How to make money with AdSense

Google AdSense is one of the most popular tools for monetizing online content. To be more precise, it is an advertising circuit that connects advertisers and publishers, ie companies that need advertising and managers of blogs or Internet sites that want to monetize their content, in a very simple way.

Unlike TV ads or advertisements that appear in newspapers, which for obvious reasons can not be changed dynamically, AdSense ads adapt completely automatically to the contents of the sites that host them and to the tastes of users viewing them. This means that on a technology blog will automatically generate banners that refer to hi-tech products while on a cooking site it will be easier to see banners about food products, restaurants and so on.

To act as an intermediary between publishers (ie site managers) and advertisers (ie companies that pay for advertising) there is Google that provides us with HTML codes to copy and paste on our sites to enable viewing of banners. It’s all very simple, but to be accepted within the circuit, you have to follow strict rules and pass an initial verification procedure. Would you like to know more? Well, you’ll find everything explained in this guide on how to make money with AdSense.

How to sign up for Google AdSense

To submit your application to join the AdSense program you must have a Google account.

Subsequently, connected to the AdSense website and press the button Get started now. Then set your language from the drop down menu located at the top right, make sure that it is correctly detected your Gmail address and click on the Yes button.

Type, at this point, the address of your website in the appropriate text field, select the language of the content in it from the menu below and press on Continue to go to the next step.

Warning: you can enter only second level domains (eg site.usor site.com). Third level domains (ex. site.domain.com) Are not supported, except those belonging to the AdSense partner services. For example, if you have created a free blog on Blogger you can subscribe to AdSense but you have to follow a slightly different procedure than the standard one: you must connect to the Blogger administration panel, press the arrow next to the pencil button (next to the title of your blog) and select the item Profits from the menu that appears. The rest of the registration process will be identical to what we have just seen together.

To conclude, choose whether to create a personal or professional AdSense account by ticking one of the two items next to the written Account type (choose to create a professional account if you want to sign it to a company) and fill out the form that you is proposed providing all the required data: name, address, city and telephone number.

Then choose whether to receive promotional emails from Google by answering Yes or No to all the questions at the bottom of the page and click the Submit my application button to submit your application to join the AdSense program. Registration is completely free and free of time constraints.

Verify and activate your AdSense account

Activation of AdSense accounts is not immediate. After signing up for the service, your request will be taken in charge by Google within 24 hours should reply to you by email giving you directions about the next steps to be made.

In case of acceptance, you will have to connect to your AdSense account, accept the terms of use of the service (putting the check mark next to Yes, I have read and accepted the Contract and pressing the Continue button in my AdSense account ) and create your first ad unit. To do this, you’ll need to select the My AdSense ads tab, press the New ad unit button, choose an ad format from those available, and paste the HTML code that will be provided to your site.

Google will re-check your account and, within 2 or 3 days, will notify you via e-mail the outcome of the operation. In case of acceptance you can start making money with AdSense by freely posting advertisements on your site, otherwise you will have to follow the instructions provided by “big G” and solve the problems encountered during the verification process of your account. More info here.

Note: during the initial verification of the account (the one that lasts 2 or 3 days) the ads that you will insert on your site will not be viewable, they will appear as empty spaces, and they will not bring you any profits.

AdSense rules

To pass AdSense verification, and then to keep your account active, you need to follow strict rules.

Sites that intend to post AdSense ads may not host explicit (adult-only) content, gambling-related content, hate content, and should not violate copyright laws. More info here.

It is also forbidden to tamper with the ad code (you must insert the HTML code on your site as you provide it to Google), you can not click on banners on your site and you can not explicitly invite visitors to click on the ads. More info here.

AdSense ad format

There are many AdSense ad formats. The most widespread (and profitable) ones are those that combine images and texts, but you can also opt for announcements consisting only of texts or only graphic content (also video, but they are quite rare).

The shapes and sizes are also very varied: there are ads that are automatically resized according to the layout of the site (ideal for sites with a responsive design, ie that adapts automatically based on the device from which the views take place and to the size of the browser window); horizontal banners in Leaderboard format 728 × 90; the vertical ones in Skyscraper format 300 × 600 large and the list could go on for a long time.

There is no better banner format, in absolute terms, than another. It is up to the skill of the manager of each site to understand which ads to use and where to place them to make them as good as possible. More info here.

The insertion of the banners, as already mentioned above, is very easy. Just copy the HTML provided by AdSense and paste it into the part of the site where you want to display ads. To modify the HTML of your site you can use any editor suitable for the purpose or, if you have a blog, you can rely on the code editing tools available in the administration panel of your CMS (WordPress, Blogger etc.).

AdSense payments

AdSense ads generate revenue when users click on them. Only a few campaigns – actually very rare – provide compensation for the impression, that is, for the visitors to view the banners only. Earnings per click or per impression are equal to a few cents, so to get a significant return you need to have many visits.

Payments are made by bank transfer, by check or electronic funds transfer (EFT) between the 21st and the 26th of the month when the minimum threshold of 70 euros is exceeded. Those who wish to do so can request payment deferral and add two or more months’ earnings to collect a larger sum in a single solution (everything is done in the Display payments> AdSense payment settings panel ).

Other useful information

• Inclusion of tax information – upon reaching the first 10 euros of earnings, AdSense requires updating of your tax information. It is good to provide this information with care, because in case of non-verifiability of the same you inevitably face the suspension of the account.
• Adding other sites – AdSense ads can be used in more than one site without creating a new Google account. To find out how to do it, read the instructions contained in the official guide of the service. However, it is not possible to manage multiple AdSense accounts with the same name as the payee.
• For any other questions – consult the official AdSense guide and search for forums and/or Facebook groups that are involved in monetizing online content.