How to earn 5-figures per month (stable income) from Adsense + CPA using SEO

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  • SEO
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I've been seeing some really good success lately and wanted to share a little of how I'm doing it. I'm hoping someone will get something from this...

First, I put this in the Adsense forum, but I've been earning through Adsense + CPA offers mostly through traffic driven by SEO. I'm not sure why people usually think they need to build either an Adsense site or a CPA site, you can put both on the same site.

The same goes for affiliate offers.

You can really mix and match things however you want. The main point is, if you build a site and get traffic to it, then you can and should monetize it with anything and everything that makes you money.

There's plenty of room on one site for good content plus several ads. You might be thinking it won't work, but it's working great for me. I think you'd be surprised how much advertising we're all willing to put up with to read an interesting article.

Having more than one revenue stream per site is also nice because then you don't have to worry about losing your single source of income (like getting the plug pulled on Adsense or a particular CPA offer). It's no fun to worry and as you earn more and more the stress from this only gets worse.

So we all know the first thing to do is to pick a market.

My advice is to pick one where you can earn from at least 2 different advertising sources. So Adsense and maybe some affiliate offers. For example, the registry cleaner market is a good one. You can get good Adsense earnings because there are a ton of different companies who've created registry cleaners that are marketing their applications on Google Adwords. So if you build a site on this topic you'll have no problem loading it up with Adsense ads that will pay a decent amount.

You can also join the affiliate programs people are running and earn through them. And the nice thing is there are a ton of different affiliate programs in this market.

So I consider this a great market because if you take the time to build a nice site and get traffic to it you can make plenty of money from it. And your income won't come to a screeching halt if an affiliate goes out of business or you happened to lose your Adsense account because there's plenty of other advertisers to showcase on your site. So once you have a steady stream of traffic, it's going to continue to make you money.

Along the same lines as registry cleaners, spyware removers, and antivirus software are all also great niches to build sites around. And the nice thing is they all kind of go together so if you got really ambitious you could cross promote all these things on one site. They're all in the computer utility market and anyone interested in one thing would likely be interested in another. So there's practically limitless growth for you in a market like this.

Again, to boil it down to two things, you want:

1. Lots of advertisers you can promote on your site.
2. Limitless growth (an extra, it's not absolutely necessary, but it's nice when you're in a market like this because then you can scale things to obscene levels if you want).

Health and weight loss are also great markets, there's a ton of niche markets within them with all sorts of advertising opportunities from Adsense, affiliate programs, and CPA offers.

The main thing is you want to be able to fill your site up and have no fear that you're going to build up a site complete with traffic and not be able to monetize it. But there's a ton of markets like this, think about things you see advertised all over from loans to car insurance to beauty products and online dating. Even internet marketing fits well into this category.

Anyway, once you have your market picked you're going to need to do keyword research.

Don't bother with SEO if you aren't willing to do this.

Figure out what keywords people are searching for and incorporate those keywords into your content. There's been a million threads started here on on-site optimization so you should be all set with that.

I start with small sites to begin with, but then grow them bigger. I like to have about 10 pages of unique content on my sites before I start promoting them. Even if you can't hire a writer to outsource this to, writing 10 pages isn't that difficult. If you do your keyword research right then you'll know exactly what people are searching for on your topic and just that will make the writing a lot easier. You already have an outline.

Then you need to go spend time searching online collecting research, it's like writing a school paper. I know no one really liked writing school papers, but I'm sure you managed it and it definitely wasn't something you got paid for. Just imagine, a 10 page 'paper' that you put together for your site could end up earning you $1,000 a month or a whole lot more so that should help you get through this part.

Again, doing the keyword research will really help because just by including longer keyphrases people are really searching in your content for you'll get some traffic. If you do all the other on-page stuff as well like title and meta tags, internal linking and RSS feeds then you'll see even better results.

I just want to point out that I don't go after an exact match domain. I target lots of different keyphrases, another part of the 'I don't want to lose all my income overnight' strategy. I'd like it to be stable for a long time.

By targeting several keyphrases instead of just one, you're going to continue to get traffic from SEO over the long-term. It's not dependent on one phrase, so you don't need to worry about algorithm changes for that one phrase knocking you out or a competitor overtaking your spot.

I just pick a domain that fits the site I'm creating. I'll usually try to put a related keyphrase in the domain, but there are times I don't even worry about it. Like my SEO site does have the word 'seo' in it, but I'm getting good rankings for words like 'seo training' and 'search engine optimization tutorial'.

So if I were building a site on antivirus software I might use the domain; antivirustips.com or antivirussoftwareonline.com - just something relevant. I really think exact match domains are over-rated, but know some people are doing very well with them. The problem is most of the time people building sites like this are only going after one keyphrase on their site and it's kind of limiting for them.

But even if you have an exact match domain and it's doing well for you, there's no reason you can't find related keyphrases, write content around it, and add it to your site. It'll probably only increase your earnings and help keep them stable for longer.

Anyway, once you have your site put together with 10 pages of unique content written around keyphrases people are actually searching for, then you need to do some link building. Again, it's been discussed here time and time again so I'm not going to get into it too much.

Directory submissions, press releases, article marketing, 3rd party sites, bookmarking, RSS feed submission, contacting webmasters - all that stuff works. It's boring and time consuming, but even if you can't afford to pay someone you *can* do this. One thing I notice is a lot of people do a little bit of this and then give up.

