In case you are looking for some inspiration, here are some of the top revenue generating websites in the world.
I’m not writing this so you can copy everything they are doing: as always, look for inspiration but develop your unique approach.
However, nothing stops you from checking their ad placements, colors, keywords… You can be sure that those sites have spent time and money optimizing, so you can get an idea or two (obviously they also have millions of daily pageviews, which is harder to get).
Here are the sites (in no particular order, since earnings can vary over time):
Mashable.com
Mashable is a blog focused on media, entertainment and technology.
Estimated Adsense earnings: $650.000 per month.
Digital Point Forum
Digital Point is a forum focused on SEO marketing (and in my humble opinion not very good looking). It was founded by Shawn D Hogan at the age of 19.
Estimated Adsense earnings: $550.000 per month
Plenty of Fish
This dating website combines Google Adsense with paid ads.
Estimated Adsense earnings: $350.000 per month
Digg
If you have been around the Internet for the past years, you have probably heard of digg. It is what it’s called an “aggregation website”, where people can share specific urls and people will comment (that’s the base idea, but it has grown to be much more).
Estimated Adsense earnings: $250.000 per month
EHow
EHow is a website about how to do things. Literally. It has how to guides for almost anything, with some nice Adsense ads along the way.
Estimated Adsense earnings: $240.000 per month
Techcrunch
Techchrunch is one of the most popular technology blogs in the world.
Estimated Adsense earnings: $240.000 per month
Perez Hilton
Even when there are some websites that make more money monthly than Perez Hilton, I had to mention it. It really puzzles me that a website about celebrity gossip can make that much money. Really?
Estimated Adsense earnings: $150.000 per month
So what do these websites have in common?
I can see some common patterns here:
- Tons of traffic (yes, you need traffic if you want to make big bucks)
- Lots of content
- Niche (or niches) with a lot of potential visitors (apparently there are many people interested in celebrity gossip)
- Focus on the user/visitor (meaning, the sites are created to help the visitors)
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