When a new business comes online and begins to look for ways to monetize its website, one of the most common questions they ask is, "What is AdSense?" or, "How do I get a Google AdSense Account? AdSense is the simplest form of paid advertising available to a website owner. While AdSense is a viable monetization strategy, it is not appropriate for every website. Small business websites typically have thirty or less pages. The site is more like an online brochure. Unless the website gets a lot of traffic, AdSense will only produce a few pennies per day. Other forms of advertising may provide better monetization for sites that are small or that are not yet getting enough traffic.

Informational sites, such as those provided by nonprofit organizations, would benefit more from AdSense. Even if the information they provide is not massive, their sites typically draw enough traffic to make AdSense profitable. The income, even if small, would be one way to pay for the cost of sustaining the site. I have also noticed some government sites using AdSense, as well as sites that promote or provide information about a particular City or locality.

Mega sites, on the other hand, are perfect for AdSense. It can be the main sources of income for sites such as article directories, share cooking recipes sharing sites, and any type of site that has a large database of information.

Obtaining a Google AdSense account requires that you already have a website and that you already have enough content in the site for Google to judge its quality and appropriateness for their advertising clients. I recommend that you don't request a Google account until you have at least twenty pages on your site.

Once your Google AdSense account is approved -- a process that takes a couple of days -- you can begin inserting the code in your pages. This is where the art begins. Placing ads on a page without having them screaming that they are advertisement is an art in itself. Many books have been written about the subject, but the best training there is available on the subject is a series of videos produced by Michael Cheney, who spent a whole year researching and testing AdSense on his websites. His obsession resulted in the most lively and profitable training available on the subject.

I asked this question because according to a NCSA Cyber Security Survey conducted by McAfee, we as consumers seem to have a knowledge gap between what we claim to know and our actual ability to prove we are Internet savvy. For example their telephone survey revealed that 98% of Americans do not know the risk level of a website before they visit it. Additionally, 64% do not know how to determine if a site is safe and another 78% admit when viewing search results, they have no idea how to tell if any of them might lead to a high-risk website.

To Know the Answer is to Know Your Objective
The answer basically depends upon what you are trying to do. Do you want to determine if your purchase transaction is being processed securely? Do you want to know if a site is safe for your child to be on? Or, do you wish to know if a site is simply guilty of uploading spyware, malware, adware or some other unwanted problem onto your PC's operating system. Lets review a couple of proactive measures that can point us in a more positive direction and enhance a safer Internet experience.

Basic Data Encryption Protects Purchase Transactions
When you make a purchase online you ultimately end up sending out confidential information such as a user name, password, credit card number or something you wouldn't normally publish in a newspaper for everyone's viewing and subsequent use. Well, the Internet (www) is a world wide web for the exchange of free information. This is nice but some things need to be private to avoid identity theft. So, when you get to a shopping cart to make your purchase of a product or service, you want to be sure the transaction data is encrypted. Two basic ways to tell this information is being sent securely is to verify that information by looking for a small padlock in the browser window (usually in the lower right hand window). You should also take note it should appear to be in the locked position. You might also see it next to the address bar if for example you are using Internet Explorer 7

A web address (URL) (Sample= https://www. somesite . com ) that begins with this https, is short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer. This https is a secure method of accessing information on a web page and/or sending information across the Internet and to a secure website. What this means is the confidential information (data) you type into this browser window, as plaintext will be encrypted before being sent which is designed specifically to safeguard the data and improve/protect your security. These two measures are designed to announce to you that an Internet web page is safe and secure.

What is a High-Risk Website?
A high-risk website is a web page considered dangerous because it introduces threats such as spyware, adware, malware, online scams, spam, intentional redirects to unfavorable sites and a slew of other threats designed for stealing, prying into or eradicating files on your computer.

How Do You Know High-Risk Websites Before You Go?
There are free Web safety tools (utilities) that help keep you safe from adware, spam and online scams as you search and browse the Web and these software enhancements are best known as site advisoriers. These programs review sites and assign safety ratings that display adjacent to or over a web address you are about to click on and subsequently access. They are in fact powerful tools that enforce Internet safety. These utilities assign a site rating of red, yellow or green pretty much like a traffic light. A color of grey is a basic advisory that a site has not yet been analized and rated.

Two of the more popular utilities programs are Site Advisor and WOT. For more information about these utilities and free downloads it is worth your time to visit both their sites at siteadvisor(dot) com and mywot (dot) com. Bear in mind that there are millions upon millions of websites under constant review and although these utilities do a great job enhancing security efforts, the task of evaluation is a daunting task to keep up with their efforts to provide risk-free surfing; they do not provide absolute protection. View these utilities as just one layer of protection. Every computer should also at a minimum employ an anti-virus software, an enabled firewall and have anti-spyware software installed.

Protecting Your Children from Crime
There are a lot of companies that offer free and low cost software designed and employed to protect children from sexual deviants, cyber crime, identity theft and the whole boatload of unfortunate criminal activities on the web. Some great examples are listed at registryfixing (dot) com under their Child Safe Surf, PC Tools, Privacy Controls, ZoneAlarm and other Navagation Buttons. Bear in mind as well there are parental control options available on your home computer as well. For guides on How to Set "Parental Controls" Using Windows , Comcast, Internet Explorer, Fire Fox, Linux and just about everything else do a web search for "setting parental controls"an you are sure to find a step-by-step guide for just about every situation.

I hope, this highly condensed guidance is noteworthy and a good proactive start in your ever-increasing need to be computer savvy and safe on our modern day Internet. Remember, it takes our combined effort to avoid crime and protect ourselves and loved ones in a world so much more condensed and accessible with our abilities to communicate freely. If you think this article is beneficial, do not by shy about sharing it with family and friends.

There is a fashionable new mania which the world is embracing which is Pay per Post Forums. This is a fantastic way to utilize your great writing talent and it can also turn into a profitable exercise once you have been doing it for some time. These pay per post forums let you engage in the various online communities and forums and empower you to write about topics that you feel passionate about. You can contact people who share your views as well as participating in heated discussions- and it can all be done from the comfort of your sofa. As if the love of writing was not enough many webmasters are now paying people to write posts for the forums.

You may be thinking that this is not a genuine option however it is a movement that is growing stronger each day; it is an attractive opportunity for students, freelance writes and even stay-at-home parents. Writing these posts is a fantastic way to earn some extra cash in your spare time. This is one of the main conveniences of paid to post forums; you can choose what hours you are free to work and whether it is part-time or full-time employment.

The amount of money that you will receive for doing the posts will vary widely. Some websites will pay pennies whereas some will be more forthcoming with the cash. It is expected that if you are being paid a higher rate for a post that it will be longer and have informative information in it. If you are quick to write and can think fast then this type of work may be a very attractive prospect. Another benefit of pay to post forums is that there are no set time frames and no quotas to meet- a fantastic way to be able to handle family life and avoid the stress of juggling work and home.

Instead of having a supervisor or manager peering over your shoulder all day, you are free to work in your own way and at your own pace. There is also no dress code to adhere to- start writing your posts in your pajamas once the kids are off to school!

Although the task of writing for pay per post forums is flexible it still requires you to have dedication and organization skills, as well as writing talent. Of course what you write must be within the remit of the website rules and should not be offensive or rude.

Having read this information if you feel that you have what it takes to write these posts then you could be turning those pennies into dollars in no time at all. As well as being hard work it is also a pleasant and satisfying job which can be achieved in your own time and from the comfortable surroundings of your home.