How to Make Money with AdSense

This post was most recently updated on February 9th, 2021

You do not need to be an internet marketing expert to make money with AdSense. What you do need is some knowledge and advice as to how to begin AdSense thus turning your existing content into a potential cash machine or creating new content sites specifically for generating AdSense income.

See our updated guide for making money with Google AdSense for 2020 and beyond here.

So what is Google AdSense?

Google AdSense is a free program that is designed to use your websites to increase revenue by displaying advertisers’ ads known as Adwords on these sites.  When visitors to your site click on these AdSense ads, you get paid, as does Google from the advertiser and hopefully, the advertiser who sells a product to a happy customer.

Why start AdSense?

Google AdSense is proof that it is better to display ads than to place ads. You can earn money with every click and still maintain some control as to the ads displayed on your site. You can have many pages displaying these Adwords ads. In fact, Google would prefer that you have a minimum of 20 pages before you apply and implement AdSense.

Hence, your website can generate revenue 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  There is no need to deal with customers as it is not your product. Google AdSense does the work, it places relevant ads on your site, tracks the clicks and pays you.

However, you also must be prepared to drive traffic to your AdSense sites using various traffic building methods such as article marketing and paying attention to using “keywords” and SEO methods to obtain better page rankings that will attract targeted traffic to your sites.

How to Begin AdSense

The most important thing is that you review the terms of service also referred to as TOS before you apply for your AdSense account. This will save you grief, the possibility of not being accepted and worse, to eventually be banned. Google rules must be obeyed.  Once you have reviewed the TOS and feel that your site conforms to the policies, you can apply online at http://www.google.com/adsense.

You initially apply to have Google review your primary website. You can install AdSense to other websites at a later date under the sole AdSense account once this website is approved.

Your website should be content rich as to the theme with keywords that will drive traffic to your site as well as assist Google to place compatible AdSense Ads targeted to your site.

Installing Adsense

Within several days, Google will advise as to the acceptance or rejection of your site. With acceptance, you set up a Google account. It is imperative that you only have one AdSense account. Google does not allow multi AdSense accounts. You will be provided with an HTML code needed for displaying ads on your various sites.

Once you have this money making code, you need to implement AdSense on your site by going to “AdSense Setup” where on this page you will click on “AdSense for Content“. This is the most basic, common type of Adsense product. The instructions are also user-friendly.

You will be taken through several steps where you will choose ad type, select “ad unit“, text and image ads. You will then be taken to a page where you will need to format your ad color. It is highly recommended that your ad complement your webpage color. Choose a border that is the same color as the area where the ad will be placed.

You can experiment with color on background, text, and border but try to blend color into your site rather than draw attention to the ad. Visitors know that these are ads and discretion preferred. The next step is to track the performance of each ad.

This is optional but highly recommended. “Add new channel“, using a descriptive name for this channel to advise you where the clicks came from and also the location of the ad in order that you may want to experiment with changing the placement.

After the above steps are completed, “save the Ad Unit” with a descriptive name, click on “Submit and get code“. This “Code” will need to be copied and pasted on to your webpage. Location, location, location is most important here. Some Marketers have indicated good success with placing the ads front and center, at the top or above the fold.

That means in the area where you do not scroll down to see. You will often see AdSense ads placed on the right or left margins and even at the bottom. It is best to view other sites and see where they have placed these ads. You can also use “Google Heat Map“ to find the best positions to place ads on your sites.

You can get additional help at the “Code Implementation Guide” link. After you have installed AdSense on several sites, it will become easier. Place ads to maximize the attention of the visitor to click but also where it complements your website and does not appear to be a blatant advertisement.

There are sites such as Blogger, who have AdSense templates already installed to ease you through this process.

Google relies on website owners for the placement of AdSense ads and there are advertisers for almost every situation or site that you can make. Google is very profit driven which can also work for you.

Just ensure your site complies with their ever-changing “terms of service“ and you should be on your way to generating AdSense income.

If you’d like to learn more of how you can dramatically boost your AdSense earnings, contact us here.