2 Rookie Google Adsense Mistakes to Avoid

So many of the Make Money Online bloggers like to talk about making money with Google Adsense, whether it be how they are planning to purchase a house with their checks someday, or how they're struggling to even earn the minimum for their first check. Some say it's the only way to truly make decent money online, while others will denounce it. You'll even read claims by some that Adsense isn't worth setting up, implementing, testing and re-testing until you get it right. I respectfully dissent.

There are people earning decent amounts and better on a monthly basis from the Google Adsense program, The Monetizer included, and you can be one also. You've seen the infamous checks of bigwigs like Jeremy Shoemaker (Shoemaker.com) and Markus Frind (Plentyoffish.com). While my checks aren't near that size, they are good part-time income from one of my recommended money making sources. When I first started out, I was a rookie with Adsense, and to a degree I still consider myself learning the ropes, but I am earning a decent amount. I won't lie as we all know making money usually takes some work or effort, and when it's coming from a publicly traded company like Google, you better believe they don't want to just give it away. That's where Smartpricing comes in, and my understanding is it's to basically protect the people buying ads on Google, so that they are getting "worthwhile clicks from potential buyers" rather than social media clicks or untargeted traffic clicks.

This past weekend The Monetizer decided to undertake a project based on several posts I read about "Google Adsense Smartpricing". In essence, there's been strong suggestions made that you should seriously consider removing Adsense from any site or blog where you're not getting a 2% click rate or higher. Some even suggest it should be 3% or higher, or else remove the Google Adsense ads from that particular page or site. I've had one blog site in particular which has had tons of traffic, but in recent months I saw per click amounts really plummet. Despite that, I've had other sites which had high clicks, making me question if I was smartpriced or not. I decided better safe than sorry, and why risk it happening if it hasn't?

One mistake I made was putting Adsense in too many places, that is on too many blogs and sites. Some topics just don't pay well for Adsense, so why have a site generating pennies, especially if it's not getting clicks? When you start out, your goal is always to make as much as you can, but don't get overzealous and put Adsense everywhere. Testing is good, but overdoing it can cause a headache later. In my case, I made this mistake and was using a free web host just to bypass buying hosting. That lead me to having a lot of html pages I uploaded, each with Adsense ads in them. You can imagine the work it takes to undo that mistake!

The second mistake I've made was I didn't track every single Adsense unit, ad or search box used. I realized now that I had placed a search box somewhere which is generating money and clicks, but didn't track it at all. When you've got a lot of sites and blogs with Google search on them, not knowing which is your top earner can be devastating, even if it's still bringing the money! From the get go, make sure you've put some specific identifying titles on each ad you use on your sites, so you can track each one's effectiveness.

So over this past weekend I ran an advanced report on my Adsense account, and took a look at the overall stats by channels for the past 2 years. Then I began the arduous task of removing Adsense from various pages where the CTR% was below 2%. I've fixed many pages, and if I notice my Adsense income shoot back up, I'll know I've discovered the culprit and hopefully fixed the problem. My goal was to see Adsense earnings continually increase, not hit a lull as I kept doing more work. As I wait to see if click rates increase, I will continue to remove the ads on sites which have low percents, and suggest that anyone else feeling this smart pricing effect do the same. Taking precaution now can help you on your way to those nice monthly income checks from Adsense that other bloggers blog to you about.

One final word: I read an interesting free e-book PDF this past weekend, which made a good point saying you should master one monetization method fully before moving on to mastering the next method. While it's ok to add in some other affiliate offers or ads on your site(s), consider making mastery of Adsense a priority if you truly want to earn those monthly checks from the Big G..

Recommended reading:

How To Get Worthless Adsense Clicks by Courtney Tuttle

Is Adsense Smart Pricing Killing Your Earnings? by Grizzly