Case Study - Follow me as I build another AdSense site

Did you order them from you SEO guy? Would you recommend manual link building on relevant blogs for a start up site like this one?

Are you talking about blog commenting? That will help a little, but blog commenting is something that can easily be automated and therefore isn't worth very much linkjuice anyway. And if you go nuts with these spammy packages and gets 1000s of blog comments, the links will probably eventually be devalued anyway.

A few manual comments here and there are ok, and probably even helpful. Especially if it's a blog that requires approval. If you see there are already hundreds of bullshit spam comments on a blog, that probably wouldn't be my first choice of place to comment.
 
Status:

4/21/2012 1:47pm CST

- Page 9
- Still 99% of traffic is from EZA (the rest is a few random longtail keywords)
- Fourth click: $0.82

Total: $2.77.
 
I have one site that gets 4-5% on average, but the average of all my averages is 1-3%.

I doubt anyone has dozens of sites that all get 5%+ on average.

True, but what themes do you recommend using for adsense sites?
 
Yes I use the same account for all my sites.

If you're not doing anything shady you don't have anything to worry about.

I believe it is against TOS to have multiple accounts, but I have heard people say you can have one personal account and one business account (registered to a legal business entity) and that is ok. Verify this yourself, however.

I'm not planning to do anything shady, but I've heard stories of Google banning Adsense accounts even when people have been white hat all the way, with no way to appeal or discuss the issue.
 
I'm not planning to do anything shady, but I've heard stories of Google banning Adsense accounts even when people have been white hat all the way, with no way to appeal or discuss the issue.

Most of those cases probably involve something that violated the TOS without the person realizing it.

For example, I remember one case where some guy said he got banned and he couldn't figure out what rule he had broken, all his websites were fine, etc. and it turned out that he and his roommate both had AdSense accounts and shared the same internet connection. It was something like that, I can't remember all the details.

I would say you run more of a risk of getting your account banned from having multiple accounts than from having one account on many sites, because the latter is still allowed within the AdSense TOS.

My general rule is if it's questionable or you're not sure, don't do it. I was all set to put AdSense on a site I had had for years, but the subject was questionable. It wasn't specifically mentioned as not allowed in the TOS, but it was close enough that I figured I don't want to run the risk. I had seen one other person in the AdSense forums get their account banned on a site of the same niche, however her site was spammy and shitty and had minimal content, all of which was spun. So that in itself is looked down upon by Google, but I'm sure the niche didn't help, either.

If you're in doubt, don't use AdSense. Is it worth the risk for an extra dollar or two per day? No. Oh wait, I forgot, everyone online is a baller who makes $50 per day per site with 15% CTRs :rofl:
 
True, but what themes do you recommend using for adsense sites?

I'm not going to reveal the themes I use because I don't want 11ty people making sites that look exactly like mine.

I use some free themes and some premium themes that I bought.

Make sure whatever free themes you use don't have any hardcoded SEO links at the bottom. A lot of shady theme authors will do this. It will say like "dog training" or something at the bottom of each page, and if you try to remove the code it will crash your site. This is obviously a bad idea because 1) it's wasting linkjuice and 2) you don't want to link to sites you don't know anything about. What if they get labeled as linkfarms? Then you will be penalized for linking to a link farm.

On some of those themes you can figure out how to remove the code pretty easily. On others, it's encrypted and hidden in other files and if you don't get everything just right it will crash your site and force you to reinstall some of the WP files.

Links in the footer to wordpress.com and to the author's website are fine. If they are letting you use a theme for free, you can keep the link. But when it's obvious SEO link bullshit, like "dog training" or "New York driving classes" or "free mortgage quotes," that's bullshit, and that's also probably coded in a way that makes it impossible for you to remove it. If you delete it and your site crashes, use another theme.

A good theme should be simple and look nice. Is it pleasing to the user or is it an ugly cluster of bullshit? Which would make you want to stay on the site and read more? Use good site navigation and formatting. And use good quality content. I can't tell you how many shitty AdSense sites I've seen with the most worthless content on them.

I remember a few years ago, a popular strategy was to make an intentionally annoying site with bad content and ads all over it so that people would get pissed at how much your site sucks and click an ad just to get off the site. Obviously that didn't work, and if it did, your CTR would be high enough to catch Google's attention, your site would get a manual review, and you'd either have that site penalized for sucking, or have your account banned because you suck.

I feel myself getting ranty so I'm going to end this post now.
 
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Turdface I wonder what your thoughts are on e-commerce versus Adsense site in regards to return on investment. Which one would yield more fruit? I started an e-commerce site 8mths ago and am now also launching Adsense site with quality content. Your thoughts?
 
Turdface I wonder what your thoughts are on e-commerce versus Adsense site in regards to return on investment. Which one would yield more fruit? I started an e-commerce site 8mths ago and am now also launching Adsense site with quality content. Your thoughts?

I don't have much experience with e-commerce, but I would think that the potential for making money would be much higher with e-commerce.

Of course, the costs to setup and run an AdSense site are much lower.

A high end AdSense site with lots of traffic will make like $20 a day. And let's not forget the cost of SEO required to play in the more competitive niches. Sure, there are some people who make more, but let's be realistic 99.9% of people don't, and most AdSense sites make like $1/week or something like that. Except for all the people here who make $100 a day on a single site with 15% CTR that they built while taking a break from having orgies with lingerie models, of course ;)

My point is, a good e-commerce site can make millions.

A good AdSense site will make you mid 4-figures per year. A much more realistic AdSense site will make you mid 3-figures per year.

But e-commerce site costs more to set up, costs more in inventory (unless you're drop-shipping or something), and requires more work, SEO costs, etc. So it's a tradeoff.

