Thread: Building up to $100 a month on Adsense

I love that you posted this here. It will keep you accountable/motivated and it will be good to see how you're coming along! Wishing you the best!

Originally Posted by lisa

I love that you posted this here. It will keep you accountable/motivated and it will be good to see how you're coming along! Wishing you the best!

Thanks!

Good to see your initiative and hope to follow along with your updates!

$10 with 3k-5k visitors is surely low but you shouldn't be discouraged in any way because any experience is valuable. Without even knowing your keywords I can guess that you have chosen low value keywords for your site. Going ahead, try and choose keywords that have a value of at least $1 - in fact the higher the better. You can use the Contextual Targeting Tool which is a part of Google's Keyword Tool to find groups of keywords that have the highest value and use them for your posts. You have to sign in to use it though.

Micro blogs may not be favored by Google anymore, with preference being given to large authority sites. So why not make one big site with groups of keywords in the same niche? Instead of building 100 pages on a micro blog you can make 100 posts on the same site with far better results - it will save you money on domains as well.

Using high value keywords may not be enough - you need a consistent flow of traffic as well. Make sure your site is fully optimized and do good off-page SEO for your site. Here are some of Lisa's videos on how to drive traffic:

Are Directory Submissions Worth It?
WordPress Posts vs Pages and SEO
Social Media - "Waste of Time?"
Building Traffic With Pinterest

You'll find plenty of information on how to drive traffic on the web. If you use Facebook and Twitter you can drive ample traffic to your site. Build a fan page on Facebook for your website with lots of likes, and with Twitter have an account for each website or niche with lots of followers. It does take time to accomplish that but it is well worth it :-).

Wish you success with your websites!

Originally Posted by emvy548

Good to see your initiative and hope to follow along with your updates!

$10 with 3k-5k visitors is surely low but you shouldn't be discouraged in any way because any experience is valuable. Without even knowing your keywords I can guess that you have chosen low value keywords for your site. Going ahead, try and choose keywords that have a value of at least $1 - in fact the higher the better. You can use the Contextual Targeting Tool which is a part of Google's Keyword Tool to find groups of keywords that have the highest value and use them for your posts. You have to sign in to use it though.

Micro blogs may not be favored by Google anymore, with preference being given to large authority sites. So why not make one big site with groups of keywords in the same niche? Instead of building 100 pages on a micro blog you can make 100 posts on the same site with far better results - it will save you money on domains as well.

Using high value keywords may not be enough - you need a consistent flow of traffic as well. Make sure your site is fully optimized and do good off-page SEO for your site. Here are some of Lisa's videos on how to drive traffic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIYigbU0cgY
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnNs6ESLSFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KBc_Imt97g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZckphBNUL5E

You'll find plenty of information on how to drive traffic on the web. If you use Facebook and Twitter you can drive ample traffic to your site. Build a fan page on Facebook for your website with lots of likes, and with Twitter have an account for each website or niche with lots of followers. It does take time to accomplish that but it is well worth it :-).

Wish you success with your websites!

Thanks for the advice. I don't actually buy domains. Everything's just on Blogger. My three larger blogs do have their own Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages. At one point I had a Klout of 46 but recently it's dropped back down because I haven't been active on that particular Twitter account.

I'll take your advice about the adwords tool. Typically I target keywords that are high in search results and low in competition, but I didn't know about the other function of the tool you mentioned. I know that in the past I've gotten good cpc on my Christian site and the same for the Photoshop site but lately it's diminished for some reason. There was one month where I'd made $30 just from the Photoshop site, but now it's back down to less than $10 per month between all of my sites combined.

Without seeing your site I will not be able to comment further. But if you have too many distractions or short uninteresting posts(don't take it personally) on your website visitors may click their way out and not stay too long on your site. If you have Google Analytics installed check your stats to see how long visitors stay on your site. If you do get a lot of traffic make them stay on the page with useful information and only Adsense ads to click on and nothing else.

