AdSense often easier than affiliate programs

Google's AdSense is a superb revenue generating opportunity for small, medium and large web sites.

Some webmasters are designing brand new sites specifically for serving AdSense text ads. (It's against the AdSense rules to design a site purely for AdSense, so you'll want to include a few affiliate links or sell your own product, too.)

Here's the background info:

AdSense overview
AdSense FAQ
AdSense tech FAQ
AdSense policies

AdSense allows you to serve text-based Google Ad Words on your web site and receive a share of the pay-per-click payment. AdSense ads are similar to the Ad Words ads you see on the right-hand side at Google when you do a search there.

AdSense is having a huge impact on the affiliate marketing industry. It's often much easier to generate revenue from AdSense than from an affiliate program.

Weak affiliate merchants will die faster than ever.

If you're a merchant running an affiliate program, now's the time to improve it FAST.

AdSense's advantages

AdSense is simple to join.

It's easy to paste a bit of code into your pages.

It's free to join.

You don't have to spend time finding advertisers.

Google provides well written, highly relevant ads - chosen to closely match the content on your pages.

You don't have to waste time choosing different ads for different pages.

You don't have to mess around with different code for various affiliate programs.

You're free to concentrate on providing good content and Google does the work of finding the best ads for your pages from 100,000 Ad Words advertisers.

It's suitable for beginners or marketing veterans.

AdSense provides simple, easy-to-understand stats.

If you have affiliate links on your site, you ARE allowed to add AdSense ads. However, with your affiliate links, you must not mimic the look and feel of the Google ads.

You can filter up to 200 URLs, so you can block ads for sites that don't meet your standards. You can also block strong competitors.

Inevitably, AdSense is competing strongly for space on web sites with all other revenue sharing opportunities.

If you own a small web site you can plug a bit of AdSense code into your site and almost instantly relevant text ads that are likely to appeal to your visitors will appear on your pages.

If you own several sites, you need apply only once. This makes AdSense much simpler than joining a bunch of affiliate programs.

As you can see, I'm really keen on this revenue sharing service.

Disadvantages

One problem is inappropriate ads. You don't want spammed junk advertised on your site. Google's standards probably aren't as high as yours. You can filter out 200 URLs, but in some industries that won't be enough.

The stats Google supplies are inadequate. They're easy to understand at a glance. However, they don't tell you exactly which ads people are clicking on, or which keywords are involved. That's frustrating.

Also, I'd like to be able to identify and block ads that have very low payout rates, without doing a lot of sleuthing and messing around.

The ad panels say "Ads by Google" - free advertising for Google. You don't earn anything if someone clicks on that link.

The minimum payout is $100, which is regarded as too high by sites which don't receive much traffic. That won't worry experienced webmasters.

Also, sites that want to display AdSense ads may not include "other content-targeted and/or text-based ads on the pages displaying Ad Words ads." However, human beings review the sites. Rejected sites have been able to appeal successfully.

Another disadvantage is that Google doesn't allow you to share your stats with other webmasters. The AdSense Terms and Conditions say:

"Confidentiality. You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without Google's prior written consent. 'Google Confidential Information' includes without limitation: ... (b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Site performance in the Program provided to you by Google..."

That's really weird. Web site owners need to be able to share such information and discuss successes and failures.

A big disadvantage of the service is that Google doesn't say how much its AdSense partners will receive. You'll just receive an unknown share of the revenue.

Only a company with the goodwill and respect Google has earned could get away with such a cheeky offer.

Google says:

"How much will I earn through this program? The AdWords ads you are able to display on your content pages are cost-per-click (CPC) ads. This means that advertisers pay only when users click on ads. You'll receive a portion of the amount paid for clicks on AdWords ads on your website. Although we don't disclose the exact revenue share, our goal is to enable publishers to make as much or more than they could with other advertising networks."

So the only way to know how much you'll earn is to try it and see. If you want to bail out, all you have to do is remove the code from your site.

Don't put all your eggs in the AdSense basket. If Google discovers fraudulent clicks on ads appearing on your pages, it can dump your site from the service, and refuse to pay you all revenue owed. Some webmasters who claim total innocence have had this happen to them.

Google has made several changes to its AdSense FAQ, clarifying varying things. For example, it IS possible to apply for separate accounts for separate web sites. I've done so, and checked with Google that it's OK in my case. Read the rules - they look ambiguous to me. If in doubt, ask first!

Sometime after the launch of AdSense, Google added "channels" which improve the tracking. I strongly recommend that you experiment with these.

