It is a known fact that Google Adsense is the easiest way to make money online and maybe the first step for you to start a business online where you can work from home and earn a lot of money over the Internet.
Worldwide we have many digital entrepreneurs winning big with the AdSense which allows them to earn money with a website or blog by displaying ads contracted from its ad platform. I know the Kenyan blogosphere is growing and many will be out there exploring tips on how to monetize their blog.
To help you figure out how to make money with AdSense in Kenya, I prepared this simple post so that you know more about this online business option and know exactly the challenges and how to overcome them and ways forward.
What is Google AdSense?
Adsense is one of Google’s program which allows you to earn money from the ads from advertisers that place them on Google Network. This article on Wikipedia describes AdSense as “a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements, that are targeted to site content and audience.”
How Does Adsense Work?
This is how Adsense works; a company or a person that is interested in advertising on Google networks which includes, Google Search, Publishers websites and blogs (Your website/blog), and other Google Partner networks (Youtube, Blogger, Hubspot e.t.c). The advertiser pays a certain amount to Google for this ad to appear on the mentioned partner's platforms when a particular keyword is typed or the page of a site is accessed.
How do you get Adsense?
To get Adsense and start displaying ads on your website /blog, you have to apply for AdSense by signing up using your Gmail account. Your website/blog must adhere to Adsense guidelines and policies before they approve it. If you are approved you will get your own dashboard where you will be managing the ad units and view your income reports.
By now you must be wondering how to make money with AdSense. Well, AdSense is a program for publishers, websites, and blog publishers who allow these ads to appear in certain areas of your site.
Displaying ads on your site or blog, every time the ad is clicked, the advertiser pays a certain amount to Google, which will transfer a percentage to the website owner.
How to Make Money On AdSense in Kenya
It is important for anyone working with websites or blogs to know about the different ways available to monetize their blogs. You have to explore the best possible way to utilize the advertising space on your blog since they are limited and, therefore, precious. But the big question is always how to make more money with Adsense? I will answer you in the post below.
Tips on how to make money with Adsense in Kenya
1. Put Your Audience First
The first tip to making money with AdSense in Kenya is always to keep in mind your site’s visitors. Don’t just blog for the money and forget about your reader's experience on your blog.
Adsense works best if the user is comfortable enough on your blog and can navigate the blog in a perfect manner. A good browsing environment and content are the best gifts your can give both your users and your blog and it will not disappoint you. So, always keep your audience in front of the financial issue.
2. Plan your ads
One of the main tips to make money with AdSense in Kenya is to make an advance planning of your ads. Placing an ad on a blog is an art because it involves much more than layouts. It involves understanding the visitor dynamic that is on your website page.
The ads can not be seen in isolation from the content form. It should be part of it and work to complement the information. So, plan the various situations where they should be included, so you integrate the page context.
3. Keep testing with different formats
AdSense basically offers two types of ads, in-text format, and in picture format, included in this second group are rich media ads. Traditionally, ads in text format, are usually much more lucrative, but it is not always convenient to use them, generally depending on the page layout.
If you notice that at a certain location of the page, the text ads will clash, give preference to image ads. It is worthy of changing the layout of your blog to earn a little more in a few clicks.
5. Placement of AdSense ads
The placement of ads on pages that are displayed directly influences the number of clicks and consequently in your blog’s profitability. In the case of a system that is powered by a keyword auction system, AdSense tends to pay more for ads placed closer to the top, a prime area of any site.
One of the best tips to make money with AdSense is to create a layout, where ads are positioned in what we call the fold of the page, or the visible part of a page without the user having to scroll the page.
6. Do not stuff many Ads on a single page
Avoid the temptation of placing too many ads on your site. To make money with AdSense, you need to know the value of advertising space on your website. The auction system makes the most valued areas attract higher values for the click.
Create real areas of excellence in your website or blog, as the top of the page top of the sidebar in blogs or shortly after the article. Such areas are often valued by advertisers and will surely get better-paying ads.
7. Integrated design for AdSense ads
The announcement, as stated earlier, needs to be part of your website, and in that sense, the design helps a lot. First, to create the ad, customize your graphics in your own AdSense interface, making them suited to your layout.
Another good step is this customization is to take the edges in order to make the most integrated advertising to the site, thus ensuring a smooth flow on-page reading. This way, you will be providing a better browsing experience to the user.
8. Focus on content for AdSense
This is a great tip for monetizing your blog, try to focus so Adsense can serve ads related to your Niche. This will require carrying out Keyword Research to get targeted keywords and increase the page relevancy. Thus, Google can place ads that make sense in relation to the subject of the page.
9. Maintain Professionalism
Our final tip about making money with AdSense is professionalization. Do an in-depth study of how Adsense operates, know your metrics and results. This is the only way to become an expert on the subject and this will lead to more money.
A good tip is to take a course about AdSense online, for example, to learn the professional techniques to get the most out of your ads.
10. Content is King!
I like the phrase “content is king”. To make money with Google AdSense, you need to develop high-quality content to attract visitors to your website and your newsletter subscriptions.
In addition to great content, you must also master SEO techniques, It is through SEO and Social Meda that you get to put your blog in prominent positions on the responses of pages of search engines and attract more visitors to your site. Create Good Content and you will reap with Adsense.
