Where To Find Top-Paying AdSense Keywords

The third entry in the AdSense FAQ deals with every AdSense publisher’s favorite topic: where to find lists of high-paying AdSense keywords. After all, if you don’t have such a list handy, how do you know whether you should be writing articles about mortgage refinancing ($33.73 average advertiser CPC) or upside down mortgages ($0.08 average advertiser CPC)?

Of course, as I’ve said before, you have to take the values published in these lists with a large grain of salt. Just because an advertiser is paying $30+ a click for the #1 ad spot on Google for “mortgage refinancing”, that doesn’t mean that you’ll get $30+ per click from the ads on your “mortgage refinancing” blog. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee you won’t see anything near that amount…. let alone how you’ll get traffic to your blog in such a competitive industry.

High-paying keyword lists should come with a disclaimer: “For Amusement Only”

Comments

43 Responses to “Where To Find Top-Paying AdSense Keywords”

  1. Jane on September 26th, 2008 3:14 pm

    Many of the high paying keywords only appear on google results so people should have a search box and hope that browsers search and then click on an advert.
    Also mesothelioma is often cited as most expensive keyword but gets less then 1 search a day worldwide!

  2. Eric Giguere on September 26th, 2008 5:00 pm

    Yes, mesothelioma (essentially lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure) is the “classic” high-priced keyword that everyone quotes… Yet, as you point out, it’s extremely low volume… you’re not going to get rich targeting that keyword!

    Eric

  3. John at WebsiteBuildingBiz on September 26th, 2008 11:00 pm

    I’m a big fan of Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool! It doesn’t give you exact CPC values, but it does show relative advertiser competition and even how many times a term or keyword phrase is searched for each month.

  4. vuelos baratos on September 27th, 2008 6:30 am

    Top-Paying AdSense Keywords in Spanish?

  5. Funny t-shirts on September 27th, 2008 9:19 am

    The best course seems to me just blog about your passion, because even though you can find the highest paying high traffic keywords, if your not interested in the subject it’s going to be very difficult to day after day write a good post. My suggestion don’t worry about the volume or how much the keyword pays and if you have consistantly good posts you will have a lot of traffic and therefore make some money.

  6. 12-design on September 27th, 2008 9:44 pm

    Getting the so called “top paying” keywords to work is extremely difficult and will work only in several cases. Just like you pointed out, the ads might be top paying for google, but not for web-masters.

  7. Mike on September 29th, 2008 7:47 am

    Yeah I usually avoid the whole “List of Keywords” thing. I search for my keywords daily by using the Google Keyword tool, gives some pretty sweet results.

  8. stubsy on September 29th, 2008 9:43 am

    I’m finding anything debt related to pay well lately.

  9. scott on September 29th, 2008 12:43 pm

    I couldn’t agree more. Even though the clicks pay well, one of the biggest obstacles for the high paying keywords is actually getting the traffic. I think you can really see the free market at work here…high paying keywords are tough for traffic, yet it’s relatively easy to get traffic for low paying keywords. It all seems to even out.

  10. SEO SERPs on September 29th, 2008 2:03 pm

    As already stated, the cost per click will not be as high for adverts on a site as opposed to directly in the SERPs. Google keywords tool is best and most reliable I have found.

  11. Cheap Domain Names on September 29th, 2008 5:51 pm

    The mesothelioma keyword. That was huge years ago. I personally use the Adwords Keyword suggestion tool to find keywords, and there it does have information as to what the top 3 are paying.

    But definately take it as it is. I’ve found out some keywords pay a lot less than you see in these lists.

  12. gadgetfreak on September 29th, 2008 9:19 pm

    i have never been lucky before with adsense, so this time im’ma try again..

  13. Bhelle on September 30th, 2008 1:50 am

    I highly agree with Scott that at the end it all seems to even out so better not to join pay per click adv.Thanks for your informative post!

  14. Chris Hutcherson on September 30th, 2008 2:31 am

    This where people seem to go to one extreme ($30 per click) or the other ($0.06) per clicke - instead of trying to hit the moderately priced words that have more traffic and are still not impossible to rank for.

    In the end, it still comes down to getting the content up on the pages - and continuing to expand one’s content offerings.

  15. cert on September 30th, 2008 3:48 am

    Even though we think , that will not always true.
    Always keyword value is depending on below factors,

    Bidders demand
    geo location

    So we can’t tell exactly a value of a keyword at a given time..

  16. dhirender on September 30th, 2008 3:58 am

    why high paying keywords are tough for traffic?
    and if high paying keywords are for amusements only then why every one runs behind it.
    i read in digital point forum that people have got 10USD for two clicks. will it be categorized in high paying keywords?

  17. Prestiti on September 30th, 2008 7:00 am

    Two years ago i created a blog about meshotelioma but the result was…negative…

  18. Google Chrome supporter on September 30th, 2008 8:17 am

    this service is pretty useless. it is sufficent to search for your own keywords by using Google webmaster tools, or have a look at Google Analytics to have a pretty good idea about how your best keywords are…

  19. varun on September 30th, 2008 2:43 pm

    My adsense earnings are puny,to put it straight.I think looking for a mean in the keyword pricing would help in the long run,but for now I’m just concentrating on writing quality articles.
    cheers
    varun

  20. PPC Summit on September 30th, 2008 5:58 pm

    Very interesting! I dont have much experience with AdSense yet so this is all great info for me.

