Forum Moderators: martinibuster
But, for the past few days, I was trying different keywords on the various topics that I shall be using in my new website. When I used Adwords for the keywords, I was amazed that the Avg. CPC was amazingly high at around $700 or so..I figured that even if those websites chose not to advertise on individual Adsense blocks, the other sites that choose to display it on Adsense should choose sufficiently high amount so that I can finally realize a more than a dollar click.
I decided to check it out on my test page which is frequented sometimes. Now though the adsense ads that appeared there were very much relevant, I find that the one click I got from that page has fetched just $0.10
Now, I'm frustrated. How big a keyword would get me more earning per click.
For your information, the test page had only 6 impressions and one click.So the CTR is also very good.
If you were an advertiser, and you had the option to allow high value clicks on sites that you KNOW will convert for you, and chance your arm on a series of low value clicks on other sites, wouldn't you do just that?
Also, you have smart pricing (love it, or loath it). That is going to detect if clicks convert for advertisers by a mix of conversion tracking and waving a bit of wet seaweed around to see what happens. If it decides that your clicks don't convert for advertisers, then your clicks will be heavily discounted.
I can't see why anyone could reasonably expect to generate high value clicks from a site set up to do just that. The only way to get high value clicks is to have a piece of prime internet real-estate that works for advertisers. Knocking up a site based on what you think the current high paying keywords are is not going to make you money.
Consistent and high traffic is the thing, and for that you need good content. It is very rare that good content that will pay well and consistently is created by looking for high value keywords on a topic you know nothing about and working from there.
It can be done, but it almost never is by anyone without a vast experience of both AdSense and AdWords and at least some experience in and knowledge about the market they are working in.
Not by people working from lists of high paying keywords.
But, abbeyvet, I just wanted to clear that this niche of mine was decided sometime back, and I'm already ready with a few pages. It was only when I decided to include Adsense on it that I decided to check with Adwords and found that my topic had really valuable ads.
I find that the one click I got from that page has fetched just $0.10
I can tell you that there are quite a few members here who would like your $0.10 EPC!
Without incurring the wrath of many I would say that a good average niche EPC is $0.20 - 0.40. My highest ever was just over $2.00 and I do get the $0.50 - 0.80's on a regular basis however I also get the $0.03's which soon drags the average down.
Anyone who knows anything about ten pin bowling will testify to that.
I would venture to say that chasing high paying keywords and you'll have a job for life.
Note the trick is picking a theme where you can use multiple keywords such as home remodel which gives you plumbing, cabinets, appliances, etc. and it all works together.
If it is true that even high paying keywords perform only that much, I'm satisfied with how I am doind although, I have now got those making $3000 kind of adsense money in much greater stature. I just cant imagine when I reach to manage get so many clicks.
How do I know? Hundreds of websites focused on thousands of topics, with those focused on the high paying markets making much, much more per click than the others.
Now, not every click pays huge dividens, but a good portion do, whereas with the low value keywords none of them do, so you're better off.
SmartPricing comes into play with this, and there are a number of variables that I wont go into here that determine whether Google feels your clicks are worthy of the higher amounts, but if you can design your site in such a way that Google feels its worthy, the rewards are remarkable.
but if you can design your site in such a way that Google feels its worthy, the rewards are remarkable.
And now come on, you are taking me back to my desperation of not managing high value clicks..anyway, can you please explain the above quote about how I can go about doing that.Is there any adsense version of SEO?
In other words:
Travel narrative for armchair travelers = bad for AdSense
Travel-planning advice for active travelers = good for AdSense
Humor articles about housecleaning or nannies = bad for AdSense
Reviews of vacuum cleaners or baby gear = good for AdSense
There's nothing new about this concept; it's something real-world publishers learn in Publishing 101. That's why, even in a category such as literature, publications like THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW are filled with ads while literary quarterlies have only a modest number of ads tucked in amid the poems and short stories.
In other words: Keywords are only half the battle; audience motivation and behavior are just as important.
Hate to burst everybody's bubble here, but you're all mistaken.
I would venture to say that visitors to my niche sites do not come along to view ads about totally unrelated subjects.
I may be wrong however the numbers I'm earning tell me that I'm pretty much on the right track, however if one is creating sites outside of any niche and constructing generalised sites then, yes, it is possible to create relevant non-MFA sites with high paying keywords.
It's all about having the correct information and enough time...as usual.
I do agree with your PoV. Infact, I'm now even more convinced that once my site is out, I can really expect a few good clicks..
I would venture to say that visitors to my niche sites do not come along to view ads about totally unrelated subjects.
Of course they don't. That's why you build multiple sites, each focused on one high paying market and the high paying keywords for that market.
