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Google, essentially a
search company, had gained market dominance through smart
ranking technologies that provided the user with the most
relevant search results ever possible to date. It’s simple user
interface, coupled with smart algorithms combined with a snappy
name and logo has made it the most used search engine today,
putting itself years ahead from it’s closest rivals. A listing
for a targeted search term in the first page or two of Google’s
organic listing is every webmaster’s dream. This means huge
success in terms of traffic, sales and hence money in the bank!
But, unfortunately, it is not possible for every website to be
listed on the first page or two. Google saw the potential for
offering paid listings that will appear alongside organic
results for a search term. In this way, a webmaster can still
get his website onto the first page or two under sponsored
listings but for a price. Google launched their pay-per-click
program – an advertiser only pays when someone clicks their ad,
called it Adwords and the rest, as they say, is history!
Google then followed up
with a progam called Adsense which is linked to Adwords. Adsense
is where any ordinary webmaster (called a publisher) can display
relevant ads from Google’s advertisers on their site. When a
user to that site clicks an ad, Google pays them a percentage of
that click cost.
Google, by it’s very
existence, has given webmasters a chance to earn money in ways
that wouldn’t have been possible. Currently, people make cash
out of Google by using Adwords and/or Adsense. Thousands of
ordinary people are sharing in on Google’s success and profits,
making for themselves nice checks every month in the process.
Let’s see how.
Adwords
Adwords are used by
off-line and online businesses alike to advertise their products
or services. But, for ordinary people, that’s not where the
money is. Thousands of people are combining the versatility of
affiliate programs with the reach of Adwords, making themselves
a lot of money in the process.
People search for products
that they can promote and more people turn to www.clickbank.com
for this. Clickbank, a large Internet company, acts as reseller,
payment processor and affiliate commission payer all in one. It
works like this. A publisher, wanting to sell his/her products
signs up with Clickbank and enters Clickbank’s marketplace.
Affiliates wanting to promote the publisher’s products, signs up
with Clickbank first as an affiliate and obtains an ID which is
used in a special link called a hop link.
The affiliate then markets
the publisher’s products by way of advertising, especially on
Google Adwords (but can be by any other means although Google
Adwords produces best results) in an effort to drive traffic to
the site of the publisher. If the referral results in a sale,
Clickbank processes the transaction, takes a percentage of the
sale, allocates the commission to the affiliate and the balance
to the publisher. Clickbank pays affiliates and publishers every
two weeks.
This appeal and popularity
lies in the fact that affiliates don’t need to have a product or
website of their own and the commissions offered are very
generous, sometimes as high as 75% of the product price.
Affiliates also have the luxury of marketing a number of
products from different publishers all at once.
But, a word of warning.
Adwords is a bit intricate and very few people understand the
system fully. If you don’t know what you are doing, you can lose
a lot of money in a very short space of time. My advice would be
to learn the system thoroughly, try a few small test campaigns
and tweak as you go along. Never spend more than what you feel
comfortable with and intensify your campaign only when you see
positive results.
Adsense
Here, publishers on
Google’s Content Network receive a commission when someone
clicks on Google ads on their site. When an advertiser
advertises with Adwords, he is given a few options. He can
advertise on Google Search – ads appear as sponsored results
alongside organic search results when users search using
Google’s Search Engine, Google Search Network – ads appear on
Google’s search partners and Content Network – independent
websites that host Google ads ie. the Adsense sites we are
talking about.
Participating in Google
Adsense is relatively easy. You simply sign up for free at
Google and when your site has been approved, you will be given
Javacript code that you place on your website. Google provides
publishers a range of options when it comes to ad sizes and
colors in order to complement their site’s design and theme.
There are numerous tips to
increase your Adsense revenue – too numerous to mention in this
little article but I’ll tell you the most important ones.
Firstly, build a website for the user and not Adsense. Put
quality, fresh content that is relevant to your website and not
duplicate, trashy content. Google is clamping down on sites made
just for Adsense that offer the user no real benefit. Secondly,
optimize your web pages correctly. Lastly, concentrate all your
efforts on getting good, regular traffic to your site - after
all, if no one visits your site, who will click on the ads?
Yes, making money with
Google is possible but won’t happen overnight. Continuously
research and test but most of all go slow, put in some hard work
and keep up with it! All the best!
Copyright 2006 Anwar Ahmed
Ally
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Anwar Ally has been
in the
work at home
industry for over 18 years. He regularly writes and gives
advice on various
work at home
opportunities. |
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