Dear Reader,

Google AdSense is a monetization revolution for small content publishers... AND encourages higher quality content, helping the Net overall. Now every small business person can monetize his/her passion, expertise or knowledge. How?...

Google AdSense rewards you for creating sites rich in high-quality, focused content... the sort of sites that make the Net a better place! Of course, these are the sites that build traffic and trust, establish credibility, and effectively PREsell your products or services.

Is your main goal to publish theme-based information and earn zero-customer-maintenance infopreneurial income?

Or do you want to provide such information as a PREseller for your primary monetization model (ex., sell your services, products, e-goods, etc.)? Regardless, PREselling through excellent content is still the single best way to build targeted, open-to-buy, free traffic and to monetize. And now...

No matter what your primary business strategy may be, Google AdSense adds one more practical, positive, and highly credible monetization option for your theme-based content site.

The concept of "theme-based content site," built through the natural, powerful C T P M process, brings me to Site Build It! ("SBI!"). It almost seems that Google developed this revolutionary monetization model especially for users of SBI!.

Building sites founded upon the solid precept of high-value, focused Content ("theme-based content sites") is the core of the SBI! philosophy. Such Content is the only way to build high-value, free Traffic and to PREsell those visitors, no matter what you ultimately want to sell.

You can only Monetize AFTER C T P. And Google AdSense adds a whole new Monetization model to an already full, diversified set of possibilities.

Content Makes the World Go Round

High-value, focused content keeps the Internet world spinning properly on its axis. It's the fundamental behavior that keeps EVERYONE happy. Together, SBI! and Google AdSense provide both...

• a site that attracts high volumes of motivated, on-target visitors, and
  
  
• a powerful model for monetizing that traffic.

Next: Google AdSense...
A Tailor-Made Way To Monetize Your SBI! Site!

