| CREATE A GOOGLE ADSENSE ADVERTISEMENT |
Following on from the previous section. In this section I will show you how to create a Google AdSense Advertisement using your new Google Adsense Account. The first thing to do, now that you have the account, is to sign into it (Fig 1.0) - Take your web browser to https://www.google.com/adsense/. Once you have done that you then need to go through a short and simple set up process whereby you agree to the terms and conditions of google adsense basically (Fig 1.1).
It is very important that you read the Terms & Conditions thoroughly before deciding whether or not to agree to them. If you do agree to them click
on the radio (circle/dot) button marked YES, I HAVE READ AND ACCEPT THE ABOVE TERMS AND CONDITIONS and then on the standard button marked CONTINUE TO MY
ADSENSE ACCOUNT. Otherwise. Click on the radio (circle/dot) button marked NO, I DO NOT ACCEPT THE ABOVE TERMS AND CONDITIONS and then on the standard
button marked SIGN OUT OF ADSENSE.
When you agree to the Terms & Conditions you are automatically sent to the MY ACCOUNT Tab (window) where you may see a message asking you to update
and save certain account settings, on first usage. This depends on what is happening with google adsense and its settings/policies at the time. For
example. When I joined I was asked to update my Newsletter status (whether or not I wanted to join the Newsletter) and so on (Fig 1.2 below). If this is
the case for you, simply fill in the settings as you see fit before clicking on the SAVE CHANGES button. In this example I changed the LANGUAGE option
to English (UK) - English (UK) and requested (ticked) the SPECIAL OFFERS option.
After clicking on the SAVE CHANGES button, above, you then need to click on the ADSENSE SETUP Tab, which will offer you the standard settings/options (below). The beauty of Google Adsense is that most of its general settings/options do not need modifying. They can be left on their default values. Therefore, when you arrive on the Adsense Setup page you can click straight on the EDIT link next to the heading AD DISPLAY PREFERENCE without worrying about the other standard settings/options. Saying this. You should familiarise yourself with the standard settings/options just so that know how some of the google adsense features work - There is plenty to read about though!
Clicking on the EDIT link allows you to create your advertisement type. In this example an ADSENSE FOR CONTENT type of advertisement (Fig 1.5 below), which is the classic google ad. As you go into the settings/options you may have to click on the following security requester's YES button in order to continue with what you are doing. These security requesters are frequent, and can become annoying, but are obviously needed to protect your google adsense account. So whenever you see one just click on its YES button to continue.
ADSENSE FOR CONTENT (Fig 1.5 above) allows you to create classic looking google ads that are targeted towards your website's (or blog's) content or its
audience. For example. Some of my google ads are aimed at computer hardware (i.e. Printers and Keyboards) whilst others are aimed at my visitors computer
usage (i.e. Microsoft Office). These ads can either be in LINK UNIT (bulk links) format or in AD UNIT (bulk advertisements) format depending on which
option you select. In Fig 1.6 above I have selected to use AD UNIT with TEXT AND IMAGE ADS. Or put anther way. Bulk advertisements that are made up of
text and/or images. When you have selected your unit option click on the CONTINUE button to proceed.
Just to clarify. A UNIT is simply a set of advertisements (i.e. 3 advertisements) that are displayed within one advertising box/area. So a LINK UNIT is
basically a group of links displayed inside one bordered/boxed area and an AD UNIT is basically a set of advertisements (i.e. 3 advertisements) that are
displayed inside one bordered/boxed area.
The next page to appear, after clicking on CONTINUE, allows you to select the actual size and shape for your google ads (below). Clicking on the FORMAT
drop-down gives you multiple choices - Horizontal, Vertical or Square and Small, Medium and Large. I have decided on a large, horizontal, ad because of
the way my web pages are layed out and the same should apply when deciding upon your own google ad format. Consider your web page layout. Would a small
square ad be better than a large rectangle ad? When you have selected a suitable format for your ad you then need to select a colour scheme for it
(Fig 1.8 below).
