No, and no.

C'mon, you've been around a while, I remember you talking about your sites. You should know better.

Nobody is going to hand you a roadmap to find a pile of money. The way you're going about it here is pretty much guaranteed to fail.

Even if there were magic niches that make good money, why should anyone share them with you? Why would anyone want to create more competition? Why would anyone want to pollute their own niche with more MFA sites?

There are plenty of sites out there who will claim they can help you with that - if you're looking at AdSense Template packs, you've probably already found them.

This is not one of those sites.

Forget the template packs, if they worked they wouldn't be selling them.

Choose a subject you enjoy, preferably one which has items associated with it which can be sold. Spend a couple of years researching and writing pages on your chosen subject. Somewhere towards the end of those two years you should have a solid site which will give you a long-lasting income.

There are alternatives. Buy keyword rich domains and target them at the Yahoo serps is a shorter term way to some income. You still need some good content though.

There's an old saying about yachts that goes something like "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford one."

Similarly, if you have to ask how to earn a living from an advertising-supported site, you probably don't know enough about publishing to succeed.

That isn't meant as a putdown; it's merely a realist's observation. You won't find the secret of success in a forum thread. You may find solutions to individual pieces of the puzzle by asking questions and by following other discussions in a forum, but you'll need to solve the puzzle as a whole through study and experience over time.

Buy keyword rich domains and target them at the Yahoo serps is a shorter term way to some income.

nomis5, just curious about the yahoo serps comment. Are you saying that yahoo serps are easier to rise to the top in than Google serps?

I used to care about yahoo serps, but I noticed that ever since I added AdSense, my yahoo serps are not that great. My Google serps are pretty good though and most of my traffic comes from Google.

Another thing to consider is that not everyone is cut out to be self-employed, and not everyone is cut out to bet self-employed through AdSense. Expanding on signor_john's observation, publishing is not something for everyone. (If it were, then everyone would do it, and we wouldn't have any other companies or other types of self-employed people.)

However, one of the "secrets" to earning lots of money through AdSense (or other publishing) is becoming an expert in your field. If people see you as the definitive source of knowledge about whatever topic, they will come to your site. So even if someone told you what the best-paying niches are, unless you're already an expert, you still wouldn't be able to succeed trying to compete against the already established experts (and thousands of other expert wannabes), at least not in the beginning. But if you studied hard, and worked hard developing new and unique content, then after a few years you could begin to establish yourself as a new and upcoming expert.

But please don't kid yourself into thinking that you can go head-to-head (and win overnight) against established sites in extremely profitable niches.

Even if there were magic niches that make good money, why should anyone share them with you? Why would anyone want to create more competition? Why would anyone want to pollute their own niche with more MFA sites?

Unfortunately I have to agree. The ones who made it big may be too busy traveling and enjoying the world. + you gotta enjoy the challenge.

Sounds like you are off to a good start. 135 a month is not bad. Many folks don't get that far. You just need to reapply what you have already done to a larger scale site/audience. Perhaps expand your site to encompass more categories and related niches.

For example if you figure out that your visitors also frequent other sites for information you don't have, why not add that niche to your site?

Grow off your current success is my advice. Starting over in a new niche is very difficult.

Wolflover

From what my son does, yes, Yahoo loves keyword rich domain names. For maybe a couple of months it works in the Yahoo SERPS then it tails off somewhat.

He does it regularly, get loads of hits from yahoo and is almost ignored short term by Google.

I agree that it's one of those "if you have to ask, you're not ready yet, if ever" kind of situation.

Can somebody give me some tips on how I can best become self employed buidling websites with

...making around $135.00 per month from...

Sounds like you're already self-employed.

Sounds like you want to make more so that your income matches your monthly needs.

I suggest working on it from both ends. Put in lots of hard work to create more of what you've already done to increase the income side and cut your wants as much as possible to lower the amount you need per month.

FarmBoy

135$ per month...
this is successful? so repeat what you did to get that.

1. Invent a time machine
2. Go back to 2004-2006, when AdSense made real money.

Oh yes, and are all these ready-made Adsense Template Packs advertised on the web any good?

As Advertised on TV and on the Internet! You see the girls! You see the shiny cars! For only $49.95 You TOO can be rich and work at home!

Think about it...

Go back to 2004-2006, when AdSense made real money.

I make 3-4 times what I made back then now.

Lucky you.

Most of us have gone in reverse because of "Made for AdSense" sites.

