Built a hobby informational web app back in 2005 related to a collectible item I was interested in. It basically tells you if your X is considered common or rare (potentially valuable). Determining that is nuanced and people don't want to figure stuff out on their own, so my web app became popular.
At this point it has earned over $400k USD lifetime with 75% of that being in the last two years. 100% Adsense. The audience who find/use my site are good candidates for high-dollar ads, which is why it has done so well. New data (a few rows in a table) needs to be added once every few months, but it takes < 1hr. Realistically I should invest in blog/content but I don't really find it interesting any more.
Following the "make niche complicated data easily parsable" concept I built another web app in 2018 for a different hobby. For example if the hobby was "phones" and the physical dimensions/specs of "phones" was very important to choosing it, my web app would let you visually compare any two "phones" side-by-side at the correct dimensional scale.
It apparently solved a problem and traffic grew organically. After years of work this web app should get close to 6 figures annually in 2023 - earned via affiliate sales of "phones" and accessories. It's is a much more active endeavor, but if I walked away for 6 months I bet revenue would stay near flat. It fills my time and I find it interesting.
I'm working on web app #3 now which is tangentially related to the "phones" concept.
If you are actually generating that much on adsense I think you'd likely make 20-30% more if you moved your ads to a high quality agency like adthrive or mediavine (those 2 are the only ones I'd firmly recommend over adsense). I'm sure you'd be approved by at least one of them based on the description of your site.
I used to use adsense on all my side sites too and just focus on the content and UX, but once you reach a certain volume (which you are well above), you are leaving a lot of money on the table not investing the effort into improving your ad monetization.
Thanks. I'll look into those. I get a few pitches per week from ad agencies but don't know which are legitimate or worth it. It's doing so well that I'm paranoid about touching anything revenue related.
Just stick with adthrive or mediavine and you'll be fine. Many others are scammier (though in fairness they'll all probably outperform adsense).
You can search Reddit and you'll see the same advice over and over again: Mediavine/adthrive are the best.
I can't give you first hand advice on mediavine but one of my sites is on adthrive and I can confirm it's very good! Outperforming adsense by around 50% (though this will vary based on your specific niche/topic).
But my advice is also to learn about the ad ecosystem yourself. Once you reach a certain level of revenue you just have to learn about it, it's going to delivery a very high ROI as compared with other things you can do.
At this point it has earned over $400k USD lifetime with 75% of that being in the last two years. 100% Adsense. The audience who find/use my site are good candidates for high-dollar ads, which is why it has done so well. New data (a few rows in a table) needs to be added once every few months, but it takes < 1hr. Realistically I should invest in blog/content but I don't really find it interesting any more.
Following the "make niche complicated data easily parsable" concept I built another web app in 2018 for a different hobby. For example if the hobby was "phones" and the physical dimensions/specs of "phones" was very important to choosing it, my web app would let you visually compare any two "phones" side-by-side at the correct dimensional scale.
It apparently solved a problem and traffic grew organically. After years of work this web app should get close to 6 figures annually in 2023 - earned via affiliate sales of "phones" and accessories. It's is a much more active endeavor, but if I walked away for 6 months I bet revenue would stay near flat. It fills my time and I find it interesting.
I'm working on web app #3 now which is tangentially related to the "phones" concept.