Google
Adsense for Photography Websites – Earn Money While You Sleep
Google Adsense for Photography Websites – Earn Money While
You Sleep
Many photographers have a website these days. It is an important
tool for promotion and marketing in a highly competitive field.
Photography websites are very popular with many sites receiving
several hundred visitors a day. Google Adsense is a program of Pay
Per Click (PPC) whereby you place ads on your site and earn revenue
every time someone clicks an Ad.
In order to participate in the program you must apply to https://www.google.com/adsense/.
Not all sites are accepted into the program, any sites with pornography,
gambling or pharmaceuticals are not allowed. If your site is not
in one of these categories you are sure to be accepted.
Once accepted it is a simple matter of adding a few lines of code
to your site. Google Adsense’s web based user interface is
easy to use and allows you to customize the look of your ad units.
You simply log in to your account select from a number of ad formats
such as banners, boxes and link units, in different sizes and that
will display a different number of ads in each box. Once you have
the code that Google Adsense generates you simply copy and paste
the code into your pages and upload them to your server.
Google then reads the content of the pages usually from the Title
Heading and displays ads on the same topic. You are able to specify
channels for each of the different pages in your site which allow
for detailed reporting of which pages receive the most clicks and
revenue.
In additon to displaying Adsense on your site, Google also allows
you to put a Search Bar on your site. When people enter a search
term and click on one of the ads in the SERPs you get paid. Not
all Ads are created equal.
Where you place the ads on the page and the color you use to display
them will have a huge impact on the number of click you receive.
Google has a very useful page that shows the “hotspots”
of a page, helping to determine the best position for the ads on
your page.
Now when it comes to Photography, many other photographers use
Google Adwords (You pay to advertise on other peoples sites and
in the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)) and it is very possible
that your site will end up having ad units displaying other photographers
ads. Now why would you want to advertise your competition, even
if clicking that link brings you some revenue.
A couple of issues with this. First, Google allows you to block
up to 200 URL’s of your competitors. It is a good idea is
to block all the competitors in your local area. A photographer
advertising on the other side of the world is not much threat to
you.
Many people like surfing photography websites, just looking at
pictures on random sites, and these people make up the majority
of users looking at your site. You want to provide them with opportunities
to look at other photographers work at the same time paying you
for the referral.
Next it is a good idea to create a page explaining to your potential
clients why you have ads on your site. It helps to explain that
you are earning money from the traffic to your site and that you
are happy to refer people to your competition. This shows that you
have great confidence in your work and your ability to close sales,
and everyone respects legitimate attempts to earn extra money.
Of great interest to photographers many of whom have no retirement
plan is the fact that this program allows them to “Earn Money
while they sleep”. It is a great boost to check your reports
everyday to see how much you earned. As well Google’s reporting
features give you some insight into what people are looking at on
your site.
Google is a very high profile company and having their Ads and
Search Box on your site lends it a certain amount of credibility.
There is a whole industry growing up around Google Adsense and
Google Adwords, with many people selling products that will maximize
your revenue from this program. As your photography websites primary
purpose is to advertise your good photography services you will
have to balance the desire to make money from your site with the
need to attract new customers.
Finally, how much money will you earn from this program. Well let
me tell you that unless you have Massive amounts of traffic you
are not going to get that new Porsche anytime soon. However it may
allow you to buy that ‘L’ series lens you have had your
eye on, the one you just can’t justify buying.
One final note, if your thinking of clicking your own ads or getting
your friends to click on them – DON’T. This is considered
CLICK FRAUD and is looked on very seriously by Google. Google knows
the natural pattern of ‘clicks’ and any unusual ‘clicking’
will get you booted out of the program and you will not get paid
for any previous clicks. Google very smart…
About the Author Sean David Baylis is
a professional photographer with a keen interest in Search Engine
Optimization, PPC and anything Internet. http://www.sdbphoto.com
is a labour of love in addition to being a very useful tool for
bringing in new clients. Currently receiving 200-400 visitors a
day the site earns between $1-$5 a day.
|
