Why Content Is Critical To Ad Targeting: A Look Into Making Money Online with Google Adsense

Today I'm going to be writing about something different. Google Adsense is a program that allows you to monetize your content by giving you money every time someone clicks on a sponsored ad on your site. Here at HubPages, we're allowed to use Adsense, as long as we respect the Terms of Use of both Google and HubPages. Of course, a lot of people use Adsense, but not everyone uses Adsense, if you know what I mean. If you're not sure, well, that's what I'm here to talk about.

Keep in mind that, while my emphasis may be on specific niches of Adsense monetization (such as article marketing as that's what I'm best at) a lot of what I'm going to say in this article is universal, as you'll probably pick up on pretty soon.

So, scroll past that Google logo and start reading! :)

Google loves to use that phrase, and it's one we've adopted here at HubPages as well. Seriously, quality will always trump quantity. Not including this Hub, I have 82 videogame related articles on this site. The ones that were slapped together with little regard to quality are lucky to have 100 lifetime views. Others I have researched before-hand (whether by playing the game myself or reading up on it) have many more views. My best article has 4755 lifetime views as of the time of this writing (I'll leave you to figure out which one it is, because I'm naughty like that. :P).

Google isn't blind to what you do with your articles either. If you put together a sloppy 100 word hub, you will be punished for it with a low PageRank. Likewise, if you put in a visible effort with an elaborate, but concise, article, you will be rewarded with traffic. Lots of it, in some cases. If you want to read about a success story from this very site, go check out Misha's profile once you're done reading this hub.

So, some tidbits to make a Google-worthy article:

• Quality over quantity! Keep spelling and grammar mistakes to a bare minimum. If you're not fluent in the language you're writing in, use a spell-checker. Heck, use a spell-checker anyways, just in case.
• You can ask ten people: "How many words should my article have?" I can guarantee you that all ten will give you a different response. In my personal opinion, two-hundred (200) should be a bare minimum. As you become more experienced in writing articles, you'll probably figure out the sweet spot that's somewhere in between "too long; didn't read" and "so short, yet so pointless".
• Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. This is particularly important if you're looking to monetize your content. Writing articles targeted towards certain keywords is known as Search Engine Optimization (or SEO for short). Some people swear by it and won't write anything without consulting a keyword tool, while others don't care. I use SEO for some articles, but I let my mind wander for others, which brings me to the last bullet of this section...
• Some people say: "Write about what you know." I say, "Write about what you love!" What's the point in writing about something that doesn't give you the warm and fuzzies? That'll just lead to burnout eventually.

I understand it's hard not to get frustrated when you're so heavily invested in trying to make something work, and it all falls apart. Well, Google Adsense is just like life in that respect. You need to realize that, unless you've found some way to cheat the system (which I don't recommend, while I'm on that train of thought, since it's bannable), you'll probably have ups and downs. You may make $2.70 in one day and then have a three-day streak of 5 cents or less. You might make $100 this month and then go on to make that much total in the next three.

While your profits may not be consistent, you need to be. As long as you keep producing quality, you will be rewarded for it eventually.

As the saying goes: It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog!

(Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!)

Here's another life lesson that fits in perfectly with Google Adsense. As I've mentioned already, content is king. If you have quality content, the pageviews, traffic, and riches will all follow. Some people try to build up a huge network of backlinks, and I can tell you right now that, unless said backlinks are contextually appropriate and located on high ranking sites, you're setting yourself up for failure.

There's a little dirty secret most people don't know about related to Google, which is a result of their efforts at trying to stop people from cheating the system blatantly. The secret is: Google will penalize you if your PageRank goes up drastically all of a sudden for no good reason. Realistically, if your internet footprint up to that point in time is virtually invisible, it is pretty darn suspicious if, all of a sudden, you have a PR7 (PR is short for PageRank; the number goes from 1 to 10, the higher the better) or higher site. Around the net, this Google mechanism is called "sandboxing". So, think about it a bit before you start trying to mess with the system; it's not worth it.

Granted, I've seen people force their way out of Google sandboxes, which is pretty darn impressive, but it's a waste of time and energy usually.

Here we are. After talking to you a little about what you shouldn't do with Adsense, I'm going to talk about why content is critical to ad targeting. In other words, I'm going to tell you how you're supposed to use your content to leverage Adsense effectively, without cutting corners.

Basically, Google sends a bot (an automated program, not a real mechanical bot. :P) out to sites it wants to index. That's how it determines what PageRank to give you and, more importantly (at least in this case) what ads to serve on said sites.

If you have a site about making money online, for example, and you have Adsense activated for your website, then Google is going to serve you ads related to making money online. Of course, if the content on your site is all over the place (such as one paragraph talking about money and the next talking about your first-born), then you're going to get the poor Googlebot confused. It'll probably proceed to serve something completely unrelated to what you're intending, which can be good for laughs or frustration, depending on how you look at it.

Also, do keep in mind that if your site is incredibly new (say about less than a week old), you may have ads that have nothing to do with your content even if you have perfect SEO skills. That's normal, since it takes a bit for the Googlebots to figure out what they should be putting on your site.

So, basically you want to have high-quality content that will allow Google to target the right ads for the niche you're writing in.

So, in summary, I've talked a little about how Google Adsense works, why high-quality content is essential to ad targeting and why you shouldn't give up, even if it seems that Adsense isn't making you any money.

Feel free to give your thoughts and feedback on this article in my comments section. If you feel I left something key out, go ahead and mention it and I'll see if I can squeeze it in there somewhere. ;)

Until the next time, take care and have fun! ;)

-Winterfate

If you have stumbled upon this page and are not a member of HubPages, AND you want to write about virtually everything, then feel free to sign up by clicking any part of this sentence!