How much do you think Google pays its Adsense publishers as a percentage revenue share?
If you’re thinking anything from 33% to 50% you’d be in the majority. However, in the interests of transparency Google has decided to let everyone know how much they ACTUALLY pay.
So how much then? 30%? 50% ( would seem fair ). Well you’d be wrong in assuming such lowly numbers! They pay a whopping revenue share of 68% for ads dispayed on publishers sites in the content network.
Whatever you think of Google, you have to admit that 68% is more than fair. It’s a lot more than I previously thought they paid out to publishers. So, from a percentage standpoint it’s good to know they are not holding back the purse strings.
For every $100 Google collects from its advertisers, it’s paying online publishers ( content not search ) $68.
It’s good that Google have decided to be more transparent and reveal what they actually pay to publishers. It’s equally good that it’s a more than respectable 68% being paid out to Adsense publishers for content network ads.
You can read more about the revenue share details at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2010/05/adsense-revenue-share.html
Are you happy, surprised or shocked that Google pays out so much? Let me know your thoughts by posting a quick comment below.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
I think that’s awesome for the last few months I’ve been doing little minisites to make adsense income but so far not so good
I can get most of my sites on page 1 of Google for the chosen keyword but it’s always in positions #9 and #10 so I don’t make very much.
What can I do to move my ranking up???
@Brittany – What have you done so far in terms of promotion? How quickly and far you can move up in the rankings depends on your competition. So analyze your competition and see which ones you can realistically beat in the results. Once you’ve assessed this aspect the next stage is to do more site promotion and don’t go crazy, Google likes to see a natural link building profile to your site. Also make sure your main target keyword phrase has a worthwhile volume of search traffic. I’m assuming that your on site SEO is already taken care of
I think it’s great to finally know the colour of the card Google is playing as regards how much they pay adsense publishers.
This curiousity has lingered in the minds of adsense publishers for so long!
@ibeawuchi – As they pay 68%, which is certainly not a shabby figure, I think they should have revealed this figure to publishers a LONG time ago. Still, better late than never and greater transparency is certainly welcome. It also puts an end to the “guessing game” speculation you see in the marketing forums.
Dean,
I find low competition keywords I feel I’ll be able to rank for and I use articles as backlinks.
Really just articles that I submit to ezine and goarticles. I usually do about 20 articles per site and it’s good enough to get me on page 1 but usually between #8-10 positions.
And I still see sites with less backlinks outranking my sites. Maybe it’s the fact that those sites are older, I know that Google takes into account the age of a site as well.
For example, I created the site vintagekewpiedoll.com. The exact keyword “vintage kewpie doll” got 2,400 searches last month. I created the site 4 days ago and I’m on page 1 of google for that keyword in position #8.
Usually this happens fairly quickly with the sites I try to rank for but I can rarely get beyond position #8 no matter how much backlinking I do and even if the other sites have less backlinks.
I don’t get it. And I backlink over time, I don’t have a lot of backlinks to these sites in a short period of time, I do it gradually over a few weeks; with usually no more than 25 backlinks to these sites.
The criteria I use when analyzing the top 10 competition and whether to go for a keyword are:
1. Product-based keyword. They seem to get a higher CTR and if for some reason something goes wrong with Adsense, I can always replace the Adsense with affiliate offers.
1. Minimum of 2,400 searches per month.
2. Must be at least 3 PR-0 sites in the top 10.
3. Try to avoid keywords that have authority and big sites in the top 10, sites like Amazon, About.com, Walmart, etc. Especially if sites like this are in the top 3.
4. I try to go for keywords where the top 10 has 100 backlinks for that specific page.
What criteria do you use?
I actually read one of your posts about being an MFA site and by definition I am one. The only thing that confuses me about that is that there are so many sites out there that could be considered MFA.
In fact, the guys that I’ve been learning about Adsense from who make $5K+ a month have sites that could be considered MFA.
My question is how come they haven’t been banned since some of them have been at it for a few years?
@Brittany – (will answer other post later but this is about the MFA side of things). Don’t concern yourself with people that are getting away with breaking Google’s TOS. Some get away with it and some won’t re: MFA sites, but you need to give your visitor more options or you’re running an MFA website ( not recommended ). Add an affiliate banner ( such as Amazon ) or one from a CPA network to every page ( or both ) on your site which displays Adsense ads. If you have pages which are only monetized with Adsense, you are only giving the visitor 2 options ( One is to close the browser and the other is to click out via an Adsense Ad ). You need to give the visitor more options to navigate away from your site, so you need to make your site a valuable resource for visitors by giving them OPTIONS and content. If you have a website that has content on it and Adsense with nothing else, it’s DEFINITELY classed as MFA. Stop what you are doing right now and make these changes to any sites you have which display Adsense ads. Google want to pay publishers that happen to be adding Adsense monetization, not the other way around ( i.e. not paying publishers that are creating sites for the intention of solely monetizing with Adsense ). Hope this makes sense.
