As the dust settles and the excitement caused by Googles AdSense gives way to the normal, everyday routines of old, its time to put some serious thought into how you can milk this cash cow on your own web site.
For the past couple months AdSense has dominated forums, discussions, and newsletters all over the Internet. Ive heard tales of fabulous riches to be made with AdSense, but up until now Ive been admittedly skeptical of placing someone elses ads on my pages.
Why In short, I didnt like the idea of losing even a single visitor to another site.
The key to success with AdSense is to place your ads on pages that receive high traffic for high demand keywords. The higher the cost-per-click to the advertiser, the more you will receive per click from your site. It doesnt pay to target low cost-per-click keywords and place them on pages that dont receive hits.
Instinctively, my mind drifted to horrible images in which my homepage was buried in little ads promoting other peoples services. . .
Then I thought of whats proving to be an excellent idea on my first AdSense page. By placing my first AdSense link on a page that offers free ebooks related to marketing, I successfully blended a mix of two major factors for overall success.
I checked my logs and discovered many of my visitors take advantage of the free affiliate marketing resources and ebooks offered on my site. Hmm...
By placing AdSense on a free resources page I have drastically reduced the amount of potential customers lost to other sites. Bingo!
This is especially rewarding to informational sites that focus their efforts on delivering powerful affiliate link free content to their visitors. Now they can gain a return on their services.
By no means is AdSense a perfect program, but, Ive yet to stumble across a program that didnt have room for improvement in one category or another. My main gripe concerning AdSense is the inability to determine the profitability of a chosen keyword. competitive, high demand keywords will undoubtedly generate larger commissions, but the exact number is withheld by the big G.
Google promises to update AdSense frequently, tweaking and polishing in order to maintain their squeaky-clean image. Who knows, maybe some day well see AdSense add a 2nd tier Can you imagine the smiles on the faces of webmasters around the world as they sign sub-affiliates and double, triple, quadruple etc... the amount they earn from AdSense!
One particularly handy feature available with AdSense is the ability to filter out up to 200 urls. This gives you the option of blocking spammy low value offers from your pages as well as competitors to your site.
The possibilities are limitless, yet looming on the edge of my consciousness is the fear that one day someone will find a way to exploit this golden goose and force Google to crack down (much like the pay-per-click affiliate programs of old.). For now they enforce a strict anti-spamming policy, anyone found to be spamming their own links or abusing AdSense by other means will find their AdSense privileges terminated. My advice is quite simple...
Hop on the AdSense bandwagon while you can at:
About The Author~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A complete explanation of how you can make money with AdSense can be found at:
Adam Buhler is the author of the Internet Marketing newsletter Affiliate Secrets.
He is offering a free trial copy of whats being called the BIBLE of selling on
the net, Make Your Site SELL! for a limited time to anyone who subscribes at:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This article may be reprinted for use in newsletters or websites provided the
resource box is kept intact. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated
but not required: adam@smokesoft.net
I have utilized pay-per-click (PPC) advertising since its inception about two years ago. With PPC, the advertiser is only charged when a person actually clicks on their link. The amount you actually pay for each click is referred to as the cost-per-click (CPC). Ive got to admit, I was pretty leery at first. But since then Ive watched the price of certain search engine keywords skyrocket in excess of $10 per click! The big question isnt how much it costs per click but how many clicks does it take to get an acquisition. Ive often asked myself, why would so many companies pay that much money for one single, measly, push of the index finger The answer is simple - it just works!
HOW TO JUSTIFY $10 PER CLICK
The advent of PPC advertising has changed Internet marketing forever. It represents a free market in much the same way as eBay -- controlled by a natural supply and demand relationship. For a keyword phrase such as debt consolidation, the top five advertisers are willing to pay cost-per-click charges of $10.01, $10.00, $9.99, $7.00, and $6.97. My first reaction was, something has to be wrong with this picture - it just cant be! So I looked at the life insurance phrase, where the top five range from $7.00 to $3.50. Then there are drugs like Xenical that range from $6.76 to $6.74. There are many more examples where the cost-per-click exceeds $6.00, $7.00, or $10.00, but you get the point.
The fact of the matter is that while PPC advertising can work quite well - it can also be a flat out failure. When companies are willing to pay more than $5.00 per click, you can be pretty certain that they have figured out how to make it work - otherwise they wouldnt pay those prices.
THE SELECT FEW
I have seen many situations where PPC will work for one company but not for another in the same industry, using the same keywords. Large and small companies will venture in, bid for a week or two, and then drop out -- never to be heard from again. Some will come in, drive the prices way up then drop back out to obscurity. The select few who are successful have found the secret -- a combination of patience, determination, creativity, keyword selection, management and analysis. They do the math, every day - they manage the bids, every day - they look for new keywords, every day - they analyze the results, every day. It takes a great deal of work to figure out how to make PPC advertising deliver results, and the ones who have are now benefiting - every day.
WHAT IS THE COST OF AN ACQUISITION
In order to determine if your PPC advertising is justified, the first thing you need to understand is your current acquisition cost - what does it now cost to acquire a new customer or order Its amazing how few companies know what their cost of acquisition is. To keep it simple, take your total advertising expenditures and divide it by the number of new acquisitions (orders or customers), that should give you a rough estimate of your cost per acquisition. Similarly, after running a PPC campaign for a month, you take the total advertising expenditures divided by the number of acquisitions. Of course, these raw numbers are not burdened by administrative costs, but they still provide an apples-versus-apples comparison.
I have managed PPC campaigns where the average cost-per-click was $0.40 and others where it was $5.00. The key question remains: how many clicks does it take to get an acquisition If the cost for each click is $0.40 and it takes 200 clicks for an acquisition, then the acquisition cost is $80.00. If the cost for each click is $5.00 and it takes 10 clicks, the cost of the acquisition is $50.00.
FINDING THE GAPS
Two key points are crucial: (1) how much does it cost to get an Internet acquisition compared to traditional methods and (2) what is the value of a new customer In some businesses a new customer is worth $1,000, while in others, only $10. Typically, the cost-per-click reflects this value, but since the market is still very small, there are significant gaps. Remember the debt consolidation keyword phrase above The difference between the first and last cost-per-click was about 30%. On the other hand, there is literally no difference between cost-per-click rates for the keyword Xenical. From this you may conclude that there is a lot more competition for Xenical then there is for debt consolidation. The opportunity is between the gaps in the 30% differential example.
The bidding market for keywords is still so new and untapped that its rare to have more than three competitors fighting over a specific phrase. The gaps in keyword cost-per-click charges such as debt consolidation are the norm and represent tremendous opportunities still available in this media. Right now they are plentiful, and for those few people who take the time to understand this important marketing tool, the time to act is NOW!
About The Author
Neal Lebar has proven that Internet marketing can generate returns far greater than traditional media. For more information, visit or e-mail