The Pointless Pursuit of Keywords

[Reprobate]

Every now and again someone asks "What are the highest paying keywords?" or (if they're slightly less lethargic) "Where can I find out what the highest paying keywords are?".

There can be only one reason for such a question: They're out to build a site that's MFA. What's MFA? It's Made for Adsense and is used to describe any site that has but one purpose in life, Adsense income. It's easy to understand why people want to do this - there's enough evidence out there that substantial monies can be made from Adsense - but it's just as easy to explain how such a plan is doomed to failure.

Let's say it loud and clear from the very beginning:

The ONLY way to make LONG-TERM stable revenue from Adsense is to build and maintain a useful, informative, well-designed web site that people want to visit and return to.

Hold that thought and we'll explore what needs to happen for that site to come about.

You need to be interested in your site subject. Running a web site sounds like great fun but few people really appreciate just how much work and time is involved and only a fraction of this is the design and build of the basic site. How many sites have you been to where the last posting or update was more than a year in the past? The ONLY chance you have of building a really good site that has frequent updates and stays lively is if you're interested in the site itself. If you build a site based on camel's milk because someone's told you that's a high paying keyword, you might root around and come up with a few articles but are you going to spend hours week or even a day updating that site with your own camel-milk related articles and stories?

You need to have knowledge of your subject. Taking free articles from other sites is all very well but the most interesting sites are those that have the flavour of the author(s). Good websites respond to current events and questions asked by their users. If someone posts a question about camel milk on your board, are you going to be able to answer it properly and accurately? Can you write articles or posts that reflect your own opinions, your own insights into the world of bactrian and dromedary dairy products?

You need to market your site and let others know that it exists. It's no good just signing up to a link-exchange or other such program, not only because these are in breach of the Google Program Policies but also because they really don't work very well. They may bring numbers to your site but do they really bring visitors that are interested and want to stay? Marketing a site, like marketing a book or a film, takes time, effort and usually money. You need to get out there on boards and answer questions, help others and prove your knowledge of the subject

Most of all, you need patience. Site optimisation and traffic doesn't happen overnight. It could be months before you start to see your site regularly referenced by search engines and longer than that for the 'word' to get around.

So, how is picking a keyword from a list going to help you with any of the above? It doesn't matter if 'camel-milk' is the highest paying key phrase in Adsense history. If you can't build a decent site, it's worth nothing.

Instead of starting from Adsense, start from your own skills, knowledge and interests. Build the site first, make it look good, fill it with decent interesting content and become a useful resource on the Internet. Once you've done that THEN look at applying Adsense and you'll probably find your puny keywords on your chosen subject make you more money than camels milk ever will.

The Pointless Pursuit of Keywords (http://www.cobnut.net/guides/index.html) By Cobnut (http://www.cobnut.net/)

[Jean Costa]

very nice article! Thanks for sharing.

[Reprobate]

Cobnut wrote a fantastic article, hence me posting it.

When newbies ask me for advice this is one of the threads I'll be telling them to read.

[Mytigodess]

Amen, Brother! You are preaching to the choir!

I tell people the same thing until I am blue in the face to blank stares as they tell me, "But I really am interested in mesothelioma and the technology behind electronic products which is a good thing to know as the keyword bids are $40 per click," until you ask them a direct question on the topic and get a blank stare and a steady, "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I think I'll look that one up." Never mind the fact that Smart Pricing lowers that bid and what you actually get is much lower than the actual bid.

There are so many deluded people out there that think those MFA sites actually look professional. The format is almost exactly the same in every one of them and the content is so shallow. Then they complain they spent all that money and they can't get people to visit their site or they make very little money and don't want to really hear the reason why.

I have been doing this for quite some time (since 1998) and most of my work is plain vanilla to look at, but people come back for the content I put up. I spend my time divided between actually putting up more information and tweaking my site to the times I am actually out plugging my site. I would rather spend 2 good weeks out of newgroups and forums while making good content for my site and then come back to my friends with new things to show them instead of worrying about what the current keyword bids will be for certain terms and jumping over those endless hoops that almost never pan out for the majority playing that game.

[Chuck Brown]

I couldn't agree more with the basic theme of Cobnut's article. In fact, I just wrote one that covers some similar ground:

Google AdSense: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (http://chuckbrown.com/google-adsense-good-bad-ugly.html)

c-

[Cobnut]

Thanks for the comments, people, they're much appreciated.

I wrote this article after spending some time 'arguing' online with someone who simply wouldn't accept that he couldn't find the highest paying keywords, build a site around them and retire to the South of France later that month.

