In this post I’ll explore some of the reasons why bloggers should consider using AdSense as a way to make money from blogging.
I recently released a video post which explained some of my reasoning for stopping to use AdSense as a means to make money from ProBlogger. The post got a lot of attention – however some readers thought that it meant I was giving up on AdSense altogether on all of my blogs. A couple even called me ‘Anti-AdSense’.
This is not the case – while I don’t use AdSense any more on ProBlogger – I do use it on some of my other blogs and it continues to one of my biggest income earners.
In fact since I started to use AdSense it’s earned me just under $400,000 USD.
That’s not bad considering that I’ve been using it for 4 years and it started out earning me just a dollar or two a day.
With earnings like that I’d be a little silly to be Anti-AdSense.
Like every method of making money for blogs – AdSense isn’t always the best choice – however there are plenty of good reasons to test it out. In the remainder of this post I’m going to explore when it IS a good option. Later in the week I’ll share the other side of the coin – when it ISN’T a good option.
Hopefully between the two posts we’ll have a good balanced look at AdSense:
10 Reasons Why You Should Consider Using AdSense on your Blog
1. International Traffic – if your blog has a considerable amount of traffic that comes from outside of North America it can be difficult to find an advertising network that will allow you to participate (particularly if your traffic is from some parts of Asia). Some ad networks will simply not accept you as a publisher, others will not serve their ads to non US traffic and others will serve other less relevant and lower paying ads to this traffic. AdSense does none of this. The beauty of AdSense is that they have such a large supply of advertisers using them that there is almost always some advertiser who wants traffic from your your reader’s part of the world. Of course there is more competition for some traffic than others (which drives up prices) but I know as someone who has a large Australian readership of some of my blogs that it is one of the best ways that I’ve found to make money from that traffic.
2. Easy Implementation – when I first started experimenting with making money from blogging just over 4 years ago I experimented with a number of options. The reason that I stuck with AdSense was that even as a complete technical idiot I could get an AdSense ad unit up and running on my blogs within minutes. Of course since that time AdSense have made implementing ad units on blogs even easier (particularly in the last couple of weeks with server side ad management). While other ad networks have followed in the footsteps of AdSense in how they let publishers design and add ad units to blogs – I still find AdSense one of the easiest to use. This makes it ideal for the beginner wanting to experiment for the first time with an advertising network.
3. Massive Advertiser Base – AdSense has had years to establish itself in both it’s back end but also it’s presence in the Advertising community. The result is that they’ve managed to build up a very large base of advertising clients. This increases the chances of them being able to serve relevant ads to your blog (see my next point). There’s no way that an individual blogger would be able to have access to such a wide array of potential advertisers.
4. Obscure Topics – one of the issues that some publishers face when starting a blog on a tightly targeted niche is that it can be difficult to find ways to make money from it either through finding a sponsor for the blog, finding an ad network that is relevant to the topic or by finding an affiliate program that relates. While AdSense is better for some topics than others (read on for more on this) I’m constantly amazed by just how targeted ads can be on even obscure topics. The myriad of advertisers using this system are competing by bidding on millions of keywords on virtually every topic that you can think of.
5. Make it Easy For Advertisers to Target Your Blog – AdSense servers ads from advertisers to your blog in a couple of ways. Firstly there’s one that is completely contextual – they look at your content and then serve ads from their system that they think will relate to that content and have a good chance of earning you (and them) money. The second method is where advertisers specifically target your blog to have their ad appear on. This all happens without you really having to do anything – but it’s good because it is often used by advertisers to test your blog – which can lead to other things. Every few weeks I get an email from a potential advertiser who had been testing ads on my photography blog via AdSense and then wanted to further the relationship (whether by going with private ad deals, sponsorships, affiliate programs etc).
6. Set it and Forget it – many bloggers just want to write content. They don’t have the time or expertise to approach, pitch, negotiate with and then collect money from advertisers. AdSense takes a lot of this work away from you and many bloggers simply add the code to their blogs and then forget it. Of course for best results you should pay it a bit more attention than that and experiment with different design and positioning of ads – but it does take a lot of the work out of things.