You can't give up with this stuff! If you do there's not going to be any money in it for you.

The only thing I can say about how much link building you've got to do is if you aren't seeing much traffic, you didn't do enough. There's no secret method that all of us earning money are using that we're not telling you about. We're just doing this stuff the same as you except we're doing a lot more of it than you're doing.

The only thing I want to point out with link building is that you really need to get links from lots of different sources. Even if you go to town with one of the link building tactics, you might not see the results you would if you got links from a variety of sources. Again, that's another way to help make sure your income is stable so that one change in the Google algorithm isn't going to send you crying.

For me, once I've got my 10 pages of content and have done some link building I'll start seeing traffic. From that little trickle of traffic I start building momentum and keep going.

It might take you 3 months to see a few thousand unique visitors a month with this. It might take you a lot less or even longer, but don't give up with it and you'll get where you want to be.

I like to put Adsense or one affiliate/CPA offer on my pages to start with while I'm working on the link buidling. It's really nice if the ad itself has a built in tracking feature, then you can just login to Adsense or whatever and see how many unique visitors you're getting along with what you're earning. If Adsense pays out well in the market then I'll usually just start with it because it's fast and easy to add to all the pages of your sites plus they track all kinds of things.

There's no reason to spend hours on conversions when you don't have much traffic. If you're in that boat, then your time is probably better spent getting more traffic. That's my philosophy at least.

Just build a site with 2 columns and wrap the 250 x 250 or the 336 x 280 text block into your content. You can put the big vertical banner on the other sidebar and/or some navigation to start with. Later, when your site is bringing in more traffic you can add in affiliate/CPA offers into that sidebar and even start testing which formats people are clicking on most. That's a real smart way to increase your earnings without doing a whole lot of work.

For me, if I'm seeing income from my site, then I'm excited and I start coming up with new ideas for more content. If all you do is write 10 pages and do some link building and you even get to $100 or so a month then what would happen if you kept going with that same site? I know I've been lulled into thinking I'd rather start a new site, but every time I continue on with the old sites I'm always shocked at how much more money I start making.

And it's way easier.

It's almost like if you were a builder and you're trying to build a small housing development with 12 homes on a block vs. 12 homes spread out all across your state. The builder trying to create the housing development only needs to contact one city for all the permits and can keep all his equipment in one place. The guy spreading things out has to do practically 12 times as much work.

This goes the same for a domain. You've got all the housekeeping stuff like your terms, privacy, contact us, about us page all done on that first domain. You've got some preliminary link building done so now the search engine spiders come back to your site every once in a while and check for new content. If you just decide to build another site somewhere else you have to start completely over.

So leveraging is great.

So I go find more keywords to write related content around and put that on my site. I also do more link building. The traffic to my sites snowballs and I get a minimum of 10,000 uniques per month on up which usually brings in at least a couple thousand dollars a month every month per site (some are much more). From my experience, even just 50 good, well researched articles written around keyphrase people are searching for can get you to this level with some decent backlinking.

From there increasing conversions is a priority. You can do this with an ad tracker like openx.org and add in related CPA/affiliate offers. Test the offers. But I don't waste time with this until I see a fair amount of traffic.

Another thing is even though my sites are only Adsense/CPA/affiliate sites, I try to start a newsletter of some sort. Then instead of just having people come to my site once and click on ads and go, I keep recycling them.

They come, sign-up for my newsletter and keep getting valuable content from me weekly. Sometimes they click on my ads, sometimes they don't, but this drastically helps keep my income stable. Although I should start a newsletter immediately, I usually wait until I see about 10,000 uniques per month to do it because it takes some time to get it together.

The newsletter is usually just short bits of related content with links back to my site. You can also throw in a newsletter issue that's just a CPA or affiliate ad too every once in a while, but I do try to provide valuable content with them most of the time.

Anyway, I think it's time to wrap this up. There are a ton of different ways to make money online, I realize mine is just one.

It's really important for me to have a high, stable income and this is my tested blueprint for getting it. It's working great for me so I hope it helps a few people out.

Lisa
#5figure #adsense #cpa #earn #income #month #seo #stable
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by MichaelParsons View Post

      Great Post! Sound no BS advice.

      "Its boring and time consuming:... LOL YEP!
      Hey, I should have used that for the headline:

      Boring, Time Consuming Method for Earning 5-Figures on Autopilot, Each and Every Month!

      The time consuming and autopilot seem to contradict, but it's truthful because you only have to do the labor one time and then you keep getting paid for it.

      But yeah, it's like watching paint dry sometimes (which is probably why I came here and made the post in the first place)!

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Jacob Martus
    Originally Posted by lisaann View Post

    I've been seeing some really good success lately and wanted to share a little of how I'm doing it. I'm hoping someone will get something from this...

    There's no secret method that all of us earning money are using that we're not telling you about. We're just doing this stuff the same as you except we're doing a lot more of it than you're doing.

    Lisa
    Great article Lisa and you hit all of the most important aspects of building a successful publishing business.

    I try to drill home the point whenever I can that fundamentally, Adsense is simple. It's about keyword optimized content and backlinks. That's it! Do enough of each and you will see good results.

    Anyway, great post and I wish I had read this 9 months ago when I was just getting started. It would have saved me several months of trying to find that big secret.
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by Jacob Martus View Post

      Great article Lisa and you hit all of the most important aspects of building a successful publishing business.

