Is AdSense Right for Your Blog? [Series] What is Google AdSense?
In recent weeks, Blogtap has undergone some very large changes.
- A new partner has jumped on board and he’s brought with him a ton of experience from the Web and IT industry.
- DoFollow commenting has been enabled so that every user that gives something to Blogtap (in the form of a comment), receives something in return.
- AdSense blocks were installed for a few days and then removed.
In this post series, I’d like to discuss the last item on the list above.
Why Google AdSense? First: The What, How and When
When considering to monetize a blog with the popular Google AdSense Pay Per Click Network, there are really only three questions that need to be asked: what is Google AdSense? how do I install Google AdSense? when should I install Google AdSense?
I’m going to explore the what question today, and explore the other questions in future posts. At the end of this post series, you will be able to answer the question “is AdSense right for your Blog?” with confidence and apodictic certainty.
What Google AdSense is Not
To answer the why question, you must first understand what Google AdSense is. And to first answer what Google AdSense is you must first answer what it is not. Have I lost you yet?
- Google AdSense is not an affiliate network where you can earn money by producing sales. At one point, AdSense did support referral ads but discontinued referral ads in August of 2008 to narrow the scope of AdSense to purely PPC ads. Google operates its own affiliate network, which is where you should go if you want income from referrals.
- Not the most flexible PPC ad network for ad customization and placement. Google allows for only these ad sizes and nothing else. You can customize the background and link colors but you cannot customize the sizes of the ad blocks. Furthermore, only three AdSense for content units, three AdSense link units and two Google search boxes are allowed per page.
- Google AdSense is not an instant approval ad network. That means if you plan on setting up Google Adsense, you first have to submit an application and wait (sometimes weeks) for the acceptance letter.
What Google AdSense Is
- A pay per click ad network. You earn money with Google AdSense not from generating sales but sales leads. When someone clicks on an AdSense ad, they are taken to a third party website where they are usually pitched a product or service.
- A crawl-based ad network. Google crawls your web pages to determine what sort of advertisements to display. The only control you have over what sort of ads are displayed is through the content you surround Google ads with.
- The leading pay per click advertisement network on the web. There are more advertisers on Google AdSense than any three ad networks combined.
- A highly monitored ad network. Spammers beware, Google hires individuals whose sole job is to weed out those advertisers that are making money through illicit means. On top of that, Google created very complex algorithms to automatically detect illicit clicks.
- Interconnected with Google AdWords. The AdWords network is the mother of Google AdSense and the two allow each other to operate. Advertisers (those who want their ads shown) create ads in AdWords and have them displayed on websites controlled by publishers via AdSense.
In short, Google AdSense is a way of making money by displaying pre-made advertisements on your site. It has a few restrictions but should be considered in any circumstance because of how large it is compared to other ad networks.
I hope this post serves as a solid foundation to answer the question: should I install AdSense on my blog? Stay tuned for future posts in this series.
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Tags: advertising, blogging for money, google
This is a very nice blog, I always persuade my clients to start a blog because of all the benefits they can bring to their own websites specially when it comes to search engine traffic and SEO tactics. of course; not every one has the ability to write but with a bit of imagination they can make it happen. Great blog!
I’ve tried adsense on a couple of blogs, but affiliate programs gives a alot more in the end, if you can find campaigns which fits your audience!
We are talking 4-6 times as much.
See, I find this hard to believe. It is very rare that anyone buys anything from adverts on websites.
Unless you have a niche specific website where people who visit are looking for a product to buy then you will make money from Adsense every day of the week.
Just my opinion…
such a great article. i haven’t tried adsense yet but this makes it so simple and easy to understand if you should even try.
keep up the good work
Ok thanks a lot from France for this article
I’ve to see again my campaign…
Im still wondering if google adsense is the way to go, maybe ill try affiliate programs
I have been using adsense for years……works for me
I’ve earned a little money with Adsense, but it wasn’t particularly enough to cash out. You really have to have a lot of traffic in oder to see some benefit from it.
i always want to use adsense, but never had time to optimese my own site… but i will start to use this week ! yeey! let see if really works….
Good, let us know how Adsense works for you.
Hi. Nice blog btw. I’m about to try WordPress having used blogger and blog engine.net at present.
Re adsense what we have found is that you can get quite good results from it if you have a)high traffic volumes and b) a fairly general site.
Sites which we focused the visitor on a specific product to convert for didn’t perform well for example.
Hopes this helps!
It depends on the niche and the traffic of the site. Adsense is good if you have enough traffic. You also have to learn the right placement to get a good CTR.
