The Great Google Adsense Side Effect

By Rich Ord 

The Internet is now built for Adsense

If the Internet consisted of real brick and mortar buildings there would be a construction boom going on right now like the world has never seen. The Internet is not in a recession or on the road to a depression, rather it is experiencing an economic and social explosion of activity.

The reason ... Google Adsense.

Most people think of Google Adsense as being a game-changer for advertising, but what Google Adsense has also done is to create a huge incentive to build sites around topics to place Google Adwords on. Where this seems to work best is with gadgets. There is no topic left untouched by the Adsense content builders, but gadgets are at the heart of this new Internet construction boom. 

The Gadget Content Explosion...

On November 5th, 2007 Google announced the name of its Google phone project ...Android.

Name announcements are where it all starts because domaining is at the heart of SEO which is important to getting free traffic which is critical to new Internet projects getting Adsense funding. Literally, hundreds of domains have been registered since this announcement with the Android name and other variations that mean the same. 

A few examples ....

helloandroid.com 
justanotherandroidblog.com
phandroid.com

All of those domains now rank in the top ten results when searching for "android blog" in Google!

Trademark Infringement? Nope! 

A more schooled business person might wonder about all of this trademark infringement and think cease and desist letters will be flying to all of these new sites. Think again my old school friend! The legal community may not be aware, but trademarking is no longer enforced by a large army of corporations on the Internet. The reason is because companies have finally figured out that Internet content centered around their brands is rather GOOD for their brands! 

The majority of the content I am talking about is of the good kind where these newly constructed websites become the hub for discussion, commenting, reviewing, supporting and in general getting down to the nitty-gritty of every new gadget (or every new anything) introduced to the world.  Google and the other search engines then crawl this content and in effect help turn these new web construction sites into thriving neighborhood hangouts where thousands of real people actually go. 

These people become the first drivers of new products and are the early adopters who will wait in line to buy. An example of this is the recently launched Blackberry Storm available for Verizon customers. Lines were out the door at Verizon stores and most locations sold out. The word of mouth on this product spawned from thousands of websites, many of which were created to focus exclusively on the Blackberry Storm. 

Search Google for "blackberry storm forum" (without quotations) and you will see these sites in the top listings:

blackberrystormforum.com
everythingberry.com
storm-blackberry.com (with Yahoo ads)

These sites were produced to build a community that clicks Adwords ads. They were created because of the Adsense program, but they still do serve a greater good in my opinion, which is to be an independent source of information and Q&A. 

The two most common types of sites created for Adsense are blogs and forums. Others include software downloads, niche directories and news headline type sites. Over time, domains with the product name followed by generic words that are typically searched for such as ...  forum, forums, blog, video and news tend to rise to the top of search results. Website builders around the world know this and build accordingly. 

Is the content of bad quality? 

Yes and no. There are of course many spammy scraper sites that steal content from others and then automatically update the sites. However, those are not the ones usually showing up in the top search results. The site winning the search result wars for "android blog", for instance, isgoogleandroidblog. blogspot.com which is the number one result. The site appears to be a real hub for Google Android content and reader comments and also contains a column of Google Adwords ads! 

Search for any popular gadget and you will see quality blogs, forums and news sites in top results that were created to cash in from Google Asense:

>> "Amazon Kindle blog" - amazonkindleblog.com
>> "iPhone news" - iphonestalk.com, iphonealley.com, iphone-ipod.org
>> "Wii blog" - wiiblog.net, wiispin.com (both created for Adsense)

The How-To...

1. Follow the announcements on the tech news gadget sites and grab domains as soon as names are announced.

2. Build a blog or forum ASAP on the topic. It is important to build first so that Google crawls you first.

3. Create quality content written by you or experts (your friends :). It is important to not plagorize other content on the Internet. Be distinct with your voice by using humor or technical savvyness. Do not use paid writers that write $20 articles unless you know they write quality. Quality is king, even when building for Adsense!

4. Participate in related forums and comment on blogs and news articles that relate to your topic. Be real though, do not be a comment spammer. This will get your site linked so that Google crawls it.

5. Update your site a couple times a day and make your content unique.

Part 3: Summary and Additional Resources

AdSense Do’s and Don’ts

Now that you know what AdSense is all about, we can offer the following do’s and don’ts – which more or less summarizes everything we’ve said so far.

