Google AdSense

Google AdSense is the counter side of Google's AdWords program.

With AdWords, advertisers pay to have their promotional material displayed on Google's pages. It is displayed on a Pay Per Click basis, meaning that every time a visitor clicks on the ad the advertiser pays a fixed fee to Google. At the time of submission the advertiser sets a limit as to how much he or she is prepared to pay for each click, or in total over a given time period.

On the opposite side of the coin is Google AdSense. With this program blog and website owners display content supplied to them by Google, advertising other people's material. When a visitor to your site clicks on this link you, the blog or website owner, receive a share of the fee incurred by the advertiser.

There are, of course, certain rules to be obeyed and checks in place in order to present abuse - the most obvious being a prohibition on AdSense users clicking links on their own pages just to generate income.

Although the amount accrued per click is very small many site owners do make a considerable income from AdSense. Much depends on the popularity of the site, as well as the relevance and proximity of the advertising material. At the very least it costs nothing, provides additional web content, and creates a new potential income source.