6 Months Later: $300 Daily w/Adsense (Lessons Learned)

[kevin campbelle]

John,

I remember that thread from the old forum.

For the health site you said "more maintenance than my new strategy to go specific with keywords and niche markets."

If I remember correctly the strategy with the health site was to keep adding content. Have you tested not adding content to it and no external articles for a while and see if the income for that site holds?

The new strategy seems to be niche specific, with keywords in the domain name and other good onpage SEO. You may do a few article submissions for backlinks to get the site to rank high on the Google etc, if needed. After getting "each ranked and earning natural search engine clicks within a week," How much promotion is done to keep it there? Is it like a set and forget thing and then do more backlinking if your rankings are going down?

If it's like set and forget, or very little maintenance, how long are these new type sites holding their SE positions and income from your experience?


Thanks,
Kevin.

[kennedyhouse]

It's very nice to see someone is making it. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm a newbie who would love to "break through" with adsense.

[XFactor]

Ok, I'll share one of my most profitable niche topics: Grills

I chose a brand name keyword that gets 6,000 searches per month, and only
has a few thousand competing sites.

In the first week it was #6 in Google for that keyword without any backlinking.

In the second week it was #3 in Google, with 1 article submitted to Goarticles.

By week 3, it was ranking 1 and 2 in Google, with just 5 articles for article marketing.

I submit 1 article every 7-10 days, plus one page of content.

It earns me between $10 and $20 per day in Adsense.

The average click brings in .25 cents (but the click-through is outstanding).

- John

[Bounderby]

That's roughly a third of the monthly traffic clicking through given an average of $15/day. Would you say that was typical of your portfolio in general? How many of the 6000 searches are visiting?
Is the site content reviews of grill models, or usage/health benefits/recipes etc? Or a combination?

[mrtrance]

Are you using the brand name in your url as well? I thought we couldn't use brand name in the url, but we can have a post about a particular brand. Is the whole site about one brand of grill or does it have pages on other models/brands as well? How long has this site been up?

How much of the monthly 6000 searches are you capturing with your site? What is your daily uniques?

Originally Posted by XFactor

Ok, I'll share one of my most profitable niche topics: Grills

I chose a brand name keyword that gets 6,000 searches per month, and only
has a few thousand competing sites.

In the first week it was #6 in Google for that keyword without any backlinking.

In the second week it was #3 in Google, with 1 article submitted to Goarticles.

By week 3, it was ranking 1 and 2 in Google, with just 5 articles for article marketing.

I submit 1 article every 7-10 days, plus one page of content.

It earns me between $10 and $20 per day in Adsense.

The average click brings in .25 cents (but the click-through is outstanding).

- John

[Lukas]

hmmph...interesting. I always figured product return low paying clicks and .25 is low but if you get enough....slow and steady wins the race.

you say it is super-targeted but gave us "grills" so it must be 1 brand type and not location specific.

I still go for high paying services industry and look for 1.00+ clicks. only add content every 7 days or so. "1" lucky services site I have is set and go. I found another srvc niche that does well too. My December 08 goal was 1/3 of yours. Maybe if I raise the bar I'll surpass my goal.

Yes, I also have a back-up in case Adsense implodes. I am thinking Bing may eventually offer an "adsense alternative" someday as well. After all, someone else has to enter that space too besides adbrite & emperor Google.

[tim254]

Could you tell me more about what kind of content you produce for the products? You mentioned "My content is always about product descriptions." So for grills you would have product descriptions of various grills? Do you review them or include Amazon reviews?

[tim254]

One more question ... do you use dashes in your domain names? I was just wondering since a lot of the times the keyword phrase will be taken and the only way to get it is to add dashes.

[llfleming]

you are a supreme insperation, i've been told the targeting name brands works and will try it for myself soon. thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by XFactor

Ok, I'll share one of my most profitable niche topics: Grills

I chose a brand name keyword that gets 6,000 searches per month, and only
has a few thousand competing sites.

In the first week it was #6 in Google for that keyword without any backlinking.

In the second week it was #3 in Google, with 1 article submitted to Goarticles.

By week 3, it was ranking 1 and 2 in Google, with just 5 articles for article marketing.

I submit 1 article every 7-10 days, plus one page of content.

It earns me between $10 and $20 per day in Adsense.

