My PIP Has Arrived!

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

You know I think I'm going to get some booze with this adsense check!

I feel like getting drunk!

There are also some things that I think that I should take notice of:

• First every month I go through this adsense "waiting game" and I'm thinking that I should note the time that the "PIP" actually shows up on my adsense account.
  
  For February 2008 it showed up at around 5:15pm EST
  
  
• Secondly I think that it would be a good idea to note WHEN it shows up as compared to when other people post when theirs shows up. Like for instance this month someone posted that they got their "payment in progress" and they are located on the East Coast but the next post was from someone in the Southwest US and then came a posting from Florida that someone received their "PIP" - all the while I'm located on the East Coast and am wondering why mine doesn't show up before those who aren't on the East Coast.

But all-in-all I'm happy that it just showed up!

What Is Adsense?

I have this poll on my original Adsense Consultant Blog asking people if they have adsense on their sites? While there have been some people that have said "Yes" there have been a few people that voted that they didn't even know what adsense is - so let me clarify:

Adsense (which is now a part of Google) is a program that lets you put ads on your website or blog. When visitors to your site click on the ads you get paid.

First of all in order to join the adsense program you have to apply. There is no cost involved in signing up for adsense. But you will need a website or blog to join!

Once your site has been approved by adsense then you can go through the steps of picking the way that you want your ads to look. You can not pick which specific ads will appear on your stie. The ads that appear on your site will be determined by the content (the words that are) that is on your site. (There are some exceptions though)

When visitors to your site click on the ads you earn money. How much money you earn per click depends on what the advertisers are paying for the ads that are appearing on your site - so it is IMPOSSIBLE to say how much you will specifically earn!

You have to earn at least $100 during the month before you will be issued an adsense payment and you have the option to receive your payment either by regular check or by bank transfer.

One important thing that you should note is that you should NEVER click on your own ads! Adsense has a sophisticated way of checking for things like this and if you click on your ads on a continuing basis you will get your adsense account cancelled! And once your adsense account is cancelled because of invalid clicks it is VERY hard (if not impossible) to get your adsense account back!

There Has Been Another PIP Sighting!

Courtesy of The Webmaster Forum

It's Official! February 2008 Will Be My Highest Adsense Earnings Month! (And The Month Isn't Even Over Yet!)

Yes it's offical that February 2008 will be my highest adsense earnings month and I still have a few more days to go!

What is interesting to note is that the less I obsess over my adsense earnings the more adsense earning I earn!

Why The Big Fuss About Getting The Adsense Payment?

As hard as it might be hard to believe a lot of people depend on their adsense payment. Forget the logic about not "putting one's eggs" in only one basket!

I saw one post from a guy in a foreign country (India - I think) who posted that he was waiting on his adsense payment to buy food!

Another contributing factor is that Adsense is not specific about when they will actually place that "payment in progress" line on a person's adsense account and people get frustrated trying to contact adsense about this matter.

Adsense does protect itself by saying that if a payment isn't received by a certain date then a reissue of the payment can be applied for - however that date is many, many days ahead of when payments are normally issued.

Like it or not some people are not going to be logical as far as getting their adsense payment is concerned!

Here Is What Adsense's Blog Says About Your Adsense Payment(s)

What is interesting to note here is that adsense says that they don't discriminate by processing those who opt for the check option.

The Official Adsense Blog

I really have to say that I'm disappointed with Adsense's offical blog! Of course the blog is filled with information but my major peeve with that blog is that it doesn't allow comments. What makes it worse is that the blog has a Google Groups counterpart and even IT doesn't allow comments! (I believe the google group says that it is moderated but I have yet to see any of my posts added!)

Adsense Has An Updated Terms Of Service Notice!

Have you tried to log in to your adsense account today?

Then chances are you were hit with the new / updated Adsense Terms Of Service notice.

You have until May 25th to agree to these new terms or you will no longer be able to acess your adsense account!

Since I am just becoming aware of this it will take me some time to go through adsense's new terms of service and figure out what their TOS says (and mean)

Here is a link to a web article that talks more about it.

No "Payment In Progress" Yet! )-:

Despite there being a "PIP" reported sighting there is no "payment in progress" line appearing in my adsense account yet. (Of course I'm quite pissed!)

Since I don't remember ever seeing the "PIP" line appearing during the weekend my next hope is that it will show on Monday - which is 2 days away!

PIP Sighting!

There has been a "payment in progress" sighting for the February 2008 adsense payments!

As you can see from the picture above someone has posted that they received the "PIP" line on their adsense account at around 1:41 pm TODAY!

As I am also located in the northeast I am hoping (and praying) that the "payment in progress" line will show up in my adsense account too!

You Are Scheduled To Be Sent A Payment......

