1. Sign up for Google AdSense.

You can do that here. If you already have a google account (through gmail for example) then all you need to do is log in and fill in the application form. Note that to apply you’ll need to have already started a blog or website with some decent content on it. You’ll go through the normal acceptance emails and so on, these don’t take very long.

2. Set up Adsense

Click on the AdSense Set up tab once you’re logged in/signed up. This will show you a list of options for the different kinds of ads you can display on your site. Have a think about which kind of ads you want to display. The most common ads you’ll see on other people’s websites are the image and ad banners (like the ones on mine at the moment). If you’re looking for these, they’re under AdSense for Content.

The other options are self explanatory and pretty similar in terms of set up, so I’m going to walk through setting up AdSense for Content.

3. Choose your ad type

Do you want your ads to display in a box as an image or single ad, or as a list of ads? Both use the same algorithm to display the most suitable ads based on your page’s content and both evolve with your content to keep the ads targetted. Using image ads does give you the option of setting up placement-targetted ads, however, if you’re running that sort of compaign.

Anyway, choose your ad type and press continue…

4. Choose ad format and colours

This is where you choose the appearance settings of your ad. Think about where on your site you want to put it. Would you like it to run across the footer or header? Then a horizontal leaderboard or banner might be suitable. Does your site have a side column? A vertical skyscraper might be appropriate. Or if you’re looking for something more unobtrusive, you can select a small vertical banner or square.

Have a play with the colours and try and match them to your website’s colourscheme. If you’re in search of a good colour-picking tool, I recommend Nattyware’s Pixie. It’s free and small and very easy to use and will allow you to run your mouse over any colour on your website and pick up the colour code for it. If you plan on using multiple ads, you can save the pallate so you don’t need to go through the colour picking process every time. When you’re done playing with the aesthetics of the ad, press continue.

5. Add Channels

You’ll now be given the option to add channels to your site. These are used to track how well the ad is doing when compared to another. These can be based around a keyword, or area of your site, for example you might have a channel for top vs. bottom to see if your header ads are doing better than your footer ads. I’m currently comparing ads across two different websites so I’ve got channels for both sites.

6. Get the code

You should now be provided with a nice code snippet from google. Copy and paste this into a notepad somewhere (or keep the window open), we’re going to figure out how to actually get the code into wordpress.

7. Get the code into wordpress

Unfortunately it’s not as simple as just pasting the code into the HTML view of wordpress or by using the arbitrary HTML widget for adding information to your sidebar. Wordpress will strip out all the Javascript code and your ad will not display or function properly. So, what to do?

I’ve used two plugins for my site – one is called HTML-Javascript Adder and lets you paste the code directly into the sidebar. You can also select how many of the widget you have, for multiple ads in the sidebar. It works like any old widget, so you can drag it up or down to position it. And you can download this plugin here.

The second plugin I’m using is called WhyDoWork Adsense and I’m very glad I’ve found it. It lets you have multiple ads and has options to position them all throughout your content. It has options to exclude some pages/posts but not others, to show ads on the homepage or only once a user has clicked through to the post, or to show ads only after so many days, so if you have regular readers they are not bothered by the ads but those trawling through the archives will see them.  You can download it here.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed these plugins, you can activate them and get started. The HTML-Javascript adder will work as a widget, but the WhyDoWork Adsense plugin requires you to access it through the settings. Experiment with different ad sizes and positions to find what works best for you, your users and your website.