Paul. This all is true for the websites but what should we do to optimize ad placement on the Blogs. One has a very limited option there :(
Is there somewhere that has the statistics on the "money"?
What is the average paid
What is the mean paid
How many people are on adsense
Or is adsense really an example of Talk is Cheap and writing is even cheaper?
Thanks for that info... i wondering how can earn money ...so that is Adsense...thanks bro..i'll try it now
Great info.
Yes, you can get an adsense account through HubPages without having content first. But it's important to not abuse this. The point is to make it easy for people just starting out, not to be a workaround for people that aren't able to get adsense accounts.
I would rather suggest not to apply without substantial content on your hubpages profile/blog. I had applied when I wrote my first hub and got rejected, the reason stated was : my site was not fully developed.
nice hub and thanks for the tips!
cheers
Nice hub on Google Adsense. I received my first check of only $102 last December and at present I have a little more than $79. I wonder if I could earn $100 this month. Another thing, It is not actually easy to earn with Adsense as I have found out although some people might disagree. Some luck is also required. Now a days, most people know about Adsense and hesitate to click on them. Again some people might disagree. There are people who claim that they earn 1000s of dollars with Adsense per month. May be you should write another HUB advising how we could earn that much.
Content is king. But you don't want to make it too good, because then you've fulfilled their need 100%. You want to fill their need only 75% of the way so click an ad to finish the job.
The one main factor for making money with adsense is traffic. It is very hard to compete with the big sites who have dozens of writers on staff and operate almost like a big time magazine. I can be done, but geting free traffic is difficult and takes time. Years.
Google is Great, But MONA*VIE is Exceptionally Great!!
Since December I have earned 29 dollars on two sites. It is a little, truly?
Nice Info in a better presentaion
Very nice presentation. Well written and on the money!
Thanks for the great information and I have to stress along with you that target market and a pointed marketing peice will pull better. I think many people believe that quickly learning the ropes of AdSence and posting a marketing pc, you wil see quick results. You point out the it is not that easy and some study is most important for bets results.
Thanks its very helpful
A great article very informative :)
its helpful to me , thank you
Good hub! A visual aid really helps to understand better. Short and Clear article! Keep it up.
Hi, Paul! After a month of poring through a 4.4 Gigabyte database on the search habits of over 650,000 AOLers, I've finally distilled it all into a series of Hubs dealing with their particular demographics and the keywords that they used to access their most popular sites. I hope that this information will help Hubbers in crafting content which is tailored to AOL users, and will benefit from their much higher click and CPMs!
http://hubpages.com/hub/Mining-AOL-Gold-Keywords-T
Enjoy! :)
what about traffic?
i agree that the research is important than you just rush for gold. I thought you will teach the ways of quick making money but it is the long way making scheme you teach. thank you
Your comments on "evergreen content" are perfect. This will produce traffic for the long run and in turn will add to your ad sense income. Nice job.
I do not see where the
Copy the following code block into every webpage you want to track immediately before the </body> tag.
is located on hubpages. I can not find where the </body> spot is so I can put my Google Adsence code. thank you
John
I wan to know that how do you recieve mony from google?
Please Answer me
When I first started working with Adsense, I bought the book 'The Adsense Code' from Amazon. Unless they've updated it recently, a lot of the info may be dated, but much of the core principles still help me to this day.
Here are my keys:
- Make the link color on your site the standard blue color. Then, make your ad links the standard blue color. People are used to, and comfortable, clicking on blue links
- Match the background of the ad to the background of the site
- Make the URL color in the ad the same color as the content. You don't want the URL to stand out, you want it to blend in. Seeing the URL tips someone off, subconsiously, that it is an ad.
Veyr helpful info, especially to a new hubber like me. Thanks a lot.
Dear sir
Very use ful details. thanks
Great tips, especially about the analytics. I've learned that the top of the page is the best place to put ads. I get quite a few clicks from that position
you gave me a valuable informations thank you
Thanks for this info, still learning about Adsense and like all things Google, it'sa bit of a Pandoras Box :>)
Cheers
Derek
This hub is great and also information to those that wants to make good success with google adsense. Thanks
I have Analytics set up but I don't see an Adsense tab in the Traffic Sources report. Any advice?
Wow! Thanks for your information sharing here and a couple of others I've just read. Since I'm totally new, your ideas/instructions are just what I need.
Thanks for having such an enjoyable site!
@Lela, you will need to enable your adsense account to share data with google analytics. Here is a link from Google.
Paul
Thanks for not answering my question, it proves to me that adsense and hubpages are a con. HP makes money from google because of shear volume of HP author hopefuls writing for hours and getting pennies if they are lucky.
If I am wrong lets see some of those power point presentations that you talk about and see some money data for hubbers. Post them for the hubbers to see and let them compare those figures with their own. It is easy to point the finger back at them and say they just don't know how it is done or basically they are doing it wrong.
Sure in every con there are the few that know how to work the system, but it is usually by enlisting the greedy and optimistic little people to climb up on.
BTW, isn't it time to give the Indians the equivalent of India Playboy. Are you guys the Hugh Hefner Indian Clone?
Article was nice. So, I just understood something related to adsense. That is, all the targeted traffic are not converted to adsense earnings. Right?
That was a great info. But I have heard that apart from the traffic from search engines, social bookmarking sites also help to increase earnings by traffic burst. But your post mention something different.
It was really a useful post. I am not an expert in this field. Though I managed to write about something beginners commit which lead to the adsense adsense account deletion. You can have a look at my hub.
William F. Torpey says:
9 months ago
I didn't vote in this poll, Paul, because my answer is not among the options. As you note, these options apply "if it's your intention to make money with Adsense." Personally, I don't object to making money, but I write only what I feel strongly about, not for profit. I include ads in my hubs and in my blogs, but if they don't make any sales so be it. There's nothing wrong with writing for profit, especially if you have a family to feed, but it's not something I have to do or want to do.