| Google AdSense programs: Choose your weapon(s)!
Google currently (mid 2005) 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:
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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
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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!)
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How much can I make with AdSense and
how do I get started?
You’ve seen the nutty claims by so-called “internet experts” that strategies and
programs they have devised enable surfers to earn thousands of dollars within a
matter of days! Or minutes!! No such thing.
However, there are several lucrative programs that can provide an extremely
generous income with comparatively little effort – Google AdSense is absolutely
one of them.
But it takes some time, and it takes some planning, like anything real does. The
rest of our report is all about unlocking that potential.
To start understanding the potential, think about how you make money with this
program. Each time someone clicks an ad on your pages, you get a percentage
of what Google is paid for placing that ad.
Revenue (or Income) from an Ad
=
Clickthrough value of the ad * Payout Rate * Clickthrough rate of the
Ad * Webpage traffic * Frequency of Ad
In the above equation, Clickthrough value is the amount the advertiser pays per
click for the Ad (this figure varies); the Payout Rate is the percentage of revenue
to be paid for every click fixed by Google (this figure varies); Clickthrough rate is
simply the # of times the ad is clicked on in a certain period of time divided by the
# of times it is displayed during the same period; Webpage traffic is the # of
visitors to your website; and Frequency of Ad is the # of times this particular ad
appears on your webpage.
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Let’s put some figures into the above equation and see what the income is. The
figures below are for a single day:
Clickthrough Value 30 cents or $0.30 (The advertiser pays 30
cents per click for the Ad, to Google)
Payout Rate 50% or 0.5 (This is an assumption based on what
many experts believe to be the current payout rate for most
deals)
Clickthrough rate of the Ad the ad is displayed 100 times
within the day and clicked by 9 people the clickthrough rate
would be 0.09
Webpage traffic 150 visitors during the days
Frequency of Ad 100
The Income per day from a single ad would be = 0.30 * 0.5 * 0.09
* 150 * 100
= $202.5
If you consider this to be the average income per day, the total revenue
generated within a month would be more than $6000. This is incredible,
considering you basically did nothing to earn that money. We know of cases
where people have earned even more than $25,000 a month with AdSense,
which is a large sum to anyone.
Our goal is to equip you to get started on the road to making money with
AdSense.
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Part 1: Join the AdSense Program
Understanding Google policies
We discussed earlier how rewarding the Google AdSense program can be.
However, joining the Google AdSense program is not that easy or everyone in
the world would do it (which would defeat its purpose, ultimately). You have to be
approved by Google in order to create your AdSense account and start earning
money from it.
How do you get approved? Google famously has never publicly published details
of its approval process, there are tips you should follow to ensure a high
possibility of getting approved.
The good news is that Google does publish its policies and you do not need to be
a member to read them. You should read them and be certain that you are in
100% compliance with them, not only when attempting to start your AdSense
account, but once you are already a member. They update these policies
regularly and a violation will get you suspended. A list of Google AdSense
policies can be seen at: http://www.google.com/adsense/policies
Content – The Key to AdSense!
As stated earlier, we cannot say exactly how Google decides to accept or reject a
site. However, one thing is for sure – the main criterion for approval is always the
content of the website!
Most sites get rejected simply because they do not have any – or enough – good
content. What constitutes “good” content? We can say what it is not. The types of
websites that only have links and “filler” content aimed at attracting Search
Engines, and sites that do not offer any informational content but solely focus on
their own products and services. Google is one of the smartest companies on the
Internet, and they can easily tell “junk” content from “real” content, even if many
web surfers themselves can’t.
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Google approves websites that have significant real content. These could be in
the form of informational articles, analyses of various topics, and much more. For
business websites that solely focus on selling their products and services through
their website, including informational articles about their industry is smart, and
this data is usually pretty easily available.
Another reason why most business websites do not qualify for the program, is
that most businesses are specialized, and these websites are most likely to get
Ads from their competitors, as only those ads would be relevant. As discussed,
competitor ads would be blocked by you, filtered by Google, or both, so an
AdSense program that serves no ads makes no sense!
Similarly, websites that focus only on links for generating search engine traffic do
not have any content at all, according to both common sense and Google. These
sites may rack up fairly high traffic scores and so forth, but they do not qualify for
AdSense.
