Ever wonder that question?  I did and then I found this nifty tool, that told me!  RSS Pieces is worth about $13,500, based on the value of the sites that link back to us through Technorati.  Not too shabby for a baby blog (RSS Pieces launched in August of 06), huh?  See what your blog is worth!  If you don’t have a blog worth on this tool, it’s not the end of the world, but it may be an indication that something isn’t right.  Likely you either don’t have many backlinks or your backlinks aren’t considered valuable.  So, if that is the case, it’s time you begin a solid backlink strategy and start marketing yourself to social networks like Technorati and Digg.

Read also:        Ultimate Guide to Backlinks

Give your real estate blog or website worth with AdSense revenue

If you do have a blog worth, congrats!  Learn how to put that to work for you!  Start generating some money, baby!  When it comes to monetizing a real estate blog or website, I recommend AdSense.  Some might choose to argue that you can’t make money from AdSense on a real estate blog or website, but I beg to differ.  If you have the traffic and quality content to support it, you can! 

Shout out of the day to this article on how to implement AdSense

Case in point, I was always a bit hesitant to add paid advertising to RSS Pieces, but forces much wiser than myself convinced me it was the right thing to do even if solely for the research factor.  So, less than 2 weeks ago, I had the boys turn on the AdSense module.  Charge up the paddles, I am in shock!  We have been generating around $20 dollars in AdSense revenue daily for the past week or so.  So, in one month, we should have generated about $600 from AdSense.  OK, we won’t get rich on that, but if we had to pay for hosting or web development or other little miscellaneous hardware/software stuff, it would cover it.  Think about it.  This is a great way for you, as a Realtor or Mortgage Broker to generate an IT budget from your website.  Even if you generated an extra $100 each month, that would more than cover the cost of hosting your website and it may even help you to upgrade your site over time.

Read also:        Monetizing a real estate website. 

                        Google Advertising

Take a look at a real live Realtor making money on Google AdSense

Damion Flynn, former IT professional extraordinaire and current Realtor, told me in an email:

"I currently make between $4k and $5k per month in AdSense revenue through numerous sites (roughly 300).   My first attempt at adding adsense to a real estate style site is at http://www.mscoast.net.   Some of my IM sites that generate pretty good are:
http://www.essayprofits.com
http://www.ibwt.com"

AdSense may help your site increase in the search engine results pages (SERPs)

Another reason I am hot on AdSense this week is because I have been reading some theories on how contextually relevant AdSense can actually help your website jump in Google’s search results.  Yes, some SEOs have floated the theory that Google shows preferential treatment to sites that display AdSense.  The theory actually makes sense:

The more AdSense advertising displayed => the more click throughs an ad receives => the more money Google makes.

So, elevating a site with AdSense above a site without it in the search results is a good business decision for Google.  Mind you, this is simply a theory and Google has never confirmed or denied it but you can find evidence of it in their search results when you look at two similarly page ranked sites – the one with AdSense will appear above the one without it.

Do you need a lot of click throughs to make money on your site?

Not at all.  For example, some of the prime search terms like “real estate blog” or “real estate website” earn RSS Pieces as much as $4/click.  Real estate is a great niche market because many of the CTR ads have very high click through pay outs.  The industry lends itself to driving very targeted traffic, so the advertisements Google chooses are also extremely targeted for large purchase consumers and often have very high pay out amounts per click.   You really don’t need that many click throughs to boost your bottom line you just need to have targeted traffic and quality content.

Won’t AdSense clutter my site and annoy a visitor?

Contextually Relevant Advertising (CTR) can actually enhance a users experience because it displays ads that directly relate to the content of the article they are reading on your site.  So, the ads themselves actually have more relevance to the user and they are less likely to annoy a user and more likely to be clicked.  Now, to pretty up those “ugly” ads, you can use simple CSS to more fully integrate them into the look and feel of your website.  The ideal positioning for an AdSense block is above the fold (meaning that a user doesn’t have to scroll to find the ads).  To learn more about how to position AdSense on your site for increased click throughs and better integration with your site, read Google AdSense Layout Tips.

Conclusion

AdSense just makes sense.  My personal philosophy is that your website should MAKE money not TAKE money. And I don’t mean that it should make money in the abstract sense of generating leads, I mean it in the very real sense that either a pay per click or affiliate program should be integrated and directly generate money for you.  The reason is simple, if you re-invest the money you make off your site back into it by either hiring someone to blog for you or initiate a backlink strategy, you will grow a successful website and see dramatic increases in leads.  My experience is that when a site generates direct income, you will be more likely to put money into to it to keep that income stream flowing.  Basically, try AdSense, if you don’t like it or it doesn’t work for you, you can always turn it off again.  It takes only an hour or so to implement and my opinion is it is well worth it.

To learn more about AdSense implementation, read Google Advertising Tools by O’Reilly