So Why Did Google Pay Me Money? And How You Can Get Paid Too
I recently got paid by Google through its affiliate marketing program called AdSense where you become part of the Google Display Network, which is basically real estate for online advertisers.
It’s the same program that pays popular YouTubers and bloggers. The only difference, of course, is that I’m not popular and I get my traffic almost entirely due to having had proper SEO or Search Engine Optimization techniques applied to blog posts I used to write.
In this post, I’ll try to answer the most frequently asked questions I get including the most important one: how can you make money online just by writing?
1. How do I sign-up for AdSense?
Go to AdSense.com, sign-up, and submit your blog/website for approval.
I joined about 8 or 9 years ago and back then you didn’t have to submit anything. The lesson here is to be a “joiner”. Like when I heard Lazada has an affiliate program, I joined right away. If any Big Tech company offers a way for you to share in their profit, just make an account. I’ve actually seen forums where people sell their AdSense accounts so having one in itself is valuable.
2. How do you get paid?
If you’re from the Philippines like me, the Western Union option is your best bet. Every time you hit the payment threshold of $100, Google emails you a transaction code and you just claim it in any bank or payment center that has Western Union for a minimal fee.
3. Should I host my own website/blog?
You could, but it would be a lot more work and costly so it really depends on your objective. Mine was making money so I personally found it best to write on HubPages and Blogger (blogspot) as making an account on both are free. See below traffic of my top blogs in the last 7 days:
So that’s less than a thousand views but about two thousand ad impressions, meaning ads were served 2,000 times. Advertisers pay “per mille” or per thousand impressions and per click (RPM column is “rate per mille”). This is why you’d always hear “CPM” or “CPC” when you’re an advertiser (cost-per-mille or cost-per-click)
For HubPages, you get a 60/40 cut on the ad space, meaning most of the time your ads will appear while sometimes HubPages’s ads will. The advantage is that the platform was really made to help monetize content of those that will write quality articles. Other than having a helpful community gamified to read each other’s content, HubPages also helps you on the SEO side both on and off page. Let me discuss that in the next question…
4. So what the is SEO?
In essence, it just means that your content as seen by readers (on page, front end), as seen by the search engine (in page, back end), and as linked to and back by other (reputable) sites (off page) is scored as relevant and high quality vis-a-vis what people search for. This makes Google place you higher on search results.
There was a time when this was so easy that I could make a hundred dollars in a day but things have changed. The search engine now, as much as SEO is still crucial, is primarily a pay-to-play platform where you can buy the number 1 spot.
Maybe in another post, I can write about my story of how I got 1 million views in a few months with only 158 articles. I could also dive deeper into SEO and share tips and tricks on how you too could have articles rank high on search engine results and get a passive income for the years to come.
5. Can you make money writing on Medium?
Only if you are from the US or any other country that accepts Stripe payments, so not here in the Philippines.
So why am I writing in Medium if I’m not making money here? Cos the eyeballs of those I want to reach are here and other than its beautiful UI/UX, the platform adds to the perceived credibility and value of what I write. It’s the same reason I used to write on LinkedIn. And again, I’m a “joiner” just like when I joined AdSense because I knew display and search was where the undervalued attention was.
For now, I hope what I wrote helped and good luck with your AdSense journey. Follow me on Twitter for updates on what I write in the future: @harryinitiative
