How Much Traffic Do You Need To Make $100,000 With Google AdSense

Is it really possible to make $100,000 a year from Google AdSense (or by selling ads on your website/blog)? If so, then the real question is how much traffic do you really need to make big bucks with Google AdSense?

While it’s true that we can’t predict the Google AdSense income exactly, we can optimize the ads in different ways so as to make the most out of it.

Also, you must make sure that your website category is advertising friendly because your AdSense income depends a lot upon the category of your website. You can use the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool to find out the competition in your industry.

If there is enough competition (i.e. if the suggested bid by AdWords for keywords in your niche is high) then we can assume that Google will fill your ad spaces with high paying ads (see how AdSense works).

For example, if you Google search “loans” then you’ll see a lot of ads so it means that if you have a blog related to personal finance then there will be enough competition for your ad space.

Now I’ve randomly added a few keywords to Keyword Planner to find out its suggested bid by AdWords. Here they are:

As you can see, the competition for keywords related to “finance” is very high compared to keywords related to “food”. Of course, the suggested bid is just an estimate and the real cost-per-click varies a lot.

But still, even if it’s $5 then it means a lot. Why? It’s because the cost per click to advertise on Google is very high compared to the cost per click on Google Display Network. So if an advertiser is paying $0.50/click on Google then he may be paying only $0.10/click on Google Display Network.

How Much Traffic Do You Need To Make Money With AdSense

Let’s say you want to make $100,000 a year from Google AdSense and/or Google AdSense alternatives.

$100,000 divided by 365 = $274 a day.

So, you have to create either: 274 pages that earn $1 a day OR 548 pages that earn 50 cents a day OR 1,096 pages that earn 25 cents a day (which sounds reasonable, right?). Let’s say you have 1,096 high-quality blog posts and you earn $0.25 per click from AdSense.

I have analyzed the traffic and AdSense stats (using Google Image Search) of several websites including my own blogs and websites.

From my analysis, I found that the average Page CTR is around 1% (or it’s something that we can achieve easily). But it really depends upon your niche, web site design and other factors.

In fact, I have achieved a Page CTR of over 20% in 2007 for a niche website and was making $100+ a day from Google AdSense alone.

Let’s Do The Math To Make $100,000 A Year With Google AdSense

Let’s assume that you have a Page CTR of 1% and your average CPC is $0.25 (I believe it’s quite an achievable target unless your keywords have no advertiser competition – e.g. a recipe blog).

Some of the top paying AdSense niches are Finance, Internet Marketing, Technology, Web Hosting, Internet & Computers, Software, Health etc. and some of the lowest paying AdSense niches are Entertainment, Arts, Movies, Celebrity Gossips, News blog, Jokes, Wallpapers, Quotes, Recipes, Photoblogs etc.

As mentioned earlier $100,000 a year means you have to earn $274 a day. If your average CPC is $0.25 then you need 100,000/0.25 = 400,000 clicks a year (or approximately 1,000 clicks a day) to earn $100,000 a year from Google AdSense. Assuming that your Page CTR is 1% you need approximately 100,000 page views a day.

Now, let’s say your “Bounce Rate” (it is the estimated percentage of visits to your website that consist of a single pageview) is 100%. It means that you need 100,000 unique visitors a day itself to generate 100,000 page views a day.

In a nutshell, you need 100,000 visitors a day to make $100,000 a year from Google AdSense alone (with a CTR of 1% and CPC of $0.25).

Google AdSense Glossary

Page Views

A page view is what Google counts in your reports every time a user views a page displaying Google ads. We will count one page view regardless of the number of ads displayed on that page.

For example, if you have a page displaying three ad units and it is viewed twice, you will generate two page views.

Clicks

For standard content ads, Google counts a click when a user clicks on an ad.

For link units, Google counts a click when a user clicks on an ad on the page of ads, after selecting a link in the link unit.

Page Click Through Rate (Page CTR)

The Page Click Through Rate (CTR) is the number of ad clicks divided by the number of impressions or page views that you have received.

Page CTR = Clicks / Page Views

For example, if you received 5 Clicks from 100 Page Views, then your Page CTR would be 5%. (5/100*100=5%)

Cost Per Click (CPC)

The Cost Per Click (CPC) is the amount you earn each time a user clicks on your ad. The CPC for any ad is determined by the advertiser; some advertisers may be willing to pay more per click than others, depending on what they’re advertising.

