*UPDATE* $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog

31 replies
  • SEO
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You may or may not remember in December 2008, I started a thread where I challenged myself to get a brand new blog up and running and in 3 months earning $100 a day from Adsense. Here is a link to the original thread.. http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...hs-1-blog.html

I have been receiving a great number of emails and messages from various people over the past year all basically asking the same question. "Is that cruise blog of yours earning $100 a day?" Well, due to popular demand I thought I would give you an update on where this particular site is at now and also describe briefly my mistakes at the time and what I do differently now.

First of all, on average the cruise blog is earning around $10 bucks a day now every day. Yes, this is well short of my original challenge target but when you consider I have done absolutely nothing to this site in well over a year, no new content, no new backlinks.. NOTHING.. it ain't that bad.

The site is receiving around 200 - 250 unique visitors a day on average with peak traffic pre-summer. My CTR on average over the past year is 8% and although the earnings per click do fluctuate daily, it gets about 80 cents per click. The highest earning click was $4.84 in March.

My Early Mistakes

So ultimately the challenge failed to reach $100 a day and with hindsight although it captured people's imaginations it was always going to be difficult to achieve. The other mistake was putting such a tough time limit on it. This led to me taking short cuts and not spending enough time on creating better content.

What I Do Differently Now

1. Never start a new site based on keyword research.
2. Do extensive research into my chosen niche to get to the heart of it and find out everything that makes it tick!
3. Only after I know the niche inside out do I translate that into keywords. Initially targeting keywords that are achievable for Google's top 10. My motto being "start small to grow big"..
4. Give my target audience what they are looking for in terms of information and try to make it as interesting and thought provoking as possible. This is the where all my extensive niche research really pays off. I know how to switch the buttons of my audience = viral link bait!
5. The normal on-page and off-page SEO rules apply except I ensure that I put my calculator away when it comes to working out the percentage of your content that should be your target keyword.
6. Utilize the power of social media like facebook, Twitter and also use social networking in an effective manner to create "social buzz". This is where good information rich non-salesy content is vital.
7. Quality backlinks from relevant other sites.
8. Don't use Linkwheels or any other pattern based linking scheme. Pattern based backlinking like this is at best mildly effective. All backlinking has to be random in nature.
9. Article directory syndication, blog commenting, guest authoring, press releases, effective link exchanges, small amount of profile backlinks all work for promotion of pages still.
10. Create link bait in the form of software downloads, forums, ebook giveaways, diagrams, charts and anything else that is original, interesting and answers a need. This is truly the best way of attaining backlinks and promoting a site!

This is where I am at now and if I were to restart the challenge again it would be from these points.
#$100 #adsense #blog #day #months #update
  • Profile picture of the author Ernie Lo
    Thanks for giving us an update Steve. You may not know me but I've read some of your posts and they are really helpful! I like you make money from Adsense...although I'm still a long way off to $100 a day but...I'll get there.

    $10 a day on autopilot from 1 site is decent money which ever way you look at it. You'd only have to multiply that by 10 times to reach $100 a day easily achievable.

    Anyway keep up the good work.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
      Thanks Ernie, You can get to your Adsense goals I am sure if you focus on the content creation and promotion.

      Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo View Post

      Thanks for giving us an update Steve. You may not know me but I've read some of your posts and they are really helpful! I like you make money from Adsense...although I'm still a long way off to $100 a day but...I'll get there.

      $10 a day on autopilot from 1 site is decent money which ever way you look at it. You'd only have to multiply that by 10 times to reach $100 a day easily achievable.

      Anyway keep up the good work.
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  • Profile picture of the author StupidCupid
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  • Profile picture of the author LocoDice
    Hi Steve, thanks for a very informative post. Definitely some interesting information there that I want to work on applying.

    Would you be able to elaborate on what you mean by this though? If thats not how you start, then how do you start? How do you come up with the general niche in the first place?

    Originally Posted by Steve Crooks View Post

    1. Never start a new site based on keyword research.
    Thanks again!
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  • Profile picture of the author thehobbster
    I'd like to say congratulations. A year and a half to a constant stream of $10 a day while doing nothing is very nice. That's a free meal a day! These are the threads that inspire me as I'm working on a large content-based site as well. I hope to incorporate products to sell later, but in the immediate I'm trying to bring in traffic for Adsense. I agree, start on small achievable keywords and grow from there. I'm hoping that extra link juice will make the harder keywords easier to take in the future.

    Anyways, I just wanted to pipe in because this is extremely relevant to my work and gives me motivation to keep chugging along. Thanks for sharing!
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  • Profile picture of the author caksut
    nice sharing
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  • Profile picture of the author Nazbir.Bd
    Thanks for sharing your research with us ....
    But ....

    Originally Posted by Steve Crooks View Post

    Never start a new site based on keyword research.
    What do you mean by that ?

