Most webmasters and bloggers put a great deal of hard work and creativity into their website or blog. Earning money through online advertising is an effective way of covering costs for small sites and earning an income from larger or popular sites. If you want to earn revenue from a website or blog, Google AdSense is the largest of several online advertising networks that will pay you each time a site visitor clicks an advertisement on your Web pages. Before signing up to monetize your site, weigh the pros and cons of Google AdSense and the impact of running online advertising on your website or blog. RevenueThe main advantage of using Google AdSense is that it provides revenue for your website or blog. The level of income you might receive depends on a number of factors, including how much the advertiser is willing to pay for each click and the popularity of your website. Advertisers will pay far more for a click on competitive keywords; likewise, websites with a good track record of turning visitors into clicks tend to attract a premium. Google AdSense pays its website publishers monthly, provided the number of clicks reaches a minimum threshold of $100. One disadvantage of Google AdSense is that the owner of a small website may have to wait some time to reach the payout threshold. ContentThe content of any website or blog is the major element that attracts visitors and determines search engine ranking position. Using Google AdSense or other online advertising networks will reduce the amount of space that you have available for content, and some visitors may not like this. One advantage of using Google AdSense is that it automatically provides contextual advertisements that fit the subject matter of your website. Many webmasters believe this adds value to the site and actually encourages visitors. Google AdSense also serves ads in a range of sizes so you can minimize the impact of lost content space by using only small display ads on your pages. DesignThe look and feel of a website or blog is also important to visitors, particularly when the design aids easy navigation through the site's content. The disadvantage of using Google AdSense is that the ads can reduce the design appeal of the site. Garish colors and large, unattractive advertisements can put off visitors and reduce website traffic. On the plus side, Google AdSense offers highly customizable ads that can blend or attractively contrast with the design of your site. Users can change the color of advertising text, backgrounds and border as well as text size and the shape of advertising boxes. Skilled webmasters and bloggers can tweak Google AdSense advertisements to complement site design. StatisticsOne benefit of Google AdSense is that the system provides highly detailed statistics on website visitors and advertising revenues. AdSense publishers can log in to a secure account portal to access a wealth of visitor and revenue statistics including data on ad click numbers, revenue per click and total revenue, page popularity and even the popularity of individual ads. Webmasters can use this information to tweak page layout and boost revenue. The Google AdSense portal also offers security features, such as the ability to block certain advertisers.