Why bother with Adsense when you could be making more and Faster without them?

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Been meaning to ask this question for awhile but kept putting it off . I was recently reminded of this when talking with a few Imers looking to build adsense empires.

With adsense you are basically being paid by businesses to send traffic to them. Yes Google sends you the check but ultimately the real person paying out the dollars is a business using advertising through adwords. Google gets a nice slice out of that pie and controls everything (including how much you make and whether they want you to continue making it). You don't get to set your price and terms. You are entirely at their mercy and the businesses that ultimately pay you are paying through their nose for clicks while you get pennies.

In addition to that unless you are very fortunate you work for a long time while making VERY little IN THE HOPE that once you rank a number of sites you begin to be paid by businesses for your rankings.

It strikes me that the difference between doing SEO for businesses as I do and the adsense guys isn't that huge when it comes to who pays us and why.

Its the same kind of business owners ultimately writing our paycheck.

The main difference is I work directly with the businesses that want traffic from Google in the organic listings. I set my fees. I generally get paid upfront or very soon to proving myself to the business owner. Google might influence me by where their algo makes sites rank but they can't terminate me. If I deliver results for these clients they tend to stay with me for a long time.

I have no sites to setup.
I don't have to setup most of my customers content
I can't be terminated from my entire business.
I get paid better.
I get paid faster.
I can increase my income with a few more customers.

and if I rank 20 30 sites I don't have the reward from google that my sites all get banished from the program but instead I improve my reputation among the same business owners and get more jobs.

My point?

Many people trying to make adsense fly would make more money by getting clients at $199 a month and start making it in a week to a month or two.

Sure there are guys making tens of thousands doing adsense but most of those are not doing MFAs and frankly for everyone making good money with adsense there are 100 and probably more making nothing but pennies.

So know SEO enough to rank sites and choose adsense? maybe you are just being suckers. Why not learn to go straight to the business owners themselves who pay the bills for both of us and cut out the middle man boss Google?

based on the points above adsense is a TOTAL waste for most IMers. Even Affiliate marketing is more versatile. There I said it and I can back it up because its the pure truth.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not saying that doing SEO is the only viable business model outside of adsense. I am merely comparing them because of the similarity of who is actually paying for both models - businesses looking for traffic.
#search engine optimization #adsense #bother #faster #making
  • The main reason why adsense is so attractive is because of it's simplicity. You don't need a sales page to sell products. And you don't need to convince someone that you offer worthy services.

    All it takes is content creation and proper ad placement. Pretty darn easy!

    I agree with you though. You can make A LOT more money by monetizing in other ways.
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    • Content creation isn't easy unless you are just doing MFAs and there is nothing simply about waking up every morning wondering if your income will be tanked by Google because all you have are MFAs

      But what good is simplicity in making money online if you are NOT making money online. Besides I see alot of people doing a whole lot of hard work with mutliple sites and on page SEO and backlinking - not so simple in reality.

      I've been watching this for years on WF and there are VERY few people making any real money from adsense at least not those who create sites just for adsense. Its a busted wasteful business model for too high a percentage of people. If people put up their hours and what they make there are ton loads of people who would do better working for a dollar an hour.
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  • Agreed 100%
    I just think most people either dont quite see the whole picture, or they dont know quite how to bypass Google as the middleman

    care to expand on exactly how to begin to setup something like that

    For example
    i can envision instead of putting up Netflix ads for Adsense, I would just put up websites targeting movie rentals or netflix etc etc etc

    and then sign up directly on Netflix as an affiliate, of course that bypasses clickbank, Adsense and everyone else

    but i am sure your concept is much more involved or sophisticated. Thanks for posting this thread though
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  • business owner can also discontinue your services any time. Your site is yours. Adsense gives passive income.
  • I would say being a SEO provider takes a lot of knowledge, years of knowledge, ideally, of SEO

    but that doesnt stop a lot of guys out there with a few months knowledge of SEO going out and selling their "expert" services. Even with more than a year in the game of SEO, I feel nowhere near qualified to sell SEO services. But perhaps I am selling myself short. I did manage to triple my online buss for my beach resort the family owns, and the resort now ranks 1, or 2 for all the popular terms (much to the irritation of my fellow resort owners )
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    • What's with the argument? Why not do both - publish content monetized with AdSense and provide SEO services at the same time?

