Gian L. - Hello BIG Mike, welcome to EarnWithGoogle.com.
I hope that my questions, and your answers, will be an interesting reading for the visitors of our site.


Big Mike - Hello Gian, thank you and it’s great to be here!


Question. - Let's start with the questions. Can you introduce yourself to the readers that don't already know you and your work related to AdSense?


Answer. - Well, I’m 44 years old, and I live in Greece, where I moved to from the US after I retired 5 years ago. My wife Anastasia and I own an EFL School, where we teach students English privately. We have 3 young children and a fourth on the way, due in August.

Before retiring, I was an Engineer, working on various projects throughout the US, primarily in the Bio-Medical Engineering field. I also hold degrees in Computer Science and Education, in addition to Engineering.

Believe it or not, I’m still enjoying my retirement and work at IM as a hobby to keep myself busy. My specialty has become Adsense, although I have a number of online businesses as well as investments in offline, local “Brick and Mortar” businesses, primarily retail.


Q. - I know that not everybody likes to publicly speak about the money he earns, but can you tell us approximately how much do you earn monthly from Google AdSense alone?


A. - More than a dollar!

Seriously, I’m always reluctant to discuss those numbers because they’re above average and I know that not everyone is going to be able to accomplish what I have - and so don’t want to give the wrong impression.

I will say that my best month was slightly more than $23K, while my worst month (my very first one) was approximately $6. On average, my earnings are fairly consistent, with minor, seasonal fluctuations, especially around major holidays, but a steady growth.


Q. - That's impressive! And how many websites are at work for you to generate your AdSense income?


A. - As of this morning, I have 168 websites in place living on 112 domains. The majority of these sites are 2 to 3 years old and are an early VRE (Virtual Real Estate) model I developed.
I also have perhaps 300 demo sites online which represent “Out of the Box” versions of our Niche Mania and Xpro Mania websites – these also contribute to our income as is, without any further modification from us.


Q. - You make money also in a different way, always related to AdSense, you sell ready AdSense mini sites to people that want to make money online thanks to this service provided by Google.
An example is right here on EarnWithGoogle.com, we used one of your mini sites for our resource section. Can you tell us something more about this?


A. - About a year ago, I saw a trend in terms of rising interest in Adsense specific mini-sites and since I already had a production system in place for myself, decided to test market the idea via the Warrior Forum.

I felt that if I could package a quality mini-site product, support it AND bring it to market at a reasonable price, it would be an opportunity for Adsense beginners to dabble in it without risking a huge investment.

Over time, the concept of what we do at Niche Mania has evolved based on customer feedback, changes in SE technology and of course Google Policies.

We’ve recently launched a new Control Panel (version 2.0), which allows customers to manage their entire site online, through a web browser. For example they can easily add, edit and delete articles, choose between Adsense and YPN (we’ve got a great feature that randomly displays one or the other).


Q. - That's very interesting Mike, and I think that our readers could find useful to see an example site or two, maybe with a brief explanation from you on the main adsense optimization factors you implemented.


A. - Here are two recent sites that both strong producers:

http://car-donation.kotzakoliou.com

http://weight-loss.anamik.com

In both cases, the Ad Unit is above the fold and immediately available to visitors. We blend the Ad Unit into the page’s color scheme and add a splash of contrasting color.

The sites are also monetized through optional Ad Units (Skyscraper) as well as YPN and Amazon. All of the various ads can be individually turned on/off as desired.

What works well for us is a clean, simple design with lots of white space and is easy to navigate. Introducing well-designed graphics helps to develop stickiness right along with the quality of the content.

In addition to original articles, we incorporate a News Feed based on the keyword being targeted for that page. This allows fresh, relevant content to be displayed right along with our original content, basically creating spider food!


Q. - Which are in your opinion the best types of sites to make money with AdSense?


A. - I think anytime you create a site related to something that affects a large group of people you’ve got a potential winner. For example, think about the things that tend to come up in your life every day:

1. Job
2. Family
3. Pets
4. Health
5. Home
6. Recreation

By locating suitable niches in these or similar areas you’ll find high volumes of searches across many, many niche topics with relatively low competition.


Q. - And how do you select the niches for your sites?


A. - Through research just like everyone else; however, I tend to look at topics that the average Internet user might be interested in on a daily basis.

