Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog

Stephen Crooks · 12th Feb 2009, 11:33 AM

What is the quality like of those articles like and how do you stop your software scraping copyrighted articles Loz?

I used to use software that scraped articles and also rewriting software but the results were junk, it was probably breaking copyright rules and any success I did see in the search engines were very short lived so it really isn't worth the effort and potential problems with copyright.

Originally Posted by askloz

"what's a crap load?" a LOT

me write my own articles, on forex yes, marketing, yes, but stuff about lawyers, holiday services, asbestos, medical, etc, nah, wouldn't have a clue about that stuff.

I have software that goes out there and hunts for the keywords I enter in a note pad, and my other servers go out and scrap the content out of the sites and completely rewrites it and spits it back out to my blogs while it fetches links and creates the rss feed as well as hitting some article directories and yahoo groups, google groups etc at the same time on the fly...

currently it's creating about 30,000 articles a week spreading across 750+ websites I own.

software i recommend?

Brad Callens article writer and or Andy Blacks article writer pro

Or my article blog submitter when it's ready, link in sig

ManAbout · 12th Feb 2009, 11:43 AM

Steve, FYI, your 100buckschallenge site is not loading anymore..

sparky102000 · 12th Feb 2009, 11:47 AM

I will be checking in to see how things go! Best of luck!!!

sparky102000 · 12th Feb 2009, 11:50 AM

Best of luck to you!

thehuntingdog · 12th Feb 2009, 12:51 PM

Yup.. there are some issues with the loading of the $100 challenge site ...
love following this....

Stephen Crooks · 12th Feb 2009, 02:06 PM

Yes, having some serious issues with my server.. Currently everything down but I hope it won't last long. I will post in here when the 100 bucks challenge blog is back up.

Stephen Crooks · 12th Feb 2009, 02:18 PM

Okay, my server is back online again. I have been updating my server software which caused everything to go down for a while. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

bedmo · 12th Feb 2009, 02:24 PM

Hi all,

Steve...your blog is working correctly for me.

Nice work man, really you work hard

Andrew Davis · 12th Feb 2009, 06:58 PM

Hi everyone!

I that is it quite smart of Steve Crooks to start up this bold venture!

All things "theoretically" are possible, if you have the drive and you believe in yourself.

Basically he is creating a challenge for himself here,
with hundreds of readers, he'd obviously not want to make a fool of himself.

Then, he is driven without slacking to achieve his goal, and prove to everyone that the "unachievable" can be achieved.

Quite a smart way of self motivation!
Even if he does not make $100 a day,
I'm sure he would at least reach $75, $50 or whatever amount a day.

In short, he's not setting up himself for any fall here, (except possible embarrassment). And at the end of it all, the hard work WILL pay off, and Steve will be in a better position than he is now.

Keep it up Steve and best of luck!
-Andrew

Louis Raven · 12th Feb 2009, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by EpsilonX5

(except possible embarrassment)

If he makes $8 a day I'll still have the most respect for Steve.

That's still $2920 a year with 9 months left to build more ATM's

Louis

msalada · 12th Feb 2009, 07:19 PM

This is an awesome post. I have been following for about a week now and you have motivated me to take action. I have an old blog that would be perfect for this type of makeover. I have a few questions, if you don't mind.

1. With BMD, how many sites do you submit each URL to?

2. How many blog comment links do you recommend for each post?

3. How many Squidoo lenses are you going to do for your site?

4. For a 400 article site, how many unique articles will you be submitting to article directories?

Do you have a link for Rss Submit? There seems to more than one product of this type.

Good Luck and I look forward to watching your progress.
~Marj

askloz · 12th Feb 2009, 09:21 PM

Hi Steve,

At first, the content is a bit shady. But the more articles you have within the same niche, the better. I have articles that come out that are almost on the border line of 100% unique, it's a gradual process, initially they only started out at around 40% unique. The pages were being index, et all, and were ranking high at first, then all of a sudden they were moved to back of the ranking pile...

So the system was switched off in regards to spitting them out to my other sites and let it run scraping content from public domains, and heaps of article directories, including the 20+ article directories I own. To a point I had over 1 million articles.

My data base now has over 40GB of articles in it, enough to spin millions and millions of articles. It took about 24 months to gather info though.

Sure enough though Steve, it's a learning process as to work out how to make the articles legible, with some testing, a lot of it, they come out ok now, there's some tricks of the trade that helps them read well, ie mixing around synonyms, etc (I can't give the other details out though).

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

What is the quality like of those articles like and how do you stop your software scraping copyrighted articles Loz?

I used to use software that scraped articles and also rewriting software but the results were junk, it was probably breaking copyright rules and any success I did see in the search engines were very short lived so it really isn't worth the effort and potential problems with copyright.

star007 · 13th Feb 2009, 03:41 AM

loz,
Your comments are interesting. I've always be told that fewer ad campaigns for a single keyword phrase indicates that the niche is not a good one to pursue.
star

Stephen Crooks · 13th Feb 2009, 03:51 AM

I think the theory is that the less advertisers that there are bidding on a keyword but the CPC is still very high indicates that you won't get all the $0.05 ads on your site.

In my experience what tends to happen when there are fewer advertisers in a lucrative niche is that you get served up a bunch of less relevant ads which are less likely to get clicks.

Add to this the fact that most high paying advertisers will turn off the content network in their adwords campaign and it probably isn't the best strategy unless you are established in the top positions on google for the keyword in question.

