Setting up a web site or blog and adding Google AdSense is one way to earn money with your writing. Once your site starts getting a consistent stream of traffic, you can make a few dollars or more each day just with the ads. But before you get started, there are a few things about Google AdSense you should know. It's important to learn the rules first, because if you break one, you just might find your AdSense account suspended.

Obviously, you should never click on your own ads. Google is very good at detecting click fraud, and this is one of the fastest ways to get your account suspended.

Don't encourage other people to click on the ads. Don't point out the ads in any way. You're not even supposed to draw attention to them with images, such as having arrows point at the ads.

Don't trick people into clicking the ads. One example would be disguising the ads such that they blend right into the navigation menu. If anything, you should try to avoid placing your ads too close to areas where people would normally click.

Don't tinker with the AdSense code. It might be tempting to tweak the colors to blend in better with the site design, but this is a big no-no. Just pick out the colors Google offers when you create each ad.

Finally, you need to post a privacy policy on your site. This policy should announce to visitors what kind of data you're collecting about them, and whether or not your site uses cookies. Most web hosts automatically log data such as a visitor's IP number, browser type, time of visit, etc.

To learn more about the do's and don'ts of Google AdSense and get the most updated information, be sure to read Google's policies.