Google, sometimes referred to as the Big G, has once again proved to the world that it still is the dominant and greatly profitable leader in the Internet search market. Recent reports indicate profits are up 110% to $721m in the three months to June 2006. Much of these Google profits come from their clever and very successful advertising program called Google Adwords.

Google, essentially a search company, had gained market dominance through smart ranking technologies that provided the user with the most relevant search results ever possible to date. It’s simple user interface, coupled with smart algorithms combined with a snappy name and logo has made it the most used search engine today, putting itself years ahead from it’s closest rivals. A listing for a targeted search term in the first page or two of Google’s organic listing is every webmaster’s dream. This means huge success in terms of traffic, sales and hence money in the bank! But, unfortunately, it is not possible for every website to be listed on the first page or two. Google saw the potential for offering paid listings that will appear alongside organic results for a search term. In this way, a webmaster can still get his website onto the first page or two under sponsored listings but for a price. Google launched their pay-per-click program – an advertiser only pays when someone clicks their ad, called it Adwords and the rest, as they say, is history!

Google then followed up with a progam called Adsense which is linked to Adwords. Adsense is where any ordinary webmaster (called a publisher) can display relevant ads from Google’s advertisers on their site. When a user to that site clicks an ad, Google pays them a percentage of that click cost.

Google, by it’s very existence, has given webmasters a chance to earn money in ways that wouldn’t have been possible. Currently, people make cash out of Google by using Adwords and/or Adsense. Thousands of ordinary people are sharing in on Google’s success and profits, making for themselves nice checks every month in the process. Let’s see how.

Adwords

Adwords are used by off-line and online businesses alike to advertise their products or services. But, for ordinary people, that’s not where the money is. Thousands of people are combining the versatility of affiliate programs with the reach of Adwords, making themselves a lot of money in the process.

People search for products that they can promote and more people turn to www.clickbank.com for this. Clickbank, a large Internet company, acts as reseller, payment processor and affiliate commission payer all in one. It works like this. A publisher, wanting to sell his/her products signs up with Clickbank and enters Clickbank’s marketplace. Affiliates wanting to promote the publisher’s products, signs up with Clickbank first as an affiliate and obtains an ID which is used in a special link called a hop link.

The affiliate then markets the publisher’s products by way of advertising, especially on Google Adwords (but can be by any other means although Google Adwords produces best results) in an effort to drive traffic to the site of the publisher. If the referral results in a sale, Clickbank processes the transaction, takes a percentage of the sale, allocates the commission to the affiliate and the balance to the publisher. Clickbank pays affiliates and publishers every two weeks.