One of the best and simplest strategies is to include at least 30 to 40
informational articles of 400 to 450 words each and update them from time to
time. Writing these articles yourself may be a daunting task. However, the good
news is that there are considerable websites that offer articles for free, and plenty
of professional writing resources who can not only write high quality material for
you, but can especially optimize that material to work well with search engines
and the “qualification” processes for systems like AdSense.
We’ve developed a 5-Step plan for success.
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Part 2: The 5-Step Plan to Success
Once you’re accepted, you want to maximize the opportunity. In this section, we
look at some of the most effective strategies for generating optimum revenue
from the Google AdSense program.
Step 1 - Formatting Ad Blocks
You can let Google decide for you the type of ads that will be displayed on your
webpage, but as the website publisher, you may be in a better position to decide
what ads suit the content of your website and how you would like them displayed.
To the extent possible, whether chosen by Google or you, make the ads seem
like part of the site itself.
Most internet marketing experts believe that the ads on your website have a high
probability of getting clicked if they blend in with the rest of the content of your
web page. Factors such as color scheme, font size and type, and the
appearance of your ad should match your web page. Borders are optional and
we think often you should opt out – why put a box around the ad that says “Hi!
I’m an ad!”?
Also, regardless of other design choices, text links should be blue. Why are text
links blue? For the same reason Henry Ford said of the Model-T “They can have
any color they want so long as it’s black.” They just are.
Though we think text ads are generally better than graphic ads, also known as
image ads, Google does offer them with the program.
Actually, you don’t need to struggle much with whether graphic ads or text will be
better on your pages, as Google’s technology will suggest whether an image ad
or a text ad will be more suitable and which will earn you maximum revenues
(since you earn part of they earn, they have motives to get this mix right).
However, it remains totally up to you whether you wish to run image ads or text-
based ads. You can select only image ads, or text ads or a combination of both
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these formats on your entire AdSense account or on one page at a time based
on your discretion.
Step 2 - Ad Placement
“Location, location, location.” It is true in real estate and true in advertising,
including web advertising. Since the “location” of the user is your site already, the
“location” of the ad in this context means on which pages, where on the pages,
and so on. As noted, the less an ad looks like an ad, the more effective it is likely
to be.
Then there are general design and usability factors to consider.
If your webpage is cluttered and you can’t dispense with any content, you may
want to break it down further into sections or more pages to provide easier
reading. This also gives you the potential benefit of placing additional ads.
As noted, we generally recommend text-based ads. However, text-dense sites
may actually do better with image ads. If your site has very few graphics, you
may want to balance it out by putting image-based ads. In the monotony of a lot
of dense written information, image-based ads and graphics provide what’s
called visual relief. This can also prompt clicks.
Where should you put the ads? The chances of your ad getting noticed by the
visitors to your site increases greatly if you place ads as close to the top of your
webpage as possible.
If you choose to place so-called ‘skyscraper’ ads – in magazines these would be
called columns – on the sidebars of your webpage, it would be wise to place
them on the right side of your principal content areas. The reason for this is the
visitor to your page (in most languages) will read from left to right, he or she will
chance upon the ad ultimately, if not consciously then at least out of habit. Their
eyes will go there. From the left, they can visually “skip” the ad when they start
reading next to it.
Your ads should be placed in such a way that it matches the links to other
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websites on your site. If you already have a links section on your site, put the
AdSense links in that section or list. This is not dishonest – if it were Google
would not allow it.
Obviously if you have a “most popular” area on your website, such as a page that
is updated daily with some kind of material that people bookmark to revisit often,
place your ad(s) there instead of somewhere else that may get less traffic. For
many websites the home page is not actually the most accessed area. If you
don’t know what the traffic pattern is on your sites, it’s easy to find out – ask your
hosting provider about usage logs.
One more thing: While some affiliate marketing programs encourage host sites to
encourage clicks directly, it is not appropriate to expressly ask your readers to
click on the ads served by the Google programs. Not only is it unprofessional
and arguably unethical, it also annoys people and moreover Google AdSense
actually prohibits any such activity. You can neither directly solicit clicks nor can
you do anything considered deceptive to encourage clicks.
In conclusion, the emphasis is always on quality of content on your web pages.
Good and interesting content makes your site better, more acceptable to Google,
more likely to win with AdSense, and therefore more profitable for you!
Step 3 - Researching Keywords
After you are done choosing the right format and location for your AdSense ads,
don’t sit back and wait for the money to roll in just yet. The next important step is
to choose the right keywords for your web pages. These will influence both who
visits your site, and how AdSense assigns ads to you.
