Adsense Basics-Tutorial and Rules

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Adsense Basics

Adsense Beginner Tutorial

Adsense is a quick way to jump-start your earnings when you are first beginning. As a newcomer, you may at first have one or two views: 1) you do not think that Adsense is an important item to have on your site, or 2) in your zest to make money, you haphazardly place your ads about in a hodgepodge matter.

In other cases, you may unwittingly break the rules. Below is a quick tutorial to get you started. Though it is not comprehensive, it will get you started on the right track.

Define Google Adsense

Google Adsense allows your website or blog to make money.

By placing specific targeted ads on your content pages, you can earn money while giving your visitors information. The type of ads that Google gives you are many - textual, image, search options, and video. Just to name a few.

Once you are within Google Adsense, you can design your ads or select some pre-selected colors designed by Google, copy the code that Google generates for you, and then manually paste the code to your site.

Your job is to determine the best placement of your ads within your web pages. Though it may seem simple-it does require some knowledge. But let start with the basics-which is the rules. If you don't follow the rules, you may find yourself in some trouble. What kind of trouble-being penalized by Google or banned from using Google Ads altogether.

Adsense Application Process

Adsense has revised their Adsense application process for those submitting admittance into the Adsense program for the first time. Thus, after submitting a new application the following process will be followed:

Step 1: They will do preliminary checks on the site and the applicant's submitted details.

Step 2: If the application passes step 1, Google will notify the applicant by email, grant them account access and provide them with ad code to place on their submitted site. Note: if you do not place the ads on your site, the review process can not be completed, which means no ads will appear on your site.

Step 3: After you have placed the ads on your site, you will not see any ads immediately. Instead you will only see blank ads that will blend in to your site, as to not disrupt your user experience.

Step 4: Soon as the ads have been added to the site, a final approval decision will be made and the applicant will be notified by email. If approved, ads will begin to appear.

Step 5: After ads begin to appear, Google encourages you to add additional ads to your site and to any other policy-compliant site that the you (the new applicant) may own.

Google Rules

Below are some of the rules that you should consider when placing your ads. By being aware of the rules, it can prevent your website from being penalized.

Ads should not be placed under a title that implies that it is not an ad. For example:
You have a title that says Business Opportunities, then under the title you have Google Ads. This is a little deceptive, and can get you in trouble. How to avoid this problem?
Indent the Google Ad to help distinguish it from your content or make the Ad or the Title a different color
Adsense ads/links should not be placed by a group of links that are identical in color and spacing.
Do not place your Ads to close to your frequently clickable links. Though this may not directly violate their program rules, it can increase the risk of invalid clicks being generated - which is in violation of their policies.
Repeated manual clicks or impressions, using robots, automated click and impression generating tools such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf, or click-exchange programs are prohibited.
Click your own ads, for any reason is prohibited. (Click Fraud)
You should not place small icons next to your Google Ads because it may suggest to your visitors that you want them to click on the links to get to a specific destination.
Do not place Google Adsense Ads on empty pages
Do not suggest that people click on the Ads to support your site, or offer an incentive for them to click on the ads. (This is Click Fraud)

Click Fraud Defined - Click Fraud is simply invalid clicks. Invalid clicks can come from humans, bots, and from the publisher themselves. The generic term for an invalid click is when you get more than one click on the same ad from the same person. If you get an invalid click the ad will not be counted as revenue. And it can cause adverse effects on your Google Adsense account if you get too many invalid clicks. (Possible account closure.)

How Many Ads on a Page

As you can see, Google does offer you quite a few ads per page.

Google allows you to place 3 link units and 3 content ads on a web page
Up to two Google Adsense for search boxes may be placed on a page.

As, I will indicate below, just because you can put 3 link units and 3 content ads on a web page-length and content will also have to be considered.

Competitive Ads

Here is an important rule to remember. Google does not allow any Google ads or search boxes to be published on websites that contain ads or services whose format, layout and color are identical to Google. However, a new twist is coming our way with Google-certified ad networks that will compete with Google Adwords advertisers on your site.

*New Addition To Google Adsense

Multiple Ad Networks is being added. These ad networks are Google-certified. They, the ad networks, will compete with Adwords advertisers for your ad space.

Ad Networks as defined by Google is: "Ad networks are companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they don't own themselves." This is similar to Adsense.

The ads that perform the best on your site, either from the ad networks or from Google Adwords publishers, will be shown on your web pages.

Allow and Block Ads Tab

The publisher will have control of which ads will be displayed on their web pages by specific advertisers.

