Quitting my Job Thanks to Niche Websites & Google Adsense!! Process Revealed...

[Spencer Haws]

***UPDATE*** My last official day at my job was March 11th, 2011. I am now Working Full Time from Home on my Online Business!! *****************

Hello Warriors -

I know that success stories can be inspiring to others, so I wanted to share my own. I'm probably a lot like many of you on here; I have been struggling to figure out this internet marketing thing for a number of years.

I tried all sorts of different markets, but I always failed miserably. Then about a year ago, the lightbulb finally went on for me and I realized I was going after markets that were MUCH too competitive. I decided to target small niches that I could rank quickly in Google for.

To make a long story short, I went from earnings $50 a month in Google Adsense to about $5,000 per month now! I also have built over 200 websites in the past year (MUCH of it outsourced). Ever since I have implemented this strategy my income has been growing. I'm now at the point where I am preparing to quit my full-time job so that I can pursue my online business!

Here's is what I do to generate this kind of income:

Choosing a Niche:

• First, I choose a keyword that gets at least 1,000 EXACT match searches per month (more is better of course)
• I only choose a keyword if it has a CPC of AT LEAST $1 (typically I like to focus on keywords with a CPC of $2 or more, however, I will accept a $1 if the competition is extremely low).
• I only choose a keyword if I can rank in the top 10 in Google. Here's some of the major factors to analyze whether or not you can outrank the competition:
  • Pagerank (only important to a certain extent) – I look for a PR of 0 or 1
  • Number of backlinks to site and the resulting page
  • Keywords in the Title
  • Keywords in the domain
  • Root domain or sub-directory page (root domain is stronger)
  • I personally like to find a niche where there are at least 2 results in the top 10 of Google with a PR of 0 AND that also have less than 10 backlinks to the page (you can often find results with NO backlinks to the page).

Domain Name

• I mostly only buy the exact match domain name of the keyword I am targeting. This is absolutely the best way to go, and it does help your google rankings.
• Sometimes I will add a prefix or suffix to the domain name if the market is weak.
• I target 1 main keyword on the website, the same keyword as the domain name.

Building the Site

• I personally use WordPress, however, there any type of website is fine. Wordpress just makes things easier for me.
• I typically will start with about 5 ORIGINAL articles on each site. I will add more content as the website proves that its worth the effort and starts ranking better.
• My most comman adsense placement is a large rectangle just below the title and right justified. I will also place a 160x600 skyscraper in the sidebar, and a link unit near the top navigation bar.

LinkBuilding

• I will primarily build links by submitting articles. One original article submitted to dozens of article directories can go a long way. I will submit more articles as needed.
• I will also place articles on Web 2.0 directories if necessary (like Hubpages, Squidoo, etc).
• I initially used 3waylinks.net solely, but I no longer use this service, simply because its a bit grey hat. However, I think the service certainly still helps, I'm just being cautious.

Repeat the Process

Essentially, that's it! The key to everything is choosing the proper keyword. The ability to analyze the top 10 results in Google can make or break you! If you can get good at choosing low competition keywords, then the rest of the process is much easier (in my opinion).

Anyway, I just wanted to share with all of you my success and excitement as I prepare to quit my full-time job in the next couple of months!

Please feel free to ask any questions...thanks!


Spencer

[HotDamnShortSales]

cool, your hired! im ready to launch my site and product.

[petelta]

Nicely done. This is a great method to follow. It works like a charm if you follow each step correctly.

Travis

First of All Congratz!
Thanks for sharing your methods

[Wide]

Be careful if all your income comes from Adsense alone.
I known several people getting accounts closed when running ads on a lot of sites.

Try not to put all your eggs in the same basket

[tuanng]

Congrats!!!

[Chris Thompson]

I was thinking the exact same as @Wide when it comes to having a lot of risk by counting on Google Adsense for every dime of income. So now is the time to look at another business model to build in some safety.

But you have done REALLY well, nice work.

I agree with your general philosophy. You do the research, then you spend a bit of money on the site and you don't re-invest until the site proves its worth to you. No point wasting a lot of money if you can't compete for the keyword.

I outsource this same strategy with product review sites. I only have my staff spend so much time/energy on a project up front. If it gets traffic/sales then we will spend more time on it.

