Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
How to improve CPC (Cost per Click) on Google AdSense
Many think that the only way to increase CPC is to hunt for high paying keywords. Well, in reality, this is totally inefficient. The soundest ways to work on improving CPC imply targeting the right market, enriching content, improving CTR, tracking, testing. All these done, there's nothing else left than trusting AdSense's payment system.
When hearing about CPC boost, everybody thinks of high paying keywords, pick some and then build pages around them. Well it's not like that at all, do not go for it blindly! Artificially created sites around some keywords won't do you any good! High CPC goes beyond just high paying keywords. Media Partners Bot analyses much more than your keywords to serve the ads to your page. And we'll see what are these parameters.
Earnings per click cannot be kept very well under control, all that one can do is to create the premises for attracting high-paying ads, but even doing your best in this direction will not bring absolute certainty on a steady high CPC. For sure, there will be fluctuations.
First of all, there is the class of ads that AdSense will serve your pages. Apparently, it takes into account the following parameters when showing ads of a certain cost:
* Everything related to webpage content: context, keywords, theming
* Quality traffic — sites generating quality traffic will earn more, for the rate of conversion is estimated as bigger.
* The age and size of a site.
* The Page Rank.
Some of the factors that will influence further the CPC on your site (and over which you have little, if any, control):
* advertiser’s budget
* seasonal fluctuations
* campaigns launched and ceased
* changes of competition for keywords (new advertisers)
* the smart pricing algorithm — if the estimated conversion rate of an ad is lower than expected, the earning per click will lower.
What to Do?
Of the parameters mentioned above, let us see what parts are under your control:
1. Create authentic, valuable, well-thematized webpage content. The potential of conversion of your content is analyzed. Put your marketing skills into creating pages that pre-sell. Good content will increase also your CTR attracting thus higher CPC ads.
2. Strive for improving CTR. Any action in this direction will be beneficial. Adsense will serve higher value ads to sites registering high ads CTR, for thus its profit will increase too. From this, higher CTR, higher possibility of conversion, thus higher CPC.
3. Study AdSense's payment system and analyze your site from the perspective of “smart” pricing.
4. The choice of the right keywords and phrases (not just the highest paying ones).
You can make a good profit from using phrases containing keywords that pay well instead of simple keywords, that way you get into a niche where the competitivity is lower and the chances to get higher CPC are greater.
5. Target the right markets. Businesses with a higher profit margin will afford to spend more on marketing.
6. Tracking, testing, previewing. Track the activity of your pages, see which perform better, concentrate on the type of content that generates good or at least decent earnings, optimize pages and use the preview tool to see what happens, if the resulting ads are as expected.
Remember to always preview the geographically targeted ads. Some of these might be lower paying.
Common Mistakes
Keep in mind! There are some mistakes that people do while trying to increase CPC.
* Chosing highly searched for keywords.
*
Keyword popularity has nothing to do with their potential for conversion to money. Popular keywords, ones that have many searches, are not necessarily high paying ones.
* Using URL filter to block filter what they think are low-paying ads.
They do this in hope it will bring in place some ads with a higher value. In fact, this is an erroneus judgement, for thus, they block the highest bidders.
According to the bidding rules of the system, it's only the highest value ads that will show. Blocking the ads served will determine AdSense to serve the next highest paying ones. Make sure you always track and test when blocking ads.
* Doing everything they can to increase traffic as much as possible.
Wrong again! You should look for ways to increase targeted traffic. AdSense analyzes the quality of the traffic and the possibility of conversion. Targeted traffic is more likely to convert well.
* Trying to increase CTR by artificial methods, obtaining a huge increase in CTR in a very short while will more than sure be interpreted by AdSense as click fraud and will not only be ignored at payment but you won't get away with it click fraud cases are penalized by account disabling.
When hearing about CPC boost, everybody thinks of high paying keywords, pick some and then build pages around them. Well it's not like that at all, do not go for it blindly! Artificially created sites around some keywords won't do you any good! High CPC goes beyond just high paying keywords. Media Partners Bot analyses much more than your keywords to serve the ads to your page. And we'll see what are these parameters.
