maximillianos - 12:46 pm on Apr 10, 2009 (gmt 0)

Adsense earnings are not dropping due to Google, they are dropping due to the economy and advertisers scaling back.

These same advertisers are not going to pay you the "old rate" from last year just because you contact them directly (which is more work for both of you).

Yes, you can make a little more money by cutting out the middle man (G in this case), but I would think long and hard about it first. List out the work and time involved... the phone calls, the emails... setting up the campaigns... providing reports... refunds, unhappy clients... etc. There is a lot that G takes on and handles for you that we often don't think about. 15-20% cut for managing all the aspects of advertising on your site is a pretty reasonable figure...

I for one do not wish to take on that work load when I am already swamped with building new sites and growing my existing sites... I'll gladly pay G a small cut to manage that part of my business for me.

As a related aside: All my ad networks are down lately. Adsense, Tribal, Kontera, you name it... they are all feeling the pinch from advertisers scaling back.

For me, I'm focusing on doing what I do best, which is building my sites up, tweaking my designs to increase pageviews and usability, building newsletter lists, adding features to increase site stickiness... anything I can do to offset the downward trend of the advertising industry...

[edited by: maximillianos at 12:50 pm (utc) on April 10, 2009]