Originally Posted by star007

loz,
Your comments are interesting. I've always be told that fewer ad campaigns for a single keyword phrase indicates that the niche is not a good one to pursue.
star

askloz · 13th Feb 2009, 04:45 AM

Maybe for selling products, but, that all really depends - I'll explain in a bit..

first if Steve doesn't mind, cos this is his thread and a little off topic (2nd part any way)...

re: adsense, being the operative word since this thread is what it's about, as well as driving traffic to ones site.

What I have discovered, which I also reveal in the videos i did for Brad Callen's Keyword Elite, is this:

My very first adsense site was a MP3 site - which google as de-listed for keyword stuffing - d'oh, but still get heaps of traffic via MSN, and Yahoo. That was about 2 1/2 / 3 years ago.

After a lot of testing and keyword research, I found keywords that were way above the $30 asking price that google adwords asks for as a "MAX" Top bid (that's past history, not current) - the Max CPC always changes, like a seasonal trend and world wide economic situations, when the economy is doing well, ppl have money to spend, and prices tend to go up in certain niches, and visa versa to encourage spending.

I've even found keywords that were up in the $80 and 100 range, rare, but they are out there.

Now, when I found those type of CPC's, I did three things.

1) set up a site and numerous pages around those high CPC's, regardless of how many ad campaigners there were.

2) set up another site and numerous pages around those high CPC's, but those ONLY with campaigns of 15 and higher.

3) set up another site and numerous pages around those high CPC's, but ONLY with campaigns of around 3-10.

I stuck all sorts of ad text units on the site, split testing as I went along.

What I found was #1 above, payouts were varied, from 50 cents to $10 a click. the $10 a click ones were rarely seen, but drizzled in every once in a while.

In #2 above I found that the high clicks i was getting paid, were hardly seen, most clicks were around 50 cents to a buck each.

In #3 above, things really changed. I was getting constant $1+ clicks.

At first, it was hard to work out why this was happening... So I started to study Adwords.

I found that if I wanted to be in the top 3 positions (not the right hand side adverts, but the ones right at the very top)... I had to bite off my arm and give it to google to get a click out of them. As time went by and more clicks I received, the less I was charged.

Same too for ad positions 4-10... cost less, but, more clicks I received, the less I was being charged, again.

The type of niche i was getting into wasn't the ones as you pointed out; fewer campaigns "some times" one tends to lead one into thinking the niche is not profitable, so one would automatically dump it.

Then I started a-thinking. More campaigns, the higher the demand for the product which pushed the CPC's up, then it became a battle with others who were bidding on the same keyword. After a period of time, some just gave up, like I had, i wasn't prepared to pay the high clicks i was being charged, so I reduced my bid.

Now, taking note while all this is happening, the campaigner size was still the same, or larger. So now I am faced with this dilema, how do I filter out the high paying clicks with the low paying ones.

Not everyone knows how to use Adwords properly, i would guess there are 10's of millions of adwords advertisers and only a small portion of them know what to do, ie, as Steve said, turn the content network off, while others don't know that it's automatically selected when you create your campaigns.

What I discovered was while testing, is that approx 25% of your max bid is allocated to the content network. Then you get approx 50% of that price when the ad is clicked on - this varies based on how many hits your site gets and how many clicks the ad received, it goes hand in hand here, more clicks you get on your site, the less the advertiser is charged, thus, less you receive as an adsense publisher.

So... I came to the conclusion, why not find niches that are not sort after a lot (purchased), though researched a lot, or more than those who would purchase the item / service.

So, what I did, was based on the testing data I got back, was to hunt out the high Max CPC's, with very few campaigns, those in the 3-10 range... but if I can help it, I'll find those ones in the 5-8 area (campaigns).

Take "Personal Injury Lawyer" for instance... It's a professional profession. It costs a lot to higher one. And quite a few ppl are searching for information about those services. I found that I was regularly getting $1 and $2 clicks every day, and many times a day.

So I tried another niche, to make sure it wasn't a fluke... "Asbestos", another niche worth checking out, these pay just as much as the latter keyword, not "asbestos" itself, but related keywords.

I did the same thing as above in items 1, 2, 3, same results again. So #3 won! that gave me the definitive answer to finding high paying keywords and the magic number of campaigns to go after.

Then I split tested the ad text units, I found that 250x250 and 336x 280 were pulling out higher paying clicks compared to the rest, the single ad one, the button also performed well, but was hardly clicked on since it's hardly seen. Since it's hardly seen, the CPC of that ad that kinda remains the same.

Take for instance the 728x90 the most common one used, this is right in your face, one can't miss if if one tried, thus, clicked on heaps of times, and one doesn't get as much from the advert when clicked on.

Secondly, regarding what you mention about smaller campaigns generally mean that the niche is not profitable...

That all really depends, for instance, let's say you had a service / practice that helps those who suffer from radiation posioning who may live near a nucluar plant, you might find some whos' had cancer from it. Does it mean it's not a profitable niche? Not really, if the campaign is set up properly and targeted properly, you'll find that your ad will get clicked on a lot, and it will drive up your CTR (and you pay less), if you set your campaign to target any country, or state / borough, then your CTR will go down due to the many impressions it's served all over the world.

Take knitting for instance, not many campaigners there, but does it mean it's not a profitable niche? On the contray... What I would do is set it to say, UK ONLY (since it's cheaper), and test the entire scope of the UK and Scottland, including Ireland. Let the campaign run for about 7 -14 days, set up google analytics, and see which boroughs give you the most clicks. Then just target that particular borough and ignore the rest that you're not happy with.

Knitting is just one keyword phrase, how about "Embroidery", same niche, different sub-niche sector. And again, very few campaigns.

