What is mesothelioma? According to MesotheliomaNet, "[m]esothelioma is a rare disease caused as a result of malignant cancerous cells lining the patient's body cavities such as chest, abdominal region or the area surrounding the heart. It is typically associated with exposure to asbestos which has been documented in as many as 70-80% of all mesothelioma cases."

But why does a personal finance site like PFBlog.com become interested in a medical term like mesothelioma?

This is a byproduct from my recent research on how to boost my ad income. You all know that I introduced Google Adsense service several months ago to get some revenue to support the site itself (and hopefully to lead you, my readers, to more related products and services.) Because of Google Adsense's Terms of Service, I cannot disclose my earnings. I can only say the earning stream is close to a free dinner every several weeks -- not very much profitable indeed, which leads me to the research.

Adsense is a pay-for-click service, and therefore it is useful to learn how much each click is worth. While Google does not publish the price, a competing ad service, Overture does via its View Bids Tool.

Believe me, I searched more than 200 key words, exhausting all of my imagination to find out the highest-paying keyword. "Mesothelioma" is the one -- paying as much as $100 per click. What's more, not one, but four advertisers are competing for the same spot with this price tag (which should be the maximum price per click Overture allows). You can imagine behind each site, a group of lawyers are smiling at each incoming visitors. :-)

Not any other keyword comes even close. And here is MM's list of top paying keywords:

See, this is an interesting (and unthinkable) window of what's making money and what's not. At least, these keywords represent the industries that can effectively leverage web to attract potential customers (and make good profits). For the same reason, they are also the areas you'd better do throughout comparison shopping (like HELOC, refinancing and insurance) or simply avoid at all expenses (like payday loan or bankruptcy).

(P.S. If you have time to try out the View Bids Tools and dig out other keywords that pay more than $10, please share them by posting in comments. Should be very interesting for everyone.)