shallow - 3:47 pm on May 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

@ascensions, thank you very much for the information; it was very helpful.

You wrote in another post:

If things don't change, it's also going to be much more prohibitive for new publishers to come on the scene.

If things don't change, it's going to be prohibitive for older publishers (individuals, not corporations) to stay on the scene, or at least maintain any type of enthusiasm for it. The past four years I've paid web designers and web developers a lot of money to improve my site; also paying writers for unique and well-written articles (in addition to my own).

When my income, all within less than a few weeks, drops 40-70% on any given day, there are no funds left for improvement (not to mention how this effects other aspects of my life).

Besides, why should I invest any more money in my site when Google may come along whenever they want and take the wind out of it again.