If you are just starting online with your first website, you have quite a learning curve in front of you. I know that your learning curve is still long, because I have been making money online for years, and I am still learning new stuff everyday.
Every year, more people are coming online. And every year, people struggle to figure out how to tap into the economic engine powered by the Internet. The one thing that newcomers to the Internet frequently fail to realize is that those of us, who are making the most money online, spent years learning our trades.
The good news is that Internet newcomers have one major advantage that my mentors and myself did not have when we started our online enterprises. The newcomers have people like us who are willing to teach others what they have learned.
First And Most Important Lesson To Learn
There are three kinds of commercial websites on the Internet: product/service merchants, advertising providers, and non-profit websites.
Now, the Red Cross and the United Way are non-profit websites by choice and mission. But, the majority of non-profit websites on the Internet were designed to be for-profit websites, but the website owner will have been lucky to have earned enough to pay their web hosting costs.
By the end of this article, I hope that I will have provided you enough information to be able to turn any non-profit website into a profit generating machine.
Merchants sell services. They also sell products made by others or themselves. Some merchants produce their own informational books and e-books, on a wide variety of topics.
Many people make the mistake of assuming that they do not know anything of value that other people would want to know. But, that just isn't true. Call me an optimist if you will, but I believe everyone knows something that other people would be willing to pay a certain amount of money to learn.
Ii is a fact that some of the smartest online entrepreneurs I know make a lot of money by writing and selling books and e-books, on topics ranging from cryptograms (http://www.cryptogramsbylouise.com/), to how-to cure acid reflux (http://www.refluxgoneforever.com/), to finding the hero within (http://www.herosoul.com/), to how to be more successful with an online business.
I have bought many e-books and I have to say that some were better than others, but all of them helped me to learn what I needed to know in order to be successful with whatever endeavor I was undertaking.
Advertising Providers build websites with the intent of attracting a huge and loyal audience, so that advertisers will consider their website to be a good place to spend their advertising dollars.
In those dark days before Google Adsense (http://adsense.Google.com) and Yahoo's Publisher Network (http://publisher.yahoo.com/), we little guys were just tough out-of-luck if we wanted to sell our advertising space through a larger network of advertisers.
I remember having a website that was finally serving one thousand unique page views per day, or 30,000 page views per month. I remember thinking that it was time for me to see whom I could sell advertising space. So, I started doing my research.
I looked at one advertising network, and then another, and another. Without fail, most advertising networks required one million page views per month in order for a website to participate in their network. I was just poop out of luck.
So, I started advertising space on my site to my visitors. I sold some advertising, but I did not make a living doing it. The main issue here is that the people on my site are looking to learn about travel and other things, and advertisers generally spend their time on sites learning about doing business online.
Then in 2003, it all changed with the rollout of Google Adsense. Suddenly, all I needed to do was to apply to participate in Google's program. On approval, I could add one little piece of javascript code to my website, and I could start earning money from Google immediately, by making their client's advertising available on my own website.
Finally, my information website had a method for earning money that did not require for me to spend all of my waking hours chasing one sale after another.
Some Background
When I started my first online business, I had set up an Yahoo store (http://www.yahoo.com). I did very well with it, but after a couple years, I realized that I did not want to keep doing the same thing for the rest of my life.
Three rooms of my home were committed to storing merchandise that I was buying for resale. When I made a product purchase, I had to take photos and then sit down to my computer, upload the image and make an appropriate product description. Then I had to spend all of my spare time, making new listings at Yahoo and running to the post office to ship the merchandise I had sold.
One day I realized that the reason I had started my business is to provide my family a better standard of living. I had accomplished that goal, at the cost of time with my family. I was literally working from the moment I got out of bed, until I collapsed into my bed at the end of the day.
After parting ways with Yahoo, I researched other profit models and settled on a membership site. In order to be successful with a membership website, one must be willing and able to add new good quality content to the website at least three or four times per week. That is a job in itself.
While my membership site did well monetarily, I found myself in a position similar to when I had my Yahoo store. I was spending all of my spare time with my business and not my family.