Having your own domain also matters. With your own domain people are likely to take your website more seriously especially if you have a customized layout that many themes allow you to do(e.g. Thesis). Another advantage of having your own domain is that you can flip(sell) your website if you don't want it anymore or if you need a quick burst of cash sometime. Google can take your website away without any reason(not trying to scare you) as many have found to their chagrin.

While choosing keywords, look for long-tail keywords with at least 4 words. You can rank them easily and there are still tons of them available. In fact most of the traffic that Adsense earners get are through long tail keywords.

Look at Adsense websites in your own niche by going through some of the search results. See how they are structured and how they place their ads, their content and the way they link internally etc. By looking around you do gain a lot of knowledge which you can incorporate on your own site.

It's all part of learning - with a few tweaks and some changes you can turn your site into a high earning site. If not keep the points above in mind when you make your next site and you will have a winner on your hands.

Originally Posted by emvy548

Without seeing your site I will not be able to comment further. But if you have too many distractions or short uninteresting posts(don't take it personally) on your website visitors may click their way out and not stay too long on your site. If you have Google Analytics installed check your stats to see how long visitors stay on your site. If you do get a lot of traffic make them stay on the page with useful information and only Adsense ads to click on and nothing else.

Having your own domain also matters. With your own domain people are likely to take your website more seriously especially if you have a customized layout that many themes allow you to do(e.g. Thesis). Another advantage of having your own domain is that you can flip(sell) your website if you don't want it anymore or if you need a quick burst of cash sometime. Google can take your website away without any reason(not trying to scare you) as many have found to their chagrin.

While choosing keywords, look for long-tail keywords with at least 4 words. You can rank them easily and there are still tons of them available. In fact most of the traffic that Adsense earners get are through long tail keywords.

Look at Adsense websites in your own niche by going through some of the search results. See how they are structured and how they place their ads, their content and the way they link internally etc. By looking around you do gain a lot of knowledge which you can incorporate on your own site.

It's all part of learning - with a few tweaks and some changes you can turn your site into a high earning site. If not keep the points above in mind when you make your next site and you will have a winner on your hands.

The content is all high quality and most of it is probably too long. I do create link bait posts about 25% of the time however because people love to share link bait. I have analytics and the bounce rate isn't bad, and my interlinking is good so people typically visit several pages on my site before leaving, and even then when they click off of my sites they often click off of my blog to another of my blogs I've linked to on the same subject.

I agree that a custom domain can help and that I would own site that way, but my goal is to make my money 100% free, and that means staying on Google. I'm a stay at home mom with no money to spare to dump into my online endeavors. I have custom layouts on all three of my large sites (not standard Blogger layouts), many of them that I've tweaked the XML myself on to meet my needs.

I use a lot of long tail keywords and I'm always on niche sites that relate to my own content so that I can see what they're doing, what they're writing about, and what I can do better than them to attract visitors.

It all sounds easy, but even doing most of the things you're talking about does not guarantee a successful Adsense earning site. Thanks for your input and encouragement.

Originally Posted by JATomlinson

The content is all high quality and most of it is probably too long. I do create link bait posts about 25% of the time however because people love to share link bait. I have analytics and the bounce rate isn't bad, and my interlinking is good so people typically visit several pages on my site before leaving, and even then when they click off of my sites they often click off of my blog to another of my blogs I've linked to on the same subject.

Fantastic! Those are some great things that you're getting right!

I'm a stay at home mom with no money to spare to dump into my online endeavors.

I'm sure you meant invest, not "dump". If you really meant dump that means you're not treating your "online endeavors" as a business. As a tenured Forum member and a successful internet marketer I strongly suggest that you do.

It all sounds easy...

I didn't say it is and it isn't!

...but even doing most of the things you're talking about does not guarantee a successful Adsense earning site.

No, it doesn't, not even if you do all of what I am talking about in your thread. It really does take a lot more to achieve success with Adsense in today's competitive environment.

I have several Adsense sites and all of them yield a good income with the lowest earning site giving me at least $25 a month. One of the ways I manage a consistently high Adsense income is to get it right from the very beginning by doing good keyword research even before I build my site. I choose high CPC keywords along with keywords with a large volume of traffic and interlink posts in such a way that my high CPC keywords get clicked with traffic coming into the site due to my high traffic keywords. Keyword research is the foundation to a good Adsense income - traffic comes later.

