OK let me rephrase that – AdSense for newbies as the first form of monetisation is a big mistake.

When you start a blog/site as a newbie the first and foremost thing that should be on your mind is building credibility. Far too often I read about the hype and fluffed up BS telling newbies they can make money online with no effort at all, or at the push of a button or worst still on “Autopilot”. – All these scream false hopes, lies and above all scam – I say run and don’t look back.

So why AdSense is a big mistake for newbies.

First of all you have to understand what and how AdSense works. AdSense is a method of placing advertising on a website/blog served by Google. These are text ads which are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website (sometimes referred to as contextual advertisement). What Google does is look at your site’s content and more so the keywords / key-phrase and then serves up what it believes are more relevant ads – note: nowadays these ads can be banners as well as videos.

The way it works is this: Google runs what is called AdWords campaigns for advertisers, you may have seen these as the first results (usually first 2/3) at the top of the results page and a number of them along the right column. Companies pay Google a certain amount to have these ads appear on those prime locations – it can be as little as 10cents to as high as $25 per click or more depending on the keywords the company bids for. These are the very same adds that are displayed on sites/blogs that participates in the AdSense program.

The mistake newbies make is this: As soon as they start or launch their website they monetise it with AdSense and the placement location sometimes leave a lot to be desired for. As they say first impressions count, if the first thing your visitors see is a site/blog choked up with ads left right and center they will sooner hit the back button making a hasty exit from your site probably never to return. The concept of AdSense is based on your visitors seeing them and hopefully clicking on the ads to read more and you get paid for the click. so how are you supposed to make money if you don’t have traffic to your site/blog?

No wonder so many (as high as 90%) of newbies give up before they even start. The lure of making money is all to tempting, they jump in head first only to be disappointed when they don’t see the promised results. It takes time to build great content sites and furthermore it takes time for your site/blog to become popular with readers that you have the traffic desired to monetise it and AdSense should be the last thing on your mind.

Build your site/blog optimise it, feed it with good relevant content and promote it like crazy. Build credibility and trust and then monetise it. People are far more likely to click on your ads or affiliate links/recommendation if they trust you and trust only comes with time and effort. Don’t be another one of the “Guru’s” statistics falling for the falls promises to make money on the fly with no effort – there is no such thing as “Get rich quick” scheme. If you are setting up a site/blog for the sole purpose of making money online then approach and treat it as a business. It takes time and a lot of effort to make money  and believe you me there is plenty of money to be made – just don’t expect it over night and you will be ok.

With all that said, AdSense is a great program of monetisation and if you get it right then you stand to reap the rewards in hundreds if not thousands of dollars – get it wrong and you will end up being frustrated, give up and leave all that money for someone else to take.