Affiliate Reviews: Google Adsense

July 18, 2007

 

Here’s a review on Google Adsense for anyone thinking of starting an affiliate marketing business, or those who already have a website and would like to increase their earnings.

 

What is Google Adsense?  It’s contextual pay per click advertising.  The webmaster puts Google Adsense on his/her site and Google displays adverts that match the site content.

 

How much can you make from Google Adsense?  This will vary depending on your website content and the number of people who visit your website, and the amount per click that the particular Google Adwords publisher is paying.  My earnings per click vary a lot from several dollars per click – to the worst – only a measly 5 cents per click on a new blog.

 

Some people say that Adsense doesn’t pay as well as other affiliate programs.  For example John Chow mentioned recently that Adsense is paying him not much more than $800 dollars per month on a website which earns him in excess of $10,000 per month.  Others, including as Darren Rowse of Problogger claims that Google Adsense is a big moneyspinner for him.  Tim Carter of Ask the Builder earns an impressive $30,000 a month from Google Adsense.

 

Is Google Adsense easy to set up?  Yes – even for the most technically challenged, Adsense is easy to set up.  It’s just a matter of choosing the colours you want for your site and highlighting and copying the code.  Choosing whereabouts on your site to place Google Adsense involves a bit of trial and error, but Google have some great tips to help you out on the Adsense site.  What are the Pros and Cons of Google Adsense? 

Advantages:   Easy to set up, can be used on a free website or blog unlike many other affiliate programs, varying ads without having to change anything yourself, can be a huge money maker once you’ve built up a reasonable amount of traffic to your site.

 

Disadvantages:   Takes visitors away from your site – once they click on your Adsense ad they’re taken to the advertisers website; not as lucrative as many other affiliate programs; Google have strict Adsense rules and some claim that they have been banned from the Adsense affiliate program without explanation.

 

Do You Use Google Adsense?  I use Google Adsense on a few sites – even on our local Kwik Fix plumbing website.  We get traffic there from all over the world, and although we intend to expand our services and site offerings we only offer plumbing services in our local area for now, so for us, this is a great way to make additional income.  

To me, Google Adsense is a great way to make additional income for your website, but as with any other affiliate program, it should not be relied upon as your only source of website income.

 

I don’t worry too much about Google Adsense taking visitors away from my sites, as they have to leave at some point – nobody is going to stay on your website for ever, so you may as well make a bit of money through them leaving.

 

To conclude, I would recommend the Google Adsense affiliate program to anyone wanting to make a bit of extra money from a website and I would advise Adsense users not to get discouraged to begin with.  Your earnings may be low initially, particularly if your website has a low amount of traffic, but it’s exciting to see the money you make from Adsense increase rapidly, and very little effort is required once you’ve set it up.

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Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Running a Business 

Comments

5 Responses to “Affiliate Reviews: Google Adsense”

  1. Ian on July 18th, 2007 10:29 pm

    Cath,

    Can you talk a little more about your plumnbing business? I may be like a number of other readers - i.e. I am so intrigued that I want to see how your attitudes online convert to the real world?

    We haven’t met. But I feel as though we have!

    I would love to hear more about your plumbing business. Can you handle people as far south as Merseyside? Why are you better than your local rivals?

    Don’t worry if this blog isn’t the right forum for you to discuss, but I have to admit I am intrigued and would welcome your experiences.

    If not, no offence taken (and feel free to delete the comment!).

    But your take on other business matters leads me to believe that any business you are associated with must be a roaring success!!!

    Cheers

    Ian

  2. cathlawson on July 19th, 2007 4:05 am
    No offence taken at all Ian. Thank you for asking, and also for your kind words. I don’t mind talking about my plumbing business at all, so long as I don’t bore everyone to tears, and I will try to answer your questions in my next post.
  3. JoLynn Braley on July 20th, 2007 2:15 am

    Hi, re: “only a measly 5 cents per click on a new blog”…so you earn less from Adsense on a newer blog? Is this only due to traffic?

    Thanks Catherine!

  4. cathlawson on July 20th, 2007 2:47 am
    Hi JoLynn - I think it is probably only due to traffic. The blog in question only has about five posts so far. But five cents is low. If that happened to a new blogger I think it would totally put them off adsense forever.
  5. JoLynn Braley on July 21st, 2007 3:54 am

    Thanks for the feedback Catherine!

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