Thank you, but it isn't just an idea, many websites operate on this princible. I do not have a "real" job. I am 100% self employed and have been for over three years. My primary source of income is web publishing and it is what I spend 90% of my efforts on. I have been in web publishing for over ten years and through very hard work I have built up my operations. In the early years, ad revenues were very slim and there were times that my websites barely paid for themselves. In time, however, I was able to turn my key site into a very highly respected resource that is referenced by everyone from various departments in government, the official websites of major universities from around the world; it has even been made a required resource by countless middle school and high school science teachers. Over the years I've found links or references to articles on my site on websites run by NASA, the U.S. Military, U.S. EPA, FEMA, etc. If one is willing to dedicate themselves to building a really high quality website with really compelling and UNIQUE content, in time that website will build up a reputation for being an authoritative source and it will naturally attract links from all manners of websites. The important thing is that one can not expect this type of website to be successful overnight. It takes many years of really hard work. I do not chase Google dances or stress about every Google update. I do not waste my energy trying to chase the next get rich quick web marketing scheme. To use a baseball term, I have never let my eyes off the ball. People always say "content is king", in reality, unique compelling content is king. --off topic-- My 100 post
Very nice story, but you're the exception rather than the rule. (And let's admit it, you didn't get to be the authority site overnight; you had to slave on it, earning very little, until you started getting recognized. That means you had a 9-to-5 job BEFORE your rise to power.) 99% of the web publishers out there will never achieve the status you have, thus they will have to rely on more than just slapping Adsense on their sites if they want to make more than just dollars a day. Throwing out terms like "unique compelling content" is all fine and well, but when there are 100 trillion websites out there, good luck finding anything unique nowadays.
The difference between AdSense and affiliate marketing is much deeper than just writing effective ad copy. AdSense allows people to make money on sites which provide an information or service, not a product pitch. "Pre-selling" content is not appropriate for most pages on most sites. AdSense, on the other hand, is perfect. Nobody creates a site pitching various products just for fun, and then decides to monetize it. You go into that kind of thing looking to make money. The allure of AdSense is that it can be used to monetize sites that are actually fun to work on.
I know of many web publishers who make so much off of AdSense from their content sites that they make me look like a rank amateur. You are correct; I worked long and hard in nights and evenings in the beginning to develop my website. One should also keep in mind, however, that when I started, AdSense did not exist. I started in 1995 and AdSense did not come into being until 2003. Prior to this I had to split my time between content development and trying to squeeze money out of affiliate programs. Had AdSense existed when I began, I expect given my historic traffic patterns that I would have been able to rely on my website for a living by 1998 or 1999. So had AdSense existed in the 1990s, I still would have spent several years building my site up, however, I could have started working for myself much earlier than I did. Without things like AdSense and YPN coming into being, I doubt my site would have ever been a major source of income unless I totally gave up on my plans to be a news/information source. You are correct, anyone who thinks they can "build it and they will come" is not being realistic. There is no easy way to "get rich" on the Internet except for the very lucky or scamming few. Building a successful website takes a lot of time and effort. What I mean by this is that people can not rely upon article farms to supply them with content, nor can they rely on reusing articles published by others. People who are serious about making a living with content sites need to either write their own articles or pay others to write original articles. Even in crowded niches, one can carve out a place for their websites if they are willing to put in the time it takes to "pay one's dues" and build up traffic.