Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I have had clicks from under 10 cents up to about $1.50 so far. My site is new and growing but my traffic is still relatively low.
How do you figure out which keywords are higher paying? Obviously you could click your own ads and watch how much the click was for on adsense but we aren't supposed to do that.
Do you have another way? Am I missing something obvious?
While the higher paying keywords tend to be of a financial nature like "loan consolidation" and the like I find that every once in a while I will get a cpm of something like $3 per click. Now its hard to tell what keyword generated that high-paying click because if I go to the site myself then a different set of ads will show and I won't know what generated the high-paying click.
So do some searching online for some of the sites that say they have a list of high paying keywords.
I suppose if I find high paying keywords that having nothing to do with my niche and I get those ads many of my users won't bother clicking as they have nothing to do with what the hit my site for.
Worth some experimentation.
Thanks!
[edited by: Genolex at 8:36 pm (utc) on Feb. 21, 2008]
Anyone out there have an average of $1.00+?
Personally though, I think it's better to concentrate on adding content than stuffing keywords into existing pages. If you add enough articles, then you're bound to have good keywords in them.
Great to hear your thoughts...thank you!
I would say tim222 is right on the first point, but not necessarily so on the second. Checking the adwords bids is a good start. Making a lot of random content on the hopes that a small percentage will pay well, while your time could be better spent optimizing and adding to those parts which pay better, is a waste of time.
If you're just starting out in Adsense with a pre-existing niche or relatively narrow topic site, start adding to your highest traffic pages first (but get to all of them eventually, you might be surprised which convert the best). Use channels EXTENSIVELY and name them by individual page or at least subject so you can track closely which ones have the best CTR and more importantly highest PPC (CTR can be optimized for on a page, PPC not so much so). Then when the channel data starts to pour in watch for the highest PPCs (you'll have to hand-calculate it because despite my last 3 annual Xmas list requests they still refuse to put it on the reports). Start on these pages first by optimizing if the CTR on these pages is below average for the site and/or expand those sections to add more information and as a result more ad space.
For pages with decent traffic which still just don't add much to your CPM and earnings comsider other related affiliate programs. We had one page lately that was paying <$2/day through G. We switched it to a pay per sale affiliate program and it is now making over $20 day, for that one page.
BTW, based on widely diverse topics on a travel related site, we see page averages anywhere from .03 to $1.10/click consistently. Site average is currently about .24
[edited by: MikeNoLastName at 4:01 am (utc) on Feb. 26, 2008]
That a great idea although I'd have to agree I think my time is better used creating content that trying to figure out a way to make EZ money.
I couldn't agree more.
You'll also want to use some automation tools to help you monitor for theft of that content and maybe devote a little time each week to that task.
Thursday afternoon is usually when I spend a little time ruining the week for a thief or two.
FarmBoy
Making a lot of random content on the hopes that a small percentage will pay well, while your time could be better spent optimizing and adding to those parts which pay better, is a waste of time.
Mike, I suppose I wasn't very clear on that point. I wouldn't suggest that someone write random content. Actually there are scripts that will do that for you, and I don't think those are profitable.
What I meant was, rather than concentrating on carefully writing an article so that it includes a list of high-paying keywords, I write whatever i feel like writing. I concentrate on creating content that makes me happy, without regards to how AdSense will react to it. In other words, "dance like no one else is watching."
Some of my pages make diddly squat, while others make several dollars per day. The point is, I've written enough pages that collectively they add up to a tidy little sum.
Thursday afternoon is usually when I spend a little time ruining the week for a thief or two.
Last year the average was over .20
The year before (2006) I saw .35 on a regular basis.
The year before that .40 and .50 cent clicks were the norm.
The year before that (2004) .70 cent clicks were common. I just didn't have the traffic to capitalize on it.
I'm starting to see a trend here...
Thursday afternoon is usually when I spend a little time ruining the week for a thief or two.
Nothing put me in a worst mood than finding thieves of that sort. You could probably see smoke come out of my ears when I check for those.
But kicking crooks out of the adsense program is sweet.
Why, I think I'll just check on an old nemesis and see how he's trying to monetize his site now. Bwaaahaha. Site is unregistered now and taken over by domainers.
How do I check for thiefs?
Do exact phrase searches on your text. Enclose certain portions of content you own in quotes and google it. That's one way.
I also include little javascripts that phone home when entire pages or sites are swiped. I've had whole websites stolen numerous times. These small scripts (and they can be anything as long as they call something from your server) are usually left in by the thief because they're too stupid to take them out and will tell you exactly where your stolen stuff is being served from.
30 cents global audience
90 cents US/UK/CA/IE/AU/NZ/SG
Surely the amount of traffic you have going to your site is going to effect the click amount, ie if you have 100 impressions a day the chances are most of the ads you see are going to be the higher paying ads for your niche, but if you get say 10,000 impressions a day, you are more likely to get more of the lower paying ads mixed in bringing down the click value.
Surely the amount of traffic you have going to your site is going to effect the click amount, ie if you have 100 impressions a day the chances are most of the ads you see are going to be the higher paying ads for your niche, but if you get say 10,000 impressions a day, you are more likely to get more of the lower paying ads mixed in bringing down the click value.
I haven't noticed a consistent correlation between number of impressions and EPC.
FarmBoy
I'm starting to see a trend here...
Yep, my historic average is different from my average from 2 years ago which is different from my current average which will probably be different again in a few months.
This can drive you crazy if you let it.
FarmBoy
Ha ha... I do mine on Sunday morning's when I'm hung over and feeling mean...
Personally I think we should be discussing this openly here more often.
First, I think there are people who need to be reminded from time to time that it can result in an account being closed - just as the "I've been banned" threads remind people that doing things like clicking on your own ads is a terrible idea.
Second, I think there are AdSense publishers that probably need to take a few minutes to learn what is happening to their content.
FarmBoy
Do exact phrase searches on your text
Better yet, if you have programming skills include a poison pill in all the text you serve humans but leave the text clean for Googlebot, Slurp, Livebot, etc.
I use CSS to embed hidden text several times on the page and it can be something silly like a specific phrase "purple aardvark farts" that doesn't exist in Google's index, or a code like "QQQYYYZZZ-12345678" where you combine a unique code with an encrypted IP address that ties the stolen text back to the IP that scraped it, or it can be BOTH!
I bust so many scrapers this way it's pathetic and my embedded codes actually survive the scraper scrambler scripts that blend text from multiple pages together which make exact phrase matching impossible.
[edited by: incrediBILL at 1:05 am (utc) on Mar. 7, 2008]
