7.1 Writing Content

AdSense works better than just about every other type of online advertisingfor one simple reason: the ads are relevant to the content on your page.Users click on the ads because they find them interesting.

And they come back and click on them again because they find your contentinteresting.

If your site doesn’t have good content, you’re going to struggle to attractusers and links, and you won’t be able to persuade anyone to come back toyour site.

Having the right content then is crucial to having good revenues withAdSense. It’s also crucial to the relationship you have with Google’s indexingmechanism. Remember, Google is a search engine first and foremost. Their purpose is to provide the web user with the best search results for the termsthey are seeking. If you are providing quality content, you have a greaterlikelihood of having your search results come up higher on the page.

Fortunately, it’s also easier than ever to fill your site with page after page ofsticky content, each of which contains ad units and opportunities to earnrevenue.

The most obvious way to create content is of course to write it yourself.Pick a subject you like and pour your heart out. If you know everything thereis to know about video games, you could set up a site stuffed with reviews,news and walkthroughs, and write all the articles yourself. Your AdSenseunits will give you ads related to gaming and as long as they’re positionedproperly and look right they should give you more than enough revenue tofund your video gaming habit and then some. You can do the same thing forany topic you wanted.

But remember, if you’ve created your site to make money, then writing thecontent yourself means that you’re working for that money. When you countyour revenues, you have to factor in the time and effort it took you to makethose revenues.

That’s one of the reasons that many people look for other, easier ways to getcontent around their ads. (The fact that they just don’t like writing is anothergood reason.) Fortunately, there’s plenty of ways of creating effortlesscontent and some of them are even free.

7.2 Making Bucks With Blogs

Writing blogs isn’t exactly effortless, but it is something a lot of people do forfun and because they’re updated regularly, Google loves them. If you’regoing to write a blog anyway, then you should certainly be making moneyout of it.

The biggest challenge when writing a blog is getting ads that give you goodrevenues. Because your entries are going to be talking about all sorts of different things, there’s a chance that you’re going to get ads on all sorts ofrandom topics.

That’s fine, unless your ads are barely giving you enough revenue to pay forthe blog.

If you find that you’re getting lots of ads related to “blogs” for example,instead of what you’re blogging about, you can try changing the meta namein your template. Delete the <$Metainfodata$> tag and replace it with yourown keywords and description:

Make sure that your blog has plenty of keywords and use lots of headlinescontaining key phrases, repeating them throughout the blog.

Above all though, make sure that your blog has plenty of text. It might befun to stuff your pages with pictures of friends, family and pets but Googlecan’t read them and you’ll end up with public service ads instead of revenue.

7.3 Adding AdSense To Your Blog

Not all blog sites use the same template so how you add AdSense to yourblog will depend on the company you’re using.

For users of Blogspot.com, which is owned by Google, you can put the ads inthe template section of the site:

You can see on my own blog at http://www.joelcomm.com/ how I put adsdirectly above my text. http://crayfish-info.blogspot.com/ does the same. Theads here are centered above the

tag and he’s added a
break tagto add a gap between the head and Google and help his ads to stand out.

To do the same thing to your blogspot blog, click “Change Settings” on theDashboard and then click “Template Tab.” Somewhere on the page, belowthe CSS material, you should find a section of code that begins”

Before uploading, check the preview to make sure that the ads are whereand how you want them, then “Save Template Changes” and “Republish” torefresh the blog.

Of course, you don’t have to place AdSense directly above the text. Anotheroption is to embed the ads within the text so that they appear afterparticular entries. That would limit you to three entries per page (if youwanted an ad unit after each entry) but it could increase your click-throughs.

7.3 Volunteer Writers

To use old content, you have to have content in the first place. If you don’thappen to have any out-of-print books that you’ve written lying around —and you don’t feel like writing something new — another option is to askpeople to write for your site for free.

Lots of people like writing. Just look at Amazon. They didn’t pay a penny forall those book reviews. Their users write them for free and Amazon benefits.

When I started www.WorldVillage.com, I didn’t have money to pay thepeople who reviewed software for me. Instead, I contacted the gamecompanies and received complimentary copies of their computer games,which I then forwarded to a staff of volunteer writers. The agreement wasthat they would provide me with a written review of the game and theywould keep the game as payment. I’ve got dozens of game reviews that

bring users to my site and get them clicking on my ads. I didn’t pay a pennyfor them but years later they continue to generate revenue for me.

You don’t have to use reviews though. Whatever the subject of your website,you can add a line asking people to send in their thoughts and comments.You can just say something like: “We want YOU! We want your thoughts,articles and comments. Send your submissions to editor@yoursite.com andwe’ll post them here.”

You can then create a whole new set of pages for your users’ submissionsand put AdSense on each one of them.

7.4 Build Thousands of Pages with Other People’s Content

What is the focus of your web site? Is it all about parenting? Do you helppeople with their finances? Does your newsletter introduce people to newweb sites? Or is your focus on the legal field? Regardless of your niche, youcan benefit from taking advantage of one of the little-known secrets ofAdSense experts… FREE syndicated articles.

Many writers want nothing more than to have their work published and read.Syndicated content is a dream-come-true for writers AND publishers. For thewriter, it exposes their work to a larger audience. And for the publisher(that’s you!), it means more quality content for your site. You might not beaware that there are literally THOUSANDS of articles available online whichyou can easily add to your web site!