I'm only guessing here but when you see the above information on your adsense account I'm guessing that they are in the process of processing the adsense payments. (Can you tell that I'm anxiously awaiting my adsense payment which will be my highest so far!) Like I said, I'm only guessing here and I can chalk that up to my anxiously awaiting my adsense payment. I have checked the webmaster forum and so far no one has posted that they got the "payment in progress" line on their adsense account yet.

I'm hoping that the "PIP" line shows today since it is a Thursday becasue if the "payment in progress" line shows tomorrow - which is Friday - then I won't have access to it until Monday at the earliest! So I'm hoping and praying that the "PIP" line shows up in my adsense account today!

Just in case you're curious there isn't much of a record of adsense paying this early. Maybe the earliest would be like the 22nd or 23rd of the month - but you never know!

*A small minute matter but there is no "30th of the month" for February 2008.

Using High-Paying Keywords On Your Blog

Of course there are various keywords that will pay you a higher adsense earning when visitors to your site click on them however there is the "problem" of having those high-paying keywords be related to the subject matter of your blog.

I have seen one popular blog that gets a lot of traffic but they have so many different subjects on their blog. I'm guessing that the reason why is because they want to target higher-paying keyword content so that they will get paid more money per click.

One example of a higher-paying keyword is "student loan consolidation". Now I know that Rose has a website about student loans and information about how there are some programs to help people financially with their student loans. It seems that a lot of students are having trouble paying back their student loans. I know of one person that hasn't paid back their student loans so now payments are being taken out of the income checks. Moreover the student loan people now want them to make payment arrangements in addition to still taking out the payments from their check so that they can get their student loan out of default.

I am guessing that the reason that "student loan consolidation" is such a high-paying keyword is because there are businesses out there that want this kind of business so bad that they are willing to pay a high price just so people (and potential clients) will be directed to their website which more than likely is some sort of loan consolidation business.

My Referral Ads Are Starting To Pay Off!

Last year I started putting referral ads on my sites because they had the potential to earn more adsense money. It was not until this year that I started earning some money from the referral ads. (And it is true that you DO have the potential to earn a lot more than from the content ads!

So if you're thinking about adding the adsense referral ads to your site then I would suggest that you do - if for no other reason than having the potential to earn more adsense money! It does take a little bit more time setting up the referral ads but - in my opinion - they are well worth it!

One Click = Over $4 In Adsense Earnings!

Like I have said before you never know what kind of click rate you are going to generate when you have adsense on your site! I looked at my adsense numbers today and found out that I earned over $4 for just one click!

Which Ad Format Produces The Best Results?

Which adsense ad size gets the most results?

Here is an excerpt from some of my notes:

"Use the Large Rectangle-With Google Adsense, you have the option of picking different ad formats. Most of the time people opt to use the Leaderboard (728x90) or Wide Skyscraper (160x600) style ads. Unfortunately, this is the wrong choice, because both look like blatant advertisements. Instead smart webmasters have found that using the Large Rectangle (336x280) yields the best amount of click-thrus.


* Don't use the Adsense 486x60 sized ad as it is generally ignored.


* Make them more noticeable by positioning your AdSense ads on top of your AdSense page.


* Google states that the most effective ad formats are 336×280 larger rectangle, the 300×250 inline rectangle, and the 160×600 wide skyscraper. However you should choose the best AdSense ad format that works for your AdSense web site. This requires tracking and testing.

"I Don't "Get" Adsense?"

Here is an email that was in my inbox. I'm having trouble replying to the email because it seems as though my email program is acting up. But it is a good question to post here because I am sure that this person isn't the only one that feels this way.

"Hey why is al(l) of this made to be so easy and its not. Am I stupid? I dont get adsense on how to add more advertising,Help if you can let me know were I need to start.

Thanks
A~

Well first of all your post seems kind of confusing.

First you have to apply to join the adsense program. You are going to have to submit the url of your website or blog so that adsense can review and approve your site. After your site has been approved you can then log in to your adsense account and start going through the process of adding your adsense ads.

You are going to be picking things like ad size and color. However you can't pick which specific ads appear on your site because that will be determined by the content that is on your site. To make your adsense ads more specific and more relevent to the content of your site you can do "section-targeting" which is explained in detail on adsense's own help site.

I do not think that you are stupid. I do think that adsense is new to you and you may just be becoming frustrated because you are trying something new for the first time.

Lots of people seem to be having trouble adding the adsense ads to their sites. Although there are no adsense ads on this blog, you can take a look at one of my client's blog to see what a properly configured adsense ad site would look like.

About the best piece of advice that I can give as far you being able to earn adsense money (or more adsense money) is to pick a theme for your site - that way you stand a much better chance of getting more targeted ads for your site.

Now the question comes up of whether or not you can make a business out of adsense - in other words can you make an adsense site solely to make money as opposed to you have a site about something that interests you and then adding adsense as an afterthought. Of course the answer is yes but since you are going to treat it as a business you are going to have to look at it as a business.

