In 2008, I wrote a post called “Make $5000 A Month Online, One Hour A Day.” I did some back-of-the-envelope math about building thirty niche AdSense sites, each getting a hundred visitors per day, each earning about five dollars and sixty cents in ad revenue. The math worked out to roughly five thousand dollars per month.
The math was technically correct. The strategy was not realistic. Let me explain why, and what actually works.
What I Got Wrong
The original analysis assumed you could build thirty small sites, each targeting a handful of keywords, and maintain them with an hour of work per day. One site per day, rotating through all thirty each month. It sounded efficient. In practice, it was a recipe for thirty mediocre sites that Google would eventually ignore.
Here is what the math missed:
- Thin content gets penalized. Google's algorithm updates over the past fifteen years have systematically devalued thin niche sites. Five or six pages of content is not enough to establish authority on any topic.
- Maintenance scales linearly. Thirty sites means thirty hosting accounts, thirty sets of plugins to update, thirty potential security vulnerabilities. The operational overhead was far more than an hour per day.
- AdSense revenue has changed dramatically. Click-through rates on AdSense have dropped as users have become ad-blind. Earnings per click vary wildly, and Google's revenue share has shifted over the years.
- The competition got serious. In 2008, you could rank a thin site for moderate keywords with minimal effort. In 2026, you are competing against established authority sites with deep content libraries and strong backlink profiles.
What Actually Works for Making Money Online
The good news: making money online is absolutely realistic. The approach just looks different from what I described in 2008.
Build one excellent site instead of thirty mediocre ones. Focus all your energy on becoming the best resource in a specific niche. Depth beats breadth. One site with two hundred genuinely helpful articles will outperform thirty sites with six articles each, every single time.
Diversify your revenue streams. Do not rely solely on display ads. Combine affiliate marketing, digital products, email marketing, and potentially services or consulting. A site earning from multiple sources is more resilient and typically more profitable.
Be realistic about timelines. My 2008 post implied you could get this running in a month. A more honest timeline for building a profitable content site: six to twelve months to see meaningful traffic, twelve to twenty-four months to reach a sustainable income level. This assumes consistent effort of one to two hours per day.
The math still works, just differently. Here is a more realistic 2026 scenario: one focused content site with a hundred quality articles, earning through a mix of display ads (Mediavine or Raptive), affiliate commissions, and a small digital product. At fifty thousand monthly page views — achievable with good content and basic SEO — you could realistically earn:
- Display ads: $750-1,500/month (depending on niche RPM)
- Affiliate commissions: $500-2,000/month (depends heavily on niche)
- Digital product sales: $500-1,000/month (even with a modest email list)
That is $1,750 to $4,500 per month from one well-built site. Not five thousand dollars from day one, but a realistic and sustainable income that grows over time.
The One Thing I Got Right
My 2008 post opened with a disclaimer: “Your ability to make money on the internet has to do with your abilities and your personal situation. I am not able to promise that you will make money online.” That was honest then and it is honest now. Making money online requires real work, real skills, and real patience. But if you are willing to put in the effort, the opportunity is genuine. Just skip the thirty-site shortcut and build something worth visiting.
Awesome Mark! I love how you laid it out and I know it is possible. That’s the thing, you have to have a plan! Great work. I may have to try this.
Thanks Joe. I’ll let you know how it goes this month. I have 30 blogs up and running, and I am currently doing more keyword research and adding content. I should have all 30 “complete” by the end of the month. In this case, complete means 5-10 pages of content and some promotion for each blog.
Firepow does seem like a great system. I’ve heard others praise it. Trouble is, my budget would be blown in a few months if I signed up now. I’m not letting that keep me from building niche sites though.
I too am interested in how it goes for you with your 30 blogs. Sounds like a very reasonable plan. Have you tried doing just one page sites?
(1) HOW CAN I SEND YOU MY BLOG….
(2) CAN I EARN IN INDIAN RUPEES NOT IN DOLORS?….
(3) KINDLY SEND ME STEP BY STEP PROCESS TO EARN MONEY
DATE = 06-OCTOBER-2008
TIME = 6:40 PM ONWORDS
DAY = MONDAY
THANKING YOU
@Mark — Well, that is the question — can you make enough money with FirePow to justify the cost. That is what I will be trying to determine.
In the mean time, I have negotiated a special coupon code with Andrew for MasonWorld readers if you are interested in a discount. He is offering a $25/month discount.
Contact me directly for the code.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark,
I really liked how you showed through math what is needed to make $5,000 per month. As I read through your post I did have a few questions.
1. 5 keywords that you can rank in the top 6 in the SERPS that give you 1500 searches a day – What criteria do you use to determine whether you can obtain a top 6 ranking for a particular keyword? I have many adsense sites, but I find it very difficult to get 100 visitors a day.
2. Article Marketing Visitors – Are these visitors that find your articles in the SERPs or are they people surfing the article directories? Do these visitors tend to click adsense ads? I noticed you carved out social media traffic. It is my opinion that these visitors don’t click. This leads me to wonder about the visitors from your article submissions.