For example, if "widgets" is a high paying market, and its subkeywords "green widgets", "blue widgets", "building widgets" are all high paying keywords, then you create a site around the theme "widgets", with content devoted to each of the keywords that pay well.
can you please explain the above quote about how I can go about doing that.
Here's one tip to get you started:
Too many publishers make the mistake of buying one domain and sticking thousands of unrelated pages of content on the same domain. In my experience, SmartPricing does not look upon that with any favor at all.
Tightly themed, niche sites surrounding a few related topics work best with SmartPricing.
But they also work better with the visitors, because your site is browsable, containing a few topics related to what they were looking for in the first place. They are more likely to browse around and click a few ads here and there in their search for whatever they are looking for.
Tightly themed, niche sites surrounding a few related topics work best with SmartPricing.
I would definitely concur with that. Whereas my main niche core sites average +/-5% CTR my specialist 20-50 page sites average +/-30% CTR.
Focusing on high paying keywords in your content dramatically increases your chances for better paying clicks.
You also have to battle everyone else to get traffic for those high paying clicks and only 10 sites can be in the top 10, assuming you can even break into the top 50 for that keyword.
The high paying clicks are nice but it's a lot easier IMO to generate a lot of traffic that averages about $0.02 per visitor or $20 eCPM than it is to get a bunch of $20 clicks.
In a nutshell, I'd rather get a dime from everyone than a dollar from a few.
Your mileage may vary.
You also have to battle everyone else to get traffic for those high paying clicks and only 10 sites can be in the top 10, assuming you can even break into the top 50 for that keyword.
Why are you assuming that you have to rank your page for those keywords to generate clicks for those keywords?
Granted that is wonderful if you can do so, but I rank for closely related, less competitive keywords and generate clicks from those visitors. Much easier to do, generates more traffic, and therefore earns more money.
Hate to burst everybody's bubble here, but you're all mistaken. Focusing on high paying keywords in your content dramatically increases your chances for better paying clicks.
Nobody has said that high value clicks don't exist.
One of the common themes here is the "I've got a list of keywords that pay $50 per click, why am I only getting 5c?" All we are attempting to do is explain why it's not as simple as finding a supposedly high keyword, spending 10 minutes knocking up a MFA and then retiring to a nice cottage in Cornwall on the income!
I'm no stranger to high clicks myself, BUT my site has been online since 1999, is considered an authority in the field, and is usually between 1 and 4 on a Google search for the main keywords.
but if you can design your site in such a way that Google feels its worthy, the rewards are remarkable.
Going back to my earlier point, you are forgetting something. It's not a case of how worthy Google feels your site is. You may have a site you have spent thousands of hours lovingly creating content for, and Google may indeed think it's the best site on the net. However, if no advertiser wants to spend $50 per click on it, then you will only achieve normal epc.
As an advertiser, I would only be prepared to bid large amounts on sites that converted for me. I'd bid a decent amount for clicks on sites that usually did ok for conversions, and I'd have a third campaign where I was bidding generally in search and content, but only bid in cents.
No matter how good your site is, that's the reality of how advertisers will bid. Not only do you have to have a site that Google likes, it also has to work for advertisers before they will spend large amounts of money having their ads on your site.
The vast majority of sites fit into the last category, as do ALL MFA's.
Jonathanleger never voilated what you said. He just expressed his opinion.
For what Jonathan said, I support his opinion. High value keywords certainly help you.
By high value I mean High CPC or High Traffic or LOW Competetion. All these keywords are different from each other. Speaking strictly in context of 'GOOD CONTENT' only (not HIGH CPC, otherwise some people here will start shouting MFA! MFA!) Keyword Research tools do help me create a better content (its always good to make page that gets max traffic for minimum competetion) and may boost up the overall traffic of the website too.
Yes! You are right David, it shouldnt be just "Made to make google happy". The content should promote that industry in WHOLE whose ads are being displayed. This will prevent us from SmartPricing.
But I just have discovered that Google still needs much more intelligence to accurately target ads according to the websites. Its concept of "" and [] for adwords advertisers is really confusing to them. Most of them end up not using these wonderful facilities and Ads are targetted wrongly too.
For example a Web hosting ad appears on "Online Music Hosting" too. Which is quite unrelated.
So, I use these research tools to do Adsense Optimization as well as SEO too. Set Meta tags, Set Hyperlinks, Anchor texts, titles, headings and all that matters.
Its good to use such tools, wherther for Adsense only or for SEO or for both and stay ahead of competetiors.
However, if no advertiser wants to spend $50 per click on it, then you will only achieve normal epc.
That's only if you allow site targetting. If you're not allowing site targetting, then Google decides which advertisers display what ads on your site, not the advertiser.
I personally do not allow site targetting because the ads shown have always been either completely unrelated or barely related to my site, and therefore receive few clicks and make me no money.
