Forget Adsense for a while and concentrate on Content

I haven't participated on the forums for quiet a time now. But most of what I have learned till now, is through these forums only.

One of the things I have noticed is how most of us are obsessed with our Adsense Earnings or quick monetization techniques. I can see so many postings regarding how can I earn $10 or $100 a day, my Google/Yahoo/MSN/Alexa ranking is dropping, Google sucks, Yahoo or MSN, onsite or offsite... etc etc.

I think you got the point.

But nobody is asking or working on sites which are build to entertain people and in the course earn money for the webmasters themselves.

You can earn from Adsene or YPN when people click on your ads, which means they have to leave the site. So to earn real good from Adsense your site needs to be boring, unoriginal, MFA or a splog. Or in short your site should suck ...

But think for a moment... We are living in a great digital age, where new media is giving the old media run for their money. The big portals are out, and niches are in. We all are experts in our own fields. If we can`t monetize our expertize in this time, they I doubt there would be any better time.

So my suggestion is to build sites of your interests. Forget link building, directory submissions, gaming Digg and other Digg clones. Just write about what you are passionate about. Choose anything. Small niches are getting more valuable than large ones. And trust me it will take time, but you will get plenty of traffic, many more ways to monetize it, and something to show off to your friends and parents to...

Just My Opinion.

 

Passions don't send us cheques.

Seriously, most of us DO write about what we truly like. Otherwise it would be damn frustrating to update.

And about sites that entertain people - excuse me, but I don't get it. If the
website has nothing interesting to offer, it's as good as dead. So those who make money through adsense really make websites that are interesting.

 

I have started several blogs and websites till now. I started all except one just to put adsense on them. While my main blog was never intended to be monetized. It was and still is about things I really do care. Well, guess which one of them performs better. It is true: quality first, then money might follow.

 

Don`t think about short terms... Flickr, Digg, Del.icio.us were never made to make money, but in the end they became cash cows for their webmasters.

I am not saying strip off Adsense, but I am recommending to come out of this Adsense, search Engines and Rankings circle. I will repeat, that we are living in great times, where any good deed is rewarded with ample returns.

And mark my words, the current advertising setup which pays our bills is going to be reinvented. Its better if we prepare ourselves soon enough.

 

good quote

 

Nandini you are right but you can't say right on passion but you should blog on those subjects on which you are quite familiar , because if i like seap and start posting about that everyday than no one visit their if you want to get huge traffic than you have to blog according to them , understand what your visitor want .

 

I loved shopping, and I started to write on a blog related to it. Initially my friends said I am wasting my time.. but it seems now its paying okay...

Boingboing.net started with a guy and his girlfriend posting about all useless but interesting things. Who would have guessed it could become the biggest blog ever.

You are more familiar and expert on those subjects which you are passionate about.

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Every one of my sites is based first on something I love, and then on giving something back to people (like creating a niche directory just because my Suite101 writers wanted somewhere good to get backlinks to article pages). It really does pay off in the end if you keep working at it. I'm hardly a huge Adsense earner, but at the same time, I don't put nearly enough effort into promoting my own sites or updating regularly, so it's my own fault. But as an example, I've always gotten good ad clicks on www.BizAmmo.com - business articles. I hadn't updated in probably 3-4 months, and didn't promote, and I was getting at least $1-2 per day. Since I started working on the design change up there now, optimizing ads a little bit in the content, and adding more content more reguarly again, it's now in the $3-5 / day range, and not taking a whole lot of my time. Not huge money, but enough to make it worthwhile, and to keep me motivated, which in turn keeps bringing in more. I don't look at the ads as selling out the site or anything, b/c a good portion keep coming back. If they ever cause more of a problem than they're worth, I'd cut back on them. You're either a short-sighted, quick-buck type (which works for some people, especially ones who like to change projects often) or the in-it-for-the-long-haul type I guess.

 

I couldn't agree more with this.

 

I tend to focus more one different ways to earn money. Like adding the ability for members to become a premium member and stuff like that. Unfortunaitly to do this I need to get more traffic and for that I need money. And well then Adsense is a nice way to get the money advertise your site with.

Once I earned a nice ammount of money to start advertising with i'll drop the ads and try to profit out of other ways.

