MindRivet

The first step towards monetizing your website is typically using google adsense. It is free and easy to implement.

What is adsense?

Google AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.

Google uses its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the user’s geographical location, and other factors. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

Currently, AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating site.

Many sites use AdSense to monetize their content. AdSense has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small sites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and salespeople. To fill a site with ads that are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters implement a brief script on the sites’ pages. Sites that are content rich have been very successful with this advertising program, as noted in a number of publisher case studies on the AdSense site.

Some webmasters work hard to maximize their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:

They use a wide range of traffic generating techniques including but not limited to online advertising.

They build valuable content on their sites which attracts AdSense ads which pay out the most when they get clicked.

They use copy on their websites that encourage clicks on ads. Note that Google prohibits people from using phrases like “Click on my AdSense ads” to increase click rates. Phrases accepted are “Sponsored Links” and “Advertisements”.

AdSense for search

A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search lets website owners place Google search boxes on their pages. When a user searches the web or the site with the search box, Google shares any ad revenue it makes from those searches with the site owner. However the publisher is paid only if the ads on the page are clicked: Adsense does not pay publishers for mere searches.

information from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adsense

Important : Ensure that you read the adsense policy carefully. Clicking on your own adsense ads would have your site banned by google.

google adsense site to get started:

http://www.google.com/adsense

Useful links

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/static.py?page=tips.html
http://adsense.blogspot.com/?utm_source=aso&utm_campaign=ww-ww-et-ashp&utm_medium=link
http://groups.google.com/group/adsense-help?sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-ashp&medium=link