Here's How Much I Earned From 3.8K Clicks With Google Adsense

Four months since I launched my AI news website, zeniteq.com, it’s finally gaining traction from Google Search.

As you can see from the graph below, the website was essentially invisible for three months despite regular posts. However, in the third week of May 2024, many of the pages started getting indexed by Google, and user clicks began to take off.

In the last 28 days, the website reached 3.5K clicks from Google Search!

I am not new to blogging, as I’ve been writing on Medium for three years now. However, I am new to blogging outside of Medium. Little achievements like this make me really excited and motivated.

My Earnings

Now for the earnings: I made a total of $40.05 from 3.5K clicks in the last 28 days. Here’s proof from my AdSense dashboard:

It’s not all profit, though. I pay a monthly subscription of $23 for my Webflow CMS plan. So, my total earnings for the last 30 days are:

• $40.05–$23 = $17.05

That still needs to account for the international taxes that may be incurred in payouts.

This does not account for the international taxes that may be incurred in payouts. Nevertheless, I was really happy with this achievement.

I shared it on Reddit and received an interesting comment from a fellow blogger:

Translated: In 2022, I received $100 from 20 clicks per day.

I am curious to know if this is true. If it is, I wish I had started blogging on my own website years ago!

For the OG bloggers out there, how much cost per click (CPC) did you get two years ago?

My Journey to Monetization

The good thing about earning via Google Adsense on your own website is you get to earn immediately once the ads are injected.

It’s different from earning on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, or Facebook where you have to meet a certain number of views or followers in order to start earning.

Here’s a simple overview of the steps needed to deploy a site and earn money from ads.

It looks simple but took me months to earn my first dollar. Do not expect an overnight success, it’s a myth. Post consistently and make sure to post high-quality content.

How Did I Get Here?

Trust me, I spent zero dollars on paid ads to promote my website. All I did was constantly fix bugs, build new features, and regularly post fresh and up-to-date content.

Since launch, I have created and rolled out the following features to improve the UI and UX:

1. Search functionality
2. AI tools page
3. Newsletter (I use Substack)
4. AI Product Review service

All these features were created using existing tools from Webflow, and I had to write scripts to make them work. It wasn’t easy considering my limited knowledge about site-building tools and web development, but I made it happen.

Additionally, I maintain an online presence by publishing updates about the website on these platforms:

1. Reddit
2. X (Twitter)
3. Medium

Sometimes, I also share updates on my personal Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

The following free tools helps me keep track of the website’s health and traffic:

• Google Analytics: My main stats monitoring tool because it’s free and easy to integrate.
• Ahrefs: For more advanced monitoring. But I’m on a free tier subscription.
• Google Lighthouse: To check the website’s speed and any potential issues.

What’s Next?

Here’s my strategy to grow traffic and increase earnings over the next few months:

1. Offer Paid Services

One of the first paid services I’m offering is the AI SaaS review. This idea came from a Redditor who commented on my post:

Hi OP, do consider offering services or products. Don’t use affiliate links if possible. I wrote and still write for several niche blogs and those that survived were the ones who diversified their income (paywalled content, digital products, etc) and/or traffic (social media, newsletters, etc).

One of my biggest clients whose main site relied mostly on affiliate links went from multiple millions to 10k in six months despite having high authority and following the EEAT guidelines.

In the future, I will create more paid services like courses, web app boilerplates, web app development, AI model fine-tuning, and more.

2. Build a Brand

Have you heard about Google’s leaked ranking algorithms?

It’s by far the biggest leaked Google document, comprising 2,596 modules with 14,014 attributes.

One important insight is related to Brand Authority.

The documentation explicitly shows that Google stores author information, suggesting the importance of authorship and brand entities in rankings. Building a strong author brand and having content created by recognized experts could positively influence rankings.

My plan is to stay focused on the generative AI niche and bring in more experts in the field to write content for the website. Maintaining a consistent, high-quality brand experience aligned with user expectations is crucial to avoid demotions in Google ranking.

I am also in talks with some developers to build products and services to diversify the content of the website — at Zeniteq, we’re not just writing articles, we also write codes!

I should mention that I’m not thrilled about having ads on my website. Personally, I hate seeing ads, but right now, it’s the only way I know to earn and pay for the services needed to keep the website afloat. If the time comes when I’m earning enough from the paid services, I will remove the ads for a better UI and UX. Until then, the ads stay.

3. Improve the Website’s UI and UX

A few days ago, I asked the Reddit community to roast a page I created to promote the services I offer. Here are some of the comments I received:

- You throw 2 pop-ups into my face. Cookie one may be required but maybe there is some other option that you could use what allows the main page to be more visible.

- Sorry but I clicked away right after you threw a second pop-up in my face, I just did it instinctively. I think that’s what most people will do too.

- It’s terribly boring, especially the first page should be engaging, but it isn’t. Add some color, to say the least. When I scroll, things don’t get better, the page appears empty. I don’t want to put you down, just want to help

- Why is the pricing after the newsletter and blogs?

I know, I know, these are all valid points, and I didn’t realize them until these people pointed it out — so, a huge thanks to them.

I have made a checklist of the needed improvements based on user feedback and plan to address them as soon as I can.

Also, going back to Google’s leaked ranking algorithm, I found some actionable strategies that could potentially boost the website’s SEO:

1. Focus on Link Diversity and Quality: Ensure a diverse and relevant link profile to maintain and improve rankings.
2. Optimize for User Experience: Drive successful clicks through high-quality content and engaging user experiences.
3. Leverage Author Expertise: Highlight author credentials and expertise, especially for YMYL content.
4. Stay Updated on Content Freshness: Regularly update content to maintain relevance and freshness.

Final Thoughts

Despite the slow initial growth, I’m happy to see steady progress and finally some earnings. Sure, it’s just pennies now, but I’m confident it will grow. This journey is about persistence and continuous improvement.

To anyone out there building their own site or thinking about starting one, remember that success doesn’t happen overnight. Keep at it, learn from each step, and celebrate the small wins along the way.

Thanks for being part of my journey. I can’t wait to share more updates with you all!

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