GarryConn.com: Make Money Online With $100 Google Adsense Each Month
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
The above pingback is an example of How Not To Use Google Adsense.
Leroy Brown
· 2 years ago
Wow you can say that again. Adsense is great when used properly. When it's set up like that, not only does your site look spammy and ridiculous, it won't make any money either. Even if there was an ad that interested me there, chances are pretty good that I wouldn't see it, because I hit the back button too fast.
RT Cunningham
· 2 years ago
That pingback was from a splog. Not a good example of what you're talking about.
Goldy
· 2 years ago
Gary,
Thank you. I am a personal blogger (I do it for fun... to meet people... to hopefully entertain); however, I do have some very specific areas of expertise that might be interesting to set up another blog or 2 for... for profit.
Thanks for your quality posts.
Goldy
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
I am actually glad I got that pingback... because it goes to show you a huge difference in how to use Google Adsense.
If you do what the splog site is doing, it will never work. However, if you do what I am (or suggest) doing, it will work.
There is no reason in the world why Google Adsense can't become a backbone towards providing relevant external links to readers who come to read a carefully written and helpful article. If the writer does a good job, Google Adsense will do a good job giving the readers options for expanding on their search for more information.
I totally believe in the Google Adsense program. But, I feel that 90% of the people I know use it incorrectly.
"The wave runs very fast on methods for being successful with many various make money online programs. Once each wave breaks and crashes into the shore, the wave dies... it is those that jump back on the surf board, paddle back out into the ocean and prepare for the next wave who profit."
What happens is people get word of a wave... and then jump on their surf boards and wait to ride this waveout and make money doing it. But what people tend to NOTrealize, is that this wave has already come to shore and died. Google Adsense is just another program that people can use to make money online.
This whole era of people flooding Google Adsense in their sites is stupid. The crowd of bloggers I generally hang with still do this. The crowd of bloggers who I hang with are my friends and I strongly want to illustrate to them that if they sit down for a minute and re-map what is being done with Google Adsense, they will be successful with the program. If anyone who has a site like mine... Adsense will not work! Yes, you may make $100/month... but if you are lucky and have tons and tons of traffic.
If you carefully think out a topic to write about, lock in on a domain name that markets the topics, and make sure this topic is doesn't create readers who know what Google Adsense is, and control your content, control you link outs and allow Google to take charge on providing external links on this site... it will work and work easily.
Yes, you still have to do you job in marketing, promoting, etc... but you don't have to sit there everyday and wonder why you only have $2.73 for the day in your Google Adsense report.
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
RT,
You are right. The first pingback is not a good example. But worth keeping to illustrate What Not To Use Google Adsense For. :)
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
Hey Goldy,
Nice site by the way. There are so many things that people can blog about. The most common death to being successful with Google Adsense is the fact that most people who know about Google Adsense are geeky computer tech dorks like me! The trend is that people slap Adsense on their geeky tech sites and expect it to make money when they draw in readers who are just like them. (Geeks who want to make money online too!)
So, in a quick summary... I am just suggesting to all the make money online activists, to spend less time and less money beating a dead horse trying to monitize their tech, geek, computer blog sites with the same stuff their own readers use to monitize their own blogs with... and re-invest time into creating a site that specifically targets, markets and monitizes a group of people who we can capitalize on.
BUT!!!
Do this with class. People are people regardless of their interests or experience. Never take advantage of people. Never take advantage of their ignorance. Respect people by creating a site that gives people very useful and informative information... and just pass the buck to Google to provide the external links to your readers... If Google does a bad job, Fire Them! and hire someone else to provide your readers with wonderful external links and content. :)
Nick Halstead
· 2 years ago
Only one thing I would add to this, is to investigate the topic you are planning on blogging on before branching out to a second blog, I know my current blog is fighting an extreme uphill battle because it covers a subject that is already heavily over saturated and however good content I post I still think it will be hard to keep my readers.
I will be starting another secondary blog myself soon (even going to the length of getting the design professionally done.) but its going to be in a very niche area, the subject of niche blogging has been covered in lots of places before, but I thought I would repeat it again :)
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
Nick,
Thanks for adding to the post. Yes, thanks for mentioning that... a lot goes by me when I write articles... it is very important to investigate a topic to see who your competition is. If you start a blog about making money online, you are doomed... if you start a blog about horse riding tips and tricks you will have a better chance.