      If both makes us money, what's preventing us from doing both?
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  • I myself have been providing seo services in the past. Now i have moved to adsense because

    1. Adsense is simple and easier to manage. You just have to get targeted traffic (buyers), when someone click on ads you earn $$$ and paid.
    2. It has the best payment options for the people outside US. Adsense even pay through western union.
    3. When you know what is working for you just rinse and repeat, $$$ will come automatically.

    As a service provider.

    1. It takes time to get clients.
    2. You spend a lot of time communicating and preparing reports. More clients, more hassle.
    3. Sometimes you are not paid.
    4. They can discontinue you any time.

    Yes, adsense model has some cons and is not a perfect model but still it is the best for me and many others i think.
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    • I won't argue with 2 but thats not something most care about. 1 and 3 is pretty much the standard lines with adsense as a model but it doesn't really pan out for people. on #1 you still have to ranks sites to get traffic to get a click so you have to learn SEO and work on your site like any other SEO based business. No magic clicks. on Number #3 you still have to rank sites. No magic bullet. I can rinse and repeat my SEO skills on any sites as well. In fact any business model on the internet can use that cliche "rinse and repeat".

      break it down for me though because I am not getting the disadvantages. Look how that stacks up with adsense.

      1) It takes time to rank a site and then get some clicks from adsense. You have do that all on your own dime and time with no payments in the HOPE it will pay off.
      2) Would adsense people mind some communication with a customer if it ensured they were making money faster? You do realize that the reason you would have communication (reports are drop dead easy. there are software packages out there that give them in a click of a button) is because you have a PAYING customer?
      3) is just not true since most SEOs get paid upfront. Don't know why you created your SEO business differently
      4) Google can discontinue your adsense at any time, change their policies , and change their payouts without asking you anything.

      So once gain seems to me Adsense comes up short on the merits.


      That point I can get in terms of not having to answer to anyone personally but besides the personal aspect of answering to someone Google DOES own your business model and you are on the hook to them. You may not answer to them in actual personal communication but you do answer to them for the existence of your business. I'm my own boss though. Punch my own clock and run the show. Business customers don't care about what you are doing if they see results pushing them up to the top of results. Thats all they care about and thats what I should do anyway.
    • What will happen if adsense ban your account? I prefer to keep both these systems to make money online.
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    • You seem to be the only one here FOR Adsense.
      And I see their point, but MFA sites have benefit as well. Less time to upkeep, all you do is find something and as u said, rinse and repeat.

      have you found success in adsense yet?

      EDIT btw im neutral, more for adsense. but not sure yet.
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  • Agree totally - for all the effort of ranking adsense sites you could get a MUCH better ROI and return on time through selling your own products /seo service/lead gen sites etc
  • mike, your post is straight on but this only applies to people who own sites that receives qualified traffic from google. Say if I wanted to approach a company directly, I would need to prove to them that the traffic coming in to my site from my keywords are very likely to convert for them, not a million long tail keywords that has a very small potential of conversion or even irrelevant content. That's why some smart advertisers go as far as blocking some sites from showing their ads.
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    • Good point Mike. thing is though I really would question how many people get really good conversion even for adsense from those kinds of keywords as well. Back when the farmer update went through I gave some MFA guys some links and they ranked top two but were surprised there was no traffic (freebie - didn't do any keyword research for them).

      Now what Yukon does to me is a more sensible model even though he is into adsense because he has repeat visitors and works his site's advantages. The sites he talks about have value besides adsense but I just don't know many people making a real business out of strictly MFAs
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  • Because I'm lazy.
  • You could replace adsense, but there is only so much time in the day. It all comes down to time. There is just not enough time in the day to write content, manage and create new websites, perform seo, and then also trying to do your own adsense. You have to outsource certain aspects, and in a way adsense is like outsourcing your ads. This sorta idealogy applies to click bank and amazon sites too. You could actually try and sell your own products, but then you have to find a time to produce them.

