How to Make Passive Income in 2012: A Step By Step Guide on How to Make Money With Adsense

 

In this guide, you’ll learn how to make passive income online using Google Adsense. Google Adsense has always been one of the easiest ways to make money from your blog or website. Once your website is set up and ranking, you’ll enjoy a steady flow of visitors, a percentage of whom will click on your ads, resulting in money in the your bank account.

It worked in 2005 and still works in 2012, although some things have changed.  If you follow the steps I’m about to show you, you can make a killing off of Google Adsense.

While it’s a good idea to diversify your sources of income, it’s totally possible to make a full time living off of Adsense earnings alone. Here’s a screenshot of Alex’s Adsense account:

Alex taught me a lot about how to make money with Adsense, and that’s what I’ll showing you today.

By the way, this guide on how to make passive income with Adsense was written for those who are familiar with the basics of internet marketing. If there any terms you’re not familiar with, please leave a comment below with your question.

How to Make Passive Income with Adsense Step by Step

 

Step 1: Locate Your Keywords

As with most internet marketing methods, the very first step is to find your niche and keywords. If you want to learn how to make money with Adsense, you need to understand how to make money online in general. And that begins with proper niche and keyword research.

This step is crucial because visitors will be using these keywords to find your website. You need to find a keyword that has high searches, but low competition.

Before finding the exact keywords you’re going to use, you need some niche ideas. Places you can use to brainstorm ideas include…

• Amazon (best seller section)
• Flippa (see what types of sites other people are selling)
• 43 Things (see what people’s goals are)
• Yahoo Answers (see what problems people are having)
• Clickbank Marketplace (browse through the most popular products by gravity)

It’s important to keep in mind that your website is not going to exist simply for the sake of ranking for a keyword. Its main purpose is to help people solve a problem.

How to Find A Profitable Keyword

There are two ways you can go about actually finding keywords.

First, you can do keyword research yourself, manually. The most common tool for this is the Google Keyword Tool. It’s completely free and I still use it for my keyword research, even though I have a bunch of fancy paid software too.

If you want to go for fancy paid software, which will save you time, I recommend getting

• Market Samurai – the most popular keyword research tool (free 40 day trial, $97 lifetime license).
• Keyword Scout – what I use now. I like it because it tells you domain name availability and cal also generate keyword ideas ($97 WSO discount).

These tools are for more advanced users who understand the fundamentals of keyword research. If you’re a total newbie, you can still benefit from these tools. Just make sure to go through the tutorials first.

You want one keyword you want your main domain to rank for in Google. This should be the keyword with the most searches. Once you find that, you want a list of related keywords to target individual pages for.

For example, if your main keyword is “Christmas gifts” your secondary keywords may be “Christmas gifts for mom”, “Christmas gifts for boys”, “Christmas gifts for girls”  and so on.

The second way to do keyword research is to outsource it. There’s a dude named Derek on the Warrior Forum who I use to outsource keyword research for my projects. He provides you with a pretty detailed KW research report that you can use to get started right away.

Here’s the link to Derek’s KW research service thread

Step Two: Buy Your Domain

Once you find a profitable keyword, you need a domain to host your website on. Again, there are 2 ways to go about this.

Aged Domain – Faster Rankings

The first option is to pay for an aged domain, a domain that’s been around for a while. Google loves these domains, and you can get traffic to these faster. These domains usually cost $11 and up.

A few places where you can buy aged domains include

• Digital Point Domain Sell/Buy/Trade (free)– This is a forum where people sell domains they no longer want. You can find a lot of gems in this thread.
• Godaddy Domain Auctions ($4.70 per year) – Here, you can bid and buy domains that are expiring. You can search through domains by keywords, age and some other factors. You can’t search by page rank though.
• Register Compass ($37 per month) or Fresh Drop ($99/month) – These are paid services that lets you browse through and search for aged domains. The best part is you can search by page rank, backlinks, age, and other important ranking metrics.

