Making cents out of Adsense

I am not a big fan of Google Adsense. If there was real money to be made through Adsense, I would be chalking out strategies to do that rather than writing blog post after blog post. Most people who claim to have made big money out of Adsense actually make more money out of selling “Get Rich Quick Through Adsense” kind of books on Amazon. In some ways, Google Adsense can be equated to MLM. Lot of people want to make money out of both these schemes, but no one knows how to make money. Both these schemes hope that some bakra will come and click on the ad (in the case of adsense) or join the MLM network so that the person can get rich.

I usually watch such articles with scorn and it would be wrong to assume that everyone can make the kind of money mentioned here:

But Gandhi's Adsense profits have exceeded his wildest dreams. He now earns about $1,000 a month from the program, the same salary he previously earned as a software engineer. His new income has allowed him to leave his job and return to school. "Today I am able to sponsor my higher studies because of Adsense," he says.

Deepesh Agarwal, who runs a small cybercafe in Rajasthan state, India, draws about 90% of his income, or $1,500 a month, from his Adsense earnings. It is a princely sum in a state where the average income is just $300 a year.

"Adsense has changed my life," Mr. Agarwal says. "I can afford things that I was not able to before. I am planning to buy a new car. I can save for my future."

In the Indian context, Google Adsense is not really attractive to bloggers and blog readers. There are very few India specific (contextual) ads that tempt you to click. Further, most of the ads are by the NRI-Remittance services and matrimonial sites. Indian MSM sites (like The Hindu Online Edition) use Adsense extensively and they should be recovering some of their costs through the Adsense program. With the growth in the Indian blogosphere and the Indian online audience don’t be surprised if an India focussed ad service is launched soon.