The average click brings in .25 cents (but the click-through is outstanding).

- John

[Heman Patel]

you mentioned your CTR is outstanding on the Grills website, would you mind sharing how/where you place the ads?

Thanks

[schnisz]

I know you probably dont want to reveal your niches, but would you be willing to share a url or show us a template that you are using?

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by kevin campbelle

John,

I remember that thread from the old forum.

For the health site you said "more maintenance than my new strategy to go specific with keywords and niche markets."

If I remember correctly the strategy with the health site was to keep adding content. Have you tested not adding content to it and no external articles for a while and see if the income for that site holds?

The new strategy seems to be niche specific, with keywords in the domain name and other good onpage SEO. You may do a few article submissions for backlinks to get the site to rank high on the Google etc, if needed. After getting "each ranked and earning natural search engine clicks within a week," How much promotion is done to keep it there? Is it like a set and forget thing and then do more backlinking if your rankings are going down?

If it's like set and forget, or very little maintenance, how long are these new type sites holding their SE positions and income from your experience?


Thanks,
Kevin.

Hi Kevin,

Like I said, some niches need minimum backlinking to keep them in earning spots.
Others have only one home page (literally 1-page websites) with not backlinking
and they are on the first page and earning clicks.

The rankings always go up, go down, go up, go down.

I do not dive to hard into stats, nor do I slow down for perfection. I've got lots
of sites now, and I do try to a certain percentage of them maintained.

- John

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by Heman Patel

you mentioned your CTR is outstanding on the Grills website, would you mind sharing how/where you place the ads?

Thanks

The same as always, under the headline and over the content.

- John

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by tim254

Could you tell me more about what kind of content you produce for the products? You mentioned "My content is always about product descriptions." So for grills you would have product descriptions of various grills? Do you review them or include Amazon reviews?

I've mentioned this already on the 1st page.

I rewrite product reviews that I find from wherever I can that is selling them (Amazon, the
product manufacturer, etc).

- John

[SiteBlaster]

John,

Awesome! Great to see that you are still using XSP v1. So am I. Fits my needs nicely!

Keep it up dude!

[yaji]

Good to hear from you again John. Glad to hear you are making big progress.

[Ryan6]

Great tips there. I reckon you would have probably been able to triple that revenue with affiliate sales, but I know Google Adsense can be a more efficient model when you get it right.

That CTR is pretty awesome btw, i'd be happy at 10%. I wonder just how many sites you are running?!

This story reminds me of Jim Karter and his rather large Google Adsense empire due to your persistence and sheer volume of sites. Of course, he earned $63,341.16 in one month with the majority going through Adsense; other areas included affiliate sales and Kontera.

[YoYoPro]

Originally Posted by Ryan6

Great tips there. I reckon you would have probably been able to triple that revenue with affiliate sales, but I know Google Adsense can be a more efficient model when you get it right.

That CTR is pretty awesome btw, i'd be happy at 10%. I wonder just how many sites you are running?!

This story reminds me of Jim Karter and his rather large Google Adsense empire due to your persistence and sheer volume of sites. Of course, he earned $63,341.16 in one month with the majority going through Adsense; other areas included affiliate sales and Kontera.

He said earlier he has 30+ sites... and in my opinion, is not too many to keep control of.

I bet it's nice having sites on almost autopilot where you only have to update/add links once or so per week. I would just have like a set schedule everyday where I would work on a specific number of sites. You could keep pretty busy if that's the only thing you were doing.

I personally have sites I have never updated once since putting them online over a year ago that bring in steady traffic and clicks off the initial articles and links I created on their behalf.

It's so hard to see the end goal in the beginning, but John has proven it can be done if you just put your head down and get to work!

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by YoYoPro

I bet it's nice having sites on almost autopilot where you only have to update/add links once or so per week. I would just have like a set schedule everyday where I would work on a specific number of sites. You could keep pretty busy if that's the only thing you were doing.

I personally have sites I have never updated once since putting them online over a year ago that bring in steady traffic and clicks off the initial articles and links I created on their behalf.

Well my advice is that in the beginning just keep pumping them out. Some
will become auto-pilot, some won't - but you can't know unless you take
some time to really get these sites out there.

However... (and this is a BIG however)

Only "pump them out" if they will be profitable from day one. It's useless to
keep making a bunch of sites that make no money.

