Getting Started With AdSense: Most people's strategies include creating multiple web sites. I have several students who have over 20 sites...a few have over 50. Each site may only average $40 to $50 per month. But when you combine them all, they really begin to add up! For this strategy, it is fine to use a simple shared hosting account which allows you to host unlimited sites. So instead of paying $4 or $5 a month PER site, you can just spend $7.95 a month to host an unlimited number. Here is where I have many of my sites hosted at the $7.95/month rate.

Google AdSense

AdWords and AdSense

First, I want to make sure you understand what AdSense is and how it works. Google AdWords is responsible for nearly 100% of Google’s gigantic income and success. AdWords are ads placed by private advertisers which show up on Google’s search pages. You see them on Google’s search result pages for almost any search you do; they are the ads on the right of the page and sometimes at the top of the search results.

Advertisers sign up for a free AdWord’s account and then bid on keywords they hope will drive traffic to their site or to an affiliate site. For example, if you own a site selling dog collars, you might create an ad promoting your custom leather dog collars. You would bid on keywords such as “dog collars”, “leather dog collars”, “custom dog collars”, etc. Generally, the higher your bid for those keywords, the higher your ad placement will be. There is a little more to it than that, but I’ll leave it at that since this product is specifically about AdSense.

How does AdSense then fit into the picture? When an AdWords advertiser sets up a new campaign, there is an option called “content network” which is checked by default. If it remains checked, the advertiser’s ads will also show up out on the “content network”. The content network is your site..and mine…and anyone else’s who is signed up for an AdSense account. In other words, AdWords and AdSense are the same thing…the same ads…they just show up in different places. AdWords show up on Google’s site and their search partners, but when the same ads show up on private websites, they are called AdSense.

A big part of Google’s success results from how easy they make it for anyone to use AdWords and AdSense. With AdWords, this is not a good deal. Beginners often setup an AdWords account to promote affiliate products. If they have no knowledge of the intricacies of AdWords, the beginner will always lose money…always. Lucky for us here, AdSense is very easy to use but has nothing but upside to look forward to!

Once you have the account set up you can logon to your account and generate AdSense code which you will copy and paste onto your site where you want the AdSense ads to appear. The code you generate contains information about what form of ads will be displayed. You may choose between text ads, image ads, link units, etc. You have choices among different sizes of ads. Also, with text ads, you can choose the colors of the text and borders of the ads.

After placing the AdSense code onto your site where you want the ads to show up, they will soon begin appearing after uploading the page. Don’t worry if public service ads show up at first or the ads don’t match your content; it sometimes takes a few hours.

AdSense: Also Known as Contextual Advertising

Google’s code you paste onto your site causes a special Google search bot to visit your page and analyze the content. Google will then insert ads onto your page related to the content of your site. If your site is about gardening, the AdSense ads will be related to gardening. You do not have any choice on the exact ads which are displayed. However, you are able to create a “ban list” of sites you don’t want to show up on your pages. This list is limited to 200 sites.

Follow the Rules – Don’t Get Banned!

Remember, you must NEVER click on your own AdSense ads! In order for you to see the exact URL’s of the AdSense being displayed on your page, download and install the AdSense Preview Tool and read the directions for how to use it. You may find the tool by clicking on “help” within your AdSense account and search for “AdSense Preview Tool”. With the tool, you simply need to right mouse button on any ad (within Internet Explorer only) and select the preview tool.

As soon as you sign up for your AdSense account, spend time reading the topics found by clicking the “help” link. I personally know of several people who have had their AdSense accounts terminated because they did not follow the rules! You MUST READ AND FOLLOW THE RULES! Google is very smart; if you get banned, it is not as simple as setting up a new account. It’s very difficult to get back into the system once you are kicked out. Don’t let this happen to you!

Less is More

Although you may be tempted to place the maximum number of AdSense units on each of your pages (see my videos for the exact rules), remember that less is more usually with AdSense. In other words you will almost always make more money with only one or maybe two ad groups on a page versus having three or four.

Also, remember that your success with AdSense will depend upon getting your niche site’s pages ranking well in the search engines. For this to occur, you must know and use SEO effectively. If you are not familiar with search engine optimization techniques, I highly suggest spending the majority of your time at this point learning SEO.

AdSense Arbitrage: Does it Still Work?

There is an AdSense technique called AdSense Arbitrage. It used to be all the rage and some people made a killing using the technique. Can AdSense sites still profit with using PayPerClick for traffic? AdSense Arbitrage is simply the act of using AdWords to drive traffic to AdSense Sites.

Profiting with the method required the total spend for the AdWords clicks to be less than the amount earned with the resulting traffic clicking on the AdSense ads; simply bid on low cost keywords in AdWords and route the clicks to pages containing high paying AdSense clicks.

In the past, this was much easier to profit with than today. However, Google did not like their programs being used in this way; they felt it lowered the quality of the user experience and was harmful to "legitimate" AdWords advertisers. Therefore, they've tightened the screws on AdWords advertisers forcing them to be more "relevant".

Your AdSense site must be good quality! If you are an AdWords advertiser, you can still have AdSense on your destination pages. However, if Google believes your purpose is to simply drive traffic to a site in order to get AdSense clicks, your AdWords keywords will likely be deactivated. Is there any way to make AdSense Arbitrage work now?

Yes, but you must have a content rich site Google already respects. You probably will not have success with a new site trying this method even if you spend several weeks feverishly writing original content for it. For example, if CitiBank decided to put AdSense on their site and start advertising a credit card application with Adwords, there would not be a problem.

However, if your new site, MyBestCreditPlace .com has AdSense on it and you start using AdWords to drive traffic to it, Google will take a much closer look at what you are doing. What is the answer? SEO is your key to success with Internet marketing.

Create sites Google (and the other search engines) will want to rank well. Once your optimization efforts pay off and the site is ranking well AND getting traffic put the AdSense ads on.