Thanks for your input and encouragement.

You're welcome! After reading your detailed responses I am of the opinion that you will soon move further ahead with your efforts and achieve the success that you deserve. Please feel free to ask all your questions on the Forum so that you can benefit from inputs given by our members. Wish you all the very best of luck!!

The last few days I've been focusing on re-kewording and adding new ad units on my sites/blending and testing new colors and placements.

Best of luck!

Originally Posted by JATomlinson

2/7/13

My story: In 2007 I started a Christian Bible Study Blog online on Blogger and never thought about putting advertisements on it. It was purely to share free resources I'd found online with others. After working hard on the blog for weeks, I was hooked on blogging, and started several other blogs including a Photoshop Blog which I did monetize. I abandoned most of my other blogs over the years, but kept going back and updating the Bible Study Blog but never monetizing it. In 2011 I checked my Adsense account and was surprised that I was making money on my Photoshop blog, especially since I hadn't done anything with it in years. It was then that I decided to put a single Adsense block on my Bible study website, which also started making a little money from clicks. Once again I was hooked on Adsense. I do make money online other ways (Zazzle, Cafepress, selling my services on Fiverr, forums and Craigslist etc) but my goal is to have a true passive income.

Long Term Goal:
It was then that I read about micro-blogging for profit and the idea struck my fancy. To have 100 micro-blogs with excellent content, each making at least $1 a day (which would equal $100 a day from just Adsense). My long-term goal is this: Make 1 new micro-blog a week, submit it to the search engines, get at least 5 good content and keyword rich posts up, make some high quality backlinks, and then add a new post here or there each week to my other big blogs and micro-blogs.

Short Term Goal
Unfortunately my current Adsense earnings are under $10 a month, and most of that comes from my two big blogs that I do keep updated and that get around 3-5 thousand visitors a month each. I'm experimenting with ad placement, color schemes, etc, and as always still trying to get traffic to my big blogs via their Twitter and Facebook accounts as well as organic search traffic. So my short term goal is this: To make $100 a month via Adsense between all of my blogs. I feel like if I can hit this mark then I'd at least be on the right track. Of course I'll still be making money in the mean time from Zazzle and Cafepress (another passive income), along with a few dollars here and there on Fiverr (did $15 just yesterday). But my main goal is to get more followers and traffic so I can get more ad clicks.

I'll keep you updated as things happen.

Update 2/7/13: I submitted a guest post to SitePoint today. I'm hoping it will be accepted and that it will boost traffic to one of my blogs that hasn't been getting good traffic lately.

Hi, JATomlinson! What colors are you using now?

Originally Posted by carla2013

Hi, JATomlinson! What colors are you using now?

For my adsense? I'm trying to blend into my sites so they look like site links.

WARNING!

For my adsense? I'm trying to blend into my sites so they look like site links.

Be careful. It is very easy to get banned by Google and once you are out you may never get back in. We have heard of it often on this forum. That is one reason I have waited so long to start, so I can study their rules carefully. Here are two of their most prominent rules:

1. Ads shouldn't be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads.

2. Ads should be easily distinguishable from surrounding content.

You might check out this blog post on the Google Adsense blog.

Even the Adsense page says that one way to get good click through rates is to blend with your site's existing colors. That's why I started doing this.

https://support.google.com/adsense/b...n&answer=17957

Originally Posted by James

WARNING!


Be careful. It is very easy to get banned by Google and once you are out you may never get back in. We have heard of it often on this forum. That is one reason I have waited so long to start, so I can study their rules carefully. Here are two of their most prominent rules:

1. Ads shouldn't be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads.

2. Ads should be easily distinguishable from surrounding content.

WOOT! I don't know what happened, but I breached $10 in Adsense this month! Somehow I made $5 yesterday off of one site, and typically I never make more than a few cents a day on that site. Suddenly I was getting higher CPC clicks and many of them... it must have been a good ad whatever it was!