After choosing your format you then choose the colours you want to use for your google ads. There are three ways to choose/modify your colours. 1) Select a colour palette from the COLOURS drop-down menu (Fig 1.8 above). 2) Click on a default colour and then change it by selecting a colour from the pop-up colours palette (below). Or 3) Click inside the HEX-DECIMAL VALUE edit box of a default colour and then modify its hex-decimal colour value (not shown here).
When using method 2, as described above; As you hover over a colour in the colours palette the Sample ad's colour may change depending on which default
colour (colour box) you are choosing to modify (i.e. the Background colour). Regardless of which method you use though you can save your modified colour
scheme as a colour palette by clicking on the SAVE AS NEW PALETTE link and choosing a name for it. In this example I saved my colour scheme as Yoingco,
which means I can use that colour scheme/palette later with other google ads I create.
The next changable component of a google ad is its font (below). Simply select a new Font Family (i.e. Times New Roman) from the FONT FAMILY drop-down
menu and then a new Font Size from the FONT SIZE drop-down menu, if need be, before clicking on the CONTINUE button to proceed. Google highly recommends
that you use their default fonts because they have been proven to work for your google ad type. And as they know best!..... Saying this of course. If you
feel that a certain font would give your google ads a boost then go ahead and change the default font to something better.
The last component to change on this page, if you want to, is the bordering of your google ads (above). Simply click on the CORNER STYLES drop-down menu
and then select either the SQUARE CORNERS, SLIGHTLY ROUNDED CORNERS or VERY ROUNDED CORNERS menu-item to continue. In this example I have chosen VERY
ROUNDED CORNERS. After modifying your google ad's appearance (Format, Colours, Fonts and Border Corner Style) click on the CONTINUE button at the bottom
of the page to continue. Doing so will take you to the Channels set up page (Fig 1.11 below).
A channel is simply a label/identifier you set up in order to track/identify your adsense data, from within your google adsense control panel. For example.
If your website is split into three sections, such as Products, Services and General Information, you could create a different google ad for each section
and then create a different custom channel (label/identifier) for each section. So you could have - Google Ad #1, Red and Square with a label
(custom channel) called Products; Google Ad #2, Yellow and Rectangle with a label (custom channel) called Services; And Google Ad #3, Blue and Default
with a label (custom channel) called General Information. All these labels (custom channels) are for is google ad statistics. They are nothing to do with
the actual displaying of each google ad.
When you have created your google ads and labels (custom channels) you are then given a piece of code for each google ad, which you put inside your web
pages. Therefore, each of your product web pages have the Product code inside them. Each of your services web pages have the Services code inside them.
And each of your general information web pages have the General Information code inside them. So if you have ten product web pages you need to paste the
same Product code into those ten product web pages. And the same applies to the other sections. Once your google ads have been created and are being
displayed on your website, with the just mentioned code, google adsense starts to build up your statistics for those displayed ads when ever they are
clicked on by your visitors. You get 200 channels in total per google adsense account, so you could create different google ads for different types of
product for example and then monitor the statistics for each of those google ads.
When you first get started with google adsense the first channel you will create will be a Custom Channel, as opposed to a URL Channel. A URL Channel allows you to track click/earnings data gathered for a specific URL (web page) or Domain (website) whereas a Custom Channel allows you to track click/earnings data gathered for specific google ad types or specific areas of your website. In this example I have kept things simple and created a straight forward custom channel whose code I will use in all of my web pages, simply because I am only using one google advertisement type (the 728 x 90 Leaderboard ad).
To create a custom channel begin by clicking on the ADD NEW CHANNEL link (Fig 1.11 above). This will bring up internet explorer's Information Bar
(Fig 1.12 above) that asks you to temporarily allow the Script Window to pop-up (Fig 1.13 above). The script window in turn asks you to give your
custom channel a name. So hover over the information bar and then click on the TEMPORARILY ALLOW SCRIPTED WINDOWS menu-item. From there, enter a name
for your custom channel before clicking on the script window's OK button. Doing so will create the custom channel for you and add it to the All
Channels list.
When naming your custom channel think of the advertiser to some degree because google offers a feature called Ad Placement that basically allows you
to target advertisers according to the placement of your google ads. This is ideal for someone placing google ads all over their website or for someone
who has many google ads in one place. Ad Placement is more for a business website than a hobby website for example. For more information on Ad Placement
read What Is An Ad Placement? and
How Placements Work.
