This is a hot topic. There are literally hundreds of thousands of website owners that try to find the secrets of how to make tons of money using google adsense. There are thousands of people that try to capitalize on this gold rush.

Recently, I came across a website that promises to teach you how to make $40,000 per month using Google Adsense. There is no typo. It’s forty thousand dollars per month. I don’t want to give the website’s name because I don’t want to give them free publicity. There are similar websites all over the Internet. All of them are trying to sell the “secrets”. Many people fall for this and pay $$ to get an e-book that just reproduces the free information that is already available in the Internet.

Ok, let us go back to our case study website. Let me point out how these websites scam people and how they make money. The $40,000-per-month-adsense-secrets website start the pitch like the one below.

First, the website owner throws a big number to get your attention. $40,000 per month. That’s something! He also promises that he will give you his website to copy. So, you get a feeling that “wow.. it doesn’t look like hard work… I just copy his website and make $40k!”.

When your mind is conditioned to believe this guy, he shows his adsense earnings for a month.

He made $41,278 in November. We don’t know which November it was. He also claims that he made all the money from the website designed to sell his pitch. He is also showing the page impressions, clicks and page CTR (click thru rate) for his adsense ads. It’s against Google Adsense’s policy to reveal the CTR numbers, he doesn’t seem to worry about that. Next, he throws strong marketing message — you will make more money than many CEOs!!

Oh…yeah..if you do make $40,000 per month, you would make money more than many CEOs of small companies. But, the question is can you really make $40,000 per month just by having a website (that too copied from someone) and putting adsense in it? Obviously, the answer is “No”.

How can this guy do it? How can he make $40,000 per month using adsense? The secret lies in the example pages he gives away all over in his marketing page.

When you click to see the example web page as shown above, you will see a page that is filled with adsense ads. When people click on it, this guy makes money. This guy might have similar “adsense secret sauce” websites where the adsense ads are shown in the same way. All the websites contribute $40,000 per month, if we believe his snapshot of the earnings.

At the end of his marketing page, he sells his secrets for $97. Basically, he is going to give you a website and content to copy. You pay $97 for the content and put the adsense ads in your new website… and you expect to make $40,000 per month. Then, you would realize that you don’t even have anyone visiting your new website — let alone someone click on the ads.

See.. the problem is that this guy is selling the same content and same website to anyone that pays $97. So, there would be hundreds of websites that look exactly or almost similar. Google or any other search engine won’t even add those websites in their index because of duplicate content. Google slaps duplicate content penalty as soon as it recognizes it. It would be a total waste of time and money to pay $97 to someone just to copy his website and content.

It’s quite possible that “adsense-secret-guy” would make more money by selling his secrets than thru adsense ads.  Next time, if you see any website that promises to teach you adsense secrets and tips, you would know what to expect.

Is there a real, genuine way to make money using google adsense? Yes. You don’t need to pay $97 to learn the secrets. Create a good website that has rich, original content every day. Market the website. Form a great team of people that contribute quality content to your website. Make your website useful to the visitors. All of this is going to cost money. Prepare to spend the money, provide a useful website to your visitors and place the adsense ads in your website. At this point, you will start making money using Adsense. Even then, it is going to take long time before you get closer to $40,000 per month target!

I am sure there are literally thousands of people dreaming to become a venture capitalist (VC). Most of the VCs mint money. They have money machine in their offices that print money at their wish, right? Mohanjit Jolly says “yeah, right!”.

Mohanjit is the executive director of DFJ (Draper Fisher Jurvetson) India. He got educated in MIT and UCLA. He was the managing director of Garage Tech Ventures. Now, he is managing DFJ’s portfolio companies in India. He explains the challenges and difficulties one has to face in the VC world in his article in VCcircle.com. If you are even thinking about becoming a VC, this is a must read. Sometimes, it’s better to get a reality check before you enter the dream box, especially from the guy that has already gone thru the similar path. Most VCs seem to be very secretive. They try to guard their working methods. Mohanjit is refreshingly different.

It’s not just the employees are afraid of job loss. Even CEOs are afraid that their jobs will be lost. As per a survey by the leaders in London International Leadership Summit 2008, almost 1000 business leaders believed that their jobs will be lost.

Global financial meltdown continues to takes its toll. SAP is planning for layoffs. Many companies such as Microsoft put the hiring on hold. New home constructions decreased 4.5% to a seasonally adjusted 791,000 annual rate, after falling 3.0% in September to 828,000, the Commerce Department said today. Year over year, new home constructions were 38.0% below the level of construction in October 2007. Meanwhile, home builders’ confidence in the market has plunged to a new record low amid overwhelming uncertainty about the economy.
U.S. consumer prices took the biggest plunge in 61 years during October, pulled down by a sinking economy that evidence suggests is sending inflation lower. The consumer price index dropped 1.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to the previous month, the Labor Department said today. It was the largest drop since February 1947. The core consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.1% in October. It shows that inflation is not a big threat right now. When the consumer price falls, the inflation goes down. Less inflation is a good thing, but if the inflation goes down too much, it becomes “deflation”, that’s what people started worrying about now.

Related Link: It’s gloomy out there

It’s a difficult time for everyone especially for the companies that seek funding. If you run a startup and can survive with self-funding for six more months, it’s better not to seek funding from Venture Capitalists (VC) now.

For the first time since 1978, no VC-backed companies conducted an initial public offering this past quarter, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the time it takes to exit an investment has doubled from 10 years ago. As a result, VCs are more cautious about where their money is going and companies looking for some seed or expansion funding might have to work a bit harder to get it.

It’s not only going to be harder, you need to give up more equity stake to VCs to get the required funding. There are some areas like iPhone app development still attract the VCs Silicon Valley. For everyone else, it’s a tough world out there.

Venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr listed top things that start-up companies should be doing. It would be helpful not only for start-up companies, but for any business. It may be useful for individuals also to some extent. Check out John Doerr’s to-do list here.

Related Link: Cash panic sweeping VC industry

It’s essential to spot problem accounts early especially in this time of recession. Global financial meltdown is burning many companies. Everyday we hear of some company shutting down the operations. It’s important not to get caught with lot of unpaid invoices. Do what you can today to protect yourself and your money.

You don’t want to crack down on a good customer too hard too soon. At the same time, you don’t want to “taken for granted” by a client who has become unable or unwilling to pay. What you need is an early warning system to detect a credit problem in the making so that you can stop the losses as soon as you can.

Here are some of the telltale signs that might come from problem clients:

• The client fails to return your phone calls about the pending invoice or shows unusual annoyance at your inquiries.
• Your requests for information such as updated financial statements are ignored.
• Despite the problems you are having, the client tries to convince you into providing a good credit report to another supplier.
• The client start paying the invoices erratically, paying smaller invoices and sleeping on larger invoices.

If you see any of these problems, it’s time to take action. The “action” really depends on your specific situation. If you have long-term relationship with the client, you may want to help him out. If the client is arrogant or in a really bad situation, you may want to stop doing business with him and take the loss and move on.

Why the clients get into the trouble and become a failure? Rick Telberg wrote a good article about this. It’s normally the pride that prevents the client accepting the failure before it’s too late. You just need to make sure that their pride is not going to be your loss.