I'm confused how Ad revenue works....

[rocketman]

do you get paid only when people CLICK on ads or just when they view your site? because i NEVER click on ads and i'm pretty sure most people rarely do. so i am a bit confused how people make money blogging...

[iDreamCatcher]

If you're talking about Adsense - you make money (at Google's discretion) when people click on ads.
To make *any* money to speak of with Adsense you better have about 300+ visitors a day on your blog. Below that would give you peanuts - zero results.

I never click on Adsense ads either/

[Sunmaid]

I'm pretty sure that a person has to more than just click on an ad, I believe it requires "action" ie filling out a form or buying something.

i think there are some that are just click, but the majority require action

[rocketman]

so then how the hell do people make money?? i can't see anyone filling crap out much less actually click.

[Sunmaid]

Originally Posted by rocketman

so then how the hell do people make money?? i can't see anyone filling crap out much less actually click.

that's just it, I don't think they do...

unless there's someone here that can explain otherwise

think about it, why would a company pay anyone for just clicking on their ad? it's not generating any revenue for them ...

[nin64]

Hey... come to think of it...

Hmmm.... maybe there's a big conspiracy going on here...

[James81]

Originally Posted by nin64

Hey... come to think of it...

Hmmm.... maybe there's a big conspiracy going on here...

lol

Well, Steve has said countless times that he was making about $10,000 a month just through google adsense alone. So, if there's a conspiracy then he was in on it.

Adsense is a numbers game. It's a matter of getting enough traffic onto your site that you get enough people who will click through your ads. Ad placement plays a big role in it, and you have to be pretty upfront about where you place them. Bigger = better, especially in a place where people can't help but notice them.

But here's the thing...most people simply ignore (or turn off) ads. So in order for adsense to be a profitable venture, you need to get enough traffic onto your site where it becomes profitable. It's the ole "for every 100 cold calls you do, you'll probably get 1 client" deal that you hear about in business. The profitability is in numbers. More traffic=more potential for clicks.

So, the idea behind adsense is based on how much marketing you do to get traffic on your site. If every hundred visitors clicks on one ad, and you make, say 10 cents per click (this varies based on the ad, btw), then you'll need a thousand vistors to make $1. 100,000 visitors per day, would yield $100 per day (or $3000 per month roughly).

So, considering Steve's site gets a couple hundred thousand visitors per day, it's no surprise he was making $10k per month with that traffic simply because of the sheer volume of people who funnel through.

And you know what? I'm typically the guy who ignores ads, but I HAVE clicked on some ads in the past. Most of the time they have been image ads to sites that struck my fancy. And most ads are based on the content of your site, so it's no surprise that if I am on a website that I enjoy the content of, that eventually I'm going to see an ad that strikes my fancy.

How does it work, though? Well, people pay money to advertise through google. Google takes a portion of the money they receive from those who buy the ads and gives it to people who put their ads up on their site. And since google only pays if you click, those who buy the ads only pay money if someone clicks on the ad. So if google is giving you 10 cents per click to display adsense, then they are charging someone else a higher amount per click to display their ad. People are willing to do that because it gets their website more exposure, which in turn gets them more traffic to THEIR page and more potential profit for whatever product they are selling.

It's pretty much win all around. Brilliant if you ask me.

But again, it's all about traffic. If you want to be successful with adsense, then you need to bring in the traffic. A low traffic website isn't going to make hardly anything from it. But if you manage to bring in traffic in a high enough volume it can become very profitable for you.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by rocketman

so then how the hell do people make money?? i can't see anyone filling crap out much less actually click.

Since I own an SBI site (see my link) that uses Adsense, I feel qualified to answer.

There are two main ingredients to making money with Adsense:

1) Traffic (visitors to your pages)

2) An optimized ad layout.


With massive traffic, even if only 1% of your visitors click on an ad, you will make money. The more traffic, the more money you get.

Also, with an optimized ad layout, you may be able to change the 1% to a 2%, essentially doubling your income. If you get this as high as 5-6%, you're doing very good (compared to most websites).


Adsense truly is a numbers game, although testing for optimal layouts is essential as well. To make REAL money, you should focus on building more and more traffic (building value to attract more visitors) until you are like Steve, with millions of visitors per month. The more traffic, the more income.

[MariconesUnited]

What about affiliate links? I heard you can get more money by negociating with advertisers directly once you get decent traffic? How do you go about that? Does anyone know?

And Curtis2011, nice site. I like acupuncture and would like to know more about it. You should definitely look into making your site more pleasing to the eye. I clicked on a couple of ads for you

[Oleg]

First you should make affiliate links for products you want to promote. And as soon as somebody will make purchase through yours affiliate links - you get paid. Check up links below, there it is a lot of books and video for free step by step how to create successful online business.