Is YOUR website earning extra cash with AdSense ads? For years, they provide me with a steady, three-figure income every month. In 2008, I began relying on them less, as ad blocking software prevents many visitors from seeing the ads.

But, AdSense is still a good choice if you need to supplement your website income. Today, success can depend upon how you use them and where they’re placed on your webpages.

The good news is, Google makes that easy.

You control the size of the ads. You control the color scheme, too. You can even block ads for specific domains that compete with you, or simply annoy you.

If you have a website, you can sign up for this program, FREE. Google will provide a page where you can design the ad sizes, colors, and content that you’d like.

Then, you just cut-and-paste the ad to your webpage (or webpage template, for easy use).

Google checks the words on your webpage when someone visits that page, and automatically places relevant ads on the page, that may interest your visitors.

Once a month, when you’ve earned at least $100, Google pays you. (I selected their Direct Deposit option to make my life simpler.) If your account hasn’t reached $100 yet, Google rolls your earnings over to the next month.

I received my first $100+ Google payment after three months with the program, and my AdSense income increased every month after that, for over two years.  I still earn checks from them, most months, and it’s still a worthwhile program, but your income will vary considerably with the content of your website, how many pages feature AdSense links, and whether or not your visitors use ad blocking software.

Click on the button below to learn more. It costs nothing to sign up. I just wish I’d known about this program sooner! (If the button doesn’t show up, use this text link:
or just visit www.google.com/adsense/)

Every artist needs his or her own website for credibility. And, it should be a website that is free of pop-up ads.

DOMAIN NAMES AND HOSTING SERVICES

GeoCities and Fortune City may be great places to start, but to look professional and really earn money, you need your own domain name and your site should be professionally hosted.

• How to choose a domain name
  Choose a name that’s easy to remember, but makes your URL stand out. Amazon.com‘s name has nothing to do with books, but everyone remembers it. Yahoo and Google are also quirky names that everyone remembers.Among artists, Lesley Riley uses LaLasLand.com, and I never forget that name. Claudine Hellmuth has CollageArtist.com, which serves her well at search engines.

  If you don’t have a clever name in mind now, start with your own (offline) name (such as JaneDoe.com) and sort things out from there.

• How to register a domain name
  To buy the use of a domain name and get hosting, you can start with www.GoDaddy.com because they’re cheap, reliable, and fun.(To register domain names, I also use DirectNIC.com which is more expensive, but offers different features if you’re a pro at this. I also like NameCheap.com for absolutely basic registration.)
• Website hosting
  Who should host your new website? Get recommendations from friends. A hosting service that is great now may be hugely disappointing in six months.Many new webmasters use www.GoDaddy.com .

  However, I also use WebsiteSource.net for most of my websites. Their fees are low, and their tech support people are American, intelligent, and speak English.

  When I want speed and reliability–at a slightly higher price–I use Omnis.com.

LEARNING HTML

I’ve had websites since 1995, but I can remember how overwhelming it seemed at first. For example, I remember how excited I was to learn how to change text colors.

When you’re starting out, there is no need to learn HTML.

You can use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program which allows you to create a webpage with no HTML skills at all.

I like a free program, Nvu, which offers WYSIWYG features.

You can also use Netscape Composer. It’s free, too.

Download Netscape install it. (You don’t have to use Netscape as your browser; you can leave it inactive.)Then, click on Start–>Programs, and find Netscape; in that folder, click on Composer. It’s pretty easy. The code isn’t as clean as I’d like, but the whole idea is to get online ASAP. You can learn HTML later.

(Mozilla browser users already have Composer with their browsers. Mozilla is the company that develops Netscape’s programs.  This is also the foundation of Firefox, which I use.)

There are many resources for learning HTML when you’re ready. One is the website, HTML Goodies, but there are many others. Use Google to find them.

If–like me–you prefer to have a printed guide in one hand while you’re learning something like HTML, I like Dummies-type books. I’ve linked to two of them on the right side of this page.

Later, when you are learning HTML and using it on your pages, the older HTML editing program, 1st Page 2000 is good, if you can find a free copy. It has Beginner through Expert levels, which can help when you’re learning. This program saves time if you write your own HTML, as I do.

I used 1st Page 2000 to write almost every webpage at every website from 1999 through 2007.  I still use it to rewrite code for many of my sites.

Or, if you can afford it, many designers say that nothing beats Dreamweaver. But, Nvu, linked above, comes pretty close… and it’s free.

WEBSITE DESIGN

I like clean, easy-to-navigate websites. Some artists want a site that’s not so tidy, but gives an overwhelmingly “artsy” image. There’s probably a happy medium.

For website design, I like the advice that you’ll find online at sites such as Strum’s ‘Webbery & Nettery’ and Art and the Zen of Websites.

