[nLoBushwack]

I was noticing that different keywords were paying much different amounts on my site with adsense, but I wasn't sure which words they were. So I went on a quest to find more information about the better paying keywords and I came across 'googlest.com', who provides a 13 page list of the top paying keywords.

Not willing to pay the 10 bucks or post 30 messages in their forum to see the list (which could very well be out of date now), I instead found it here: http://keywords.clickhereforit.com

Now most of the words are for lawyers and medical information or domain hosting. It makes sense for those subjects to be high priced... as in $5 high priced. But this list shows a good number of keywords average above $50 a click, and one of them reaching $520.52!

My question is whether or not this information is accurate. If it is, then are there any of you who build sites just for these words, and what is the return to you per click? What's the competition like for those words? Is there enough traffic to justify the site, or does the revenue balance that out?

I'm still new to adsense and these numbers seem unrealistic. However, they seem to be accepted in the other forums I've read. Help a newbie out!

[Jane]

looks like Yahoo is. Who else would use those 2 keywords? Then again who would they be bidding against? The search term domains yahoo only brings up 4 sponsored ads. Well it's a tax write off, maybe they just like spending money.

Hmmm, would Yahoo advertise in google? Does Yahoo own google stock?

[Leader]

Does Yahoo own google stock?

They did at one point, but sold it off a few weeks ago. I guess they wanted to be able to wish business-death upon Google without thinking it was a breach of their own fiduciary duty...

(They had gotten the stock as part of some dispute settlement, I think...but I forgot the details).

[MichaelColey]

I'm pretty sure that those bids are based on what the estimator says you need to bid to get the number one spot. Those are based on something like a 2% CTR. Something as focused as that, going to the domain people are obviously looking for, probably gets a 20-50% CTR (I have several keywords with a similar situation--like "amazing bargains"--that get 20-50% CTR). Because of the way pricing works at Google AdWords, it's highly unlikely that they're paying more than $50 CPC for those clicks. I wouldn't be surprised if they're paying less than $10 per click. But if someone wanted to beat them, they would have to pay around $500 per click.

[Adam Ward]

Google and Yahoo settled the '361 patent dispute in August 2004. Google disclosed the settlement in an SEC filing just before its initial public offering (IPO). The relevant excerpt from Google's SEC filing states:


... Overture will dismiss its patent lawsuit against us and has granted us a fully-paid, perpetual license to the patent that was the subject of the lawsuit and several related patent applications held by Overture. The parties also mutually released any claims against each other concerning the warrant dispute. In connection with the settlement of these two disputes, we issued to Yahoo 2,700,000 shares of Class A common stock.

[MichaelColey]

Oh, how could I forget this. They're definitely not paying $520.52 per click. The maximum Google lets you bid is $100 per click.

[nLoBushwack]

At $50 a click, how much would the site expect to take from it? And if its a healthy sum, is it worth while to set up a site that runs simply off adsense?

I see a lot of make-money-fast ebooks ect. relating to google adwords, but I have a feelling they are best used in combination with other things. You know, more of an afterthought than a cornerstone to the site. Does anyone run a site that relies on adsense as it's main cash flow?

[Tech Evangelist]

5 out of the top 10 are Yahoo-related. I've seen that list before. The info has to be bogus. I think a decimal point slipped a few positions.

[MichaelColey]

It's easy enough to check... The #1 one is "domains yahoo". When I create a test campaign for it, it suggests $50 and shows an average position of 1.8 and an average CPC of $1.80. When I enter a bid of $100, it shows an average position of 1.8 and an average CPC of $6.05. If I enter a bid of $6, it shows an average position of 1.9 and an average CPC of $1.06.

The numbers certainly look suspicious.

Also, keep in mind that many high-paying bidders will not accept the Content Network, so AdSense payments could be considerably than what AdWords would indicate.

[Host]

I certainly don't trust these high keyword list. To my understanding its another way to show carrot that if you buy list from xyz you could earn upto $520..

[simcat]

"Does anyone run a site that relies on adsense as it's main cash flow?"
I'm always reading posts over at WW by people boasting about making 5 or 6 figures a month from adsense (I've never gotten more than gas money from it though).
If you have a site with lots of traffic, & content related to commercial-type keywords, but dont sell anything directly, it could be a good match for adsense.
Apparenty advertisers are lined up and ready to place ads on g's content network. My experience, however has been that ROI is very poor compared to traditional adwords.

[dete99]

I have done some back testing on those high dollar amount words.It usually is in the 20 to 30 cent range for a click through.The folks that make the big bucks are getting 100,000 hits a day and adverage about 1000.00 or more a day.One of the big blogs I follow does this but they have about 75 different subjects in the blog to post to and a staff of folks to maintain the blogs.

[Host]

I think more than the keyword, the placement of google ads is equally important. I experimented with one of my sites www.webhostrank.info by placing images and have seen nice increase in CTR.

Over saturatiion of keywords is the another aspect that needs to be avoided.

Moreover, title name of page and domain name also contributes to ad sense revenue.

[infoTim]

Originally Posted by nLoBushwack

Does anyone run a site that relies on adsense as it's main cash flow?

Yes. And I'm working on more becuase it's kind of rewarding to develop (shh...bad word coming) "content" and have it make money. Recently MSN took a real liking to one of my sites and the traffic and AS revenue started pouring in. It's kind of strange that MSN is helping me get money out of Google, but I won't complain.

I was employed for a few years helping a fortune 100 company get a handle on it's internet strategy and one of the topics I followed was "micropayments", and how publishers could get people to cough up a few pennies here and there in order to make money from content. Lots of schemes tried and failed. And here along comes Google and figures it out and makes it work on a large scale...rather than finding a way to get a nickel an article out of someone who wants to read it, have them pay by taking action instead and having the beneficiary of the action pay the nickel.

- Tim

[LearnAbout]

I had started a couple of campaigns a few month back for 80 cents a pop, allowing me to just about break even (at best). The ads did well, and I'm now at 4 cents a pop for >=3 position. Sure it's a far cry from the mega$$ mentioned above, but it shows that a good ad does not demand huge investments in the medium/long term. That's what separates Adsense from Overture.

[Host]

LearnAbout,

Even I was getting 3 cents or 30 cents click, till some time back. However, after tweaking and experimenting with two of my sites. I have seen a significant increase in click through rate. For sure its not as mega $$$ as mentioned above, but is good enough to pay for my net and hosting charges.

[oadvantage]

Yes, I run all of my websites just for adsense only, I am trying to break into the affiliate marketing on my adsense sites, I am going to do some testing. To see.

[oadvantage]

As far as high keywords go, many go crazy to have them. And throw a lot of money at developing site many for Adsense revenue, if you dont have a lot of time dont worry about trying to compete with them, go to a lower paying keyword and build more sites