  21. richard E utlities on October 1st, 2008 4:11 am

    Keywords does play an role in bringing good traffic but the content plays more important role, only good keywords and bad content would never surely draw attention, your content should be impressive.

  22. monik on October 1st, 2008 4:33 am

    Hi! I have been blogging since a year and now after getting a good ranking i decided to put adsense on my blog but when i tried to put it on my website it said that i need to add some unique content and got rejected. Please can you help me out what to do next?
    http://www.etiole.com is my blog, please see it and tell me whats wrong with it.

  23. Web Hosting on October 1st, 2008 1:42 pm

    really good discussion. at the end it looks like it’s definitely market at work - higher paying keywords get more traffic, and competition is really tough there.

  24. Performance Shop CT on October 2nd, 2008 7:43 am

    Good Discussion… I use AdWords to find my keywords to target as well. I think some people are paying way to much for certain keywords. You just simply won’t see that kind of return on your investment. I think a lot of people don’t taking the Ads very seriously.

  25. Xbox 360 Errors on October 2nd, 2008 2:40 pm

    Yeah, I can remember when I first started, I fell so hard for that stuff, I would eat it right up, spend 3 weeks building a little blog network around, what i thought was going to be a major score only to find out later on…I was the fool lol!

    I think your better off targeting a certain set of keywords that generate huge amounts of traffic rather than targeting high price keywords that only get a few impressions a month…Does any one agree?

  26. Xbox 360 Errors on October 2nd, 2008 2:45 pm

    O yeah, lets say I was to target a keyword that people were paying $50 bucks a click with goog search, there would be no way in H*** adsense would give me even a 1/4 of that until I proved my site or blog was worthy enough with decent backlinks, pr and excellent content and even then, it’s still a 50/50 thing and you don’t always get it and thats exactly why I think targeting easier keywords that generate tons more traffic for less per click is more valuable in time wise!

  27. Software Developer on October 3rd, 2008 6:58 am

    Just about every blog post i’ve read with advice for beginning bloggers says you should be passionate about your niche.

    If you really are passionate about mortgage refinancing then by all means go for it and if the keywords rank highly then all the better for you.

    If you’re only doing it because you think the keywords will pay well, I don’t think you will have a lot of success.

    In short, I agree, a list of keywords is not the way to find what you should create a site about.

  28. black tea on October 3rd, 2008 1:34 pm

    I agree that it is tough to compete for those high paying keywords. I find it easier to pick a medium paying niche and try to get a lot of traffic.

  29. captivating capiz on October 7th, 2008 2:12 am

    i noticed that keywords related to money, cash, income, earn, dollar pay well.. I also get high ecpm for keywords on “Credit cards”.

  30. Webmaster Forum on October 7th, 2008 3:02 am

    I would suggest the niche depending upon your interest and knowledge and not upon the high paying keywords…..

  31. SEO Help on October 7th, 2008 6:46 am

    Thanks for the info.
    From my sources, i believe keywords to do law services such as lawyers and solicitors pay quite well? Well that’s what i’ve heard.

  32. Bogdan Rad on October 7th, 2008 8:41 am

    Two years ago i created a blog about meshotelioma but the result was…negative….

  33. Chris on October 7th, 2008 6:50 pm

    Social traffic is the big killer of top paying keywords, in my opinion. If they do click on ads they rarely purchase anything so you get a low conversion. That’s why I concentrate so hard on search engine traffic. I get higher payout on clicks because it is targeted traffic.

  34. Home Security Tips And Advice on October 9th, 2008 3:03 pm

    I’ve found using the Google Traffic Estimator tool, the figures published are well over double of what you actually get paid for a click. Dont forget Google takes its cut too ;-). Best to go for a niche that interests you and write lots of nice, unique, high quality content.

  35. Pet-Snakes on October 14th, 2008 2:12 am

    By any chance does Google see these lists and then “nerf” (for lack of a better word) the terms in them so they aren’t paying out a ton of money?

  36. Randy Forum on October 14th, 2008 10:47 am

    Great post. Also try using Google trends top 100 trends and Yahoo hot searches to find the emerging trends. Works quite well.

  37. uk mobile phone contracts on October 15th, 2008 4:51 pm

    Most of the high-paying keywords are either in the financial sector or the medical sector.

  38. omovi on October 27th, 2008 10:16 pm

    keywords are either in the financial sector oGoogle Traffic Estimator tool

  39. ditesco on October 29th, 2008 7:49 am

    I totally agree with your quote “for amusement only”. There are still many of us who believe that buying a list of “high paying keywords” are worth paying for and that is sad. This article is simple, but straight to the point. If you ever think of buying list for your use. Don’t.

    I have written something similar to this article on my blog. If you want, you can read it here:

    High Paying Keywords

  40. Passive Income Online on October 31st, 2008 11:36 pm

    Also, your Adsense account could be smart-priced, so it wouldn’t matter if you are site is displaying high-paying ads.

  41. Webmaster on November 4th, 2008 12:45 am

    I have actually seen people make sites based on those lists expecting to make hundreds in days.

  42. mr.eims @ prospects on November 21st, 2008 12:23 pm

    I’ve used to try for high paying keywords targetting.. somehow it works bot definitely will not reach 100%.. but at least it is better than not doing any targetting keywords.

  43. sarah on January 28th, 2009 2:47 pm

    my blog declained google because not use english. any way my blog have PR 3. have fun go mad. :(

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