Grow Your Adsense Piggy Bank: $30 to $300 A Month

Maybe you’ve had your own “Aha” moment with Google Adsense.<br /><br />I had mine earlier this year when I realized I could make more than just pocket change by featuring those now familiar ad blocks on my websites. I had worked hard building my content oriented niche sites and had expected to make decent affiliate income—which never materialized.<br /><br />You see, most people online (including you and me), are looking for information. I call them “lookey-loos.” They want to gather information before making a purchasing decision. This is normal behavior. However, if you are looking to earn or make online money via a web site affiliate program, you’ll quickly realize that it takes a lot more than slapping banner ads and links on your site.<br /><br />Although, I’ve made a modest amount of affiliate income, it didn’t seem enough to make it worth my while, in spite of what the affiliate marketing ebook gurus said. That’s the point where I decided to put Adsense on my sites. Got nothing to lose, right?<br /><br />At first I was like “Cool. A few pennies a day in the piggy bank.” I didn’t have to do anything extra for it, so it was kind of an easy way to make some “spare change.” I didn’t care how much I made each day. Anything was better than looking at a big fat zero.<br /><br />Then something changed. The money accumulating in my Adsense account began to grow. Hmmm. Maybe there’s something more to this Google Adsense thing than I realized. Adsense seemed like a pretty decent opportunity to make money online.<br /><br />This is when I got serious about the potential to make money with Google Adsense. I know I’m just one of thousands of website publishers that has recently discovered that this is one of several ways to make extra money.<br /><br />So here many of us sit, anxiously checking our stats to see how much money we’ve made today. What is our CTR (click through rate)? How much are we getting paid per click? And so forth.<br /><br />While we all hear the tales about those making thousands per day or month with Adsense, most of us web publishers, here in the trenches, are not blessed with having a gazillion visitors that produce big fat checks. We are trying to steadily grow our modest Adsense income fairly and honestly.<br /><br />But what is the secret to doing that?<br /><br />**WARNING: If you’re interested in information on how to make lots of money quick and easy using black hat techniques or using SPAM website generators, you can stop reading now**<br /><br />I believe that slow and steady wins the race—and, you’ll get to keep your Adsense account for the long run. Let me give you some perspective. Google is worth $120 billion. Google stock is now valued at over $400 per share. A good portion of their profit comes from pay-per-click advertising (Adwords). Yet, online advertising is still a relatively small percentage of total (U.S.) advertising dollars spent. However, things are rapidly changing. Online advertising will see steady growth for many years to come.<br /><br />The potential windfall for online web publishers is enormous. A web publisher making $30 a month today, could be making $300-$500 per day in a few short years. Those who go for the quick, unethical profits now, but lose their Adsense accounts because of it, may be kicking themselves in the future. To me, it’s just not worth it.<br /><br />Anyway, for those of you who think that you’ll never make it to that coveted $100 per month mark so that you can join the Google monthly check club, take heart. There’s still plenty of time for you to get there. However, you must get serious. You won’t make the big money if you’re treating your websites like a hobby.<br /><br />Ok. So, here’s some quick tips on what you can do to grow your Adsense profits (I’m currently making over $300 per month with Adsense by following this very strategy):<br /><br />***BUILD QUALITY CONTENT SITES***<br /><br />Content is King.<br /><br />You will not see good CTR without quality content. Put yourself in the visitor’s shoes. What’s the first thing you’ll want to do when you visit a crap website? Yeah, that’s right. Leave. Some web publishers believe that quality content doesn’t matter. That people will be less likely to click if they get good information at a site. This is not my experience. Some also believe that a crappy content site will cause visitors to click on Adsense ads to “escape” a bad site. I think this is B.S. When’s the last time you clicked on an ad to escape someone’s site? It’s too easy to hit the “back” button or close the browser.<br /><br />Your job as an online web publisher is to give people quality information. The ads are an added benefit to your visitors. If they want more information on a product or service related to your subject matter, then they are more likely to click on an ad. They will trust your site more. And, yes, my sites consistently have really good CTR. That means “high interest.”<br /><br />***BUILD MORE THAN ONE WEBSITE***<br /><br />While a few lucky web publishers have hit the golden jackpot ($10,000 a month and up) with only one site, most of them had built up a very popular site over several years and already had tons of steady traffic (in the thousands). When they put Adsense on their sites, they saw instant big money, and they continue to reap the rewards.<br /><br />You and I, down here in the trenches with fairly new sites, cannot realistically expect to achieve these lofty heights overnight. It’s gonna take a lot of work to get where they are, if we ever do. Even if we don’t, we can still make a nice enough income to achieve our desired financial goals. So quit obsessing over what so and so is making and focus on your own web publishing business.<br /><br />Now the truth is, the more quality websites you build, the more money you’ll make with Adsense. This goes for blogs too. If one site drops in clicks, then another site often picks up the slack. This is my experience. And these sites don’t have to be big money makers on their own, or get lots of traffic. It’s a numbers game. The more sites you build, the more opportunities you’ll have to reap Adsense profits. How many sites you build is up to you, but it’s not uncommon for successful web publishers to have between two and 10 sites, some have many more!