Intro to Google Adsense 101

Monetizer first learned about the benefits and possibilities of Adsense about a year ago, and decided to purchase a great book about it The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense by Joel Comm. By then Adsense had already been used and abused for success by many people either blogging or running their own websites. Adsense still remains one of the top choices for monetizing your blog, and despite the fact Google can yank your account down at any time with no reason provided, it seems to be a smart choice for the beginning blogger to use. In fact, Blogger.com allows it to be easily integrated into a blog by using their widgets. Here's a quick look at what Adsense is and how it can work for your site or blog.

What is Adsense?

Adsense is a contextual advertising program. You sign up for the program and once approved you go about selecting the size, color and style of ads to display on your website or blog. Google will "crawl" your site's content to become familiar with the topics presented most often, and then strategically match relevant ads to your site. The importance of this is making the ads work well with your content as well as the look of your blog or website. The colors are varied that you can choose for your ad's borders, backgrounds, text and links. Sizes go from small 125x125 blocks to the large "leaderboard" of 728 width by 90 height. You can check out the styles and sizes of ads here.

Adsense not only offers text and image ads, but it also offers a Google search box you can set up as well as various referrals you can use to earn money (Firefox, Adwords, Adsense). It offers a good variety of ways to make money from your blog or website. Money is made from your Adsense ads based on clicks or page impressions. Or referral money is earned due to the download of a Google program, or use of Adwords/Adsense from your referral link or button.

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How Do I Qualify for Adsense?

1) You'll need to submit your valid website or blog address on Google's application.

2) You'll need valid payment/pay to info as well as Social Security and tax documentation filed online.

If you don't have a blog or website, consider Blogger.com for blogging and Google Page Creator to create your own free website (on googlepages.com). Both are free to use and you can integrate Adsense into them. On the other hand if you can afford a domain name and monthly web hosting, consider Wordpress which is a great feature-packed blogging platform to use.

The Blogger platform will allow you to use "widgets" to insert Adsense in spots on your blog. You need to have an approved account to do so. The drawback to using the widgets will be you may have trouble matching them to your site. Using the Google Adsense site itself, selecting your size and style of ads and inserting the code yourself is the way to go.

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Will Adsense pay me well?

The thing that will be stressed over and over is you won't make money from any advertising money maker online without having quality content first and a good amount of traffic to your site or blog. In that sense, the Google Adsense program can pay you well based upon what your site is about (certain topics pay better than others), and based on how many visitors your site is getting. If the ads are relevant and you have a high traffic level, you'll make some money from it. Some claim thousands a month in earnings.

How does Adsense pay me?

Adsense can either issue you a check or make an electronic deposit to your bank account. You only receive this if your account reaches $100 or more in Earnings. If you were to earn $100 from Adsense this month (October), you would receive your $100 by the end of November. Your earnings accumulate, so that if you don't reach $100 in Adsense earnings in a given month, they roll over to the following month.

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What Rules Are Important for Adsense?

In a nutshell, all of them. Adsense has canceled user accounts with no warning leaving site and blog owners confused with what they may have done wrong. Things such as click fraud or ad promoting are usually the big reasons, so it's a good idea to be familiar with the Adsense Terms and Conditions. Things such as how many ads you can display of each type on your site and which other advertising programs you can use on your site with Adsense are always good to know.

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The book mentioned above, "The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense" is a great starting point for those who want to get into Adsense or try to increase their earnings from it on their site or blog. A good thing to keep in mind is even if you lose your Adsense account at some point, there are other similar programs out there you may be able to use such as the ad programs by Yahoo, Azoogle Ads, and Bidvertiser.

Turn Struggle into Success

The John Cow blog (parody blog of JohnChow) has a recent guest post by Ephran Taylor entitled "You Have Nothing to Lose". The post is a great motivational piece about making the decision to start your own business and the things you need to succeed with that endeavor. Money making online, should you give it your all, could provide a fun and very rewarding experience which in turn lets you enjoy your life to the maximum.

