$100/Day Milestone

what worked, what didn't

[mt1955]

I started working with Adsense on October 19th, 2005. As of yesterday, April 22nd 2007 I finally had my first $100 day. I know there are people here who average more than that but for me it's a milestone and I want to celebrate (Margarita's tonight!) I also wanted to give something back to the webmaster community. I know I haven't posted much here but I have lurked quite a bit and it's been helpful.

What has helped me...

Maintain site maps and keep them up to date

Cultivate visitor loyalty - most of my visitors (usually around 2/3) are people using bookmarks to come back

Make content that people really want to see

When I see a way to do something better than what is currently available, do it.

When I see a way to substantially improve what I already have out there, do it (but sometimes this has backfired)

Keep 4 or 5 new things in the pipeline at all times. The cycle for my content is typically a month or two of slow build-up, then a quick (100 ~ 300%/week) spike, followed by a small decline (~ 10%/week) and then a plateau. The best content I have continues a gentle rise from the plateau. Lesser content tends to have a sharper decline after the peak (20 ~ 30%) followed by stagnation or a gradual decay. Once I had enough new stuff in works I started getting a steady stream of peaks which seem to make the daily revenue more uniform.

What did not really help me...
(I realize the things which did not work out well for me probably do great by some people.)

Link swapping with other websites

Attempting to manipulate search engine results by artificial means.

Using ads to drive traffic to my sites (I turned $50 into a nickel in one day)

Banner ads across the top of a page (thousands of impressions, no clicks)

The Adsense "heat map" - my best results are coming from sites with navigation on the left, content in the middle and single a column of ads on the right of tall pages or a single rectangle in the upper right corner of shorter pages.

Excessive number of ads per page. At first I was putting them everywhere possible but in my case too many ads seemed to be causing a decline in the number of return visitors

Attempting to perform well with "high paying keywords" by covering topics that I am not really passionate about. I just don't care much about asbestos and structured settlements

Parked domains

If all I can do is make something the same as what is currently available, don't bother; my "me too" sites have never run a close second, more like 999th.

About the work...

I typically put in two hours in the morning, two hours in the evening and about 10 ~ 12 hours each weekend.

[ken_b]

mt1955; Congratulations on reaching the milestone. Thanks for posting the notes on what worked and didn't work for you.

[MThiessen]

Well, without being precise, I passed that milestone, and several others, years ago. The BEST advice I can give anyone is DIVERSIFY.

Make *many* sites. ALL quality, no junk, no MFAs, just take your time, think of it as a job, and create *useful* sites that serve a real purpose and fulfill a need on the web.

Diversity is the key. One site loose rank? No big deal, work on it and figure it out, relax, the others take up the slack. NOT diversified? Prepare for sleepless nights ahead, and lots of them if you do this for a living.

Don't just diversify with new sites, also delve into new topics too.

Congrats! The 100 per day is a BIG milestone and makes you feel really good! :)

[Jane_Doe]

Congrats on the big milestone.

[guru5571]

Congrats mt1955! I have a question for you. How did link buiding strategies or other SEO fit in to your success? I realize you touched on LINK SWAPPING and SE manipulation, but is there anything else in these areas?

[Jafo]

Congrats on the milestone. For me, the best advice in your post was about setting a schedule for writing the content. That is the hardest part for me.

[farmboy]

What has helped me...

Maintain site maps and keep them up to date

Cultivate visitor loyalty - most of my visitors (usually around 2/3) are people using bookmarks to come back

Make content that people really want to see

When I see a way to do something better than what is currently available, do it.

When I see a way to substantially improve what I already have out there, do it (but sometimes this has backfired)

Keep 4 or 5 new things in the pipeline at all times...

Congratulations on reaching your goal and on your hard work.

I joined AdSense in its second month of existence, I guess that was July, 2003. I achieved $100/day fairly soon after that. It happened so fast and it seemed so easy, but basically all I did was put the ads on pages that already existed.

Since then, my AdSense income has been like a rollercoaster, up and down. The overall trend has been up, but I have been constantly adding content over those years.

Things I tried and worked one month seemed to be a disaster another month.

My point is, there are so many variables from publisher to publisher that...

1. No one should attempt simply to duplicate what someone else says worked for him/her

and

2. No one, when realizing good results, should think, "I've figured it out, now I'll sit back and watch the money roll in." Unless you implement something that works over a very long period of time, you really can't say for sure, "this worked and that didn't work."

Again, congrats on your goal, but I hope you set aside some of the money for a rainy day. A year from now, you might be at $200 a day and you might be at $20 a day.

FarmBoy

[andrewshim]

Congratulations mt1955!