    Originally Posted by Steve Crooks View Post

    Only after I know the niche inside out do I translate that into keywords. Initially targeting keywords that are achievable for Google's top 10. My motto being "start small to grow big".
    Can you please explaining it more clearly ?

    Thanks
    Nazbir
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    Contact: nazbir[@]live.co.uk
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by Nazbir.Bd View Post

      Thanks for sharing your research with us ....
      But ....


      What do you mean by that ?


      Can you please explaining it more clearly ?

      Thanks
      Nazbir
      What he means is. Rather than build a website because you found a couple decent keywords, find a market and do research about the people in that market. Find the things they are talking about, asking questions about, etc and then find suitable keywords to address those things.

      It's really about proper research. The standard practice among many people is to open a keyword tool, find a suitable keyword and build a website. Without knowing any of the intimate details about what makes that niche tick. If you do some proper research and find specific problems, questions, or hot topics, from there you take correlated keywords and make your content. Writing about these hot topics will provide the people in your niche with exactly what they are looking for.
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      • Profile picture of the author Nazbir.Bd
        Originally Posted by Jacob Martus View Post

        What he means is. Rather than build a website because you found a couple decent keywords, find a market and do research about the people in that market. Find the things they are talking about, asking questions about, etc and then find suitable keywords to address those things.

        It's really about proper research. The standard practice among many people is to open a keyword tool, find a suitable keyword and build a website. Without knowing any of the intimate details about what makes that niche tick. If you do some proper research and find specific problems, questions, or hot topics, from there you take correlated keywords and make your content. Writing about these hot topics will provide the people in your niche with exactly what they are looking for.
        Originally Posted by Steve Crooks View Post

        Sure, the keyword research should come based on what you have found out about the niche not straight from a keyword tool by plugging in the main niche keyword. There are just so many potential directions and tangents that a niche can possess . Only proper niche research can uncover this. Also, by just using the same keywords and criteria as thousands of other people you are just competing with them for the same keywords anyway. For those who can be bothered to create content anyway.
        Thanks both of you for clearing it .... good explanation ...I will remember these things from now on ....

        At present i am frustated with adsense .... but hope to do good with it ....
        Now i am earning money online by doing Outsourcing Jobs for others ...

        Nazbir
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        Contact: nazbir[@]live.co.uk
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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
      Sure, the keyword research should come based on what you have found out about the niche not straight from a keyword tool by plugging in the main niche keyword. There are just so many potential directions and tangents that a niche can possess . Only proper niche research can uncover this. Also, by just using the same keywords and criteria as thousands of other people you are just competing with them for the same keywords anyway. For those who can be bothered to create content anyway.

      Originally Posted by Nazbir.Bd View Post

      Thanks for sharing your research with us ....
      But ....


      What do you mean by that ?


      Can you please explaining it more clearly ?

      Thanks
      Nazbir
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshBrown
    Congrats on your success, bro. I would also consider adding in an aweber lightbox or slide-up opt-in to build a mailing list.

    Best,
    Josh
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  • Profile picture of the author dhex
    Steve, thanks a lot for doing this!! I have learned a lot from your old thread and I also got lots useful information from your blog and the 100 bucks challenge forum you have there. I will also be following this thread to the end.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      What's the point of this thread title?

      *UPDATE* $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog

      Shouldn't the title read:

      *UPDATE* $10 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog

      I'll assume what's important here is the sig. ?
      He started a thread over a year ago about the $100 per day in 3 months. He got very close to achieving that goal. It says its an update addressing the many emails he gets about the original thread. Search his name and you'll find the original thread.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
      Yes, you are probably right.. $10 a day is the better title. :rolleyes:

      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      What's the point of this thread title?

      *UPDATE* $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog

      Shouldn't the title read:

      *UPDATE* $10 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog

      I'll assume what's important here is the sig. ?
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  • Profile picture of the author swayman
    Creating SEO optimized content is also very important, I have a 6 months blog with over 1,000 page views / day, and whenever I create a new post, I don't care about whether or not the keywords are search able in Google, I just post it, because of the Google's LSI algorithm, it is smart enough to combine keywords from the title, description, thus creating a targeted long tail keywords to your blog.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
      This is certainly true, however by trying to include these related keyword phrase naturally in the first place you gain an advantage. The advantage is in terms of the extra keyword searches plus it helps to bolster the theme of your article.

      Originally Posted by swayman View Post

      Creating SEO optimized content is also very important, I have a 6 months blog with over 1,000 page views / day, and whenever I create a new post, I don't care about whether or not the keywords are search able in Google, I just post it, because of the Google's LSI algorithm, it is smart enough to combine keywords from the title, description, thus creating a targeted long tail keywords to your blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author sengko
    nice to hear from you again Steve, waiting for your updates
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  • Profile picture of the author candyloonz
    Your post and updates gives me hope - I have my own site promoting my products.
    Have adsense on each one of my pages and barely any income.
    Just started to write some articles and submit to ezine, worlpress and so.
    Hopefully I'll get more from it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
      Every word you type is potential income for you.. Remember that, it is good for motivation.