3. 100 visitors a day – How successful have you been with being able to consistently build small sites that get 100 visitors a day? I have built a lot of sites, but I really have trouble getting this many visitors.
@Dhaval — I recommend that you read my eBook to get started. You can download it after opting into my list on the upper right hand side of this page.
Thanks!
Mark
@Fred;
Thanks.
1. Well, I need to do a separate post on that. Basically, you need to look at the “authority” of the stuff on page one and decide if you can beat it. One simple method that Josh Spaulding likes is to average the PR on the front page. He describes that here: http://ez-onlinemoney.com/ A lot of times, I will simply use the strength of competition index (SOC) from Micro Niche Finder.
2. Typically they come from SERPS, find the article on the directory site (ranked well because of the authority of the directory) and click through to your site. They definately do click. They are hunting for something — that’s how they got there. AdSense CTR from these guys can be over 20% in some cases.
3. This is clearly the hardest part (as I mention in the article). I have done it, but I would not say that I can do it every time. One of the things that I am doing with the 30 sites that I am creating in October is experimenting with a couple of different methods for traffic generation. So, hopefully, I will have some better answers for you in November.
That is one of the reasons I am interested in FirePow. There are several “traffic gadgets’ in there that can help (that’s the claim I want to test).
Hi Mark,
Good article. You are giving great tips here that people can apply immediately to start making money.
Keep it up!
Thanks,
^Angelina
Interesting. I also would be interested to track your progress on the 30 blogs you have built.
Perhaps you could put a widget or something in the sidebar column of this blog that gives your readers a current up-to-date dollar amount of how much you have made on your blogs.
Your blog income widget would be a good marketing tool as well. When people see it they can click on it and you can take them through the post above and or offer them to signup for a seperate newsletter series where you teach them how to do it. Then perhaps offer them the full version of the course in an eBook or something for a small price.
Good luck Mark,
Joe
Mark, absolutely brilliant! This should be considered a roadmap to all aspiring AdSence jocks out there. Looking forward to your article on traffic generation, as this is they element in any campaign.
@Angela — Thanks!
@Joe — thanks. That is a neat idea for a widget. I do have a subscription-based course planned based on my 30 blog experience. Stay tuned.
@gWallet — Thanks. Stay tuned for updates. All 30 blogs are up and running (but mostly empty) at this moment. Woo hoo!
I am personally a fan of article marketing. It works well with AdSense because it complements organic traffic and provides backlinks which improve search engine performance. For this analysis, I am assuming that you can get 10 visitors a day from article marketing from 4 05 5 articles published to 15 directories each.
Sorry — should say “4 or 5” — fixed. Thanks.
Mark
Mark,
I think you are providing value in the process you are teaching… but, I thought I would point out that $0.55 per click at 8 clicks per day is only $4.40 per day… not, $5.60.
I think you were looking at your spreadsheet for the total, but you used 10 clicks per day, instead of 8.
Please take this as only a point of reference that you may want to correct for your readers… like I said, I think the process you are teaching people is valid and good for people to follow. Just would hate to see someone hit your typed metrics and end up a thousand dollars short at the end of the month and not understand why.
Nice blog and content. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Richard — I will take a look and correct it. Too many late nights lately….
Regards,
Mark
Great article. I have also some rejections regarding searchtraffic volume. To get 100 visits/day (avg.) requires a great deal of SEO to be done, month after month … but, a more proper value of avg. visits per day should be 50. That ain’t that hard and can be accomplished by 2nd page listings in the SERP, the use of social networks & bookmarking services etc. Much easier.
I have some AdSense optimized themes for wordpress that have CTR between 40 – 60% 😮 … maybe I should make a product out of them 😀
/Patrik Berggren
Thanks Patrik – you should make a product out of them. People need good AdSense themes, and there is plenty of room in the market for both of us. Let me know if you need any help.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark, Great post. I found my way over here from Garryconn.com after surfing his archives. It’s nice to finally read about a path to making money online without out all the hype(ie:how I made $100,000 in 30 days) and be forced to subscribe or pay to find out the details. Then once you read the details all they say are, build an email list of 200,000, make an info product and sell it for $10. I really like the way you break it down. You make me think I could really do this is I had the time, energy, focus and determination. I’ll have to check out some more of your blog, but so far it looks like between reading your blog and garry’s, I will be able to make some money online.
I will also have to find out how this experiment ended up since 30 days have passed.
Hey Mark,
Great article. I’m always finding cool things on your site! I stumbled this article too!
I have to admit the numbers are pretty daunting. I have several sites that have lots of good content but no where near 100 visitors a day. I think its my keyword selection. I still don’t quite have the keyword research part completely down. I’m considering getting Micro Niche Finder and see if they helps me get over some of my deficiencies. Between Gary Conn and yourself it seems like a great tool.