Hi Dean James: Thank you for your great info about the revenue shared with Google. I’ve one question to ask you. One of my friends in Arab has told me that he has setup an Adsense Blog since January 2010, this year. There are Adsense Ads on the blog, he said. One day in March later, his friend from Cairo has telephone him that he coincidentally met his website and found a few ads on the website, and made a click to an Ads in there. His friend just want to confirm whether there was a click made on that day or not. My friend then made a check and unluckily found no click. What’s wrong with the system? Need your opinion!
Thanks Dean for setting me straight on this. I’ve only been at this for about 3 months now. And I will start adding other ways to monetize the sites too.
I look forward to hearing your advice on my other questions. I know it was alot lol :p
I especially look forward to hearing how you analyze the competition and how to move sites from the bottom of page 1 to the top.
@Fauzi – Your friend shouldn’t be asking his other friend to click on any of his ads as that’s against TOS. Okay, firstly, has your friend made any earnings with Adsense to date? If not, your friend needs to double check the ad code on his blog is correct. Assuming impressions are being shown when he checks his Adsense stats all he needs to do is drive some targeted traffic to the blog. The algorithm is sophisticated and knows if a high quality visitor is being referred to an advertiser via an ad displayed on the site. The highest quality visitors will visit directly from search engine results. Article marketing traffic is also highly qualified/targeted. First step for your friend is to make sure he has the correct ad code and second is to drive traffic to his website.
@Brittany – Make adding other forms of monetization/other things of interest to the visitor a foremost priority. Easiest way to do this is sign up as an affiliate with Amazon and add a sitewide block to your site. Then you want to add a CPA offer or a widget pulling in data from somewhere that gives the user relevant content and exit links from your site ( you can put this near the bottom of your page ). If a visitor has 2 or 3 other ways out of your site and has more than one form of monetization it is no longer MFA, which is COOL! You will also have a more valuable site to visitors and prospective buyers in the future. It doesn’t matter if you never earn a cent from your other forms of monetization as long as you are providing the visitor with these options.
Thanks again Dean for your immediate response. Back to the previous issue about the click triggered without stats shown on Google. Till now he said, he never gain any revenue with the Google Adsense Program, though he has seen some impressions stats displayed. Any way I can judge from your resources that the possible cause is the sophisticated algorithmatic detector setup, to sense the source of the click.
@Fauzi – You’re welcome. If your friend is seeing impressions it would indicate the site is getting visitors but none have yet clicked on the ads ( or Google has not counted the clicks to date ). Tell your friend to write a few related articles for the purpose of submitting to article directories. Include a link back to the site in the resource box. Submit the articles to Ezinearticles.com, Articlesbase.com and Goarticles.com
This will generate some valid clicks that will earn him some money. If possible try to choose keywords for the articles that will also rank in the search engines and generate ongoing traffic ( go for long tail with low competition ).
Unfortunately I can’t sign up as an affiliate for Amazon because they no longer accept North Carolina affiliates.
I was going to sign up as a New York affiliate, since I travel back and forth between Fayetteville, NC and Buffalo but Amazon doesn’t pay New York affiliates anymore either
I guess I could use CJ and Linkshare instead.
Will you be doing a post about how you analyze the competition and how to rank in the top 3 spots on the first page of Google?
I would definitely be interested to read that.
Hi Dean,
Very interesting to hear what Google is paying in the adsense revenue share. Up until now i have never really put much effort into creating revenue from adsense, but recently i have been looking into it more and now i am going to start to use adsense as another income stream.
I was very interested to hear your reply to Brittany about giving the reader more options rather than just an adsense block. Do you think a blog or a web page would rank higher if it included both an adsense block AND some Amazon advertizing?
I know you released a product focussed on Adsense earnings a couple of months a go, so you obviously have a lot of knowledge on the subject. I’m looking forward to reading and learning more about adsense on your Blog Dean.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Dean, I really like the way you respond to your visitors’ posts. Please keep it up for the benefit of ALL Internet Marketers. As for me, I have NOT consciously tried to monetize my website yet, but I simply regularly write the necessary content. My supposed keywords somehow almost permanently keep me on Google’s page 1… not necessarily No 1 yet! The business side of things is kind of ok. Maybe when I’m ready to monetize, I’ll re-visit your quite informative blog. Cheers!
@Brittany – Sorry to hear you can’t use Amazon ads. Yes, anything non contextual will be suitable. Consider signing up with CPA networks and putting some relevant offers on those pages ( just bear in mind campaigns expire ). If you want set and forget use banners from CJ, Linkshare, Shareasale etc. I will be making more regular posts as time allows to help my subscribers and readers of this blog.
