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Most of the Internet marketing community is at least somewhat familiar with Google Adsense at this point. Google Adsense can be a very lucrative venture for some so a closer look at just what Adsense is is in order.

Google Adsense are small contextual ads that are published on web sites with the consent of the web site’s owner. The ads are created by publishers that are selling products and/or creating brand awareness. The ads that are created are called Adwords and they are also a Google sponsored program.

Google Adwords and Adsense run hand in hand. Every time someone does a search on Google or one of their partner networks and clicks on one of the sponsored ads, then the person who created that ad will pay Google a predetermined price. This is where the term “pay per click” comes from.

Now the beauty of Adsense is that the person who owns or hosts the web site that the Adwords ads appear on will split the amount of money that Google receives from the creator or publisher of the ad. It is a well guarded secret what the percentage of the split is, and it does vary, but for our purposes let’s say it’s 50%.

If a publisher is willing to pay .40 per click for his Adwords ad, then the host of the website that welcomes Adsense can expect to see roughly .20 every time someone clicks on that ad that appears on their site. The other .20 is kept by Google. So basically it is a partnership of sorts between Google and web site owners.

Adsense is shown in the most relevant way possible. What does this mean? Well, probably the best way to illustrate this would be through an example. Let’s say Mary had a website featuring women’s clothing. If Mary wanted to monetize her web site with Google Adsense the ads that would be shown would all be related to clothing, and more precisely, women’s clothing. If a page of her site was dedicated to shoes, then the Adsense ads appearing on that page would be for women’s shoes.

So how is the price per click determined? This is where the Adwords side of the equation kicks in. Adwords publishers bid on keywords. The more lucrative or sought after a keyword is, the more the publisher will be willing to pay for each click. Keywords range anywhere from a few cents to in excess of $50 per click.

It is not very hard to see how someone with a web site that generates a decent amount of traffic can make some nice money by putting Google Adsense on their site. Many Internet marketers will create web sites with specific content for the sole purpose of attracting high paying Adsense ads with top Internet marketers earning in excess of $10,000 a month on Adsense.

Avoiding some of the common mistakes made by affiliate marketers should quickly and easily improve your chances of making affiliate sales. Here are five of the top mistakes:

Common Mistake #1:

Not researching the affiliate program before your start promoting it - it really is amazing just how many affiliates grab the first affiliate program that comes along or signup simply because it has a high commission rate or promote it because every other marketer is also promoting it. If the program does not complement the overall theme of your site, you may find it difficult to convince your subscribers to purchase the product if it does not have anything to do with the area you are targeting.

Common Mistake #2:

Not using your signature file correctly - many affiliates will add a signature file to all of their out-going email messages and message board posts that is totally inappropriate. Twenty lines of text full of affiliate links, is not considered a signature file - it’s usually considered ’spam.’ Try keeping your signature file under five lines with an attention grabbing or intriguing first line.

Common Mistake #3:

Not writing your own ad copy - there’s nothing worse than seeing the same advert all over the Net or in an email message from ten different marketers. How much perceived value will your message have when it arrives and the reader is seeing it for the tenth time? Take the time to tweak the ad to suit your target area and readership before sending it out. Personalize it; make the ad your own.

Common Mistake #4:

Not paying for your own domain name and hosting account - yuck, nobody wants to visit a site that looks like www.somefreeserver.com/thisavenue/overhere/mysite.html with a contact email address of bobsnetbiz@somefreeemail.com. It’s very unprofessional and suggests to your subscribers that you haven’t made any money on-line because you don’t know what you’re doing and are too stingy to spend any money on setting up your business properly. $8.95 a year for a domain name at GoDaddy.com and around $4 per month for a small hosting account won’t break the bank; it may just help to add to the bank in the long run.

Common Mistake #5:

Not capturing your leads before you send them through to the affiliate product site - if you can actually get someone to click on one of your affiliate links and they leave the product site without purchasing, what have you gained? Nothing! Nothing that is, except the expense and/or time to get that one click-through in the first place. Set up a squeeze page so you can capture your lead’s email address before you send them onto the product site. That way, if they don’t buy, you can follow up with them later and try again (and again and again and again). Priceless!

In order to create the most effective ad for your business, you will need to test different versions of your copy and track the effectiveness of where you advertise. Experiment by changing the copy, tweaking the looks, rearranging the layout and testing where you place your ad.

Changing The Copy

Try several different headings for your ad. Just a one word change may have a significant effect on the response rate. Test different versions of your copy to find the most effective wording.

Tweaking The Looks

Change the font style, font sizes, and font colors. Emphasize important words and phrases by placing them in italics, making them bold, changing their color, and highlighting them. Add a border, a different border color and/ or a different border style. Try different combinations of these and find out which combination works best.

Rearranging The Layout

Rearrange the components of your ad to see if it affects the response rate. Add a short testimonial or two to see if that has any effect. Try adding more than one call to action link.

Testing The Placement

Track and test the response rate for your ad. An ad in one
e-zine may result in 100 clicks while an ad in another may only result in 50. You will want to know where you get the best response for your advertising dollars.

You will want to track your ads for these four reasons:

1. To save money.

If you know where you get the best response from, you won’t waste money by advertising on places where you get a poor return.

2. To maximize your profit.

While advertising on one place may bring you a better response than advertising on another, you need to take into account the cost of each ad. If you get 200 responses from one advertising source but each response costs you $4.00, it may be better to advertise on a place where you get 100 responses that only cost $1.00 each.

3. To improve your ads.

By testing different versions of your ad, you will find the most effective one. To obtain a true test of a particular ad, you will need to know how may people were shown your ad, how many people acted on your ad, and the result of that action. (For example, your ad was shown to 1000 people of which 100 clicked on your ad link and 2 bought your product.)

4. To find out what works and what doesn’t.

You will want to know what components of your ad work and which don’t. You can only find this out by tracking different versions of your ad.

While knowing how many people click on your ad and how many sales you make is important, you will want to know how much each click and sale actually costs you. In order to maximize your Return On Investment (ROI) you should monitor the following:

1. How many unique visitors each ad or promotion generates.

2. The number of sales each ad or promotion generates.

3. Which ad or promotion generates the most traffic to your website.

4. The Cost Per Click and Cost Per Sale of each ad or promotion.

5. The Click to Sales Ratio which will show you the quality of the traffic you’re getting.

6. The ROI for each ad or promotion.

You will also want to track where your traffic is coming from. You may get traffic from an e-zine ad, from a forum post and from a banner ad. One of these sources may bring you a significant amount of traffic while another brings you little or no traffic at all. By tracking every ad and promotion you place, you will find out where to direct your advertising efforts, thereby saving you both time and money.

Only about 1% of your competitors track their traffic sources. By tracking your ads, you will gain an advantage over 99% of your competitors. At the same time, you will boost your bottom line as you will no longer be wasting money on useless advertising.