Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Does anyone feel this basic theory can apply with content sites? In other words... Say I have a few sites that make about $100 a month off about 25k impressions a month. That's about 2000-5000 visits a month per site. Obviously not big numbers. But is there a time to quit, or does the old saying above apply? If you can make that much, would you typically be able to make more, with more content and more effort? Or is there a sign you should look for where you should just say: this isn't worth the effort?
I find myself asking this question more than once, "but" then comes into the picture.
What if yahoo had bought the code from the Google boys, I am sure at some point they asked the same question.
It is frustrating but there are some folks that give up easier than others.
Some give up and it is just around the corner.
Your question is a really tough one to give an answer as each person is different.
Is the business making money or is it showing a positive growth. usually a business takes about 1-2 years to begin making money some faster than others.
If you are not making any progress but just getting burned out and in your gut you have done everthing possible to keep it up you will know the signs it is time to walk.
as we have added more content and more websites, our income has continued to climb.
So you're the one taking it all? :-))
In our 4+ years AdSense experience, CTR has fallen, eCPM has fallen and real earnings are considerably down to approximately 33% even though we have added many extra unique content pages.
No matter what we have done we get spanked in the face and slid down the ladder again and again.
The program has had its day insofar as we are concerned therefore we are now creating our own advertsing programme for our global niche trade advertisers and will be launched soon.
The one thing we shall be doing is giving advertisers fixed-price ads so that they know precisely how much they will be spending with us per month.
Site #1, the ads were targeted all wrong, and it was impossible to correct them. Not impossible for me, but impossible for Adsense. I was frustated because the traffic on the site was excellent, but not fantastic enough to make great money with cpm. Had I got the target ads that were applicable to the content, I could have made a fortune.
Then, one day a potential advertiser contacted me, a major player in the industry. When others saw that company on the site, they wanted to be on the site as well, and some serious five figure income was born.
Site #2, the ads are targeted right, but it is a site where visitors come to learn, so they don't click much. I have cpm on the site, so when traffic peaks during times I have news the world wants to read, cpm is very nice. The rest of the time it is meager, but contributes to the bigger picture of my portfolio. I keep adding to that site, because more pages mean more page views, and my average visitor there reads a couple dozen pages.
Both sites I thought Adsense would be tremendous on, but they failed miserably. I didn't give up, just looked to find other ways to get revenue to flow.
Still, I have other sites, some on the web long before Adsense, that couldn't support a blue bird and two chicks with cpm, but with in-house and Adsense they run 4 figures a month.
If you are going to give up easily because Adsense doesn't rock your world, maybe you are not cut out for this business.
p/g
At the same time the quality and visits to our site have tripled.
My guess is that Google has a target site size and when a site grows past a certain point Google reduces the revenue share per click.
In addition I feel that Google can make more money from more sites than really working with the quality sites. Ever notice that when sites get larger and learn more they usually leave Adsense?
best of breed ... instead of spreading yourself thin
I strongly agree with EFV on this.
Don't just plod away on the content creation treadmill for the sake of spewing out more pages. Focus on quality, not quantity. It's not enough to be "unique", it has to be GOOD.
Along with content development, be sure you're investing regular, systematic efforts to promote what you've already got. Especially, look for ways to promote your site that will reduce your dependence on the search engines.
Very concentrate niche sites
Tis worrying because of the winds off change, might come an blow dat niche away :)
I've slowed down due to full time job, so now I have about 70$ a year in domain names + free hosting (covered by another business) So I take my $200 month for 0 hours labor and call it happy. quiting for me, even though i can't live off of it, would be giving up $200 / month of free money (it's paid off my labor by now, and I know, not totally free...)
1) If you are spending more than 40 hours per week on your sites, and earning less than $1.00 per hour.
2) You quit your day job thinking you can make it rich with AdSense, and had to go on welfare.
3) When spending all of your spare time on the Internet making next to nothing instead of spending time with the family.
Keep creating quality content. You have to see it not as months but as future.. know what I'm saying? It's an investment that doesn't go away, and usually grows if you are actively working on it. I mean google slaps you around some, things happen, big ups... big downs... but in the end you are getting paid... not so many (what like 5?) years ago we all did this for FUN.
agree. Remember Forest Gump (I think it was) who said " The chances of you winning the lottery are higher IF you buy one?". Every page I create has the potential to make money. If I don't create content, then I stop creating new streams of revenue. Over the 3 years that I've been with Adsense, some of my pages have made the equivalent of up to 3 months my last drawn salary. Put all those pennies together and you get a big mountain.
One thing you might try is building one or two "best of breed" sites in a niche instead of spreading yourself thin with a bunch of small sites. As the Web becomes bigger and more commercial, it becomes harder for really small sites to rise above the background noise.
I always say this : It's easy for specialists to build authority niche sites, but for the little guys who are just ordinary joes, the might have no other option but to build a network of small sites.
When to call it quits?
1) If you are spending more than 40 hours per week on your sites, and earning less than $1.00 per hour.2) You quit your day job thinking you can make it rich with AdSense, and had to go on welfare.
3) When spending all of your spare time on the Internet making next to nothing instead of spending time with the family.
excellently said...
Lovejoy
The chances of you winning the lottery are higher IF you buy one?
But if you don't spend that pound a week on a ticket, you win being a pound better off than the guy who most likely loses, guaranteed.
vince, vince, vince... if you win... you're a million pounds better off yes? I look at it as an "investment" ;)
anyways... that one pound might just end up in smokes or a beer glass just as easy as it could in the bank...
Is Adsense making the weather in KL any more tolerable?
