New Orleans Internet Marketing

My first check I got from Google Adsense in 2003! $260.40, not bad for a first time Adsense user!



That was when the light bulb went off. I had done something I enjoyed doing (building a website), and I had earned money from it that would contine to grow. Keep reading this blog, and you’ll eventually find out exactly how I did it every time. Here are some tips to make money from Adsense:

Different Markets Pay Differently
Not all markets are equal! Just as certain keywords are more competitive to show up for on the internet, keyword competitiveness is almost directly proportional to Adsense competitiveness. If there are more people competing for the ads, the ads will pay more when people click them. You may not be able to choose the sector your site is in, but if you can, consider these factors:

If the market is competitive, do I have the resources to build a site that can compete?
If the answer is “yes, I have the resources to build a content-rich site, do effective SEO, and market the site in a competitive market,” then do it, and you will reap the rewards of the high paying ads. If the market is competitive and you don’t have the resources to do SEO or other marketing, your high paying ads won’t get clicked because the site will be at the bottom of the pile.

Determining market competitiveness can be a simple process. One way is to bid on the keywords using Adwords or a similar product, another is to look at how well-optimized the sites in the search results are. While the second can only be done if you have a decent understanding of search engine optimization, bidding on keywords in Adwords will show you exactly what people are paying for the top positions. My experience has been that earnings will be just under half of what the advertisers are paying. If I had to guess, I’d say between 35 - 45%. (Google’s new “smart pricing can have a dramatic effect on this figure, but that’s a topic for another post.)

If the market your site is about is non-competitive, you may not make as much money on the clicks you get, but you’re at an advantage because you won’t need to devote as many resources to SEO and marketing in order to build a top ranked site in its niche. In this case, you can focus on creating good CONTENT which is the key to SEO and Adsense earnings. Is it a market that has growth potential? If so, it may be a great opportunity. Offer free information or services to the public. Create a site that will be a fixture for years to come by adding fresh content regularly.

Putting Adsense on Your Site
This is the easy part, you sign up for an adsense account, pick some pretty colors, get the code, and dump it somewhere you think it will look good on your site right? Almost. Do that, but be willing to experiment with some different colors and placements. It’s a careful balance.

I’m not always comfortable with the ads between posts on the homepage of this site. I don’t want users to have to “avoid” my Google ads to navigate the site. It can drive people away. These are some of the things you have to consider when doing ad placements. The good thing about my ad placements between posts, is that when someone clicks on the post, they get an unobstructed post to read. So the minor homepage inconvenience isn’t as bad.

Effectiveness for ad placement can be different on every site, but my experience has been that the left hand portion of the web page, above the fold of the browser window, will get the most clicks. I also increased my clickthrough rates by about 4% when experimenting with different ad colors. Ads designed to look like content or navigation on the page will sometimes get higher clickthrough rates. Although that can be another judgement call; it’s not going to be effective long term if the site is difficult for users to navigate.

Last, enjoy what you do. Create sites about things you like doing, are knowledgeable of, or like talking about, and you’re sure to be a hit. Pay attention to search engine optimization and try to get quality links to your site. One of the best things about making money through adsense is that you don’t have to spend time dealing with advertisers on a personal basis, and you can focus more on building your site.