      Originally Posted by candyloonz View Post

      Your post and updates gives me hope - I have my own site promoting my products.
      Have adsense on each one of my pages and barely any income.
      Just started to write some articles and submit to ezine, worlpress and so.
      Hopefully I'll get more from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    You made some great points but I don't fully agree with coming up with a market before any intitial keyword research. I do agree that you should do full research into the niche once you know there is potential there to get the traffic.

    Many of the people creating Adsense sites are just writing pointless articles rather than creating a site for their market. They aren't interested in useful sites, just trapping the traffic. I believe your advice will miss the mark with this type of webmaster.

    The examples that bgmacaw provided are actually decent sites that meet the need of the browser (with 1 or 2 exceptions), even though they lack text/article based content. If you want to buy allen keys this is the type of site you want to see.

    I think it is a waste of time putting a lot of effort into analysing a niche market only to come to keyword research and find there is no potential due to low traffic OR the market being dominated by a few big players. There are many huge markets that just don't get google'd. These markets have resources and close communities that don't need Google.

    If you do your keyword research properly (and first) you can pick out markets that use Google, have a large potential and low competition and then spend the time on finding a smaller niche to research and target. Everything else you said still applies once you have your main keyword/set of keywords.

    Focusing your effort on a niche you enjoy is all well and good if the traffic is there. If the traffic isn't there then your traffic generation must come from other methods - this affects the way you structure your articles and site. Not everyone has the talent to create effective link bait and not every market is suitable for it either.

    Just say you are passionate about allen keys. You decide you are creating a site for this niche before doing and keyword research. You get really involved with learning everything there is about allen keys - you know that heaps of people use them. You finally come to keyword research and see that the traffic is low and competition high. The first warning to stop is the low traffic - people aren't interested in allen keys. You persist and decide that you will get your traffic through social media and viral marketing because you don't want to lose all that time spent researching.

    Your site is built around products and reviews as your market research showed this is what people wanted. These articles sit ignored in the large queue of social media buzz and nothing you can do will jazz them up to create a feeding frenzy on your content.

    If you did you keyword research first you would have seen that this market wasn't viable for a website. You may also have seen that garage hand tools was in huge demand and started your thorough research from there.

    If you have a passion for a particular subject it doesn't mean it is suitable to organic traffic or AdSense. If you can't find other ways of getting traffic to it then you really should give it a miss and move on. Otherwise write it for personal reasons and hope that one day someone will take notice.
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  • Profile picture of the author 4morereferrals
    Originally Posted by Steve Crooks View Post

    You may or may not remember in December 2008, I started a thread where I challenged myself to get a brand new blog up and running and in 3 months earning $100 a day from Adsense. Here is a link to the original thread.. http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...hs-1-blog.html

    I have been receiving a great number of emails and messages from various people over the past year all basically asking the same question. "Is that cruise blog of yours earning $100 a day?" Well, due to popular demand I thought I would give you an update on where this particular site is at now and also describe briefly my mistakes at the time and what I do differently now.

    First of all, on average the cruise blog is earning around $10 bucks a day now every day. Yes, this is well short of my original challenge target but when you consider I have done absolutely nothing to this site in well over a year, no new content, no new backlinks.. NOTHING.. it ain't that bad.

    The site is receiving around 200 - 250 unique visitors a day on average with peak traffic pre-summer. My CTR on average over the past year is 8% and although the earnings per click do fluctuate daily, it gets about 80 cents per click. The highest earning click was $4.84 in March.

    My Early Mistakes

    So ultimately the challenge failed to reach $100 a day and with hindsight although it captured people's imaginations it was always going to be difficult to achieve. The other mistake was putting such a tough time limit on it. This led to me taking short cuts and not spending enough time on creating better content.

    What I Do Differently Now

    1. Never start a new site based on keyword research.
    2. Do extensive research into my chosen niche to get to the heart of it and find out everything that makes it tick!
    3. Only after I know the niche inside out do I translate that into keywords. Initially targeting keywords that are achievable for Google's top 10. My motto being "start small to grow big"..
    4. Give my target audience what they are looking for in terms of information and try to make it as interesting and thought provoking as possible. This is the where all my extensive niche research really pays off. I know how to switch the buttons of my audience = viral link bait!
    5. The normal on-page and off-page SEO rules apply except I ensure that I put my calculator away when it comes to working out the percentage of your content that should be your target keyword.
    6. Utilize the power of social media like facebook, Twitter and also use social networking in an effective manner to create "social buzz". This is where good information rich non-salesy content is vital.
    7. Quality backlinks from relevant other sites.
    8. Don't use Linkwheels or any other pattern based linking scheme. Pattern based backlinking like this is at best mildly effective. All backlinking has to be random in nature.
    9. Article directory syndication, blog commenting, guest authoring, press releases, effective link exchanges, small amount of profile backlinks all work for promotion of pages still.
    10. Create link bait in the form of software downloads, forums, ebook giveaways, diagrams, charts and anything else that is original, interesting and answers a need. This is truly the best way of attaining backlinks and promoting a site!

