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 stopped worrying about money years ago."
I will too as soon as I have loads of it...
Once you have loads of money, you'll still worry about it.. Anyone who says that they don't worry about money is padding themselves with a false sense of security..
Once you have loads of money, you'll still worry about it. Anyone who says that they don't worry about money is padding themselves with a false sense of security.
As your mortgage rises for the new house, the new H2 needs to be paid off, etc. etc. you will worry about money even if you make as much as Marcus or Richard ;-).
As your mortgage rises for the new house, the new H2 needs to be paid off, etc. etc. you will worry about money even if you make as much as Marcus or Richard ;-).
Ha! Depends on whether your pay off your H2, and your house. Who has an H2, Bran? You take delivery of that Ferrari yet? ;)
So what excites me is the cashout offers he can get in this hot market...I woudn't be surprised if he settles soon for a 8 digit offer!...Good Luck Markus!
My revenue has been doubling year over year since 2002, and I don't expect growth to slow because I'm entering new less competitive niche markets with existing technologies that have proven themselves in some of the most competitive markets out there. So while generating $4M a year as a one man army isn't a milestone I've yet achieved, I'm not but a few years away. I say congrats to Markus for kicking some corporate butt! In a world bloated with T. Rex's, it doesn't hurt to be a velociraptor ;)
With regard to worrying about money, I agree with those that say you never stop worrying. Sure, if you stay living in that small house or apartment you can invest all that new money and never worry about bills. But I think it helps to remember why we're all capitalists. It has a little bit to do with friendly competition and working your way up the socio-economic classes. So, when you can afford that 4,000 square foot house, or when you can picture your kids growing up in that new gated community, or when you see a brand new Benz, you may opt for those things because they make you feel good. So, eventually you find yourself paying a $5,000/month mortgage, a $3,600/month car payment, $2,000/month for private school for your kids, $2,500/month for a college fund, $5,000/month retirement account, and so on. Yes some of it is a bit materialistic, and yes a little bit superficial, but it's very much a part of human nature. If you're single or married, trust me having that Benz, having that big house, opens doors. If you don't want to see what lies beyond those doors, then by all means, invest all your money in green stocks and live in a Yurt on an island in the middle of nowhere. Whatever makes you happy ;)
With regard to worry, I think that's especially true for entrepreneurs because I think there is a certain degree of tension and drive that entrepreneurs have when it comes to their future. Call it a fear of entropy maybe. And that fear drives productivity, makes you work a little harder and play the game a little smarter so you can help ensure your own personal and financial growth. I think it also doesn't hurt to come up poor, at least in my case anyway. I remember being pre-school age, living in a 12'x50' trailer, and watching my mom pick out produce from supermarket dumpsters. Being called third class and so on. Boy that sort of childhood will light a fire under your arse, I'll tell you that for nothing! :)
Sean
Looks like your server load will get a good testing too ;)
Too bad slashdotters are notoriously bad non-ad-clickers.
As for more sites popping up it will hurt paid sites more then me. I noticed that facebook is shopping around for more money and giving themselves a valuation of 2 billion dollars. I sense bubble.
Secondly,
Most questions I can concieve, have already been asked and it appears I have some homework.
This has really stirred my concept of a business model... I have some ideas I want to pursue farther ;)
I have little else to contribute directly to this thread except hopefully some leveling thoughts.
I think my comments, if taken in context are still on-topic...
Quite a while back, I learned something that I would like to share.
"If you want to learn how to do [x], talk to someone who does [x]."
I've substituted [x] with what I was originally told because I've found that the concept applies to more than just one thing.
The overwhelming truth should not be lost in it's simplicity.
The world is full of people willing to share advice.
Ironically, most of the talkers have never done what they so freely suggest others should do.
Recognize who you should be listening to and who you should not.
Ignore the naysayers. (For humor, come back in a few years and you'll see them still hanging out and still saying the same things but still not having accomplished much more than they have today.)
If you're smart, pluck the true gems of knowledge from this thread and take them as your own.
PebĪ
My hitwise ranking and my ranking.websearch.com haven't moved a bit. Websearch says i'm the 58th most viewed site on the internet, and hitwise says i'm the 60-80 most viewed in the USA. Hitwise requires a 25k subscription. I always forced my users to uninstall alexa until recently. I was tired of being in the alexa 1k spam list.
