Blogging for Profit - Part 6

For those of you who are just joining us, we're talking about how you can make money through blogging. I encourage you to go here to read all of the previous installments in this series.

There are many different ways to offer advertising on your blog. We've talked about affiliate marketing, today we're going to cover a well-known and widely-used money-making method, namely, Google Adsense.

Google Adsense is an advertising program which is easy-to-use, easy-to-sign-up-for, and easy-to-implement. Advertisers bid on search terms and how much they want to spend per day on advertising. You choose how you want your ads to look and you add code to your blog where you want the Google ads to show up. Once the code is added in, Google takes care of serving up relevant ads based upon the content of your blog and what advertisers have bid on.

To earn money with this program, your visitors just have to click on ads. Every time someone clicks on an ad, you earn a little money--usually somewhere between $0.05 and $1. It varies depending upon what the advertisers have bid. Obviously, the more traffic you have and the easier you make it for people to see and click on your ads, the more money you will earn.

When you have earned over $100, Google will cut you a check at the end of the month. At first, it can be slow going, but as you build up your traffic, the checks will start rolling in much more rapidly. I've been amazed at the potential in earnings just from this simple thing!

As with most advertising programs, while there are some great features, there are also some downsides. I think the biggest downside to Google Adsense is that you cannot control which ads are shown on your blog. Google automatically pulls up relevant ads based upon your blog's content. For many blogs, this is not a problem, but if you care about what ads are showing on your sidebar, you may sometimes find the ads Google believes to be relevant to be very non-relevant or even offensive to your audience.

For instance, my other blog is an overtly conservative Christian blog. When I tested Google Adsense on there, many of the ads which were served up from Google were anti-Christian and ones I would not want to run. However, on this blog, since I mostly talk about saving money, I've not had a problem so far with any offensive ads pulling up--most have been quite relevant and helpful.

You can choose to block websites you don't want advertising on your site, but this requires a lot of policing and a lot of work--something which probably isn't worth your time. So, depending upon your blog's content, Google Adsense could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Another downside is that you only get paid when you earn $100. If you have a very small blog, it could take you a year or more to actually get a check--and that could be rather disheartening! I recommend you test run Google Adsense on your blog for a few weeks and see how it goes. You might find you really like it and are earning well from it or you might find you don't like the ads being shown and it is not really earning much for you.

I also encourage you to try having your AdSense ad blocks in various places on your blog. You can have up to three ad blocks per page, so experiment and learn what works best. I've found it very interesting that ad placement can make such a difference in earnings. Keep testing until you determine what works best for your blog and blog audience.

Have any of you had experience with Google Adsense? If so, what do you think of it?

Related: Pro-Blogger has a thorough post up on why you should use AdSense on your blog. It's well worth your time.

Comments

[Marcy]

I am having decent luck with Google AdSense, but have found that BlogHer ads are more relevant to my audience and pay out at a higher rate. They will also cut you a check at a much lower threshold which means little to no waiting. On the downside, you have to apply and wait a month to see if you have been approved, and they are not always open to new applications.

[Jennifer Barker]

Crystal,
Quick question. Have you ever used Stumble to increase the flow of traffic? (when you first started out.) I am asking because it seems that you have to use their system as your blog. I don't want this. I want increased traffic to my personal blog. But, then, maybe I misunderstood.
Jennifer Barker

[Crystal]

I'm wondering about Stumble as well.

Thanks for the tips with Google ads. I was wondering if that was even worth having on my site. Now I know.

[Kacey]

I just wanted to say "thank you!" for this series of tutorials on blogging. I have had a person weblog for over a year now, but simply used it for recreation. Now I have set up a more focused, goal oriented blog and I can wait to learn more about getting it rolling. I have been watching your blog for a few weeks now and have learned SO much from you and your publications. Thanks a ton for your hard work. I know it's paying off for both your family and mine.

[One Mom, Five Kids]

I thought I heard once that you can't use Google Ads with certain other ads. Is this true and if so which ones?

[Amy]

I have found that unless you have a pretty good number of visitors, the adsense income can be pretty low. It all depends on the audience and topic of the blog though. I find that even though it is per-click, that more visitors=more clicks.

[lizzyjane]

Has anyone had a difficult time logging into Adsense. I was approved for my blog, but cannot seem to get anywhere on their sight. Any suggestions?

[Brittany]

I am really enjoying this series as well!

We tried AdSense on our family blog, and ended up taking it off. One of our sons is named Jackson, and it constantly was pulling up Michael Jackson ads. Not really what we had in mind.

[amanda]

I have any amazing CVS deal posted on my site!

Sunscreen, tampons, and 6 something worth of filler free! You may want to share it with your readers :)

[Penny Raine]

Crystal, thanks for teaching us, I have an award for you, come and see!

blessings, Penny Raine
http://www.pennyraine.com/blog

[Natalie]

About the content of the ads, I just started amazon affiliates and had a widget on that was suggesting a book called porn for new moms! Yea, as a pastors wife I was extremely embarrassed and pulled the add off right away. How random, I had no idea that could happen, definitely something to be aware of.

[Wendi]

I have more visitors coming to my site every day but I never make more money with adsense. The other day I had 4 clicks and only made a few cents. I want to stick with it until I get my $100 (if that day ever comes) but after that I am through with them. They also don't provide any help.

[Brandy @ Savin' Some]

Hi Crystal,
I have a question about coupons.com. I signed up and have printable coupons on my site now, but do you know what the payout amount is. I can't seem to find it anywhere.

[Rebecca]

Hello,
I have been reading your blog for months now and LOVE it!I have saved a lot of money and have started cooking a lot from scratch over the last few months. I have enjoyed it so much! Recently I started a blog...notice I said started...haha. I haven't a clue what I am doing well I know a little because I have been reading your blog about blogging. I just wanted you to know that you have been a great help and encouragement to me

[Nicole]

I have been using AdSense on my blog (www.knitnicoleknit.blogspot.com) since I started it. So far, I've only made about 15$, but that's 15$ more than I had before!
-nicole