Why Your Adsense Websites Aren't Making You Rich

133 replies
Hello Warriors!

I get asked this question so much, I decided to post about it. I have around 200 niche sites with adsense on them. This should make me rich, right? Wrong! I made some mistakes and I would like to share some very hard-won information with you so that you don't fall into the same traps that I did. Here's what I found:

1) Niche choice is important. Here's why: I have several websites that target small niches which Google pays me $0.04/click. These websites only make a few dollars/month. Generally, I view a site as a success if it makes over $10/day. I think that is reasonable. Let's take our real world $0.04/click for a "poor" niche and see what it would take to get $10/day. I go to my adsense account and see that on average, 4.49% of my visitors click the ads. Let's crunch some numbers: to get $10/day, at $0.04/click, we need 250 clicks/day. OK, sounds great. Now how many people need to see that with a CTR of 4.49%. That number is 5568 visitors per day! Ouch! OK, how many visitors is that per month? Well, just a shade over 167 THOUSAND visitors/month. OK, let's say for illustration, we assume that each keyword here (I actually looked at on of my sites for this number) has around 2,000 searches/month. Let's be kind and say that we capture every visitor. That would mean we need around 167/2 or around 84 articles to get there.

2) Optimizing and testing is soooooo important. Here's why: Let's say that we optimized our website for clicks and got a 10% CTR. That would mean we could get away with writing 38 articles instead of 84! Hey, big incentive there! People, that means you should be doing everything you can to get that click! OK, let's say we got that 10% CTR, moving on, what else can we do? Here's what: target keywords that get $0.20/click instead of $0.04/click. Really, it is not hard at all. Google's external keyword tool now has CPC (cost per click) data. Fixing our website to target these clicks means we need 1/5 the traffic. Well, how much is that? 5568/5 is a much more reasonable 1114 visitors/day. With all our previous numbers being equal, that would mean we target 38/5 keywords, or 8 keyword phrases. Isn't that MUCH better? Doing some research definitely means all the difference between success and failure.

Well, as you see in my example, choosing the right niche and testing and optimizing your CTR makes the difference between writing and promoting and dominating 84 niche phrases or just 8 phrases. Which would you rather do? Now go out there and make some cash.

Thomas C. Gajdjis
#adsense #making #rich #websites
  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Thanks Tommy, some good sensible stuff you Post !!

    Can I ask you something, though ?? How in the World do you keep up with 200 Sites ?
    Auto content or what ??
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    Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    I have many sites that tell you how to do things. This kind of information does not need constant updating. I have a website with page 1 results in Google for several keyword phrases that was last updated in 2003.

    TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

    Dude you know your stuff. You and the $100/day guy in the Adsense forum have inspired me to look into my Adsense again. I would love to see your final tried and tested site layout for maximum clicks.
    Here's a hint: Giant rectangle centered and above the fold. Menus on the side replaced by a skyscraper ad.

    TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

    Dude you know your stuff. You and the $100/day guy in the Adsense forum have inspired me to look into my Adsense again. I would love to see your final tried and tested site layout for maximum clicks.
    Remember what I said about testing? Believe it or not, some niches respond to very weird adsense placement, not intuitive at all, so although I posted above what works for at least 80% of my niches, that other 20% really requires some thought and testing.

    TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author valerieSONORA
    Wow 200 sites! I have somewhere around 25 or so and some of them are badly neglected. No, adsense sure doesn't make me rich, but I'm not complaining cause at least I get something!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ricky Parker
    Testing is really what it is all about. One little tweak the other day took one of my sites from about 3 bucks a day average to 12. Maybe not a lot to some. But trust me, with enough sites and testing with each it starts to add up.
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  • Profile picture of the author MoBuck$
    Adsense is pointless my eyes... I mean, seriously why just make $12 a day when you could make like $500 doing something else... ?
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    • Profile picture of the author terryd
      Originally Posted by MoBuck$ View Post

      Adsense is pointless my eyes... I mean, seriously why just make $12 a day when you could make like $500 doing something else... ?
      Yeah tell that to Joel Comm or even tommygadget and I'm sure they'll tell you that you need your eyes checked then.............

      200 adsense sites is phenomenal, I'm lucky to have any that average $3 a day!

      Tommy, do you use a blog platform for all your sites?
      Do you have a formula that you use for these sites? (I couldn't find anything in your sig)
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    • Profile picture of the author Ricky Parker
      Originally Posted by MoBuck$ View Post

      Adsense is pointless my eyes... I mean, seriously why just make $12 a day when you could make like $500 doing something else... ?

      Why?

      Because that is just one site at $12 a day now. And I touch that site 0 times a month. It sits and does its thing and makes that.

      Why part 2?

      Because this can be done with more that 1 site. (And I personally have more than just that 1)


      Nobody ever said ONLY use adsense to make money. Adsense is just another stream of income. Large or small amounts at the end of the month it's still another check.
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by MoBuck$ View Post

      Adsense is pointless my eyes... I mean, seriously why just make $12 a day when you could make like $500 doing something else... ?
      I really hope that a lot of people share your opinion and stick to it. That would be great for me. Oh, BTW, did you notice what type of ads the really big authority sites have on them? I guess they do that because their whole marketing staff is lazy

      Now, with regards to the adsense sites' layout, most of my sites are built by hand from scratch. This is a huge pain as it is hard to edit the layouts and add articles. There are many benefits, though. Let me tell you some of them:

      1) In niches that I don't need updates very often, I use static sites because they load insanely fast and do not require a database connection like WP sites do. This also means that I have small backups so I can restore a hacked site in seconds (yes, it has happened, several times).

      2) My static sites have a linking structure that favors the pages with the highest CPC. You cannot do this (as far as I know) with blogs. I also have complete control over layouts and the SE spiders know EXACTLY what my sites are about. No unrelated ads on my sites.

      3) I can control every action that the reader can take. I control the navigation, what they see, how they can access it, etc. Some sites allow reading only one article at a time in sequence, while the search engines can see all the content for indexing.

      I hope this clears some of the issues up. Oh, and don't get hung up on a site's platform. Just know that the most important issue is obtaining the right backlinks.

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
        Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

        When you say you code by hand, is it completely by hand? Do you use a pre-made template to start off with? Or e.g. take a Wordpress blog index page and save it to html?
        Here is my gift to you: Open Source Web Design - Preview - Simple Beauty

        You can build an entire adsense empire on websites done with a template like this.

        TomG.
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        • Profile picture of the author TheOldRanger
          Question, Tommy...say I have software for making article sites (Flip Site Buddy Pro and EZ Article System)...I read your posts, and I took a look at the template you had a link to...is it possible to make even small amounts by building my article sites using A) my software B) OSWD templates (the ones that come standard with the software are kinda bland IMO), and also with Amazon links and maybe a Clickbank area as well?

          I know that might sound like a bit much, but I believe in being thorough and asking LOTS of questions of those who know what they're doing :-)
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          • Profile picture of the author Sonni
            Thanks for the tips I have 5 blogs two Blogger and 3 WP they were getting some adsense clicks and now seemed to suddenly stop. It seems strange traffic never has been that good so I don't think that's it. I'm puzzled by it. Thanks for any advice you may have.
            Sonni
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        • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
          I don't know about these software packages. I don't like to leave a footprint that Google can recognize. I also like to make sure that only the html that is STRICTLY necessary gets in there. Last, but not least, I leave the visitors only one option. My sites with all sorts of stuff don't seem to convert well. Having said that, a text link to a ClickBank product embedded in a review page could work. Also, if you are talking about a subject that there are lots of books out there, an Amazon link sometimes works too. Experiment and test, test, test.

          Originally Posted by TheOldRanger View Post

          Question, Tommy...say I have software for making article sites (Flip Site Buddy Pro and EZ Article System)...I read your posts, and I took a look at the template you had a link to...is it possible to make even small amounts by building my article sites using A) my software B) OSWD templates (the ones that come standard with the software are kinda bland IMO), and also with Amazon links and maybe a Clickbank area as well?

          I know that might sound like a bit much, but I believe in being thorough and asking LOTS of questions of those who know what they're doing :-)
          Look at your traffic logs. This has happened to me many times. Page one in Google, and suddenly nowhere. If that's the case (or even if it is not), getting some new links will help.

          Originally Posted by Sonni View Post

          Thanks for the tips I have 5 blogs two Blogger and 3 WP they were getting some adsense clicks and now seemed to suddenly stop. It seems strange traffic never has been that good so I don't think that's it. I'm puzzled by it. Thanks for any advice you may have.
          Sonni
          No categories, don't put everything in the sidebar. Structure the sidebar to promote the highest CPC articles and the home page *hint* *hint*.

