Google AdSense is one of the various ways to make money online in USA, Canada, Uk, Nigeria, South Africa and other parts of the world. The decision to start a blog is mostly motivated by the idea of making money from Google.
As time goes on, bloggers will discover other means to monetize their blog. The truth is as big as Adsense is, there are even better ways to monetize your website traffic. Selling ads space is not outdated, sales of digital products, referral links; all these are just a few ways that people make money with their blog.
One can deeply tap into the opportunity provided by Google by using social media marketing. It can get better if you know how to use Facebook ads or other social media advertising to generate more traffic. More traffic means more clicks, that is if you are able to optimize your blog.
If you have been using the internet for so long, you might have come across AdSense like I once did. When I found it, I was not particularly interested until I decided to start my first blog.
Starting a blog means I have to know about these online advertising networks and how they work. It was later I realised there are other ways webmasters monetise.
What then is Google Adsense?
Google Adsense is an advertising program run and managed by Google LLC. This program gives bloggers a way to make money from their blog’s content.
Adsense works by fitting adverts to your blog based on targeted countries and keywords.
For instance, if you are writing about a particular niche, says loans. Chances are ads generated on your site will be about loans, banking products and investment.
However, one of the things to consider is that earnings can vary. If you are new to blogging, you may have difficulties with understanding how Adsense works.
Well, for a start, let me try and make it easy for you to understand. Google serves ads on your site using the format you set up. Publishers can choose ads by the site (auto ads), ads by unit or can just decide to use both on the site.
Google auto ads have always been the most used recently for new bloggers. It offers you the best way to earn more on your site. It evaluates your site after you have added one piece of code and place ads where they are likely to generate more clicks.
Ads by the unit are by far the favourite among established bloggers. It offers them choices, those choices come with having to choose between serving display ads, in-feed ads, in-article ads, matched content and link ads. Ads are generated and paid by advertisers.
The advantage AdSense has over other ad networks is that it is trusted and used by over 15 million sites and with Google putting priority in transparency between the publishers and advertisers, one can say it remains the best out there.
How to become a Google AdSense publisher
To get your Google Adsense approved in Nigeria, there are certain steps one must take to have a chance of being approved. Registering is just the easiest part of becoming a Google Adsense publisher. The main job is to understand what Google expects from you, with these guides, you can have a great chance of becoming a Google Adsense publisher.
#1 Find your niche
The common mistake new bloggers in Nigeria make is going after niche they do not enjoy writing about. Finding the right and supported niche remains the most important part of starting a blog.
Finding the right niche ensures you are able to present your contents in a good and orderly fashion. This ensures you are able to deliver content without having to lift from other writers.
It is very important to start with a niche you are most familiar with. You don’t even need to be an expert in this field, you just need to have enough to create compelling content.
For example, someone who is a doctor or nurse will know a great deal about healthy living. A doctor does not need anyone telling him what niche will make perfect sense.
Meanwhile, you can always have multiple niches but sites with a single niche often perform better.
#2 Create a perfect or near-perfect website
Let us be honest. Will you patronize a cyber cafe with no PC and other machines needed to carry out jobs?
It is almost the same with Google except that they are like a supervisor who always ensures that everything is in place for visitors. Google does not care about how beautiful your site is, they just want to make sure that users can find your site very easy to use.
It is on you to ensure that users find your site easy to navigate. Another thing that can increase your chance of being approved is to make available important pages and categories.
This is just part of the steps to getting your blog approved. Do not go yet, blog creation is not the end.
#3 Write great and unique articles
Content is king. To impress google, a well-researched topic with a unique and helpful content to back it up will definitely give you a greater chance of being approved by Google. The word count should not be less than 600 words.
Meanwhile, be sure that articles do not go against Google Adsense Policies. Being useful to a particular set of people does not mean Google will find it worthy to receive ads. Visit google page and learn more about Google Adsense Policies.
However, it is often believed that you need to have several articles on your blog before you can be approved to become a Google Adsense approval. The truth is that no one knows the exact standard Google requires.
We have seen new bloggers having not more than 5 articles on their blogs only to be granted Google Adsense approval. The way Google works is still a mystery even to those who have been around for a while.
For your images, avoid picking any images you come across on google search. You can create yours or check out any of pixabay and pexels.com for copyright-free images.
#4 Check for possible errors
How many times have users been rejected because of broken links or website not found?
It is important to make a few random checks of your blogs before applying for Adsense. Check your blog by entering your blog address into your browser and also endeavour to click on every link within your blog.
When a clicked link comes up with a 404 error or page not found, it means the link to the post is no longer effective or have been modified.
For website not found, contact your hosting for a quick resolution. The danger of having to resubmit your site for approval is that you might need to wait longer. Being prepared can help you avoid it.
#5 Submit your site to Google for Adsense approval
Now that everything is in place. It is time to invite Google to review your site.
To submit your website for Adsense, Go to google Adsense page to get started.
There is not much to do on the site other than entering the URL of your site and other personal details. Always use names as it appears on your government issued ID card as you will still go into another screening process later.
Ensure you supply a valid payment address and also verify your phone number. Again, whatever you do, you do not want to try and outsmart Google.
#6 Make ad space available
After submitting the required details, you will need to paste the code into your site.
This is needed for proper evaluation of your site by Google. There are lots of plugins available to make that easy for you.