Google AdSense... A Tailor-Made Way To Monetize Your SBI! Site!
How To Get Started
Any site that is content-focused is eligible for the AdSense Program. Of course, as an SBI! site, your application almost has to be accepted. Almost. Since Google wants content-rich sites (sites offering information), every SBI! site is more than eligible -- it is a perfect fit. Like I said, Google does not want its name on bad sites, but if you have diligently followed the Action Guide, your chances for acceptance are excellent. So let's get started... STEP 1) Go to the application page... https://www.google.com/adsense/application-1 After creating a login for your AdSense account, fill in the application form (it's free).	Contents at a Glance Letter from Ken Evoy Introduction Should You Participate? How To Get Started "What If My Site Is Not Accepted?" What SBIers Are Saying Integrating AdSense Into Your Site Get The Most Out Of AdSense
STEP 2) You will receive an e-mail requesting confirmation. Confirm it. STEP 3) Google evaluates your site (the Google spider comes first, and then perhaps a human for borderline cases -- I have trouble believing that Google would rely 100% on a algorithm, at least while they are ramping). STEP 4) Hopefully, you are accepted (details on this below). This usually occurs within 24 hours. At this point, you will receive your login information. STEP 5) Log into your account and read the AdSense Terms and Conditions agreement... https://www.google.com/adsense/terms Read it and understand it before agreeing to it. You don't want to make any false steps. This is too good. For example, the end of Paragraph 2 says... You agree not to display on the same Web page in connection with which any Ad Unit, Ad, or Search Box is displayed (a "Results Page") any advertisement(s) that an end user of Your Site(s) would reasonably confuse with a Google advertisement or otherwise associate with Google. If You have elected to receive content-based Ads, You further agree not to display on any Results Page any non-Google content-targeted advertisement(s). If You have elected to receive Search Results on any Site(s), You agree that Google will be the exclusive provider of Internet search services on such Site(s). No problem. No real objections to any of the above points, they're fair enough. But what if you violated one of the above points by accident? Sorry... There is no such thing as "an accident" (although Google has been rather forgiving for innocent transgressions). You must be aware of the key points that could get you into trouble. Here are some other key points, paraphrased/summarized for you... no other content-targeted advertisement(s) on the same Web page where an Ad Unit or any Ad is displayed no ads on search results page, error pages, thank you pages, chat pages -- see Prohibted Uses paragraph in Google AdSense Terms no messing with Google's code -- just copy-and-paste no cutting out "Google the middle man" the FAQ (now called AdSense Support) is considered part of the agreement... https://www.google.com/support/adsense no tricks/no cheating you cannot divulge results publicly (except for the size of your payments -- you may reveal the size of your check publicly, as of March/2005) Legally, there's some nasty $500/hour lawyer-speak stuff in there. Practically, you have nothing to worry about, if you play honestly. But do read it all and understand it -- the above is just my opinion, not legal advice. AdSense Support is Google's name for their FAQ and the official home of AdSense Support. They pull "AdSense Support" onto one printable page, which they still call the FAQ... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/index.py?fulldump=1 I suggest you print and read it. It's a superb cure for insomnia. And if you tend to worry about privacy issues, don't miss this... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/topic.py?topic=146   AdSense Payments are made 30 days after the end of each month if your balance is over $100. The payments section is now located in the "My Account" tab in your AdSense control panel. You can now choose to be paid in your home country's currency. So you receive a check that is easier to cash in 43 countries! Benefit from reduced bank charges and shorter clearing times. Sign up from the Payment Details section of your new My Account tab. You will also find different payment options in your control panel. Check - Standard Delivery Check - Secured Express Delivery ($30.00 Processing Fee) learn more BETA Electronic Funds Transfer (15 countries) -- EFT directly deposits your AdSense earnings into your bank account, in your local currency, to greatly speed up and simplify the payment process. You can also request that your payments be held right in your AdSense account (previously, you would have to e-mail AdSense to get this done). Here is the Payment Guide for getting paid... https://www.google.com/adsense/payments And here is the Payments section of the AdSense Support center... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/topic.py?topic=136 STEP 6) Happy with all the legalese? Good. It's time to agree to the Google AdSense Online Standard Terms and Conditions (or reject it if there's something you just can't live with). STEP 7) Place your ads on your page(s) by copying and pasting the AdSense code -- this works for SBIers using SiteBuilder AND also for SBIers using HTML Editors like DreamWeaver, FrontPage, etc.   (Details below on how to do this best). Are you fully HTML-comfortable? Want to get off to a quick start, now, and fine-tune later? Click here for Google's Quick Start Guide. Up to now, Google AdSense has been all about placing context-sensitive ads on your Web site. That is now "half the story" -- this half is called "AdSense for Content." Full technical details for implementing this are at... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/topic.py?topic=157 The other half is called "AdSense for Search"... AdSense for search is new and little known, and poorly understood. And it is also monstrously important. Let's simplify... Basically, you can put Google's Search box on your site. You get paid when people click on the Google AdWords that are shown in the Search Results page. The overview for "AdSense for search" is at... https://www.google.com/adsense/ws-overview You are automatically eligible for this. There is no need to apply again when you are accepted as an AdSense partner. All you have to do is subscribe for it. Once you do that, you'll notice a new navigation tab called "Search Settings." Implementation is straightforward. You can set it to open a new Search Results page, allowing users to search without leaving your site. And you can even customize that Search Results page for your site's Look & Feel! But please notice that you are not allowed to alter their code... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=10001&topic=158 Other details are at... