[Video] Adopt these 3 key strategies to grow your online business

Whether you're new to running a blog or an experienced website pro, check out this video featuring David, Oisin, and Raj from the AdSense team, to learn about the best ways to monetize your online content.

Did you know that 68% of users share online content to give people a better sense of who they are and what they care about? Now, more than ever, it’s important that your audience loves your content. In the video below, we share 3 key strategies for you to boost audience engagement and jump start your earnings using AdSense.

1. Relate to your users’ interests
2. Diversify your content strategy
3. Make your content easy to consume

Watch our video to get started today.

Not using AdSense yet? Once you’ve watched the video, here’s how you can get started:

Make sure your website is compliant with the AdSense program policies.
Sign up for an AdSense account by enrolling your site.
Add the AdSense ad code to your site.

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Think with Google...!

Think with Google is a platform for sharing industry viewpoints, helping you navigate in the business landscape. Turn into our bite-sized videos for inspiring, empowering and actionable insights. Let's start the discussion. Join at Think with Google or follow us on twitter.

"Mobile"-ize your business with Google Sites

Building on last week’s post on automatic mobile rendering, we’re excited to introduce five new templates to make it easier for businesses to create mobile landing pages. You can also start from scratch with our custom template if you’re feeling creative.

Watch the video below to see how “small” businessman, Bob, transformed his business using Google Sites:

Visit sites.google.com/mobilize to check out the five templates.

Verify your business on Google Maps and get an Orkut Badge

Thousands of small businesses owners use Orkut to share information about their products and services, and to communicate with their customers. Now it's even easier to find these businesses using Google Maps from the owner's Orkut profile!

When you visit the Orkut profile of a business owner, you'll find a badge indicating that his listing is already on Google Maps. To visit the listing on the map, just click on the badge:

If you own a business and have an Orkut profile but you haven’t earned the badge yet, simply add your listing to Google Maps. Keep in mind your business doesn't need its own website to be listed on Google! Google Places allows business owners to manage information about their listings if they're already on Google Maps, or to add them to the map if they're not yet listed.

Once they've verified that the basic information about their business is correct and up-to-date, and added details like hours of business and photos, business owners can count on their listings being shown to Google users to grow their customer base. Their listing will appear among search results across Google, including Google Maps, even if they don't have a website. And of course, this is all completely free.

Let's get started! Claim ownership or create your business listing in Google Maps, using the same Google Account you use to access your Orkut profile. Once your business listing is verified on Google Places, your Orkut profile will earn a badge in a few days!

If you need help, visit the Google Places Help Center and watch this tutorial video about Google Places:

Here's to the success of your business!

Introducing appointment slots in Google Calendar

Google Calendar has become indispensable for organizing my own time and sharing my schedule with friends and coworkers. But what about letting others know about my preferred availability? Likewise, when I look at my hairdresser's online calendar, I wonder why I can't just book the open slot instead of remembering to call during regular business hours. Now, with appointment slots in Google Calendar, any individual or business can manage appointment availability online 24/7.

Creating appointment slots

To get started, set up blocks of time you’d like to offer as appointment slots. Simply click anywhere on your calendar and then on "Appointment slots.” From there, create a single block of time or automatically split a larger block of time into smaller appointment slots.


Every Google Calendar has its own personal appointments sign up page; you can embed it on your website or give the URL directly to friends and clients. You can find the URL for your appointment page at the top of the set-up page, which you can access via the Edit details link.

Signing up for an appointment slot

When someone visits your sign up page, their calendar is overlaid for convenience and they can sign up directly for any available appointment slot. When they sign up, Google Calendar conveniently creates a new shared event on both of your calendars.


At Google, many people are already using appointment slots to manage their office hours or even schedule appointments with on-site fitness instructors. We’re starting to roll it out widely today, and appointment slots should be available for everyone within the next few days. I'm pretty excited to tell my hairdresser about it, and I can't wait to see all of you start to use it too.

Google profit beats expectations

    Google's quarterly profit topped expectations, helped by cost controls, but Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the economic environment remains tough with Internet users still searching but buying less.

    Shares of the No. 1 U.S. Internet search company initially rose 5 percent on the stronger-than-expected results, but then erased gains to trade flat after hours.
    "We're still basically in uncharted territory," Schmidt said on a conference call. "Google is absolutely feeling the impact. Users are still searching but they're buying less. Ultimately, what that really means is the ads are converting less."
     Compared to other Internet and media companies that depend on advertising revenue, Google has been extremely resilient to the economic downturn, though its revenue growth has slowed sharply from the heady 50 percent rates it used to enjoy.
    Google reported first-quarter revenue of $5.51 billion, up 6 percent from the year-ago quarter but down 3 percent from the 2008 fourth quarter -- its first ever sequential decline. The figure was in line with average Wall Street expectations.
   "In one sense, revenue was certainly not robust, but considering the environment people are obviously taking that as somewhat of a comfort that it wasn't any worse," said Martin Pyykkonen, senior analyst at Wunderlich Securities.
    "Tougher times but better discipline within the company on the cost management side (meant) that they were still able to come in and beat the bottom line pretty nicely by a few percentage points."
   Net profit for the quarter ended March 31 was $1.42 billion, or $4.49 cents a share, up from $1.31 billion, or $4.12 a share, a year earlier.
    Excluding special items, Google earned $5.16 a share, ahead of the average Wall Street forecast of $4.93 according to Reuters Estimates. The figure also beat the "whisper number" of $5 per share that some analysts and investors were expecting.
 Google executives said lower labor costs, as the company reset performance based bonuses for the new year, kept expenses in line. And after several years in which Google expanded its workforce, the company's headcount declined slightly in the first quarter to 20,164 employees worldwide.
   Google announced three rounds of layoffs in the first quarter, although the 200 sales and marketing job cuts announced in March were not reflected in the latest headcount.
   "Good quarter considering the environment," said Youssef Squali, managing director at Jefferies & Co. "Cost containment, including capex, was pretty impressive, which is what's needed to make the stock work short-term."