Second AdSense Payment Received

Here's the entry from my bank account showing an EFT transfer from Google Adsense. The first time, it took me three years to reach the $100 payout threshold. This time, only 15 months. Right now, I'm on track to make the next payment in a little less than a year if things stay about the same.

Am I going to get rich from Google Adsense? Not on your life. But, it does pay some of the expenses of sites of mine that I host, and that's a big help.

Where do most of my clicks come from? Actually, not on any of my blogs. Most ad clicks are on my West Michigan recreation site Get Off the Couch. I think that is because it is very specific, and ads can be targeted really well.

If you are going to use AdSense, just be careful to follow the rules. For example, this blog does not show any AdSense ads, because I talk about Pay-to-Click sites here, and that is a definite no-no. People have wondered about Adgitize ads and Entrecard or CMF. But I've been using those right along and they've never balked at them.

I do use Chitika ads along with AdSense, and that seems to be ok. Those are targeted in a different way from AdSense, so apparently they don't see it as a problem.

If you see yourself into blogging or having web sites long term, and have good niche sites, AdSense can be a legitimate way to earn.

Year End Report- 2010 Online Income

The original purpose of this blog was to track whether I would be able to earn enough income online to sustain life. The big answer is, so far, no.

Earlier, I was reporting the amount earned every day, even though it was pennies. This took way too much time, and was impractical. But, for any faithful, or incidental, readers I may have I’d like to provide a year-end report of my efforts. It's long, but some of you have indicated that you are quite interested. So, here it all is... my successes and other attempts.

There are several categories of income included here: Online writing venues, pay-to-click, and other- mostly blog advertising. I’m not going to post proof of payments... You can either believe me or not, and I have no reason to make any of this up. I will make a few comments about each income source.

Total online income for 2010 is $2666.79. All in all, not bad, but not enough. If I were to write content for eight hours a day I could probably double that, but I would go stark raving mad at the tedium. I’m currently focusing on Shared Reviews, where I think I have the best chance of building significant residual income.

Highly recommended earning sites in green! Not recommended in pink! Your may or may not like in yellow.

If any of these appeal to you, might I ask that you sign up under me? Many sites will just sell your referral to someone else, so why not help a friend? It will cost you nothing. The site names are links, with referral info if applicable.

Online writing venues
for a comparison of four of these, see Comparing Four On-Line Writing Venues
Textbroker: reliable income for decent writers, payouts twice a month. You write, you get paid. No residual income.
date	income	outgo
9/21	$98.03
8/21	$39.07
7/21	$62.71
4/21	$30.82
4/6	$33.52
3/21	$75.06
2/21	$192.75
2/6	$66.03
1/21	$131.24
TOTAL	$729.23
Shared Reviews: reliable income for diligent writers, payouts seldom on time, but always come eventually. Residual income increases as the body of your work increases. See How to Write Excellent Content for Shared Reviews
date	income	outgo
12/9	$102.44
8/26	$64.69
7/26	$35.73
6/19	$40.18
5/21	$55.00
5/18	$36.45
4/7	$42.14
3/29	$33.80
3/9	$15.00
2/18	$51.87
1/14	$60.25
TOTAL	$537.55
Helium: horrible rating structure which is required for residual income, very frustrating. I reached payout threshold, and will not go back there.
date	income	outgo
12/9	$27.88
TOTAL	$27.88
Associated Content: submit for upfront pay (slow response time), or page views only. All carry small residual income which increases as the body of your work increases.
date	income	outgo
12/9	$7.06
11/10	$5.44
10/18	$2.30
10/13	$5.00
10/13	$4.11
10/11	$4.49
9/28	$2.97
9/22	$4.35
9/21	$4.02
9/15	$4.45
9/14	$4.64
9/8	$5.65
9/8	$4.61
8/11	$4.01
7/14	$3.62
6/9	$3.12
5/12	$3.02
4/14	$2.93
3/10	$4.98
2/10	$7.55
1/13	$9.14
TOTAL	$97.46
Seed: I haven’t had a lot of luck getting content accepted here
date	income	outgo
8/17	$12.50
TOTAL	$12.50
Vertical Blogger: was offered two assignments, and then no others
date	income	outgo
2/5	$45.83
TOTAL	$45.83
Advertising
Adgitize: primarily for blog advertising, not income, but advertisers who also participate can recoup expenses and make a little money
date	income	outgo
12/23		$14.00 for ad
12/6	$ 20.85
11/24		$14.00 for ad
11/7	$21.20
11/21		$14.00 for ad
10/9	$16.50
9/21		$14.00 for ad
9/9	$15.69
8/22		$14.00 pd
8/7	$23.01
7/19		$14.00 for ad
6/14		$14.00 for ad
6/9	$10.99
5/16		$14.00 for ad
5/7	$16.97
4/16		$14.00 for ad
4/7	$20.53
3/10		$14.00 for ad
3/6	$18.96
2/7	$17.93
1/30		$14.00 for ad
1/6	$28.56
TOTAL NET	$57.19
Project Wonderful: makes pennies a day, but it’s quite trouble-free, and I did better in the second half of 2010
date	income	outgo
11/2	$20.00
TOTAL	$20.00
Chitika: contextual advertising, similar to and compatible with AdSense
date	income	outgo
10/31	$11.27
4/30	$10.50
TOTAL	$21.77
AdSense: needs large traffic numbers, very strict regulations about click fraud and content
date	income	outgo
5/25	$102.56
TOTAL	$102.56
Private Client
date	income	outgo
12/10	$55.00
TOTAL	$55.00
Surveys
PineCone Surveys: you must be invited to join this Neilson survey site which pays $3.00 for most opinion surveys
date	income	outgo
12/23	$3.00
12/8	$3.00
11/24	$3.00
11/2	$3.00
10/20	$10.00
10/19	$3.00
10/7	$3.00
10/6	$3.00
9/7	$3.00
8/23	$3.00
8/6	$3.00
7/12	$3.00
6/28	$3.00
5/24	$3.00
5/14	$3.00
5/3	$3.00
4/8	$3.00
3/12	$3.00
2/8	$3.00
1/7	$3.00
TOTAL	$67.00
My Survey: I’ve been a member for many years. You don’t get paid a lot per survey, but you don’t fill out multiple questionnaires just to be told you don’t qualify. If you are shown a survey, you will be paid
date	income	outgo
9/22	$40.00
TOTAL	$40.00
Pay to Click
Cashium: pay to click- not very stable (I make about 3 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
12/13	$2.29
TOTAL	$2.29
Neobux: pay to click- reliable, need either basic membership or natural referrals- rented referrals lose you money (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/17	$2.97
9/10	$1.97
TOTAL	$4.94
Buxto: seems reliable- I bought permanent referrals, but payout threshold is $50, so I haven’t reached that yet (I make about 15 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/12		$18.00 to buy referrals
TOTAL NET	$-18.00
Clixsense: reliable, Alertpay charges processing fees, so this was my net from $20.77 worth of clicking (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
1/9	$18.50
TOTAL	$18.50
PalmBux: has had outages, and lost money for some investors (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
12/13	$2.29
TOTAL	$2.29
OnBux: seems reliable (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/11	$2.11
TOTAL	$2.11
Other
Swagbucks: get paid for internet searches- all it “costs” you is that their suggestions are the top few choices returned in the list
date	income	outgo
10/4	$10.00
4/28	$10.00
1/26	$10.00
TOTAL	$30.00
Microworkers: I made cashout and will not return- too many offers are illegal or shady
date	income	outgo
3/12	$10.69
TOTAL	$10.69
Other: not at liberty to disclose source- online employment, not permanent
date	income	outgo
3/24	$600.00
2/6	$200.00
TOTAL	$800.00

