AdSense - Can you really Make Money Blogging?
75The Unholy Question on AdSense
AdSense and Money. Everything these days moves around techniques to earn money with AdSense and Google Ads: how to get clicks, how to optimize your website to be Google friendly, how to increase your chances to earn a living online; but is it all this frenzy worth the effort? Is it so easy to earn money with Google Ads? Can you make money blogging with AdSense?
Money and AdSense
Is Make Money Blogging with AdSense a real thing?
I want to know how much real truth there is on making money displaying Google ads. While it is good to earn money with them how many people around the world can honestly say that they earn good money consistently every month with AdSense? More than 100 $? And how much effort does it requires? How many articles do you need? Is it really possible to make money blogging consistently in this way? And how much time is needed?
It seems that these days everything goes around AdSense. It doesn't really matter if a website is good or if it gives something really valuable, but if it is keywords optimized and ranks high on Google. Everything turns around hits and impressions and money earned and so on.
(Of course I'm not saying that traffic isn't important, it's probably all that matters.)
And this is perfectly fine. My question to you that have arrived here is:
You, as a netsurfer, do you click on AdSense ads?
Or is it only me who just don't see them anymore or, as "sometimes" they are not either consistent with the website or interesting, or just about moneysucker sites, I just don't bother anymore to click on them?
Am I alone or this happens to someone else? Is it only my own website which gets 90 percent of time unrelevant ads?
And I have another question on Google Ads: why almost all top bloggers do not use them on their websites? Even those who teach how to make money blogging with AdSense? They always use it on other niche sites but almost never on their main site. Isn't this strange?
What do you think about this?
If you liked this hub please rate it, share it and leave a comment.Thank you!
Update 08 March 2010
After some research and many comments it seems that at the end the only one who earns money from AdSense is Google. Many people say that they earn a lot of money from Google Ads, usually a couple of seconds before trying to sell you at least one ebook about making money with AdSense, which is a kind of contradiction in terms: if you are really making money than there is no need to sell me an ebook, right?
Also, beside ads blindness, that is you are so used to ads that you simply don't see them anymore, and the absurdity behind the reason that you use AdSense to make money but you can't ask to your readers to have a look at ads, these days all browsers have anti pop-up and anti ads extensions so ads are simply not seen anymore. So, is it really possible to make money blogging with AdSense for the common web publisher? Do you know someone who consistently every month makes more than 100 $ only with AdSense? Vote and look at the poll's results.
And tell me why if it's possible to make real and consistent money with Google Ads you always try to sell me your ebook crash course in make money blogging with Adsense. Really, I'm interested.
AdSense Earnings
How much money do you earn consistently every month from AdSense alone?
See results without votingCopyright
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CommentsLoading...
I just want to greet you Happy New Year hehe, Maita
I only click them when they say something I am really interested in. I usually only notice them when I have already found about two thirds of the information I am looking for. I get really disgusted when clicking just gives me another search list.
Thanks mulberry. It's nice to know I'm not alone. :)
Happy New Year to you too Maita, but you haven't answered my question. ;)
Thanks for your comment Ivorwen. I'm just like you, either I don't see them and click them once every ten times. I'm just wandering if there is any real business involved. Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for you comments!
I click on them if they're very relevant or interesting. But it's not very often.
Thanks William. Wow, it really seems that I'm not alone. This hub is becoming quite interesting. :)
For me it's a tossup between clicking and content, if the ad is something I'm looking for then yes, otherwise, I couldn't care less. Happy New Year.
I click on them from time to time if they strike a chord. I pretty much agree with Rebecca, if I am reading a game review or something, then yes... If not, then they are practically invisible.
You know hypnodude I really do not click on these ads ever and have to say that they are annoying to me. And I do not read Adsense hubs as much anymore because it seems everyone has the same thing to say about it. Since I like the way you write, I wanted to read your insight. Thanks for sharing.
Rebecca and mynameisnotpaul, thanks for dropping a comment. I agree with you, pretty much invisible most of the times. Happy New Year to you too.