I'm sorry, but unless you drastically change your way of thinking, you're never going to succeed. Instead of looking for a profitable niche, you have to ask yourself whether there's a niche in which you could contribute. Making proper money off adsense takes a whole lot of work. If you're not willing to put that work into creating a proper and value-adding piece of web estate, then forget it.

Well I should have clarified. My traffic has also increased substantially during the last 5 years as well. So of course that helps. ;-)

I have seen my eCPM drop like everyone else. But I just try to focus on bringing in more visitors and making my site easier to use so folks stick around longer ie more pageviews.

"Spend a couple of years researching"

Yea and get a job in that industry...be a real expert and not one that tries to fake it. I get so tired of seeing the same old trash in the SERPS. I mean how many website pages do we need that explains how to sharpen a pencil?

It's a sewer out there, don't contribute to it.

in my experience, adSense can supplement an income. It is more of a back up income, due to its wild fluctuations and its very nature. If you rely on it totally, it is bound to bite you in your a$$.

So try to develop other revenue streams and let adSense pay for the bad times..

(Of course there are many who make a living only off adSense. But that is dangerous..and may not be possible now, given the nature of the internet which has changed substantially)

I think it is possible to become self-employed by AdSense, even possible to employ other people too.

Look at people like Darren Rowse, Shoemoney and many other genuine articles.

However IMHO it is lot of hard work, especially if you want to sustain it for prolonged period. Often it can frustrating too as your effort will not equal your revenue. Alternate revenue streams give you buffer when and if things go wrong or slow.

In the long run, I don't think it is about tricks, though they help at times, but then what do I know?

I have been self-employed making and managing websites now for around 10 years way before ad-sense was there, I even had 3-4 employees earlier some part time and a dedicated programmer but its not that easy now.

From the last 2 year things have been very difficult and now I dont have any employees, I need to do all things myself luckily I know a lot of thing, I am a DB admin, Programmer, Linux admin so I do not need to outsource things around, I know how to write/manage content so I am still ticking around.

I hope at the end of recession thing will improve coz at this rate I would have had made a lot more money by having a regular job.

(People like Darren Rowse and Shoemoney may have started with AdSense, but quickly branched out into a lot of other things, from e-books to affiliate marketing to conferences and we don't know what all. And they've worked their behinds off to do it)

> And they've worked their behinds off to do it

I think that's the key, AdSense or not :)

Agree. I spent 4 years building up my site and brand in my free nights after getting off work from my day job. 4 years without making a cent.

Now I live comfortably off Internet ad revenues, I quit my old day job, and I only work about 2-3 hours a day. The rest of the time I'm spending with my family.

Lots of hard work, long days and nights, but if you find the right business mode for your skillset, it can become a full time provider for you and your family.

@maximillianos

That is an inspirational story. Thanks for sharing.

You are welcome. Don't get me wrong, I think it is still a long shot for many business models, but I think it comes down to finding something you are extremely passionate about, and finding a way to monetize that... If you can get both, you can make it work.

@Truegho

I think maxmillianos and netmeg have well summarized the process. In their words:

maximillianos> "I think it comes down to finding something you are extremely passionate about, and finding a way to monetize that... If you can get both, you can make it work."

netmeg> "And they've worked their behinds off to do it"

My one cent:
When I am working something I love, it doesn't seem like I am doing any work at all. Also it gives me the patience to move through lean period and hardships.

My one cent:
When I am working something I love, it doesn't seem like I am doing any work at all. Also it gives me the patience to move through lean period and hardships

That is how most people become "achievers".

All my life if I didn't enjoy doing it [not meaning the inevitable drudge bit in our everyday lives] I gave it away.

I was always amazed at old school friends who were "trapped" in jobs they absolutely loathed.

Some sadly "loathed" themselves into early graves.

I can tilt the adsense machine but I find after I wind it up to 438 bucks a day it stabilizes at 100-128 bucks a day and within a week of this your banned regardless so yeah I could send you a map alright unfortunately of all the wrong ways to look impressive and lose.

It seems all these tactics now are " Impossible " Google has ensured that you cannot make anything with the program with even wrapping the adsense code to detect images in tables.

Omg its become all so pathetic have a team of programmers spend their day changing code so you " Can't Earn " now lol.

Like I said I can show you how to build a award winning images in tables map that guarrantees clicks but adsense doesn't like real clicks they rather have their ip forger do that.

cheers hope this help more than likely it wont but my faith is shattered in recouping any of my PPC losses