After creating a custom label it is automatically listed in the ALL CHANNELS list (above) and possibly in the YOUR SELECTED CHANNELS box as well. However.
If it is not automatically listed in the YOUR SELECTED CHANNELS box, for whatever reason(s), you will need to click on the ADD link next to its name. In
the above example my Online Computer Lessons custom channel was automatically listed in the YOUR SELECTED CHANNELS box and therefore gives me the option
to REMOVE it from that list. If it was only listed in the ALL CHANNELS list it would of had an ADD link next to it instead of a REMOVE link, in which
case I would of had to click on that ADD link in order to add it to the YOUR SELECTED CHANNELS box. Anyway. Once your custom channel has been added to
the box click on the CONTINUE button to continue.
Google Adsense allows you to add up to five custom channels per google ad (ad unit/set of ads), known as Multiple Custom Channels, with the idea being
that you could monitor the statistics for a google ad at the bottom of a web page and a google ad at the top of a web page. However. This is an advanced
technique that is not really ideal for an absolute beginner or for someone who is just creating a straight forward google ad. Hence why I will not be
delving into that area of google adsense. If you are interested in that area though read the
Multiple Custom Channels google help page
for more information.
With your custom channel created the last thing to do is give your google ad a name before grabbing its code. In this example (above) I have given my google ad the name Yoingco - Online Computer Lessons. So my custom channel, called Online Computer Lessons, is used as a statistics identifier within my google adsense control panel and my actual google ad (ad unit) is called Yoingco - Online Computer Lessons. It is important you see these as two separate entities. Meaning. You can edit your google ads from within the control panel (nothing to do with the custom channel) and you can monitor statistics by custom channel name (nothing do to with google ad editing/etc). Anyway. When you have given your google ad a name click on the SUBMIT AND GET CODE button to continue.
Fig 1.16 shows the code for my rectangle google ad (ad unit). Once the code has been copied into memory I simply paste it into each web page that I want displaying a rectangle google ad. To highlight/select all of the code simply right click inside the CODE edit box, to bring up the options/context menu, and then left click on the SELECT ALL menu-item. From there. Right click over the selected/highlighted code, to bring up the options/context menu again, and then left click on the COPY menu-item. This will copy the code into memory where it can then be PASTEd, time and time again, into a web page. You should also paste it into a Notepad file and then save that notepad file as rectangle_ad.txt for example. Anytime you want to use that code again you can simply copy it from the notepad file. Alternatively. You can come back to your google adsense control panel and re-copy the code. Whichever you find the easiest.
When you have pasted your code into a web page and uploaded that web page to your website you should relax and let the earnings flow! You should NEVER
EVER CLICK ON YOUR OWN GOOGLE ADS though - Google will penalise you for doing so. You are not allowed to earn yourself money by clicking on
your own google ads.
One thing you should do with your google ads is Experiment. Try them in different colours, different border shapes, in different positions on your web
page(s) and so on. Find out what works for your particular web page or website in general. I have put a google ad (code) at the bottom of each web page
on my website, but this does not mean you need to. I feel that people appreciate being able to read a whole lesson/article/whatever first before seeing
a google ad unit. I also feel that a google ad unit should not be at the top of a web page, purely because the visitor has come to read content and see
a google ad unit straight away. The google ad unit might be ignored in that top position. These are only my opinions with regards to my website. You may
feel the total opposite with your website. And that is my point. Do not necessarily go with other people's views/opinions, if anything just consider them
as a possibility.
With google adsense being so multi-layered it is impossible for me to cover every aspect of it. It would require a book load of web pages for me to cover
everything and I would probably end up being a google guru, which I would not have the time for. Hence by the way why universities these days are doing
courses purely on one aspect of something (i.e. Microsoft Excel, Google Adsense, Computer Repairs, Etc), simply because one aspect has become so huge.
All is not lost though. Google does give a book load of help on their Inside Adsense blog, with some vital reading and viewing:
websitecreationhelp.com is a part of yoingco.com, both of which are (c) John White, 2009. All Rights Reserved. Email: John White