BloggingAmigos

When Gmail first came out a few years ago, I remember there being a lot of talk about the ads. Friends of mine would go on tirades about how they were never going to use Google’s email service because they wanted to protect their privacy. They didn’t want these ads showing up. These ads that would find keywords in their emails and conjure up ads on the side. I also had a few other friends of mine who said they really didn’t care. The ads were just going to be text - nothing flashing nor colorful.

I’m glad I listened to my second set of friends because I’ve had Gmail accounts now since 2003 or 2004 and love them. They were right about the ads. They’re over there on the side and I rarely even realize they’re there. Google Adsense is very similar. You can insert ads on your blog, or website, that are just text on the side. Adsense is a little bit more complicated than the GMail ads though, because you can customize them to some extent, and choose where they are located.

Setting up an account is pretty easy. You just need an existing account with Google. One thing to keep in mind is that you can only create one Adsense account with your personal information. You’ll have to give them an address, SSN, etc for tax purposes and they won’t let you make multiple accounts. After you account is created you can creat five types of ads: Content, Search, Referrals, Video Units and Mobile Content.

For all ad types you can somewhat customize the size, shape, colors, etc of the ad. This is helpful when placing something on your blog/site in case you want something horizontal, vertical or have a particular color scheme. You can choose between just text, graphics and combinations. You can also restrict specific ads from showing up. I had one particular ad for some new wonder drug constantly showing up so I blocked it. If you happen to be selling some particular item or service on your blog/site you could also easily block competitor ads from showing.

Like most other services, there also happen to be plugins to easily integrate Adsense into Wordpress and other applications. I’ll be reviewing a particularly good one for Wordpress in the near future.