HomeTips.com nails down big revenue with Google AdSense.
Home advice website HomeTips.com started out in a backyard clubhouse.
Seeking a quiet, woodsy spot for writing home improvement books,
author Don Vandervort converted the bottom floor of his sons'
two-story treehouse into a small office. He launched
HomeTips.com from that office in 1997, essentially as
an online portfolio to promote his books.
In the decade since, HomeTips has grown into a large and popular site,
thanks to the authority Vandervort has developed and the volume
of content he has collected and posted from his more than two dozen books,
scores of magazine articles, and many television appearances on ABC and HGTV.
Challenge
Until about three years ago, HomeTips' main source of revenue
came from writing, publishing, and licensing books and
content to other companies, such as Sunset Books and Microsoft.
This business expanded significantly after Vandervort moved to
larger offices in Glendale, California, and assembled
a team of editors, writers, and artists.
Though his book and content business was thriving,
the website's meager revenue came from online sales of guides
and reports. When a visitor requested one of these,
Vandervort would email it to them and trust them
to send three dollars. "At that time, I couldn't find
a good system for these small transactions," he recalls.
"It was an interesting way for us to stay in touch with
our visitors' needs, but a money-losing proposition.
We needed advertising for the web business to be viable."
But the small editorial team was far too busy working at
their core business of creating content to develop an advertising program.
About Google AdSense
Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses
to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted
to specific web content and search pages.
With service levels ranging from online sign-up to dedicated
support management, a broad range of sites profit from AdSense.
Thousands of Google advertisers also benefit from
AdSense by gaining exposure on sites across the Google Network,
which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such
as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos.