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grrr another 3 cent click!

         

froghat

12:46 am on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Is there something bad about having 2 text ad Wide Skyscraper's on the right side of my page? I originally had 1 Banner (468 x 60) in the middle of my page but changed it to make the page look better. My lowest on that one was like .15 cents per click but now I'm getting lots of 3 cent clicks since I chanced. Any reason for this or is it just a bad stretch? The ads themselve have pretty much stayed the same

Scurramunga

2:01 am on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Who knows? Google doesn't say too much other than telling us that sale conversions are the basis to smart-pricing calculation. Yet sometimes this makes no sense to me because I have seen wild fluctuations in payments for a particular page when content hasn't changed. Maybe at various times traffic quality (targeting) changes, however even this isn't plausible from my point of view based on my monitoring

Today, I discovered that one of my pages paid out a 1 cent on a single click. This is one my secondary pages that I had recently placed Adsense back on to, after having removed it. So once again I removed adsense from from this page after seeing a single click for only one cent. It's really strange though, because at times this particular page will pay around 60 cents to $1.50 per click with good ecpm for days and then suddenly drop in performance. After I remove it for a considerable length of time I try placing it back again and so starts the cycle.
When a page on my site persistently performs badly I don't ever put adsense back.

dollarshort

3:54 am on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Since I make my living on adsense I had to choose clicks over asthetics, it does not seem to hurt traffic or repeat visits but earnings continue to rise.

mzanzig

5:05 am on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



This is on my secondary pages that I had recently placed Adsense back on to, after having removed it.

I have seen on my pages that Google tends to "forget" what a page is about if you remove ads for some time. I did it like you, and I was surprised to see badly targeted ads on pages where there had been perfectly targeted ads before I removed the ads. So I guess that Adsense has to go all the way again to see which ads work and which do not.

Scurramunga

6:02 am on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



mzanzig,

I can't say I have ever experienced this problem.

DigiChaos

3:48 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



$0.03 click huh? You have it good. I have one site that sometimes gets $0.01 for TWO clicks.

Hobbs

4:00 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



$0.01 for TWO clicks

sounds like cpm not ppc to me

miki99

6:12 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I've had one 4 cent click on my entire website all day so far. Yesterday, I experienced my first 1 cent click ever that I'm aware of. Yet just this past Saturday, I had one of my best days ever, after income having been in the toilet for most of April and May. The surge happened right after I spent a couple of days house-cleaning, blocking MFA's, removing ad blocks from low-performing pages. I really thought I was onto something, but right after that, everything gradually got worse and worse again! People stopped clicking, and value of clicks went down as well.

My traffic really hasn't declined-- people just aren't clicking for some reason. Maybe my site has just gotten too interesting. ;-)

My best paying AS ads, ironically, are on my Amazon.com pages, and I have suddenly been selling a lot more merchandise from those pages, so I can't really complain about that. So I'm thinking maybe I just made the store items too tempting.

My site, BTW, wasn't designed with advertising in mind--I had it a long time before I inserted ads, and I don't put them in the most strategic locations because the ad income isn't my first priority.

Still, I'm confused about the changes in income and click frequency. I'm interested in this subject, and am trying to figure things out, as I would like to create more websites that actually would be more conducive to providing reasonable ad income. MFA's in a way, I guess, but with good, solid, original content.

miki

miki

SanDiego Art

6:46 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Replacing a banner (2 advertisers) with 2 wide scrapers (10 advertisers total) - is most likely your problem... Less ad space = higher competition for your ad real estate, which usually equals higher EPC - *Usually*

ann

7:03 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Mikii99,

You have pretty much described my predicament exactly. Traffic same or better, impressions slightly higher, ppc averages same BUT since around Dec clicks are going down. Now get about half or less amount of clicks I was getting has caused my income to fall drastically. Wish I knew what the deal is with the fewer clicks. :(

Ann

miki99

7:23 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi Ann--I wonder if many people have just clicked on one too many ads where they end up on directory pages or worse, so have gotten click-shy. It's too bad, because I now have some really delightful advertisers on my site since I cracked down on the MFA's.

If that was the case, though, I guess there'd be a general drop in click frequency noticed by everyone, not just by some publishers. And that doesn't explain the drop in rates, though maybe the time of year accounts for that somehow. I've only been running AS since last August.

miki

ann

7:40 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Miki99,
I have been on line with two of my sites for years before Google and they are my highest earners but this is entirely too bad for words.

Been running Google ads for content since around Feb 2005 and it went up fast then stalled out this winter and the rest is history.

I have read some other site boards and everywhere is the same complaint: falling clicks.

I am beginning to think Google is blocking clicks from certain areas..? My site is pretty much Global, mostly USA but loats of other countries also and that could be the problem as I have some very good ads running.

