I recall the days when I was part of my very first rock band. We were all inexperienced in the business world, yet we had high aspirations and believed we would be the next sensation. Looking back, we didn’t truly comprehend what it took to achieve that status, and we didn’t have a plan either. A few months went by, and we performed shows but didn’t gain fans or attract record labels.
Does this sound familiar? If you swapped “band” with “blog,” you’d be describing the current approach of roughly 97.3% of all bloggers. Let’s discuss the blogging aspect further.
Our band eventually caught a lucky break, getting the chance to perform on a popular Chicago radio station, Q101. The station’s support helped create a buzz that finally got our careers moving. That one experience drastically changed my understanding of the industry and big business.
For bloggers, finding such a break is nearly impossible, requiring a combination of hard work and luck. However, buzz can be valuable for generating income.
Drawing from personal experience, if you’re aiming to profit from blogging or simply want to create a high-traffic website, consider the following.
I once built a website for Richard Mims, a vocal figure in the Drew Peterson / Stacy Peterson missing persons case. Richard frequently appeared on news shows, discussing the case and his connections to those involved. The website was designed with minimal monetization—just Google AdSense to cover hosting costs—since its primary purpose was to provide Richard a platform to express his thoughts. I eventually withdrew from the project after a week due to the surrounding controversy, but the results were impressive, demonstrating the power of buzz.
Let’s compare two websites: the one I created for Richard Mims (Website A) and another I’ve managed for about seven months (Website B).
Website A was active from January 26th to February 1st. Its content mainly consisted of Richard’s thoughts, which were not always easy to read due to his lack of professional writing experience. There was no real SEO strategy, but Richard had many opportunities to promote the website through various national news outlets. In its short life, Website A received over 32,000 unique visits and over 240,000 page impressions, with AdSense logging around 30,000 impressions.
Exact figures cannot be disclosed per AdSense’s terms of service, but I can provide approximate numbers. More than 200 clicks generated over $50 in revenue within that week alone. The website featured a single 250×250 ad block displaying four ads per impression—similar to this blog, minus the 125 ads and banner ad.
Website B, on the other hand, receives less traffic but has more monetization options. Focused on graphical humor, it includes banner advertisements, several 125×125 ads, and strategically placed AdSense ads. Although its content is minimal and easy to read, it only gets less than 10,000 visits per month. However, after accounting for hosting costs, it generates about $100 in revenue monthly. The AdSense click-through rate and number of clicks are roughly on par with Website A.
Logic suggests that a high-traffic website like Website A, with the same monetization setup as Website B, could potentially earn around $300 per week or even more with optimal niche and ad configurations.
Every website is unique, and discovering the right advertising setup can make all the difference. However, it’s crucial to remember that traffic is the primary factor in determining your revenue potential. No matter how exceptional your content is, if earning revenue is your main objective, generating traffic is key.
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