Do’s

>The first rule of using AdSense is to follow their terms of service. Google has exceptional monitoring ability, and if they find any violation of their TOS, your account will be suspended, rendering all your efforts moot.

>Consider having a number of informative pages about varying topics but with a consistent theme for your website. That way you will have more ads to choose from and can possibly maximize your CTR.

>Use keywords to your advantage. Higher paying keywords will usually but not always yield more rewards. Think relevance. Also use variations of keywords for added advantage.

>Provide unique information on your web pages. The more specific the content of your website is, the more targeted your ads will be, and the more effective. Always focus on providing good quality information!

>Experiment with various ad formats on your web page and choose those that suite your website. You can choose to display ads with different formats on one page.

>Position your ad block in such a way that the ad is visible and yet it does not put off the readers. Ideally, place your ad in the top section of your webpage which can be viewed without scrolling down.

>Use the Google AdSense preview toolbar to your advantage and see how the ads will appear on your website. Get a hands-on feel of how the visitor to your website will view your web page.

>Use Google channels and other external tracking software to evaluate your performance on a routine basis.

Don’ts

Do not resort to fraudulent or deceptive means for generating clicks on the ads that are on your page. Some of the methods that are prohibited by Google AdSense are:

• Automated clicking programs

• Repeated manual clicks

• Using robots to generate clicks

• Clicking your own ads

• Tricking your visitors into clicking on your ads by using fraudulent means

Don’t have confusing layers of content. Content on your web page should not hide the ad text and URL. At the same time, it is advisable that you use same font type, size and color (background and font) for both the ads and the content on your web pages so that your ad does not announce itself as an outside ad. Ideally, your ad should look and feel like a part of your website.

Don’t have broken links on your site. Your website should not contain any broken links and should be easily navigable. Also, the content on your web pages should be informative, of high quality and the ads should be relevant to the content.

Don’t have old or illegal information on your site. Be careful about outdated information, plagiarized text and obscene or offensive material. Avoid using any of these on your web pages.

Two More AdSense Opportunities: RSS and Blogs

Adding Google Ads to your RSS feeds

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has gained huge popularity on the Internet. RSS is an XML document format that organizes and stores news-like content from various sources into one source. Think of it like a newswire service, the kind of stuff that scrolls along the bottom of cable channels. A large percentage of the “news” items you find on any website that is not a major news portal got there through an RSS feed.

Google has introduced a specific program known as AdSense for RSS. You can join this program now and start making money with it. RSS offers a variety of interesting content options that most websites themselves can’t match.

Google AdSense for feeds has its own set of policies. These can be accessed at:

http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=20134 Like the AdSense program, you must follow all guidelines in order to be accepted for the AdSense for feeds program.

Placing AdSense ads on your Blogs

Blogs are similar to RSS feeds in concept except they usually have one author rather than an aggregate of sources of the material they contain. Blogs (short for Web logs) are simple webpages where you can write articles and other content on a variety of topics, and both the famous and the unknown use these online diaries to share their thoughts, post pictures, and so on. The public can view this content and even comment on it in most cases.

Due to the considerable amount – and unlimited range – of content on Blogs, it may make sense to place AdSense ads on them. In fact, it is much easier to generate revenue from Blogs as compared to other web pages, at least in theory.

• First, blogs are full of content, most of which is original most of the time. The content may not be “good” from a human reader perspective but it is usually “good” according to Google’s scans. Thus, getting approved by Google AdSense may be easier.

• The content presented on the blog, in many cases, is quite diverse which, unlike a website that needs to be “about something” can be excused by the “everything and nothing” nature of most blogs. Consequently, the possibility of Google finding targeted ads that are relevant may increase.

• Google AdSense works only with those websites that are already indexed by Google. Blogs get indexed far more easily than regular webpages. Some blogs get indexed in as few as two to three days of submission. Thus, the chances of getting approved by Google AdSense increases.

• Blogs can be created at practically no cost – much cheaper than commercial websites.

Summary

There are no “magic bullets” or “get rich quick” schemes that work. As an experienced Web marketer or publisher, you already know that. But there are some ways to make really significant “passive” money on the Internet, and especially with Internet advertising. Of these, one of the best, and most legitimate, is Google AdSense, which you now know all about.

When you’re ready to get started with your AdSense program, the preceding information, combined with the following additional resources, will help you make the most of it!

