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How to Make Money with Google AdSense
When Google was created, its inventors had no idea that it would become the most powerful search engine and single site in the world. Years later, Google has acquired several sites, created many programs, and even figured out a way to help advertisers get customers while helping website and blog owners earn money too.
Google AdSense can earn you a nice sum without you even doing anything day to day. It requires basic setup, and after that you can basically sit back and relax. Of course, the more traffic you can drive to your site, the better your profits.
Google AdSense has four general methods of earning you money:
· Content
· Search Engines
· Cell Phones
· RSS Feeds
Before we get into the specifics, let’s explore exactly how this program works. How does Google AdSense work? First you have to have a blog or website that gets plenty of readers. You put in for an application and once you’re approved, you follow a simple system that helps install your AdSense program. You can immediately customize your ads, placing them wherever you like, choosing different sizes, and more. While small ads are obviously less intrusive, larger/wider ads tend to get more response, thus earning you more. You can also choose what color you like so that the ads blend in better with your content. Want to see how everything’s performing? For free you can receive reports on each ad’s performance. This feedback will help you determine if you want more ads, fewer ads, bigger ads, or different ads on your site, and is invaluable in terms of research. A source code is given along with instructions so that you can actually stick it into the html of your webpage. Easy-to-follow instructions are provided.
In terms of payment, CPC or CPM ads are available as choices. CPC is cost-per-click, while CPM is cost-per-mille, or cost for 1000 impressions. Essentially advertisers are hoping people will click on their ads and are (usually) willing to pay for people actually clicking on the ad, or even for people just looking.
Not sure what to do? Weighing the cost between losing readers of your blog or website and keeping them but possibly annoying them with ads is important. Usually, however, the number of readers you’ll annoy or lose is minimal, and the programs end up being worth it. Look at it this way: There’s no obligation when you sign up, there’s no cost involved, and if you want, you can take the program off your site. For a very small time investment you can be earning anywhere from a little to a lot. What may start slowly could grow into something very profitable.
Other, more indirect ways of earning include through cell phones, search engines, and RSS feeds.
You can earn money by installing a Google search engine bar onto your site. People can search your site or Google directly with this addition, and you’ll earn money from it! You can create mobile ads so that relevant text and image ads appear on mobile webpages. Earning money through displayed and targeted text and image ads is easy through special RSS feeds.
Essentially you can earn money through Google AdSense through targeted ads, search ads, and other related content. The commitment is zero and the payoff can be small or great. It’s fun to watch your ad revenues grow!
4. Pay-per-click. What is it?
All About Pay-Per-Click
Pay Per Click is an advertising method used online in websites, blogs, search engines, and more. Advertisers only pay the host of their ad when their site is clicked, as opposed to when the site is only viewed.
Pay Per Click, or PPC as it’s called, stemmed from Cost per Mille, or CPM. When advertisers realized they weren’t reaching a target market, and were therefore paying for partially useless ads, they decided something needed to be done about it. PPC was soon invented to help take away that burden. Both are still useful; some companies would rather spend more efforts on attracting a wide audience, while some companies like the targeted nature of PPC. What’s more cost-effective? That’s up to the advertiser.
Let’s get back to PPC ads. Several companies have specific programs dedicated to PPC advertising. Within Google there’s AdWords. Yahoo! Has Search Marketing, Microsoft has adCenter, etc. This is designed so that businesses of any size can display ads on Google. The best part? They only have to pay if people click directly on the ads.
Here’s how it works:
When businesses normally go about trying to find customers, many resources are wasted. There are hours and hours put into researching the best place to put ads, what they should look like, etc. Then there’s the decision of where to put it. The biggest problem? There’s no way to target your market. Let’s pretend you have a candy company. When you advertise on a billboard, you’re paying a lot of money to attract only a portion of your audience. Not everyone driving by likes candy! If you advertise in the newspaper, you may get a somewhat more specific audience, but it’s still general. If you were to advertise in a magazine, well, you wouldn’t advertise in Gun & Garden Magazine, would you? No, but you could advertise in kids’ magazines, food and candy related magazines, women’s weeklies, and more.
Where the internet is concerned, however, you have the greatest way of targeting your audience, and you don’t even have to work at it! What happens is that you create the ads and choose the keywords that are most relevant. In this case they might be candy, sweets, sweet shop, candy shop, sugar, treat, (name of store), (name of store’s candy), the name of the town the shop is in, etc. Google will even give you ideas to help you out. When people do a Google search for your company or for something related, your ad may appear next to the search results (in the right-hand side bar). This is truly targeted marketing. You’re attracting people you know are interested in what your business has to offer.
The secret to an effective PPC campaign? Knowing the right keywords, having a concise, luring ad, and having a persuasive page that the potential customer will click through to. You must be able to deliver. If you’re going to go to the effort and cost to use a PPC campaign, make sure the end product is worth it.
If you don’t have an experience team writing for you, at least find an SEO professional. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writers know exactly the keywords and sites to use to net you the best result, so invest wisely.
Now is it possible that someone could try to sabotage a business, or worse, up their own income as a host to ads? Yes, by clicking multiple times on links, this was possible not long ago. Recently, however, Google and other search engines came up with a system to prevent this so-called click fraud.
There are two ways to determine the cost per click: flat-rate and bid-based.
- In a flat-rate PPC system, both the advertiser and the publisher agree upon a fixed amount that will be paid for each click. Many companies will do this negotiation before it reaches a host. Content that attracts the most targeted visitors have a higher PPC.
- In a bid-based model, the advertiser will sign a special contract allowing them to compete against other advertisers in an advertising network on even in a private auction.
Each unique keyword phrase, such as “homemade candy,” has a specific bidding price. Remember, however, that thousands are competing against your company. Make sure you and your SEO writer know what you’re doing to achieve high rankings.
Since blogs and websites are still growing, investing in targeted PPC campaigns is a definite way to go. Costs are usually cheap and pay off quickly. You’re essentially getting people who are already interested in your subject interested in your company.
Overall, Pay Per Click advertising is still hailed as one of the most cost-effective ways to advertise in the current world. While television and movie ads are decreasing or being skipped entirely by internet watchers and Tivo users, internet marketing is still going strong, and PPC advertising takes full advantage of this, creating over 15 billion dollars in paid search markets.
Advertisers benefit from PPC campaigns because it’s simple, they have great control, and they receive almost immediate feedback. Ads usually range between $5 to $10 per click, but prices vary widely. It’s effective, but not cheap, so be sure your ad is catchy and delivers the right keywords!
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