[PGdealer]

So jealous of you can settle down everything and anyway contracts to you as well I will trying my best to settle down my own business as well hehe

~TK

[foxanthony]

Thank you.

This is the IM business model I'm following. I copy and pasted your process into a text file and put it in the folder I use for my site building.

I'm going to build my second site today, we'll say the first was a learning experience.

[Apollomg]

Congrats! Good structure you have there, keep doing what you do!

[jbsmith]

Great system for marketing anything, don't just use it for Adsense only though - nowt that you have your $5K/month with Adsense, use the little time you have left to find other ways to monetize this same system so that when Google comes along and changes the rules you won't lose it all....

Jeff

[JamesW]

Originally Posted by Wide

Be careful if all your income comes from Adsense alone.
I known several people getting accounts closed when running ads on a lot of sites.

Try not to put all your eggs in the same basket

I don't understand why Google are closing people's Adsense accounts. Surely the more sites that are displaying their ads, the more money they make.

[Spencer Haws]

Originally Posted by jbsmith

Great system for marketing anything, don't just use it for Adsense only though - nowt that you have your $5K/month with Adsense, use the little time you have left to find other ways to monetize this same system so that when Google comes along and changes the rules you won't lose it all....

Jeff

Thank you all for the kind remarks so far. And yes, I am hearing the words of caution that I should diversify some of my income out of Google Adsense - from several of you. I agree, and have already started that process. Not all of my income comes from Adsense right now, although most of it does.

I also generate income from clickbank, kontera, infolinks, chitika, amazon associates, ebay partner network, and a couple of other affiliate networks.

My main focus now is actually taking some of my more successful sites and creating a niche product that I can sell directly to the traffic I am already receiving. This will diversify some of my sites out of Adsense, and should actually increase my income overall.

However, my basic process of choosing keywords, building the sites, and ranking in Google will essentially remain the same - which is what I have shared here.

[JohnMcCabe]

Originally Posted by JamesW

I don't understand why Google are closing people's Adsense accounts. Surely the more sites that are displaying their ads, the more money they make.

The kiss of death sounds something like this:

You attempt to log in to your Adsense account, and you get a cryptic message that the account has been suspended.

You inquire about the suspension.

You get a form email back saying that Google has determined that one or more of the sites showing your ads represent a significant risk to their advertisers, so they suspended your account and returned any fees you have earned to the advertisers. The suspension is not reversible.

They do have an appeals process, which almost always ends up in another form letter stating that while you may or may not have done anything wrong, you still represent a risk to the advertisers so your account remains suspended.

My account has been suspended for a few years now. It's a long, sad tale I won't bore you with. Just know that my story is not unique...

@The Redfox...

Congrats on both your success and your decision to diversify your income sources. I can pretty much guarantee that you will be glad you did...

[chackett]

I would like to say that I've been following Spencer's blog, and found his information to be really worthwhile, and him to be a very nice, very accessable and friendly guy. If you're looking at doing anything on-line in the niche website space, I would recommend you reach out to him. He's an awesome resource.

[Spencer Haws]

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

The kiss of death sounds something like this:

You attempt to log in to your Adsense account, and you get a cryptic message that the account has been suspended.

You inquire about the suspension.

You get a form email back saying that Google has determined that one or more of the sites showing your ads represent a significant risk to their advertisers, so they suspended your account and returned any fees you have earned to the advertisers. The suspension is not reversible.

They do have an appeals process, which almost always ends up in another form letter stating that while you may or may not have done anything wrong, you still represent a risk to the advertisers so your account remains suspended.

My account has been suspended for a few years now. It's a long, sad tale I won't bore you with. Just know that my story is not unique...

@The Redfox...

Congrats on both your success and your decision to diversify your income sources. I can pretty much guarantee that you will be glad you did...

Hey John, sorry about your adsense account. Why havent you just created a new business entity and opened an adsense account under that entity? You may not personally be able to ever get an adsense account, but you can certainly open one up under a unique TIN.

Also, I am well aware of accounts such as yours. I'm certainly preparing for "worst case" scenarios and working to diversify my business.

[Spencer Haws]

Originally Posted by chackett

I would like to say that I've been following Spencer's blog, and found his information to be really worthwhile, and him to be a very nice, very accessable and friendly guy. If you're looking at doing anything on-line in the niche website space, I would recommend you reach out to him. He's an awesome resource.