@Paul Hooper – Good to see you. Thanks for taking the time out to read and comment
The Amazon Ads ( or any non contextual ads ) are purely there to serve as an extra option for a visitor to the site/page in question. The ads themselves WON’T help improve rankings in the search engines but instantly provides visitors with another way to exit the page. It’s also another form of monetization so your site is more valuable to visitors and is not falling into the MFA category. Ideally you want 2-3 extra options on your pages where visitors can click to exit your site/page. Your site will not then be misconstrued as being created purely to gain Adsense revenue.
So in a nutshell what I’m saying is that if you have a site and all it has on it is Adsense, you would be breaking Terms of Service and your site is classed as MFA even if it is filled with unique content. A lot of webmasters are not aware of this fact and are unwittingly doing exactly this.
@Bona Vee – Thanks for your comments. I look forward to hearing from you regarding your progress in the near future. With regard to rankings, make sure you are targeting terms that have traffic. Also don’t be afraid to monetize your site once you have steady traffic.
@Brittany – Google in particular assesses a lot of factors when ranking pages in its search engine.
In terms of competition, Age and Authority are two strong factors. The number of links the overall site has is also a factor. A page you are trying to beat may have 0 links to that page but if the overall site has 42,000 links you can see why Google trusts it and why it’s getting a top 10 listing.
Looking at Vintage Kewpie Doll as a target term there is no reason why you can’t realistically get a top 3 ranking over time ( remember patience is a virtue with organic search engine rankings. Your site could be destined for top rankings but if it’s brand new then it could take more time than you originally anticipated ).
Okay, so what can YOU control?
1) Your on site SEO
2) Promotion – aka links back to your site
3) Link Diversity – remember, you want your link profile to look natural so get links from more than one place.
4) Link building velocity rate – back to the natural element again.
5) The amount of content on your site.
Links from article directories are going to have SEO benefit and you’re also going to get traffic + more links from syndicated content but don’t get ALL your links from directories as it’s a law of diminishing returns if most of your links are coming from the same domains. Mix things up and I’m sure you’ll see improved results.
No charge for this advice
Thanks Dean for the sound advice.
What do you look for when trying to crack the top 10 of Google for a keyword?
In my previous post I stated I looked for:
1. Product-based keyword. They seem to get a higher CTR and if for some reason something goes wrong with Adsense, I can always replace the Adsense with affiliate offers.
1. Minimum of 2,400 searches per month.
2. Must be at least 3 PR-0 sites in the top 10.
3. Try to avoid keywords that have authority and big sites in the top 10, sites like Amazon, About.com, Walmart, etc. Especially if sites like this are in the top 3.
4. I try to go for keywords where the top 10 has 100 backlinks for that specific page.
Am I on the right track?
@Brittany – No problem.
1) A searcher looking for a product is motivated to buy so is more likely to click on an ad about that product/service. Yes.
2) Yes. You could actually get away with a lower number of searches than this and still do well.
3. I would do a cursory check of those 3 PR 0 sites but yes.
4. If authority sites/high PR (4+ ) are in the top few results then you’re not going to crack them with a brand new site that has no authority, so yes.
5). The fewer backlinks your competition has, the easier that term is going to be to beat.
You’re on the right track!
Thanks again Dean. I rarely ever get this kind of free advice and feedback from a successful internet marketer.
It’s nice to know they’re are a few successful internet marketers out there who are willing to share they’re expertise without always having to have something in it for them.
@Brittany – You’re more than welcome. Keep going, stay motivated and keep track of your results. Spend more time on the things that are making you the most money. Also don’t forget to give your visitors more options with related offers ( CPA/Affiliate etc ) and maybe even throw in an RSS news feed at the bottom of your pages as well.
Yeah, just a little discouraging that I’ve been at it for a few months and am not seeing any significant results
I get excited about getting on the 1st page of Google even if it is at the bottom of the 1st page, and then I only make a few pennies a day if I’m lucky.
It’s a little frustrating but I’m going to keep going until there is no doubt in my mind that it does or doesn’t work.
@Brittany – It’s still early days for you
Two things you might want to look at for future sites.
“Vintage Kewpie Doll” is showing an average cost per click of $0.61 to advertisers with a range of approximately $0.33 to $0.78.
Doing a quick realtime check on Google for this term shows 2 advertisers. Ideally you want several advertisers vying for position at any one time.
On your next site try to target a term with an upper bid range of greater than $1 ( it’s okay if lower range is under this ) and also a number of advertisers present when you check realtime results in Google search engine.
You may also want to test out building content sites with a number of pages.
Thanks for the additional advice. Do you have a course or system involving Adsense?
I read the free ebook and it’s good but I wanted to know if there was more info?
I’ve purchased a course on Adsense that was pretty good but it didn’t go into enough detail about keyword research
It was the XFactor ebook, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it?