AdSense Success Stories (Part 2)

People seeking wealth online have asked me to continue what we started in AdSense Success Stories Part 1, so here we are with the surprising, eye-popping revelation of how 21-year old Jehzlau has good naturedly and generously risen up the AdSense success ladder.

Why eye-popping? Well, he succeeded even if he did not follow those AdSense gurus. And surprising, because he does not quite realize it... yet.

Jehzlau is Jehzeel Laurente, an aspiring problogger who is growing a network of content blogs. He even has a site called Make Money Online While Sleeping, and if you visit that Blogspot or Blogger.com blog of his, you will be amazed with the content.

Usually, MMO blogs talk mainly about how to earn online, right? Well, Jehz's MMO blog has a different focus. It makes me wonder why he named it MMOWS, but hey, it works!

Lesson Number 1: Break Out Of Your Shell.

Just because you have an MMO blog doesn't mean that's all you're going to focus on, right? You are completely free to take your blog in whatever direction you wish, and you may very well discover how pursuing your keen interests can prove profitable in the long run.

(I know, lots of gurus scoff at the "mistaken" advice: Follow Your Passion. But guess what? It sometimes works. Granted, it doesn't work all the time, but it still does every now and then.)

I will not reveal the winner blogs of Jehz. Although he freely talks about it, it would be better if you get the news straight from him. Let's just say that when he does not update his blogs for several weeks, and his blog earnings dip to the lowest point, he is still earning much more than a middle manager working in a Top 500 Corporation in the Philippines.

Lesson Number 2: Frequent Blog Updates Is Over-Rated.

You've heard many people say you need to write every single day, or you need to at least blog regularly (i.e., once a week, every week, for 52 weeks). Others even use automated systems to automatically publish pre-programmed WordPress postings to give the impression that a human being is regularly updating their blog.

A few, on the other hand, have kept quiet about seeing their AdSense income drop even if they write regularly. Perhaps they're uneasy about admitting to the people around them how they've apparently wasted their time on this blogging thing.

So how can Jehz, even after slacking off for two months, survive dramatic 50% drops in his AdSense earnings, and still out-earn your typical 8-to-9pm manager? Well, the secret lies in getting a lot of traffic from the search engines. Free, unpaid, organic traffic. Yes, there's no need to spend hours monitoring some crazy PPC campaign.

And how did he get all this wonderful search engine traffic? From optimizing his blog.

So I checked his blog, and here's what I found: It isn't that optimized.

Lesson Number 3: Don't Obsess Over SEO.

Just to be clear, Jehz's blog (at least the winner blog that I saw) is optimized. It's just not overly optimized. Most gurus will say that you should enclose your WordPress blog titles in H1 heading tags. Well, the blog post titles of Jehz are enclosed in H2 tags, while his header graphic is the one encased in those H1s.

Heresy, some would shriek. And yet, his blog still appears on page 1 of the Google SERPs for his targeted keywords. What's more surprising is that his site does not always appear among the Top 5 pages listed in Google, and yet he is an AdSense success (even is he's listed in number 10).

What about keywords? I used WordTracker to check his targeted keywords and phrases, and saw an estimated figure of 260 searches. Other sites who rank either #1 or #2 for keyword phrases that WordTracker says get over 8,500 searches only earn $2 to $47 each month in AdSense dollars.

It makes me wonder if Jehz even used WT at all. But still, what he did works.

He strikes me as someone who used his head, and placed himself in the shoes of his targeted audience. He asked himself: "What does my target audience want?", and he answered his own question within 3 minutes.

In other words, the answer was rather obvious. All that was needed was to turn those ideas into reality: into a high-earning web site.

You know, in spite of all his success, Jehz remains humble and generous. He freely shares his knowledge, and even goes out of his way to help others learn. In fact, one of his "students" has built a mini-network of blogs (less than 10), and is now earning 3x what Jehz is earning.

Lesson Number 4: Choose Your Audience and Topic Well.

Perhaps that "student" has the advantage of age, plus experience, which allowed him/her to target a certain kind of audience, pursue a lucrative topic, outsource the writing of articles rather inexpensively, and efficiently manage a mini-network of blogs that helped grow his/her AdSense earnings comparable to the basic pay of an Executive Director here in the Philippines, and then some.

No, I will not reveal what that niche topic is, but I'll tell you this: If you can't think of what that winner topic is in the next seven seconds, then be prepared to work extremely hard to build a worthwhile site on that subject matter. Yes, it's all around you and is an important part of your life, but if that topic is not truly in you, then you'll just end up slaving away and trying too hard to build a winner AdSense site.

And since I wouldn't want to wish that on you, I will have to keep the topic a "secret." The key lies in first targeting the right kind of audience. Put yourself in the shoes of advertisers and ask yourself this: "What kind of audience do you want to advertise to?"

Once you have that figured out (and I'm certain it will come easy to you), then do some brainstorming and ask yourself: "What kind of things does my target reader want to read about?"

Lesson Number 5: Be Grateful. Be Generous. Gain Friends.

And if you do it right, you might even be yet another AdSense success story with a micro blog network of just two sites. When you do reach that level, remember to remain humble and generous, and try not to be too astonished when you discover that the returns surpass even your wildest imagination.

A lot of people tend to get overly excited when it comes to making money online. It is quite easy to dream you will be able to maximize your earnings while minimizing your effort. If you choose that approach, you will realize deep inside that you're not exactly being grateful nor generous. How can you expect others to help you, if all you do is take, take, take, right?

If you, like Jehz and countless other successful bloggers, focus on how you can help people, not just through your blogs but also there in your physical world, face to face with the people around you, then you will achieve a much deeper level of success. And those thousands of AdSense dollars each month will just be the icing on the cake.

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Manuel Viloria is your friendly multimedia internet publishing coach who helps you gain more traffic for your web sites. Whether it's through blogging, podcasting, article marketing, videoblogging, email listbuilding, or even through Web 2.0 or social network marketing, you can increase your website visitors today. For more information, please visit Get More Traffic | ManuelViloria.com

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"AdSense Success Stories (Part 2)"
First Posted: August 12, 2008 | Filed in: Adsense