Sites with "excessive advertising" are being rejected.

How can I Reapply After Being Disabled?

For some unlucky reasons (mostly due to the invalid click activity), your adsense account would be disabled by Google. Although Google strongly emphasize that they have sophisticated tracking programs, as well as human monitoring, to track for the invalid clicks, they often make mistakes and charge some innocent Adsense publishers, and take away their rights of participating this program in the rest of his or her life time. I must admit that this is definitely unfair.

If you receive that email, I am sure you are very frustrated. The first thing to do is to read carefully on why Google charge you and take away your Adsense account. You should also think twice on whether you have committed those issues. Then, prepare all the evidence that in favor to you and make an appeal to Google. Then, pray that Google will give you back the Adsense account, and most importantly, the earning accumulated inside. However, chances (though really low) are there that you may get back your adsense account. Fill in the form below for making such appeal:

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?
contact=invalid_clicks_appeal

As I mentioned before, the chance for reinstating your Adsense account is pretty low. If you account is really banned unluckily, you may wish to open a new Adsense account. From the Google' policy, if an publisher is banned, he/she cannot apply for another one. But there is a little trick that enable that enabled you to do so.

First choose a new computer to start a new blog/ site, and then apply it with Google Adsense. Make sure that the IP address is completely different with those you have used to login your Google and Adsense accounts. I believe that Google will approve you if your site is clean and have enough content. Then, use that computer only (or other new computers with new and different IPs) to login your Adsense account. Never login your adsense account with the one you previously used, because that will let Google know this new Adsense account has correlation with the previous invalid click activity and disable your account.



Hope it helps, and earn more from Adsense program!

Ways to Boost AdSense Revenue

Are you interested in boosting your AdSense revenue overnight? The following ideas are the very ideas that tripled my AdSense earnings when I applied them to my first ad supported website. This article will explain the reasoning behind each strategy, and will follow with my particular application.

Ad Positioning

If you want your ads to get clicked on, you have to put it in a place that it will be seen. Each website is different, so it may require a little experimenting on your part. Typically, the most effective position for your first ad unit will be directly under the title, before the content begins. Another effective position for an ad unit is at the end of your content. Your visitors, after reading your article, will wonder what they want to do next. If you place an ad in this position, they may click on the ad. Google gives you one more ad unit. You will have to experiment to find the best position for this one.

My Application: On most pages I placed one text ad directly under title before my content begins, one text ad following my content and one text ad to the right of my content. This ad position strategy provides me with earnings that are far above the 3% average.

Ad Formats

There are many formats to choose from, and some perform better than others. The wider formats, being easier to read, generally outperform the narrower formats. As a rule the best ad formats are the 1) Medium Rectangle, 2) Large Rectangle, and 3) Wide Skyscraper. They are all wide formats, and provide visitors with the maximum number of ad links. Other ad formats should only be considered when space is a concern.

My Application: On most pages I included two medium rectangles, above and below my content, and one wide skyscraper to the right of my content.

Ad Colors

It is best to blend you ad colors with your website. Blue links are recommended, because this is what most people are accustomed to clicking on, and borders should be eliminated. These elements will not only improve your click-through-rate (CTR), they will also improve the overall look of your website.

My Application: The links are blue, and my ads have no border. Gray text under the link and gray text with a colored URL were both tried. No noticeable variation in CTR occurred.

If you are ready to step out from the crowd and begin seeing your profits soar, the first step is to learn how to track your ad performance with AdSense Channels.

Increase AdSense Revenue.

1. Primacy
Primacy is defined as the state of being first, or foremost. People in general have a short attention span, but it gets even shorter when on the web. It is important to have your AdSense banner near the top of the page. If they have to scroll to see it, there is a good chance they will move on before even noticing the banner. This can be hard to do and keep your website looking professional, but it is possible. You may have to forgo this step on some of your pages to keep the integrity of your site.

2. Blending
you should take your time and develop an AdSense banner that will blend into your website. People are more apt to click on an advertisement if they don’t know it’s an ad. If they are interested in the ad, they will click on the link provided without thinking twice. This is also a good way to prevent your website from looking tacky. Garishly colored advertisements are highly noticeable and will increase the bounce rate on your site. It can ruin the look of your site and is an insult to the eyes.

3. Utilize Your Content
if you are able to wrap your content around the advertisements, it will greatly help to increase AdSense revenue. The advertisements will look like part of your text. This will make it much more natural for readers to click on an ad. They are already interested in what you have to say, and now they are being given an option to continue on that topic. Increasing AdSense revenue is about providing your readers with good content, and a way to continue exploring that content.

