Updated Top AdSense Earners list?

[atladsenser]

Years ago, lists of the top-earning AdSense publishers used to get passed around fairly frequently. But today, those numbers are long outdated.

Does anyone know if there's a list from the past year or two? Or even without names, how many publishers are earning $50,000 a year? $100,000 a year? $200,000 a year?

Just curious.

[breeks]

I'm in one of those brackets :) And I'm sure there are quite a few more on this informative web site for publishers.

[avalon37]

I manage a site that did about $1.5 million in Adsense in 2013 and one site that was under $10k. I don't think think you'll find any kind of actual publisher list with accurate earnings.

[ember]

I'm in one of those brackets, too. Adsense still works.

[hannamyluv]

I will say that I am above one of those brackets as well, as a company.

I would say that there has to be several (tens, even hundreds of) thousands who make $100K a year, at least. I know when you are not making this much, it seems like a long shot, but it is not really.

Likely your "top" earners (who will be companies rather than individuals) are making at least a million a year, if not significantly more.

One of the hardest things I had to overcome as an internet professional was how to wrap my head around how massive the internet and its reach is. Once you get your head wrapped around this, you realize $100K is chump change to Google.

[littlecubpanda]

Jealous @ breeks and ember! Good for you guys.

@ hannnamyluv

Yes, it's incredible. Doesn't Google pay out $4 billion a year to publishers? It may be more than that. Internet advertising is the future, it's everything. We're lucky we get a piece of the pie as it is (although we damn well deserve it, if not even more of that pie, since we do all the work, bring in the traffic). Here's to the next ten years being as good as the last with Adsense.

What's also extraordinary is how few people seem to be aware of it -- aware that anyone can make a web site and earn money (if they can bring traffic). Aware of how Adsense works. Aware of how huge the industry is. Which I'm content to keep it that way.

[Swanny007]

I'm not going to tell where I am on your "brackets" but I will say I suspect the real top earners are all in the 7 figures, maybe even per month. It's definitely possible. Out of curiosity I compared my 2013 earnings to 2012 and last year was... amazing :-)

[netmeg]

First rule of fight club is... don't talk about fight club.

(I sure hope there isn't a list - Not saying whether or not I would be eligible to be on it, but I sure would not WANT to be on it. Talk about painting a target on your back...)

[atladsenser]

Sorry guys, maybe that sounded too intrusive. Just wondering if anyone had any idea what the general numbers of publishers were in those categories. Amazon releases some sales figures on their publishers in the Kindle Direct Publishing program, so I was just wondering if any similar numbers had been released for AdSense publishers. I guess only Google knows. ;)

[RedBar]

I was thinking the same netmeg ... not that I could get anywhere near it these days after Google's throat-slitting on January 28th!

[jpch]

I'd love to see a breakdown of how the 2 million publishers rank. Not by name just numbers. I'm guessing quite a few make more than $100K/year but given that they set the email support qualifier at $25/week I'd guess the majority of publishers earn less than $100K year.

[avalon37]

Majority of publishers earn less than $1K per year. From the AdSense conferences I have attended, which are mostly comprised of highly invested/experienced publishers, not a large % of these publishers are making over $100K. The really big publishers are handled by a different division than AdSense - trust me. That's all I'll say.

[ember]

I have learned over the years that when you are doing well financially, the last thing you want to do is brag about it. Then everyone comes gunning for you. None of my friends or family know exactly how well I do or how I do it. Gives me an aura of mystery.

[Swanny007]

None of my friends or family know exactly how well I do or how I do it.

Me too.

[hannamyluv]

not a large % of these publishers

2 million publishers

Not a large percent of 2 million is still relatively a lot of people making over $100K. Plus, once you get over that $100K mark, I think that plenty of publishers go from a one man operation to a multi-person operation (not always, but many). So going to an AdSense conference no longer makes sense. Let's face it, if you are up over $100K, you probably don't need too much help with your AdSense. I personally would not go to a conference on just AdSense. Much more likely to see me spend my money and time on a conference like PubCon or Content Marketing World.

That being said, a different division for the top dogs make sense. They are dealing with advertising on the level of major TV networks or magazines. It's a whole other ball game.

None of my friends or family know exactly how well I do or how I do it.

I wish my husband's family understood how I make my money. Then they would stop worrying/thinking that my husband and I were on the verge of being flat broke because "nobody here works". LOL

Funny story, I did get my side of my family to understand how I make money because I taught my mom how to upload her writing to the Kindle Direct Publishing program. Now she makes more than I do - and most of HER friends refuse to believe that what she does is possible or even real. Now she knows how I felt for all those years.

[avalon37]

I would agree that going to AdSense conferences with the expectation of learning something new is misguided. I go because it is invaluable to keep up with your Google contacts; AdSense, Adwords, etc. Putting a face with a name goes a long way in business - as does maintaining relationships. I can't stress enough the importance on visibility.

[hannamyluv]

I can't stress enough the importance on visibility.

If you are managing sites that pull down $1.5 million, you are no longer in the realm of small business, so yes, it makes wonderful sense to have face-to-face time.

For those of us who have much smaller budgets and have to pick and choose how we spend self-educational dollars, a good, pleasant relationship over the phone with an AdSense contact is the best we can do. ;)

[netmeg]

It would make sense that the really top dogs have different "handlers" - it works that way pretty much everywhere.