Contray to what you've been told, or read, every niche is profitable, it just means how you go about finding the solution to make it pay.

Take Amit Metha for instance, in PPC Classroom he showed ppl how to sell I believe it was screen savers, many have tried and failed to profit from it because the commissions were small, he hit the content network and received I think it was over 10 million impressions and netted over $50k or something like that during the course of his campaign. Mind you, it took him a little while to do all the split testing, but main thing here to remember, is, he stuck it out and didn't give up until he tested all the variables to make it work.

Hope this helps

Sorry Steve for taking over ya thread mate.

Originally Posted by star007

loz,
Your comments are interesting. I've always be told that fewer ad campaigns for a single keyword phrase indicates that the niche is not a good one to pursue.
star

Stephen Crooks · 13th Feb 2009, 05:04 AM

Interesting results, thanks for sharing and don't worry you haven't taken over my thread. It is true that most advertisers don't know how to use adwords properly which could go some way to explain the results you have demonstrated.

However I dont really follow how with only 3 advertisers they are paying ridiculous amounts of money per click. It makes perfect sense that there is a bidding war to get the very top spots when you have a lot of advertisers which would raise the CPC to silly levels but for just a few advertisers it doesn't make sense because by definition they would get a slot in the top 3 for bidding just 5 cents unless of course the minimum bid for the keyword was ridiculously high..

Originally Posted by askloz

Sorry Steve for taking over ya thread mate.

askloz · 13th Feb 2009, 05:19 AM

As I say mate, some niches cost less to purchase, some cost more, google recognizes these and adjusts the min starting bid. Then leaves it up to the advertiser to prove that the ad works, if it doesn't, it their particular starting bid will incrase, and collects aggregate data to determine what the true min bid and max bid is / should be.

for instance, **screen savers, min bid approx 15 cents.
**personal injury lawyer about $2

** (approx values).

Google also adjusts prices based on seasonal trends... take the "World Cup - soccer" for instance, in season you're charged a arm and a leg for.. out of season price comes down.

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

However I dont really follow how with only 3 advertisers they are paying ridiculous amounts of money per click. It makes perfect sense that there is a bidding war to get the very top spots when you have a lot of advertisers which would raise the CPC to silly levels but for just a few advertisers it doesn't make sense because by definition they would get a slot in the top 3 for bidding just 5 cents unless of course the minimum bid for the keyword was ridiculously high..

Stephen Crooks · 13th Feb 2009, 05:32 AM

Yes Loz, I get all of that and everything about seasonal bids etc.. A couple of points though, the minimum bid has a lot to do with the quality of the landing page and other factors and isn't just dependent on the keyword and in some cases when the quality is bad it isn't unknown to see minimum bids of $25 or more, however I find it very hard to believe that there are that many stupid advertisers out there that would bid that much for a keyword. I know there are always exceptions to the rule but really..

I don't want to get to off topic but I suppose it is loosely related to adsense and this thread. I suggest everyone does their own testing to see what works and what doesn't. We are agreed that we should go for the high paying keywords and yes you are absolutely right Loz when you say some of the less conventional niches will do well in adsense. I had a knitting site once with adsense on that did very well which I later sold for a good price.

Like I said right from the beginning of this thread it is better to go for a niche that you are semi interested in than a site just because it has good cpc.

Originally Posted by askloz

As I say mate, some niches cost less to purchase, some cost more, google recognizes these and adjusts the min starting bid. Then leaves it up to the advertiser to prove that the ad works, if it doesn't, it their particular starting bid will incrase, and collects aggregate data to determine what the true min bid and max bid is / should be.

for instance, **screen savers, min bid approx 15 cents.
**personal injury lawyer about $2

** (approx values).

Google also adjusts prices based on seasonal trends... take the "World Cup - soccer" for instance, in season you're charged a arm and a leg for.. out of season price comes down.

askloz · 13th Feb 2009, 06:16 AM

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Yes Loz, I get all of that and everything about seasonal bids etc.. A couple of points though, the minimum bid has a lot to do with the quality of the landing page and other factors and isn't just dependent on the keyword and in some cases when the quality is bad it isn't unknown to see minimum bids of $25 or more,

I guess, but I got to be honest with ya, I haven't found any noticeable difference - I've checked out the sites that have ads on my sites, and they all look pretty much the same, content is pretty much the same in regards to good content, and what have you. And I can only put it down to how much their max bid is, as I say, approx 25% of their MAX bid (not the price they are charged), is allocated to the content network, and the adsense publisher gets approx 50% of that.

one should also take note as well, the CTR on the content doesn't affect quality score, from testing and experience, the only time one gets less if your site is very popular and gets heaps of clicks.. the content network doens't work the same as the search network, they are treated differently.

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

however I find it very hard to believe that there are that many stupid advertisers out there that would bid that much for a keyword. I know there are always exceptions to the rule but really..

Well, I guess you have to be a see'er to believe it. There are ppl out there that do bid that high and are charged that much. As I say, I've had $10 clicks before, and those I have taught in my video guide to profits have also knocked out $3-8 clicks too. So it goes to show that ppl are paying that much.

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

. I had a knitting site once with adsense on that did very well which I later sold for a good price.

Nice!

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Like I said right from the beginning of this thread it is better to go for a niche that you are semi interested in than a site just because it has good cpc.

I agree, my 2nd adsense website was the forex one where I was knocking out $100 a day and in some cases more, and even to this very day it makes around $10-40 a day and I haven't touched it for 2 years in form of advertertising it, or going to related forums and joining in on the discussions.