You can't just put up sites without a plan and hope they magically start
getting traffic.

That is the main problem I see new marketers having with this type of business
model.

I was guilty of that myself in the beginning of my white-hat career, even my
health site has many pages built without a plan (at least from what I've learned
now).

- John

[SurviveUnemployment]

Very interesting. Do you have a unique domain name for each of your dozens of sites, or do you use subdomains?

[schnisz]

I see a WSO in your future...hook us up!!

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by SurviveUnemployment

Very interesting. Do you have a unique domain name for each of your dozens of sites, or do you use subdomains?

I like using seperate domains. Very important for the 1 main keyword you
are going after. The domain should have this keyword.

A basic strategy, but one that I did not realize until late last year.

- John

[peter gibson]

Originally Posted by XFactor

I like using seperate domains. Very important for the 1 main keyword you
are going after. The domain should have this keyword.

A basic strategy, but one that I did not realize until late last year.

- John

Just a quick question John, what hosting plan do you use for your domains. Is it a reseller account? I'm asking because I'm at the point now where I'm about to upgrade to handle my own increase in domains, but I'm not sure which provider to use.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by peter gibson

Just a quick question John, what hosting plan do you use for your domains. Is it a reseller account? I'm asking because I'm at the point now where I'm about to upgrade to handle my own increase in domains, but I'm not sure which provider to use.

Yes, I use several reseller accounts with Hostgator.

They have been great for me over the years.

- John

[peter gibson]

Originally Posted by XFactor

Yes, I use several reseller accounts with Hostgator.

They have been great for me over the years.

- John

Awesome. I'm with hostgator as well. Someone actually told me I should split my hosting 50/50 with another provider on the off chance that something goes wrong with my own provider. However I've never had one single issue with hostgator, so I think I'll stick to what I know.

[lonniewa2]

Can you please give some detail to your article distribution strategy? You said that you submit 5 article to 5 directories. Are you submitting each article to all five directories or are you submitting 1 article to each directory?

Content creation: You said that your posts are made up of product descriptions. So for every post you talk about a different Gucci handbag by rewriting descriptions and reviews from sites like amazon. Is this how you do it? If you had a website about Gucci handbags

thanks for your help,

Lonnie

[rahulmagi]

May I know any one of your site for example if you would like ....

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by lonniewa2

Can you please give some detail to your article distribution strategy? You said that you submit 5 article to 5 directories. Are you submitting each article to all five directories or are you submitting 1 article to each directory?

Content creation: You said that your posts are made up of product descriptions. So for every post you talk about a different Gucci handbag by rewriting descriptions and reviews from sites like amazon. Is this how you do it? If you had a website about Gucci handbags

thanks for your help,

Lonnie

Lonnie, by your questions it looks like you are sweating the small stuff, worried
too much about tiny details that really can weigh progress down.

For example:

1) Sometimes I just use 1 article directory, other times 5, sometimes just 2. At
rare times, zero. My point is that it doesn't really matter, so long as you find a
comfortable way of getting backlinks. I prefer writing and submitting articles.

2) For content creation, If your page is about a specific bag, then yes, try to
write helpful content describing different bags and their benefits. If your site
is about washing machines, then yes, your content should be about whatever
specific keyword that particular page is about.

- John

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by rahulmagi

May I know any one of your site for example if you would like ....

I will never risk my Adsense account of being shut down, so no, I will
not show any of my sites for that reason alone.

But, if you pay close attention (read the posts), you will get a clear
idea of the set-up.

Hint: It's just like the millions of other sites around the net, nothing fancy.

But... I do make sure my colors and space is used to appeal the ads for
the visitors and what they are looking for.

1) Have a quality header. But, some of my sites do not have a header, just
some graphics below a solid color title. Again, this is small stuff, so go for a
header.

2) My menu is now on the right side, with some graphics above.

3) On every page I also have a small menu going horizontally, in blue links.

4) Below those menu links is my page title. For example "Best Surfboard Reviews".

5) Below the title is 1 Adsense block, blue links, gray text, black URL.

5) Then the content.

Very, very basic outline.

- John

[Gunter Eibl]

Hi John

congratulations to your success! Your Adsense strategy is almost the same as mine, with the difference that I don't do products. For me the most important tip you gave here is that you picked a strategy and did 100% focus on it and made it work. This is the best tip I can give others as well.

