I personally think Google adsense was not made for us African Web masters. Because no matter what traffic you have, you will not be able to benefit much from the traffic compared to a web site owner in the US. I talked about it on my blog today and I would like to know what other webmasters think about this
Follow the link below to see what I have to say about that
http://mambenanje..com/2008/05/google-adsense-is-not-working-in-africa.html

I would like webmasters to express their thoughts towards this, because I think its a sensitive issue

I have just responded directly to your blog post about Google Adsense here: Is Google Adsense working for Africa?

i beg to differ

fine; i've been on google since december or november and earned $35 till now
bt it solely lies with me

1. i didn't do keyword research
2. i didn't go for high paying keyword niche
3. i didn't use adwords or paid advertising
4. i didn't post my blog articles on forums
5. i mainly copy and paste
6. i don't update regularly
7. im only on blogcatalog and recently joined bloggerlog bt nt actively participating
8. im on free hosting
9. i have numerous ad units
10. i use a basic template
11. it looks ordinarily
12. im not online most of the time
13. i've nt used email marketing

If u say google doesn't work, then u're doing some or more of the above

im sure seun wldn't reply u, heck he stopped replying since he banned me(segebee)

so now im going for a redesign, getting an internet connection, gong for paid advertisements and creating other blogs and sites revolving on keywords or passionate topics; and i'll soon tell u how interesting the result will be

by the way pple who make $100 daily get up to 10000 visitors daily! yes, daily.
so buckle up webmaster, there's lots of money to be made from google, get to work.

Real money doesn't come easily.

NB: u may want to stop browsing and save money for webhostin/design and internet connection

if this has been helpful, u may want to help increase my adsense earning by visiting my blog and clickin some ads

here's the address www.freebizinfo.co.nr

@webguru
thanks for you nice write up and I bet you it will surely help me and the other thousands of African web business men reading.

I must say I am very happy with all the replies, yet I am not happy that guys in USA with same traffic like guys in Africa will make more money.
its not fair

@tundewoods
thats what I am begining to understand, but I personally think for a venture whose audience is based in the USA or Europe Google adsense can help make something out of your traffic ( if you have good traffic though ).
Thanks for you observation too

tundewoods:

Google adsense is residual income, i wonder how many times i will say this to web professionals.Hoping to make a living from google adsense is actually out right stupid if you ask me. No hard feelings but i must be down to earth frank.

Apart from Seun Osewa's Nairaland.com,i doubt if you can count up to 10 other websites owned by Nigerians that make reasonable turnover in terms of google adsense.

hard as it seems its true.

If you are talking in the context of Nigerian web professionals, you might be right. One can say Google Adsense is essentially residual income for the majority but that does not knock out the fact that one can earn a substantial amount from Adsense monthly, even in Nigeria. I'm talking out of first hand experience.

I have earned a monthly figure from Adsense that is more than the salary of many educated Nigerians. That I chose not to focus on web publishing does not negate the possibility of earning a full time living online from Adsense and the like.

WTF, the google Adense shit don't work, i quit from the shit its damn suck.

Tundewoods, I must admit that your views on this topic are a bit extreme.

Now, count me out of the bandwagon. I sell no ebook about Adsense and have nothing to gain from hyping. What I stated in my post is the cold truth. Google frowns at folks sharing the details of their earns and also I don't see why I should share figures of my personal earnings on a public forum. What I stated was meant to give you an idea.

I repeat, I'm a man of integrity and have nothing to gain from making claims.

well i certainly know that this google adsense is working cos i was told so but there have been a few issues like,
my state is not listed in the google adsense stuff(akwa ibom state)

Which state in Nigeria is actually listed on adsense programme.?

lagos state

i recieved my PIN from them

im thinkin of creatin a thread/blog/forum where we can collectively share ideas on making money
online for free

it'll b run by all

wot u think?

Someone told me is not safe to receive your cheque in Nigeria through normal post. How true is that?

@Webguru that's a good idea & thank for replyinq my post @ Naija Pals

I really want to learn how to make legal money with my Wordpress blog.

Keep intouch @ Ztyle.

anytime, ztyle

im thinking of we collaborating to form a community of pple wanting to make honest living online, wt all sharing resources for free

we can charge for membership later on

anyone down?

Webguru, Please let me know how it goes.

I have been thinking about this for some time now,
I just don't want to go through the stress of setting
it up by myself.

You may contact me at firihe[at]yahoo.com

Well the fact is that adsense does work in africa but the returns are less than a quarter in the in the US. Clicks imanating from africa are worth very little and even worse when the website niche is also not so lively. But guys you must understand that receiving payments via adsense in Africa is even a hell (e-checks)

I think the issue here guys is focus - If all you are going to do is set up the latest rip off of NL or nigerian myspace or nigerian facebook, I doubt you will make it big via adsense. However, if you are willing to do what it takes to cater to even the 1% of a **worldwide** audience, then you can make it, regardless of google's payout to African accounts.