<br /><br />Yes, this takes a lot of work. You have to research a niche topic, keywords, popularity potential, design a decent looking site, write or hire someone to write quality content, get your site listed in the search engines, keep monitoring your site, etc. So, you’ll be working some long hours in front of your computer. But think of it as building your online empire—one site at a time.<br /><br />***USE HIGHEST PERFORMING AD BLOCK***<br /><br />While you can test various Adsense ad block sizes and colors on your website, others have already done the research as to the top performing ad block. It’s the 300x250 rectangle. This block should be blended into your web page so that it doesn’t look so conspicuously like an ad. People hate ads. They don’t like to be sold to. However, if your ad blocks don’t scream “advertisement” to them, they’re more likely to click. This has been proven.<br /><br />The best positioning for ad blocks is at the top of the page (center position seems to get more clicks). Also, blue link color gets more clicks than any other link colors. But of course, you’re free to experiment with ad blocks on your own site.<br /><br />***TWEAK AND UPDATE YOUR WEBSITES***<br /><br />No website is perfect. You can always make improvements. Change or add new (relevant) information. If your website is ranking low, try adding new information. Search engines love websites that have fresh information. You don’t have to add something new every week, but you can tweak and update your sites periodically. I’ve had sites move into excellent search engine positions just by doing a little tweaking.<br /><br />BEWARE of auto-generated feeds and content. Google is cracking down on sites that have too much automation. The search engines seem to love organic content that looks and reads like the web publisher put some personal effort into it.<br /><br />***WORK ON GETTING MORE TRAFFIC***<br /><br />I know. This is the 100-pound gorilla for all of us. By now you know it’s not easy getting web site traffic. Whole ebook empires have been built around this very subject. All I can tell you is that there are some proven techniques, but they take work and time. One of the best ways, and the method I use consistently to get great results is writing articles like this one, and submitting them to article directories and lists. It’s also a nice way to get new sites indexed relatively quickly.<br /><br />You MUST keep working on getting more traffic to your websites. Traffic=Clicks=$$$<br /><br />I know it can be frustrating when your site traffic is in the single digit per day category. Look at it this way, there’s nowhere else to go but UP.<br /><br />***KEEP LEARNING***<br /><br />An important KEY to increasing your Google Adsense profits is to learn as much as you can about the business of making money online with your website. Knowledge is power. There are plenty of generous people online offering free advice on how you can improve your Adsense income.<br /><br />I wouldn’t be where I am now without taking full advantage of free and paid resources. Remember, you’re not alone. There are lots of folks going through the same thing that you are. If you are open to learning, you CAN move forward towards reaching your income goals with Google Adsense.<br /><br />***SET GOALS***<br /><br />If you made $30 this month, set a goal to make $40 or $50 next month. If you made $80 this month, set a goal to make $100 next month. Having a monthly goal is a great way to stay motivated while you work on your website business. Trust me, I know. My first month with Adsense I earned a whopping $32.46. It took several months for me to make it into the monthly check club. However, with steady work, and determination to increase my Adsense income, that check has grown bigger every month.<br /><br />***HAVE RESPECT FOR ADWORDS ADVERTISERS***<br /><br />Adwords advertisers respect web publishers who understand that the reason they allow their ads to show up on your website pages is so that you can help bring them quality prospects. Adwords advertisers are looking for a decent return on investment (ROI) for their Adwords dollars. They don’t have to run their ads on the content network. Google makes it easy for them to turn that option off—and many do.<br /><br />So, keep in mind that it’s in YOUR best interest to keep the Adwords advertiser’s best interest in mind when you build your websites. Advertisers want to see profits just like we do. They want some of those clicks to produce sales. If they don’t make enough sales, they will quit using Adwords. That leads to less money for web publishers.<br /><br />There are some greedy, opportunistic web publishers out there who only care about filling their pockets with quick cash. They don’t care about how much money their SPAM pages cost advertisers when they send unqualified, or barely interested visitors, clicking onto the advertiser’s site. Poor quality website traffic may make some web publishers a tidy sum, but they risk being downgraded eventually by Adwords advertisers and Google itself. Google is giving their Adwords advertisers more tools to track clicks and sales conversions.<br /><br />Trust me, you want to be on the good list of web publishers that can be trusted by Adwords advertisers to consistently bring them qualified visitors. That’s what they are paying for. And, quit crying over low paying clicks. Google and their advertisers don’t owe you a living. If you want to make more Adsense money, then you’ll have to work smarter and harder.<br /><br />***BE PATIENT BUT PERSISTENT***<br /><br />While Google Adsense is a great way to earn or make online money, it’s definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’ll take months, maybe even a couple of years before you realize those big check dreams. Meanwhile, keep doing a little bit here and there to build a solid online business.<br /><br />Actually, what we really do is provide a needed service to people—we provide quality information to help them find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. We help the “looky-loos” save time and money. We are information providers extraordinaire!<br /><br />What a great way to make a living.

