What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun.  As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential.  Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1.Blogging is simple.  The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging.  No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse.  It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product.  If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic.  In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims.  However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising.  Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience.  You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free.  Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free.   Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up.  Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility.  As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs.  As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs.  As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market.  Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts.  Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is.  But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base.  Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail.  Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market.  In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site.  Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site.  If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription.  An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite.  Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address.  Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers.  Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences.  Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared.  In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc.  Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject.  Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today.  As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base.  Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

First, excitement breeds excitement.  Get excited about your new venture and others will too.  Learn everything you can about the Google Adsense program, not only will this increase your earnings, but you’ll be better equipped to explain the mechanics of the program to others.

Show them the money.  There’s nothing like a little proof to make a believer out of someone.  You don’t have to wait until you’re making thousands per month, although that’s a healthy goal.  But even a small deposit in your piggy bank is enough to intrigue most people.  Can’t you just count those referrals now?

You don’t have to be a techno-geek to use Google Adsense.  In fact, you don’t need any more technical knowledge than you do to surf the web.  Google Adsense is very user-friendly with a comprehensive support site to answer any question you might have.

You are first walked through the sign-up process where you are prompted for any and all information needed.  You will then have a couple of days while you are waiting for your account to be approved.  This would be a good time to familiarize yourself with the program policies, which of course you read before you signed up.  But look again.  Make sure the site you are registering doesn’t have any of the no-nos listed.  For instance, some profanity is allowed, but nothing excessive.  What is excessive?  That could be a gray area, but if you’re in doubt, don’t register that site.  There’s plenty of sites with little or no profanity.

Look at the support site while you are waiting on Google Adsense and see what other’s are saying and doing.  Most of all, have fun.  Your Google Adsense dollars are just waiting to be counted.

Does Google Adsense Offer Direct Deposit?

Google adsense offers various payment options for publishers.

Electronic Funds Transfer (ETF) is offered in 16 countries whereby your payments are deposited directly into your bank account in your local currency.  Check Google Adsense support to see which countries participate in this option.  You will need to sign up for  this option after your application is approved by signing into your account. You then click the edit link adjacent to the payment header.  After you fill out the bank information, Google Adsense will make a small test deposit into your account.  This is for security purposes to assure the account is really your own.

Watch your account for the test deposit to post, usually within just a few days.  After you have received the deposit from Google, log back in to your account and in the Payment Details section, click Verify Account.  You then will need to enter the amount of the test deposit.  If you do not complete this step, your payments will be on hold.  Once you enter the test deposit amount correctly, your bank will be approved and selected as your form of payment.

Once you’ve been mailed a PIN number, your account payments will be on hold until the PIN is entered in your account.  You can still have access to your account and earn money; you just won’t be paid until the PIN is entered.  If it hasn’t been entered within 1 year, your account will be disabled.

To enter your PIN after you receive it in the mail, log into your Google Adsense account.  Click on the My Account tab, then click on edit.  Update the appropriate field and click submit changes.  It would also be a good time to check your contact information and make sure it is correct.  You’re now well on your way to receiving your first Google Adsense check.

DON’T

Never, ever, ever click on your own ads.  Google Adsense makes it very clear this won’t be tolerated.

Don’t ask your friends and family to click on your ads.  Rather, earn money by referring them to the Google Adsense program.

Don’t participate in the Google Adsense program strictly for the money. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It will take time and hard work to make a profit.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything the first day.  Although the Google Adsense program is extremely user-friendly, it may take a little time to integrate all the facets of the program.  Be patient and above all, have fun!

Hopefully, these helpful tips will ease you into using the program and help you avoid mistakes that could possibly cost you a lot of time or money.

The Themed Ad Units are specifically tailored to users in the appropriate locations as determined by their IP address.  For instance, a user in the United States might see colors and graphics appropriate to the Fourth of July while users everywhere could see colors and graphics for New Years Day.

Again, it’s your choice and your page.  You can turn Themed Ad Units on or off  by yourself.  Just log in to your account, go to the My Account tab. On the Account Settings page, scroll down to the Ad Type Preferences section and click Edit.  You can now enable or disable the Themed Ad Units.  Click save changes and Voila!  Your selection will apply to all your Google Adsense Ads.

Yes.  In fact, the more sites you have displaying Google Adsense ads, the more money you will make.  You don’t even have to notify Google of the new sites.  Make sure though, that any new site you add conforms to Google Adsense Program Policies, because if your account gets terminated for any reason, you would not be able to display the Google Adsense ads on any of them.

All you have to do is copy and past the same ad layout code you previously copied and pasted to your original site.

The same rules apply when adding an Adsense for Search box to your new site.  Simply choose all the parameters from the choices displayed, copy the code to the new site or new pages within the old site.  As in the beginning, Google’s webcrawler will detect the code and you’re all set.