Manila Mom
· 2 years ago
This is exactly what I needed to know.
I set up 7 blogs about a month ago, intending to earn from Adsense. I see now that I should keep one as my main social networking blog, and another 2 as promotions tools for my romance writing career. The others shall promptly be put under probation and observation for possible elimination. In the meantime, I will investigate niches I can develop as you have outlined.
Thank you for the concise on-target advice. I'll be back here often to learn more.
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
Manila Mom,
You are welcome... I really wish the best for you. Please do visit back often and keep in touch with updates on your success.
Nia.
· 2 years ago
Excellent post. It made my RSS Picks and will be referenced in the "how to" I'm working on in the pages linked in the sidebar at me2.
quesitons: (1)Where is the "deeper and deeper" into the site? The articles do not have links from one article to another,there is no previous post or next post. I don''t see a list of posts, or or categories...(which is good because the only call to action is the Google Adsense excellent
(2) Google text links not Google ad links...looks like your example is using google ad links. Which makes it easier for Google to run their gay bashing ads.
(3) How about one post per page, within the body of the post other keywords which are actually links to other post pages. This does get people at the site longer and with each post they peruse there a slew of relevant sidebar links of interest. Is that what you meant about going deeper and deeper into the site? (4) How do I find out how much a click is worth? How do I find out in advance which products are paying hefty fees to Google , and therefor I'll be getting a dollar or two per click instead of a dime or 30 cents.
(5) With a site like this its still necessary to run an AdSense campaign correct? So that you are on page one of searches that use the keywords you've pre-selected to work into the first lines of your landing page and all of your AdWords ads blah blah blah...
(6) Is a keyword rich SUB-DOMAIN useful? Does it simply strengthen the ranking of the domain or does it in and of itself get ranked?
(7) Why is my original content necessary? Why not just use ezine or go articles or even PLR if you can find quality stuff. Or just re-write excerpts from other published work
(8) Is the sample a wordpress theme? I'm, going to peruse the one colum and one left sidebar themes now.
This is my work: (I am brand new--February this year) master-cleanse.info, my-audio-book.info, gotoportugal.blogspot.com, me2ultimate.info, leaveamerica.info and 4 others but these are pretty representative master and my audio are basically finished, they can be finessed but they are basically finished.
What you are showing me with this post is an excellent idea. I can build 10 sites using a subdomain, run AdWords campaign to see which niche site actually gets more hits, more converting hits...and then I can get a keyword-rich domain name for THAT PROVEN niche/layout what have you. People than click adsense, they don't care about ezine do they?...oh yeah we don't want them leaving the site unless the leave it through a google ad, got i@ I'll just find pre-existing content to re-write cuz starting from scratch will just take too long...maybe PLR but I've seen some lousey English oh well...maybe I'll do it with ezine and then go back ad rework each piece...they are usually too long anyway. I could easily put up 20 or more posts, post them to the future and after they post I could re-sue them position them again to the future..
O maybe I'll figure out a way to post all articles at once and have NO DATES on the posts.
What do you think? ..those are the questions on the tip of my tongue at the moment.
All the best, Nia. :)
Matthew Jabs
· 2 years ago
Garry...
Although this may be lucrative to some, I'm going to stick with the Google Ads on my home page. I don't think they're obtrusive, and my readers are well aware of their presence. I have never had anyone complain, and have tried to tweak them so they are minimal, yet effective.
After tweaking, I have placed Medium Rectangle (the highest paying ad block by far) ads in the most lucrative spot on my page (check it out here). This has yielded me a daily average of between $2-$3/day and has made me as much as $50/day on high traffic days.
I must applaud you for your creativity however, and I wanted to ask you how fast your mind moves? lol...you have so many good ideas & so little time! ;-)
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
The best thing I have going for me is my ability to type... it seems at times I can type faster than I can talk! LOL! :)
I love being able to write and publish my thoughts. It is almost like a virtual dump or storage bin for my brain. I would seriously go nuts if I couldn't vent out of these thoughts onto the site. You can keep things like this bottled up... if you do, you might find yourself in a straight jacket in a little rubber room! :)
Chuck Brown
· 2 years ago
Hi Garry,
Good post, and I agree with 98% of what you said...specifically, that it's about more than making money...that it's important to do things with class and personableness...that it's critical to take a long-term view instead of trying for a quick score.
