Everything You Need to Know About Google AdSense

A couple of days ago, I shared my Google AdSense income on Twitter and got some reactions from followers. It looks like Google AdSense is a hot topic for my readers. So, I did some research about Google AdSense!

During the research, I found a potential annual revenue calculator and new AdSense rules. In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about Google AdSense. (as of 2021)

First, what is Google AdSense?

Google AdSense is a display ad. You can monetize your site’s space by placing AdSense. These ads are screened to ensure they’re high quality and relevant to your content or audience, even when viewed on smartphones and tablets.

Google AdSense display ads looks like this:

How much does AdSense pay you?

If you want to see how much you could earn from AdSense, use the calculator here.

This calculator will show potential earnings by selecting your site category and visitor’s region.

Please note that there’s no guarantee or commitment that you’ll earn this amount. Estimates are based on the content category and region you selected. Actual revenue is dependent on many factors such as advertiser demand, user location, user device, content vertical, seasonality, ad size, and currency exchange rates.

These are just “potential annual revenue,” not an exact amount.

Let’s try it! Select North America for region and finance for a category then click calculate.

$19,278 is potential annual revenue if your site has 50,000 monthly page views. 50,000 monthly pageviews are the lowest option for “monthly pageviews.”

Now, let’s select South America for region and finance for a category then click calculate. $12, 096 is potential annual revenue if your site has 50,000 monthly page views.

How to get started?

You need 3 things to get started with AdSense:

1. Create Google account
2. Provide phone number and postal address
3. Connect your site to AdSense

If you’re using Gmail or any other Google service, you already have an account. If not, sign up and create your new account. It gets you into AdSense and everything Google.

Google will ask for your phone number and the mailing address associated with your bank account, so provide the info. After that, you need to wait for mail with the pin number from Google.

Login to your Google account and type in the pin numbers. Now, connect your site to AdSense and add one piece of code to your site. Google will take care of the rest.

How to get paid?

There are four steps to get paid from AdSense:

1. Provide your tax information (not required in all locations)
2. Confirm your personal information
3. Select your form of payment
4. Meet the payment threshold

First, the minimum payout amount is varied by your countries. In the US, it’s $100.

If your current balance hasn’t yet reached the payment threshold, your finalized earnings will roll over to the next month and your balance will accrue until the threshold is met.

When your earnings reach the minimum payout amount, select your form of payment.

Payment available to you:

• Electronic Funds Transfer
• EFT via Single Euro Payment Area
• Wire Transfer
• Direct Deposit to Bank Account

The payment cycle is between the 21st and the 26th of the month. For EFT, it will take 4-10 days to receive the funds in your bank account once the payment process has begun. Wire transfers can take up to 15 days to arrive in your bank account.

Tips to Make Money with Google AdSense

Making a significant amount of money with AdSense requires commitment. Here are tips that I found for maximizing AdSense revenue:

• Create your own domain website. I already talk about this in “Why Does Blogging Make Money?” If you want to monetize your site, you better have your own domain.
• Read Google’s webmaster policies and the AdSense program policy. Google keeps changing its rule. Same as school, follow the rule and be Google’s favorite blog/website.
• Don’t click on your own ads or ask others to click on your own ads. It against Google’s rules.
• Traffic has a big impact on your Google AdSense. Create valuable content that brings organic traffic to your blog or website. DO NOT even try a program designed to drive traffic to AdSense pages.
• Optimize your site. Google AdSense could slow down your site speed which is not good for organic traffic. Here is how to check your site speed and boost Site Vitals Score.
• Make sure your website or blog is optimized for mobile devices. More and more people use mobile devices to browse websites. Check how display ads look like on your smartphone or tablet. Auto display ads sometimes block the content or slower your page speed. Test these two and if there is a problem, fix it.

Wrapping Up

To be honest, Google AdSense is not easy money. It’s definitely passive income but requires patience and time.

I saw many people complaining about Google AdSense because it could be annoying to site visitors. And yes, in-content ads and video ads are super annoying!

Here is an example of annoying display ads:

This website uses 4 different types of display ads. It completely covered blog posts. Yes, I can’t read anything but display ads.

If you don’t want to annoy your site visitors, avoid using auto ads that Google recommended. And also, do not sign up for so many display ads companies at once. Place your AdSense in the sidebar may reduce the revenue but it won’t bother your site visitors for sure.