The real secrets to do well with Adsense and rank good in the search engines

A top class post, I am glad I am headed in the right direction, if only on the first couple of rungs my self.

The most important thing you said imo is

I think this is a valuable life lesson as well, slightly watered down may be.

JB9P

 

That's understandable. And that's how many of the ebook sold on CB gets money out of their business. They sell the "magic scheme" which never work, then they point you at DP and tell you, go and learn. Then they arrive here, filled with expectation of a easy work but they get the door slammed in their face. I wish there was some basic posts here that newbies could read before starting to post so they would understand how it's dealt now (at the current moment, post would be kept "acceptable" for 2-3 months then reviewed to follow the changes).

Anyway, I hope the more people who come here and realise that a good website is actually good content, the better the internet will be.

 

I agree very much about making sure you have content, I've built quite a nice community of people around my main blog and they've all become friends and are promoting my site simply because of the articles/themes. Now my site traffic is increasing steadily, and by following the advice of people like jackburton2006, old welsh guy and nintendo I'm even starting to get the hang of my adsense.

Carl

 

I wrote sites with just notepad years ago, but it's stupid to do that anymore. There are lots of free or very cheap text editors which help you manage your code more efficiently with basic handy things like syntax highlighting, line numbers, and document tabs. I still code everything from scratch, but I do it much faster than I would in notepad.

 

Right on. Good advice. My most successful site is one that was created (with lots of content) BEFORE Google Adsense came along. My focus was on creating good useful content for my visitors. When I added Adsense later, it was instantly successful.

 

Mostly great advice, but suggesting people should not focus on search engines perhaps isn't the correct advice. After all, most sites are found initially throgh search. People build backlinks not only for serach engines but also to get direct traffic.

 

The part about putting your users first is especially good advice. That's the main door to a successful site in the medium and long term.

 

Thanks guys for your appreciation it's a confirmation to me that I'm doing good keeping this way. I'm thinking to extend my thought just in a few days. As soon as I will come back from vacations, I'll write a little more about the topic

 

I made my sites with notepad and they are doing just fine!

 

if you built millions of pages and was able to get them indexed but couldn't even receive your first adsense check with it... well then you did it all sooooo wroooong

 

Nice Post.

 

are you picking on me??

 

you?

 

yeah me. except the millions should be changed to 50.

 

I disagree. I've been reading WW and other forums on the subject for years and there are always people with great sites they started in 1998, way before AdSense, with great content, good traffic and VERY LITTLE AdSense revenue.
The fact is no matter how you slice it, traffic is by far the most difficult part. Traffic is hard to generate and "quality content" isn't exactly panacea. But what's worse is that many people don't treat AdSense as business. If you are starting a business - what's most important? What you are going to sell. You are not going to get rich selling knitting machines, even you may be in love with knitting machines. So not only you have to provide quality content, you have to know your market. What's profitable and what's not. After all, if you spend 5 years on your site and still can't live off your AdSense earnings, what good does it make? Why not create a "for profit" site first and then play "follow your heart" game. The money in AdSense isn't as much in traffic as it is in the niche. It's the AdSense equivalent of margin. Good nice - great margin. Poor nice - crappy margin. If you stick to low paying topics, you better know how to get 100000 pageviews per day. But you could make $100 a day with as little as 3000 pageviews.

 

This I would like to see!

 

Great thread, thanks for the information!

You and me both, and how about a FAQ paperclipped to it?

 

You'll find JD Frazer's book Money for Content and Your Clicks for Free interesting. Here's the review of it I sent out in my newsletter.

---------------------

Last time, I promised I'd keep reviewing books related to, but
not necessarily directly about, AdSense. The book I'm talking
about today is definitely related, it's about the different
ways a creative person can use to monetize content in the
age of the Internet.

The book I'm talking about is "Money for Content and Your Clicks
For Free", with a subtitle of "Turning Web Sites, Blogs, and
Podcasts Into Cash". It's by JD Frazer and is published by
John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 047174753X.

It's always good to know the background of the book author. You
may not be familiar with JD Frazer, but he's a cartoonist who
makes his living selling his content (his cartoons) online.
His comic strip is called User Friendly.

First of all, let's be clear about one thing: this is not a book
about AdSense. AdSense is mentioned, yes, but only in a small way,
and it's not Frazer's preferred way of making money from his
content. Still, I think that this is an interesting book worth
reading for anyone who's trying to make money from their content.
Frazer is in many ways in a different spot than most of us, of
course, because I think there are many more people out there
capable of writing content than drawing content. So his being
a cartoonist gives him a different view of things. But again, that's
not necessarily bad.

He starts by talking about the business side of creating content.
This is something that many content producers don't give much
thought about. You probably do, because the very fact that you've
signed up for AdSense (or are going to) makes you aware of the
money side of things. But Frazer points out that you have to
be really serious about it to succeed, and I think that's great
advice for anyone interested in content monetization. You have to
treat is as a business, not a hobby, if you want to make serious
money. Mind you, not everyone's interested in making serious money:
some people just want to pay their costs and maybe make a bit of
extra cash to buy a few things. You have to know what your goals
are.

The second chapter is about advertising. I talk a bit about
advertising and the Web in my own book, of course, but Frazer goes
into it in much more detail. He even talks about the roles that
the different players in the ad placement and serving game play,
and what kind of things to expect.

Then it get more interesting with chapters on memberships and
limiting access to content. A site that gets a lot of visitors
can sell memberships to those visitors as a way of raising
extra money. The funny thing is that you don't really have to
offer much as part of the membership -- for some visitors it's
more like a badge of honor. Other people on the Web who run forums
have told me the same thing -- they offer vague benefits, but
still people are willing and excited to sign up. You need a large
traffic base for this to really work, though. Setting up a "gated
community" is one way to make money, too, by providing access to
special content for a price, or as a reward. If you're trying to
make money from AdSense, though, this won't really work. It's
better to keep your content public -- you want everyone to see it.

Chapter 5 is about branding and merchadising. As a content
creator, people come to expect certain things from you, and will
hopefully come to trust you. If you get to be famous enough,
you'll have people coming to you and asking to advertise on your
site or to promote some offer they have. You have to tread
carefully here. Not as an AdSense publisher -- you're perfectly
free to offer your own advertising as long as it's non-contextual,
but as a trusted source of information. Frazer goes over the
pitfalls.

The rest of the book is equally good, covering things like
online communities, content protection, and dealing with
fame.

On the whole, an enjoyable read (and not too long, about 200
pages) from someone who's been there.

------------------

The book (it's not an e-book -- check Amazon) will definitely appeal to you if you like the central thesis of this thread.

 

Great little piece, I must agrre. And you are right there Jack.

 

Amen to that. It's either a business or it's not.