7. No Minimum Traffic Levels – if you are just starting out and don’t have much traffic yet it can be difficult to find advertisers or an ad network to take you on board. Some networks have minimum traffic levels before they’ll accept you into their program – but not with AdSense. While your blog may not earn you much – even with small amounts of traffic you can begin to make a few dollars over time.
8. Able to be Used with Other Ad Types – when I first started experimenting with AdSense there were fairly strict rules in place as to what other types of advertising you were allowed to have on a page that had an AdSense unit on it. However in more recent times it has become a little more relaxed and you can run many different types of ads on the same site and page as AdSense.
9. Multiple Ad Formats – one good feature of AdSense is that you’re not just restricted to one type of ad with them. Not only do you have many ad unit sizes to choose from – but you have the ability to serve Text Ads, Image Ads, Video Ads, Adlink units, referral ads (CPA) and use their ‘search’ tool which also is monetized. Many other ad networks just major in one or two of these different formats – in a sense AdSense is something of a one stop shop.
10. Reliable Payment – one of the questions that I’m regularly asked about new ad networks coming onto the market to compete with AdSense is ‘how do we know if they’ll pay up?’ The reality is that most ad networks do pay up – but you do occasionally hear stories of publishers who are not satisfied with this aspect of some ad networks. AdSense has had a few problems over the years with individual publishers – but considering the vast numbers of publishers that they must have – they’ve done pretty well. My payments come in like clockwork and the one time that I did have a check go missing it was promptly replaced.
Of course this post has only argued one side of things (and I’m sure others will give more reasons why they love and use AdSense). So to give a well balanced view on whether to use AdSense on your blog – later in the week I’ll take a look at the flipside and explore some reasons why AdSense might not be the best option for making money from your blog.
1st post woot! Nice job on the post.
Excellent post, maybe I should consider using it on my blog!
I use adSense since last month. It’s really easy to set up, but I’m still working on optimizing it.
Good advise. Unfortunately, when I first started blogging, I didn’t read the adsense TOCs as well as I should have and got banned from its network because while trying to optimize it I clicked on the ads my self. I only did a handful of times, but I guess it was 1 to many – and my appeal was unsuccesful. Any suggestions to get reinstated?
That being said, I have learnt a lot since then. My blog (financeviewpoint.com) also has an Australian focus (finance and investing) and I have used affiliate advertising and other context programs (like Konterra and amazon) to try and monetize it. Nowhere near as easy or succesful as adsense. But its early days still with these programs.
On another note, would you be able to recommend any good affiliate or publisher programs for Australian target blogs?
Andy
Those reasons are a lot of why I do enjoy using AdSense on some of my blogs. It’s something to be used carefully, rather than abused, and you have to work with it to figure out where to place it for the best combination of reader experience and income.
Adsense is great for sites that are in the early stages of development. Its a quick win to get ads up and some money in the door. However I have found that as my sites grow, I phase out adsense from the main spots in favor of higher pay outs. Whether this is selling ads direct, affiliate promotions or direct sales of my own products.
Where Adsense still continues to be a solid performer is one visit wonder sites. I find that these sites do not get a high % of returning visitors, the user task is short lived and does not require repeat visits. Also the subject matter is as far from tech, internet industry as possible (less aware of adsense).
Regular payments are definitely a plus in the sketchy world of ad networks. Now that AdSense has improved the ease of management (and even yet again, today, for those of you paying attention), it’s easier than ever to run AdSense.
If you have a fair number of blogs or other internet properties, it’s a piece of cake to use AdSense across them all. The new video formats are great for people like me who have video blogs.
Darren
You say that you can request to be on a certain sight via Adwords? How is this possible? I can run an adwords campaingn and choose the sites I want to appear on? Can anyone clarify this? Thanks!
I’m curious to try out adsense as a blog rookie but wonder when is the appropriate time to start using it. Should I wait to reach a certain traffic level? And does it have any negative impact on a blog? Maybe this will can be covered in the next post.
