Getting started with Adsense

One very important element in the rapid adoption of AdSense is that it has been very easy for publishers to get ads on their site as quickly as possible.

Integrating AdSense into your website only takes a few minutes, and you can be on your way with one or more nicely integrated AdSense ads. 

The first thing you need to do is go to http://www.google.com/adsense and apply or log in with your existing account and password. The next page presents the Google AdSense terms and conditions, which you must agree to in order to proceed.

You are presented with a report page, which you can use to get a detailed status of your AdSense advertising. This allows you to improve the content and layout of your site to maximize your AdSense revenue.

At the top of your page, you also have a link to the configuration section where you can generate the code that should be pasted on your website in order to have AdSense banners on your page.

You can use AdSense for text (the so-called ads), using a search field or with references. Your choice among these options depends on how users will navigate your site.

Finally, there is a "My Account" tab that allows you to set up your account details, payment information and taxes.

To add a text ad to your site, go back to the "AdSense Setup" tab and click on the "AdSense for Content" link. Make sure cookies are enabled in your browser.

You can choose between ad units and link units. The former contain text and or images about a certain site for each unit, most of them with a detailed description, the latter contain only links to certain types. 

Of course, it's a bit difficult to know which type you should use, so you should probably experiment with both before deciding.

You can also see an example of how the unit looks on the right side of your page. However, you can only use three ad units and one link unit on a given page. This is believed to be a quality control measure by Google.

The next step is to choose the format and colors of your ad. You can choose any color scheme and Google offers a few if you don't have the time or skill to create one. You can constantly visualize how the palette looks with an example. The one that works best in terms of appearance and revenue varies depending on the look, feel and content of a website. 

However, your ad formats are limited to a choice of eleven formats. An "Ad Formats" link takes you to a page that allows you to see them all in action to determine which one is best for your site. Sometimes the most intrusive format is not the most effective, but again, this can vary from site to site.

Once you have completed the customization, you can click "Continue" at the bottom of the page.

This will take you to a section called "AdSense for Content". You can click anywhere in the text and it displays the JavaScript needed to run AdSense. The text is then automatically selected in the area. 

You can then copy and paste it directly into your pages. If you are using dynamic pages, you need to paste this code into your template to ensure that it is displayed on all pages of your website. Some advertisers choose not to display Adsense on every page, which is understandable. For example, a company that offers Adsense may also have terms and conditions that inevitably provide legal resources that would probably be deemed inappropriate.

What you then have to do is get content on your page (assuming you don't have any already). The Google AdSense crawlers will soon visit your site, making sure that the ads displayed are relevant to the content on your site.

And that's it. For a simple page, this should indeed only take a few minutes, which is precisely what makes AdSense the choice of so many people. Although it is fast, its appeal to the general public also makes it the best. Since it is the most popular, advertisers and publishers consider Adsense and Adwords as their natural first choice.