I’ve been dabbling with Google AdSense for a while, trying to figure out what are the key factors to making some money. Up to this point I have only used their basic CPC (Cost Per Click) setup. I haven’t done anything with CPA (Click Per Action) but I imagine that most of my ideas will apply to CPA also.
None of this is really news to a veteran, but after reviewing my AdSense data over several months, here are the ideas that I’ve found:
Page Impressions
This may seem obvious. The more Page Impressions you get the better. This is essentially a factor of (the popularity of your site * number of pages viewed per visit). If you can break your site up into many sections, thus causing your visitors to view several pages every time they visit, you will get more Page Impressions.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
The more clicks you get, the more money you get. It is reasonable to assume 20¢+ Per Click. In this scenario, 5 clicks = $1.00
From my reading, apparently a 2% CTR is a reasonable expectation if you are running the right ads, in the right positions, etc.
Projected Income
What this all means is that if you have a site that gets 10,000 impressions per day, you’re getting a 2% CTR and you’re getting 20¢ per click:
10,000 Impressions / .02 CTR = 200 Clicks Per Day
200 Clicks Per Day * 20cent; = $40 Per Day
$40 Per Day * 7 Days = $280 Per Week
$280 Per Week * 52 Weeks = $14,560 Per Year
Conclusions About Online Advertising
What this all means is that without a good number of visitors everyday, you aren’t going to make anything with online advertising. You can post all the Google AdSense and Affiliate Links that you want, but if nobody is going to your site, nobody is going to click your links. Basically, it seems to me, you need to work on SEO skills before you can worry about generating any kind of income from online advertising.