Brand New Domain – Exact Match Keyword

The downside to an aged domain is that you don’t get to choose what the domain name is. While an aged domain’s existing backlinks, PR and age more than makes up for this, having your keyword in your domain name will give you a nice ranking boost and will make your life a whole lot easier.

The best type of domain to get is an exact match domain. This means is essentially www.yourkeyword.com/org/net/info/co.

Register a new domain costs anywhere from $2.99 – $24.99 per year, depending on the extension you get.

By the way, .infos and .cos rank just as well as .com/.org/.net domains. I’ve personally gotten a cheap .info domain to #1 in Google in just a few weeks.

If an exact match domain is not available, what you can do is add a letter or word to the end of it. So if yourkeyword.com is taken, you can use something like…

• yourkeywordx.com
• yourkeywords.com
• yourkeywordtips.com
• yourkeywordblog.com
• and so on…

I highly recommend you get an exact match domain or as close to one as possible.

Where to Buy Your Domain

If you’re registering a fresh domain, I recommend Name Cheap. They’re checkout process is fast and easy, unlike Godaddy, who tries to upsell you a billion times. Name Cheap also offers free privacy protection.

You can usually find a Name Cheap coupon code here and save a few bucks.

Step 3: Get Hosting

To make passive income with Adsense, you need to host your website on a reliable server. This way, visitors can access it 24/7, and you’ll get paid around the clock.

Getting the right web host is important because any down time equals a loss of profits.

That’s why I recommend Host Gator, which is the most popular and reliable web hosting service I’ve ever tried.

Their baby plan allows you to host unlimited websites, starting at under $10 per month.

Click here to sign up for Host Gator hosting

Step 4: Install WordPress

Once you set up for hosting, you need to start designing your site and uploading content to it. Hands down, the easiest way to do this is use WordPress, a free blogging platform. The great thing about WordPress is that you don’t need to have any experience in programming or web design and still create a beautiful and profitable passive income website.

As always, there are two ways to set up your WordPress blog.

The first way is to do everything manually. This way is very slow, but a good learning experience if you’re new and want to familiarize yourself with the basics of WordPress, since you’re probably going to be using it over and over again.

Simply go into your Host Gator cPanel and select Fantastic Deluxe. Follow the installation instructions to get WordPress set up on your domain. After that, configure your settings, themes, plugins and pages (we’ll talk about this in the next step).

The second way is a massive shortcut that can save you hours. This involves using a pre-made backup WordPress template. This template comes pre-loaded with optimized settings, themes, plugins and pages so you’re ready to pull in cash right away.

You can create your own template that you can use over and over again with a simple duplication plugin called Backup Creator.

Click here to purchase Backup Creator ($47 WSO)

Backup Creator is the cheapest WordPress cloning plugin and works just as well as other plugins priced from $77 to $150.

Get Your Ready to Go, Optimized-For-Adsense Blog for Free!

The second, smarter, option is to download my personal optimized Adsense template for Backup Creator and restore it on your site. This comes pre-configured with everything covered in the next step.

Click here to download my optimized Backup Creator template for free (download link included in installation instructions)

Step 5: Optimizing Your Blog

We’re going to cover three important steps. Pay close attention if you want to learn how to make money with Adsense the right way.

Themes

The best theme I’ve used to earn money with Adsense sites is the CTR theme. All you have to do is insert your Adsense publisher ID and it will automatically insert ads in your posts. This theme is optimized for click throughs as it uses pictures in specific locations to draw the reader’s eyes towards the ads. I’ve seen very high click-through-rates with this theme.

The theme costs $67 from the main website, but you get it for free when you download my Backup Creator template (above) since I own the developers license.

There are also a few other free AdSense  themes available. Here is a list of the best free Adsense themes.

Settings

These settings (especially permalinks) will optimize your Adsense site for performance as well as the search engines.

• Title and Description – Be sure to include your main keyword in your site’s title and description
• Permalinks – use a custom structure that includes your post title. If you have a bigger site and are using categories, you can do /%category%/%postname%/ but usually /%postname%/ is fine.