Another student of mine is into movies, mainly around Jeanette MacDonald | Nelson Eddy, run a search for it on google, ranked first, and she makes like $30-60 or so a month at it.

She also has a huge list too, about 1700+ people, so that always helps to bring your list back to view new posts and what have you, good example to check out if ppl are interested in how to set up a site that they are passionate about.

Stephen Crooks · 13th Feb 2009, 06:41 AM

I have received a few PM's from people asking me about getting enough content for a blog and in particular is it okay to use articles from directories or will they be flagged for duplicate content. I always use articles from various directories but only if they add something to my blog. I won't use them if they are a bit off-topic or don't fit the style of my blog.

I also try to create a narrative around the article to give it some purpose on my blog. What I mean by that is, I will write an opening paragraph and a summary for the article and give my post a unique title (keyword targeted). This isn't breaking any rules, so long as the article is not modified in any way and the resource box remains intact then you can add as much as you want around the article.

My introduction paragraph will introduce a topic in such a way as to validate the inclusion of the article. For example, if I wanted to use an article on conservation of tigers from directory my intro would be something like.

"The dwindling population of tigers around the world has been causing alarm for decades but are we really at crisis point? What positive steps can be taken to conserve the tiger population. This article demonstrates some of the work being done in tiger conservation"

I would then place the article in the post followed by a summary that just summarises the main points the article mentioned. It need only be a paragraph.

When I take these small steps, I do see some good results with rankings. Nothing can beat unique content but there is no reason why you can't make good use of the articles in directories.

The duplicate content argument is more about how the articles are used and I believe that the duplicate content argument started because of the myriad of automated site generators out there that just scraped articles without adding value. When these sites failed to do well, of course the obvious thing was to say its the fault of duplicate content when in reality it was that these sites were probably junk.

So, certainly go ahead and use articles from directories but use them well and wisely and try and mix it up with some good unique content. Do this, and your sites will last in the indexes.

Oling · 13th Feb 2009, 06:58 AM

This is very interesting and very informative Loz and Steve. This will greatly make me think of some solutions and strategies on how I can go about my adsense. Thanks Loz and Steve. I felt like I went to school of those detailed information and research.

Thanks
Oling

channerhewitt · 13th Feb 2009, 07:01 AM

Does google adwords really help on your blog? I created my own blog last year and put some adsense on it, but I think my blog is not working or earning a lot. Is there any suggestions on improving my blog site? Thanks!

FranMurray · 13th Feb 2009, 07:39 AM

Steve,

I found this thread last night. Honestly I am almost total noob at this stuff (Only being 6 months into my career of IM'ing). I have a couple of questions...

1. In this challenge, are you going to weave in other affiliate products?

2. If you do promote other affiliate products, would that decrease your AdSense earnings proportionally?

BTW, Good luck

Stephen Crooks · 13th Feb 2009, 07:56 AM

Hi Fran.

The challenge is purely about Adsense but there is no reason why I wouldn't add some affiliate products after the challenge is done. It may have an impact on my adsense income and vice versa but the affiliate links would be strategically placed. In other words some pages would benefit most from adsense and other pages would benefit from affiliate products.

Originally Posted by FranMurray

Steve,

I found this thread last night. Honestly I am almost total noob at this stuff (Only being 6 months into my career of IM'ing). I have a couple of questions...

1. In this challenge, are you going to weave in other affiliate products?

2. If you do promote other affiliate products, would that decrease your AdSense earnings proportionally?

BTW, Good luck

AcmeAffiliate · 13th Feb 2009, 02:43 PM

That's alot of work my friend, but if you up to the challenge I'm willing to follow along side. Good luck

Will

moneymakersportal · 13th Feb 2009, 03:25 PM

What tool do You use to research keywords for your blog?

Let me give you an example...

Let's say you were selling a "how to make money on the internet" eBook. You would use PPC Web Spy to show you all of the keywords that a very well-known, proven, "how to make money on the internet" eBook seller was already advertising with.

Instead of you spending months and even years figuring out which keywords could potential make you money, you can simply swoop in and take the keywords from this successful eBook seller... The keywords that probably took them months or years to uncover.

Then, just advertise your own eBook with those keywords and you can expect similar results!

More info in this post: Revolutionary New Keyword Research Tool - Internet Marketing Tools
Revolutionary New Keyword Research Tool - Internet Marketing Tools

moneymakersportal.com/drive-traffic/ppc-advertising/ppc-keywords-research-tool.html

boldyman71 · 13th Feb 2009, 03:47 PM

Good Luck to you. I will follow this thread.

lukyjoe · 13th Feb 2009, 05:16 PM

@moneymakersportal: why are you spaming?

pbk2009 · 14th Feb 2009, 01:42 AM

Good Luck!

affiliated survivor · 14th Feb 2009, 03:06 AM

@Moneymakersportal
Tools like PPC Webspy are used for selling products. For Adsense you need Keywords with a chance to rank in the serps. Not keywords where one can sell products with Adwords succesfully.
Besides of that: Even with this kind of tools it is not easy to make an Adwords profit. The theory is simple: Find someone who seems to have a succesful campaign, copy his campaign, do everything better and take over. First of all there is probably not just one competitor for your product. There are a few. Which campaign to copy? Doing things better, like having a better landingpage, write better ad copy and newsletters, is not easy. These competitors probably aren´t newbies. That they make money with Adwords proves that they are good. This tools may make things easier, but not easy.

pearsonbrown · 14th Feb 2009, 03:24 AM

"@moneymakersportal: why are you spamming?"

