“Adsense” is a very big word. And, we all know the more we become familiar with its intricate workings, the ideal end-result would be to generate more traffic and, thus, make more money. There are multitudes of good and bad articles about “how to succeed with Adsense.” But, as-to-date, there is no Adsense-bible, or textbook.

I, for one, had become lost in a sea of Adsense. The more I read, the more confused I have become. Hey, I'm no rocket scientist, and I figure most others are not either. (It took me three years to learn file-management (YEA! 3 years). I will always believe “file management” should be called “folder management!”

Over the next few months I have decided to post a regular column titled “Weekly Adsense Report.” I read a lot about Adsense almost every day. Then I'll try to take the information and tweek Adsense. Then I'll check my results. Some will work and some will not. At, the end of each week's experiments I will give my readers a report about what produced successes and what proved failures.

I will try to give clear and concise information every week, and, encourage readers to leave comments and suggestions. In a sense we will be present in a virtual classroom setting. So, ask lots of questions! And, remember there is no such thing as a stupid question!!

I will link to articles and sites, which I personally used for these experiments, and publish the results achieved.

So, let's have some fun while learning how to make money with adwords(keywords), or to use another name, google adwords. And regardless of what name you decide to call the words, adwords keyword, or just words, just remember the goal is not the words, the goal is milking google cash from the words.

And, who, knows, it's possible when we complete our discussions, and experiments, we might realize the first hands-on Adsense Textbook.

So, let's begin...

Articles I read this week:

How to Make Sure they Read What you Write
http://www.xomba.com/how_make_sure_they_read_what_you_write

How to Really Find High Value Keywords For Free
http://www.xomba.com/how_really_find_high_value_keywords_free

1. The Keyword Tool

The article “How to Really Find High Value Keywords For Free” gave me my first hands-on understanding, to how to set-up and operate the Google AdsenseKeyword Tool. For me, it was a big hurdle to have overcome. I was able to do things with the Keyword tool I had never been able to do, and, the article gives a clear-understanding of what I'm seeing, to a reasonable extent. It gives a step-by-step explanation of how to set-up.

Additionally, ease and simplicity of selecting the right form of your chosen keyword raises revenue. I found this type of information in the article called "Using the Google Keyword Tool to Maximize Your Ad Click Revenue."

2. Inserting Keywords into my article & Keyword Density

The article “How to Make Sure they Read What you Write,” clearly explains the process of accomplishing the inserting-process using keywords. In the article it is recommended to not overuse any single keyword because search engines, like Google, will view an overuse of a word as possible spam and will not pickup on your article.

Density, meaning what is the optimum times to use one keyword in your paper. You may be using several keywords, but, the use of the word “optimum” is referring to “each keyword,” or, at least that is how I interpreted it.

This article mentions inserting each word three (3) times, or, an “alternative optimum” of 3-5%. The author states he has not been able to determine which works best.

I, in my knowledge gained from this week's readings preformed the following simple experiment:

Simple Keyword Insert

I selected one of my many articles I had written over the years. I pasted its URL into the Adsense Keyword Tool and did the search. Next I selected a keyword or phrase that had a click-pay of over $1.00.

Prior to tweeking my article I had realized less than $1 in revenue.

After tweeking my article with a keyword inserted once, this article saw a one-day collection of $6.29, and, although there are still days it pulls ZERO, overall its gain has certainly increased.

And, always keep-in-mind inserting a word(s) and/or phase(s) will not give you instant-gratification. I have noticed it takes a few days for the revenue to begin generating.

Next week I will give everyone an update on this keyword experiment, especially what the results were for the third article, and, this very article. Next week I want to look at real numbers per article, and taking these same three articles and re-tweeking them to the prescribed three-times-per-word insert and results.

I have been confused and at the same time overwhelmed by all the do-this and do-that, and insert-this, and don't-do that,, etc., that I had all but abandoned any thought of achieving much, as, I'm sure, there are others who feel the same as me.

Until my report,

Investigate - Explore - Learn - BREATHE!

Week 2 - 2009/05/17

So, you're probably wondering how did Experiment #1 work out?

