For those of you who are struggling with, doubting, and/or condemning the Adsense business model...

[John Williamson]

A spin of a post I made on another thread as a response to someone doubting the sheer simplicity of the niche site business model...

People that say Adsense is easy say that because it has the potential to be easy, if that makes sense. For me personally, it is extremely easy. It's all about the systems you put in place in/for your business. I have refined my systems to where they are almost as streamlined as humanly possible - from keyword research to domains to site building to backlinks, etc....

Contrary to popular belief, it really doesn't take much time at all to set up a great looking, high-converting site and put unique content on it, even if you write it yourself. Jason Fladlien has a product that teaches how to write articles extremely quickly, in 7 min. or so. If you pre-load your theme and plugins in your FTP then they're already there when you set up your site, and if you know what you're doing with the on-page SEO, you can completely set up the site in under 20 min. (10 or so for the site setup and 7 or so for the article) - this is 1 of the many examples of a specific system I use that is refined and implemented to expedite the entire process. Things like article writing (if you are 'paying a lot' for bad content, then you are using the wrong sources; I get high-quality native English content for $1 per 100 words.), on-page SEO, and backlinks would be subsystems of your entire system. I haven't even mentioned the fact that you can outsource virtually any system, and if it's refined and streamlined enough, it'll be cheap - an example of this for me would be backlinks. I have the few, select, quality sources that I use for backlinks and I simply outsource it.

Posts that people make complaining about the difficulty or complexity of the niche site process are usually misinformative and also somewhat misleading. Although I agree that most ebook-sellers are simply trying to push the idea that the Adsense process is super easy just so you'll buy their product, it does have the potential to be easy, so you can't generalize and say that it's far too difficult or time-consuming to be worth it, because that is simply not true. As I said, it can be easy if you spend the time to make it easy. I'm almost at the point where my entire system, the complete process from A to Z, is completely hands-free. I literally don't have to do anything, but I choose to. I have a database full of thousands of profitable keywords, so I simply pick one and tell my project manager, and he starts the 'system,' and I just sit back and oversee things. If I wanted to, I could go on vacation tomorrow and sit on the beach every day for an entire month without ever even looking at a computer, and my business would still run itself. I say that not to brag but to show you that once you have the proper systems in place, it can be extremely easy. Granted, you'll probably want to develop and refine the system yourself first, which is what I did. And if I wanted to (which I do sometimes) I could still simply implement the whole system with my own 2 hands without outsourcing (which is what I did in the beginning), and it would still be 'easy' because I have taken the time to refine almost every microscopic aspect of the entire process. If you keep that mindset from the start, you'll have a great system in place in no time.

Some people see other people struggling with Adsense and say "Ok so I'm definitely not doing Adsense because it's obviously so difficult," which is utterly false. Others like myself take up the challenge and do what's required. But if it's too hard, you are making it too hard. If it's easy, as it is for some of us, we took the time to make it easy. Do not get discouraged. Obviously these concepts apply to not only niche sites, but any business model, online or offline. Just keep refining, simplifying, automating, and outsourcing things. And aside from everything, remember Pareto's Law - 80% of the output comes from 20% of the input.

If this helps at least 1 person out there in some way, then it will have been worth my time spent writing this. Enjoy.

[Michael55555]

Interesting perspective. Thanks for posting this.

[John Williamson]

You're welcome. Many others that I've spoken to share this perspective, but most keep it to themselves as a kind of 'secret' I guess you could say.

[FreeI]

John, thanks for sharing this informative info. I'm at the point of automating much of my business and appreciate the foresight offered in your thread.

Did you outsourced your database full of thousands of profitable keywords, or was it built manually over time?

What key points or identifiers do you look for when finding alternate backlining sources? How do you stay away from those sources that will do harm to you efforts?

Thank you in advance,

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by FreeI

John, thanks for sharing this informative info. I'm at the point of automating much of my business and appreciate the foresight offered in your thread.

Did you outsourced your database full of thousands of profitable keywords, or was it built manually over time?

What key points or identifiers do you look for when finding alternate backlining sources? How do you stay away from those sources that will do harm to you efforts?

Thank you in advance,

Well, reading it over again, I think my statement is a bit misleading. I built up my huge keyword list over a long period of time, but only a fraction of the entire list have the metrics and figures that I want to go after, namely the minimum earnings potential and what the competition looks like. Parts of that process were indeed automated but I do most of my keyword research myself by hand because that's just how I like to do it.

There aren't really any 'identifiers' for quality backlinks, you just need to look for quality backlinks; guess that doesn't really make sense. But there is no such thing as a bad backlink anyway.

[FreeI]

What I meant by bad backlinks are things like XRumer blast. Won't systems like those tend to do more harm than good? I don't have any first had experience with XRumer, only opinion based on what I've read.

[NumbersJunkie]

Totally agree with the sentiment here. About a year ago as a newbie, I watched an Adsense course and them pounded out 15 sites the next two days. The system is the key. My problem is that since I was brand new, I hosted all the sites in the same account. There are about 70 in there right now. Do I need to move them onto different hosts & C classes? I've been avoiding this task and have generally neglected all of the sites in my indecision. Advice?

