A harsh reality for anyone starting out at the online game is that in most cases the money will come in, in cents rather than the big bucks you are dreaming about. Regardless of the idea, or model you are getting into, unless you have a preexisting audience, you are probably going to have to do things the hard way. Now I am hardly any sort of authority on the topic, there are plenty of people who have made quick bucks from Adsense, but you can bet your ass that there are plenty of people who have tried and not as much as made the first hurdle…for Google Adsense that is making your first $100 check.
Turning those cents into your first buck.
1) When is too much too much. You may know what I am getting here, but if you don’t…think of a Website that covers it’s side bars, its banner, and has a massive block of ads before you actually get to any content. I know how much it annoys me when I am looking for content, and all I see is a block full of adds, or even worse a dreaded pop-up advertisement. I think it is important to place ads strategically on a page, but I thinks there’s a line that you shouldn’t cross. Sure splattering your page with every ad you can fit may get the odd extra click from accidental or lazy mouse masher, but the main issue here is you are annoying your users. If they are annoyed, they are less likely to come back. I don’t think it’s a good idea anyway…if you think otherwise feel free to leave a comment.
2) Let it flow. Adsense text links are content related ads, so I think it’s a good idea if they are colored like the rest of the content on your site. Most people will realise that they are ads, but at least it lets the page flow. You want to send the message that, yes, you are advertising but it’s not too offensive. It’s very easy to color Adsense ads using the Google ad creation wizard or various plug-ins if you are formatting it at the other end.
3) Google ads can actually be useful to your users. It’s amazing how good Google ads are at targeting your content. So in many cases the ads are in fact very relevant and uses may in deed want to click your ads, so there’s not really any need to ram them in the face of your users, see first point.
4) Content. Good content is very important. Firstly, you want return users, it will increase your page impressions and click rates. Secondly,the ads are based on the content, so if don’t have anything worth reading, or using, the ads that relate to it may not be great either. Thirdly, no one will link to rubbish. And getting links from other sites is very important for you to build a page rank and user base. This is just common sense isn’t it. Why is anyone going to go to Website that doesn’t have anything good on it.
5) Careful placement of ad units is worth the thought. Think where your eye leads you when you first open a Webpage. Try and place your ads effectively to avoid ad blindness. Ad blindness is where users often don’t see your ads because their mind is so trained into seeing ads in certain spots, they no longer absorb ads in certain locations. Close to content, with out being offensive is a plenty good rule of thumb.
6) Read, read, read. There are some great resources out there. Read and observe what other successful sites are doing. Darren who runs the blog Pro Blogger has some very good articles on Adsense. I really enjoy reading what he has to say, and you do feel like you are being educated in the process.
So that’s all I have to say on the topic. File it, the one millionth Adsense article on the net, I hope it at least makes a little sense.
New content about Making Money Online is now on my new Blog Make Money Online.
Raj
Very rightly said, the blog should look presentable and not a fish market selling everything and your audience has to scroll up and down and left and right to find content. I would always give priority to a clean blog than to stuff it with ads.
your site is good and informative, i’ll keep coming for updates.
thanks bro
Simon
@ Raj – Thanks for your kind words.
Rick Yuen
Adcents is really tough for newbie blogs. I still haven’t made my first dollar on it yet.
I think when it comes down to it, if you have the traffic, you will get the dough.
olly from guitar tuiton books
When I fist came into the world of business and the internet I assumed that money was easy to be made – how wrong was I!
It hink 99% of people who use adsense will make about $30 a month max – and this can be after months of hard work.
Making it online is tough – often tougher than making it in the real world
Olivier from Paint.Net
You are right, it takes some time before you get some good bucks… My feeling is that it is a combination of valuable content and a lot of backoffice work to market this to get traffic.
Joshua Adams
Ad CENTS? has anyone created that yet? esay mistake to make, valuable domain?
complexity
It surely isn’t easy.
