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Blogging – Google Comes Clean On Adsense Earnings

Over the years there has been much speculation on how much Adsense publishers actually earn in terms of percentages. Blogging has been one popular publishing channel with some purportedly earning full time incomes from Adsense. Speculation has ranged from 20% of Google earnings upwards (although some claim that as little as 5% is paid).

Google have finally cleared the air and released the official break down for Adsense earnings. For content publishers world wide, they receive 68% of the fee charged to advertisers. Google retains 32%  – this represents Google’s costs plus income that goes into developing new technologies and features.

For those displaying Google Search bars, the share of income is only 51%. Google are not releasing details on any other Adsense sharing options such as feeds or mobile until costs become clearer.

Over the years Google has been very closed on any details regarding search, search ranking, privacy, data collection and publisher payments. In the last 12 months there has been a noticeable change in this approach with Google slowly revealing more and more of its inner self. This is just the latest in what Google calls a “spirit of greater transparency“.

If you feel that 68% of revenue is a little low, Google does make one important point:

For example, you would receive $68 with AdSense for Content for $100 worth of advertising that appeared on your site. If another ad network offers an 80% revenue share, but is only able to collect $50 from ads served on your site, you would earn $40.

Blogging can be a profitable option for some. However, it still comes down to several basics. You need a good design, good content, good search engine optimisation, and the right niche. Without those, you will find you have a blog that earns very little.