Google Adsense

The Google AdSense program has helped to turn many small, personal web sites into legitimate businesses. Google ads are targeted text, image and video based advertisements according to the content on your pages.

Earnings vary according to your content and the amount of people that click on the ads. Google has an in depth list of policies and terms and conditions, but all are quite reasonable in order to maintain the integrity of the service.
The great thing about AdSense is that you are paid for each and every click rather than only when you sell a product (like most affiliates schemes). AdSense’s ability to show advertisements relating to the text on each page automatically is also a great feature and has been hard to replicate amongst other pay per clicks websites.

The customisable manner in which Adsense can be displayed is a major factor to publishers, especially to those that detest the big bright, blinking, flashing, and audio banner ads that often had to be used to make a living. Google Adsense displays text , image, and video advertisements that can be adjusted to fit the look and feel of your website. There are also a wide selection of sizes to choose from along with the choice of font and corner style. Google even has an option to advertise in your published feeds.

Relevant Targeted Ads
Advertisements are displayed according to the content on each page and change on each page load so visitors are shown a new ad on each visit which increases the click through rate. This is a major advantage over the usual affiliate ad networks. Rather than just putting up one affiliate banner or advertisement throughout your whole site, Google Adsense will target each ad for each web page on your site.  So if your website is an electrical goods review site, and you review a flat screen television, there will be flat screen television advertisements displayed. If you do a review on Sony laptops, Adsense will display ads by advertisers offering Sony laptop services or products. Google has a database of thousands of advertisers targeting most keywords (except for pornography and the usual banned subjects), but if there isn’t any ads to display for a particular keyword, the ads will display public service websites and can also be set to display your own advertisements.

Having relevant targeted advertisements for each page makes everyone happy. The website user is happy because they have found products or services directly related to the information that they were just looking at on your website.  The website publisher is happy because relevant targeted ads means there will be more clicks on the ads as the user is obviously interested in the topic. It’s a win - win situation.

Get Started with Google AdSense
Google has made the starting process quite easy and is constantly working on ways to improve the service for both publishers and advertisers. Adsense is free to join and easy to set up. Simply read their terms and conditions and apply online. If your site has the required qualities you will be approved in a day or two and then it’s just a matter of putting the code on the pages you wish to use it on.

Google AdSense Criticisms
It’s hard to complain too much about the Google AdSense program as there are very few other programs on the web that offer the benefits and services that Google offers. Webmasters, being difficult people to please, do find things to criticise though, with some complaints being:

Webmasters cannot discuss their earnings.
Google does not disclose the percentage of earnings that publishers receive.
Certain topics pay out very little per click and may actually benefit more from other programs.
Webmasters in forums online often complain of Earnings Per Click (EPC) reducing over time.
Personally I think it’s a great program to use and many thousands of webmasters have benefited financially from it. Just follow the terms and services and all should be great!