Thanks for posting up your findings on making more from AdSense :-) I printed off all your comments throughout this thread and then decided to sit down and try and follow them :-)
I'm getting stuck on step 1;
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
I have WebTrends installed and it tells me where people are coming from but I don't understand how to make a channel that uses that information. How do I create channels for each country?
Thanks;
Marvin
Once you have loads of money, you'll still worry about it.. Anyone who says that they don't worry about money is padding themselves with a false sense of security.
Good grief, do some people not know how to be happy?
I can quite categorically assure you that money is nice however not the be all and end all. I work because I enjoy it, I have absolutely no false sense of insecurity...
toldan:
Oh, I forgot. He's not going to explain anything, he is very secretive about his technique.
Just what is your attitude problem? It does not matter who posts you have to criticise or deny every time.
Do you want all of us to give you the freebie plan to riches?
you dynamically change the channel in your google ad
Markus, do you have to be a premium publisher to be able to do that? I thought it was against TOS to play with the code.
Thank you for sharing your tips and numbers with us. Really gave me a new boost of optimism after reading this thread.
Looks like your server load will get a good testing too wink
Too bad slashdotters are notoriously bad non-ad-clickers.
I see /. knocked the site out for awhile.
The initial slashdotters may not click the ads but the many who will now write articles on their websites and blogs about the success of his website is enough publicity to push him to the million/month club.
If I was him I would go to a casino and play the lotto before my lucky streak ran out.
As for geoIP, i'd never heard of it until today.
I wouldn't give Toldan air time, he seems to be a forum troll, highly negative and looking for attention.
Good grief, do some people not know how to be happy?I can quite categorically assure you that money is nice however not the be all and end all. I work because I enjoy it, I have absolutely no false sense of insecurity...
Not wanting to run this out, and ruin this excellent thread, I want to say that I'm happy as can be with how much I've made and how much I'm making now. I have everything I've ever wanted. But I do worry. I also enjoy doing what I'm doing, making close to 6 figures monthly, but, if I was making $10 monthly, I would have different thoughts about what I was doing, and wouldn't be so happy.
Not trying to be cynical, but saying that you don't worry about money is a hard thing to actually do.
twist the site that wrote the article about me got knocked offline by /.
Oh, sorry about that, I kept seeing people posting they couldn't get to the website and assumed they meant yours.
First financial success, then the frontpage of slashdot, and to top it off your site lives through being slashed. Congratulations are truly in order. :)
Guilty as charged ; )
Got a chuckle out of that.
Markus' story is one to be proud of.
He obviously worked extremely hard to get to the pinnacle he is enjoying now.
If his sharing of information causes some to give up the notion of easy money and MFA's as the answer, then we'll all benefit in the end from this.
Any AdSense ad code, search box code, or referral code must be pasted directly into Web pages without modification. AdSense participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the ad code or change the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason.
For example, I dynamically serve different Adsense codes depending on which theme a user selects in their profile one of my forums. If they choose a blue theme, a blue-background Adsense ad is shown. If they choose a white theme, a white-background Adsense ad is shown, etc.
Markus was simply saying that you can dynamically serve Adsense ads based on IP.
Not sure how thrilled I would be about my website(s) being called "ugly"
butI guess you can laugh all the way to the bank...
Your site seems to follow the "keep it simple principle" that I am strongly trying to stick to....was this a deliberate effort by you so that pages loaded fast + browser compatibility etc
Also, did you have a day job before your site really took off? When did you ditch it and also when were you making enough $$ to feel safe ditching it?
My sites are making me enough to live and pay the mortgage but I am very close to ditching my day job to focus on them and a "big" site idea I am working on. In fact Im desperate to get more time to work on them (10 hours every day!) so Im curiosu to know how long you spent building the site before it got big....
TIA
Sean
Markus, was that the size of that market when you started, or has the volume of Adsense units you have been offering expanded the market from an initial, much smaller size?
To put the question another way, if someone is operating in a niche that is currently quite small, can the introduction of a system to greatly increase the number of Adsense units available also expand the market in similar proportions?