          Originally Posted by ProductCreator View Post

          Thanks. I like the simplicity. Do you use categories on your sites? Or you just have a huge link list in the sidebar?
          Hope this helps.

          TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author wiper
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        • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
          Originally Posted by wiper View Post

          I am programming all my sites in shtml. Much easier to update if you use a general header and footer. I agree to your post, you can restore sites very fast and they load much faster. I had a site in Joomla (900 pages) and transformed it back to shtml (took me 2 month) but i am happy with the overall result. Here it is: Forex | Forex Trading | Forex Broker | Currency Trading

          No database is used at all. This site is running on a shared host.
          OK, I am really glad you posted this site. It is a good example of something I did early on. Don't take offense, this is just a critique. When I visit the site, I have no idea what to do. See, I think your visitor should have only one choice to leave your site. The choice on mine is clear. Click on the ads that have something you want. I believe that when the visitor has no idea what to do, your earnings fall. Oh, BTW, I could be completely wrong. If the site is working for you, then there is no reason to listen to me

          TomG.
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          • Profile picture of the author wiper
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            • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
              Faraz,

              It is against Google's TOS to track individual ads. Having said that, I try one ad block for a week or so, at least 3-4 thousand visits, then I try another block, then another, always one block and vary placement. Then, I combine blocks to see if I get more clicks. If it climbs too high, I back off so I'm at around 5-10%. That is because I am conservative. Now as for the keywords, I look for keywords that land in the $1.50 - $2.00 range to be sure that I get my minimum $0.20 or so per click. I have niches that are worth over $3/click and many times G will give me $3 for that click. The reason for that is I don't get tons of traffic from Digg and others that are "trash" traffic. If you do that, G will pay you under $0.04/click because the advertisers are getting bad traffic. Use social bookmarking to get links before you put ads up on the site. People are much more likely to bookmark and share a site that has no ads on it.

              Originally Posted by visit_faraz View Post

              Thank you so much Tommy.
              This post of yours is really very informative and inspirational.

              One thing I would like to ask is how do you go about testing and tweaking the ads. I mean how do you test which ads are getting the clicks and which are the ones that should be tweaked. What sort of tweaking?
              How do I go about finding niches where we get $0.40 or $0.20 per click? do we look at adwords costs for this but I have read a few people saying that a certain keyword which costs $10 per click doesn't mean that it is going to pay us $10. It will be much much less. How do I go about to find what it will pay for each click?

              Sorry, these questions may seem very basic, but I have not done much with adsense yet. Only a few days ago I was thinking about getting started with adsense and I was sort of magically led to your post. Awesome!

              Thanks,
              Faraz
              Ahh, Wiper, that makes sense now. See, my advice was strictly from an adsense point of view. I get $1.50 - $3.00 per click on my forex sites. They are competitive, but just a handful of clicks gets me past the $10/day minimum. In big markets like forex, patience and persistence are needed to climb the ranks. I have other techniques to get a leg up in tough markets, and those methods take 12-24 months to come to fruition.

              Originally Posted by wiper View Post

              Thanks for your advice. I will work on that. But this is a forex trading portal and i am getting paid by advertisors.
              TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author keithdougherty
    Wow, I love the numbers. I am a numbers guy myself and you really broke it down great for us there. Thanks for sharing.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Taylor
    Sorry, I have to laugh at comments like why
    have a site that only makes $12 a day..

    Because, when you know how to set up a
    site so that it's on page #1 of Google; and
    you don't have to do anything at all other
    than occasionally check your stats.. it's a
    darned site easier to do no work at all on
    50 sites, than it is to work your socks off
    "doing something else".

    When Adsense was in it hey day, some of
    us were earning emabarrassing amounts of
    money from Google. At one time I had over
    3,000 sites. ;-)

    John
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    • Profile picture of the author Robert_Rand
      Originally Posted by John Taylor View Post

      Sorry, I have to laugh at comments like why
      have a site that only makes $12 a day..

      Because, when you know how to set up a
      site so that it's on page #1 of Google; and
      you don't have to do anything at all other
      than occasionally check your stats.. it's a
      darned site easier to do no work at all on
      50 sites, than it is to work your socks off
      "doing something else".

      When Adsense was in it hey day, some of
      us were earning emabarrassing amounts of
      money from Google. At one time I had over
      3,000 sites. ;-)

      John
      John,

      What do you think is the biggest difference with Adsense today and its' hayday?

      Is it mainly that CTR's have dropped as people have become somewhat immune? Or more competition so it's harder to get traffic?

      Would love to hear your thoughts...
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      • Profile picture of the author John Taylor
        Originally Posted by Robert_Rand View Post

        John,

        What do you think is the biggest difference with Adsense today and its' hayday?

        Is it mainly that CTR's have dropped as people have become somewhat immune? Or more competition so it's harder to get traffic?

        Would love to hear your thoughts...
        The biggest difference is what Google will
        and will not accept.

        I must admit I was surprised to see how long
        it took them to eliminate all the scraped, low
        quality sites designed exclusively to get clicks.

        John
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    • Profile picture of the author M Thompson
      Originally Posted by John Taylor View Post


      When Adsense was in it hey day, some of
      us were earning emabarrassing amounts of
      money from Google. At one time I had over
      3,000 sites. ;-)

      John
      At one point (in the goold old days..back in 05 2005 not 1905!) had over 1.5 million pages indexed and was making $4000 a month without doing anything which was peanuts to what some people were earning...but it sure as hell beat working for a living!!

      I have a love hate relationship with adsense

      I pretty much gave up on adsense a couple of years ago and reduced my sites to about 50 small sites with only 4 or 5 pages each that I never touch.. I still made $1600 from them in December. Thats the bit I love...


      The bit I hate is that I know for 1000 clicks to clickbank i make about $440 the same number of clicks on adsense ads I am lucky to make $100. Having said that It's easier to get 1000 adsnse clicks that 1000 clickbank clicks.

      You should have several income streams and adsense is one of the easier ones to build and maintain.
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  • Profile picture of the author plutoscript
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    • Profile picture of the author terryd
      Originally Posted by plutoscript View Post

      Do not depend so much on Google Adsense to get all the money you need. Seek for other options to make money. Google will never pay you $10 dollars a day. Be focus and concentrate on fewer sites that you can managing. 200 sites? I guess it's much. Goodluck.
      You obviously have no clue as to what you are talking about. I suggest you read up more before making silly statements like the one above.
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      John, 3,000 sites? Wow, now that's real effort. For everyone who laughs at $12/day. How about 3,000x$12/day? Oh, we aren't laughing now are we!?!

      Originally Posted by John Taylor View Post

      Sorry, I have to laugh at comments like why
      have a site that only makes $12 a day..

      Because, when you know how to set up a
      site so that it's on page #1 of Google; and
      you don't have to do anything at all other
      than occasionally check your stats.. it's a
      darned site easier to do no work at all on
      50 sites, than it is to work your socks off
      "doing something else".

      When Adsense was in it hey day, some of
      us were earning emabarrassing amounts of
      money from Google. At one time I had over
      3,000 sites. ;-)

      John
      Your post is idiotic. Google will never pay $10/day? Are you joking? I get over $1/click on some of my blogs and you think I can't get $10/day. Keep believing that man, we don't need the competition, though I suspect we've got nothing to fear from you in that respect

      Originally Posted by plutoscript View Post

      Do not depend so much on Google Adsense to get all the money you need. Seek for other options to make money. Google will never pay you $10 dollars a day. Be focus and concentrate on fewer sites that you can managing. 200 sites? I guess it's much. Goodluck.
      And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author TLCarroll
        Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

        John, 3,000 sites? Wow, now that's real effort. For everyone who laughs at $12/day. How about 3,000x$12/day? Oh, we aren't laughing now are we!?!
        And now back to our regularly scheduled program.

        TomG.
        In case anyone's interested in the math:

        $12/day x 365 days= $4,380 per year for one site

        $4,380 x 3,000 sites= $13,140,000 for a year



        Reminds me of the guy who was laughed at for only making a $100/month profit on his rental house.

        "Yes, but I own 1,000 of them."

        LOL
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        The Revolution is in progress since Spring of 2007!
        "I only want to do it once, by myself, for free and never touch it again...EVER...then I'll retire."

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  • Profile picture of the author robertstr
    great post...tommy , would you be willing to look at a project of mine?
    Cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author John Taylor
    Tommy,

    There wasn't a great deal of effort that went into
    it other than setting up a lot of automation.

