Make Money Blogging: Inside the Google AdSense Earnings of a Minisite Publisher
February 23, 2010
This week, I promised to update you on my “minisite (virtual real estate) empire” earnings. Well it’s not an empire yet, but it will be!
I’m really devoting a good chunk of time this year to my minisites and will posts updates here from time to time. Minisites are a good way to make passive income online. Mind you, there’s nothing passive about it in the beginning; it’s a lot of work. Following is some info on my progress to date. As I said in my previous post on this topic (linked to above):
. . . my goal is to build 5 of these sites to actively promote, with the objective of making just $100-$200/day from all of them combined. I think I’ll be there within the next 18 to 24 months.
So, how’s it going so far? Overall, I’m pleased with my efforts. There are days where I get frustrated because it seems that just when you’re making some progress, things fall off and you’re like, WTF! But, I knew going in that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint. Good thing I’m a runner!
Now, on to some specifics . . .
Changing Focus
Instead of building five sites to promote, I’ve decided to focus on the three that I have. The reason is, I’ve made inroads with these sites already and it’s a lot of effort to start a new site.
ForeclosureBusinessNews.com is still the one that makes the most money per month; it accounts for about 80% of my AdSense earnings (among my minisites, not among my total AdSense earnings). Remember, I started this blog to promote an affiliate product.
Once I saw the click thru rates (CTR) and the earnings from each click, I was like, “I’d be stupid NOT to focus more on this site.”
So this one gets most of my attention for right now. I’m slowly giving the others more time.
Earnings from My Main Minisite — ForeclosureBusinessNews.com
In November the site made $95.26
In December it faltered a bit, earning $74.04
In January it bounced back, pulling in $125.24
So far this month, it’s earned $114.44
More AdSense Income Figures for ForeclosureBusinessNews.com
Biggest Day: The most I’ve earned from this site in one day is $20.51. The least I’ve earned is $0.
All-Time Earnings: I put AdSense on this site on May 2, 2009. It’s all-time earnings are $803.67 (about $2.70/day).
Note: I’ve purposely withheld a lot of info that Google doesn’t like for you to give out (eg, CTR, page impressions, eCPM (effective cost-per-thousand impressions)), etc. Of course, this is info you have access to when you sign up with Google AdSense.
Now that you have some raw data, following are some questions that may be running through your head.
How to Make Money with Minisites: FAQ
Why bother with this when the payout is so little; you’re not making a lot of money?
As I’ve stated before, I’m in this for the long haul. It’s by no means a get-rich-quick scheme. And to be honest, that’s why it appeals to me. Remove that furrow from your brow; let me explain. 
I like to invest time in making money online in projects where I’m guaranteed a return on my time. Building minisites has done this. The more time I’ve invested, the more money I’ve made. Now mind you not a lot, but that’s not the point right now. It’s knowing that I can multiply these efforts and over time I will be guaranteed the income I want.
Right now, I could reduce the amount of time I spend on ForeclosureBusinessNews.com and still make between $75 and $100 per month. Then I could go on to build other sites, 5 10 or 20 of them. With each earning just $75 to $100 per month, it’s a not too shabby little income at the end of the month.
Remember, this is over and beyond my other income streams (eg, writing for clients, ebooks and seminars). I build minisites for future, steady income. The most important thing to remember is that I like making money with minisites. I enjoy the process because it suits my working personality.
Personally, I’m a social butterfly; I love interacting with and being around people. Professionally though, I tend to be a loner. That’s why freelance writing appeals to me as a career — I like to be given a project — then be left alone to get it done. I’ve always been like this.
To like what you’re doing can not be overstated. Because it’s not a get rich quick thing, you have to be patient. If you don’t like building minisites, you’ll give up long before you ever see any kind of success.
How much time do you spend promoting this minisite?
I don’t spend time promoting ForeclosureBusinessNews.com as a site, per say. I promote the product(s) I built the site for (eg, the ebooks on foreclosure cleaning).
So the traffic that comes really pays off in two ways for me – in AdSense income and in the affiliate products I promote on the site.
How do you promote the site?
I primarily use article marketing. Love, love, love this mode of marketing. It is time consuming though. I write 2-4 articles a week, and submit them via several outlets.
I also run a pay per click (ppc) campaign, although most of the traffic comes via organic traffic. I plan to discontinue the ppc campaign at the end of this month. The reason is, since I’ve been doing more digging into the actual stats, I was really surprised to see that the vast majority of my traffic was coming via organic search.
Foreclosure cleaning is a small niche, one me and only a few others dominate. My prominence is due to article marketing. If you type in the keyword phrases “foreclosure cleanup,” “foreclosure cleaning” or similar phrases, you’re going to run into a piece of content put out by me.
How do you plan to increase earnings?
Continue to do more article marketing and a few other tricks I have up my sleeve. I talk about this in Module V of the SEO Copywriting Training ecourse.
How Being an SEO Copywriter Helps You Build a Minisite Empire
“Never put all of your money eggs in one basket; cultivate multiple income streams.”
One of the reasons I love being an SEO writer is that you can put this skill to use beyond writing for clients. This pads dry spells – and allows you to pick and choose the projects you want to work on really.
You can also charge more for your SEO copywritng services (something I need to do but have just been too busy to get around to adjusting).
When you’re hired by a client to write SEO copy, it’s because they’re making money (or plan to) with a site by getting it more traffic (hence, sales). Why wouldn’t you put this knowledge to use for yourself?
SEO copywriters have all the skills they need to make money online in a multitude of ways – whether it’s for clients, or for themselves. In light of the article, Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs, in the New York Times, it’s just some food for thought, no? As I tweeted earlier today, “There is no job security anymore other than what you give yourself.”
SEO Writing Ecourse News
FYI, the next SEO writing ecourse is scheduled for April 26th. As of today, there are 16 slots remaining. Get full details on the SEO copywriting training this ecourse offers.
Best,
Yuwanda
P.S.: Find this post informative? Follow Inkwell Editorial on Twitter.
P.P.S.: Want an easy, fast way to get started in affiliate marketing, making as much as $50, $100 or $150/day? Get How to Make Money Placing Ads on Free Classified Ad Sites (ie, Backpage.com). If you want to make some easy money promoting affiliate products on free classified ad sites, this ebook is for you. I routinely make $100-$150/day.
Copyright © 2010: All material on this site is copyright protected and cannot be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without my written consent (linking to is fine).
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I do the same thing as you. Freelance and build minisites. I have a goal of 300 sites making $3 a day. Each site will make $90 so you can see how much income can be made.
[...] you just posted it to your website and forgot about it. To explain how I do it with one of my minisites to increase traffic and sales, I’ll walk you through, step by [...]
Yuwanda,
Of all the freelancers I follow, you GIVE AWAY more content of value than anyone else I read. Much of it is better than the classes I’ve taken or ebooks I’ve read. Thanks for all you do.
(Reposted due to dropped connection.)
Thanks Brian. That’s very sweet of you. There is a lot of crap out there, so when freelancers land here, I want them to leave feeling like they’ve gotten at least a “nugget of knowledge” they can work with.
Continued success to you.
Ahmed, like you seem to, I enjoy building minisites. It’s a lot of work though, which is why I try to tell everyone to be patient. I don’t know how you handle 300 sites. I have a hard time keeping a handle on the 4 I update regularly.
Good luck though!