Now the Fun Begins- Getting Paid from Adsense?

We've all heard the horror stories about people being denied payment from Google after finally reaching the $100 threshold. Well, here's where mine begins. They haven't actually denied payment as yet, but they have disabled their ads to this blog.

It seems that after all of my attempts to be careful and follow their rules that I missed one. You can't put their ads on a blog that even has content about pay-to-click sites.

They have not reduced my total earnings, or said that payment is being denied. So... I will wait and see what happens.

Almost enough on Google Adsense

Almost Enough at Google AdSense

I thought I'd never get there, but it looks as if I will be reaching the $100.00 cashout point at Google AdSense this month!

My average income per day varies wildly, from $0.11 per day some months to $0.24 some months. I have noticed that when I can get traffic up it makes a big difference. I've been really careful to squelch click fraud, so I'm hopeful that I won't get one of those nasty denials of payment that I've read about from others.

It has taken me since December of 2007 to reach this level, so essentially 28 months. I'm working at monetizing some underviewed pages of mine. We'll see if that makes the next payout come any sooner.

A Google AdSense Milestone

Oddly enough, in a comment yesterday, Bachrum of Online Business Solutions asked me if I had any tips on how to make $.05 a day on Google AdSense. And when I checked my statistics this morning, I discovered that for the first time ever I have made over $1.00 in a single day on AdSense!

In the first place (laughing nervously), I'm quite honored that anyone thinks that making 5 cents a day is something to applaud. But, then again, a few months ago I was averaging a penny a day, so it's a definite improvement.

Here is the only tips I have. Get more traffic! I now have 6 blogs and 2 web sites that are carrying Google AdSense ads. Frankly, I think it's pretty pathetic that with that much coverage I can only make a nickel a day!



I've had AdSense ads on some of those sites for just over two years, and I have yet to make the $100 payment threshold. As you can see, I'm beginning to get close. I have read horror stories of people making the threshold, and then Google just up and tells them that they won't pay because "click fraud" has been detected. I live in fear. Will they know that some people have clicked on my ads and then emailed me and asked me to reciprocate? Do they care that I've always responded to those people that I will not do so, and they should stop or we will both be thrown off?

When I had $10 in the account I cared less. That $78.12 (and growing) is a nice stash that I feel strongly about seriously protecting.

I read that some people make several hundred dollars a year, and I do wonder how they do it. There are two possible answers... either click fraud, or get more traffic. Although deprecated in the United States, the "click through rate (CTR)," is going to be fairly standard over the long run. And that is generally about 0.2%. Yes, that's 2/10 of one percent. 2 clicks out of 1000 views, on average. If you get 3 out of 1000, you are doing well. The only way to get more honestly, is with extremely targeted material and audiences. That's generally not going to happen on most of our blogs.

So, I'm working hard on increasing my traffic. But for me, it's second to quality content.

Google AdSense

web ad income Dec 11 (6 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.07 Adgitize $.91 Project Wonderful $.02 Clixsense $.04 Neobux $.08 ______________________ Total: $1.12