Elaine

Its no big secret that some folks are making some significant money in Google's AdSense program. Experienced website publishers are making $100 to $1000 per day and some even more. In the AdSense program, website owners publish information folks are interested in, Google generates ads which match the topics and content of the pages published, and if readers find the ads interesting, they click on them and the publisher is paid for the interested readers he sends to the advertiser.

In spite of what you read, it is not the quick way to buckets of easy money. In my experience, when people tell you they have some special secret to for making fast easy money they are always trying to sell you something. More often than not, the product for sale is usually worthless information. I am selling nothing, so I will be frank and honest and tell you the honest and real truth. Yes, AdSense is truly a great opportunity, especially if you own an already popular website.

On the other hand, the days of throwing up a low quality web site made of material copied (often illegally) from other sites and making easy money are gone. What few of these junky MFA (Made For AdSense) arbitrage sites that remain are under attack from Google. Advertisers find these sites undesirable places to put their ads. Google does not like their business model (nor the fact that they make advertisers unhappy), and is actively seeking to find such low quality sites and remove them from the AdSense program. The minimum acceptable quality bar for MFA sites keeps being raised all the time, so why build a junk site and constantly have to fight to keep it above the minimum standards?

The reliable way to make money on AdSense is to create high quality pages of unique information that are of value and interest to readers. Create a website which is the proverbial better mousetrap and in time you will generate the necessary interest, traffic and ad revenue. Publishing a website is much like publishing paper and ink magazine or newspaper in that readers want a quality publication that is interesting and entertaining. Like the older media forms, advertisers like high quality attractive publications and they dont like slapped together junk that no one finds interesting or useful. If you are going to build up a business this way, its worth your effort to take your time and do it right. Never forget that in the end, the essence of your AdSense business is selling advertising space and your publication must be a place where your advertisers want to put their ads.

Here are some of my 10 essential secrets for starting and operating a successful web based business using AdSense:

1. Dont bother to chase high paying keywords its a waste of time. More than 100,000 folks have already bought the e-books and other materials that say this is the way to go, and its all bogus information. The payment per click numbers presented are the maximum you might be paid, but there is nothing that requires Google to pay you that amount. If Google decides your site is of a low quality, and the sales leads you generate are of a poor quality as well, instead of paying you $10 a click for asbestos cancer clicks, they can pay you 2 cents its called smart pricing and is done all the time. In addition, there are already thousands of sites competing for these high dollar keywords and you will be fighting thousands of others who already have a head start on you to get to the top of the heap. Instead, select a topic that has less competition and still has plenty of advertisers wanting to sell goods related to that topic. If possible, it is best to select a topic you know about and are interested in yourself, as you may be writing quite a bit about it while building your site.

2. Research and choose your website topic carefully. Some topics just don't lend themselves well to profitable ads. A Brittany Spears or Paris Hilton site may attract traffic, but you probably wont have good advertising to go with the topic and the traffic probably will not be folks who are interested in what advertising may be on your page. Ask yourself what are companies advertising out there? Not so much on TV, but in smaller media yellow pages, newsletters, magazines, etc. These are your competition. There are literally hundreds of small niche hobby and special interest magazines consider their topics as potential areas of interest for a web site. Take a look and see what kind of advertisers they have.

The goal is to pick a topic where people are actively looking to purchase things and the ads become just as important as your content, so they're clicking around all over the place to find what they're looking for. If you've got a site providing information for people who are looking to buy something, they're much more likely to click your ads. Pick a topic where people are looking to buy goods and services, not hobby chat, humor, celebrities or other less profitable topics. Anything can make money but when people are in a buying mood those ads are as good as gold and your topic can make all the difference.

The motivation of visitors coming to your site really matters quite a bit. If someone is looking for a recipe they will find it and continue on. If your reader is looking for information on the latest misadventures of Lindsay Lohan or some other celebrity, they will also find it and move on. On the other hand, if someone is looking for a information on hotels and places to visit in a certain city, then they are more of the mindset that they will look at your ads and visit the advertisers with the intention to pull out a credit card and make a reservation or purchase. This type of mindset in your visitors is good for you as well as the advertiser.

3. Focus on building a high quality site. Map out a strategy for what you will have and the site you intend to build. Your content matters to your readers! Sites that have a couple hundred words of meaningless drivel on every page are shallow and of little interest. Those sites that rely on a shallow rather than deep content model are more vulnerable to competition than more authoritative deeper sites are. Google knows that the web is overloaded with sites built of pages that are shallow, rather than deep, and on the Google search side, they know the difference. Sites that are designed purely to benefit the publisher aren't likely to prosper indefinitely. What useful information will your website provide to your visitor? Sites with shallow content are also not likely to attract repeat users, which means they're throwing away revenue opportunities from return visits.

4. For AdSense to work you need traffic, and a boatload of it. If your site cannot generate traffic, you wont be able to make much of a profit. AdSense is all about selling interested traffic to the advertiser and if you dont have much traffic, you dont have much to sell. It is important to concentrate first on a positive, quality user experience for your readers. Good content generates interest and clicks, professionalism and quality generates clicks, relevance generates clicks: all these are the things you need to be successful. Well organized and laid out sites, with good honest SEO will bring the right kind of traffic. Building a quality site is like building a building: brick by brick it goes together to form the intended finished product. In time you will get the bookmarks, the good incoming links, the high positions in the search engines and the traffic that all those things bring. Once you have that traffic coming to your website, if your website is well optimized with AdSense, then the money flows.

For the rest of my 10 Essential Secrets of Making Big Money with AdSense, or to sign up for yourself to become a part of AdSense, check out my webpage and the links below.

The 6 remaining Essential Secrets of Making Big Money with AdSense can be found at:
http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Adsense/AdSense_money.htm

Chris' home web page can be found at:
http://nevada-outback-gems.com

Chris Ralph writes on small scale mining and prospecting for the ICMJ Mining Journal. He has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Mackay School of Mines in Reno, and has worked for precious metal mining companies conducting both surface and underground operations. After working in the mining industry, he has continued his interest in mining as an individual prospector. His information page on prospecting for gold can be viewed at:

http://nevada-outback-gems.com/prospect/chris_prospect.htm