Hey, I have a few questions about getting started with adsense. I've read a lot and it's all pretty jarring, some of it makes sense. other stuff i'm stilly pretty foggy on. While i will restrain myself from asking for a step by step to starting a decent site with adsense, I have a few questions. I apologize for the obscene length of this, and don't expect anyone to answer all of these, but i'd greatly apreciate help(not vauge answers) from anyone kind enough to offer it. I'm asking for specifics. What are good hosting services? (Cheap, flexible) Should I get my own domain, as in a dot com, and have my own directories there, or is it possible to have a succesful adsense site hosted on something like homestead or freewebs? Should I learn php? What are the must know things to be able to have competent control over adsense? Should I learn web design? Should I start channels before I start sites? Should I have even more individual channels for each site? How does adsense pay you, through paypal, through post? Should I get traffic before I put on adsense to the site? How does registration work with adsense, by individual credit card, by IP? Now, wich sites make the most money the easiest, and hardest? What is ppc and how important/relevant is it? I've thoguht of doing : directories, celebrity gossip blogs, celebrity sites, college humor sites, arcades, technolust websites, guitar tutorial websites, among other things. Ive heard and im assuming to it to be true that micro niches do better then broad categories, is this true regarding anyone elses experience? The thing is I UNDERSTAND that good/great content is what gets visitors coming and coming back, wich means more adsense hits. I jsut want to know whats the best way to go about things initialiy. BEFORE I start adding the great content, how should the infrastructure be set up? How do you guys do it? Do I make a page on some hosting service like homstead of freewebs first, and start building a site for a little while, THEN put adsense on it? Do I make it on my own .com domain? Learn php or web design? Do I make a template with adsense first then put content into it? (as asked before) Wich are the best/cheapest hosting providers? What are the most important things to take care of during the start up process of a hopefully succesful adsense site, even before the content is written(or put into place) I understand and plan on 'doing sites that I love' and 'providing quality content', that's not really what i'm asking about here, i'm more asking about the specific regarding infrastructure, asking the neccisary groundwork that should be layed before I begin building foundation. I know if i searched for a few weeks I might find vaugeries alluding to the answers i'm asking for, so I figured this may(hopefully) be a better method. I encourage you to help me out here, because as it turns out providing me with any specifics you can will also help anyone else seeking the same exact answers. Thanks.
Make a list of your questions, then use the forum's search function, and check off the questions one by one. No one is going to sit here answering 50 billion questions.
What are good hosting services? (Cheap, flexible) There are many out there, some better than others. You will do well to take a look at www.webhostingtalk.com Should I get my own domain, as in a dot com, and have my own directories there, or is it possible to have a succesful adsense site hosted on something like homestead or freewebs? It's best to have your own domain name and hosting. The domain name will become your asset. Especially after promoting the site heavily. There's no use in creating a brand and lots of traffic that points to something you don't own. Should I learn php? What are the must know things to be able to have competent control over adsense? Should I learn web design? You will definitely need to lear web design... at least the basics of a good layout, navigation, links etc. Having a good knowledge of HTML will help alot. A CMS (content management system) will make things much easier to manage (even for newbies, but there is still a learning curve). You don't need to know PHP unless you want to write your own CMS. Should I start channels before I start sites? Should I have even more individual channels for each site? Channels are a way to track how specific ad units perform. How you use them will depend on your personal style. How does adsense pay you, through paypal, through post? Google pays through a cheque or EFT (in some countries). No Paypal. Should I get traffic before I put on adsense to the site? Yes. You can have Adsense on a site without much traffic, but you won't earn much (if anything). Your earnings are directly proportional to the amount of traffic you have. How does registration work with adsense, by individual credit card, by IP? Depending on which country you are from it goes by SSN, Name, Address. You are only allowed one account. (Some exceptions exist, but that's for businesses with a seperate entity) What is ppc and how important/relevant is it? PPC = Pay per click. It's the advertising model Adsense uses. You get paid each time a visitor click on your ads. The higher the CPC (cost per click) the higher your earnings. (What can I say... I was bored )
I don't think that is possible. just in the case when you move to another country, you will have to create a new account. However it will be best to e-mail Adsense support and ask them exactly how to proceed. That way you will be sure that you are doing it the right way and that you won't be breaking the ToS in any way.
Crusader your my hero!! Thank you so much. After I get this figured out and have a bit of success with adsense i'll make sure to write some kind of 'getting started with adsense faq' to give back. But yeah, your answers helped a lot. Thanks, crusader! *mucho sincerity* (if anyone else wants to take a crack at any of these feel free)
You do know there's already a big sticky thread called "Adsense FAQ" at the front of the page, in case you missed it...