Grow Your Adsense Piggy Bank: $30 to $300 A Month

Maybe you’ve had your own “Aha” moment with Google Adsense. I had mine earlier this year when I realized I could make more than just pocket ...

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Protect Yourself From Clicking Your Ads Accidentally

You are aware that clicking on your own AdSense ads will lead to the termination of your Google AdSense account. To protect your Google Adsense account, you adhere to the Google AdSense terms and conditions. Because you are constantly working on your AdSense page in order to improve your Adsense earning, you fear that someday you may click on the AdSense ads accidentally.<br /><br />Well, fear no more. There are two ways you can protect yourself from clicking on your AdSense Ads accidentally.<br /><br />1. Disable Your Browser Javascript<br /><br />If you disable browser Javascript setting, the Google Adense ads will not be shown while you are working on your AdSense page. The following steps will show you how to disable Javascript in Internet Explorer and Firefox.<br /><br />Internet Explorer 3.X<br />- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Options.<br />- Select the "Security" tab page<br />- Uncheck "Run ActiveX scripts" to disable Javascript<br />- Restart the browser<br /><br />Explorer 4.x<br />- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Internet Options.<br />- Select the Security tab page<br />- Select Custom and click on the Settings... button<br />- Select Disable under Active scripting to disable Javascript<br />- Restart the browser<br /><br />Explorer 6.x<br />- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Internet Options.<br />- Select the Security tab page<br />- Select Custom Level... button<br />- Select Disable under Scripting > Active scripting to disable Javascript<br />- Restart the browser<br /><br />FireFox<br />- From the menu bar, select the Tools, then click on the Options.<br />- Select the Content tab page<br />- Uncheck Enable Javascript to disable Javascript<br />- Restart the browser<br /><br />You should be aware that by disabling Javascript in the browser, you may not view any PPC ads or use any Javascript related application in your browser<br /><br />2. Edit the Hosts File In Your Computer<br /><br />Open the host file in your PC with Word Pad/note pad and add the following entry in the host file of your PC:<br /><br />- 127.0.0.2 pagead2.googlesyndication.com<br /><br />Save the hosts file and restart your browser. You will not see the AdSense ad while you are working on your website.<br /><br />You can find the hosts file from the following directory of your PC:<br /><br />- Windows 95/98/Me, c:windows<br />- Windows NT/2000/XP Pro, c:winntsystem32driversetc<br />- Windows XP Home, c:windowssystem32driversetc<br /><br />If this trick is applied, you would not be able to view any Google AdSense Ads from any AdSense site.

