How To Set Up Adsense On Your WordPress Blog

I’ve been using Adsense on this blog on and off over the last year and a half. It’s been a hopefully not-too-intrusive way of gaining a small income to cover the costs of things like hosting, and the odd coffee along the way. I couldn’t exactly say it’s been a mad moneymaker, it’s definitely a slow burner, but it’s something that I can set up and leave it there to passively earn which is nice. However, last year, Google Adsense changed their set up and took away the Plugin which had made it so easy to install ads on my blog. I took them away, not knowing the best way to do it, but recently decided to take the plunge and go for it again. Here is how I got it sorted out in one night, and have been reaping the benefits ever since. So, how do you set up Adsense on a WordPress Blog without much technical knowledge?

Note: I am NOT a coder type person and I fear breaking everything, so this is definitely an Idiots-Guide-To type post!

Step One: Set Up An Adsense Account

If you’ve already got a Google/Gmail account that you want to link with your blog, this step is super easy. Your Adsense account can be linked directly to that account, so all it takes is logging in and adding your details. If not, you can set up a Google account from the setup pages. Once you’re in, fill out the form and press “Create Account”.

Step Two: Organise Your Ads

Once you’ve created an account and it has been approved, you’ll receive an email from Google saying so. In this email, there will be a link to your homepage. You can also access this by signing in to the Google Adsense website in future. This is where your future earnings will be laid out for you in breakdowns of daily, weekly, monthly and ever amounts. It will also give you more information based on analytics of types of devices used to click on your ads, placement etc if you’re into your statistics.

On the left-hand side of the page, there is a menu with lots of options. Go to My Ads. It will increase the options in the menu, you should click on Page Level Ads. These are ads that will pop up on the various pages of your blog.

From here, Google’s new ad-implementation system comes into play. Instead of their old plugin option, they are now using Quickstart Ads, which is a simple way to add the ads to your blog without having tonnes of issues with spamming people or choosing sub-optimal placement.

From here, as well as Quickstart Ads, you can also set up mobile-friendly options, which I really recommend. Many people are reading blogs on the go, and having your ads optimised here not only increases the number of clicks you’re likely to get but also makes sure that when they do come up, they’re a lot less annoying for the reader.

So, how to get all this working? Flick the switch AND add some code to your website. I know, I know, I said this was going to be non-coder friendly. And it is!

 

Step 3: Add The Code To Your WordPress Blog

There are a few methods of doing this, but here are the two that I have used since turning my ads back on.

Firstly, check if your theme has a setting for adding code to headers/footers without actually having to go messing about with other parts of code that can break things. My new theme which I purchased in December is from Pipdig, and all of their themes have this built in which makes life a lot easier. In that case, I had to go into the Pipdig menu in my WordPress (your theme company may be different but will likely have the same set up), go to Theme Hooks, and paste the code from the Adsense website (click Get Code at that section on the Page Level Ads page) in and press save changes. Voila, job done, you’ve set up Adsense ads.

If your theme does not have these settings, or they seem a bit tricky to manage, don’t fear! There are WordPress plugins to help you with this. Prior to my updated theme, I was using a third party plug-in called Header Footer Code Manager. It does what it says on the tin without getting too complicated (it was the third one I tried and the other two scared me off).

Once Header Footer Code Manager is activated on your WordPress blog, all you have to do is click on it (HFCM) in your Dashboard menu, click Add New, and fill in the details. Paste in your code, hit save and you’re done.

So, there you have it. Ads may not show up right away, give them a few hours to kick in but once that’s done, you should be set. For more information, the Google help pages are actually quite user friendly (yay) and you can find them here.

I hope this “How To Set Up Adsense On A WordPress Blog” guide has been of help to you – let me know what you think in the comments, or drop me a line over on Facebook or Twitter!

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BadMammy is also checking out Instagram these days. Come over to see a myriad of life with an under-four, under-caffeination and general under-five-foot-two life.

If you liked this Blogger Tips type post, you may also like 13 Essential iPhone Apps For Bloggers.