I’ve had a number of emails from readers in the last few days who are disillusioned with their earnings with Adsense. I can perhaps take some of the blame for their mood having posted my reality check post last week and by publishing the poll that we have running that highlights that the majority of bloggers using Adsense are only making a dollar (or three) per day.
So I thought I’d offer some words of encouragement to combat the gloom that is going around at present.
I can relate to the depression about lack of results from Adsense – my early days on the system were similarly gloomy to say the least. Growth in daily earnings from month to month was pretty insignificant. I remember looking at my Adsense statistics numerous times over the first 6 months and wondering if it was worth all the hard work for the few dollars that came in each day.
You’ll notice the graph above (click to enlarge) which graphs my earnings from Adsense (without actual figures included) since October 2003. Notice the first few months earnings – hardly a discernible rise and something that got me down a little and led me to consider stopping my use of Adsense.
But one day I noticed something that grabbed my attention – and inspired me to keep using Adsense.
Each month my income was going up. Between my first and second month it went up just over 100%. The second month it did it again. In fact my monthly rises over the first 9 months of using the Program went something like this:
My First Nine Months Growth in Adsense Earnings:
• 1st to 2nd month – 126%
• 2nd to 3rd month- 93%
• 3rd to 4th month – 39%
• 4th to 5th month- 3.5%
• 5th to 6th month – 65%
• 6th to 7th month – 50%
• 7th to 8th month – 51%
• 8th to 9th month – 45%
• 9th to 10th mont – 96%
Now the total monetary increases didn’t seem much (I mean a 100% increase when you’re only earning $1 per day doesn’t seem that exciting) – but the amazing thing about percentages is that there comes a time when things begin to exponentially rise.
Hypothetically Speaking
Here’s a little exercise for you to illustrate the power of exponential growth. Grab a calculator, or fire up the arithmetic section of your brain. What would happen if your blog that is earning $1 per day were to increase its daily earnings by 100% each month for a year? How much would you be earning this time next year?
• After 1 month it would be earning $2 per day… not even a good coffee!
• After 2 months it would be earning $4 per day….
• After 3 months it would be earning $8 per day…. yawn…
• After 4 months it would be earning $16 per day…
• After 5 months it would be earning $32 per day….
>> Fast Forward >>
• After 12 months it would be earning $4096 per day… coffees for everyone!
Ok that is a pretty unrealistic example – I don’t know many bloggers who are sustaining 100% growth every month – but the principle is the same no matter what the sustained increased percentage of growth. It takes a bit longer for the power of the % to kick in but it eventually does.
• If you can sustain 50% growth per month and start at $1 per day you end up earning $129 per day (and $16,834 per day after 24 months!)
• If you can sustain 40% growth per month and start at $1 per day you end up earning $57 per day (and $3214 per day after 24 months!)
• If you can sustain 30% growth per month and start at $1 per day you end up earning $23 per day (and $542 per day after 24 months!)
You get the picture. Of course its not quite that simple – sustaining large percentage increase month after month is difficult – but from my personal experience its definitely possible to keep your earnings pointing in an upward direction….most months.
My Graph
Ok I can hear the questions already. ‘Nice theory Darren – but look at your graph – the growth didn’t last!’ – ‘What happened last December and January?’
Let me walk you through what happened and where the ‘exponential growth’ theory gets messy.
December and January Crash – This hurt. Up until 16 December it was looking like I was going to have a massive month – breaking the record I’d set for myself in November. I put a lot of the increase down to pre Christmas research people were doing on the topics that I write about. But then on 17 December things went horribly wrong.
Long term readers of this blog might remember the six weeks during December and January where I was on the receiving end of two thirds less traffic than normal as a result of Google doing a pretty major update to their algorithm. This is where my exponential growth of the previous year all came undone and I found myself wondering if I might be about to find out what exponential loss is like.
February Recovery – Early in February Google did another update and my traffic returned. It wasn’t quite at the heights of the end of November and start of December’s Christmas rush, but it did improve and has again this month significantly again.
So – the exponential growth theory does have its bumps – quite often as a result external forces but in my experience exponential growth in earnings is quite possible – at least for a period of times.
But Wait there’s More
Tomorrow I’ll write more on this and give some ways that bloggers can help sustain exponential growth in their blogs. You see it doesn’t just happen – it takes work, time and a little strategy, but I’ll leave that to tomorrow. update: read it here
