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Search Engine

Right let's get started then.
The main starting point is of course going to Google and signing up for AdSense (just do a quick search and you'll get there). Google obviously have a lot of AdSense information on their site, but I'll give you a few pointers so you don't have to waste too much time.
When you sign up, you will need to give some information about your website, so make sure have a website with some fairly decent content on there. Google hates bad content, so you will likely get banned if your content isn't up to scratch and you haven't followed the Terms of Service.

Speaking of the Terms of Service – Make sure you read this, understand it, and follow it to the hilt. If you break any rules, you WILL be banned, and will possibly lose out on earnings you have already made, so don't risk it. The Google TOS is probably the most important bit of AdSense information you should read, so don't miss it out. Right, I think I've made that clear!

Once you've signed up you can start adding ads to your site, so how do you do this?
You will notice that once you're logged in to the AdSense admin area, you can go to AdSense setup. Go there (by clicking on the tab) and click on 'Get Ads' just below it (if not selected already). Here you are given a list of the type of advertisement you require. For this article I'm only going to talk about the most used type – AdSense for Content. For all the other types, such as AdSense for search, there's plenty of AdSense information at Google and other sites to tell you about those.

So, click on AdSense for content. You will be given two more types to choose from – an ad unit, and a link unit. Ad unit's are more common and generally more noticeable than link units which are more suited to mimicking a navigation bar of some sort.

Next up is the format. This is basically the size dimensions of the ad unit you're going to place on your site and will depend on where you are going to put it on your site so choose based on that.

After that is colors. Google allows you to change all the colors in the ad to any you choose that are allowable by the TOS – You can't, for example, change the colors so that the Google logo text is hidden. There are a few preset color schemes as well to get you started. It is a good idea to use colors that match where the ad will be placed on your web page so that the ad blends in nicely. There are now a few options to change fonts and the type of corner displayed, but those are pretty self explanatory.

Next is channels. Channels are a great way of testing your ads to see which are performing best. You could setup a channel per website, and per position placed on the website to give you some great AdSense information and statistics to help you see which ads are doing best and therefore make you more money.

Last step is to give the ad unit you're creating a name, so you can retrieve the details later in the manage ads section and change anything you're not happy with. Once a name has been given, just hit submit and get code to see the code you will have to place on your site.

Now have some code that you will need to insert into your web page using your favourite text/html editor.
Placement is key here. A badly placed ad will not get you many clicks. Top center is usually best and will most likely get you the most clicks, but use the channels feature and experiment with different placements to see which make you the most money.

If you wish to make lots of money with AdSense then, above all, make sure you have some good high ranking content on your site that doesn't breach Google's TOS and you'll do well. There is plenty of other AdSense information around the web that will help you out too – just do a quick search and I'm sure you'll find what you want.

You can also see below for some great Adsense related ebooks, that are full of great information, as well as other products and services that will help you get the most out using Adsense, especially for making a good profit on your websites.