Hey Chris - thanks for the plug! And for everyone else reading, I did NOT in anyway know Chris was going to do this, nor did I ask him too. Thanks!

[sharger]

Hi great post... hope one day to emulate your success. Can I ask you what WP template you use for your adsense sites?

thanks

[JohnMcCabe]

Originally Posted by The Redfox

Hey John, sorry about your adsense account. Why havent you just created a new business entity and opened an adsense account under that entity? You may not personally be able to ever get an adsense account, but you can certainly open one up under a unique TIN.

Also, I am well aware of accounts such as yours. I'm certainly preparing for "worst case" scenarios and working to diversify my business.

One of Ben Franklin's proverbs says:

A cat which sits on a hot stove will never do it again. The same cat will never sit on a cold stove, either.

I got my butt burned once, and I didn't fancy having to keep getting new TINs and start over with new sites.

[Spencer Haws]

Originally Posted by sharger

Hi great post... hope one day to emulate your success. Can I ask you what WP template you use for your adsense sites?

thanks

Hey Sharger:
I use dozens of different adsense templates. The key really isn't the exact template that you use, but how you place your ads, how well they blend in (or stand out), etc. I started out using some of the templates on DoshDosh.com. You can do a quick search for "adsense templates dosh dosh" and you will find a few. Those have great CTRs. Although now I use lots of other templates as well.

[ladida]

Sounds like a great, workable system you have there. Between this and a few other posts I am currently developing my own virtual real estate system. Thanks for this!

[Dayne Dylan]

How about gathering emails on your niche sites and implement an autoresponder sequence and also, implementing some CPA offers?

[LynnLewis]

I'm adding to my goals list that I want to make a similar post, this time next year. Very inspiring, thank you.

[Lauryn]

Originally Posted by The Redfox

Thank you all for the kind remarks so far. And yes, I am hearing the words of caution that I should diversify some of my income out of Google Adsense - from several of you. I agree, and have already started that process. Not all of my income comes from Adsense right now, although most of it does.

I also generate income from clickbank, kontera, infolinks, chitika, amazon associates, ebay partner network, and a couple of other affiliate networks.

My main focus now is actually taking some of my more successful sites and creating a niche product that I can sell directly to the traffic I am already receiving. This will diversify some of my sites out of Adsense, and should actually increase my income overall.

However, my basic process of choosing keywords, building the sites, and ranking in Google will essentially remain the same - which is what I have shared here.

It surely will! I'm working on this as we speak!

[Andrew James]

Well done and thanks for sharing your model. For anyone reading this who is just starting out, you have a good blue print in this post to start testing some of your own sites. Not much need for an expensive ebook.

[Spencer Haws]

Originally Posted by Dayne Dylan

How about gathering emails on your niche sites and implement an autoresponder sequence and also, implementing some CPA offers?

For some of my higher traffic niches, I may be doing this. However, adsense just pays so much more than most of these options. I can easily get paid $1 or $2 per click; whereas many CPA offers pay about the same per completed submission...you will get WAY more clicks on an ad than a completed CPA offer. However, if it makes sense to collect emails in some market you can send repetitive offers...worth testing. The draw of adsense is that its simple and it pays quite well in some niches...

Originally Posted by LynnLewis

I'm adding to my goals list that I want to make a similar post, this time next year. Very inspiring, thank you.

Great! Best of luck!

Originally Posted by Andrew James

Well done and thanks for sharing your model. For anyone reading this who is just starting out, you have a good blue print in this post to start testing some of your own sites. Not much need for an expensive ebook.

Your welcome! This is a great model that can certainly be replicated...

[kman1847]

This was just what I needed to read. I just started building a few websites that are basically similar to the ones you mention are getting you $ 5000/mo. Hopefully a year from now if I have just part of your good fortune I will be happy. Thanks for sharing your results.

[Joshua Rigley]

Excellent process. Simple, easy, yet powerful. It's interesting just how profitable simple "micro-sites" can be.

[Piper Anderson]

Excellent Adsense strategy! I'm copying this for future use on my own sites. I already use a similar placement for Adsense ads on my sites, but your keyword research tips are much appreciated, as they're much more specific than what you usually find out there. Thank you for this wonderful information!