    On the other hand, I agree that once you have some sites up it might be a good idea to look into adsense alternatives. You might make more money.
  • I think there are pros and cons to your method just as there are pros and cons to any method of making money.

    I personally use Adsense because it allows me to get passive income. That's the biggest selling point for me. Once the site is up and making money, I can just leave it and add an article or guest post every so often.

    I do have a mixture of both SEO clients and Adsense, but it's mainly because I think it's important to diversify income streams (I also have a few other things going on).
  • Curiously bnetwork. you say blast the new site with 1000 social bookmarks. Do you outsource this? if so , is that fiver gigs?
  • Your OP sounds like flame bait, but I will still bite. (What the hell is pure truth by the way?)

    I find these threads amusing... My way is better! No, my way is better! Let it be... There is more than one way to skin a cat. There are plenty of people killing it with Adsense, PPC, social, SEO service work, content, graphics, email lists, etc, etc. And lots of people still trying to find their way.

    I am doing more than just fine with Adsense and I work 1-2 hours a day on my projects. I accept that I am beholden to Google, but my hope is that I can keep one step ahead of the algorithm changes to keep my sites ranking. This is no different for you and your clients. You need to stay ahead of Google to keep your client's sites ranking.

    Dealing with clients has its own challenges, they become your boss and your still dependent on Google's good graces to rank their sites, keep your clients happy, and keep their fees rolling in. So now you have two entities you have to keep happy.

    Not all IMers have the tools, skills, and/or where with all to do SEO service work for a living.

    You mention the average IMer in your OP. Why don't we compare the average IMer with the average SEO service provider? I am willing to bet that there isn't much of a difference in each of their incomes or business stability.
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    • Yep. they are right here at WF and many of them PM me SEO questions. Because I have had that I bet I actually know more adsense publishers than you do. MY A/B test is the amount of people not making any money from adsense compared to those who do.

      Thanks you just proved my point. 500 visitors a month will make you pennies in conversions for most keywords. Adsense hopers spend hours upon hours in keyword research to find enough of those low traffic keywords to make multiple sites and often find even then the conversions are paying them pennies.
  • I've read some of Mike's previous posts and I like them... I think he uses the "flame bait" approach for a reason. Good marketing.

    But seriously now... every blanket statement like the one above is total bs. There is no best business model, no best approach or one best way to do things. Sharing what works for you is great, but trying to prove to any (already successful) individual that his business plan isn't working is beyond silly. Think about it for a minute. Not everyone here is a clueless newbie.

    Good thread, would read again.
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    • Its only BS if you don't read. the Op says it clearly. There is no blanket statement that adsense works for no one. Its says specifically most. Anyone denying that most people do not make good money from adsense is fibbing or hasn't looked around.

      Well you are right. Not everyone is a clueless newb therefore they know that someone posting that they are successful in adsense doesn't mean that they are. For one people have totally different ideas about what success is and some think they have a successful business because they make $300 a month. For another people rarely like to say they have failed at something.

      So whose right and whose wrong doesn't come down to testimonials in an open forum. It comes down to making the case and showing the logic behind a model. If not someone will always figure they solve the issue by anonymously claiming they are making money - happens like that all the time (and either side can do that). Generally though if a business model has real logical flaws it really doesn't make good money for most of the people getting into it. Adsense doesn't make good money for the majority of people getting into it so sorry its a candidate for that general rule.

      As for the thread being flame bait. No its not. Did I know that some people invested in adsense would disagree with it? Yes but not presenting your position on something because some people will get upset at it and call it flame bait would amount to them censoring others positions.

      I wrote what I wrote because more than any other model I get people who are not making it in IM contacting me for help who are relying on adsense and because the problems with adsense are all over this board in several threads every week.
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  • CO2 said it well in the very first response: simplicity. You put in a bit of code and you're in business. Google or whatever other service you use handles the delivery of ads. There's a huge potential inventory of ads. They'll maximize their returns which means it maximizes yours. Most who use Adsense as a means of monetizing don't think about Google getting their share, at least in my opinion. But I think it's a good trade-off for everything I mentioned. They do provide a service.