      I try to drill home the point whenever I can that fundamentally, Adsense is simple. It's about keyword optimized content and backlinks. That's it! Do enough of each and you will see good results.

      Anyway, great post and I wish I had read this 9 months ago when I was just getting started. It would have saved me several months of trying to find that big secret.
      Hi Jacob,

      Glad you're seeing some success! It really is a simple business model, but I fell into the trap of trying to find the 'secrets' too. I wasted a couple of years on that a long while ago so you're doing great to be out of that stage in 9 months and already earning.

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author mejohn
    Good job! I have been picking away at Adsense sites for about a year now, and just hit $300 last month. I look forward to making 5 digits eventually.
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    • Profile picture of the author joesemo
      Great Stuff Lisa,

      I am slowly getting over the information overload part of my learning curve, and everything that you wrote is what I have slowly come to realize as the truth.

      Getting motivated to get the work done is what is slowing me down at the moment.

      Concentrating on larger sites that actually offer some information that the searcher is looking for is the way to go. Google wants sites with plenty of content, and actually working on less sites that have more content will make it simpler in the long run.

      What you have written should be a guide for those that keep looking for the fast and easy way to make money online.

      You can make money, but there is plenty of work and research that needs to be done.

      Once again, Thank You for the information.
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    • Profile picture of the author LacyJ
      This is a great post! I have to admit, I fell into the "gimmick" trap for quite some time when I started with IM. It wasn't until I did the 30 Day Challenge a couple of years ago that I really "got it" about niche blogs, backlinking, and all that.

      Oh how I wish I could have figured it out sooner.
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    lovely post, but is there any main reason to have 10 pages of content 1st?
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  • Profile picture of the author lisaann
    Joesemo - motivation is still hard for me. It's hard to do the work at times, but if I need to take a break I do and then I get back to it.

    Actionplanbiz - It works a lot better to have 10 pages of content. I like to build momentum. If I just put out a one page site and then start building backlinks to it, I'll likely get 10 x less traffic than if I started out with 10 pages.

    It's really hard to be motivated if all you're earning is 10 cents a day from Adsense or making one affiliate sale every 3 months. I've found I'm practically setting myself up for failure if I don't start gaining momentum from traffic and sales as soon as possible.

    Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author AdamSlade88
    Hi Lisa,

    Do you use wordpress for your sites or just plain html sites?
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by acur042 View Post

      Hi Lisa,

      Do you use wordpress for your sites or just plain html sites?
      I know how to use dreamweaver so a lot of the time I just use that, but I don't think it matters much. Wordpress is great for building sites if you already know how to use it.

      The software/tool I use to build my sites is not why I've been successful; if anything, it's the keyword research, building lots of content for users, and a ton of link building.

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Spot the Ball
    Good to see you posting Lisaan,

    Wish you would post more, you are one of an extremely small group I think doesnt talk BS and truly tells it like it is without all the unnececsary fluff.

    Anyone else reading this .. take note, there's gold in Lisaan"s words.

    Plus she has a super sexy voice

    Am I allowed to say that !
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by Spot the Ball View Post

      Good to see you posting Lisaan,

      Wish you would post more, you are one of an extremely small group I think doesnt talk BS and truly tells it like it is without all the unnececsary fluff.

      Anyone else reading this .. take note, there's gold in Lisaan"s words.

      Plus she has a super sexy voice

      Am I allowed to say that !
      Thanks, but it made me blush though!

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author David Bleidt
    great. thanks for this share.

    David
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  • Profile picture of the author jesda
    it is a nice inspiration for me to look into and i am a kind of quick give up if i dont see any success immedaitely. i will try to keep things up till i got success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Natlex
    Great post, thanks for sharing. Would you be willing to share information on some of your site layout? Like for navigation besides in text links do you have a menu at the top since you have a CPA/affiliate banner on the right or left sidebar? Or do you have a navigation side bar (for example) on the right and CPA banner on the left and no menu under your header?
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by Natlex View Post

      Great post, thanks for sharing. Would you be willing to share information on some of your site layout? Like for navigation besides in text links do you have a menu at the top since you have a CPA/affiliate banner on the right or left sidebar? Or do you have a navigation side bar (for example) on the right and CPA banner on the left and no menu under your header?
      Hi,

      Sure, I always have a menu on the top (sometimes two rows of them if need be) and then sometimes I will have a menu under the ads on the sidebar.

      So if I have categories up top (red, blue, green), then within each category the index page has a list of all the articles within it (red blocks, red toys, red socks).

      I might also have navigation with those links under ads in the sidebar. I also try to have related articles under the content so that also helps link things together even more. And sometimes I'll even have links inside the content to relevant pages like they do on wikepedia. There's also an RSS feed which helps link everything together as well. So the sites are linked together like crazy.

      I have done 3 column layouts, but I've recently noticed I get better conversions for my ads if I drop the 3rd column (which was mostly a menu). I think having that 3rd column just gave people more options to not click on my ads or opt-in so I've removed it on all my sites.

      Basically, the layout is a lot like a yahoo page. Here's an example:

      Ex-French trader must pay $6.7 billion for fraud - Yahoo! News

      Where they have the photo on the left wrapped in the text along with a few ads is where I'll wrap my Adsense block. Instead of top stories on the top right I put my opt-in box for a newsletter and/or CPA ad (sometimes one right under the other). Sometimes another ad block and then if I want a menu there I can squeeze it in at the bottom.

