Monetizing your blog with Google AdSense

Setting up Google AdSense to monetize your Bloggista.com Blog:

Bloggers at Bloggista.com have a choice to make their blogs ‘ads free’ and would rather hone their crafts at blogging and get rid of those ads. However, others also have a choice of generating revenues from their blogs.

For those bloggers who want to ‘monetize’ their blogs, a good way to start is to sign-up for an account with Google AdSense.

Google AdSense allows anyone to configure the ads they want to display on their sites (it may be a blog or another website). Once you have registered with Google Adsense, you can then login to your Google AdSense account and start configuring your ads. Below are some of the steps that you can follow to create your own ads and display the ads in your Bloggista.com blog:

1. Login to your AdSense account. (Note: You need to create an account associated with Google. Just follow the steps when signing up for a Google AdSense account. It will be helpful though, if you already have a Gmail account or any other account associated with Google, i.e. YouTube.com, Blogger.com, etc.)
2. Click on AdSense Setup tab. The Get Ads window will be displayed. You will see three (3) different ads types: AdSense for Content, AdSense for Search and Referrals. This simple tutorial will focus/discuss AdSense for Content setup. You can explore yourself the other ads types. (Note: Bloggista.com also features the AdSense for Search – located at the topmost right sidebar; and the Referrals ads – the Google AdSense button you can see at the mid right sidebar).
3. Click on AdSense for Content. You will see two Content types: Ad Unit (text only, image only, or both) and Link Unit. For this simple tutorial, we will setup the Adsense for Content – Ad Unit – Text and Image Ads.
4. Click on Continue. The AdSense for Content Wizard will be displayed. I suggest you use the Wizard for easy configuration.
5. Select the Ads Format you want to setup. If you intend to display ads at your Bloggista.com blog, I suggest the following Ads format: all Vertical Formats and Square Formats with width not more than 250 (check whether the ads fit the sidebar by testing it after placing the ads code into your sidebar widget).
6. You can also configure the colors of your Ads by using the Colors tool. Try to match your ads with the color of your blog/website theme colors. You can choose from different built-in color schemes, or you can create your own and save it so you can re-use it if you intend to create another ads format.
7. For this Tutorial, let’s setup a 160×600 Adsense for Content – Text and Image Ads Unit. Select the Default Google Color Palette or, you can customize the colors yourself.
8. Now you’re almost done. To see what the Ad Unit looks like, click on Preview this AdSense Unit . If you are satisfied, then click on Continue. You can always go back in case you want to make changes to your ad unit later.
9. Clicking on Continue button will take you the Ads Channel window. Ads Channels help you to identify your different ad units, and this is very helpful if you have multiple blogs or websites and want to track which ad unit from what website or blogsite your revenues were generated. To add a Channel, click on Add New Channel. Make sure that your browser allows Pop-ups. If pop-up was blocked, disable Pop-up blocker on Google AdSense pages. Click again on Add New Channel until a pop-up screen appears where you can enter the name of your channel, e.g. my bloggista blog
10. The Channel should now be assigned to your new ad unit. Click on Continue button to complete the setup process. Last step is for you to name your ad unit. In this simple tutorial, let’s name your new ad unit – 160×600, My Bloggista Blog Ad
11. To finish, click on Submit and Get Code button. Copy the ad unit codes by clicking on the Code field and press ‘CTL + V’. Or simply right-click your mouse and click ‘Copy’.
12. To display your ads in your Bloggista.com blog, see the section – Displaying Google AdSense Ads in your Bloggista.com blog.

Happy blogging!