Page Revenue Per Thousand Impressions (Page RPM)

Page Revenue Per Thousand Impressions (RPM) is calculated by dividing your estimated earnings by the number of page views you received, then multiplying by 1000.

Page RPM = (Estimated Earnings / Number of Page Views) * 1,000

For example, if you earned an estimated $0.15 from 25 page views, then your page RPM would equal ($0.15 / 25) * 1000, or $6.00.

Estimated Earnings

Your account balance (or earnings) for the time period selected.

Source: Google AdSense Glossary

But you are not using AdSense alone to monetize your website, right? You can make more money by selling direct banner ads, in-text ads, CPM ads, sponsored links, affiliate marketing, etc.

Cost Per Impression (CPM) Ads

So let’s say you’re selling direct banner ads and is also selling CPM advertising which is again an effective way to monetize your website.

What are CPM ads?

CPM (Cost Per Mille) stands for Cost Per 1,000 Impressions. CPM networks pays for every 1,000 impressions you generate. If a CPM ad network is paying you $1 CPM then it means that they’re paying you $1 for every 1,000 page views you generate.

CPM Network earnings totally depend upon your traffic quality but you can expect anywhere between $1 – $3 per 1,000 impressions. So, if you generate 100,000 page views a day then you can make $100 – $300 a day from CPM Networks. Again, you can earn $100 – $300 (or maybe even more) a day by selling banner ads directly to advertisers.

Now, you can split the traffic into three as you’re earning $300 each from 3 advertising networks. It means that you need 100,000/3=33,333 unique visitors a day (with a bounce rate of 100%) to make approximately $274/day.

Again, if you have an authority blog then your bounce rate will never be 100%. In that case, you can expect an average page view of 1.5 per user. It means that 50% of your visitor's exit from the landing page and others visit more than one page on your website.

All in all, you need approximately 20,000 visitors a day to generate 30,000+ page views and it can earn $274 a day which translates to $100,000 a year in advertising revenues.

Need a little more help reaching that $100,000/year goal? Add commissions from Affiliate Programs as well into the equation and you can hit that $100,000 goal with much less traffic.

In fact, in 2008 I was averaging $200+ a day from less than 200 daily unique visitors with affiliate marketing. It was possible because when it comes to affiliate marketing it’s all about traffic quality and not traffic quantity.

How To Optimize Google AdSense

You can optimize your AdSense ads in several ways. For example, you can try text ads only, image ads only, text & image ads to find out which ad format is performing better.

Google recommends wide ad formats like 728 x 90, 336 x 280, 300 x 250, and 160 x 600 as they’re more advertiser-friendly.

When you use the recommended ad formats, your AdSense ads should perform well because of increased competition. Why? Because the recommended ad formats by AdSense are the most popular ad formats and hence almost all advertisers must be targeting those ad formats.

So it increases the competition naturally and Google will be showing the highest paying ads on your website. But it’s also a good idea to try different ad formats as Google is now offering a variety of ad formats (including responsive ad units).

I would recommend A/B testing on your website to find out the best performing ad formats. Like, you can do A/B testing by trying different ad types, ad formats, and colors, and then by placing your ads at different sections on your website (above and below the fold) to find out which position is offering the best CTR).

But what if your AdSense earnings are low even though you have good a CTR? In that case, I would recommend ad controls though Google mentioned that blocking any ad will reduce our potential earnings.


Google says:

It’s a myth that filtering ads can prevent ‘low-paying ads’ from appearing, so as always, we recommend blocking only those ads that you feel are unsuitable for your users.

Finally, you can tweak the AdSense click-through-rate by using an AdSense friendly template for your website/blog. But make sure that your website is not ad heavy as it will impact the user experience in a negative way.

And as always, you can focus on creating awesome content and driving more traffic so that it increases your Google AdSense earnings (and your advertising revenues) naturally.

BONUS

I have recently published a blog post that was essentially a reverse of this topic. It’s basically about what it takes to hit your traffic and income goal (assuming a traffic goal of 1,000,000 pageviews and an income goal of $3,000 per month).

I have subcategorized the topic into:

• How Much Traffic Does Your Blog Need To Make $36,000 Per Year In Ad Revenue — tells you how many page views are required to generate $36,000 (that is, $3,000 x 12) in advertising revenue (affiliate income will be a bonus for you) per year based on real case studies and examples.
• How Many Blog Posts Do You Need To Generate A Million Pageviews Per Month — tells you how many blog posts your website might need to generate one million page views per month?
• How Much Money Should You Invest In Content Marketing To Generate A Million Pageviews Per Month — tells you how much money should you invest in content creation to hit your traffic goal although it differs on a case basis.
• How Long Does It Take To Reach Your Traffic Goal — tells you how much time your website will take to hit your traffic goal using my own blog as a case study.