Plugins

I recommend the following WordPress plugins when building your passive income Adsense blog.

• Akismet – spam blocker
• All in One SEO – manages your on page SEO for better rankings
• Contact Form 7 – to receive emails
• WP Insert – to insert Adsense ads anywhere on your page. Also to manage your privacy policy
• Clicky Analytics – To analyze your site’s traffic and visitor stats. This is way better than Google analytics in my opinion. You need to sign up for an account at www.getclicky.com.
• XML Site maps – creates a sitemap so all your pages get indexed in Google
• W3 Total Cache – too speed up your site
• Broken Links Checker – to notify you of broken links on your website
• WP Smush it – to speed up your site by reducing images
• Secure WordPress – to prevent hackers from accessing your site
• Pretty Links Lite – allows you to cloak and track affiliate links

Again, these are included in my optimized template. I’m not going to cover the optimal settings for these plugins in this guide, because that’s too much to cover, but my optimized template (download link above) has these settings already configured. There are also instructions on what needs to be changed.

So If you haven’t figured out already, downloading my Backup Creator template will save you loads of time and money.

Why am I offering this template for free?

Because I get affiliate commission on every purchase of Backup Creator. It’s win win for both of us

Click here to download your free Adsense-optimized WordPress  template

Step 6: Add Content

The next step in this “How to Make Passive Income with Adsense” guide is to add content to your blog.

Yep, you guess it. There are two ways you can do this.

The first way is to create your content manually and write everything yourself. Each article should be about a keyword on your list and at least 500 words long. Include pictures and videos if you can.

On Page SEO Basics

There are a few guidelines to follow if you want to optimize your on-page SEO and get your page ranked easier. You don’t have follow all of these guidelines, but keep in mind that the more, you do, the better it will rank.

If it’s unnatural to do all of the things on this checklist, then just do the bare minimum: You want to include your keyword in the title, first sentence and last sentence. You’ll also want to include it in the heading and body without overtly “keyword stuffing”.

That said, here’s what you do if you want a perfectly optimized article for SEO:

• Keyword density of 2% to 4%
• Keyword in title
• Keyword in h1, h2 and h3
• Keyword in italics, bold and underline
• Keyword in first and last sentence
• Keyword in Alt image tag
• Link out to authority site (like Wikipedia article or any other site related to your niche that has good page rank. Also, don’t “nofollow” these links. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it)
• ink to other blog posts on your site using THAT keyword as anchor text

While normally I would recommend creating “killer content” and having articles that really over-delivers and gets your visitors hooked on your stuff, with Adsense sites, our goal is for the visitor to click on our ads and leave our site.

So a really well written article will actually delay or prevent that completely.

So in this case, I do recommend outsourcing your articles to a cheap writing service if you do not have the time to create them yourself. Some article writing services that I personally use include…

• The Content Authority ($5 per 500 word article)
• Article Writing ETC ($3.5 for a 500 word article)
• Hiring your own article writer on oDesk (best option if you plan on having a lot of articles outsourced)

Getting Your Website Indexed

Once you have your first article posted, you want to get your website indexed in the search engines. The easiest way to do this to use this quick index tool and enter in your website information.

To check whether your website has been indexed in Google, simply type in “http://www.yourdomain.com” into the search box and see if your website comes up. Using the bulk ping tool above, you should get indexed within 24 hours.

Adding More Content

I recommend adding a new, unique article every few days for 2 weeks until you have 5-10 articles on your blog. You can do this all at once and schedule them to automatically post (be sure to change the daily posting time for each one), or you can post them as you go.

 

Step 7: Getting Your Website to Number 1 on Google

Step 7 is another crucial step of this how to make passive income with Adsense system. Here, we’re going to be focusing on getting our site to the top of Google by building quality backlinks to our site.