[FreeI]

Good question. I pondered this myself and discussed with my host. The domains don't need to be on different hosts or C class IP's. Although they share an IP what's unique is their domain name, and for this reason separate hosts and IP's aren't necessary. Search engines rank the domain name or url, not the IP address.

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by FreeI

What I meant by bad backlinks are things like XRumer blast. Won't systems like those tend to do more harm than good? I don't have any first had experience with XRumer, only opinion based on what I've read.

You can argue both sides, but I'm not a fan of XRumer, though it can be effective if used properly. In general, I'm really not a fan of any 'blast' - the word alone just sounds spammy - all the XRumer 'blast' services you see are usually just that, a spammy blast to spammy PR N/A sites.

[Capitalist_Pig]

My day job is at a major transportation company, and I work in Process Improvement. If there is one thing I've learned here to take into my own business, it's that business isn't about finding something profitable - there is profit in most everything. Business is about creating processes, then finding a way to measure their effectiveness and iteratively improve them.

I can make money online. I could write articles, or spend much more time maintaining my magazine-style site -- but those processes aren't good. Writing articles trades time for money, and my magazine site requires loads of very specialized effort that I can't outsource yet. Instead, I'm busy designing a process that I can hand off to others to do the work for me. Even if the profit is much less on paper, an established, streamlined process is much easier to scale than a single success story.

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by NumbersJunkie

Totally agree with the sentiment here. About a year ago as a newbie, I watched an Adsense course and them pounded out 15 sites the next two days. The system is the key. My problem is that since I was brand new, I hosted all the sites in the same account. There are about 70 in there right now. Do I need to move them onto different hosts & C classes? I've been avoiding this task and have generally neglected all of the sites in my indecision. Advice?

I agree with FreeI. I don't think C-class IP's are as important as some people make them sound. I've talked to quite a few highly respected and revered people in this industry that say they don't really matter. And in my own personal experience, I do fine without them - most of my sites are spread between 2 hosting accounts.

Originally Posted by Capitalist_Pig

My day job is at a major transportation company, and I work in Process Improvement. If there is one thing I've learned here to take into my own business, it's that business isn't about finding something profitable - there is profit in most everything. Business is about creating processes, then finding a way to measure their effectiveness and iteratively improve them.

I can make money online. I could write articles, or spend much more time maintaining my magazine-style site -- but those processes aren't good. Writing articles trades time for money, and my magazine site requires loads of very specialized effort that I can't outsource yet. Instead, I'm busy designing a process that I can hand off to others to do the work for me. Even if the profit is much less on paper, an established, streamlined process is much easier to scale than a single success story.

That's the spirit. Keep it up.

[GeorgR.]

your post is good but a little (kind of) misleading. Because you say the "adsense business model".

What am i saying: Regardless whether you use Adsense (or clickbank offers, or amazon etc.)..the base of all of this is [making ] your WEB SITE. Whether at the end you monetize the site/traffic with Adsense, Clickbank *almost* doesn't matter to a certain extent.
(Of course there are some minor differences, eg. you could choose the subject of your site based solely on "high paying keywords" before you make it.) But the principle is the same.

For some really, really odd reason i am doing "ok" with clickbank because i like to write reviews and i like to get 75% commissions....but i never made a lot with AdSense AT ALL. It is like a curse.

I noticed that when i do keyword research for high paying keywords, i come up with niches like insurance, loans etc., niches it absolutely HATE. Then i already made countless adsense site(s) for those niche...never made a lot with them.

One reason that my AdSense sites tend to get neglected since i dont have passion to write for such subjects i guess...or simply because an adsense site "somehow" implies junk site due to the layout/ads...i really dont know why. All i know is if i make a product review site with clickbank..sooner or later i will make some money...not so with AdSense

[John Williamson]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

your post is good but a little (kind of) misleading. Because you say the "adsense business model".

What am i saying: Regardless whether you use Adsense (or clickbank offers, or amazon etc.)..the base of all of this is [making ] your WEB SITE. Whether at the end you monetize the site/traffic with Adsense, Clickbank *almost* doesn't matter to a certain extent.
(Of course there are some minor differences, eg. you could choose the subject of your site based solely on "high paying keywords" before you make it.) But the principle is the same.

For some really, really odd reason i am doing "ok" with clickbank because i like to write reviews and i like to get 75% commissions....but i never made a lot with AdSense AT ALL. It is like a curse.

I noticed that when i do keyword research for high paying keywords, i come up with niches like insurance, loans etc., niches it absolutely HATE. Then i already made countless adsense site(s) for those niche...never made a lot with them.

One reason that my AdSense sites tend to get neglected since i dont have passion to write for such subjects i guess...or simply because an adsense site "somehow" implies junk site due to the layout/ads...i really dont know why. All i know is if i make a product review site with clickbank..sooner or later i will make some money...not so with AdSense

You're absolutely right, this concept applies to ANY business. The only reason I related it to Adsense is because a) it was a response to a rant about the complexity and difficulty of Adsense, and b) Adsense is one of my main sources of income. I consider the process of building my sites only a small portion, or subsystem, of the entire process - the other systems are the many different backlinking and SEO methods involved.

[hirstmusic]

Thanks for the encouragement John! As a systems-oriented guy who's just starting off in Adsense with niche sites, I'm hoping that with some good old-fashioned hard work and a bit of building off of what others before me have done and proven, I'll be alright. :-)