AdSense Revenue

AdSense Revenue

How much revenue do people typically make with AdSense?  How can you increase revenue with AdSense?

We polled bloggers and online website owners who have used Google's AdSense to ask them about their experiences and how much revenue they make from Google with AdSense. 

AdSense is a type of CPC (cost-per-click) or PPC (pay-per-click) advertising.  That means as the blogger or website owner accepting AdSense ads, you are not paid when someone sees an ad on your blog or website.  You are only paid when someone clicks on the ad. 

• If you're new to AdSense, read this article Google AdSense How-to

Know this:  Most people aren't making anything near this today.

Typical AdSense revenue?  Less than $100 for most blogs and websites a year.  Some sites with more website/blog visitors can earn up to $1,200 a year. 

There are several ad networks that have been set up to help bloggers and niche (low traffic) websites promote and sell ad space.  Check out companies like BuySellAds.com and BlogAds allow self-publishers to determine what they want to charge for placing an ad on their sites. They then match sites with advertisers for a percentage of ad sales — 14 to 30 percent is typical according to The New York Times.  Federated Media negotiates rates on behalf of independent content creators it agrees to represent.

• Online ad rates vary widely.  Advertising Costs lists cost ranges.

What bloggers and website owners said about their experiences with AdSense...

We asked bloggers and website owners about their experiences with AdSense and how much revenue they were making.  Here's what we learned...

"I set it up and then received an error and a turn down of service because of
a glitch on their end.  I have not been able to receive an answer from anyone and thus have not been able to use it.  Poor customer service!"

Dave Phillipson, CEO Space,  GlobalCEOspace.com

"I've been using AdSense pretty much since they started, and will be happy to
share what I've learned. Here are some highlights...

1. AdSense can be a very stable source of income. I have sites making the same amount every month for over 4 years.

2. The amounts you *can* make are pretty big. Check out Jeremy Shoemaker, who got famous by taking a picture with a $100,000 check from Google (which they confirmed was real, as far as I know).

3. Sites with bad content make more money sometimes, as the ads become more
attractive than the content. I discovered this by mistake, while adding AdSense to a half-baked site I didn't get to finish.

4. The more the ads blend into your site, the less people will click on them. There are a lot of other optimizations that could be done to increase the amounts, and I'd say it's relatively easy to build a business around AdSense advertising if done right."

Adam Tal, MoneyMachineFactory.org and MommyAds.us

From our experience, the sites owned by Demand Media like eHow are examples of how you need to set up a site to make money with AdSense. The content on eHow is "lite", evergreen (doesn't change over time so they don't have to invest in updating it) and the ads flank the editorial.

 

"My name is Peter Maughan of Peter Maughan LLC. I'll give you a small sampling of the websites that I have implemented with adsense. Each of these sites is representative of a group of my websites that has similar weight of Google adsense revenue as a total
percent of revenue for that vertical.

Google adsense typically does not account for a large portion of revenue for most of my sites. I consider myself to be a small time Google adsense player. Overall, Google adsense typically accounts for about 11.5% of my income and profits on a quarterly basis.

One of my sites is fatburningdietblog.com. Another is cardonating.org. And another is weightlosswars.com

The first 2 sites are much heavier on adsense as they do not have their own products.

1. Fatburningdietblog gets 38% Google adsense revenue and 62% from CPA affiliate offers. Adsense revenue monthly on this site is about $140 and about $228 from affiliate offers off of about 4,000 visits/month. This is a typical site for me in my group of sites that is a hybrid of adsense and affiliate offers.

2. Cardonating.org gets about 98% Google adsense revenue and (2% and growing) from lead generation. This is an example of a site with decent potential for lead generation which I monetize first heavenly with adsense while I cut my teeth on the leadgen strategy. Currently the site brings about $70/month in adsense off about 400 visits/month.

3. Weightlosswars.com gets about 5.6% from Google adsense and 94.4% from providing our own product: weight loss competitions. The visit numbers on this site is significantly higher than the other 2 sites.

