Adsense and blogging
Adsense and blogging is the perfect way for a beginner to get started with earning money from Adsense. Blogs are extremely simple to set up and maintain, with the only other ingredient being quality, unique and sincere content. I say sincere because you want your readers to return. If your readers get the gist that you are blogging simple for money, they will quickly turn the other way. So evidently it is logical your blog should be based on a topic or niche that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. Blog for passion and the money will follow. Yes it's that easy - now to the logistics!
Types of blog software
When it comes to blogs, Wordpress is the word that most often comes up. Wordpress is, in my opinion, the easiest and most productive blog software you can use. In most cases, it will require your own web host and domain (this is inherently better than using a free blog service, although that has its benefits which I will get to in a moment). Wordpress is free, and is also bundled with web hosting providers who use Fantastico - meaning you can install Wordpress with just a few mouse clicks.
Moveable Type is another fully fledged blogging platform however it comes at a cost of $49.95 for one year of use.
When it comes to free services, Google's Blogger is the monopoly. Wordpress also offer their own blog hosting, however personally I prefer the Blogger interface and the fact that Blogger blogs seem to be favored by Google. The upside to using a free blogging platform is obviously, the cost, or lack thereof. It's nice to have everything for free, don't you agree? As is often the case with freebies, there are downsides. That being the fact that Blogger or Wordpress etc can at any time, simple delete your blog. This is a common occurrence, so don't make the mistake of not backing up your blog posts, do it regularly and religiously!
Adsense blog plugins
My favorite Wordpress Adsense plugin is Adsense Deluxe. The official description of this plugin is "Embed Adsense in your blog posts and make global changes to ad styles from an intuitive (options) control panel. Includes Adsense Preview tool to see what ads would display on a page."
Quite simply, every Wordpress blogger should be using Adsense Deluxe.
Integrating Adsense in to your blogs is not something that should be done carelessly or without thought. Will advertisements add value to your blog? If so, go ahead and insert one or two Adsense blocks. Test, track and experiment with the various positions and types of Adsense ad units in your blogs and you will surely see some revenue trickle in. If you already have a popular blog, there is no doubt that on topic Adsense advertisements will yield clicks, especially when placed at the end of an interesting post - you will be surprised at just how well a tightly targeted ad can perform.
Good luck bloggers and I wish you all the best with your blogging endeavours!