Adsense have never perform very well on my blog, but it is doing very well in my forum. Honestly not much earning, but it can pay for web hosting and domain name. I am satisfied and I like adsense, because Google index pages with adsense very quickly.
Although the possible benefits are obvious, I dislike the idea of the crawler based add selection. I might have a blog on a specific subject with the adds selected by crawler will not interest my readers much. If I like to have a little mroe control over what my page is displaying, which makes affiliate programs preferrable in thic case.
I really like google adsense and would recommend it to everyone. It is my main source of income. Affiliate programms are only some kind of addition for me.
I am not a big fan of AdSense because you are sending traffic away from your Web site. I’d look into affiliate products, selling text link advertising, or even building/selling an e-Book that had affiliate links inside.
I tried to register a few times but not approved by google.
what was wrong?
It took a few months for me before I got the code sent in the mail. Google will notify you if you have been rejected.
Getting adsense approval is easy and can be achieved in under one week, because I got my own approved in two days.
Moreover, for google to approve your adsense request you should make sure you don’t have any type of ads, be it banner or text display in your site
I agree.
It’s the same for me. Normally, it should take only few days.
You just have to make sure that your website is completed, functional & has signification content.
I have tried so hard to make money through google adsense but there is nothing to show for my effort. But now I ‘ll try and put more effort. Nothing venture nothing gain. Thanks for this post.
I’ve used Adsense on a few blogs for a while. Mainly due to not knowing of the alternatives. I don’t get massive traffic and they do ok but I think there may be better alternatives.
I have had adsense for about 7 months now and love it. It took a while to start earning from it but now I get paid every month.
I’m not so lucky in adsense, I tried twice applying but got rejected twice also. i don’t know what’s wrong with my blogs.
I think, to persuade my clients to start a blog for all the benefits they can bring their own web pages especially when it comes to search engine traffic, the center provide data and SEO tactics. of course, not everyone can write, but with a bit of imagination rich they can make it happen. Good job.
I guess a lot of people use AdSense and Amazon affiliate program together. It can work well.
However, for affiliate links, one should do a lot of optimizing and insert them in relevant parts of the post/pages etc. AdSense can be blindly put at default places as Google will take care of the context.
Fantastic article introducing people to Adsense. If you are new to Internet Marketing adsense is the place that newbies start, but it does take hard work to earn big bucks. It is possible though with hard and remember you won’t receive the big adsense checks over night.
Great blog post, look forward to more.
Adsense have never perform very well on my blog, but it is doing very well in my forum. Honestly not much earning, but it can pay for web hosting and domain name.
I tried to use Google Ads on my blog to raise the amount of traffic. But I did not put any adwords on it. I am still not a grand master at creating adword campaings at Goodge Ads
Google adsense is probably the hardest way to earn money…
Nasif, yes adsense is not easy to make money from, but if you can take time to learn how it works you can make a leaving off it.
Nice information, a lot of IMs still aren’t aware of what it is and how it works. If you are a newbie in Int. markeitng then, Adsense should be the first step to take in terms of providing advertisements on your website and earning money through targeted ads.
Yea adsense works for us too, it does the trick. Although there are many tricks involved to start actually getting paid. Gotta master them before you slop em’ on.
What other ad programs would you suggest using instead of AdSense?
If you’re selling a product or service on your blog, why would you want to let your competition advertise via Adsense?
I think adsense makes sense for a blog only if the content is geared towards keywords with high cpc. otherwise, it’s just not worth it for the extra clutter.
I have always found that adsense cluttered my blog therefore removed it from my blog. Though, I do run it on other sites such as forums and normal websites.
It can be a real money maker though personally I do not think it’s right for blogs.
One disadvantage of adsense is its minimum withdrawal amount
Adsense is great for beginners because it’s really easy. It forces you to focus on the quality of your content. Most beginners don’t have a clue how to monetize their blogs. A lot of the other ways to monetize a blog requires a huge amount of traffic.
Is Adsense the best? Depends on who you ask. Is it great for begineers? Totally.
I’ve dabbled with AdSense quite a bit but have yet to strike it rich. I might start looking harding at various Affiliate Progams as an alternative to AdSense.
Adwords can be a very costly option if you want to promote your blog. There is always bidding wars cost per click for popular keywords, unless you find niche keywords or phrases. Adsense does not pay that much. You need volume or a lot of traffic for it to pay off. Affiliate programs are not easy. You have to find one the pays well and a product that sells a lot.
more about disadvantage is fraud click. my adsens account have been disable
Very important information shared on google adsense.
Thanks for sharing