Just stop looking around and stop trying every next best thing that comes along. If you like an idea or strategy, then close your email program, stay away from forums and other distraction and get things done!

Gunter

[Kael41]

Great follow-up John! Like others have said, i wonder where you've been. One thing i'd loooove to emphasize that John is talking about, is that the keyword in the domain name is CRUCIAL. Overly so. I've got many sites, like John, that do well on:

1) Domain keyword name
2) keyword categories
3) Keyword 3-5% usage on the front page (with readability being the goal)
4) and keyword article usage for distribution.


Everything else is fluff. To also highlight what John is talking about, once you've done your due diligence on researching a niche based on SOC and other factors...build it! See how it performs and continue on. It's a numbers game friends, and if you don't play, you won't win

[melanied]

That's very true - some people are very catholic in their tastes, but the truth is it doesn't matter nearly as much as just taking action!

Originally Posted by XFactor

It's all the same - whatever you enjoy working with. In the end they are all just
pages online.

- John

[Kay King]

I'm another one who still uses xsp1 - works fine for what I need.

John - quick question. You've mention using the brand name several times - any kickback from sellers about doing that? I'm think you mean "product name" in most cases - am I correct?

kay

[remodeler]

Originally Posted by Kael41

Great follow-up John! Like others have said, i wonder where you've been. One thing i'd loooove to emphasize that John is talking about, is that the keyword in the domain name is CRUCIAL. Overly so. I've got many sites, like John, that do well on:

1) Domain keyword name
2) keyword categories
3) Keyword 3-5% usage on the front page (with readability being the goal)
4) and keyword article usage for distribution.


Everything else is fluff. To also highlight what John is talking about, once you've done your due diligence on researching a niche based on SOC and other factors...build it! See how it performs and continue on. It's a numbers game friends, and if you don't play, you won't win

That information right there will flat out make you money. Well said. I've been doing exactly the same things you and John have been discussing myself for 12 months now and can attest that it works...and works very well. Was able to retire from my job and my wife is about to do the same.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by Gunter Eibl

Hi John

congratulations to your success! Your Adsense strategy is almost the same as mine, with the difference that I don't do products. For me the most important tip you gave here is that you picked a strategy and did 100% focus on it and made it work. This is the best tip I can give others as well.

Just stop looking around and stop trying every next best thing that comes along. If you like an idea or strategy, then close your email program, stay away from forums and other distraction and get things done!

Gunter

Hi Gunter

I agree that all subjects can work for Adsense. I do have some non-product
sites that are just fine as well, but the product area literally opened my eyes to
never-ending low competition niches.

- John

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by Kay King

I'm another one who still uses xsp1 - works fine for what I need.

John - quick question. You've mention using the brand name several times - any kickback from sellers about doing that? I'm think you mean "product name" in most cases - am I correct?

kay

Yes, I suggest to always use product names in the domains, such as
"best water filters" or "air mattresses for sale", etc.

But I do cross the line (not recommended) and add trademarks names
on some niches.

So far no problems, but I'm not going to be upset if they contact me
to take a site down.

- John

[Yogini]

John,

Can you say if you put several different longtails on each page and does the page have to already be doing pretty well in search engines for the other longtail phrases to be high up? Or do you get very low hanging fruit that will rank regardless of any backlinks?

Debbie

[shirland]

Good to see niche marketing working to the fullest. Good responses and questions in this posts.

[anwar001]

can u tell us which article directories do you submit your articles to?

[TeamGlobal]

Originally Posted by XFactor

I like using seperate domains. Very important for the 1 main keyword you
are going after. The domain should have this keyword.

A basic strategy, but one that I did not realize until late last year.

- John

Hi John,

I've been following your thread with interest. It's very nice of you to share your insight with us.

I was wondering if the domain name extension matters, .com, .org, .info, etc?

Thanks and have a great weekend.

All The Very Best,


Tony

[schnisz]

I think .com is more trustworthy from a buyers standpoint. I know its tempting to grab the .info's for like 60 cents or whatever, but I think you appear more credible with a .com Not sure how that affects ranking. It shouldnt.

[nofearman]

What would you recommend for creating multiple web sites (or squeeze pages) for multiple products/niches?

