If you were to manually add ads to your website (banners, text ads, etc), you would have full control over all the ads that would appear, since you would be creating all the ads manually.

The thing with Adsense is that you have no choice over the ads that will appear on your website… or do you?

Well, while you cannot manually pick which ads will appear on your website, you can certainly block some of them.

The way Adsense works is the following (simplifying a little bit): Google will read your page, determine what it is about, and then show ads related to those keywords/niches/topics.

However, there might be a certain ad that you don’t like in your site (might have some sensitive content). Or you discover that certain categories give you high earnings, while others don’t. In that case, you might want to block certain ads or categories.

To do that, you need to log into your Adsense account, and click on Allow & block ads in the sidebar (under My ads).

Once you are there, you will see several options

Advertiser URLs

You can decide to block all ads linking to, for example, amazon.com. Or microsoft.com. To do that, simply enter the urls and no more ads linking to that website will be shown.

Make sure to read the print in that page, saying you are not allowed to click on your own ads to find out the destination url.

General categories

Here you can block specific categories (or subcategories). For example, you could block all Health related ads. Or just Pharmacy inside health.

The great thing is that Google shows you how many ad impressions and earnings per category you are making. So if certain category is being shown pretty often, but you are not making much revenue from it, you could try blocking it. This won’t always lead to higher revenue, but it’s definitely worth trying.

Sensitive categories

There are certain categories that you might not like in your website (for numerous reasons). The current list is as follows:

• Black Magic, Astrology & Esoteric
• Cosmetic Procedures & Body Modification
• Dating
• Drugs & Supplements
• Get Rich Quick
• Politics
• References to Sex & Sexuality
• Religion
• Ringtones & Downloadables
• Sexual & Reproductive Health
• Social Casino Games
• Video Games (Casual & Online)
• Weight Loss

So if you don’t want some of them appearing in your site, just make sure you block the categories you don’t like for your site. There are not so many ads in these categories generally speaking, so the goal of this is most of the times not to “spook” your visitors, more than making more money.

There is also what Google calls “Restricted Categories”, which are blocked by default. This will depend on the country you are in; in my case I can see “Gambling & Betting (18+)”. You will have to enable this manually if you want related ads to appear.

Ad Networks

Here you can block specific ad networks from appearing in your site.

Ad Serving

Here you can find different functions that you might want to enable/disable, like personalized ads, third party ads, enhanced text/display ads, etc. I can’t give you any specific suggestions, since I haven’t tested everything, so if you are interested in this area, just do some testing.

(Ah, I forgot to mention: you can disable ads for all sites, or just a specific site)

So the question is, now that you know how to do it, should you block categories/ads, etc?

In my (humble) opinion, your time is best spent creating new (and great) content, or testing placement, ad types, etc., but if you are a test freak, by all means, do some testing and see if your revenue goes up!

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Maybe you think that spying is something for the movies, but trust me, it’s something we all do in the Online Marketing world.

And spying does  not necessarily mean being a “copycat”, ie, copying/duplicating something you see from your competition.

I prefer the word “inspiration”. You can check WHAT others are doing, learn WHY they are doing it, and then improve.

So here is how you would do some “007 Adsense spying”:

Let’s say you come to a site with Adsense ads, and you would like to find more sites that the same user owns (again, not to copy, but just to check what’s working, etc).

First, you view the source code and look for his/her Adsense Publisher id. To do this, look for the Adsense ad code and extract just the part that starts with pub-

It could be something like this:

google_ad_client = “ca-pub-1234567890123”;

With that, you now go to spyonweb.com and enter the publisher id. Then you just click Go! and you will get other sites owned by the same person.

For example, when I entered a specific publisher id (not revealing it here for privacy reasons):

I found out that this person has other 4 domains. So if I know that he/she is successful in building Adsense sites, I can assume that other sites might be profitable too, so I could check at many things like:

• Keywords
• Theme being used
• Ads placing strategy
• Backlinking strategy
• Content strategy

etc.

