Google AdSense is one of the products provided by the technology giant Google Inc. AdSense is basically a code that can be input into a website in order to display advertisements provided by Google for revenue generation. AdSense is an excellent tool for bloggers and webmasters to increase revenue and make money out of the audience that they have been gathering. The problem however s that many webmasters are not aware of how to use this excellent tool in the most effective manner. Some may not optimize their site and content while others might just place it in a less effective position. Google has specific guidelines that websites must follow before they allow you to place AdSense code onto your site. Basically, they want to make sure that the content on the website is of value and that the ultimate objective of the blog or website is not revenue generation resulting in spammy, low quality content.

Getting Started

Essentially a Pay-per-click program, AdSense allows web owners to earn money based on each click they are able to obtain on the ad. There are ultimately 4 parties involved in the entire process including Google AdSense, the Webmaster, the marketer and the user/potential customer.

Placing HTML Code

In order to run AdSense on the website, you will be required to pace a provided code onto your website. Placement is of crucial importance when it comes to revenue generation. If you place the code in an obscure location where users are likely to overlook it amongst clutter form other links or content, you will not stand to gain much from the AdSense code.

The provided code is added by editing the HTML code of the website. The first step is to visit the AdSense account and clicking on ‘My Ads’. From there you will have to follow the path of ‘Content > Ad units > new Ad unit.

Once you’ve clicked on ‘+ New Ad Unit’, you will be directed to name the new ad and select the size and type of the ad that you wish to add to your website. The drop down menu for ‘size’ will reveal a number of options for the orientation and dimensions that you can add to your website.

In case of Ad types, you will see the following options;

Click on ‘Save and Get Code’ to proceed to the next step.

Return to Site

At this point, you will need to return to the site and edit the source code of a web page. If you manually created the site, you will be able to place it wherever you wish. Alternatively if you’re using a blogging platform such as ‘Wordpress’ which uses a WYSIWYG editor, you’ll need to click on the ‘Source’ button on top and enter it within the code.

Blogs can be differentiated in many ways.  Some of them are:

Genre of the blog:  Depends on which topic a blog addresses.  So we have Political blogs, Technology Blogs, Religious blogs, Fashion Blogs, Music blogs, Humor blogs etc.

Bloggers involved: Blogs could also be Personal blogs (which are about personal life and thoughts); Individual blogs (Blogs on different topics by individuals); Group blogs (Blogs by a group of individuals); Public Blogs (where the public at large writes and shares information and content on a certain topic).

Blog Media: Blogs can also be classified by the media used for them.  Blogs using videos as the medium to share content are known as vlogs.  Blogs which share photographs or images are known as photoblogs.  Blogs which share audio content are audioblogs.

Hosting of the blog:  Blogs could be self hosted or hosted on public hosting provided by different blog application providers.  The Self Hosted blogs usually use applications like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla for their websites and these are hosted by the blogger on their own servers or server space bought from the hosting companies.

The companies which provide hosted blogs – so blogger doesn’t have to deal with the hosting technicalities – provide the blog application on a cloud.  The different options are:

WordPress.com – This is the cloud hosted application from WordPress guys.  They provide a basic free alternative, and quite a few of premium features including some really cool themes.

DrupalGardens – This is the cloud offering from the Drupal folks.  One issue with a self hosted Drupal installation is the complexity of upgrading the core and the installed modules.  This cloud installation obviates that.  It has great features and also ability to customize the theme template.

Blog Platform:  Blogs are created on various platforms today.  The most popular platforms are.

Self Hosted: The self hosted blogs generally use the WordPress (from WordPress.org), Drupal (from Drupal.org) and the new entrant Ghost (from Ghost.org)

Hosted/Cloud Blogging:  We have already talked about the options for cloud or hosted blogging

 

 

 

Blogs are personal conversations gone public using a digital platform.  People share, converse, discuss, debate, opine, educate and critique the world around them and their own lives with others.  Following is a good way to put it.

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules. (Blogger)

A blog gives you the power of articulation.  A “Voice”, as it were.  And, as the ability to share grows, it is no longer enough to speak, but to speak in a way that is effective and promoted.

Blogging as an activity requires one to handle some technical areas, while expressing the creativity.  A lot of these technical work can be outsourced.  But some of it can be handled easily by all.  We will take you step by step to show how it is done.  From registering a domain name to creation of a blog to theming it and finally to keep it running.