How to earn with Google Adsense?

Raju, Swarnava and Joseph ask:

I have a blog / website and I am new to adsense. How do I go about increasing my earnings?

Answer:
This seems to be the question on every mind. Let’s have a look at the road map for earning so that you end up getting what is on your mind.

To start with, let me say that Adsense is not a “get rich quick” scheme. To earn a decent sum from adsense you need to put in effort consistently. Let’s look at the main factors that influence earnings with adsense.


Content = Traffic
Content is rightly named the 'Holly Grail' of Internet. It is so important that it can influence all other factors that affect your earnings. So take care to get it right. Keep on adding fresh unique content to your site / blog. Good content gets good back links. This takes your site high up the search engine rankings and brings you lot of quality traffic.

Type of Site you have
Since you already have a website / blog, this point may not be relevant. But it can certainly be used while you plan your next site. CTR is one of the important things when it comes to earning with Adsense or any CPC based ads for that matter. CTR differs across verticals. Sites on certain topics get high CTR while some others doesn’t. For example sites that cater to technically oriented visitors gets a lower CTR when compared to sites having general public as visitors. This because the techies are very much aware of ads and tend to ignore them. Similar is the case with forums. Forums are infamous for their notably low CTR. So, plan sites around topics that get a high CTR.

You Niche
Certain keywords pay more per click. If your site is built around such keywords, you will make money with the same number of clicks. Choosing such a topic to build a site can earn you heavy sums (if executed well). That said, it is better to go for a topic that interests you if you are thinking long term. Such a topic would keep you glued on.

Your visitor type
While adsense determines the pricing of clicks from your site, it takes into account “how useful the leads generated from your site re to the advertisers”. This is shown in the form of smart pricing. If a decent percentage of the leads you generate turn out to be useful to the advertisers, they deem your clicks valuable and you get paid well for every click. Generally sites that have visitors capable of purchasing (like grown up people) are on the safer side. The geographic location from where you get visitors can also judge the earnings.

High CTR
CTR is something that can alter your earnings almost instantaneously. There are a number of factors affecting CTR – ad placement, colors, ad format and so on. We have a set of article for improving your CTR. It’s called the CTR Wednesdays. A post on increasing the CTR is made every Wednesday. Have a look to improve your CTR.