The number one mistake most website publishers make is to constantly choose
high-paying (i.e. expensive!) keywords assuming that it will yield them more
income. While it is tempting to choose such keywords to get higher rankings on
search engines, be prudent when it comes to selecting the right keywords that go
with the AdSense ads that are to be displayed.. Remember the goal here is
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clicks, not SEO rankings. This is a case where you often do not get what you pay
for.
Consider this scenario. Your webpage talks about wine tasting courses. You
review search phrases and keywords with “wine” in it and you find “wine rack” is
in the top three and available, so you buy it. The corresponding ads also focus on
buying wine racks online, wine storage and building your own wine racks. After a
week when you check on the statistics of your webpage and AdSense account,
you see that you are losing visitors and your income is dipping! The keyword
selection is faulty in this case even though it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Why? The visitors to your webpage were actually looking for wine racks and
have landed on your webpage talking about wine tasting courses instead. The
wine course types want to sign up for the courses, maybe buy a book on wine, or
a wine of the month club. They don’t want to build a wine rack. Think
strategically, not tactically.
Just because a keyword is high paying and is seemingly related, does not mean
it is totally relevant and you need something relevant. Relevance is more
important than value! In the above case, you could have – and should have –
chosen wine tasting tour, wine tasting party, wine tasting event, wine tasting
class, wine tasting school, course tasting wine and so on. You are interested in
relevance more than popularity. Tasting is a match. Racks are not.
Let’s look at some of the ways in which you can research your keywords for
AdSense ads:
• You can check out the popularity of various keywords if you already have
an account with Google AdWords. This way you will get an idea of the
popularity of various keywords as well as the cost and returns that entail.
• Google AdWords also has a tool known as the AdWords Keywords Tool
which can sometimes help you search for alternate keywords and
variations.
• Another tool known as Keyword Analyzer can generate numerous key
phrases that are typed by Internet users in different search engines.
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• Consider getting a WordTracker account. They have an excellent tool that
suggests top 1,000 most popular keywords. This tool can also help you
create a list of relevant keywords for your webpage. You can learn a lot
from a small investment here.
• Another great idea is to search for top 100 keywords on 7search which will
give you an idea of high-paying keywords.
Your clickthrough rate will be boosted tremendously by including the right
keywords in your web copy, of course. Keywords occurring in your ads are
usually highlighted on the search engine results page. This also helps in drawing
additional attention to your ad.
The URL of your webpage is also an integral part of achieving success on
Google AdSense program, as it is on the Web generally. Current wisdom holds
that the keywords in the URL are equally if not more important than the ones
featured in the actual webpage content or in metatags. If you change your
ordinary URL to a keyword rich URL relevant to your market, it is possible to
raise your CTR as much as 200% or more without doing anything else.
Obvious domain names with the keywords that you want might be expensive to
purchase from a broker, but you can also buy used domain names that are no
longer active, often for just a few dollars per year.
Step 4 - Developing Content
Let’s assume you have good ads, good placement, and good traffic.
This step is all about how to tweak your pre-existing content to support the most
effective profitability from your new AdSense program.
One major mistake many web publishers make now is to lard up their pages with
a bazillion keywords for so-called “search engine optimization.” Do not fall into
that trap and clutter your webpage with high-profile buzzwords that do not
contribute to the value of your webpage or the experience of your intended
audience. Remember, we’re focused here on clicks, which means bringing
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relevant readers to your site and giving them a good experience that puts them in
an inquisitive or buying frame of mind.
As a general rule, all content shifts should make some kind of sense. You may
well be able to make connections between articles on sports, to articles on sports
medicine, to articles on herbal supplements which feature ads for those products.
On the other, a web page on bicycles should not have ads for other kinds of
pumps, if you know what we mean.
Before you decide to add that magic Google AdSense code on any page of your
website, you should have dealt with the following two important steps:
• High quality textual content
Ensure that your web pages have enough textual content so that the
AdSense program can set up ads that are relevant to the content on your
pages. If you have very little content, it will be difficult for Google to
determine the focus of your page and end up displaying only public
service ads that do not earn any revenue.
• Use different page titles for different pages
Have unique page titles based on the specific content of each page.
Avoid generic or vague page titles such as ‘Untitled Document’ or ‘Page
1’. Be crisp and precise and avoid using long phrases and difficult words
in the page titles. If your page has a very long title, it might get banned
from some search engines, so be pithy.
