Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I've had an idea for a site which would be ideally suited for AdSense. I've found a subject for which there is a real gap - I needed some information back in December, and after many hours spent on Google and Altavista, I had found only two relevant and useful items - one of which was a casual paragraph on an internet forum, and the other was one old, random entry in somebody's blog. Bingo - ideal first AdSense site for me - create the site for which I had searched in vain (I searched again today and the gap still exists). Much of the traffic visiting such a site would be (as I was myself) on the verge of making a purchase, therefore I have to presume that targetted advertising could work well on the site. I'm not sure what volume of traffic I might expect, but there's only one way to find out, and that is to roll my sleeves up and start building it. I'm experienced at building websites, so that part is easy, also I love to write, so I'm not going to struggle to compile interesting and informative copy.
Although I've built many sites, I've never felt the need to get involved with search engine optimisation, so I have some learning to do there, for which I'm quite prepared to devote as much time and effort as necessary. One other point is that I don't have paid-for hosting; my other sites are on free (but reliable and ad-free) hosts.
Below is what I have in mind as my next steps.
1. Write copy, then build site, and upload to my usual reliable, free host
2. Live with the site, and fine-tune it, whilst I'm doing the following:
3. Research SEO techniques, read up on the Heat Map, continue to learn about AdSense
4. Make application to join AdSense
5. Apply the SEO tweaks, then add the AdSense code (assuming they accept me)
6. Move on to creating my next site, whilst (obviously) monitoring the first
I'm not looking for anybody to hold my hand through this - I'm more than prepared to do the necessary research for myself, but I'd still welcome any comments on the broad plan. Thanks.
If I treat each site separately then there is always the opportunity for each to evolve by incorporating closely-related topics, or in the event that a site isn't successful, it can be readily disposed of without affecting anything else. That's a lot clearer now. Thanks for your comments.
Your newly found information gap - have you checked out the keywords in Overture, (for example), or simply Googled them, to see their popularity? Are these the type of keywords that will produce high paying Google Adsense clicks for you?
Like you, I, (finally after trial and error), developed a "plan" for Adsense website production. But the most overwhelming factor for me is - will it produce a high return? E.g. if you're going to have a website about "wheelbarrows in space" I doubt you'll be generating many ads which will produce a good revenue. But if you were writing about "plasma versus HD tvs" - than you're likely to generate ads with a better return for you.
It is a lot of effort to produce & maintain a website with good content, and structured correctly to maximise your Google Adsense revenue potential. Will your website topic produce the kind of return from Adsense you are expecting?
I think you're suggesting that just because I've spotted an information gap, it doesn't necessarily follow that I should proceed to plug the gap, because it may not pay dividends on the time and effort involved. That would leave me in the position which so many advise against - brainstorming for a high keyword value and then building around that, which presumably many will have done before me and I will be in competition with other, more established sites and other, more experienced players.
If my first site pays its hosting costs and makes any kind of a profit, however small, I would consider it a success and it will have been a valuable exercise in terms of knowledge gained, to be applied to future projects. I would see it as learning to walk before I can run - would you go along with that, or do you think I'm aiming too low, and should I do more research and look for high-value keywords and popular searches, which coincide with my other areas of knowledge and expertise? Thanks again for your comments - there is such a lot for the newcomer to get to grips with, but it's all food for thought.
I don't know the definitive way to check keyword value - I have used a couple of bid estimator sites but I don't know how much faith one can place in the results.
It's not necessary to go for top paying keywords all the time. If you corner a certain niche market, (a niche being that subject treated in a different way, or style, that nobdoy else is doing - or that you think you can do better at), for your subject - then that can be sometimes more successful than trying to compete with the big hitters and the top paying keywords.
It may be that once you work through your plan - with the subject you have chosen - you'll see the way things behave, and then use that experience to start other websites on other subjects. (This is, of course, if your sole intention is to create good content websites for visitors - and appropriate Google Adsense ads for you to achieve revenue from).
Maybe mess around with a free hosting company and try and see what you can do before going into full production with your master plan?
Yes. Your best and cheapest bet is to get a reseller web hosting account. That allows you to run several different web sites all through one service and can be cheaper. I pay about $30/month and get unlimited # of sites, x GB traffic, y storage space. It provides shopping cards, mysql, php support, and all the other standard stuff. I divide it up into the sites I want and all it costs me is to add a site is the $8.95 registration fee to buy the domain.
Let us know when you go live. My parrot is really dumb and could use some good algebra tutorials.
I've built plenty of websites in the past, but always on free hosting, so domain names and hosting are a big knowledge gap for me.
...just a thought.
I like the ease with which I can simply give a new domain its own individual hosting package without adding any additional hosting costs. I am free to move any of these domains to another company should the individual site need more space, bandwidth, or whatever than I can currently provide for it - although doing that would increase my expenses. I could also move the whole lot to another company at any time for any reason. In other words, I recommend a reseller account if you have or plan to have several sites.
With regards to looking for high paying keywords the general advise is don't (plus it remains to be seen whether it's even possible to get an idea of what a specific site will be worth until you've made it and have collected a decent amount of stats). Sticking with creating a site around an area you enjoy and feel confident you can write for tends to be the way to go about creating a successful website.
If any of the UK members would recommend any particular UK-based reseller services, could you send me a sticky with the company name? Thanks.
[edited by: Sleights at 3:29 am (utc) on Mar. 24, 2006]
If it was an MFA site in the sense which you hint at, then I would have cobbled a couple of pages together very quickly, thrown AdSense onto it, found a cheapo host and launched it long ago. I'm providing quality content, well-researched and well-written, and AdSense will hopefully pay me handsomely for my endeavours. That doesn't make me a fly-by-night MFA cowboy.
