Is it worth it for the average Joe to use Adsense?

June 30, 2009 6:37 PM

Is it worth it for the average Joe to use Adsense?

I'm creating a blog for teachers on blogger that will have lesson plan ideas, pictures, web links, videos, etc. I've heard of people using Adsense making some decent money, I don't expect to quit my day job but I'm wondering if it's all hype, or if some people on here have done well with it? Could a blog actually generate a few hundred dollars here and there? And are you sucked in with any monthly fees you have to pay out?

posted by bluehermit to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Easily, especially something with this audience. And there are no fees.
posted by glider at 6:58 PM on June 30

Take this with a pinch of salt, but back in 2004 I thought I'd hop on the Adsense train with my personal blog. It wasn't a great blog by any means but had several hundred subscribers and ranked reasonably well in Google. I didn't write about anything specific, just sites and topics I found interesting at the time.

For the first several months, Adsense brought in less than a buck or two a day - sometimes even nothing. But after a while it just went up for some reason on not much more traffic.. pass another year and it was $10-$15 a day. Well, I eventually quit the blog, yet despite this some of the posts became very well ranked in Google and in mid 2008 revenues peaked with earnings of $3-4k each month from a blog I wasn't even updating for nearly the whole year.. In December 2008, alas, everything collapsed and now it makes barely $10 a day again. Oh well.

I guess my story is that even if you don't really know what you're doing, you can make a crapload of money, but then again, you might not. I basically rode the winds of luck, but if you can drive, say, 1000 impressions a day and your placements are good, I'd be surprised if you couldn't make just, say, $10 a day, which makes it worth it for most people.
posted by wackybrit at 6:58 PM on June 30

(Sorry- - as in "easily, it could make money")
posted by glider at 6:58 PM on June 30

it's like chicken soup...it can't hurt...
posted by HuronBob at 7:05 PM on June 30

It pays for my webhosting.
posted by IndigoRain at 7:39 PM on June 30

I drive a about 1000 hits a day through a static web page that is simply a quote form for work. It doesn't add up to a lot but it seems be just as wackybrit described; Some days I make $10-15 other days I make nothing. But add that up over time and it always helps. If you have good content then the rest will follow



sidenote: Check around for other ad companies if you feel the need, some pay better or have better systems for matching up with your content. So I've heard...
posted by Gravitus at 7:52 PM on June 30

I use adsense on a variety of sites, it is a nice surprise once or twice a year when I get a check for $100 (the minimum adsense pays out at) in the mail due to running it. Beyond that, I don't expect anything anymore.
posted by TimeDoctor at 11:35 PM on June 30

I tried Adsense on my blog and got pennies, just pennies, and decided it wasn't worth it. The issue is that my blog is humor -- nobody's coming to it looking for a product to buy, so they don't click on the ads.

I get a little more as an Amazon Associate (with just a link on the side, I never mention it in the posts) and a lot more from BlogHer.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:31 AM on July 1