[Michael55555]

congrats! I am envious!!!!

[Millerking]

Thanks for the share

[sickbaomei]

This information are very inspiring... thanks for everything !

[Randy Daugherty]

Great!....thanks for sharing...

[Andrea Wilson]

I admire your story and I hope someone can enlighten me with adsense as well. This is a process that you could have given away as an ebook. But, its just me and Im really glad that you didn't do it. Anyway congratulations on your success!!

Andrea

[IsGabeW]

Redfox

Just a few questions on theory (i am sort of new to IM) to make sure I understand things clearly.

Why do you target a CPC of $1 or $2? Basically, why that break point?

On the pages you create, the info you have on there is strictly informative? And you are making money off people clicking away from the page on one of the google ads?

And why would you add add a prefix or suffix if the market is weak? I would think it would think you would do that if the market is strong.

Thanks

[Spencer Haws]

Originally Posted by maxmyer

Redfox

Just a few questions on theory (i am sort of new to IM) to make sure I understand things clearly.

Why do you target a CPC of $1 or $2? Basically, why that break point?

On the pages you create, the info you have on there is strictly informative? And you are making money off people clicking away from the page on one of the google ads?

And why would you add add a prefix or suffix if the market is weak? I would think it would think you would do that if the market is strong.

Thanks

Maxmyer, I'm happy to answer your questions.

First, I target keywords with AT LEASt a CPC of $1. This cuts out a lot of the low paying keywords; to be profitable, you need to focus on some higher paying ads.

Second, my pages typically are strictly information. Yes, I make money when someone clicks a Google ad and off of my site.

Finally, having an EXACT match domain (without a prefix or suffix) is the strongest possible domain that you can have. Therefore, you can do better in a strong market with an exact match domain. If I could not get the exact match, I would not go into some market, because they are too competitive. However, if the market is weak; I would consider using a weaker domain (one with a prefix or suffix). Hope that makes sense!

Spencer

[chrisbear]

Thanks for sharing your success and process. Does this work on every site you build or do you have a few bombs here and there?

[Spencer Haws]

Of course I have had some bombs! Its impossible to expect anyone to be successful 100% of the time. However, my success rate has certainly improved over time. The criteria I listed in my original post are some things that took a long time to learn and internalize...now I do much better...

Originally Posted by chrisbear

Thanks for sharing your success and process. Does this work on every site you build or do you have a few bombs here and there?

[sponsorlist]

Thanks for nice info, saved for future reading

[Anonymous Affiliate]

Have you tried split testing Adsense vs. CPA vs. Affiliate products?

[jlady]

I prefer adsense also because you don't have to wait for someone to buy just click, how many people click on things but don't buy...probably more than the opposite. I am trying some affiliate things but so far I am disappointed, but it has only been about 3 months..so I might just have to give it more time. I do have 1 site made for amazon that I am just waiting to rank for and I am hopeful.

[Trivum]

Nice post.

How do you get your ideas for keywords? Is there any kind of thinking process you use or somewhere you go to get your mind spinning in the right direction? (Or even better, is it something that can be somewhat automated with special tools?)

Thanks.

[kenny5]

Congratulations! And thanks for sharing, I think a lot of people will get some good info from this.

[tonycre]

Thank you - This is a great business model

[LindaO]

Well done Redfox. Congratulations!!
This is encouraging for newbies like me just getting started.
Thanks for sharing.
Linda

[Raemi13]

CONGRATULATIONS! I love hearing a story like this! From what you posted - I'm on the right path. I would love to quit my full-time job!

[entrepreneurjay]

Congrats on your success sounds like your doing very well. I agree with the other comments though you may want to think about monetizing your blogs with affiliate ads, build a mailing list etc...

Good story and congrats again.

[Spencer Haws]

Originally Posted by Trivum

Nice post.

How do you get your ideas for keywords? Is there any kind of thinking process you use or somewhere you go to get your mind spinning in the right direction? (Or even better, is it something that can be somewhat automated with special tools?)

Thanks.

Keywords can come from everywhere. Sometimes I will go to ebay.com and look at all the categories (thousands of categories). These are some great keywords. I can also find lots of root keywords on Amazon.com.

