What is Google AdSense & it future?

    What Is Google Adsense?

    If you look at the Internet a few years back, you’ll see that advertising was done in a way that was very similar to other types of media like television, or actually, more like what you see in a newspaper.

    You’d enter a site, and in some location you’d get to see a banner (often these were quite numerous and very large), which would present and ad for whatever company was paying for adds on your space.

    But there was one problem with this kind of advertising. It really wasn’t exploiting the fact that the adds weren’t in some newspaper, but were instead presented over the Internet.

    You’ve probably noticed a lot of things like this over the pages you’ve browsed. You’re looking at an on-line shop, looking for a watch but you get a banner that advertises a car.

    While you might, at some later point want to buy a car, right now you’re looking for a watch and it would have surely been nice if the banner were advertising a watch, because then you would have probably clicked it.

    Well that’s also what the folks at Google thought of, so they came up with a killer idea. This is knows as Google AdSense, and it’s known as a targeted advertising program

    What you do (as a web designer / website owner) is, instead of jumping through hoops to get some banner on your site that your visitors won’t even care about, is you just allocate some region of the screen.

    You then sign up for the Google AdSense program, you insert a small snippet of code in your webpage and Google ensures that in the location you specify, a banner will appear, presenting adds relevant to the contents of your site.

    It’s very easy for Google to do this because Google is a search engine company. It looks for the key words in your page, searches a database of websites to find the ones related to whatever is on your page and presto: a targeted ad.

    You (the webmaster) get a fee for each visitor that clicks on an adsense banner on your site. Now that’s bound to happen more often then with a traditional banner because people are actually interested in what’s in that banner (otherwise, they wouldn’t be on your page would they?).

    But, this also does wonders for the people who want to advertise. And it’s because of the same reason. The greatest thing about Google AdSense is that all the content in a banner is relevant.

    This relevancy is the key to the programs success, and also the reason why everyone remains happy. The advertiser has a relevantly placed advert, the publisher earns money from their content and Google take their cut.

    Of course, as always, Google has set some high standards for its AdSense program, in terms of looks and functionality. You can’t have more than two such banners on your website and Google only inserts text in these banners.

    So an extra benefit is that AdSense advertising is a lot less obtrusive then regular advertising. But this also means you should position the banner better because it’s possible that visitors might miss it altogether.

    So in the end, Google AdSense is an advertising program that is unique because the ads are relevant to the content on the site. Anyone that wants to advertise pays Google for it. Anyone who wants to place ads on their site does this through AdSense, getting paid by Google in the process.

    All transactions are run through Google, and the advertisers and publishers get access to statistics which help them to understand and moderate the effectiveness of their campaign.

    The whole process is elegant, simple and effective from anyone in the chain, from site visitors to advertisers, and it’s one of the reasons Google are known for their innovation and new thinking.

    How Much Money Will I Earn Through Adsense?

    If you’re looking at Google’s AdSense program you’re surely asking yourself how much you could make from such a program, and you probably think you can’t make as much as you can from traditional advertising schemes.

    Google, of course, keeps a great deal of secrecy regarding how much AdWords advertisers pay per each click directed to their site and the same applies for how much AdSense banner holders make from their websites.

    While there’s nothing official, rumors circulate around the Internet concerning the amount of cash a website can earn by using AdSense. And many people (illegally) disclose how much they have been making with AdSense. There are stories of people raising over one thousand dollars per month using AdSense.

    There are also stories of people exceeding $100,000.00 per month but it’s a bit hard to believe such stories. The truth to the matter is that if you have a small website and you just want it to support itself, and don’t wish to reach your pocket for its maintenance costs you can probably do this with AdSense.

    AdSense is also very good for people who host a lot of pages. Even if the said pages don’t generate a lot of traffic individually, every click counts and you can earn up with a lot of money by doing this. And that just goes to prove that sometimes quantity matters nearly as much as quality.

    There’s no telling how much money you’re going to make by using Google’s AdSense but you can sort of tell for yourself, before actually starting, by taking a few things into consideration.

    First, is the amount of visits you get every day. While there’s no way to estimate precisely on this, you can generally make a safe assumption that if you have a lot of clicks per day you’ll be making good money.

    Also, this depends on what exactly your site is about. If your site is about anything popular (music, sex, whatever) you’re bound to get a lot of banner clicks. These have a coefficient associated with them, called the CTR (click through ratio).