Important- Before You Build A Single Backlink

I recommend you wait at least 2 weeks before building a single backlink. I’ve noticed that I tend to rank higher (and have my rankings stick) more easily if I wait a few weeks. Right after your site goes live, Google has to decide how to categorize you (which is why it’s important to link out to authority sites).

If you build links right away, you may get ranked quickly, but your rankings will almost always drop right away (my theory is that Google categorizes you as a trending topic/news story when you get links too quickly, which is why you rank fast, then drop).

I’ve noticed this over and over again in my websites so I always wait 2-3 weeks before building a single backlink.

Option 1: Building Backlinks Manually (Requires Your Time, No Money)

When building these links, it’s important to vary your anchor text. So if your main keyword is “dog training tips”, you also want to include keywords like, “tips to train your dog”, even if you’re not targeting them because this is a lot more natural and Google’s smart enough to understand that they’re related. Also have naked links (anchor text is your URL).

Another good practice that I’ve seen great results with is to build backlinks to both your main domain, www.yourkeyword.com as well as your inner pages www.yourkeyword.com/keyword-2.

These are the best ways to build manual backlinks to your website if you don’t have the money to outsource yet.

Article Submissions – After each new blog post has been indexed, use that post and submit to as many of these as you can. Creating lots of Squidoo pages is one of the best ways to make money fast.

• Ezine Articles
• Squidoo
• Hubpages
• GoArticles
• Articles Dashboard
• The Free Library
• Article Slash

Web 2.0 Posts – Write new articles and post them on the following sites. Add new articles to the same account.

• WordPress.com
• Blogger.com
• Blog.com
• Posterous.com

Social Bookmarking – I like using a free service called Social Adr to create social bookmarks. What’s cool about this service is that other people will submit your social bookmarks to their accounts, essentially building backlinks for you.

Forum Profiles – These profiles on high PR forums that link to your website. I recommend using Angela’s high PR profile backlink packages.

High PR Forums List Bonus to download a list of 50 high PR forum profiles that haven’t been spammed to death. Note: this will be taken down after a certain number of downloads.

Blog Networks – Blog networks allow you get backlinks from private, high PR, aged blogs. My favorite blog network that I’ve seen amazing results with is Build My Rank, which has a 10 link free trial (sometimes, that’s all you need to get ranked on page 1).

Option 2: Building Backlinks with Paid Tools (Requires Time And Money)

If you have the budget, there are some tools I recommend to make your life a whole lot easier. Remember that a fool with a tool is still a fool. These tools will not magically get your number 1 rankings. There’s imply there to automate your link building so you have less work. These tools will take a while to learn, but well worth the time invested, since you can use them for as many other websites as you want. This is the most bang-for-your buck way to make money with Adsense.

These are 2 previous tools that I mentioned previously that have paid options. I personally use and highly recommend both of these.

Social Adr – The paid option is $40 per month and you to build over 1600 backlinks per month without having to submit links for other people. Click here to sign up.

Build My Rank – The paid option starts off at $59 per month and lets you build unlimited links to 5 different domains that you own. This is the most bang for your buck link building tool in my opinion since many of these blogs have PR 4 and up.

By the way, Build my Rank is amazing for ranking long tail keywords (keywords longer than 3 words). Click here to sign up.

Here the two other tools I recommend:

Article Marketing Robot ($97) – Automatically submits articles to thousands of directories. Click here to download.

Bookmarking Demon ($147) – Automatically submits social bookmarks to hundreds of different accounts. Click here to download.

I’ve used a lot of SEO tools and services and these are the ones that have worked best for me.

Note: As a thank you for purchasing these tools through my affiliate links, I will provide you with personal support if you have any issues or questions with any of these tools. Just email me at tony – at – passiveincomeshortcut.com.

Option 3: Building Backlinks With Backlink Packages (Requires Money, No Time)

If you have the budget, don’t have time or just lazy, you can outsource your entire backlinking campaign. I have only tried one complete done-for-you SEO service that I saw great results with.

The service was Slaptastic Link Building and cost about $100.