 

That is how I started my websites, but now they need remodeling since the links, content, and a few other things are built way different than what SEO's are used to; thus having my main site excluded from Google. I can only imagine the traffic it would get. (now gets about 300 a day w/o google)

 

I think it has to do with patience and persistence. If you're passionate about something, it's much easier to "stick with it" and keep updating, adding new content, etc. Also, people will be able to feel the sincerity in your words and enjoy the site (as well as spread the word and link to it).

Whether passions paying the bills is a real possibility or just a pipe dream, everyone should at least work on something they enjoy IN ADDITION to the "monetized" stuff.

This will not only make the web a better place for everyone (so that it's not just filled with passionless, cookie-cutter sites), but you might end up with a serious hit on your hands. ESPECIALLY if you've learned some good old IM know-how along the way. The web is built of sites that started with an original slant or a crazy idea. Hell, the web itself was originally the hobby/project of a few scientists who had no idea how far it would go. So don't be afraid to let yourself play a bit.

 

I have no problem agreeing completely that the focum of any website should be content

There is no doubt that good quality original content will produce many more sales and pay per click revenue than anything else

In fact, concentrating on adsense is for most people a false policy. Yes, you can earn a reasonable income from Adsense, but this pails into insignificant as compared to simply selling your own product

If you have a digital product you can sell on a rolling subscription basis, this is the most likely way to increase your earnings over time. This is the business model that works online. Even if you only have a small number of visitors to your website, if you can convert these people into sales, with a recurring subscription, then over time you can build you income to over $1,000 a month without too much difficulty

Hard work is required to make any business work, and the internet is no different

So yes, concentrate on content, but also develop your own products which sell on a recurring subscription, then you will learn not to rely too much on pay per click publisher income

 

Ad space today increases with every single website, blog, MFA, splog or a single page you add to you website. And this is going to increases every second. Supply is increasing at a drastic rate, but not the demand.

I have a website with Pagerank 6. I launched 10 more sites linked by this site. (All sites are hosted on different nameservers, different C Class IPs, intelligently linked, not from sidebar and footer). With next Pagerank I have 10 more sites with pagerank 4. Now I am going to sell text link, paste adsense and will rinse and repeat.

Is this a business model ?

Build audience, not traffic.

Build estates, not websites.

 

Nice Thoughts Nandini, i really appreciate your words and thoughts, however, we must also think about the link building and other things also . today in this world daily many people register websites. Even people have websites for their Cats and Dogs.
If we are putting up the content (Writing Cool Articles) that doesnt mean that we will be able to get visitors as we would like to .
Anywayz i dont think so OR i do not remember i met a webmaster who is writing for passion. Even the gr8 Story tellers wants to make money out of thier stories.
In the end i would like to say that its all matter of perception.

 

Sorry, but this is bad advice for most people IMO.

Maybe for someone who are doing this for a hobby, could pick something they are passionate about. But I do this to support my family and my the lifestyle i've become accustomed to, not to simply express my passion about something.

 

I think the main concept was "you will make more money from your website if you concentrate on good content than if you only concentrate only on optimizing and forget about the quality". Not that everyone should stop trying to make money. And as an advice it is valid, in my opinion, because quality will generate traffic and traffic money. Of course, optimization, link building and everything IS important, but quality is just as/more important than the rest.

 

Great but you realise that as your interest grows in the subject and you put up more pictures and content and you get more visitors so do your hosting costs. So soon you will be wondering about how to get more money to offset bills.

Interest and monetization should go hand in hand. You write good content and use that to get money.

 

how was that possible?

 

GREAT POST.

Do what you love and the money will follow. I run a fan site (football). Do very few ads. And sold text links just to pay all the bills. We pride ourselves on our CONTENT. We don't make money on our content, nor do we want to.

We are getting like 7,000 uniques a day and the site has become something that I am so proud of. People tell me I am crazy because I am not worried about making money.

I see all these people trying to flip sites. They have 2 - 3 weeks invested and they are trying to make thousands. I laugh and feel like an old timer. I guess my goals are just different.

I take pride in giving the mainstream media a run for their money. In the sports world every paper now has a blog. Because we can report today what they are breaking in tomorrow's paper.

That in itself is pretty rewarding to me. Just wanted to say that I agreed with your post.