At this point in time, the jury is still out on whether this program will continue to enjoy its initial success. That is why, through this article, we want to give you some highlights and insights on how the Google Adsense program has worked for us, one month after we signed up for it, so that we can use it as a checkpoint for future analysis.

Why is Google AdSense so Popular?

Google AdSense uses Google’s proprietary PageRank™ search technology to deliver ads that are highly relevant to the content of a page. Since Google assigns a PageRank™ only to pages listed in its index, the page must first be listed in Google before relevant ads can be displayed (if the page is not in the Google index, Google will display public service ads, for which no commissions will be accrued).

Running Google AdSense is simple and straightforward: Google gives you a snippet of HTML code that you can paste in the desired location on your page, and the ads start appearing immediately after you upload the changes to your server.

However, Google AdSense’s main claim to fame is that, by displaying text-based ads, it is able to deliver much higher click-through rates than traditional graphic banner ads. As usability studies have widely shown, users are already conditioned to ignore banner ads (or anything else that looks like them). As a result, banner ad click-through rates have dropped below a dismal 0.5% (in other words, it takes 200 page views, on average, to get someone to click on a banner ad).

By using text based ads instead of graphic banners, Google has been able to overcome banner ad blindness, delivering click-through rates that are much higher than the industry’s average (some put the figure around the 1.5% mark, twice the averge of banner adds).

How much can you expect to earn by running Google Ads on your site?

The pay-off per click varies widely depending on what each advertiser decides to offer, based on the profitability of their products and their expected conversion rate (percentage of clicks that deliver a sale). Google is not saying what the average pay-off is, but they are normally good, but vary widely.

For a typical site it is not enough to get rich, but a nice extra income nevertheless, that you can use to pay for your domain name and hosting costs, and then some.

Will Google’s AdSense continue to be successful?

This is the big question, and nobody has a definite answer yet.

On the downside:

• The program will most likely face strong competition from other search engines in the near future.
• The proliferation of text based ads could make users "text-ad blind" the same way as they have already become "banner-ad blind", causing click-through rates to drop.
• There is always the potential for abuse, since some unscrupulous program members may violate the program’s rules and click on their own ads, inflating the advertisers’ click-through rate and forcing them to decrease their pay-off per click.

On the positive side, I believe that Google AdSense’s success is not only due to the fact that they deliver text based ads instead of banners, but because those ads are served by Google. The credibility and brand equity that Google enjoys is huge, and I expect them to continue to beat other search engines and advertising networks that may eventually jump on the bandwagon.

Route 1. Visitor can click on any of advertised products
Route 2. Visitor clicks the Ads by Google link to submit feedback to Google
Route 3. Visitor clicks the Advertise on this site link - maybe to sign as an adwords advertiser

Of these three possible exit routes, only the first route converts into dollars. As an Adsense publisher, I am very keen to track what visitors are clicking while exiting your website. If lot of my visitors are exiting my website by clicking the "Advertise on this site" without signing up as an Adwords advertiser, I will probably disable the feature.

So how do we track visitor clicks in Adsense units ? There are couple of commercial adsense tracking scripts but recently, Shawn earlier released a JavaScript snippet that allows you to track visitor clicks on products displayed in Google adsense unit. Shawn’s script work great but tracks only Google Adsense Clicks for Route 1.

Here is a slightly modified version of the visitor click tracking script that offers some more advantages:

a. Offers visitor click tracking for Adsense, Yahoo YPN and Chitika eMiniMalls.
b. Find how many visitors clicked on "Ads by Google" link to submit feedback about Google ads on your website.
c. View statistics separately for clicks on Google Adsense Text / image Ads and Google Adlink units.
d. Find how many potential advertisers clicked the "Advertise on this site" link.
e. Track how may left your website by clicking the Yahoo Publisher Network without click the YPN ad.

For geeks, here’s how the click tracking script : The script loops through all of the IFRAME on the page, and if the IFRAME source includes a google or chitika or yahoo ad server address, it will attach the corresponding function as an onfocus handler. When the ad unit obtains focus, urchinTracker() is called, with a goal identifier.

