for me, affiliates have worked great. private ad inquiries are now starting to trickle in.  hopefully soon there will be digital products in the mix as well.  donations? not for my blog i don't think...though my niche content sites do very well with donations

http://www.blogthority.com/308.....word-tool/

 enjoy.

http://www.adsenseoptimizer.de/

moneysmarts said:

In general the ones the posts that do well with adsense monetization are the ones that do well in the search engines.  Regular readers don't usually click on ads, so it can be a good idea to try and monetize in other ways for your regular readers - like your own products, affiliates, etc.

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The most clicks that I get are from articles with very focused topics that pull search engine traffic.  Chances are that the ads that are displayed will closely be associated with what they were searching for (especially with Google's search tracking cookies) which might insight people to click on those ads.  There is both a good and bad here.  The good is that you will generate income, but the bad is that you will be losing a reader off to another site.  I write content sometimes for my most popular search terms and they generate the most revenue.  I've said if before and will say again, everyone should install Adsense Optimizer plugin.  It is light years ahead of others and increased my revenue from under $0.50 to $30 in the first month alone.

Sandy--where do I find the Adsense Optimizer plugin?  I searched for that term and couldn't find it.

Also, how does one go about seeing what are the popular terms for AdSense?  I don't want to write for AdSense, but once in awhile I wouldn't mind tailoring a post around a keyword.  I just don't know how to find the keywords!

moneysmarts said:

In general the ones the posts that do well with adsense monetization are the ones that do well in the search engines.  Regular readers don't usually click on ads, so it can be a good idea to try and monetize in other ways for your regular readers - like your own products, affiliates, etc.

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The most clicks that I get are from articles with very focused topics that pull search engine traffic.  Chances are that the ads that are displayed will closely be associated with what they were searching for (especially with Google's search tracking cookies) which might insight people to click on those ads.  There is both a good and bad here.  The good is that you will generate income, but the bad is that you will be losing a reader off to another site.  I write content sometimes for my most popular search terms and they generate the most revenue.  I've said if before and will say again, everyone should install Adsense Optimizer plugin.  It is light years ahead of others and increased my revenue from under $0.50 to $30 in the first month alone.

Hey Sandy! Is the Adsense Optimizer Plugin a Wordpress platform-specific feature? Or can that be used with other platforms as well?

In general the ones the posts that do well with adsense monetization are the ones that do well in the search engines.  Regular readers don't usually click on ads, so it can be a good idea to try and monetize in other ways for your regular readers - like your own products, affiliates, etc.

The most clicks that I get are from articles with very focused topics that pull search engine traffic.  Chances are that the ads that are displayed will closely be associated with what they were searching for (especially with Google's search tracking cookies) which might insight people to click on those ads.  There is both a good and bad here.  The good is that you will generate income, but the bad is that you will be losing a reader off to another site.  I write content sometimes for my most popular search terms and they generate the most revenue.  I've said if before and will say again, everyone should install Adsense Optimizer plugin.  It is light years ahead of others and increased my revenue from under $0.50 to $30 in the first month alone.

I am just curious at Kevin's comment above when he mentioned his friend earns more from AdSense. The regular readers may not click on adsense compared to the surfers who stumble on your site in search of something.

Hey moneysmarts,

 

Thanks for the great info.  I finally put up my first AdSense ad.  I felt a little dirty  or selling out, but I guess better now than later.  Just curious, I choose to use a 250x250 square.  My side panel may be skinnier so the ad is showing, but chopping the bottom right corner's Ads by Google.  Any harm in that?  Thanks again.

 

Buck

 

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You may want to try another ad size there or widening your sidebar a bit so that it fits.  Having the ad cut off may not be a good thing.

It is definitely a balancing act, but I think it's  definitely achievable to find a balance between things you like writing about, and things that help people and do well in adsense.

Now that I have it up, I think am going to focus on writing.  However, moneysmarts does have a good point about targeting your topics.  Perhaps the sweet spot is writing about things you are passionate about that is also popular with a lot of people as well.  What a journey...

Buck

Forest Parks said:

The best way to increase adsense earnings is to pretend it isn't there. Write good coherant posts for readers and on popular topics. Even though commeters and readers are no good for adsense as such they are good at helping you climb the ranks will ultimately will increase adsense earnings. So never write for adsense as such!

Thanks for the great info.  I finally put up my first AdSense ad.  I felt a little dirty  or selling out, but I guess better now than later.  Just curious, I choose to use a 250x250 square.  My side panel may be skinnier so the ad is showing, but chopping the bottom right corner's Ads by Google.  Any harm in that?  Thanks again.

Buck

moneysmarts said:

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Yup, as mentioned it takes time to hit that mythical $100 adsense payout.  If you get help from others, however, and write about good paying topics more often, it can happen a lot quicker. How do you know what topics pay better?  Check out what kind of topics successful sites are write about, use the adwords keyword tool, look at your own analytics to see which articles pay the best, look at what's in the news, etc. 
Also, when thinking about your topics, think about what kind of things you search for when you go to google.  For me, I would normally search to get help on things I don't understand.  Tax issues, economic news, how to type articles, etc.  So in other words, write your articles to help other people. Articles and sites that focus inward and do a lot of navel gazing (for example;  "things i spent money on this month", or "10 reasons why i like my cat") tend not to do as well.  Help others, and you'll do better.

Smart On Money is my second blog, and this time around I knew a bit better what I was doing when it comes to monetization.    Instead of having to wait months and months to get my first payout, I had it within 2 months this time.  The site is only 5 months old now, and the site is now breaking $100 in adsense every month – over $200 last month – so it can be done. 

My suggestion?  Write a lot, and get as much content as you can indexed by google, cause that's where most of your good paying traffic is going to come from.

The best way to increase adsense earnings is to pretend it isn't there. Write good coherant posts for readers and on popular topics. Even though commeters and readers are no good for adsense as such they are good at helping you climb the ranks will ultimately will increase adsense earnings. So never write for adsense as such!

But long term, I think it's important to pay attention to adsense and analytics trends, and look at where your site excels, what posts pay best and optimize your writing to help increase your income - if you're worried about that (like I am)  ;)