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Feb 13 2009
Make Money with Adsense
Hi Folks, this will be brief - a short welcome message to introduce mself. I have been making a considerable income online for several years now and have done so with the most unlikely of monetization models. Adsense.
Yes - I know - Adsense only makes you pennies. True - most people who drop Adsense onto their blogs don’t make more than a few cents a day - if that. The reason is simple enough - they don’t know what they are doing. I do.
Btw - let’s get something cleared up right from the start - I’m not selling anything - no ebook or miracle software that will make you rich beyond dreams. No - I provide free information on my blogs and will continue to do so here.
If you want to check out my bonafides you can read my two flagship blogs to get an idea of who I am and what I do online. Both sites are quite profitable and moderately well read - I have a lot of friends and subscribers.
Make Money Online for Beginners and Make Money Online with Griz
I intend to discuss the fine art of SEO and Adsense in some detail on this site and invite you to drop in and learn from someone who does make a living with Google’s Adsense.
Cheers,
Griz
Thank you. I’m looking forward to hearing about this as I’m considering opening up a new humorous blog and getting some revenue off of it.
Thank you for this site. I have learned a lot from you so far and your emails are the ones I get excited about when I see a new one in my box. I am trying to absorb everything you say and I really appreciate that you provide this info for free. You are one of very few who give valuable REAL information. Thanks again.
Thanks manyhats, Sunshine, Tamarin, Family Info and Joseph!
I’m behind in the comments already (imagine that! lol) but wanted you all to know I appreciate your support and I hope you all find this useful.
Thanks again!
Nice to see/ read you here, I am “all ear” SY
Hey John,
If you don’t mind, Im going to take a crack at it. If you haven’t read Griz blogger blog http://makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/ you should check it out.
One thing he talks about is ad placement and site design.
You have your adsense in the top of the site. If you notice on griz blog, his adsense is more or less in the top left, right where your eye would naturall fall, and your pointer would be if you clicked on a search result in google.
You might want to play with the format of the site structure and ad placement so it is similar.
Also, ask yourself if you have answered any of the questions or needs of the searcher with your site. If so, then they won’t click the ad.
You want to leave the searcher with un answered questions, or you want to have them want to click out as soon as possible.
Check your stats to see how long the searchers visit. If more than 5 seconds, you have readers. You want clickers.
The site I think would qualify as “ugly” for our terms
so I would guess you need to work that ad placement, and link color.
BTW-PR6…how long did that take? My recommendation is to give everyone here with a music related site a keyword anchored link!
YOu’d be our favorite in no time!
John,
As a really bad guitar player myself I went to the site - saw a choice between “Classical or Flamenco” (what no Electric!!! lol) and clicked “Classical”.
Then I had three choices - I chose “Classical Guitar Beginners”
Then I chose “Videos”
There are no Adsense ads on the Videos page - are you blocking them from non search traffic?
The only place I saw ads was on the second page where I selected “Classical Guitar Beginners”
and only after I went back to look. They were there the first time but I didn’t notice them as your site is focused on funneling people to your inner pages. This is a great site for people looking for Guitar instructions - it is a lousy site for getting people to click Adsense ads.
You answer all my questions and leave me on a page with what I am looking for - the videos in my case.
Why would I ever click an ad - or even notice them.
Try this.
Put all your navigation links up where the ads are and put all the Adsense ads where your navigation is - use the big fat rectangle like I use. It will be smack dab in the center of the page. People will see the ads and not notice your navigation links. It will look ugly as hell and you won’t succeed in helping your visitor out a bit. They will click or leave.
Your problem is a simple one - it is a legit site that solves the searchers problems. This isn’t bad as you have accomplished your task but unfortunately your task was providing a really good site for people who want to learn guitar. This isn’t good for Adsense though.
Don’t give them what they want.
John,
“And heck, isn’t that what YOU are doing? Providing killer information and, at the same time, connecting your visitors with Adsense advertisers? Looks that way to me!”
I am but Adsense works because I use “ugly” and I have a lot more search traffic than readers.
Your problem is that your site isn’t ugly and you won’t want to make it that way for the sake of money. If you moved the ads like I suggested it would be ugly and still legit - nothing has really changed but the layout. The info is still the same.
I was simply trying to point out a common problem with a lot of people who have nice looking legit sites that they are proud of - they don’t want to make it ugly. This isn’t a criticism at all - I don’t blame you. I’m just pointing out why Adsense isn’t working on it like it could. If I were you I would have several other “ugly” sites built for Adsense and then use your flagship to rank them and funnel traffic to them.
Nothing wrong with you holding down more than one spot in the serp’s.
John,
Set up a new Guitar site on a different platform, optimize it for Adsense and then link to it from the flagship - you will be surprised how much clout the flagship has. With that link and a few others you should be able to get the new site ranked quite high rather quickly. Good luck.
Goodness your site is older than Google itself!
DianeS
After a year I’m making 4 - 5$ a month (about 0.12/hr) ready for a new angle, and a raise. Thanks for the site! I’m listening.
Thanks for letting me know about your site in the forums. I’m going to start here and work my way to your newest stuff. I also wanted to thank you for announcing that you will not be using this blog to sell items or ebooks. Too many times I’ve came across blogs that do that. This is definitely refreshing. Okay off to reading.
Hey man.
I’ve been obsessed with your blogs for days now and have started my own. Im gonna start up a flagship soon. But for now im just practicing making useless blogs related to my flagships main content. Im excited to see where you’ll take us next.
Cheers!
Hi Griz,
Fellow Canuck here just north of Toronto.
I’m new here as well, I have to admit I have one Site Build It that I use for my main business which serves it’s purpose but I knew there must be a better way and I believe I’ve found it with your great information.
Like others I’ve been reading loads of your posts and will continue to do so, I have quite a few questions and I hope some of your more experienced readers can help me out with them in the future.
Trying to digest it all for now, thanks for the information!
Best Regards,
John Clifford