    Basically, what it translates to is that if a large proportion of your site’s visitors click the ads you’ll be making more money. And the best way to do this is to have some popular content in your site, ensuring the links direct users towards popular items as well.

    Then of course, there’s the position and number of ads on your website. While you don’t want to overdo it, having many links will undoubtedly generate more income for you as a webmaster. Do not however believe, that if you just add a lot of ads in an important portion of your site, visitors could always just skip them (and be assured that many do just that).

    There’s something between an art and a science to positioning your ads. People generally look in certain places and never look in others, and knowing this a website author and/or webmaster can do a great deal of things to increase his earnings with AdSense.

    All in all, the amount of money you make with AdSense depends on many factors. But if you have a site with interesting contents and/or many pages, and if you see a constantly large amount of traffic every day, you can bet you’ll be making a lot of money with AdSense.

    Even if you aren’t in the above categories, AdSense is still worth using because there’s very little hassle in setting it up, and many times it can help financially support the site, whilst being a nice bonus to get through the post at the end of the month.

    The Future Of Google Adsense:-

    There are many ideas springing up concerning what AdSense will look like in the future and how the system will change as opposed to what it is now.

    Firstly, it’s clear that targeting algorithms will become even better and more powerful then they are now. This has clearly been seen with the Google search engine itself over the last few years and it should be of no surprise as this happens with AdSense. Advertisers will appear in more appropriate results and those advertisers who manipulate their content to allow high paying keywords to appear may struggle to do this unless it is actually appropriate to their content.

    Another thing which is bound to happen is more protection for AdWords advertisers concerning click fraud. Google acknowledges this to be a very key issue that it needs to address as quickly as possible and there’s no doubt it will happen as fast as possible. At the moment those who have high levels of traffic, can easily disguise IP addresses and increase CTR ( Click Through Rate).

    Google is always keen on improving its products and this has been seen before in AdSense. The search engine company has introduced site-targeted AdSense CPM, “smart pricing” and domain blocking and there will probably be improvements that have already been added by other similar sites.

    One such example is the option for the advertiser to have more control over where the content is being displayed. This could mean blocking your site from displaying on several addresses that host AdSense banners.

    Another idea that has been advanced is that Google will integrate AdSense in other forms of media like newspapers or television and so on. While this might seem to be more on the science-fiction side of the facts there’s no indication that this might not happen.

    Google have access to an international array of over 150,000 advertisers of whom may choose to penetrate offline markets in different countries. With Google’s strong network of advertisers, they may choose to appoint or allow offline distributors to create a format for Adwords advertising in content, in search and now offline.

    More options could be implemented for AdSense publishers, allowing them to specify keywords of their own. While Google has been reluctant of this there’s no indication that this will not happen in the future.

    Also, a lot of people are demanding a clear specification of the pricing policy of AdSense. Google has given no indication of why this isn’t public information but at this moment it seems highly unlikely that such information will ever be present on Google AdSense.

    Another feature that could find itself into AdSense would be letting website publishers see which links are generating clicks on their website and based on what keywords they arrive there.

    This could end up being a major issue that could threaten the entire system as it could perhaps encourage more adsense only websites as profits become more transparent. A lot of people may make AdSense-only sites, designed just for making profits through AdSense.

    While this is already happening today, it might be foolish of Google to put such tools in the hands of its publishers.

    However, one thing that could happen is a way for users to fix their issues with low AdSense generated income on their site. This could be done through an on-line wizard or something similar that would make suggestions to website owners based on their contents.

    But the major buzzword of the day is RSS. The possibility of sending targeted ads directly to users without requiring any navigation on their behalf is becoming a reality with RSS. And there are clear signs that Google isn’t going to let such an opportunity pass by.

    This is what “interactive television” and similar items have been trying to do for quite some time now. But the Internet would be a much better medium for this, because there are no mediums quite as interactive as the Internet.

    But in the end, this is mostly speculation and we are bound to have Google surprising us with new features we would have never thought of.

    The Disadvantages Of Adsense:-

    As adsense becomes the most popular publisher program for Price per Click advertising, flaws and disadvantages still exist. Since its inception advertisers have chosen to advertise in search because they felt that visitors would be less targeted. This is a genuine concern and one that makes perfect sense. If you are visiting a website, and notice an advert then the chances are you are not particularly concentrating on its content.