    Those days are long gone, but it was good while
    it lasted. ;-)

    These days I use Adsense sites to evaluate the
    potential of a niche market and get paid for my
    efforts by Google.

    The sites that do well with Adsense will usually
    convert to good lead generators or affiliate sites.

    The key is starting out with a well thought out
    business strategy and not just building sites on
    a random basis.

    John
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by John Taylor View Post

      Tommy,

      There wasn't a great deal of effort that went into
      it other than setting up a lot of automation.

      Those days are long gone, but it was good while
      it lasted. ;-)

      These days I use Adsense sites to evaluate the
      potential of a niche market and get paid for my
      efforts by Google.

      The sites that do well with Adsense will usually
      convert to good lead generators or affiliate sites.

      The key is starting out with a well thought out
      business strategy and not just building sites on
      a random basis.

      John
      Still, great work. I have to say that I also think out a strategy and use adsense sites to test the market while getting paid, but every so often I throw random sites up because that's how I discovered some winners that I was sure were dogs

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author Barbara Eyre
        Tom,

        Great thread!

        Like you and others have said, don't scoff at a measly "$12/day" when you're getting that money for basically little to no work over the long haul.

        I have one site that is a personal site, but also Adsense. It's in a niche that pays decent in Adsense ... but drips the earnings. I know I need to add some more content and promote it a tad more, but otherwise, it sits on page one for many variations of the main keywords/phrases. Basically, my problem is the lack of traffic. It *could* be ad placement, but I'm not sure. I've mixed it up over the years, but never really saw a dramatic enough change to warrant one display over another.

        Either way, I do have a list of sites I want to start - all researched and many 'mapped out' .... now all I need is an extra 20 hours in a day to work on that.
        Got any spare hours?
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        • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
          Tommy,

          Dude, it's threads like this that make me really miss the beer button. You'd have a case there right now.

          AdSense is not my model, but man... This is easily the best example of the mental difference between building a business and buying a job that I've seen here in ages. Test, refine, and expand. Work your numbers, and scale it up.

          Sharing the info. And offering to help another member with her own sites.

          This is what being a Warrior means, folks.

          Bravo, Tommy. Best thread of the week.

          And a very valuable tip from Mr Taylor on using it for testing. That's got to be worth some bucks to the folks who are paying attention. Thanks, John.


          Paul
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          Stop by Paul's Pub - my little hangout on Facebook.

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  • Profile picture of the author shinmenx
    200 sites! Holy crap!

    Do you check google analytics stats for each one each day? Does it take like 100 minutes (30 seconds for each site - going fast!)?
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  • Profile picture of the author andreasnrb
    why not split test various offers depending on site? 200 adsense sites do seem strange.
    Seem more money making to have different ad systems on different sites.
    So $10 dollar profit for each site regardless of ad system would I consider to be better.

    I use adsense, clickbank offer or Amazon products on my sites. (which has been decided based on ad rotation)
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Thank you Paul, that's very gracious of you. And yes, I've been going over Valerie's sites and can clearly see what needs help. I will ask her if I can make some general observations here on the thread for the benefit of other warriors. And yes, John Taylor hit it right on the head with that useful tip, I hope everybody was listening.

      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      Tommy,

      Dude, it's threads like this that make me really miss the beer button. You'd have a case there right now.

      AdSense is not my model, but man... This is easily the best example of the mental difference between building a business and buying a job that I've seen here in ages. Test, refine, and expand. Work your numbers, and scale it up.

      Sharing the info. And offering to help another member with her own sites.

      This is what being a Warrior means, folks.

      Bravo, Tommy. Best thread of the week.

      And a very valuable tip from Mr Taylor on using it for testing. That's got to be worth some bucks to the folks who are paying attention. Thanks, John.


      Paul
      Robert, I would like to field this one. The really really biggie was that once upon a time, you could NOT separate bids for the search results and content network. If you don't see the significance of that one, it means that you could not bid $0.25/click on the content network and $4/click for search placement. This meant tons of money for MFA sites which eventually lead to the smackdown.

      Originally Posted by Robert_Rand View Post

      John,

      What do you think is the biggest difference with Adsense today and its' hayday?

      Is it mainly that CTR's have dropped as people have become somewhat immune? Or more competition so it's harder to get traffic?

      Would love to hear your thoughts...
      No, daily, I look at the top earners. Each site has its own channel so I can check performance at a glance. If a site is lagging, I'll check the analytics data. BTW, I don't use analytics on all my sites because I don't want to expose my linking structure to them another *hint* *hint*.

      Originally Posted by shinmenx View Post

      200 sites! Holy crap!

      Do you check google analytics stats for each one each day? Does it take like 100 minutes (30 seconds for each site - going fast!)?
      If I understand what you are saying, I want to be very clear on what I do. I test niches for traffic. Then, I put adsense on them and see how the CTR goes. Then, when I have traffic, I throw an affiliate link in the body of the post and see what happens. I am always testing and checking. Overall, adsense has been the easiest road to travel for me because I don't have to sell anything, see?

      Originally Posted by andreasnrb View Post

      why not split test various offers depending on site? 200 adsense sites do seem strange.
      Seem more money making to have different ad systems on different sites.
      So $10 dollar profit for each site regardless of ad system would I consider to be better.

      I use adsense, clickbank offer or Amazon products on my sites. (which has been decided based on ad rotation)
      OK, I'll turn over the mike to someone else

      TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis-White
    Great post, jamm packed with a lot of great information
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
    So, what good is $12 a day? that's pretty much a car payment.. so that one site just bought him a new car

    3 or 4 of these sites? that's the lease on a new Lamborghini; or the payments on a vette, truck and harley; or a mortgage payment.
    Signature

    -Jason

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  • Profile picture of the author AlphaWarrior
    Thanks for the info and inspiration Tommy.

    What do you do to get traffic?
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  • Profile picture of the author cballi
    Tom,

    How long does it take for you to start seeing decent traffic on a new site? I have started a few niche sites and granted, haven't given it a full effort b/c of time restraints, but I was still hoping to see better numbers by now.
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  • Profile picture of the author locke
    Very slick Tom! I agree, lets focus on high traffic/high CPC keywords, optimize our sites as much as possible and then do whatever is necessary to get the sites up to the 10/day min.

    Sounds like a plan that will yield results to say the least...
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  • Profile picture of the author AlphaWarrior
    Tommy, I looked at the link you posted and I do realize that there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of ways to get traffic, but the key is targeted traffic. I have been using articles. I do not get much traffic from any of the search engines. I was just curious as to how you get most of your traffic?
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by AlphaWarrior View Post

      Tommy, I looked at the link you posted and I do realize that there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of ways to get traffic, but the key is targeted traffic. I have been using articles. I do not get much traffic from any of the search engines. I was just curious as to how you get most of your traffic?
      I did not want to take on the traffic issue here, but I will say a few words about it. Most people do it all wrong. There are two ways of getting links that are effective (for me), asking for them from high PR related websites and link building through article marketing or free websites. Asking for links is tedious, but the rewards make it worthwhile. A single pr5 keyword rich link can bring your site from oblivion to page 1 in Google depending on niche. Now the second approach has two methods, articles and free websites. Each should have original content with RELEVANT keyword anchored links. Here's what I mean: For more weight loss tips, go to our site, click here. Now if you are looking to rank for the keyword phrase "click here", you're doing great. If you do this, go back to your articles and fix them so that they look more like this: For more weight loss tips, visit our site, weight loss exercise for beer lovers. Now you will get more weight for "weight loss exercise for beer lovers" which will bring you $3/click. Anyway, I hope this little digression has illustrated my view on traffic generation.

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
        I'll share a link method I've used to great effect...

        Compile a list of related sites that are not direct competitors. For example, if you have a fishing tackle site, build a list of sites about fishing boats, fishing charter services, and fishing tips. Then contact each site owner via email or even over the phone if you're comfortable talking to them, and offer a unique article for their site in return for a link to your site. Since they're not competitors, but are in related niches, it doesn't hurt their business and it's win-win for you both. They get some nice content for their visitors and you get click-thrus and one-way link love from the search engines. I took a brand new domain and site in a moderately competitive niche (not about fishing) to about 200 visitors/day in a few weeks using nothing but links from this method.

        John
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        • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
          Originally Posted by Zeus66 View Post

          I'll share a link method I've used to great effect...

