The first thing my business consultant (read brother-in-law) asked me, when I told him that I wanted to build a website and put AdSense on it was, "Do you want to build a site to help people or to make money?" After thinking about it for a while I couldn't imagine why I shouldn't do both. Why not a website that helps people and generates money for me? My consultant looked at me like I had taken one too many falls off my bike, which he knew I road primarily to save on the cost of gas, but he proceeded forward.
"Okay, well what will your site be on?" He encouraged me to think about the things in which I was an expert. That wasn't too tough. I've spent five years helping people in crisis find drug addiction treatment. "How about if I help people understand drug addiction treatment." Now he was sure I had taken too many falls, and that they had all been while riding without a helmet. More out of pity than duty, he showed me how to use Overture's bid tool. We put in drug addiction treatment and found that the top bid was for $100.00 "www.customtreatmentprograms.com (Advertiser's Max Bid: $100.00)". My consultant's mouth dropped to the floor. "Is that good?" I asked. He just shook his head, probably wondering why his sister had ever married such a dope.
I quickly learned that the challenge was going to be content. I could only write so much of it myself, and when he told me that I needed to try and build up to 500 pages - I almost lost interest. He explained about free articles and showed me where to find them, but there was hardly anything related to the subject in the archives. He suggested that I write what I could and consider getting some professional help. Of course, he explained that everything I paid for meant less net profit.
My first attempt at buying articles was a disaster. I found a freelance site and solicited bids. I negotiated $115.00 for ten and thought I was doing great. I paid forty percent up front figuring that it would help provide motivation for the writer to do my work ahead of others. When the first four articles came in there was something suspicious. I found unique lines in each and googled them, they were all stolen off the net. After spending hours making sure that I could get my money back, I contemplated giving up.
But then I had an idea. Frequently, when I needed to learn something about the latest drug I got it from the government. That's when the two sweetest words in my vocabulary became "public domain". I decided I would collect the best and most important information on drugs and drug addiction and build content rich websites. For a case study of how great this can work check out www.addictionsresources or www.alcoholismresources I have written some of the content, but more than 85% of it is public domain.
Not all of the public domain material turned out to be AdSense worthy. That is, not all of it had content that allowed Google to match appropriate ads and I so some pages were being served public service announcements. Some still are, and looking at the site will help you see what has worked and what hasn't.
Can this strategy work for other high paying key words? Consider these high paying key words and keyword terms: "Home loan" there are 3,940,000 pages in an advanced Google government search; "Asbestos cancer" 63,900 pages and mesothelioma 767,000 pages.
Remember it's good form to credit your source even when it comes from the public domain. Happy mining.
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as you leave the article title, author name, body and resource box in tact with the links made active This article has been formated to 65 cpl
Five Reasons for Fundraising Failures
Most nonprofits today live and die by their ability to successfully raise funds. The more funds they are able to raise the more good they are able to accomplish. A successful fundraiser has the potential to do much more than just generate funds for an organization. It can energize staff and board members, it can generate awareness about the importance of the organization’s mission, it can be serve as the beginning of a new relationship with long-term donors and it may generate additional publicity for the organization. Unfortunately, a fundraiser if done incorrectly can produce a strong negative effect in just as many areas and may even end up costing the organization money rather than making it money.
Hurting from the Outside In: The Rise of Self-harming
Ask any teacher or adolescent counselor what the most disturbing trend they are seeing in teens today is, and they are likely to tell you it's the growing number of "cutters". By cutters, they mean people who hurt themselves or "self-injure" a term that is more encompassing of the many types of behaviors that are actually involved. Whatever the form of self-injury, cutting, burning, biting or any of many other similar behaviors, teens hurting themselves in an attempt to deal with emotional pain is on the rise.
Drug Addiction Treatment Centers: A Fresh Start
Half a decade ago, I started working on a hotline to help addicts and their families find drug addiction treatment centers. Thousands of calls later, I still remember the first time I picked up the line. I could hardly make out what the woman on the other end was saying to me. Shelly (not her real name) was sobbing. She had just arrived at her father's apartment and had found him passed out cold on the couch with a needle still sticking out of his arm. Why she called our line instead of 9-1-1 was a mystery. I called for an ambulance and waited on the phone with her until they arrived. She told me how her father had been a construction worker, though his dream was to play guitar in a band. Shelly said her parents split up when she was thirteen because of her dad's drinking. He moved away to live in another state for a couple of years and they began to lose touch. He would send the occasional card or make a call on her birthday the first couple of years, but that eventually ended. After college, Shelly decided to find her dad. It turned out that he had moved back and was living just a couple of miles from where she grew up. Somewhere along the way, he had picked up a heroin habit. Shelly tried to talk him into going to treatment, but he always had an excuse for why he couldn't. Shelly said she visited him weekly, helped him keep his apartment up, bought his groceries and kept after him to quit. She said she they had just talked the night before and that he had, for the first time, agreed to try treatment. On my end, I could hear the ambulance approaching and then a knock on the door. Shelly hung up and I never heard from her again.