Recap:

The theory behind the experiment was to see if an article, once it has been tweaked with keywords, gained more revenue. It has been suggested each keyword appear three times in an article, I selected three of my many posted articles located on this website. I did not put them in three times each. I put them in once on one, twice on one, and three times on one.

Results:

And to keep the experiment in some sort of control I used only one keyword for each. Those three articles have generated revenue up to 80% of the time, meaning within this past eight days.. It wasn't anything to write home about, and all were under $1.00 each day, but, they did generate, opposed to stacks of others that did not.

These three articles are my only articles which have been tweaked using keywords.

I'm still left wondering if it was my content, or the keyword, or both that produced the money? For the time being I'm going to accept it to be the keyword. This will allow me to setup Experiment #2.

For Experiment #2 I'm going to use the same three articles, but, this time maximize them on keywords, but, inserting each keyword only three times. And, if I can't use the keyword/phrase three times I will not use it at all. This will keep Experiment #2 in a controlled format.

My impression of the Google Adsense Keyword Tool is a mixed bag. It's a good tool for getting ideas, but, I am beginning to wonder if our minds are not a better tool? I know this sounds pretty weird, but, here's what I've been doing this past week.

Obviously, we would have to train ourselves to recognize keywords that are of our own creation. I've been trying to get a grasp on this theory. Here's what I did to try and get a grip on this.

Using the Google search engine I typed whatever came to mind into it. When it returned results for my search I looked through the results posted on the first page of all the results generated.

Some of those generated pages (on the first page of “results”), such as Wikipedia, have the keywords listed at the bottom. I have been looking at the keywords used for a particular page that caused it to be selected by the search engine and, thus, being the reason it ended up in page 1 of the results.

To give an example I picked out of the blue an old TV actor, “Andy Devine.”

The first hit for Andy Devine was:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Devine

At the bottom of the Wikipedia page are its keywords. Now, right in front of me are the article and the keywords.

By looking at the keywords, and seeing how they are inserted into the article I can begin to see the “model layout,” and get a feel for good use and placement of the keywords, which, to me, are actually TAGS, metatags, and/or metadata.

TAGS: (1)

Everything you ever wanted to know about TAGS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata)

Wikipedia defines TAG as:

“A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as aninternet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item's creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. On a website in which many users tag many items, this collection of tags becomes a folksonomy.”

Google Stop Words--How to Avoid Those Pesky PSA's

http://www.xomba.com/google_stop_words_what_not_to_say_when_you_write

After reading the above article, and believing I understood what I read, and looked at the linked-bad-word-list, I immediately went and did a repost, on Xomba, as a 2nd edition. The 2nd edition had all the “bad words” removed and replaced with more Google-PG-13 words.

I wanted to have both my first edition and my second edition posted at the same time so I could compare. Well, there was nothing to compare. The reworded second edition still displayed PSAs. So, I deleted the second edition. Changing the words proved fruitless.

Now, this really puzzled me! Then, I remembered my first edition had also been published here on Hub Pages. I checked to see if there was any PSAs. AND, guess what? No PSAs!!

I wish I could give everyone an answer, but, I can't. Hopefully one of our Adsense PHD's can explain why here I don't get PSAs, and I do on Xomba?

Go look for yourself! (I shortened the URLs to avoid the bad word, so, as, to not jeopardize this article's posting.)

Xomba:

http://adf.ly/4BZ

Hub Pages:

http://adf.ly/4BT

Next week's posting will give some more stats on those three articles of mine I selected for keyword tweeking. Should you have a particular question that is driving you crazy maybe you could post it here and we might find the answer. Even if no one offers an answer I will do my best to research and present what I find.

Adsense is proving to be one hard item, a lot like finding the Holy Grail.

If we could just achieve getting the hood open, we could start looking at some real mechanics. So, where is the latch for the hood?

Thanks for reading, even though I think I may have confused you more than giving any help.

(1) Some information used in this article came from: Wikipedia

http://www.wikipedia.com

Here's some additional reading I found to have some good points:

http://www.xomba.com/xomba_really_worth_my_strategies