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Many adsense publishers may be unfamiliar with business management, having come from an employed situation where they focused on one function only (eg: web design) and had a regular paycheque income.
What do you think are the most important business practices that Adsense publishers should use?
What do you think are the most important business practices that Adsense publishers should use?
The answer depends on what kind of business you're running. For example, if your business is built around AdSense, your approach is likely to be much different than the approach of a content publisher for whom AdSense is merely one of several advertising and revenue streams.
What do you think are the most important business practices that Adsense publishers should use?
Remembering to get out of bed.
Most of those formalized methodologies are designed to facilitate thought and communication across a large organization. Not that the functions don't still exist in a very small business, but I personally don't put something like "risk management" in a separate box from everything else.
The only thing I would call a "business practice" I would recommend is to do what I think is called modelling: do as complete a survey as possible of your field and take advantage of the lessons learned: borrow the best ideas where appropriate and avoid the worst ones. Then make sure your site is better than ALL of them at what it does.
This business is unusual in that one *can* 'stay in bed'. But this runs the risk that, one day, one's income might substantially disappear, or income isn't maximised.
Key areas, it seems to me, are:
- understanding how the market operates
- anticipating the future
- building multiple revenue streams
- building quality sites
In all other business areas, poorly-run businesses lose out, in the end. Why shouldn't the same eventually apply in Adsense publishing?
I visited October 2004 the first time a fair with the main intention to wirte about it. Not one page created at this.
My next fair was Jannuary 2005. A small 6 page article was the result.
Now I work up to much higher efficiency. You can not visit a fair 3 days, traveling 1000 km, only to write an small article with $10 AdSense revenues per month.
When I calculate at last 20 Cent per km and 50.-EUR per day, there are 350.-EUR expenses. This expenses should be covered in less than one year to have a good growing business.
There will be 2006 an international fair in China about the main theme of my main site. If I feel my self good enough to write about this fair enough interesting pages to cover the travel expenses in less than one year, I will do it.
My best ever 3 days reportage journey in June shows up with $162 in my September AdSense statistic.
An other 3 days reportage journey in June shows up with only $32.
By that, I mean create content that is original, useful, and will ultimately attract advertisers directly to your site. Sure, it will take time, but at least Adsense pays the hosting bills (and then some) until that day comes.
I cringe when I see the made-for-Adsense sites that steal headlines (and occasionally content) from other sites, knowing full well they probably make a lot more money than I do. Those sites will be gone in a flash when (one day) Google realizes how detrimental they are to the principles the company was founded on and to their own long-term business. Sites that have good content will stay on and can build multiple revenue streams.
Idealistic? Maybe. But thinking long-term has certainly worked for me with advertisers happy to purchase space on my sites.
- anticipating the future
I believe that in future people will eat more insects, so I registerd a domain about bugs :-)
You need a clear strategy of WHAT you want to reach and HOW you want to reach it.
For example, I have setup a project to increase my Adsense revenue with a clear goal (in USD/month). I have evaluated how to get there (i.e. defined my strategy), and I am pretty sure it will work. My only limit right now is time - as silly as it sounds. I have a day job that earns me real money, so I simply can not implement my plan now (only in small steps).
Efficiency
Earn money the most efficient way possible. Be realistic what you can do, and be honest about it to yourself. If you can earn 20 times as much with a day-job as you can earn with Adsense, then start running Adsense as a hobby, and see how far you get. Don't get fooled by the glitzy world of e-commerce without a "safety net".
Once you've got a system down (and this can take months), try to eliminate as many outside disctractions as you can, and work on those aspects of your business that earn you money. I believe that if you could point to one thing that's the biggest detriment to earnings for publishers, it's that we spend time doing things that aren't going to make us money. Yes, I would include spending too much time here, but then there is a payoff here if you pay attention and learn from others and actually implement the good stuff.
I try to narrow the focus to two money-making areas: adding new content and getting more inbound links. The only other thing for me, as a multiple site kind of guy, is researching the next site in the pipeline.
You CAN NOT forecast your revenues with AdSense. Traffic varies from month to month and AdSense uses a blind payout, so you have no idea how much you'll earn.
Isn't that true, to some degree, with almost every business? With the exception of a few industries, such as utilities, one doesn't know how consumers are going to spend or behave.
For example:
- in the UK news yesterday Boots reported "difficult trading conditions" and they are trying to sell off some of their operations to make up for the loss of revenue;
- in the US news, Hurricane Katrina is reported to have dented consumer spending;
- in our own business, despite Adsense's ups and downs, it is providing a relatively-more-consistent income than our other revenue streams.
If you compare Adsense revenue with a fixed salary, then it is unpredictable. But if you compare it with other types of business income, then the fluctuations can be quite normal.
If you compare Adsense revenue with a fixed salary, then it is unpredictable. But if you compare it with other types of business income, then the fluctuations can be quite normal.
Also, if you have a reasonably diverse site of decent size, you shouldn't see a great deal of fluctuation because you'll be running ads for hundreds (or even thousands) of keywords and keyphrases. As a bonus, you'll see more consistency in your search referrals and traffic.
This raises a related question about strategy... Is it better, from the adsense perspective, to have one mega-site that expands into loosely-related keywords/phrases, or have lots of smaller sites each focused on a niche.
We already have one main site, and a few other far less successful ones. We are wondering where it is best to focus our efforts. It seems to be a trade-off between stability through diversity vs exploiting our main asset.
Adsense publishing is a business
I think the first fallacy is the concept of "AdSense publishing" as publishing is your business and AdSense is just a way to monetize your business via "Ads by Goooooooogle".