Monetizer wants to speak about one concept: that often the biggest success comes from those who are failing or struggling. Some individuals have hit rock bottom or very close to it. They are doing everything and anything to get by. And then out of nowhere, inspiration combines with their hunger and their overall will to succeed. Presto! A big multi-million dollar idea or business is born!

A few examples come to mind for these situations. One example is tthe struggling and starving artists, such as painters, musicians, and film-makers. They are doing what they can to get by, supporting themselves and their families. The struggling artist keeps that hunger inside going and translates it into a successful career and the rest is history. They eventually become a brand as their music or products are bought by millions.

A great example of someone who struggled and eventually became successful is Mark Cuban, the billionaire CEO and current owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. Cuban's a bigtime businessman now, bankrolling all sorts of cool and crazy projects, flying in private jets, traveling to wherever he wants and living the life. However, he was at a point in his life when he was in a major struggle, often sleeping on the floor in apartments and struggling to keep himself afloat. According to Wikipedia, while Cuban was in school he held a variety of jobs, including bartending, disco dancing instructor, and party promotion. He earned his way to college by collecting and selling stamps, and once gained about $1,100 from starting a chain letter. It's amazing what you can do to make money and stay in the game.

Cuban went on to be part of several successful dot com's right around the time of the boom and ahead of the bubble burst. He formed Broadcast.com with a college alum and it eventually was acquired for 5.9 billion dollars by Yahoo. Talk about striking it rich. He now continues to participate in many business ventures and has a very healthy amount of wealth to show for it all. The moral of the story here is Cuban never let his drive to succeed or make money be hampered by fear or the fact he was in a struggle, he simply continued to find new ideas and ways to grow his businesses in order to make money. You can do the same online.

You can find many stories like this of individuals who weren't doing all too well in life, but they somehow received a spark of inspiration. When it was added to their hunger it became a very successful venture. People often make excuses over fear and failure. Monetizer won't use the "if at first you don't succeed" quote here, but never give up on your business plans or ideas early if they falter, keep at them. Keep learning and doing your best to make better businesses and make them grow. Don't quit your job to do this always, but keep working at these other ventures on the side. Use these sorts of success stories as your personal motivation. Find books by those who found ways to succeed despite difficult circumstances, and use them as your tools to become even more successful yourself!

Recommended Reading List from the Monetizer about those who found success and inspiration.

The Agloco Mystery

Agloco seemed to become the latest rage on the internet months ago. Many people still try to promote it as a big potential moneymaker these days, when in fact it really hasn't made any money and doesn't show any signs of it yet. The concept was Agloco wanted everyone to "own the internet" by surfing the web with their tracking device (Viewbar) and referring friends to do the same. They promise if Agloco's member base gets big, you'll be getting payed. So far, all signs point to $0.00.

Monetizer joined Agloco about a year ago, and waited and waited and waited. Monetizer promoted Agloco to some people here and there with no word on what was going on with Agloco. Finally, a limited edition Beta Viewbar was released for download. Monetizer did the maximum 5 hours of surfing for several months, but has nothing to show for that or the referrals invited to Agloco other than the stats. The account shows hours surfed and members referred to Agloco, but no dollar signs.

The big mystery is will this program ever pay you? Right now it's tough to say, but your time may be better devoted to promoting other causes. Agloco really doesn't give you much to go on other than the "promise that should Agloco become a huge network" (based on your help), that then you'll start to profit. They also have changed their Viewbar, and once again it's a Beta. They don't seem to have things in place based on what they promise, and they don't seem to give updates on what we all want to know about, the payments.

Another example which might be related is Yuwie, which is a social media site like Myspace, except they pay you based on getting referrals to join and then for your networks' page impressions/views. Yuwie at least shows you earnings in your account but you really need to work your butt off to build a big network and get the page views to make any money there. Keep these things in mind. Programs & sites like these may have to take a back seat in relation to other moneymaking ventures that are more worth your time and effort. Also, these just like any other dotcom type business could suddenly go under, making all of your promotion efforts and time wasted.

