The term “making money with AdSense” has been around for years now and I have to admit that while I do make money online, my AdSense earnings is frustratingly low. In fact, it’s too low that I have thought of dropping it altogether multiple times but some voice inside my head (I swear I’m not insane) tells me to improve it instead of giving up.
I knew I needed some really good advise from someone who’s making much more than what I make but who? Luckily, I know this guy named Marhgil Macuha who makes 30 times more money with AdSense in just one site than what I make in all my sites combined. I didn’t waste time in asking him if I could interview him regarding his AdSense earnings…
And he obliged!
Before you expect too much from Mr. Macuha, let me make it a point that he is not one of them “AdSense Gurus” who make “6-figure Incomes” with Google AdSense. Instead, think of him as an average guy with whom you can totally relate. During our chat, he didn’t make any promises of gold and silver. Rather, he told me simply what works for him.
Let me tell you a very embarassing secret…
Ready for it?
I make only an average of $1 a day in Google AdSense earnings (and I have more than one site). I actually thought twice before telling you this but I think I should because I believe there are many people out there who are like me (perhaps even you) who started with AdSense years back but still haven’t made a reasonable income from it.
But what’s reasonable you’d ask? Well, for some it’s $100 per day. To some, $10 a day is good enough. But I guess $1 is and will never be reasonable for anyone. So, how much does Marhgil make?
He makes an average of $30 a day on just one site. That’s 30 times more than what I make. Heck, even his wife makes more in a month with Google Adsense (also with just one site) than what I make. So how does he do it?
I think what he told me can be summarized into three easy to remember points.
1. Write Quality Posts
2. Know your Keywords
3. Put your Adsense ABOVE THE FOLD!!!
But we already know that don’t we? I know I do but do I do it? Do you?
Points 1 and 2 increases search engine traffic and builds a loyal set of website visitors as well. Point number 3 is what improves his Click-through Rate or CTR. But what evidence does he have to tell me what he does?
Aside from the fact that he makes more money with AdSense than me, he also has 1200 RSS readers according to FeedBurner and is getting as much as 3,000 unique visitors and 6,000 pageviews per day. I think another way to summarize what Marhgil Macuha is doing is this:
Traffic + Good AdSense Placement = Money
Let’s talk about traffic later. For now, let’s see where Mr. Macuha places his ad on his site. If you take a look at his website at http://macuha.com/, you’ll notice that he does put his ads above the fold. “Kita mo naman itsura ng blog ko, mukhang MFA,” (Look at how my blog looks like, it looks like an MFA site) Marhgil said. MFA means “made-for-adsense” and is generally frowned upon by Google but macuha.com is not an MFA site. It just follows the layout of an MFA site. MFA sites don’t have quality content that people like to read but macuha.com does.
His site doesn’t look something that will win the Philippine Web Awards or something but heck he makes money from it. “Ang hirap kasi, based on experience ko nga kasi, kung professional looking talaga yung site mo, mahihiya ka ilagay yung mga ads kung saan ‘takaw-click’ sya,” (What’s tough, based on my experience, is that if your site looks professional, you’d be ashamed of putting your ads in places where they get the most clicks) he further said.
But why be ashamed of putting your ads in places where they almost blatantly say, “Click me” if your goal is to make money with AdSense? Makes sense right? If you don’t want to put your ads in places where it gets the most number of clicks, then don’t expect money from it.
That’s what “PUT YOUR ADS ABOVE THE FOLD” really means. Look at macuha.com once more but this time make sure you read one of his posts and you’ll notice that his ads are definitely above the fold.
Now, let’s move on to traffic. How does Marhgil Macuha bring visitors to his website? Well, he does it by doing a few simple things.
1. He writes quality posts to keep his readers from going away
2. He incorporates search keywords in his posts so it shows up in search results
3. He submits his posts to Digg and other social bookmarking site for link building
4. He exchanges links with other bloggers for more link building
5. This he didn’t tell me but I noticed he does it – He twits about them.
It’s not really rocket science if you think about it. The things he does are things that we can all do so there’s no reason why we must not do it.
He also writes about current events which according to him brings in a sudden surge of visitors. He however makes it a point that to write what he calls “timeless posts” that will keep getting traffic all-year-round from the search engines. After all, 80% of his traffic comes from the search engines.
When I asked him what he does to promote his blog, this is what he said.
“Depende sa blog post. Kung current events na gusto ko kaagad magrank in 2 to 3 days, like Pacquiao fights, social bookmarking sites lang gamit ko + links from my other blogs na nakatengga lang. For timeless posts, yung mga sinesearch whole year round na keywords, mostly, gradual pagkuha ko ng links. Exchanging links sa ibang bloggers. Tsaka write quality content talaga, para may link bait nature yung post.”
(It depends on the blog post. For current events which I want to immediately rank in 2 to 3 days, like Pacquiao fights, I use social bookmarking sites + links from my other blogs that are not being used. For timeless posts, those that get searched all year round, mostly, I do gradual link bulding. Exchanging links with other bloggers. And really write quality content, to give your post a link bait nature.)
How many posts does he write? Well, it really depends on his mood. He doesn’t keep any schedule when it comes to that but he does make it a point to write something useful for his regular readers at least once a week.
His final words for all of us are…
“Aralin muna nila yung sistema bago sumabak. Tyagaan lang, basta tama yung sistemang sinusunod mo, maaabot mo rin yung tagumpay.” (Learn the system before getting on-board. If you work hard and follow the right system, success will be within your reach.)
Follow us on Twitter:
Mike Lopez – http://twitter.com/MikeLopez
Marhgil Macuha – http://twitter.com/marhgil
Also download the free “Guerilla blogger’s strategy and tactics on how to make cash online” ebook written by Mr. Marhgil Macuha and Zigfred Diaz.
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