You can also spy using Analytics Code. For that you need the code that starts with UA, for example: UA-12345678-1 (just a made up example)

If you enter this code at spyonweb.com you will find other sites with the same Analytics Account.

Obviously, not all sites are in the database, so you will not 100% of the results, but you will get a lot of information using this tool.

So after learning how to spy, what can you do to protect your business?

Here  are a couple of suggestions:

Separate your public site (ie, your blog) from your money sites.

Do not use the same Analytics account on your public blog/homepage and in your niche/Adsense sites. Otherwise people can just go to your main, public site, get the Analytics code, and spy on you.

Also, if you are very paranoid, you can use another analytics solution like Piwik.

Same thing but with Adsense.

Ideally, do not put Adsense on your blog (unless it makes you a ton of money)

Common sense

Be a bit private with your business. Do not reveal the urls of your websites in your blog, etc. Now I know it’s great to share information (and you can see I share as much information as I can with my readers), but some things should remain private. You never know who is listening.

So that’s it, hope this was useful and entertaining. You just got your Adsense spy badge 🙂

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In my opinion, Google Adsense is the best paying advertising solution for your site.

It has the highest number of advertisers, and the bids are usually higher than in any other network.

However, it is not the only solution.

Here are some reasons why you might want to use another alternative:

• You like testing
• Your Adsense account has been banned (yuck!)
• Your website does not adhere to the Google guidelines
• Google is the devil and you do not want to get near anything that starts with a G.

For those cases, here are the best alternatives:

Media.net

It gives you access to the Yahoo! Bing Network, meaning lots of advertisers. The downside is that they are a bit strict, and that they need to approve each site you want to place ads on.

Infolinks

They have what is called “In text ads”, meaning they will highlight certain terms in your site and add a link there. It has good reviews, and it’s one of the biggest networks.

Chitika

They are a big advertising network. You can get paid via Paypal, and the minimum payout is $10.

Clicksor

They have multiple ads formats. They won’t approve every single site you submit, so it might be a bit hit or miss. Minimum payout is $50, and pay via Paypal or check

Bidvertiser

You can get paid via clicks or conversions. The advertisers bid on the sites they want their ads to appear. The minimum payout is $10, and you can get paid via Paypal, check or wire.

PopAds

They are specialized in popunders. Approval and account creation is a pretty simple process. The great thing is that you can claim your payment any time you want. If you earn at least $5 a day, you can even get paid daily.

PopCash

Similar to PopAds, they have a ton of inventory in many countries, with desktop and mobile traffic. You can get paid via Paypal, Payza and Paxum.

Vibrant Media

Good company with a catch: your site must receive a minimum of 500.000 page views (not visits) per month, and getting approved is not so simple. They offer different kind of ads, like popups, banners, in-image…

Adversal

A bit less strict than Vibrant, you can get approved if you get 50,000 page views a month. Minimum payout is $20, and they have popunders and other ad formats.

PropellerAds

A very popular network with pop-unders. They sspecialize in the following niches: entertainment, videos/movies, games, dating, finances, software, gambling and more, which to be honest, are not the best friends with Adsense, so if you have a site related to those niches, give it a try.

Amazon Display Ads

They have what they call “Amazon Native Shopping Ads”, where they show contextual ads (similar to Adsense), with Amazon products, based on the keywords of your page. But instead of getting paid per click, you get a commission from every sale (this is good if most people purchase, not so good if they don’t).

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EPC or Earnings Per Click is a simple idea: how much you make (on average) every time someone clicks on one of your ads.

So that means you want to have a high EPC.

Let’s see some tricks / ideas on how to get more money:

Target the right niche / keywords

Some niches pay more than others. Why? Because there is money being spent in them!

At the end of the day, if you earn money with Adsense, that means that there are advertisers willing to pay for those clicks.