Earnings per click cannot be kept very well under control, all that one can do is to create the premises for attracting high-paying ads, but even doing your best in this direction will not bring absolute certainty on a steady high CPC. For sure, there will be fluctuations.
First of all, there is the class of ads that AdSense will serve your pages. Apparently, it takes into account the following parameters when showing ads of a certain cost:
* Everything related to webpage content: context, keywords, theming
* Quality traffic — sites generating quality traffic will earn more, for the rate of conversion is estimated as bigger.
* The age and size of a site.
* The Page Rank.
Some of the factors that will influence further the CPC on your site (and over which you have little, if any, control):
* advertiser’s budget
* seasonal fluctuations
* campaigns launched and ceased
* changes of competition for keywords (new advertisers)
* the smart pricing algorithm — if the estimated conversion rate of an ad is lower than expected, the earning per click will lower.
What to Do?
Of the parameters mentioned above, let us see what parts are under your control:
1. Create authentic, valuable, well-thematized webpage content. The potential of conversion of your content is analyzed. Put your marketing skills into creating pages that pre-sell. Good content will increase also your CTR attracting thus higher CPC ads.
2. Strive for improving CTR. Any action in this direction will be beneficial. Adsense will serve higher value ads to sites registering high ads CTR, for thus its profit will increase too. From this, higher CTR, higher possibility of conversion, thus higher CPC.
3. Study AdSense's payment system and analyze your site from the perspective of “smart” pricing.
4. The choice of the right keywords and phrases (not just the highest paying ones).
You can make a good profit from using phrases containing keywords that pay well instead of simple keywords, that way you get into a niche where the competitivity is lower and the chances to get higher CPC are greater.
5. Target the right markets. Businesses with a higher profit margin will afford to spend more on marketing.
6. Tracking, testing, previewing. Track the activity of your pages, see which perform better, concentrate on the type of content that generates good or at least decent earnings, optimize pages and use the preview tool to see what happens, if the resulting ads are as expected.
Remember to always preview the geographically targeted ads. Some of these might be lower paying.
Common Mistakes
Keep in mind! There are some mistakes that people do while trying to increase CPC.
* Chosing highly searched for keywords.
*
Keyword popularity has nothing to do with their potential for conversion to money. Popular keywords, ones that have many searches, are not necessarily high paying ones.
* Using URL filter to block filter what they think are low-paying ads.
They do this in hope it will bring in place some ads with a higher value. In fact, this is an erroneus judgement, for thus, they block the highest bidders.
According to the bidding rules of the system, it's only the highest value ads that will show. Blocking the ads served will determine AdSense to serve the next highest paying ones. Make sure you always track and test when blocking ads.
* Doing everything they can to increase traffic as much as possible.
Wrong again! You should look for ways to increase targeted traffic. AdSense analyzes the quality of the traffic and the possibility of conversion. Targeted traffic is more likely to convert well.
* Trying to increase CTR by artificial methods, obtaining a huge increase in CTR in a very short while will more than sure be interpreted by AdSense as click fraud and will not only be ignored at payment but you won't get away with it click fraud cases are penalized by account disabling.
42 Ways to Make More Money With Adsense
1. Remember: Adsense doesn't make you money; traffic makes you money
2. Write posts that link to good content on higher-ranked sites in your niche. If your traffic is low, click on those links yourself - webmasters will take notice.
3. Post on forums in your niche and add your site to your signature
4. Submit articles to article directories
5. Use Technorati Tags
6. Submit your best articles to Digg and Del.icio.us
7. Comment on other blogs with similar themes to yours
8. Become a regular on several similarly-themed blogs you like
9. Use Google Sitemaps
10. Write about well-known people in your niche
11. Use a blogroll, but only add sites that you would really recommend. Less is more.
12. Read Problogger
13. Remember: Good content + good advertising = traffic
14. Choose a niche you're passionate about
15. Post/write an article/add content every day (update: or don't)
16. Make your content unique and useful
17. Be timely: break news, comment on new information, become a valuable source of interesting new stuff
18. Be yourself. If you're funny, be funny; if you're not, don't try to be. Be confident that your personality will draw like-minded readers.