Will It Help Me to Buy Google Adsense “Secrets” E-books and Reports?

As with any money-making venture, there are pitfalls, pros and cons and some outright cons.  As popular as Google Adsense has become, it’s no surprise there is a wealth of information for sale.  Try it.  Google Google Adsense and you’ll see what I mean.  There are those promising they make thousands and thousands of dollars a month from Google Adsense and they are willing to share their “secrets” with you – for a price.

The fact is Google Adsense will tell you everything you need to know – for free. They have a support site that covers virtually everything you would need to know about the program and experience will teach you the rest, although I admit I have seen a couple of interesting books on amazon.com.

There are a lot of people out there in cyberspace who will gladly answer your questions for free and there are many forums where you can post questions.  You can even email the Google Adsense Support Staff if you have questions that their Support Site doesn’t answer.

Experience will probably be your best teacher anyway. And the good news is the Google Adsense program makes that experience painless in that you have nothing lose. So just take a chance on yourself for now.  Learn everything you can to maximize your earning potential.

How much do you want to make?  How hard do you want to work?  And how much time do you want to spend working the Google Adsense program?

These are the questions you must ask yourself in order to answer that question.

Look at it this way: how many business opportunities come your way where the only requirement is hard work and the time it takes to work hard?  Not many.  Almost any business venture requires some kind of start-up money.

If  your total earnings is showing 0.00 after a week, not to worry.  Keep reading and learning and working.  If however, you’re still showing 0.00 after a month, it may be time to implement some of those optimization tips you’ll find on the Google Adsense Support Site.  Play around with the placement of the ads on your site.  Consider changing the colors.  Look again at the content. Is it interesting?

As with any other business, with the Google Adsense program, the sky is the limit. Work hard. Work smart. Have fun.  After all, you’re the boss.

What Are URL Channels and How to Organize Them in Google Adsense

URL Channels allow you to view detailed information about the performance of your  Adsense for Content pages.

Suppose you have a blog at writingup.com and you also have a blog at bloggerparty.com. It might be interesting and profitable to track which one is getting more clicks.  Log in to your Adsense account and click on Adsense for Content.  Scroll down until you see Channels and click on manage channels.  You may need to scroll up when the next page loads.  Under Manage URL Channels you would type writingup.com and click on Create New Channel.  You will immediately see writingup.com in the Active URL Channels dialogue box  Now type in bloggerparty.com in the same channel text box and again click on Create New Channel.  You now have two channels and you will be able to track your progress on each channel.  You can view channel reports from the Advanced Report page under the Reports tab.  Choose Adsense for Content, choose the date range and then select the Channels Data radio button. Choose any number of active channels by holding down the CTRL key. Next click on Display Report.  It’s as easy as that.

Applying for a Google Adsense account is quick and easy for any interested webmaster. Just point your browser to www.google.com/adsense and click on apply.  Click on the drop down arrow under account type and select whether you’re an individual or business.  If you’re not sure which one to choose, click on the question mark to the left. Next, select your country or territory.

Under website information, it asks for your primary URL.  If you have your own website, list it here.  If you are using a blogging site such as writingup.com or bloggingparty.com that URL goes here.

Select your website’s primary language. Google adsense supports Chinese (simplified), Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Select the product you want on your pages.  Adsense for Content means you will have advertising targeted to the content on your pages.  For instance, if you write about flooring, you might have carpet ads on your page.  Adsense for Search is for you to add a Google search box to your pages.  To maximize your Google Adsense earnings, you will want to have both.

After that, it’s just the regular contact information and you’re all set.  You should receive an email in 2 or 3 days letting you know if your application is approved.

Do I Have to Pay Taxes on My Google Adsense Earnings?

Google Adsense is required to collect tax information from those who participate in the program. If you’re a business, you’ll need to put your EIN number on your application.  If you’re an individual, all you’ll need is your social security number.  If you don’t have that information when you initially sign up, you can still apply for the Google Adsense program.  But be advised that Google Adsense will withhold payments to you until they receive your tax information.

While Google does not withhold taxes or provide any tax advice, they will send you a 1099 once your earnings reach a certain amount.  Of course, if you are a Non-US business and have no activity in the United States, you will not need to provide this information.  For more tax information regarding the Google Adsense program, visit the Google Adsense Support site.  For other tax-related questions or concerns, you can log onto www.irs.gov

Write about something you know or want to know or at the very least care about. If you try to write a great blog based on a “hot keyword” yet it’s something you could care less about, you’ll likely not stay with it long. Experiment and see what works for you. You can write based on your own opinion or something factual. You can review a product or service or a movie.  Read other people’s blogs and notice how many reads they’re getting.  Above all, have fun.  After all, it’s free and if you’re persistent you’ll see your Google Adsense dollars adding up.