However, I do have to disagree with you on one point...and I believe it's a critical one:
"...it is not difficult to do what I have suggested ten times. You can easily create ten sites just like the example above and bring in an extra $1000/month MINIMUM."
I believe that's very dangerous territory, and the root of it is the same error that leads to the kind of "splogs" that you yourself were decrying earlier. Here's why:
VERY FEW people have enough breadth of knowledge to teach others on 10 different subjects. For example, how many of the people reading your blog post would be competent to walk into a classroom and teach a subject...let's say the courses are not even accredited...they're just helpful community classes for adults. One topic? Sure. Two topics? I'll buy that. But TEN? Only the rarest of birds can fly at that altitude.
Now, here's the rub: By extension, however, that's exactly what you're recommending. What business does any of us have teaching others things we don't know? Look more closely at how we acquire information for such sites. We read and rewrite the articles of others (or hire others to do the same)...or we're lazy and we "scrape" their content in large chunks, and "appropriate" it for our own site. That's a bad idea on two levels. First, it's theft, pure and simple. We didn't come by it honestly. We didn't pay for it or train to acquire it. AND, it's just flat dangerous. If you've ever played a game of "telephone" (or whatever they call it), you know how mangled and diluted even the simplest information can get when it's passed from one person to another.
I think that integrity requires us to look at WHY we do the things we do. Making Adsense sites for the purpose of making money is a lousy route to go. That's what MFA sites and splogs are all about.
Instead, if you know something...take the time to share it, and learn how to profit from it. If you're interested in other things, learn them and share your journey along the way, and profit from it. And if you find topics for which there are NO decent resources online...sure, feel free to wade in and bring the best of what's out there together in a directory and content site, and profit from that.
My bottom line: DO WHAT YOU KNOW & WHAT YOU LOVE
Your goal is great. $100 a month from a site is a reasonable goal, and you've done a good job of pointing the way. But this is NOT a numbers game, and until we are willing to stand up and say that, by talking about how to make money from Adsense, we're just "asking for" the crap site-building efforts that have dominated the web for the past few years.
goldcoaster
· 2 years ago
Very interesting article. I have found most blogs are simply sites saying do this and that to make money or join some link exchange. Thses are getting more and more common and I feel that sonn-ish blogs will be treated almost like a spam advert site and people will either stop paying fo the ads or vistors will stop returning. Big google ads in the middle of articles really cheese me off and I have to admit that most times I don't return. I don't mind clicking ads on the sidebars to help out sites I like though.
David Hudson
· 2 years ago
Excellent article Garry. Solid points Chuck. I must say that a publisher should hit 3-4 blogs hard and put out some excellent information. In reality, if a publisher has 4 solid blogs that are worth reading, $100 should be the minimum they earn per site.
Garry, I have a question. I am getting ready to build a web application that will be used by an organization I am contracted with. I'm projecting a minimum of twenty-million impressions a year and they are allowing me to advertise with adsense as part of my compensation. This all sounds amazing, right? Except that it is a web app, not a web site. It's going to be difficult to get good key words and I don't have the faintest idea on what to expect of click-throughs. Do you (or does anyone else) have any suggestions on maximizing my profit on this?
Dave Starr --- ROI Guy
· 2 years ago
Good thoughts here, Gary. Clarify the individual URL versus subdomains, though, if you could. Your eyeglasses example is a subdomain of your main page ... and I can see how it would probably pull enough clicks to get in the price range.
Do you feel the searches would work better on a dedicated eyecare domain? It's not only an issue of expense, but a lot more hassle to manage blogs on separate sites ... and on "minimalist" blogs like these, would it really be worth it?
Trinity
· 2 years ago
Garry, I just wanted you to know that your article makes a lot of sense to me and although I don't expect I'll be able to make $100 a month from Adsense, I decided to move all ads from my main blog to a shopping sub-domain. I'm thinking of writing up a shopping guide for each type of gaming platform. That way, the ads on the page for each one will be more relevant and only those who are really planning to buy something will see them. Will let you know how that goes. :)
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
If Female-Gamer attracts a large group of people who know what Google Adsense is, then it is less likely that you will get the results you would from "Click Happy" crowds.
If you site attracts "Click Happy" crowds, then you might want to keep Adsense on your main site, as your site is already an example of what I am talking about.
If that is the case, and you aren't making much money... then I would consider position of the ads and various blending/contrasting options.