4. Write Keyword Focused Content
The Google AdSense program runs off on content. If you are unable to write specific enough content for Google to know what you are talking about, the ads may be untargeted. This is because Google has to guess. Keywords aren’t just for driving organic traffic, they are essential to obtaining relevant advertisements on your site. Without relevance, your ads will lose meaning.

5. Create Multiple Banners
Different types of people will click on different types of ads. One of the best ways to cater to everyone is to create banners with different styles. You can experiment with each one and see which converts best. There is nothing wrong with a little trial and error.

6. Make Use of Google AdSense Channels
it is important to know which pages are converting and which ones aren’t. Google allows you to create up to 200 channels. Why not utilize them all. This way you can narrow down on your non-earning channels and optimize them through trial and error. Use what Google has to offer. They provide these tools because they want you to succeed. If you are making money, so are they.

7. Traffic
finally, and obviously, you need to increase traffic. The more traffic you have, the more AdSense revenue you will create. It is as simple as that. Unfortunately gaining that extra traffic is not so simple, but that is a topic for another post.

Increasing AdSense revenue is about perseverance and hard work. You will need to put in the time and effort to try multiple different approaches before you can rest. Learn from others. If you are a fan of a successful blog, see how they did it. Where do they put their banners? Emulate them because they are successful.

It Makes Sense to Add AdSense to Your Blog

Google AdSense is easy to install on a web page or blog and constitutes additional source of income without spending anything. You have to apply on-line for Google AdSense Program and generally approval comes from Google within two days. Those having AdWord account can use AdWord e-mail address and password for AdSense account also. After acceptance of application, Google confirms creation of your Adsense account thru e-mail. You get a code for AdSense text ads and another code for AdSense search. These codes are to be installed on web page or blog and within minutes the page will start displaying ads from Google, and a Google search bar. AdSense is available in dozen languages worldwide.

The code for AdSense can be placed on any of your web pages. I think placing it on your blog will give you distinct advantage because blogs have several points in their favor. They are easily indexed by search engines. Recently two of my simple blogs were indexed by Google within 2-3 days of submission of URL's which I think is quite fast. With Yahoo! it is even easier - just add the URL of your blog to your My Yahoo page and Yahoo! will start accessing it immediately. GoogleAlert is a free tool that can be used to know when your blog is indexed by Google.

You can have your blog up and running in minutes free of cost from several sites that provide this service. I personally use blogger.com. With blogs you do not need to worry about designing websites, registering domain name or hiring web site hosting service. You simply write your content on the blog and it is ready for publication.


With AdSense wide range of options is available - number of ads for display, shape and size of display, color schemes. More than 200 colors are available from which you can choose color for border, background and text. 24 pre-set color palettes are readily available; in addition you can have your own custom-palette to match with the appearance of your web page. Similarly, color schemes are available for Google search bar.

When the web page is opened, Google ads are placed which match with the content of the page and are highly relevant. Google finds right ads for the web page from 100,000 AdWord advertisers.

Several options are available for the ads that you would like to be displayed on your page. Ad filters can be activated which will block up to 200 URL's of your choice which you do not want to show on your page. You may like to filter away ads from your competitors. You can even choose your own default ads for display. Google uses sensitive content filters to prevent display of sensitive material. If you find that your page is not really getting relevant ads, it may be time to look critically at the content of the page, particularly the keywords used in text, links and tags. Little SE optimization of the page should resolve this problem.

Sometimes Google places public service ads when no target ads are available. To suppress public service ad, it is possible to specify your own image ad or HTML page ad which will appear in place of public service ad. This ensures that some ad is always present there. Or, if you like, the space reserved for Adsense ads can be made to collapse.

AdSense tracker is another useful feature which tracks the ads on your pages and generates report for you. The reports can be customized based on requirement. Typically reports can give page impressions displayed, number of clicks and click-thru rates. It is also possible to check earnings any time.

Web page owner can make use of all these facilities and try to get best results. With the help of Ad tracker lot of useful information can be obtained - which ads are doing well, which color combination gets better results, which location of the web page is best for showing ads and so on. This analysis can be used to improve traffic as well as click-thru rates.

With AdSense you have virtually nothing to lose. If you have not yet installed AdSense on your website you can perhaps give it a thought. Any free space which can be created on your website to accommodate AdSense can be used to generate additional income

Jump on Blogging and RSS Feeds or be Left Behind!