Part 1: Joining the AdSense Program

Understanding Google policies

We discussed earlier how rewarding the Google AdSense program can be. However, joining the Google AdSense program is not that easy or everyone in the world would do it (which would defeat its purpose, ultimately). You have to be approved by Google in order to create your AdSense account and start earning money from it.

How do you get approved? Google famously has never publicly published details of its approval process, there are tips you should follow to ensure a high possibility of getting approved.

The good news is that Google does publish its policies and you do not need to be a member to read them. 

You should read them and be certain that you are in 100% compliance with them, not only when attempting to start your AdSense account, but once you are already a member. They update these policies regularly and a violation will get you suspended. A list of Google AdSense policies can be seen at: http://www.google.com/adsense/policies

Content – The Key to AdSense!

As stated earlier, we cannot say exactly how Google decides to accept or reject a site. However, one thing is for sure – the main criterion for approval is always the content of the website!

Most sites get rejected simply because they do not have any – or enough – good content. What constitutes “good” content? 

We can say what it is not. The types of websites that only have links and “filler” content aimed at attracting Search Engines, and sites that do not offer any informational content but solely focus on their own products and services. Google is one of the smartest companies on the Internet, and they can easily tell “junk” content from “real” content, even if many web surfers themselves can’t.

Google approves websites that have significant real content. These could be in the form of informational articles, analyses of various topics, and much more. For business websites that solely focus on selling their products and services through their website, including informational articles about their industry is smart, and this data is usually pretty easily available.

Another reason why most business websites do not qualify for the program, is that most businesses are specialized, and these websites are most likely to get Ads from their competitors, as only those ads would be relevant. 

As discussed, competitor ads would be blocked by you, filtered by Google, or both, so an AdSense program that serves no ads makes no sense!

Similarly, websites that focus only on links for generating search engine traffic do not have any content at all, according to both common sense and Google. These sites may rack up fairly high traffic scores and so forth, but they do not qualify for AdSense.

One of the best and simplest strategies is to include at least 30 to 40 informational articles of 400 to 450 words each and update them from time to time. Writing these articles yourself may be a daunting task. However, the good news is that there are considerable websites that offer articles for free, and plenty of professional writing resources who can not only write high quality material for you, but can especially optimize that material to work well with search engines and the “qualification” processes for systems like AdSense.

How much can you make with AdSense and how can you get started?

You’ve seen the nutty claims by so-called “internet experts” that strategies and programs they have devised enable surfers to earn thousands of dollars within a matter of days! Or minutes!! No such thing.

However, there are several lucrative programs that can provide an extremely generous income with comparatively little effort – Google AdSense is absolutely one of them.

But it takes some time, and it takes some planning, like anything real does. The rest of our report is all about unlocking that potential.

To start understanding the potential, think about how you make money with this program. Each time someone clicks an ad on your pages, you get a percentage of what Google is paid for placing that ad.

Revenue (or Income) from an Ad

=

Clickthrough value of the ad * Payout Rate * Clickthrough rate of the Ad * Webpage traffic * Frequency of Ad

In the above equation, Clickthrough value is the amount the advertiser pays per click for the Ad (this figure varies); the Payout Rate is the percentage of revenue to be paid for every click fixed by Google (this figure varies); Clickthrough rate is simply the # of times the ad is clicked on in a certain period of time divided by the # of times it is displayed during the same period; Webpage traffic is the # of visitors to your website; and Frequency of Ad is the # of times this particular ad appears on your webpage.

Let’s put some figures into the above equation and see what the income is. The figures below are for a single day:

Clickthrough Value -> 30 cents or $0.30 (The advertiser pays 30 cents per click for the Ad, to Google)

Payout Rate -> 50% or 0.5 (This is an assumption based on what many experts believe to be the current payout rate for most deals)

Clickthrough rate of the Ad -> the ad is displayed 100 times within the day and clicked by 20

people -> the clickthrough rate would be 0.20

Webpage traffic -> 1500 visitors during the day

The Income per day from a single ad would be = 0.30 * 0.5 * 0.20 * 1500

= $202.5

If you consider this to be the average income per day, the total revenue generated within a month would be more than $1,350. This is incredible, considering you basically did nothing to earn that money. We know of cases where people have earned even more than $25,000 a month with AdSense, which is a large sum to anyone.

Our goal is to equip you to get started on the road to making money with AdSense.

How the Ads Get On Your Site??