When I viewed your site a few minutes ago, I can't tell exactly what kind of crowd visits... but I know that you do have a moderate amount of traffic. Every post has a few comments on it... and the site does appear to have somewhat active...
So, if this activity is generated from regular readers and readers who have discovered what Google Adsense is... they won't click, unless they are being nice.
If this activity is generated from "Click Happy Masses" then consider testing various positions, colors, sizes etc... :)
Keen
· 2 years ago
First off let me say that I really appreciate the advice given here. I've already learned a great deal and put it into action on my blog. :)
On my blog, keenandgraev.com, I have started to run google adsense for one purpose and one purpose only: paying for my hosting. Right now I am really not looking to profit in any way shape or form from my blog because to me that would defeat the purpose of the atmosphere I'm trying so hard to create.
My blog right now is a gaming blog designed to not only express myself, my views, my opinions on games and the industry, but to help others. I really want to help my readers with common questions they have on games that I play. So to achieve this goal I have guides and helpful links and such for them.
I also, with the help of my brother, make a comic that pokes fun at the games we play.
So with those things said I can now get into my main purpose for posting this. :) I want to have google adsense in a place that is unobtrusive to my readers. They're coming to my blog for something and I want them to find it with little to no trouble. The idea of putting the ads up top and the content below on the nav bar would actually decrease my traffic.
Similar to Trinity's Female-Gamer blog I have a target audience - the gaming community. I really do get a LOT of traffic from google searches looking for guides that I have up on my blog. Although I do not have many comments left by readers I know there are peopel there.
What advice can you give me on the placement of my ads? They're on the nav bar and as you scroll down you will come upon them. I'm not looking to make $100 a month, heck even $20 a month might be too much. Again, I'm just looking to break even at least.
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
Keen, there are many things you can do to help increase the profits from Adsense.
If you have readers who come to your site for help, and don't want Google Adsense to interfere with people breaking away from your content, try placing Google Adsense at the bottom of your posts.
I have been running Google Adsense on my site here for less than a week... I am doing a 30 day experiment. But I don't want anyone to get distracted from what I write... so that is why I put the box on the bottom and blend it in with my comment colors. It has been doing very well!
But, my comment to you is not going to be about Adsense...
The more I think about you and Female-Gamer... you guys might benefit more by utilizing services such as Amazon Associates.
At the end of every post your write, if you were to include a small one paragraph review about other recommended games you feel your readers would also enjoy playing... provide some info about that game and why you like it... and include a way for them to purchase the game/learn more about it (i.e. Amazon affiliate program), I believe that in the long run that would be more effective than using Google Adsense.
Your readers like games... they play games... and most importantly, they BUY GAMES!
Adsense isn't for everyone... or for every site. And with the type of sites you and Female-Game run, you guys both might find better results with Amazon.com
This provides a better service to your readers, gives them more info, and also gives you a window for making money online.
The two of you should meet each other and put your heads together...
I hope that my response to you helps. :)
Keen
· 2 years ago
That's great advice! Do you by chance know how I can get the amazon ads? I've spent a good half hour trying to find where to even begin with them.
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
Either way... no matter what I would do... I would control my flow of traffic.
Meaning, they are there to read the article... after they read the article where do you direct your readers..
Provide related posts? Provide Google Adsense? Provide references to related games to purchase? etc...
Also when you join, they have their own internal community message board that is accessible to registered users. There is a lot of helpful articles and advise within, including articles that I have written as well. :)
Keen
· 2 years ago
You're awesome Garry. Thanks so much!
Garry Conn
· 2 years ago
You are welcome... keep me posted from time to time with progress and let me know if there is anything else I can do to help. :)
Budi S
· 2 years ago
I think it's a nice article ... but 100 USD a month i think that's too much perhaps the most difficult to do is to make traffic come to the website ...
Nidhi
· 2 years ago
I always hear about website traffic from blogs that are focusing on "blogging" or "adsense". Is it just that blogs with topics of "Blogging" or "Adsense" or "make money online" that gets so much traffic or, are these the only blogs that talk about traffic/revenue from the website. Say the eye care example above also gets plenty of traffic, but they just don't talk about the site traffic as much as other "blogging" websites do.
All Comments
Thank you. I am a personal blogger (I do it for fun... to meet people... to hopefully entertain); however, I do have some very specific areas of expertise that might be interesting to set up another blog or 2 for... for profit.
Thanks for your quality posts.
Goldy
If you do what the splog site is doing, it will never work. However, if you do what I am (or suggest) doing, it will work.
