Why you don’t make money from AdSense

I have noticed that one of the reoccurring themes that I see in various forums about blogging that I frequent from time to time revolves around lackluster performance with AdSense. I am sure that you have seen these types of posts before:

• I’ve had AdSense on my blog for 3 months and I haven’t made even 3 dollars yet.
• You can never make money from AdSense unless your have millions of visitors.
• AdSense is a scam because I get over 200 visitors a day and no one ever clicks on ads.

I usually just chuckle when I see these types of posts because when I first started using AdSense I felt the same way. The problem that these publishers and quite honestly most AdSense publishers have is that they don’t understand how AdSense works. Unfortunately for all too many, the formula of throw up a site, get some traffic, insert AdSense, and wait for the checks to roll in flat out doesn’t work unless you have significant amounts of traffic.

The first thing that you should realize about AdSense is that success isn’t so much about the amount of traffic you get as it is about the type of traffic that you get. Don’t get me wrong, the more visitors your have the better, however, where those visitors come from is much more important than the total number.

Most experts would agree that search engine traffic converts the best when it comes to AdSense. I would much rather have a site that gets 1000 visitors a day for a keyword phrase that they search for on Google which my site is optimized and displays AdSense ads for than a site that gets 2500 visitors a day primarily from bookmarks or favorites. Unless your name is Brittany Spears, your personal blog will most likely never do well with AdSense, simply because there aren’t enough people searching for you.

The second thing that you should know about AdSense is that all ads are not created equal, i.e., some AdSense ads pay way more than others. Remember that AdSense is contextual. The ads displayed are based on your content. The fact that you have the best blog about J. Edgar Hoover on the internet doesn’t mean much from an AdSense standpoint if there are no advertisers paying for J. Edgar Hoover ads.

Before you get upset over the fact that the few AdSense clicks that you do get only generate 2 cents per click, check to see what the bid amounts are for your keywords. There is a great free utility from Pixelfast that allows you to do this called the Overture Keywords and Bid Amounts Tool.

Lastly, remember that visitors don’t click AdSense ads to help you out. They click ads to get more information.