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/topic.py?topic=144 "AdSense for search" provides useful information for your visitors and a new revenue stream for you. And when useful functionality for your visitor earns you additional income... it's all good! How good? Monstrously good!... Click here to see how to get the most out of "AdSense for search." STEP 8) Start earning almost immediately. Yeeee-haw! STEP 9) Check the Reporting stats. Although Google won't reveal what your share of the advertising revenues are (although, at this point, it certainly appears to be quite generous), you do earn revenue each time a visitor "clicks" on one of the ads displayed on your site. You can log into your account and view... Impressions: The number of times Google's ads have been displayed on your Web page. Clicks: The number of times an ad is clicked. Click-Through Rate: The percentage of times an ad is clicked, out of the total number of impressions. Your earnings: What you've earned from Google so far. SIDEBAR You'll have to calculate your own CPM ("Cost per Thousand" impressions -- M stands for "Mille" which is the french word for "Thousand"). At least for now, Google does not provide that number. It's easy... If your earnings equal $500 for 100,000 impressions, simply divide $500 by 100 -- your CPM = $5, which is not bad. So far, many e-marketers are reporting (confidentially) CPMs far greater (more on this later). Use Channels For Advanced Reporting Google fixed early "reporting" shortcomings by introducing the concept of "channels." Channels give you insight into the performance of Google ads on your pages. By grouping pages into channels, you can compare performance of a banner versus a skyscraper, or track clicks on one group of keyword pages versus other groups of pages, or get results for each individual Web site ( even each individual page) you manage. Now, when you log in for your reports, it's heaven! You'll see page impressions, clicks, and earnings data for individual channels or for any combination of channels. It's easy to set channels. You can set up to a maximum of 50 channels, which is more than enough for most folks (plus another 50 for "AdSense for search" if you choose to implement that). YOU do it, so the flexibility of this system automatically takes care of page-by-page, site-by-site, keyword-by-keyword, format-by-format concerns, all with one simple stroke. Very nice... Channels are defined by a unique tag in your ad layout code. You can add channel code to any of your pages, simply by copying and pasting the appropriate ad code into your Web pages. This will allow you to track performance, and will give you valuable information that will allow you to optimize the performance of AdSense on your site. For more information on channels... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/topic.py?topic=152 Now you can indeed determine which page (you can even define a channel as being a single page), or groups of pages, or which sites, yield the highest Click-Through Rates, and the most money. Take a look at this sample report provided by Google... NOTE: The AdSense HTML ad code is unique for your account and is NOT site/page-specific. You can place the code and run ads on any page or site you own. Let's look at an example of channels in action. Earlier, my daughter, Nori, had put the AdSense code on some of her anguilla-beaches.com pages. Compare the difference in the nature/context/target-market of the ads on these two pages... http://www.anguilla-beaches.com/ http://www.anguilla-beaches.com/offshore-companies.html We suspected that the "offshore" words are worth more than words on the other pages, but a lack of reporting made it impossible to know. Not any more! We assigned the financial pages to a channel called "Financial" (it's good to keep names memorable). And yes, those pages are nice and juicy... big earners. It's great to know because it indicates where to focus more energies. Group your pages to measure anything... different formats, sites, etc., etc. The introduction of "channels" is not only a good one, but the way they've done it is brilliant, putting all the power into our hands to measure whatever we want. SIDEBAR From time to time, I'll use my daughter Nori's anguilla-beaches.com site to illustrate certain points in this article. She writes the site herself. She has earned several multi-thousand dollar commissions on house sales by her favorite real estate agent, many villa rental commissions, thousands of dollars from Google AdSense, sales from her store, etc. But I also use her site as a test tube. While I'm proud of my daughter's efforts, I present anguilla-beaches.com as an example for you to learn from. Her site is a wonderful example of how anyone can take a passion, interest, hobby or knowledge base and monetize it. But SBI! goes far beyond that -- it meets the needs of any small business, and not just content-publishers like Nori. Another example of the usefulness of channels... Google's contextual TEXT ads are generating high Click-Through Rates and income. And according to Google, ads in the skyscraper format tend to "pull" better (especially on the right side of the page) so this is the generally preferred format. And I will show you later how useful it was to prove how a new strategy for ad location, formatting and color led to a three-fold increase in income. Before, there was no way to know for sure which format works best. NOW, there is! Google recently introduced a useful twist on channels... URL channels. The advantages are... easy to set up unlike regular channels, you do not have to change your Ad Code on your Web pages you can track an individual web page, or a directory of pages. For more information about URL channels, click here. Now for the (undocumented) bad news... The URL channel only tracks EXACT URLs. So it does a terrible job with home pages for the following reasons... 1) It won't track "www.your-domain.com/" as a home page. The URL channel feature has been programmed to treat this as a directory. So, instead it tracks all the URLs "in that directory" -- in effect, it tracks and reports on all pages EXCEPT the home page. Many visitors enter or click to that format URL to get to your home page. So this is important. 2) You could get stats for the home page of "www.your-domain.com/index.html." But the URL channel feature has also been programmed to only track exact URLs. So you would miss those visitors that came to "your-domain.com/index.html" (i.e., URL did not contain the "www" subdomain). Recommendations Regarding URL Channels? 1) Use regular channel tracking for home pages. Yes, you'll have to change your Ad Code to include the channel data, but you'll get accurate results. 2) For any other URL, create a channel URL for both the "www version" and the "non-www" version of each URL, if your host treats them the same (most do). For example, create two URL channels to track each URL... "www.your-domain.com/abc.html" and "your-domain.com/abc.html" -- that way, you will get reliable total results for that URL. More Advanced Reporting Google enables you to download all reports in comma separated values (CSV) format. Simply click 'Download CSV file' from your reports page to download the currently generated report. This is great for power users who like to analyze site or channel performance to death, by importing data like this into a database or spreadsheet. Personally, I'm happy with the data Google provides on their site. STEP 10) Questions? Need help? AdSense Support is at... https://www.google.com/support/adsense Contact them at... https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/request.py? E-mails to adsense-support@google.com (general questions or concerns) or adsense-tech@google.com may also get a reply. Google seems to be moving to form-based support, though.
Next: "What If My Site is Not Accepted?"