[jpch]

I told a few people about my income source before I realized that it was better to just stay quiet. I'd much rather have everyone thinking I don't work...LOL.

[hannamyluv]

before I realized that it was better to just stay quiet

The sad truth of what I have found is that even if you explain in detail how you make your money, most people just won't believe enough to put in the effort. I have probably explained what I do several dozen times to several dozen people - even set some up with websites - with very clear and easy instructions. And yet, to date, my mom is the only person who ever followed/believed what I told them. Kind of cool that it was my mom though.

Point is, that revealing your "secret" is not as much of a problem as you might think. Most people would rather work 40 hours a week for meh pay for their whole life than put up serious effort up front for a few years to get a pretty laid back life for several more beyond that.

It's not a get-rich-quick game, but it is a nice at-least-a-few-years-leisure-if-I-work-hard-for-a-bit game. That is why such a high percent of AdSense publishers make less than $1000. So many people think it is get rich quick game and that approach will not work.

[netmeg]

yea, but on the other hand, I explained once to someone I thought was a good friend, and he turned around created his own site in my niche. It could never outrank mine, but it was the principle of the thing. He thought he could just slap up some one page site with content that wasn't like mine but that targeted the same people, and money would just start rolling in.

[ember]

Point is, that revealing your "secret" is not as much of a problem as you might think. Most people would rather work 40 hours a week for meh pay for their whole life than put up serious effort up front for a few years to get a pretty laid back life for several more beyond that.

Very true. I'm always amazed by the people who just want to scrape by rather than figure out a way to earn more and be their own boss.

On the other hand, as happened to Netmeg, people will steal your idea if they think it's easy to copy. If they think it is hard, they won't bother.

[hannamyluv]

He thought he could just slap up some one page site

people will steal your idea if they think it's easy to copy

I have often said that I am more than happy to share with people I know what I do. Because if they wanted to copy what I do, they would need to put serious money or resources up just to catch up to me.

Netmeg is right in that there is the principle of the thing. It is just rude to copy the person who pointed the way. But, frankly, if you are copying what someone else is doing (especially on an inferior level), you are just doomed to fail and, thus, end up in the same category as the people who don't put any effort in either way.

But there is something to be said for keeping your enemies close. I mean, sure, it is insulting when people try to copy you but if you know who they are, you have a certain advantage. ;)

For me, if you can copy me and do it better than me, than I was not doing my job in the first place. The internet is a dog eat dog world like that these days.

[Play_Bach]

Mum's the word.

[Sally Stitts]

Since no one has offered a guess at the distribution, I thought I might.

Based upon 2 million AdSense publishers and $6 Billion in annual payouts -

Earned-Publishers--Total
$50-------700K-----$ 35M Tier 1
$100------600K-----$ 60M Tier 2
$1,000----500K-----$ 500M Tier 3 (top 25% of publishers)
$10,000---100K-----$ 1,000M Tier 4 (top 5% of publishers)
$100,000---25K-----$ 2,500M Tier 5 (top 1.25% of publishers)
$1 million----1K-----$ 1,000M Tier 6 (top 0.5% of publishers)
$10 million--100----$ 1,000M Tier 7 (top 0.1% of publishers)

OK. Start shooting.
Which figures do you think are WAY off?
Too bad I can't paste tables in here.

Majority of publishers earn less than $1K per year.

This is All PURE SPECULATION, of course. For entertainment purposes only.
Any relationship to physical reality may be purely coincidental. Some guesses are better than others.

[jpch]

Since we're speculating which Tier would make you a Premium Publisher - Tier 6 or 7?

[nomis5]

I'd much rather have everyone thinking I don't work

That's one way to look at it. The other, and it irritates me beyond belief, is that the majority believe that I sit at home all day watching TV and maybe ocassionally type the odd bit of junk in for the website business.

[IanCP]

it irritates me beyond belief, is that the majority believe that I sit at home all day watching TV and maybe occasionally type the odd bit of junk in for the website business

Quoting my dear, long departed Mum - from much earlier days:

"But do they pay your bills for you Son? If not..."

[hannamyluv]

Which figures do you think are WAY off?

I don't think they are way off, but I would weight them a little different. Not by much though.

Tier 7 would be smaller, simply because you get to that big, you bring everything in-house. You have more than enough to hire an inside sales staff and you have enough traffic that other $10M+ companies will pay attention when you call selling advertising. But on the other hand, Google is smart and, in theory, these people are in a different division, so they may have a much more favorable terms than your average AdSense publisher.

Tier 5 & 6, I would push a smidge more into those. Not sure by how much, but I have a feeling it is a little bigger.

And I would change the distribution between 1, 2 & 3 a little more. I mean, really, even with a rinky dink little personal blog, it is not too hard to hit $100 in a year. I would even venture to guess that tier 2 is bigger than tier 1. But it is a little harder to make that leap to $1000, so I would guess that 3 would be smaller.

[hannamyluv]

Oh, I was just thinking about this. You forgot a group. Tier 0... who makes $0. All systems like this have people who sign up but never do anything. How much of that 2 million don't do anything? Or does Google not consider them publishers yet, so they don't get included in the number?