Darren: this article is perfectly timed for my needs. I’m changing platforms which will allow me to monetize for the first time. Every piece of information helps!
Adsense works well in some cases, however if you are promoting affiliate offers you may want to think twice about using adsense because you may be sacrificing conversions for 5 cent clicks.
I think the thing I like about it most is the near instantaneous reporting. I can also label my ad blocks, so I know which ones are performing well and which ones are not.
How did you make that much?? How much traffic do you get a day!! :(
I want traffic too!! :(
Brilliant post you have here. Explores all of the great reasons to have AdSense on your blog. If I didn’t already have Adsense ads on my blog, this post would certainly persuade me to add them!
Nice one :-)
@thewebrunner – Even though you didn’t ask me, I’m gonna add my two cents and say it’s never too early to add AdSense, or any kind of add for that matter. I will say though that when first adding ads to your site, you should be mindful that you’re not throwing a million on at one time and clearly detracting from your content or presentation.
Oh, and since it wasn’t mentioned, I use the Shylock plugin to manage AdSense ads on my site. I think it’s pretty easy and straight forward. *nod*
Adsense is the only way I monetize my blogs. Although they are really low traffic sites, I at least pay for the hosting fees of my leased server. Better than nothing, but hardly putting bread on the table!
Darren, if you want to blow your mindshare and not gain any authority, Adsense is the way to go.
Also, consider it from an SEO perspective. Google is founded on the likelihood of someone visiting a particular page. Using adsense makes people likely to leave your site, even more so if you want to make money from adsense and thus position your ads aggressively.
See my thoughts further developed here:
Ad Publishing Cuts Your PageRank
I have actually removed AdSense from my blog about a month ago, but after reading this, I think it’s time to revive it.
And Darren, what do you mean by you “only making $400,000 from it”?! People drool over that kind of number!
I like AdSense for most of the reasons you list, but one of my favorite features is the competitive ad filter — that I have the power to block ads from certain advertisers. I appreciate that AdSense gives this sort of control to individual publishers.
Does anyone know if having Adsense on your site means that Google crawls your site more thoroughly or more often? To match the ads to your site it would seem that they would need to know more about your site than others.
Just a thought.
And you forgot this:
Because Adsense does (usually) do a good job of picking appropriate and relevant ads, you can actually add value for your readers.
AdSense was nice back in the day until I got banned for people clicking on my ads.
I’m soo bummed that adsense makes no cents for me.
I’ve been building a blog for about 4 months and have some steady traffic. I finally decided it was time to add adsense. I was thrilled to be making about $1.00/day and rev was increasing. Then ZAP! Google did their tweak a few weeks back and I had a week of $0/day. I sadly pulled all the code.
Maybe I’ll try again later after they tweak the algos a little more.
once again, a great post, especially for those just starting to blog. I think once people understand that even if you arent bringing in 400k there are other benefits to having adsense on there sites they can began to think of creative ways to analyze the data that adsense provides. And even more importantly, the inclusion of adsense on your site probably wont scare visitors away thinking they have just been sucked into a site that is just a glob of affiliate ads.
Traffic is probably the best way to gauge the adsense question for your blog.
How many readers do you need for Google adwords to be worth the effort? How much Google adwords revenue do you get per reader?
If it’s under $5/day, I’m going to wait until I have enough readers to get $5/day of adwords revenue.
AdSense is my biggest earner yet, but not the most consistent since it still dependent upon traffic. Still, I’m sticking with AdSense, just need to develop traffic and come up with really good content.
While I agree that adsense will allow you to start making money immediately on a blog with little traffic, I also feel that it isn’t very great for new blogs. Mostly, it’s just free advertising for them, because with payout set at $50, some blogs will never get to that payout level.
Maybe I just didn’t give my blog enough time…
What Sir Jorge, JHay, said is true.
Though Adsense doesn’t require bloggers to prove ‘any’ traffic, it is going to make a few cents a day, only if the blog has at least 200 visitors a day. Any less than that, it is a waste of time.
Again, blogs with that low levels of traffic really don’t have any real other option to monetize their blogs.
