Google AdSense is a contextual advertising program that allows you to place advertisements on your website or blog, or YouTube videos, and get paid when a visitor clicks on the link or image. Ads are generated by companies that use Google’s AdWords program. If you have a website or even a blog, you might want to earn some income from it.

Advantages and disadvantages of making money with Google AdSense

The benefits of AdSense

  • Registration is free. The eligibility requirements are simple, which means you can monetize your website or blog even when it’s new.
    There are a variety of advertising options and many of them can be customized to match the look of your site.
    Google pays monthly (if you reach the minimum threshold of $100 ).
    You can advertise on multiple websites from a single AdSense account.
    There are options to serve ads on mobile devices and RSS feeds.
    You can easily add it to your YouTube and Blogger accounts.

The disadvantages of AdSense

  • Google may terminate your account without notice. Google is very strict on those who break the rules, such as fake clicks to earn money.
    Like all forms of online income, you need targeted traffic to make money.
    When people click on an AdSense ad, you make money, but your visitor also leaves your site.
    It does not necessarily pay more than other similar programs.

AdSense is a great monetization option, but it’s not a get-rich-quick option. Also, Google has a lot of rules that are not always known. As a result, many website owners discovered that they had violated a Google policy and lost their account with no hope of recovering it.

Types of AdSense ads

Google offers a variety of ad types to place on your website:

  • Text: Text ads use words, either as an ad unit (one offer) or as a linking unit (list of offers), and come in a variety of sizes. You can customize the color of the box, text and link.
  • Images: Image advertisements are graphic advertisements. They are available in different sizes. You can choose an option that mixes text and image ads.
  • Video
  • Rich Media Ads
  • Audio
  • AdSense for Search allows you to have a Google search box on your site. When a user types in a term and performs a search, a search results page opens with AdSense ads. You can customize the color scheme of the search results page to match your website.

Google AdSense payments

Google pays monthly, but won’t issue an AdSense payment until your earnings reach or exceed $100. If you don’t earn $100 in a month, your earnings are carried over and added to the next month. Each time you reach the $100 threshold, Google will issue a payment on the next payment period. Through your AdSense account, you can see your current earnings, which ads are generating the most clicks, and more. Threshold values ​​by currency and by payment account .

See More Info in Google Official Announcement for Threshold values per currency and per payments account

Make money with AdSense

Here are some tips for maximizing AdSense revenue:

  • Read and follow Google’s policies. Webmasters must comply with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and AdSense Program Policy.
  • Don’t click on your own ads or ask others to click on them. Encouraging clicks, buying Pay Per Click (PPC) space, or using a program designed to drive traffic to AdSense pages is against the rules. Remember, Google isn’t very lenient about breaking the rules, so be sure to adhere to them.
  • Have quality and quantity content that interests your target. Ultimately, money is made, whether through AdSense or other monetization methods, by delivering valuable content and quality traffic to your blog or website.
  • Use honest and organic traffic building website promotion techniques, especially search engine optimization and social media marketing.
  • Test ad types and placement to find options that lead to the highest revenue.
  • Read emails from Google, especially if they send a warning about something that needs fixing on your site. Failure to address Google’s complaints will result in termination of the program.

Beware of displaying competitors’ advertisements or advertisements to avoid

If you offer products or services on your website, you may find that some of the advertisements that Google serves come from your competitors. Another problem that can occur is advertising that can be offensive to your audience. To prevent these offers from appearing on your site, Google AdSense allows you to block up to 200 sites.

Here’s how to block certain sites

You don’t know what ads are running on your site until you see them there. Also, with each page load and depending on visitors’ browsing history, the ad may not reappear or it may appear in a different location.
Since you can’t click on your own links (to get the URL), you have to be careful about getting the URL to block. The best way to get the link to block it in AdSense is to right click on the link, select “Copy Link Address,” and paste it into a document or text editor (eg Notepad). The Google URL is really long, but you’re looking for the section that identifies the advertiser. Copy this link and paste it into your AdSense Blocked Ads account.

AdSense Competitors

There are many advertising network programs similar to AdSense, such as Media.net and Info Links. Some may require a traffic threshold, so you’ll have to wait until your site is established before being accepted. Most have rules similar to Google’s, such as a limit on the number of network ads per page (usually 3) and termination for clicking on your own ads. In most cases, you can run different ad networks on your site without violating the terms of service, but you should read each network’s rules before doing so.

In addition, you must avoid that your site is flooded with advertisements for your readers.

Differences between AdWords and AdSense

AdWords and AdSense are two separate advertising platforms offered by Google. AdSense is less known, it is important not to confuse Google AdWords with Google Ads.

Here are the main differences:

AdSense is for website publishers, AdWords is for advertisers

AdWords is for advertisers and AdSense is for publishers or website owners:

  • AdWords allows businesses and marketers to advertise on Google’s network (search, display, etc.).
  • AdSense allows publishers to reserve space for AdWords placements on their website (text, video, images).

AdWords is in this sense more complex since advertisers can display their advertising on: the search network, sites or blogs, YouTube, Google shopping, etc. Regarding the latter, be aware that there are specific systems for Google Shopping.

AdSense is revenue, AdWords is cost

AdWords is used to buy advertising from Google, AdSense is used to sell advertising space to Google.

  • With AdWords, businesses pay Google to place their ads on Google’s search and display network.
  • With AdSense, website owners get paid by Google to offer valuable real estate websites for AdWords placements.

AdWords and AdSense setup differ

To start using AdWords or AdSense, you need to open a separate account for each.

To sign up for AdWords, you can create an account and start advertising in just minutes.

Other revenue options besides ad networks

Ad networks, especially AdSense, are great options because you can join as a new blogger or website owner, and are easy to use. But these are not the only ways to make money from your website. In fact, as your site traffic grows, other monetization options might be better. Here are some other money-making ideas that you can use instead of or with ad networks.

  • Affiliate Programs: Like ad networks, affiliate programs are usually free and easy to add to your website.
  • Selling a product or service: When you have a readership and social media followers, you have an audience that trusts and likes you. Therefore, they are more likely to buy directly from you. Creating your own product or service, as opposed to promoting someone else through affiliate marketing, can earn you a lot more money. This is especially true for information products or online courses that are inexpensive to create and sell. Other options include e-books and freelance services.
  • Coaching or Consulting: As an expert in your field, you are well placed to help people beyond the information you provide on your site/blog to offer more in-depth help through coaching or consulting.
  • Influencer marketing: When you have a good amount of traffic and tremendous influence on your audience, other companies will pay to sponsor your website. They can sponsor your whole site, which would cost them more, or just one page.

As you can see, there are many ways to earn income from a website or blog. But many require you to have traffic and an audience that pays attention before they make money. This is where AdSense is a great start to monetization option. You don’t need to create anything, it’s free and it’s easy to add the ad code to your website.