Hi ladyjane, thanks for the comment and for appreciating how I write. It's always a pleasure to hear that :)
I don't read AdSense hubs too anymore, mainly because I've been so lucky to read from the beginning some very good hubs on it. And also because there are so many good hubs around that I try to use my time to read them.
And to reply to those nice hubbers who drop comments. :):)
Hi hynodude :) I've wondered the same thing myself as I hardly ever click ads now. But then again I think publishers like us won't click so much because we aren't allowed to on our own work and so we become blinder to them than most people are. I used to click ads a lot before I started writing on the internet.
Nice hub!
Thanks for your comment Susana. It can be that you are right, it's a kind of professional distortion. What I really can't understand is why it isn't allowed to tell readers to click on ads, while in reality both writers and AdSense are hoping/begging for the reader to click. No clicks no AdWord working no money.
It's a numbers game I think hypnodude. You write good content you get more visits. The more visits, the more likely some ONE will click through on the ads. If you are in it for the money, than you will use the tactics necessary to get more people to click through, it's about VOLUME.
To answer your question on a personal level, I very seldom click the ads, and most certainly not on my own material. Big no no that one.
Anyway, nice hub and a good way to generate comments and get to know your readers. Well done.
Thanks Duchess, I don't click on my ads too, I certainly don't want to get banned. A little money it's better than no money. :)
My main goal is to know if what I write is good enough for other people beside myself. So I'm not very much into the money thing, but after having read some hubs I understand what you mean by being in for the money. Nothing wrong with it anyway.
Thanks for your appreciation. :)
Actually today I was rereading one of my own hubs and I saw an ad that I really wanted to click on! LOL. I know I'm not supposed to do that, so I guess I lost out on that one.
If you want I can click on it and then tell you how it goes. :)
Hi again - an average click through rate is 1-2% per thousand, so that tells you how many actually click! 10-20 people per thousand visitors. That's why getting high traffic levels is so important. :)
William, same here! I see ads on my hubs that I want to click on because they're relevant (when I'm lucky) to the subject I'm interested in. Of course we're interested, that's why we wrote the hub, true? Sometimes the ad has the link url underneath and you can type it into search.
You put it perfectly, Duchess.
Thanks for the clarification Susana. :) I guess if we could write "Click on the ads if you like what you read" it could easily go ten times that. I'd be curious to know how many people really earn enough money from it.
Thanks TLMinut and mynameisnotpaul. Duchess said it right. If everyone used to surfing the net doesn't click anymore on ads than only newbies do it. So a consistent amount of new people is needed every month. Something like MLM?
I DO click on an ad if it's relevant to the subject I'm reading about and I think it may give me more information. Usually I've discovered it doesn't but sometimes I still hope.
Thanks TLMinut, I do click too sometimes but usually I just don't see them. Even if relevant though. :(
Someone on Hubpages (forget who)got kicked out of the Adsence program because one of his friends was trying to be nice and started clicking his ads like crazy.
I never really even noticed them before I started wanting my own ad clicks.
That's a great answer Dolores. After some time hubbing I'm beginning to have the same behavior even with Amazon's ads. Interesting. Thanks for your comment.
Dude - when I became interested in the whole idea of ad clicks, I clicked a couple ad when I was researching some garden stuff. The ads that I clicked were very informative and helped me a great deal. I didn't buy anything though.
Anyway they worked out. Even if you didn't buy they were useful for you and drove traffic to the sites. Everyone wins in this case. :)
G'day mate, from day one we get bashed about clicking ads on our own pages , so they do tend to get invisible when you visit other peoples hubs.
Hi agvulpes, I think you are right, that's why I don't understand very much where the AdSense money comes from, if it really comes. Thanks for your comment.
Hi hypno :) I thought this hub by Hal Licino might make you laugh - it's a funny take on adsense, but very true:
http://hubpages.com/hub/All-The-Reasons-Why-I-Love
Enjoy!
