The Reality of Google AdSense On A Small Blog
Dreams of checks from our biggest friend Google danced in our heads while we toiled on our little blog. Our blog started out the way many other blogs have started. We started posted family news, family news spread into family interests and before long our audience had grown well outside of our family.
We certainly couldn’t say that our blog is focused. Three categories comprise most of our interests, but even that is far too broad for many potential readers. Readers like to have the same type of content day in and day out. Our blog is a stream of consciousness that bounces across too many subjects. Still we have found a few die hard readers and many readers will find one or two stories to their liking and then go about their way.
When we first added ads from Google to our site, we were far to concerned about how the ads would look on the blog. We didn’t want them to be distracting from our stories. What a ridiculous notion. There is really no point in adding ads to your site unless you are pushing ads directly in front of your readers. We still aren’t fans of popup advertising but we do believe in making our ads prominent on our site. The reality is advertising is woven through everything we do or see on a daily basis. Don’t be afraid to put your ads in front of your readers. They are used to advertising and won’t leave your site because of advertising as long as you use some restraint.
So, how much can you make? It depends on your audience and the traffic to your site. This past month we received our first check from Google for just over $100.00 which is the minimum check they will issue. So how long did it take? About three years (laughing).
If you intend to run a blog or site and make substantial money from advertising you must make your ads prominent. You also must make absolutely sure that you stay on topic, preferably a single topic. We don’t believe that the topic is necessarily important. However, we can tell you that some ads will result in a penny or two, while others result in several dollars per click.
Stay focused and have fun. Maybe some day we will cover our hosting cost.