Can you make good money from AdSense without content?

is it possible?

[foobarquux]

I heard that somebody is doing 'good money' from adsense without having content-full site.

Is it possible? I am tired of writing content myself, but current income is not impressive. What could be those strategies? We all heard about scrapers-site, but i don't think it could make money. But i have no other idea, how to make traffic without content..

[BlackRaven]

could you elaborate on who is this "somebody"?

[qbert]

Why would you want to? I would love to get more earnings, I make mostly less than 50 cents a day. However, I created my site because I love my site, it's mine, it's my hobby, it's my love.

Also, it's against google's tos to create a site with the intention of making money from the ads. The ads should be part of the site...not the purpose of the site.

[PatrickDeese]

I suspect that in most cases having adsense on a page with minimal content would constitute a major violation of the AdSense policies and will likely lead to you being booted from the program.

OTOH there are plenty of ways to legally acquire content that *might* take some creative pressure off you personally - including hiring content writers, using public domain content, etc.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Do not encourage these people.

[jenkers]

are you sure you aren't talking about Adwords? Its possible to make money from adwords without a site or content. If you put adsense ads on a site with no content they'll just boot you.

[Dantol]

yeah right, good earnings without content is same as notebook without a monitor.

Come on... Get real...

[mgpapas]

What exactly is meant with the term content? This may seem like a stupid question but allow me to explain.
I have my adsense ads on all my normal "content" pages meaning those with significant amounts of text but I run a chat system where people can use a link to a java chat room and those are fast becoming my highest view pages.
The only thing on the pages is the chat applet. Would this not be considered content? If not would adding a how to use the applet tutorial below it on the page qualify it as a page containing content.
I'd email google but I'm afraid they may say no out of hand and then even if I added content they might simply cancel my account saying we told you you can't put ads on those pages.

Also if content is defined as text exactly how much content considered enough?

[Sobriquet]

Report this 'Somebody'

[NeedAdsenseHelp]

Um good isdea its people like these who ruin adwords.

[MichaelCrawford]

Don't try to compete with the scrapers. It would be like trying to get ahead running an amateur pr0n site. Instead, try to devise ways you can increase your revenue without increasing your labor.

Rather than trying to target high-paying keywords, try targeting keywords that get a good clickthrough rate, and that are searched-for frequently.

I've been using the Google AdWords Select keyword estimator for this, but that's because I haven't yet discovered how to tell how popular a search is. Can someone tell me?

If you do a search on google and a lot of adwords select ads appear, then that keyword will likely pay reasonably well. Then use the adwords select keyword estimator to see how many clicks an ad on that keyword would get. That will give you an idea of the clickthrough rate.

Everybody and their mother is searching for the twenty-dollar keywords, so all the scam artists are offerring to sell them to you. But if you have lung cancer as a result of asbestos exposure, are you going to select your attorney by searching for "asbestos lawsuit" on google? No, you'd get a referral from a trusted friend. I haven't checked, but I bet the clickthrough rate for that and similar keywords is very low.

I have articles on a wide variety of topics that were mostly written before I signed up for adsense. I have one article that gets hundreds of clicks a day, and other articles that go a whole month without a single click. I have others that get a modest number of clicks.

Now that I'm setting out to write articles that will earn me money, I'm using my experience as a guide in determining new topics. Sadly, the articles I would most like to write are quite unlikely to earn me a penny, because the hard-core geeks they would address either use ad blocking software, or are just careful never to click on an ad.

I mentioned this to one friend, who is rather a rocket scientist, and he said "I have never in my life clicked on a web advertisement. I don't want to encourage them."

I expect I *will* write some articles that don't earn money, because I do know that they will draw inbound links, and thereby contribute to my entire site's pagerank.

[rish]

In my case I have one site where we list widgets with an expiry date. After the expiry date the widget is no longer visible.

With less widgets listed the ads become more prominent and clickthrough rates tend to increase.

So yes, if you can get visitors to a page with little content the ads tend to be clicked more.

It's not a long term strategy though as it will always be quality content that attracts visitors. Hence the reason I keep publishing new widgets.

[arrowman]

I heard that somebody is doing 'good money' from adsense without having content-full site.

Is it possible?

Of course. There are lots of sites that only provide some useful service or that enable users to create their own content.

E.g. Social bookmarking, start your weblog in 5 seconds, forums, free webmaster tools (visitor counter), find your class mates,...

[roadhazard]

Almost every day I see one of these low content sites running Adsense. I know of one that just got booted out of Adsense. That person had ZERO content. Mostly, I have affiliate gifts listings but sometimes I write a help article. I also use free to copy material with a citation to the source each time. My goal is to HELP my visitors with their life problems as well as to help them find nice affordable gifts. I have survived many problems and I try to teach people how to have the courage to survive loss of job, loved one, and more. Not that I am smarter than anyone else, just suffered plenty on the way to semi old age, ha ha.

[fezziwig]

I mentioned this to one friend, who is rather a rocket scientist, and he said "I have never in my life clicked on a web advertisement. I don't want to encourage them."

Can we send the ignorant freeloader a bill for all the free content he's sucked up over the years?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Can we send the ignorant freeloader a bill for all the free content he's sucked up over the years?

I think you may be misreading the situation. The guy is anything but ignorant. He just recognises that fact that advertising adds little to the web. Is he wrong?

(I am an adsense publisher incidentally but we have to be realistic ;)

[MichaelCrawford]

He just recognises that fact that advertising adds little to the web.

On the other hand, he's the sort of guy that would be completely happy to pay for a product, service or information that he recognized to be of value to him.

The reason we must earn our keep by publishing ads is that our visitors have come to expect content for free. But it cannot be that way. Somebody has to pay, even if it's the publisher of a personal homepage who pays to host his hobby.

I have an alternative solution for my rocket scientist friend: I offer affiliate ads for the books I discuss in many of my articles. I'm not sure it is turning out to work so well, but many techie kinds of people are happy to order technical books online.

[fezziwig]

I think you may be misreading the situation. The guy is anything but ignorant. He just recognises that fact that advertising adds little to the web. Is he wrong?

I'm not misreading. He IS ignorant. AND wrong.

Without the ads there is no incentive to provide the content. All the good content flies away.

The best things in life are free
But you can keep them for the birds and bees
Now give me money
That's what I want

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I'm not misreading. He IS ignorant. AND wrong.
Without the ads there is no incentive to provide the content. All the good content flies away.

Now I know you are kidding. Aren't you?

The Internet was born without any advertising, just content that people provided free gratis. Even today most websites do not carry adverts. Many of them may be adverts in that they are providing information about products or services but this is their incentive.

FACT: many of the best content sites on the Internet still do not carry adverts and many of the worst sites on the Internet do. If all peripheral advertising was removed from the Internet tomorrow it would be vastly improved.

I know many other people who "blank" Internet advertising because of it's perceived association with seedy, unscrupulous characters and who can blame them? They are certainly not "ignorant" or "wrong".

[fezziwig]

We all have bills to pay (unless we're still living with mom and dad). I pay my bills by writing content for the Internet. But I don't work for the man. I work for the reader.

[Luddite]

Sadly, the articles I would most like to write are quite unlikely to earn me a penny

I suspect you're right. My experience with programming/tech content is a very poor CTR.
If you don't love it, don't put in the effort IMHO.