    As for making money in other ways, nothing prevents site owners to do so and many very likely do. I think most people are simply content with doing thing the easy way. It's hard to find clients and you have to deal with them. There's also competitors. In my mind, the SEO market is over-saturated. The pie is being sliced up in very small pieces. Too many saying they'll do SEO for the number who want/need it. Most don't even know how to sell it properly. I agree with outwest: too many in the game who shouldn't be.
  • YEp and like I said and the reason I started this thread. thats the myth people buy and get nowhere because of it. Putting code on a page does not put you in any business. You are in business when you are in position to get payment. COde on your page that is showing on page 20 with no one seeng it is not being in business. SO in the end its still a SEO game and you are right back to ranking sies just like youdo in providing a SEO service.

    Only in your mind though. Perhaps you mean selling SEO ON WARRIOR FORUMS but the facts show very clearly there are millions of businesses online and millions of niches and keywords in Google US. GOOGLe UK and piles of different data centers of google all over the world. Nowhere near saturation.

    First failure in one business model that generally pays out pennies does nto equate to failure in all other forms of business that pay well. Thats way out there. Are there people who will be able to do neither ? certainly but failure in one model thr pays very little as opposed to another where you have more resources quicker does not compute. Most people invoved indiscussion right her ein WF regularly have the skills of communication.

    If you are asking people to rank more than one site to be successful what are the chances they could rank one and get paid to do it? You are missing the point. Just the one would make more moeny than tons of people will make in adsense ever. If people have to rank sites to get paid by Google then why is it much different to rank sites for businesses and get paid more money.

    maybe somebody that doesn;t have to pay mortgages , feed themselves or pay bills but I think most IMers are hoping to one day live off their online business and "quick moneis" don't cut it. IF youa re saying adsense is great for a hobby I guess I would agree. That would prove my point though.
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    • Again, it's not easier to find SEO clients and rank their sites than it is to build high quality Adsense sites and make good money with them.

      Can you sell a clients site? Cause I sell roughly half of my Adsense sites after 3-5 months, generating a lot of extra profit. I could go on and on.

      Look - I'm a massive fan of providing SEO services for cash flow purposes. I do it myself. I do loads of SEO client work. And I invest loads of money into Adsense sites, because it's nearly hands off and it pays amazingly well.

      Nope, that's not what I'm saying. What I mean is that most people right here on this forum are looking to make a quick buck and aren't willing to put in the hard work required to make it in the long run. It doesn't matter if we're talking Adsense or SEO work.
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  • Not that I agree or disagree with you, but I think this is kind of comparing apples to... well, a different kind of apples.

    Some people just don't have the skills/confidence to reach out and sell themselves in person to local business owners. I think it an almost entirely different skill set to be able to do this when compared to doing SEO for your own sites.

    Not to mention that if you are going to do SEO for businesses for large amounts of money, you have to know what you're doing first. I think people would get upset if they found out you were trying to learn on the job on their dollar. :p

    This is a great discussion, though. I can completely understand the appeal of doing SEO for businesses. Who says you can't do SEO for both your own sites and others?
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    • Why are you assuming that all SEO clients are local and require offline selling?
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  • what is MFA?
    The reason that adsense is so attractive
    1. they do the marketing. Marketing is worth 80% of the price and they take something like 68% of the revenue. So I get more than I give
    2. they pay for the click. Consumer does not need to make a purchase
    3. the serve up ads contextual to the site content making the click more likley

    I would in a heartbeat bypass google if I could find businesses that would pay me per click (and make all the time marketing to them worth it) and not per sale. If you create a network that competes with adsense, finds the advertisers and takes less per click then google, I am IN!!!
    If I am not getting it, fill me in please.
    By the way, I started with Adsense 30 days ago. I am up to $140 per day with a goal of $1,000 per day. I think it is doable but it takes a LOT more smarts than the average guy who is trying to make a living on line. I am 55, have had several OFF LINE businesses and understand about BUSINESS. Many youngsters who try their hand at Internet marketing seem to violate the basics of what makes business successful. Look forward to your enlightement on how I can make more than adsense.
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    • Made For Adsense

      I 'll call it

      A) You are utilizing a site that has been built up long before 30 days ago and was not created 30 days ago for adsense

      Or

      B) You are blowing pure fairy dust and smoke.

