When should I add AdSense to my WordPress blog?

So you have got your blog up and running.  You are starting to get good organic search engine traffic.  So when should you think about adding AdSense to your blog to help monetise your hard work?

There is simply no hard and fast rule about how much traffic you should have before adding AdSense to your blog.  You can apply and be accepted for Google’s AdSense program at any time, if your website complies with the relevant terms and conditions.  But it is a good idea to look at your incoming traffic and see if you think it would be worthwhile adding AdSense to your site yet.

In the first few weeks, when your blog is still new, you will only be getting a few hits every day.  Some days, probably more often than you will want to admit, there will be no hits at all. That’s life. But realistically it takes time for search engines to begin to like your site.

Technically you could add AdSense to your blog from day 1, but with little or no organic search engine traffic and little direct traffic from social networking, it is very unlikely that you will receive any Clicks on your AdSense ads.  So you will not be making any money.

Regular visitors to your website are typically less inclined towards clicking on AdSense ads, simply because they are familiar with your site and they frequent your blog for the interesting content, not the ads.

The people that will most often click on AdSense ads are those that happened upon one of your articles through a search engine.  Your article may or may not answer their question, but the AdSense ad is attractive enough in terms of content and style, and suitably placed, for it to be a logical next step in their browsing.

Looking at a completely theoretical AdSense Click Through Rate (CTR) of between 1% and 5%, you would be requiring somewere between 20 and 100 page views on your site per day to get one daily click on your AdSense ads.

So hypothetically, at this rate of daily traffic you could reasonably expect something to happen, e.g. a click, every day.  Now one click on your AdSense ads isn’t going to make you a home working, blogging millionaire, but it’s a start!

To make real money from adding AdSense to your blog you are going to need much more traffic, so as always, remember that content is king.

With real, quality content, organic search engine traffic will increase.  When you are receiving several hundred hits per day, which is achievable, even for a fairly new blog if it has very good quality, unique, interesting content, you will start to see the benefit of adding AdSense to your blog.

At these types of traffic levels, Google Adsense becomes a viable proposition.  However you will find that your niche area, your blog subject matter, will impact your earning potential per click. But that’s another story.