Finally, I Wrapped My Head Around The Solution
What I needed for myself was a website where I could sell other people's products and services, then let the other person handle the entire process of collecting the money and delivering the product or service. I needed to build my business in such a way that I could build my website, when I wanted to invest the time, and I could collect my checks at the end of the month.
The advertising website is the best kind of site to have when your goals are the same as mine.
So, I embarked on building a website that had information on a wide variety of topics.
Three years after I started my current website, Google launched their Adsense program. I applied to Google's Adsense program and was accepted within just a few days. I then applied my Google Adsense code to my website.
Over the years, I have been building links to my website so that people could find me. The articles and directory links have produced good traffic results for me on a consistent basis, since I started the process of building them.
The Next Lesson Can Literally Double And Triple Your Income
When you undertake to design a website that will host advertising, don't be shy about it!
• Don't stick your advertising in a corner somewhere; • Don't design your advertising to look like something other than an advertisement; • Don't be afraid to test your advertising placement; • Don't be afraid to tell people that they can buy advertising on your website; • Don't be afraid to charge good money to advertisers to have a placement on your website.
Don't be afraid and don't be shy. Your reason for putting advertising on your website is to give YOU a way to make money from your work. But, in order to keep your advertisers happy, you need to make sure that they get a good return for their investment.
When you can help your advertisers make money, then you will by extension earn money from your website. It is a beautiful concept; when I help put money in my advertiser's pockets, they put money in my pocket.
Specific Tips To Maximize Your Advertising Click-Through Rates (CTRs)
The default link color on the Internet is blue; so make the links in your advertising blue.
The default text color on the Internet is black; so make the text in your advertisement black or whatever color is the default text color on your website.
Make your advertisement block stand out from the rest of the content on the page. Putting your ads directly in your visitor's face is good. Within a text block, I have found the 300x250 to be the most effective ad block size. To see an example of the 300x250 text block in action, view my blog here: http://www.clintondouglasiv.com
Other ad block sizes that we have seen good results include: the 728x90 leaderboard, 468x60 banner, and the160x600 wide skyscraper.
Be The Next Advertising Success Story
I advised a friend of mine to make these kinds of changes on his own website. He already had great traffic, but he was not making as much money as I thought he should be making.
On my suggestion, he changed his Google ads from the bottom of his left sidebar to the main part of his pages. He told me that his CTR increased from 0.8% to 2.4%. I told him to change his ads from the 468x15 link unit to the 468x60 banner ad. He told me that his CTR increased from 2.4% to 4.7%. Then I told him to change his links from black to blue. Within just a few weeks, he reported back to me that his click-through rates jumped again, this time from 4.7% to 7.8%. He even reported that on some individual days, his new layout generated as high as 11.4% CTRs.
On my friend's website, his CTR jumped from 0.8% where it had been for a couple years, since he started using Google Adsense, to 7.8% on average. While most webmasters will see an average increase of two- to three-times, my friend has experienced a nearly tenfold (+9.75%) increase in his advertising revenue through that website.
What could you do with ten times more advertising revenue from your website? You will never know until you implement these kinds of changes on your website to increase your own advertising revenue.
Making Money With Your 1st Or 50th Website Using Google Adsense
How To Improve Your Google Adsense Earnings
by: Daniel Bell
Google AdSense is a powerful program, but it is important to plan carefully when implementing an online advertising strategy. This article tells you “How To Increase Your Google AdSense Earnings”.
To many beginning website owners, the Google AdSense program can seem like a program for free money, but in fact earning money from hosting ads take planning, patience, and lots of hard work. While it is possible to earn a very good living from hosting AdSense ads, the truth is that most people do not use the program to its maximum potential. What separates those few top earners from all the rest is knowledge, and it is important to gather plenty of information to improve your Google Adsense earnings.
If webmasters want to monetize their websites, the great way to do it is through Google Adsense. There are lots of webmasters struggling hard to earn some good money a day through their sites. But then some of the “geniuses” of them are enjoying hundreds of dollars a day from Google Adsense ads on their websites. What makes these webmasters different from the other kind is that they are different and they think out of the box.
