This Q & A series is a continuation of Mario Armstrong’s presentation at the Blogalicious Conference, a leading industry event celebrating diversity in social media. You can see highlights from his presentation & submit your own questions here. 

Question: About earning revenue for your blog, what are your thoughts about Google’s AdSense for blogger, where ads are placed on your blog based on text and content related to the advertiser?

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Answer:
One nice thing about AdSense for Blogger is that they’re both Google products, which means it’s super easy to implement, so that’s good. The bad news is that for most of us, it’s never going to bring in the kind of money that sustains a business. It’s harsh but it’s true.

It’s really hard to predict how well AdSense will perform for you. The Pay-Per-Click Google offers varies based on a lot of things, like how much traffic you get, the keywords users searched, competition between advertisers and much more. For every ad click, you could receive anywhere from a penny to several dollars, but that number tends to be low, especially as you start out.

A couple of other things to remember if you do decide to use AdSense. First, be respectful of your reader’s eyeballs: don’t go overboard with ads, and make sure your actual content is still easy to read. Second, AdSense basically uses a “match-up” between advertisers and search to deliver ads, so it’s extra important you’re doing your best with SEO.

Bottom line: there’s no real harm in using AdSense unless it’s taking up site real estate that could be put to better use, like making you more money. But to really turn your blog into a business, you’re going to need to come up with more revenue-generating strategies beyond just AdSense.