Why Starting With Adsense Is A Smart Move For Newbies

Contrary to the headline, my own internet marketing career began quite a few years back building websites to promote software downloads and making a commission. It worked well for awhile when ranking high in Google was simply a matter of keyword stuffing and having a listing in DMOZ. Then my earnings seemed to disappear over night when Google introduced 'supplemental listings'.

I had to start again. Here's what i did.

I removed the affiliate links. I took my websites that were no longer ranking that well and simply began adding content. I searched goarticles for similar content and rewrote articles and added them to the sites.

I used the overture keyword tool for finding searched keywords - these are the days before keyword elite etc.

I started to get some backlinks through directory submissions. The sites began to rise. I added some 'professional' page navigation to make the site look like a proper content based mini site without any monetisation.

I then discovered Adsense in 2004. I manually began adding adsense code to all the pages. Over the course of 2 months, my earnings rose to the level where they had been back in 2002 / 2003 when i was promoting software.

I then added wordpress to each site. Nothing fancy back then, but a good way to add content - which was mainly rehashed relevant press releases i collated through my yahoo RSS reader. Every morning i would spend an hour going through my RSS reader looking for stories and then often cutting and pasting them into the appropriate blog.

Here's What I Learnt And The Reasons Why I say Adsense Is A Good Way To Start.

Content is King. It's a cliche but its a FACT. That means you need your own domain with a niche specific website that has mainly unique content. It can take you less than 2 hours to rewrite 5 articles and put them into a very simple looking website. I do create web2.0 sites but only as linkwheels, they are not my money sites.

Doing the above process is the best way to learn a niche. You need to know the niche to such an extent that you find you are a 'know it all' in many conversations you have with family and friends.

For example, i can bore the pants off my mates talking about muscle building and belly fat loss, whilst i enamor myself to their girlfriends talking about cellulite creams and anti wrinkle creams, weight loss and colon cleansers. I know the niches that well after just putting up a few websites and articles. If you are an offliner, the same applies. When i meet my offline clients after working on some SEO for them, i usually add value with the additional knowledge i have learnt specific to their product or business or competition. This is seriously 'sticky' in terms of them keeping on giving me business.

Now, Google works in the same way. It wants me to the bore the pants off it, telling it things its heard before, but in a new way, supported by links to the content.

If you can create a niche specific minisite, get some 1 way links in, and then add adsense you will start to make money quicker than if you were pressurizing yourself to presell a $35 or $50 product, even if it is just an opt-in offer. Dont you feel the pressure with the CPA stuff ? With adsense monetising your site, and if the site is built correctly, you can easily be making $3 to $5 a day per niche on very little traffic, in my case i hit those numbers with just 40 or 50 visitors.

Now, so you have been doing adsense. What do you do? Here's how i then move things forward. 6 simple steps:

1. Your goal should be 100 UNIQUE VISITORS PER DAY. For me 100 is a magic number. It can move my adsense earnings per site to the $10 a day mark. BUT it also gives me a shot at getting at least one conversion to a CPA or making an affiliate sale from CB. I dont waste too much time adding new content, i build more links through bookmarks, backlinks, video distribution, RSS feeds. Standard stuff which can take you to 1000+ back links in a couple of weeks. If your niche keyword research is right, this should be fine to get you topping Google SERPS. Find the method that works for you to get a minimum 100 visits per day, then repeat in other niches.

2. So, If i am getting AT LEAST 100 uniques a day, i add in a relevant CPA offer. I keep the adsense ads as well. I check my stats for adsense and at the CPA network and see what is happening with conversions and revenue. What i am tracking here is AVERAGE REVENUES. If this reduces average revenues after you have had 3000 visitors, you then drop the adsense. You see what happens with the CPA offer after 3000 visitors. If your average revenue increases over the adsense only revenues, you leave adsense off. You can do the same if the adsense with cpa increases, you still do the test with CPA only and then compare back. YOU PICK THE WINNER.

So you are testing 3 methods - adsense only / adsense with CPA / CPA only.

***a quick sidebar about the picking the winner. This is purely a method which is the same as stock dealers and real estate flippers do. You are looking for incremental average increases in your portfolio. After a period of time you then check which parts of the portfolio are underperforming and get rid of them to re-invest in the ones which are higher performing. In our business, we sell the underperforming sites to invest in creating more of the ones which perform better. In this way you get HIGHER increases in average revenues***

3. From your analytics package you will see a treasure trove of keyword information. Collate 3 months of keywords. Check the most popular and see where you are ranking. You can use Google Webmaster Tools to help with this. Boost your ranking of inner pages by more linking. Add content specific to keywords that people are using to find your site.

4. Now if you have the funds to risk it, take some of your analytics keywords and test with ad buys such as Adwords. build a landing page with same keywords in the title tag and url and promote your CPA or CB product on that page. If you are losing cash, stop. If this article is meaning anything to you, you wont have the funds for a long term period of hit and miss on Adwords.

5. If some of the keywords show potential to be their own mini sites, create them and repeat the process from the start - building traffic and monetising with adsense.

6. With the data you can create your own product. In one niche i took all my profits and created my own product. I did this as soon as i could. The best bit was the amount of information i could provide my affiliates with - and it was already stored on my hardrive. I chose to create a separate domain and sales page for the product and the previous money site simply became a source of backlinks pointing to the new money site (my own product).


So in a roundabout way, that is why i always start monetisation with adsense. I get my money back quicker and the data it provides helps me understand how i am performing in the niche. The process as well means i end up with sites that Google likes and ranks well. With this foundation i can then test CPA and affiliate offers. I can then also have confidence in creating and selling my own product in the niche. I am able to sell the site easily as it makes money and has a ranking. Providing the test data to interested buyers shows you are a serious seller and know what you are doing, but in actual fact it only takes a few minutes to do and doesn't cost you anything. In the last 12 months i made over $10,000 selling just 2 of my lowest performing sites.

Try not to get your head turned by all the different ways to 'make money online'. The above is my strategy and my method. It works for me and provides me the basis to monetise my content, sell services offline and cash out if i want to.

Merry Christmas And Happy New Year!