19. If you can't think of anything interesting to post about, find something interesting to post about.
20. If you can't find anything interesting to post about, keep looking.
21. You just read something interesting that has nothing to do with your site's theme. Find a way to make it relevant. Use it as an example or integrate it into a story. Use it.
22. Read Copyblogger
23. Remember: Traffic + Adsense = Money - So don't get kicked out
24. Read the Adsense TOS and don't break it
25. While you're at it, RTFM
26. Do NOT encourage readers to click Adsense ads
27. If you're placing a picture specifically to subtly draw attention to Adsense Ads, make sure the ads are clearly distinguished from the image (borders or a line between the two)
28. If you're unsure if your ads comply with the Adsense TOS, ask them for a review
29. Better yet, design your ad concept on a hidden page and have Google review it first
30. Remember: Traffic + Adsense optimization = More Money
31. Study the Google Heat map
32. Place site-relevant pictures near your ads
33. Color images are often better than black-and-white
34. Animations are lame
35. Integrate your ads with your site design
36. Place ads between blog posts
37. Place ads in blog posts
38. Consider borderless Adsense ads
39. Use wide ad formats
40. Be Patient: Time, trial and error are what you need to succeed
41. Give your Adsense implementation a few weeks (at least) before drawing any conclusions
42. Use channels. You are going to want to know which ads are being clicked and which aren't.
2. Write posts that link to good content on higher-ranked sites in your niche. If your traffic is low, click on those links yourself - webmasters will take notice.
3. Post on forums in your niche and add your site to your signature
4. Submit articles to article directories
5. Use Technorati Tags
6. Submit your best articles to Digg and Del.icio.us
7. Comment on other blogs with similar themes to yours
8. Become a regular on several similarly-themed blogs you like
9. Use Google Sitemaps
10. Write about well-known people in your niche
11. Use a blogroll, but only add sites that you would really recommend. Less is more.
12. Read Problogger
13. Remember: Good content + good advertising = traffic
14. Choose a niche you're passionate about
15. Post/write an article/add content every day (update: or don't)
16. Make your content unique and useful
17. Be timely: break news, comment on new information, become a valuable source of interesting new stuff
18. Be yourself. If you're funny, be funny; if you're not, don't try to be. Be confident that your personality will draw like-minded readers.
19. If you can't think of anything interesting to post about, find something interesting to post about.
20. If you can't find anything interesting to post about, keep looking.
21. You just read something interesting that has nothing to do with your site's theme. Find a way to make it relevant. Use it as an example or integrate it into a story. Use it.
22. Read Copyblogger
23. Remember: Traffic + Adsense = Money - So don't get kicked out
24. Read the Adsense TOS and don't break it
25. While you're at it, RTFM
26. Do NOT encourage readers to click Adsense ads
27. If you're placing a picture specifically to subtly draw attention to Adsense Ads, make sure the ads are clearly distinguished from the image (borders or a line between the two)
28. If you're unsure if your ads comply with the Adsense TOS, ask them for a review
29. Better yet, design your ad concept on a hidden page and have Google review it first
30. Remember: Traffic + Adsense optimization = More Money
31. Study the Google Heat map
32. Place site-relevant pictures near your ads
33. Color images are often better than black-and-white
34. Animations are lame
35. Integrate your ads with your site design
36. Place ads between blog posts
37. Place ads in blog posts
38. Consider borderless Adsense ads
39. Use wide ad formats
40. Be Patient: Time, trial and error are what you need to succeed
41. Give your Adsense implementation a few weeks (at least) before drawing any conclusions
42. Use channels. You are going to want to know which ads are being clicked and which aren't.
Google's Click Fraud Woes
Google has been under a lot of pressure these days to become more open about their efforts towards combating click fraud. Google's main source of revenue is online advertising via their AdWords program. AdWords allows advertisers to have their ad shown when a particular keyword is searched for in Google or if the same keyword appears in the content of a website that subscribes to Google's AdSense program. Each advertiser submits the maximum amount of money that they are willing to pay Google if someone clicks on their ad and is directed to their website. Advertisers compete for ad placement using an auction mechanism. Google shares their advertising revenues with webmasters that subscribe to AdSense making it one of the most popular methods for monetizing a website.
