MFA sites had their day in the sun 2 or 3 years ago. Like all good things online they were simplified, codified and oversold to the point that they offered zero value for anyone.

There is, though, a small renaissance happening. These are not the thousand page sites full of scraped content; instead, they are small sites focused on a single keyword phrase (or at least, a small number of related keywords). They are not auto-genned, and there’s usually some good original content that does indeed present some value to visitors. Like, ‘here’s some stuff you may want to know about’ (that’s the content), and ‘here’s where you can get it’ (that’s your AdSense units).

MFA sites are not for everyone. They are unashamedly commercial, they take a bit of effort to get going and most of them fail. But if the concept appeals, here’s five tips that hopefully will help you get lots of them up and out there.

#1. Know What PPC Amount Advertisers Will Pay

If you’re into Made for AdSense (MFA) websites, Google’s keyword research tool is a Good Thing. It gives you (allegedly) accurate data about the amount of money advertisers are prepared to pay to snare that top of page 1 ad position for each keyword phrase of interest, along with historical traffic data (average traffic, plus last month’s traffic, plus seasonal variation).

The higher the pay per click amount, the more lucrative that term will be for an MFA site. Ditto for traffic levels – more traffic means more demand, and more demand means more clicks on your (high dollar) AdSense units.

#2. Know How Many Advertisers Want Your Traffic

One thing you will need to check is the number of advertisers competing for each specific term. Again, more advertisers mean more depth of content for your AdSense units, and the potential for more clicks off your MFA site.

Simply fire up Google and search for your keyword phrase, taking a note of the number of advertisers on all pages. Some will run out of steam on the first page (still worth doing if the pay per click amount is high), and others will go to dozens, even hundreds, of advertisers. It’s likely you will need to click through multiple pages of ads to get the total count, at least that’s what I do (I haven’t found an easier way).

#3. Know Where To Put Your AdSense Units

I’ve posted before about Joel Comm’s AdSense Secrets eBook, and I highly recommend it as one of the best (and cheapest) AdSense resources available. If you’re too relaxed to click through the original post, here’s the link direct to Joel’s AdSense Secrets website. You may want to use a disposable email address when you sign up - Joel can get a bit enthusiastic with his followup emails - but it’s a great resource nonetheless.

I place Joel’s AdSense Secrets eBook at the same level as Perry Marshall’s extraordinary Definitive Guide to Google AdWords. It’s that good.

#4. Know Your Traffic

The whole premise of MFA sites is to snare organic traffic (for free), and pass that traffic through to advertiser sites for a cut of the ad revenue. And it all comes to naught if you don’t know enough to win organic traffic.

The obvious traffic source is the search engines themselves, and you’ll need sharp SEO skills to win. The days of Court Tuttle’s ‘keyword sniping’ techniques are now gone, but there is still plenty of relevant, current free advice available about putting together small sites focused on specific keyword phrases. I recommend you head over to Garry Conn’s excellent blog – he has a series of posts about niche sites that are refreshing and (dare I say) right on target. Don’t skip the comments, either - there’s gold there.

SEO isn’t for you? There’s a world of non-search traffic waiting if you know where to look. One recent post that stands out is on Michael Martine’s Remarkablogger blog, and offers two podcasts about StumbleUpon and Twitter. Of course, the guidance he offers can be extended out to just about every social networking site. If this is of interest head on over to Remarkablogger and put aside 30 minutes to listen and learn.

#5. Know Your Figures

MFA sites are, at best, a hit or miss affair. If one out of ten generate good income you’re doing well. If half of them cover costs you’re doing average. A good analytics package (and Google Analytics is as good as any) will tell you how people find your MFA site, what pages are popular, what keyword phrases they use, and how long they spend with you.

Ultimately, the only test is whether each MFA site you set up pays its way. If not, you can pull it, rework it, or just let it go in the hope that it will somehow get discovered and traffic will improve. At only a few dollars a year for a domain name and hosting, who cares?

What is ‘good income’? If you can get $3 or more a day out of an MFA site, that’s good income in my experience. Say $100 a month. Obviously that’s not retirement income, but once you have 50 at that level (and it’s a lot of work to get there), that’s your mortgage and car covered with a bit left for fancy dinners. And if you’re lucky, it’s not unknown for a single MFA site to pull in thousands every month (just don’t depend on it).