It's important that we don't let this guy deviate the thread. The input from Steve and Loz has been excellent and we don't want this thread removed. So don't respond to him and let him take his Adwords/ebook ideas to its own thread.

Pearson

yingavital · 14th Feb 2009, 08:17 AM

i'm also wondering. but i think he's really putting a lot of work on this one. I say he deserves to be be getting good results. i also believe that to be able to succeed you have to carry out your plans and work hard and exert more effort to achieve your goals.

Oling · 14th Feb 2009, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by cash4you2

hi,
2 weeks ago i toke a real bargain : 1 website + 1700 webspage and all are full optimazed for adsense . The website has 5 sections( car, travel,computer,finance and shopping) and eatch section has over 300 articles in it. My question is , What would be the potenciele income of that 1 website ?
I will note the salespage for you, so you can see if this is really a bargain .

Hopefully you can answer my question on this subject.

Thanks

You are probably one of who bought one of these pre-made adsense templates. In another thread in this forum one guy is saying he bought something like that for 20.00 dollars and has a PR2 , and that's promising. But then you need to tweak it a little bit and if you know html and probably its best if you can add a paragraph at the beginning and at the end of the content to make it more unique. Because probably there are hundreds if not thousands of the same exactly website and content. You need to be different from the others so can stand a better chance. Also you can add some affiliate programs instead of those many links in one page. I have seen two types of templates as I was inline to buy too. But I just got the free one and see what i can with it.

Best of luck

Oling

Learner1 · 14th Feb 2009, 09:41 AM

Can't wait to see.

Andy LaPointe · 14th Feb 2009, 04:23 PM

Hey Steve,

I look forward to your progress and thanks for posting.

Thanks,

Andy

visitsingapore · 15th Feb 2009, 03:24 AM

Hello Steve

I am new in this forum and new to Internet Marketing, I am from Singapore. But I believe in you and you can do it. I wonder anyone
had done it in Singapore before or Asia?

morwanneg · 15th Feb 2009, 04:19 AM

Goodluck to you man. I'll follow this thread. I hope you know what you are doing. : )

Marty S · 15th Feb 2009, 06:39 AM

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

1. It has a CPC of $6.51 associated with it.

What is the easiest way to find this out? My keyword tool does not show a column for this.

Marty S · 15th Feb 2009, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by Marty S

What is the easiest way to find this out? My keyword tool does not show a column for this.

Scratch that. Found it in show/hide.

James Kern · 15th Feb 2009, 08:47 AM

Sounds like a great way to motivate yourself. Publicly announce your goal, and have a herd of people following you.

What a way to push you hard.

Good work.

Mitsu Fisher · 15th Feb 2009, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

Niche Research

Before I start my keyword research I need to consider roughly how many pages I will eventually need to create for this blog to get to the $100 a day mark. This needs a bit of mathematics.

Assuming I get on average for this niche $0.50 per click from adsense (could be more, could be less) but I won't know until it is up and running. For $100 that would mean 100 divided by 0.50 = 200 clicks per day on average to get to this level. I will aim for a click through rate (CTR) of about 10% which means I will need 200 x 10 = 2000 visitors to my blog per day.

Now that I have worked out roughly how many visitors I will need to get every day, it is time to work out how many articles I will need to get this level of traffic. It is impossible to know exactly how many people search for various keyword phrases associated with european cruises every day. This is why I tried to get a niche that had a large volume of searches associated with it because this indicates that it is popular among searchers looking for information. It is not until the site is built that I will know for sure what level of traffic there is. All I can say at this stage is that if I create 60 articles for this blog then that means 2000 divided by 60 = 33 visitors per page per day. I reckon this is achievable if I can target highly searched keywords with low competition to get on page 1 of google. It's a tall order but that is the measure of the challenge.

A lot of people at this stage will just fire up a keyword tool and just dig out a lot of keywords to write articles about but this is a mistake in my opinion. It is important now to go and do some research into the niche.

1. Visit forums associated with the niche and make notes of peoples questions and problems.
2. Go to yahoo answers and search for questions on your niche there.
3. search other blogs and article databases to get ideas on what are popular topics in your niche.

The point of this is so that you get a handle on what makes the people in your niche tick, you want them to be interested in the articles you are going to write or get written. My next step is to find some categories for my blog and 60 titles for articles using this process. I don't need to do this all at once, it is something that I can spend a week doing. I can get 10 topics, do some keyword research on each topic and get an article written, rinse and repeat until I get to 60.

I will try and keep half an eye on search and competition numbers for the main keywords associated with each topic but I won't let this rule me at this stage.

Also, another important point is that just because my niche is European cruises it doesn't mean that every article has to include that phrase. The whole point of the research is that I will dig into areas like mediterranean cruises, Italian cruises, Cruises in Scandinavia etc.. I could even go into excursions and how to budget for a european cruise etc.. Eventually my research will uncover a bunch of related topics that will become my categories for the blog. Once done, it is then time to find article titles and some related keywords to be used in each article.

Hi Stephen,

I just want to confirm that 60 articles generating 33 visitors per page is an assumption based on your experience (i.e. that 33 visitors per page per day is achievable).

Also, assuming I am understanding correctly, the goal is to generate and get 60 articles (pages) ranked on page 1 of Google. I need to do the main site keyword > categories & associated keywords > 60 articles based on related keywords thing in order to hopefully generate page 1 rankings for all. This in turn will hopefully result in 60 pages (posts) generating 33 visitors each, per day. Am I on track here?

