How I Increased Adsense Revenue From $1,000 to $10,000 Per Month
You see that way overly watermarked image to your right? It’s a screenshot from my Adsense account showing my monthly revenue. It’s what I see when I log in, go to “My Account” > “Payment History” and then select “All Time” from the drop down menu.
The reason I needed to select “All Time” is because these numbers are not current. The 9 month span you’re looking at here is actually from a bunch of years ago. However, despite being a bit old, they are still quite relevant and interesting.
How so? Because during those few months, my Adsense revenue increased from about $1,000 per month to about $10,000 per month. Yeah, not too shabby.
What may be even more interesting is the fact that I was only running Adsense on 1 site at the time, and that site had no significant change in traffic whatsoever during this span of time. Traffic remained as consistent as can be.
So uh, I guess the big question now is…
How did you do it?
Alright, brace yourselves. What I am about to tell you is going to blow your f’ing mind.
I tested and experimented.
Shocking right?
Oh, and I had a site that got a significant amount of relevant traffic on a daily basis.
Your mind is blown, ain’t it? Who would have thought?
Alright, sarcasm break. Seriously, what were you expecting here? Some kind of trick? Some big Adsense secret? Are you waiting for me to link to my ebook about unlocking the hidden secrets to becoming an Adsense billionaire? Um, no. Sorry to disappoint.
Although, I am in the early stages of writing “How to unlock the secrets to writing stupid fucking ebooks.” Only $189.99. Look for it in Spring 2018.
Wanna hear an Adsense secret? There is no such thing as an Adsense secret. Anyone trying to sell you one is a moron.
No, seriously, how did you do it?
Well, if you are short on a time, the really quick answer to that question is:
- I started a site and put in the time and effort needed to turn it into something great, and it went on to get a really nice amount of traffic on a regular basis.
- I started running Adsense on this site, and tested and experimented with different ad types and placements and all of that fun stuff until my total revenue experienced the growth spurt you see on that screenshot above.
Taaadaaa. It’s practically rocket science.
Stop being so sarcastic you a-hole! I want details!
Alright, the longer version goes a little something like this…
Adsense first came to my attention in 2003. It took me until around February 2004 before I actually created an Adsense account. Why the delay? See the guest post I did the other day. I was just way too busy working on creating something great and building an audience for it to be bothered with this “making money” stuff. I practice what I preach, kids.
So I finally get around to setting up an account. Soon after that I pick an ad format and placement (most likely by doing eeny-meeny-miney-mo), copy the code, paste it in the right spots, and called it a day.
The next thing you know, my site is instantly making an additional $1,000 per month. Some months it was $900, some months it was $1,300. On average though, it was an extra $1,000 per month on top of the money this site was already making. Relevant traffic = money. Simple as that.
This seemed fine and good to me, so right back I went to working on what’s really important… creating something great and building an audience for it.
Then a few months passed, and I was updating something on this site when all of a sudden I had this ground breaking idea. “If I put ads here instead of here, I bet I’d make a little more money.” Yup, ground breaking indeed. Instead of actually doing this though, I brushed it off and went right back to working on the very same stuff I mentioned above. You know, the important stuff.
Then a few more months passed, and I re-remembered this little thought. The difference this time is that I finally talked myself into actually making the change and seeing what would happen.
In case you haven’t noticed, I sometimes find it really hard to actively work on making money. I mean, I love creating something capable of making money, and I love the actual making of money, it’s just that I sometimes have a hard time getting myself to focus specifically on money related things. Like ad placements and sales funnels and conversion tracking and that kind of stuff.
I’d much rather work on doing the stuff that makes this stuff actually worth doing in the first place.
So anyway, I finally made this little ad change. And, just as I suspected, more money instantly got made. My monthly Adsense revenue tripled to about $3,000 for the month. Sweet! See the screenshot above for proof. This was the $2991.79 month.
Watching this happen was both awesome and thought provoking. I mean, if a small change like that could make such a difference, I wonder what some other small changes could do? And just like that, I started off on a nearly 3 month long period of some pretty insane testing and experimenting.
I must have literally tried every single ad unit in every single placement on my site. This ad unit here by itself, this ad unit here with another ad unit there. This like this on only these pages, and then this like this on only these pages. Link units here, ad units there, text ads only, image ads only, text AND image ads, border or no border, this color or that color, medium rectangle or large rectangle, banner or leader board, left side or right side, top or bottom, and so on and so on and so on.
Every possible Adsense test and experiment there was to do on this site, I most likely did it.
And with each successful test, revenue shot up instantly. This was probably the coolest part of the whole thing. Like I mentioned earlier, this site was averaging a fairly significant amount of traffic. So, after each little test, I could see right away (I’m talking like 30 minutes later) whether or not it “worked.” This was extra good because I am crazy impatient. There was no way I was going to let a test run for days (or even weeks) at a time. In most cases I called an end to each little Adsense test within an hour or 2 at most. Some I started before I went to sleep and let the “testing” run overnight.