Moral of the story: These days there's plenty of money making e-books, ad programs, widgets and gadgets being released here on the internet but it's always best to exercise a good deal of caution when getting involved in them and promoting them.

A Quick Look at Paid Surveys

Paid surveys are yet another money maker online, but are they worth it? The major knocks on paid surveys tend to be:

1) The surveys can usually take you a ton of time to complete for very little in return (sometimes a dollar or less for completion);

2) Some programs ask for info such as name, address, phone number, email and then use those to provide you with lots of nice Spam and junk mail from their site or others.

3) Some sites ask you to pay to join or pay for products or services to review.

Despite these issues, some free survey programs online can give you interesting research to participate in and some nice extra money or incentives just for sharing your opinions or feedback.

Currently, The Monetizer does just 1 survey style program, Cash Crate. It's very laid back as you can log in to take surveys at your leisure on a daily basis, trying to qualify for up to 2 per day.

Monetizer has contacted a few people on social media sites to find out which survey programs they like to use. Here's a list of several sites to check out and consider:

BzzAgent.com - A "word of mouth" media network. Involves trying products and services and providing feedback on them. Does not give cash ever, but rewards you with BzzPoints which can go towards gift cards or charity.

Global Test Market (GTM) - Paid surveys program where you earn points. The minimum number of points needed to convert to cash is 1000 points. The more time required on your part for a survey, the larger the number of MarketPoints awarded. They send you a check for earnings and also offer an affiliate program to promote their survey site to others.

Memolink - A rewards program where you can shop through their associated retailers, take surveys and earn cash and gift cards. Also has contests and giveaways as well as an affiliate program to promote.

NFO (MySurvey.com) - MySurvey.com is part of Taylor Nelson Sofres PLC (TNS). TNS is ranked as the world’s largest provider of custom research and analysis. On this site you provide consumer research (surveys). Points are accumulated in each member's Rewards account and can be redeemed for cash and prizes.

Pinecone research - The site has a section listing all available surveys for you (listings seem to be of a file number nature instead of a title or description). A typical questionnaire usually takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete on the site. They also may send you products to test and state you will be called upon at least twice a month to participate in research. They offer payment by both Paypal and checks issued.

Survey Spot - The program will contact you by email "periodically" to participate in surveys. Surveys take an average of 10 minutes to do. Site states they will never ask you for money while you're part of the program. Surveys offer payment, prizes or sweepstakes entries.

Testspin - Survey opportunities are emailed to you if you meet the demographic quoata needs (ie. 18-24 males, etc). You then go to a partner's site to qualify. If you do, you complete the survey and enter your TestSpin user name to confirm, and then will receive credit in your account. Surveys pay you TestSpin dollars for participation, which can translate to gift certificates with Amazon.com. TestSpin doesn't ask for a lot of personal info but says the more info about yourself you provide, the greater your chances to receive survey offers will be.

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Check out the above at your leisure and discretion. The Monetizer doesn't belong to any of the above, but has word that these are good from a friend on a social media site. Usually if you're going to do a survey program it's smart to sign up for a new email account somewhere. A few good choices are Google's Gmail, myway.com and inbox.com. All provide free email accounts with spam controls. Then you will have a new email account to use with anything that asks for the info, making your personal email account clutter and spam-free.

These days, some people simply don't have the time for surveys, as they can take anywhere from 10 to 30 or even 60 minutes to complete. However if you have a program where you can do surveys here or there and earn a bit of extra money it can always help. For example, with Cash Crate you can log in to your account daily and take up to 2 surveys (at 80 cents each payout). If you were able to qualify and complete 2 surveys a day that's $48 you'd earn for a month. Not shabby if you are a stay at home type and have the time and patience. As always investigate and be on the lookout for scams. Never join a survey program asking you to pay to join or be a member, and definitely be cautious of any that ask for a credit card.