Of course, the trick is knowing where to find these articles. Below is a listthat can get you started by showing you where you can find over 30,000articles that are ready to be placed on your own web site.

Please note that each site has its own restrictions and rules for using itscontent. In all cases, you must leave the author’s name and web site linkintact. Some sites require that you also link back to the site where youfound the article. This is critical! Remember that while you are allowed touse the articles on your pages, the content is still property of the author.Please give credit where credit is due!

You may wish to publish articles only relevant to your topic, or you may wishto become a publishing powerhouse, adding thousands of new pages to yoursite. Regardless of how you wish to approach it, here are a few sites thatprovide you with thousands of FREE articles that you can republish on yourweb sites.

EzineArticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com

A fantastic resources featuring over 21,000 articles covering a huge range of
topics. However, they do have a limit of 25 articles/year for each site. Look
through the categories and you can select some gems.
DotComWomen.com

http://www.dotcomwomen.com/free-content.shtml

Nice selection of articles targeting women.
John Watson
http://members.tripod.com/buckcreek

John offers his stories for site owners to enjoy and place on their sites.
ValuableContent.com
http://www.valuablecontent.com/

The site name delivers as promises. Dozens of categories with hundreds of

articles for you to publish. Marketing, business, humor, internet, legal,
computing, sports, travel and many more.
Patricia Fripp
http://www.fripp.com/articleslist.html

Patricia Fripp is a businesswoman, marketer and motivational speaker. Her
site offers over one hundred articles perfect for any business-oriented site.
ArticleCity.com
http://www.articlecity.com

This one is a source of articles that will keep you busy for weeks on end.ArticleCity offers over 12,000 articles that you can place on your site. If thetopic exists, you can bet that this site will have an article on that topic. Irecommend spending a great deal of time selecting articles for your sitehere.

Want to find more? Simply do a Google search for "free articles" and seewhat turns up. Fine tune your search for your topic to find articles relevantto your site, such as “free parenting articles” or “free financial articles”.

Now that you know where to find free content, you can build hundreds orthousands of keyword relevant pages and place your AdSense code on themto generate more revenue.

7.5 Add Public Domain Works To Your Site

One of the best kept secrets of free content comes in the form of PublicDomain works. Basically, these are books, articles, recordings and pictureswhose copyrights have expired. Since they have not been re-registered witha copyright, they enter the public domain. What does that mean? It meansANYONE (including you) can publish, re-publish and/or sell the works withoutpaying a commission to anyone!

Think about this. You can build a site with HUNDREDS of pages just bypublishing one public domain book on your site! Think of all the AdSenseimpressions you can deliver. The possibilities are endless.

I have two sources that you will want to investigate to find Public Domainworks that you can begin using immediately

Idea #1 — Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free electronic books on theInternet. Their collection of more than 15,000 eBooks was produced byhundreds of volunteers. As of this writing, the top 10 most popular works onProject Gutenberg are:

1. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci by Leonardo da Vinci

2. Project Gutenberg "10K" DVD

3. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett

4. The Art of War5. Ulysses by James Joyce

6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

7. Project Gutenberg "Best Of" CD August 2003

8. How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin

9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

10. Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

Check out their entire library at http://www.gutenberg.org/Please note that while you may republish these works on your site,you are not allowed to resell the works themselves.

The downside of using works from Project Gutenberg is that hundreds ofother people may already be using them. You might opt for less popularworks in order to get better search engine placement.

Idea #2 – The Lost Files

Created by Russell Brunson, The Lost Files is asubscription-based service that provides the latestworks to enter the Public Domain. In other words,he keeps you posted of new books and articlesbefore everyone else gets their hands on them!

Here is a list of some titles available to members:

* How To Develop Self Confidence
* How To Draw and Paint
* Guide To Bowling
* What Character Does Your Handwriting Reveal
* How To Develop Perseverance
* How To Become A Speaker
* Dreams Interpreted
* How To Play Tennis
* Hints On Writing Short Stories
* How To Make Money
* Strength From Eating
* How To Study The Bible For Greater Profit
* The History Of Music
* How To Make and Use A Home Radio
* How To Write A Hit Song And Sell It

I have subscribed to this service and plan on testing some new public domain
works on one of my sites. You can read more about The Lost Files at
http://www.adsense-secrets.com/thelostfiles.html

7.6 AdSense In RSS Feeds

One of the biggest changes to take place on the Internet recently has beenthe growth of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. These let subscriberssee when a site has been updated and sends them information instead ofwaiting for them to come to the site to see it for them selves.

The good news is that Google is starting to put AdSense ads in RSS feeds.

The system is new and Google is still testing it as I’m writing this book but ifyou’ve got an RSS feed on your site (or want to set one up) and you’ve gotmore than a hundred subscribers, your site can join their team of Beta testers.

There seems to be little room for tweaking the ads, although it’s a safe betthat the same principle of blending the ads into the page would apply asmuch here as on a Web page. At the moment though, the ads only appearafter the content, at the bottom of the URL. You can apply for the program athttp://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/aff

Alternatively, if you don’t want to be a Google guinea pig, Kanoodle is aheadof them. You can use their program athttp://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool