Adsense earnings proportionate to visitors

Acceptable earnings for traffic

[Mattze]

Hello,

I've been using adsense for some time now and I've been earning around 50c - $1.50 a day for a few weeks now. I generally get between 10 - 15 clicks per day from around 200 - 300 unique daily visitors generating about 2,500 page views a day.

The site focuses on gaming and although I'm not out to make millions it would be nice to get a little something back for my hard work.

I've found a million guides on making money through adsense but all I want to know is that I'm getting a good return for the number of visitors my site is getting.

The site itself is a gaming site, something I run as a hobby above all else, and it is still in early days, however, I hope to dedicate alot more time to it in the coming weeks.

The site is mainly a resource for articles, files, news, and media.

Would anyone be able to tell me whether what I am earning is above or below par? Also my ad uni isn't particularly well placed and I am aware of that but I want to keep the emphasis on the content just at the minute!

Thanks for reading!

Matt.

[StoutFiles]

That sounds about right...gaming is a over saturated niche, so the ads for that topic aren't going to pay all that well. Still, I have a site that makes 3 figures some days with all gaming ads so if you get enough traffic, you can make money off of any topic.

[edited by: StoutFiles at 5:06 pm (utc) on Aug. 7, 2008]

[netmeg]

If you can find a way to attract people who are actually looking to *buy* things (equipment, software, whatever) you will probably do better.

[Mattze]

Thank you both for your replies.

@netmeg - How would I target users wanting to buy something? I have seen sites that advertise selected Amazon products. Is it worth it, and if so, how do you go about setting that up?

[himalayaswater]

No one is going to handover you their secrets and best working affiliates. I suggest keep experimenting with various programs, ad size, color and so on untie you find sweet sport.

Good luck!

[netmeg]

I'm not in the gaming market, so I don't mind answering the question.

When you started your site, was it because you had an interest in the topic, or because you just thought it would be a popular (or lucrative) niche to get into?

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you got into it because you liked it, and have some experience with it.

So you can start out by writing reviews about your favorite (and least favorite) products, and solicit comments and/or reviews from your existing users. Sure, there's tons of sites out there reviewing games, hardware, software, accessories, but none of them will have your particular viewpoints or experiences. Did you ever buy something and just love it? Decide it was a piece of crap? Do something unusual with it? Put it n the microwave to see what happens? Do you have a wishlist of hardware, software or games that you would like to have, or that you wish someone would invent? Your users probably do too. Why shouldn't they be looking for that stuff on your site, since they're apparently already there?

It sounds like you already have a good start on traffic, so put yourself in the mindset of someone who has a thousand bucks to spend on gaming - what would he be looking for in terms of content and in terms of products - and add some pages along those lines. If you can't do it yourself, get some of your friends to help you and split the proceeds.