The ones who have been there and done it have quite some useful tips to help those who would want to venture into this field. Some of these tips have boosted quite a lot of earnings in the past and is continuously doing so.
Here are some 5 proven ways on how best to improve your Google Adsense earnings.
1. Concentrating on one format of Google Adsense ad. The one format that worked well for the majority is the Large Rectangle (336X280). This same format has the tendency to result in higher CTR, or the click-through rates. Why choose this format out of the many you can use? Basically because the ads will look like normal web links, and people, being used to clicking on them, click these types of links. They may or may not know they are clicking on your Google Adsense ads but as long as there are clicks, then it will all be for your advantage.
2. Create a custom palette for your Google Adsense ads. Choose a color that will go well with the background of your site. If your site has a white background, try to use white as the color of your ad border and background. The idea to patterning the colors is to make the Adsense look like it is part of the web pages. Again, this will result to more clicks from people visiting your site.
3. Remove the Google Adsense from the bottom pages of your site and put them at the top. Do not try to hide your Google Adsense. Put them in the place where people can see them quickly. You will be amazed how the difference between Google Adsense locations can make when you see your earnings.
4. Maintain links to relevant websites. If you think some sites are better off than the others, put your ads there and try to maintaining and managing them. If there is already lots of Google Adsense put into that certain site, put yours on top of all of them. That way visitor will see your ads first upon browsing into that site.
5. Try to automate the insertion of your Google Adsense code into the webpages using SSI (or server side included). Ask your web administrator if your server supports SSI or not. How do you do it? Just save your Google Adsense code in a text file, save it as “adsense text”, and upload it to the root directory of the web server. Then using SSI, call the code on other pages. This tip is a time saver especially for those who are using automatic page generators to generate pages on their website.
These are some of the tips that have worked well for some who want to generate hundreds and even thousands on their websites. It is important to know though that ads are displayed because it fits the interest of the people viewing them. So focusing on a specific topic should be your primary purpose because the displays will be especially targeted on a topic that persons will be viewing already.
Note also that there are many other Google Adsense sharing the same topic as you. It is best to think of making a good ad that will be somewhat different and unique than the ones already done. Every click through that visitors make is a point for you so make every click count by making your Google Adsense something that people will definitely click on.
Tips given by those who have boosted their earnings are just guidelines they want to share with others. If they have somehow worked wonders to some, maybe it can work wonders for you too. Try them out into your ads and see the result it will bring.
If others have done it, there is nothing wrong trying it out for yourself.
More Adsense Tips in Blogging
by: Ernan Baldomero
When I first made a “real website” by buying my own domain (Blogging the Internet), I started to tinker with various content management programs to build my site, and later learned that blogging is the easiest way. Now I’m sticking to it.
But at first I was one of the million newbie webmasters who are lured to the “get rich quick” paranoia” that abound in the internet and also tried my best looking for internet programs that will take me to that paranoia. I was utilizing various pre-hosted sites (my favorite is Freehostia in doing the test-and-try website building trying to find my own niche on the cyberspace and the same time hoping that I will earn somehow through it.
I joined pay per click programs (PPC) where you click banner and text ads and then pay you cents and worse joined a High-Yield Investment Program (HYIP) and was cheated. I lost a couple of dollars joining the site and I swear to myself that I will not join one again.
My frustration is getting worse when I also joined affiliate programs such as Commission Junction, Linkshare and SFI and expected to earn but to avail. These site as good in their own way but my skills in affiliate marketing is very poor and my highest earnings was about $20.40 from CJ when I used my own affiliate link to purchase my own domain.
I share some dilemma with people who say that “internet income is just a false dream”.
I am not a risk-taker especially on the internet. The last thing that I will want myself is to be a victim of internet fraud and loss my hard-earned money and like most cybercitizens I want money and if possible free from the internet.
Then I meet the leader of contextual advertising – AdSense.
AdSense program is 100% free and I have applied to it the moment I wonder why most sites I have visit has that ads powered by AdSense. I applied four times, three times rejected and finally allowed to post ads to my sites using their script code. It took me quite awhile to be able to put AdSense ads in my site considering that I am still learning how to make a site and my knowledge about PHP and HTML is limited.
