Information On Blogging - Can You Earn Money From A Blog?

Blogging is very popular these days for a lot of different reasons. It's fun to be able to write about something, or share information with people from all over the world. A blog on a topic that has a large number of interested readers has the potential to generate some extra income for you (If you know how to monetize these visitors). A very popular method for generating some money from your blog is to use Google Adsense.

Use Adsense Ads On Your Blog

One of the most popular methods for making some extra income from your blog is to put "adsense" on it. Adsense is Google's contextual advertising system, which allows you to position ads on your blog which are relevant to the content of your blog. When a visitor to your blog clicks on one of these adsense ads you get a portion of the income generated.

The amount you receive will depend on the keywords that you use on your blog, which Google uses to ensure that the adsense ad matches the blog's content.

You first need to sign up for an adsense account ,which is free. Enter "set up an adsense account" into your favourite search engine, and follow the simple instructions for creating an account. It is a good idea to have your blog already up and running, with some good content in place, before signing up to Google's adsense program.

Blend Them In

Once you have signed up, you will recieve your adsense account. This account will allow you to login, and you can then generate an adsense ad. When you generate the adsense ad, you choose the ad format (i.e. whether the ad will be a 'header' at the top of your blog, or a 'footer' at the bottom, or a 'side-bar' at the edge of your blog). Next you have to choose how your ad will look. Your adsense account gives you a lot of options for choosing the colour of the text, the background colour etc.

Once you have decided on the format of your ad, you then save this, and Google will give you an adsense block of html code that you then add to your blog.

It is highly recommended to try and match the text and colours you select in the adsense ad, to blend in with the 'look and feel' of your blog. The reason for this is you don't want your adsense ads on your blog to look like ads - if you spend some time choosing the colour and format of your adsense blocks you should be able to blend them into your blog, making them look less like ads, and increasing the likelihood of your readers clicking on them.

Adsense And Blogger

The method that you use for adding the adsense ads to your blog will depend on the type of blog you have:

If you are using Blogger for your blog, then adding the adsense blocks to your blog is super simple.

You just login to your blogger account, and click on the 'add a page element' link, where you want your adsense ad to be located. Next a window will be displayed 'choose a new page element' - you simply select the 'Adsense' option and then click on the 'add to blog' button. You then choose the size and formatting for your adsense ad, and click on 'save changes'.

You should now see a adsense page element on your blog. There is a limit to the type and number of adsense ads you can add to a blog (make sure you read the Adsense terms of service, to ensure that you do not exceed this limit)

Adsense And Wordpress

If you are using Wordpress for your blog, then there are a number of different ways to add the adsense code. You can download a free adsense plugin, that allows you to add the adsense ad to your blog.

Alternatively, just use this simple method:

Log into your Google adsense account and generate the adsense ad (ensure you match the ad text and colours, so it will blend in with your blog). After you have done this your adsense account will generate the html code for the ad (which you will need to insert into your Wordpress blog).

To add this code to your Wordpress blog:

• Login to your Wordpress blog as administrator.
• Click on appearance.
• Select Widgets.
• Select the sidebar, header or footer where you would like the adsense ad to appear.
• Click add text widget.
• Click on edit widget.
• Enter a caption (something of your own choice).
• Paste your google adsense code (that you generated in your google adsense account) into the text area.
• Click done, and save changes.

You should now be able to see ads from Google appearing in the adsense block where you added the code (i.e. the header, footer or sidebar)

Wait For Acceptance

Although adsense ads will start appearing on your blog, these will initially be public service ads that do not pay any revenue when clicked. You have to wait for your Google adsense application to be approved before Google will start serving up contextual ads in the adsense blocks on your blog, which will generate revenue for you when clicked on. This is why it is important to have set up your blog and have some good content in place before applying for a Google adsense account.