          Compile a list of related sites that are not direct competitors. For example, if you have a fishing tackle site, build a list of sites about fishing boats, fishing charter services, and fishing tips. Then contact each site owner via email or even over the phone if you're comfortable talking to them, and offer a unique article for their site in return for a link to your site. Since they're not competitors, but are in related niches, it doesn't hurt their business and it's win-win for you both. They get some nice content for their visitors and you get click-thrus and one-way link love from the search engines. I took a brand new domain and site in a moderately competitive niche (not about fishing) to about 200 visitors/day in a few weeks using nothing but links from this method.

          John
          Way to go, that's what I'm talking about. Sometimes I've heard of people actually emailing the prospect with the proposed article so they can publish it directly. Any way you do it, getting links from established web properties is a good deal.

          TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author sushee
    i am new in this bussiness..
    im still didnot get anything from adsense website
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  • Profile picture of the author Nathan Hangen
    Very good post, lots for new people to learn from on this one. Tommy, you are positioning yourself as quite the expert these days..well done.

    I've got a few sites that do well, but my question is how do you have time to drive traffic to 200 sites? I struggle with a dozen.
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by Nathan Hangen View Post

      Very good post, lots for new people to learn from on this one. Tommy, you are positioning yourself as quite the expert these days..well done.

      I've got a few sites that do well, but my question is how do you have time to drive traffic to 200 sites? I struggle with a dozen.
      Nathan, the truth is, and I think I kind of said it in the OP that all these websites AREN'T making me rich. I've had to go back and fix so many of them because of bad linking (not enough links or the wrong links), bad or no keyword research, etc. I am taking my time and working with these sites one at a time to get them all to where they should be. It will take a lot of time and patience. Eventually, we'll get there. I am just sharing my experiences before you guys get to the 200th mark the way I did! Oh, I should point out that some will have to go because I see that there are some duds that can't and shouldn't be fixed.

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author W.P. Allen
        Here is my gift to you: Open Source Web Design - Preview - Simple Beauty

        You can build an entire adsense empire on websites done with a template like this.

        TomG
        Awesome template! Thanks Tommy. Also to the Adsense naysayers I've one site with less than 120 pages that makes over $30 a day and I haven't touched it for 6 months. It's a matter of testing/tweaking ads and link building. Works like a charm.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris W. Sutton
      Hi Tommy... great post! You have made me go swimming in the Adsense waters again.

      Some people pay WAY too much attention to the amount of money a site will make. It IS NOT about the money, it is "process" that is important.

      If you find a process that makes you $12/day in a small, low cost Adsense campaign, just think what that same process will do in other more profitable niches. The process is what makes the money.

      There are just too many people that will step over a dollar to pick up a shiny quarter. Too many people are attracted by the "shine" and they fail to see the bigger picture.

      You're a great guy, Tommy, and I really appreciate the information!

      Take care!
      Signature

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  • Profile picture of the author Mangozoom
    Hi Tommy

    I have a question about CTR.

    My understanding is that if your CTR is too high then Google may see the site as MFA and penalise it as they do not like such sites.

    Do you have a view, experience or data that supports this

    John
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  • Profile picture of the author visit_faraz
    Thank you so much Tommy.
    This post of yours is really very informative and inspirational.

    One thing I would like to ask is how do you go about testing and tweaking the ads. I mean how do you test which ads are getting the clicks and which are the ones that should be tweaked. What sort of tweaking?
    How do I go about finding niches where we get $0.40 or $0.20 per click? do we look at adwords costs for this but I have read a few people saying that a certain keyword which costs $10 per click doesn't mean that it is going to pay us $10. It will be much much less. How do I go about to find what it will pay for each click?

    Sorry, these questions may seem very basic, but I have not done much with adsense yet. Only a few days ago I was thinking about getting started with adsense and I was sort of magically led to your post. Awesome!

    Thanks,
    Faraz
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  • Profile picture of the author vlabroo
    Thank you Tommy. That is such a valuable nugget. Most just throw the sites up and forget, hoping clicks and money will come.

    In my opinion, with so much effort needed to get $10/site/day, for a newbie it would be better to start with Affiliate marketing instead, learn about driving traffic and then go after Adsense income.

    I have a bunch of AdSense sites doing not much. Tommy, your insight will be very valuable to me and many others. Thank you for sharing.

    Virender
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  • Thanks for the info,very much appreciated it's changed my views on what to look for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
    Don't you guys get bored of making sites just for adsense purposes?

    Why not build fewer but better sites and sell some real products? Could be even more money to be made...
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexKaplo
    Hey Tommy,

    Thank you very much for the information, it will be extremely helpful if I ever go back into Adsense... But my question to you is.. do you do any sort of SEO to any of your websites?
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by Chris W. Sutton View Post

      Hi Tommy... great post! You have made me go swimming in the Adsense waters again.

      Some people pay WAY too much attention to the amount of money a site will make. It IS NOT about the money, it is "process" that is important.

      If you find a process that makes you $12/day in a small, low cost Adsense campaign, just think what that same process will do in other more profitable niches. The process is what makes the money.

      There are just too many people that will step over a dollar to pick up a shiny quarter. Too many people are attracted by the "shine" and they fail to see the bigger picture.

      You're a great guy, Tommy, and I really appreciate the information!

      Take care!
      Chris, thanks for the kind words, I am happy to share! I think that some people are still missing the big picture. In some niches, I'll say it again, my sites are on the first page in the search results without any effort AT ALL in several YEARS. They have been making me money month after month on true autopilot. You just have to remember to renew the domains! Keep adding sites and you'll be able to quit your job one day. It's like money for doing nothing. How can it get better than that?

      Originally Posted by Steadyon View Post

      Don't you guys get bored of making sites just for adsense purposes?

      Why not build fewer but better sites and sell some real products? Could be even more money to be made...
      You just said it yourself sell. I don't want to sell anything! That's my point! Don't you get it? I don't want to look all over for affiliate products, check my earnings, agree to ever-changing program rules, updating product links, etc., etc. Plunk down your adsense code and move on. Turn off the computer and go to the beach.

      Originally Posted by AlexKaplo View Post

      Hey Tommy,

      Thank you very much for the information, it will be extremely helpful if I ever go back into Adsense... But my question to you is.. do you do any sort of SEO to any of your websites?
      As I said, on-page SEO is important to an extent. I make sure that my title tag has at least 2-3 related keywords in it, my description tag has my main keyword in it and is written so that people actually want to visit my site, and my menu structure is such that my main page and the highest CPC pages get the most internal link juice.

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
        Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post


        You just said it yourself sell. I don't want to sell anything! That's my point! Don't you get it? I don't want to look all over for affiliate products, check my earnings, agree to ever-changing program rules, updating product links, etc., etc. Plunk down your adsense code and move on. Turn off the computer and go to the beach.

        TomG.

        I didn't mention selling other people's products or acting as an affiliate.

        You could create and sell your own products.

        Perhaps, you could then buy the beach.
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        • Profile picture of the author discrat
          Originally Posted by Steadyon View Post

          I didn't mention selling other people's products or acting as an affiliate.

          You could create and sell your own products.

          Perhaps, you could then buy the beach.
          He plainly said he DOESNT WANT TO SELL ANYTHING !!
          "ANYTHING' more or less encompasses selling your own products also.

          There is a tremendius amount of headache in developing, marketing and selling your own Product. Some of us do not want any part of it.
          I don't care if it enables me to buy the Beach and the Ocean along with it !!

          Thanks but no thanks.
          Signature

          Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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          • Profile picture of the author Steadyon
            Originally Posted by discrat View Post

            He plainly said he DOESNT WANT TO SELL ANYTHING !!
            "ANYTHING' more or less encompasses selling your own products also.

            There is a tremendius amount of headache in developing, marketing and selling your own Product. Some of us do not want any part of it.
            I don't care if it enables me to buy the Beach and the Ocean along with it !!

            Thanks but no thanks.

            Each to his own I suppose.

            Part of the danger though is that you rely 100% on Mr Google not doing anything too funky.

            The old saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" springs to mind.

            Adsense can be wonderful I know, but as someone else said, "develop more than one source of income".

            "It's too late when it's already raining".

            (I can't think of any more suitable puns right now).
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  • Profile picture of the author a1journo
    Great info thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author Angela Neo
    Hi Tom

    Is there any chance your would show us how the layout of your sites are ( that give the best CTR?) not expecting you to expose your sites but perhaps a glimpse of the layout would be great.
    Also, do you use more blogs or static sites? Which is better for adsense?

    This is a very inspiring thread, btw and thanks for sharing.

    Choying
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  • Profile picture of the author Roy Carter
    Great post Tommy.

    Never really done much with Adsense, but you're making me think that perhaps I should outsource to have some of these sites created along the lines that you have discussed.

