|
Enough hyperventilating about AdSense
There's been a popular theme on lots of blogs lately about how much money there is to be made from Google's AdSense advertising program. For those not in the know, this basically involves earning money from Google ads like the ones on this site. Now AdSense is a great program, and I'm happy to make some good spending money from it every month.
But I think a lot of people are getting carried away with imagining how rich starting up a website and putting AdSense on it is going to make them. Judging by the hyperventilating blog posts I'm seeing around the place, some are planning to make a lucrative career out of this scheme.
Maybe they will and maybe they won't, but I think it's time to get some perspective. If websites and contextual advertising are your strategy, how much money can you reasonably expect to pull in?
Well, let's look at a recent survey of the top AdSense earners for a bit of an idea. According to this, the best paid person is earning $300,000 a month, with Digg coming in second at $250,000 a month.
Pretty good money, you might be thinking. If they can do it, why not me?
Well, considering there are millions of sites out there running AdSense, your chances of getting into the top 10 are almost zero. You probably have more chance of winning the lottery. Digg is a great site and worthy of its fame, but seriously, what hope do you think you have of actually achieving the same lofty heights it's reached?
And even if you get there - even if you make it to the top of the AdSense pile, the rewards are relatively modest.
"Relatively modest?" I hear you say incredulously. "$300,000 a month is relatively modest!??"
Well yes.
For being at the very pinnacle of your industry, it is. Compared to almost any other industry you can name, $3.5 million a year for the top player is absolute peanuts. Here are some comparisons from last year just to make my point:
- Investment bank Goldman Sachs paid its 24,000 staff an average of $520,000 each. That average includes a lot of secretaries, mailroom boys and security guards. The CEO got $29 million.
- Medium-sized Australian investment bank Macquarie Bank paid its five top executives more than $10 million each.
- The five top paid executives in Silicon Valley each earned more than $70 million.
- The CEO of Capital One earned just under $250 million.
- Steven Spielberg got $332 million, Howard Stern $320 million and Oprah Winfrey $225 million.
- Tiger Woods got $90 million, Michael Schumacher $58 million and Dan Brown $88 million
- I don't even want to think about what Bill Gates and Warren Buffett made.
As you can see, in the grand scheme of things, $3.5 million for beating all the other websites out there is peanuts. In fact, there have been periods in my life when I've made more than some of the top 8 AdSense earners listed in the survey just from my day job.
Don't get me wrong, AdSense is a great way of making a bit of money on the side for building interesting websites, but the chances of it making you rich are virtually nil. If you're really lucky, you might make a comfortable living from it as those famous for doing so have demonstrated.
I use it myself on my various sites, and it gives me a nice little bonus every month. Perhaps AdSense will become a big enough market one day to let people build some serious wealth from it, but at the moment it's hobby income really. There are plenty more sure things in other industries that are available today.
So keep building nice websites and putting contextual ads on them, but don't focus on it as your only way to make money. See it for what it is, a nice way to earn a bit of money doing something fun.
 | Don't get sucked in by empty promises | | I was at a work function last night where we were all getting treated to free drinks and food. There was a very attractive girl there who was enjoying the attention of many of the men. |  | Take the initiative in establishing new relationships | | The world is filled with people who are dissatisfied with the state of their relationships. They think they haven't got enough others in their lives, or else they believe the others they have aren't up to scratch. Whether it's friendships that are missing or something more, a lack of satisfactory relationships is a common complaint. |  | Don't hate your body too much, it's the most amazing machine on the planet | | We live in a society fixated on machines and gadgets. The media obsesses over iPods, BMWs, laptops and phones. And we consumers gobble up every titbit of information available on those topics. | | Science is the closest thing to verifiable truth that we have | | Wait! If you're the type of person who reads the word "science" in a title then moves quickly on, then this is an article you need to read. I promise it won't be boring. |  | Become excellent at creating new opportunities | | The scouts have an excellent motto. It says simply “Be prepared”. Whether or not you have ever been a scout or a guide, this is a good attitude to have towards life. | | Incompetent people tend to overestimate their skill level | | Something interesting happens to me whenever I try to learn a new skill. I tend to underestimate just how hard it's going to be. For some reason, part of me thinks I'm going to be naturally talented at it, even though I have no evidence for that being the case. | | We're all just lost at sea | | Picture this. You wake up to find yourself aboard a huge old sailing boat. You can't remember who you are, or where you were before. You can't even remember what your name is. | | Perfect contentment leads to stagnation | | Have a look at how so many of us live our lives. We get up in the morning, go out all day and work, work, work. Whether in a rich country or a poor one, a good neighbourhood or bad, you can be sure that most of the people around you will be working most of the time. | | Find the right balance between improving your situation and enjoying it | | There's a funny scene in the film "Thank you for smoking" where the main character, a public relations shill for the cigarette industry, is asked how he can do such an unethical job. "Everyone's got to pay the mortgage", he replies. | | The world's best investment | | Many people don't think of it consciously, but much of our lives are spent deciding how to invest our resources. Families decide whether to move into a bigger house, or save their money and stay in the current one. Young women decide which man they should bet their reproductive potential on. Workers ponder what they should do with their holidays. And so on. |
New articles are being added all the time, so make sure you bookmark Paul's Tips and come back.
|
|