© 2004, John Calder
http://www.TheEzine.net

Google has recently made some changes in their Adsense program, and webmasters, busy as they are, may not be aware of all the Adsense news. For those who don't know, Adsense is the Pay-per-click (PPC) revenue sharing program offered by Google to webmasters who run primarily content-oriented sites. The Adsense program offers a way for these webmasters to generate revenue where they couldn't in the past.

After signing up for the program, webmasters place a bit of code on their web pages where they want to display Adsense. Google's technology determines the subject matter of the page, and displays relevant ads on that page. If a visitor clicks on one of the ads, the advertiser pays Google, and the webmaster receives a share of the proceeds.

One of the biggest changes is that webmasters can now have multiple "blocks" or units of Adsense on their pages. Since the program started, Google has allowed only one block, but they now allow up to three per page. This means webmasters can get three shots for a visitor seeing and clicking on an ad. The blocks don't all have to be the same format - you can choose from any of several formats available, and all can have different border, text, and background formatting. You are able to specify alternate ads for each unit. In cases where Google's software isn't able to determine a theme to your page, Google will display Public Service ads. However, webmasters can choose to display their own ads, such as for affiliate products, instead.

As with most things, you'll need to test formatting, placement, and other variables to see which combination brings the best click-through rate for you, whether you use one, two, or three Adsense units.

I use Adsense a lot on this web site http://www.theezine.net - Just a slight hint for you.