On almost every web page that you visit you will see small ads that say in small type around them "ads by google". This is what is known as "adsense." These ads are placed by publishers, people like you and me with websites, as advertisements to bring people to their websites and hopefully keep them there to buy or opt-in etc. The website owner or publisher, again you or me, pay each time someone clicks on the ad and hence the name "pay-per-click" or "ppc". You will see this name or abbreviation everywhere and you will soon wonder how it was that you did not know it! The website owner pays an amount that can vary considerably form a few cents to several dollars, depending on the popularity of the subject matter and the competition.

You may pay several dollars for a particular word or only a few cents if you are more specific. If you bid on say "automobiles" you may pay several dollars, but if you bid on "1965 Corvettes" you may pay less and have more targeted traffic; that is people that are looking for 1965 Corvettes. Keywords You can certainly buy as much traffic to your site as you want with a term like "cars" but that will not help you much if you are selling accessories for 1965 Corvettes. If you choose the shotgun method of advertising, you will get a lot of traffic but you will go broke sooner rather than later doing so.

So let's say you are selling accessories for 1965 Corvettes or corvettes in general. You would design an ad "campaign" around the words "Corvettes","Corvette accessories","1965 Corvettes" etc. You see what I mean? In this way you will be drawing only the people that are looking for what you have to offer, not the ones who are just looking. This is what is known as "targeted traffic" and is what you are after if you have a site and do not want to pay exorbitantly for the people that come to your site.

Now you know what the term "adsense" means and what are its general implications and ways of using it. Go and make some ads of your own and see what you can do with the wonderful world of adsense.