Running Google AdSense (for both Content and Search) on a website whose main traffic is generated by photo albums is something that, to my knowledge, has not received much attention. Such websites can generate decent earnings despite some skepticism that non-text-based content can do so, and this article is an attempt to consolidate in one place a few well known facts about online advertising that seem relevant to running ads on photo albums, mixed in with my own suggestions, observations and, of course, speculations. While most of the discussion revolves around Google's AdSense system, the same strategy would most likely apply with little change to other contextual advertising systems, such as the upcoming Yahoo! Publisher Network.
There are plenty of websites out there dedicated to search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Such techniques are outside the scope of this article - I would presume the same optimizations that apply to pages made up of text-based content would apply to photo albums. What I am trying to achieve here is convince people that if they are willing to spend a little bit of time and make some small changes to their photo albums, running ads on them may actually pay off.