How Much Does Adsense Pay?
This is another very common question asked by those who are interested in making money with AdSense. There is no fixed amount of money for AdSense, as the value per click on the ads varies depending on what the advertiser is willing to pay.
Getting Google AdSense approval in Kenya does not mean you have made it. In fact, you are going to discover that it is one of the worst ways of monetizing your blog.
If you think of throwing up a few ads on your blog will make you rich, you are in for a rude shock. To make decent money through AdSense, you will need to drive thousands if not millions of visitors on your blog. If you aren’t, you may struggle to see your first penny.
You and me know that you really struggle to attract 100 visitors a day.
Besides, don’t be lied to. The money your blog gets from AdSense depends on the topics you are writing about. Some topics are not worthy your time no matter how cool you may think they are. I learnt this the hard way.
Whereas I got paid between €0.01 and €5.50 for my ads, I got used to this until one day wrote a post that took me a whole week and about a very difficult topic.
When I posted the blog post, I was shocked when one ad from the post, paid me €40. That is a cool Ksh. 4500 for a single click.
I was so happy at the same time confused until I took a week and discovered that different topics have different cost per click(CPC). You can easily track this from your AdSense dashboard.
You will also need to experiment with different ads placement locations and ad sizes. In my case, I have discovered only one ad brings me 80% of my earnings.
It could be different with you. You may need to test several ads and locations to find what works better for you.
Moreover, if your site is not mobile friendly, you could be throwing money down the drain. I am often concerned about my mobile version of my site than the desktop version. Data from my google analytics shows that 90% of visitors to my blog do so through high-end mobile devices. In addition, my AdSense dashboard confirms the same, that 92% of my earning are driven by mobile phones.
Strive to make your site mobile-friendly and if possible have your pages AMP enabled.
Getting Your First Payments
Laying the ground to get your first Google AdSense payments in Kenya
Confirm Your address to Receive AdSense Payments in Kenya
If the Google gods smile your way, you will begin seeing a few cents trickle into your account. All you need to do is be patient and write more blog posts. Do not be attempted to click on your own ads or ask people do so (this is one of the greatest AdSense sins that may cause you be banned from the program-if you are banned, you would better look for something else to do).
Once your earning reach €10, you will be required to confirmed your address with a pin sent to the address you registered at your AdSense account.
It is important to use a functional address; otherwise, if you cannot confirm your address with this PIN, you are not getting any payments.
If you do not have a reliable Post Office Box, I recommend opening an Mpost. It is not only cheap, but reliable, you mail won’t go missing.
Choose your payment method.
Depending with the currency of your AdSense account, there is a threshold you need to get to, to get your first payment.
Check your AdSense dashboard and see which currency you are receiving your payments in. These are the minimum payments for each of the currencies.
| Currency | Minimum Payout |
| US Dollars($) | 100 |
| Great Britain Pounds(£) | 60 |
| Japanese Yen(¥) | 8000 |
| European Euro(€) | 70 |
Until you reach these thresholds, you cannot receive your payments.
Let me make you understand better.
Suppose you are paid in US dollars and you make $10 the first month, no payments come your way. If in the second month you make $30 such that at the end of that month you total is $40, you have not reached the minimum payout. Still your dream of a first paycheck is remains a dream.
It goes something of this sort.
| Month | Money Earned | Total Amount | Payment Status. |
| 1ST | $10 | $10 | No Payments |
| 2ND | $30 | $40 | No payments |
| 3RD | $50 | $90 | No payments |
| 4TH | $60 | $150 | Payments of $150 made between the 21st and 24th of the 5th Month. |
| 5TH | $70 | $70 | No payments |
| 6TH | $60 | $130 | Payments of $130 made between the 21st and 24th of the 7th Month. |
I hope the table above gives a glimpse of what you should expect. You see, this is a no get rich scheme. To consistently $100 every month, you must be able to drive some good traffic to your site.
You will also note that payment made at the end of a particular month (if the threshold is reached) are paid between 21st and 24th of the following month. Therefore, it is like waiting for full month to get the payments for monies made the previous month.
In fact, as I was writing this post today ( 21th June 2019) , I just received a message from Google AdSense confirming that I can collect my payments at the nearest Western Union agent. This is for monies earned in May.
Now that you know this, it is time to choose your payment method.
Navigate to your AdSense dashboard, once there choose the ‘Payments’ Option. Click on the ‘Manage Payments Method’, then ‘Add Payment Method’.
As you can see from there, there are three methods to choose from. You can either get payments by:
- Bank wire transfer.
- Check
- Western Union
Checks can take up to 2-4 weeks to arrive at your address then comes the trouble of depositing the same at your bank and having to wait even more.
Bank transfers take up to two weeks to clear. Moreover, you have to have a bank account and pay some transaction fees.
With Western Union, you just need to have you ID card and some information that Google AdSense sends you. All you need to do now is to walk into any Western Union agent and collect all every cent you have been paid.
If I were you, I would go with the last option as my AdSense payment in Kenya.
Conclusion
Making money with Adsense is easy, many bloggers will tell you that but as you have seen it requires creativity on your part to start earning serious money on bloggers. Unless you have the traffic you will not generate good income. Make sure you read more articles on this blog for strategies on how to optimize your blog and earn from it.