Why did this page about "high paying keyword" only make 7 cents a click?

[caspernova]

i made a page on my website catered toward a VERY HIGH-PAYING KEYWORD, probably the highest on adwords, and then placed an ad there, right smack in the middle. I linked to this page and waited for someone to come and click on it (this took a while), and i only got paid 7 cents.

i am very disappointed. i mean i know google takes a cut of it, but seriously, 99.9%? That's not nice...

[GreenTea]

DavidDeprice, Awesome advice and just what I needed to hear right now. Thanks.

[DavidDeprice]

People have been talking about this for years. Only amateurs create sites specially for AdSense and target them for lead paint, asbestos and other crap. Talk to any person who makes good money from AdSenseand you are likely find out two things - they operate multiple websites and their websites are niche. In fact, there is a simple way to find out if a nich you are targeting is good or not. If you picked the niche correctly, AdSense WILL NOT be your only (and likely not to be major) source of revenue. You'll be able to make money through affiliate sales, drop shippers, referrer fees, etc - depends on the industry.

[caspernova]

I appreciate anyone that has taken the time to post in this thread, i know it can be frusterating some times to have to deal with a newb lie me..

I've been thinking a lot about what sailorjwd said:

ps. I don't buy the thought that the overall theme of your site affects EPC.

can anyone confirm this? if this is true, then my site about widgets could pull a high-paying-keyword ad from a seperate high-paying-keyword page. right?

[woop01]

caspernova, at least a dozen replies have been devoted to the fact that you are focussing on the wrong thing by worrying about 'high paying clicks'. If you aren't going to listen the advice you are being given, why even ask for it?

[mack]

My take on it is adsense does not only judge content on a page by page basis. If one page is miles away from the rest of the sites content then something funky is going on. Google are pretty smart when it comes to detecting things like this.

I also agree that people who bid on the high paying TW's almost definatly won't use the content network. There is just to much at stake. Low-average bidders don't have as much to loose because the false click brigade generaly go after the big bucks. They can offord to loose a few but, 80 bucks a click? thats a lot to throw away.

By keeping it within search they know there is less chance of it being clicked for the wrong reasons.

Mack.

[sailorjwd]

and, I've seen some 'search partners' that are worse than the worst scrapers.

From my limited experience I believe there are at least several 1000 subjects that get multi-dollar epc, and there are 100's that give double digit epc - on the content network.

[sonny]

smart pricing takes care of high paying keywords. if you had an authority site, you might get paid. it would be too easy to set up a page on meso or absestos, obtain a measly 2 clicks a day, "from somewhere", and then retire. Ain't gonna happen!

[caspernova]

Thanks, that helps a lot.

I think i'm going to start my dad's lawfirm's site next week, and get together a whole bunch of articles on the types of cases they handle (mostly employment litigation, which covers a few high-paying-keywords). From my reading of the forums i've gathered a list of things i should remember, namely;

1/ using ONE ad unit only per page, and placing it above the fold and accoring to google's heat map

2/ putting a link unit at the bottom of each page

3/ putting every single ad and link unit on it's own channel and watching them very closely

4/ rotating color schemes and layouts

*5*/ putting a search box on the main page so that i can go to a local library computer every once in a while and search for "asbestos cancer" and not get a measly 7 cents because it's comming from a ligit site ;)

[shafaki]

Google determines what the page is about using its content. In addition, the links present in that page (to where they point, both links that point at other pages in the same site and links that point to external sites).

Google also looks at who is linking to your page. This helps determine the value of your page and what it is about.

Let us suppose that you have a page in your site which is NOT linked to from any other page in this same site of yours, NOR does it have any links to other pages in your site. Practically speacking of course, this page is useless, as no one can navigate to it. But let's say some will be able to reach it bey you telling them it's exact address and through external sites linking to that very page (let's just suppose that, of course in practice this will not happen).