1. Click "Allow and Block Ads Tab"
2. Go to Ad Review Center Section" to either allow or block advertisers.

Blocking Section

The blocking section is directly below the "Ad Review Center". Here you can block specific categories that you do not feel is appropriate for your website. Note: Be careful how many different categories you block, and can lower your Adsense income.

Blocking options Include:

Advertiser URLS that are blocked
General categories
Sensitive categories that are blocked ad networks

.
Placement of your Ads

There has been much testing done as to the placement of your ads. They have found that the left-top of the page catches the eye of the visitor first. Why? Because that is usually where you most commonly find your navigation to a website.

Some Ideas on Placement

Placement of the ads showed better results within the body of your content.

Ads should not draw down the copy, but compliment the body of the copy within the page.
According to Google Ad size of: 336X280, 300X250, 160X600 have more click-throughs. (These are only suggestions, it is totally dependent on the design of your site.)
Test different placements of your ads on the page to determine where the ads perform the best.

Even though Google states that you can place 3 link units and 3 content ads on a web page, please consider the following advice.

When you include more ads, you will find the ads toward the bottom of the ad pyramid will have a lower price. Thus, it is wise to experiment with the number of ads on a page.

In addition, consider your content. If your content does not support more than one set of ads, then that is all you should have. This is becoming more important because of the demise of the Public Service Ad. (See Adsense and Alternate Ads ).

If the content is long, and supports the different ads, then you can put 3 content ads on the web page. But length and the type of content that can be matched by Google's crawler is important, in other words, does Google have enough ads that will compliment your copy, or will you see repeat ads in the other units on the page.

These are only suggestions to where to begin-because each site is different, each layout is different, which in turn requires you to experiment with the ad size, color and placement. What is right for one site, is not right for another.

Color of Your Ads

Google has found that the following pattern works at creating higher click-through rate:

Colors that blend in well with your site. But don't blend the ad in so much that the reader is blind to the ad.
Using ads that match your background color and a blended border

I would experiment with several different colors. Why? When your visitors get use to your ad in one color, they soon become a little banner blind (they become accustomed to the ads and ignore them completely).

Where Do I Create Ads?

1. Under "My Ads" you can create or edit your ads.
2. To create a new ad, hit the tab "My Ads", "Create New Ad+" button

The New Ad Screen Will Ask You the Following:

1. Give your new ad a Name
2. Select Ad Size
3. Select Ad type
4. Choose Backup Ads
5. Custom channels (You'll see "Create new custom channel right above the box of created custom channels)
6. Select an ad style or use custom settings (Custom settings allows you to create your own colored ad)

Size and Style of Your Ads

In days past, Google gave you a starting point for your choosing the font family and font size. These past colors, font size and font face, were based on positive performance across all publisher sites.

You will be able to size your ads to: Small, Medium, Large.
The available font styles will be: Verdana, Arial, Times.

Yes, there is a new change. They are improving their default settings. Now, their default settings will optimize your ad units for your unique site and users. According to Google the ads performance is dependent upon several things:

1. Users operating system and the browser they use.
2. The ad itself. (Which includes its size, language and number of ads

How can you take advantage of this change?

Hit "Home"
Account Settings (in the left-hand sidebar)
Edit Default Settings

My advice is to experiment. If you have noticed that your AdSense clicks are going down, it may be time for some experimenting. However, if you are finding your custom settings doing well for you, there is no reason for change.

Improper Iframed Ads

Though Google encourages experimentation with ad placement and ad formats, they do not condone altering the behavior, targeting, or appearance of AdSense ads without explicit approval from Google. Which brings me to the placement of ads within iframes to manipulate the standard behavior, targeting or delivery of Google ads.

For those who are not familiar with iframes, let me gives you a simple definition. An iframe is an HTML tag that is used in web design that allows a webpage to be displayed in a frame within another page. Why does Google frown on iframes? There are several reasons:

The Google ad can not be viewed because the iframe is obscuring the view of the ad.
This obscured view can cause accidental clicks if these hidden ads are placed in a location that users frequently click
Hidden iframes can cause cross-domain iframing abuse. Cross-domain iframing is where iframes are used to frame content from a different site. This can lead to other sites framing ads that belong to another site without the other site's knowledge.

Thus, Google Adsense has modified their ad behavior policy, which states:

"AdSense code may not be altered, nor may the standard behavior, targeting or delivery of ads be manipulated in any way that is not explicitly permitted by Google. This includes but is not limited to the following: clicking Google ads may not result in a new browser window being launched, nor may Google ads be placed in an IFRAME. (Google June Blogpost).

Note: Exceptions to this policy are permitted only with authorization from Google.

Managing Your Ads

Managing your ads is an important process that is never ending. Now with the new Google Adsense Interface, it can be a little frustrating, understanding where everything is, or is not.