Break out of being dependent on a single source of income, DIVERSIFY, or one morning you'll wake up and your earnings will have bottomed and you'll be shell shocked with no backup plan.
Is it better, from the adsense perspective, to have one mega-site that expands into loosely-related keywords/phrases, or have lots of smaller sites each focused on a niche.
This is a debate that has been hashed out here on this forum many times. I see pros and cons to both models. I've opted for the multiple site strategy, but as EFV will attest, good results are sustainable with one big interesting site as well.
I think the determining factor should be an honest assessment of your own personality and interests. I know myself well enough to know that I'd go nuts if I only had one site with one theme on which to spend all my working hours. I have many interests and a shorter attention span. I kind of look forward every month to spending a few days writing about dog stuff, a few on air guns, a few on fishing, etc. This may or may not be you, and I think it's crucially important to figure that out before you choose a path. After all, it takes supreme will power to stick with it when you really don't like what you do.
I've opted for the multiple site strategy, but as EFV will attest, good results are sustainable with one big interesting site as well.
I think EFV's site is very much like my main site, it's single topic with a very broad brush that is an authoritative site and accordingly ranks well across the board.
However, I have other sites that are very narrowly marketed niche sites.
I'm just not a fan of mixing topics under a single domain, If the site is about widgets stick with widgets and don't throw medical or dating advice into the site or tell people where to get a good burrito. Makes the site look like a train wreck not to mention those topics don't tend to be what your core authority links are all about.
BTW EFV - empty your sticky mail, it's full again! LOL
I think that is a fair point. Perhaps the thread should have been entitled "Online publishing is a business...".
Whether Adsense is *just* a way to monetise the business is an interesting question. Arguably, Google Adsense, as the advertising broker, is actually a principal *customer* (along with advertisers and readers). If so, this has various implications.
Swebbie wrote:
>it takes supreme will power to stick with it when you really don't like what you do
You make some good points and give some good advice. Though, my situation is actually the opposite to your final comment (quoted above): the online publishing (and writing for the one mega-site) is something I enjoy, and seems to offer a sufficient income to be the day job. If I'm going to put most of my eggs in this business basket, therefore, the critical factor is making sure the basket is well managed.
I have only one site, but it could easily be divided into 25 or so.
Multiple sites would allow for a variety of presentation styles and depth of detail on each site.
That's something I've found a bit constraining with only one site.
On the other hand, a single fairly large site makes long tail seo pretty easy just because of the number of pages.
Pros and cons either way I suppose.
Doing both is always a possiblity.
In all other business areas, poorly-run businesses lose out, in the end. Why shouldn't the same eventually apply in Adsense publishing?
I really do not think this sort of logic applies at all to the kind of very small business we are talking about. Technical competence, creativity, perseverence and even luck are much more important elements than management skills. You could just as easily argue that being a novelist is a business, and therefore novelists should brush up on their Quality Assurance skills.
I do agree that superior management confers some benefit in larger organizations, but even there IMO this is largely circular reasoning: company X built itself up into a billion-dollar empire; therefore it's a well-run business.
I think the first fallacy is the concept of "AdSense publishing" as publishing is your business and AdSense is just a way to monetize your business via "Ads by Goooooooogle".
Publishing is my business, and AdSense is just one of several ways that I earn money from my editorial content. That's certainly a viable business model, whether you're a multinational publishing conglomerate or a mom-and-pop publisher.
(I wouldn't claim it's the best business model for everyone, though. The best business model is probably the one that works with your experience and skills.)
What are the 'other ways'? I don't mean to pry into your business. Rather, we are looking at making publishing the cornerstone of our business, mainly on the back of a 10-yr old site with nearly a year of consistent and growing Adsense income (allowing for seasonal changes).
So, my question is what are the alternatives that you think are viable, complementary sources for generating income in a primarily-online publishing business model?
What do you think are the most important business practices that Adsense publishers should use?
Staying focused. If, like us, your web site is a business which relies upon advertising (Adsense or otherwise) for revenue, then that revenue is the primary focus. Don't become side tracked by "W3C" compliance, page rank, or even readership figures. Stay focused on revenue. Though this may mean being concerned about W3C compliance, page rank or readership figures.
Matt
what are the alternatives that you think are viable, complementary sources for generating income in a primarily-online publishing business model?
E-books. E-books can in many ways provide an "offline" version of a web site, not suitable for all web sites, but for reference sites they do.
There are now many small pocket sized computer platforms taking e-books, and these e-books can be sold to the users.
Matt
You know, E-books seem like a perfect fit for the site I am almost ready to launch. It would make an excellent ref site and the ebook idea is great.
Thanks for the suggestion. Of course that is only one way to monitize and I already have several other ideas in the works for it but will keep that idea for sure. ;)
Ann
P.S.
That makes five ways so far. I think I finally got a money making idea with this new website.:)
Five? I must have missed something, what are the five? Or are you just teasing us? :-)
(By the way, my wife's name is Ann - you're not her leading a secret double life, are you? :-))
What are the 'other ways'?
1) Affiliate links (which bring in more revenue than AdSense does in a typical month).
2) Banner ads that are related to my topic (which I added to my site a month ago, and which are sold by an ad network in my sector that works like a rep firm).
In other words, I'm using essentially the same revenue model that corporate-owned media sites do; the only difference is that I exercise mors self-restraint when deciding how much space gets devoted to ads. :-)
In terms of other ways than adsense to earn $$$ the only other thing I have found to be successful is Amazon books. Many people don't have good luck with Amazon but do well with other affiliates. So it all depends on the topic.
