How do I earn from AdSense?

You can apply for an AdSense account via the "Generate revenue from your website. Google AdSense" referral link at the top of the left sidebar. You will need a website for them to review when you apply. A blog will do. For beginners, I think this Dummies Guide to Google Blogger ("online book" in progress. Use the CONTENT at the top of the main column" can help you get started off quickly

For more information, read the rest of the post. You can earn via referral links like that once you get an AdSense account. I will put a link to a post I will publish later to show how you can earn via referral links like that later.

Someone asked these questions about AdSense, and I though I might as well answer them in a post. Will expand on this post as I have more to add.

1) How can i earn from Google AdSense.
2) How will i be paid for it .
3) Do i need to pay anything to Google for this .
4) If i need to pay anything how much it is .
5) Will my personal information will be kept confidential.
6) Do i need any special software.

But before you can earn anything, you will need a website. If you don't have one, you can start a blog, and Dummies Guide to Google Blogger will guide you. Then you will have to apply for an AdSense account. You can do that by clicking on the text link that says "Generate revenue from your website. Google AdSense" at the top of the right sidebar.

Products related to AdSense

How can I earn from Google AdSense
You can earn from Google AdSense in three ways:
Contextual Advertisements
By placing contextual text or images ads on your sites. These ads are of two types - CPC (Cost per Clicks) ads for which you will only be paid if readers click on the ads, and CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions) for which you will be paid for just displaying the ads on your site, irrespective of whether the readers click on them or not. Although it is Cost per 1000 impressions, you don't need to reach 1000 impressions to be paid, but you would be paid proportionately for each click. The figures are given as cost per 1000 impressions because if they are given as cost per impressions, the figure will be so small that it will be below 2 decimal points. However, in the long term, CPC and CPM ads should give equivalent earnings to you.

Types of Contextual Ad units
There are 2 type of contextual advertisement units that you can put in your site - ad units and link units. Ad units displayed the ads directly on your site. An example is the Wide Skyscraper Ad unit you see in the left sidebar in this blog. You will be paid as explained as above. An example of link unit is the one you see just below the title of this blog in the Header. You will not be paid for clicks on links in link units. However, clicking on one of them will cause a page with ads relevant to the title of the link. You will be paid as explained above for clicks or impressions as explained above. The maximum number of Ad units you can put in a page is 3, and the maximum number of link unit is 1.

AdSense Search
You can put up to 2 AdSense search boxes on your site. They can be just for searching the Web, or they can be used for searching only the content of your site. You will not be paid for readers for using the searchbox, only if they click on any ads that may be displayed in the search result page.

Referrals
You can also earn by referring people to join AdSense or AdWord, or to get other things like FireFox with Google toolbar, Google Pack, Picasa. You can see examples of referral text links at the top of the right sidebar of this blog. You can place a maximum of 2 referral buttons or text links per product on your sites, and if your readers click on these, you may be paid under certain conditions. Currently, there are 4 referral products that available - Google AdSense, Google AdWords, FireFox with Google toolbar and Picasa (now being replaced by Google Pack, depending on which country you reside in). For Google AdSense, if your reader join AdSense via your referral button, you will be paid US100 if they manage to earn US$100 within 180 days (6 months). For Google AdWords, if your reader sign up and spend US$100 within 90 days, you will earn US$20. For FireFox with Google toolbar, if your reader download, install and runs the browser for the first time, you will be paid up to US$1 depending on their geographical location. For Picasa, when a user you've referred to Picasa downloads and runs the product for the first time, you will earn up to US$1, also depending which geographical location.

UPDATE 2 February 2007: The pricing structure for AdSense and AdWord have been improved and it is now easier to get a referral fee for them. If within 180 days, the person you referred to AdSense earn their USD5, your account will also be credited with USD5. If within the same period, they earned USD100, your account will be credited with an additional USD250. In addition to these, if within any 180 days you referred 25 publishers who each earn more than $100 within 180 days of their respective sign-ups and are all eligible for payout, you will be awarded a $2,000 bonus (bonus payouts are limited to 1 per year).

When an advertiser (AdWords) you refer spends $5 within 90 days of sign-up (in addition to the $5 sign-up fee) you will be credited with $5. When that same advertiser spends $100 within 90 days of sign-up, you will be credited with an additional $40. If, in any 180 day period, you refer 20 advertisers who each spend more than $100 within 90 days of their respective sign-ups, you will be awarded a $600 bonus (bonus payments are limited to 1 per year).

How will i be paid for it
You will be paid if in a month you earn US100 or more. If you earn less than that, you will not be paid, but the amount will be carried forward and you will be paid when the total reaches US100 or more. You will normally receive your payment by check sent to the address you registered when you apply (even if you don't live in the US). Some countries have the option of being paid by EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) where the payment is transferred by wire, and will be faster and cost less than being paid by check.
Do i need to pay anything to Google for this
No, you do not need to pay anything to Google. However, for earnings obtained from ads via AdSense searches, some amount may be deducted for the cost of performing the search, but the amount deducted will never be more than what you earn.
Will my personal information will be kept confidential
The only information that anyone can get from the Web is your AdSense ID (which can be obtained by viewing the source code of pages which have your AdSense ads, but which will be useless to them as far as getting personal information about you.) No other personal information is displayed anywhere on the Web.
Do I need any special software
No, you don't need any software or download anything from AdSense. To participate, all you need to do is to sign into your AdSense account and generate the scripts you need to add to your site to get the AdSense products displayed.

It is very easy to apply for an AdSense account. All you need is a website which some content (someone got his account approved by having just one post in a blog), click on the "Generate revenue from your website. Google AdSense" text link at the top of the left sidebar and fill in your particulars

Getting AdSense Products on your Site
If you are new to AdSense, you can learn how to generate the scripts needed from these posts and how to blend the colors to the colors of your site (click BACK button to get back to this page):
Generating scripts for your AdSense Ads

Blending colors of your ads to the colors of your site

Generating script for your AdSense searchbox