Forum Moderators: martinibuster
This worked very well for me, because hundreds of people who have read my articles linked either to one of them or to my homepage, and so some of my articles are now very popular. Every now and then someone who needs what I offer reads an article and then realizes I'm for hire and inquires, and maybe then I get a contract.
This ended up working so well for me that these days I have to turn away business. My website as a whole gets over a hundred thousand hits a month. My homepage is PR 6, and all my articles are either PR 4 or PR 5. My pages are in the top ten for hundreds, if not thousands of relevant queries, and many of my pages are #1 for lots of queries.
I had some health problems last year and was unable to work enough to get by, so I finally tried adsense. I put it on all my articles, but not my homepage which still is meant for my clients to see. My first month I made over three thousand dollars. I could see from my ad performance report that this was going to happen within a few hours of publishing my first ads. It made me break down and cry.
I have not always made that much. Last month was only eighteen hundred, but April started up again in the last week, coming out at $2100 and I can see how I might make $3k in May.
It's not simply a clean, honest site, my whole reputation as a businessman depends on it. With the expenses I have, I'm not able to quit working (yet!), so I have to run a very clean operation.
I have also worked like a slave on my website on many occasions. A couple of my articles took more than a month to write.
I had this crappy old half-baked HTML design, with poor navigation, inconsistent colors, invalid HTML, formatted with nested tables and the works, but I suddenly lost a contract a couple months ago and was in a really hard way. To get back to work quickly I started paying for advertising with money that was very scarce.
My wife, who used to be a web designer before she went back to art school, had made a really nice XHTML+CSS design for my site, with easy navigation, consistent colors, a nice theme, but when she realized there were over a hundred hand-coded static HTML files on my site, most of them in ancient, invalid HTML, she was too intimidated to roll out her design across my site.
Her templates sat on her computer for over a year until I started paying for advertising. I began to fear that people would click my ads - costing me money - see my half-baked homepage, and just press the back button without even reading what I had to offer. So I spent three solid days, and nights, without sleeping, on a marathon HTML coding session to implement her design.
All I did at first was to redesign my homepage and each of the pages that were directly linked from my homepage, but there were quite a few of those.
My hard work, and advertising gamble paid off. I got back to work quickly enough that by the time I could earn a paycheck we hadn't starved or become homeless yet.
Since then I've been redesigning an article each week. I have about a third of them done now.
So yes, clean, honest hard-working webmastering pays.
I'm now paying to advertise my articles. When I have a new one redesigned, I pay for ads for it. I had adsense on all of them at first, but have been removing it from the non-performing pages. My objective in my advertising is not to drive clicks to my ads, but to bring repeat visitors to my site, and over time build even more traffic as (hopefully) some of these people give me links.
Now, it took six years to get my site to where I was able to earn $3k in my first month of adsense. But I didn't have the first clue about anything when I started out. It wasn't for several years that I really started to devote much time to my articles, when I realized what a difference they were making to me.
I think that if I were just starting out with a totally new website, knowing what I know now, I could get it to $3k in adsense after a year. It would help to have an ad budget, but that's not the most important thing, it's having a site that's worth someone's time and effort to link to. It's having a site that makes people WANT to link it.
My advice, if you're just starting out, is to not post ANY ads on it at all. Not even one! Not for at least a year. Why? I think ads discourage linking. Once you do publish ads, test them for a week or two and then remove them from all the nonperforming pages. A page without adsense still gets linked, drives up the pagerank of your site and is a gateway to your other pages.
When I'm done redesigning my articles, there will be just ONE adsense unit on ONE web page. That single ad unit is responsible for all but about ten dollars of my monthly revenue. I think the other pages will be better at building traffic to my site if they didn't have ads, and I would have already removed their adsense but I have so many that I just don't have the time.
I have become very well aware that I'm sitting on top of a gold mine, just beginning to tap into the vein of ore. I am very inspired to read so many posts here from people who say they were able to quit their jobs because of adsense. I'm not there yet, but it is my objective to quit working my original job within a year and instead make a living - a good, comfortable living - writing content for my site. I've been in the same line of work for seventeen years, and have been self-employed for seven. It's not an easy way to live. I wish I could go back to my younger self and shake some sense into me. But now I see a way out.
