Google Adsense and Your Retirement

Question: Then, last summer, a friend said, try Google AdSense. The results were instant... I trust Google for my retirement more than I trust Social Security.
John "zeke" Brumage

Zeke,

I fully agree that AdSense can really help sites like yours that are having trouble making money. We use it as well as many others. But you are leaving a lot on the table with your site as it is. You should spend some time researching AdSense to see what works best. I think you could change your site layout and integrate the ads better and substantially improve your earnings from AdSense without doing anything against their rules.

That said, you are still letting Google set your maximum revenue, and you are putting all your eggs in one basket. You should diversify and see what other ads (contextual, affiliate, and even network) can do for you. It can be a lot of work to test and swap out creatives (unless you have a management service or program), but the rewards can be worth it. Also, you should try to sell the space yourself. Set your rates to be 2x to 5x what you get a day from AdSense and if you make a few sales you are ahead. You really have nothing to lose.

Brad Waller