$1 Million Dollar Google AdSense Check

lisa · #1 (**permalink**) 05-24-2007, 10:00 AM

Anyone heard of plentyoffish.com? An ex coworker of mine use to use it to find dates and I remember commenting on how horrible the site looked (they've upgraded it since I last went there)

There was an article in the WSJ about how this free dating site earned $1 Million in AdSense in about two months. And the guy runs the site all by himself.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117987775136211487.html

What's cool is that this site is not nearly as fancy as some of the more popular dating sites (Match, eHarmony, etc.) but it's free and it offers a service that people want.

Can you imagine earning $1 million from Google in a year? I need to get busy and boost my checks!

webdev · #2 (**permalink**) 05-24-2007, 10:26 AM

Lisa,

People like him are inspiration to all of us.

I heard about plentyoffish about year ago from my friend who told me that he saw his google ad sense check of almost half a million dollar in his personal blog. The guy who owns plentyoffish is from Vancouver. Him and his girlfriend runs the website. Imagine having a multi-million dollar company with only 2 employees. He makes a lot of money from dating banner ads too.

What set him apart was that he offered dating service for free. From 1000s of other dating sites out on the net he set himself apart by offering all the paid services for free that you have to pay for on other sites.

I wanted to copy his idea and making my own dating site after i heard and read about his success about a year ago. But then i read his blog, where he said that so many people are trying to replicate his success but don't get anywhere. The reason he said was that there are too many dating sites now and this area is too competitive with companies pouring millions of dollar on advertising. So someone from a basement can't really compete in this section.

With that being said one thing you have to note from his success that his success came from meeting the needs of people as you said. When it came to dating sites that need was...a free dating site.

Quote:

What's cool is that this site is not nearly as fancy as some of the more popular dating sites

You're right Lisa. Making your site with cool design should be the least of your worries. I learnt this the hard way. People judge your site not based on you cool design but based on how useful it is. I wish people can realize this. With all the web 2.0 buzz and new community sites coming out (where half of them fail) these days people are too concerned with replicating that buzz by having a cool designed website than having a meaningful website.

ppcFanatic · #3 (**permalink**) 05-24-2007, 11:07 AM

Yep, it's all about being the FIRST to do something and execute well. I can hear a lot of newbies saying now... "Well he copied Match, eHarmony, etc. why shouldn't I make a site like this?" Well not only did he have the technical knowledge to build a monster site like this, he was the FIRST to build a successful free dating site.

And what webdev said is a prime example of why we keep suggesting the newcomers here not to attempt to copy these kinds of sites. Once a key site has been established in a particular niche, it's hard for competition to enter. That's why you don't see tons of popular myspace-like sites.

And yes, I would LOVE to see a 9 figures from Google. Heck, I'd love to see even 4 figures from them.

lisa · #4 (**permalink**) 05-24-2007, 12:27 PM

Great points and I also want to make it clear I didn't post that to encourage people to copy the idea but it's further proof how important it is to find a niche and do something that no one else is doing. Yes he did copy the dating site concept, but he offered something that the popular dating sites didn't....FREE as ppc and webdev said.

Such a big lesson. If you decide to compete in competitive niches you better be able to offer something useful that no one else is offering to attract attention.

miles · #5 (**permalink**) 05-24-2007, 02:00 PM

My cousin used that site to find his current girlfriend. Had no idea it was run by a guy and his girlfriend. Wow, that's a heck of a lot of traffic for a site only 3 years old!!

Hmmm..... what kind of phenomenon can I create?

revenue · #6 (**permalink**) 05-25-2007, 01:14 AM

Dont forget that the name is really catchy too, it kinda gives the impression that there are lots and lots of matches to find compatibility with, come on now plentyoffish.com doesnt that imply something, plus it kinda gives off that, oh well if my current partner or this one or that is working then there's plenty of other fish in the sea.
Its not just the niche. I'll admit the niche has something to do with it especially at the time he launched it by i think there's something a bit more fishy going on. Something people like about fish.

a little Earnings History:
on Aug. 27, 2003, Markus Frind (markus007) has made posting on WebmasterWorld forum [11] : "I make about $40/day off 1200 visitors. No idea if that is good or bad."

At Feb. 27, 2006 he has published a photo of cheque for 901,733 CAD [1] (Nine hundred one thousand seven hundred thirty-three Canadian dollar, about $800,000 USD!)

If anyone wants to see a pic of markus and his girl or just want a little bit more raw data about the site. go to the link below

.

http://moneygeek.blogspot.com/2006/0...r-day-and.html

lisa · #7 (**permalink**) 05-25-2007, 11:33 AM

True revenue. The name definitely helps spark some interest, but the free service is what keeps people coming back for more and clicking those ads.

Interesting comment from the one guy on the blog who says "He's not even using Web 2.0." So many people still think it's all about the technology. Thank goodness it's not or I'd be in trouble!

webdev · #8 (**permalink**) 05-25-2007, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Interesting comment from the one guy on the blog who says "He's not even using Web 2.0."

lol...web 2.0 is the trend but web 2.0 has nothing to do with making a successfully revenue generating site. Most people think all the web 2.0 technology based and with 50+ staff sites like myspace, digg... make money.

Another prime example is of non-web 2.0 site which make s a lot of money is cragslist.

GodAdSense · #9 (**permalink**) 05-26-2007, 03:14 AM

Hi lisa,

I am not sure whether some of you have heard the question of Joel on 23rd of May which read like this “Is This the Death of AdSense?”

According to me that is not really alarming as far as your site is not an MFA (Made for Adsense). Right from the first day I promote my first ADSense Campaign, I already knew that those whose site is not content-based would right now or later be disappointed. Google himself has said that his AD is a “Contextual AD”, which means that it is according to the context or to the specific contents of your pages.

Those whose site is an MFA and though their earning has reached the level of 5K, yet Google has issued a notice to them to find an alternate as their campaign will be closed by 1st of June. You may also read the article by Jennifer Slegg (at http://www.jensense.com) where she has made it clear to you “Why Google decided to make an end of those campaign whose web site is not content-based”.

If you really want an alternate to Google (if not YPN who only approved USA based web sites) you may try Auction Ads. [link removed] With Auction Ads, though it is functionally similar to Adsense it is not conflicting with the Google TOS.

[link removed due to self promotion. Please use sig file]

Do you want to discover the most hidden secrets on the Internet to drive the most traffic to your site for free?

Effectively, the most hidden secrets are only known by only some of the web traffic specialists. Year after year, they earn massive income with their code that they carefully treasured and they never revealed.

So many of them do not do as much as we use to spend big money every month on advertising, yet their income is beyond compare.

Yours for your success

André Lee

GodAdSense

webdev · #10 (**permalink**) 05-26-2007, 09:00 AM

GodAdSense,

People here don't have to worry about google stripping their adsense account from them because everyone here has a content based site. That's why this site was built, to help people create content based sites. All the other alternatives from google are not up there. That's why there hasn't been a Google competitor in PPC thus far.

"The average housewives in the US are earning $8,000."
I don't know if that statement is really true.

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