Since I decided to focus on having a blog, I tried to invest an ad placement on my blog placement, having that trial and error process on making a good and professional looking blog and took a longer time finding a suitable Adsense Friendly template (I’m using Wordpress).
Adsense, like any other contextual advertising program uses your blog content and keywords to place related and suitable ads on your site in a way not to confuse your readers of what is your site all about and irritated for placing blatant advertising banners. The ads put by Adsense have a better chance to be click and earn money from it.
Though Adsense doesn’t allow you to select what ads will appear in your site, you can still exclude ads from your direct competitors (sites that have the same topic or products that you have).
How Adsense know what Ads are to place in your site?
Google uses bots (Google bots), an engine that regularly visits your pages and read your site content, keywords, structure and formatting of pages, language you use and tell Adsense to display ads related to what it sees. The bot also tells AdSense what IP address you use (your location) to display related ads near your region.
The longer that your site is up, the more the bot will access your site and later a tighter match f ads related to your blog will show up. Google bot mostly uses keywords as its tip to Google, so there is a need to use proper keywords on your post because for some reason Adsense prefers post with less picture and larger or bold text in zeroing the subject of your blog.
However, be careful in suing too many keywords. You may make Google Bot understands more quickly your site content but at the same time distracts your readers. A good post that is informative will surely attract readers and make them come back to your site, but you will, but using irrelevant and annoying keywords will drive them away from your site and instead look for other blog that is more useful to your read. Losing a visitor will also results to loss of your Adsense earnings.
Treat your readers by giving them useful information, and not to make them feel that you are just using your blog to make money. There’s nothing wrong in pleasing Googlebot and your readers at the same time. Why not hit the two birds with one big stone?
It will be a great help that your keyword is also your title and use them on your post as well. Ex. You write about computers, make sure it is in the title and repeated in the post so that tightly match of ads will also show thus having a high click through rate from your readers.
Try not to copy content from free sites. You will not only lose your credibility as a blogger, worse risking to be accuse of plagiarism and also getting Google irritated with splogs (short for spam blogs) post. Splogs is very dangerous because it may results to the termination of your account.
Anyway who advertise to your blogs?
Google has a program called Adwords, where business or site owners like you pay to advertise their product and services and also to drive real traffic to their websites.
These guys are bidding on a certain keywords related to their site content and pays some amount depending on the keywords popularity. They post their ads on Adwords and then it is being shown in Adsense.
7 Sure Ways For WebSites Design That Make Money
Owning an AdSense Google site is a great way to make money. To create an AdSense site, all that is required is to have a Google AdSense account (which is free), a website or a blog (which is free), and some articles (which are free if you write them yourself). Once you have your site up and running, the google AdSense ads will be targeted to your content.
Therefore, those surfing for your content will come in, read your articles, and have a high chance of being interested in the targeted ads. You will get paid every time someone clicks an ad. Provided you have optimize your site to maximize AdSense clickthroughs!
Let's look at seven ways for creating AdSense websites that make money.
1. Keyword Density
Prior to placing your ads on your site, be sure your keyword density is good. You certainly want the right kinds of ads to show up on your website. A free way to check what the ads will look like on your site is to go to http://www.resultsgenerator.com/adsense/ and type in your keywords. You will then be able to see exactly what ads would show on your site.
If you don't like what you see, then you know that you need to make changes to your keywords! You can get keyword suggestions from Results Generator from Overture or from the free trial version of niche bot.
2. Relevant
As informed ads will be based on your keywords, but they will also be based on your content as well. You certainly want your keywords and your content to match as much as possible.
3. Write frequently
The more information you have the better your website. Why? Because more content means more visitors will come visit your site. Many people recommend that you write a new article every day because no one wants to come back to your site to find the same old messages!
4. Select The Right Format
AdSense allows you to choose many special ad formats. Study has revealed that wider ads are more successful. The top three formats are:
" 336x280 large rectangle
" 300x250 medium rectangle
" 160x600 wide skyscraper
Additionally, the 468x15 horizontal ad link under the navigation bar is also a good bet.