So there you have it. Clean, hard work is indeed the key to success on the web.
Mike
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 11:54 am (utc) on May 5, 2005]
[edit reason] it was such a good post - it deserved it's own thread. [/edit]
we should all have relevant URLs, usernames, passwords, and other such info. pulled together for our loved ones in case anything happens to us.
I was thinking that when I wrote my post, and will be putting them in the file cabinet where she will be sure to find them. Soon I'm going to get a safe deposit box, which I wanted for offset backups anyway, and put them there too.
There's some financial guru, I forget her name but she's got a lot of books and she's featured on PBS whenever they have a pledge drive. She says that the first thing one must do is provide for the security of one's family in the event of a tragedy, by getting life insurance, drawing up a will, or better yet getting a trust (they're cheaper to inherit than a will, but I won't explain them).
How many people who make wads of cash from their websites use it to make life insurance payments?
You know, I'm 41. I've already had a life that's been good, if difficult. My worst fear is not that I might die someday, but that if I did my wife would have to leave art school and get a job working in a store or restaurant. She could never realize her dream of being an artist. It's obvious to anyone who knows her that she has real potential.
It would be a tragedy if she didn't get her chance. It's been pretty f***ing hard but I've moved Heaven and Earth to make sure she could stay in school. She's begged me to let her drop out and just get a job, because she wanted to lighten my load, and I begged her just as earnestly to stay in school. I don't want her to eat the seed corn.
When I'm done redesigning my articles, there will be just ONE adsense unit on ONE web page. That single ad unit is responsible for all but about ten dollars of my monthly revenue.
I'm not comfortable with that in the long term. Advice is often given her to diversify income sources, and I'm working on it, I just haven't found another income stream that works yet.
Most of my nonperforming pages are very technical. Engineers either use ad blockers or they just don't click ads. My one performing page is very non-technical, and on a very popular topic. It's only obliquely related to the rest of my site.
I've been trying out Amazon and Powell's [powells.com] affiliate ads for books, but have only sold three in two months. I'll still place these ads where I specifically mention a book in my articles, but more out of a convenience to readers than to make money.
When CheeseburgerBrown reported that his moneymaker went PSA the other day, I started to think about, what if that happened to me? Even a day's lost revenue would be a significant hit. I'm still running on pretty thin margins. It's only because of AdSense that I can get by at all.
What I need to do is build content to my site. I've been accellerating the HTML redesign of my articles, now two or three a week instead of just one. As I said above I just commissioned an article.
By the way, I asked for that article to be in-depth, well-researched, and full of non-affiliate links that would actually be of real value to anyone who clicked them. The guy I'm commissioning them from says most webmasters don't really care what his articles actually say, they just want all the keywords, and no links lest a visitor escape.
But I have long known I can build traffic to my site by giving value to my readers. That earns their respect - and their links.
I don't think it's likely that I'll repeate the success of half my income from one page. But I think it's reasonable that I can get a tenth of my income from ten pages, and that I can get those written, or commission them in a year.
I'm very interested to hear what other income streams are available that aren't spammy. I really do want to diversiy.
why not make an entire site about the "obliquely related" subject matter of your money making page?
Well, I've been think of that actually, and maybe I will, but I don't have the time to do justice to one. That one page is quite long (70k of very lightweight HTML, almost entirely text) and took me a month to write.
But there's potential there. I think such a site would need to be at a new domain, it just wouldn't make sense at my current one. For one thing, my current domain name wouldn't make sense.
Another thing is that there's already a lot of people doing it. My article got so widely linked because it's in in-depth discussion of a bunch of issues that create significant controversy. I didn't write it to make money at first, but to give the reader a clue, where so many were clueless.
I think that what I do the best at, is writing articles where I give clues to the clueless. Many of my articles are that way.
You gotta be able to knock something out on a long rainy Sunday and then fill in the gaps later.
Get movin!
10 pages in a year!?
