A lot of the hype about Google AdSense is designed to lure you into thinking the program is a moneymaking machine you just plug in and let run. There's some truth in that, and a lot of fallacy.

The truth is, Google AdSense is very easy to plug in. And once that's done, you can just let it run. The program itself searches the content of your web pages, finds advertisers that fit the content and displays ads suited to your subject. That's about as "plug and play" as you can get.

And there's some truth to the idea that once you've plugged AdSense in, you can just sit back and wait for the checks to roll in. You don't, after all, have to calculate your own clicks and send out an invoice. Google AdSense handles all this for you, automatically issuing checks when your click-through rate has met the minimum dollar amount.

So where's the fallacy? In the idea that you don't have to do a darn thing to make fantastic amounts of money. The fact is, money is earned by the web site only when visitors click on an ad. It would take a gazillion visitors clicking on your links day and night to let you make a living off your click-through payments.

Some claim to have done just this, and yes, it's possible to create a content site so compelling that the entire world comes to visit. But what about the average web site. What about your web site? Unless you're willing to put in a lot of time and effort creating a truly informative and entertaining web site, you're not likely to draw a ton of traffic. And putting together that kind of site takes work. So when people try to sell you on the idea that AdSense is a money machine, remember the rest of the metaphor: Traffic is the fuel that runs the machine and your hard work is the spark plug. Without those key components, even the best machine isn't going to run.
 

About the Author

Bonnie Boots is the publisher/editor of The Internet Wizards Magazine for people who want to create their own products and market on the internet. Register for your free 1-year subscription at http://www.theinternetwizards.com