What's remarkable is that none of the people I've spoken to over the time I've been doing this seem to consider that if it were that easy, I wouldn't be spending my day posting on boards... :D

Jon

[psychopianoman]

Thanks for the article. It was motivational for me. I have spent quality time building my site and I get 4 to 7 bucks a day off of it. I was feeling like the site was a flop because I do not get much per click. I really love the subject though so I have fun regardless and it does pay for its self so I am loosing nothing.

I have been telling myself it will just take time. I am moving up the search engines slow, have no page rank, and no advertising budget. I can't complain because I have only been up and running for 6 weeks or so.

Good article, I needed it.

[aelias]

Can someone please answer theis question. To build a great webiste you need great content that is updated daily or weekly, that makes IAT worthless or the articles generating software that comes with just as bad, or does it? If you buy 150 domains for IAT websites you can make if you are lucky and you are good a $1.00 day. 150 sites $1.00 a day= $150 day, the average month is 30 days $4,500 a month, but that is just 150 sites let's just take it up to 500 sites that equals $15,000 a month.

Is that possibale and what about the Google sand box and the duplicate content filter?

What about 1000 sites $30,000 a month?

You might spend 10-15 hours a week tweaking and checking, but how about that paycheck at the end of the month.

[imbrod]

The ONLY way to make LONG-TERM stable revenue from Adsense is to build and maintain a useful, informative, well-designed web site that people want to visit and return to.


What is a long-term? You confirmed I built that kind of site (movie remakes) and I run it from April 2006, but I think so many times I missed the whole point.
I come to the conclusion that MFAs have much much bigger revenue just because there's nothing much to click on but the ads...

About high paying keywords: that's not necessary bad thing. If people search for them, they maybe search at the same time for the subject they are interested in and have a knowledge.
I agree there are so many MFA outthere anyway; I'm just saying that getting inspiration from high paying keywords doesn't have to be bad thing to begin with. (I didn't though, I was searching for something that I'm interested in and hasn't been covered yet properly; but I do understand people that do.)

[Chris]

Can someone please answer theis question. To build a great webiste you need great content that is updated daily or weekly, that makes IAT worthless or the articles generating software that comes with just as bad, or does it? If you buy 150 domains for IAT websites you can make if you are lucky and you are good a $1.00 day. 150 sites $1.00 a day= $150 day, the average month is 30 days $4,500 a month, but that is just 150 sites let's just take it up to 500 sites that equals $15,000 a month.

Is that possibale and what about the Google sand box and the duplicate content filter?

What about 1000 sites $30,000 a month?

You might spend 10-15 hours a week tweaking and checking, but how about that paycheck at the end of the month.I think you need to read between the lines on this post and understand that if you want to make money you need to be offering value on your sites and value is normally proportional to website quality and no offense but I'm quietly confident that there is not way you can maintain 500+ QUALITY sites.

That said you can definitely make good money with quality sites with quality information. I personally make $4000+/month and only run a couple of QUALITY sites, but they have been hard work and following much of the principles outlined in the original post of this thread. You can read my 2006 summary here:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=207259

That my advice on making money with AdSense - it is a sound method and one that people can genuinely make loads of money from if they are willing to do the hard work to provide a useful and quality resource.

[trealm]

That my advice on making money with AdSense - it is a sound method and one that people can genuinely make loads of money from if they are willing to do the hard work to provide a useful and quality resource.

You make some good points. People need to look at this not as a get rich scheme. The people making money consistently are the ones who put effort into it and, in essence, treat it as a job. You get out of it what you put into it. I think numbers of sites can be misleading, what counts is the number of pages. 500 single-page, slapped-together sites may not be as good as one 1000-page site which has some thought and maintenance (ie updates) going into it.

[peter_act@kiwismail.com]

I can't conceive of maintaining a 1000 page website, but I am willing to stand corrected.

I am under the impression that some of the highest earning Adsense sites may only be 5 or 6 pages.

I reckon that could be all you need, but those 5 or 6 pages must be really useful to the visitor (to keep him coming back), and the adsense ads should be there as an accessory.

The idea is to make the ads make the visitor say "I wonder what that's about?" and click on the ads, but be aware that once he's done that you might make 25 cents and he's gone down another internet pathway, which may be more interesting than yours!

The sole purpose of having a website (if it's not a hobby site) is to get traffic which you can convert into sales, not to get traffic who will just click on your Adsense ads.

Treat Adsense as a bonus, not as your main income stream.

[Reprobate]

The sole purpose of having a website (if it's not a hobby site) is to get traffic which you can convert into sales, not to get traffic who will just click on your Adsense ads.

I believe that websites have many purposes.