After building considerable amounts of traffic, bloggers can probably get away without using Adsense at all, just like you did here :D
I liked adsense, but I had my account terminated for ‘posing a financial risk to their advertisers’. I was only earning a dollar or so a day, but once I had earned $80 they seemed to think that terminating my account was okay.
I’m still annoyed about it because there were no invalid ad clicks or anything.
i hate adsense, NO ONE clicks on ads! does anyone agree?
btw i like how you used adsense in your post.
I don’t use it on my main blog (bootstrapping blog) but I do use it on other blogs that I have setup due to the fact that adsense clicks are so high for the terms.
Adsense is definitely a good choice for the beginning blogger, and experienced blogger. Easy to setup, easy to target your visitors, tons of advertisers, ect. Definitely a great post here
I love adsense, it’s a great program. For the first two months for more than 3000 pageview I got only 2 dollars. But since I change the ad position to within the content (300X250 panel) earnings have gone up dramatically. Last month I got nearly 25 dollars. That’s a lot of money in my country Sri Lanka.
At first I did not like it but as time has gone on and I have been able to tweek it I have been getting a fairly reliable level of clicks. Now it is my top revenue source.
Rob
I’ve never used AdSense before. Can it be added to a blog on wordpress.com?
Andy – I’ve not ever had much luck with Australian affiliate programs – sorry!
Graeme – yep you’re right. Many sites grow out of AdSense – although once a site hits a certain level of traffic and can command ‘Premium Publisher’ status it can become lucrative again as they can get better rates.
The Great Seducer – there’s a feature that enables Site Targeting. I’ve not really used it much but I know I’ve been on the receiving end of some targeted campaigns.
Webrunner – good question and one that there is debate on. The way I’ve always done it is to start monetizing from day one. I wrote a bit about the different options here.
Kevin Fleming – spot on, and I’ll cover that in the ‘when you shouldn’t use AdSense’ post later in the week.
Keith – great point
Rebellious Arab Girl – it’s taken years and a lot of traffic on multiple blogs. I’d guess tens of millions of impressions.
Sly – there was no ‘only making $400,000’ in the article – I said ‘just under $400,00’ – don’t worry, I’m not taking it for granted!
Nancy – yes the comp ad filter is handy – although not perfect (wait for the next post as I’m covering that too)
Anthony – yes it does – although only for some topics (stay tuned for more of that too)
FSK – I don’t think there’s any ‘rule’ on how many readers you need (see the link above for Webrunner). In terms of revenue per reader – it varies so much from blog to blog (or more accurately topic to topic).
Holli – yes the minimum payout is frustrating (it’s actually $100 not $50 last time I checked) for small publishers – it took me months before I actually was paid for the first time. But I guess over time the earnings per day grow for most publisher and in theory the payments should come faster.
Prince John – yes, blogs with small traffic don’t earn much with AdSense – but I guess that is the same with any ad network, affiliate program etc. My point wasn’t that they’d earn much – but that AdSense will at least allow small blogs in. I should also say that many small publishers overcome this by having multiple blogs – none of which earn heaps, but together which can earn more than a single blog in some cases.
Mark Gibson – it’s not likely that having AdSense on your site impacts it getting crawled any more thoroughly or regularly. There was some talk a while back that Google search were using the data to help find pages that were not previously indexed – but it didn’t actually help your ranking at all.
On another note, would you be able to recommend any good affiliate or publisher programs for Australian target blogs?
If you have 100,000 unique visitor a day, there are many option to monetized your website including adsense. So..I think the key is MORE TRAFFIC=MORE MONEY
I’ve been putting content up on my blog for about 2 weeks. It’s had Adsense , widgetbucks and Amazon on it from the beggining ( 3 weeks) . The impressions are up , but there are no clicks. I’ve been driving traffic to it and gotten a few positive comments on my posts , situated in different spots , with different more relevent add content , and written promotional material drawing attention to the adds. Still nothing. I’m sticking with it , but would like it if someone further along in blogging could look at it and advise. Tank you.
Well done Darren. Still waiting on my first Adsense cheque after two years.