<script type="text/javascript">
function trackAdvertiserSignUp()
{
  urchinTracker("/GoogleAdwordsSignup");
}

function trackGoogleFeedbackClick()
{
  urchinTracker("/AdsByGoogleFeedback");
}
function trackYPNFeedbackClick()
{
  urchinTracker("/YahooPublisherFeedback");
}
function trackYPNClick()
{
  urchinTracker("/YPNClick");
}    
function trackChitikaClicks() {
  urchinTracker ("/ChitikaClick");
}
function trackGoogleAdsenseClicks() {
    urchinTracker("/GoogleAdSenseClick");
}
function trackGoogleAdlinkClicks() {
    urchinTracker("/GoogleAdLinkClick");
}
var elements;

if(document.getElementsByTagName) {
    elements = document.body.getElementsByTagName("IFRAME");
} else if (document.body.all) {
    elements = document.body.all.tags("IFRAME");
} else {
  elements = array();
}
for(var i = 0; i < elements.length; i++) {
if(elements[i].src.indexOf

("pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/iclk") > -1) {
elements[i].onfocus = trackGoogleAdsenseClicks;
} else if (elements[i].src.indexOf

("pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/ads") > -1)
elements[i].onfocus = trackGoogleAdlinkClicks;
} else if (elements[i].src.indexOf("adwords.google.com") > -1)
{elements[i].onfocus = trackAdvertiserSignUp;
} else if (elements[i].src.indexOf("services.google.com") > -1)
{elements[i].onfocus = trackGoogleFeedbackClick;
} else if (elements[i].src.indexOf("mm.chitika.net") > -1)
{elements[i].onfocus = trackChitikaClicks;
} else if (elements[i].src.indexOf("overture.com") > -1)
{elements[i].onfocus = trackYPNClick;
} else if (elements[i].src.indexOf("publisher.yahoo.com") > -1)
{elements[i].onfocus = trackYPNFeedbackClick;
}
}
</script>

Shawn’s Javascript works only with IE browser. Aaron Wall released a modified version of Adsense Click Pepper script that seems to work with Firefox (Gecko), Safari, Konqueror browsers. The Adsense Click Pepper script uses mouse cursor position prior to page unload to help detect AdSense clicks in Firefox

While Google Analytics is certainly still useful for tracking your website performance data, at this time it isn’t able to track your AdSense clickthrough data, nor is it integrated into your AdSense account. We’re working hard to add new functionality as quickly as possible, but are not able to say at this time whether an integration with AdSense will occur.

With Google Analytics, you can track clicks on links that lead away from your site. This technique can be extended to track the Google ads that are being clicked, on what page they are being clicked, and who is doing the clicking. Because these links do not lead to a page on your site containing the UTM JavaScript, you will need to tag the link itself with the urchinTracker JavaScript.

The following Google Analytics Adsense click tracking javascript should be inserted after your Google adsense code. It will loop through all of the IFRAME on the page, and if the IFRAME source includes "googlesyndication.com", it will attach the function asClick() as an onfocus handler. When the ad unit obtains focus, asClick() will check to see if the status bar contains either "go to" or "View ads about". If so, urchinTracker() is called, with a page identifier that includes the ad type (ad unit or link unit) and the ad or link text, as shown in the status bar

The next interesting question - How to Make Money with Google Adsense ? Here are The best Google Adsense Tips and Tricks for making more money (profit) from Google adsense program.

a. Strictly follow the rules mentioned in Adsense policies. You will always earn more revenue from Adsense by playing it clean.

b. Never modify the Google Adsense HTML code.

c. Don’t ask your friends or visitors to click on your Google ads. Do not include incentives of any kind for users to click on ads. Don’t label the Google ads with text other than "sponsored links" or "advertisements.".

