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(NOTE: this is part of the “Blogging tips” series)
At this time, you really should have read the 2 parts before this one. Heck, you should have read the entire series so far. 
Well, for a start, you need a couple of things:
- a blog or other kind of site, preferably already somewhat popular
- an AdSense account. To get one:
- go to Google’s AdSense site
- choose to apply for an account
- wait until you receive an email saying that you were approved.
What can go wrong? Well, your application may be refused. If that happens, check whether you were complying with all of AdSense’s rules (you know, that big page nobody ever reads? Read it!); if you weren’t, fix that problem and try again. If you were, wait until your blog or site is more popular (about 5-10 times as it is now), and try again. There are some very good promotion tips in this “Blogging tips” series, you know… 
Let’s assume, then, that you were accepted. What should you do now? In its most basic form, you configure an ad (by selecting its type – some are bigger, some are smaller, some are vertical, some are horizontal, etc.), then copy & paste the HTML code Google gives you to one or more of your pages, in the place you want the ad to appear. Copy the code there, save the file, then reload your site in Firefox or Opera (never that other… thing) and see if it looks OK. It may take a few changes both to the ad and to its placement before you have something that looks OK in your blog.
Simple, right? So far, yes, and many people don’t go any further than this. But there is much more you can do to improve your results, and that “much more” will be the focus of a couple of forthcoming sections in this series. I’ll mention some now: the ad’s placement, the colors, the type of ad, the keywords you use in your site (remember that the ads “try” to be appropriate to the current page), the competitive filter, section targeting, adsense for search, adsearch for rss… see, there’s no way I could fit all that in just one series part.
But since this is “the basics”, I’ll mention one of those: the colors.
Basically, there are two “theories”. One says that the ad should look as much as possible like the rest of the site (same colors, same look, etc.), because many people are used to uncounsciously filter ads in their minds, but, this way, they may start to read it before they notice it’s an ad – ideally, they may even click on it, thinking it’s just another internal link on the site!
The other “theory”, on the other hand, states that an ad should catch the reader’s attention, and therefore should be visible, using a completely different color scheme from the rest of the site.
No “theory” has “won”, so far. My opinion is that it may depend on the site/blog itself. Try both on your site(s), and see which one works better. Also, browse other sites, and see which ads “work” better with you – the “disguised” ones, or the “obvious” (but possibly too obvious) ones.
Related posts:
See my post for clarification from Google, on the proper usage of Adsense Targeting.
[...] Blogging tips #13: Making money from your blog – Adsense: the basics Making money from your blog – Adsense: the basics Satish Talim Says: September 14th, 2005 at 6:22 am See my post for clarification from Google, on the proper usage of Adsense Targeting. [...]