Yesterday in Part Three of this series, I wrote about using the competition as a source of inspiration.

Today I will address content network.  If you want to read the simple version and skip the history lesson, let me say this: If you are starting off, turn off the content network.

There, we are done now.  Just kidding!

First, What is the content network?  Basically it is an ever-expanding network of sites that have content.  Google is smart enough to read the content and show your ad on a page that has content relevant to your selected keywords.  These are known as AdSense ads.

While the content is relevant and in some cases converts decent, the CTR (Click Through Rate) on the content network is typically a lot lower than the search network.  The search network is all of sites that use the Google Search Engine (i.e. Google).

It typically takes upwards of 100 times the impressions in the content network to get accurate data compared to the search network, so it will take a lot longer to even get results.  Starting off, you want your focus to be on adding keywords to the search network, where the action is much faster…and costlier.

In addition to the lower conversions and CTR, the content network is much more prone to click fraud.  “Made for AdSense” sites are nothing more than scams really.  So starting off, avoid this risk when margins are important and every dollar is to be held tight.

When starting off, you want the best data possible to compare keywords and you want the best converting traffic.  So, turn off the content network, at least until you get a handle on the keywords.

Later on, when you are confident in your keyword selections and ad copy writing, turn it on, with a low budget.  If it works, great.  You have added another source of quality traffic. If not, then keep it off for a while longer.