Forget Adsense for a while and concentrate on Content

I started my endangered animal websites over 10 years ago. And even though (and usually because) they generate a lot of traffic (well over 100,000 uniques per month) they were always a 'money black hole' and never a 'revenue generator'.

Now with Adsense, my endangered animal sites do generate revenues. And because they do generate revenues, it allows me more time away from consulting (which I had to do to pay to keep the sites up and running) to focus on generating more content for the sites.

And I think that's pretty cool.

I've always believed you should be able to 'do well by doing good', but that is not always to do in today's world where most non-profits want you to work for free or cheap (which is a bad business model for making the world better).

Most people cannot afford to work for 'free or cheap'.

However the Adsense (Yahoo...MSN...affilitates programs etc) model helps make it possible for any individual with a passion (young, old, black, white, yellow, educated, uneducated, male, female, gay, straight, in the US, China, Russia, etc) to persue their passion and be paid for it.

And as a side benefit, it also means the quality of the individuals life might be significantly improved as well.

Who wouldn't enjoy working from the comfort of their home (or place of passion) instead of working a 9-5 and dealing with traffic jams or idiot bosses or disgruntled fellow employees, which in turn just might make you bitchy to your significant other who really doesn't deserve to be treated that way (sorry...I digress).

So personally, I don't think keeping an eye on the revenues is a bad thing. In fact I think it should be part a publishers ultimate goal.

I believe it would be a social revolution if most people could 'make a living' publishing (writing/video/photos...etc) content about something they love instead of doing what someone else has told them to do, at a wage they have no control over.

So put me down for 'staying focused on the revenues' (while persuing your passion!) and being successful in the persuit.

I hope all individuals who are pursuing passions that impact the world in a positive way, make a TON of money doing it!

Not only would they be 'doing well by doing good', but they would also be an example and perhaps an inspiration for others who would like to use their passion to make the world a better place to live (for ALL living things).

And that would be a worthy goal to strive for.

 

You can earn a lot of money, fame working on things you are passionate about. And frankly speaking this is the right way to go about.

One of the best things I like about Internet is that it gives me the opportunity to work on my interests and made money too in the process.

When you start expressing your passions and opinion on subjects of your interests, you quickly form a community around it, and most of time this community ends up paying bills for your lifestyle.

 

In regards to the new media giving the old media a run for its' money... we run a pretty influential Red Sox forum and the old media detests us. Here is a recent mention that we got where you can see first hand how threatened a lot of the media is with "the new media"

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?showtopic=16493

 

Sorry, I still don't agree.

I have a website selling legal documents which makes me on average 4,000 - 5,000 a month. Yet, I have no passion for legal documents.

I respect your opinion, and respectfully disagree.

Edit : Perhaps one key difference is, you seem to be making informational sites, I on the other hand, focus on commercial sites selling a product, most of my sites there is no 'new content', unless of course, we have a new product for sale.

 

Good for you, its making money right now. And good for everyone whose sites/blog are making money on subject which they are totally impassionate about.

But if you have to make money out of things which you don’t like or doing, then you are not enjoying this great opportunity called Internet.

Let me tell you a small story, when I was about to start blogging, I picked subjects like VoIP, Call center industry and wasted weeks in reading about them. I knew these sites could give a hell lot of $$ per click, just like your legal document sites give you. I even posted few posts and managed to get a good rankings for few keywords even before I started to blog (thanks to my weights in digital Coop Network, but it was year 2005), I believe its pretty tough to get such fast ranking now in such a short time.

But within few days I realized my posts were boring, unoriginal and my job sucks. Not because VoIP and Call center Industry were boring, but because I was not the right person to talk about them. Andy Abramson and Tom Keating do a great job talking about them. So my advice is stick to subjects you are passionate about and enjoy this great opportunity.

And for those who are interested in, I ended up with a blog about a subject I loved most, i.e. shopping