WebProNews

I probably don't have to tell you that people are looking for ways to make extra income in this economy. Luckily there are ways you can get extra revenue out of sites you already have.

A Google spokesperson tells WebProNews that the company is seeing more and more people doing just that. "We've also been seeing regular people capitalizing on changes in consumer behavior (ie, more people searching for recipe sites and therefore stay at home mom's creating recipe blogs as a result)," he says.

The bottom line is that there are real people pulling through the economy by giving more focus to their existing sites. The spokesperson cites Tim Carter as an example. He runs AskTheBuilder.com, and has seen a significant significant increase in traffic and revenue even during the recession.

Sidenote: Google AdWords evangelist Frederick Vallaeys spoke with Mike McDonald at Search Engine Strategies NY this week about a "recession keyword tool" for AdWords that can help advertisers "do more with less:

Kim Malone Scott, director of sales and operations of AdSense has some AdSense ideas for users to boost their income. For one, she notes that more ads don't necessarily mean more money.

"Test different combinations and numbers of ad units on your site," she says. "There's usually a 'tipping point' where you hit a ceiling of how many ads your users will accept -- push it too far and you could hurt reader engagement, traffic, and in the long run your earnings."

She also suggests experimenting with the different AdSense ad sizes, and stresses the importance of web design. Using Google's Website optimizer tool, which I recently discussed is a good way to test different designs. Things to take into consideration include:

- Font Size

"Colonial Candles increased font size, highlighted certain text and saw a 20% lift in sales made on its site, which translated to $20,000," says Scott.

- Color

Scott says NerdyShirts tested a white button versus an orange button and saw a 6.9% increase in conversions. "Big red buttons tend to work."

- Call-to-action

"Run different special offers and see which lifts your sales the most," she says citing Moishe's Moving, which tested three different promotions: $100 off the move; free moving boxes ($80 value); and 1-hour of professional packing ($130 value). The $100 off promotion moved the most sales for them.

Sure, when Google talks about this stuff, they're keeping their own AdSense product in mind, and for many people that alone is enough to get some extra income. Much of this advice can be applied to any advertising you may include on your site though.

People are out there making it happen. There's no reason you can't do so yourself with some effort and free tools that are available to you.