How Google Adsense Works and How to Improve Your Earnings

Google Adsense is an online ad service provided by Google. It allows you to create an account and display ads on your site. The ads are usually targeted, meaning they are related to your content. However, you can use other forms of Adsense aside from just Adsense for Content, they also have Adsense for search, and Adsense for referrals. But in this article we're going to focus on Adsense for content.

The way you make money through Adsense for Content is on an "on-click" (CPC) or "cost-per-thousand-impressions" (CPM) basis. Meaning when someone clicks an ad on your site you get a portion of the money that Google gets. For example, with CPC ads, you'll generate earnings when your users click on the ads. For CPM ads, you will make money every time the ad appears on your site.

Now I'm sure a big question right now is "well, how much can I make off these ads?" and there is no one answer to this. You can make not so much or you could make a fortune and I use that somewhat loosely as most people don't make insane amounts of money, however, if the site is big enough and makes enough Page Impressionsdaily, monthly, etc. It's certainly possible to make a lot of money. Now with that said you can easily make $100 / month (or more) if you do it right and have a big enough site.

Google Adsense, as I mentioned above is targeted so this helps make the ads more related to your content. By doing this it makes it more likely that people will end up clicking the ads. The ads are safe and anything you do not want shown on your site you can filter out very simply. So don't think you are going to be stuck with ads for singles sites if you write a blog entry on dating. The filtering is also flexible and easy to control/manage.

Adsense also has something called Channels. Channels enable you to view very detailed information about the performance of specific pages and ad units. By creating a number of channels for different combinations of pages or ad units, you could track the performance of a half banner versus a banner. You can even compare your Apple Inc. pages to your Microsoft pages. There are two types of channels - URL Channels and Custom Channels. URL Channels essentially allow you to track performance of pages and ads without modifying the code. Custom Channels allow you to track the performance of specific ads based on your specified input. So what exactly do these Custom Channels allow you to do? Well, with the more detailed report information you can better place ads throughout the site to make them more effective and then in return generating you more money. For more information on channels and common questions about them look here.