    Adsense has also become so popular that people can distinguish them from other adverts. Therefore people may choose to ignore them without even paying them a thought. This has been a hot topic discussed by Bloggers and one that could contain a lot of truth. Many have blamed Google for this, and their decision to include text that says “ads by Google” beneath the advert.

    Many publishers also fail to ever gain the revenues they anticipated when starting the program. Those only gaining 30 – 40 visitors a day to their website would be unlikely to earn even one dollar a day. Many advertisers talk of rates such as 1.5%- 5% for traffic to click conversion, whilst only gaining around $0.10 per click. The maths doesn’t work out great, but you can hardly blame advertisers or Google if you are not bringing enough traffic. The key is to bring targeted traffic to your website that are likely to click on adverts, however it is said that it may be easier on other programs which allow figures such as 75% share of advertising revenues for publishers.

    Another disadvantage in adsense is that it has almost become tacky. Its appearance on websites that generally appear to be designed in a DIY fashion has lead people to associate them inextricably. This can only be tackled through adsense evolving to be more attractive to the bigger brands, whilst those who currently use adsense are restricted.

    Google Adsense also has to tackle the issue of click fraud which is anticipated to count for over 15% of click through rate in content. This has meant that advertiser’s who have been particularly affected, have moved away to other programs or have restricted their advertising to search.

    This has meant that there is less competition in content and therefore smaller revenues for publishers. Publisher’s who previously had high yielding ads, are now having to alter their content to ensure they get any adverts at all. This has largely been the fault of the publishers themselves however the issue is one that; if not addressed could bring adsense to its knees.

    Google Adsense also has the disadvantage of not paying enough for their search program. Other similar programs pay higher rates, and if publishers decide to go elsewhere then problems will occur for advertisers and publishers alike. Although Google fail to pay enough for search another major problem with Adsense is that it does not have a powerful database of graphic adverts. Many advertisers prefer showing graphically drive advertisements, however this has yet to materialise. As several other programs exist for PPC graphic distribution problems could occur.

    Whilst this may not be a problem for all publishers, many complain that the adverts within their site do not change, so their repeat visitors fail to see fresh adverts so therefore fail to visit them. This is a problem which could be addressed through making adverts rotate. However if adverts rotate then how will that be linked with advertisers paying a rate per click? These are all problems which Google has to address to ensure that Adsense remains the market leader.

    Adwords on the other hand also has major advantages, and remains the best in the market. It’s CPC rates can be chosen by the advertisers so that even when they feel that they are not getting the results they expect they can lower their prices whilst still using the service.

    Whilst many issues remain with adsense the program still remains the most popular amongst publishers, whilst Google Adwords remains the most popular amongst advertisers; with a database of over 140,000 Adwords will remain on top for the time to come.

    Adsense Alternatives:-

    Many people have started using Google’s AdSense program, but there are some who find it a bit too uncertain or simply not suiting their own requirements from an ad program.

    But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.

    AllFeeds:-

    AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don’t. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.

    MarketBanker:-

    MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There’s also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense’s and they’re just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.

    BidClix:-

    BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it’s also very flexible.

    Chitika:-

    RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there’s an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn’t. That means there’s a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.

    AdHearus: -

    AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn’t stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There’s a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it’s a breeze.

    AffiliateSensor:-

    AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There’s integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA’s (Public Service Ads).

    Kanoodle Bright Ads:-

    Kanoodle’s offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.

    TargetPoint:-

    TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site’s overall performance and better revenue. It’s free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.

    Clicksor:-

    Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven’t made that much, your earning roll over to the next period.

    How much does AdSense pay per 1000 clicks?

    So, how much does AdSense pay per 1000 views? AdSense will pay the publisher about $18 per 1000 views (on average). This is because the actual rate an advertiser will pay varies (from one advertiser to another) – anything from $0.10 and $0.30. Google actually pays for 68% of this amount.

    How many posts are required for AdSense?

    Honestly there is no set limit for the number of posts that are needed, but one should at least have 30 top quality posts before applying for Adsense.

    How many views do you need for AdSense?

    To make $20 a day from CPM ads via AdSense, you would need to earn 10,000 views per day. That works out to be 300,000 views per month. To make $20 a day from CPC ads, you will need a total of 40 clicks. At a 1% click rate, that's 1 click per hundred views, so 4,000 views per day.