5. Color Counts
You have the choice to generate a Google AdSense ad in several color of your choice. The greatest thing to do is to create your ad combine well with your site color scheme. You must make the border color and the background color the same color as your web site. You will want your text color to either be black or similar the color of your main content.
When selecting your Google AdSense ads it is suggested to use the color scheme and style of your website so that the ads blend in well. Ads without background color and borders perform better than ads within borders with background color.
6. Position Counts, as well
It is well acknowledged that visitors to a website look into the site to determine if it is worth reading. You certainly would like them to see and scan your AdSense ads. Hence, the best place to place them is in the top left part of your web page or directly under your headlines.
7. Add to The Number
AdSense allows you to use up to three AdSense units on a page, two AdSense search boxes, and one unit of ad links. Using all that you can increases the likelihood of earning money.
Keep these seven sure ways in mind when creating your AdSense site and you will find that your click through rates increases, thus increasing your money making prospective.
Alternatives to Google AdSense
Google AdSense is a wonderful way to make money. However, it's never good to rely on just one income source when you're an Internet marketer. You never know if a company is going to change their terms or even worse... if you actually get banned from the network. Granted, if you use white-hat SEO this is less likely to happen, but there are a few horror stories of people who have lost their AdSense accounts through sabotage, something they can't help. And if you can't prove that you're the victim in the situation, Google may still ban your account.
That's why you should consider working with alternatives to Google AdSense. By doing this, you have a perpetual income stream even if the inevitable might happen. And if it doesn't, you'll still increase your profitability.
With that being said, there are three alternatives to Google AdSense. They include: AdSense revenue-sharing sites, other pay-per-click networks and paid-to sites. Take a look at the sections below for more information.
1. AdSense Revenue-Sharing Sites
AdSense revenue-sharing sites are one of the best alternatives to Google AdSense, mainly because they allow you the advantages of AdSense without an actual account, (assuming you sign up for the right one). Consider sites like eHow, Triond and Suite101 where you get a portion of their AdSense earnings. And when payout comes, these companies will give you the money directly. Google isn't involved at all, at least on your end.
However, make sure you use the right type of revenue-sharing site. Many of them work by requiring you to enter in your AdSense code. From there, you would get their AdSense earnings a certain percentage of the time. If your AdSense account is in good standing, this is not a problem, but if it is banned, you will have to forgo using these types of sites.
2. Other Pay-Per-Click Networks
There are a number of pay-per-click networks that serve as an excellent alternative to Google AdSense. Some, like Bidvertiser, work just like AdSense, except they pay a little less per click. Then there are others that are more creative. Consider Chitika, one of the most innovative alternatives to Google AdSense. Their ads give a mini-review of a product, complete with its picture. This arrangement makes the ad very click-friendly.
3. Paid-to Sites
Paid-to sites are an alternative to Google AdSense, though many Internet marketers tend to frown upon them. Yet, it doesn't always pay to think like the masses. There are networks out there that will pay you to click on ads or read them in your email. And, unlike some of the other programs talked about in this article, paid-to sites require no advertising. All you have to do is click on an ad, if one is available.
Of course, if you choose to use these networks to advertise your site you can. You will either pay based on the number of emails you send or by how many ‘guaranteed' clicks you desire.
How to Make AdSense Work For You
How would you like to work with a company that has been able to earn billions even in the midst of a bad economy? With this company, you would have no deadlines, bosses or stress. In fact, if you like writing or blogging, you might actually have fun with the 'work.' Best of all, you would earn money while working in your pajamas.
Well, thanks to Google and their AdSense program, all of these things can become a reality. However, you need to learn how to make AdSense work for your situation. You can't expect to get rich overnight, even with high paying AdSense keywords. Instead, you need to take things slowly, using old-fashioned SEO to get your AdSense sites noticed.
What is involved with old-fashioned SEO? Basically, you write your content using Internet keywords that contain a lot of searches yet minimal competition. Keyword analyzers are the tools to use in this endeavor. You can even use Google's AdSense keyword tool, if you want to see how much Google charges its customers for the term. This will give you some idea of the type of profit you could make when incorporating it into your content.