I also love the free, navigational flow chart featured at PrecisionArts.com

FTP – GETTING YOUR SITE ONLINE

FTP means “file transfer protocol,” and it’s how you get your new webpages from your hard drive to your hosting service’s computer. There are many free FTP programs that work very well, such as Smart FTP, FTP Commander, and CoffeeCup Free FTP.

Your browser may already include an FTP program, or if you’re using Mozilla’s browsers, you can get a free FTP extension for it.  In Firefox, get the FireFTP plug-in.

Your new hosting service will tell you how to set up your FTP program so that it sends files to your new website. It’s easy. Really.

BELLS AND WHISTLES

Even when HTML is new for you, you’ll probably want some of the “fancy stuff” for your website. Start small. Don’t overdo it with flashing text, pop-ups, and so on. 1st Page 2000, mentioned above, includes many basic JavaScript texts that you can add with one easy click.

You can also find many free, easy JavaScripts at sites such as JavaScript Made Easy.

SHOULD YOU HIRE A PRO?

Maybe. Decide if that’s an effective use of your time.

I mean, if you can make $35/hour for your regular work (writing/art) but pay your webmaster $15/hour and he/she is good at it… it’s hardly worth it to do the work yourself IF you are working full-time.

But, chances are you aren’t making $35/hour and working a 40 hour week. So, follow my advice and create your own website right away. Once you’re making good money at it, you can hire someone to maintain your site in the future.

Really, if you don’t have your own website yet, start one now. Don’t expect to learn everything overnight. Try to learn a little more each week.

It will take you a while to get a good spot at the search engines such as Google. We’ll talk about that later. For now, just get your website started. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be making money from it.

Keywords are the words and phrases that are important to the subject of the webpage. They are also the words that people are most likely to use when they visit a search engine for a list of relevant websites.

Search engines look for keywords. Some–but not all–look in the “keywords” section of your META code. That’s above the /HEAD line at the top of your webpage’s code.

All of them consider the words in the Title of your webpage. This may be your most important place to have the best words and phrase. Don’t waste your Title words with a name such as, “Welcome to my website” on your index.html.

Likewise, since most search engines look closely at the words and phrases in your first paragraph or two, don’t waste that valuable space with a “Welcome to…,” line unless you can turn it to your advantage.

For example, let’s say that you want to sell tin foil hats.  What if your opening line on your index.html rambles like this:

“Welcome to my new website! My name is John Doe and I live in Nowhere, Some State, with my wife and two kids, John Jr. and Johnetta. This is my first website and its about my hobby of making tin foil hats.”

For your business, the only useful phrase in that is “making tin foil hats.”

To optimize your phrasing so that tin foil hat collectors will find you, put this at the top of your webpage instead:

“Tin foil hats are your best protection from alien invasions. I’ve made tin foil hats for 20 years. I use the best insulating foil plus my own secret alien-repelling coating inside each hat. For the past three years, I’ve earned the ‘Best Protection’ award from the International Tin Foil Hat Society. Even the world famous skeptic Amazing Randi has given ‘thumbs up’ to my unique tin foil hat designs.”

See the difference? Anyone searching on words such as “tin foil hats,” “alien invasion,” and “protection” is likely to find this website in the search engines.

There are many tricks to using keywords, but first you need to identify them. Start by making a list of all the words that are specific to the niche that you hope to specialize in. There are websites that can help you choose the best words, such as Enter Your Keywords.

But, unless you’re familiar with search engine optimization, a site like that is going to overwhelm you or downright confuse you.

It’s best to simply make a list of the words that best describe your area of expertise, or your product.

Then, zero in on four or five words, and use them as the focus of a webpage. Don’t try to make any one page include everything but the kitchen sink… even your index.html.

Keywords are nothing more than the words that people might use at a search engine if they’re looking for a site like yours. Make it easy for people to find your site by using those words on your pages.

[And, to tin foil hat collectors who were accidentally directed to this page, I apologize for using that phrase so often that this page ranks highly at some search engines.]

Keywords are the words and phrases that people type in at Google, Yahoo, etc., to find a website like yours.

Keywords can be found…

In the META code at the top of your webpage,In the title of your webpage, and

In the text on your webpage.

Do search engines “see” the right words and phrases, to correctly list your webpage?

Here’s a simple trick:

Are you using Google AdSense on your pages?

If you are, check the links that they’re featuring.

If you wonder what planet Google is on, thinking that your readers would be interested in such-and-such, maybe you need to improve your keywords. This includes your page title, as well as what you say in the opening paragraph.

Also remember that many search engines take the first three sentences (or so) from your page, and use that as the description of the page at their search results.

Do you really want to use up that valuable space saying, “Welcome to blah, blah…?”

What you call your webpage (in the “title” part of your webpage code) and what you say in the first few sentences can make or break your webpage at the search engines.

If you want your content-rich art-related website to be popular, choose your words carefully and use the good ones as often as you can. Your search engine positioning depends upon it.