Anyone come across this dilemma or opportunity yet? Basically I have a site with alot of content on it, and it's been making steady money, going up every month due to more traffic and higher rankings. But it's still basically just an Adsense site. I've been thinking of adding more community based stuff to it, maybe expanding to news articles, and basically try to turn it into an online magazine type site where people can get real info about related topics (rather than just tweaked content). Of course that means doing alot more writing, and actually knowing the industry of the topic of my site, which I actually don't know very much of to be honest! So I guess the logical answer would be to hire or recruit freelance writers, which I think I could probably do, as the money I'm making off the site should be enough to pay for a few decent articles a month. Though the best case scenario would be to get fans to write for free, of course. But the question in my head at the moment is, is it worth even worth it to do all this, when the site seems to do well already as a "simple" Adsense site. Anyways, I apologize for the rambling post, but I'm just curious if there's others that have gotten their site(s) to this point, and what kind of direction they've taken next. Like decide to spend the time, effort and money made to invest in other new Adsense sites, or to just concentrate on making one site better and more legit.
Do the internet a favor and make it a 'real' site.. you'll sleep better at night. Besides, based on what i've been reading, Adsense is cracking down more and more on MFA or Spam sites (assuming that's what yours is).. And the Google Search people are working hard to devalue MFA and Spam sites..
Sorry if my post was misleading. My site is far from a spam site. I do write the content that I have with some research behind it, and I do have some fans of the site. It gets linked by Stumbleupon and tag sites too. Anyways, I am leaning towards trying to make the site more useful for its visitors. Just wondering if anyone else has had similar thoughts.
I don't think you should make your site more useful to your visitors. I mean, why would they want that? =P
In the long run, i think a "legit" site would do much better. ps. and if it's possible don't usy only adsense. Telling us the theme of your site would help to get better responses.
agreed.... making a legit real content site is much better for the internet, adsense earnings, and your sites goals.
I guess I would kind of agree with this to some degree. However, I enjoy what I do...I enjoy the sites I make and update. It is more of a fun hobby than anything...and at the same time I get pleasure out of pleasing the community However, I do know some people which host sites as more of a chore, and not as an enjoyment. So i do think it is much more worthwhile to create sites that you enjoy, and in a field you know a lot about, rather than making it a drag, and just waiting for the day when you finally get some goddam clicks. That's my view anyway
Agreed, basically its a site with unique content but using adsense, probably in articles and setup for a high CTR. Theres nothing not legit about that.
To be honest, even some decent sites get tagged as adsense sites because they run adssense on them these days. I remember sometime ago, there was a thread with a pretty good site with some excellent information, but because he designed the site in a way that made the ads blend in perfectly, a few people were branding it an adsense site, but many others thought it was a god information site. If he hadn't put ads on it, it would have been deemd a good site, even by those who claimed it was an MFA. What exactly would you consider an MFA site?
When I say legit, for me that means like a Salon.com, or CarAndDriver.com, or any site that's basically a site you know you can go to for the latest info on that industry. At the end of the day, I know the information on my site can be gotten from a few other places. I just happen to be able to write, organize, and combine it in a way that's good for CTR and SEO. Going to the next step would require knowledgeable writers or some kind of link to the industry, which I don't have or know anyone that does. I could try to make an effort to find people that do have the knowledge. It's just that it would require more of a different kind of effort, rather than just SEO and adding more pages. But that's what I know, and I suppose I can just be content with that and make other sites in the same style.