In September 2006 John Chow published the post that shot his blog to stardom, it was titled The Internet’s Biggest Google Whores to be honest it was a ground breaking post that introduced John Chow dot Com to the world. Being just over a year since John’s ground breaking post, I wondered what are the Internet’s Biggest Google Whores Doing now and what is John up to? Number 1 on John’s List was Markus Frind: PlenyOfFish.com $300,000 per month Markus’s claim to fame is the free Internet dating site PlentyOfFish.com, back then Monetized exclusively with Google Adsense and reportedly earning $300,000 per Month. The following Adsense Cheque shows for two months of CA$ 901,733.84 (Imagine the value of that cheque today given the current CAD-USD Exchange rate) PlentyOfFish.com a Google Adsense Cheque (Note earning were for two months and in CAD) So is Markus doing these days? Markus is still using Google Adsense to Mortarge PlentyOfFish.com, and has not reported or posted further Google Adsense figures, but going by the below statistics we have about visitor numbers we can very roughly guessitmate his current monthly cheque. With the help Alexa.com we can compare todays stats with the Stats he PlentyOfFish was getting back then, page visitors have largely remained the same, but that being true we need to remember the total number of internet users has increased significantly in the last 1.5 year. The following chart at Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm shows a 25% increase in internet users in the last 1.5 users. Alexa Daily Reach (%) for PlentyOfFish.com, the worlds #1 free internet dating site I am guessing Markus’s Google cheque would have increased by up to 10% as the majority of growth in the world internet users would be in countries located in Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. To optimize revenue I would recommend a site redesign so that additional opportunities for Monetization could be taken advantage of, such as Text-Link-Ads, WidgetBucks or even Private ad spot sales, all this could be done without affecting Adsense positioning or revenue. Simple changes such as Google Color Schemes and Placement could also have a huge impact on Markus’s bottom line. Number 2 on John’s list was Kevin Rose Digg.com -$250,000 per month The Internets number 2 Google whore was Kevin Rose , but now Digg is now exclusively montized by Microsoft, The three year agreement between Digg and Microsoft was announced on 26 th of July 2007 for an undisclosed amount. Kevin’s latest foray into the Web 2.0 world goes by the name Pownce, which is a way to share/ send messages files and links with your friends. At the moment this start up is by invitation only, as I don’t have an invite I have not been able to check out the service. By the looks of the site Pownce is arranging all their own advertising which costs US$3.00 for 1000 page views. I consider this a very smart way to do things in the demographic that Kevin targets especially they can see the spots as I find many young Tech Savvy users as don’t click ads much so its best to get payed per 1000 page impressions. Number 3 on John’s list was Jeremy Schoemaker (aka ShoeMoney) - $140,000 per month As mentioned on John’s original post Jeremy Schoemaker aoa ShoeMoney owns hundreds of website with Thousands of domains, some of the ShoeMoney’s most profitable areas include ringtones. Jeremy personal blog ShoeMoney http://www.shoemoney.com/ includes a lot on how to make money online, Internet marketing, SEO. It’s one of the most popular blogs on the internet. Since John’s post in early 2007 Jeremy along with Patrick Gavin from Text Link Ads started AuctionAds, an ebay sub-affiliate network giving publisher more options for displaying ebay items on their site along with more money for a sale. A few months after Jeremy starting AuctionsAds with Patrick, Jeremy decided to sell his share in the company giving Patrick 100% ownership of AuctionAds Number 4 on John’s list was Jason Calacanis – Weblogs, Inc $120,000 per month Jason sold Weblogs inc long ago to AOL, yet still being the CEO of Weblogs inc was offered the position of General Manager of the new Netscape site, in November 2006 TecCrunch reported that Calacanis resigning as CEO of Webblogs, inc and general manager of Netscape, which later was reported to be true by Calacanis. In Many 2007 Jason started Mahalo.com a human-powered search engine, Mahalo is still in beta and is montized with Google. No detail of Jason’s current monthly Adsense revenue can be found. Number 5 on John’s list was David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard - $100,000 per month A USA Today article put David Miles Jr and Kato Leonard’s revenue from their website http://www.freeweblayouts.net/ at $100,000 per month. No more recent Google Adsense figures can be found for David Miles Jr & Kato Leonard. Acording to Alexa their site still gets a similar Daily Reach % as it did back in early 2006. The Monetization of this website could most defiantly be improved, I would begin by adding a third column and adding Text-Link-Ads, and other sponsored or affiliate programs which might include AzoogleAds or even WidgetBucks, David and Kato should also consider selling ad spots on freeweblayouts. One very annoying thing I found about FreeWebLayOuts.com was when navigate into a child page you are presented with a full page ad, and