I try to avoid really popular, highly competitive niches in favor of smaller ones with high searches and very little competition.

I also use I software tool I designed to calculate a value termed PKE or Probability of Keyword Effectiveness. In essence, my formula takes KEI several steps further, based on actual performance data we’ve accumulated from our own sites.


Q. - You mentioned keywords research in the last answer.
Our preferred software for keywords research is Click Ad Equalizer that offers many very useful functions and provides a wide range of data.
I know it is possible to make some keywords research for free online with different tools anyway.
Do you think a professional keyword research software is needed to get good results also for beginners and intermediate AdSense publishers?


A. - For beginners, I especially believe that a professional keyword tool is an absolute necessity. But, they really shouldn’t rely solely on that either. It takes knowledge and experience to select keywords that will provide the maximum ROI, so I urge people to not be lulled into letting the tool do all the work.




Q. - Big Question for BigMike. We know that without traffic it is impossible to earn a lot with AdSense, can you tell us which are the main sources of traffic to your sites?


A. - For my own sites, I use a combination of organic SE traffic and a small amount (10%) from PPC. In my case, the traffic has been grown over a couple of years.

Like everyone, I focus on reciprocal links, article submissions, etc., as well as highly detailed SEO on my sites. As a rule, SE’s tend to love them and crawl them constantly.


Q. - We suggest to our visitors the SEO Elite software. Do you think it can help to optimize AdSense sites for Google and the other main search engines?


A. - Yes, I do – many of my customers use it and I’ve helped them in the past to integrate it with their sites. Again though, it’s important that people use more than one resource for their links.


Q. - What is the best advice you can give to people that are trying to make money with AdSense?


A. - Think Long-Term!

I see so many people racing around trying to make that first million with Adsense that they’re not seeing the bigger picture. My suggestion is to start small:

1. Create and upload a five or ten page site.

2. Schedule time regularly each week to write articles, source reciprocal links; tweak the site, etc.

3. Repeat as needed – but don’t slack off!

Don’t worry about your earnings today – think about the future – 6 months, one year and 5 years from now. As the sites grow, slowly and naturally, the value and “stickiness” will grow and the earnings will be there for you.


Q. - And which is the worst mistake they must avoid?


A. - Avoid Shortcuts!

I know it’s tempting to buy up the latest software to automate your sites and information on “Tricks”, but the truth is, most of these are short-lived solutions. I’ve seen people’s sites de-indexed countless times and see them losing thousands of dollars in revenue every month simply because they foolishly installed an automation program that the SE’s didn’t like.

Don’t risk it – just put up your sites, maintain them and let them “Age Gracefully” and you’ll always come out a winner!


Q. - Is there some particular product or service that you consider a must have and can recommend to our readers?


A. - I would suggest that anyone not overly familiar with website development consider picking up a copy of XSite Pro – I own a copy and thinks it’s terrific for an entry level user.


Q. - If you were requested to provide only one URL of a web site, the one that has taught you more and has been the more beneficial of all for your AdSense business,  which site would you suggest?


A. - When I started in Adsense, there was no information available – the only guide we had was from Google and that was fairly sparse. Like most people, I tested, tweaked and tested everything to death until I came up with my own formulas for maximizing CPC on my sites.

These days, I still think the number one site to use is Google’s Adsense site! They provide everything you really need to know.


Q. - Mike we are at the final question of our interview, what are your plans for the future?

A. - I’ve recently partnered up with Brenda King and have launched Xpro Mania, which delivers Adsense sites designed for XSite Pro. There’s a huge demand for this now and it provides a good alternative for those who prefer to build their own sites.

I’m also getting ready to launch the Niche Mania Member’s Portal, which contains a phenomenal arsenal of tools for our customers to use to develop, build and maintain their sites remotely.


Gian L. - Thanks a lot Mike for sharing some of your big experiences with Google AdSense with us, and best wishes for your future plans.


Big Mike - Thanks for having me and I want to wish everyone much success in their Adsense ventures!


Michalis "BIG Mike" Kotzakolios sites are:

http://www.niche-mania.com
http://www.script-mania.com
http://www.xpro-mania.com


Gian Luigi Ruggeri for

EarnWithGoogle.com