There is no reason in the world why Google Adsense can't become a backbone towards providing relevant external links to readers who come to read a carefully written and helpful article. If the writer does a good job, Google Adsense will do a good job giving the readers options for expanding on their search for more information.
I totally believe in the Google Adsense program. But, I feel that 90% of the people I know use it incorrectly.
What happens is people get word of a wave... and then jump on their surf boards and wait to ride this waveout and make money doing it. But what people tend to NOTrealize, is that this wave has already come to shore and died. Google Adsense is just another program that people can use to make money online.
This whole era of people flooding Google Adsense in their sites is stupid. The crowd of bloggers I generally hang with still do this. The crowd of bloggers who I hang with are my friends and I strongly want to illustrate to them that if they sit down for a minute and re-map what is being done with Google Adsense, they will be successful with the program. If anyone who has a site like mine... Adsense will not work! Yes, you may make $100/month... but if you are lucky and have tons and tons of traffic.
If you carefully think out a topic to write about, lock in on a domain name that markets the topics, and make sure this topic is doesn't create readers who know what Google Adsense is, and control your content, control you link outs and allow Google to take charge on providing external links on this site... it will work and work easily.
Yes, you still have to do you job in marketing, promoting, etc... but you don't have to sit there everyday and wonder why you only have $2.73 for the day in your Google Adsense report.
You are right. The first pingback is not a good example. But worth keeping to illustrate What Not To Use Google Adsense For. :)
Nice site by the way. There are so many things that people can blog about. The most common death to being successful with Google Adsense is the fact that most people who know about Google Adsense are geeky computer tech dorks like me! The trend is that people slap Adsense on their geeky tech sites and expect it to make money when they draw in readers who are just like them. (Geeks who want to make money online too!)
So, in a quick summary... I am just suggesting to all the make money online activists, to spend less time and less money beating a dead horse trying to monitize their tech, geek, computer blog sites with the same stuff their own readers use to monitize their own blogs with... and re-invest time into creating a site that specifically targets, markets and monitizes a group of people who we can capitalize on.
BUT!!!
Do this with class. People are people regardless of their interests or experience. Never take advantage of people. Never take advantage of their ignorance. Respect people by creating a site that gives people very useful and informative information... and just pass the buck to Google to provide the external links to your readers... If Google does a bad job, Fire Them! and hire someone else to provide your readers with wonderful external links and content. :)
I will be starting another secondary blog myself soon (even going to the length of getting the design professionally done.) but its going to be in a very niche area, the subject of niche blogging has been covered in lots of places before, but I thought I would repeat it again :)
Thanks for adding to the post. Yes, thanks for mentioning that... a lot goes by me when I write articles... it is very important to investigate a topic to see who your competition is. If you start a blog about making money online, you are doomed... if you start a blog about horse riding tips and tricks you will have a better chance.
I set up 7 blogs about a month ago, intending to earn from Adsense. I see now that I should keep one as my main social networking blog, and another 2 as promotions tools for my romance writing career. The others shall promptly be put under probation and observation for possible elimination. In the meantime, I will investigate niches I can develop as you have outlined.
Thank you for the concise on-target advice. I'll be back here often to learn more.
You are welcome... I really wish the best for you. Please do visit back often and keep in touch with updates on your success.
quesitons:
(1)Where is the "deeper and deeper" into the site? The articles do not have links from one article to another,there is no previous post or next post. I don''t see a list of posts, or or categories...(which is good because the only call to action is the Google Adsense excellent
(2) Google text links not Google ad links...looks like your example is using google ad links. Which makes it easier for Google to run their gay bashing ads.
(3) How about one post per page, within the body of the post other keywords which are actually links to other post pages. This does get people at the site longer and with each post they peruse there a slew of relevant sidebar links of interest. Is that what you meant about going deeper and deeper into the site?
(4) How do I find out how much a click is worth? How do I find out in advance which products are paying hefty fees to Google , and therefor I'll be getting a dollar or two per click instead of a dime or 30 cents.
(5) With a site like this its still necessary to run an AdSense campaign correct? So that you are on page one of searches that use the keywords you've pre-selected to work into the first lines of your landing page and all of your AdWords ads blah blah blah...
(6) Is a keyword rich SUB-DOMAIN useful? Does it simply strengthen the ranking of the domain or does it in and of itself get ranked?