I’d also love to check out firepow.. I just need to get the site income improved to be able to afford it.
Thanks again!
Joe
Can I ask you an honest opinion? Do you think MNF is worth the price? Granted everything can be gather and researched for free, but the SOC looks like it would really save time.
Thanks Joe.
I use Micro Niche Finder and use it a lot.
Garry Conn will tell you correctly that you can get all the information you need for free from the Google AdWords tool.
In fact, Garry just released a eBook/report on niche sites. I have not read it yet, but I like Garry and you cannot argue with the results. He makes a TON of money with AdSense alone.
Firepow is very cool indeed.
Regards,
Mark
I definately think it is worth looking at given the guarantee. I love it, and if James comes through with all of the planned upgrades it will be an amazing value.
Hi Mark,
I’m doing the same from last 1 yr 2 months. It’s easy to say than doing all this. Here I prove:
1. In order to bring traffic from articles, you need to write them (time consuming activity).
2. One hr. per month is really not enough in order to promote your site for regular 100 visits traffic (link promotion, writing fresh content, publish it, ping it, social book mark it etc.)
3. On content network, adsense is paying very less money like 0.01 or 0.05 etc. so how you can make 6$ per day.
Waiting for logical answers…
Ankush;
These are all EXCELLENT points. Let me take them 1 by 1.
1. This is absolutely correct. Not only do they take time, your time is worth money. When you get to the point of having some success, or when you have some money to spend, I would definately recommend outsourcing writing. You can get a 300 word article written for between $1 and $15 depending on the size of your order and the quality you want. If you have a site that will make $100/month once mature, it is easy to justify investing $100 in articles to get it started.
2. Again, your time is worth money. You can outsource. But, once a site is making money, you can often leave it alone. I have a good friend that has a 5 page site that he built 2 years ago. He has not touched it in a year. It has 6 pages and make $200/month in AdSense revenue. He spends zero hours per month.
3. You have to select niches with high paying keywords. Examples are weight loss, travel, acne, legal advice, etc. You must not build sites with low CPC — like “sports socks” or “free cheese”. (I am being silly, but you get the idea.)
You can screen your niche ideas for CPC using a tool like the one at SpyFu.com. To see how crazy the CPC can get, check out this list of high paying keywords. http://www.spyfu.com/TopList.aspx?listId=3
Now, you are correct that you will not get paid the AdWords CPC. When estimating AdSense earnings, I assume that Google will keep 50% and the content network will result in a 60% reduction from that. So, I assume that I can get a CPC of 20% of the AdWords cost. That is a rough estimate. It means that if someone is paying $5 for a click, I will get to keep a dollar.
If you are getting $0.01 for clicks, you are either targeting a low-paying niche or your account is “smart priced” due to low conversions or low CTR.
Hope that helps.
So,
I am interested… It is now almost MAY!
Have you had 5+ Months @ 5K?
Thanks alot
Karl Hall
Karl — I get this question a lot. The short answer is that I have not found the time to get all the sites up yet due to other priority projects (like this blog and some other products that I have been working on).
I still have that as a goal, and have hired some help to get the sites up. The sites that are up indicate that I should be able to hit my target.
So — project is still “incomplete but promising.”
Mark, I have to argue with your system. As many other posters have commented, getting 100 visitors to a 5 page website you maintain for an hour once a month is unreasonable. Plus, getting $0.55 per click is unreasonable.
You countered the first argument on you can’t get 100 visitors by saying you need to target high traffic niches. But, we all know that the high traffic niches are the most competitive. Do you really think you can get page one results for niches like mortgages or weight loss? Is it with a 5 page website? If you do, can you prove it?
The second argument about low CPC you countered by saying the website is smart priced. I disagree. I have a site I launched in 2004 that is lucky to get $0.10 per click. Even my best Adsense website which earns close to $2,000 a month gets only $0.20 CPC.
Honestly, I think if you are getting 100 visitors to a 5 page website and getting $0.55 you are in a rare find of niche. If that is the case, then question becomes exactly how did you find that niche? How about I’ll show you my website making $2,000 a month and you show me your 5 page website getting 100 visitors and $0.55 CPC? I earn more so you should be willing to participate.
I just wanted to say that it is very possible to get well over 0.55 a click. I have been using Mark’s NAT and Joshes $5 mini site formula and have only had my 1st site getting traffic for 1 week and have made over $20 already. I am currently averaging just over $2 a click and I am only just starting seeing traffic. The high paying clicks are out there you just need to do a little research!
All I have is 4 articles linked to the site so far and am getting only about 2 clicks a day. I am looking forward to writing a lot more and watch my earnings rise.
It’ll never work. It won’t happen. Not possible.
Based on everything I see I am even more astonished with WWW marketing based on watching the way the the current generations operate with their peers with the internet. My 14 year old daughter just showed me a portal they had developed to aggregate areas of interest for their group of friends. They were asking about the best way to setup some advertising on the website to generate revenue. I am extremely poud.