I've read it and become a fan, thanks Susana. Great hub and great writer. You gave me a great hint. I guess he's right, the owners make billions of dollars a year but I doubt if anyone else really gets money. And in the case you get bucks you can't talk about it. And someone says that Masonry is a secret society. :(
Very interesting social experiment. I generally do not click on ads.
I am definitely in the "invisible" club. . I dont see them and usually if i do i dont dare click. . they never seem to take me anywhere good ;) unlike this Hub. . which I think is real good!
Thanks for your contribution Jim. The experiment is coming out with quite interesting results.
Hi wavegirl, thanks for your kind comment. Don't worry, it seems that you are in good company. :) I'm happy you appreciated the hub.
Nice to meet you. This is a great hub. thank you for sharing it with us.
Nice to meet you too. I'm happy you've found it interesting. And thanks for your comment.
The ads are invisible to me too...Probably because on the old processors if you clicked on something sometimes you would get a zillion popups and your browser would freeze up. I leave the ads alone. Good Hub it got my attention
Great hub and very interesting comments. I ended up reading all comments. I click on relevant ads, and to my surprise sometimes i get good info (about personal finance anyway) but i am new to hubpages, maybe it will change?
Hi Tammy, I remember too those times when the wrong click could kill a browser. And a pc if there was a virus on pop ups. Fortunately now every browser has a pop up blocker. Thanks for your kind comment.
Hi Karina, thanks for your appreciation. There are a lot of interesting comments, which are the real responsible for the good performance of the hub, thanks friends!
I think we somehow develop a kind of immunity to ads, especially because we learn soon to stay distant from our own, as someone rightly said. That's why I'm beginning to think they work only on new surfers. But as you say sometimes they are even useful. I guess this hub will have a long life. Thanks again.
Hello hypnodude, to answer your question, I don't mind clicking on ads if I am researching something. But I don't go around deliberately clicking on them Hahahahaha So as to your experiment, have you gained a lot of traffic on this one?
Just to share, did you know inspirational hubs earn really less than other stuff? And I was kinda stumped in the first place because I wanted to earn extra money and then later when I learned about keywords, I felt at a loss for awhile. Then I just said to myself, I will just write from the heart and what I am interested in and believe the money will come. Well, after two years I finally did get my adsense payout. I celebrate that!!! Woohoo...so here's hoping you get to earn too!
Lol, thanks for your enlightening comment ripplemaker. Thanks for your answer, and yes, I had a lot of traffic just using the magic word AdSense, not as much as my Five Minutes Workout or the Psychic hubs anyway. But I have the added benefit that reading this hub I guess many readers will find interesting concepts, on comments of course.
You're definitely right, inspirational hubs earn less than "Making Money Soon", or "AdSense Something" and so on.
That's seems strange but is probably human nature. My nature is to go for inspirational hubs, and I can't worry too much about keywords or SEO if I want to express my feelings and become a better writer. That is beside money I'm having a lot of spiritual rewards, 80 followers in five weeks and many of them are becoming friends, a good traffic and an enormous amount of feedback which will make me a better writer. So I agree with you, I definitely go for the from the heart writing, and if a Top Hubber like you had to wait two years to see money than I can be pretty happy with what I've gained until now.
Btw I would happily see if all those claims about money are real. As much as I'd like to see those hubs without an outside link. :)
But I've been quite lucky from the beginning as I've read really good hubs on the matter and so I've been able to discriminate on quality. There are many good hubs about "real" AdSense or SEO, and I'm proud that some of their writers are following me. No money, but I'm a winner nevertheless. :)
You write well and make sense so people will follow you and read what you are writing. Yes, that is being a winner! :) The money is real I believe. In fact, reflecting on SEO and keywords, I was thinking maybe one of these days I'll be inspired to write about money and adsense and investments in an inspirational way. Now wouldn't that be a blast? LOL
Definitely it would :) I rate it up from now. LOL
And I forgot to say that there are some extensions for Seamonkey, Firefox and I guess also Explorer which simply forbid ads to appear on the page. And from what I see they are quite downloaded and used.