(7) Why is my original content necessary? Why not just use ezine or go articles or even PLR if you can find quality stuff. Or just re-write excerpts from other published work
(8) Is the sample a wordpress theme? I'm, going to peruse the one colum and one left sidebar themes now.
This is my work: (I am brand new--February this year)
master-cleanse.info, my-audio-book.info, gotoportugal.blogspot.com, me2ultimate.info, leaveamerica.info and 4 others but these are pretty representative master and my audio are basically finished, they can be finessed but they are basically finished.
What you are showing me with this post is an excellent idea. I can build 10 sites using a subdomain, run AdWords campaign to see which niche site actually gets more hits, more converting hits...and then I can get a keyword-rich domain name for THAT PROVEN niche/layout what have you. People than click adsense, they don't care about ezine do they?...oh yeah we don't want them leaving the site unless the leave it through a google ad, got i@ I'll just find pre-existing content to re-write cuz starting from scratch will just take too long...maybe PLR but I've seen some lousey English oh well...maybe I'll do it with ezine and then go back ad rework each piece...they are usually too long anyway. I could easily put up 20 or more posts, post them to the future and after they post I could re-sue them position them again to the future..
O maybe I'll figure out a way to post all articles at once and have NO DATES on the posts.
What do you think?
..those are the questions on the tip of my tongue at the moment.
All the best, Nia. :)
Although this may be lucrative to some, I'm going to stick with the Google Ads on my home page. I don't think they're obtrusive, and my readers are well aware of their presence. I have never had anyone complain, and have tried to tweak them so they are minimal, yet effective.
After tweaking, I have placed Medium Rectangle (the highest paying ad block by far) ads in the most lucrative spot on my page (check it out here). This has yielded me a daily average of between $2-$3/day and has made me as much as $50/day on high traffic days.
I must applaud you for your creativity however, and I wanted to ask you how fast your mind moves? lol...you have so many good ideas & so little time! ;-)
I love being able to write and publish my thoughts. It is almost like a virtual dump or storage bin for my brain. I would seriously go nuts if I couldn't vent out of these thoughts onto the site. You can keep things like this bottled up... if you do, you might find yourself in a straight jacket in a little rubber room! :)
Good post, and I agree with 98% of what you said...specifically, that it's about more than making money...that it's important to do things with class and personableness...that it's critical to take a long-term view instead of trying for a quick score.
However, I do have to disagree with you on one point...and I believe it's a critical one:
"...it is not difficult to do what I have suggested ten times. You can easily create ten sites just like the example above and bring in an extra $1000/month MINIMUM."
I believe that's very dangerous territory, and the root of it is the same error that leads to the kind of "splogs" that you yourself were decrying earlier. Here's why:
VERY FEW people have enough breadth of knowledge to teach others on 10 different subjects. For example, how many of the people reading your blog post would be competent to walk into a classroom and teach a subject...let's say the courses are not even accredited...they're just helpful community classes for adults. One topic? Sure. Two topics? I'll buy that. But TEN? Only the rarest of birds can fly at that altitude.
Now, here's the rub: By extension, however, that's exactly what you're recommending. What business does any of us have teaching others things we don't know? Look more closely at how we acquire information for such sites. We read and rewrite the articles of others (or hire others to do the same)...or we're lazy and we "scrape" their content in large chunks, and "appropriate" it for our own site. That's a bad idea on two levels. First, it's theft, pure and simple. We didn't come by it honestly. We didn't pay for it or train to acquire it. AND, it's just flat dangerous. If you've ever played a game of "telephone" (or whatever they call it), you know how mangled and diluted even the simplest information can get when it's passed from one person to another.
I think that integrity requires us to look at WHY we do the things we do. Making Adsense sites for the purpose of making money is a lousy route to go. That's what MFA sites and splogs are all about.
Instead, if you know something...take the time to share it, and learn how to profit from it. If you're interested in other things, learn them and share your journey along the way, and profit from it. And if you find topics for which there are NO decent resources online...sure, feel free to wade in and bring the best of what's out there together in a directory and content site, and profit from that.
My bottom line: DO WHAT YOU KNOW & WHAT YOU LOVE
Your goal is great. $100 a month from a site is a reasonable goal, and you've done a good job of pointing the way. But this is NOT a numbers game, and until we are willing to stand up and say that, by talking about how to make money from Adsense, we're just "asking for" the crap site-building efforts that have dominated the web for the past few years.
