How to Make Money With Google Ads
If You Have an Online Presence, You Can Profit From It With Google Ads
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If you have a website, a blog, or any other kind of presence on the internet, Google has money to give you. It's called Google AdSense, and it's a program that literally tries to make everyone a winner.
Advertisers get new clients or sales through the Adwords program.
Google gets money to serve those ads. And you get money when people
click on them. How do you spell cha-ching?
The Basics
Using internet search
technology, Google will serve ads that are relevant to the specific
content of that web page. For instance, if someone is on a web page
that's covering the latest golf tournament, Google will serve ads for
golf clubs or golfing attire. If you own that site, you get paid every
time someone clicks on that ad. Not too shabby. This is usually called
Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising.
Major Benefits
You may not even notice banner ads anymore. As an internet-savvy
society, we have learned to filter them out. There is also banner
filtering software available because banner ads can be very annoying,
and that could harm your website readership. But Google AdSense is
different:
- Google Ads are less intrusive, so they don't annoy people
- The content is relevant, and therefore has more impact
- People trust Google Ads because people trust Google
- The payment model is generous and reliable
- It's possible to make a healthy living from Google Ads
The last point is paramount: How do you make a living from Google
Ads? Well, with the right combination of traffic, content, and users,
you can make thousands of dollars every single month.
Adsense Income
Let's be clear. You cannot expect to throw Google Ads onto your site,
sit back, relax, and watch the money roll in. It doesn't work that way.
Like anything in business, it takes an investment of your time to get a
return that you can bank on.
How It Works
For example, you currently have a blog or website that gets 100,000
visitors every single month. That's over 1 million every year. Sounds
like something that could make you money, right? Well, think of this:
- You have 100,000 ad impressions (views)
- You have a CTR (click through rate) of 1 percent, which is standard
- 1 percent of 100,000 = 1000
- If the CPC of the ad is $0.01, you make $10
- If the CPC of the ad is $1.00, you make $1,000
There's a big difference between the two, and obviously, most ads do
not pay out at the $1/click rate. The more obvious and widespread the
keyword of the ad, which is what triggers the ad itself, the lower the
CPC. And that is info you can use.
Maximize Income
Whether you want to make money off the blog or website you already
have, or you want to create a blog with the sole purpose of making
AdSense money, there are several ways you can increase your revenue:
- Use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) writing to maximize the keywords in your content.
- Write more. The more you write about your subject, the more keywords you have for Google to search and feed ads to.
- Write often. More content is everything, and the fresher the better.
- Post useful, accurate content. When you post garbage filled with keywords, it is difficult to read and doesn't bring people back. You want your site to be sticky, so it generates traffic.
- Find a niche. Talking about football is all well and good, but thousands of people are doing it. But movie soundtrack collections, that's another story.
- Don't create too much bad traffic. It's easier than you'd think to create a lot of traffic, but if it's not qualified, and people aren't there to read your content, then it will be a flash in the pan. It also affects your CTR.
- Make use of Google Analytics. Google gives you the free tools to make a profit.
- Think differently. Don't just write the same old boring content that everyone else is. Have a new take on "Mad Men"? Got a better angle on knitting? But it's not just given away. You have to earn it.
Competitor Ads
One of the biggest issues you face when you start running ads on your
site is the competition. Depending on the kind of site you run, you
could find that ads start being served that are in direct competition
with what you are selling, or offering. For example, if you have a site
dedicated to drop shipping a certain product, perhaps Disney toys or
snow globes, you could suddenly see ads for those products directing
your visitors away from your site. This is not good for business.
Can anything be done about this? Yes. Google anticipated this very
issue, and allows you to block content from up to 200 different URLs.
However, it's a little tricky to know who to block until you start
seeing those ads show up. Even worse, you may never see those ads,
because of the way Adsense serves up the content.
Also, as an Adsense user, you cannot click on these links directly to
see where the ads are being directed to. It's a clear violation of the
rules of using Adsense, but you can right click on the ad if you're
lucky enough to see it and discover the link or URL to block. Again,
this depends on a little luck.
Perhaps the best way to create a list is to search Google for the
kinds of products or services you are selling, and note the top 50
different URLs that come up. That's a good way to block ad traffic from
sites that are clearly in competition with you.
