What is Google AdSense?

Before getting down to the nitty gritty, I want to go over how AdSense works in case some things are unclear. AdSense is a hybrid of Google’s Webmaster advertising program called AdWords. In a nutshell, Webmasters are paying Google to promote their ads on Google. Every time an ad gets clicked, Google deducts a pre-determined amount from their advertising budget. You can see these AdWords ads by doing almost any search on Google and the ads show up in the far right-hand side of the page. See the screenshot below.

Now, AdSense is a program derived from AdWords that allows publishers (other website and blog owners like you and me) to promote these same AdWords ads on our own sites.

Then Google pays us, the publishers, a certain percentage of what the AdWords customers are paying Google for those ads. In other words, as an AdSense publisher, you are helping Google advertise these AdWords ads, and Google is paying you a share of the revenue they earn every time your visitors click on your ads. So let’s say you have a website on chocolate cake recipes. When you join AdSense, Google will supply you with a few lines of JavaScript code that you paste into your site (It’s very easy to do!)

And because of their savvy technology, Google can actually read your page title, content, etc. and interpret what each page is about. So the ads that show up on your site are relevant to the topic on your pages. This increases the chance that people will click on your ads and of course that just means more earnings for you.

Google will never disclose how much you will earn per click, but you can earn anywhere between .01 and $50.00 per click, and perhaps even more. Keep in mind these numbers are just estimates. Google has never supplied any specific data on how much you can earn. They keep this kind of information very close to the vest.

So once your account reaches $100 bucks Google sends you a check o WU Payment. And you can even have them direct deposit the check right into your bank account. I’ll go into how to apply for AdSense at the end of this book, but first I want to go over some things you need to know and understand before you even create your blog or website or start customizing your site.