Google AdSense has always been one of the most popular ways to make money online. However, a lot of people are wondering if it’s still possible to make money on Google AdSense, and I want to answer that question.
In this post, I will explain how I made over $480k on Google AdSense in the past five years.
Using this one method of monetization, I was able to buy my house with the money I made from display ads. In short, Google AdSense literally changed my life.
What’s My Background?
I spent seven years in sales before I discovered that I could make my dream of becoming an entrepreneur come true.
When the 2008 crash happened, I found myself unemployed for eight months. I decided to start a website so I could earn money online, but unfortunately, the website failed.
However, in the process, I discovered that I loved Internet marketing. This led me to begin a career in digital marketing where I spent the next seven years before venturing off on my own.
Today, I own a portfolio of websites, and the bulk of my income comes from display ads.
I’m Transparent in My Business
I have always focused on transparency in my business. This is an approach that I have taken from the first day. I figured that my audience would appreciate my efforts and enjoy my content more if they saw the process.
My income reports show my progress over time. I share everything, including my expenses and the time that I spend working.
By doing this, I want to show my audience that it’s possible to make a (very good) living online.
The one caveat is that this is not for anyone who isn’t willing to do the work. It takes hard work to build a business that earns thousands of dollars every month, but it’s well worth it to be able to create a reliable stream of income while increasing your time and location freedom.
Diversification is Crucial
Diversifying revenue is crucial to the success of your online business – not only from AdSense, but diversifying from Amazon as well.
As I’ve grown, I’ve realized the need to diversify more and more. It’s one of the main reasons why I built a portfolio of websites.
Although I make most of my money in AdSense, I also use a variety of other platforms to earn income.
Here is my proof of AdSense income. I blacked out some stuff due to AdSense policies.
I diversified into Amazon Associates as well. This program is very lucrative and offers a simple way to diversify income from your online business. This is my Amazon Associates proof of income:
As you can see in the screenshot below, I also joined some very lucrative partnerships which added to my revenue stream.
In addition to that, I got into various affiliate programs. This is what I earned from just one of them:
Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time writing even more review content to help me bring in additional income if it successfully ranks in the SERPs. For instance, here’s a post I recently wrote on Thrive Themes.
If I can get many posts like this one to rank, I’d be able to make significantly more affiliate income.
With online business, the only way to survive is to diversify, but you first need to have success with one website prior to moving to the next one.
Take a look at my example, as well as other people who work online.
You will see that no matter how successful the website is, they don’t rely on one income source.
But, since we are on the subject of how I made over $480,000 on Google AdSense in five years, let me share five tips to help you do the same on your website.
How to Increase Earnings With Google Adsense
1) Create a Content Rich Website
Google loves content. If you want to make more money with AdSense, you need a content-rich website. The content can be of any type, provided it doesn’t violate the Google AdSense content policies.
So, you can have videos, text, images, and any other type of content you can think of – just make sure there’s lots of it. I personally like video because not only can you make AdSense revenue on YouTube, but you can also find other ways to turn YouTube into a secondary income.
Even if you start a video blog or a photography blog, it’s a good idea to have a lot of text content on your pages so that the AdSense crawlers can understand what your page is about.
So, if your website doesn’t publish lots of blog posts, articles, case studies, listicles, and how-to guides, you need to start producing more of that type of content so you can truly maximize your AdSense earnings.
2) Target the Right Keywords
In order to earn more from AdSense on your website, you need to target the right keywords within your content. The right keywords are those that advertisers use to promote their products.
This means that competition is higher for those keywords, which raises the EPC (earnings per click). For instance, if you made a book blog, you’d want to focus your keywords on things like publishing and tools that help writers get better.
Why? Because there is a lot of commercial intent behind those terms, so more advertisers would be competing for space.
Also, make use of action keywords. These are the ones that are searched by users who are more likely to convert or take action after they click on the ad.
So, get to know your audience’s pain points, and then create valuable content around those topics.
If you provide them with specific content and solutions to their problems, it’ll make it more likely that they will click on the relevant ad on your content.
Also, more advertisers are interested in that type of content, which means that the number of available ads will be higher too!
3) Increase Engagement Metrics
If you don’t have high user engagement levels, then you need to take the necessary steps to boost your numbers.
According to Ezoic, a lot of metrics such as page views per visit and time on page are positively correlated with AdSense earnings.
You need to get your visitors to read more of your content, view multiple pages, and share your content across different social media platforms.
When you increase these and other engagement metrics, you will see a drastic improvement in your AdSense earnings.
Here are some tips to help you increase engagement metrics on your website:
- Create unique video content and include it in your blog posts
- Write long-form articles that answer your readers’ questions in depth
- Write a lot of step-by-step guides for topics relevant to your niche
- Find the right balance of display ads across your website
- Find and fix any mobile optimization errors on your website
4) Use Multivariate Testing
One of the best ways to increase your AdSense revenue is to test your ads to find out the best-performing ones.
However, it’s nearly impossible to be able to test all the different ad attributes without the use of the right software.
An easy way to conduct these tests is by monetizing with programmatic ads where the two main goals are user experience and ad revenue.
This will allow you to perform continuous multivariate testing on your ads so you can improve user experience and grow your revenue over time.
Software like the one from Ezoic will test a wide range of visitor behavior and display ad attributes, such as:
- Traffic source
- Visit time of day
- Day of the week
- Device type
- Geographic location
- Scroll depth
- Size of the ads
- Ad color
- Ad type
- Ad location
- Number of ads on-page
- And more!
Since visitors on any website will behave differently, this can have a huge impact on the effect ads have on each user.
Multivariate testing will be of massive help in this regard because you need to show ads that visitors will engage with. Advertisers won’t want to pay for ads if people aren’t engaging with them, which can lead to your ads decreasing in value. If this happens, your entire website will earn less revenue over time.
5) Strictly Comply with AdSense Rules
In order to maximize how much you make money on Google AdSense, you must fully comply with all of its policies. AdSense represents a big part of Google’s revenue, which means they take the program very seriously.
Although it’s relatively easy for anyone to get approved for AdSense, it’s just as easy to lose your account if you don’t abide by their rules.
Whether you are a new or existing AdSense publisher, always make sure you read their policies and keep up-to-date with any changes to ensure that you always stay compliant.
And just in case you have any thoughts or ideas for gaming the system, keep in mind that Google has hired some of the best people to ensure that no one is able to bypass their policies and rules, so it’s not worth risking your account.
Make Money on Google AdSense Wrap-up
AdSense is one of the easiest and most reliable ways of making money online. Provided your site meets the criteria listed above, you too can join the ranks of successful online businesses that make money on Google AdSense.
You can also increase your earnings by implementing the tips outlined in this article.
Having said that, it’s never a good idea to depend 100 percent on Google AdSense for all your income.
Yes, AdSense is very lucrative right now, but you cannot assume that the program will be there forever or that you’ll always have thousands of visitors to your website clicking on your ads.
Diversification is crucial, so you must implement a variety of other monetization methods on your website.
What has been your experience with Google AdSense? Let me know in the comments section below!
(Source)
Ron Stefanski is a professor and a successful web entrepreneur who has a passion for helping people create and grow online businesses. Visit his website to learn more: OneHourProfessor.com
You can also connect with him on YouTube or Linkedin.