I’m with “Rebellious Arab Girl”. I need traffic.
I have been blogging for a month or so now. My experience is the same as most new bloggers here. I haven t had much luck with traffic and consequently I m not getting any clicks on my ads.
One big negative that I see in adsense is that they will not release check until it reaches 100 bucks. I m not sure if your earnings less than 100 bucks are carried forward to the next month.
I m also putting affiliate links on my site but its too early to comment their performance. but I m sure abt one thing. Traffic is the king. Any tips on how I can work on getting more traffic will be helpful..
gr8 article btw..
I feel u Leon.. and all other newbies out there..
all the best.. never quit.
Vineet
http://internetbusinessjunkie.blogspot.com
I use Adsense on most of my websites and have also good earnings with this publisher.
Darren you’re absolutely right with all your points but I don’t thing that Adsense is good for most of the weblogs.
Blog reader use ad blocker or just ignore adsense ads. I think it’s much better to use the “Ad space” for other purposes like related CPA offers or related links to their sites (from you or your “friends”.
I tried on my blog different Ad placements and never got that CTR than on other website.
I just started blogging, and using google adsense, I ain’t that familliar with everything here, I’m looking around, learning how to do things better.
However, my blog is just like dairy, I don’t think it will get that much traffic…
Interesting post, Darren. I wonder if you had already written it before I saw acomment here just yesterday, I belive, from a blogger questioning why you mentioned AdSense but didn’t run it on problogger. he, like a few of us, has made the mistake of only reading part of what you had read.
I am an AdSense fan since my own ‘day one” nearly 3 years ago now … and in particular because of your pints 1, 3 and 4.
I first started blogging on a narrow commercial sector and a great deal of my traffic was international, because the technology was used world-wide. Yahoo, for example, won’t even touch me, even though my server has always been in the US and I’m an Amrican … there’s no way to restrict the non-US visitors from my audience … and why on earth would I want to? … Google knows the world is not flat.
Again, I am in some other high-tech niches as well. No other advertising network even comes close to the breadth of advertisers Google attracts. If you write about say digital cameras (hmm who do we know in that niche? loL) there are many worthy competitors to Google … but if you write about GPS-disciplined network clocks or air-operated lathe chucks then Google will have an advertiser available while likely no no else will. And the advertisers in that narrow space won’t be paying pennies per ad, either.
I’m not writing this just to restate the obvious, I’m just pointing out some of the complexities in the overall advertising model that many haven’t thought through yet. Don’t be frustrated by the system, study the system … it’s a bit of a science this advertising stuff, and you’ll have more success … it’s worth climbing the learning curve.
And @ Rainmaker and others who feel like throwing out AdSense when you’ve already had some small success … I know the frustraion of “0/0” days but believe me, the longer you run AdSense and make incremental improvements the better your luck will be. Taking off the ads completely for no other reason that some disappointing days only assures you go back to square one … hang in there rather than quit … it doesn’t cost anything to run the ads, and you _can_ make them perform in time …. remember, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Thanks for the points in this post. I was debating for a while whether to add Adsense to my blog…and after reading, decided to add today. :-)
At what point should you put it on? Is there any point when you are just launching a blog? Should you wait until you’ve actually got readers? Or should you get them used to the idea from the start?
One of the things that I do not like about AdSense is fluctuation in earnings. One month I do very good, next not so good. And then my earnings rise again. This can be really frustrating. This also happens on a daily basis.
I started blogging around 6 months back. Initially my experience with adsense was i used to get around 10$ per month for the first three months now things have changed considerably and i am making around 150$ per month. I have never used any other monetization methods. One thing i have realized is that if your traffic increases your revenue will increase there is no other secret.
building traffic doesnt happen over night (Unless you are lucky enough to get digged and on front page) so i feel that its only over the time that you can make more money with adsense.
coldhitz – my initial impression is that your ads are too far down the page. In fact so’s your content. When someone has to scroll…. and scroll to get to something other than a picture it’s unlikely that they’ll stick around too long – let alone click ads. I had to hit page down 10 times before I saw the first AdSense ad – it’s all about positioning.