Forum Moderators: martinibuster
If I were to start from scratch and buy a domain, write content, etc, how long should it take to gain sufficient visibility to start generating traffic and clicks on a brand new site?
I know this is a bit of a 'how long's a piece of string' question but some educated comments (of a positive nature!) would be interesting.
Cheers folks.
I saw that you asked another question about a blog. The new site I am referring to could easily have been done in a blog format but I opted for a regular website layout. It's related to a long time hobby of mine and I update it often with whatever I'm currently working on related to the hobby. I do post a log of the lastest additions but I wouldn't call it a blog format, just a list of recent updates to the site. Visitors can also opt to receive the info via email.
My 2 yr old site has had Adsense on it for 3 weeks but it only had 2 pages of content. From those two pages it's gone from zero to around $10/day for the last week.
This morning I placed 100 pages of rich content on there. It came from an ebook that I wrote (20,000+ words) & I've made the decision to capitalise on the rich content as opposed to going with my original plan to sell it.
It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for the site to see more traffic and adsense clicks as a result.
I use a rule of thumb of about six months before any real results begin to show. Here's just one example out of multiple sites I run. I launched the site Aug. 2006. For the first three weeks, Google loved it, and there was traffic and Adsense earnings. Then it tanked, which is typical. I continued, from time to time, to work on content and back links, directory submission, article submission, etc.
Over the last ten days, the site has begun to rank again on Google - within the top 20 for many keyword combos. Yesterday, it earned $3.28 on Adsense and, over the last 10 days has averaged $1.64/day. Its not a junk site, not an MFA. It will have legs. Incidentally, I was offered $600 for the domain name for that one before I developed it. I countered with $1,200 to no avail. So, I decided to develop it. I'll probably get more than $1,200 over time.
Now, that may not sound like much. But, consider this. The average for 10 days, if maintained, will yeild $568 annually. And over three years will come to $1,764. I've probably spent around 10 hours on the site. That's a good return. Replicate this 100 times over, around eight to 10 months of full time work, and, using the numbers I've cited, it comes to $56,800 annually.
Obviously, I'm making a lot of assumptions. But, you can see what it takes to generate a profit. Now, if you could average $10.00/day per site, you're beginning to talk about some real profits.
That takes time.
[edited by: Go60Guy at 4:56 pm (utc) on Feb. 7, 2007]
I've probably spent around 10 hours on the site.
Only 10 hours? I just figured out that I've spent about 1,575 hours on my new site(2 1/2 hours a day I'd say average) to make a little over $13,000. That's less than $10 an hour. At the offline business I was running before I discovered Adsense I made over $30.00 an hour. On the other hand I have another site(online since 1999-I started it for fun not profit) that I pay people to run now and spend almost no time on it but profit about $3500 a month from it(around 5K adsense income and around $1500 to pay my help). I also have several other sites besides the 2 I mentioned bringing my monthly check up to around 10K a month. I'm not trying to brag, just letting people know what is possible. I'm just a regular person with no formal education but I work hard at whatever I do and make web sites about things that I am passionate about.
But once the investment is made, a site can become an automatic money generator well worth the cost.
This couldn't be more true. Whether it be an investment of time or a monetary investment. The reason why I am not concentrating on my oldest site right now is because it needs constant maintenance by an actual human otherwise the model would not work. I am now concentrating on "static" information. Things that would be helpful to a person today, next year, 20 or 50... 100 years from now. Even if it just to see how things were done in the olden days.
I just figured out that I've spent about 1,575 hours on my new site(2 1/2 hours a day I'd say average) to make a little over $13,000. That's less than $10 an hour. At the offline business I was running before I discovered Adsense I made over $30.00 an hour.
[edited by: LifeinAsia at 7:29 pm (utc) on Feb. 7, 2007]
AdSense, however, is like the Energizer bunny
Love it. How about the Energizer Bunny on steroids? A word to the wise, batteries do eventually wear out. All your sites require a little maintenance from time to time to fight energy depletion.
New site from new is more tricky is you don't already have successful sites to point traffic from. I started from scratch in 2002, and still haven't made $40 per day. Takes a whole lot of time and effort to start totally from scratch, and the barriers to entry are increasing all the time. Maybe some people will have good ideas for new websites, but most won't.
The newbie question "how do I make a living by putting in no work at all for about a week and then sitting back" has no place on the adsense forum.
I might be wrong. If I am then I'd probably appreciate some pointers myself.
Takes a whole lot of time and effort to start totally from scratch, and the barriers to entry are increasing all the time. Maybe some people will have good ideas for new websites, but most won't.
I happen not to believe that there are difficult entry barriers. It all boils down to taking the right steps to get your site noticed. You don't have to have a long established, ranking site from which to link, although it won't hurt. Whatever difficulty comes is from the fact, that for the vast majority of new sites it takes time for them to begin producing, again, assuming you've done the work.
i notice you're an engineer, how many sites do you have, and are all your sites in the same niche
centime - my sites are mostly transport related and I don't have many - they are a hobby for me. A hobby I'm hoping will pay my living expenses by the end of the year.
