*This may or may not be based on a true story*

Late 2006

Person: What’s that? *pointing at my computer monitor*
Me: Another web site I just made. It’s called a blog.
Person: *blank face*
Me: Just another online site for me to rant my stuff. And I finally got a domain name!
Person: *blank + don’t care face*
Me: I had to spend a little, though, for that and my hosting.
Person: *you’ve gotta be kidding face*

Early 2007

Me: You know, I’ve just found out a way how I can make money out of my blog.
Person: What? (as in what’s a blog again?)
Me: Yeah, they call it paid to blog. I just post some stuff, put links in it and then they pay me.
Person: How much?
Me: 5 bucks a post.
Person: Hrmph.
Me: US dollars.
Person: *blank + don’t care face*
Me: And it’s not like those HYIP, E-gold stuff you’re doing. There’s basically no risk involved.
Person: *you do what you want to do because I don’t care face*

Late 2007

Me: Hey, I got 30 bucks in my PayPal!
Person: *wow that’s a lot…not… face*
Me: Wow, and that’s just one program per month. If I do a few of these programs, I might just get a hundred bucks a month!
(a few days later)
Me: That PayPal money just went into my credit card account. RM100 plus. Not bad, huh?
Person: (quiet)
Me: Were you able to take out your money from your E-gold and HYIPs?
Person: (quiet)
Me: Scams again, huh?
Person: (quiet)

Early 2008

Person: Are you still making money from your blog?
Me: Yep.
Person: How much?
Me: Almost a thousand Ringgit a month now.
Person: Oh.
Me: I’m thinking of doing a few more blogs. They call it niche sites. Looks like a good way to make money, as long as I have the time to blog.

Mid 2008

Person: I wanna make a site about making money.
Me: You should try blogging. I can set it up for you.
Person: Sure.
(a month later)
Me: Why aren’t you updating your site?
Person: I’ll get around to it. I’ll do a whole bunch of updates at one go.
Me: OK.
(another month later)
Me: Are you sure you want to do this blog thing?
Person: I dunno. Looks hard.
Me: *rolls eyes* … You haven’t even started.

Late 2008

Me: Oh, my God! Check out my AdSense! USD100 finally! And that’s just from one blog! Plus my paid postings… yes!
Person: Great! How do you take that money out?

2009 – recently

Me: Where did you go?
Person: I’ve been hanging out with my friends. We went shopping for some gadgets and stuff. They say they’re spending all those with their money they get from their blogs.
Me: *keeps eyes on netbook and blog* Good for them.
Person: I wanna have a blog.
Me: *keeps eyes on netbook and blog + you’ve gotta be kidding face*
Person: I just don’t know what to blog about.
Me: *keeps eyes on netbook and blog* Just blog about anything. Like they do. Like I do. I’ll help you set yours up, and buy you your own domain while we’re at it… just make sure you update, OK?
Person: *excited* … I’m getting the digicam you wanted.
Me: *snorts sarcastically* Yeah, sure.

Much more recently

Me: You haven’t started your blog.
Person: I’ll get around to it. I’ll do a whole bunch of updates at one go.
Me: *snorts sarcastically* Yeah, sure.

——————-

I know, I know. I swore off using AdSense last year. So why is it back in WebGrrrl.net?

Frequent visitors to my site may have noticed that posts in this site has been sporadic these past months. The reason is because I’ve only started to create niche sites that not only am I passionate about, but plan to monetize on. Lots of it failed, but I managed to flip them and get a few extra buck out of them. Still, I’ve finally hit the jackpot with one of my site that focuses on a pretty small arts and crafts niche, which is earning me about $6 in September, and has jumped to $27 in October.

Back to the matter of putting AdSense. The thing about WebGrrrl.net’s traffic stats is that this site gets around 3,000 unique visits a month, with about 70 feed subscribers, and an 80% bounce rate. A bounce rate that low, for those of you who are not familiar with the term, means that out of 10 people who visit my site, 8 will never return. That’s pretty bad. Page views are about 1 to 2 pages per visit.

My stats on the new niche site of mine (note the word site, not blog) only recently gets around 3,000 unique visits a month, up from just about 60 uniques in July. It currently has 30 subscribers, half of it via e-mail, and a fantastic 35% bounce rate. Page views per person is at least 10 to 15 pages per visit. Isn’t that great?

However, due to the nature of that niche site, its earnings are pretty low. This WebGrrrl.net blog, on the other hand, tends to get higher CTR even though page impressions are less than 50 (only my games-related posts have AdSense). Plus, being an IT / computer / technology blog of sorts means that there tends to be more high-paying advertisers in the market.

So I’m putting up ads back in WebGrrrl.net to see exactly how AdSense earnings are influenced by this blog’s niche (which is a bit too broad for my liking) as well as the influence that the site’s stats has on the ads earning. After 6 months, I’ll be switching off the ads again, and make a comparison with my niche site to see what I can conclude from them. Please bear with the interruption as I research my way into this. (more…)