As you probably know, Google makes a hefty percentage of its revenue by selling advertising space keyed to particular search terms. Advertisers can target their ads to show up to internet surfers searching on particular key words. So, Toys R Us might want their ads to show up for searches on "toys" or "cartoon giraffes", Levi's would like people interested in "jeans" or "denim" to be presented with their ads. What you might not know is that there is a program that will let you (as long as you've got a web site) get a piece of the action.
Here's how it works. You sign up with Google, in a very simple process, and include code they generate in your website. Once that happens, Google will direct targeted ads to the spots you set aside on your website that match the content of your site. There is an approval process, but as long as your site is of reasonable quality and not objectionable, you will almost certainly be approved - everyone wants to get a piece of the revenue stream. When your visitors click on the ads, Google will send you a percentage (probably about 60%) of what they make on the PPC (pay per click) responses. That is pretty much it. You do not have to do anything else, there is no negotiations, no paperwork, and no further need to change your site. Some percentage of your visitors will see the ads and click on them, and every time that happens, a little bit of money goes in your AdSense account and you will start receiving monthly checks from Google Corporate.
Here is some of the story behind this very simple concept. Obviously, you were getting paid for something that visitors to your site are doing, namely, clicking on an ad. So, the most important variable in how much you can earn from this program is how many visitors are attracted to your site. I am sure you would not be surprised to learn that you are not the first person to contemplate this question: "How can I create a website that gets a lot of traffic so I can generate a lot of advertising revenue?" There is two ways to answer this question: one is, make something that people think is valuable, interesting, fun or in some other way compelling, and then find ways to promote the site so your monthly visitor numbers start to climb. If you can find something that is actually important to people, then you can make an appeal like "If you believe in what we are doing, please click on a few of these ads. It would not cost you anything, and Google will send us money we will use to support our work."
The second way to answer the question has to do with the whole art and science of SEO, Search Engine Optimization, (some might say dark arts) which basically means, how can you increase the chances that when someone is searching for something related to your website, your website is one of the top results. Almost all traffic any website gets, especially in the beginning, comes through the results presented by search engines, Google being by far the strongest example. Design your site with SEO in mind and your monthly AdSense check will be bigger, quite possibly in amounts that will be significant.
There are people who earn hundreds, even thousands of dollars a month from this Google program. It is not free money -- you will still have to do the work of creating your site and promoting it, and answering for yourself the question, "what can I put up on the web that will resonate with people so I will get lots of visitors?" If you are not sure how to answer that question just yet, you can at least start thinking about the AdSense program. One place to start is with Google itself, at www.google.com/AdSense.
0 comments:
Post a Comment