Last week I made a post: Additional Income Streams for Freelance Writers. In it, I explained that I would shortly be starting a blog showing others how to earn money through the Google AdSense program. As promised, the blog has launched and I am hoping that a lot of you will head on over, give it a look, and subscribe to the RSS feed and/or for email updates.
The new blog is called ChrisAdsense.com. As you can see, I kept with the “Chris” brand. Over there, all the posts will be based around my goal of earning more money with AdSense. I plan on posting almost everyday on the steps I am taking to build out more sites and increase my income. You will find everything from how I choose my topics to best keyword research practices to how much money I am earning.
Just like this blog, I hope to supply high quality information that can help many of you take your online income to the next level. Working for yourself as a freelance writer is a great joy – it has treated me well over the years. With additional income streams, such as Google AdSense, you may be closer than you realize to replacing your 9 – 5 job.
So, if you get a chance check out my new blog. I am confident that you will enjoy the content!
A few months ago I added Google AdSense to ChrisBlogging. The main reason for doing this was to see how it would perform. I have used AdSense in the past on other blogs and websites, and my success rate varied from average to extraordinary.
So what is the verdict? Simply put, AdSense is not performing that great on this blog. There are a couple of reasons for this.
1. I do not have enough visitors to generate a large number of clicks.
2. Since most people who visit this blog are web savvy, they are not prone to clicking on the AdSense ads. I have found that AdSense is best for sites that are not related to making money online, etc. In other words, sites or blogs where the majority of readers are not aware of what AdSense is all about. They simply see an ad that they are interested in, and click.
Am I going to keep AdSense active for much longer? While I have yet to decide for sure, chances are that when my new design goes live, that AdSense will get kicked to the curb. There are many other monetization methods that are much more profitable for a blog of this kind.
There is nothing wrong with using AdSense on all your sites and blogs if you are interested in quickly setting up a mode of monetization. But remember, some niches are more profitable than others when it comes to making money with Google AdSense.
Even though I have only been running Google AdSense on this blog for a week or so, I wanted to give everybody an update on how the advertising program is performing. Generally speaking, the results are pretty much just what I had expected based on my placement and traffic. Since I have used AdSense in the past I kind of had an idea of what the situation of this blog would bring.
As you probably know, AdSense is not a steady program. In other words, you could get 20 clicks one day and just a handful the next. To add to this, 20 clicks on day one could earn you $4 and the next only $2. It all depends on what ads are being served, and of course, what ads are being clicked on.
So what am I earning each day from AdSense you may ask? Again, this is only an approximation, but my earnings are usually in the $2 to $4 range. No, this is not a lot of money, but it does add up by the end of the month.
I am hoping to do two things to improve my AdSense earnings. 1. Increasing traffic should at the very least give me a chance to increase my income. 2. Tweaking my ads, such as color and placement, will also put me in a better position to succeed.
It is easy to get frustrated with AdSense because unless you have loads of traffic you are not going to make a full-time income. But with that being said, it is a nice program that will help you to earn more and more as your traffic increases.
For the second month in a row, posting my freelance writing income stats has resulted in an increased number of emails in my inbox. This time around, after only a day, several readers have asked why I do not attempt to monetize this blog. As I have mentioned in the past, monetization is important to me, but not until I reach certain traffic levels.
Now that I have built a solid readership, surpassed my traffic goals, and have the okay of my readers, I think it may be time to add some Google AdSense blocks. For the most part, when I decide to do this it will be more or less an experiment. There are two things that I will be looking for.
1. How much money can I make with Google AdSense? Is it really worth adding, or will it do nothing more than make me a few pennies every day?
2. My readers are important to me, and although they are known as “traffic stats” they mean more to me than that. Will Google AdSense affect my reader base either negatively or positively? This is what I will really be keeping my eye on.
With no technical skills, adding Google AdSense to this blog is not going to be easy for me. In fact, it will be a trial and error process. While I do have other blogs that use this advertising program, I have always paid others to help me out with adding the code, etc. But on this blog, my goal is to learn this kind of stuff on my own. So bear with me if there are some changes along the way that are not as they should be!
Related Link:Sabahan.com offers plenty of information and tips on Google AdSense.
In several past posts I have talked a bit about Henry and Wilson; the two twins behind richtwinpoortwin.com. More specifically I have been obsessed with the fact that Google AdSense shut their account down, which in turn cost them more than $200,000. Not to mention all of the future money that they were sure to earn.
