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Before I leave, I wanted to get something off my chest. The alternate title for this post was: “Why you shouldn’t depend on webmaster welfare”. For those out of the loop, “webmaster welfare” is a term used to describe Adsense that apparently can be credited back to IncrediBill.
To me, a made for Adsense site – or a site who makes the huge percentage of its income from Adsense – is lazy monetization, not to be confused with being a lazy seo. When we lazy seo people say things like…
…make the most amount of money while doing the least amount of work possible.
…develop passive revenue streams that maintain themselves using automated systems.
One should never become confused that we mean lazy monetization. Lazy seo’s do not sit around on webmaster welfare… lazy monetizers do. Webmaster welfare has allowed a lot of webmasters to become lazy monetizers. Google will give you a handout for sitting on your ass and not working to monetize the site yourself.
Sure, you’ll make less money than you could have otherwise in most cases, but you also don’t have to be very productive. Just keep spitting out content and Google will keep sending you checks paid for by Adwords advertisers. Make enough webmaster welfare and Google will assign you a social worker optimization specialist to show you how to setup the ads on your site to get even more clickthrus so that your webmaster welfare check gets a little larger.
This is not – I repeat – not lazy seo. This is lazy monetization and you screw yourself by accepting it and never working to get off it. You are being fooled into accepting less money than your site can actually make. I’ll give you an example…
Site A does x,xxx.xx in Adsense in each month. The x’s are over a year amount to about the average household salary in America.
And I’m not saying that’s not damn good. What I am saying is that the same site could be making enough to put you in the top five percent or higher of household incomes if you got off your ass and stopped accepting the handouts. Google isn’t paying *you* x,xxx.xx a month. In a lot of cases, *you* are paying Google xx,xxx.xx a month to monetize the property you’re too freaking lazy to monetize yourself.
Monetizing a website is not rocket science, but it does take a bit of effort and a bit of research and a bit of determination. Instead of trying to increase your Adsense clickthrus by .02 percent, why don’t you work on making your website into a real business…
Real life examples:
- Site A makes x,xxx.xx a month in Adsense.
- Site A makes xx.xx per month in affiliate marketing via 2 different programs.
- Site A makes 0.00 a month in CPM based advertising.
- Overall, Adsense is 95 percent of Site A’s income.
- Site B makes x,xxx.xx a month in Adsense.
- Site B makes xx,xxx.xx per month in affiliate marketing via xx different programs.
- Site B makes x,xxx.xx a month in CPM based advertising.
- Overall, Adsense is less than 15 percent of Site B’s income.
Site B is not on webmaster welfare. Site B has defensible income. Site B nets enough to put it in the top 2 percent of household incomes in America. Site B is working the e-myth system. Site B is not owned by a lazy monetizer, but instead a lazy seo.
Now here comes the moment of clarity… site B used to be site A. Keep this in mind if you are someone happily cashing in solely on webmaster welfare this month… think people… get off your asses and monetize.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL. Wow this timely post hit me like a ton of bricks. I have been guilty of becoming complacent with “webmaster welfare” on some of my own websites.
However, dealing with the topics of people searches and public records, I have found it hard to monetize my site with many of the affiliate programs available. Most other web revenue streams do not convert well with my particular topic.
Thanks.
I remember AdSense… I remember snap bracelets and pogs, too.
Good post, but I hope none of your readers are in my niches ;-)
@Tropical SEO
yeah, I wrestled with this post… while I like buying these sites and then tripling or quadrupling their income, I felt a sense of responsibility to speak out. That said, you know as well as I do that only 1.4% will actually ACT on what this post states anyway ;-)
Well said. Always been a mystery to me why so many otherwise smart SEOs consider AdSense to be the holy grail of monetizing a site, rather than just another piece in the puzzle.
Good post and quite interesting! Thanks!
Rae, that was an awesome point. I think you should follow up with something on transitioning from Adsense to affiliate programs, as well as some advice on soliciting CPM ads.
“Monetizing a website is not rocket science, but it does take a bit of effort and a bit of research and a bit of determination. Instead of trying to increase your Adsense clickthrus by .02 percent, why don’t you work on making your website into a real business…”
Well said, although I’m definitely guilty of using adsense as a fallback for monetization. I create something, give it away for free, and then throw adsense on it. It’s like a “just add water” business model.
@Gabriel I will see what I can do :)
I wouldn’t call sitting back and watching revenue come in from AdSense lazy seo or lazy monetization. If you do sound keyword research, identify great niches and launch a few pages of content with Adsense on that make some cash you’re on the right track. Then move on to the next niche. Build sites within sites based on niches and watch the Adsense roll in.
hmmm…..rant and rave…i am still struggling with simple seo tasks
Yes, a good point. But some people love to make money in a passive way, rather than moving their asses to make more. If they are happy with their current income, no one can make them working hard.
I love passive income ;)
Nicely put! If we are happy with what we are currently making and don’t do anything to improve it then it means we stagnate. One should never do that, because it stands in the way of progress.
Hiya Rae – glad I found you again – and great post and one I can certainly endorse – my earnings tripled when I removed adsense and concentrated on monetizing each part of every page – to the extent that we not only have an incredibly successful affiliate site but we moved into ecommerce – selling the most successful products ourselves and are among the UK’s top online store in this area – hard work, but worth it, as we now employ our 3 kids (grown-up kids :)) full time – great stuff!
Great income break down! I’ve always been the one to proclaim that there is more to monetization than just Adsense. Many webmasters and newbies get so caught up in this one monetization strategy that they leave more money on the table for…well…me…and hundreds of other webmasters. =)