Viruses and the deluge of the cyberspace version of junk mail, spam, has forced marketers to look for new ways to get back into the surfer's eye. Spam filters hinder many of today's marketers. That ezine you spent hours producing is often routed to the garbage bin without your intended audience ever seeing it. Now that's not nice, but overwhelming piles of unsolicited emails are thrown into virtual mailboxes around the globe. Do you read your spam mail?

The wise and prudent are jumping on a trend that was relegated to personal use until about a year ago - blogging and RSS Feeds. These new tools have become the latest marketing craze to hit the Internet. Why? The advantages they present are amazing, cost effective, and can get your site indexed in the blink of an eye. No wonder marketing gurus are smiling like the Cheshire cat!

Andrew logged onto his usual My Yahoo! page early in September 2004, and was startled to see that it had had a make-over. Really, he thought only women did that! What was this RSS feed information blaring across the screen anyway? It took a little bit of investigation, but Andrew soon discovered that this news could mean extra money in his pocket.

He nearly spilled his lukewarm coffee on the keyboard when he realized that he could get his website in front of more than 20 million viewers with such amazing ease! People everywhere were touting RSS feeds and blogs as the backdoor to Yahoo! - and what a place to be! He'd spent endless hours trying to implement search engine optimization techniques in order to do this very thing.

Andrew is still shaking his head in wonder - even after several months of high web traffic and amazing profits. "Such a simple way to get your product in front of people, save money, and escape spam filters should have a catch!" he constantly says to himself. But so far, he only has extra money in his account to show for jumping on the blog and RSS band wagon.

What techniques have you employed to get your site listed? The great lengths people will go to amaze me. I recently wrote fifty search engine optimization articles about baby strollers for a gentleman desperately attempting to get his website noticed. How much can you say about baby strollers, and how many ways can you say it without becoming buggy yourself? RSS feeds and blogging take the hard work, sweat and tears out of marketing. The current search engine optimization techniques are now becoming a relic of the past.

We all know that the virtual world is constantly changing. Anyone who is going anywhere on the Net has to be on the ball, and ready to get in on the first level of these new changes. Are you going to be left behind in the marketing realm?

Making Money with Blogspot

You have created a blog and your blog is dedicated to a niche industry. Have you ever thought that the blog could make money for you? We would look here in this article, ways and means, to make money blogging. Lets first have a look at what are the prerequisites for a blog needed to make money:

1. Blog needs to be dedicated to a niche market.
2. Updated regularly.
3. Enough back links (Don't worry for it. Directory submission would be enough to begin with)
4. Good blog host or application (blogger, Xanga or typepad recommended), and
5. High quality articles or news items supported with images.

Get the above criteria in place and Hurrah... You are ready to Make Money Blogging.

Top 5 Ways to Make Money with Blogspot
Lets now take a look at top 5 ways using which you could make money with blogspot:

1. Google Adsense
Google Adsense delivers text and image ads to the authorized websites/blogs depending on the content of the website. Small code is required to be pasted at proper locations on a webpage and Google automatically recognizes the page. Google shares the revenue it gets from the advertisers whenever a visitor clicks on these ads.

Google bills advertisers on price per click basis (PPC). Advertisers are required to pay only when any visitor clicks on their ads. They bid against each other for the keywords in order to receive better placement and thus prices for each keyword differ from one another. It is better to choose keywords for your blog which pays high $ per click.

2. Amazon
Amazon Associate program is another important way to make money blogging. The Amazon Associate program gives opportunity to website/blog publishers to promote any product from its inventory by adding a predefined code to their website/blog, which, when clicked by a visitor, takes them to the relevant product page. Once the visitor buys the product, the blog owner will be compensated with a commission.

3. Blogads
You can use Blogads as an effective tool to have a better control over the advertisers in your blogs. You can analyze and compare your profits with any one of your online agencies. Blogads can be simply specified as an advertising service used for the web logs or blogs. From the total money generated by Blogads, it retains 20% of it and the remaining money is paid to you through PayPal or checks.

Alternative Services:

. Crispads is another useful network focused on the blogs. You can put your advertisements in their blogs using Crispads. You can move through their RSS/ATOM feeds that help in generating revenues.
. Tagword - It is similar to Blogads. It makes you select the ads and their price.

Users can place their text-based ads in the site within minutes and the ads will be displayed instantly on the website.

