How much can one make with AdSense?

[mfa385]

How much can one make with Ad Sense?

I know the short easy answer is "unlimited $$$" but realistically, how much can one make with a web site that participates in Ad Sense? I've been reading about Ad Sense on a few sites (this one for example How to boost your AdSense revenue) and I'm trying to determine the best way to go about making money on the internet.

From what I understand, a person with a site only gets a fraction of a cent per click from Ad Sense. Is there a way to get paid without a site's visitors actually clicking? For instance get that fraction of a cent just from traffic alone? I imagine it takes millions of visitors to web site and THEN of those, millions must click on the ad in order for the site owner to make some real money.

Can someone with insight into this please shed some light on Ad Sense or share some numbers from their own sites? I'm kinda new to online businesses and would like some Fastlane Members' points of view on Ad Sense. Thanks!

[Jonleehacker]

Here's a week on my best Adsense site which is in the payday loan niche:

Page impressions: 5,567
Clicks: 381
Page CTR: 6.46%
Page eCPM: $139.59
Earnings: $810.74

Over the coarse of a week it works out to over $2 per click, so that should give you an idea of what is possible. The key to make that kind of return is having highly targeted/ high quality (from search engines) traffic.

To sum up earning with adsense, you either need massive traffic for a more general topic, or quality traffic in a profitable niche.

If you are going after high value traffic - you'd better know your SEO.

[mtnman]

You haven't used the google yet have you? No, I didn't think so. Copy and paste some of your questions in search.

As for Adsense itself, I've always said I've never made a dime with adesnse and I don't use it. I lied.

A bit ago, I happened to log into an account and saw money. Not a lot, just some trip digit stuff from a few sites I threw up to get indexed, I just never got around to working on them.

Looks like a steady 20-30 bucks/mo on each just marinating autoblogs. Do I think it's would be pheasable to make decent money with? I guess, but you'd have to scale out the wazzoo or build mfa sites.

Although, if you look around and digg deep, you will see a few looking back into it, as some of the payouts rival net50% cpa payouts... so much for the old, adsense is dead mantra. Always test everything for yourself.

[mfa385]

Here's a week on my best Adsense site which is in the payday loan niche:

Page impressions: 5,567
Clicks: 381
Page CTR: 6.46%
Page eCPM: $139.59
Earnings: $810.74

Over the coarse of a week it works out to over $2 per click, so that should give you an idea of what is possible. The key to make that kind of return is having highly targeted/ high quality (from search engines) traffic.

To sum up earning with adsense, you either need massive traffic for a more general topic, or quality traffic in a profitable niche.

If you are going after high value traffic - you'd better know your SEO.

You earned $810.74 in a week (assuming because you wrote "over the course of a week")? That's awesome! I see from what I've been reading that certain keywords pay a lot more than others per-click. Look at this list The #1 Dumbest AdSense Mistake or How NOT to Earn $10,000/Month some keywords get up to $64 per click!

Also I read it's against the rules to start a web site solely for the high paying keywords and that Google has ways of knowing what sites are doing that. Basically, if I have quality genuine content on my site and/or sell a product I should get around that right?

[Gymjunkie]

Not everyone will earn as much as John. That's a lot. Most of the people are not earning that much, unless they have tons of traffic. My blog earns me 3-4 bucks a month on 2300 visits for example. There is possibility to earn more if I put ads in different place, where more users could see it, so AdSense optimization is important too...

[hakrjak]

I'll bet the average Adsense site earns less than $1 per month...

- Hakrjak

[fast_track_chaz]

I have always wondered if this was viable.

[mfa385]

Not everyone will earn as much as John. That's a lot. Most of the people are not earning that much, unless they have tons of traffic. My blog earns me 3-4 bucks a month on 2300 visits for example. There is possibility to earn more if I put ads in different place, where more users could see it, so AdSense optimization is important too...

Yeah I think you are correct, based on my reading thus far. It seems the best way to make real money with AdSense is by creating a site within a very, very specific niche that isn't exploited yet by thousands (millions?) of other sites competing for the same traffic.

Johnleehacker, am I correct here? I'm planning a few sites right now and looked at the Thirty Day Challenge for some clues as to how to go about this properly. Looking at launching the first site by the end of this week. I'm pretty creative so finding a niche shouldn't prove too difficult and I think I'm on the right track. I definitely don't want to be a small fish in a big pond with so many other big fish already established!

[LightHouse]

Yeah I think you are correct, based on my reading thus far. It seems the best way to make real money with AdSense is by creating a site within a very, very specific niche that isn't exploited yet by thousands (millions?) of other sites competing for the same traffic.

Think about this for a second, if the super micro niche doesnt have a ton of people in it.... how are you going to make money with adsense? in order for adsense to be profitable there have to be ads for relevant products or services and there has to be competition to drive up bid prices. Thus getting to the point where you as the publisher make money for porting the click.

[Gymjunkie]

Yeah I think you are correct, based on my reading thus far. It seems the best way to make real money with AdSense is by creating a site within a very, very specific niche that isn't exploited yet by thousands (millions?) of other sites competing for the same traffic.

Johnleehacker, am I correct here? I'm planning a few sites right now and looked at the Thirty Day Challenge for some clues as to how to go about this properly. Looking at launching the first site by the end of this week. I'm pretty creative so finding a niche shouldn't prove too difficult and I think I'm on the right track. I definitely don't want to be a small fish in a big pond with so many other big fish already established!

