I have been experimenting with quite a bit of potential online revenue sources lately and I just realized that I had completely forgotten about even having a AdSense account. I was helping out a buddy of mine setup his own blog recently and he asked me a question about AdSense – which sparked my interest in it recently. While my AdSense account has been sitting dormant for a few years – I am giving some thought toward the idea of re-vamping my efforts with AdSense with a few niche sites. We’ll See. Onwards.
Hi! I would like to buy some Ramen.
I have AdSense setup on roughly 5-7 different sites – all with 100% unique, original content. Each of these sites were not necessarily well researched and put through a competition analysis phase before being built, instead: I built them out of pure interest and curiosity. I also strategically placed AdSense in all of these sites to see how it would turn out – the screenshot above speaks for itself. Just enough to buy some Ramen or live in a 3rd world country for a week. That’s pretty shitty if you ask me – but I know there’s a correct way to work AdSense and a incorrect way. The above results are obviously due to doing it the wrong way.
Only the honest will survive
Just like anything, there’s a heavy imbalance when it comes to high earners on AdSense, meaning about 70-85% of the AdSense publishers are making pennies – at least that is my conclusion. It’s not bad, but I am curious about the thought process behind the remaining (successful) 15-30%.. Especially after recent Google algorithm updates (ie: Panda etc.), It is no longer sufficient to build a fly by night website (even if it has unique, interesting content) to be able to be monetized by AdSense. If you are considering using AdSense as a primary form of monetization – you need to create super sites within niches and maintain a high level of quality long term. At least, these are the types of sites that I see surviving and pulling in decent revenue consistently in the future. I am talking 50+ pages/posts minimum – delving into every aspect of a particular topic/niche in great detail. These content would also have to be unique, well researched and highly targeted of course.
The point here is that – it’s going to take significantly more time and effort to build the same types of niche type sites in comparison to a few years ago. Why? The obvious answer is competition – but I think there’s a bigger trend: transparency. The thing is, black-hat/grey-hat SEO tactics have its time and place, but these methods are not scalable in the long run. Search engines are getting smarter and more accurate every day and it is almost guaranteed that the scientists behind Google will almost always have a leg up when it comes to weeding out the crappy/low quality content.
It took me a while to actually accept this fact because I LOVE instant gratification when it comes to SEO. But I realize that my paranoia is not really worth the effort when I could spend a little bit more time building a legitimate, valuable site.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to diversify your online income among a multitude of channels without putting all your eggs in one basket. I know – it’s quite cliched financial advice, but you’d be surprised how many people get attached to one “cash cow” when it’s performing well – and end up with nothing when it dies out. A better approach would be to literally put your hand in dozens of new channels/baskets every month and very slowly eliminate the under-performers – the magic is: overtime, you will slowly tweak your entire system, so that only the important channels are alive. Oh – boys and girls: if you are doing naughty things with black-hat SEO tactics, think about how scalable it might be in the long run as opposed to focusing most of your energy on white-hat/building valuable sites. Some food for thought. Meanwhile, I am going to go enjoy my Ramen.
Quick note: Apologies for not posting frequently – Don’t worry, it’s on purpose. I realized that I don’t want to stick to some pre-defined posting schedule if I don’t have anything to say, especially when it comes to Internet marketing subject material. I don’t want to be one of those people who earns cash online by “talking about earning cash online” – that would be the day I blast my brains out with a shotgun. Anyway, I have learned quite a bit about this arena and look forward to sharing my insights – and most importantly: results when time permits. Thanks for reading!
