I have used a lot of methods to monetize websites, I’ve done it through advertising like AdSense, affiliate ads, and other methods.  Over the last six months, though, as I have alluded to before, I have taken a special interest in monetizing one of my sites.  This particular site did not monetize well with any kind of advertising that I tried.  However, it was the site most precious to me, one that I love a lot, and really a daily part of my life.  Because of that, I wanted to find a way to make money from it.  So I introduced several new moneymaking possibilities on the site.  These included things like advertising services, much like what Mark is talking about in his video.  Recently, I started offering a few e-books that were really targeted to that site as well.  You know what?  That is my number one earning site now!  And, I’m doing things that I enjoy, things that I love, and in a lot of ways things that I would be doing every day anyway, even without the site.

You know, I have come to the conclusion that offering my own services and selling my own products is the way that I like to go.  Firstly, I find it is more profitable.  Secondly, I have control over what’s on the website.  I am not at the mercy of Google or somebody else putting ads on my site that I can’t approve.  Thirdly, the premium products that I’m selling offer additional value to my readers.  These products are specifically about the topic that I write about, thus it is certain that these are things my readers are interested in.  A year ago I was strongly into the AdSense  thing, but mostly, I kind of abandoned that.  At least I’ve decreased it.  Most of my sites are highly specialized, very niche oriented, and my niche is very narrow.  In terms of how many people it attracts.  Because of this, it can be difficult to get ads that are targeted properly.  However, when I create my own products and advertising things that I do myself, I get to choose how targeted those things are.  And believe me, they are targeted to my customer.

Yes, I still make money off of AdSense, but not nearly what I used to make.  And now my earnings from Google are about one third of what they were last year.  However, my total earnings are higher than they were last year, and these self-made products and services are what accounts for that.  Whenever you’re selling advertising, unless you’re talking about direct ad sales, you only get a portion of what the advertiser pays.  People like Google or others get a cut as well.  When you make and sell your own products, or selling your own services on your site, you get the whole thing.  You can actually sell it to the customer for less than what Google would and still get more money from the sale, because you’re cutting out the middleman.

The other thing that I find is it is easier to make that money.  Why?  Well, if you build up a good side and you have a good following the people, those people trust you.  They know you.  Many of them visit you everyday online and read what you have to say.  You have established a relationship with those people.  Thus, if you come out with an e-book or some other product that you did yourself, they know what to expect.  If they thought that your writing wasn’t very good, they wouldn’t be visiting your site anyway.  Since they obviously feel that your site has value, by extension they would also feel that your products have value.  If the product that you offer is something that they are interested in, it’s likely that they’ll buy.  So it’s good for you, and it’s also good for them because they get information that they want and need.

Thanks to Mark for bringing up this topic on his site, 45n5 is a site that I like to visit every day.

Some people have very “general” blog sites. One day they write about the flowers they planted in the garden, the next day they write about a new factory being built in their town. A few days later they write a post about their kid’s school project. Frankly, these things are not related. Or are they? Well, I can think of one way that these could be tied together. Let’s say that you live in “Anytown, USA.” If you had a blog about what is happening in Anytown, USA, you could make these topics all tie together nicely. One day you write about what kind of plants and flowers are in season in Anytown, and how you just planted some in your garden. Next day, “Anytown is getting a new factory which will bring 10,000 new jobs.” A few days later, what is going on in Anytown Schools. But, if you can’t do something like this, it’s better to focus in on a certain area that interests you.

Let’s say you are an avid gardener. You can have a blog about gardening. Teach people like me, who know nothing about gardening, how to do it. Just write about gardening. Let’s say that you also have a passion for cooking. Well, start a different blog about cooking!

I’m going to assume that most of the readers of this site already have a website or blog, so you are halfway home. Do you have Google AdSense on your site? If you have even a half-busy site, you can make much more than $1 per day by using Google AdSense on your site! If you don’t have AdSense already, go to google.com/adsense and sign up! I’m not making anything from referring you, I just want to help you get started.

Your next step will be to set up a regular schedule for blogging. The more often you update your site, the more that people will come and visit. When people come and visit, there is more chance that they will click on your Google Ads, and when they click on an ad that interests them, you make money!

Congratulations… this could be your first step to checking off your assignment for this week: to come up with one new idea that will produce $1 per day for you!

See you tomorrow with more ideas.

You see, back in the past, the channels were all arranged by which ones earned the most money.  A few weeks ago, they all seemed to be displayed at random.  A channel that had earned nothing might have been listed at the top, followed by one that made $10, followed by one that made $1.  It was confusing, and required me to spend time taking a close look at each channel and analyze the data.  That is a waste of good time!

Last week, when I looked at the report, it was fixed!  I never saw anybody complaining about this error online, but I am sure people found it annoying, as I know I did.  Now, though, when you look at the list of channels on the main Google AdSense reports page, you get the channels listed in order of highest earnings to lowest.  I like that, because at just a quick glance, I can know exactly which pages are paying off and which are not.  I pretty much know which of my sites earn the most, and which earn not so much.  If I look at the report and see that site “x” is not near the top of the list, I know that something is wrong, and I need to check the site and see what is happening, because in my mind, I know that this site should be one of my top earners.

How about you, did you notice this Google AdSense reporting anomaly over the past few weeks?

Thanks for fixing it, Google!