4. Affiliate Programs
Your affiliate programs can help you earn a lot of money for selected products and services. Lot of websites offers you to become affiliate members. These affiliate programs can provide a better reach and an in-depth exposure to the products. The commissions for the sales differ according to the quality of the product, sales and marketing strategy involved. You can gather information related to the commissions by looking into the catalogues of Link Share and Commission junctions.

5. Text Links
Text links has emerged out to be the best form of moneymaking source that you can use instead of cluttering or crowding the page with ads. You don't have to make these text links prominent within your website. This link can act as an extra value to your site and will also help to promote the rankings of other sites. In most of the cases you will find these text links placed in the bottom of the web pages. The best part of this strategy is that the publishers send and accept links as the market continues to grow.
Happy Blogging!

Make Money With Blogspot Using These Nine Powerful Strategies

I'm sure there are more creative ways to make money blogging, the ideas below are meant as a resource pool for you to draw from, and a launchpad to kickstart the thinking process of making money from blogging....

The question "How to make money by blogging" sits high on every blogger's mind.

You can make money Blogging in a number of ways, and in this article I share with you up to nine ways in which you can make money blogging.

1. Make Money Blogging by Selling Your Space For Advertising

Before the advent of Blogs, we have e-zines and selling advertising space on ezines was a popular way to earn extra money. If you run your own Blog, you can let others advertise in your Blogs with banner ads, solo ads, sponsor ads, classifieds and so on.

Now that we have Blogs, you can repeat the same business model that e-zine publishers do, that of selling advertising space.

One popular advertising company that helps Bloggers look for advertisers is Blogads (www.Blogads.com).

Besides placing advertisers ads on your Blog, you can also make money Blogging by placing Google Adsense into your Blog.

In my "Marketing Rampage with Blogs and RSS" Videos, I show you how you can customize your Blog template to include the Google Adsense into your Blog template so that you can make money blogging.

2. How to Make Money Blogging by providing technical services such as Blog hosting or setting up Blog

You can also earn money blogging by providing technical services such as helping people to set up their Blogs or providing your own Blog hosting service.

One example of this is www.typepad.com . This is a Blog hosting service provider that charges a monthly fee. Typepad lets you create your Blog and they will host your Blog for you, and provide you with a number of Blog features.

3. Make Money Blogging by setttin up joint venture marketing

Joint Venture marketing is a powerful marketing strategy employed by many top online marketers.

Basically how joint venture works is this:

You promote person B's products to your subscriber and customer list, and you get a cut from whatever sale that follows from this promotion.

You can apply the principle of joint venture marketing to Blogs as well. If you have a substantial readership to your Blog, you can also promote or endorse certain products to your Blog readers and this way, and split the profits from the sales generated.

This is another way to make money blogging.

4. How to Make Money Blogging from using the Membership model

Over time, if your blog has lots of postings and provide good quality content, you can consider turning it into a membership site and charge access for it, again giving you another avenu

5. Make Money Blogging by turning your Blog contents into products
Another way in which you can make money blogging is to repackage your Blog contents into an e-book or an audio product and sell it. For example, if you run your own Podcasting show or an 'online radio show', you can easily compile your podcast recordings into a CD compiliation and sell it.

6. How to make money blogging by swapping blogs

You've heard of ad swapping when it comes to e-zine publishing, where publishers publish each other's ads in their own e-zines. This way, you save on adveritising costs.

You can repeat the same model to Blogs, as swap ads on Blogs as well. So instead of paying up front, you get to save, which means more money for you to spend!

7. Make money blogging by turning blog contents into RSS feeds and sell it as premium feeds

Your blog contents can be turned into an RSS feed. If the content is good, you can look for web businesses that are looking for good content for related topics and sell their feed to them.

8. How to Make Money Blogging by well, asking!

Hey, who's stopping you from putting a PayPal donation jar or button on your Blog? After all, there are lots of generous people out there you know.

9. Make Money Blogging as an Affiliate Marketer

Another way you can make money blogging is by promoting other people's products on your Blog. This is also known as affiliate marketing.

In affiliate marketing, you get paid a commission when someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase. Depending on the subject of your Blog, you can recommend products that solve people's problems.

For example, I had a subscriber who asked me how she can blog about cats and make money from blogging about cats.

I shared with her that firstly, perhaps she might want to go niche instead of targeting the broad category of "cats", and using the example of a Persian cat, which is a niche by itself, she can start a blog on Persian cats, providing valuable information as well as recommended solutions and products to the upkeep and maintenance of Persian cats.