In recent weeks, Blogtap has undergone some very large changes.

A new partner has jumped on board and he’s brought with him a ton of experience from the Web and IT industry.

DoFollow commenting has been enabled so that every user that gives something to Blogtap (in the form of a comment), receives something in return.

AdSense blocks were installed for a few days and then removed.

In this post series, I’d like to discuss the last item on the list above.

When considering to monetize a blog with the popular Google AdSense Pay Per Click Network, there are really only three questions that need to be asked: what is Google AdSense? how do I install Google AdSense? when should I install Google AdSense?

I’m going to explore the what question today, and explore the other questions in future posts. At the end of this post series, you will be able to answer the question “is AdSense right for your Blog?” with confidence and apodictic certainty.

To answer the why question, you must first understand what Google AdSense is. And to first answer what Google AdSense is you must first answer what it is not. Have I lost you yet?

Google AdSense is not an affiliate network where you can earn money by producing sales. At one point, AdSense did support referral ads but discontinued referral ads in August of 2008 to narrow the scope of AdSense to purely PPC ads. Google operates its own affiliate network, which is where you should go if you want income from referrals.

Not the most flexible PPC ad network for ad customization and placement. Google allows for only these ad sizes and nothing else. You can customize the background and link colors but you cannot customize the sizes of the ad blocks. Furthermore, only three AdSense for content units, three AdSense link units and two Google search boxes are allowed per page.

Google AdSense is not an instant approval ad network. That means if you plan on setting up Google Adsense, you first have to submit an application and wait (sometimes weeks) for the acceptance letter.

A pay per click ad network. You earn money with Google AdSense not from generating sales but sales leads. When someone clicks on an AdSense ad, they are taken to a third party website where they are usually pitched a product or service.

A crawl-based ad network. Google crawls your web pages to determine what sort of advertisements to display. The only control you have over what sort of ads are displayed is through the content you surround Google ads with.

The leading pay per click advertisement network on the web. There are more advertisers on Google AdSense than any three ad networks combined.

A highly monitored ad network. Spammers beware, Google hires individuals whose sole job is to weed out those advertisers that are making money through illicit means. On top of that, Google created very complex algorithms to automatically detect illicit clicks.

Interconnected with Google AdWords. The AdWords network is the mother of Google AdSense and the two allow each other to operate. Advertisers (those who want their ads shown) create ads in AdWords and have them displayed on websites controlled by publishers via AdSense.

In short, Google AdSense is a way of making money by displaying pre-made advertisements on your site. It has a few restrictions but should be considered in any circumstance because of how large it is compared to other ad networks.

I hope this post serves as a solid foundation to answer the question: should I install AdSense on my blog? Stay tuned for future posts in this series.