backdraft7 - 12:44 pm on Sep 1, 2012 (gmt 0)

@Sand, this is true, but for my niche, I usually see an increase. 2012 has ushered in the new OFF period that we had never experienced. I seriously went from 2000 to 2010 with a total of five days where sales were 2 or less. In the past month alone, I've had 7 days of 2 or less.

I'm not going to blame this all on Google.
It's about other sites that have been lurking in my niche that are now seeing daylight. They do not necessarily provide good info, so hardly deserve to see daylight, but it is was it is.
Videos, one page answer articles now all appear to drown us out in out long tail.

Like everything in this world, even in my niche space...there is too many people and not enough room.
Problem is, most of those people are just wannabe's who identified our niche and just want to take a piece by presenting a one page wonder article. Problem is, it now ranks, and that I have to throw on Google.

Authority in all it's complexity means little these days. Thin is in.