As my regular readers may have noticed, I’ve been playing around lately with different ad styles and placements for my Google AdSense ads. I’ve been reviewing Google’s tips for ad optimization and watching the results. So far, so good. With every change I’ve made, I’ve seen a slight increase in the number of daily clicks I’m receiving throughout my site. Nothing too crazy, but interesting to watch the results.
I’ve also been doing a bunch of reading lately about people who actually make a living from AdSense by managing Web sites with tons of content and traffic. There are videos, e-books, and even software about AdSense — all to help teach you how to create content that attracts lots of visitors to your site and to help you optimize ad style, placement, and strategy. It’s amazing how a whole new market has evolved around AdSense. Well-known bloggers like Chris Parillo claim to make thousands of dollars per month with AdSense. Before Google offered direct deposit for payment, those AdSense publishers who made $10,000 or more per month received delivery of check by UPS, so they’re known as members of the UPS club. Pretty amazing.
As with anything else, there’s really no secret to making money with AdSense, and there’s certainly no overnight success. As you might guess, it’s all about content. Writing good content, building an audience, and providing relevant, targeted ads to your readers via the AdSense program. Easier said than done, right?
This little site gets about 20,000 unique visitors per month. That isn’t too shabby, but it’s a far cry from people who make a living blogging. I’m certainly not going to retire anytime soon with my AdSense revenue, but as long as I’m blogging and continue to do it for the love of writing and sharing my life and thoughts with the world, then why not earn a little extra dough each month?
It’s a nice side benefit, but not at all the reason I create content nearly every day. When I first started to blog in November 2000, the thought that I actually might make some cash for my efforts was the last thing on my mind.
What I hate, and have seen from time to time, is people who steal content from others just to make money from it by putting ads alongside stolen content. I’ve seen snippets lifted from my blog before, too, solely for this purpose. Sure, I quote other sources from time to time, but that’s completely different — it’s usual in order to comment on it, and I always give credit where credit’s due.
