Let's talk about Google. Google is quite possibly the best site online, in my opinion. I've used Gmail and the integrated chat feature now for nearly three years, and I believe it is the best free email service online. I'm now using the Google Desktop, and that alone astounds me with it's usefulness. I can search my harddrive in seconds. What used to take minutes with the MS Search feature now literally shows up in moments. (And of course, time saved is money earned.)
So when I went to build this blog, I wanted to layer in Google Adsense, not just to see if I would pick up some commission that would go toward maintaining this endeavor, but also because I really believe Google is simply the best thing to happen to the internet since Tim Berners-Lee built the first web browser back in 1990. The first book I read on this subject was Joel Comm's incredible resource, The AdSense Code:
I was able to quickly and easily set up an account through Google after reading this book, but not only that, I was able to design a page layout for my blog that heightened the awareness of the ads without sacrificing either the overall aesthetic or overloading visitors with so much advertisiments that the content, such as this very entry, would be lost on them.
And most importantly, the advertisements remain topical to the information being relayed. I know how to build self-generating pages now, that I could implant adsense into, thanks to Joel's book, and I also understand how to drive traffic to sites that can increase things like "CTR," I have a better understanding of how Google determines the pay rate on advertisments, and I even have a handy list of resources online that keep up-to-date information on new techniques one can use with Google AdSense and AdWords.
In part 2 of this topic, I'll be highlighting some of these online references, but for now, I want to leave you with the one I've found the most helpful so far: http://adsense.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