    Quick question if I may? How long or how many backlinks would you get before then putting Adsense on your sites?

    Thanks Tommy.

    Roy
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  • Profile picture of the author paulpen
    Hey Thom,I am kind of new to this forum and was surprised to know that you have about 200 sites. You must be a robot.Are you? I benefited from your post anyway. That was an eye opener. I won't be surprised if you come up one day with program like adsense.
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  • Profile picture of the author abelacts
    Damn, I thought getting $10/day was a failure. Not anymore now, thanks for bringing me back to reality ;-). After reading this post and many others, one common critical point that always crops up is testing and tweaking.
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  • Profile picture of the author hernan10
    Thank you for the informative post tom....
    but i would like to say tht u have it all wrong...

    its not the niche that matters... its the quality of the traffic that gets you the $$.....

    people say the IT niche is crap. have u ever seen that on adwords' end?.. there are countless bidders and advertisers for that niche... meaning you should get really high ppc... but you dont, cause well.. the high ppc is for the american and british visitors only....

    you could get a nice law firm keyword to stick on ur site but wouldnt get even 10 cents if the click is from asia.....

    target quality traffic and you will make good money....there is money in every niche!
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  • Profile picture of the author Colin Evans
    Hi Tommy,

    Great thread - loads of info.

    I tried an experiment to test whether a website or a blog earns more with Adsense. The blog was easier to get traffic to but earned way less than the site did. I left the blog running for about six months (and kept adding articles) but it never earned as much as the original plain website did (I had an untouched control site to check what Adsense was up to, so it wasn't Adsense playing games).

    Just to be certain I tried it on more than one site and the results were the same (even if the url's on the blog were the same as for the site).

    I think it comes down to the linking structure you mentioned. Blogs have way to many links and they all compete for visitor attention. It is possible to create simple themes, but simple websites are easier to put together (and edit) and much quicker to get online (plus they don't need robust hosting accounts).

    And as you mentioned, website maintenance is minimal, the copy on your hard drive is your backup - Blogs are maintenance hungry and bandwidth hogs in every way.
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    • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
      Originally Posted by Colin Evans View Post

      And as you mentioned, website maintenance is minimal, the copy on your hard drive is your backup - Blogs are maintenance hungry and bandwidth hogs in every way.
      There are a couple of ways to minimise the bandwidth requirements. Blogs are by nature dynamic web pages. They access the database and programatically generate the page -- but you know that -- that's where the resource usage comes in.

      You can use a cache, Wordpress has Supercache I think it's called, which turn the dynamic page into a static html page. I'm not sure exactly how it works, I think it stores a static page on the server, but it does help a lot when a blog gets hit by a lot of traffic.

      The other thing to do is to minimize the use of images, or make sure they're small files. A lot of bandwidth gets sucked away by images. And... make sure that the server is set up to not allow other websites to use your images on their sites. They get free pics while your bandwidth gets used.

      Blogs will still use more resources than static websites, but with tweaking, it won't be that bad. For that cost, you get some neat content management tools.
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  • Profile picture of the author Simon74
    Hi tommy,

    you are an inspiration for newbies like me, I really find your post amazing, I have few blog myself that make an everage of $5 a month from adsense. I am always looking for differeny stream of income, and you just give me another one.

    Thank you,
    Simon
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    • Profile picture of the author shanec
      Hi Tommy,

      Thanks for this great post. It's one of the most useful threads I've read since joining the WF.

      My view of adsense has definitely changed after reading this and I'll be adding it as one of my income streams from now on (now that I know what's really involved), just wish I had been doing it a few years ago.

      Shane.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brawnydt
    I agree with the multiple streams of income being the most secure. But I also think the best approach to that is to start off your sites as an adsense site and see how it does. Also, the kinds of topics you target with adsense generally aren't the kinds of topics you target with affiliate income. Affiliate income (not all but some) tends to be in competitive markets that takes a long time to get rankings in the SERPs.

    With an adsense site you can make some decent money by writing about trailer hitch covers and koi fish. If the niche performs well, then you broaden out into possible affiliates (if you can find any) but until you get thousands of uniques a day, you're not going to make much of a sale with affiliate income. All you need is a couple hundred a day to make $60-$100 a month on a properly done adsense site. So it makes sense to start with adsense, and expand you income horizons on your high performing websites.

    On WF you read all the hype about building a list and selling affiliate products, but there is a genuinely good reason to hit up adsense and put some effort into it to start out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bishop81
    I have a quick question. When you set up Adsense on the blog, how do you know which pages get the higher earning ads? Do you set up a channel for each page and determine it that way, or just go on the CPC Estimates from the Keyword Tool?
    Signature

    I'm tired of my signature... Deleted.

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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by Bishop81 View Post

      I have a quick question. When you set up Adsense on the blog, how do you know which pages get the higher earning ads? Do you set up a channel for each page and determine it that way, or just go on the CPC Estimates from the Keyword Tool?
      If you really want to know, disable the ads and enable one page at a time. That way, you can see which pages earn more per click. Then you can make sure that you work on those pages more to optimize profitability of the site.

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author LoreCee
        Tommy: you know what you're doing. A lot of people using AdSense don't. Great post.

        Have you ever been sandboxed for trying to climb the SERPs too fast? How do you stay out, or get out once you get in?
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        • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
          Originally Posted by LoreCee View Post

          Tommy: you know what you're doing. A lot of people using AdSense don't. Great post.

          Have you ever been sandboxed for trying to climb the SERPs too fast? How do you stay out, or get out once you get in?
          OK, the funny thing about this is I have too much work to do to link to a site so fast that I get sandboxed. Here is the issue: if you go after the spammer infested niches like loans, credit cards, insurance and the like, you need to be more careful. If you are putting together a niche site on making birdhouses, it is unlikely that Google will sandbox you. Of course, you will be sandboxed whatever the niche if your new website gets 1,000 links all from social bookmarking sites. Do you think that Google does not recognize 30 links from digg to your 30 site articles and 30 other sites like propeller, etc.? Oh please! Diversify the link portfolio and try to get at least one high pr link to get your site up there.

          TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author Davion Wong
    Hey Tommy, that's a nice one. I know of someone who owns well over 2000 Adsense niche sites and clock $10K per month. But nowadays, the price of clicks seem to have watered down quite a bit. I agree that it is the choice of niche that is very important.

    Niches like credit cards, debt, finance-related tend to pay much better per click. But ranking for these sites are not so easy unless you go for long tails.

    Frankly, I only use Adsense as a secondary source of income and will not rely on it totally. I prefer to have affiliate products or my own as the main source.
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    • Profile picture of the author my_addict_mind
      hi tommy,

      great thread you have here. just like to comment on the use of google external tool to determine cpc. the data provided by this tool reflects the cpc on the search network and not on the content sites. i find that the actual figures vary a lot is there a way to determine the cpc for the content network?
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Ayres
    I totally agree with your post Tommy, i have a few Adsense sites and my best on is the the one that has the highest payout per click.
    I built a big site with approx 100 unique articles on it and 100 unique articles sent to article directories, it has a good amount of clikcs per day but a very low click payout, so next site i set up i will try and chose a higher paying niche
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by my_addict_mind View Post

      hi tommy,

      great thread you have here. just like to comment on the use of google external tool to determine cpc. the data provided by this tool reflects the cpc on the search network and not on the content sites. i find that the actual figures vary a lot is there a way to determine the cpc for the content network?
      It does not really matter to me what network the CPC is referring to. As I said in another post, advertisers are able to set different bids for the content network. The CPC is still very useful as a RELATIVE comparison, not for actual values. Let me explain: let's take a very harmless niche like birdhouses.

      Birdhouses-> winter birdhouse, solar birdhouse, robin birdhouse, all $0.05/click
      Birdhouses-> martin bird houses, backyard bird house, window bird house, all over $1/click

      Now if we were writing about bird houses and we chose the first 3 keywords and ones like it, we would be seeing clicks of a few cents max. This site would be a total loser, especially considering the traffic figures of under 500 clicks/month. If we wanted to try and make a go of this and targeted all the best keywords over or near $1/click, maybe we would do OK. Now this is not an example of a niche I think is hot or anywhere near hot, so don't waste your time writing about bird houses unless that is your passion, it is only and EXAMPLE!