Click fraud is committed when an Internet user clicks on a pay per click (PPC) ad for the sake of generating revenue for a particular website or in order to deplete a competitor's advertising budget. Such behavior is against Google's Terms Of Service (TOS) and any webmaster found violating the TOS is promptly and permanently banned by Google. However, this is where things get a bit tricky for publishers and advertisers.
First of all, Google does not release to the public any information about their mechanisms for detecting and preventing click fraud. Google claims that releasing such information would make it possible for hackers to abuse their system. Many webmasters however maintain that they have been dropped from the system even though they have done nothing to violate Google's TOS. Some people claim that something as simple as a single user who clicks on too many AdSense ads is enough to get you banned. Of course this is very worrisome for webmasters since anyone who dislikes them can easily have their site disqualified and banned by Google.
In addition, advertisers are using 3rd party companies to try and measure how much click fraud is taking place on their ads. Some are finding that click fraud rates are more than 40% which is very high. As a result advertisers are asking Google to become more open about their click fraud prevention methods and also to do more to prevent it. Google had to recently settle a click fraud suit for 90 million dollars the money going to advertisers while recently another class action suit begun brewing in Pennsylvania. In its efforts to appease advertisers, Google has recently added an option in Adwords that shows the number of detected fraudulent clicks for which the advertiser is not charged. In addition, Google has recently joined forces with Yahoo! (who also have similar advertising programs with their Yahoo! Publisher Network) in order to better define and combat click fraud.
Click fraud is a very real threat for both publishers and advertisers. Publishers must take steps to prevent attacks on the sites. There exists free software such as Adlogger that can help immensely. AdWords advertisers unfortunately have to wait until Google becomes more open and cooperative. For the time being, the most they can hope for is to increase awareness of the click fraud problem via class action law suits. At the end of the day, chances are that market economics will eliminate the problem as large amounts of click fraud will result in a drop of PPC prices which in turn will make it less desirable for fraudsters to try an abuse the system.
Click fraud is committed when an Internet user clicks on a pay per click (PPC) ad for the sake of generating revenue for a particular website or in order to deplete a competitor's advertising budget. Such behavior is against Google's Terms Of Service (TOS) and any webmaster found violating the TOS is promptly and permanently banned by Google. However, this is where things get a bit tricky for publishers and advertisers.
First of all, Google does not release to the public any information about their mechanisms for detecting and preventing click fraud. Google claims that releasing such information would make it possible for hackers to abuse their system. Many webmasters however maintain that they have been dropped from the system even though they have done nothing to violate Google's TOS. Some people claim that something as simple as a single user who clicks on too many AdSense ads is enough to get you banned. Of course this is very worrisome for webmasters since anyone who dislikes them can easily have their site disqualified and banned by Google.
In addition, advertisers are using 3rd party companies to try and measure how much click fraud is taking place on their ads. Some are finding that click fraud rates are more than 40% which is very high. As a result advertisers are asking Google to become more open about their click fraud prevention methods and also to do more to prevent it. Google had to recently settle a click fraud suit for 90 million dollars the money going to advertisers while recently another class action suit begun brewing in Pennsylvania. In its efforts to appease advertisers, Google has recently added an option in Adwords that shows the number of detected fraudulent clicks for which the advertiser is not charged. In addition, Google has recently joined forces with Yahoo! (who also have similar advertising programs with their Yahoo! Publisher Network) in order to better define and combat click fraud.
Click fraud is a very real threat for both publishers and advertisers. Publishers must take steps to prevent attacks on the sites. There exists free software such as Adlogger that can help immensely. AdWords advertisers unfortunately have to wait until Google becomes more open and cooperative. For the time being, the most they can hope for is to increase awareness of the click fraud problem via class action law suits. At the end of the day, chances are that market economics will eliminate the problem as large amounts of click fraud will result in a drop of PPC prices which in turn will make it less desirable for fraudsters to try an abuse the system.
What you Need to Build an Effective Adsense Site
One of the greatest lies about making money online is this: Build a site, put up some Adsense ads on it and you will be raking in the dough. If only that were true, but unfortunately it isn't that easy.