Wow, you psyched me out with that psychological experiment! I usually click on adsense ads if they seem to have an answer for what I'm looking for.
hey hypno, I have read all your articles,hehe write some more about Adsense hehe, smile and be happy, I always drop by because when I look at your hub, I always am thinking positive and my mind gets powerful, Thansk always, Maita
Thanks for your wonderful words Maita, you know it's the same for me. :) I'm planning another one on AdSense which should be ready soon. Have a great day!
still waiting for the Adsense, I will write about Poes other works after Super Bowl, keep safe, Maita
:) Enjoy the Super Bowl then. And have a great day.
hypnodude, nice experiement lol.
I have always believed that the 'relevency' of the ad to the text of the article is important. ie the searcher will come to you article and click on an ad if it relevant to what he is searching for ? :-)
:) Thanks for commenting agvulpes, you are right, but from what I see it doesn't happen so often. I'm pretty satisfied with my experiment. I should do another one.:)
There seems to be a subtle shift in HubPages content from a year ago, when I first signed up. Good writers with terrific content are now bombarding us with Adsense advice. I look at it--hey, I'd like to make some extra change along the way, too--but there almost seems less interest in content and more in clicks and backlinks. I have wondered if this was all it was ever really about, but hope that isn't the case.
To answer your question, I came to catch up because I hadn't read any of your hubs for awhile. This was a nice little experiment indeed, and quite worthwhile.
Mike
Hi Mike, thanks for your kind words. I haven't been here so long to see what you say, but I think that it can be due first to the fact that writing about Adesnse means traffic and second to the fact that terrific content doesn't give enough clicks on ads, that is money. And third, and most important for those good hubbers, AdSense is a top topic these days so it's quite natural to write about it.
Moreover terrific content has a drawback as regards AdSense: Google has already problems with pairing ads with commercial content, imagine what comes out with poetry: "be slim fast"? "Meet new friends now"? "Scientology is for you"?
AdSense today is the top winner, but I don't think it will be for long, too secrecy and not enough clarity, and very little money. And a lot of people who uses ADblock or similar extensions on their browsers never see ads anymore.
Anyhow I've learned more about Adsense here at hubpages than in all Google sites and I think that high quality hubs, some of the writers are above in the comments section :), have made a great job at clarifying AdSense, something that Google doesn't do so well. It's a kind of service for the public. :)
Thanks to them (the good hubbers) a lot of people gets scammed less by get rich quick stuff. Now, I don't know how many there are who consistently earn above 500$ each month from ads, but in these hard times everyone tries to earn some money, and we're all here for traffic. There is a difference though between good hubbers who write to clarify a point or concept and those who write only for traffic, but it's quite easy to catch them. I mean not all content is bad content.
I should have written a hub instead of a comment:), but this has been a great experiment as my friends hubbers have given me a lot of insights.
It's my opinion that those hubbers with terrific content are those who are doing the great job of explaining and clarifying to common people like me how the business of ads works.
Thanks again Mike for the keen comment (I hope wordreference has given me the right meaning).
Sometimes I see them, sometimes I don't. I click if it's something relevant and interesting.
Nice experiment. So, how is it coming along?
It's a great experiment. It demonstrates, in my opinion, that AdSense earnings are greatly overvalued. If almost no one looks or clicks on ads then where the money comes from? It seems only from newbies who have just begun to surf. Rarely relevant, seldom clicked, rarely seen, blocked by browser's extensions, is it still worth writing for AdSense? I think yes, a little money is better than no money but it should not be the most important thing, all this effort for a couple of cents every 1000 readers isn't such a good thing. Better writing targeted hubs for Amazon.
I hope this experiment will go on for long as it's really interesting. Thanks for your comment Jill, glad you liked it.
Hypodude, This really is an interesting hub. I also got alot out of the comments. This is the kind of hub to keep an eye out for over time, rate up. Thank you!