Protect Yourself From Clicking Your Ads Accidentally

You are aware that clicking on your own AdSense ads will lead to the termination of your Google AdSense account. To protect your Google Adse...

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Tips For Maximum Adsense Content Relevancy

One of the most essential aspects of getting the most out of your involvement with Google’s Adsense program is to be certain that Google serves up the most relevant ads possible on your site. The concept is easy to grasp--visitors travel to your sites in search of certain content on their topic of interest. If they see advertisements directly related to those content desires, they are far more likely to click on the ads than if they encounter only tangentially related material or, in a worst case scenario, ads that are not even related to their interests. As such, it is in your best interests to make sure your site displays relevant ads. Here are few tips for improving your content relevancy to produce more accurately targeted contextual<br /><br />FIRST THINGS FIRST. Before you even begin to use Adsense as a monetization tool, make sure there are relevant ads for your site or pages. In most cases, you will have determined this long before you even embarked on site design or content development. However, if you are thinking of adding Adsense to an existing site built with other monetization strategies originally in mind, you may not have bothered checking to see if other advertisers were going after that particular market. Be sure you are addressing a topic for which ads exist in sufficient quantity. If related advertising is sparse, it will difficult to avoid irrelevant ads.<br /><br />KEYWORDS MATTER. You do not want content that is overstuffed with particular keywords to point of destroying readability and value, but you do want to make sure your materials make liberal use of on-topic keywords likely to spawn the most relevant possible ads. Experts maintain that using keywords with your titles and H1 tags is an excellent way to assist in getting the most relevant possible ads. This has added advantages in terms of search engine optimization, as well.<br /><br />METATAGS. Once upon a time, metatags were a critical aspect of search engine optimization in general. Although the engines rely upon metatags far less than they once did, there is some evidence to suggest that using ad-triggering keywords in your pages’ meta-tags may increase the relevance of the advertisements displayed. This strategy may help, and it certainly cannot hurt.<br /><br />LOOK FOR LACKLUSTER CONTENT. Many sites to a great job of supplying content related to particular themes or keywords in the main portion of a page, but have sidebars, headers and footers filled with less targeted terms and material. Take a long look at your navigational elements and other “side of the page” text and remove keyword terminology that may be leading to irrelevant ad service. Alternatively, you can use Adsense’s section targeting tool to remove those areas from Adsense’s consideration completely, so long as you do not plan to display ad blocks or ad link units in those areas.<br /><br />TIGHT THEMING. You want to keep content tightly themed. That means you do not want to feature long, rambling articles that cover multiple topics. Instead, rely upon materials that address singular issues. You also do not want to feature multiple chunks of content on disparate matters on the same page for that very same reason. The value of tight theming may extend past individual pages. Many publishers argue that Adsense tends to reward tightly-themed overall sites with more relevant ads, as well. Even though this aspect of theming is not as well researched and proven, it makes sense to follow the practice, because of the search engine optimization advantages of having a focused site.<br /><br />BLOCK THE BAD ADS. Monitor your site regularly and take note when irrelevant ads appear. Then, take the time to add them to your blacklist for the site. Google does give you the ability to block individual ads via the Competitive Ad Filter. If you block out commonly served irrelevant ads, you may improve your chances of featuring more ads upon which your visitors will actually click.<br /><br />The more contextually relevant the ads appearing on your site are, the more clicks you can expect to see. As such, it is important to make an effort to use a combination of proven SEO methods that also work well with Adsense and some program-specific maneuvers to secure the best possible ads on your site.