      Under the content comes 'related articles' plus sometimes even another CPA ad. I've also got some sites where I put an Adsense text link menu at the top before the headline. So I have ads everywhere, but it turns out still looking fairly uncluttered (Esp. if you stick with a 2 column layout).

      There might be higher converting layouts, but this one works and it looks good so I've converted all my sites to something like this.

      I hope that helps.

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Jerry Tellier
    Hi Lisaann,

    Thanks very much for that informative posting. As a newbie here to this forum and just trying for the first time to build a site, it was great timing (on my part) to come across your posting.

    Question: whey you talk about pages, what length or word count are you talking about per page?

    When you start a new page, is it a continuation of the same article or are you
    starting a new subject/topic with a link in the menu bar?
    In other words, will your first page be as long as it takes to complete the
    specific subject you are writing about, or do you break it off after so many
    words and at your cutoff point you have a "continue" link?

    Thanks again for your article.
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by Jerry Tellier View Post

      Hi Lisaann,

      Thanks very much for that informative posting. As a newbie here to this forum and just trying for the first time to build a site, it was great timing (on my part) to come across your posting.

      Question: whey you talk about pages, what length or word count are you talking about per page?

      When you start a new page, is it a continuation of the same article or are you
      starting a new subject/topic with a link in the menu bar?
      In other words, will your first page be as long as it takes to complete the
      specific subject you are writing about, or do you break it off after so many
      words and at your cutoff point you have a "continue" link?

      Thanks again for your article.
      Hi Jerry,

      Great! I'm glad if my post helps you get started.

      My pages are anywhere from 250 to 750 words. Most of them are 500 words or so. I put one complete article on one page.

      All the best...

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas De
    This method works. I have several websites like this running, but I also would consider to add some Micro Niche Sites to the portfolio, as they have several advantages too.

    1. If one looses in search engine traffic, you hopefully have 50 websites more and so it doesnt hurt that much.

    2. You could use the same backlink sources over and over again, without searching for new ones everytime. But mix it also with new ones!

    3. They often rank much quicker in search engines.

    Nevertheless, I use to have a few bigger projects too, as they are more fun and there is something like passion. It´s nice to get 1000$ from one project, but it´s also nice to share the risk of beeing delistet over several projects.
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by Thomas De View Post

      This method works. I have several websites like this running, but I also would consider to add some Micro Niche Sites to the portfolio, as they have several advantages too.

      1. If one looses in search engine traffic, you hopefully have 50 websites more and so it doesnt hurt that much.

      2. You could use the same backlink sources over and over again, without searching for new ones everytime. But mix it also with new ones!

      3. They often rank much quicker in search engines.

      Nevertheless, I use to have a few bigger projects too, as they are more fun and there is something like passion. It´s nice to get 1000$ from one project, but it´s also nice to share the risk of beeing delistet over several projects.
      Hi Thomas,

      I could really knock heads with you on this

      If you've got a minisite earning money I think you're crazy not to build it out more. How would you like 20 - 50 sites earning you about $1,000 a month each?

      Then you have several projects with everything all spread out, and they're all earning a lot of money each.

      I've never seen the point of having a site that only brings in $100 a month and I think that's why I'm crushing it compared to most people. That one twist in the end-goal makes a big difference in how you approach everything you do.

      In fact, I dare those of you reading this to add a zero to your end-goal and let me know how it affects your mindset a few weeks from now. It changes everything because you are forced to think bigger. Just let me know if you take me up on my dare!

      My sites all start at just a few dollars a month, and I even have a bunch of them at that level right now, but I'm working toward making them *all* big earners.

      Once you have the site started, keep building momentum, there's no reason to stop.

      You can branch out with all kinds of content on the site and create something that's really valuable in the long-term.

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author biggame5
    Thank you for the great info. I will definitely check out your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author jons
    Great post. thanks for sharing information and its really helpful.
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  • Profile picture of the author DNChamp
    will save to read later
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    • Profile picture of the author adamcm
      Great post, really enjoyed the read.

      You mentioned that you didn't always get the exact URL for some of your niche sites. I assume that means that you are using the targetted keyword in your anchor text of your articles, blog comments, and directory submissions? How many links do you find on average it takes to start ranking where you want to be? I've only submitted some of my sites to EZine and Squidoo, but I think most people submit to many more.

      Do you find the directory submission submissions work well? I submitted one of my sites through Digg a long time ago, but when I look up my backlinks it is not included. Just wondering if these social sites provide any sort of link juice.

      Thanks!
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      • Profile picture of the author lisaann
        Originally Posted by adamcm View Post

        Great post, really enjoyed the read.

        You mentioned that you didn't always get the exact URL for some of your niche sites. I assume that means that you are using the targetted keyword in your anchor text of your articles, blog comments, and directory submissions? How many links do you find on average it takes to start ranking where you want to be? I've only submitted some of my sites to EZine and Squidoo, but I think most people submit to many more.

        Do you find the directory submission submissions work well? I submitted one of my sites through Digg a long time ago, but when I look up my backlinks it is not included. Just wondering if these social sites provide any sort of link juice.

