AdSense for Seach, Adsense for Content and Referrals

Once you are accepted into the AdSense program you can decide whether you want to use AdSense for Search, AdSense for Content, referrals or a combination of all three. So what do these three options entail?

AdSense for Content:
This is the common format you'll have seen many times before - the traditional 'Ads by Goooogle' boxed adverts and links. You choose from a wide range of ad formats, change the colours to meet your requirements and paste an HTML code into your web page. Google crawl your site for key words and match the ads accordingly. Every time a visitor clicks on one of the 'Ads by Goooogle' you receive a small payment, usually in the range USD0.20 to USD2.00.

AdSense for Search:
This option allows you to place a Google search bar on your site. A site visitor can use the search bar to search your site and/or the web depending on how you set it up. If they choose to search the web and click a sponsored link on the search results page you will receive a small payment.

Referrals:
This option allows you to place referral buttons on your site. The buttons advertise things like Mozilla Firefox, Picasa, Google AdSense and Google Toolbox. When someone clicks on a button and installs the program associated with it you receive a small payment.

Getting Started with AdSense

AdSense registration page - click to enlarge.

Google has made it easier than ever to register for AdSense - simply head for the AdSense home page (https://www.google.com/adsense) and click on the 'Click Here To Apply' button. You'll then be confronted with a registration form to complete (shown above). The AdSense team will then review your site, check it complies with the AdSense terms and conditions before sending you an email accepting/rejecting you. It usually take a couple of days to hear a reply. It is very important you have fully read, understood and intend to abide by the terms and conditions.

Site Optimisation - Spreading the Word

It is no good having a shiny new Ferrari on your driveway if you don't have any gasoline in the tank. Same goes for websites - it is no good having the best Flash animations, brilliant graphics and interesting content if you have no site visitors. You need to spread the word about your site as soon as you can. You will only attract new visitors, generate advert clicks and earn lots of cash if your site is high in the search engine rankings, has many links pointing to it and stays that way.

Optimise your site by:

1. Getting a domain name:
Very important. If you have to change your host server you will still be easy to find on the web.

2. Submitting to search engines:
Submit your new site to the big three search engines - Google, MSN and Yahoo. Your site will be picked up by MSN pretty quickly - certainly within a few days. Google and Yahoo take slightly longer - sometimes a few weeks. There are many free services offering to submit your site to the search engines - I would avoid these because they attract a lot of spam emails.

3. Submitting to specialist directories:
Let others with an interest in your subject area know about your site by posting the web address in the relevant directories. A list of useful directories can be found HERE. Make sure you post details of your new site in the Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org/) - they will list you on a giant worldwide directory and submit your site to their hundreds of partner search engines.

4. Sharing your web address electronically:
If you are a member of any web forums make sure you append your web address to your signature. This will instantly place your address on every message you have ever posted on that forum. Email your friends and colleagues with your web address. Change your email settings so that your web address appears in your signature on every future email you send.

5. Sharing your web address manually:
If you have a business card or headed note paper make sure your web address is included. If you advertise in a newspaper, telephone or business directory make sure you include your web address.

6. Additionally, if you keep a blog:
Make sure you keep your blog fresh by regularly adding new articles and images. Be sure to ping Weblogs (www.weblogs.com) every time you update it so that fellow bloggers can see you've added new content. Keep an eye on your site stats by subscribing to the very good free service offered by StatCounter (www.statcounter.com). Subscribe to Technorati (www.technorati.com) - this will enable fellow subscribers to find and search all your blogs quickly and easily. You may also like to start an RSS feed on your blog - sign up at www.feedburner.com. Anyone who subscribes to your RSS feed can easily see when changes are made and will hopefully revisit your site. It is also a good idea to start a BlogRoll (www.blogrolling.com) - this allows you to add links to your site with a single click, and allows other BlogRollers to easily add you to their site.

Remember - it is very important to keep your site fresh and keep spreading the word.

What's the Catch?

There is no catch - just stick to the AdSense terms and conditions. Any infringement of the terms will be discovered by Google and they will almost certainly ban your account. They are not very forgiving with people who break their rules. Google will act swiftly to remove any suspected AdSense cheats, so that advertisers maintain confidence in the programme.

A massive 43% of Google's income comes from advertising - a very significant proportion which, being a business, they would love to increase further. AdSense is a no lose situation for Google - more sites with AdSense means wider audience, more advertisers attracted, an increased awareness of the Google brand, more clicks on adverts and more money for Google and you.

What is AdSense?

AdSense is a contextual advertising service offered by internet giant Google. The AdSense programme started in 1995 and has gone from strength to strength ever since. AdWords is the programme advertisers enrol in to have their adverts displayed on AdSense.

The distinctive 'Ads by Goooogle' can been seen somewhere on just about every website nowadays. The ads provide a very powerful, far reaching, highly effective method of delivery for advertisers participating in the AdWords programme. AdSense allows web publishers to place real time content-targeted adverts on their sites. AdSense delivers targeted ads by scanning a web page for key words before each page load.

The publisher receives payment, and advertiser pays out, every time an advert is clicked by a site visitor. Sometimes a payment is made for every thousand impressions of the advert bearing pages. The advertiser decides a monthly budget and sets a rate for each click or thousand impressions. Only the advertiser and Google know the value of a particular advert, but it is normally in the region of USD 0.20 - USD 2.00, of which Google keeps about 1/3 and the remaining 2/3 is credited to the publisher's account. Some advertisers are prepared to pay much more than that - figures up to $15.00 have been mentioned for very specialised adverts.

Publishers can keep track of their advertising income online. Payment is made by cheque or electronic bank transfer every time a publisher's AdSense account reaches USD100.00. Anyone with a web site, who can comply with Google's strict terms and conditions, can apply to join AdSense. Google monitor all participating website very carefully to guard against 'click fraud'. Anyone who joins the programme should ensure they are fully compliant with the terms and conditions, otherwise they'll face suspension from the programme and loss of any revenue accumulated.