NEXUS IT

It's unrealistic to expect that smaller editors, writers and publishers will get paid by a sponsor for every blog post. So instead bloggers turn to look for alternative-, more sustainable ways to monetize their website. One of the most common ways to monetize your website is by showing ads via Google's AdSense service.

We've wanted to test out this service for a very long time, but just never seemed to get to it. This post will cover all of the important factors on website monetization (specifically with AdSense) such as what different size ads look like, how accurate the earnings estimate is, different features, pros & cons, and most importantly the HOW TO.

How to setup AdSense on your website

It's important to know what the ads we're referring to looks like. So we'll give you some examples below. Ads come in both fixed and responsive sizes:

Fixed ads have a maximum set size and can show all the highest paying ads up to a certain size. Fixed ads cannot change from the size you have set unless you create and integrate a new ad unit into your website.
Responsive means that the size of the ad unit can automatically adjust to fit its surroundings with the options of being Square, Horizontal or vertical.

Here are some examples:

There's a lot of controversy surrounding the accuracy of the earnings calculator as it provides an estimate based on only 2 factors (Location & Industry). These two factors are very broad and have tons of sub-factors. Let's take a look:

1. Location - Here are 4 main categories combining multiple countries in each. Some of the important sub-factors are if your website is country specific (.co.uk / .co.za / .co.au / etc.) or international (.com / .net / .shop / etc.). If your website is intended for an international audience you will be able to have a much broader reach, but you also have much higher competition.

For your website to be successful in the online realm, you need to outrank the millions of other websites. There are only two ways to achieve this goal with a fairly new website.

The first method to increase traffic is by making use of Pay Per Click (PPC) ads where you advertise your business via a service such as Google Ads - effectively advertising your own website in ad units such as the ones above. If your goal is to cost efficiently monetize your website - PPC might not be your first choice.

The second method to get more website traffic is by making use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is a cost effective, long term solution that will get your website ranking higher for specific search terms / keywords on a semi-permanent basis. SEO essentially increases your website's trust and authority. SEO can also drive clients directly to your website by placing links to your website pages on Private Blog Networks, Major Blog Networks, news sites, major social media platforms and more.

2. Industry - Each industry has a different amount of interest and competition, for example if your industry is 'Internet & Telecom' your estimated revenue is about double that of the 'Reference' industry. This is due to more Internet & telecom companies placing PPC ads than reference companies (such as directories).

The biggest pros are that:

Ads shown are relevant to the user's interests, based on their profile and search history.
You can get paid without the hassle of configuring each ad.
Makes your website a Passive Income Channel
Ads can either be automatically set up and placed on your site by a neat little Google app or you can manually place them where you want them.
You don't need an API integration.

The most obvious con is that nobody wants to see ads. Luckily there is an easy workaround for this. Many websites absolutely bombard their users with ads and hope for the best. This is very inefficient as they will have little to no user retention. All that needs to be done is to keep the number of ads to an acceptable amount. Ads should be easily visible but not overpower the website content. Showing sidepanel ads and fixed bottom-of-the-screen ads are likely the best solutions. Here's an example for desktop users:

Here's the thing. There is an unspoken con - it mainly affects inexperienced users and people using a CMS (website builder).

We're referring to the upload of a certain 'ads.txt' file to your root domain. (Don't worry though! It's part of the reason we created this guide.)

As part of it's verification system Google automatically generates this file (only about 1kb) and just requires you to upload it to your hosting. If you are using your own hosting, this shouldn't be an issue. If you are using a CMS, you can simply ask your CMS team to upload it on your behalf.