How I Made My First $102 From Adsense

Published by Andrew on October 1, 2008

So today was a big day, I got my first homepage story on Digg and now I receive my Adsense commission check from Google!

The check was for about 3 months worth of blogging, so technically I’m making about $33 per month, but at hosting costs from $10 – $30, I’m barely breaking even.

Luckily, like most things, momentum is starting to gather and I’m getting more and more traffic everyday. Now, looking back 3 months ago, I was nowhere in this position, I have gone through 4 different web design layouts and was at about 20 visitors per day.

Assembled below are the couple small things I do everyday to keep things alive and constantly moving forward.

Post Everyday. Yes, Everyday

It doesn’t matter what you post, just write something. On days I don’t have time to write any content, what I do is just reblog the news stories. Or I hit the Stumble button until I find something worth talking about.

The small effort it takes is worth it, as you never know when things could pay off and your story breaks.

Cover What’s New

Blogging is to in-the-moment, so it’s important to write about topics that are currently in the news. Other bloggers are constantly looking for different opinions on topics, so it’s an easy way to get a good reference. Also, it’s easy, just covering the news or putting a spin on something is what you do naturally when reacting to any new information.

Take a Stand

If there’s something the blogosphere is loving, take the opposite side. I personally stand by my belief that the Seinfeld ads were working for Microsoft.

Make sure you’re not just espousing on something just for the sake of it, because that’s just a waste of time and you’re going to get ragged on in the comments (which can be good as well).

Speak to Your Community

You may not know it, but you have a community around your site. I personally can identify maybe 2 people I know read the blog, other than that, there are lurkers. People love to take an interest in things that are new, and a blog with no traffic is definitely new, and undiscovered (lurkers, please comment so I can thank you!).