Got it now...Thank you! I noticed that it's not very cost effective for a newbie to advertise on a site (min bid is $0.25) , but to rather go through keywords. Problem is, all my clicks came from site targeted ads and not keyword targeted. I was losing Adsense Revenues at rate of -80% to -90% of what I was investing into Adwords. I had a 1.5% CTR rate in Adwords and almost the same in Adsense, but it doesn't make sense if all your traffic comes through that route I guess.
Phoenix, you should also check into WordPress, as it has some real nice options like search-engine-friendly URLs. Also, why not buy Eric's book? I've heard nothing but good about it, and it's targeted to people in your same position. Lastly, don't get frustrated. Spend lots of time on these forums, pulling out the little nuggets that show up every once in a while, and put them all to good use. Test, test, test. Move things around, take advantage of the channels in AS. Don't be upset if you go a month or two with very small earnings. As long as you keep at it, your numbers will slowly increase.
Thanks for the advice techlh. I am going to get his book. It seems very informative, and right to the point. I will be around here alot on this site, as I have alot of researching to do. Do you recommend any old threads in particular that I should be diving into?
Whatever you do, just remember that it takes time to figure all this stuff out, especially if you're not a web expert to begin with. Lots of people here were where you are today and have learned things bit by bit as they go along. After all, no matter how much of an expert you are there will always be at least a 30-day delay before you see any money from Google (because payments are sent out about 30 days after the month in which they were earned) so there's no such thing as an "overnight success" with AdSense. So what's a few more days or weeks?
I know it has been mentioned before, but one of the most important thing is patience. Unless you are lucky, even a good site cannot expect good returns for at least a month, (some might even say at least 3 months). I have been on the net for many years, but only with Adsense for a couple of months. And I can see that one of the main reasons for failure is because people give up when they can't buy a new boat after the first week of creating a website. It often becomes very easy to try 'shortcuts' to make things go faster. But they never work. While you wait for Google to give you good traffic read this forum, (and others), they offer invaluable advices on good web practice, because only good web practice can guarantee a solid future in any internet business. FFMG
And keep adding content. Google loves content-heavy sites. Just be sure your content is original, or you will get what some call a "Duplicate content penalty".
should have made a deal such as being your personal assistant with the drunk driver instead of jail term. when you think about it, many victims would choose that over locking up the drunk driver. and the drunk driver would be lucky not to go to jail and the victim can afford to do some of the things. it's a win-win situation from a bad situation.