by Ben Shaffer, 7/21/2007
Today, Google Adsense continues to grow in popularity. Advertisers love the arrangement, as they now have an army of webmasters designing sites that will eventually lead to pre-qualified prospects being led to their commercial endeavors. Adsense publishers love the idea of creating sites that can generate revenue without requiring a product to sell. Adsense continues to create awesome income opportunities for those who know how to best use it.
As noted, there are a variety of so-called "experts" offering tips and hints to help increase Adsense revenues. Some focus on on-page design and other similar means of increasing "click through rate (CTR)." Others focus entirely on how to produce hundreds of sites quickly and easily in hopes of creating income through volume. Sometimes there seem to be as many expert Adsense systems as there are actual sites featuring Google's ads.
Those who initially took this "spare change" opportunity and transformed it into a true moneymaker, however, uncovered the key to success with Adsense. The key to success is finding the right keywords and determining how to best exploit them.
It's not too hard to guess what kinds of keywords are generating decent payouts. Medical terms and keywords related to multi-million dollar lawsuits, for instance, are universally known to be bring high amounts per click. At one time, the internet was crackling with news of how the keyword "mesothelioma" and related terms were earning nearly a hundred dollars or more per click. That's right...Per click. Ten "mesothelioma" clicks in a day could conceivably put one thousand dollars in the pocket of a publisher.
Of course, once word leaked out, "mesothelioma" sites sprung up everywhere. Adsense experts and newbies alike engaged in heated competition for the elusive "mesothelioma" clicks and their attendant profits. Soon, it became increasingly difficult to get traffic to a "mesothelioma" site. There was simply so much competition.
The story of how a form of lung cancer took Adsense by storm is important to understand, because it teaches a fundamental lesson about the nature of succeeding with the program. You not only need to know what words are making money with each click. You need to know that information before everyone else does, too.
That is why keyword research is the most important aspect of successful Adsense use. By understanding which words are paying the most at any given time, you can position yourself in those key niches before the onslaught, allowing you to garner considerable profit in a relatively short period of time.