But the big point I am getting at here is that I tested and experimented… BIG TIME. The first batch of changes took me from about $1,000 per month to $3,000 per month. The next batch of changes doubled that to just over $6,000 the following month. The month after that I was at around $8,000, and the month after that… right up there at almost exactly $10,000. Again, see the above screenshot for proof. I included the next 2 months after that to show that this wasn’t just a one time fluke.
And even though the screenshot doesn’t prove it, I am willing to pinky swear that this site’s traffic remained the same the whole time. I’ll also pinky swear that I only had Adsense running on just this 1 site the whole time, too.
What I’m trying to say here is that this entire revenue increase from $1,000 per month to $10,000 per month happened solely as a result Adsense optimization. You know, experimenting with different ad types and placements and colors and sizes and all of that stuff. It’s literally the only thing that made this happen. And yes, I do feel a little dumb for not doing all of this testing from day 1. You are more than welcome to call me a dumbass in the comments.
But this just goes to show you… there’s a damn good reason that the most often heard Adsense tip in the history of Adsense tips is “experiment.” It’s the key, and this post is first hand proof. On second thought, it’s about 50% of the key. The other 50% is actually having a good site with lots of traffic. Duh.
Gee, wonderful story. Now how about some tips?
Alright alright, tips. Here are my tips for increasing your Adsense revenue. If you’ve read anything like this before, it’s doubtful much of this will surprise you:
- Experiment your ass off. Seriously. Test, test and then test some more. There is no better Adsense optimization tip than this.
- Experiment some more. That’s right. When you think you’ve done everything as perfectly as it can possibly be done and your site is earning as much as it possibly can… test some more. Just when you think there is no longer any room for improvement, there is almost always plenty of room for improvement. Use me as an example. At $1,000, I thought “Yup, that’s probably as good as this can be.” At $3,000 I thought the same thing. Thought it again at $6,000 and $8,000 too. At $10,000 I made a mental note to stop being such a dumbass and remember that EVERYTHING can ALWAYS be improved… at least a little.
- Listen to Google. Nearly everything you’ll ever need to know about this stuff can be found on the Adsense help pages. Read all of the optimization tips and case studies. Pay a lot of attention to the heat map. There’s a reason they are making these suggestions. They work. Use them all as a starting point and test from there. Subscribing to the Adsense blog is a good idea, too.
- Enable text AND image ads. At one point I noticed my CTR was higher when only text ads were enabled, so my first (stupid) thought is that I guess only text ads should be enabled then. Funny thing is, when I enabled text AND image ads, my CTR dropped a little, but the amount of money I made per click went up. And in the end, this caused more money to be made despite the slightly lower CTR. Enable both.
- Be creative. I don’t mean be spammy or do weird crazy stuff. What I do mean is that sometimes, just sometimes, there might be one special placement for one special ad/link unit. Something that works amazingly on your site, but probably sucks everywhere else. Something you don’t see in action on other sites or recommended in Adsense optimization articles too often. Something that just happens to work perfectly in your specific situation on your specific site. The site this post is about managed to have something like this. To this day it remains its best performing ad. Keep testing, maybe your site has this too.
- Play with link units. Huge fan of link units here. Another site of mine is borderline ad-free with the exception of a couple of well placed link units. They don’t work well everywhere, and they don’t work well on all sites, but sometimes they are exactly what you need. Keep on testing.
- Do the obvious stuff that has been recommended a billion times before. You know what I’m talking about. Blend the ads into your site, remove the borders, put them within the content, above the fold, ensure the ad with the highest CTR appears first in your code, blah blah blah. The reason this stuff is so often recommended is because it tends to work. The only way to know for sure of course is by testing. So… test.
- Have a really good site that consistently gets a shit load of traffic. If this list was in any order, this would be tip #1. All of the optimization in the world is useless without this. Confused? See my aforementioned guest post.
There you have it. That’s pretty much everything I did to increase my Adsense revenue from $1,000 per month to $10,000 per month while everything else (traffic, number of sites running Adsense) remained consistent the entire time. If you are looking for all of the hidden secrets that you think I am purposely leaving out, you’ll have to buy the ebook that I’m never writing.
And if you’re curious about what my Adsense earnings have been like since this time (once again, this was years ago) or what my Adsense earnings are like today, consider it all added to my growing list of future posts. You are subscribed, aren’t you?
Wow, awesome post. I agree completely about the importance of testing. Even still though, its pretty amazing to think you can make that big of a jump in earnings just by messing around with ad placements and stuff. Crazy really.
Is Adsense your primary earner?
It’s not that difficult to figure out that some ad placements just don’t work, save the accidental clicks. (for instance, check out the rest of the story after the jump)
(ad)(ad)(ad)
Here’s the rest of the story, because we take commercial breaks from our reading on the internet.