Ah, but what pages! Top ten for hundreds of queries, number one for dozens! Signficant referrals for thousands!
My moneymaker has been the top hit for a highly competitive - and profitable - keyword almost continuously since August of 2003, just one month after I posted the rough draft on my site.
Sure, I need to step up the pace if I'm ever to quit my job for adsense, but to me that means spending MORE time writing MORE articles, in just as much depth.
Take that Evelyn Wood course for writers :)
I get emails everyday thanking me for the info on the site.
For years, it was the emails I'd get that would motivate me to write new articles. I had a rough draft of a technical article on my site for months unfinished, but then someone started pestering me about it because he wanted to learn the material.
I told him I didn't have time right now, but he could bug me about it so I couldn't forget. Once a month, like clockwork, I'd get his reminder that he was still waiting, so I eventually finished it, and for a long time it was my most popular article, and still my longest.
I've had a great time exploring and chatting on this board and especially enjoyed reading this thread.
Playing it clean is the most enjoyable way to make money online! Although, with my niche anyway, I don't agree that having ads on your pages discourages linking to your site. All my pages contain Adsense ads. I think it gives all of my pages a uniform, unique look. In my niche, visitors are just glad that I don't have banner ads.
I think visitors actually find the Google ads on my pages helpful. If I have origami instructions posted, for example, and Google ads that offer origami paper for sale... that's just what my visitor needs.
I'm very interested to hear what other income streams are available that aren't spammy. I really do want to diversiy.
You have really nice articles, indeed.
But to think you credibility will be lowered if you put adsense ads on every page...?
I don't think so. Make the ad looking as an ad and you wouldn't have any problems.
Also, I see you at the Google's first position for your main keyword phrase out of 17,500,000 results!
That's a nice achievement, but on the other side the phrase is not extremely popular; below 100 searches a day at Overture.
I would consider some related keyphrases which could shoot your traffic much higher and bring you plenty of other marketing options.
Also, I see you at the Google's first position for your main keyword phrase out of 17,500,000 results!
That's a nice achievement, but on the other side the phrase is not extremely popular; below 100 searches a day at Overture.
I would consider some related keyphrases which could shoot your traffic much higher and bring you plenty of other marketing options.
Ah, but that keyword is the one that has always brought me the most paying clients for my regular business. It's not very often that someone searches for what I offer, but if they do, they're likely to have some money to spend.
Still, I am starting to put my article titles on my homepage, listed as "featured". My homepage is PR6, but the index to my articles is only - well, maybe I shouldn't say "only" PR5. I'm working hard to make it PR6.
It didn't used to get much traffic of it's own, just directly to my articles.
It is keyword-rich: I have detailed descriptions of each of my articles for people looking over the index. Some of my competitors, who may have a lot more articles, only list the titles, and so don't have so many keywords.
I know our adsense and affiliate programs convert well, it sure would be nice to know how much the adsense clicks are making :)
Better to run a clean site...it makes the game more fun!
I am in a much safer boat than other webmasters. If the algo changes on the search engines, I can easily reverse engineer the changes, and reproduce sites to rank good again for limitless keywords.
If I create 500 pages of solid, useful, revenue-generating "evergreen" content in the next year, I'll be 500 pages ahead of where I am this year. If I build another 500 pages in the year after that, I'll be another 500 pages ahead. And if I die or become unable to work, my family will have an asset that can be kept up to date and earning income without me.
If I take your approach, on the other hand, I'm constantly running just to stay in place. I'm betting everything on being able to outsmart the search engines. And if I get run over by a truck, how long will my past work continue to produce income?
As for the risk of an algorithm change, that's always a risk, but it's less of a risk than you might think for an established and reasonably sticky site with good inbound links, repeat visitors, and a presence in more than one search engine.
Still, to each his own. Most of us do what we know how to do best, and I doubt if many of us here are in a position to decide between being a scraper and writing the Great American Novel.
My two cents: If I had the first position on google for an important keyword for my business, I really wouldn't state things on my main page that says something to the effect of: If you link to me from a page with PR6 or greater, then I'll place a link to you on this page.