Hi Madison, thanks to you for your kind words. You're right the comments are enlightening. And I'll probably have to add some news to the hub soon. As the AdSense thing evolves:)
Actually, I am afraid to click on ads. I do sometimes - but last summer my computer crashed - and I am the only one using it, I thought I was careful about ads I was clicking on, I rarely download anything at all - and I thought I had good anti-virus software. Didn't matter. For the first time in my life I had to take a computer of mine out to be serviced. Good grief!
So now, even less than ever do I click on ads.
Thanks BkCreative, I never thought about this possibility. This is interesting and pretty scaring. That's how my question came out, if almost no one click on ads how is it all that money made? Thanks for your very useful contribution.
I click them if I'm looking for things related to the ad. Which is about 30-50% of the time. So I guess I'm different from most.
Thank you lilian. You're not different, maybe more lucky as the ads are relevant to what you're reading. :)
But with more and more people using ads blocking extension just seeing ads is almost impossible. I use a browser without them specifically to check what's on my hubs, but since normally I use Firefox I never see them anymore. The funny thing is that even with the "clean" browser I just skip them without really seeing them. Which is an interesting psychological thing. :)
Thanks for your kind comment.
Excellent Article..
Thank you for sharing it with us :)
Thank you very much Northhills, I'm glad you liked it. :)
This is really thought provocative! I have not yet configure my adsense account yet. I am still gathering knowledge about all these.
This is a great hub and I have Rated it up!
Hi cupid, thanks for your kind comment and rating. If you want my thought AdSense is good to have, just do not think to make real money with it, not for months at least.:) Have a great day!
Interesting hub. I don't usually click on ads, but if I see something that seems interesting I'll definitely check it out.
Thanks for your comment Lamme, that's also what I'm usually doing now. When it happens that they are relevant. :)
goog hub.. you give more clear information vote, exellent idea.. give us clear information about adsense. I will follow you. thanks
Thanks Rismayanti, I'm glad you find this information useful. Have a great day!
How did I miss this great hub for three months? I think it's because I've stopped reading Adsense/Hubpages hubs, but I enjoy your writing, so I thought I'd have a browse while eating my breakfast (yoghurt and banana in case you want to know).
I'm on my way to a payout - been here eight months. I occasionally click on ads if they don't look like a scam. If they're around my work, I jot down the company's url then google them - have found interesting stuff that way.
I used to click ads more before I knew so much about them. BUT I really wish I'd known more about how they work when I built my high street business and was paying to advertise using them - would have been much more savvy.
To be honest, I've had most hits and most success with stuff written from the heart. I think there can be a dichotomy between keyword research ie words that pay/rank highly and what a human wants to read about (though you're on to a winner with this one).
Anyway great hub, and losts of good comments.
Thanks Georgina for your great comment which adds a lot to the hub. And thanks for your kind words which are very much appreciated. I agree with you that there is a difference between what you can write from the heart and what you can write going for money. Actually I try to write the first paragraph thinking about keywords and then I go on going with the flow. This way I try to hit both because as you say writing thinking only about keywords lowers the quality of the hub, which in turns affects also the money. As for me I don't usually click on ads unless they are really relevant, which happens quite infrequently. Probably this is the greatest flaw of AdSense.
Hope you enjoyed your breakfast. :):)
Hi Hypnodude, I was interested to read your views on this as you are not one of the obviously commercial hubbers who are out there churning out product based hubs. I've been here two years, and my hubs are mostly about art and other things I'm interested in. I've literally only just reached payout on my 50+ hubs and I can't say I'm too surprised that it's taken so long. Like you, I never click on ads although I do occassionally see ones I'm interested in. For the most part, however, I do tune them out, especially the little line ads.
Funnily enough, the first time I was ever paid for my writing, back in the 80s, I received £60, and that's exactly the pay-out threshold for UK hubbers. I remember spending just a couple of hours on that long ago article. I don't like to even contemplate the time I've spent to garner the same amount on hub-pages although it's probably 200 hours plus!
