Now, I ain’t no Adsense expert, so this is just an observation for what it’s worth, for whoever wishes to read it.
On one of the sites I set up, I worked my butt off to get links, add articles, post regularly, setup a newsletter, and so on. For six months I worked on it. I’m now up to anywhere from 50 to a hundred visitors a day. Not a huge number, but it’s in a VERY competitive niche. I mean, I’m competing side-by-side with government agencies and .edu sites.
So in that respect, I consider my current visitor rate to be pretty good, I suppose.
After reaching this number, last month, I decided to finally monetize it by adding Adsense. Now, as I said, this is in a very competitive niche, with some very high-paying Adsense ads. I went ahead and targeted some keywords on each page to make sure only truly relevant ads showed up on each page. I blended the colors in with the site. I get a click through rate of around 5 to 15%; it varies considerably from day to day.
And each day it makes anywhere from .05 cents to $2 or so. In the month since I started it, it’s made a grand total of $26.70.
Disappointment? Hmm. Maybe. But what did I really expect from these visitor numbers?
The main thought on my mind at this time is not so much disappointment as what an insanely-uphill-battle into making money.
Now, I’m not saying Adsense is a bad way of making money. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But after my own experiences with it, as well as reading the blogs of others struggling in internet marketing, this is exactly the reason I’m moving into the world of product creation. It’s just more tangible. I make something, then I sell it to people. Maybe it doesn’t sell well, maybe it sucks, but at least I can get a grip on it.
Working with Adsense, at least in the “white-hat” way, involves writing and writing and writing. Endlessly. And then, IF your website ranks well for it’s best keywords, and IF you blend your ads in well, and IF there are enough relevant ads, and IF visitors click on them, you get paid.
Did you get that? Write 300 or so articles, and hold your fingers that people click your ads so you make some money. Who knows how much?
Or, write a 50 to 100 page ebook, sell it for $37, and market the hell out of it. The amount you make from it is only limited by the desperation of the niche you picked and the amount of effort you put into the marketing.
Which would you rather do?
