Part of the
You Can Learn Web Success Techniques series.
By Ken Brown
Editor, YouCanLearnSeries.com
Updated: December 10, 2004
One of the ways to make money from the internet is to provide advertising at
your site. This is not always easy. You have to be available for potential
advertisers to call you. You have to maintain a sales force to answer
questions. You have to have a staff on hand to prepare the ads for submission
to your web page.
You also need some kind of tracking tool so your advertisers can rate the
benefits of placing their banner ads with you. The entire exercise is a costly
time consuming process. Can you afford to advertise? The answer is yes. By
using Google Adsense™ and what is known as affiliate programs, you can earn a
few extra dollars each month.
When someone clicks on an ad from Google™ they give you some of the money the
advertiser gave them.
Google™ and affiliate programs have arranged to take most of the burden from
your shoulders. What the Google Adsense™ program does is allow you to place
their ads that are targeted to your content, on your pages. Then when someone
clicks on an ad from Google™ they give you some of the money the advertiser
gave them. It is easy to put their ads on your page and you earn some cash
without all the hassles involved with regular advertising.
Your customers will be pleased to have the ad pages included with your content
because the ads are relevant to the pages being viewed. And you can limit the
ads displayed to noncompeting ads. You sell hostas and tiger lilies, the
Google™ Adsense program delivers ads ranging from gardening supplies to
tractors. And remember, every click will generate revenue for you.
The advertisers that join this program have agreed to pay Google™ a specific
amount of money for every click incurred on your website. Google™ takes some of
this money and gives it to you. Does Google™ make money from this service?
Absolutely, but they make it easy for you to implement it on your site so you
can make money also.
Google™ allows you to customize the look and feel of the ads you serve on your
pages. This keeps your pages looking cohesive and the ads are less intrusive to
the content you deliver. There are tracking pages, so you know the hit ratios
and how much money you are earning. All of this occurs through simple HTML from
Google™, you simply copy and paste it onto your pages. No worry about Ad
rotators or complicated ASP code.
There are Many Companies Running Affiliate Ad Programs
Is Google™ the only company involved in this type of program? No, there are
many companies running these affiliate ad programs. Amazon™ runs a similar
program for books and DVDs. The
LinkShare Corporation
has contracted with over 30 companies that offers you a way to increase
revenues through your web site. There are many ad agencies that run similar
programs and may pay you more per click than Google™ gives you. As with any
program you find on the internet, be cautious, let the buyer beware.
What happens if you click the ads running on your pages? You can earn thousands
right? No! Google™ will track you down. They are in the process of suing a
company that had that same idea. There are specific regulations about who can
click the ads and when you abuse that relationship your little money generator
will be gone.
Are there any other issues I should be aware of with this program? Well, once
someone clicks on the ad, they will leave your website. That is always a bad
thing. But if the ad looked attractive to your customer, then maybe your site
was not providing them with the information they need. So they were likely to
leave your page anyway. Now you earn a couple of dollars when they leave.
So feel free to get involved with affiliate programs and the Google Adsense™
program. You can earn some money and they are really simple to implement. You
deliver content and the relevant ads and affiliate programs pay you cash when
your users click on the ads.
Lesson 10:
Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Google Adsense Ads
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