Use AdSense On Your Blog Like the Pros
If you’re new to blogging, you might decide to write on a niche topic and make a little extra cash on your blog with AdSense. AdSense is Google’s online advertising program, and is quite simple to use. You’ve probably noticed these ads above and below my articles, and on the sidebar.
There are a lot of ways to put ads on your blog, but the simplest way is to start with an AdSense-ready Wordpress theme. I’m using the ProSense Gray theme that I downloaded for free from DoshDosh. This is great, because it’s already set up to be optimized for ads and to incorporate into my blog.
1. Head over to someplace like DoshDosh and pick out the Adsense- optimized theme you like.
2. Now go to the AdSense page and sign up for an account. All you’ll need is your blog address and some personal information, and you’ll be good to go. It takes them about a day or so to approve your account, after which you can start getting paid whenever someone clicks on your ads!
3. Extract the theme you downloaded into another folder on your computer. Now upload these files to your site using your FTP client. The directory you want to upload them into is wp-content\themes.
4. If you uploaded them to the right place, head back to your Wordpress dashboard and click on the “Presentation” tab. You should see the theme you just uploaded. Click on the theme and voila! Check out your beautiful new theme by clicking “View site.”
5. You might notice some contextual ads on your site but you’re not finished yet. You’ll need your AdSense Publisher ID, which you’ll find on your AdSense account once it’s approved. Login to AdSense, click on “My Account” and scroll to the bottom where it says “Property Information.” You’ll see something that looks like “ca-pub-###” which is your Publisher ID. Highlight and copy it except for the “ca-” portion, so you just copy the “pub-###” part.
6. In Wordpress, click on the Presentation tab and then the “Theme Editor” tab underneath it. This part might get a little tricky. You’ll see all the files for the theme you’re using on the right hand side. Some of those files are the AdSense files that came with the theme. If you can’t tell which ones are the AdSense files, check the folder where you originally downloaded the theme into and see if there’s a Readme file - it should tell you what you need t know. If you’re using ProSense like me, the files will look like “adsense_sidebar,” etc.
7. Now just search through the code and paste your Publisher ID over anything that says “pub-###.” In other words, replace any Publisher ID in the code with your own. Repeat for all the other ad files, and don’t forget to click “update files.”
You’re done! Any visitor who clicks on your ad now puts a little bit of money in your pocket. Be careful not to click on your own ads!
We’ve got a nice-looking blogs and our ads are in place. Now comes the hard part - coming up with content and bringing visitors to your site. That’s coming up soon.