Ad inserter and WP insert code are good ones to start with. These plugins can be used to display any kind of ads and also helps you choose where you want the ads to appear.
#7 Wait, work more and wait
Do not take the pillow yet, although you are still going to need one. The waiting period is always a tough period for new bloggers who are still trying to find their feet. Sometimes, it might take just 2 days to hear from Google or even longer.
Do note that reply from Google could come as rejection or approval letter. If you have followed the steps discussed above, you should have no problem in getting your approval.
Sometimes, replies can take longer from Google. Do not panic, just continue making your blog better and exercise patience.
#8 Approved or rejected?
Do you receive, “Congrats! Your site http://www.mydomain.com is now ready to show AdSense ads and start earning?”
If yes! congratulations, you are on your way to earning from the biggest ads network.
Well, if rejection mail is what you got. It can be so disappointing that you think there is not much you can do if Google fails to register you into the AdSense program.
This is not the time to throw in the towel.
When Google sends a rejection email, it will be accompanied with reasons why you are rejected.
If it is because of scrapped contents, delete the article and write original and valuable content. Remember, the memorable influence of great content will help to retain readers. To have the chance of serving ads on your site, you will need to fix whatever the problems are.
How much can one earn from Google Adsense
The amount you can earn on Adsense depends on how much advertisers bid and pay for certain keywords in order for their ads to appear on the search results.
Earning per ad click could go as high as $28.24 or even more on certain keywords. Technology, startup, finance health and insurance blogs are known to have the biggest offer.
Whenever a user searches using the keyword and clicks on your ads, you earn. Publishers get at least 51% of the revenue while Google retains what remains of it. No ads network does better than Google, which is the reason why bloggers always rate Adsense over others.
How to earn massively through Google Adsense
Anyone can earn through Google Adsense. To earn more from your AdSense, understand there is a lot of hard work to be done.
Most niches bring not more than 0.03 to 0.10 but that can be changed if you follow the various steps that will be discussed in this article.
#1. Research keywords and find the right balance
Keyword research is one of the important aspects of blogging, it is the method used in finding the actual keywords that people enter in search engines.
How do you know what people are searching for? This can be very challenging especially when you have no idea of how to go about it.
With tools like ubersuggest and keyword planner, you can get a decent estimation. These tools will give you search volume and traffic estimate of the proposed keywords. Ubersuggest does more by offering you the cost per click of keywords.
Unfortunately, not all keywords can potentially give you decent earnings. Do not make a mistake that most new bloggers make when they started their first blog, research keywords are the key to increasing your Google AdSense earnings.
#2. Traffic is everything
Key to the fact that you need a lot of traffic if you want to earn more. Always go for keywords with more search volume and decent CPC to have a better chance of getting more clicks on your ads.
Meanwhile, the amount you get depends on what your competitors are doing and ads formats. High authority sites with the same targeted keywords will have a better chance of ranking ahead of you.
One thing associated with keywords that have very high CPC is that they tend to have low search volume. You can decide to go for keywords with decent CPC and high search volume or one with that has very low search volume but huge earnings. You can also have both if the competition is not that fierce.
For a blog to rank better, you must be willing to do better than your competitors. Doing better than your competitors will get you into first page.
#3. Target countries with a high cost per click
Are you complaining of receiving large number of traffic but does not reflect on your adsense earnings? It could be you have been targeting countries with very low CPC.
Countries like India and pakistan could get you a large number of traffic especially if you used their searched words. The downside is having to deal with low revenue. If you want more quality traffic, you might need to target tier 1 countries often.
The best countries with highest paying CPC are USA, Uk, Canada, Germany, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, UAE, New Zealand, South Africa, and Marshal islands.
#4 Place your ads in places that will generate more clicks
Placing ads in the right places can increase your revenue. WordPress platform provides you with many areas to place an ad on.
You can decide to place your ads between post, before and after image, after paragraph, before and after excerpt, before and after comments, footer and after paragraph.
Ads between post normally generate more clicks, especially if most of your visitors come from search engines. While your reader keeps reading through your content, it becomes necessary to click the ads especially when it tingles their interest.
Another way to improve your earnings is to put your ads after the featured image. Link ads being placed after images are more likely to be clicked. Link ads will show topics relevant to your content and could be a great way to earn more.
The downside is that it can contribute to a high bounce rate on blogs. If you have great content, you have nothing to worry about.
Nevertheless, when trying to find the perfect places for your ads, ensure you are not littering your page with ads. Most people hate seeing ads especially those aggressive ads. The best way to retain your visitors is to ensure a wide distance between content and ads.
Solving issues should be the main goal, and you want to keep them coming back. When you focus on delivering useful content and a great platform to read through, your earnings increase.
Conclusion
If done rightly, Google Adsense could make you not bothered about other ways to monetize your blog. Whatever you do, avoid anything that might get your account suspended or banned.
Getting traffic from unauthorized sources to increase your traffic could get your account frowned at. Traffic from social media is still as cool as ever.
New bloggers must realise that AdSense is not a quick way to make money, there will be lots of work to put into it. Explore by writing on topics you have control over, make research on the keywords and watch as your revenue grows.
If done right, it is just a matter of time before you start getting paid. Hope you have set up your account to receive your Google AdSense payment?
Happy blogging!