After first reading their story I vowed to attempt to get in touch with these guys. After all, they have to have a lot of good insight, right? Well, after a few weeks of contemplation, I finally sent them a quick email. And sure enough, Henry was nice enough to answer my questions. So without further delay, here is the email interview.
Did you ever get the feeling that you should diversify, and move away from Google AdSense a bit?
At some points we did feel we should diversify and we tried a few other networks. However, we were just too comfortable with AdSense and every time we tried something new we compared it to AdSense which was by far much easier to navigate, use, and make money.
Do you feel that there was something you could have done differently to save your account?
I think I would have taken a more active approach in keeping in contact and dealing with Google’s AdSense team.
Do you think that you guys will be able to reach your previous income level without using AdSense?
I know it is possible to reach my previous level of income without AdSense. It is just a matter of focusing, staying motivated, and acting.
As you can see, Henry is a go-getter, and is sure to get things back on track in the near future. From this interview alone it is easy to see why he (and his brother) has had so much success. Not only is he knowledgeable, but confident that life after AdSense does exist!
Does the title of this blog post surprise you? Do you think it is a sin that I am possibly suggesting that Google AdSense is overrated? Although I do not want to cause a huge stir with this post, I feel that it is something to consider.
To start with, let me say that I have used AdSense on blogs and websites, and plan on continuing to do so. In fact, if I ever attempt to monetize this blog, AdSense is one program that I will more than likely start with.
But with all of that being said, in my opinion, AdSense is overrated. Here are three details that have led me to this conclusion.
1. From my experience speaking with hundreds of webmasters, AdSense is reserved for the best of the best. In other words, unless you have a highly profitable niche or loads of traffic, your chances of succeeding with AdSense are not that great. Sure, you can make a few bucks here and there, but a full-time income will be out of range.
2. For some reason, Google thinks that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. And when it comes down to it, I guess they really can. Google is the one company that is synonymous with the internet, and this does not appear to be changing anytime in the near future. But what does this have to do with AdSense, you may ask? Simply put, Google may decide to ban you from their program without explanation. Time and time again accounts are suspended, and publishers are left with no answers as to why. If you don’t believe it, check out this link - http://www.richtwinpoortwin.com/banned-from-google-adsense-lost-200000.html. These guys lost $200,000 when their account was suspended!
3. AdSense is no longer the only game in town. They may still be the leader in the industry, but they are being gained on. Other ways to monetize your blog or website include: Kontera, Text Link Ads, Bidvertiser, AzoogleAds, AuctionAds, Yahoo! Publisher Network, and many more.
As you can see, I strongly believe that Google AdSense is overrated. This does not mean that you should stop using AdSense, but you should consider your other options.
If you have ever attempted to monetize a blog or website, you probably started off with Google AdSense. After all, this is one of the easiest and most profitable ways to turn visitors into cash. But with that being said, if you rely 100 percent on AdSense you could be playing with fire. This may not be that big of a deal if you are only making a few bucks per month, but for bigger earnings, relying solely on AdSense is the biggest mistake that you could ever make.
Take a close look at this blog post over at Rich Twin Poor Twin; http://www.richtwinpoortwin.com/banned-from-google-adsense-lost-200000.html. These guys were making six figures a month from AdSense alone. This is probably something that you have dreamt about time and time again, right? Unfortunately, the gravy train has pulled away from the station, and these guys are left without any answers as to what happened. When Google banned them from AdSense, it cost them $200,000 from the previous month, as well as the money that they would have made from there on out.
The problem with relying solely on AdSense is that Google can pull the plug on you whenever they see fit. And to make things even worse, there is no way to find out what happened. It is hard to say if these guys were click bombed by a competitor, or if something else led to their dismissal. Even though they received a “ban email” stating invalid clicks, what exactly does that mean?
Although it is a shame that this had to happen, it is a lesson that we can all learn from. There is nothing wrong with using AdSense on your sites, but you better make sure that you diversify in case something like this happens. For instance, these guys have since moved onto other revenue streams such as AdBrite, Yahoo Publisher Network, ValueClick, BidVertiser, Kontera, and Text Link Ads. If they would have done this earlier on, the process of picking up the pieces would have been much easier to deal with.
Diversify your income streams so that you are not the next one to get taken down by Google. If you let AdSense run your life, it can potentially ruin it in the long run.
