Question about adsense blogging

[The Large Dude Scam]

I might start a blog with adsense on it. However (if i understood it correct) you cannot use a free blog for this, but have to use a hosting service. This adds a monthly fee. So even if i earn my first dollar, i will still lose way more money (if the monthly fee is $7 which it seems to be everywhere).

So what blog service do you recommend for someone just starting?

[ghfever]

Originally Posted by The Large Dude Scam

I might start a blog with adsense on it. However (if i understood it correct) you cannot use a free blog for this, but have to use a hosting service. This adds a monthly fee. So even if i earn my first dollar, i will still lose way more money (if the monthly fee is $7 which it seems to be everywhere).

So what blog service do you recommend for someone just starting?

I recommend GO DADDY. They have cheap, cheap domains and a simple google search will give you coupons off your order.

They also have hosting service which is great and it's priced just right. After buying my domain and 2 months hosting I got away at about $15. I've already made $3.20 of that back.

And you think any business loses money at the beginning. It's whether you keep at it and make it grow that you'll gain money. And in Steve's case it's grow to over ONE THOUSAND dollars a DAY. So fifteen dollars is a small price to pay!

[floslib]

I decided to use Stayhosted for my gaming blog. It's about $30-$35 total a year for their smallest package and domain registration. The smallest package being about 500 MB of space and 5 GB of bandwidth per month. Which is plenty for me while I'm starting out.

Good luck and I hope your plans pan out for you.

Edit: Also, check out this thread on web hosts too!

[Interpreneur]

If you're not planning to make at least $7 per month, why bother with adsense in the first place?

Think of the hosting as a small investment that will pay large dividends. And I agree with ghfever. Go Daddy is the way to go.

[The Large Dude Scam]

Originally Posted by Interpreneur

If you're not planning to make at least $7 per month, why bother with adsense in the first place?

Think of the hosting as a small investment that will pay large dividends. And I agree with ghfever. Go Daddy is the way to go.

I will probably chose Go Daddy then. We'll see. I have no idea about how much to make. I've gotten the impression that you need millions of daily visitors to even make a minimum wage.

The motivation behind my bloggin will be that i love what i plan to do. I definitely have value to offer. Money is secondary, but it would be wonderful if it provided some income flow.

[shin]

How much money you earn depends on a lot of things, but primarily your 1) niche topic, 2) traffic. Each blog has to be personalized and custom-made to get the most from adsense.

[ghfever]

Originally Posted by The Large Dude Scam

I will probably chose Go Daddy then. We'll see. I have no idea about how much to make. I've gotten the impression that you need millions of daily visitors to even make a minimum wage.

The motivation behind my bloggin will be that i love what i plan to do. I definitely have value to offer. Money is secondary, but it would be wonderful if it provided some income flow.

The initial investment is NOT that much and can come back VERY quickly if you have a good niche and spend your time working on your blog.

There is one thing I do advise AGAINST though, and that's starting a blog strictly to make money. If you do this you're almost guaranteed to FAIL. Because you won't see hundreds monthly or weekly or daily for a good while. You need to be around for a few months at least and build a steady base of viewers. Once this is accomplished than you may start making a decent amount blogging.

But that is also an if. Google AdSense isn't going to make you a millionaire. I've had a few clicks, but nothing huge, and i've had over a thousand visitors. People aren't really interested in clicking google ADS. I think Steve makes a LOT more money through other things and AdSense is only a small portion of his total online income these days.

But to get to the point. If you're going to just do it for the money, I wouldn't bother doing it all. If you have the small amount of money it does take to start a blog and enjoy doing it and helping people and aren't too concerned about it, then go for it! And have fun!

(PS. Go Daddy is the way to go. They have 24/7 customer support and they ALWAYS fix customers problems. I love them.)

[The Large Dude Scam]

ghfever: Is it possible to manually get the the adsense adverts to be relevant to the content of the blog?

When i visit your tv-soap blog i first got two adsense ads about spyware removal, and when i refresh many times i also get ads about: bullet proof wests, identity theft and weight loss.

If i was a fan of that tv-serie i would probably only click ads relevant to that particular tv-show. I would not click the current adsense ads on your blog.

[Mags]

Originally Posted by The Large Dude Scam

However (if i understood it correct) you cannot use a free blog for this, but have to use a hosting service.

You can use adsense with a free blog - Blogger, for example, allows you to integrate adsense into your sidebars and your posts.

My blog is hosted on Blogger. I know conventional blogging wisdom says that a domain of your own is better, but I decided to focus on content rather than on setting up a domain (at least for now). I can't necessarily say that it's made no difference to visitor numbers or income, since maybe these would be higher with a hosted domain, but visitor numbers are high and income is good and growing exponentially.

[ghfever]

Scam Dude: This is a big problem i've been having. Google doesn't want to put relevant ads on my homepage. If you look at this page though: General Hospital Fever » Blog Archive » General Hospital, oh General Hospital. . You'll see that those are GH related.

It's very strange to me =/

[beautyscientist]

Originally Posted by Mags

You can use adsense with a free blog - Blogger, for example, allows you to integrate adsense into your sidebars and your posts.

