Whilst I can’t guarantee results, since a lot of your success lies in your own capable hands, I wouldn’t have written this series of posts if I didn’t believe in the power of Google AdSense.  A lot of businesses are making a lot of money from AdSense, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be one of them too.

The amount of money you can make with Google AdSense mainly depends on what user needs your Website fills. For instance, a site about women’s issues can make some serious money on AdSense because of the high level of competition for related keywords.

The CPC (cost per click) is the amount you get paid every time a user clicks on an advert.  CPC rates for competitive keywords can be more than £1, which translates directly to your site’s earning potential within the program.

However, if you’re in a less competitive market, you’ll make less money—that’s just a fact of life. Still, it’s unusual to see anyone using Google AdSense report earnings of less than an effective £1 CPM (cost per 1000 impressions), and the average runs in the range of £4-£5 CPM. Some people are making an effective CPM of £15 or more with AdSense. Oh, and best yet, this is all after Google takes its commission.

About that commission… commission is definitely one thing that’s a little bit ambiguous with AdSense. Google doesn’t publicise it’s “cut”, and only displays the publisher’s cut in proprietary member reports, so getting good, accurate information on this has been difficult, if not to say pretty impossible.

To date, comparisons of AdWords rates with AdSense earnings add up to commissions of between 40% and 60%. People speculate all the time on user boards as to why Google refuses to publish its commission rates, but no one has the answer. It might have something to do with legal reasons or it could just be that Google wants to retain the ability to change rates without having to send out an announcement about it each time, which costs money.