I think that's what John is doing. He found himself a good niche...

[Driven28]

My partner and I purchased a forum, very similar to this one actually, a while back. It was a completely free forum driven by Invision Power Board or IPB software. We had 125,000 members, with between 400 - 1000 online at any given time. The subject was super-ultra-high-risk investing (read: overseas ponzis, and other generally stupid behavior).

Anyway, point being... AdSense generated about 3/4 of our revenue for quite some time. Our average monthly deposits from Google were approximately $30,000. We also brought in another $10,000 or so from ad networks, like Tribal Fusion. And another $10 - $20k from direct banner sales and supporter upgrades.

I no longer own the site... the whole story is probably a good candidate for the "failure" section here. A very long and frustrating story.

But it's a good 1st hand example of having good success with AdSense.

I know of a few other sites that do far greater even, such as the Weblog Inc. family of sites. Some speculation and real data about their AdSense revenues was thrown around a while back when they sold out to AOL for a supposed $25 Mil (I believe 2005-2006). There was tons of speculation about AdSense checks totaling over $1,000,000 / year for the network of blogs. I honestly wouldn't doubt it, knowing what I've experienced and comparing traffic counts.

[Jonleehacker]

My site is 5 years old, which is a huge advantage for SEO.

These days I would NEVER start a new site with the intention of using AdSense to monetize. I don't think I've seen a site in the last 2 years that had AdSense on it where I didn't know I could make more money with a different method of monetization.

In short AdSense is the lowest possible form of making money on a website. It is the easiest and requires the least skill and therefore is probably the least rewarding.

With my payday loan site, I'm positive I could make more by promoting leads to payday loan companies directly, but it tough to risk what I'm already making.... they don't call it CrackSense for nothing

[biophase]

I have a few decent sites that bring in enough money to pay for a car. The money is sporadic but I've found a few good paying niches. Now I use adsense so my sites can pay for their own hosting and domain fees, any more above that is pocket change for me.

[terencechang]

One of my sites is making average $1 a day. It's not a lot, but it pays off the hosting already. If I can boost traffic to 1000 times a day, I imagine that I could easily make $1000 a day.

The question is how to create quality traffic and content that covert visitor into buyer or click on the Ads. One trick I found is to offer quality content but not enough to give visitors all the answered they need. So they click on the ads.

Also, the Ad placement play an very important roles in terms of click through rate. Many people put the Ad at the bottom of the web page simply just don't convert.

That's my 2 cents.

[Driven28]

Also, the Ad placement play an very important roles in terms of click through rate. Many people put the Ad at the bottom of the web page simply just don't convert.

Yes, this is extremely important. In my experience with the forum, the more integrated we could make the ads appear with our content and site design, the better the clicks and $$ we made.

We had a few custom modules designed that would make AdSense appear similar to our member's posts. Another important piece of advice; make sure to test ALL the color combinations for the text and layout of your AdSense modules. We found that certain color combos did far better than others.

[hakrjak]

In short AdSense is the lowest possible form of making money on a website. It is the easiest and requires the least skill and therefore is probably the least rewarding.

Are you talking about selling a product or service on the web site? Please expand!

Thanks,

- Hakrjak

[Jonleehacker]

Are you talking about selling a product or service on the web site? Please expand!

Thanks,

- Hakrjak

Think about adsense for a minute. What is really happening? You get paid when your "client" is leaving your website... in most cases, never to return.

In fact the way to make the most money from adsense is to have you clients leave (via your adsense ads) in greater and greater quantity. The way to maximize adsense revenue is to NOT satisfy your clients, so they are compelled to click your ads to attempt find what they are really looking for somewhere else.

To sum up, we do all the work to get someone, a client, to our site, then we frustrate them by not giving them what they really want, and get paid by offering them some slim hope that they might find what they want somewhere else (by clicking the adsense ad).

Doesn't sound like a great business premise

To improve it dramatically all you need to do is take out the two major flaws in the formula.

1.) Capture your visitors' email address so that now you can re-connect with them and 2.) Offer them (either directly or indirectly as an affiliate) what they are actually searching for.

Now you have a real business.

Here's a list of online business models that is worth checking out.

[dnuge3]

I have yet to get any success with Adsense but I am certainly trying. I check out the Adsense success stories from time to time to either try to find a new niche or for motivation. You can check it out here. Good luck to you!

[terencechang]

In fact the way to make the most money from adsense is to have you clients leave (via your adsense ads) in greater and greater quantity. The way to maximize adsense revenue is to NOT satisfy your clients, so they are compelled to click your ads to attempt find what they are really looking for somewhere else.

Right on target. I had a site talking about jewelry, but I don't offer any high price jewelry such as diamond. That's when people click on the Ads, since the site don't have any diamond.

Some of the clicks are ridiculously valuable!

[WestCoast]

we've cut our AdWords budget by about 2/3 over the last year.

Too much junk, not enough value per click. I think you will find more and more of the revenue being diluted among more and more competition.

Our internet sales are still growing nicely, but AdWords just isn't a huge part of that anymore.

--
What's the mean for AdSense people? Well, SOMEONE has to pay for those clicks, and it's business owners. If they aren't getting value for those clicks, they will eventually slow down their advertising.

Seems like we're on the other side of the growth curve on this one, what's the NEXT model going to be and how can YOU drive it?