      Originally Posted by SpudDS View Post

      I totally agree with your post Tommy, i have a few Adsense sites and my best on is the the one that has the highest payout per click.
      I built a big site with approx 100 unique articles on it and 100 unique articles sent to article directories, it has a good amount of clikcs per day but a very low click payout, so next site i set up i will try and chose a higher paying niche
      Spud, that would be wise. See, as in my example above, niche research is CRITICAL to your success. When I examine niches, I look for $4 - $10+ per click. They really can be found in niches outside of credit, bankruptcy, loans, etc. With decent traffic, all you need is 4 clicks a day to make $10+/day. If your site is performing poorly, here's what you can do: go back and see if you are targeting the better paying keywords. If not, edit the articles to include them, you can do it if you try. Look to see the traffic numbers of your keywords. If you are in a low traffic niche and are getting a big chunk of the available traffic already, move on and choose another niche.

      TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author tjk1058
    Tommy,

    On average how many pages does each site consist of? Do you keep it at a manageable tight niche, like say 10 articles of different birdhouses as your example... or do you just keep building onto one site as long as you feel each article can bring in additional revenue?

    I ask because if you have a niche that you can potentially write dozens of articles on do you keep writing for that niche or do you get tired after awhile and just do 5-10 articles for each subject?

    Also... do you submit a google sitemap for each site?

    Thanks,

    TedK
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by tjk1058 View Post

      Tommy,

      On average how many pages does each site consist of? Do you keep it at a manageable tight niche, like say 10 articles of different birdhouses as your example... or do you just keep building onto one site as long as you feel each article can bring in additional revenue?

      I ask because if you have a niche that you can potentially write dozens of articles on do you keep writing for that niche or do you get tired after awhile and just do 5-10 articles for each subject?

      Also... do you submit a google sitemap for each site?

      Thanks,

      TedK
      Hello Ted,

      OK, in my bad birdhouse example, I try out 5-10 articles. I look at the traffic that I am able to generate. Now, as I said before, Google rockets your site up to the top of the results initially if your site is properly targeted. This is the period to watch. If you cannot get decent traffic, move on because you probably hit a dud. If I see a strong surge of traffic, I get to work and mine those extra keywords, especially if I'm getting a high CPC. This will all become second nature to you eventually. Just don't sit on the fence doing nothing because doing nothing is a sure way of making nothing. I have a weight loss site with over 65 articles on it. I have not even scratched the surface of that niche. Yes, I know what I said about high-competition niches, I am in the money niches for the long term. This site will get to page 1 of Google in around 6-9 more months. It is about a year old and is finally starting to climb the ranks. Oh, and yes, I submit my sitemap to Google webmaster tools.

      TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    The key to adsense is not to focus on a dozen or so sites. Its to build hundreds of micro blogs and then when you eventually have say 500 (and hopefully you will make many more than this)blogs out there all you need is 50 cents a day from each blog then you have a great little earner

    Too many people think that you need thousands of people to a blog to earn money.

    You dont..

    Rather than try and make 5 great blogs that get traffic, build about 5 new ones everyday and get them out there on google then all u need is a couple of clicks per day from each blog.You may not get clicks from every blog u make but its a numbers game and some blogs u make will make up for the blogs that are flops

    ive been using adsense now for a month or so and my adsense is slowly building up nicely

    i only have about 50 blogs. they dont all get traffic after all its a numbers game

    if you do research on niches b4 u make that small blog then u will do better. some of the bogs will be hits and some will be misses but if you keep making blogs and keep putting them out there then you are going to get results

    Now i know what your thinking, " how do i get traffic to my blogs" well its simple - i use a special google tactic which def works, i do it after every blog that i make

    And no i dont spend 5 hours on making a blog like some people ive heard.

    It takes me about 30 mins from start to finish thats making the blog and promoting it then thats it, i leave the blog and i dont touch it ever again then i move on to the next one

    there are some exceptions though, if some of your blogs are gold mines then you could do extra things to promote it and get even more traffic to it but that will be up to you

    hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by paul nicholls View Post

      The key to adsense is not to focus on a dozen or so sites. Its to build hundreds of micro blogs and then when you eventually have say 500 (and hopefully you will make many more than this)blogs out there all you need is 50 cents a day from each blog then you have a great little earner

      Too many people think that you need thousands of people to a blog to earn money.

      You dont..

      Rather than try and make 5 great blogs that get traffic, build about 5 new ones everyday and get them out there on google then all u need is a couple of clicks per day from each blog.You may not get clicks from every blog u make but its a numbers game and some blogs u make will make up for the blogs that are flops

      ive been using adsense now for a month or so and my adsense is slowly building up nicely

      i only have about 50 blogs. they dont all get traffic after all its a numbers game

      if you do research on niches b4 u make that small blog then u will do better. some of the bogs will be hits and some will be misses but if you keep making blogs and keep putting them out there then you are going to get results

      Now i know what your thinking, " how do i get traffic to my blogs" well its simple - i use a special google tactic which def works, i do it after every blog that i make

      And no i dont spend 5 hours on making a blog like some people ive heard.

      It takes me about 30 mins from start to finish thats making the blog and promoting it then thats it, i leave the blog and i dont touch it ever again then i move on to the next one

      there are some exceptions though, if some of your blogs are gold mines then you could do extra things to promote it and get even more traffic to it but that will be up to you

      hope this helps
      Wow, what can I say? There is a thread on the WF which details "autoblogging" and there are lots of wp plugins to create a blog and forget it forever. You can add the sitemap and all-in-one seo plugin and the content plugin and away you go! You can get crazy and buy up 100 domains in bulk and create 50 subdomains on each of these domains and have one niche per subdomain and then after creating the 50 original blogs, go ahead and use the backup and restore functionality on cPanel and restore the blogs to the remaining 99 domains. After this, just spend a month promoting the 5,000 blogs a little and if you get just $2 per month each from these sites, there you have it, $10,000/month. I know of some people who have done this, and even more. They won't share their earnings with me, but I am sure it works for them. I am trying to give you a much more reasonable way of creating and managing sites. After all, who wants to manage 5,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 blogs? I don't. BTW, you have to get a dedicated server because the shared hosts will kick you off their shared hosting for doing this.

      Now i know what your thinking, " how do i get traffic to my blogs" well its simple - i use a special google tactic which def works, i do it after every blog that i make
      Gee, thanks for sharing.

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author Robert_Rand
        Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post




        Gee, thanks for sharing.

        TomG.
        I was thinking the same thing. Maybe he forgot lol
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    • Profile picture of the author lacraiger
      sorry homie but you dont know what you are talking about. keep building junk blogs for a few more months and learn the hard way.

      Originally Posted by paul nicholls View Post

      The key to adsense is not to focus on a dozen or so sites. Its to build hundreds of micro blogs and then when you eventually have say 500 (and hopefully you will make many more than this)blogs out there all you need is 50 cents a day from each blog then you have a great little earner

      Too many people think that you need thousands of people to a blog to earn money.

      You dont..

      Rather than try and make 5 great blogs that get traffic, build about 5 new ones everyday and get them out there on google then all u need is a couple of clicks per day from each blog.You may not get clicks from every blog u make but its a numbers game and some blogs u make will make up for the blogs that are flops

      ive been using adsense now for a month or so and my adsense is slowly building up nicely

      i only have about 50 blogs. they dont all get traffic after all its a numbers game

      if you do research on niches b4 u make that small blog then u will do better. some of the bogs will be hits and some will be misses but if you keep making blogs and keep putting them out there then you are going to get results

      Now i know what your thinking, " how do i get traffic to my blogs" well its simple - i use a special google tactic which def works, i do it after every blog that i make

      And no i dont spend 5 hours on making a blog like some people ive heard.

      It takes me about 30 mins from start to finish thats making the blog and promoting it then thats it, i leave the blog and i dont touch it ever again then i move on to the next one

      there are some exceptions though, if some of your blogs are gold mines then you could do extra things to promote it and get even more traffic to it but that will be up to you

      hope this helps
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      • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
        Originally Posted by Christie Love View Post

        As always, awesome post. As you can see, this is a popular thread that many people want to know more about. I hope you plan on creating a product around this topic.
        I could, but I already got one thread I really put a lot of effort into deleted. This thread hopefully will not disappear as all the information will be free and no product will be involved and it will not be a "watch me do something" type thread

        Originally Posted by lacraiger View Post

        sorry homie but you dont know what you are talking about. keep building junk blogs for a few more months and learn the hard way.
        La, automated blogs can bring you some link power. You just need to be smart and get good content and DO NOT use adsense on them. Creating garbage will sooner or later get you banned. Even your competitors might stumble onto one of your sites and report you to Google just to torpedo you. Always stay on the up and up and the results will come if you work hard AND work smart.

        TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author WealthBluePrint
    great stuff, gotta find that good niche first
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  • Profile picture of the author cowy
    I have several sites (blogs, actually) and it hasn't make me rich yet. However, it gives me enough income for a living
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  • Profile picture of the author Christie Love
    As always, awesome post. As you can see, this is a popular thread that many people want to know more about. I hope you plan on creating a product around this topic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Najat Engineer
    I sometimes choose a big niche yet I just make 5 cents for a click

    and sometimes I'd go with a small niche and get 50 cents for a click!!

    it's really weird and I can't figure the rules of this game!
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    • Profile picture of the author visit_faraz
      Originally Posted by Najat Engineer View Post

      I sometimes choose a big niche yet I just make 5 cents for a click

      and sometimes I'd go with a small niche and get 50 cents for a click!!

      it's really weird and I can't figure the rules of this game!
      Actually, even i have seen this happen.

      I would like to know if there is really a way or a service which helps us to know about how much we could get paid per click for different keywords?

      Faraz
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      • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
        Originally Posted by visit_faraz View Post

        Actually, even i have seen this happen.

        I would like to know if there is really a way or a service which helps us to know about how much we could get paid per click for different keywords?

        Faraz
        My friend Faraz, I already answered that question. In Google's external keyword tool, there is a dropdown menu box that says: "Choose columns to display:" Pick the CPC. Now before you object, yes, it is search, yes it is for the top spot, but if you take roughly 25% of this value, you'll get a decent idea of your payout. Not bad for a free and easy to use tool, is it? So, in our birdhouse example a page or so back, you would get maybe 25% of the top keyword's $1.50/click or roughly $0.37/click. Now if you got the top spot (search gets 70% of the traffic figure, the rest leaches off to the paid results) 2400/month x .7 = 1680 (let's be realistic and say you get 50% of this or 840 visits). So, 840 visits with an average CTR of 10% yields 84 clicks x $0.37 = $31.08 for one month on one keyword. What do you think? Interested? Now get to work.

        TomG.
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        • Profile picture of the author Bishop81
          Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

          My friend Faraz, I already answered that question. In Google's external keyword tool, there is a dropdown menu box that says: "Choose columns to display:" Pick the CPC. Now before you object, yes, it is search, yes it is for the top spot, but if you take roughly 25% of this value, you'll get a decent idea of your payout. Not bad for a free and easy to use tool, is it? So, in our birdhouse example a page or so back, you would get maybe 25% of the top keyword's $1.50/click or roughly $0.37/click. Now if you got the top spot (search gets 70% of the traffic figure, the rest leaches off to the paid results) 2400/month x .7 = 1680 (let's be realistic and say you get 50% of this or 840 visits). So, 840 visits with an average CTR of 10% yields 84 clicks x $0.37 = $31.08 for one month on one keyword. What do you think? Interested? Now get to work.

          TomG.
          So, do you factor this in when deciding your keywords to target, or just go after the top CPC keywords?

          I ran that equation on a list of keywords that I pulled, and it showed me I may be able to get more traffic from some lower paying keywords, resulting in much higher earnings. I know it's not an exact science, and all that stuff, but that would mean that while some people are targeting the higher CPC keywords and getting less traffic, I can target some lower CPC keywords, but get more traffic and come out on top.
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  • Profile picture of the author paul nicholls
    like i said i dont do things the hard way

    i dont buy any domains, i dont buy any sub domains and i dont mess around trying to build a blog with wordpress. I have a blog on wordpress so i pretty much know how they work and i woildnt like to make multiple blogs on their platform

    If you have say 5000 blogs you dont need to maintain them, you can simply make them and forget. Thats the great thing about building micro blogs. Some will do well and some will be flops but it does not matter

    occassionally you may need to go in and do some maintnance its in your best interest though but you dont have to but do you really care because by that time you are going to makeing a good whack anyway

    i use blogger.com to make all of my blogs and i can now make a new blog within about 5 mins.

    i think people try to complicate things. yes there are all of these plugins that are about but u dont need any of them the way i do it with blogger

    i also make some good money piggy backing on the back of season events like valentines, superbowl xmas etc etc

    i have learned this whole strategy from a guy on youtube youtube channel - changeyourcoursenow and he makes between $10,000 and $30,000 a month from doing this. Im not earning that much yet lol but im getting there

    its not my place to tell you how it all works as its jays info

    i thought i would def let you know how you can gain access to this technique because i dont think many people are aware of this particular strategy

    this is just another income stream that i am building and the best part is, its a residual so its cool

    i hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author Frank Ayres
    Tommy did you get PM i sent you?

    Cheers
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by ripsnorta2 View Post

      Tommy,

      I imagine that keeping track of 200 websites (let alone 3000) would be a huge chore. How do you manage this?

      Do you use special software, or just do it the old fashioned way, in a notebook?
      I keep them in a spreadsheet. I have all the sites on a review schedule. I review at least 2 per day so the sites get a real review about once every 3 months.

      Originally Posted by SpudDS View Post

      Tommy did you get PM i sent you?

      Cheers
      Yes, and answered.

      Warriors, please, a note here. I shared this information so that you can go ahead and make money with adsense. I really don't have time for individual site reviews. Many people have asked via PM and other channels, the information you need is right here in this thread. I already have several coaching students (blog flipping, not niche adsense) and they take up most of my time.

      Thanks!
      TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author sega001
    I read the posting and it really make alot of sense. I have always had trouble with adsense but it is making more sense now. Thanks much
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    This is a great post - like other posts of yours that I have read, you give people all the information they need to earn some money - they just need to take some action!
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    • Profile picture of the author ExRat
      Hi ripsnorta2,

      I imagine that keeping track of 200 websites (let alone 3000) would be a huge chore. How do you manage this?
      I have a few more than Tommy - domain dashboard is a useful tool for this.

      Hi Faraz,

      I sometimes choose a big niche yet I just make 5 cents for a click

      and sometimes I'd go with a small niche and get 50 cents for a click!!

      it's really weird and I can't figure the rules of this game!
      It's called smart pricing, and it's not complicated. To learn more read the 2 blogs owned by Griz, linked to from this thread -

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...tml#post573430

      If you digest what he teaches, you'll be sorted.

      Briefly - if the people paying for the adsense adverts don't get value for money from their clicks, then you get smart priced. You need targetted (ideally buyer) traffic clicking through and taking the right action once they get to the advertiser's site.

      Key point - if one site causes smart pricing, ALL of the sites on that adsense account get smart priced.

      It's ALL about sending people through your adsense who are going to take positive action after the click, on the advertiser's site. If they do - advertiser is happy, google is happy - therefore, you are happy.
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  • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
    There is a lot of things going on with Adsense at the moment and I wouldn't take anything for granted. For example, I have already received 6 warning letters from Adsense concerning the use of "Made for adverstising" sites. I am lucky that they haven't banned my account so far. But I have heard that others are not so lucky.

    Like others here, I do have up to a thousand sites with scores of niches covered. I feel that is that this is no longer the way to make good money with Adsense. Instead, it is much better to concentrate on just one or a few sites, like plentyoffish.com and whateverlife.com and do your best to drive traffic to them.

    Derek
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by derekwong28 View Post

      Instead, it is much better to concentrate on just one or a few sites, like plentyoffish.com and whateverlife.com and do your best to drive traffic to them.
      Yes, that is kind of the point of the OP. Better research, better keywords, better results, fewer sites.

      TomG.
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    • Profile picture of the author Robert_Rand
      Originally Posted by derekwong28 View Post

      There is a lot of things going on with Adsense at the moment and I wouldn't take anything for granted. For example, I have already received 6 warning letters from Adsense concerning the use of "Made for adverstising" sites. I am lucky that they haven't banned my account so far. But I have heard that others are not so lucky.

      Like others here, I do have up to a thousand sites with scores of niches covered. I feel that is that this is no longer the way to make good money with Adsense. Instead, it is much better to concentrate on just one or a few sites, like plentyoffish.com and whateverlife.com and do your best to drive traffic to them.

      Derek
      I definitely agree - it's just a lot more challenging to produce a site like that.

      How does Google determine your site is a "made for advertising site" anyway? Sure, I'd imagine the sites are obviously lower quality but is there some kind of determining factor?
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  • Profile picture of the author Bishop81
    Check this out.

    I downloaded the list from the Google Keyword Tool. I actually downloaded the top list AND the bottom list of keywords. This gave me a total of 181 keywords to go through. I downloaded them in Excel format, which made it easier to work with. Anyway, I added a column to the list, which is for me to enter the Google Results.

    I took each keyword and did a search in Google with quotes around it. The number of sites that returned got put into this new column.

