Is Google Adsense for real?

Over the past couple of days, I have been telling my friends through text messages, online forums and newsgroups to join www.blogger.com then register their blogs to Google Adsense www.google.com/adsense/ to earn some money from blogging.

Perhaps I had been overly enthuasiastic as I am with most good news I come by and two of my friends have asked me if I had already earned money from Google Adsense or if I knew of somebody who did.

All I could honestly tell them was that I hadn't earned anything yet or knew of anyone who did, but this does not necessarily mean Google Adsense is a hoax or a scam. I appealed for a bit of fairness and patience on their parts as I had only recently started this thing with Google Adsense. Rather than point out the non-sequitur, I explained that if they visited my blog they would be helping me prove or disprove the claims made by Google Adsense. Trying is the best way to find out, especially in this case where they don't have to shell out any money in the process.

It occurs to me the Google Adsense and Blogger may be using this earning arrangement to promote their services, e.g., to drive up traffic to their websites and in so doing, drive up their revenue. In the process, they may actually be earning more from your efforts (perhaps to cover the cost of putting up the service and earn some profit) and if that is okay with you, then it might as well be a fair arrangement. There is nothing wrong with that but only as long as they actually pay up when people actually perform what is required to earn money from them.

As with all human endeavors, there are detractors and I had stumbled upon a website that did say something against "affiliate programs" such as Google Adsense. In essence, they said that affiliate programs are no good as a main source of revenue as it requires you to build up traffic in the tens of thousands in order to earn something like $100 or more a month. Now, getting internet traffic in that volume for a blog is not at all impossible as reading up on top bloggers in the blogger.com dashboard will suggest it is. However, one must really think up of and post content that will create that traffic. Give people a reason to read your blog and give them a reason to tell others about it so more people will visit your blog.

The way I see it is, if you are already blogging and already have a following, getting into an affiliate program won't do you any harm and might just bag you a windfall. If you aren't a blogger yet but are part of a newsgroup or forum, getting a blog with an affiliate program may do you some good as it has the possibility of earning you some money for your troubles in the process of nurturing your contacts with other people.

Well, it's really your choice and my advise, as with all my other advise, is well intentioned. I do not foresee any risks as far as this deal is concerned, all it requires is your time and a few spare brain cells you haven't killed yet.