1. Perhaps I should fly away to the Philippines with nothing but the clothes on my back and a URL in my head: https://www.google.com/adsense/.

Well, and maybe http://www.blogger.com/ in my head, too.

And some stuff to write.

Then again, I probably wouldn't like the lifestyle of a Filipino blogger, even if I could generate enough clickthroughs to subsist on AdSense paychecks alone.

Oh, well.

Posted at 4:13PM on Mar 31st 2006 by Portland Web Design

2. I'm not sure if you know that there are Filipino bloggers working for WeblogsINC, specifically PSPFanBoy.

Posted at 7:14PM on Mar 31st 2006 by yuga

3. Yuga, I thought there might be and it makes sense. I certainly mean no offense to anyone who lives anywhere in the developing world or who makes there living from Adsense - heck my writing for this blog is a great opportunity made possible in part by Adsense. I haven't felt too comfortable with this post since making it, it's a touchy issue. The one thing I do feel comfortable taking a contentious tone about is the breathlessness with which the article was written. Adsense and Google are weird. It makes me uncomfortable, given their power, to shower them with praise as I felt the article did. To be honest, the power imbalance is too great for me to feel comfortable celebrating their supposed benevolence.

That said, the sheer facts involved are interesting, as I said in the original post. I apologize if I offended anyone by communicating unclearly, improperly or by being just plain wrong/obnoxious.

After clicking through Yuga's name to his blog, I can say that it looks like a good place to learn about professional bloggers in the Philippines. I wish you luck, Yuga.

Posted at 8:37PM on Mar 31st 2006 by Marshall Kirkpatrick

4. Your blog is wonderful. I am learning so much. I have also started a blog about adsense, please visit when you get chance. The address is
http://adsense-reallife.blogspot.com

AR

Posted at 9:15PM on Mar 31st 2006 by AR

5. I agree with you that the story looks more like a fairy tale than a reality. http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum89/13063.htm (WebmasterWorld) has a thread discussing
this issue, and what strikes from the posts is that non-US publishers have a rough time putting a site together. They have to speak English, buy a PC, buy software, pay for electricity, pay for an Internet connection… In some countries, that’s very difficult to do. Maybe that’s why we don’t see a lot of sites from other countries that meet our expectations.

PS: I know a couple of legit foreign sites that use Adsense. http://labnol.blogspot.com/ (Digital Inspiration) is the blog of an Indian who posts original content on technology. I found the site compelling enough for me to subscribe to its RSS feed.

Some blogs from my country (Argentina) are well designed and have good content, but they aren’t monetized. I have a travel site http://gotravelargentina.blogspot.com (Travel Argentina) that runs Adsense, but it’s very recent, so I’m not making money yet, and I don’t expect Adsense will feed me; I do it as a hobby.

Posted at 9:55PM on Mar 31st 2006 by John Mayan

6. John Mayan - Thanks for mentioning my site here.

The real challenge is that most people aren't willing to risk their full-time jobs and choose blogging as a career. A lot of them do blogging but just as a hobby.

Recently, a popular TV channel wanted to do a story on professional bloggers in India (http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/03/calling-professional-bloggers-in-india.html) but they didn't find any.

Amit Agarwal.

Posted at 12:33AM on Apr 1st 2006 by Amit Agarwal

7. There's an interesting story here about the balkanization of the internet. As English language speakers in the West, Google does an amazing job of hiding non-English language websites. To the point that it's not hard to imagine that the whole web is in English. The end result is that we're missing half the web and we have a mindset that the vast majority of the web is based in the USA.

Posted at 2:28AM on Apr 1st 2006 by Julian Bond

8. There's a secondary problem here. AdSense revenues are paid in dollars drawn on a US bank. People outside the USA have to jump through hoops to actually pay this in. It really is about time that Google as an S&P 500 company sorted out paying it's suppliers in local currencies in a form that's easy for them to bank. And with Google having a substantial UK branch this is pretty unforgivable in the UK let alone the rest of the world.

Posted at 2:31AM on Apr 1st 2006 by Julian Bond

9. You asked for a few examples of this, here they are:

http://www.universidadperu.com
This is a non-profit educational website centered on vocational coaching.

http://www.doctorperu.com
This is a (legit) health and medical technology news website

http://www.abogadoperu.com
Law and legal resources, with vast amounts of data, and built in search technologies

That's to name only 3 that come to mind. I myself manage the first one, UniversidadPeru.com, and indeed AdSense is made it possible to fund little things which me and my team reinvert into it. A little marketing, some contests where prizes are given, that sort of thing. It's only through AdSense that's made possible to capitalize on the traffic the site generates.

When they issue a check, I simply go to a bank and deposit it. Everything is handled perfectly by my local bank, but they take a cut of $17-22 on average for cashing it.

Posted at 11:59AM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Luis Alberto Barandiaran

10. Thanks for the links Luis! Much appreciated.

Posted at 10:00PM on Apr 3rd 2006 by Marshall Kirkpatrick

11. Remember that the man who can shoulder the most risk will gain the deepest love and the supreme accomplishment;

Posted at 10:55PM on Apr 5th 2006 by june

12. Earn money with adsense depends ONLY on the possibilities of Adwords. "global" subjects like IT can bring money because the adwords hascustomers but if the subject is "local" (like cars sale, or ads) you need to have a LOCAL adwords very strong. Take example in Russia.. Google is very poor in Russia and Adwords has only few client. If you take adsense, you will have very little money because only few local ads and international ads without interest to fill in the gap... Then adsense gives you.. nothing.. and it's better to use www.begun.ru that has more customer in "adwords-begun".. but anyways customers of adwords won't pay the same as adwords customers in western countries...

Posted at 3:15AM on Apr 8th 2006 by Pierre

13. Articlemuse.com is a new article directory. We now give out 100% of Adsense revenues to authors. Take a look at our revenue sharing program.

Posted at 1:08AM on Apr 24th 2006 by free article search engine

14. Hello, if people in the developing world want to participate in ad revenue sharing programs, they're welcome on http://www.senserely.com where every submitted content can be translated in many languages automatically. I hope it all works out very well for everybody, cheers, James.

Posted at 7:09AM on Apr 25th 2006 by James

15. making any kind of monry in cluding with the use of Adsense takes 2 simple methods.
one you must have unique content meaning you will have to provide the reader with content that is NOT listed on the internet. The second key is as easy as one single word..........traffic.
the rest will fall into place once you have these 2 figured out.
visit http://www.quantumlinks.com for more info.

Posted at 3:03AM on May 16th 2006 by Tammy

16. Local information relevant for global customers are the most promising way to reap revenue out of adsense. Like local travel and sight information. Long tail local attractions. Local deal hunting tips etc. Local business tactics information. Local culture and custom information etc.

Posted at 9:37AM on May 16th 2006 by Idea, Execution, Profit