Do $X,xxx Adsense Earners Get Complacent?

In a poll I recently ran on adsense publisher's earnings for the month of March 2006:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=71946

I noticed that there seemed to be a trend that might be explained by the theory that once an adsense publisher knows HOW to develop and make a site that earns good Adsense dollars they can quite easily make the leap from being a "sub $300" a month earner to a "over $1000" a month earner. What I then found interesting was that the number of people then earning above $10,000 dropped off again - this is to be expect but it made me ask the question why?

Is it because to get to $10,000 a month takes time and not enough publishers have had enough time to get there? Or is it because once publisher make $1000+ they become content with their earnings? Or is it because running too many sites extends the publisher's available time such that they can't really develop more sites - merely only maintain the ones they have?

What is stoping people from going on to $10,000+ a month earners?

 

resources
time
motivation
energy
life
girlfriend
other problems

 

Another thing to take into account is that you're restricting yourself to Adsense earnings. Adsense is a good source of revenue for me and others, but it's not the only one. It accounts for about 20% of all my total earnings, so when you wonder why the number of people who make $10k/month drops off, you're not taking into account that they make up for that drop-off with other sources of avenue, such as traditional banner advertising, affiliate programs, and other means.

Keep this in mind: Adsense has potential to make you a lot of money, but other sources of revenue can easily overtake it.

 

Working on the net isn't very fulfulling imo...it'd be much more fun to have a partner to do with it with, but that means less profit.

 

Oh I didn't mean to make it sounds like Adsense was the only means of revenue - whilst it is the predominent one for me it is far from the only one. I was just interested in the reasons why people might be restricted in their earnings in the low $x,xxx's range.

I'm mainly inquiring because I have a goal set presently to by hte end of June be earning $2,000 a month from adsense and I guess in a way I'm preparing for the hurdles that I'm yet to face, by understand why people can't seem to get past a certain point. So hopefully in me finding out what hold those current making $x,xxx back I'd hopefully be able to workout ways to avoid such pitfalls or at least help reduce them so that my earnings can continue (hopefully) well on into the $xx,xxx range. It must come across arrogant but I don't really see a lot stopping me at this point - I have tasted the success - and I know at the bottom line its about the "hard work" but I think I really can achieve my goals when I set them and I have achieved 5/6 so far and I'm not planning on failing in the near future either.

 

It's not "restricted", it's "smart". Putting all your eggs in one basket, or predominantly in one basket, is asking for trouble. What happens if Google tanks your SERPs tomorrow, or Adsense bans you? Then you're left scrambling for a new source of revenue. You would be wise not to rely too much on Adsense and instead try to find additional sources of revenue and diversify.

 

jackburton pretty much hit it on the head.
Most higher earners with adsense have good traffic websites and find outher ways to monetise the traffic through offering their own products & services.

Remember what adsense is though, people paying per click to take your visitors and ultimately sell them a product that is related to your genre and make someone else a profit, it therefore begs the question that if you already have the traffic people are willing to pay for can you not make the sale yourself and earn more?

 

Well any site would be up the creek without a paddle if this happened regardless of their income sources. I guess at the end of the day I haven't really ventured too far off Adsense because it has been producing so well for me - though of late I have been selling links and running affilaite programs and to my delightful surprise they have been pulling in about 40 - 50% of my adsense earnings, and they haven't effected my Adsense earnings either - so I don't really look at operating other money earning methods as reducing Adsense earnings... I don't think it has to be one or the other... but then again it sounds like what will work for one won't work for another.

 

I really doubt people get complacent in the $x,xxx/month range. That's right in the range that would motivate somebody to work hardest, because it's clear they can make a lot of money, but depending on where they live it may not quite be a livable income yet. If their total online earnings are $1000-$4000/month, anyway, I really doubt they'd be slacking, since they're on the verge of being able to quit their day job.

 

Hey don't get me wrong I'm not saying anyone is getting complacent I'm just asking what is the theory behind the figures in thread that is referred to in the first post. A similar poll was done over a Adsense Chat:

http://www.adsensechat.com/showthread.php?t=84

In this poll interestingly it shows exactly what people might thing - once you get to the $2500 - $5000 mark you are extra motivated to push one because you are so close to making a "living" from your earnings.

 

Maybe because of diminishing returns. I think it is harder to go from $10,000 to $20,000 than from $0 to $10,000.

I don't make that amount of money so i can't prove my theory.

High earners can really comment if it is true or my theory is false.

 

Quoted for truthiness.

 

hahahahahahaha

 

I would have imagined that it was the complete opposite, and I personally have found my recent earnings from 500+ much easier to gain than my first 500. Once you have the assets its easier to build more thus the sayings "the rich get richer" or "the first million is always the hardest". So I don't see diminishing returns factoring - though I can definitely see their time to build more "assets" diminishing.

 

My first $1/day is toughest and took me a long time to figure some things out...It gets easier, but still require lots of work...

 

I guess they also try out other things aswell as it is best to not totally rely on just Adsense revenue.

 

There are only so many high earning keyword adverts that google can display per page. Once that's done it's time to focus on other advertisers....law of diminishing returns

 

I've been as high as $21,389 in one month, but currently only $1,000. Why? The aforementioned rankings tanking. Multiple egg baskets are good.

Revenue is a function of traffic, valuable keywords, ad placement optimization. So building traffic and having multiple sites seems the way to go to me.

 

How I see it is the basket is your site and the eggs are the revenue sources.

Now there is more change that the eggs are likely to break than the basket so you really need more revenue sources than sites.

But it is always best to get a few baskets as one of them may break eventually. So make sure you have a few top quality sites and many sources of revenue.

 

Almost everyone after starting to make any significant amounts with adsense will try to diversify it with affiliate programs, you can't rely fully on adsense.