Make money online with Google AdSense
A few days back I wrote a piece called What are the most expensive search terms? and talked a bit about the Google Keyword Tools which allows you to see how much keywords are worth. It’s designed to allow marketing professionals gauge the value of an ad campaign by allowing them to see which words are valuable and the volume of traffic which searches for a given keyword or key phrase but it can also be used by online publishers to make money online by understanding how to traffic shape our blogs for better keyword performance.
How does it work?
The tool allows you to select a number of factors when reviewing the value of a website or keyword pattern, first you may select the specific countries or language of traffic, this allows you to focus on a particular market when posting ads to potential blogs but that’s not what we want … after all as a blog owner I don’t mind if I make money from people surfing in Australia or Austria right? So the first thing you’ll want to do when setting your sights on new keywords is change the default settings from United States to All Countries and Territories. This will allow you to see the whole world’s value.
Next, as you can see from the graphic above you’ll want to review your existing website content for keywords. Specific descriptive words and phrases are great for people who want to sell something but as a blog publisher, you to understand what Google currently thinks your website is about so that you can assess how to steer your blog in the future.
For example, when I search for keywords on thisismyurl.com, I receive a list of keywords that Google believes I am blogging about. They are: make money on the (7), how to make money (6), way to make money (6), make money online (6), work at home (7), work from home (5), make money (30), to make (5), how to (8), at home (7), money making (18), from home (6), data entry (9), earn money (7), money (19), online (8), blog (10), business (6), website (7), Miscellaneous keywords (23)
Ironically, if you’d asked me what my website was about I’d have told you that it was about organic marketing, wordpress or even SEO before I’d have told you it was about making money online, so it just goes to show how cool this tool really is.
Making money with the data
The next part of the puzzle is to look at the Estimated Cost Per Click (CPC) for keywords on the site but there’s a trick here, by default it’s not shown! Once you have the Estimated CPC column showing, you’re almost done. The next key to truly understanding the value of your keywords is to switch the Match Type to Exact (you can just see it in the graphic here). That will make sure the data you’re looking at is for exactly what you think you’re looking at.
The resulting list will provide you with a breakdown of both the estimated value per click and the number of times that keyword appears in Google’s search results for a given time period. For example, the phrase how to make money on the internet is worth $4.01 and is searched for 9,900 times globally in a given month. Sounds pretty good right? Well it is, except coming soon (which I just put up a free template for) is worth $1.30 and is searched for 201,000 times. Which is worth more? Luckily I’m pretty good with basic business math so here’s a comparison:
- $4.01 x 9,900 = $39,699
- $1.30 x 201,000 = 261,300
So using basic high school math, it’s easy to determine that a website would be much better off focusing it’s content on lower value keywords with a higher search percentage unless the total accumulated value of a keyword family outweigh the value of an isolated phrase. Let me explain. while an isolated keyword comparison would imply that coming soon is a superior subject to blog about (and earn money from) the phrase appears only once in the hundred phrases Google analyzed vs. dozens of variations of the phrase how to make money on the internet which while independently do not add up to much, combined far exceed an isolated phrase.
Looking at how to make money in Numbers
To compare the real value of key phrases and the true potential for making money on the Internet it’s important to look at numbers outside the Keyword Tools, for that I export the data into Apple Numbers, a spread sheet tool which allows me to group key phrases and do rapid data modeling to determine the most profitable avenue for an online site. In the case of my own blog, the top ten keyword patterns shape up to look like this:
While the above graph doesn’t group keywords and phrases into select groups it does provide an immediate and staggering visual tool to truly comprehend the value of some keywords over others. While combining keyword phrases would lower the impact, the keyword AdSense is clearly the most substantial value at nearly $10 million per month in AdWord placements.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this rather basic breakdown of my own website and I hope it gives you some insight into how to make money online with Google AdSense yourself. As always, I’m rather shameless in my self promotion and would love to remind you that I’m available for onsite consultation anywhere in the world assuming the temperature there is between 82° and 96°.
May
2009
10 simple ways to say thanks to a blogger you enjoy reading
When I was working at Yorkville University I met a fellow IT manager named Glen who shared a theory about technology people. If I remember this correctly, his former manager once told him that IT people needed money, toys or interesting projects to keep them motivated. Most of the time people assumed it was money but to people in the technology field, money wasn’t the most important thing.
I feel that way about making money online here at thisismyurl.com, which is why I don’t believe asking for donations is the right way to go when it comes from receiving support from people who read my blog. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I think most bloggers feel that way. So how can you say thanks to somebody for a blog post you’ve really enjoyed? Here’s a few ways that I can think of off the top of my head:
Support their sponsors
One of the easiest ways to say thanks for a job well done is to simply take a couple seconds and look at who’s buying ads on your favorite blogs and if there’s something being marketing which interests you, click through to check it out. The act of clicking an affiliate link doesn’t put money in your bloggers pocket but it does reinforce with the affiliate company that the blog has pushed traffic to their website and this act alone is valuable to both the blogger and the advertiser.
Support their commenters
One of my favorite ways to support a blog is to read their comments and click through to supportive, helpful commentators. Again, this doesn’t make the blog owner any money but what it does do is prove to the person who left the comment that the time they spent leaving a comment was well received. I get to learn a lot from a lot of great bloggers this way but it also helps encourage people to leave helpful comments which is the best way to support a blog.
Tweet about them
People blog for a number of reasons but regardless of why a blogger takes the time to write posts on the web, telling your followers on Twitter is a great way to help encourage them to continue writing great comments. You can also Digg them or list them on Stumble Upon if you’ve really enjoyed their content.
By ads on their website
A lot of bloggers sell ads on the side of their sites, why not help them out by promoting your own products and services?
Post a link to their story on another website
If you enjoy reading something on one blog and think it could help support and article on another, why not take a few minutes and share the link there? I often post supportive, helpful links in the comments of a blog to help the owner know about other great blogs. It helps both blogs become stronger, better and more co-operative!
Send money
If there’s no other way for you to say thanks, sending the blogger a couple dollars to help keep them infused with coffee is always nice.
Support their plugins and themes
If your favorite blogger writes plugins or themes for something like WordPress, take a few minutes and download it, comment on it or rate it on the public directories. A lot of bloggers get significant portions of their traffic directly from these directories and your supporting their plugins helps build visitors to their websites.
Leave comments
I can never stress enough how much a great comment encourages a blog owner. If you’ve taken the time to read a blog post and found it helpful, spending just a couple seconds to leave a thank you note and encourage the blogger to continue writing is a great way to say thanks. If you can add to the conversation, correct a glitch or improve the bloggers understanding of the subject matter … all the better!
Post a link to their blog
The holy grail of compliments to a blogger? Posting a link to their content! If you run a website of your own and find something a blogger has written to be helpful, post a link and tell your visitors why you liked what you read. It’s amazing how much this helps a blogger build a bigger audience and how easy it is to do.
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