Earn Extra Web Revenue with Google AdSense for Content

Not to be confused with Google AdWords, the Internet giant’s service placing ads on Google.com search pages, AdSense (when properly configured) automatically places relevant AdWords advertisements on web pages. The service is open to everyone and Google pays you every time someone clicks on one of their ads on your web site. (Be careful however of testing/clicking on one of these ads placed on your web site as that is considered click-fraud and Google has been known to crack down on these cases, suspending and/or terminating AdSense accounts and voiding any revenue generated from qualified clicks.) In case you may not already be aware, AdSense is a pay-per-click program falling under the contextual advertising area.

I personally have heard of one case where a publisher has made as much as $60,000+/year on AdSense revenue and one even shared at an industry conference his company pulls in $300,000/year on qualified AdSense click-throughs. Although these accounts are unverified, I do not see how this would not be possible per personal experience integrating AdSense on various web sites and watching this revenue grow over time. Bloggers for instance are notorious for using AdSense as their primary source of income, allowing many to function as independent, full time/professional bloggers. Google has published a few interesting case studies on this topic, which may be viewed at https://www.google.com/adsense/success. You may also be interested in reviewing Google’s official AdSense Blog. If your site (or sites) pull more than ~50,000 pageviews per month, you may be surprised to see how well this program can perform.

Some optimization may be required for optimum results, such as adjusting the size and placement of the AdSense ads, colors, etc. One negative about these ads is that they presently do not launch a new window when a visitor clicks on them, which pulls them away from your web site. This is not to say however that, with some clever programming (on your site) the links embedded within the AdSense ads can do this. As a result, you may want to consider placing the ads towards the bottom of your web pages or anywhere you feel comfortable allowing your visitor to exit the web site. As one person put it, they looked upon the ads as a way to collect a small tip upon the visitor leaving.

A common misconception with the AdSense for Content ads is that they do not allow the site owner/Webmaster to remove Google’s “Advertise on this site” option. This can in fact be removed through the AdSense control panel although it may take anywhere from a few hours to a day or so for this to disappear from current ad placements. You may actually want to consider doing this as Google does not currently pay commission from ads sold through this channel – they simply encourage the use of this as it can potentially display more relevant ads and thus drive click-through revenue higher.

Another misconception is AdSense only drives text ads. While this may be the most popular, Google also allows one to display traditional image ads and even flash video ads if they are relevant to the web page content and if an image ad/flash ad is available for a specific ad size (there are a number of ad sizes available, many corresponding to IAB Standards and Guidelines (universal web ad sizes per http://www.iab.net/standards/adunits.asp).

You will need to decide whether this program is practical for your site and your site’s audience but AdSense has proven to be effective for thousands of Webmasters/e-commerce marketing professionals. Whether you are displaying the ads exclusively or running the ads in the absence of traditional CPM or fixed-priced ads, you may find AdSense for Content a worthwhile pursuit for enhancing revenue from your web site.

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Posted by Curtis on Apr 15 2007. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.