I hope the following guide below will help you to manage your ads a little easier.

Edit an Ad Style

1. Hit "My Ads" tab
2. Select Ad styles in the left-hand panel
3. Click the ad style you want to edit (Here you can make changes to font, colour, corner style).
If you edit a style you are using, all ads will be affected.

Create Your Own Ads

1. Hit "My ads" tab
2. Select Ad styles in left-hand panel
3. Click "New Ad Style" or "hover over an existing style and select "Copy and edit"

Apply A New Style To Your Ads

Once your new style has been created you can go into your existing ads to make changes. This is how you will do that:

1. You are still in "My ads", click ad units.
2. Click on the name of the ad. You may have targeted the ad for the page or you may have a generic ad group. Let's say you have a generic ad group called: 300X250. This if you click on this link you will get all the information about the ad
3. Go to the section of Ad styles. (Since this is the only change you want to make)
4. Select "Custom Ads". Apply your ad style to that ad

More Help For Getting Around AdSense GUI

The AdSense Gui can be a little overwhelming. Here are some important areas under "My Ads" that can further help you manage your ads:

1. Under "Content" (Which is located in the left-hand side you will find:

Ad Units- This are the units you have created
Custom Channels - When you set up an ad, you have the option of using a custom channel you have already created or you can create a new channel.
URL Channels - URL channels are all the channels that are advertising AdSense ads under your name. In other words, if you have a blog, website, or you want to allow your ads to show on another site to earn money, you would come to this link to update your information.

Adsense offers some of the following ads:

Please note as their advertising continues, so does the changes in what they offer. It
is dependent as always, on how the ads are received by the viewers, publishers and advertisers.

Mobile Ads- Mobile ads are ads that are directed to your ipod or cell phone. To make
your website "mobile ready" you will have to do so tweaking of your site.
Here are some of the things you need to do to have your website mobile compliant:

You will need to use the mark up language XHTML,WML or CHTML with a layout that properly displays the information specific to a cell phone.
Develop your website using server-side scripting - PHP or ASP. (Many web hosting services provide support for PHP or ASP-but before you get gunho, I would suggest that you contact your web hosting provider to verify that it is available to your plan-or if you have to pay additional for the service.
If they do offer PHP, all you would have to do is ad the snippet of Adsense PHP code to your web page and then change the ".htm" or ".html" extension to the PHP extension.
Last but not least, preview your web page before pulling it to your website. You don't want it to blow up on you if something is not right.

Adsense for Domains-This is fairly new option given by Google Adsense. It allows publishers with unused domains to help users reach relevant information by presenting content on the domains.

This is how it works. Users will type in an expired link that leads to sites with no content. You will find either "Under construction" page or a 404 error. Now, Adsense for domain will provide links, search results, advertisement and other content.

If you have a page (domain that is not yet used) with no content on it, then Adsense for domains can help your users. To get started you need to follow the Domain Set-up Guide for the specific registrars.

Adsense for Search- Adsense has made some improvements to their Adsense for Search. You have the option of having the search option on your site, search your
site, a collection of sites, or the web.

Adsense for Contents - Adsense for contents lets you display ads that are are text, image or text and image ads.

Links - Links units. This is just a list of topics within a link. Let's see how a link works when a visitor click on a link.

When a visitor clicks on a link they will be taken to a page that will display a list of topics that is relevant to the content of your site. If they click on any of the Adwords ads on the resulting page you will be paid for the click.

Remember: you are not paid when the visitor clicks on the link within a link unit on your site, but only when the visitors clicks on the Adwords ads on the resulting pages.

Reminder: The program rule allows you to place three ad units and three link units on any page.

Forums with Adsense

You can monetize your forum with Adsense. Google advices using a skyscraper above the fold to the left side of your forum, with a leaderboard ad directly below the top navigation and below the first post.

Forums leads you into a whole new avenue of compliance issues. You will need to monitor for "inappropriate content" from your users or spam bots that direct you to inappropriate sites. Thus, any image, content, link, etc. that Google finds inappropriate for "user-friendly advertising" is not allowed.

Google suggests some of the following:

Within your forum place a link that says: Report Inappropriate Content
Have a moderator keep an eye on different sections of your forum
Proactively review pages
Implement spam-bot protection for your forum
keyword filtering

As you can see there is a lot to learn about Adsense. But the most important thing to remember once you got the basics is to experiment and track the results.

Continued Reading

Google Adsense and What Google Analytics Can Tell You

Adsense Alternate Ads and Why My Ads Are Not Showing

Bounce Rate and Can You Improve It?

Continued Reading

Landing Page Basics