      What I have been discussing are MFAs. theres no way under normal circumstances that people get up to $140 per day in 30 days.

      I thought my point was obvious. You are blowing smoke because thats what you sell in your sig. people point to threads all the time in the hope people will PM them and get clients. You are not selling every site you build in half a day for $2000 dollars thats pure baloney. You are doing exactly what I said people do. Point at one site that sells for that and claim its the rule.
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  • Mike, I guess I fall into the "successful earners" category for adsense based on the figures mentioned in the OP, so I am not sure that my opinions count much here.

    But, I chose adsense several years ago, not because it was easier than anything else, because it really isn't, but rather because I had no interest in working with other people or companies.

    I became a full time iron worker, welding and walking i-beams, etc., when I was 15 years old. Continued working in related fields until I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease in my late 20's. I had two options, start my own business or collect disability.

    At the time, I knew nothing about computers, really never even used one to be honest. So I started looking around at some of the ways that people were making money online, this was several years ago, I found Adsense and it seemed like a great fit for me. Reasons being:

    1) I could work from home and it required very little capital to get started.

    2) I did not have to deal with other people or companies. I am not a "very outgoing" person and often go days with out talking to anyone but my wife or kids. I like it that way.

    3) Adsense overall is somewhat on autopilot. If I want to up and disappear for a couple of weeks, I can. I don't need to notify clients, or anyone else. I just pack my bags and head out of town. Last year for example, I was sitting at my desk working as normal and by the afternoon I was on a plane to Denver to visit friends, completely on a whim. Stayed for a week and a half, never even turned on the internet or read an email, it was very relaxing!

    However, that is my story. I know that there are a lot of people that are not successful with Adsense. There are some people that will probably never be successful with anything, usually because they are lazy.

    When I started out I was working around 18 hours a day, plus 4 or 5 hours a day on the weekends. I still push the envelope these days, with a normal day running around 14 hours, but it is not because I have to but rather because I want to. I love what I do. I love building sites and I love seeing more money make its way into my pockets.

    I guess its like anything else, if you don't put the work in, you aren't going to make it work. Generally, the people that do not make money with adsense will not make money with seo clients. Due to lack of work ethic and organization.
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    • fair point. given those conditions then I can see that but I am curious do you build MFAs. See most people I know that do well with Adsense (And I don't deny that there are) do so by having much fuller sites than the traditional paste up a pile of MFA approach

      might surprise you but I can do much of that as well. On a whim for weeks at a time no but on a whim for a week - sure. Some differences but not that big of a deal for me.


      Could be but for starting out I still would go with SEO
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  • I'm with you on the SEO part and making money that way...

    SEO is my way of living. It pays the bills and puts extra cash in my pockets too. The majority of my clients are local, but I definitely have clients that are out of state and even overseas.

    The reason I'm capable of surviving off of, and making a living from providing SEO to my clients' websites, is because the techniques I use have proven to work and work well.

    AS far as the adsense part goes, I do have 1 site with adsense on it, that makes about $40 per month. That particular site has been around since 2007, but I just put adsense on it in mid 2011. $40 a month isn't much at all, but, is a couple cases of beer and a Happy Meal from McDonalds. Obviously it's not much, but its fun.

    JasonB
  • I stick with Adsense (and some CPA/affiliate offers) because I can make a couple thousand euros per month with a few websites that don't need maintenance. My country has a lot of online opportunity at hand for local websites and I'm positive this is the case for many other non-English countries. But I think many people new to IM get sucked into the English market from the get go and are lost because they can't handle the competition, swings and/or English content creation.

