“Mighty” is a subjective statement but hey I’m allowed to say what I think. Now let me highlight the basis of this program.Google Adsense is basically a contextual advertising program that you can use to generate some income from practically any content based website – except for those not permitted by Google like porn sites, gambling sites, weapon, defamatory and others, which I’m sure you can imagine.

The program offers a variety of ways for you to make money from the easiest, which is pay per click, Adsense search and referrals (through their new Google affiliate network). There are other additions that Google is making to these products like video advertising Adsense for mobile; I will keep you updated on all new developments. Sign up to receive these updates.

Pay per click: This is based on the ads that Google automatically place on your site. When people click on these adverts/links, you make money. This is the best way to begin in Internet marketing journey.

Google Adsense for search: Simply put, Google allows you to place the very same search box they have on Google.com to your site. This means then that when someone searches through the search box and click on the “sponsored ads” that show up at the very top of the results you make money.

Google Referrals: up until August 2008, Google has been running a referral program as part of their Adsense package. Now they have launched Google Affiliate Network, following their integration of DoubleClick. It is made for advertisers targeting users located in the United States. Similar to the retired AdSense Referrals program, the Google Affiliate Network enables publishers to apply for advertiser programs and get paid based on advertiser-defined actions instead of clicks or impressions.

How much can you make from this program?

In my own experience, I have found pay per click to have the highest return. I know some have different experiences with different niches but as a beginner I do advise that you start with the PPC section.

I am currently nearing the $10,000 dollar mark per month on the PPC program but some people are known to give up on the program because they never make any money from it. Google generates billion of Rands on this program per month and a portion of that amount is paid to publishers like me, and hopefully you in the near future, as commission.

What you have to do
It is free to join this program, just log on to Google, go to “sign in” and if you don’t have an account, create one free – like the one you use with Yahoo. Once you get an account, you can then apply to become an Adsense publisher. In this case, you need to have at least 1 site that Google can access to see if you qualify to join their lucrative program.
The application form is the standard one and can be filled in within a few minutes. You will then have to wait a few days to receive a reply, through an email, from the Google Adsense team.
How Adsense works

Adsense works because there is what is called Google Adwords. This is basically is a system where by Google approaches a product owner and say “let me market your product for you because I know where to find the people who can buy it”, if the product owner agrees, whom we will now refer to as the “advertiser” – then Google will ask her to draft an advert using some tools that Google avails.

Then Google will take it and then contact some people who are signed up to help Google market advertisers’ products online. These people are known as “publishers” because they own one or more websites. These publishers will then give permission to Google to put the advert on their site – on condition they will be paid if a visitor clicks it to buy the advertisers product. So Google will then pay the publisher a certain amount for every click or sale made through the advert on the site.
Now the best thing about Google is that, it only places adverts that are relevant to the site e.g. if a site is about Dog food, Google will only place adverts that are about Dog food on that site. This means your visitors will actually find them useful and are more likely to click on them, which means more money for the publisher.

Note: Most of what I have described above is automated i.e. is not done manually but some sophisticated software is used in identifying relevant publishers and posting ads on their sites.
The topic around Adsense is an on going one. There are other facets of this subject like smart pricing, ad placement, Google terms (which are every Internet Marketer’s nightmare) and more. I hope, however, that this post has helped shed some light and can take some action based on what you have read about so far.