GETTING STARTED WITH ADSENSE

I still remember when blogging was so new to me, that the whole concept of Google Adsense and how to get ads on my blog was like learning a foreign language.  You are not alone!  I will try and make this as easy as possible.

First, apply to Adsense.  I had a problem when I first applied, and so they had me in their system as rejected.  Once you are rejected, there is no reversing that.  The only solution is signing up for Adsense with a new email.

Once you are in Adsense, it all looks strange, so just go to “My Ads”.  There you will see a button that says +New Ad Unit.  Click that.  Here is the screen that comes up to create your ad:

1. First, you need to name your Ad.  I would just name it the same as the Ad Size – 728×90.
2. Choose Ad Type.  I always choose “Display ads only” because I don’t like text ads on my site, personally.
3. Skip over Backup Ads for now.  It is not necessary for initial setup.  Set up back up ads after you get the hang of Adsense and want to fill the blank spaces they leave when they don’t fill.  Here is my article on Adsense Backup Ads.
4. Custom Channels is another one to skip for now.  Plus, your box will be empty (unlike mine in the picture, because I have set up Custom Channels).  Again, just get your ads going, and then come back for the Advanced tutorials!  Here is my article on setting up Custom Channels.
5. Now, the bottom part of the picture above will change when you choose “Display ads only”.  You won’t have all those formatting options.  So now you are ready to SAVE AND GET CODE.

Now you have the ad code and we go back to your blog.  You can set up all your ad sizes at once if you want, and then get the ad tag codes anytime.  You won’t lose the ad code if you don’t copy it right then.

GETTING ADSENSE TO SHOW ON YOUR BLOG

First, I want to tell you that the easiest way to get started is putting an ad in your sidebar.  If your sidebar is wide enough, the 300×250 is the most popular size. I know you want a Header and a Footer, but that is a more advanced placement. Some blogs come with a pre-made place for ads in your Header…awesome!  If not, you will need to do tinkering in your Custom CSS to make changes, and that is an advanced topic we will not go into in this post.  Read here to get started on making changes to your CSS and how to start tinkering.

You may need that information to get your Header and Footer Ads to look right after you place them.  Just get your sidebar ads working, and then move on to the Header and Footer. Okay, this is really a lot easier than you might think.  Let’s do it. First, all WordPress.org blogs come with a Text Widget.  Go to “Appearance” in the left column, and choose “Widgets”.  The Widget interface will come up.

1. Open up the Primary Sidebar Widget Area on the right with the arrow in the top right of the box.  This will open up a small space to drag a widget to.
2. Find the Text Widget in the left hand list of Widgets.  Click, hold and drag it into the Primary Sidebar Widget.
3. The Text Widget will auto-open.  It will be Blank.  (See the image below)
4. DO NOT fill in the Title, unless you want to say something like “Advertisers” or “Sponsors”
5. In the large box under that, paste your ad code that you copied from Adsense.
6. I have the Dynamic Widget Plugin installed, which allows me to customize which pages to show my Widgets.  If you have that, you can use it to control where you want your ad to show.
7. Save.

You’re done.

You don’t believe me?  Lol!  Your ad is not showing up, is it?  Well, no worries…you will have to wait up to an hour to start to see ads in the space. I would actually not change anything else until you have given it 24 hours.