The trick to putting up an Adsense site that actually makes money is this: You need to have a site that displays ads with the most profitable keywords available and get traffic to your site the cheapest way possible.
So how do you know what are the most profitable keywords? You can use the Google AdWords Traffic estimator. The basic functionality is available for anyone to use, even without an AdWords account. Just enter your keywords in the text box at the top. You can leave all the other fields blank for now. Push the Continue button at the bottom of the page and you will see how much each of your keywords costs to get the #1-3 spot in Google AdWords.
How does this help you to find profitable Adsense keywords? First of all, you are splitting the price of the keyword with Google every time someone clicks on your ad. The actual percentage is not know, but most experts agree that it is about 50%. If a keyword costs $20 for the number 1 spot and someone clicks an ad on your page that uses that keyword, then you will get somewhere around $10!
You should know that high priced keywords do not mean high levels of traffic. The traffic estimator will also tell you the number of clicks per day that each keyword is getting in the number one spot. What you need are keywords that are a balance between the most money and the most clicks per day.
Another thing you need to know before building an Adsense site is which keywords to use to bring in the most traffic. You don't want to go up against ten million other sites that are all talking about the same thing that you are. What you need is a niche topic, something that people are hungry for information about. Here is a step by step process for finding a niche topic.
1. Download a free keyword tool from http://goodkeywords.com.
2. When you get it, enter the most general keyword about your topic that you can find. It will give you a list of related keywords from the Overture search engine along with the number of times each one of those keywords was searched for in the last month.
3. For every keyword that the Good Keywords gives you, enter the following search into Google: allintitle:yourkeyword. Look at the number of results that Google displays for each keyword.
4. Divide the number of results by the number of searches and you will come up with what is commonly referred to as the R/S ratio. In economics, this is called Supply/Demand.
5. Look for keywords that have a high number of search, but a low R/S ratio. I wouldn't choose any keyword unless there were at least 1000 searches per month and an R/S ratio of 2.0 or less.
6. Take the most profitable keywords in this group and build your Adsense pages around them.
Alright, so you have the most profitable keywords that are in high demand. You now need to have some content related to each keyword in order to get Goggle to put the right kind of ads on your page. You can either write this content yourself, or you can go to one of the many free article websites on the net and grab some free articles related to your keyword. Just make sure to give the author credit for the article, it's not nice to steal.
Once you have your article, start putting your Adsense ads in the middle of the article, about once every few paragraphs or so. I have found that this is the most effective way to get people to click on your ads. You are allowed up the three sets of Adsense ads per page, so place them wisely.
That is really all there is to making a profitable Adsense site. Just find the best keywords, get some articles about them, add your Adsense to them, drive traffic to these pages, and start making money.
The trick to putting up an Adsense site that actually makes money is this: You need to have a site that displays ads with the most profitable keywords available and get traffic to your site the cheapest way possible.
So how do you know what are the most profitable keywords? You can use the Google AdWords Traffic estimator. The basic functionality is available for anyone to use, even without an AdWords account. Just enter your keywords in the text box at the top. You can leave all the other fields blank for now. Push the Continue button at the bottom of the page and you will see how much each of your keywords costs to get the #1-3 spot in Google AdWords.
How does this help you to find profitable Adsense keywords? First of all, you are splitting the price of the keyword with Google every time someone clicks on your ad. The actual percentage is not know, but most experts agree that it is about 50%. If a keyword costs $20 for the number 1 spot and someone clicks an ad on your page that uses that keyword, then you will get somewhere around $10!
You should know that high priced keywords do not mean high levels of traffic. The traffic estimator will also tell you the number of clicks per day that each keyword is getting in the number one spot. What you need are keywords that are a balance between the most money and the most clicks per day.
Another thing you need to know before building an Adsense site is which keywords to use to bring in the most traffic. You don't want to go up against ten million other sites that are all talking about the same thing that you are. What you need is a niche topic, something that people are hungry for information about. Here is a step by step process for finding a niche topic.
1. Download a free keyword tool from http://goodkeywords.com.
2. When you get it, enter the most general keyword about your topic that you can find. It will give you a list of related keywords from the Overture search engine along with the number of times each one of those keywords was searched for in the last month.
