I hear from so many people who sincerely want to make money online. Their whole purpose of wanting a website is to make money. I have even heard from people who put up a website on a topic that they hate, that has burned them out, etc, just for the purpose of making money.
I am sorry, my friends, but the number one thing is that you need to do a website about something that you are passionate about. Choose a topic that you love and one on which you have expertise. With that combination, you will make money.
But, even if you choose a topic which has the right mix of passion and expertise, you still need to run the site for a while, show readers your passion, before you start trying to make money.
There are a lot of ways to make money, but for the purposes of this discussion, let’s think about using Google AdSense to monetize your site.
A lot of the same people who write to me wanting so badly to make money online also tell me that they have been trying for a few months, and they have made only a dollar or two from AdSense. They can’t understand.
Can you make money with AdSense?
Many of these people who are unable to build up their AdSense earnings to a decent level come to the conclusion that you simply cannot make money with Google AdSense. The truth is, in my opinion, you are not going to make money with any type of monetization in only a couple of months. It takes time. In fact, I would advise you to forget about making money altogether for a while. Go six months, or even a year, without even trying to make money. Use your time to concentrate on making your site the very best it can be. Use it to show your readers that you have expertise that will be valuable to them. Put in your best effort to convey knowledge and passion to your readers before you think about or concentrate on money. It will pay off for you.
Reviewing my AdSense Account
I stumbled into this line of thought last week when I was reviewing my AdSense account to see how I have been doing in growing my earnings over the years.
I first started as Internet Publisher in 1995. Basically, for the 11 years from 1995 until 2006, I had only one website. If I had others, I cannot think of any, and if I did have any that I can’t remember, they were small sites. I had one big site, and I still have that site today although it is not anywhere being my “big site” today that it was back then.
It so happens that I first signed up as an AdSense publisher in September 2006.
Now, realize that you must earn $100 from Google AdSense before Google will issue you a payment. If you make less than $100, they will carry your balance forward until you reach that goal of $100 at which time they will issue the money to you. If you never reach $100, you won’t ever get the money, it’s that simple. Fact is that many new publishers take months, even years to reach the $100. A lot of folks give up before they ever reach the goal, and thus never get anything.
The first month that I had an AdSense account, I earned more than $400. I can’t say exactly how much I earned because that would violate Google’s terms of service, but I’ll just say that it was more than $400 in the first full month that I had an AdSense account. Not bad, huh?
How, or why did I earn that kind of money in my first month? Because I put AdSense on a well-established site that I had a passion about and had been publishing for some time. I had already built an audience on the site.
Now, I have dozens of sites. Can you earn from AdSense? I can assure you that you can. I know, because I make a decent amount from Google AdSense. That said, though, AdSense produces only about 5% of my overall Internet income. So, it’s not a “major” player, but it still makes a nice chunk of change for me.
What I am saying applies to any kind of money making from your website. If I were not talking about AdSense, I could be talking about eBook sales, Text Ads, Affiliate Commissions, whatever. But, what I am trying to drive home is that you will do much better in making money if you are publishing information about something that you are passionate about and that you are knowledgeable about. And.. if you take the time to show an audience that you have those things going for you.
Can you earn money online?
You better believe you can. Just don’t start a site today and expect to cash in next week. It doesn’t work that way. Also, don’t look for what niche earns the most, whether you like it or not. Always look to write about something that you love.
Thanks, Cathy!
Thanks, Cathy!
Thanks, Cathy!
Though we have talked about what you wrote about in your article, I felt as if you were, again, talking to me. Me and my lazy butt. Hahahhahah.
Though we have talked about what you wrote about in your article, I felt as if you were, again, talking to me. Me and my lazy butt. Hahahhahah.
Though we have talked about what you wrote about in your article, I felt as if you were, again, talking to me. Me and my lazy butt. Hahahhahah.
Ha ha… I was going to send it to you personally, but I figured I’d shame you in public instead! Ha ha.. just teasing….
Ha ha… I was going to send it to you personally, but I figured I’d shame you in public instead! Ha ha.. just teasing….
Ha ha… I was going to send it to you personally, but I figured I’d shame you in public instead! Ha ha.. just teasing….
nice info
Hope you picked up some good info, Serge. Thanks for dropping by.
Nicely done, Bob! I fit the number of people you mentioned above. Although I learned that it takes time to start earning from Google. Keep ’em coming with these informative articles!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Henry! Hope to be seeing you soon!
Good article, Bob. For those who don’t know me, I started with AdSene roughly the same time as Bob did and my pattern of earnings followed a similar path so far, although at a significantly lower level.
I’ve started, diddled around with and given up on more web efforts than I can count. One significant fact come to mind, though, regarding the ones in the failure column. Every single one of them was a site I started strictly with the idea of making money.
And my largest earners today are site I started with virtually no profit motive in mind.
While I would agree emphatically that you certainly _can_ make money online (or often with an online component to an off-line business), I can also emphatically state that start a blog or any of the ‘earn money instantly from niche sites’ sort of nonsense is pretty much doomed to failure.
Earning online is much more like earning off line than many seem to think. You need to put in the time, you need to make the effort, and just as in the “dirt-based” world, it’s a lot easier and certainly more pleasant to work at something you have an interest in.
And on the subject of AdSense specifically? It’s never been better. It’s a great time to get started. Just don’t think it happens by sticking up some sort of blog, pasting AdSense on it and then waiting to collect a check. You have to stick with it,
Hi Dave – Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic. I could not agree with you more.
Oh, I believe you can make money with any topic, I suppose even a topic that is of no interest to you, or even a topic that you dislike. But, the odds are, as I reflect, that you will give up on it before you earn any money, simply due to a lack of interest, or intense dislike. I mean, if you want to earn money online, it’s easy to do with a topic that you enjoy, so why go with a topic that you don’t enjoy?
In my case, and at least part of your case, we both blog primarily (at least for me) on a topic that is typically a low earning topic. But, we do it well, and keep at it because it interests us. As you pointed out, you didn’t even intend to earn any money. But, because we both stuck it out and actually became authorities on the topic, we can still earn nice money in a niche that is not normally a big money earner. I know that if I found out that the topic of hunting Elephants in Zambia was a big money maker, even if I tried it, I would earn nothing, because I don’t know anything on the topic, and could really care less about it. My lack of passion would show through in my writing. I’d also get bored with the topic and drop out soon. 😆
Good info Bob
Thanks, Dan.
Thanks for sharing it…….
Good luck, Ummi.