Wow! This is really something. Since being on HP I actually clicked one ad, and believe it or not, it was on one of your hubs. We actually had the same ad, and I wanted to know what it was about and I could not do it on my own HP so when I saw it on yours, I clicked it. It was really very interesting, but I could not afford the monetary follow-up. As the ads change, that particular ad is no longer on either of our pages. I believe there is a little more to it than just clicking on an ad. Well, I guess time will tell. This is a good hub, as I think all of us at some point wonder just when and how much money we will make with HP. Rated up!
PS: I noticed you have an Adsense book in your Amazon listing, I clicked on it to see what it was about. It seems it may make for an interesting read. Yet, it also makes you think, if all it takes is to read the book, all of us hubbers should be rolling in the money. Guess I better count my pennies to make the purchase LOL!
Hi Amanda, thanks so much for your compliments which I appreciate a lot. I think you explained the issue perfectly, that is: Is AdSense really the best choice for writers to earn some money? For what I see, and the comments I've received, not very much, at least for 90% of writers. That is, better write for ourselves without putting too much effort on optimizing articles for Google and AdSense.
That's one of the reasons I'm pretty sure that in a not so distant future AdSense will be surpassed by someone else. Maybe someone with more respect for writers efforts, at the end without us there would be no AdSense.
Thanks for your sound and kind comment. :)
Support Med., your comments are always witty and a pleasure to read. Thanks for having made me to earn some money clicking on my ads, I'll exchange back the favor. :)
I too seldom click on ads, mostly because they are very rarely relevant to what I'm reading. Well, I should probably begin to write on student loans or stuff like that.
We would all like to know when we'll begin to make some real money with AdSense, but for now it seems more a legend than a real thing. Luckily I don't write mainly for the money, but it's nevertheless part of the equation.
Thanks for the hint about the book, I'll check it out too. And also thanks for the rating.:)
I have reread this hub, and reread it again, and the more I read it the more it makes sense ( pardon teh pun...) at any rate I should use this as a link on one of my hub, with permission of course.
Rebecca, you have the permission to link whatever you like. With all the knowledge I received from you it's just a little drop in the ocean, but I'm glad you liked it and if I have something useful, use it.:)
Hi Hypndude, no as an Adsense account holder myself I am almost conditioned subconsciously not to click on it, certainly in hubpages and I feel others in hubpages would say the same, which is a shame if something is grabbing our attention because people are losing out, this has made me think again about this. I am no expert guru, although I do make money from Adsense, here on hubpages a bit (only 4 hubs) but more so on websites and other Adsense sharing sites. One of my most surprising successes which was not intentional or researched that thoroughly but was keyword targetted to rank highly (1st pg Google), was writing a review - a bad review on a product I had bought and sent back to Amazon. Within days the article had high traffic, Adsense clicks (which were high value due to the nature of the product)on paid ads for similar products to the one I reviewed. I put Amazon on this and am now getting either Amazon sales or Adsense with people either buying through me or investigating rival products through paid ads. There is a great deal to be said about writing around Google paid ads. Like you I believe that people making money are not the ones writing E books about how to do it - I've never bought one yet! There are many great writers here on hubpages - I read them for pleasure but I'm certain they are not the hubs making money. I would be interested to learn how your experiment went writing this hub with the dreaded word in the title! Juliette
That's interesting Juliette, very interesting, thanks for adding such knowledge to my article. The experiment went well, a lot of comments and traffic and obviously very few clicks. I would really like to know the real numbers of AdSense, not for website owners or Google, but for writers. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to know. Thanks again, and have a great day!
To make money with it requires traffic , quality writing etc. I enjoyed reading your article thankyou :)
You're right Coolmon, and a good amount of luck too. Glad you liked also this one. :)
Funny hub, good job
mulberry1 Level 1 Commenter 2 years ago
You are not alone.
These ads are invisible to me as well!