In my opinion, our problem is that rather than be original, we rip off what is already out there. Need I count them?
NL - tons of wannabes are out ther
Facebook - omo 9ja
milliondollarhomepage - millionnairahomepage

Why can't we be original and lead people to our sites? The reason I focus on one forum at a time is that for one, I don't want to have to remember 100 different login credentials (sure, I can use the same thing for all my accounts but I am not that dumb) for 100 different sites that at the end of the day, offer me the same thing.

Be unique, be original and I guarantee you, you will make it.

@ yawa-ti-de
I think one of the problems is the fact that guys are not original but even if your original the money you will make from your project in Africa is far less than what you will make with same project in USA. And thats my main cry.

@mambe
Yeah, there is probably a bias towards clicks originating from Africa. Possible causes that just came to mind:

1) Many in Africa think they can make a living off of it which means that either they or their buddies find a way to manipulate the system by abusing the clicks, hence the lower amount paid per click.

2) Companies that advertise on google probably don't see themselves making a lot of money and so don't want to advertise for that target audience. Google responds by offering lower ad charges for the African market which in turn translates to lower amounts paid per click

3) It could be that when doing a straight dollar conversion, the amount of money an African company pays for an ad is not comparable to what a company in America is paying. Of course, Google is probably paying out money in proportion to how much an advertiser spends.

I already replied to David Ajao's post on this topic on his blog.I think we are not seeing much adsense success here because we are not targeting high-paying keywords.Before you start an adsense site,you must research your niche very well.And one site where I have found much help in this regard is http://nicheaday.com.

They will not only tell you how many people are searching a particular niche,they will tell you how much you stand to make per click on adsense if you target that keyword.

Generally,I think adsense clicks for a money-making niche is low.So,let's start targeting smaller but high paying keyword niches such as quit smoking,jobs,nail fungus cure,etc and see the money roll in.

You can find 2 other sites that will help with choosing a profitable adsense niche at

http://askiyabooyawale.com/3-sites-that-can-help-you-choose-profitable-adsense-niches/

@iyaboo
google adsense was created to monetize website traffic and website traffic was not made to get google adsense. What I am saying is: I hate people who go arround chasing adsense and keywords while the real sense of a website is to provide value to the world. So create your website to add value to people's life and when the traffic is good consider monetizing it with google adsense or any other program.
But the problem stays thesame, in Africa the money you will get is realy small

@mambenanje,

Your point on creating websites that will add value to people's life is highly noted but what I am trying to point out is,create sites around keywords that advertisers pay high for.I give you a very good example:quit smoking is a niche that adds value to people's lives because you are giving them advice that will help them cease smoking.Advertisers in this niche pay high per click,so,if you have a quit smoking site,you are both adding value to people's lives and also making money in the process.I strongly disagree that adsense users in Africa will not be paid much.It is what the advertiser (in this case,the adwords man is prepared to pay that Google will pay you from so,if the advertiser is paying low,definitely,you will get paid low)This is my honest opinion,I will appreciate more contributions.

@Iyabo
I love your point of taking high value adsense keywords into consideration when putting content on your site.
But one thing I realy dont like [ but I dont think your a victim though ] is the fact that guys forget that a website is not based upon adsense its based upon value. Some people start websites just for adsense keywords even if they dont know anything about a subject matter. For instance: just because you said "quit smooking" has highly paid keywords, some guys will just go and register a domain and start talking about quit smooking, while they know nothing about quit smooking. I believe guys should do what they love and understand, this things [blogs, web 2.0 sites] are driven by love then the money comes. So if you dont have the love for the business and rather think you will just use keywords and play a game of money making with Google, its a faillure.
But its amazing that even if you love it and do something of great value and traffic, you still earn less in Africa than someone in Europe or USA. well like you said its because Adworks is not used by African Business'

Hi guys,

I have a suggestions we can use to monetize for ourself; ask me how?

1. We can form a forum to monetize.this is like a network thing from each and every of us blogs or website.

2. we can generate clicks for ourselfs.and aswell monitor who did that and do the same.

3. The formula behind it is in placed from a webmaster i discovered online.

4. If we can be committed, we can do it.

As Above you can think as deep as listed. but my ideal can seems to work. You can reach me on olamyde@gmail.com or reply to my suggestions.

thanks

@webguru tryinq to get intouch with u, wats ur ID

@ztyle lets work together to with blogs since u have blog meet me on olalol007@yahoo.com

@ztyle
its segebee1

@ebaneo
wait to reach $100 b4 thinkin of bank to use