$400 a month to over $7000 a month

[sunshine]

I haven't made a million dollars(yet) but I think I'm doing pretty well. When I made $400 my first month with Adsense in May 2004 I knew I had potential. I had just slapped some ads on my existing hobby site which I started in 1999. After reading through Google's tips for ad placement, I over doubled my Adsense income in the second month. Then, I figured I could live off $800 a month and decided to quit my other business. Before I proceed I will post my monthly earnings for May 2004 and May 2006.
$421.04 - May 31, 2004
$7,760.05 - May 2006
First, I wrote out a business plan. Where did I see myself in 10 years and how could I get there? My path to fame and fortune on the Internet ended up in a 180 page typed business plan, yes, 180 pages. You won't get anywhere without a goal and a plan on how to get there.

The only way I saw to reach my goals was to recruit help from my visitors. A good rule of thumb, you get back what you give. If you give your visitors garbage, that's what you'll get back. If you give them good quality content, that is what you will get back (if you ask for it, that is).

One of the first steps was figuring out how to communicate on a one-on-one basis with my visitors. Who are they? Where are they from? What are their interests? What are THEIR goals? If you can help them reach their goals, they will help you reach yours.

With all of my days free to do nothing but cater to my visitors, my sites experienced and are still experiencing a rapid growth. When I got to $4000 a month I hired someone to maintain what I had built so far so I could continue to have time to expand. By that time, visitors were asking for all sorts of things and I was busy trying to give them what they wanted.

What I like about Adsense as opposed to direct sales, affliates, etc. is that it's so simple and gives me time to devote to my visitors. To me, Adsense is a way to totally devote my time to my hobby and get paid for it. I'm having a blast and can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing for a living. Without Adsense, there is so much I wouldn't know about my hobby because I wouldn't have had time to learn. I'd still be doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

When I started out, I said to myself, I will end up with the best site on the Internet in this niche because I'm willing to work harder than anyone else is willing to work. I could sit back and take it easy now, but instead myself and my help are pouring about 100 hours a week into the sites. When I get to 9,000 a month, I'll take on an extra guy so we can pour 140 hours a week into the sites... and so on. I can easily see making a million dollars from the sites if we keep going like this, either from Adsense if it stays around, or through another revenue source.