Please let me know.

Thank you.

AndyBlackSEO · 15th Feb 2009, 12:35 PM

I wish him well. Even if he achieved only $25 per day after 3 months that is still good. That's $750 per month... and if you do the same with 4 or 5 blogs you are making good money.

paulgl · 15th Feb 2009, 02:12 PM

I'd like to know if this will be a gradual increase, or will it just be bah dah bing! $100!
If gradual, should be up to about $60/day now. I'm just tryin' for a dang $5
steady, but it sure fluctuates. $10 one day, 25 cents the next.

Paulgl

Julia Andersson · 15th Feb 2009, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by paulgl

I'd like to know if this will be a gradual increase, or will it just be bah dah bing! $100!
If gradual, should be up to about $60/day now. I'm just tryin' for a dang $5
steady, but it sure fluctuates. $10 one day, 25 cents the next.

Paulgl

The last update I read that mentioned income progress Steve stated that he was around 1/10 of the way there... so $10 a day, and that was within one week of adding adsense because he didn't add it until he was averaging over 100 visitors per day. That was about a week ago and his traffic is increasing on a daily basis.

Check his blog at The $100 Challenge for more updates

doctorjay · 15th Feb 2009, 04:29 PM

First of all good luck. If you can do it so can others who follow your method and I'll first in line to buy your product describing exactly how you did it.

Question I have: How important is the theme?
I typically use the very bland cognoblue theme as it has two side bars and allows me to put up my Wordpress site quickly.

Thanks in advance,

Doctorjay

bgmacaw · 15th Feb 2009, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by doctorjay

Question I have: How important is the theme?

I probably differ from Steve on this but I like to have very plain, simple, themes that make the ad the star of the page.

Julia Andersson · 15th Feb 2009, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

I probably differ from Steve on this but I like to have very plain, simple, themes that make the ad the star of the page.

Heheheh... I had a look at your 'boring memo' link

OMG... that theme is SO boring... the ad just begs to be clicked being the single colorful item on the page. I would imagine that works well. It's kinda like you look at the page and it looks so cheap that you think it really wouldn't help because it was made by a complete amateur... and that if you want real help you need to click the ad.

Stephen Crooks · 15th Feb 2009, 07:59 PM

Hi Mitsu,

Since I wrote that I have since said that I made a big mistake in this judgement. I now think I will need around 300 - 400 articles of which I am getting them written now. I basically overestimated how many visitors I could get within 3 months to that many pages. I need to rank highly for more long tail keywords instead to get the visitor levels up. With more time I could promote the hell out of the pages I do have and reach my goals but I don't have that luxury of waiting..

Originally Posted by Mitsu Fisher

Hi Stephen,

I just want to confirm that 60 articles generating 33 visitors per page is an assumption based on your experience (i.e. that 33 visitors per page per day is achievable).

Also, assuming I am understanding correctly, the goal is to generate and get 60 articles (pages) ranked on page 1 of Google. I need to do the main site keyword > categories & associated keywords > 60 articles based on related keywords thing in order to hopefully generate page 1 rankings for all. This in turn will hopefully result in 60 pages (posts) generating 33 visitors each, per day. Am I on track here?

Please let me know.

Thank you.

Stephen Crooks · 15th Feb 2009, 08:01 PM

It's definitely a gradual increase but hopefully the gradual bit will go a bit faster over the next month.

Originally Posted by paulgl

I'd like to know if this will be a gradual increase, or will it just be bah dah bing! $100!
If gradual, should be up to about $60/day now. I'm just tryin' for a dang $5
steady, but it sure fluctuates. $10 one day, 25 cents the next.

Paulgl

Stephen Crooks · 15th Feb 2009, 08:03 PM

It's important in the sense that you need to make your page visually clean and uncluttered so that your adsense blocks actually are visible. Less is more..

Originally Posted by doctorjay

First of all good luck. If you can do it so can others who follow your method and I'll first in line to buy your product describing exactly how you did it.

Question I have: How important is the theme?
I typically use the very bland cognoblue theme as it has two side bars and allows me to put up my Wordpress site quickly.

Thanks in advance,

Doctorjay

12th Feb 2009, 11:43 AM	#702
ManAbout Active Warrior Join Date: 2009 Posts: 90 Thanks: 3 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Steve, FYI, your 100buckschallenge site is not loading anymore..

12th Feb 2009, 11:47 AM	#703
sparky102000 Warrior Member Join Date: 2009 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: I will be checking in to see how things go! Best of luck!!!
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12th Feb 2009, 11:50 AM	#704
sparky102000 Warrior Member Join Date: 2009 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Best of luck to you!
	Please read the sig file rules

12th Feb 2009, 12:51 PM	#705
thehuntingdog Lizzie Join Date: 2008 Location: Sunny California Posts: 58 Thanks: 2 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Yup.. there are some issues with the loading of the $100 challenge site ... love following this....
	To everyone's success! Lizzie the-hunting-dog.com

12th Feb 2009, 02:06 PM	#706
Stephen Crooks VIP Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2006 Location: Hampshire, United Kingdom. Posts: 1,537 Thanks: 77 Thanked 440 Times in 222 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Yes, having some serious issues with my server.. Currently everything down but I hope it won't last long. I will post in here when the 100 bucks challenge blog is back up.
	Affiliate Marketing Profits 2020 - Step by Step Guides How to Make $100 a day Online

