How Much Time Should You Spend on Your Online Adsense Work?

In the forums you'll see many people that are making different amounts of money online and are putting in different amounts of commitment to their online work whether it's adsense, CPA, clickbank or other affiliate related work. Many people starting out just get overwhelmed. They have a day job and can't spend a whole lot of time, but EVERYTHING related to computers seems to suck time like a dry sponge. So, how much time should you spend?

Well, first off, spend the time you can. I have worked at earning money online with adsense alongside with two other offline jobs for a couple years. Sometimes I have lots of time to work with. (Two weeks away from offline work at Christmas for instance.) I'll also have some time if one of my jobs slows down for a bit. That basically just buys me mornings and early afternoons to work on my online projects though. Spring break for the schools my 2nd job is usually off and that can be a productive week and summers I can usually spend a bit more time. (My second job is loosely tied to the schools calendar and so fluctuates with the school breaks although I continue through summer I do see a drop off in the activity over the summer.)

So, I've put in what time I can for about 15 months now and have made it up to the range of about 600-800 per month from adsense.

If I didn't have another job at all of course I'd be plowing most all of my time into developing content, sites and links and I think if I did that I would see much greater and quicker benefits. Some things though, still take time to happen. For instance, older domains typically get a bit more respect from the search engines. You can't rush that (well there is a way you can but we'll talk about that later...) For the most part you have to sit and age the domain yourself and wait, build links, build content and wait. Although what will really benefit you big in the longterm is having lots of content for your site.

So, how much time should you spend? It really depends on what you can put into it. The bottom line is you will get out what you put in. It takes some time for adsense earnings from web properties and blogs to get churning but once it does get started I suspect you'll want (*or be able) to pour more time into it and you'll see even greater rewards assuming that you're playing by the rules.

Sometime this last year I designated Fridays as my day to work on my online projects. I don't have scheduled appointments for my second job on Fridays and now only rarely schedule appointments for my primary job on that day. Given that I'm making 600-800 per month I feel like it pays for my time to have that block of Fridays. (That's around $175 per day if there are four Fridays in the month.) Appointments at my primary job are billed at $50 an hour and it's rare that I have an appointment that would be worth more to me than the time I could put into the sites. (In fact I'm considering a rate increase for that work.)

Now, for me, it helps (in a way) that I'm self employed and have revenue coming from multiple projects and jobs. I like diversifying my income it keeps me a bit safer from a sudden shock in one area.

What about diversifying from adsense? I have in the past and will put more effort in again soon to develop more revenue options from my online sites. Currently adsense has outperformed everything with no exceptions. I will make it a priority, but first I would like my online income to match my offline income and at the current growth rate it may within the next year or so. Does that mean I'll quit my offline work? Probably not. My 2nd job is a really steady and stable income source and what's more.... I like it. Some days aren't all that great, but on the whole it's a great job. My primary work I'd probably be more likely to cut back on. But, I'm currently having to do so anyway due to health issues and time constraints as it is.

So... if you have nights and weekends to work and that's all for your online business, that's fine. Just make a plan for yourself. I like to carry around an idea notebook to jot down those article or site ideas. Take it with you to lunch and brainstorm while you eat. I also highly suggest to make a promotion plan for not only how a site will be built, what content you will have, but where you will try to get links from and what off site methods you'll use to promote it and get traffic for it.

It really all comes down to a cycle of Brainstorm, Research, Plan, Implement and rinse and repeat as they say. I spend a bit more time on the Implementing side than some people developing sites out further and further as the ideas continue to come. I have started in the last year or so breaking some of those mega sites up into smaller niche sites and at this point I see benefits to either approach. So, spend the time you can, just make sure you get past the research phase of things and jump in with both feet and start doing things and then build from there.