Will Google see that page of yours as belonging to the site and hence determine it follows the same theme just because it is within the same domain? (Let's just suppose Google has indexed that page by spidering it via an external link at another site.) For those who claim Google treats each page separately and it being part of your site will not affect it, okay, follow my next scenario (this time a realistic one):

In real cases, no page stands alone like that, but is linked to from other pages in your site through the navigation system. This very pages also links to other pages in your site also through the navigation system. As Google uses links to your page and links from your page to help determine what you page is about, then we can easily conclude that you page IS affected by the other pages present in your site, and thus is affected by the site as a whole.

[ I've noticed that Google is limiting the number of navigation links in its pages themselves, serves to focus the page more by doing so. Look at that page for instnace and see how brief its navigation system is: [google.com...] ]

[edited by: Woz at 7:01 am (utc) on July 31, 2005]
[edit reason] Formatting [/edit]

[caspernova]

Thank you shafaki, that was probably the most useful post in this entire thread.

Someone clicked on that ad again today. This time it paid $1.26 instead of $0.07. I didn't alter the page in any way; it's still linked to the same, completely unrelated web page that it always was. I bet next time it will pay even more.

[DavidDeprice]

You just don't listen to what others say. So let me recoup briefly what's up. In this very forum you can find AdSense practitioners - not folks who "think" or "believe" - but people who make thousands of dollars, sometimes up to 20 grand every single month from AdSense.
They aren't hiding their identities - simply approach them and ask how they do it - or read previous posts about their success. NOT one of them ever said they were making good money because they built their websites around asbestos litigation.
Here is why it's important - you aren't a practitioner. You are a theoretician (did I spell this correctly?). The theory goes like that - there are keyworks that pay 10, 20, 50, even 80 bucks - so if I build a website that would have 100 pages, each built around separate superexpensive keyword - I'll soon be filthy rich. Well, it's simply not true - based not on theory, but results - logging into your AdSense panel and seeing how much you actually get paid.
I am not going to stop you from doing stupid things because this world just never experienced the shortage of fools (by the way, you don't need to come up with lame excuses like building a website for "Lawyer-Dad", if you want to create a lame site around litigation-based keywords), but here is what I would do first, before wasting precious time.
Semi-amateurs (not AdSense pros) usually bring in 20-30 cents a click, if they picked their niche correctly. Your eCPM should be at least 10 bucks if you start out, 15-20 dollars after your sixth month in AdSense and way over 20 if you are doing this for a living (a good living on one of the Carribean islands). Naturally the numbers will vary drastically from niche to niche. If you run multiple sites it's very unlikely that every site will be a huge homerun, all I am saying is that at least one of your websites should approach these numbers.
Now, if you do all this mumbo-jumbo with superkeywords for one month and your average click worth is above 30 cents and your eCPM is above 20 dollars (and your account is not suspended), do come back and tell us what idiots we all are. But, if this does not happen, I suggest you do the lame thing - not chase cancers and home loans, but rather learn how other people make money with AdSense.
Oh, and another tip, you did not ask for. Most people who make it with AdSense concentrate on traffic, not keywords.

[caspernova]

DavidDeprice.

First i would like to thank you for writing.

Other than that i have some things that you should know.

1/ my dad is in fact a lawyer
2/ he does in fact own his own lawfirm. an obvious sign of me making up bull#*$! to convince you guys i wasn't a get-rich-quick schemer would be to tell you that he handles cases that deal with asbestos and mesothelioma, but this is not the case. he helps people that work in factories and low-paying jobs get their overtime pay(<--- high-paying-keyword).
3/ weather you accept it or not, i am in the position to make a website about lots of legal stuff that could potentially pull high-paying-keywords.
4/ i HAVE been carefully listening to almost everyone's comments concerning my questions.
5/ i have not been listening to those people that say "you're an idiot; it's not going to work".

The whole reason for this research was to, with knowing that i would have to do so soon, figure out exactly the best way of maximizing my profits on this kind of site. Now obviously my original method isn't exactly the way to go, but don't you think you guys could've told me a little bit nicer? i mean, i had to try, didn't i? i'm just trying to figure out the best way to handle this site, instead of messing it up in the beginning and having to start all over again.

[ogletree]

Anybody with a brain turns off content networks for terms like that. One page is not going to make you a fortune. I used to work in the legal area and I'm sure that is what you are talking about and they have all turned that off. Go for things that will pay you $0.50 to $5 a click. The financial sector is the best.

