Making money with your blog almost always starts with CPC ads since you can make money with them even if you have a small blog. And, as far as CPC ads go, Google AdSense is a big player.
You will need to sign up for AdSense if you have not already. Make sure you also familiarize yourself with the terms. If you are banned from AdSense then you are banned for life so read all of the AdSense policies. The big ones are to never click on your own ads, provide a site that is content rich (and not stealing content from other websites), and to have a link to your privacy policy.
CPC stands for “cost per clickâ€. This means that you can show thousands of ads, but if nobody clicks on them then you will never make a cent. This is important because you not only want people to see your ads; you also need them to click on your ads. You will want to place the ads where people look (above the fold of the page and in between posts are common ad locations). The fold of your page is the content that people see without having to scroll down.
Optimization of AdSense ads is discussed constantly on forums. The simplest answer is that you need to find what works for your site. Some sites have ads that work better if the colors match and some work better if the colors are contrasting. Play around with it and see if your click through rate (CTR) increases or decreases. You can also move your ads to see what happens to your CTR. If an ad is not performing well then move it or take it down. There is no reason to have ads on your site that are not making you money!
You will not get an AdSense check until you reach $100. If your site is small then this will take months and some people never make it. Once you start getting more traffic more people will click on your ads. My own experience was that it took about 8 months to make my first check and I only missed a couple of months after that so don’t give up hope. You just have to be patient. Work to increase your traffic and the AdSense revenue will come!
I read a post about AdSense earnings early in my blogging career that said on average bloggers report about $10 in earnings per 100 RSS subscribers (I do not remember where or I would post it – if somebody knows then I would love to have the link). RSS subscribers do not contribute much to your AdSense income, but the correlation was with the traffic to the site (which can be estimated by the subscription rate). Your own earnings might be higher or lower depending on the niche you blog in, but it does give you a good comparison point. It also drives home the fact that your AdSense earnings will naturally increase as you increase your traffic.
TASK – Set up an AdSense account and put a block of ads on your blog.
Tomorrow we will discuss making money with Adgitize.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I actually removed adsense a long time ago, but when I start getting a million uniques a day, I am probably going to start using adsense again along with my direct ads and affiliate sales.
Adsense is great if you are getting lots of traffic and it can also be good for the in between stage when you aren't a real good target for direct ads.
A million uniques a day is quite a goal! Good luck 🙂
AdSense is more profitable for those who post daily and increase their readers. You can do that by interacting with bloggers. More on that in week four of this series!
This a cute blog. It has a really nice look and independent brand all it's own. Adsense is most profitable to those bloggers who post daily and get interactive with other blogs. As we post and follow our niche in Google Reader, we are able to visit those blogs with the same interests and theme as our own. This is favorable in the eyes of the search engine, who's primary task is to with precision, categorically index every site, every page and every blog post. Blogging is the future of online business.