If you do your job well, you shouldn't get paid anything at all for it.

That doesn't sound fair, does it? But as an online publisher, that's exactly what should happen.

Your job is to provide information to your readers. That could be information that educates them. It could be information that makes them think. And it could be information that just makes them happy to read it.

If the information that you're offering is good, your readers should have very little reason to read on -- unless it's to look at more of the same sort of content on your site.

You'll have satisfied your customers, so they shouldn't feel a need to look anywhere else -- and certainly not to an advertiser. You'll have given them what they came for so they can move on happy they found you.

And without paying you a penny in advertising revenues.

That's the dilemma for publishers: if you're too good at your job, readers won't feel a need to click the ads. And if you're no good at your job, you won't have any readers.

There are a couple of solutions to this dilemma.

The first is to make sure that your ads are always well blended into the site. That makes the ads look like your content rather than a link to a site the reader has never heard of and has no reason to trust. At the very least, the link will appear endorsed by you so when a reader is looking for more information, he'll expect to be as satisfied as he was when reading your article.

And the second thing you can do is make sure that the type of ad you're offering matches the type of content you're offering.

Advertising systems offer all sorts of different types of ads these days, from simple text links to animated graphic ads that come with mini-reviews and price comparisons.

If you've been talking in detail about a product, then placing an ad unit that offers the same sort of detailed information isn't likely to get many clicks. If you've done your job, the reader will already have that information.

On the other hand, if you just offer a basic introduction, then an ad on that page could promise more interesting details.

It's the difference between giving the audience everything they want and leaving them just enough to want a little more.

There are times when Google is out of the blocks before anyone even know there's a race on. It's so far ahead in searching that you have to wonder whether anyone ever uses anything else. And its advertising tool, of course, continues to yield better returns for both publishers and advertisers than any other company comes even close to doing.

But sometimes it just dawdles. Apple outmaneuvered Google on software for mobile phones and members of Yahoo's Publisher Network have long been able to put ads in their RSS feeds. That at least has now changed.

Recently Google added AdSense for Feeds to its AdSense program. This is a huge improvement. It could have a massive effect on our incomes and on the way we deliver our content.

Ever since readers have been able to sign up and collect content in dedicated feed readers, one measure of the success of a site has been the number of subscribers it gathers. It's an interesting figure but for professional publishers not a very helpful one. On the one hand, we want as many people to read our content as possible and someone who chooses to subscribe is clearly a very dedicated reader. From the point of view of advertisers, those opt-in, self-selectors are exactly the sort of people they want to reach. On the other hand, we couldn't earn a dime from someone reading content in an RSS feed except by offering them headlines that tempted them to click through. For many subscribers, that defeated the whole purpose which was to read without surfing.

The ability to put an ad – and it's just the one ad – in an RSS feed means that it's now possible to monetize your content however it's delivered. Google points out that "[o]ften, the audience reading your feed is a separate audience from those who visit your site." Now we can earn money from both of them – and because the RSS subscribers have opted in, we should be able to earn a lot of money from that sector.

It's too early to say how exactly that's going to happen but you can be sure there is an optimal strategy. We'll have to test different post lengths to find a balance between keyword density and clickthrough rates. We'll have to play with positioning to discover when ads work best at the top of the feed and when they do better at the bottom. And perhaps, most importantly, we'll have to make sure the channels are set up in a way that brings in targeted placements.

Now it's time for us to be fast out of the blocks.

One of the things I love the most about AdSense is that anyone can benefit from it. You don’t need to have an advanced degree in computing to put an AdSense unit on a website and get a check from Google.

You just need to have a website.

Until recently though, you did need to have some knowledge of computers to build that site.

Blogging changed all that. Now you can be online with your own site in less than five minutes. You’ll still have to create content and generate traffic. And the AdSense approval process can take a day or two. But you’ll be online and that’s a huge boost. In fact, blogging is probably the most common way that many people now earn from AdSense.

But it doesn’t have to be. There are still lots of other ways that you can put AdSense units in front of users and earn from the clicks.

Online magazines, for example, can be a lot of fun to put together especially if your magazine is on a topic you genuinely care about. The articles work best when they’re more in-depth than a blog post, and especially when they contain quotes from experts, but you don’t have to write them all yourself. In fact, you’ll probably find that lots of people will want to contribute in return for nothing more than a link and a bit of publicity.

That’s true too of a review site and because they’re about products, they can deliver great clickthroughs. Just pick your topic and ask for contributions.

And even a small business site can include articles that earn from AdSense. Extra pages of content related to your business can help with marketing and keyword advertising but there’s no reason they shouldn’t pay their way too.
 
While blogging may be a very easy way to earn from AdSense, if it’s not your thing, don’t worry. There are still plenty of other ways to become an online publisher.

Welcome to the web's premier social network for Internet marketers!

The Top One Network is not for every one.

But it IS for people who want to find success online.

It IS for people who recognize the power of the Internet to transform businesses and lives.

And it IS for people who understand that relationships are the KEY to that transformation!

In other words, it's not what you know... it's WHO you know!

This site is a members-only private site that is designed to encourage online success for all who choose to participate.

As a charter member, you are entitled to use all the features of this exclusive site. 

You can:

- make friends with other marketers and find joint venture relationships
- post to your own blog to promote your products, services or business opportunities
- announce events such as serminars, product launches and more
- upload photos and videos
- create and manage your own groups
- send messages directly to others through the system
- and more!

Not only does your membership entitle you to full access to the network and all our members, but you will also be receiving a phenomonal resource in your REAL mailbox!

Each month, you will get the latest edition of "The Top 1% Report", a full color monthly newsletter that gives you up-to-the-minute tips, techniques and resources direct from my team!  In other words, this is the latest information that we are using to make money online.

This is how you can get a leg up on your competition!

What's more, your report will also come with an exclusive DVD created just for you!  This DVD is packed with original content from me and my team.  It's also not available anywhere else!

I'm sure by now you can see the power of this resource and I can't wait to watch your success increase as a result of The Top One Network.

Live life today!

Joel