you need to click skip this ad to continue further. I absolute hate this type of advertising, and know they would retain more visitors (return visitors) by removing this type of advertising. Number 6 on John’s list was Tim Carter: AskTheBuilder.com - $30,000 per month Tim Carter is still in control of AskTheBuilder.com and is still montized with Google Adsense, now advertisers can purchase ads directly from AskTheBuilder. Daily reach of AskTheBuilder.com on Alexa has dropped significantly throughout 2007 since AskTheBuilder.com heyday back in early 2006. As mentioned earlier this might not mean AskTheBuilder is seeing less visitors, as the total number Internet Users in the world has increased over the last two years. How can Tim make more from AskTheBuilder? Looking at the way Tim has Montized AskTheBuild, I reckon there is a lot more that can be made from his website than $30,000 per month, the first item I found was that Tim only has one set of Adsense ads on the main landing page. I would recommend adding an additional column to the right side of the page, and star monetizing with Text-Link-Ads, and WidgetBucks . Selling ads on your own site can be a bit hit and miss, there is the potential to earn much more than you currently do, but if you don’t fill all your spots you don’t achieve much, and should really look at other or additional revenue sources, such as Text-Link-Ads, WidgetBucks , Hey if he happened to sell some ad spots, WidgetBucks and most other advertising can be replaced, with the ads that were sold. Number 7 on John’s list was Joel Comm - $24,000 per month As stated on Joel Comm’s personal blog he runs a number of internet websites on everything from Online shopping to free stuff and website reviews. Joel has written a series of successful book, with titles such as Making Money With Adsense , Chitika eMiniMalls SECRETS, KONTERA ContentLink Secrets I have not personally read these books but knowing the first hand knowledge and still that Joel has these ebooks are sure to be a winner. Joel’s most recent venture is an internet based reality TV show titled The Next Internet Millionaire http://www.nextinternetmillionaire.com/ I can imagine the launch of this program would be putting a lot more attention back on Joel’s other ventures and In return getting a lot of additional visitors clicks and sales of his ebooks. Number 8 on John’s list was Shawn Hogan – DigitalPoint.com $10,000 per month DigitalPoint.com is one of the places most new and old hand bloggers and web developers eventually find, asking all manner of questions and offering advice on topics such as web development, blogging, webserver hosting, making money online, and SEO. Just spending a little time on DigitalPoint will give you a lot of knowledge to succeed in the blogging and website world. Shawn still exclusively uses Google Adsense to Monetize DigitalPoint.com and the Alexa daily reach( %) of DigitalPoint.com has dropped a little, but going by the amount the internet has grown in the last two years I would predict DigitalPoint sees more visitors than ever before. No recent Google Adsense revenue details have been released for Shawn Hogan and DigitalPoint.com Shawn could improve his revenue quite significantly by looking at additional revenue sources such as Text-Link-Ads, WidgetBucks , AzoogleAds or even dropping Google for BidVertiser . So what about John Chow and John Chow Dot Com John is doing quite well for himself, even though he has dropped Google Adsense for BidVertiser a little while ago. John still earns revenue from Adsense thru referrals to the Adsense program. In October 2007 John Chow’s posted his revenue from all sources, which added up to $23,448.59 with Private Ad Sales accounting for nearly half of that figure as seen below. Private Ad Sales: $11,888.79 Affiliate Commissions: $5,131.27 ReviewMe: $3,000 Text-Link-Ads: $2,296.74 Kontera:$1,000 TTZ Media: $80.58 Subscription: $40.00 ShoppingAds: $11.21 Grand Total: $23,448.59 John also owns the successful and very popular TechReview Website The TechZone.com http://www.thetechzone.com/ I am sure John is making just as much from this venture as he does from John Chow Dot Com . What can everyone take out of the above experiences? The majority of people who were on John’s list of the internet’s top Google whores are still doing quite well for themselves, but some could be doing a better, by following some of the tips I have outlined below. NetMoneyFAQ’s tips for everyone Setup your site so you can sell ads directly, or have ads sold on your site by another company, such as Text-LinkAds, WidgetBucks , AuctionAds, AzoogleAds . Google Adsense is not the be all and end all, look at getting revenue from other sources other than Adsense to really grow your revenue. You may also want to consider replacing Adsense with BidVertiser Play around with positioning size and color, simple changes can make a big difference in the click thru rate you get. If you have the time, leverage the success of your current website or blog to launch other projects. Start a few and find the most popular ones to continue on with long term Was there any one John Chow left off the original list of The Internet’s Biggest Google Whores are there some new Google Whores that need to be added to this list, if you know of any or have something to share about this post, please leave your comments below.
Read More...