        Thanks!
        Yes, that's the basics of how SEO works. The domain name is only one factor and it's very limiting if all you're going to do is buy a domain name for a single keyphrase and try to get high rankings for that.

        You can get high rankings for 100's and 1,000's of keywords for a site (it's really limitless) if you do proper SEO (on-page and link building).

        There's no average to 'how many links' it will take to rank. If you're not ranking then you didn't do enough and you need to keep going.

        All the best...

        Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Natlex
    Thanks for the very detailed version about how you do the layout of your pages. For anyone not sure about lisann I can definitely vouch that her inline seo course works really well if your ready to put many months into this ( it's maybe slow to start with but I feel like the sky is the limit 6 months after first doing it)
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  • Profile picture of the author TSDMike
    Hi Lisa,

    This is truly a brilliant, well written piece. There's much value to be had in every word. Thanks for taking the time.

    MJ

    P.S. You should offer coaching
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by TSDMike View Post

      Hi Lisa,

      This is truly a brilliant, well written piece. There's much value to be had in every word. Thanks for taking the time.

      MJ

      P.S. You should offer coaching
      Thanks MJ, it means a lot!

      For now I'm just going to keep going with what I've got, it's going great and I still have a lot of freedom. I'd be afraid how much of my time coaching would take, but was feeling like I should at least share some of what I'm doing.

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Barboza
    Thanks for the inspiring post. Two questions comes to my mind:

    1. How do you choose which niches to enter?
    2. Which CPA companies are you using?
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by AlexBarboza View Post

      Thanks for the inspiring post. Two questions comes to my mind:

      1. How do you choose which niches to enter?
      2. Which CPA companies are you using?
      I covered most of how I'm picking niches in the main post, I think the main point is that there are lots of advertisers to choose from.

      You need to go to a site like offervault and find CPA (or even affiliate) companies that have related offers to your market. You can even just start with cj.com, they have a ton of offers right there.

      Traffic is the first thing to worry about. I'll often just put Adsense or one ad on the site until I get enough traffic to mess with finding the highest converting advertisers.

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Wayne-JJ
    Thanks for the informative post Lisa! This would have been an excellent WSO that we are getting for free! cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author RhythmClick
    Hi Lisa

    Thanks for the post, there is a lot of great information there.

    Can I ask, when you have the traffic and move into optimizing conversion being a priority, what sort of click through rate do you typically hope to achieve through your optimization.

    Also, would you say a lot of the success in monetizing your traffic would be due to finding the best CPA/affiliate offers for the niche.

    Thanks heaps.
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by RhythmClick View Post

      Hi Lisa

      Thanks for the post, there is a lot of great information there.

      Can I ask, when you have the traffic and move into optimizing conversion being a priority, what sort of click through rate do you typically hope to achieve through your optimization.

      Also, would you say a lot of the success in monetizing your traffic would be due to finding the best CPA/affiliate offers for the niche.

      Thanks heaps.
      I use Adsense + CPA offers so it's not as simple as a 'click thru rate' per page. Just as high as you can get so you'd want to keep testing things over time.

      If you use Adsense then you automatically get related ads on your site, but yes, you do need to keep your other offers targeted or you won't earn from them.

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author jhonsean
    First I want to congratulate you for the business achievement. Its an Informative story that you've posted it will be an reminders to other business related fields that SEO is an effective tool for online business.
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  • Profile picture of the author dagaul101
    Impressive stats, what is the largest newsletter subscription you have got?Do you use Aweber for your mailings?
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by dagaul101 View Post

      Impressive stats, what is the largest newsletter subscription you have got?Do you use Aweber for your mailings?
      They are pretty small right not because I focused on building up the traffic through SEO first. I only recently started adding newsletters, so you can definitely make this kind of money without building a list.

      I know I should have started list building earlier though.

      My income has not decreased at all even after adding opt-in forms to the pages. I was surprised about this, one site even has the ultimate footer ad on it that pops up everytime someone visits the page and that didn't even change the Adsense CTR. So I should have done that a lot sooner because it will only help to make the income more stable,

      Thanks,

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author whtever2045
    Originally Posted by lisaann View Post

    I've been seeing some really good success lately and wanted to share a little of how I'm doing it. I'm hoping someone will get something from this...

    Lisa

    Thank you Lisa,this is very inspiring!
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  • Profile picture of the author hikamendoz
    Great article............if you can highlight more on your efforts realted to link building, that would be of much help.
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  • Profile picture of the author jhonsean
    Its an good story to inspire other people to involve in online business using SEO techniques, i think it will be only stable if the maintenance of your system is active.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris-
    Great post, thanks!!

    I need to learn SO much, yet it's difficult to know what to ask, because I don't know what I'm doing so wrong!! You say that there's no big "secrets" to your phenomenal success and I can't see how what I am doing that's all that much different to what you're doing, yet I am merely making a few dollars a month, so there must be some vast differences somewhere! We superficially seem to be following similar methods, yet the results are thousands of times different! I am putting a few hours work per day into this, and I doubt you're putting a few thousand hours of work per day in personally . . . did you buy 1000's of hours of other people's time per day by outsourcing, to get to this point???

    I've got what I'd call a "high-quality" (although a relatively low-traffic niche) site (with AdSense and top quality affiliate products for sale) that I've put perhaps 200 hours of work into over several years, and that makes about $10 dollars a month now. I've had several sites for a year aimed at particular high-paying AdSense niche-areas (which have huge traffic available), averaging more than 100 reasonable quality articles per site (adding new articles every few days), and they will, in a year, barely make back the price of buying the domains. I've done a variety of back-link building efforts (including UAW) for them all. Those sites are all aimed at a range of related keywords as you recommend.

