Google AdSense

Where does the online money come from? There are pay-per-click(ppc) programs and there are programs where you get paid a commission of a sale; for example Amazon.com. The best pay-per-click; "best" being honest, reliable, consistent - is Google AdSense. Another term for this type of advertising is 'Contextual Advertising'.

Advertisers join Google's AdWord program and choose keywords upon which they would like their ads displayed, then pay for each click on their ads which contain a link to their site. Google displays the advertiser's ad on their own search results page down the right hand side, and, more important to you and me, Google displays the advertisers' ads on publishers' pages.

Publishers can choose to have their ads only displayed on search results or only on other websites or on both. Publishers join Google's AdSense program for free; you and I being the publisher. See the ads to the right of this column? Each time someone clicks on one of these ads, I get a little something. It's not much on its own but the more traffic you have, the more clicks you get and the amount grows.

On and off I advertise with Google AdWords or create campaigns for others. This is the other side of the coin and you are the advertiser. Creating an AdWords campaign if you are selling a product can generate many leads at a low cost - you can set your maximum daily rate to a low amount to try it out. It is important to thoroughly read Goolge's AdSense policy to make sure you do not do anything against their policies that could disallow you from using this service.

Don't forget that all this experience will become knowledge that you can use if you start a site to sell a product - your AdWords campaign experience will be extremely valuable to you at that point. Also, if you want to sell your services to create AdWords campaigns for others (ie www.Elance.com). It is fun, not rocket science, and some people who sell product or services just don't know the value of it. You can create a campaign for a small amount per click and limit your daily expenditure. Depending on the competitiveness of the business area this itself can generate a lot of extra monthly traffic and business.

Back to Google AdSense. Let's be brutally honest, if by the end of a year you've managed to recover your hosting fees and you've learned a lot, then you're headed for success. I wouldn't quit my day job but this is an income (and a hobby) that could be a lucrative second income. Who knows, you may learn so much that you could provide the service of keyword research, site optimization and Google AdWord campaign management - you can even get yourself certified (https://adwords.google.com/select/professionalwelcome).

Why so much focus on Google? Well, you will need to submit to other search engines and directories but Google has the largest share of the search engine market right now and I am essentially concentrating on explaining how to make money online using the AdSense program - in other words and in a nutshell- you supply interesting and valuable content to the world wide web and you allow advertising on your site for small fees.

By the way, Google loves content. Once you join the AdSense program and your site is approved, the AdSense program senses from your content what ads Google will display on your site. Being a publisher requires you to have a site and to have a site you need a topic. If you need an idea for a site, look inwards. Most people enjoy expressing themselves, passing on knowledge, giving advice, and teaching others. You have skills that other people admire. You may have skills that other people have been meaning to learn but haven't had the time. Wouldn't it be nice if you could create a website on a topic that you love and make money at the same time?

Once you've started on your first site, I know that suddenly you'll find you have so many ideas that you'll have a tough time deciding which idea to use for your second site.

Here are a couple of ideas. Are you an avid reader of a particular genre? A site about romance, autobiographies, science fiction, or even a particular author, would be an idea. You could write reviews on the books, do some research and provide a bio of the author(s), have a mini-directory to other sites which relate. In fact, these kinds of sites that bring a particular part of the web into one place, a sort of portal, are very very popular - why? because they are extremely useful. The web is vast and a site which organizes information and has links categorized and organized for a particular subject is adding valuable content to the web. Creating a kind of public journal of your progress in the form of a blog is also a fun project to run parallel to creating your site, it is fun and easy and you can try out Google AdSense on your blog. Learn about blogging and essentially starting your own free site by visiting Blogger. Blogger.com is owned by Google and you can include Google AdSense ads here to try it out.

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