12th Feb 2009, 02:18 PM	#707
Stephen Crooks VIP Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2006 Location: Hampshire, United Kingdom. Posts: 1,537 Thanks: 77 Thanked 440 Times in 222 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Okay, my server is back online again. I have been updating my server software which caused everything to go down for a while. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
	Affiliate Marketing Profits 2020 - Step by Step Guides How to Make $100 a day Online

12th Feb 2009, 02:24 PM	#708
bedmo New Warrior Member Join Date: 2008 Posts: 11 Thanks: 2 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Hi all, Steve...your blog is working correctly for me. Nice work man, really you work hard

12th Feb 2009, 06:58 PM	#709
Andrew Davis CEO and Entrepreneur War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: Caribbean Posts: 346 Thanks: 382 Thanked 161 Times in 56 Posts Blog Entries: 1	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Hi everyone! I that is it quite smart of Steve Crooks to start up this bold venture! All things "theoretically" are possible, if you have the drive and you believe in yourself. Basically he is creating a challenge for himself here, with hundreds of readers, he'd obviously not want to make a fool of himself. Then, he is driven without slacking to achieve his goal, and prove to everyone that the "unachievable" can be achieved. Quite a smart way of self motivation! Even if he does not make $100 a day, I'm sure he would at least reach $75, $50 or whatever amount a day. In short, he's not setting up himself for any fall here, (except possible embarrassment). And at the end of it all, the hard work WILL pay off, and Steve will be in a better position than he is now. Keep it up Steve and best of luck! -Andrew
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12th Feb 2009, 07:19 PM	#711
msalada Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 42 Thanks: 4 Thanked 7 Times in 6 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: This is an awesome post. I have been following for about a week now and you have motivated me to take action. I have an old blog that would be perfect for this type of makeover. I have a few questions, if you don't mind. 1. With BMD, how many sites do you submit each URL to? 2. How many blog comment links do you recommend for each post? 3. How many Squidoo lenses are you going to do for your site? 4. For a 400 article site, how many unique articles will you be submitting to article directories? Do you have a link for Rss Submit? There seems to more than one product of this type. Good Luck and I look forward to watching your progress. ~Marj

13th Feb 2009, 03:41 AM	#713
star007 HyperActive Warrior Join Date: 2006 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 189 Thanks: 5 Thanked 34 Times in 34 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: loz, Your comments are interesting. I've always be told that fewer ad campaigns for a single keyword phrase indicates that the niche is not a good one to pursue. star
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13th Feb 2009, 06:41 AM	#720
Stephen Crooks VIP Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2006 Location: Hampshire, United Kingdom. Posts: 1,537 Thanks: 77 Thanked 440 Times in 222 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: I have received a few PM's from people asking me about getting enough content for a blog and in particular is it okay to use articles from directories or will they be flagged for duplicate content. I always use articles from various directories but only if they add something to my blog. I won't use them if they are a bit off-topic or don't fit the style of my blog. I also try to create a narrative around the article to give it some purpose on my blog. What I mean by that is, I will write an opening paragraph and a summary for the article and give my post a unique title (keyword targeted). This isn't breaking any rules, so long as the article is not modified in any way and the resource box remains intact then you can add as much as you want around the article. My introduction paragraph will introduce a topic in such a way as to validate the inclusion of the article. For example, if I wanted to use an article on conservation of tigers from directory my intro would be something like. "The dwindling population of tigers around the world has been causing alarm for decades but are we really at crisis point? What positive steps can be taken to conserve the tiger population. This article demonstrates some of the work being done in tiger conservation" I would then place the article in the post followed by a summary that just summarises the main points the article mentioned. It need only be a paragraph. When I take these small steps, I do see some good results with rankings. Nothing can beat unique content but there is no reason why you can't make good use of the articles in directories. The duplicate content argument is more about how the articles are used and I believe that the duplicate content argument started because of the myriad of automated site generators out there that just scraped articles without adding value. When these sites failed to do well, of course the obvious thing was to say its the fault of duplicate content when in reality it was that these sites were probably junk. So, certainly go ahead and use articles from directories but use them well and wisely and try and mix it up with some good unique content. Do this, and your sites will last in the indexes.
	Affiliate Marketing Profits 2020 - Step by Step Guides How to Make $100 a day Online

13th Feb 2009, 06:58 AM	#721
Oling HyperActive Warrior Join Date: 2008 Location: , , Canada. Posts: 353 Thanks: 17 Thanked 15 Times in 15 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: This is very interesting and very informative Loz and Steve. This will greatly make me think of some solutions and strategies on how I can go about my adsense. Thanks Loz and Steve. I felt like I went to school of those detailed information and research. Thanks Oling
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13th Feb 2009, 07:01 AM	#722
channerhewitt Warrior Member Join Date: 2009 Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Does google adwords really help on your blog? I created my own blog last year and put some adsense on it, but I think my blog is not working or earning a lot. Is there any suggestions on improving my blog site? Thanks!