Once you join the AdSense program – and Google approves your site or sites, which we’ll cover in detail shortly – the actual process of displaying ads on your website is extremely simple. You are provided with a small HTML script, which you can paste anywhere on your webpage. You may paste this code any number of times and on multiple pages, and watch the ads get served! Google automatically places AdWords ads that are most relevant, from its extensive advertiser base. Google employs various sophisticated algorithms to determine the relevancy of the ads to your content.

Before we get into how Google assesses sites, and whether a few or many placements of that magic script will deliver optimum results, let’s review the advantages of AdSense.

Google AdSense is simple to use and manage. Once approved, displaying ads on your webpage does not take time and requires minimal technical knowledge.

Google AdSense is very smart about ad selection. The ads that are displayed are only those that are relevant to your content, and Google has strict quality control on the general quality of the ads.

Google AdSense uses text-ads. Far from being low-tech, text ads are more effective than flashy ads. The clickthrough rate of text ads is proven to be higher than that of animated ads! More clicks equals more money, and text ads equals more clicks. Also…text ads are very “low weight” and very fast loading. The AdSense program will not slow your website, or your visitors, down. You can also use graphic ads.

AdSense is an application of AdWords beyond Google.com

Making “sense” of AdSense means understanding that it is really an offshoot of the older Google model, AdWords. But they are not the same thing.

Google AdWords:

If you have ever searched on Google, you have seen AdWords.

Google AdWords are the small text ads that are displayed on the side of the search results in Google. These ads are contextual of course – in this case the context is the search terms you entered. The ads will be served based on what you’re looking for. So, if you do a search on “printing services” you will get ads for printing services along with your search results!

How does this generate money for Google and the advertisers?

Google AdWords works on a model known as pay-per-click. When someone clicks on an AdWords ad, the advertiser of that ad has to pay Google a certain amount. It’s easy to track and fully automated.

We say “certain amount” because that amount is different all the time and is subject to market forces – in this case, bidding. Something has to determine the placement of those ads, and what determines it is how much the advertiser offers to pay per click. When you submit this kind of ad to Google, you submit it with a bid – which is compared to other bids for similar keywords. It’s an auction style process.

The position of the AdWords ads is based on the bidding amount of keywords of an ad. Obviously, the higher the bid, the higher the position the bid buys you. For instance, if the highest bid for the keywords “Internet marketing” is 80 cents per click, you can get top position by bidding 90 cents. Then every time someone clicks on your ad, Google would charge you 90 cents, and you would retain the top position until someone else bids more for the same search word placement.

Google AdSense, as stated earlier, is an extension of Google AdWords. It takes the AdWords concept and moves it off of Google’s search page and onto thousands of other web pages. The ads that are displayed on the websites are Google AdWords ads.

It’s good for the advertiser, who gets more and broader displays, for Google, who charge more for this program, for you, who will make money from the clickthroughs on your pages, and also for the consumer, who will see cool ads for stuff they are probably interested in!

So how exactly are you making money from all this? You earn a share of the pay-per-click amount, every time a visitor clicks on the ad. So you just need to get ads on your site…

First is First - Adsense

As a successful web publisher looking to get to the next level, you are probably thinking about trying a number of different approaches to increasing revenue – especially your passive revenue, the money that just “shows up” from time to time while you focus on other things. You may be considering various forms of internet advertising. And you should.
Internet advertising has exceeded all expectations.

Here, is also a short and brief video about adsense and its tips.


The technology keeps advancing, and the popularity and ubiquity of the medium is incredible. Most companies can benefit from the Internet because it allows the chance to reach a global audience at never-before-possible speeds, with many kinds of filters to make sure the right audience sees the right message, and costs that are often surprisingly low. But many businesses make money online in ways that have very little to do with their own actual business, but with systems that connect various companies and offerings together.
You may be wondering how to make money easily with online advertising, and you have come to the right place!
The secret is that taking ads is a much more profitable strategy then placing ads for most websites. And the best way to make money with this right now is “hiding in plain sight” from the world’s most popular search engine company.
While there are many ways to approach online advertising, it makes sense the best would be offered by the ultimate search engine company, the company that is setting out to organize all of humanity’s vast amounts of information – Google. This method is Google Ad Words, and it’s sister program, Google AdSense. With Ad Words, Google makes a lot of money. With AdSense, web publishers – that’s you! – can reach a lot of people and make a lot of money too!
In this report, we’re going to focus in on how to make sense of, and a lot of money with, Google’s AdSense program.