    I could invest more time, call local business and make more but I have no need for that and it's too much of a hassle. That and I'm currently investing time into my own projects that I find fun. I don't enjoy working on sites for other people which is why I'm not doing it. I used to own a business with a couple of friends which was pretty much web development, design, SEO and all that other standard stuff but I quit because I wanted to enjoy my life and my time.

    The thing with me is, I don't really care about making a lot of money. Earning money is easy, but my lifestyle doesn't call for 20k per month. What I care about is building my sites that I own myself, even if that site has a higher upkeep cost than what it earns me. As long as I know it's helping people. And if I ever sell one of my businesses for a ton, you can bet your ass I'm going to invest most of it to help mankind.

    But you're right in saying that there's a lot of value in other places besides Adsense for people who need it and are investing time already in non-lucrative MFA sites and whatever. I'm probably lucky to have stumbled upon a vast untapped market, something that won't happen to everyone. If I hadn't, I'd probably look for other activities such as an offline business or even back to online poker (but I hate those swings :p).
  • Banned
    My brother has no websites, started Adsense around Aug. 2011, has approx. 310 videos on Youtube monetizing with Adsense & earns approx. $40 per day.

    Each video took approx. 30min to create & upload. He is a professional video editor offline (TV commercials), Youtube/Adsense is the perfect match for him.

    As unique as my brothers experience with Youtube/Adsense might seem, I'm sure their are thousands of similar other cases all over the net.

    My point is, just because you see so many guys on this forum pumping out 2 page MFA sites, isn't what the rest of the Adsense community is doing. Personally I create larger sites that people actually enjoy, so If the day ever came that Google/Adsense banned my account (just the same as an SEO client could drop you), so what I can monetize with a lot of other products or even my own product.

    My traffic is what generates my money, the product (Adsense) can be replaced, again, just the same as one of your SEO clients can be replaced.
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    • Yuke I've been making the distinction for two pages now that a site that exists on its own and can be monetized multiple ways because it is quality and the real source of the business is a different beast than what I am talking about.

      In fact I already mentioned you by name as running a more feasible adsense revenued resource Every site or resource owner I see making money off of adsense has their website as their main business NOT adsense. Patrich is added to that list. You guys can stop taking adsense tomorrow and use something else because you have taken the long hard road of building up a site/resource people want to use/view over and over again. Is that easier than doing SEO for a business? Not if you already know or have to learn some SEO.

      When all the people in this thread talk about quick and easy "to make monies" They are not going that route. they are going the Made For Adsense website building and you guys being some of the few I see making money from adsense seem to refute that way of using adsense (but just a different way than I am refuting the MFA model) that many people on WF to this day still are runnimg down.
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  • I use google adsense for two reasons 1 is because i think it is a very simple way to make money and reason number to is i don't know another way to do it
  • How true. I used the word business in the sense that you are ready to go. I certainly don't consider having sites with Adsense A business. You're not selling anything. Sure, some are likely doing a decent living with this method, but the vast majority are not. For most, it's more a bit of extra money. A hobby almost. I certainly would not use Adsense as the foundation of a business model. Business in the sense that revenues are predictable and enough of it to cover expenses and pay myself so I can feed myself and have a roof over my head.


    Yes. There's too many so-called SEO experts trying to get your business. I see it all the time in freelancing sites. As soon as someone puts up a SEO project, 30 to 40 put in ridiculous bids. Too many and if they are living of this, I just don't see how.


    Still today, there is a big percentage of brick and mortar businesses that don't have web sites. Those who do have a site, I'm not so sure they don't give a hoot about being found. But they do use their site differently than most people here. For example, using offline advertising and getting people to visit their site. But I don't think that means they don't care about not ranking. They may not care as much.

    Years ago, it was the thing to have a site for your business. It was "in". Back then, they didn't care about SERPs and ranking. They didn't expect to make money from their web site. It was more like a brochure thing. Today, things are different. Businesses see web sites as another customer acquisition tool. So Mike is right, in the vast majority of cases, the idea of a web site is to do business online and complimenting brick and mortar.

    Smart businesses will look into any method of advertising. This includes Adwords.
  • There's nothing faster or easier than a MFA site. Although I've agreed since the beginning that MFA sites are not the best investment of your time.
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    • Title is fine. It totally applicable to to how most people at WF use adsense.
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  • Yeah I guess I get your point.

