Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I am without a doubt the top individual adsense publisher in terms of pageviews. Me talking about how I did it won't help you, but here is what i found you need to be successful in adsense.
1. Get a database of IP's so you know where your traffic is coming from. Then create channels for each country. Its not uncommon to see US traffic with a CPM of $5.00 and a CDN traffic at 20 cents and vice versa. If you have access to the hints option, give different hints based on IP. ie if your page is about 401k plans, that won't get you anything outside of the USA.
2. You have to create sites that will bring in repeat traffic. If you think you will get rich off SEO think again. If you create a Free jobs site you could net 30 million + a year if you got big. Club listings site, free religious personals etc would all be big money makers. Look for established markets and offer a service for free and support it with adsense.
3. Have your users create content and lots of it. User reviews of night clubs, Resorts, golf courses etc. Build your site around your users and make them part of your site, don't build your site for consumption.
4. Do not enter markets with a lot of competition monitized via adsense. Try and undercut paid content markets by offering a free service, or better yet create your own market.
5. Keep your site dead simple, it has to load fast and have no more then 2 ads and 1 or 2 pictures other then your logo. Do not confuse your user, give them what they want and give it to them fast.
6. Troll around various forums and if people are not talking about your market, there is a good chance you will make money.
I'll try to give you my view about his motives.
In essence, his basic business philosophy is: give something for free and you should get something back (well, in some markets).
That's exactly what he did here; he provided a simple blueprint of his success in a fair way and wrapped it into a post with the bombastic heading, revealing his huge income.
I can't see anything wrong with this.
What he has been expecting back (IMO)?As you could see his weak spot is search engine ranking.
Improving his rankings in such lucrative niche, would mean a huge (further) boost for his business.
A link from an article is more worth than a link from a simple directory.
Links from high profile sites' articles, in this case are worth fortune.Simple, pure and clean.
Of course, he was surely aware of possible drawbacks, but I think the only real risk would be some big player switching to his model, highly unlikely.
Six to eight weeks from now I expect him on the first page of major engines for great keywords.
How do you figure he's going to rank for great keywords in 6 to 8 week? Unless he's ranking for www.his-url.com, or "markus's site", or "million dollar site" or stuff like that, he's not going to do much.
PR sharing is about all he's going to get out of this post. iMo
I don't say this to take away from his accomplishments. :)
How do you figure he's going to rank for great keywords in 6 to 8 week? Unless he's ranking for www.his-url.com, or "markus's site", or "million dollar site" or stuff like that, he's not going to do much
No, this thread does not influence SE's directly.
It is about viral marketing as pointed earlier, but I have to add it was done in a very legitimate way.
Some would call it critical thinking. Peterweaver's post brings up many valid questions
Some would call it jealousy.
I am not sure if this is telling anything, however take a look at alexa traffic ranking details for Markus's site - there is a 100% spike at the end of March coincidng with this thread...
Question. While there may be a 100% spike in this since this thread, back when he blocked users, then all of a sudden let the stream flow after unblocking them, wouldn't he have one of the top sites up in Movers and Shakers?
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Take today’s SiteProNews newsletter as an example, it quotes the $10,000 a day for the site and links to it. This article alone will be read and re-distributed by thousands.
They got the $10,000 a day from what the site admin (markus) had claimed himself. People are reposting these claims as if they were facts.
Hence, earning more free money for Markus. But good for him.
Sorry, but that's the way I look at it.
I have great success with something that doubled my Adsense income, all according to Adsense TOS, but do you really think I'm going to tell the whole world?
People who do that are no business men. You always keep business secrets to yourself, unless revealing the business secret makes more money then the business secret itself.
However, I have a question out of curiousity. With that many users, how do you protect yourself against someone using the site for nefarious purposes ... serial killers responding to personals ... or people posting false personals to lure naiive and vulnerable widows ... or underaged children posting
Don't laugh, please. I'm serious. I've always wondered this about personals sites.
Get a database of IP's so you know where your traffic is coming from. Then create channels for each country. Its not uncommon to see US traffic with a CPM of $5.00 and a CDN traffic at 20 cents and vice versa.
Some would call it jealousy.
In an era when supposedly audited financial statements from major companies like Enron turn out to be completely inaccurate and misleading, I would think that some people may find it prudent to not necessarily accept as Gospel unvalidated income claims posted in Internet forums.