Most people can realize that this is nothing more than a scheme for accidental clicks, but it’s still one of my biggest pet-peeves of the internet.
It’s nice to see someone actually care where their ads are placed, and shit, you know, make some money off of a well built site with well placed ads.
Cheers, mate.
Dex: I hear ya. To make some quick little ad placement change and watch revenue grow by the 1000’s was pretty crazy to watch happen in real time. Fun as hell, though.
I’m not sure if I’d call Adsense my primary earner. In the beginning I monetized my site(s) through affiliate sales, direct ad sales, etc.. Then Adsense came along and I viewed it/used it mainly as a way to sort of compliment what I was already doing. Then Adsense hit the $10k per month mark as noted in this post, and everything automatically switched places. Now I was doing everything else to compliment Adsense.
These days though everything is more or less even in terms of what I view as my “primary earner.” It’s really all about what works best in each specific situation, not just on a site by site basis, but sometimes even on a page by page basis. So really my primary earner now is the best combination of what works best and makes the most sense.
JDub: Ha, yeah. Thanks dude.
First time visitor and I really enjoy your content and writing style. I am a big Adsense lover myself. I had one site several years ago that hit the 10K a month profit mark, but it was basically through arbitrage, and Google eventually said they didn’t like that method, so I had to start over. More recently I have been building sites like you mentioned, but don’t have the traffic at each yet to get to the 5 figures, but have several in the 4’s. The keys are good content, marketing and well placed and designed ads. Hopefully I will get to your numbers some day soon! Much success to you and keep up the great posts!
Doug: Thanks man. You pretty much nailed it. Create something great, consistently get lots of traffic to it, and then just do lots and lots of testing with optimization. That’s about all it takes to make good money with Adsense.
Ok, I have a question about experimenting with adsense. On my blog, I have a small ad box right above the comments section. However, 1,300 impressions later– no clicks.
What I’m really asking is, how many impressions until you try something new?
Thanks
Ben: It depends on a couple of things really. But the first one that comes to mind: over what period of time did you get those 1300 impressions?
For example, if you put the ad in place, waited an hour and saw 1300 impressions but no clicks, I’d wait a little longer. If you put the ad in place, waited a day or two (or more), saw 1300 impressions and no clicks, then its definitely time to call an end to that test and try something different.
Ok, cool, thanks
Iam curious how much traffic in month were you getting to generate that much dosh?
How many uniques?
Any chance you giveing us a look at
that website that does 10k?
Where are the ads on your blog?
Same question as Brad’s … even I want to have a look at the website that’s making $$10k a month from Adsense …
Very true stuff, testing needs to be done and you need to keep evolving everyother time!
I have just finished reading your latest guest blog post on John Chow’s site. This post is excellent, I’m going to bookmark it so I can refer to it later when I’m testing out Adsense on my blogs.
I have the traffic, I am ranked higher than you per alexa. but I only make about 130 dollars per month on google.
help me and I will give you a % of my profits.
hey, where are the adsense ads then
For the people wondering how the site could be making that much via Adsense when A) this blog’s alexa rank isn’t special or B) there aren’t any ads on this blog… um, this is due to the fact that this blog, the one that you’re reading right now, is NOT the site this post is about.
I thought that’d be pretty obvious considering this blog is like a month old and, ya know, doesn’t actually have any Adsense ads on it (and never will, by the way).
For the people (perhaps geniuses at this point) who realized this post is about some other site and asked to see it, I’m gonna have to pass for now. Maybe one day, though.
For the people (and there were like 5 more of you who emailed me about this) asking me to take a look at your site and do whatever testing/work is needed to improve your Adsense earnings (which you’d then split with me), I’m gonna have to pass on that too. I’m flattered you’d ask, but I honestly couldn’t be less interested in doing it. Nothing personal.
For the people who didn’t ask any of the above and just found the post useful… awesome. Glad you liked it.
Wow. great post…. Many blogger say dont put all your eggs in one basket but you told something unique about adsense…
I have very less traffic but get decent revenue… i hope i will shoot this 1000% with my blogs…thanks.
Hey! I really need do more tests!
My earnings are muuuuuuch smaller than yours, but I did some tests and, really, I loved results!
I use to ask a report of all channels and sort by CTR.
Later, I check which channels are getting lower CTR. So, I must work on them in order to get better CTR!
I did it during one or two monthes, and my earnings multply per three! That’s very nice!
But, I was so busy and my earnings reduced again – yeah, updates are essential, too!
I’ll do new tests in August, maybe I get double my earnings again!
excellent post. congratulations of your success with the Adsense. it seems you applied perfect tactics on that.this is another success story i have heard after Shoemoney’s success, and many more. great. if now you earn $10,000/month, it means you will earn $120,000 for the next 12 months. fantastic.