    I could take Adsense off every site I own and potentially make even more money as they're mostly health niches. I used to think of MFA as "using Adsense for monetization", not made for Adsense only.

    Though I still disagree that running a SEO service is a good alternative. It's one of many alternatives, but certainly isn't any easier than building good websites for yourself and ranking them.

    I don't work alone, maybe that is why it takes me half a day to put a good website together (content creation goes to my star writer, link building either in house or outsourced, site building done in house, but not by me). I don't mean like an authority site or anything though. Just a good website that gets daily facebook likes and 300-500 search visits a day.
  • I don't see anything wrong with doing both. I've always sold my own products and I've had Adsense websites since the start. Adsense is the EASIEST money I've ever made in my life, and I've had a really, really easy life
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  • I have no idea what that means but it sounds impressive.

    I like adsense because it helped my product sell.
  • I do both....I have 15 sites that I own and actively maintain at various points backlinking to keep them on page 1. At this point all I do is outsource about 100 articles for BMR and spread them around the high competition keywords/sites as most of my sites havent moved down since ranking them. Its not a total "set & forget" but theres not much maintainance on my end compared to the initial investment. I generate on avg now about $1500/month which isnt bad IMO. I used my adsense money to start my Offline Business which has been very lucrative doing as the OP stated the same thing. Ranking sites on Google. So I believe IM'ers should do both as I've heard of the Adsense horror stories but I dont know the circumstances behind them. I will say I've made in my 1st month of Offline(which was partial) what I made in total thru Adsense the last 2 months. Every meeting I've gotten the owners state the same thing "I've been looking at doing the online thing but I didnt know how" or they spoke with people who quoted too much. Truthfully I dont charge these CRAZY prices I see people charge as it only costs me a few bucks to outsource my clients work. Sorry.....tangent......ummm yeah like I said, Do both Adsense & Offline if you can lol
  • yeah dude totally agree with you on this post topic. Adsense used to be really easy to get ranked and make a decent income monthly. However, these days slapping up a EMD site and waiting for adsense scraps is not really a good way to focus your time and energy to make money online. Your idea to go straight to the business owners is much more viable option if you can show the that your fee is generating clients from organic searches.
  • nNetwork, how many pages do your sites typically contain?
  • I have both SEO clients and Adsense websites.

    I prefer my Adsense income because it's set and forget. You just keep adding to the income stream. Every now and then it drops (my earnings this month will be less than in Dec) but the lessons you learn are invaluable even when that happens.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Mike I'm curious, how do you go about contacting these businesses? I'm not really one to approach a business offering a service they're more than likely to refuse, tired of hearing the same crap about not having the marketing funds available.

    The only serious SEO I've done is for friends, friends of friends or friends bosses who were interested. For that reason I'm more than happy to stick to affiliate marketing, product creation and the like - Adsense has you at their mercy, so f*** 'em (though I do make a nice sum off them none-the-less).
    • [1] reply
    • I know local is all the rage but I don't touch it. I will put it this way though.

      The so called saturation with people offering SEO who do not know what they are doing is a smart SEOs best money maker. They create a LOOOONG list of businesses who ARE interested and willing to pay but who are getting crappy results.
  • Well i guess I am in the other boat here. It is stupidly easy to create an MFA site (it can still be useful and provide users with answers etc) that makes £50+ a day within a month/6 weeks. I'm finding it hard to want to do anything else, but i know i need to diversify.

    Long term, i do and will go into the consultancy side of things, but for now while i have a full time offline job and saving for a house it's nice to have a hefty AdSense check at the end of each month which is all passive income.
    • [3] replies
    • If you could do that consistently, you would have no need to diversify. After one year you would be earning 450 a day and you could just save money instead of worrying about diversifying traffic sources.

      The problem is, everyone always thinks the formula is building websites that all hit a certain revenue stream. It's easier said than done.
    • How many hours per day, for each site to get to that level in 6 wks?
    • IN the years on WF we see claims like this ALL THE TIME and most of the time when/if the truth comes out it was all fluff and fairy dust. They were either making next to nothing or they had one site that made a moderate return and tried to generalize and act like all their sites were making that or more.