    So where's the vast difference in results between what I do and what you do, comming from? I have no idea, and don't know how to find out.

    I am gradually learning a few little tips here and there, such as your advice on doing a wide variety of backlinking types . . . I read something similar recently on how links should appear natural to Google, so I could improve what I'm doing on that . . . I've been doing too much article back-linking compared to other methods, and doing things in a way that leave an obvious footprint. So I can see that there are things like that, and probably a bunch of other small improvements that I could make as I learn more, but I can't currently see where I am going to get the information that's going to make what I do get results a thousand times different . . . that's presumably got to be some HUGE secrets to make that much difference, yet where are they??? You say they don't exist, so how logically can I find a way to get a thousand times difference in results, from doing pretty much the same as I am doing now????????

    How do I get from where I am to where you are?

    The only thing that comes to mind currently, is . . . is there some point at which the effects of back-linking efforts become exponential? For example, if 10 more articles bring in a few more visitors and a few more cents per month, I am assuming that 100 articles will bring in 10 times as many visitors and cents, but is that linear assumption in correct? One of the problems I have is that I write 10 more articles (put them on the site, upload them to EZA, send them out via UAW), and that makes me a few cents more per month, yet would cost at least 50 dollars to outsource, so doing more of the same method which so obviously isn't working effectively for me seems pointless. So, is there some point at which the results from backlinking obviously becomes exponential in effect, and if so, how to tell when one will get to that point?

    I am at the point where continuing to do the same things which obviously are not working for me, seems a waste of time, yet I am not finding information on how to make a big difference to anything I am doing.

    Any clues on how to improve, will be much appreciated

    chris-
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    • Profile picture of the author msalada
      Thanks for a great post!

      I am pretty much following this method and have several sites that are making more in revenue each month. I feel that once I get these sites to 50+ articles with backlinking, I will be making $800-$1,000 per month.

      When you get a site $1,000 a month and you want to concentrate your efforts on your next project, what do you do to maintain your current site?
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by Chris- View Post

      Great post, thanks!!

      I need to learn SO much, yet it's difficult to know what to ask, because I don't know what I'm doing so wrong!! You say that there's no big "secrets" to your phenomenal success and I can't see how what I am doing that's all that much different to what you're doing, yet I am merely making a few dollars a month, so there must be some vast differences somewhere! We superficially seem to be following similar methods, yet the results are thousands of times different! I am putting a few hours work per day into this, and I doubt you're putting a few thousand hours of work per day in personally . . . did you buy 1000's of hours of other people's time per day by outsourcing, to get to this point???

      I've got what I'd call a "high-quality" (although a relatively low-traffic niche) site (with AdSense and top quality affiliate products for sale) that I've put perhaps 200 hours of work into over several years, and that makes about $10 dollars a month now. I've had several sites for a year aimed at particular high-paying AdSense niche-areas (which have huge traffic available), averaging more than 100 reasonable quality articles per site (adding new articles every few days), and they will, in a year, barely make back the price of buying the domains. I've done a variety of back-link building efforts (including UAW) for them all. Those sites are all aimed at a range of related keywords as you recommend.

      So where's the vast difference in results between what I do and what you do, comming from? I have no idea, and don't know how to find out.

      I am gradually learning a few little tips here and there, such as your advice on doing a wide variety of backlinking types . . . I read something similar recently on how links should appear natural to Google, so I could improve what I'm doing on that . . . I've been doing too much article back-linking compared to other methods, and doing things in a way that leave an obvious footprint. So I can see that there are things like that, and probably a bunch of other small improvements that I could make as I learn more, but I can't currently see where I am going to get the information that's going to make what I do get results a thousand times different . . . that's presumably got to be some HUGE secrets to make that much difference, yet where are they??? You say they don't exist, so how logically can I find a way to get a thousand times difference in results, from doing pretty much the same as I am doing now????????

      How do I get from where I am to where you are?

      The only thing that comes to mind currently, is . . . is there some point at which the effects of back-linking efforts become exponential? For example, if 10 more articles bring in a few more visitors and a few more cents per month, I am assuming that 100 articles will bring in 10 times as many visitors and cents, but is that linear assumption in correct? One of the problems I have is that I write 10 more articles (put them on the site, upload them to EZA, send them out via UAW), and that makes me a few cents more per month, yet would cost at least 50 dollars to outsource, so doing more of the same method which so obviously isn't working effectively for me seems pointless. So, is there some point at which the results from backlinking obviously becomes exponential in effect, and if so, how to tell when one will get to that point?

      I am at the point where continuing to do the same things which obviously are not working for me, seems a waste of time, yet I am not finding information on how to make a big difference to anything I am doing.

      Any clues on how to improve, will be much appreciated

      chris-
      Sorry you're not seeing much success. I can guarantee you don't know proper SEO methods if you've done that much work and get very little traffic to your sites.

      I spend hours figuring out my keywords. That leads to content that I know will attract visitors and allows me to build links for keywords that are going to actually pull in some traffic.

      I would stop what you've been doing since it's not working and try to actually analyze what the problem is. That's the best way to spend your energy right now.