There is another way SEO can make AdSense work for you. It's called article marketing. To do this, you will have to create additional content that is apart from your website. This content needs to contain appropriate keywords, just like it would if it was going to be on your site for real.
Anyway, after you write your articles, you need to submit them to article directories. Ezine Articles has the most pr, but you will need to get a domain name for your website. In addition, you will need to wait a few days for your article to get approved. If it isn't approved, you must make the appropriate changes and wait again before it will get indexed online. If this is a problem for you, there's the option of submitting your content on less stringent networks, such as Go Articles or Amazines. There are even sites that will make AdSense work for you even further, since they utilize a concept known as AdSense revenue-sharing. They work by giving you a portion of their AdSense earnings. Xoomba is an example. After your articles are submitted, your AdSense site will begin to receive traffic. But don't start there. You can also make AdSense work for you by using word-of-mouth marketing. Tell everyone you know about your site, and if it is good, they will spread the word too.
4 Tips to Get You Raking in Unending AdSense Profits
If you have a large amount of web content lying around in the form of static web pages, music files, videos, blogs, etc., don't allow it to languish like that. You may not have realized, but there are in fact a veritable number of ways in which you could actually monetize all that content, using Google's revolutionary AdSense program. Simply follow the tips outlined above, to ensure that you maximize the AdSense profits that you could potentially make.
Tip 1: Don't be Rigid in Your Keywords
Your keywords determine the kind of ads that are displayed on your content pages. They also determine the chances of Internet users landing on your web pages, using search strings in line with the keywords incorporated by you within your content. The effect of different keyword sets will be apparent to you as you see your page views dip or rise. So therefore, be open to using various combinations of keyword sets, and experimenting with them.
Tip 2: Get More Traffic
Your AdSense earnings would be directly proportional to the volume of traffic that your web pages obtain; higher the visitors, higher their chances of clicking on the textual ads, and thus higher your income. So make sure that you do all that it takes to maximize traffic on your content pages.
Tip 3: Make the most of Google's own Tips, Tricks and Techniques
Google provides a significant number of tools towards maximizing the entire AdSense experience, including but not limited to determining the best keywords for your site, measuring ad performance, and setting up different ad "channels" for fine-tuning ad results. Do implement these tips and techniques into your own web pages, and/or other online content.
Tip 4: Keep Experimenting
With AdSense, there is practically no limit to the amount of money that you can make. So don't be satisfied with what you make, and constantly strive for more. Broadly, do everything that is required to maximize traffic and the C-T-R (Click-Through-Rate), and thereafter, there will virtually be no limit to your online profits!
Follow all of these tips and I'm absolutely sure that you will emerge right on top of all your peers and acquaintances, in terms of profits made from AdSense.
Tips to Get a Google Adsense Account
To whom it may not familiar with Adsense, It is a Google’s marketing program which allows website/blog owners to generate income from displaying relevant Google ads on their websites. AdSense matches the content of the website to ads within their AdWords program and displays the relevant ads on the website. The website owners will get income from their website visitors clicking the ads. And there are some success stories from people who profiting and earning thousand dollars from Google Adsense
So how you can get those kinds of ads displayed in your website? Basically you have to register you website/blog and get Google’s approval. But unfortunately not every request will get approved. I have a tip for you based on my experience obtaining approval from Google in my first try, here are the steps:
1. Set up your blog with www.blogspot.com. Blogspot is a Google own blogging service. Make a certain theme for your blog and make sure that the theme is a marketable theme.
2. Put several relevant contents to your blog. Google loves contents! If you choose “health” as your theme, then you can write anything about health. But let me remind you, you have to write them in English. If you think you can’t write and not really confident with your English, don’t worry about that. You can find relevant contents in free articles directory such GoArticles.com and Ezinearticles.com but don’t delete the author names and their links (usually available at the bottom of the articles). Don’t take credit on their works.
3. If you have put some relevant contents, wait about two or three days. When you edit the layout or format of your blog, it will appear an offer from Google to apply for Google Adsense account. If the offer does not appear, just visit www.google.com/adsense and register there.
Believe me, your Adsense account approval will send to your email address in several days and start make money with Google Adsense.
