Make Money From Google AdSense with a Free Website

There are many ways to make a website for free online, and there are just as many ways, if not more, to make money online. This article brings the two together with specific examples and results in a simple 4-Step process for setting up a website and making money online with Google AdSense.

If you haven’t already signed up for the Google AdSense program, now is the time to go and do that.

Step 1: Planning Your Website, and its Content

The simplest way to make money from Google AdSense is to choose a niche topic with little competition and dominate the search results for the main keyword phrase(s) used in that niche. For this you will need a niche, a set of 5-10 keyword phrases you are confident in ranking for, and a means to creating compelling articles around these keywords.

To find keywords in your niche that people are using you can use the Google Keyword Tool, simply enter a broad search term and it will display a list of relevant search terms along with monthly search volume. You may need to repeat this process with different broad search terms to end up with a list big enough to take to the next stage of evaluating the competition.

Now, back in Google you will take each of your keyword phrases you discovered from the Keyword Tool and perform a search for each, with the resulting list you will first look to see which types of content are making the top 10 results. Good indicators include deep links on websites (for example http://example.com/dir1/dir2/article.html), or Web 2.0 properties such as HubPages or Squidoo. If you’re seeing a lot of these in the search results it is likely that you will be able to outperform their rankings and get some traffic for the keyword. Not so good indicators include Wikipedia pages or Domain home pages (such as http://example.com).

The next step is determining how many links each of these results have in order to get a benchmark for you to compete with. Open the Yahoo! Search Explorer and enter each of the top 10 URL’s from the search results, click the “Inlinks” button to show all the links pointing to this page, and then filter results (Using the “Show Inlinks” drop down) to “Except from this domain”. This shows you, generally speaking, how many links you will need to get to your page in order to compete with this search result. There are other factors such as where the link is coming from, the authority and anchor text for the link but we won’t go into too much detail right now.

After completing this process you should have a list of 5-10 keyword phrases you can compete with in your niche, now it’s time to plan your content around these terms.

Plan on creating one super high quality article around each of the keywords you are targeting, and 3-5 supporting articles around the keyword. For example if your keyword phrase were “growing cherry tomatoes” then your supporting pages might include “soil types for growing cherry tomatoes”, “growing cherry tomatoes in pots”, “how to prune cherry tomato plants”.

On completing this process, draw yourself a diagram of how your website will look once it is complete. Here’s an example:

Step 2: Finding the Best Hosting Provider for Your Needs

There are many free web hosting providers for you to choose from, but only a few will meet the requirements you have for your website.

You will need to have total control over the installation of your Content Management System (we will use WordPress), there should be no obligation to include ads or links back to the hosting provider and enough space for your media and content.

For the most up to date list of free web hosting providers that fit these criteria visit http://www.free-webhosts.com/ and click the “Total Free Hosts” link on the left. Generally the top 3-5 listings will give you everything you need.

Also make sure the host provides support for PHP and MySQL so WordPress can run on it and either CPanel or FTP access so you can install WordPress.

Warning: Most of the free hosting providers require you to login to your account every so often otherwise your account gets banned. Be sure to read the requirements as you go through the sign up process so you don’t get any nasty surprises down the road.

Step 3: Installing WordPress, Essential Plugins and Theming Your Site.

WordPress Installation couldn’t be easier. Most free hosting accounts let you install it right from the Control Panel after you login, if yours doesn’t have this option you simply need to download the latest version from WordPress.org and upload it to your site using an FTP Client. There are many free FTP Clients available for Windows and Mac, search Google for “free ftp client” and your operating system.

If you get stuck installing WordPress, absolutely everything you need to know is covered athttp://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress

You will also need to set the uploads, plugins and theme directories under /wp-content to writeable, this is also covered in the WordPress Installation Guide above.

Once WordPress is installed you need to optimize it for Search Engine Optimization, this gives you an advantage in ranking for your chosen keywords over other vanilla installations of WordPress. Simply login to your Admin area, go to Settings – Permalinks and choose Custom, in the text box enter: /%category%/%postname%/

You will also want control over how Titles and Descriptions are displayed the Search Engines. Select Plugins -> Add New… Search for “All In One SEO Pack” and Install the top result. Once installed a red box will appear in your Admin area with a link to enable to plugin and configure its settings. Click the link and fill out the settings as best you can.

Now you will need a way to manage Google AdSense Ad Blocks on your content pages. Go back to Plugins – Add New… and search for the plugin called “advertising manager” click Install and go to the configuration options . The amount of options may seem dizzying at first but this plugin allows you total control over how you integrate the Google AdSense strategy on your website. For more information on how to set this up visit the plugin home page at:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/advertising-manager/

Phew, that was a lot of work you just got through, now for the easy part of choosing a theme for your website.

Go to Appearance -> Add New Themes and search for a theme you’d like to use on your website. This is personal preference so I’ll leave it up to you. You can always come back here to try out different themes once you’ve written your content.

You’re done Installing and Configuring WordPress!

Step 4: Writing and Promoting Your Content

Now it’s time to fill your website with content, get some visitors and make some money.

From your initial planning you will create a set of new pages in your Admin area. Simply click Page – Add new and write the Title and Content for each page. At the bottom of your “Soil Types for Growing Cherry Tomatoes” you will link back to the “Growing Cherry Tomatoes” page, and from that page you will link back to your home page: “Cherry Tomatoes”. This creates themed areas of your website and helps Google determine what your pages are all about.

However, doing this by itself will not get you a windfall of visitors and cash, you need to get out there and promote your website.

Some easy, and free, methods for doing this include:

• Posting on forums that allow links back to your pages in your Signature
• Commenting on other peoples Blog posts
• Creating pages with a link back to your website on Squidoo and HubPages
• Write quality articles for other Webmasters and include a link back to your website
• Write articles and submit them to Article Directories such as: EzineArticles, GoArticles and Gather.

Doing regular promotion of your pages will earn you a top spot in Google for your chosen keywords, and with that will come visitors that click on your ads and earn you money. All of this can be done for free with nothing more than an email account and the ability to tap away on your keyboard.

Visit Jason Hawk for more information on learning how to make a web page for free. For more information on making money online keep reading the pages and posts on this website