Last weekend I have spent some time analyzing my online earnings of the recent months. I am not quite happy with the amounts earned, but I am satisfied that they are growing from month to month. Gradually, but they go higher and higher.

But the greatest disappointment of my analysis was the sources of my online income.

One of my rules is not to put all eggs into one basket. So, I run a few websites, a few websites in various industries, websites with forums, blogs, etc. and generate income from a few sources:

-    Google AdSense/ Chitika/ AdBrite (CPC)
-    ClickBank (digital products)
-    ValueClick (CPM)
-    Text-link-ads (text link sales) (aff)
-    CJ/ AzoogleAds (CPA)
-    Amazon affiliate stores
-    Some indie programs

But the result of my research shows that I make 90% income off AdSense. All other sources are negligible. In fact, they are next to nothing. All my online projects are completely dependent on AdSense.

I posted a question on a few webmaster forums with the details of my research.

Those who joined the discussion shared the same stats:
CPA does not,
Amazon sucks,
CPM rates decrease,
ClickBank – are they in business yet,
CPC is the only source of income worth mentioning.

Summary: I have an unpleasant feeling – Google AdSense can ban me at any time due to many reasons incl. the courtesy of the competitors. All attempts to diversify the online income have failed. And it looks that it is common with most other website owners.

Does it mean that affiliate marketing is currently 100% cost-per-click dependent (YPN/ AdSense)? It looks like it is. If you check the post on the largest website publisher money makers – they refer to Google AdSense. There are a few exceptions, but only a few.

[tags]online earnings, online income, adsense, chitika, azoogleads, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]

I have been engaged with internet marketing for the last 18 months or so. I receive most knowledge through webmaster forums If you go to any forum and ask or research for the ways to market your website you will get a standard selection of techniques:

- submit to directories
- do article syndication
- publish press releases
- etc

But the reality of life is that it does not work, most of it. Probably, it was efficient 2-3 years back, but no more.

It takes one hour to start a website, everyone knows these standard marketing techniques and everyone practices them – as a result, they are inefficient.

I have wasted much time by following these tips. And it took me time to realize that these tips suck.

So, your question is: if these techniques suck what works now? How to promote a website online?

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question; it depends on each individual case. And to tell the truth, I am still searching for a model to make my online business scalable.

But there are a few techniques that work fine now for most websites. Your marketing mix should include these steps:

– developing good content and extra features for your website
- keeping an eye on your competitors and industry in general
- networking in your industry forums and blogs
- researching your logs to see what are the most efficient techniques

Rand Fishkin offers his idea of time distribution for effective online marketing (see the chart below). I do not practice manual link building as I have spent months on this inefficient marketing technique. I also spend less time on checking my logs. When working at the content I also differentiate a few types of content:

a. I try to cover topics that users search through search engines (I use this tool to check the keyword popularity)

b. I develop content targeting social websites (hoping to get traffic, links and branding)

c. I try to keep up with the recent trends in the industry to keep my readers and myself updated on the latest significant events.

Summary: Internet changes at a fast pace. It is not an easy task to keep up with it. But in my opinion it is the only way to survive in this arena.

Observe the trends, test, and control your results. Repeat. It is not easy. I can’t say that I successfully follow this advice, but I work on it.

[tags]online marketing, social websites, google, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]

This post lists those big AdSense earners who make much money with this services and publicly declare their earnings:

1: Markus Frind: PlentyOfFish.com – $300,000 per month
2: Kevin Rose: Digg.com – $250,000 per month
3: Jeremy Shoemaker – $140,000 per month
4: Jason Calacanis: Weblogs, Inc. – $120,000 per month
5: David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard – $100,000 per month
6: Tim Carter: AskTheBuilder.com – $30,000 per month
7: Joel Comm – $24,000 per month
8: Shawn Hogan – DigitalPoint.com $10,000 per month

Summary: I am sure there are many more web publishers making this amount of money with AdSense. They are not on the list as they did not publicly announce of their earnings.

When analyzing the list I should admit that we see people making money online in miscellaneous niches and with miscellaneous business models. Digg.com, Plentyoffish, DigitalPoint – community websites, Shoemaker is an owner of a ring tone empire primarily, David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard – make money off MySpace (how long will their business model last? Hard to say), etc.

[tags]google adsense, adsense, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, make money online, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]