After 4 weeks, I ranked #3 for my keyword without building a single link myself.

Note that this is a personal recommendation and I am not affiliated with these guys in any way.

By the way, all of these link building techniques I mention can be outsourced on Fiverr for a few bucks.

Here are some gigs that I’ve personally used and seen great results with (again, not affiliated with these sellers in any way):

• Manual submission to 25 Article Directories
• 280 High Profile Links
• 25 Web 2.0 Submissions

Step 8: Experiment and Tweak

Once your site is ranked and getting some traffic, you want to be constantly experimenting and tweaking your website to see which layouts and settings give you the highest earnings. Pay attention to which pages are converting the best for you and focus your efforts on those.

For example, there is a simple CPC tweak I use to literally double my Adsense earnings instantly. It’s too good to reveal here and is reserved for my Passive Income Shortcut members

Before:

After:

Step 9: Flip for Profit (Optional)

I know this guide is on how to make passive income with AdSense sites, but I wanted to include this step in here for those of you who want to sell your website for a nice chunk of cash.

Once your website is making you a solid monthly income, you can easily sell it on Flippa for up to many times it’s monthly revenue. It’s important to provide proof of income and traffic when you sell your site, so be sure to be keeping track of your traffic with Google or Clicky Analytics.

Some people have an entire business based on creating Adsense sites using a proven system and flipping it down the line for a big sum.

Here are some examples of how much these passive income Adsense sites can be sold for:

Notice how these websites are being sold for 16 to 25 times their monthly revenue!

How to Make Passive Income With Adsense in 2012 FAQ

Q. I don’t have an Adsense account. How do I get one?

A. Approved Adsense accounts are harder and harder to get nowadays, especially if you live in Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc.) But if your blog has quality content (so you may want to write the first few blog posts yourself), you should have no problem getting your account approved after applying for one.

Q. I got banned from AdSense. How can I get another account.

A. If you’re banned from AdSense, there are 2 things you can do. The first is to create an account for a family member and use that one. There are also services out there that create Adsense accounts for you. One such service is AdsenseG.com, which I’ve personally used to get my second Adsense account (shhh, don’t tell Google )

Q. Can I combine Adsense with other affiliate networks?

A. Sure, you can combine Adsense with other networks such as Amazon, Clickbank, Ebay and so on. One of my favorites is an Amazon/Adsense hybrid website.

 

Your $100/Day How to Make Money With Adsense Blueprint

Whew!

That was one of the most comprehensive free guides I’ve cranked out in a long time. This guide on how to make money with Adsense is all you really need to get started. I really hope you get a lot out of this and I wish you success on your passive income journey!

If you found this guide helpful, I have a feeling you’ll be blown away with my Passive Income Shortcut: 90 Days to $100/Day training program. In this course, I cover how to make passive income with AdSense and give away a lot of secret nuggets that I didn’t include in this guide. You’ll also learn how to monetize your websites with Clickbank and Amazon to double or triple your earnings.

Here are some other things you’ll learn (as it relates to how to earn money with Adsense sites):

• The exact criteria you should look for when doing keyword research to guarantee you make money. If you mess up keyword research, you’re wasting your time. Period.  
• A step by step 8 week SEO blueprint. You’ll learn exactly what backlinks to build each week and how to build them to get your website to number 1 of Google (and stay there) as quickly as possible.
• The complete list of specific gigs in my personal Fiverr arsenal. Saves you time and money from ordering from bad Fiverr sellers.
• A complete traffic blueprint that shows you how to get free traffic to your site without SEO. This way, you can attract visitors and make money right away, while waiting for your site to rank.
• A sneaky tactic to instantly double your Adsense earnings. Advertisers HATE this, but you’ll love this the first time you try it. This tip alone is worth the entire cost of the course.
• Much, much more.

This is a course focused on how to make passive income by creating profitable websites that run on autopilot once set up.

Click here to get started on your $100/day passive income journey today!

- Tony and Alex

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