Making Money on a Blog: Google AdSense Part 2

Website users are accustomed to being able to conduct searches to find the information they need. Putting a search box on your blog that enables users to search either your blog or the Internet is a great idea. Offering this feature using Google AdSense for Search makes it a valuable feature to you since clickable ads that can make you money are served up with the search results.

To set up AdSense for Search, log into your AdSense account and from the AdSense Setup tab select the Products sub-tab. From the list of products, click on AdSense for Search to display the following screen:



Click the radio button next to Google WebSearch + SiteSearch to allow searching on both your blog and the Web. Next, key in the URL of the main page of your blog. Page down to the bottom half of the screen as shown below:



Click the radio button next to the URL of your blog in the search box. This will ensure that the search box searches your site (not the Internet) by default. It is important to try to keep people on your blog for as long as possible. Adjust the other options to change the design and color of the box until you get it the way you want it. As you change options the box will change so you can see exactly what you are getting. Click Continue when done to proceed to the following screen:



There are additional color options for the search box on this page. You can also provide the URL of your logo to display in the search box. Also, you can determine whether the results of the search are displayed in the existing window or whether a new window opens to display the results. When done, click Continue to display the last page.



This screen provides the HTML code for the search box you specified on the previous screens. You do not need to know HTML to use the code. Merely highlight and copy the code exactly.

Back on Blogger, go to the Template tab and the Page Elements sub-tab. In the section where you wish to place the search box, click on Add a Page Element and select HTML/JavaScript from the choices provided in the dialog box. This displays the Configure HTML/JavaScript dialog box.



Paste the HTML code from the AdSense site into the large box. Add a title if you prefer. Clicking the orange "Save Changes" button will insert the search box onto your blog.



When someone keys in a search term and clicks Search, this results screen is displayed.



Now your readers can find what they are looking for and you have the opportunity to make some more money!