AdSense Profits Interview: HTML-Site.nl

As you might remember a couple of months ago I launched the AdSense Profits Course, a training program for bloggers and webmasters who want to increase their AdSense earnings (or get started with it).

The feedback was great, with most of the members managing to increase their earnings significantly in the weeks/months after the course (e.g., 20%, 30%, 50%, and in some cases even 100%).

I figured it would be interesting to interview some of the members, asking what worked for them, what didn’t work, what changes they applied to their websites and so on.

The first interview is with Bjorn Simmering, who owns HTML-Site.nl. It’s a dutch site dedicating to helping people learn HTML and build their own websites.

1. When and why did you start HTML-site.nl?

I started HTML-site.nl in 2002. First it was for students of the school I worked for, but it started to grow over the years, until it actually became one of the big players in the “build a website” niche. Today it receives around 3,000 daily visitors, which is a lot of you consider it’s geared toward Dutch people only.

2. What goals did you have for the site initially?

As mentioned above, the first goal was to show the students of my school how they could build a site of their own. But soon people from all over my country was visiting it, so I decided to buy a .nl domain for the site (which is the country-level domain on Netherlands). I didn’t have any plans to make money with it initially, though.

3. Why did you decide to monetize it with Google AdSense?

Once the traffic reached a good level I figured I could try to monetize it, and AdSense was the hot thing on the web.

The results were pretty good, with the site earnings a hundred or so Euros per month initially. As I made layout and other changes on the site earnings could go down, but then I would read more about it, make some more changes and it would go up again.

I also tried to use affiliate marketing, but it didn’t work as well. Sometimes I would make money with it, but AdSense was more stable.

4. What was your monthly earnings before you took the course?

Here’s the breakdown:

March – $444
April – $385
May – $446

So around $430 per month.

5. What about in the months after the course, when you started applying the stuff you learned?

Here’s the breakdown (it includes AdSense and private ad sales, as one company actually purchased a banner where I had one AdSense unit):

June – $559
July – $588
August – $557
September – $637

So around $585 is the average.

6. Did your traffic change after you took the course?

It didn’t change that much, only the normal seasonal fluctuations. The increase in earnings came from a better monetization strategy.

7. What changes did you specifically made to your monetization strategy?

First of all I made a change in banner below my posts. It used to be a 468×60, but I realized it was too small to generate a decent CTR. I changed it to a 336×280 and the earnings increased quite a bit.

I also realized I had many without ads, including my forum. I included a banner there, and soon afterward I sold that spot to a company.

I also did tests with colors, placements, and banner/ad rotations. Some changes worked well, some didn’t. For example, changing the color of the links didn’t have a great impact on my CTR.

8. What tip do you have for beginners who are just getting started with AdSense?

Just get started, and remember to test, test and test. Don’t wait until your website is large or everything is perfect with your design. Just get started.

Ah, and remember to respect the Google AdSense guidelines.

9. What plans to have for your website now, and how much do you think it can potentially earn per month?

I want to make more videos. I also provide two courses on the site now, but I want to make more.

I believe that site can generate around 1000 Euros a month when traffic increases more. But that part is hard. I have been trying for a while, but so far the number of monthly visitors is flat. I am considering to start writing articles in English, but not sure yet.

by Daniel Scocco