      When People Like Yukon who has demonstrated that he knows what he is talking about with adsense tells me it takes building a good resource that people want to come back to I accept it and put the "I make good money easily within 30 days on my MFA sites" into the building hype for a WSO garbage heap.
      • [2] replies
  • Well i dont agree with you adsense is much lot easier to build and get income you dont have to be a seo expert to get ranked if you choose your niche wisely and the proof is the presence of hundreds of rank magnets. Neither i had seen all the seo experts making thousands of dollars per months by other methods. We dont have to request for sales neither we have to make refunds its just setup a nice informative site and go on.
    Also its too easy to critique a prevailing system do we really have any alternative to GOOGLE adwords or adsense ?
  • Patrich,

    I respect your opinion, and i agree with a lot of what you have said is right. I was merely just stating that i have found a fair few keywords that do have massive traffic and are easy to rank.

    I know this is not the norm, by a lot shot! I just wanted to tell people that it is possible.
  • Mike, you surely do make some good points, but as an Adsense publisher myself the first thing I can recognize is someone comparing apples with oranges.

    The mindsets of individuals are different (incl. myself).... some people don't mind handling customers and the burden of ensuring everyone is happy - I know I don't!

    I use my skill (seo) to build a passive income via Adsense and Aff. marketing and no1 can deter me.. coz I'm making good money without the hassle of taking care of customers

    (Sorry if you can't do the same Mike)
    • [1] reply

    • and I can recognize when a cliche is soooo over killed. Just because some people don't like communicating with people doesn't mean the whole analysis is "apples to oranges" . the Op spells out the similarities pretty clearly.

      Does everyone who does adsense hate relating to people that makes doing adsense an apple instead of an orange? Thats Strange for people in this thread because they all just by posting already doing the very kind of communication that I do every day. Typing on my keyboard.

      As for this hyped up stuff about pleasing customers, dealing with them Yad, yady,, yada :rolleyes:. Those of you trumping up that to more than it is are showing signs of just not knowing about what makes a SEO business run.

      I do not care if my customers are happy. I don't call them to ask them. shocking? For some perhaps but I already KNOW what makes them happy and its nothing odd - its what I offer.

      My longer term customers can go weeks without talking to me because frankly they care about one thing only - the same thing I care about "where is there site placing in the search engines". They see it and know it and smile or frown

      If top 3 they are happy. End of story. None of the trying to plase them and "answering to them" and constant communicating back and forth you guys are trying to sell as soo hard. Deliver what you promise. rankings. the same kind of ranking that if you don't achieve in Adsense you are out of a business as well.


      Now i realize on WF SEO is a little different . Lots of you do link counting. "10,000 links" and "where is my report" and "how fast did you place them" and junk like that. I got one customer like that from here that is no longer my customer. Ranked number two within two weeks of using links I gave him and cried like a baby because he didn't get a report on the location for the last two. Hence I rarely take customers from here anymore for full SEO.

      SEO world is hundreds of time bigger than WF though. To each his own. I'lltake dropping a few lines like everyone is doing in this thread anyway and have my business untethered from waking up one morning and the one company I work for saying my account has been suspended or decides unilaterally to change my payout.
      • [2] replies
  • I've recently started embarking on an authority site without AdSense. I'm glad I saw this post. The clicks are too low and inconsistent.
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  • 164

    Why bother with Adsense when you could be making more and Faster without them?

    Been meaning to ask this question for awhile but kept putting it off . I was recently reminded of this when talking with a few Imers looking to build adsense empires. With adsense you are basically being paid by businesses to send traffic to them. Yes Google sends you the check but ultimately the real person paying out the dollars is a business using advertising through adwords. Google gets a nice slice out of that pie and controls everything (including how much you make and whether they want you to continue making it). You don't get to set your price and terms. You are entirely at their mercy and the businesses that ultimately pay you are paying through their nose for clicks while you get pennies.