5 Truths About Website Publishing You Don’t Want To Hear
Updated on February 29, 2020
Website publishing and making money through AdSense, affiliate sales, etc. can best be described as “The hardest way to earn easy money.” The cold, hard fact is that as of today 5/18/11, AdSenseFlippers.com is on track to make only $2,100 in AdSense revenue. That’s not a lot of money…you can get a job as a night-shift security guard and make more than that!…and we’re more successful than most AdSense publishers!
The good news is that we also know that as of May, we’re creating around $1,000 per month of passive monthly income each month…it will just take 3-4 months to realize our full efforts. Additionally, $2,100 per month is worth at least $25,000 – $31,000 on the market, and we’re adding $12,000 – $15,000 worth of market value now each month. Is it worth it? We think so…but there are some tough truths you should know before you take a stab at it:
- You’re going to fail – Not every time…not on all things…but it’s going to happen. When we were just starting off, we made the mistake of looking at broad search rather than exact search on the Google Keyword Tool instead of using Market Samurai, purchased and created sites on terrible keywords because we had a “hunch”, etc. The worst was the first 60 days. We made plenty of mistakes and toiled away…for around $2.00 a day…ugh! That leads us to the next point:
- You’re going to work for peanuts – …at first. It’s miserable toiling away and watching your revenue “roll” in at $0.57 days! If you’re just starting off, plan on your average site getting up to $10 – $12 per month in four months…that’s it. Yes, you’ll have sites that are winners and earn quite a bit more, but that won’t be your average. I don’t care what the guru’s tell you…plan to make less than they claim to. The best thing to do in the first 60-90 days is STICK WITH IT!
- You’re going to worry – You will constantly hear from people that claim you’re sites will be deindexed, your AdSense account will be banned, etc. If you follow the rules to the T, create unique content that ads value to the end user, and follow the rules with regards to your advertisements, you’re going to be fine…but you will still worry! It can be a bit nerve-wracking having “all of your eggs in one basket”, but Google’s basket’s pretty big. If you’re providing value for the end-users and Google’s advertisers, you’re going to be fine.
- You’re going to get off-track – We’ve done it and continue to do it to some degree. We get sidetracked looking at affiliate offers, chasing after keywords we know we shouldn’t pick, etc. The best thing you can do is limit this the best you can. Go for the reaches, but bring yourself back to what you KNOW works.
- You’re going to find it’s hard work – Sure, you can do it sitting on the beach on WiFi, sipping a drink with an umbrella in it (I definitely recommend it!), but you still have to get the work done…and it is work. Go ahead and relax…but stay focused. It’s not for everyone, honestly.
It’s not always the most rewarding job, but it’s great to know that you’re earning every day, every hour of the week! If you can stick with it for 3-4 months you’ll begin to see results that will push you to get there that much sooner. It’s nice to know that I can take breaks like this (These pictures on this post are from yesterday, island hopping and snorkeling on a party boat with friends) and continue earning…it makes it all worth it!
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Discussion
I have to stop and say thank you for all the valuable information you share. Your posts have been very helpful and inspiring. Especially this one. It’s easy to get sidetracked.
I have a question if you have a moment..I’ve been finding my sites have been getting dumped in the SERPs and it seems almost impossible to make a come back. What do you recommend for that? I have adsense sites, with all original content, EMD, and backlinks…but Google pushed them to page 40. Are they worth keeping, or will they come back with more backlinks? They were making money before the Panda update.
Thanks from a SoCal neighbor!
Hey, Karen, thanks for the compliments!
If the sites are new, it might be associated with the “Google Dance” you’ll hear others discussing. This tends to happen with new sites as they make their way and find the positioning…you’ll see quite a bit of bouncing around, but they normally regain their ranking and may even move up a few slots.
If they’re older sites and you’re talking about the last few days, you may be caught up in the latest Panda update. We’ve noticed that our revenue growth has slowed over the last week or so…not gone, but slowed down from what it was before and we’ll be looking at that over the next couple of days.
I’d like to pursue both freelance photography (personal portraits, weddings, etc.); however, I also want to pursue designing websites.. . Is it a better idea to have 2 seperate websites for each business or would it be possible to have just one website?. . I was thinking I could name it something like “Jane Smith Designs”..
Suzann,
Thanks for stopping by! In general, we recommend separate sites if the readers of the two topics wouldn’t share common interests naturally.
In your case, I do feel that freelance photography and web design are related. In fact, a site bringing the two together can be useful. What would be interesting to do with the site, I think, would be to connect the two. If you can add that social aspect to the site you can get photographers the exposure they’re looking for and get web designers access to high-quality photographs they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Useful piece, thanks for spending the time to put it together. It’s true that web publishing is lots of work. We work hard posting sites and adding adsense every day…thank you for mentioning this.
Yes, I started doing this, I even got a little income starting to come in. I realize all your saying. It is work but its starting to pay off.
It’s all a numbers game. The more sites you have the more you stand to make.
And I agree new content is key to getting first page. The above website is on the first page for, the key words Flea removal. In about 4,040,000 results. (Not bad for a beginner)
Don’t underestimate answer comments either. I have found under Google’s new style, It shows Google, people are find your site to be of interest and are participating.
This seem to have moved me up another 2 spots on the front page.
Good to hear from you, Don!
Is flearemoval.com the correct URL for your site? I just checked it and it looks like a parked domain…i thought maybe you entered the wrong URL.
So true and I can totally relate.. These are the truths you don’t WANT to hear but you NEED to know or eventually learn once you start making websites.
Thank you guys for showing us that it is hard but doable!
Thanks for posting.
We get sick of the statements like “Anyone can do this…buy my ebook to find out how!” that claim it’s so easy, there’s no work, etc. It’s a slap in the face to those who are ahead of us and worked their butts off to get there.
If these 5 points are a turn-off from getting started…good…maybe they’ll save someone some time, effort, and heartache. For you and the rest of our readers…best of luck and we hope you make it!