However, I have found a few successful markets that I often keep coming back to. Once you find one successful keyword, you can often find a very similar keyword in the same market...this has worked for me on multiple occasions.

I typically use Market Samurai (free version) to generate additional keywords based on root keyword. You can also use the free Google Adwords keyword tool (which is where market samurai pulls its data anyway).

Originally Posted by Chris Thompson

Hey RedFox - was just re-reading your strategy for building sites and it strikes me as super similar to what I'm doing for review sites.

I have a suggestion for you that I think you should try out. Basically it sounds like the keywords you go after are those that you can rank for quite easily through basic article marketing. This is the same strategy I use to get ranked for product reviews and it certainly works. I outsource almost all of this today.

Basically, I use Unique Article Wizard to get my sites ranked. My strategy is usually to build a site and then submit 5 articles to the wizard. I would suggest the articles get submitted once per week for 5 weeks. Each article you submit will generate you a few hundred backlinks, usually. They are nicely spread out over a wide network, and over time.

We can all sit here and debate the theory forever. But I have found that using UAW to submit articles gets my sites ranked for chosen keywords rather quickly (inside of a month).

When this becomes a real business, like it is for you, the $67 per month is chump change. And it has a huge ROI.

I still submit the articles to my own site first, and then to EZA, and after EZA accepts them we submit the whole "article set" (3 versions) to UAW.

But sometimes, when I'm just testing out an idea and doing it myself, I skip EZA altogether.



Question for you: What do you estimate is your total cost to setup a new site to the point where you sit back and wait to see if it is profitable? My bet is that with domain, articles, and article marketing we're talking $200 or so. Am I correct? So even with a 50% hit rate, (50% sites make money, 50% are garbage), true cost is $400 per working site. To make a payback inside of 6 months you need the site to earn $2 per day. That SHOULD be doable. More correctly, it clearly IS doable since you're doing it. How's my math?

I have not used UAW, but I have used Article Drip Robot, which I liked alot. Yes, this works.

Your math is a little off. Here's the cost of a site:
Domain - about $10
5 Articles for site- $5 - 7 apiece ($25 to $35)
3 Articles for distribution (just an average) - $15
Total cost of site: $60

$60 may even be on the high side, as I still do write some of the articles myself every now and again. Really, if my site is earning $15/mth its a keeper.

For someone starting out, that does the work themselves, they can do this for basically the cost of the domain (plus hosting of course).

[Chris Thompson]

Originally Posted by The Redfox

Here's the cost of a site:
Domain - about $10
5 Articles for site- $5 - 7 apiece ($25 to $35)
3 Articles for distribution (just an average) - $15
Total cost of site: $60

$60 may even be on the high side, as I still do write some of the articles myself every now and again. Really, if my site is earning $15/mth its a keeper.

For someone starting out, that does the work themselves, they can do this for basically the cost of the domain (plus hosting of course).

That makes perfect sense to me. I figured you were starting with a bit more content, but on second thought, I suppose it doesn't make sense to over-invest when you are testing a keyword.

If I was going to use a model like this I would probably want to do the keyword research myself to start, but then I'd teach my guys how to do it and see how well they did. But I'd outsource everything else. I think the costs would be pretty similar. Here's a cut at what I'd expect from a full time worker.

Cost estimate for the same amount of content would be based on how many days of work each site would require.

My estimate is 2 days of work for one person to setup the site, write the 5 articles and post to the site, and write the 3 promotion articles and submit them to article directories.

I would expect to pay an outsourced full time employee about $350 per month. That should technically get you 10 sites per month, so $35 per site plus domain cost = $45.

If I wanted much higher quality writing, I would probably pay $450-500 per month to a writer instead.

If I wanted to really scale up the model I would hire one guy to handle keyword research, domain purchases, website setup incuding posting of content. Then I'd hire as many writers as needed to deliver content to the web guy so all they were doing was writing, no web work for the writers.

Anyway, really love the model you built. Nice job. While you are thinking of diversifying, what are your plans to scale up your outsourcing?

[Ecigsavings]

personally every single time i have ever tried to use google adsense they have let me generate a couple hundred dollars then shut me down and block me saying that i am to high of a risk or some crap. I tried with the Ecig Review site in my signature and Mastering Your Skills and both times they shut me down. I dont think ill ever use google adsense again that are utter garbage. :/