The basics of Adsense

Getting started with Adsense is easy, it only takes a few minutes to subscribe and set up the account.

How do I register to Adsense?
You can register at www.google.com/adsense, you are asked to provide your personal informations and the url of your website.
Once your application is submitted, it will take up to 48 hours for the Adsense staff to review it and approve or reject it, you will receive an email notification with the results.

I manage more than one website or url, do I need multiple Adsense accounts?
No, once your account has been approved you can link all of your websites and blogs to Adsense, which makes it easy to keep track of the total income generated from advertisements.
You just have to make sure that all of your websites and blogs are not in violation of the Adsense TOS.

Ok, my account was approved, how do I get started?
You just have to copy and paste their code into your website/blog, it's really easy and it doesn't take long. Once you're done with that, you will start displaying ads on your website and potentially make money.
Blogspot has integrated support for adsense, so you can subscribe to the service and place the ads directly from the blog settings, in the "Monetize" section, that's something to keep in mind for those who are new to blogging, or have little knowledge of html and the likes and want to choose the easy way.
Note that it will take a while for Google Adsense to crawl your website and send relevant ads to you, so in the beginning you will be displaying public service and generics ads.
When I started this blog it only took about four or five hours for them to approve the account and to get relevant ads displayed on it - surprisingly fast.

Can I manage the ad layout? I don't want them to become an annoyance for my readers.
Yes, in fact you can choose where to display the ads from Google Adsense, and you are encouraged to experiment with the positioning until you find what works best for you. I will explain more about the crucial importance of ads positioning in one of my next blog entries.

How much does Adsense pay? How long will it take to get my first payment?
It's hard to tell how much Google Adsense will net you, it mainly depends on the amount of clicks you receive, but also on the type of ad (some pay more than others). As a rule of thumb, if your website/blog has a constant stream of visitors and you place your ads in the right positions, you're bound to start making nice amounts of money.
Google Adsense pays at the end of the month, if your account has reached the minimum paying threshold (which is 100$ for the USA and 70 Euro for the EU countries).
You can choose among different paying systems such as check, Western Union money transfer and EFT payment (EFT stands for Electronic Funds Transfer), which is the fastest payment option available.

What else should I know?
First of all, you should read the terms of service carefully.
But I want to give you a few reminders anyway: you are not allowed to click on your own ads, nor to ask anyone to click on them, or to exchange clicks with someone else. You're also not allowed to put adsense code in your emails, nor in pop-ups or pop-unders, or anything that might mislead the visitors.
These are only a few examples, so go read the terms of service, just remember that Google Adsense enforces its rules and you risk getting your account permanently banned if you breach the TOS.

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