DISQUS

homemom3 · 2 years ago

Thanks Garry, I'm definitely one of those entry level bloggers but I must say getting that first check from google does make ya feel good and I am trying to focus on that one company for now. I've noticed certain blogs do well with other companies and those ones have something other than google on them. Hopefully things will really start taking off, or at least become a routine check for me. ;)

Zath · 2 years ago

That's good advice Garry, I'm trying to not introduce too much onto my blog and have cut back on my programs recently for the very reason they weren't bringing in any real cash.

I'd like to get somewhere with Adsense ideally, so am working on trying to get more Search Engine traffic, but at the current rate, it'll take me several months to hit the payout point on Adsense.

Anyway, some great tips as always Garry, thanks!

Cindy · 2 years ago

Very good advice Garry. Thanks for the tips!

David Cooley · 2 years ago

Zath - I see you have Wildfire Videos running, that program has been fantastic for me. It is really geared towards the UK and should do well for you.

MIke Pedersen Golf · 2 years ago

Garry,

I love your post transition from "Why the hell do you want to make money online" to "here's how to make money online" :)

As you know that is what I've struggled with (and would still like to discuss this with you via phone if possible) since the launch of my blog a couple months ago.

I think depending on your niche, there are definite choices for monetization. Some niched blogs like mine can be real tricky though.

If you've got a 'little bit of time', I'd love to talk with you about this. David has my number ;)

Mike

Collin · 2 years ago

I have heard and read though if your going to run ad's do it right from that start that changing the look around later could tick off people who you count on all ready. I think building the traffic is more important then worrying about ad placement. And yes traffic is the hardest thing to get.

MIke Pedersen Golf · 2 years ago

Collin...that's a great point you bring up! I may be in that demographic already then, since I launched w/out ads :(

Forest Parks · 2 years ago

I did exactly what you are talking of when I started.

I still only get around 10-30 visitors a day though but I can see signs that it is slowly growing and recently I have been concentrating on Adsense only and with your great help the other day my site is better arranged to get some clicks.

PS: I still can't find out how to change my meta tags so that I display properly in Google? Do you have the link to your article on it? Your search just keeps taking me to the RSS subscribe page.

Thanks for all your great help.

David Cooley · 2 years ago

-Collin/Mike, I am not sure I can agree with that. Basically that would mean people expect you not to change. I actually believe almost the opposite. If there are never changes, the store/site gets stale, with or without good content. It is not the content you see first, but the layout, ads, designs, etc... I changed ads on a site the other day, just moving things around. The average income from those ads has doubled in just a few days.

Mike Pedersen Golf · 2 years ago

David...good point, but I'm not an adsense fan as they pay out measly. Unless you get a TON of traffic, you'll never make much. I know this as I have 14 top ranked sites with adsense and see it first hand. Now argue that sir :)

David Cooley · 2 years ago

Mike - 14 Top Ranked sites is great, and since I did research on it I know you are being conservative, but the size of that small vertical market keeps a cap on it. Adsense relies on traffic, lots of it. If you have a market that only gets a couple hundred searches a day, your slice of that pie is awful small. And as you have pointed out before, not all markets are Internet spending friendly. As a note, Adsense is not the only system I use or was referring to. Each market is a little different.

Mike Pedersen Golf · 2 years ago

David...you are right! Too narrow of a vertical market :( Wish I would have known that 7 years ago :( Live and learn and move on!!

Garry Conn · 2 years ago

Mike says, ...I am not an adsense fan as they pay out measly... I have 14 top ranked sites with adsense and see it first hand...

Mike, I feel your pain man. However, I am a strong believer in Google Adsense. Especially, if you run a blog or website with low numbers (hint: the title of this post). It is not fair for you to say that you have 14 top ranking sites that have failed with Google Adsense, when you only display link units on the bottom of the page. How is that going to work?

For entry level bloggers who want to make money online... Google Adsense is really the perfect program to start with. While you are having challenges with successfully selling your product, others have a constant stream of income generated from a program that doesn't require a sale to be made.

With Google Adsense all that is needed is a click. As far as making a measly amount of money from Adsense, that all depends on what niche your ads come from.

You have golf where I have attacked one of the most expensive items in the world: The Airplane. I have well over 100+ aviation related blogs/sites online to day. I have gone so far as to capitalize on the international market as I have a site that focuses on South Africa and another for New Zealand. Soon I will be doing sites that offer a complete language translation into very foreign languages.

I should really do another post about this. Because there are pros and cons to deciding what path too choose when making money online. Pay per click is easy... trying to sell products is more difficult. And trying to sell products in such a narrow niche is even worse.

I'll be the first to admit, your niche would be a huge challenge for me. However, I think David Cooley has spoke with you a few times and has offered some excellent suggestions. How are these working for you so far?

I would love to hear some feedback about it. Talk to you soon. :)

Collin · 2 years ago

David - But you already had ad's on your site so moving them will make a difference to how much you might make but there still there. Your traffic already is use to seeing them, if someones traffic aint use to it they might not like to see them added in, as it may result in you having to rebuild your steady clients again. But it is nice to see your on the other side of the fence then me. Great for conversation :) I really think tho running ad's is a bad way to make money when you spend alot of time just reading other peoples blogs and they do the same by reading yours. I never check out others poeples ad's do you? Do you click on Garry's everytime your here....instead of link baiting we should do add baiting and raise all of our profits.lol

Mike Pedersen Golf · 2 years ago

Garry...I commend you on your 100 sites in a good niche. You're much smarter than I :) Had another great talk with David, and would still like to get your feedback (another set of eyeballs) as you bring a different view to the table. I thank you once again for such a great blog and caring attitude toward your subscribers. I hope this blog kicks ass in the near future :)

Mike Pedersen Golf · 2 years ago

And all the sites you don't know about do display leaderboard, medium rectangle and tall verticals in navs btw.