13th Feb 2009, 07:39 AM	#723
FranMurray Controlled Chaos Marketer War Room Member Join Date: 2009 Posts: 286 Thanks: 76 Thanked 161 Times in 39 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Steve, I found this thread last night. Honestly I am almost total noob at this stuff (Only being 6 months into my career of IM'ing). I have a couple of questions... 1. In this challenge, are you going to weave in other affiliate products? 2. If you do promote other affiliate products, would that decrease your AdSense earnings proportionally? BTW, Good luck
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13th Feb 2009, 02:43 PM	#725
AcmeAffiliate AcmeAffiliate Join Date: 2009 Location: Toronto Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: That's alot of work my friend, but if you up to the challenge I'm willing to follow along side. Good luck Will

13th Feb 2009, 03:25 PM	#726
moneymakersportal MoneyMakersPortal.com Join Date: 2009 Location: Krivoy Rog, Ukraine Posts: 10 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Blog Entries: 3	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: What tool do You use to research keywords for your blog? Let me give you an example... Let's say you were selling a "how to make money on the internet" eBook. You would use PPC Web Spy to show you all of the keywords that a very well-known, proven, "how to make money on the internet" eBook seller was already advertising with. Instead of you spending months and even years figuring out which keywords could potential make you money, you can simply swoop in and take the keywords from this successful eBook seller... The keywords that probably took them months or years to uncover. Then, just advertise your own eBook with those keywords and you can expect similar results! More info in this post: Revolutionary New Keyword Research Tool - Internet Marketing Tools Revolutionary New Keyword Research Tool - Internet Marketing Tools moneymakersportal.com/drive-traffic/ppc-advertising/ppc-keywords-research-tool.html
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13th Feb 2009, 03:47 PM	#727
boldyman71 Warrior Member Join Date: 2009 Posts: 6 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Good Luck to you. I will follow this thread.
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13th Feb 2009, 05:16 PM	#728
lukyjoe Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: Colorado, USA Posts: 43 Thanks: 22 Thanked 9 Times in 6 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: @moneymakersportal: why are you spaming?

14th Feb 2009, 01:42 AM	#729
pbk2009 New Warrior Member Join Date: 2008 Posts: 18 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Good Luck!
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14th Feb 2009, 03:06 AM	#730
affiliated survivor HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 413 Thanks: 3 Thanked 35 Times in 33 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: @Moneymakersportal Tools like PPC Webspy are used for selling products. For Adsense you need Keywords with a chance to rank in the serps. Not keywords where one can sell products with Adwords succesfully. Besides of that: Even with this kind of tools it is not easy to make an Adwords profit. The theory is simple: Find someone who seems to have a succesful campaign, copy his campaign, do everything better and take over. First of all there is probably not just one competitor for your product. There are a few. Which campaign to copy? Doing things better, like having a better landingpage, write better ad copy and newsletters, is not easy. These competitors probably aren´t newbies. That they make money with Adwords proves that they are good. This tools may make things easier, but not easy.

14th Feb 2009, 03:24 AM	#731
pearsonbrown Grumpy Old Man War Room Member Join Date: 2003 Location: Two miles from Spain Posts: 826 Thanks: 728 Thanked 409 Times in 167 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: "@moneymakersportal: why are you spamming?" It's important that we don't let this guy deviate the thread. The input from Steve and Loz has been excellent and we don't want this thread removed. So don't respond to him and let him take his Adwords/ebook ideas to its own thread. Pearson
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14th Feb 2009, 08:17 AM	#732
yingavital Warrior Member Join Date: 2009 Posts: 6 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: i'm also wondering. but i think he's really putting a lot of work on this one. I say he deserves to be be getting good results. i also believe that to be able to succeed you have to carry out your plans and work hard and exert more effort to achieve your goals.
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14th Feb 2009, 09:41 AM	#734
Learner1 New Warrior Member Join Date: 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 4 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Can't wait to see.

14th Feb 2009, 04:23 PM	#735
Andy LaPointe Lapte War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Cherry Capital of the World, Traverse City Michigan Posts: 170 Thanks: 10 Thanked 26 Times in 15 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Hey Steve, I look forward to your progress and thanks for posting. Thanks, Andy
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15th Feb 2009, 03:24 AM	#736
visitsingapore Active Warrior Join Date: 2009 Posts: 47 Thanks: 7 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Hello Steve I am new in this forum and new to Internet Marketing, I am from Singapore. But I believe in you and you can do it. I wonder anyone had done it in Singapore before or Asia?

15th Feb 2009, 04:19 AM	#737
morwanneg Lost Monk Join Date: 2008 Location: San Diego Posts: 144 Thanks: 6 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Goodluck to you man. I'll follow this thread. I hope you know what you are doing. : )
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15th Feb 2009, 08:47 AM	#740
James Kern It's Like Clockwork... Join Date: 2009 Location: Sydney Posts: 24 Thanks: 1 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: Sounds like a great way to motivate yourself. Publicly announce your goal, and have a herd of people following you. What a way to push you hard. Good work.

15th Feb 2009, 12:35 PM	#742
AndyBlackSEO andyblackseo.com War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: , , United Kingdom. Posts: 1,617 Thanks: 62 Thanked 199 Times in 146 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: I wish him well. Even if he achieved only $25 per day after 3 months that is still good. That's $750 per month... and if you do the same with 4 or 5 blogs you are making good money.
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15th Feb 2009, 02:12 PM	#743
paulgl Plundering the Web War Room Member Join Date: 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 9,121 Thanks: 1,509 Thanked 2,623 Times in 1,933 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: I'd like to know if this will be a gradual increase, or will it just be bah dah bing! $100! If gradual, should be up to about $60/day now. I'm just tryin' for a dang $5 steady, but it sure fluctuates. $10 one day, 25 cents the next. Paulgl

15th Feb 2009, 04:29 PM	#745
doctorjay DoctorJay War Room Member Join Date: 2009 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 32 Thanks: 14 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Re: Follow me to $100 a day in Adsense in 3 months from 1 blog Share on: First of all good luck. If you can do it so can others who follow your method and I'll first in line to buy your product describing exactly how you did it. Question I have: How important is the theme? I typically use the very bland cognoblue theme as it has two side bars and allows me to put up my Wordpress site quickly. Thanks in advance, Doctorjay