make money online

Business

Anyone who is new to computers or unfamiliar with the Internet can appreciate the usefulness of grownupgeek.com. Founder Randy Brown started the site because friends and acquaintances constantly asked him for computer help. Today, Brown’s audience has expanded beyond his immediate circle of friends. Between 5,000 and 6,000 unique visitors each day come to his site for referrals, recommendations on security products, tips and information to help them keep their PCs running smoothly and securely. The site is written in plain English, making it ideal for technology novices.

Approach

At first, Brown was wary of starting grownupgeek.com because of the cost of website hosting. He heard about Google AdSense™ in an online forum, and thought it might be a way for him to cover his costs. "I wanted to start a computer information site for beginners, but not unless I could at least break even," he recalls. "I probably wouldn’t have started the site if it weren’t for the ability to earn revenue from AdSense."

Implementing AdSense on his site, according to Brown, "couldn’t have been any easier," despite the fact that Brown says he’s not a practiced webmaster. He was immediately satisfied with his revenues. "I only wanted to cover my $7.77 per month hosting fees, but AdSense far surpassed that right away," Brown proclaims. "The income I started earning blew me away."

Although he was immediately happy with this revenue, Brown heard about AdSense Referrals and realized that it could help him earn more money and improve his visitors’ experience. This is an AdSense feature that enables website publishers to increase their revenue while expanding their visitors’ awareness of useful products and services.

For example, Brown often recommends the Firefox web browser because of its powerful security features. By adding a referral button to his site, Brown realized he could direct users to Firefox with the Google Toolbar. When a referral connects a user to Firefox, Google pays Brown each time.

"Much of the information on my site is security-related, so I immediately saw that AdSense Referrals for Firefox were the perfect match with the content on my site," says Brown. "I believe in Firefox and use it myself, so it made sense for me to recommend it to my readers."

Results

Brown reports that "about 50 percent of my income now comes from AdSense Referrals – and sometimes it even accounts for 75 percent of my earnings." He says he’s tried other services, but AdSense and AdSense Referrals surpass other options. Plus, advanced features in AdSense such as channel reporting and the ability to combine several ads in a single box have helped him optimize his earnings performance.

"AdSense is superior in terms of ad targeting, reporting, and a richer inventory of ads," says Brown. "If I had to choose between AdSense and other services, I would choose AdSense every time. It is my most effective tool for generating income."

from grownupgeek

Challenge

The Neopets website first launched it in November 1999, and rapidly attracted a passionate following. In June 2005, drawn to the site because of its unique offerings and target audience, Viacom International’s MTV Networks – which also runs Nickelodeon and Nick.com – acquired Neopets. Today, Neopets has a membership of more than 30 million virtual pet owners around the world. The online network generates more than 5 billion pageviews per month and is available in English, Japanese, traditional and simplified Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. Although it is primarily a youthoriented network, Neopets reaches a broad demographic, with approximately 40 percent of members under 13 years old, 40% of members 13-17, and 20 percent over 18, and a broad age mix making up the remaining audience – all spending an average of 6 hours per month on Neopets.com. The site offers everything from message boards, games, and shopping to the Neodaq, a fictitious stock market.

Approach

Among Neopets’ top priorities is earning revenue on the billions of pageviews it draws every month. Chris Davis, Vice President of Sales, wields several strategies to help Neopets capitalize on its loyal following. Among the most powerful tools is User Initiated Brand Integrated Advertising – activities or games built around advertisers’ products and services that help build relationships and generate revenues with Neopets visitors. "User Initiated Brand Integrated advertising is the biggest chunk of our revenue," explains Davis. "But we realized it wasn’t taking advantage of all of our pageviews."

To reach more Neopets followers, Davis began investigating contextual advertising options, including Google AdSense. A top priority for any ad program he considered was ensuring that it would deliver ads that were correctly targeted and relevant to the content on the site. Even more important, ads had to express a community feeling and meet or exceed Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act requirements. With these goals in mind, Neopets began running Google AdSense ads. Davis and his team began with AdSense on a heavily trafficked page where members go to feed their virtual pets. After a successful initial test, they began running AdSense ads throughout the site.

Results

It was very easy to get started, Davis says, but what impressed him most about AdSense was how appropriate the ads were for his target audience. "We are always extremely careful about advertising on our pages because of the age of most of our members," says Davis. "There have been no inappropriate ads from AdSense – the quality has been excellent. We’ve also found that the ads are very targeted. AdSense helps us provide useful information for members that engenders loyalty."

From the beginning, AdSense has been a key source of revenue. Davis estimates that AdSense ads on Neopets garner roughly 50 million impressions each day. Davis and his team have since optimized their AdSense campaigns to achieve even better results. They used channels and A/B testing to discover that bolder colors that made ads stand out worked better than blended colors. After making these changes, Neopets doubled both its clickthrough rate and revenue. "It’s worth the effort to test and experiment. We’ve found that our optimization efforts on AdSense have had a substantial positive impact on revenues," says Davis.

By adding site targeting to the AdSense mix, Davis noticed several positive outcomes. Site targeting drew more brand-name advertisers and more rich-media ads that his users respond well to. Even more impressive was a dramatic increase in revenues. "Our overall revenue doubled as a result of site targeting," says Davis. "Now, site targeting accounts for 30 to 40 percent of our AdSense income."

In terms of AdSense features, Davis appreciates the ability to block competitive ads and quickly change ad formats and colors to maximize income. He also likes the excellent service from the Google AdSense team and informative Google blogs that help him work through questions or issues.

"We’re pleased with Google as a company, and with the Google AdSense program," says Davis. "Our next step is to experiment with AdSense for search, where we think there’s even more revenue potential."usiness."

from neopets