      For example, do you have a list of keywords that you're trying to optimize your sites for? You must if you're doing SEO or like I mentioned earlier, there's no point.

      If you've got a keyword list, it should be mapped out where certain keywords are being targeted on certain pages. If you have this then you can see, 'hey does my page actually rank for these keywords?'. If it is then 'are people searching for these keywords?'.

      When you've got both these right the traffic just floods in. Magnify it with 10 keywords per page and 100's of pages and you should be seeing minimum of 10,000 unique visitors per month. It's more a science than an art at this point.

      So if you do that right it's going to work, do it wrong and I can see how frustrated you'd get.

      I'd bet that's what's going on because otherwise this should be working better for you.

      I said there's no secrets, but there's definitely a plan and method behind SEO and you need to follow it if you want results.

      All the best...

      Lisa
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris-
        Thanks very much indeed for your advice, Lisa.

        chris-
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        • Profile picture of the author jimkirk1943
          Hi Lisa,

          When you first start your new site and set out with your keyword research can i ask what is the lowest `exact` monthly searchers you will not go below ?

          So for you to write a page for your new site what will the exact monthly search be for it to be worth your time and what will you not go below ?

          Also what CPC are you looking for and will also not go below ?

          Thanks Jim
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          • Profile picture of the author lisaann
            Originally Posted by jimkirk1943 View Post

            Hi Lisa,

            When you first start your new site and set out with your keyword research can i ask what is the lowest `exact` monthly searchers you will not go below ?

            So for you to write a page for your new site what will the exact monthly search be for it to be worth your time and what will you not go below ?

            Also what CPC are you looking for and will also not go below ?

            Thanks Jim
            Hi Jim,

            I find lots of keywords and organize them by pages. So each page targets more than one keyword. I wouldn't go below a few searches per day or about 100 searches per month in most cases.

            Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Cunningham
    Thanks Lisa for the great post. When I was building my first ecommerce site it went a lot slower than I had envisioned, but eventually it got to the point where it's pulling in a decent income month after month. When all of the SEO work I learned doing that site, I'm looking to create some sites with Adsense and CPA. Your post was insightful and inspiring!

    Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author mascomasco
    Thanks Lisa for this useful post.A question is that what range of number of searches per month do you go for and how you size up keyword competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author Byrt M
    Lisa
    Everything you wrote is so foundational and true. It’s the doing and doing the right things that’s making it a slow process for me.

    Writing quality content is my strength, but I wished discipline was too but I am getting there. Thanks for a great post, keep it up!
    Byrt
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    • Profile picture of the author SydneyFreelance
      Hi Lisa,

      I must say that your explanation and level of detail is fantastic and I enjoyed reading every part of it. Many may write up similar 'stories' on here and leave it as is.

      Can I ask, how did you come across something like this? Have you heard of Cary Bergeron?

      He may be around the forums (I may have read a post of post or two from him in the WSO section). He released an ebook on setting up niche sites to earn adsense income. I believe he is currently earning about 16k a month.

      Just wondering on the viability of such sites for long-term income...
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      • Profile picture of the author lisaann
        Originally Posted by SydneyFreelance View Post

        Hi Lisa,

        I must say that your explanation and level of detail is fantastic and I enjoyed reading every part of it. Many may write up similar 'stories' on here and leave it as is.

        Can I ask, how did you come across something like this? Have you heard of Cary Bergeron?

        He may be around the forums (I may have read a post of post or two from him in the WSO section). He released an ebook on setting up niche sites to earn adsense income. I believe he is currently earning about 16k a month.

        Just wondering on the viability of such sites for long-term income...
        I started learning SEO in about 2001 and was able to quit my job a few years later. So I'd say it's pretty long term

        My first site (built nearly a decade ago) still has top rankings and gets a ton of traffic.

        All the best...

        Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author Tannerews80
    This is a great post! I have to admit, One of the best. Thanks!
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    • Profile picture of the author inamorato
      Lisa, thanks for your tips. They are very useful to me and surely to every reader.
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      • Profile picture of the author Peter Lee
        Hi Lisa,

        I like to ask you 2 questions and look forward to what you have to say:

        1. I remember reading in one of your reports that a lot of your sites have related topics. Since you now have more than 20 sites, have you ever linked any of these related websites together. If so I like to ask although by doing so it does provide more information to the visitor searching for information which is good, but does it pose any risk to do this as Ive been told it's not good in the eyes of Google to link to a second domain under the same IP address in the same server. I like to hear your views even if you are not practicing.

        2. For my keyword research, I use Micro Niche Finder, Adwords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker and I make sure any one keyword phrase I found has somewhat consistent trend shown in these 3 tools. That means if only two tools tell me there are good searches (little competition) and one tells me no searches, I will not consider the keyword. I do this because it's known that some tools don't show very accurate numbers so relying on one tool is not good enough and therefore I used the results of 3 different keyword research tools. Just like to find out what tools you used to do your keyword research and how you make use of them to get your keywords.
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        • Profile picture of the author lisaann
          Originally Posted by Peter Lee View Post

          Hi Lisa,

          I like to ask you 2 questions and look forward to what you have to say:

          1. I remember reading in one of your reports that a lot of your sites have related topics. Since you now have more than 20 sites, have you ever linked any of these related websites together. If so I like to ask although by doing so it does provide more information to the visitor searching for information which is good, but does it pose any risk to do this as Ive been told it's not good in the eyes of Google to link to a second domain under the same IP address in the same server. I like to hear your views even if you are not practicing.

