Inspired by chocolate bar tycoon Milton Hershey, Harry Reese set out to make his own fortune in the candy industry. He came up with a few duds including the forgettable molasses "Johnny Bar" and that big loser, the "Coconut Lizzie" before inspiration struck like a sack of sugar to the head. Peanut butter and chocolate, a divine combination. In 1923, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were created and a candy empire was born.
Inspiration, Without The Calories
You'll be happy to know that we at Blogger have recently had a similar epiphany. One that does not involve butter of any sort. This may shock you at first so steel yourself for the idea. Ready? We are going to start paying bloggers. Soon you will be blogging for dollars. That's right people, chocolate is to peanut butter like AdSense is to blogs. Or is it the other way around? Either way, we've got something big here folks.
You may have noticed that we recently removed our ads from Blogger powered blogs. We were making money from those ads but you weren't getting any of it. Now, we're inviting you to set up your own Bloggerized AdSense account so that you make the money. What's the catch? We're going to take some of the action. Based on what we have learned from AdSense so far, this will work out very nicely for both of us. Please note that this program is optional and that it is not required for you to have a Blogger powered blog—all bloggers are invited.
Understanding "BlogSense"
Google AdSense is a content-targeted advertising program. This means that you do not select keywords or categories for your ads. Instead, Google's servers determine what your posts are about and display the most relevant ads to your readers. So, if you blog about baseball, there might be ads for Major League Baseball memorabilia next to your post. If you blog about painting, there might be ads for art supplies. In fact, when you blog about something specific, there's a good chance you'll earn more, as Matthew Haughey discovered when he put ads on PVRblog. Haughey wrote about his experience in an essay called Blogging for Dollars in which he included four of his own hints.
Haughey's Hints for AdSense Bloggers
Focus, and be as specific as you can.
Write content related to real products.
Don't start a blog just for money.
Use a professionally designed template.
See also: Learn by Doing
See also: Google AdSense FAQ
Haughey was also careful to point out that AdSense for blogs is not a get-rich-quick scheme. "Don't just slap ads on your blog and expect to get rich the next day. It takes time to build an audience and gain links from people that find your content useful." Wise words from a long-time blogger. Still, there is money to be made and if you're interested here's how to get started.
Putting AdSense on Your Blog
Putting ads on your blog is pretty much the same routine as adding a hit counter, a quiz, a guestbook or any other blog add-on. All you need to do once you've signed up for an AdSense account is customize your ads, copy some HTML code, and paste that code into your template. You might want to think about where on your blog the ads would work best or take a little time matching the colors and that sort of thing but overall, it's not such a big deal. Later, you can sign in to your AdSense account and see how much money you're making. It's like checking your stats except its money instead of hits. It's pretty fun.
See: How do I put AdSense on my blog?
Welcome To Our _ool
Notice there's no "P" in it. Have you ever seen those signs people post near swimming pools to prevent a few misbehaving kids from messing up everyone's fun? Yeah, well we're putting up a sign too: "Welcome To BlogSense, Please Behave." Okay, so it's not as "clever." Nevertheless, the point is made. We want everyone to have a fair shot at blogging for dollars but there's a few things we don't allow.
Things Not To Do
Don't come up with sneaky ways to click on your own ads or get your friends to help you. This is a sure way to get your account terminated for good.
Don't draw unnecessary attention to your ads. Even posting text that says "please click on these ads" is against the policy.
Don't share how much you've earned. That's going to be hard for lots of bloggers but it is against the terms and conditions and will get you kicked out.
Don't fiddle around with the AdSense code. You've got to leave it the way it is if you want to get paid.
If you want to participate in AdSense for bloggers, play nice. Just pick your ad colors, paste the code into your template, then keep on blogging. If you play by the rules, Google will mail you checks. For more details, check out the Google AdSense Program Policies.
The Revolution Is Being Bloggerized
Once you get into it, AdSense is pretty cool. There is a WYSIWYG editor to customize your colors. You can choose between image ads or text ads. There are a variety of different shapes and sizes for your ad format. Best of all, you can sign in to see how much money you're making and keep track of your progress. So that's our bold new vision. We're going to pay you for blogging. We're pretty excited about this and hope you are too. Feel free to sign up now. Here's to your first Adsense dollar!
Biz Stone works at Google on Blogger and writes books about blogging.
Phillip E. Pascuzzo is a designer and illustrator living in New York.