In other words, it’s written to decode:

How Much Money Should You Invest In Content Marketing To Generate 1,000,000 Pageviews And $3,000 Per Month

Here you go:

It’s the result of homework that I did with a goal to increase the traffic of my blog 5x from here. So, it’s written purely based on my own traffic insights plus few case studies and traffic numbers of different blogs in different niches.

There’s every chance that the actual figures applicable for your own blog could be a lot different from mine. Needless to say, it ultimately depends upon your website’s niche, authority, and marketing efforts.

Also, your final income levels could be a lot higher or lower than the figures that I have mentioned as again, it depends upon your website and its different metrics.

Happy Blogging! :)

What is 5G? Everything you need to know

The latest news, views, and developments in the exciting world of 5G networks

What is 5G?

5G networks are the next generation of mobile internet connectivity, offering faster speeds and more reliable connections on smartphones and other devices than ever before.

Combining cutting-edge network technology and the very latest research, 5G should offer connections that are multitudes faster than current connections, with average download speeds of around 1GBps expected to soon be the norm.

The networks will help power a huge rise in the Internet of Things technology, providing the infrastructure needed to carry huge amounts of data, allowing for a smarter and more connected world.

With development well underway, 5G networks are expected to launch across the world by 2020, working alongside existing 3G and 4G technology to provide speedier connections that stay online no matter where you are.

WHEN WILL 5G LAUNCH?

- 5G technology is expected to officially launch across the world by 2020

- The US, China and South Korea are expected to be some of the first nations to install full 5G networks, with others including the UK not far behind

- Many companies are busy making sure their networks and devices are '5G ready' in time for 2020, meaning some networks may launch before then

What will 5G networks mean for me?

• Faster download and upload speeds
• Smoother streaming of online content 
• Higher-quality voice and video calls 
• More reliable mobile connections
• The greater number of connected IoT devices 
• An expansion of advanced technologies - including self-driving cars and smart cities

How fast will 5G be?

It’s still not exactly known how much faster 5G will be than 4G, as much of the technology is still under development.

That being said, the networks should provide a significant upgrade to current download and upload speeds - with the GSMA proposing minimum download speeds of around 1GBps.

Most estimates expect the average speed of 5G networks to reach 10Gb/s, and some even think transfer rates could reach a whopping 800Gb/s.

This would mean that users could download a full-length HD quality film in a matter of seconds and that downloading and installing software upgrades would be completed much faster than today.

Will I be able to get 5G networks on my phone?

Existing smartphones, tablet or other devices that were released when 4G networks were the standard may not be able to connect to 5G, to begin with or may incur extra costs to do so. 

However, following the 2020 deadline for the initial rollout, we should soon see devices coming with the 5G connection as default.

Don't worry though - although 5G should represent a major step up from current 4G and 3G networks, the new technology won’t immediately replace its predecessor - at least, not to begin with.

Instead, 5G should link in with existing networks to ensure users never lose connection, with the older networks acting as a back-up in areas not covered by the new 5G coverage.

So-called “4.5G” networks (also known as LTE-A) are set to fill the gap, for the time being, offering connections that are faster than current 4G networks, although only certain countries such as South Korea can benefit from them right now.

Once launched, however, implementing 5G may be a slower process. Much like the gradual takeover of 4G networks from the previous generation, existing network infrastructure may need to be upgraded or even replaced in order to deal with the new technology, and homes and businesses may also need to get new services installed.

It’s not yet known how 5G networks will take over from existing networks, but again, much like the rollout of 4G, you may not be able to immediately connect to the new networks without upgrading your technology.

What will a 5G network need?

The GSMA has outlined eight criteria for 5G networks, with a connection needing meet a majority of these in order to qualify as 5G:

• 1-10Gbps connections to endpoints in the field (i.e. not theoretical maximum)
• 1 millisecond end-to-end round trip delay (latency) 
• 1000x bandwidth per unit area
• 10-100x number of connected devices 
• (Perception of) 99.999 percent availability 
• (Perception of) 100 percent coverage
• 90 percent reduction in network energy usage 
• Up to 10-year battery life for low power, machine-type devices