I have found most blogs are simply sites saying do this and that to make money or join some link exchange. Thses are getting more and more common and I feel that sonn-ish blogs will be treated almost like a spam advert site and people will either stop paying fo the ads or vistors will stop returning.
Big google ads in the middle of articles really cheese me off and I have to admit that most times I don't return.
I don't mind clicking ads on the sidebars to help out sites I like though.
Garry, I have a question. I am getting ready to build a web application that will be used by an organization I am contracted with. I'm projecting a minimum of twenty-million impressions a year and they are allowing me to advertise with adsense as part of my compensation. This all sounds amazing, right? Except that it is a web app, not a web site. It's going to be difficult to get good key words and I don't have the faintest idea on what to expect of click-throughs. Do you (or does anyone else) have any suggestions on maximizing my profit on this?
Do you feel the searches would work better on a dedicated eyecare domain? It's not only an issue of expense, but a lot more hassle to manage blogs on separate sites ... and on "minimalist" blogs like these, would it really be worth it?
If you site attracts "Click Happy" crowds, then you might want to keep Adsense on your main site, as your site is already an example of what I am talking about.
If that is the case, and you aren't making much money... then I would consider position of the ads and various blending/contrasting options.
When I viewed your site a few minutes ago, I can't tell exactly what kind of crowd visits... but I know that you do have a moderate amount of traffic. Every post has a few comments on it... and the site does appear to have somewhat active...
So, if this activity is generated from regular readers and readers who have discovered what Google Adsense is... they won't click, unless they are being nice.
If this activity is generated from "Click Happy Masses" then consider testing various positions, colors, sizes etc... :)
On my blog, keenandgraev.com, I have started to run google adsense for one purpose and one purpose only: paying for my hosting. Right now I am really not looking to profit in any way shape or form from my blog because to me that would defeat the purpose of the atmosphere I'm trying so hard to create.
My blog right now is a gaming blog designed to not only express myself, my views, my opinions on games and the industry, but to help others. I really want to help my readers with common questions they have on games that I play. So to achieve this goal I have guides and helpful links and such for them.
I also, with the help of my brother, make a comic that pokes fun at the games we play.
So with those things said I can now get into my main purpose for posting this. :) I want to have google adsense in a place that is unobtrusive to my readers. They're coming to my blog for something and I want them to find it with little to no trouble. The idea of putting the ads up top and the content below on the nav bar would actually decrease my traffic.
Similar to Trinity's Female-Gamer blog I have a target audience - the gaming community. I really do get a LOT of traffic from google searches looking for guides that I have up on my blog. Although I do not have many comments left by readers I know there are peopel there.
What advice can you give me on the placement of my ads? They're on the nav bar and as you scroll down you will come upon them. I'm not looking to make $100 a month, heck even $20 a month might be too much. Again, I'm just looking to break even at least.
If you have readers who come to your site for help, and don't want Google Adsense to interfere with people breaking away from your content, try placing Google Adsense at the bottom of your posts.
I have been running Google Adsense on my site here for less than a week... I am doing a 30 day experiment. But I don't want anyone to get distracted from what I write... so that is why I put the box on the bottom and blend it in with my comment colors. It has been doing very well!
But, my comment to you is not going to be about Adsense...
The more I think about you and Female-Gamer... you guys might benefit more by utilizing services such as Amazon Associates.
At the end of every post your write, if you were to include a small one paragraph review about other recommended games you feel your readers would also enjoy playing... provide some info about that game and why you like it... and include a way for them to purchase the game/learn more about it (i.e. Amazon affiliate program), I believe that in the long run that would be more effective than using Google Adsense.
Your readers like games... they play games... and most importantly, they BUY GAMES!
Adsense isn't for everyone... or for every site. And with the type of sites you and Female-Game run, you guys both might find better results with Amazon.com
This provides a better service to your readers, gives them more info, and also gives you a window for making money online.
The two of you should meet each other and put your heads together...
I hope that my response to you helps. :)
Meaning, they are there to read the article... after they read the article where do you direct your readers..
Provide related posts?
Provide Google Adsense?
Provide references to related games to purchase?
etc...
:)
Also when you join, they have their own internal community message board that is accessible to registered users. There is a lot of helpful articles and advise within, including articles that I have written as well. :)
but 100 USD a month i think that's too much
perhaps the most difficult to do is to make traffic come to the website ...
just wondered..