Tips For Maximum Adsense Content Relevancy

One of the most essential aspects of getting the most out of your involvement with Google’s Adsense program is to be certain that Google ser...

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How To Build A Traffic Highway To Your Website

Every internet business needs traffic and lots of it. Traffic is the lifeblood of online businesses, therefore, any program you under-take to build a successful company or business online must incorporate numerous traffic generating strategies.<br /><br />Assuming that you now have excellent products or service to market and all other internal plans well in place, now is the time to get down to real business of directing targeted traffic to your website.<br /><br />The following tips are designed with you in mind to help creating the website traffic that is so essential to sales and profits online. Advertising is the key to internet marketing and search engine traffic will be the backbone or the main source for that continuous flow.<br /><br />Yahoo/Overture and Google Adwords are excellent paid advertising to build traffic. It is unlikely that you will get the required website traffic without utilizing some of these paid advertising services, Overture and Yahoo, being so popular, it is futile not to avail yourself of their services.<br /><br />Search engine advertising has brought real success to thousands of online businesses, why not yours? PPC or (Pay Per Click) is the term given to this way of advertising. With proper keyword selection related to your products or services this advertising method could be just what you need.<br /><br />Another traffic building tool is to exchange website links with other businesses, this is called reciprocal linking and both parties normally benefit from this exchange of links related in some way to the business. When sites link to each other, they both share in the traffic generated by the efforts of each other. The more reciprocal links exchanged the more traffic that could be generated.<br /><br />Viral Marketing:<br /><br />This is a free or inexpensive way to spread the word on the internet about your company, business, product or service. This could be perceived as a sneaky way to advertise, by attaching your company name, product or link to certain media such as a funny video, entertaining games, interesting articles or gossip. People who are attracted to this kind of creative entertainment will pass it on to friends, relatives and acquaintances thus spreading the word wide and far.<br /><br />Optimizing your website content for high ranking<br /><br />Search engines rank your site based on well placed keywords and keyword phrases in your site content. Therefore the content on your site should be well optimized to take advantage of this requirement to rank high in search engine results. So, be warned when you write the content for your site.<br /><br />Write and publish Articles about your business.<br /><br />Submit your articles to article directories and publishers since they will have a large circulation of sites that will read and distribute the articles, giving you the exposure needed to generate much traffic. Write about special features of your business, product or service. Also include a resource box with your sites description and services plus a link to your website at the end of the article.<br /><br />Become members of forums and online communities:<br />As members of these communities, you can write and post helpful articles along with a signature file with links to your business. This builds your credibility online, while creating much needed one way links to your site. This could boost your website ranking and traffic substantially.<br /><br />Finally, publish a newsletter, as a credible and trusted net marketer, your readers will share this with many others thus creating loyal repeat visitors to your site and you will be able to market to this list forever. This list of traffic building tools is by no means final, with some imagination and creativity more ways can be found to add to these marketing strategies on and off line.

How To Build A Traffic Highway To Your Website

Every internet business needs traffic and lots of it. Traffic is the lifeblood of online businesses, therefore, any program you under-take t...

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Top 10 Ways to Get Awesome Web Traffic Using Blogs

