How’re you doing with your Adsense ads?
Is Adsense paying your salary yet? Your mortgage? Your car loan? Your hosting bills? A coffee a month?
No? Tough going, isn’t it?
But there’s plenty of inspiration out there if your aim is to make Adsense pay out. However, matching your salary, or evenmeeting your mortgage payments via Adsense is a long way off for most of us, and you’ll get pretty damn tired of waiting for it to happen. In fact, some days progress will go so slowly that it seems like you’re not getting anywhere at all.
A much better way to measure your Adsense success (or the success of virtually any online revenue model) is to break your main goal down into a bunch of smaller goals that are much more achievable.
That’s because hitting lots of little targets is a lot more satisfying than waiting months or even years to hit just one big target. It’s good for morale, and once you’ve smashed one, the next one never seems that far off.
So with that in mind, here are a few Adsense targets you could try…
X dollars a day.
Everyone’s taken a shot for this one at one point. As a first target, hitting a dollar a day, or 30 dollars a month, makes a lot of sense. Once you’ve reached that one, moving on to the next one ($2 a day/$60 a month) is simple, and it gives you a steady stream of easily-achievable targets to meet.
Moving targets.
First, you set yourself a monthly earnings target that you’ve almost achieved - $10 a month, $25 a month, $50 a month, whatever. Then you work hard at achieving that target on or slightly before that last day of that month. After that, your challenge is to try hitting that target earlier and earlier in the month. So, for example, if you’re currently making $50 on or around the 30th of every month, try pushing that forward so you hit $50 on the 25th of the month. Then the 20th of the month, and so on, and so on.
Think about it - the faster you can bring that $50 forward to the 1st of the month, the faster you’ll be earning $50 each day.
Double your money.
This one’s for the hardcore amongst you. It’s a simple idea - all you need to do is double your Adsense earnings every month. So, imagine you earn $10 this month on Adsense. Next month you’d need to earn $20. The month after that, $40. Then $80. Then $160. Then $320 per month after just 6 months. Not for the faint hearted, eh?
Cheque checking.
Google only pays out when you hit $100. Wouldn’t it be nice to get those cheques a little faster? With that in mind, here’s a goal for you - work out how long it took for that first $100 cheque to land on your doormat. Then try to land the second one quicker. And the third even quicker, until you’re regularly receiving a Google cheque each month.
Match your salary.
As I said, this is probably a long, long way off for most of us. So, why not try to match just a tenth of your monthly salary first, which will seem much more achievable. From there, the jump up to a fifth of your salary isn’t as much of a hurdle as you might think. After that, a quarter of your salary will seem reachable. Then 50%. Then 75%. Then you hand in your notice and become a full time, bona fide pro blogger.
After all, that’s the ultimate aim in all this, right? ;o)
Technorati Tags: blogging, adsense, adsense goals, making money, targets
Barry Bell is a Freelance Copywriter and Recruitment Communications Specialist based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
Contributor profile: http://wurk.net/profile/admin
Website: http://barrybell.com
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March 17, 2006 @ 1:55 am...
Barry.
Good sensible advice. I added Adsense in January and expected different results. You’ve prsented some very realistic targets. Thank you.
Nancy
March 17, 2006 @ 3:09 am...
Good motivational post!
March 17, 2006 @ 5:41 am...
Barry, this is excellent advice. It makes getting to your future destinations a lot more palatable when you break it down like this.
This is what I’ve tried to do as well, and it feels good to actually reach some milestones, no matter how small. I also do forecasting based on a simple but powerful statistical technique known as MMAs (Multiple Moving Averages). It’s used in the stock market to track short- and long-term indicators.
I know it sounds like overkill, but it’s really incredibly valuable, and works like a reverse crystal ball to show you trends. When you pair your MMAs with smaller milestones, it feels very good, and gives you motivation to continue.
March 17, 2006 @ 5:43 am...
Sorry, forgot… I particularly like your advice about moving up your milestone dates. Wow. I never thought of that. Very insightful.
March 17, 2006 @ 10:10 am...
Barry, tx for the info
Finally information which is more realistic (for me that is).
@raj, I read up on MMA and I am going to set some target for
April. btw: which period do you use???
grtz
March 17, 2006 @ 10:25 am...
Hey guys. Thanks for the comments.
Raj: MMA techniques? Now you’ve made me feel all inadequate.
;o))
March 17, 2006 @ 2:23 pm...
Barry: Ah come on :) It’s really not that hard once you know how to use MMAs and interpret them. Once I have the WordPress plugin written, it should be a cinch.
Simon: I use several periods for short- and long-term indicators. I start with 7 day, 14d and 28d, then I add new periods that are multiples of 28d. This helps you determine long-term revenues.
I also do the same thing on a metric of “7 day sum”. I use the same windows, I gotta tell, if you want to see what your earnings will be like in the short-term, this is the MMA set you want to use.
Again, these are just forecasts, not guarantees :)
March 18, 2006 @ 12:50 am...
That’s some good advice. I’m following it already :)
March 21, 2006 @ 12:19 am...
I have in the last 6 months seen my adsense numbers increase each month so far I am at a little over 2 dollars a day my next goal is to make it to 4-5 dollars aday by this summer….good advice!!!
March 26, 2006 @ 1:10 am...
hi all,
After this post I found some time to create a little tool. It took a little more time then I had anticipated and still could use some error handling but for it works (I hope) and I could use some feedback.
try it out if you have the time: http://www.100000eurohomepage.com/adsense-forecast-tool/
Kind regards