Finally. It arrived. The cheque from Google. Something I have been waiting for 20 odd days. And not sure if it is any indication that it reached me exactly on Vijayadasami. While I have never posted anything on Woodooz for monetary benefits, this income does help recover some of the costs that I have incurred in the past. The blog domain for instance. When few opined that it is unnecessary for a hobby, I felt it was important. Now I don’t have to really worry about that investment.
While am elated about my first payout, I have to accept that it is not something that I see as way forward. More so because the daily revenue is meager and I doubt if I can ever make a post to influence the earning – A reason why am opening the blog to direct advertising.
The whole blogging experience offers something new to learn with every passing day. This is my decision for the moment and here are the top four reasons why I want to venture out of Adsense and explore other means of generating income in the coming days :
I don’t want to discourage anyone. There are way too many successful stories on Adsense up on the net for you to read. I just wanted to impress upon the fact that Adsense is not necessarily easy money. It takes time by which time it is quite possible for one to be consumed by the paltry daily revenue that trickles into the account. |
| With my Adsense cheque |
- While there are experts who understand the system and manipulate (not sure if it is the right word to use) content without breaking any of the rules, it does take lot of reading and experience to completely comprehend the art of Adsense.
- Ad placement, ad types, ad sizes and more impact the chances of a click through and there is always a need to experiment before a firm decision can be taken.
- I notice that the Cost Per Click (CPC) for the keywords in the craft / DIY segment is very low. This demands a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) than most other genres where the keywords fetch a fairly high cost per every click.
- It is hard work and not as easy as many may make it sound. I need higher organic traffic with sizable amount of every day visits. The problem with me is that I am not able to quantify higher and sizable.
Do share your thoughts. Do you have Adsense installed ? Do you see a promising future in it ? Would love to hear from fellow craft / art / DIY bloggers and in general from others too.
Lots of doubts! But if it took you a couple of years to get here..I think I shall just prop my legs up for now and bide my time :P
ReplyDeleteWhat doubts Gitanjali ? And yea it took me a little less than 2 years. But I am noticing good increase in monthly revenue and I don't think I need to wait that long for the 2nd Cheque :)
DeleteCongrats...Even many times I thought I should go for Google adsense...but many times dropped that idea too...
ReplyDeleteHi Ranjana, thanks and I wasn't sure about it initially. But was totally worth it.
DeleteHi Somu, Congrats for the cheque, I agree that having some monetary returns from a hobby would help in keeping its costs down. Of course you will have to be aware about the side effects like doing a DIY activity based on its "saleability" or how it looks interested advertisers rather than the love of the activity itself. Or willing yourself to call a bad product a bad product even if it belongs to a sponsor .. so all the best to a new set of awareness as you go along.
ReplyDeleteComing to adsense, possibly, in India the number of people buying products online and that too thru click-thrus is still small and that could be the reason why it requires large volume of visitors. So in that perspective, yes it makes sense to go for direct-ad rather than google.
-- MS
Hi MS, thanks. Right now I don't think I am looking at the saleability of the DIY activity. I want to experiment without having to compromise on the fun part of the activity. And you are right. It is a tricky situation when you have to give honest feedback on a sponsor's product. I want to keep the posts clean and free from any prejudice that is an influence of a certain sponsorship. As I said, have to experiment to see how it takes shape. :)
DeleteCongrats on your first adsense! And for your decision on switching to direct sponsors, it depends upon personal choice in creating revenues.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I do have adsense and I completely agree that adsense is hard work and depends upon many factors esp. one has to be well verse in seo and optimization technique. And as yours is DIY, there are chances you will get many interesting sponsors including people who would like to buy them. If your main target is revenue, then the latter makes sense.
Hi Uma, thanks a lot. And I completely agree with you. Direct sponsors vs adsense is certainly a personal choice. I find Adsense interesting and also mysterious. I still need to go a long way before I can unravel the mystery around it. My SEO and optimization knowledge is also limited, though I try to apply whatever I know and understand in every post of mine.
DeleteMy main target is good content and increased viewership. I don't want to compromise that for revenue. That said, I also want to indulge in some monetizing efforts. Thanks for dropping in and penning your thoughts :)
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