[rancher2]

Excellent. I am also XSitePro and Adsense person. Thanks for sharing.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by songsingnim

I'm curious -- why static sites only? Seems like WordPress works pretty well, but I'm assuming you feel you get better results with the static sites?

Your question is a common one, and I think it is the result of reading too
much misinformation on forums (not you personally, but most people in
general).

What I mean is that it is not the sitebuilder that brings results, it's everything
else.

It's the template (based on what you want your viewers to do). It's the
SEO. It's the Off-page SEO. It's the content. Etc. Etc.

Results do not come from what sitebuilder you use. I just prefer XsitePro
because:

1) I am used to working with it.
2) I love the interface.
3) I can control what the template looks like for maximizing my Adsense
revenue.

So in the end, if you like using wordpress and are comfortable with manipulating
the template to maximize what you want your visitors to do, then great. Use it.

- John

[MicahF7]

Hey nice job John, Why don't you mix in some CPA?

I know a few CPA tricks you could mix in that would easily make even or more then what your making from adsense.

just wounding, is there a reason why you have not used CPA as well?

[CaseWhitney]

John,

First off, I wanted to thank you for publicly sharing your experiences and results with us on the forum of what you've learned by committing to your passions and focusing in on it everyday.

Originally Posted by XFactor

What I mean is that it is not the sitebuilder that brings results, it's everything
else.

It's the template (based on what you want your viewers to do). It's the
SEO. It's the Off-page SEO. It's the content. Etc. Etc.

Results do not come from what sitebuilder you use.

This part quoted above is the one thing I've seen many new people who soak up information about how to succeed in IM fails to grasp.

It's not one single key to unlocking success. It's having many working pieces all moving together in the same direction for your specific purpose.

In my experience, the process I go through is something like this:

hot product--> low hanging fruit (high demand/low comp.) keywords--> choose monetization (adsense/cpa/affiliate, other)--> build seo optimized infrastructure (hosting, domain, site coding, optimized layout)--> build and maintain traffic focused on each keyword --> check stats --> test for better conversions--> More targetted off page seo/traffic gen.

and Repeat.

Whichever tools, software and means you have for each of those steps doesn't matter so much as that they all work together.

In responding to this thread, you've laid out a plan that works for people to monetize with adsense. Well done.

My best,
Vanessa

[pts123]

Originally Posted by XFactor

No, just article marketing to about 5 different article directories.

But I do not need many articles to keep my sites ranked. Some sites
are ranked for my chosen keywords with just 1 article submitted, others
do not have any articles submitted.

I really dove into the low-hanging-fruit method and it's a gem.

I'll never go back.

- John

This in my opinion, is probably one of the most important things said about SEO in this particular thread....

This information is in it's self, gold...

Thank you for that

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by Yogini

John,

Can you say if you put several different longtails on each page and does the page have to already be doing pretty well in search engines for the other longtail phrases to be high up? Or do you get very low hanging fruit that will rank regardless of any backlinks?

Debbie

Good Question!

If there are other long-tails for my niche, I will try to build a page
around them to start, but I will only concentrate on the main
keyword when getting started.

I find that sometimes these long-tails will rank, other times not so
much.

But if the niche has lots of good juicy long-tails, I'll put more work
into that site to try to rank other keywords.

This is a very important part of my strategy when seeing the potential
for a medium-sized site.

- John

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by TeamGlobal

Hi John,

I've been following your thread with interest. It's very nice of you to share your insight with us.

I was wondering if the domain name extension matters, .com, .org, .info, etc?

Thanks and have a great weekend.

All The Very Best,


Tony

Honestly I cannot give you an expert opinion on this question.

Having said that, I do have some .org domains, but I prefer
.com

Both do just fine.

- John

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by MicahF7

Hey nice job John, Why don't you mix in some CPA?

I know a few CPA tricks you could mix in that would easily make even or more then what your making from adsense.

just wounding, is there a reason why you have not used CPA as well?

Because if I do what 99% of all hopeful online marketers do, and lose
focus, I'll be less productive, less focused, and not nearly as confident
in my work.

I have a system, and my system allows me to confidently find niches,
put up sites, and increase my income without worried about trying to
profit from so many streams at one time.

You gotta find a flow, and ride that flow like a wave.

I have my flow.

- John