And everybody... FarmBoy, he talk GOOD sense! Listen, follow and you shall prosper... especially about keeping some aside for a rainy day - Adsense is more fickle than mother nature...

[idolw]

$100/day from AdSense? Wow! That must be big traffic to get it.
Have you ever tried to look at affiliate marketing? Or you already using it, too?

[vivalasvegas]

Congratulations MT1955. This must feel real good.

[bts111]

Well done!

Now aim for $300.00 a day ;)

[oddsod]

Well done. Now work on the things that "did not really help". Some of them are gold mines.

[nickreynolds]

well done - $100 a day is my next goal. You are putting in a lot of hours - about 30 per week - averaging about $23 per hour's work?

[mt1955]

Again, congrats on your goal, but I hope you set aside some of the money for a rainy day. A year from now, you might be at $200 a day and you might be at $20 a day.

Agreed. So far I am putting almost all of it aside but for what I don't know yet. I pay for hosting and a few other things but that's about it.

Congrats mt1955! I have a question for you. How did link buiding strategies or other SEO fit in to your success? I realize you touched on LINK SWAPPING and SE manipulation, but is there anything else in these areas?

Nothing that I have been successful with and I know there must be a jillion other posters here who could advise you better than me. Keeping sitemaps up to date has helped more than anything else I've tried. I don't really get that many inbound links from other sites but I show up in a few blogs and have been 'stumbled upon' a few times. Just about all the e-mails I've receieved about swapping links were from MFA's

well done - $100 a day is my next goal. You are putting in a lot of hours - about 30 per week - averaging about $23 per hour's work?

That's the funniest part of all. Right now I could probably make more on the side doing almost anything else you care to name! But at least this kind of work is fun for me.

[Metaphorically]

It's $23/hour now but it's on your own terms. Hopefully the rate's not always linear - as you keep getting those return visitors along with new ones the $/hour figure could go up.

You seem to hit on a few of the same ideas that I've muddled through, thanks for sharing your experience.

When you say $100/day is that one site that's doing it or do you have several?

[nasika]

151/DŁ¬ my top earning

[hayekl]

mt1955; Congratulations on reaching the milestone.

[mt1955]

When you say $100/day is that one site that's doing it or do you have several?

I have 6 really active sites and about a dozen other domains that have never produced much of anything yet. Over 95% of the income comes from one of them, and another site can be counted on for about 3%

Also, I don't want to give the wrong impression - I am not averaging 100/day - just on the one day I did break over 100. The daily for this month is closer to 80% of that

[buckmajor]

Congrats, I am overwhelmed by the money you guys make on Google AdSense.

I feel so pity now :(, I still dont even know how this Google AdSense work lol?

I really dont have a problem designing/building websites but I dont have any Clients for them to pay me :( and unfortunately Im really low on money too.

So I was suggesting if anyone can please help me out about this Google AdSense thing and maybe I can make a mile too lol?

Much appreciated

CHEERS :)

[sailorjwd]

My method of getting to $100 a day was much easier.

After 10 months I went to $1000 a day and that lasted for 18 months.

Now I'm at $100 per day but it is honest money. I sleep well at night as long as I can find a warm park bench.

[malachite]

I sleep well at night as long as I can find a warm park bench.

Sailorjwd, I hear the benches are quite warm in Florida. ;)

Seriously though, that's one hell of an income nosedive - any clues what caused it?

--

Congrats to the OP on a $100 day, now see if you can maintain it and reach your next milestone. :)

[mattg3]

What got me $480 a day, do nothing what brought me $100, do nothing. What brought me $20, aehm improve the site the speed and so on. I think it's an illusion that we have any control besides actually turning the server on or off.

[mt1955]

I think it's an illusion that we have any control besides actually turning the server on or off.

It may be an illusion but it's certainly a persistent one. :-)

[loner]

"I think it's an illusion that we have any control besides actually turning the server on or off."

Wasn't it Albert Camus who considered that the only decision we have to make of any importance is whether or not to kill ourselves?

[ronburk]

Congratulations!

most of my visitors (usually around 2/3) are people using bookmarks to come back

Such numbers for bookmark usage are invariably grossly incorrect [webmasterworld.com]. I presume some webstats package is making that claim to you?

[vipnetant]

Congratulations!

I am very envy you.

[mike73]

Congratulations, mt1955!

[mt1955]

Such numbers for bookmark usage are invariably grossly incorrect. I presume some webstats package is making that claim to you?

I use Google Analytics and I always understood that visits labled 'direct' represented people using bookmarks. Is that not correct?

[johnblack]

I think 'direct' in google analytics terms includes type-ins, traffic from rss readers and email links as well.

There may be other sources too.

[sabrebIade]

Congratulations mt!
And as an old time NLP modeler, thanks for some of the insight into what you have done.