If you have a website and don't mind displaying ads that relate to your website's content, you can earn a decent income with Google AdSense. Every time someone clicks on one of the ads on your site, you make money. It's not a bad gig for doing absolutely nothing.
Here are the new enhancements Google has added to the AdSense program:
1) Channels: It used to be hard to tell which ad layouts and webpages were performing the best. Google added what they call "channels" to make it easy to track which ads on which pages of your site are receiving the most clicks. To start using channels, you'll need to set them up from within your Google control panel and then paste the code on your webpages. You can set up to 20 channels and deactivate them at will. You can also assign channels to multiple domains if you run ads on them, in order to track performance of each. If you like to test and track, you'll love using channels.
2) Downloadable Reports: If you want to easily track your monthly and daily income, you can download detailed reports in comma separated values (CSV) format. These reports can be viewed from within Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet programs.
3) Public Service Ads: When Google can't serve up targeted ads for your website, PSA's are shown. These are ads for non-profit organizations. Nothing is paid for click thru's on public service ads, so you may wish not to display them at all. This can be done by using Alternate Ad Color. By selecting your web page's background color, the "PSA's" will blend into the background instead. You can set different options for each page of your site or use your own alternate ads in their place.
4) Framed Pages: If you use frames within your site design, you'll want to make sure you select the "framed page" checkbox. By selecting this option you'll be telling Google's spider to gather content from the right frame, thereby insuring relevant ads are appearing.
5) Image Ads: If you're bored with serving up plain text ads, you can now choose to display images as well. Image ads are just like the text ads, as they are matched to the content of each page. You cannot run image ads alone; they are shown in rotation with text ads. If this option interests you, there are currently four sizes available: Banner (468x60), Leaderboard (728x90), SkyScraper (120x600) and Medium Rectangle (300x250).
It makes you wonder if Google is trying to make banner ads "fashionable" again. At this time, you cannot track click thru's from image ads separately from text ad click thrus. Images are limited to 50K in size and should not increase your load time too much. If you'd like to test the waters with image ads, you can select to display them on only some pages of your site.
Google's Adsense program is loaded with features and they make it possible for everyone (even the "little guy") to profit from his website. Once the code is in place, you do nothing while your site is quietly earning an income in the background. Imagine, your web hosting fees automatically paid each and every month. Isn't it time your site started paying for its keep?
Merle has been "working" the Net for over 8 years and has a Special Gift just for you. Download my FREE E-book "50 Easy Ways to Promote Your Website". Get your copy now at http://www.WebSiteTrafficPlan.com
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included.