d. Don’t click on your own ads - Google is much smarter than you think. You should not reload your pages excessively. If you are testing your website layout with Google adsense, follow some precautions. Or you can use the unofficial Google Adsense Sandbox Tool that is accessible from Firefox, IE and other browsers to see what kind of Google ads will be served based on content (website address URL) or keywords.

e. Don’t place ads in pop-up windows, error pages or even empty pages.

f. Don’t start a "adsense asbestos" or "home equity loan rates" website merely to make money from accidental clicks (accidence). You will never make money out these "made-for-adsense-only" websites. Instead, write on topics what you are passionate about. Don’t waste your money on high-paying adsense keywords lists.

g. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content

h. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content - visitors read the long content and then they are looking for more resources.

i. Use Text Ads instead of Image Ads as users get more options. If you still want to display image ads, consider ad formats that support image ads - Choose either the 300x250 medium rectangle or the 160x600 wide skyscraper - or both, if you display multiple ad units on a page.

j. Google Ads without background color and borders always perform better. Make the border color and background color same as your page background color.

k. Always put ads above the main fold. Make sure that the ad unit with the highest clickthrough rate is the first instance of the ad code that appears in the HTML. Since the first ad unit is always filled before the rest, you want to make sure that ad unit is located in the best placement on your page.

l. Try setting the ad link URL color to a lighter shade. If your text is black, you may make the adlink as light gray.

m. Go Wide - The large rectangle is the best paying adsense format (336x280) - The Google Adsense Publisher team also feels that the best formats are the wider ones - the ad formats that contain the widest individual ads. Try using the 336x280 large rectangle, 300x250 medium rectangle, or 160x600 wide skyscraper.

n. Placing images next to ads or above ads does help in attracting user attention.

o. Blend AdLinks with other navigation links or place horizontal adlinks at the top of your webpage. AdSense publishers are permitted to click on link unit topics on their web pages, provided that they do not click on any Google ads on the resulting page.

p. Organize an Adsense Party for your friends and colleagues - Request them to navigate your website, watch their activity - it will provide vital clues about which regions on your website draw more user attention. Try putting ads near those areas. (Thanks Darren)

q. You can put upto 3 adsense units on a page. Try putting a large skyscraper on the right navigation sidebar of your website. That area is close to the browser scrollbar. You can also add 2 AdSense for search boxes, 1 adlink unit and 1 referral button per product (i.e., 1 AdSense referral button and 1 Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral button).

r. The first few lines of your content are an important factor for determining what Ads are served on your webpage. That’s the right place to put keywords in bold (strong or &ltb> tags) or header tags (h1, h2, etc).

s. Always select the setting to open Google Adsense search box results in a new browser window, so you won’t lose your visitors. Click the Open search results in a new browser window checkbox and this add target="google_window" to your form tag.

t. Maximum people think the search box is on the top right corner. So you know where to put it.

u. Don’t syndicate full content. If people can read everything from the newsreader window itself, why would they visit your website where your ads are.

v. Use URL channels to determine performance of individual pages. I track my most popular pages with Google Analytics, Statcounter and create a channel for each of the URL. You can even track Adsense Clicks with Analytics

w. For low CTR pages, try changing titles or adding more content to get better focused ads

x. Block low paying advertisers with Filters. Why to loose a visitor for 0.01 cents. Use Overture or Google Adwords Keywords tool to discover keywords that are less popular with advertisers.

y. The AdSense for search Top Queries report shows you what your users are looking for, by listing the 25 most common searches conducted through your AdSense for search boxes. Use this report to identify additional topics to add to your site, or to keep track of your most sought-after information. Focus and improve that content.

z. Not everyone has a RSS reader. Use RSS to Email services like FeedBlitz, Bloglet or Rmail to let users subscribe to your blog by email.

Remember, you are the best judge when it comes to choosing ad formats. Even Google doesn’t offer the best advise always. For instance, in the visual heat map, Google suggests that webmasters are best served by positioning ads on the upper left-hand side of a Web page. But on the Google homepage, you will find ads on the far right.