My blog is hosted on Blogger. I know conventional blogging wisdom says that a domain of your own is better, but I decided to focus on content rather than on setting up a domain (at least for now). I can't necessarily say that it's made no difference to visitor numbers or income, since maybe these would be higher with a hosted domain, but visitor numbers are high and income is good and growing exponentially.

I have a blog on blogger that summarises my main blog and links to it. I have a couple of other blog ideas I am tryiing out on blogger with the idea that if they start to work on Blogger I can then set up a real one on the same theme. I don't think that you can ever make huge amounts of money on Adsense but it could be handy as one source of income among others.

To give you some idea, my beauty pages blog has been in its current form since January and I have been running Adsense since May. Yesterday's income was a little above average at $1.15. (I may have broken my Adsense Agreement by divulging that much information.). I spend maybe 2 hours a week on it. It is very pleasing seeing the money pile up in my account but Donald Trump won't be looking over his shoulders at me. If your primary motivation is the income I would stop now and look for another way to make money.

[beautyscientist]

Originally Posted by ghfever

Scam Dude: This is a big problem i've been having. Google doesn't want to put relevant ads on my homepage. If you look at this page though: General Hospital Fever » Blog Archive » General Hospital, oh General Hospital. . You'll see that those are GH related.

It's very strange to me =/

Nice looking theme on your blog GH. We get a lot of American shows here in the UK but I don't think this one has got here yet. I don't see any Adsense adverts on it at all?

[The Large Dude Scam]

Originally Posted by beautyscientist

Yesterday's income was a little above average at $1.15.

How many visitors do you get in average each day?
Could you replace your adsense ads with ads YOU sell instead?

[beautyscientist]

Originally Posted by The Large Dude Scam

How many visitors do you get in average each day?

Between 20 ad 60 with an average of about 30. It seems to be building at a pretty steady rate. Its about doubled since January and I am hoping to get into three figures daily next year.

Originally Posted by The Large Dude Scam

Could you replace your adsense ads with ads YOU sell instead?

For sure. That is what I will be doing with the site next year if I can get the traffic to the levels I am hoping for. I already have some ads running in exchange for click through rate and conversion information.

This is a fun sideline to my main business - I don't see it turning into another Stevepavlina.com. I think that although Steve is exceptionally talented, even his story shows one feature of websites as a business that isn't talked about too much. I think they grow in a very linear way. What you get out of them is very much a function of traffic, and even if you get onto Digg or Lifehackr you don't grow exponentially. Great content will drive traffic but it will only drive so much at a time. This means that if you are on say $30,000 a year as an employee, it will take many months and probably years before you even match your salary. I don't think there are any shortcuts.

[Brutha]

A blogger.com blog can be free and have adsense.

[The Large Dude Scam]

Originally Posted by Brutha

A blogger.com blog can be free and have adsense.

I also plan to put out several 30-60 minute podcasts on the blog each month. Does blogger.com have podcast support?

[ghfever]

Originally Posted by The Large Dude Scam

I also plan to put out several 30-60 minute podcasts on the blog each month. Does blogger.com have podcast support?

1. I've done some more research on the Google Adsense "wave" and I've figured out Google automatically finds content related ads. It takes several days and lots of Keywords and unique posts to get them related, but I finally have. Each Adsense ad on my website General Hospital Fever is now related to General Hospital.

2. You've got a great head on your shoulder. I'm sure your blog is going to be above average and you'll do a great job. Podcasts are a great way to get your website "out there". To get GOOD podcast software and equipment can get pricey though, so I'd recommend starting small.

On a side note, thank you for complimenting my website Beauty It made my day!

[1000feet]

I had no idea adsense even had ads related to General Hospital.

[javed]

Dear LDS

You don't need a paid site for AdSence to work.
I use blogger and have been earning some money.

[The Large Dude Scam]

Originally Posted by javed

Dear LDS

You don't need a paid site for AdSence to work.
I use blogger and have been earning some money.

I am curious: how much money? I am not obsessed about money, but it's interesting to see what people earn.

[shin]

Just as a warning for people who want to blog for money: during the first 6 months, do not expect much. I have read up on growth rates for people who have been blogging for long amounts of time (3yrs+), and I consistently see an exponential curve, of which the first 6 months looks like a horizontal line (no growth at all). If you want to start blogging thinking that you'll make $10 or more in just a few weeks, rethink it.

Blogging takes work to make money, just as it does for any traditional work job. Blogging is not an easy way out.

[The Large Dude Scam]

Originally Posted by shin

Just as a warning for people who want to blog for money: during the first 6 months, do not expect much. I have read up on growth rates for people who have been blogging for long amounts of time (3yrs+), and I consistently see an exponential curve, of which the first 6 months looks like a horizontal line (no growth at all). If you want to start blogging thinking that you'll make $10 or more in just a few weeks, rethink it.

Blogging takes work to make money, just as it does for any traditional work job. Blogging is not an easy way out.

Interesting. Steve wrote an article about a guy who quit blogging after 6 months because it didn't really bring any income, and explained one can expect 3 years or more. The subject i am going to blog about is my passion, that alone will keep me going