3. For every keyword that the Good Keywords gives you, enter the following search into Google: allintitle:yourkeyword. Look at the number of results that Google displays for each keyword.
4. Divide the number of results by the number of searches and you will come up with what is commonly referred to as the R/S ratio. In economics, this is called Supply/Demand.
5. Look for keywords that have a high number of search, but a low R/S ratio. I wouldn't choose any keyword unless there were at least 1000 searches per month and an R/S ratio of 2.0 or less.
6. Take the most profitable keywords in this group and build your Adsense pages around them.
Alright, so you have the most profitable keywords that are in high demand. You now need to have some content related to each keyword in order to get Goggle to put the right kind of ads on your page. You can either write this content yourself, or you can go to one of the many free article websites on the net and grab some free articles related to your keyword. Just make sure to give the author credit for the article, it's not nice to steal.
Once you have your article, start putting your Adsense ads in the middle of the article, about once every few paragraphs or so. I have found that this is the most effective way to get people to click on your ads. You are allowed up the three sets of Adsense ads per page, so place them wisely.
That is really all there is to making a profitable Adsense site. Just find the best keywords, get some articles about them, add your Adsense to them, drive traffic to these pages, and start making money.
9 Myths and Facts about Google Adsense
- Myth: Since wide ads (336x280, 300x250 and 250x250) are effective in many websites, it must also be doing the same thing in my website.
Fact: Not really. Every website has its own characteristics; you cannot just follow what people said and then hope that your CTR will drastically increase. Try to do your own experiments with various ads and placements. Perhaps ads unit that are not effective in another website are your most profitable ads.
- Myth: It's profitable to develop website that's targeting high paying keywords.
Fact: Perhaps, if you really are a Search Engine Optimization expert. It is correct that when these high paying keywords are clicked, you will get a huge amount of money. But do you realize how many people out there who also think the same thing? I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands; and you will face bloody competition to reach the top position in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages). Without top position in SERPS, there will be no visitor; without visitor, there will be no one who clicks on your ads. I have another suggestion for this approach, read it in How to Increase Your Google Adsense CTR.
- Myth: High Traffic + High CTR = High Income.
Fact: It is a perfect equation if only there is no smart pricing. High income depends of several factors, such as smart pricing and what type of website you run. Some types of websites (such as forum) have high traffic but they do not generate many incomes from Google Adsense. Smart pricing also affects it. I have seen many websites with high traffic, high CTR, but totally low income.
- Myth: Be careful if your traffic suddenly increases (perhaps because a popular website features one of your articles), Google might think you are doing spamming.
Fact: Nonsense. Google is able to detect your visitors from their IP addresses (if you are not net savvy, just imagine IP address as your phone number; every time you make a phone call, it will be recorded on your phone company). If you're doing spamming, there is big possibility that all these IP addresses will be exactly the same. Beside that, Google is able to detect who your referrer is (where your visitors know your website from). If they find out that a popular blog/website is linking to your website, they will surely understand. So, don't worry about this.
- Myth: If Google suddenly bans your Adsense account, there is no chance you will be able to defend yourself.
Fact: Some people agree with this, but some other give contradictory facts. Many webmasters complained that Google never gave them warnings and suddenly terminated their accounts. In fact, Google even didn't give them any explanations what their fault was. Strangely, some other webmasters gave contradictory facts. Firstly, Google always gives two warnings before they finally close an Adsense account. Secondly, if you can prove that you never break Google Adsense TOS (Terms of Service) such as doing click fraud, then they will reactivate your account.
- Myth: Google Adsense will make you millionaire within a couple of months.
Fact: Wake up! It's not time for daydreaming! You must treat Google Adsense as a real business. And just like another real business, it takes times and efforts to be successful. Darren Rowse from Problogger shares how long he took to get six figures check from Google Adsense in here: www.problogger.net/archives/2005/09/01/im-a-six-figure-blogger/
- Myth: Repeating visitors will stabilize your Google Adsense incomes.
Fact: Big mistake. In fact, repeating visitors even easily suffer ads-blindness. Since they regularly visit your website, they know where exactly you put your ads (except you rotate those ads everyday), and will avoid them. Getting new visitors everyday is more effective for your Google Adsense incomes.