    I also added another column that holds a small equation that TommyG uses to figure the profitability of a keyword. Here it is (=(0.25 * "Estimated CPC") * 0.1 * (0.5 * (0.7 * "Average Estimated Search Results"))). This tells me about how much the keyword could earn me if I can get 50% of 70% of the average search results.

    When finished, I sorted the whole list by Google Results in Ascending order. There were 112 keywords that stood out in this sorting. I then sorted these results by Average Search Estimate in Descending order. This gave me the highest searches with least competition. I took the top 50 of these keywords and sorted them one more time. This time they were sorted by the new possible earnings column, calculated by the equation above.

    The final results?
    My top 20 keywords have total competing sites of 5,000 - 20,000 with Average Search Results of 1,600 - 12,000. Each keyword should earn me around $16 - $215 per month, if I can get the results that TommyG predicts in his equation.

    To average it out, if I can write an article or two for each of those 20 keywords, get them ranked high enough to pull 3800 visitors each, with each one competing against 11,000 pages, then I should be able to earn an average of $50 per keyword per month.

    It may seem like a lot of work, but in the end it should pay off. Some of the keywords that I would be targeting aren't necessarily the highest CPC keywords, but with the traffic that they have, as well as the ability to rank easier, they should be more profitable in the end.

    What do you think?
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by Bishop81 View Post

      Check this out.

      I downloaded the list from the Google Keyword Tool. I actually downloaded the top list AND the bottom list of keywords. This gave me a total of 181 keywords to go through. I downloaded them in Excel format, which made it easier to work with. Anyway, I added a column to the list, which is for me to enter the Google Results...

      What do you think?
      I think that you should try 5 of those keywords and see if your results pan out. You should be setting up simultaneous experiments on another 10 sites. The ones that show the most promise should get most of your continuing efforts.

      TomG.
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    • Profile picture of the author MizzCindy
      Originally Posted by Bishop81 View Post

      ...I also added another column that holds a small equation that TommyG uses to figure the profitability of a keyword. Here it is (=(0.25 * "Estimated CPC") * 0.1 * (0.5 * (0.7 * "Average Estimated Search Results")))...What do you think?
      What do I think? I think my head just exploded!

      For the mathematically challenged amongst us (I'm sincerely hoping I'm not the only one), could either you or TomG. plug in some example numbers so I can see how this works? (I'm not asking that anyone expose their niches or actual numbers, I'm just looking for something I can follow through so I can replicate the process.)

      A big thank you for the added guidance!

      Cindy
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      • Profile picture of the author Bishop81
        Originally Posted by MizzCindy View Post

        What do I think? I think my head just exploded!

        For the mathematically challenged amongst us (I'm sincerely hoping I'm not the only one), could either you or TomG. plug in some example numbers so I can see how this works? (I'm not asking that anyone expose their niches or actual numbers, I'm just looking for something I can follow through so I can replicate the process.)

        A big thank you for the added guidance!

        Cindy
        Look back at post #112.
        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...tml#post573054
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  • Profile picture of the author Bishop81
    Yeah, I just have to find 5 more niches that I want to target. How do you like to find new niches to work on? I find a lot of things interesting, but it's so difficult sometimes for me to find ideas.

    I'm going to do the same extensive research on each niche, to see if it holds any water.
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    • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
      Originally Posted by Bishop81 View Post

      Yeah, I just have to find 5 more niches that I want to target. How do you like to find new niches to work on? I find a lot of things interesting, but it's so difficult sometimes for me to find ideas.

      I'm going to do the same extensive research on each niche, to see if it holds any water.
      I'm sitting in my kitchen. Let's look around. Hmm.... I see:

      1) Water filter
      2) Cookware
      3) Convection toaster
      4) Blender
      5) Plastic containers a la tupperware
      6) Coffee maker/coffee grinder
      7) Countertop, granite countertop
      8) LCD Television
      9) Washer/dryer
      10) Answering machine/cordless phone
      11) Cell phone
      12) Fine china
      13) Marble tile floor
      14) Kitchen table/furniture
      15) A deck
      16) A lawn
      17) My gas barbecue grill
      18) Pella/Anderson glass windows
      19) Carpet
      20) Fireplace
      21) Vacuum cleaner/vacuum cleaner bags
      22) Carpet steamer

      Are you sure you can't find any niches? Really? Imagine if I actually went outside and talked to a few people...

      TomG.
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      • Profile picture of the author Bishop81
        Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

        I'm sitting in my kitchen. Let's look around. Hmm.... I see:

        1) Water filter
        2) Cookware
        3) Convection toaster
        4) Blender
        5) Plastic containers a la tupperware
        6) Coffee maker/coffee grinder
        7) Countertop, granite countertop
        8) LCD Television
        9) Washer/dryer
        10) Answering machine/cordless phone
        11) Cell phone
        12) Fine china
        13) Marble tile floor
        14) Kitchen table/furniture
        15) A deck
        16) A lawn
        17) My gas barbecue grill
        18) Pella/Anderson glass windows
        19) Carpet
        20) Fireplace
        21) Vacuum cleaner/vacuum cleaner bags
        22) Carpet steamer

        Are you sure you can't find any niches? Really? Imagine if I actually went outside and talked to a few people...

        TomG.
        Lol, just chalk it up to being lazy, I guess.

        Thanks for the slap in the face.
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      • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
        Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

        I'm sitting in my kitchen. Let's look around. Hmm.... I see:

        1) Water filter
        2) Cookware
        3) Convection toaster
        4) Blender
        5) Plastic containers a la tupperware
        6) Coffee maker/coffee grinder
        7) Countertop, granite countertop
        8) LCD Television
        9) Washer/dryer
        10) Answering machine/cordless phone
        11) Cell phone
        12) Fine china
        13) Marble tile floor
        14) Kitchen table/furniture
        15) A deck
        16) A lawn
        17) My gas barbecue grill
        18) Pella/Anderson glass windows
        19) Carpet
        20) Fireplace
        21) Vacuum cleaner/vacuum cleaner bags
        22) Carpet steamer

        Are you sure you can't find any niches? Really? Imagine if I actually went outside and talked to a few people...

        TomG.
        I'm glad you weren't sitting in your toilet/bathroom.
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        • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
          I'm not sure if it's been asked/answered, but how do you avoid Google's Smart Pricing?

          My understanding is that if just one of your sites performs poorly, then Google will smart price your entire account downwards. That would surely seriously affect your entire income.
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          • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
            Originally Posted by ripsnorta2 View Post

            I'm not sure if it's been asked/answered, but how do you avoid Google's Smart Pricing?

            My understanding is that if just one of your sites performs poorly, then Google will smart price your entire account downwards. That would surely seriously affect your entire income.
            My method avoids this. I said that if you were using social bookmarking, things like that which bring in low quality traffic, then keep adsense off the sites until you get the rankings. Alternatively, you can do anything you want to supplemental sites which you can use for the right link juice. This would come under the heading "advanced strategies". The supplemental sites can have any monetization method OTHER than adsense.

            TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author dndoseller
    I can confirm what you say.

    There is a HUGE difference in amount you get per click based on the niche.

    For instance, Adwords "web hosting" keywords are 10x the cost of "Free mp3" keywords.

    Also, you need to stick adsense in people's faces. I have seen over and over again that 1 simple large rectange above the fold and above the content can triple CTR.
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  • Profile picture of the author tjk1058
    Tommy,

    Do you do coaching? I am having a serious block lately... ever since my last endeavor that dried up I can't seem to get back into a groove.

    Had the same problem the last time and I broke through it by hiring a coach for a few sessions that walked me through some techniques that made the light go on in my head on how to do certain things.

    I'm more of a show it to me step-by-step guy... so if I can pay someone to give me 1-2-3 steps to follow then it really makes a difference to me.

    If you do coach then PM me and give me some rates...

    TedK
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  • Profile picture of the author Bishop81
    For those of you who think Adsense is too cheap to worry about, I had a $2.55 click in the exercise niche just the other day. Unfortunately, I don't know which page on my site generated the click, but there's definitely money to be made.
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  • Profile picture of the author cookies
    I'm just starting down the path that many of you are already on. Thank you, Tommy, for the lessons...!

    I'm really looking forward to future posts!
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  • Profile picture of the author SebastianJ
    Just found this thread by random luck - great tips and pointers in here!
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  • Profile picture of the author Lucas Adamski
    Really good tips!
    I use CTR theme and it seems to increase my adsense CTR quite dramatically. Click bump is another good theme for adsense sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author c4822
    That's amazing...200 Sites? do you have a life Are all of them producing?
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