Advertising
There are countless ways to secure revenue from your blog. But it’s unlikely that any is easier to use or more widespread than point-per-click advertising – or “PPC” advertising for short.
PPC Advertising
The concept behind PPC advertising is simple. Advertisers place ads on a website through a third party system. When a user clicks on one of the ads, the advertiser pays: the third party that placed the ad takes a cut, and the rest goes to the website operator.
The PPC system places ads on any given site automatically by semantic analysis. There’s nobody reading the blog and deciding which ads would be appropriate – rather, advertisers bid on certain keywords. The PPC program then analyzes the content of the given site for keywords, and selects the appropriate ads. The idea is that the most appropriate ads will run… which will in turn lead to the most clickthroughs, giving exposure to the advertiser and revenue to the blogger or other webmaster.
Adsense
The most widespread PPC advertising system is Google’s Adsense.
Adsense is Google's primary advertising platform. Given it’s volume and ubiquitous-ness, it often charges the most for any given keyword – which can make it a good choice for a website operator.
Any given use of an Adsense link will make for a small payment. But, over time, Adsense, like any other PPC system, can provide a decent revenue stream for bloggers and other web proprietors.
Alternative PPC Systems
Adsense, though venerable, is not the only PPC system. Yahoo! has recently launched a competitor, as has Microsoft. In time, these PPC alternatives may come to rival Adsense, and, for some web proprietors, they may already be the best option.