Garry Conn · 2 years ago

Mike I am not smarter than you. I am not smarter than many people. I am just an average guy (persistent one though) that just keeps on going. :)

I'll get your number from David and shoot you a holler. Enjoy your weekend dude!

Kamal · 2 years ago

Gary, I just discovered this blog and have to say I'm amazed. Of all the close to 100 blogs on my Google Reader (Yikes!), this is the most useful and practical one. Others might give advice but it tends to be general, whereas you share specific actions anyone can do.

Looking forward to your future posts.

Kamal

Garry Conn · 2 years ago

Hello Kamal,

Wow, a compliment like that coming from a guy like you is awesome! Thanks man! :)

I wish you well with your novel!

I am glad you are looking forward to future posts and I am looking forward to having you as a continuing reader. :)

BloggerDollar · 2 years ago

Thanks for the tips. As a beginner blogger I try to focus on content and I only use Adsense for monetizing because I hate those blogs full of ads.

Symbian · 2 years ago

You can lose some readers in this way.

Owen · 2 years ago

Hi Gary,

Great post! But I have a couple of questions, by visits do you mean unique visits or just visits per day?
I'm not monetizing The Linux Blog in any way at the moment but am considering doing it with the next site update. So do you think it would be better to start with all programs and figure out which one is successful and go from there or just start with one and ditch it if its not successful? Also how do you measure what is successful? After all the ad placement (I like to call it merchandising after the retail term) has a lot to do with performance. I believe this also depends on what you're trying to convert.

On your various aviation sites its probably better to primarily focus on converting a sale (say auction ads) and then convert links as a secondary source of income. Where as I don't know what is going to convert for me, be it AdSense for support / products or commission from product sales. Where would you recommend I start with this?

Sorry for the essay,

please edit as needed,

Owen.

Vishal · 2 years ago

nice post. can 100 visitors per day really get a paycheck out to you? i doubt it... could you show how? anyway, i'm zligging the post since it talks about making $ online... embed the zligg widget for extra traffic votes.

David Cooley · 2 years ago

-Vishal - I have a site I maintain for a client that gets an avg. of 6.6 unique visitors a day, 12.5 pageviews per day, and avg. $1.58 a day (last 12 months), which equates to $48.05 per month on Adsense alone. So if you if you did that 15 times you would have the equivalent of 100 visitors a day, and $720 per month.
DISCLAIMER : It all depends on the market you are in and how you do it.

Mike · 2 years ago

6.6 uniques ---> 1.58 bucks? Well, that's quite a conversion... The thing with Adsense is that it can still get you a decent amount of money, but it's not what it used to be any more. Placing lots of ads on a page that gets decent traffic might get you some clicks, buut... would it be ethical to place lots of ads on a page? That if anyone cares about ethical... :P

David Cooley · 2 years ago

-Mike, That example is a Static Web Site not a blog. 2 Adsense units on a page, one above content, one below the content. The entire site is about 20 pages. People make the mistake that they have to plaster everything in your face, and that is not always the case. It is still possible to build good sites that are helpful to people, and liked by the search engines.

Pablothehat · 2 years ago

Hi Garry. I came across your posting on the Bloggingzoom site. I am definitely in the entry level stage of my blog life, my blog has only been going since the end on July and I must say, it has been a time consuming task. I love it but my partner is feeling some what neglected, so I am under the gun to make it pay otherwise I can see their patience wearing very thin.

Although those who read my blog say they like it, and I have a few regulars which come back fairly frequently, the rate of growth is painfully slow and I am lucky to get a cent or two a day from Google, haven't sold a thing through Amazon and not one clicks on any of my affiliation or referral links. LOL.

The only thing I can say about Google is at least they let you try and earn something for all the hours you spend in front of the screen, unlike yahoo, hence my 360 Blog has fell into disuse.

The exchange rate between the UK and the US is also a large disincentive, working for a cent works out to be half a cent. LOL nearly earned enough to cover one month ISP costs after 16 hour days for the past 6 months. LOL. Madness really.

I will subscribe your blog to my netvibes, look forward to learning how to put some wind in my sales via your site.
Pablothehat.

PS I know what Forest means regarding meta tags..have you read google's help pages? It looks like English but do I understand what the heck they are on about? No.

jessica · 2 years ago

Good advice. I have only been blogging for 10 days, and I have to keep reminding myself. Keep it simple. As I always say "Don't boil the ocean!" I'm sticking with a few goodle adsense ads until i build up my skills, content, and traffic. Thanks!

Jessica

Jason A Clark · 2 years ago

That's good advice but the title is a bit misleading. Just removing every source except one isn't actually going to help you earn more money if you weren't have any success to begin with. You still have to get people to your blog and you still have to get them to click on your ads or whatever.

Steve · 2 years ago

Great advice Garry, I have been going about this monetization thing all wrong. I get around just over 50 visitors a day and the payouts are minimal at best.

Thanks for the tips.

Steven Snell · 2 years ago

Good advice. I think a lot of new bloggers are tempted to throw every different type of program on there all at once.

Interwebhunt · 2 years ago

Definitely a good post. I've tried to concentrate on a single revenue source while starting up my blog and it has made a considerable difference. Obviously the primary goal of any new blog or site should be traffic generation and monetization secondly in my opinion, but if you want to monetize while building traffic, concentrate on one program only.

George · 1 year ago

Thats Great advise , and it works that and other things will make a hell of a lot of money , its the little things that make it happen god work

JK Swopes · 1 year ago

Another great post from the Conn man......I'm just trying to soak it all up man. Thanks for sharing all this knowledge.