[Bjoerner]

Thanks for sharing that article. It motivated me too to work on my site some more and maintain it as best as I can. I'm not making the big bucks, which comes with the topic, but I get a money transfer at least every 2 months, so it already pays my host for two years with one transfer.
Keeping a site updated is hard and a lot of work when the topic is kind of outdated, but I see it in my results, not only moneywise, but also the number of visitors, and it's telling me that I'm somehow going the right way.

[trealm]

I can't conceive of maintaining a 1000 page website, but I am willing to stand corrected.


Very "doable" I run a few sites for work (ie, my day job) that are in the 1000's each. Several thousands, each, actually. My own personal one is of equal size. But, then, it's something I enjoy doing, it's not purely for money-making.

[WookenPaNub]

Excellent post, Reprobate!
I plan on linking MFA'ers to this article A LOT in the future!

[Cobnut]

You do that... ;)

Jon

[golden14]

Real Content = king (it's Friday and that's me done!)

[selvam_cbe]

Greaaaaaaaaaaaaat article

[thedessertcafe]

So true, if the site does not appeal to your audience then they will not go past the first page.

[rubin]

good article

[Reprobate]

Congratulations to Cobnut.

When doing a Google search (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=pointless+keywords&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) for "pointless keywords" this thread comes in at number 1. :D

[Jean Costa]

Congratulations to Cobnut.

When doing a Google search (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=pointless+keywords&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) for "pointless keywords" this thread comes in at number 1. :D

599 views at the moment, now I wonder how many of that is through SERPS..... and I also am interested to see a month from now how many views the thread has :)

[Cobnut]

Aw... shucks...

Jon :o

[silntrunin]

Can someone please answer theis question. To build a great webiste you need great content that is updated daily or weekly, that makes IAT worthless or the articles generating software that comes with just as bad, or does it? If you buy 150 domains for IAT websites you can make if you are lucky and you are good a $1.00 day. 150 sites $1.00 a day= $150 day, the average month is 30 days $4,500 a month, but that is just 150 sites let's just take it up to 500 sites that equals $15,000 a month.

Is that possibale and what about the Google sand box and the duplicate content filter?

What about 1000 sites $30,000 a month?

You might spend 10-15 hours a week tweaking and checking, but how about that paycheck at the end of the month.

There are a lot of people that believe in this train of thought and are making money with adsense. The logic is there but will it work and for how long. Would that be a workable a plan for long term income from adsense or would it be better to focus on 1 or 2 sites or a combination of both plans to maximize your adsense income.

Steve
Family (http://www.familyhealthissues.com)
Gourmet Coffee (http://www.gourmetcoffee.familyhealthissues.com)
Acne (http://www.acnetreatment.fmilyhealthissues.com)

[Cobnut]

At the end of the day, the Google Program Policies still state that it is not permitted to display Adsense on sites made purely for the purpose of serving ads. Any site based on a template that you can throw up in 10 minutes is surely breaching this policy and is at risk of causing your account to be banned.

Yes, there are people out there making a bundle in this way but if it's at the risk of being banned altogether and the earnings drop to zero, in my mind that's too big a risk.

Jon

[aelias]

What does that say for IAT then?

[Jean Costa]

What does that say for IAT then?

well in my estimation as long as you are providing REAL content then you are fine. Most sites that run the templates don't, and they are just copy-cats.

[malibu3vk]

Nice to hear that you are moving up in the rankings. You might consider trying to get some reciprocal links with relevant but not competitive sites that have page rank. It doesn't cost much and in time you should find that your site should mirror at least the average pr of the sites you link with and that will help your rankings a bit. If you get more serious, or just need a little boost to put you on the first page, you might consider investing in non-reciprocal links with high pr sites.

Good Luck

malibu

____________________

http:www.adsenseproduct.com






Thanks for the article. It was motivational for me. I have spent quality time building my site and I get 4 to 7 bucks a day off of it. I was feeling like the site was a flop because I do not get much per click. I really love the subject though so I have fun regardless and it does pay for its self so I am loosing nothing.

I have been telling myself it will just take time. I am moving up the search engines slow, have no page rank, and no advertising budget. I can't complain because I have only been up and running for 6 weeks or so.

Good article, I needed it.

[alps07]

Very good article , all the points are sensible. And i follow all these points.

[Reprobate]

599 views at the moment, now I wonder how many of that is through SERPS..... and I also am interested to see a month from now how many views the thread has :)

As of today there are 986 views.

[alps07]

Congratulations to Cobnut.

When doing a Google search (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=pointless+keywords&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) for "pointless keywords" this thread comes in at number 1. :D

and that too Results 1 - 10 of about 723,000, the competition is high enough

[starsaran]

Great Website about adsense

[starsaran]

Great Website for Adsense

***URL REMOVED***