There are certain subjects that advertisers are willing to pay a high price for. So if you start a blog or website using these high-paying keywords then you have the potential to earn a lot more in adsense money. However there are people that have adsense ads on sites with subject matter that they are interested in or passionate about - so it does work both ways. However my best piece of advice would be to have your adsense ads on a site with subject matter that you are interested in or are passionate about!

I Reached The $100 Minimum Needed To Get An Adsense Payment Next Month!

As you can see from the picture I made it to the $100 minimum needed to assure me getting an adsense payment during the month of March 2008!

There are some numbers that I blotted out but there are some numbers that I let stay and this is mostly the number of page impressions. As you can see from the picture I do not get a huge amount of website traffic but I have gotten enough clicks to make at least the $100 minimum.

Like I have posted before I try to work on getting at least a 10% click thru rate - sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't!

I have also posted on this blog that so far January 2008 is my highest adsense earnings month to date!

So if you have adsense on your site (or you have a site that you don't think gets enough traffic for adsense) and you're not earning anything then take a good look at the picture above and you will see that you do not need a huge amount of traffic to your site in order to earn - at least the minimum - from adsense!

Wondering about how much income tax you'll have to pay on your adsense earnings?

Well its income tax time again and this will be the first year that I have to pay tax on my adsense earnings. I'm posting this for those of you that are curious about your adsense income and paying taxes on it. Also bear in mind too that this is for those in the United States only.

First of all adsense won't be sending you a tax form if you have made under a certain amount - which is around $400 - $600.

According to my federal tax return you have to report your adsense income if it is over $400 because you are liable for self-employment tax! Now the interesting thing that I have found out is that while you are going to be taxed, you are going to be able to cut your self-employment tax in half and only be taxed on half of the self-employment tax that you owe. Adding to that there is something else called the Earned Income Credit and if you qualify for that then you get more of your owed self-employment tax slashed.

So far it looks as though I'm going to be paying about $1 to $5 dollars in taxes as far as my adsense earnings go.

I haven't actually started doing my income taxes yet. I want to be ready with all my comfort tools before I actually get started and tackle this thing!

Other Comments Received

March 3, 2009 11:14 PM - Googlecash said...

Hi, I was not in a good financial position back in 2004, Then I found Google adsense, Its the best program to earn money online, I started slow, I was making $20 a day in my first year, but I worked really hard and Making money online is not easy, You have to put in lots of efforts every day, I did, But now my life has changed completely, I make over $3000 a month, This gives me lots of freedom, I have made many friends online and I did learn lot from them, I wish best of luck to any one who is starting up.

Liza form Google cash

Having Problems Adding Your Adsense Codes?

It seems that there are a lot of people having trouble adding their adsense codes. As far as my clients are concerned there are 2 ways that their codes are added. Either I have access to their adsense account or I talk them through adding the adsense codes to their website or blog.

Before Blogger.com had their new version you could simply go to your template and add the coding where you wanted it to appear. Now with Blogger.com's new layouts you can either have Blogger.com add your adsense codes to the bottom of your blog posts (you can click here to see an example of blogger adding your adsense ads to your blog posts) or you can add the adsense coding yourself by "adding a new page element" to your blog and then pasting the adsense codes to your new "page element".

As simple as this may seem there are still a lot of people who haven't been able to get their adsense codes on their site.

It is a very kind of hard thing to explain - especially when its going to depend on where you want to add your adsense codes.

Are There Any Adsense Millionaires?

Of course the answer is yes!

• There is a dating website that makes $300,000 per month. It is run by one man and his girlfriend!
  
  
• There is another site by an internet marketer who is making over $100,000 per month with their adsense earnings
  
  
• Jason Calacanis: Weblogs, Inc. - $120,000 per month
  
  Before Jason Calacanis sold Weblogs, Inc to AOL for $25 million, he got the network of blogs making over $4,000 a day from Google AdSense. So impressive was his AdSense performance that Google used Weblogs for a case study.
  
  "Now that AOL controls Weblogs, you can bet it is making a lot more than a measly $120,000 a month."

There are not a huge amount of adsense millionairses out there but they are out there!

I guess what this all comes down to is the more traffic that you get the more adsense money you can potentially make!

How's THIS For Search Engine Results!

The Adsense Consultant

Even though a link to my blog shows up on Page 1 of Google's search engine resuts for the term "adsense consultant", I sss that my link is sloowwwlly moving up page 1!

I've been trying hard to crack the top four listings for "adsense consultant" and today I had a chance to look at my search engine rankings and I am indeed moving up higher on the search engine results!

In order to get your blog (or website) high in the search engine rankings you are going to have to continuously work on the content of your site!

Update

As of May 2011 my search engine results for "adsense consultant still ranks both of my adsense blogs on the first page of the search engine results! Links to my blogs are #2, #3 and #5 on the first page of the search engine results!

