Adsense Basics and a couple Secrets Revealed.

Hey there everyone. Yesterday's page impressions were pitiable. I only had 15 page impressions and a big fat zero for my click through rate (CTR). The good news though is that I was only pushing (pings and article distribution) this blog and this is the one that got 13 impressions. At least there is some effect. The way I see it any feedback is worthwhile.
Before I start dealing with Adsense basics I just want to mention a couple books that I think are really worthwhile. They're by Robert G. Allen, "Multiple Streams of Internet Income" and "The Road to Wealth." These are very good books, very helpful. I was actually just looking through The Road to Wealth and realized that he was doing what I'm trying to do; prove to everyone that anyone can become financially independent (just so long as they live in Canada or the US, I don't know enough about foreign economics to say anything about other countries). So check them out they're certainly worth the time investment.
Now for Adsense.
Adsense is a service by Google that allows website owners to monetize their pages with highly relevant ads. All you have to do is copy and paste some code into your source code and Bob's yer uncle. Its really ridiculously simple if you have a blog from Blogger. Just set up your blogger account (takes a couple minutes), put at least one post up so that Google has something to look at, then go to google.com/adsense and put in your application. There you'll find all of the instructions (which are really easy to follow) and all of the rules you need to follow (also really simple, just don't put the ads on a porno site, or click on your own ads and you should be fine). Once your application is approved you'll have to pick out your ad formats, colors, and you'll get your code. Then its just copy and paste.
You get paid every time someone clicks on one of your ads and how much you get paid depends on how much the ads are worth. The value of the ads is determined by the popularity of the keywords used in the ads. Now, you can determine which keywords you want by altering the content of your site. If you want ads for legal aid, or debt management, then just plaster your site with relevant key words (I'll get into proper keyword use in a later post). There are lists of the highest paying keywords and it is possible to get some that pay considerably more than 0.10$ per click. There are some difficulties when it comes to choosing keywords and determining the content for your site but everyone seems to be pushing on the niche markets really hard (I'll go into this too in a later post). If anyone has any questions about any of this you can leave comments here and I'll respond as soon as possible.
Now for a few details. I've read several books on how to maximize adsense income and they all seem to be saying more or less the same things. None of them seem to have anything original to say so I'm going to save you the trouble of buying and reading them and just give you they're advice. I can't really consider it giving away they're secrets because I've read the exact same "secrets" in several different places so the original innovator has certainly been robbed by a long time ago.
Essentially what all these people are saying is that the worst thing you can do with adsense is make your ads look like ads. Everyone ambulating on the net has been bombarded with so many ads for so long now, and been ignoring them for so long, that there is a universal "ad blindness" when it comes to typical ad formats. We see banners, or the typical off-set scream-in-your-ear ads, so often that we literally block them out altogether. So what these authors tell us to do is ensure that the colors of the ads are the same as the colors on our sites, that they are placed so as to look like a part of the actual content of the page, basically anything to make the ads look less like ads and more like real content. There are really very few tips from these authors that go beyond what you'll learn from Google when you sign up to get your ads. They all just basically say to experiment, try out some different things, but always make sure to prevent your ads from looking like ads.
I will be doing my own experimentation with the little variables as we progress, and I'll let you know what works for my sites and what doesn't. I think that's all for now, if I think of anything else I'll post it and if anyone else has anything to add don't be shy, especially if you have any questions.
Luke.