I posted [webmasterworld.com] a thread about this a while back.

You have to realize how old that subject is and how tired we are of hearing everybody that comes by. They think they can put up a site and get rich off of it. Everybody knows about this and I mean evrybody. You will never make money on something when everybody knows about it. You can only amke money when you find out something that few know about. If you found a tree that grew $100 bills and it was talked about on the news do you think you would have any chance of getting much out of it. You just have to realize you have missed the boat for making money on legal terms or at least the big ones that everybody knows about.

Also why in the world would put adsense ads on a lawyer site. If you want to get those cases why would you put up ads for your competiters.

[DavidDeprice]

Ok, Caspernova, do come back in a while and do post your results on creating a website for your father. My father is a doctor, but I have not created a website for him, nor will I (ever). I simply don't know anything about marketing doctors so I don't think that I am the person for this job. However, I would like to know the results of a person creating a website for a lawyer.

Now, about maximizing profits from a website. There are three ways to do that
1. Get more new visitors
2. Get more existing visitors to return and/or view more pages.
3. Get visitors to spend more money.

Getting more new visitors (traffic) is VERY tough, yet that's what most people attempt to do and fail miserably (and remember, majority of people is almost always wrong). I know, I've been down that road. So I suggest options 2 and 3.
Since this is an AdSense forum - here is what I have to say. Google says "Thou shall not create a site for the purpose of displaying AdSense". I have been following this rule, but not because Google said so. Look at it from this angle - you found a niche, like photography, where hundreds of advertisers will pay you 50 cents to 1.50 a click (we are talking max, not the average). What does it mean? It means that if advertisers are paying you that much, than these visitors are worth the money. So obviously you'd be stupid to create a site for AdSense only. Instead, why not create a resource for photographers and make money on software, e-books (tons of specialty e-books for photographers), drop shippers, paid listings, membership fees and AdSense.
The best way to maximize your AdSense profits is to think beyond AdSense. The real asset is the visitors.
So once again, let me repeat myself - do come back in 30 days and report your results and experience, because if you make a lot of money from creating a website for your lawyer dad, I sure would like to know about that. Plenty of lawyers who don't have a website and one does not need to be a relative to create a site for one.

[eyeinthesky]

caspernova, in the final analysis, what you can gather from the pros here is that it ain't easy to earn the big bucks.

If it is so difficult, then why not focus on a few high paying niche affiliate programs instead?. I bet you'll do better.

Say goodbye to the mesothelioma lawyer :)

[DavidDeprice]

And one last thing - the search box is a waste of time - I've never been able to make any decent amount of money with it and most folks I've talked to dumped search box long time ago. That said, you should always get a second opinion, maybe some folks do manage to make money with it.

[caspernova]

thanks

[abbeyvet]

*5*/ putting a search box on the main page so that i can go to a local library computer every once in a while and search for "asbestos cancer" and not get a measly 7 cents because it's comming from a ligit site ;)

If I am interpreting that correctly it seems like you already have a plan for getting traffic to that page. I know you added a smile - but do try to move away from the "fool them" type of thinking to the "add value for them" one, it will profit you in the end.

[aeiouy]

Then how do i pull high-paying ads?

[edited response that is not as amusing as the thread turned in a positive direction]

[etechsupport]

Google actually doing very little in ad rotation, suppose if a certain ad is highly targeted to the content of your site, it might be shown several time. Secondly when you attract a large number of return visitors, or generating a high number of page views per visitor, you may experience decline in click through rates on the ads over time.

Actually Google targets the ads based on your site’s content, not your visitor’s desires.

[blue_eagle]

I think the reason is Google realizes that you create a page/site just to make more money and they punish you. Before you think about money think about content and LOVE it. That is the secret

[internetguy]

David Deprice,

Great posts! I especially like the one about being a "practitioner" vs. a "theoretician". :) Another good term to use is being an "Adsense experimentalist". After all what we do is experiment with Adsense to see which sites pull in the most income.

For those of you just starting out... go back and read David's posts.

[etechsupport]

Overall it's really fact that google loves the "contents".