Yet in some ways it's good - these people are giving themselves an easy excuse for their own failures - and that rules them out of the game as far as competing with the rest of us goes!
I bet almost all the doubters on this thread come from the bottom 50% of the income level on Webmaster World. If you're one of them - you might like to think if that's a coincidence!
If you've solved the technical hurdles you state that you have in the tech thread, why haven't you patented, packaged, and sold that technology? It obviously has much wider applicability than running a single dating site, and while the income you've stated you're making from the existing site is impressive, it pales in comparison to what you could make from licensing the underlying tech.
A few years ago we had a competitor who developed a technology similar to something we were using. They patented it, gave it a fancy name, licensed it, got millions in funding, took on a load of staff - and neglected their main site.
I didn't bother licencing my technology - I just used it as the basis for a very successful site, and concentrated on that.
Bottom line? They took their eyes off the ball, and they went out of business (actually sold out for peanuts). I "stuck to the knitting" - and am still doing well and expanding.
I just noticed something about this thread...
I know a handful of people who have posted here in the adsense forum who make twice+ what Markus makes and not one of them has replied in this thread.
...but I bet they're watching it like a hawk.
They'll learn how to master the art of bringing their buisness to the next level, if they have half a brain in their heads.
K
(addendum) Yeah 7_driver, you're on the ball ;-)
[edited by: kokaroach at 4:55 pm (utc) on Mar. 27, 2006]
I bet almost all the doubters on this thread come from the bottom 50% of the income level on Webmaster World. If you're one of them - you might like to think if that's a coincidence!
I have a feeling it just might be the other way around. :)
I agree it's necessary to suspend judgment on these issues and I certainly am not going to get married to the idea that Markus is telling the exact truth, but it's a plausible story and the parts that are testable seem to check out.
It's sad that so many people don't believe Markus's post.
Does it really matter? I doubt if Markus is shedding any tears for (or about) the people who don't believe his story.
As for me, I'm inclined to take the story at face value because (a) it seems plausible, (b) I have no reason not to believe it, (c) I'm not risking anything by accepting it, and (d) Markus doesn't appear to be selling us anything. If he'd told us his story as a pitch for a $100 e-book or a $500 seminar, I might be more skeptical. :-)
For the pessimists you will feel good because you have spread that possibility of doubt that he may be a snake oil salesman...that's what you new colonists say isn't it?
Whichever way the truth may be you have to admit that it's been a good thread?
He earns a lot. Just not 1 million in 3 months.
How many of you here who make more than 80 grand per month believe that I also make 80 grand per month?
How many of you here who make less than 80 grand per month believe that I make 80 grand per month?
And if you know me, you're not allowed to chime in. :)
Google earnt 700 Million from AdSense q4 2005. So markus is doing well to earn 1 / 700th of Google's entire pot.
But you must admit that it is strange that he is so open about his earnings. It seems crazy to me that he is posting things around the Web such as "I'm Canada's #1 AdSense earner" and "$10,000 a day AdSense earner".
Would Google be happy about this sort of statement?
Also, his earnings are recent. If i give you 1 million dollars then take off 40% tax and expenses you are not a rich man.
If markus was most people he would keep it as quiet as possible until he had much more than 1 million dollars in the bank.
Would Google be happy about this sort of statement?
It may have been Google who suggested he go public. What better way is there to counter the potential loss of publishers to YPN, Adcenter. etc.?
No matter what tho, how important is the exact accuracy of his claims? If hubris takes over him, that's his problem. Why do others care? Live and let live.
It may have been Google who suggested he go public
"How I made a million in 3 months." is not the kind of statemetn I would do without checking with Google before...
Thanks for joyful mood. I laughed until my cries reading "congrats" replies.
[edited by: desperado117 at 8:25 pm (utc) on Mar. 27, 2006]
(...) it seems plausible (...)
Let's see. For example, according to a New York Times Company's recent press release, About.com's advertising revenue (from AdSense, etc.) has been $5,392,000 in February. That's $193,000 a day.
And, according to the of course unreliable Alexa's estimations on page views for these months, Markus' traffic has been between one tenth and one fifth of About.com's traffic. If Alexa was right and the eCPM was similar, Markus would be making between $19,000 and $39,000 a day.
So, we cannot rely on Alexa and other traffic estimators, usually inaccurate, and indeed there is no proof for the $10,000 a day revenue but... yes, it is possible and plausible.
