How do I add advertising?

I've heard of Adsense and all this, but I don't have a clue about things like the legality (tax, etc), nor where you would put advertising on a forum, etc. Any advice in general?

Because I've been looking at the help documents on things like Google's site and they're confusing as heck. Similarly, if you used donations, can people use it to find out your name and such like?

 

My first advice after having just starting playing around with it, is to use Google Adsense. Go througth their How Tos, tutorials, videos, etc. It's family friendly type ads. I learned alot regarding how it works from that standpoint.

From a legal standpoint, follow their ToS. The tax, I believe, gets worked out in the account you setup for payment receipt. But don't quote me on that as I'm just throwing that out there.

 

I have a AdSense account. My first and last payment from them went smooth. It wasn't much, just $120 and I never had to do anything just receive and cash the check they sent. They took care of all the tax stuff for me it seems. If they didn't then I don't know, but yea. It's simple to do really. Just setup your account with your info. in it and put the AdSense code anywhere on your forums you want it to display ads at.

Now, why do you care if people get your info if they donate or something? Of course they'll see your info if they donate with Paypal or Google Checkout. Nothing's wrong with that or are you just paranoid about that?

 

I'm pretty much ultra cautious about any information. Oh, and is there a non cheque payment method? There's kind of a mail strike over here...

 

You can do paypal as well I think. But I'm basing this on what I know about US based payments.

For the US there is a $100 threshold one must hit before a payment. My experience with adsense that unless you get a ton of folks hitting those links it's gonna take a few months to hit the payout level. The strike should be over by then.

 

Unfortunately, there is no PayPal payout for whatever reason. It irritates me.

Delivery options (vary by country): https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=15818

In the U.S. it's check or EFT (https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=15918).

 

It took me 5 sites and 4 months to reach the $100 payout amount LOL. And I only ended up getting like $120 or so from it . It's sitting at $30 now -_-.

 

Yeah, I'm about to get my first payment in Dec for May thru October. Just over a $100 bucks. Then again mine is mostly generated from traffic and not from people clicking the ads.

 

LOL I got my first check this Summer for $118. 'Know how l long that took? Let's just say I started using AdSense in November of 2007. So almost two years.

However, that shouldn't shock you because I wasn't serious about AdSense and didn't really have an active site to use it on until Feb. 2008... so it wasn't really that long.

Anyways, I'm at about $80 and it's only been 5 months since my last check. So that's an improvement. :yes:

 

In terms of taxes and all, I set up an LLC. This provides a lot of protections in the event that anything ever goes wrong.

 

So I've got this AdSense account, where's a good place to add advertising?

 

These threads may be of interest:
http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/monetization-traffic/adsense-optimization-tips-4862/
http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/monetization-traffic/google-adsense-256/
http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/monetization-traffic/best-places-adsense-forum-1640/
http://www.adminaddict.net/forum/monetization-traffic/high-earning-adsense-position-379/

More: AdminAddict - Threads Tagged with adsense

 

Thanks for those links, I'll try them.

 

Well, I've read the guides and tried some stuff, now I need some ideas to optimise ads. Obviously, this is problematic, since most forum users grow blind to ads rather quickly, and even with some pretty high traffic the actual ad clicks are minimal.

 

Optimising a site takes PRACTICE and trial and error. I've found this after many many years of trial and error.

What I suggest is to look at some othe forums/sites for ideas and suggestions. No use in reinventing the wheel. The important thing to note is when you create the Adsense ads, also use CHANNELS and name them with a good description. Channels lets you see which ads work best for you. Calling a channel like "Forum, above first post" helps you to see that the ad clicks and impressions are for your ads which are "above the first post".

So, try a few different ad spaces, but give that ad space a good 2 weeks at least to see what the results are like.

Also try different ad colours/background combinations. Some sites work with ads which compliment the site while some ads work well with ads that stand out. So try them and see.


It will take some time, but if you keep trying different ad spots, you'll soon find one that will get the most notice and most clicks.

Remember to also FOLLOW Google's TERMS! Don't break any of their terms and conditions of ad placement like placing "Click Here" next to the Google Ad etc... You'll get ban and chances are, they will not reconsider either! So make sure you know what you can do with the ads, what to put next to the ads etc....

Hope that helps.

 

Google pays me directly through to my Bank Account and I'm based in New Zealand so that's pretty cool! No waiting for checks to come through the post, taking them to the bank and no waiting in the queues to deposit them. Yeh!