    This is where I am at now and if I were to restart the challenge again it would be from these points.
    Steve,
    Do you still monetize with Adsense on these sites where you put in all this time and research and content?

    do you have examples [ $$$ approximations ] [ ohhhh and I'll take your word ] of sites where you've used the newer approaches above and achieved those goals - $100 a day/week/hr/nanosecond etc ... ?

    What ever details u care to share - I'd appreciate.

    Ive shunned adsense all this time as everyday I read about a slapped site or closed adsense account or deindexed or i wish id never spent so much time on adsense and done ..... x .... y.... z?

    For every thread of good adsense news - I seem to read 4 bad days ...
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  • Profile picture of the author miker501
    I agree with Fraggler. He's pretty much on the mark IMHO. Doing KW research before you build is sensible. And even deciding to montise with adsense as your business model is fine, just build useful sites with good navigation, articles, video etc. Provide quality, well written information. You'll never make every searcher happy, but you can do your best to give your site some value.

    How many 'successful' business people build the business without looking at the demand? Very few I suspect, we'd all laugh at the idea of doing that wouldn't we?

    Find a niche you feel happy to work in, put a KW list together that will provide reasonable search numbers, make sure there are some advertisers, and get a great site up that you can build with pride.

    This is sound business planning, not an attempt to rip off G and it's advertisers. Adwords advertisers WANT the clicks, but they want them from people that are potential buyers. If one creates a targeted site then that is exactly what you are going to send them isn't it???

    It is obviously the site design, content and format that creates the MFA site, not the intention of the webmaster.
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  • Profile picture of the author Clyde
    Your mistake seems to be my strongest point.

    Hm.. weird.
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  • Profile picture of the author caldream2020
    Also, you might add to mention to always create fresh and unique contents.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Crooks
      I need to clarify exactly why I said it is a mistake to begin everything by conducting keyword research first.. Maybe "mistake" was the wrong term to use as I also have many sites that are still earning money to this day by starting everything with a keyword tool first. What I should say is that I personally think that it is not the best way of starting the whole process and here is why..

      The standard process usually goes like this..
      1. Use favourite keyword tool with main niche term as keyword.
      2. Set up filters looking for high search, low competition, and high Adsense CPC
      3. Choose keywords based on criteria in point 2.
      4. Dig further into keywords to pull up long tails and choose those based on same criteria.
      5. Choose categories and make up titles with chosen keywords.
      6. Write articles based on titles.
      7. Promote.
      8. Make income.

      Cool... However.. I personally follow this process later down the track.

      When I start a new site I have a list of a multitude of interests and semi interests after a good brainstorming session. This list might not contain things that I am interested in every day or even consciously am aware of being interested in but they are things that I feel I could spend my time writing about enthusiastically without getting bored stiff.

      With that said, if I find that this list of interests is not popular out there when I am conducting my research then it goes onto the backburner. I do have a number of tests that a niche has to pass BEFORE I go as far as the keyword research. These tests ensure that any site I create has the best chance of success.

      I then look very deep at my chosen niche and trawl through a number of forums, magazines etc and find out as much as I can about what makes the people in that niche tick, what their hot buttons are, what grinds their gears, what products they discuss, love, hate and purchase, their passions, their demographics.. everything I can..

      When I am doing that research I uncover an absolute tonne of esoteric keywords, products, topics etc that no keyword tool can currently uncover by plugging in a few "niche keywords". This big list of keywords then become the basis for my keyword research where I can then dig into some absolute gems that indeed follow the criteria of high search, low comp and good cpc..

      Not only that, but because I know the niche inside out, I choose the keywords that I know will generate a lot of interest among the people in my niche = social buzz. From that initial research I also have the knowledge to be able to write articles or create videos or produce downloadable goodies etc that the people will also love and spread = link bait.

      That is why I don't put the cart before the horse and start with keyword research.
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  • Profile picture of the author jijaybajay
    Don't use Linkwheels or any other pattern based linking scheme. Pattern based backlinking like this is at best mildly effective. All backlinking has to be random in nature.
    Hi Steve, have you got any bad experience of using this kind of backlinking pattern?
    Some people say there is no way those kind of backlink methods will harm your sites, otherwise people would happily do those kind of backlinks to their competitors.
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