Well It Finally Happened!

As I posted not long ago I'm more than half-way to making the minimum amount of adsense earnings needed ($100) to get a payment for next month. (Actually as I am typing this I'm now about $17 short of the $100 minimum needed.)

But today I got my very first referrel earnings! It's just 1 but I have had the adsense referrel ads on my site(s) for at least a few months now. I have gotten the occaisional click but none of those have ever gotten me any earnings until today! That one referral click earned me just under $1!

I'm looking forward to many more referral clicks earning me more adsense money!

Can I Make My Adsense Ad Transparent?

Unfortunately the answer is no. You can not edit your adsense ad so that it will have a transparent background. The reason for that is because of an agreement with the google adsense program which says that the advertisers' ads must be clearly seen and that can not always be accomplished with a transparent background. So that is why there is a solid background color for the adsense ads.

The best alternative would be for you to pick a color - the most prominent color is advised - and use its color code to put on your adsense ad(s).

I'm A Little Past The Half-Way Mark For This Month!

As you can see from this adsense capture picture I am past the halfway mark of getting at least the minimum adsense payment for next month! And it's only February 6th!

Now I am not doing this to brag but to show you that you do NOT have to have a lot of traffic to your site or blog in order to earn at least the minimum adsense earnings to get a payment for the next month! As you can see from my page impressions I don't get a huge amount of traffic but I am getting earnings! Some of the information I "whited" out but some information I let stay. Mostly because I wanted people to see that they don't have to generate a huge amount of traffic just in order to make at least the minimum amount required to get an adsense payment for the next month.

I can tell you that while I strive to get at least a 10% click through rate I don't always manage to accomplish that. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't!

What is very surprising is that sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by how much I can earn per click! And that is really without me trying! I do have a listing of high-paying keywords but sometimes I find that I will get a very high click earning from something that I wasn't even trying for!

So like I said before its only February 6th and I'm already past the half-way mark to earning the minimum amount ($100) required to get an adsense payment the next month!

Hopefully my numbers will show all of you that you don't need a huge amount of traffic in order to generate at least the monthly minimum needed to get an adsense payment the next month!

Over $3 Earned On Just One Click!

One of the pleasantly surprising things about belonging to Adsense is that you never know just how much you are going to earn per click! I pleasantly found out today that 1 click earned me over $3!

Usually me clicks earn me under $1 but every once in a while I am pleasantly surprised by just how much I (or anyone else that has adsense on their site) can earn with adsense.

Of course I have NO CLUE as to what words on my site generated such a high earning and that is one of the wonderful things about having adsense on one's site because you will never know how much just one click could earn you!

I usually post about how long it takes me to get to that $100 minimum for the month so that I'm assured an adsense payment for the next month but right now it's just too early in the month to start that - even though I'm off to a very good start!

I really would recommend that if you are thinking about adding adsense to your sites that you should seriously consider doing so! The one caveat that I want to mention is that your site should have a theme or subject matter in mind - as opposed to having just a "general" site!

You never know just how much you could possible earn with Adsense!

Your Adsense Payment(s) And Income Taxes

I got an audit notice from my local tax administrators concerning my 2006 adsense earnings. I, of course, reported my adsense income but there was no W-2 that was included with my tax return and that was what the audit is all about. Now normally people would think that this would be an occassion to panic (which I did at first) but since I have worked for both H & R Block and the IRS I had some experience with the whole "tax" thing.

So I called up the tax office to find out what the problem was. Basically speaking all income reported has to be backed up by an accompanying form of proof of that income. Since my adsense income was so low - it was only for two months - adsense did not send me a W-2 form. Here is an excerpt from adsense's site:

Will you send me a Form 1099 or 1042?


Publishers are responsible for paying their own taxes resulting from participation in Google AdSense. In order to facilitate this, we send IRS forms 1099 and 1042-S to qualifying publishers as required by US tax law. Forms will be sent before the end of January 2007.

We will send a Form 1099 to you and the IRS if:

• You submitted a Form W-9, are not a corporation, and were paid at least US $600 in 2006 OR
  
  
• You indicated that you are subject to backup withholding and had taxes withheld

We will not send you any forms or report your earnings to the IRS if:

• You have signed the declaration of No US Activities OR
  
  
• You have NO earnings from the AdSense program OR
  
  
• You have submitted a Form W-9 as a corporation and did not have any taxes withheld OR
  
  You have submitted a Form W-9, made less than $600 and did not have any taxes withheld

To find out more information about this just click here to go to the Adsense Help site.

According to my local tax administrator(s), I have to let them know the reason as to why there was no W-2 form included with my tax return. So I have included an excerpt from the Adsense site itself as to why there was no W-2 form included with the tax return and I will let you know how everything goes.