AdSense and AdWords

Many of us small-time amateurs get into the blogging for profit game because of the big frog in the advertising puddle, Google AdSense.  AdSense is a very interesting and valuable tool in any blogger’s arsenal.  It costs nothing to join, has no monthly maintenance or carrying charges and can work for virtually any blog or conventional website.
Of course it is also the tool many beginning bloggers love to hate, because AdSense will not produce much in the way of income unless you learn how to use it wisely.  There are probably a thousand times more bloggers earning pennies per day from AdSense than there are earning even a few dollars a day … but that does not have to be the case.
It is not the tool, however that is at fault.  In spite of articles you read every few weeks about the demise of AdSense it is still a very viable tool and profitable to both Google and to many bloggers, including me.
So how do you move from pennies per day to dollars per day?  One key is, you have to understand how AdWords work.  The only reason AdSense exists is to provide display area and “eyeballs” for Google AdWords customers.  Think of AdSense as the paper that newspaper ads are printed on … AdWords are the advertisements themselves that the newspaper sells in order to earn money to produce the newspaper.
So how do you learn AdWords?  Well you could just open an AdWords account and start spending money for ads to teach yourself how it works … but I don’t recommend that course of action.
Instead, take advantage of valuable and often free resources from experts in the field.  My friend Eric Giguere has been wring about and earning money from AdSense for years.  Along the way he’s learned a lot about AdWords.  Today Eric announced a freebie book detailing some of his knowledge.  As with much of Eric’s work I am sure he could have packaged this as a “for sale” eBook, but he has chosen to give the book away.  Take advantage.  You can’t beat the price and the understanding you gain will be valuable even if you never buy an AdWords ad in your career.