Back in October 2003, I was accepted into Google’s AdSense program and immediately began to reap its bountiful benefits. At that time I had just one site — a niche business aviation community for corporate flight attendants — but that didn’t stop me from making a lot of money off of this outrageously profitable PPC program. Yes, those were the days when earning $2, $5, even as much as $16.18 per click from private jet charter brokers was the norm. Until that keyword segment imploded in early 2005 (apparently, click fraud brought it all down) I was regularly receiving monthly checks for several hundred dollars to well over one thousand dollars. Indeed, when everything peaked in February 2005, I pulled in $2100 in one month’s time. Well, that was then and this is now — I have decided to kiss AdSense good-bye, as I have turned off this blog’s AdSense plug-in and removed the tower ad occupying the sidebar. Why did I do it? For a couple of reasons, reasons I will make plain as you continue to read.

Kiss Good-ByeGood Money, Followed By Little Money

Once everything imploded in Spring 2005, I was faced with a sharp decrease in AdSense income almost immediately. The checks (or credits to my bank account) still came every month, but the amounts I received were paltry compared to my peak months. Still, as I built out my initial site and built up several new websites, the Google money began to increase once again. However, I never got any higher than $600-$700 per month try as I might to squeeze out every bit of income I could through carefully placing ads as appropriate. Yes, AdSense had peaked for me, but it was never my chief source of income — press releases, article writing, content writing, and web design carried me through then as it does for me to this day.

Building A Better Blogging Reputation

I began to blog in earnest in December 2005 and at one point I was blogging on as many as 9 blogs. It wasn’t difficult to maintain each blog, but I soon realized that I had little interest in maintaining each site. So, in May 2005 I shut down four blogs and by the end of June I sold off three others. Today, this blog and my auto blog are all that remain, an amount that I am very comfortable with. Instead of being known as a manager of a blogging network, I prefer to be recognized as an avid blogger who spends considerable time researching, writing, editing, and posting high quality articles. Along with this change, I have raised The Article Writer brand by sending article proposals to magazines and other publications, an effort that is beginning to pay off.

Gone, But Not Completely

I am all for bloggers monetizing their sites and I believe that exploring the various options out there can help them achieve a higher income level with some hard work on their parts. As for me, monetization is secondary as I want my readers to come away from this blog with information that will empower them. If what I write helps my readership, then I believe I have succeeded in my endeavor — to write high quality articles that cause readers to take some sort of action.

Although AdSense is gone from this blog, Google ads will remain on my other blog as well as on select web pages associated with this site. Select text advertising will continue to be found here and the occasional paid post may show up provided that it meets my strict requirements.

In all, I hope that my readers find their visits to this blog to be a useful one without having to navigate past inserted ads or anything else that detracts from their reading experience.

Photo Credit: Rubenshito of Las Palma, Spain. Please visit his blog for more information.