Step 5 - Tracking and Reports
Tracking the results of your marketing efforts can help you focus your efforts and
make adjustments to win.
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Google offers a great free tracking feature known as ‘Channels’. You can use
these channels to track ads on specific URLs or to categorize ads based on their
formats, keywords, location on web page and so on.
You can choose from two channel types offered by Google.
URL Channels
This will help you track the performance of your web pages without altering your
ad code. All you need to do to track your performance is to enter a full or partial
URL in the channel and you’re done. A full page URL will track the performance
of the specific page having that address. If you want to track all the pages on a
specific domain, you need to enter a top-level domain name.
Custom Channels
Custom channels are used to track the performance of your webpage based on
the criteria that you specify. You can choose what specific factor you would like
to track and customize the channel according to your requirements.
As the name suggests, custom channels are very flexible, and if you have ever
used any kind of data reporting tool you will find setting them up easy and logical.
You can have up to 50 custom channels!
You can compare the performance of different ad formats and the relevancy of
ads. You can also compare how ads on one page are performing when
compared with ads on other pages. You can do so by assigning each group of
pages to a specific channel and eventually comparing results in your customized
channel reports. You can also see where your clicks are coming from by
assigning a channel to each of your separate pages. Also, it is a good idea to
name your channel in such a way that it is easy to identify different channels in
reports, especially if you are using a dozen or more.
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Server Logs
In addition to the ‘channel’ program offered by Google to track your AdSense ads
on your web pages, you can also use any of the various high quality external
AdSense tracking software packages to track your performance in greater detail
(except actual revenues – you need to get that from Google). One major
advantage of such software is that it runs locally, which enables you to access
specific information that Google doesn’t track. Be aware that none of these third-
party software solutions are “endorsed” by Google currently but most of them
guarantee to operate within AdSense guidelines. Just make sure they do,
because you don’t want to lose your account status over a technical violation by
a third party.
Some of the information you can obtain by using tracking software:
• Referring website of all your visitors
• The type of web browser they are using
• Where the actual ad-clickers are coming from
• Search keywords typed in by the visitors to your website that eventually
brought them to you
You should use a combination of Google channels and a reliable AdSense
tracking program so as to get comprehensive information about your AdSense
account.
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Part 3: Summary and Additional
Resources
AdSense Do’s and Don’ts
Now that you know what AdSense is all about, we can offer the following do’s
and don’ts – which more or less summarizes everything we’ve said so far.
Do’s
The first rule of using AdSense is to follow their terms of service. Google has
exceptional monitoring ability, and if they find any violation of their TOS, your
account will be suspended, rendering all your efforts moot.
Consider having a number of informative pages about varying topics but with a
consistent theme for your website. That way you will have more ads to choose
from and can possibly maximize your CTR.
Use keywords to your advantage. Higher paying keywords will usually but not
always yield more rewards. Think relevance. Also use variations of keywords for
added advantage.
Provide unique information on your web pages. The more specific the content of
your website is, the more targeted your ads will be, and the more effective.
Always focus on providing good quality information!
Experiment with various ad formats on your web page and choose those that
suite your website. You can choose to display ads with different formats on one
page.
Position your ad block in such a way that the ad is visible and yet it does not put
off the readers. Ideally, place your ad in the top section of your webpage which
can be viewed without scrolling down.
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Use the Google AdSense preview toolbar to your advantage and see how the
ads will appear on your website. Get a hands-on feel of how the visitor to your
website will view your web page.
Use Google channels and other external tracking software to evaluate your
performance on a routine basis.
Don’ts
Do not resort to fraudulent or deceptive means for generating clicks on the ads
that are on your page. Some of the methods that are prohibited by Google
AdSense are:
• Automated clicking programs
• Repeated manual clicks
• Using robots to generate clicks
• Clicking your own ads
• Tricking your visitors into clicking on your ads by using fraudulent means
Don’t have confusing layers of content. Content on your web page should not
hide the ad text and URL. At the same time, it is advisable that you use same
font type, size and color (background and font) for both the ads and the content
on your web pages so that your ad does not announce itself as an outside ad.
Ideally, your ad should look and feel like a part of your website.
Don’t have broken links on your site. Your website should not contain any broken
links and should be easily navigable. Also, the content on your web pages
should be informative, of high quality and the ads should be relevant to the
content.
Don’t have old or illegal information on your site. Be careful about outdated
information, plagiarized text and obscene or offensive material. Avoid using any
of these on your web pages.
