Adsense: A Free Guide
Adsense is the publisher side of Google's advertising scheme. On the other side from Adsense is Adwords, which is designed for advertisers. This page gives an overview description of how the Adsense (publisher) scheme works.
In the Adsense scheme, Google act as a broker between advertisers and publishers, and make the whole process very simple for both. Advertisers use Adwords to set up campaigns within minutes and spend as little as they want - starting from just a few cents or pennies. In Adsense, the set up for publishers takes a little longer because your account has to be approved by Google first.
Apply
Let's assume that, as a publisher or aspiring professional publisher, you already have a reasonable website with plenty of content. This doesn't have to be anything spectacular - a blog will do - but it is a prerequisite to being accepted in the scheme and making money from Adsense. The first step is therefore to apply to Then you wait, typically for a day or two, for Google to review your site and decide to let you join.
Read the Small Print
Whilst waiting for a decision from Google, it is a very good idea to read the 'Terms and Conditions' and 'Policies' statements. Links to these can be found at the bottom of Google's pages when you sign up. These documents contain a lot of small print: it may be your practice to skip over most small print, but in this case it is vital you read it. Failure to adhere to Adsense terms and policies can get you kicked out, and publishers frequently are, because Google want to maintain the integrity of their scheme.
HTML
Once you have been accepted, you then use their online system to generate some html code that you paste into your pages. As soon as you do this, you can potentially start to earn money.
Optimise
If you have opted for electronic funds transfer, and your bank details are set up correctly in your Adsense account, you could stop at step 3 and do nothing else. From this point on, Google will automatically place adverts on your page, collect the money from advertisers, calculate your share and then deposit the money in your bank account some time later. If you are very lucky, you'll earn a small fortune and be able to retire on a beach.
In reality, you'll probably want to keep developing your site, and you'll also have to do some work to optimise your pages to help realise their earnings potential. By positioning your ads in different places on the page you can make a big difference to your Adsense income. To that end, we have a free online Adsense course and a unique, free-to-use Adsense Simulator to help you find the position on your pages that will earn you the most.