In the Landing Page Cash Machine ebook, I wrote about how you can enhance your revenue with strategic placement of Adsense ads on your site.
Some people, though, run their entire business around creating good content for their readers, and fund their efforts with Adsense ads.
Skeptics abound about Google Adsense. Some people say Adsense is dead, and others sing its praises and proclaim it will last forever.
I tend to think the answer is somewhere in the middle. However, it's hard to beat the drum about the Death of Adsense when you consider two important factors.
1) Google is now a public company and they are required to release their revenue figures every quarter. In their last quarterly report, they reported "$2.46 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, an increase of 77% compared to the second quarter of 2005 and an increase of 9% compared to the first quarter of 2006." All that money has to come from somewhere, and it's been said about Half comes from Adsense ads.
2) There are tons of people still making tons of money using Adsense. Now, when I say tons, I mean that if what they made were paid in dollar bills, they'd need a dump truck or two to haul away their earnings. On the low side we're talking $500 a day — which is about $15k/month. On the top end, they see $400,000 PER MONTH! Amazing what some people have managed to do. In fact you'll even find some of them here, listed among what someone unceremoniously called "Google Whores". Some of the people on this list are good friends of mine, and I can attest to their success.
I don't really like the term "Google Whore" at all because it implies the people on this list are doing something wrong. By contrast, I think they are for the most part doing something very right.
More than anything, the question I expect to hear is "How can I do that, too?" Most of those people, though, don't expect to have to put time and effort into their work. They want to snap their fingers and have things just "BE".
Well, it's unlikely some genie will make that wish come true for you. All you can do is
- KNOW, without a doubt, that you achieve your goals.
- Follow some best practices while always wearing a white hat.
- Be a voracious student and learn what you can.
- Use good tools and techniques to get the job done.
- Be persistent and consistent and never give up.
Your day will come sooner than you think.
Joel Comm has written a great story about the Viability of Adsense that I encourage you to read. It's free, and comes under the heading for you of being "a voracious student". And soon he'll have what I consider to be an excellent tool to help you make more with Adsense — maybe enough to get onto that moneymakers list.
–Mark
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