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Two More AdSense Opportunities: RSS and Blogs
Adding Google Ads to your RSS feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has gained huge popularity on the Internet.
RSS is an XML document format that organizes and stores news-like content
from various sources into one source. Think of it like a newswire service, the kind
of stuff that scrolls along the bottom of cable channels. A large percentage of the
“news” items you find on any website that is not a major news portal got there
through an RSS feed.
Google has introduced a specific program known as AdSense for RSS. Although,
it is under beta testing currently (mid 2005), you can join this program now and
start making money with it. RSS offers a variety of interesting content options
that most websites themselves can’t match.
Google AdSense for feeds has its own set of policies. These can be accessed at:
http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=20134 Like the
AdSense program, you must follow all guidelines in order to be accepted for the
AdSense for feeds program.
Placing AdSense ads on your Blogs
Blogs are similar to RSS feeds in concept except they usually have one author
rather than an aggregate of sources of the material they contain. Blogs (short for
Web logs) are simple webpages where you can write articles and other content
on a variety of topics, and both the famous and the unknown use these online
diaries to share their thoughts, post pictures, and so on. The public can view this
content and even comment on it in most cases.
Due to the considerable amount – and unlimited range – of content on Blogs, it
may make sense to place AdSense ads on them. In fact, it is much easier to
generate revenue from Blogs as compared to other web pages, at least in theory.
• First, blogs are full of content, most of which is original most of the time.
The content may not be “good” from a human reader perspective but it is
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usually “good” according to Google’s scans. Thus, getting approved by
Google AdSense may be easier.
• The content presented on the blog, in many cases, is quite diverse which,
unlike a website that needs to be “about something” can be excused by
the “everything and nothing” nature of most blogs. Consequently, the
possibility of Google finding targeted ads that are relevant may increase.
• Google AdSense works only with those websites that are already indexed
by Google. Blogs get indexed far more easily than regular webpages.
Some blogs get indexed in as few as two to three days of submission.
Thus, the chances of getting approved by Google AdSense increases
• Blogs can be created at practically no cost – much cheaper than
commercial websites.
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Summary
There are no “magic bullets” or “get rich quick” schemes that work. As an
experienced Web marketer or publisher, you already know that.
But there are some ways to make really significant “passive” money on the
Internet, and especially with Internet advertising. Of these, one of the best, and
most legitimate, is Google AdSense, which you now know all about.
When you’re ready to get started with your AdSense program, the preceding
information, combined with the following additional resources, will help you make
the most of it!
Further AdSense Resources
Whether you have one website or 100, RSS feeds or no, blogs or no, below is a
list of great tools, software, scripts, and other resources that can help you win in
your Google AdSense campaign.
Tools and Scripts
These are tools that would help you in a variety of areas such as seeing what
ads appear for specific keywords, tracking and analyzing clickthroughs and
revenue, scripts and much more.
• AdSense Preview tool from Google – Preview your AdSense Ads
• AdSense Desktop – Tool for analyzing Google AdSense statistics
• AdSenseLog – Another tool for analyzing AdSense stats
• AdSenseCharts – Chart generator for your statistics
• Revenue Checker for Google AdSense – Checks and monitors revenue
• Google AdSense Sandbox Tool – shows what Ads would appear for
specific keywords or content
• AdSense Web Tool – similar to the one above
• AdSense Tracker – Statistical Analysis and tracking
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• AdSense Monitor – AdSense tracking script
• SysSense - A utility that puts your AdSense information in the Windows
system tray
• AdSense Notifier – places AdSense information in a status bar
• AdSense™ Tracker - Another good tracking tool
• Google AdSense Tracking Script – Another tracking script
• AdSenseMasterFlex 2.0 - Script
• asRep: Google AdSense tracking script
AdSense Information Websites and Tutorials
• AssociatePrograms.com - AdSense Forum
• Digital Point - AdSense Forum
• Google AdSense Charts & Graphs
• Google AdSense Preview Tool
• Google AdSense Sandbox Tool
• GoogleRankings.com
• How to Boost Your AdSense Revenue
• JenSense - Making Sense of Contextual Advertising
• Search Engine Forums - Contextual Advertising Forums
• Search Engine Watch - AdSense Forum
• V7N Web Development Community - Google Forum
• Web Pro World - AdSense Forum
• Webmaster World - AdSense Forum
• Googlest
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