- Myth: The only way to monetize your Google Adsense account is by placing their ads in every website/ blog you owned.
Fact: Fortunately, no! There are many ways to use your Google Adsense ID (known as “Publisher ID”) now. One of them is by using it for “revenue sharing”. What is that? There are some forums that ask you to enter your Publisher ID when you register in their websites. They will use this ID to generate Google Adsense ads that will be displayed in every thread you participate in. If these ads are clicked, they will split the income: 50% for you, 50% for them. One of the forum that provide this facility is forums.digitalpoint.com
- Myth: People who got tens (or even hundreds) of thousands dollars from Google Adsense must own a single website that is visited by millions of visitors a day.
Fact: Not all of them. In fact, many of them even admitted that they got those checks by developing many small websites. For them, it is easier to generate $40,000 from 40 small websites than generate $40,000 from a single website.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Common AdSense Mistakes
In my experience with thousands of my AdSense Gold customers, I've noticed that new AdSense publishers tend to make the same mistakes. I made them too when I was new to AdSense.
I've decided to discuss 3 of the big mistakes with you so that you can have a head start and avoid these AdSense pitfalls. They are:
- Selecting the wrong topics
- Having too many topics on the same site
- Trying to make a quick buck with bad traffic
Selecting The Wrong Topics
When I first started out with AdSense, I was one eager beaver. I wanted to create as many pages as I could, and I didn't care what topic they were about as long as it wasn't adult or gambling.
I put up a site on Old Time Radio Shows, and I was excited to see that I made a few dollars a month with it. What I didn't realize at the time is that my $0.10 clicks were the bottom of the proverbial AdSense barrel in terms of earnings.
I didn't know then that it paid to research the good, high paying topics. So I just put up sites on whatever I could think of that seemed easy to rank for in the search engines.
I was shooting myself in the foot! Once I realized that I could do a little keyword research and find out how much the keywords were worth, then I started focusing on the higher paying niches and started seeing the $1, $2, $5, $10 clicks and up. I don't get that much with every click, but often enough to keep me very happy!
So research your topics first using the AdWords Traffic Estimator Tool, or a good high paying keywords list such as Keyword Explosion.
Too Many Topics on One Site
Another mistake I see newbies make very often (and I made myself when I was a newbie) is having too many topics put on one website. I've seen sites that target everything from alphalpha to Zoro!
That's a bad idea for two main reasons:
- It makes it hard to optimize your site.
You want your domain name to be targetted to the topic of the site (a great search engine optimization technique). If you have every manner of topic on the site, you can't do this and lose out on the power that a great domain name can have with the search engines.
- Google's Smart Pricing doesn't like it.
If you're not familiar with it, SmartPricing is what Google uses to figure out how much your page is worth in relation to the ads showing on the page. The more Smart Pricing likes your pages, the more you will get paid per click.
One of the things I've seen with Smart Pricing is that it likes tightly focused, targetted sites. You might have a lot of pages on one site, but they need to be related to each other.
“But I can't afford more than one domain right now,
” you might protest.
If that's the case, the best thing you can do is to create subdomains for each of the categories that your site targets.
For example, if you have a site that targets "alphalpha" and "Zoro", have two subdomains:
http://alphalpha.mydomain.com/
http://zoro.mydomain.com/
Do not have the subdomains link to each other either. That way Google seems them as seperate "mini-sites".
Be Careful What Kind of Traffic You Send To Your Sites
Not all traffic sources are created equal. There are a lot of sites out there selling "one hundred thousand visitors to your site for $49.95!" and the like.
What most of these sites do is use software to "simulate" a visit to your site. They are not real people. I've tested this extensively with a couple of vendors who sell this kind of traffic, and not once have I ever gotten any "real" people.
The problem is that sometimes those bots goof and "click" the ads by following the links.
Google sometimes sees those clicks as fraudulent, and many a new AdSense publisher has lost his account because of it.
So beware of shady or "too good to be true" traffic promises, they will only hurt you!
Focus on search engine optimization and link trading, that's where you're going to get the most bang for your buck.
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