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As a successful web publisher looking to get to the next level, you are probably thinking about trying a number of different approaches to increasing revenue – especially your passive revenue, the money that just “shows up” from time to time while you focus on other things. You may be considering various forms of internet advertising. And you should.

Internet advertising has exceeded all expectations. The technology keeps advancing, and the popularity and ubiquity of the medium is incredible. Most companies can benefit from the Internet because it allows the chance to reach a global audience at never-before-possible speeds, with many kinds of filters to make sure the right audience sees the right message, and costs that are often surprisingly low. But many businesses make money online in ways that have very little to do with their own actual business, but with systems that connect various companies and offerings together.

The secret is that taking ads is a much more profitable strategy then placing ads for most websites. And the best way to make money with this right now is “hiding in plain sight” from the world’s most popular search engine company.

While there are many ways to approach online advertising, it makes sense the best would be offered by the ultimate search engine company, the company that is setting out to organize all of humanity’s vast amounts of information – Google. This method is Google Ad Words, and it’s sister program, Google AdSense. With Ad Words, Google makes a lot of money. With AdSense, web publishers – that’s you! – can reach a lot of people and make money too!

First let’s examine what AdSense is and how it works.

Google AdSense is an ad-serving program that places ads that “make sense” – specifically, that make sense based on relevant content, and assumptions about who might be interested in that content. AdSense is an application of the broader concept of Contextual Marketing. Contextual Marketing is just what it sounds like. On a website about custom cars, you might have an ad for fancy wheels or car care kits. On a website about off-roading, you might have an ad for durable truck tires or spotlight rigs. A hockey site might advertise hockey sticks…and a tennis site, tennis shoes. Contextual Marketing just means aligning the ad serving with the context/nature of the website and its audience, the same way like items are grouped in a store. And the “context” can be cut much finer than website level, it can be page level, article level, and so on, so the ads always match the material they are appearing near, and thus, appeal to the interest of the reader/buyer at any given moment.

So what’s in it for you – the website publisher/owner? That’s easy. Every time a visitor to your site clicks one of these ads, you make money. The better the ads are targeted, the more clicks you get, the more money you make. AdSense displays easy-to-read, text-based, relevant ads that don’t overshadow the content of your website or annoy visitors. Actually, you have seen hundreds of these ads yourself, as you’ll realize in a moment.

Today there are probably only a few places in your website that can directly make you money, if any. The magic of Google AdSense is this: It allows you to earn money through every page of your website. On top of that, with algorithms used to align ad content with page content Google automatically selects and displays ads for your website that are likely to generate the highest revenue for you.

Google currently offers three programs: AdSense for content, AdSense for search, and Premium AdSense.

AdSense for content

AdSense for content is the main AdSense program – contextually targeted ads are displayed on your webpage, and you get paid for every click. These ads are specifically targeted to the content of your webpage. Consequently, if you change the content of your page, the ads that are displayed would also change. AdSense allows you good control over what ads get served, since there might be some obvious problems if it didn’t. These include:

Blocking Ads – you choose

While the ad selection is automatic, you can block unwanted ads – such as those from your competitors. You just tell Google which companies to block from your sites.

Reviewing And Filtering Ads – semi-automatic

Google has its own strict policies for ad content (no profanity, no racial discrimination, etc). These are filtered out automatically from your point of view. Additionally, you can choose to block additional content through custom filters. This is slightly different than blocking an advertiser, since with this method an advertiser you generally allow may submit ads that would individually be filtered out.

Allowing The Publisher To Select An Ad

In the rare case where Google’s content engines can’t make a clear match of ads to pages, they will let you pick which ads you want served. If you don’t pick, you’ll get public service spots.

The look-and-feel of Ads Can Be Customized

Ads shouldn’t look out of place or be jarring on your website. Google allows you to customize colors and layout. You can choose options provided or have your own custom layout and color applied to the ads. The advertisers have no control over this; as the material appears on your site, you can and should select how it looks.

Tools For Analysis

Tracking and analyzing the performance of any marketing campaign is critical. Google AdSense provides a range of comprehensive online reports that allow you to monitor and analyze your earnings as well as the performance of ads by many metrics, including size, color, and so forth, so you can make adjustments to maximize the value of the placements.

AdSense For Search

This is another program whereby Google allows you to ad a Google Search box to your website. By doing this, visitors to your site can search the entire internet from your website itself. In a way, your site becomes a host to Google. Except you make money!

The search results page that is displayed when a visitor on your website searches through the search box on the site itself, also displays Google Ads (AdWords ads) next to the usual listings, just as it would on Google.com. If the visitor clicks on any of these Google Ads, you get paid as well. Thus, with AdSense for search you can enhance your income potential beyond what just the content of your actual site can provide.

AdSense for search offers all the same options and controls as AdSense for content. These include ad customization, ad filtering, monitoring and tracking results, and so on.

Google AdSense Premium Service

The AdSense Premium service provides advanced functionality and features, provided your website qualifies for it – which in fact very few sites do.

As a base requirement, your website should received at least 5 million search queries or 20 million page views a month to qualify for the Premium service. (We’re betting if your sites qualify for this level of service, you already know all about AdSense!)