          2. For my keyword research, I use Micro Niche Finder, Adwords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker and I make sure any one keyword phrase I found has somewhat consistent trend shown in these 3 tools. That means if only two tools tell me there are good searches (little competition) and one tells me no searches, I will not consider the keyword. I do this because it's known that some tools don't show very accurate numbers so relying on one tool is not good enough and therefore I used the results of 3 different keyword research tools. Just like to find out what tools you used to do your keyword research and how you make use of them to get your keywords.
          Hello Peter,

          I don't link my sites together, there's not much point and I get great results without needing to rely on backlinks from my own sites.

          I use wordtracker, but any other tool is fine, you just want a big list of keywords and then to take the time to organize them.

          Sounds like you're spending way too much time verifying search volume. It's importantto pick phrases that are being searched for, but if you'd target more keywords instead of trying to find a 'golden one', you'd see that the type of analysis you're doing is a big time drain. But if it's working for you that's great.

          Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author James Hussey
    What would you know, Lisa - you're only making $10k+ a month...

    thanks for your sound advice - you've been one of my favorite voices in the industry for this past year. You rock, Lisa.
    Signature
    My Internet Marketing
    Failure > Success Story

    Author of Duct Tape SEO, CJ Tactics and the new Tidal Wave Traffic.
    SEO strategist and analyst for hire.
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  • Profile picture of the author deyesborn
    There is no doubt about what you said in your article.
    Good and informative article
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    • Profile picture of the author inter123
      Hi Lisa.

      I am wondering what sort of backlink strategies do you use? Do you use what is advocated here like article submissions, blog commenting, forum backlinks, etc or do you just use your own network of sites?

      Thanks.

      Jim
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  • Profile picture of the author hernwayne
    Thank you for sharing your valuable experience with us!

    I believe that one day I'll see success as long as I keep it up!
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  • Profile picture of the author FivestarHB
    Lisa P, at it again, bringing superior value, and great insight into SEO. Learn from the master folks! Lisa's free reports are gold.
    Signature
    I have Found the Ultimate IM Retirement Plan
    Done for you Marketing System
    17 Year old Company Recurring Income
    It is the Perfect Home Business!
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  • Profile picture of the author lisaann
    Thanks guys ... I know I wouldn't have gotten to this point without inspiration from others. So I hope I can help someone else.

    The backlinking methods I use are these ... Directory submissions, press releases, article marketing, 3rd party sites, bookmarking, RSS feed submission, contacting webmasters.

    Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author SydneyFreelance
    Sorry Lisa, do you mind providing a little more detail on what you mean by "3rd party sites"?

    You reference this in your blog to and I just want to clarify what you mean.

    Also, I know it gets spoken of way too much, but what are your top picks for link building currently?

    I've read your reports, but you may have something up your sleeve
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by SydneyFreelance View Post

      Sorry Lisa, do you mind providing a little more detail on what you mean by "3rd party sites"?

      You reference this in your blog to and I just want to clarify what you mean.

      Also, I know it gets spoken of way too much, but what are your top picks for link building currently?

      I've read your reports, but you may have something up your sleeve
      Sydney,

      I call squidoo, hubpages, wordpress blogs hosted at wordpress and those types of sites 3rd party sites.

      I use all the link building methods I listed ... you want to diversify where your links are coming from and those are the methods I use (all of them). Contacting webmasters and getting links from them works the best, but it usually only works unless you have a valuable site.

      All the best...

      Lisa
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  • Profile picture of the author RhythmClick
    Hi Lisa,

    I think your monetization skills must be really strong. I can see how to get upward of 10K visits/month in competitive niches, but have never found how to monetize such traffic to a couple of gran a month per site.

    I have not really experimented much with CPA offers before. Would you say that the CPA offers you use tend to return more than adsense when you have found the right offer.

    Also, can I ask are you are using landing pages or simply inserting the CPA banners straight into openX that then direct link straight to the CPA offer page.

    Thanks for any advice that may help here.
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    • Profile picture of the author lisaann
      Originally Posted by RhythmClick View Post

      Hi Lisa,

      I think your monetization skills must be really strong. I can see how to get upward of 10K visits/month in competitive niches, but have never found how to monetize such traffic to a couple of gran a month per site.

      I have not really experimented much with CPA offers before. Would you say that the CPA offers you use tend to return more than adsense when you have found the right offer.

      Also, can I ask are you are using landing pages or simply inserting the CPA banners straight into openX that then direct link straight to the CPA offer page.

      Thanks for any advice that may help here.
      I'm not very good at monetization right now, but am working on getting better. If you can get $2,000 or more per site then you're doing great.

      I put both CPA and adsense on the same pages, I don't believe in putting all my eggs in one basket. After scrubbing and the fact that the higher CPA offers require more info from the prospect (which means less fill out the form) sometimes it's only about equal to adsense. All you have to do with adsense is get the click. So it's split pretty evenly most of the time.

      I put the CPA ads right on my site. So you'd have a sidebar with a banner or something telling people whatever they'll get if they click and then that goes straight to the sign-up offer hosted by the CPA company. Sometimes I also work them in as text links, honestly, the more the better.

      Thanks,

      Lisa
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