Anyone who owns or is thinking about creating a website would be crazy to ignore this.
I am happy to say that making money with your site, no matter the topic, has become easier than it's ever been before - and it's 100% legitimate.
If AdSense had been available in 2000, I would have NEVER shut down my soap opera fan site that received 200 hits per day. I would have been able to earn money from that traffic and probably turned a small profit.
How AdSense Works
Don't like to read a lot of text? Watch my 4-minute video on how AdSense works.
What is AdSense?
Google.com earns most of its revenue by allowing other website owners to advertise on their search result pages. All this is managed through a program they callAdWords.
Now you can earn a share of the revenue that Google earns from AdWords by displaying these same text ads on your site. In other words, you're helping Google advertise and they pay you a percentage of what they earn.
This program is called AdSense.
Every website owner should at least consider the program. Even if your site is just for information purposes, you can still participate and make decent money with AdSense -- or at least enough to fund your website.
So if you are one of those people that doesn't like the idea of paying for a site, this is an excellent way to earn your money back and then some.
How AdSense Works
Don't like to read a lot of text? Watch my 4-minute video on how AdSense works.
How Much Can You Earn With AdSense?
Google does not disclose exactly how much you'll earn per ad that is clicked.
The commission you receive per click depends on how much advertisers are paying Google for the particular ad. You will earn a share of that amount. I've heard of earnings anywhere from 2 cents to $15 per click.
So it is logical to believe that keyword phrases like debt free, employment, make money, mp3, sex, etc. will earn you more per click since these are highly competitive keywords that are searched for quite a bit on the web.
Advertisers generally pay more for popular terms because they are searched for more.
Even though Google will not reveal how much you are earning for each ad that is clicked from your site, you can still login to your account at any time and see the total amount of revenue you've generated that day, week, month, year, etc.
For example, if you see that you've made $12.60 today from 9 clicks then you can calculate that your average click-thru commission was $1.40 per click. That's as detailed as their stats will get. Also remember, that's only an average. You won't know how much each specific ad brought in.
The amount you'll earn also depends largely on the amount of targeted traffic you receive to your own site, how well the ads match your audience's interests, the placement of the ads on your pages, and of course the amount you receive per click.
Ideally, you should create a site on a topic you know a lot about. That way you'll have a much easier time creating a generous amount of content on that subject.
My Google AdSense Earnings
AdSense CheckI have been receiving monthly checks from Google since 2003, and I've read numerous success stories of websites earning 5 digit incomes per month with AdSense.
Now, I will admit, a 5-digit commission in a single month is probably not the norm for most participants.
I promote AdSense on three of my websites and my monthly checks are usually around the $6,000 mark.
My sites have been around for a long time and I have a great deal of traffic so that's a big reason why I earn so much. I promote my sites on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. Making a lot of money with AdSense is all about numbers. The more traffic you have, the greater the earning potential.
My checks weren't always this large. I think my first month's earnings in 2003 totaled less than $20. However, as my traffic increased, so did my checks.
Watch Video About My Record AdSense Month in July, 2009
Creating Your Website for AdSense
Before you even begin your site, make sure you've come up with a topic that you feel you know plenty about. That way it will be easiest to write a lot of content.
The more content you have, the better chance you have getting accepted into the program. Also, the more content, the greater the earning potential. AdSense is nothing but a numbers game. If you want to make a lot of money, prepare to write a lot of content.
Now let's talk about building your website. There are two ways you can approach this:
1) Do it Yourself (DIY) from scratch
2) Use Site Build It! (SBI!)
The Do It Yourself Method
I've actually used both methods for building my site and there are advantages and disadvantages to both.
If you use the DIY method, you will have to go and register a domain name(yoursite.com) and then sign up for a web host and build your pages. You can either learn HTML or buy some kind of web editor like Microsoft FrontPage to build your pages. That's the method I used to build this site.
Averaging between $7 and $15 per month, the DIY method is usually the most cost friendly of the two but you are mostly on your own in terms of learning how to create your web pages and adding the AdSense code to your site.
Web hosts are generally there to house your site. They don't specialize in helping you market and optimize your site for the search engines to help you get traffic. So don't expect a lot from them in terms of helping you market your site and making money with Google AdSense.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. I had to learn how to build this site on my own and it wasn't very difficult.
I now manage all of my sites with Dreamweaver.
