One very popular revenue model on the web is generating revenue by building websites filled with useful content and putting Google’s “contextual” a.dverts on the site. The AdSense system picks up the theme of each web page and display appropriate adverts. Visitors click on the ads and Google pays you. What could be simpler?

Well, there’s a lot of issues involved here:

• You have to be able to build a website
• You’ve got to be able to get an AdSense account
• You have to have web space to host it - and preferably have an appropriate domain name
• You’ve got to create - or purchase - content for the site - and you should aim, ideally, for content which attracts some high-paying advertisers on the Google AdWords system
• You’ve got to learn how to position your AdSense ads and select the correct colour schemes for them to get the highest click-through rates
• You’ve got to be able to get people to visit the site

There’s a whole raft of stuff here, isn’t there! Now do not expect me to come up with the solutions to all these issues in one brief article. There’s a whole information industry which has sprung up to address all these issues. But I’ll touch on just a few points.

Getting An AdSense Account

I’m frequently asked how to get an AdSense account, because you have to have a “content website” before Google will give you an AdSense account. There’s a simple solution:

Set up a blog at www.blogger.com. In the set-up process you’ll be asked if you want to use AdSense on your blog. Just answer “yes” and you’ll get an AdSense account. Post to your blog a few times and your up and running with your AdSense account. And you can use this account on any subsequent “content websites” you set up wherever they are.

Building Websites / Getting Content
These two problems can be solved by a single solution: purchase ready-made niche websites filled with content. There’s plenty of these around, usually at reasonable prices. But watch out for the quality. There’s a lot of rubbish around!

Be prepared to change both the graphics and the content so that you avoid the trap of “duplicate content”. One of the tasks I’ve given to my “virtual” assistant, Ranjitha, is to work on a number of these ready-made sites. You can see one of them here:

http://www.IanSays.com/ComputerTraining/index.html

Here’s one source of free niche websites:

http://www.IanSays.com/FreeNicheWebsites

Another excellent source of niche websites I have is through John Delavera’s “Turbo Membership” site.

http://www.IanSays.com/JoinMeIn/TurboMembership

The sites are just a fraction of the huge amount of stuff available through John’s site. It ain’t cheap but, in my view, it’s worth every cent of the monthly subscription - and I’ve been a member for over two years.

http://www.IanSays.com/JoinMeIn/TurboMembership

Warning: this is a huge sales page. There’s so much to describe. Soon, I’m going to have to write a full review of this extensive resource. Anyway, I’ll get back on topic now!

Web Hosting / Domain Names
I strongly advise having a domain name for each AdSense site you set up, so choose a hosting package which allows you to have a good number of “add-on” domains. For less than $12 per month you can have up to 30 domains hosted at:

http://www.IanSays.com/LookAtMy/Hosting4Marketing

.. and for another $3 per month, you can have any number of domains. Quite a few “Update” subscribers have bought this web hosting package from me.

Ad Colours / Placement
You should aim to get the colour scheme of your AdSense a.ds to blend in with that of your website. The aim is to make the a.ds appear to be part of the content. Avoid graphic ads and stick to text-only ads. I find that a “leaderboard” block at the top of the page, and maybe a “large rectangle” embedded in the content work well for me.

Getting People To Visit The Site
Ah, the perennial problem: getting traffic! I am not going to solve this one with a few sentences! Getting the sites into the search engine indexes is only a partial solution. Don’t expect a flood of visitors from this source with this type of site. But if you keep building these sites, the revenue mounts up. If you had 20 sites each only bringing in $1 a day, that’s over $7k per year. OK, it’s not vast, but it’s a nice little revenue stream.

I’m about to start experimenting with a new traffic system I’ve just discovered, aimed at getting more people to visit my content sites. A lot more people! If it’s a success, I’ll tell you more about it. If not - well, I’ll keep quiet