Like many important people before you - perhaps you've underestimated the power of blogging. Blogs can be used, not only as the single easiest way to get a listing in the search engine for your desired keywords, but also serve the fantastic purpose if building a relationship with your quickly growing list of readers, listeners and viewers.<br /><br />After a light lunch today, I was left in the greatest mood. So I figured I would sit down and share with you 10 ways you can share my success and popularity using blogs.<br /><br />1. Use a keyword specific blog title and description. When creating your blog, I just used the free service www.blogger.com you're asked to title or name your blog and give a short description. Take this chance to think a little.<br /><br />Ask yourself:<br /><br />a) Who do you want to read your blog?<br />b) What is your interest or topic - what will you enjoy writing about?<br /><br />If you have a poetry blog for example - use the word poet or poetry in your title and description. You can research the popularity of your keywords use Overture's free tool here: http://inventory.overture.com<br /><br />2. Try to update often (short daily entries work great) using hand written or bot generated keyword rich informative content. Give your visitors something they want to read. I love to write so I create all my original posts, but if you have a site that needs traffic or a topic that you don't know much about you can set up an automatically updating feed using other people's blog posts, or articles. Each entry is seen as its own html page, so the engines see your blog as a multi-paged site, that is updated regularly and rich in links and keywords.<br /><br />3. Create an interesting profile. Searchers and fellow bloggers love the fact you're a real person, this helps to build personal relationships. Again, put a little time and effort into this one. Tons of people peek at your profile, and Blogger.com keeps track of all your views, so open up and share a little. Everything on your profile page is taken as a searchable keyword. Things like: what you like to do, your favorite movies and music, etc. Each one will get you listed under that topic in the blogger.com directory.<br /><br />4. One way to jump right in and get visitors and feedback immediately is by posting to similar blogs and linking back to your blog. Say you have a poetry blog: you can use Blogger's search tool and your keyword - in this case "poetry" or "poet." (Another way to get a quick high listing is to search Google for example "poetry blog.")<br /><br />You can post a comment on their blog, just a short personal remark will do. Keep it polite, no one wants to hear negative criticism. Blogs are more personal than chartrooms or forums, and often contain personal views and opinions of the author, so don't go stepping on toes. The point is to make contact, build relationships, and exchange links. More links to your blog equals more free targeted traffic for you.<br /><br />5. RSS is your friend! Create an RSS feed, by hand or using Feedburner. This gives your readers the option to subscribe to your blog with just a click. What this means to you is 100% deliverability of all the content you write by the readers request - your posts are sent directly to your subscribers via their RSS reader otherwise known as an aggregator. They are personally notified every time you post to your blog. And best of all, no spam complaints ever, and they get every update you make - no blockers or filters. Total word freedom!<br /><br />6. Spread your feed by submitting to RSS directories. This is a one time deal, and you can either search and do it manually or use the tool I used: RSS Automator (it finds and submits to tons of different directories for you).<br /><br />Only submit each blog once. This is a lasting deal that could mess up your good standing if you do it multiple times. So to be sure you get a listing, only submit to directories once. (This is not the same thing as pinging; you can ping every time you update your blog.)<br /><br />7. Ping your blog every time you update using pinging services like pingomatic.com and pingoat.com. This lets the directories know you have updated and added a new post to your blog.<br /><br />8. Create a personalized or branded RSS reader/aggregator. Talk about top of mind awareness. You don't have to be a programming genius for this one (though it helps.) There are a couple services that for a small one time fee will customize a reader for you, with your logo, header and graphics, and preload it with any media you want. So with this you're sure to be seen and remembered every day. Check out one of the best services here: http://www.tristana.org/publishers/specs<br /><br />9. People love to read you, but hearing you is even better. Give Podcasting a try - there are tons of ways to get started here. I would personally recommend http://www.Libsyn.com for all your Podcasting needs. It uploads, stores, hosts, and sets up the RSS and pings for you. Like Podcasting for dummies. Then just submit your podcast to different directories and readers like Apple iTunes, and ipodder.org.<br /><br />10. Radio is great but now you can create a following by imitating the idiot box. Give your subscribers another way to obsess using Video-meets-Blogging or "The Vlog." This is a medium that is far from saturated. The possibilities are endless, and you're only limited to what you limit yourself. Though it has not been promoted too widely, the new Apple iTunes Podcasting feature supports Vlog subscriptions as well.

Top 10 Ways to Get Awesome Web Traffic Using Blogs

Like many important people before you - perhaps you've underestimated the power of blogging. Blogs can be used, not only as the single e...

Read more »