Niches like insurance, lawyers, health… tend to pay pretty well (the only problem is ranking  well, of course).

Find profitable keywords

Once you have your niche decided, use a tool to find high paying keywords and write content around those keywords.

Get quality traffic

Make sure your traffic is not junk (SEO traffic is usually good), or Google might decide that your site is not worth getting properly paid.

Try to get people to click on the top ad

Usually, the ad that appears first in your site will be the one that pays the most (per click), so you want your visitors to click on that one.

Geography matters

Clicks from different countries are not worth the same. If most of your traffic comes from countries like USA, Canada, UK, Australia… you will get a higher CPC than other countries where clicks are cheaper.

Use text and image ads

Google will usually display the top paying ad, so if you are using just one of them you might be leaving money on the table

Pro tip:

Connect your Adsense and Analytics account to get all metrics and have better information!

Ninja tip:

Test, test, test! Test everything: placement, colors… there is always something you can improve 🙂

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If you don’t have an Adsense account, the first step is to request approval.

Make sure to follow these tips (all of them) to make sure you get approved.

(I’ve read somewhere that Adsense accepts only 3 accounts out of every applications, so you definitely want to be one of those 3).

By the way, there is no telling how long your application will take to be reviewed, but the norm is around 3 days.

So let’s dive into the things you should do:

Content

• Have a reasonable amount of content (ideally a minimum of 15 posts)
• The content must be unique / high quality. Aim for a minimum of 500-600 words per post
• Don’t use copyrighted images
• Make sure to have these pages created:
  • About
  • Contact (if possible put your name and address)
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms and Conditions
• Your site must be in one of these languages

Design

Use a nice looking design

Make sure your theme is reponsive (ie, looks good on a mobile device)

Domain

Apply using your root domain (not a subdomain)

Ideally, you want your domain to be a bit old (in some countries, like India and China, they require it to be at least 6 months old, but something like 1-2 months should be fine)

Niche

Adsense has a strict policy when it comes to the niche/thematic of your site. These are some of the content types not allowed by Adsense:

• Pornography/Adult materials
• Pirated Content
• Hacking or Cracking Tutorials
• Illegal Drugs/Paraphernalia
• Any Other Illegal Stuff

Other ads / monetization

When applying for Adsense, make sure your site does not have any kind of ads (you can add them later on, once you get approved, as long as it does not break the Adsense TOS)

Other ideas

You must be 18+ to apply for the program

Make sure your traffic comes from reputable sources (SEO/organic traffic being the best one).

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Last week I talked about the 3 ways to make money online (ok, 3 of them)

This week we will focus on Google Adsense, which is one of the easiest ways to make your first $1 online.

This is what you will need:

1. A Website
2. An Adsense account

That’s it! Once you have both, you can place the Adsense ad code in your site and your visitors will automatically start seeing ads.

Bear in mind that in order to apply for an Adsense account, you need to show them the url of your website, so you need to have one created beforehand. I recommend you have some unique articles (not just scraped content). A website with only one page probably won’t work. You want to get accepted the very first time, so make sure to put some work (and love) into it.

How does Google Adsense work?

It’s very simple, you just place a few lines of code in your website, and Google will show ads related to your site’s content.

Every time a visitor clicks on one of your ads, you will get a %of the money Google makes with that click (to be precise, you get 68%).

Not all clicks are worth the same, so a click can range from 1 cent up to 1-2 dollars.

There are several factors that affect CPC (cost per click), I will be talking about those in future articles.

They have both text and image ads. You can select just one of them, or let Google show both. I recommend having both (for advanced users, you can test and pick text ads only if they make you more money on your site).

Assuming you have a WordPress site, the best option is to use a plugin to insert ads. I will describe the whole process in detail in upcoming articles.

So that’s it for today! If you don’t have an Adsense account, make your site look nice, add some useful unique content, and apply for an account here.

If you have an account, well done! It’s time to earn some $$$.

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