Couldn't something like this could be considered negatively by Google if an actual human check of the site was made? Isn't this starting to go from white to gray?
I only mention this because you've obviously put in a lot of work, over of a long time, and pride yourself on playing it clean. So why state right on your home page that you're actively dealing PR?
Personally, I wouldn't ever make any explicit mentions of page rank on my site.
I may be totally off about this, but I just don't think it's a good idea.
It can be frustrating when the money coming in is a trickle. For those of you in that boat, don't be afraid to diversify your portfolio... aka create new sites. You might stumble across something that turns out to be a high paying site. That's NOT to say to make a site strictly for AdSense. Make sites that mirror your interests and passions, and you should have a much better chance for success.
With you Spacey, just have to watch folks who copy your articles, upload them to a domain and possibly trigger a duplicate content penalty for your site.
I use the directory site to draw in visitors. In a google search for "craft", out of over 26 million, my site comes up #2. I was #1 for the longest time, dropped down to #3 around December of 2004, now I'm back at #2.
May I ask you exactly what is difference between what you are doing with your directory and any old scraper directories (besides using/not using scraped results)?
Just currious.
BTW - I am not defending scrapers at all.
If I had the first position on google for an important keyword for my business, I really wouldn't state things on my main page that says something to the effect of: If you link to me from a page with PR6 or greater, then I'll place a link to you on this page.Couldn't something like this could be considered negatively by Google if an actual human check of the site was made? Isn't this starting to go from white to gray?
Thanks for the head's up. I had no idea that might be considered inappropriate. I'm learning a lot of valuable things here. I'm really glad I finally joined Webmasterworld.
I put that there after a PR6 site made me the same offer, and lived up to it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It's fixed now.
Only one of those "partner" sites is actually a reciprocal link. The other is a friend's site, who needed a boost because his new domain was PR 0, and he was having trouble getting work. I thought it would be no skin off my nose to lend a helping hand. His homepage is PR5 now.
I'm still going to offer reciprocal links, but it's starting to get to be more work than I can handle to respond to all the requests I'm getting. I'm going to add some Terms of Service to my reciprocal links page, to discourage the SEOs. It should make google happy, in the event they ever look at it.
Most of my link partners are small-time operators like me, but every now and then I discover that I've swapped links with a link farm.
I consider my site to be a totally clean "white hat" directory. First, I didn't go around stealing content. And, I've had that site for a long time, since 1999, before I started Adsense and started making money from it. I built it as a legit resource for visitors. It's considered one of the largest and most established arts and crafts directories on the Internet and well respected.
Legit directory or scraper site, I think there is a big difference.
I myself have a HUGE directory that makes up 1/34 of my content the other 2/3 of my content are articles (got a craft section I need to focus some attention on). I don't scrape results nor do I scrape articles and content. I have been building this thing long before adsense also. But I fight a bitter battle with content scrapers about every day. (You know those who rip off complete articles, design, relpace ads, etc.) Some just down right make me mad. Others I look at them and go oh well.
I hear webmasters complain all the time because of scraper directories in search results and also genuine directories like yours and mine. Webmasters saying that directories are of no value to people and shouldn't rank higher than their green content. Funny thing is that these same webmasters won't hesitate to get a listing in these legit directories that they complain about. I just get tired of hearing it that is all.
I believe our directories ARE of value to visitors. Google and other search engines are trying to rate and produce results for all types of sites in many different industries in which they just cannot get the job done. By us manually reviewing sorting and recommending sites of interest we send visitors to sites that would otherwise be lost and have a better selection.
I hear advertisers complain about scraper directories that don't produce results but not all scrapers are equal just as not all directories are equal. There are some pretty crappy but legit directories that probably produce crappy results for advertisers. Even if I were to scrape results but maintain my format and business sense I don't see why I couldn't make money for the businesses that advertise with adsense. Heck a few affiliates sprinkled around the directory seem to produce huge sales for those companies.
Just some of my thoughts.
Edit: I am talking about scraper directories that scrape SE results. Also I am looking for the difference besides having scraped results.
I can if I wanted put together a scraper that looks and feels just as legit as any old directory out there.
