Adsense and what to do after college?

December 2, 2005

Author: ccb9856
Source: WebmasterWorld.com

I’m at a crucial cross road in my life as I’m about to graduate college in the Spring with a BS in Computer Science. For the last 6 years, I’ve been running a site in my spare time thats made around $50,000 cumulative and is currently averaging around $1500 a month from adsense. I know, great money for a college student

So I’m trying to decide if I should get a job like everyone else or dedicate myself full time to my current website and a few other projects I have in mind that I haven’t had time for. I can’t see myself being happy doing programming for a big company or anything like that. In fact, I did it over the summer for 12 weeks and absolutely hated it. Creating my own websites is what I really love to do. The downside of course is the volatility of not only adsense but the industry as a whole which was ok for spending money but is a whole different story if I want to make a living.

Then again I see this as the perfect opportunity as I’ll only be 22 with no family or other obligations and I can probably live with my parents for a little or move somewhere with cheap rent. If I do get a real job I may never have enough free time again to know if I could make it or not and I’ll always be wondering.

Just wanted to see what others thought and what they would do in my situation. Also, I’ve been on here for over a year so I didn’t just signup and post this. Just changed my name cause it was too closely related to my site.

Sounds like you already know your answer

Do what you love. Always do what you love.

Earning money from the web is indeed a great thing but you’re right about the volatility. It looks like most of your income comes from only one site with AdSense, if I were you I would focus on diversifying.

I’m somewhat in the same situation as you, although I’m a bit younger. Last year all my income came from AdSense and currently it’s only about 30-40 percent anymore. I’m trying to spread the risk over multiple contextual advertising services, affiliate programs, countries, … I’m also trying to be less dependent on SERPs as currently most of my traffic still comes from Google.

I would also focus on growing your income, because $1,500 a month may not be enough.

Go for it. Spend 30% of your time optimising/building your main site, then the other 70% of your time diversifying. Aim to have another 5 – 10 sites within the first 12 months. They probably won’t earn much for a while, but give them a year or two.

I’d love to give it a go, but I have children, which keeps the pressure up. You may never have this chance again. Do it.

The one advantage with a job is benefits. You probably would not need life insurance if you don’t have dependents, but health and disability insurance are still pretty important to have even if you are single.

It might be worthwhile to try to get at least a part-time job just for the benefits as individual policies, if you even qualify, are very expensive (in the U.S. anyway). Or at least look into the cost of individual policies and see if you qualify for them before you make your final decision on what to do.

I would also second the advice on having multiple sites and multiple revenues sources if you decide to work on your own.

I’m not sure I can see your dilemma. You’ve been quite steady at making decent income for over 6 years. That means you’ve probably didn’t have to work all that time in those dreary part time jobs in college. Why that sense of freedom suddenly isn’t good enough for after college life is beyond me.

I don’t think there’s any common job that will give you as much as AM/AS will for your time, assuming, of course, you’ve found your niche/strategy. A site built a year ago might still be pulling in money now. In a job, you trade time for money. With a succesful website, you’re paid in an ever increasing exponential curve. The site you built 6 years ago might have cost you 50 hours to build, but each one of those hours are worth now thousands of dollars. 50 hours working anywhere else will have been at best, $5k. Your sites are still pulling in, so it’s not even over.

And you’re absolutely right about trying/enjoying it now that you’re young and have no real commitments. If you’re crazy and do decide to join a company, and start getting good money, going up the corporate ladder, it will be so much harder to leave. And then after you’ve spent a year working full time, and finding that this is what awaits you for the next 40 years of your life, you’ll be wondering how else you could be making money and enjoying life. And you’ll think about your websites. You don’t have to experience that in your own skin (like me), just take the experience of others and skip the painful learning process.

Go full time doing websites, and bring those numbers higher up! Really think about what else you would like to do, if money is not an issue and you cannot fail, and do it!

(After working for a year right out of college, I got fed up (I was a web programmer) and went full time AM/AS. Been enjoying life travelling/working on my sites through europe for close to 9 months now, and even as I am living in Berlin for 2 months now, the checks are still in good ole American dollars, and I’m actually “saving” money because cost of living is much cheaper here…)

So, sorry, I can’t possibly fathom what your dilemma is…

I have problem with not having enough time because of a full time job if ur making 1500 steadily depending on were u live it shouldn’t be to hard living on ur own with that money. Do what others said get more sites going more income incase 1 dies down so you always have some type of security.

I wish I had more time to develope my sites although I don’t make near what you do with my 1 site I have started up a 2nd site to help a bit.

I’m in the same boat as you, graduate in May. I have one site earning good money on its own (I haven’t touched it in months), and I just launched a new site on a topic I hope will be my career.

My plan is to spend the next two years getting a masters AND developing the site in order to (1) earn a living (2) make a name for myself in my field.

It is truely amazing how many opportunities have openned up because of my first site (too bad they are in a topic I hate), I want to have similar doors open because of my new site.

Even though the IT industry in the US is toast, send out a couple of resumes a week it won’t hurt, you can pick and choose, who knows you may hit the jackpot. Also, continue to work on your website. I’m getting about $1800 per month, and looking for a studio apartment somewhere tropical like Hawaii then get a job selling ice cream on Waikki.

Man I wish I had your crossroads. I know exactly what I would do. I’ve done just about every type of job out there including the corporate ladder all the way up to VP of a public co. and Prez of a private co. I threw it all away and although I don’t just do THIS right now… It is my plan to just do THIS within a few years. It’s the best and money is not the only rush I get out of it. No customers to #*$! at you, no deadlines, no bosses, lots of free time to enjoy life, no need to shave in the morning… You get the idea.

Here at WW we vent alot and stress out over little things but most of us know that this is not as volatile as we seem to let on. Just remember to diversify. Also remember that “If you build it, they will come… and click.” and if they stop coming, thats ok because they are still coming to your 200 other websites.

Good Luck!

Send out a few resumes as one poster stated. In addition, look at contract assignments. If you get some additional experience, it may very well help you in ways you may have never even thought of. School doesn’t teach you everything, as I am sure you are aware.

You can afford to be more selective since you don’t have heavy expenses.

Set goals and build a timetable. Determine your alternatives and when to switch gears as necessary. I think your parents would be overwhelmingly supportive if they saw that you sat down and planned.

I would recommend freelancing for work. In addition, do not put all of your bags in to one basket. While Adsense maybe great for you, you only have one source for income. Expand and build affiliate or service sites powered by programs from CJ and Linkshare. Expand to other networks such as Yahoo Publisher, #*$!, etc. Try some CPM networks like Fastclick, Casale Network, Realtech Network, Burst Network, Buds, etc.

If you are more diversified in your providers, you will have multiple streams of income coming in. If something happens to your Google Adsense account, you’ll still have other revenue streams from other networks and affiliate programs.

Just something to think about.