Or were you talking about having an AdSense site and e-commerce site in the same niche?
 
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Most of those cases probably involve something that violated the TOS without the person realizing it.

For example, I remember one case where some guy said he got banned and he couldn't figure out what rule he had broken, all his websites were fine, etc. and it turned out that he and his roommate both had AdSense accounts and shared the same internet connection. It was something like that, I can't remember all the details.

I would say you run more of a risk of getting your account banned from having multiple accounts than from having one account on many sites, because the latter is still allowed within the AdSense TOS.

My general rule is if it's questionable or you're not sure, don't do it. I was all set to put AdSense on a site I had had for years, but the subject was questionable. It wasn't specifically mentioned as not allowed in the TOS, but it was close enough that I figured I don't want to run the risk. I had seen one other person in the AdSense forums get their account banned on a site of the same niche, however her site was spammy and shitty and had minimal content, all of which was spun. So that in itself is looked down upon by Google, but I'm sure the niche didn't help, either.

If you're in doubt, don't use AdSense. Is it worth the risk for an extra dollar or two per day? No. Oh wait, I forgot, everyone online is a baller who makes $50 per day per site with 15% CTRs :rofl:

I'm afraid because I've tried registering for an Adsense account before on an old blog I had about 3 years ago, and my Adsense was rejected due to the content on the blog. So now I'm afraid if I create a new Adsense account with the same information I used last time, it will get flagged by Google and banned.

I've checked that I don't have any active Adsense accounts now. Already have a new Gmail account and planning to use that to register for Adsense. Also, my site pretty much has to depend on Adsense for making profit, so that's why I'm so concerned about this issue!
 
Hi.

Average CTR is 1-3%.

Don't listen to all the people on the forums who talk about having 10+% CTRs and other bullshit. They're lying. No one's CTR is consistently that high and if it was, it would probably throw some flags at Google. Of course, this post will be replied to with people saying "nuh uh, just because you don't get that high of CTR doesn't mean no one does! I get 15% CTR and make $5,000 a day and fuck supermodels on my yacht!"

Sure, sometimes you get 10% DAYS, but on average, over the course of weeks and years, 1-3% is pretty average. If you're lower than that you might want to look at your ad placement. If you're higher than that, stop gaming the system before you get your account banned.
everage ctr.png
This is my average ctr after the suggestion that i got from G itself and i have days with over 12%.
 
I haven't done any Adsense yet, but I want to give it a try. Whats the best way to get a Adsense account?

Also I read all the time about people getting there accounts banned, so how do you keep up with Adsense TOS ??
 
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This is my average ctr after the suggestion that i got from G itself and i have days with over 12%.

That's pretty high. I'm not saying higher than 5% CTR is impossible, just that it's not common, and certainly not as common as everyone on the forums would have you believe. Every so often I get a day with really high CTR. I also have some days with 0 clicks. 1-3% is a good average. If you're higher, that's great!
 
I haven't done any Adsense yet, but I want to give it a try. Whats the best way to get a Adsense account?

I got mine a few years ago. I signed up on their page and submitted my first site and a few days or maybe a week later they approved me.

Also I read all the time about people getting there accounts banned, so how do you keep up with Adsense TOS ??

Read the TOS. No drugs, no pharma, no adult, no pictures next to the ads, no ads on pages with little content, no telling people to click the ads, no referring to the ads as "sponsored advertisers," no using code to manipulate the ads, etc. And don't forget your privacy policy.

Want to put an ad in the column of your blog about dog training? Go for it!

Want to put 3 giant ads on a page whose only content says "cheap Levitra"? Bad idea.

Also, keep in mind, a lot of people do shit like participate in "click circles" or whatever where they all click on each others ads, and then get banned, and then come to the forums and are like "WHY DID I GET BANNED WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BULLSHIT I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!"

Oh, and don't click on any ads from the same computer that you log into Gmail with. For example, if you log into gmail on your work computer, and someone from your office on the same network randomly finds one of your pages and clicks an ad, that could register as clicking your own ads. You have to be careful like that.

When in doubt, don't do it.

This post is super helpful and should get thanks. I've seen worthless "methods" get shared here that get dozens of thanks, but I rarely see actual helpful posts with useable information in them get thanks :)
 
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Here are charts I made tracking my position in Google and also my ad revenue:

JoNjV
 
Goodluck, make sure you focus on good quality content if you wish to stay in the niche for a long time and want consistent monthly income from adsense. Content that adds value!
 
Goodluck, make sure you focus on good quality content if you wish to stay in the niche for a long time and want consistent monthly income from adsense. Content that adds value!

I've been talking about only using high quality content for this entire thread :)
 
Was it bad quality content or was it a topic AdSense doesn't allow?

It was a topic not allowed. At that time I didn't check the TOS clearly before applying for Adsense.

So right now I have about 2 accounts that have been rejected for Adsense (separate Gmails), and I've created a new Gmail to register with Adsense on a new site that does not contain content against Adsense rules. Since I'll be using the exact same personal information to register for Adsense again, I'm just worried I get flagged by Google due to my past attempts at registering for Adsense.
 
It was a topic not allowed. At that time I didn't check the TOS clearly before applying for Adsense.

So right now I have about 2 accounts that have been rejected for Adsense (separate Gmails), and I've created a new Gmail to register with Adsense on a new site that does not contain content against Adsense rules. Since I'll be using the exact same personal information to register for Adsense again, I'm just worried I get flagged by Google due to my past attempts at registering for Adsense.

I'm just guessing here, but I don't think you have anything to worry about. It's not like you previously got banned from AdSense, you just weren't approved because the topic of your site wasn't allowed. That's different from saying you accept the TOS and then violating them.
 
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