Earning Money With AdSense - Setting Up Your Account

Hello, and happy Labor Day to you all!
Today, in surreptitious defiance of the holiday, we're going to engage in the fun and joyful non-work that is setting up your new AdSense account. Remember that you need a site (be it a website or a blog) with some content to get approved for a free AdSense account.
What Is AdSense?
AdSense is, in short, a means of selling advertising space on your site. Google shows ads that are relevant to you're site's content, and everytime a user clicks on your ad, you get paid a fraction of what the advertiser pays for showing the ad (and Google keeps the rest of that cost). AdSense is free to sign up, and this can be done by following the button-link in my sidebar to the AdSense sign-up page, right beside the AdWords button. The sign-up process is free and easy to complete. After submitting your site, you will have to wait a few days to get your site confirmed by Google. My site was good to go the very next day, but I've known people that had to wait a good three to four days, so don't stress out if it takes a while for them to e-mail you.
You can find examples of what the ads may look like here on my blog. You can see an example of a banner ad on top of my page beside the eWealth banner, and an example of a skyscraper ad on the right of my blog. Clicking on any of these would lead to Google paying me a fee for the advertising space. This fee varies from ad to ad, and you have no way of knowing how much an ad will pay, as Google doesn't disclose this information. The only choice you have over what ads to display is the banner size, and filtering out pages that you don't want to have shown on your page. AdSense has become especially popular with sites and blogs that have been created for non-commercial purposes. Since Google shows ads based on content, you'll have a greater chance at making money if your site is focused on a single topic, since then the ads displayed will be highly relevant, and visitors may be prompted to follow ad links from your site.
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PS - Go rest, relax, and stay away from that work! Though knowing the motivated people that get into affiliated market, most of us won't follow that advice.