Use Site Build It! - A Web Host Made for AdSense
This is a revolutionary web host like no other. I use it for my site,flat-stomach-exercises.com, and after only 11 months the site was earning over $700 per month for AdSense alone.
Two years after launch, the total monthly earnings shot up to $2,000 to $2,500.
Today, the site continues to earn money from AdSense yet I have no products to sell. I'm simply offering information on a topic I know a lot about and SBI showed me how to rank high in the search engines for various keyword phrases. Over 90% of traffic comes from the free search engines.
The reason SBI! is different from the other do-it-yourself hosts is that first it provides all the web page building and marketing help all in one place. Your domain registration, web hosting and marketing help come with the price..
Super Easy Web Page Builder
Creating your pages is as simple as entering text into form fields and using the user-friendly editor to add text, create links, add pictures and more. No software is needed to install or download. You simply select a template you want to use and your site is built in seconds...literally.
I took a screenshot of the SBI! interface...
Video Guides
What's even better is that you will receive a Video Action Guide to walk you through how to setup and promote your site.
Remember, without traffic, you won't make any money with AdSense. That's why having a host like SBI is so important. Keep in mind, a regular DIY host doesNOT help you with search engine rankings and traffic. They just give you the space and a "good luck!"
Brainstorming Tool
Site Build It also comes with a powerful brainstorming tool. So for all of you sitting there wondering about a topic, this tool literally scours the net and helps you decide on the best topic by showing demand and supply (i.e. number of sites on X topic and roughly how feasible it will be to bring in traffic for that particular subject). It is amazing.
The creator of Site Build It even built a micro site that describes how to maximize your AdSense earnings. And since Site Build It's main goal is to show you how to build income through content...it's almost as if AdSense was designed specifically for a web host like SBI.
See the SiteSell AdSense site here.
I highly recommend using SBI -- especially if you plan on building a site specifically to earn money from AdSense. It is the kind of host that stands for everything AdSense is about -- rewarding website owners for building an abundance of useful content.
Even though the two companies are not related, it really is the perfect marriage between a great concept like AdSense and a web host that is dedicated to showing you how to make money by simply providing information.
Successful SBI Websites
Be sure to also take a peek at all the successful SBI websites created by mostly beginners who have never created a site before. Every site listed on this page is in the top 3% in terms of amount of traffic received on the web - thanks to the SBI search engine help.
Find out why I think SBI! is best for AdSense.
How to Join AdSense
Once you have 10-15 pages on your site, go to http://adsense.google.com to apply.
When you are accepted, simply copy and paste the provided HTML code into any page that you'd like to show the ads. If you've done a good job of defining the content on your web pages, the ads that show should be relevant to the content of your page...increasing the chances of click-thrus by your visitors.
You can either display the ads vertically along side the page like Google does or in a banner-like formation horizontally across your pages. The placement is up to you. You can even customize the colors to match your site's theme.
Tips on Succeeding With AdSense
Here are some tips for achieving success with Google AdSense.
1. Create a website with your (YourSite.com). Don't try to use a free web host because your site will likely have banners and pop-ups and get rejected because it looks unprofessional. Not to mention, a free web host will give you a website address like this:
http://www.thefreewebhost.com/yoursite/member1234/home.html
instead of...
http://www.yoursite.com
Start by registering your own domain and then select a web host.
2. If you don't know web programming or have no desire to learn it, get a beginner's design editor like Dreamweaver (what I use) or CoffeeCup. You can publish your content directly to the web from the software.
Keep in mind you can't use the software alone. You must have a web host that will allow you to publish your site to the Internet.
3. If the main goal of your site is to make money with AdSense, be sure to choose a topic that you know a lot about so you can write lots and lots of content.
4. Get traffic. Once your site is up and running you'll need to learn how to get your site listed in the major search engines.
Getting into Google is completely free and can bring in hundreds or even thousands of visitors per day. All you have to do is submit your site to them and wait patiently while Google adds it to the index. It can take a few months. Patience is key with Google. Then do the same with Yahoo, MSN, etc.
Read up on how the search engines rank pages here.
And while you're waiting it's important you build up as much unique content around your theme as possible. Google loves large sites with useful content centered around a specific theme.
Don't create a hodgepodge site with topics on everything under the sun. Stay focused and make sure your site has an obvious theme.