Paul from Pet Dog
I find it takes time to make significant income with google adsense. You slowly gotta build traffic over many years and sites to make any decent money.
Ryan from Contact Lenses
Making money online any way takes effort and time.
James from women fashion dresses
Google ads can be useful to the readers. From my experience, the ads are not always targeting the content, but it mostly do. One of the best thing to do is write relevant content. Thanks for the post.
Jasmin Wilson from Fashion and vintage
I see many websites that has a massive block of ads before you get to any content at all. I find it very annoying. Too much flash movies are distracting. Ads should be used in moderation.
tom from Cheap dsl
I like the text ads over image ads. they seem to do better and pay more. Most people have hard timemaking enough moneyto get paid. It takes more work than people tell them.
Ditto from How To Make Money Online Working From Home
Isn’t point #4 and #5 a bit contradictive? You said that you need return visitors yet you don’t want ad blindness. Isn’t a person who’s a regular visitor on your blog knows exactly where your ads are located thus becomes ad blinded?
olly from glass verandas
I have several sites that run adsense. most make a few cents here and there and I don’t beleive they will ever do well. One however makes about $5 a day – not great but for free is pretty good.
Why is this? Simply because of the niche of this chose subject.
People are coming to read about high value products that advertisers are prepared to pay big bucks per click. The user wants to buy so after they have read the article an ad is the logical next step.
To find a niche like this is hard work as most are saturated – like for example loans would be a good one but so hard to get anywhere as everyone is trying to do it!
Putting adsense on a site that tells jokes for example will result in very few low value clicks.
Treats from SEO Blog
Placing ads on a site can be a good idea, but “on the face” ads placement is a bad idea. Yet to make my first 100USD.
Rick from r4 nintendo ds
You are right, it takes some time before you get some good bucks… My feeling is that it is a combination of valuable content and a lot of backoffice work to market this to get traffic.People are coming to read about high value products that advertisers are prepared to pay big bucks per click. The user wants to buy so after they have read the article an ad is the logical next step.
jack from realestate reits
I like the text ads best. They allow people to see mutiple ads just like search so you can make more money and they are hard to smart price.
Amjad
I have worked with google adsense for one year. It took one year to reach $100 and I never got it. This was not working for me and so I don’t use it anymore.
Amy from Free Xbox 360
Brilliant, I agree. The problem is when people don’t know when to stop adding ads. I sometimes think that one well placed ad is much better than two that you aren’t going to get click throughs on. Good article.
johoy from Free Ads
The problem, I see with Adsense, is the smart pricing, literally turns dollar clicks into cents if the traffic aren’t converting well.
As for those obnoxious sites with big blocks of ads, you’d be surprised at the click through rate on those. As long as it’s in compliance with Google Adsense guidelines, it’s fine with Google. I found a lot of blogs, which boast huge click through rate, like 2% to 5%, that starts off the page with one of those ugly big square block. But it’s that annoying ugly block that is bringing in the majority of the money, not some un-intrusive adsense link unit hidden at corner of the page.
rick from lcd tv 32
It takes alot of work and research to make money with adsense. You need to find good paying terms then find niche to get traffic to sites. Most people will not make much money they would be better off with selling a product online.
heather from Cole Haan Women's Shoes
I agree that too many ads on a web site is not good. I know that when I find a web site that features too many ads or too many flashes even if they are pretty ones I click away because it gets too subtractive.
Duff Man
One way to really get the ball rolling on your adsense account is to create multiple sites with ads linked into the same account. You can manage them per site and track their progress individually in what google calls ‘channels’. I myself have just began experimenting with providing content through the web in exchange for whoring adsense traffic, and he is correct about it being a slow process without an audience to start with.
Good luck!
Janice
Well, I’ve been using Google Adsense since then and it works great! I think you should dig further about this topic and do not focus on just one side of the coin.
Simon
Janice this article is very old…I make a bit more money from adsense now too.