Generally, my strategy is to start out with Google adsense as a quick and easy way to monetize a blog, then methodically test out other verticles such as CPA affiliate offers and internal services until I find one that hits. Then I continue to sell what the audience of that site is interested in purchasing and try to tailor the site to their needs and buying habits."

Peter Maughan of Peter Maughan LLC

"AdSense is Senseless!: I wasted a whole lot of time and money on Google AdSense. I got billed for stuff I never asked for. You need an engineering degree to be able to understand it. I found it so complicated, and I used to be a senior Intel engineer. The worst thing is, they used to have a person you could talk to on the phone, then they eliminated that. So I gave up.

A little background - I was a senior engineer with Intel Corporation. My job was to travel the world with Chairman Andy Grove, doing technical demonstrations on stage at events, and I was incredibly nervous about speaking on stage. I took a comedy class to get over the fear, and the comedy kind of took off.

Since then, I have performed at the Democratic National Convention, at a TED Conference, at three presidential inaugural events, for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and many similar luminaries. I just recently performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Also, I appeared in an Apple commercial last year. I perform all over the States as well as in many foreign countries. My life is like that of George Clooney in Up in the Air, just without the sex LOL."

Dan Nainan, Comedian/Actor/Voiceover Artist/Computer Expert
New York/Beverly Hills

"I do well with Google Adsense. My site is all about shopping and saving money so it gives me the opportunity to be able to provide my site as a free service to consumers.In today's economy more and more people are needing help and I would feel guilty about charging people to learn how to save. I use Google Adsense to fund the cost of running my site."

Melissa Garcia, Edmond,OK, Editor of ConsumerQueen.com

"I stopped using AdSense several years ago.  I had it on my blog for several years.  I never made a dollar from it, despite making money via Blogher ads.
 
My frustration with AdSense is you have to click on the ad to receive credit.  The company benefited from every person who read the ad, whether they clicked on it or not.  I realized it wasn't worth it and got rid of it."

Shari L. Schmidt, blogger twotimesthefun.blogspot.com about "General observations about the joys and sleeplessness that comes from being parents of twin girls."

"I, personally, have little experience with Google AdSense, but can offer a company that has closed it's doors on paying bloggers due to issues with Google AdSense.

In February, 2011, GoodBlogs.com launched and paid bloggers $20 for every post that hit the front page through their voting system. When the business model was created, AdSense was the intended revenue source for the site. The ads appeared and after some time, disappeared. The company then applied for a second AdSense account through their LLC name, which was again approved. Again, it was revoked without any reasoning.  Jason Trout is the company owner of goodblogs.com."

Mysti Reutlinger

"AdSense has paid me $130,000: Google has paid me over $130,000 since my first payment in June 2003.

I recently attended an invitation only AdSense in Your City event at the Google office in Austin, TX. Several Googlers gave us tips on maximizing the success of AdSense on our sites. Each attendee had a brief 1 on 1 session to discuss our particular websites.

I have 1 primary website that makes good income: usa-flag-site.org
That site has become an authority on American Flag and patriotic information. AdSense has allowed me to present useful information without over-commercializing the content."

Ross Jones, 2 the Top Web Design & Promotion in Nashville

2thetop-website-design.com

"I've experimented with Google AdSense across a variety of different websites that I operate. With exactly one exception, I've found that not only does Google AdSense not make me a significant amount of money, it actually takes money away from the other monetization methods I use. On my services site, for instance, AdSense might display an ad for one of my competitors. I would get three cents for a click on that link — and lose a $2,000 project to my competitor.

The sole exception is a holistic health website that focuses on some high paying keywords. That site's current income is constrained by its traffic, but during weeks with good traffic, AdSense pays for the site's hosting and upkeep."

Thursday R. Bram,  the business of creativity
thursdaybram.com and  hypermodernconsulting.com

TIP:  learn what works and what doesn't and get specific ideas to help you with how to make more money on your website and/or blog.  We've done the research and continually update this article to share the best data, reports and tips.

• How to Make Money Online