So it's in the AdSense publisher's best interests to make Google happy with the content in order to achieve high epc. SmartPricing (hopefully) will set the clicks at what they are worth so that the advertiser doesn't have to try and figure that out for dozens or hundreds of sites on which his ad(s) appear.
Most of my sites are not authority sites that have been around for years. They are content sites, but do not hold top rankings for the competitive keywords which the AdSense ads target. I optimize for less competitive, related keywords, which is easier and allows for more traffic with less effort.
According to what you're saying, the fact that my sites are not authority sites that do not achieve high rankings for the high paying keywords which the AdSense ads target should prevent me from earning a high epc--and yet it doesn't.
That means that the SmartPricing algorithm likes my sites, and must mean that at least some of the things you list as being important are not, at least not according to the SmartPricing algorithm.
Are my sites tightly themed around a few related topics? Yes. Do they convert well for the advertiser? Who knows? Google doesn't reveal that data, though it's supposed to be incorporated into SmartPricing, so I guess they do.
[edited by: jonathanleger at 6:54 am (utc) on Feb. 2, 2006]
I believ ehe meant that one should write content focusing on the highest paying keywords in the given niche which of course makes the most sense.
That is exactly what I mean. But that doesn't seem to "make the most sense" to many of those whose posts appear before my first one on this thread. Those posts seem to indicate that there is little value in focusing on the high paying keywords.
I, obviously, completely disagree.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions of course, but my experience with a large number of sites across a wide variety of topics indicates otherwise.
how can you tell that your site has been targeted by an advertiser?
I'm not saying you have to be top of the search engine, or have a site that's been around since 1843 to get results. Although those factors do help, I know that's not always the case. My own newly started blog is doing well. My point to the OP is that starting a site based on high paying keywords is not a recipie for overnight success. I didn't know that this point of view was so controversial ;)
As to focussing on high paying keywords in your site's niche - that really goes without saying. We all do that either by researching high paying keywords appropriate to our site, or by tailoring content to enable Google to select tightly focussed ads. That's not a contentious point IMHO, but I'm not sure the OP was originally asking that.
David., I was indeed asking about that. I found a niche market that I could write about since I have some kind of knowledge on that. And when I was searching for related keywords in Adwords found that they were really high paying for the top slot. So, that made me feel I could indeed make a lot of money per click.But my test page for the keyword proved otherwise.
Though there has been a little deviation sometimes in this thread, I do not mind that as I have learnt a few many things on how Adsense pays..
As to focussing on high paying keywords in your site's niche - that really goes without saying. We all do that either by researching high paying keywords appropriate to our site, or by tailoring content to enable Google to select tightly focussed ads.
"We all do"? Actually, most of us probably don't, if "us" includes the majority of AdSense publishers who don't hang around forums like this one. And even among those of us who do participate in AdSense forums, researching high-paying keywords or tailoring content for AdSense isn't necessarily on the to-do list.
I'm not suggesting that, if you have the patience to research keywords and a willingness to let the Mediapartnerbot dictate what you put on your pages, you shouldn't let AdSense be your master. But not all of us do that, and I'm not at all sure that it's a wise strategy. Purely organic "loss leader" pages on low-paying topics can be just as valuable, in their way, as pages that attract high-paying keywords, if they attract search-engine users and repeat visitors who may find their way to the more profitable areas of your site.
As to focussing on high paying keywords in your site's niche - that really goes without saying.
Ok, then I must have misunderstood your previous post. It sounded to me like you thought it wasn't worth the time to find the high paying keywords for a niche.
I'm not suggesting that, if you have the patience to research keywords and a willingness to let the Mediapartnerbot dictate what you put on your pages, you shouldn't let AdSense be your master. But not all of us do that, and I'm not at all sure that it's a wise strategy.
Yeah, it really depends on what your goals are. Are you using AdSense to supplement your affiliate sales? Are you using AdSense to "market test" which affiliate products you should be selling?
Not everybody's going to want to focus on just high paying keywords. It depends on what your goals are.
My goal for my niche sites is AdSense money, so I focus on the high paying keywords.
EFV:- I'm not suggesting that everybody researches keywords - hence the second part of the sentence. I know that most publisher's don't hang around this forum, but I don't think you need to hang around here to know that having well targetted ads on your site provides the best return. One way of getting the optimum targetting is tailoring content. The Adsense site tells 'em that!
Before anyone says so, yes I do realise from many past threads here that not everybody reads the valuable info on the G site (not clicking your own ads etc.).
I still believe that whilst having a site that works for Google, your site also needs to work well for advertisers in order to maximise income, and attract more advertisers into the progam.
I find that having ads relevant to the page topic provides the best return.
It does, and having those pages tailored to the highest paying keywords gives the best of the best return.
i'll take your failure to respond as a tacit admission that your statement was wrong... and therefore misleading to readers who don't know any better.