Ah well, maybe it will shake out soon.

Ann

(edit) Froghat, sorry for hijacking your thread. Wish I could help you but never had that problem. :)

miki99

9:18 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Ah well, good to know it's not just something I'm doing wrong. I guess it's a good lesson in the famous AS mood swings. Think I will stop obsessing about it now and go fry some other eggs for some other baskets! :-)

Bates

9:25 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Yesterday I had 3 clicks for a total of $0.22.
Today so far I have 1 click worth $1.91.
Go figure eh.

miki99

9:26 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Darn it--I just always seem to get in on things that were doing well just before they take a nosedive. So I'm very, very sorry for breaking Google Adsense. ;-)

ann

9:44 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Move over Miki,

I helped break it LOL.

They saw me come in the door!

Ann

Play_Bach

9:52 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



> I am beginning to think Google is blocking clicks from certain areas..?

Same thought has crossed my mind more than once. I'm also wondering if there's entire black holes on the Web that my sites just aren't showing up in the SERPS. Maddening trying to figure out what's going on with so little info!

miki99

11:20 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The weird thing is that just this past Saturday, as I mentioned, was one of my best days ever. Many clicks, and good rates. And yet Saturdays are my lowest traffic days, and this one was no exception.

pldaniels

11:39 pm on May 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Definately a huge rollercoaster ride.

For about a week I was low low low with 3c clicks being my mainstay diet, then yesterday is skyrocketed back to the "nominal" 25c+ clicks (It looks like a skyrocket when you've lived on 3c clicks for too long) but now again today I'm back down down down, though not as bad (about 12c)

I'm more inclined to think that AdSense has a -natural- up/down rythm very much like the stock market since you have your sellers (advertisers) and buyers (clickers), as apposed to google doing anything explicitly.

Paul.

Scurramunga

1:00 am on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I'm more inclined to think that AdSense has a -natural- up/down rythm very much like the stock market since you have your sellers (advertisers) and buyers (clickers), as opposed to google doing anything explicitly.

It might be market forces at work as suggested in other threads. Before looking at demand v's supply on a niche by niche basis, it might be wise to consider the possiblity that the Northern Hemisphere summer might account for a gerneral drop in traffic or a change in traffic quality. By traffic quality I thinking (as an adsense publisher) of visitors driven by consumer needs with the propensity to spend and click on advertisments.

All of this is pure speculation of course, but what if some advertisers are seeing lower conversion rates? Maybe some advertisers are sensing that they are getting less bang for their buck resulting in them pulling back their campaigns on certain days? I don't know about the rest of you but I noticed rapid declines and volitile patterns come into play right on daylight savings introduction in the US and US visitors account for most of my revenue.

There are other possible issues that could affect traffic quality at the same time, such as the recent Google SERP updates.

Play_Bach

1:39 am on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



One of my sites has a site search that has consistently averaged around 130+ searches per day for a long time. Then all of a sudden:

May 3rd = 74
May 6th = 44
May 8th = 16

No surprise earnings have tanked - people aren't finding the site.
What's changed? Google.

pldaniels

1:50 am on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Have you tried searching for the terms that the people are searching for (check your web logs, they show you the search terms people use to find your site).

Sometimes, if you fall off the first page (or three) of google's search results that'll cause a huge drop.

dollarshort

7:37 am on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Made $99.99 today, watching the final minutes go by praying for a 1c click!

pldaniels

7:54 am on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Dollarshort - I think you need to change your alias to "centshort" :D

bluesinlondon

12:44 pm on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



So, does anyone have any general strategies for raising the value of clicks...? (Had two yesterday did nearly 2 dollars, two today doing 20 cents...)

ann

12:55 pm on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Waaay early this morning went mfa hunting and found 5. Correct keywords, ad written for right widgets BUT landing pages were not relevant or only marginal so I blocked them and now hours later I am getting higher PPC...

Goes to show you, you can't be too vigilant. Someone mentioned somewhere in this forum that Google was monitoring the quality of the ads landing pages? I sure wish they would get around to my niche and give me time to get more productive work done.:(

Ann

pldaniels

2:15 pm on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Well, I have to say, I'm doing 3x better than all of you. Today I got 3 consecutive clicks which each were 1c

Strange since the day before yesterday I was on 35c average, today I've managed to crawl up to 3c average.

As for focusing adverts, I've checked around quite a bit but there's a serious lacking of adverts that are relevant for my niche, though it -is- improving.

miki99

2:31 pm on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



ann--I've recently discovered that weeding the Adsense garden is something I have to do every day, or the MFA dandelions tend to get away from me! Seriously, on just my one site, I find a few new ones every day. Especially the directory sites.

Otherwise, if I stay on top of those, my ads tend to be well targeted (with the odd outrageous exception).

miki

PowerUp

2:42 pm on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



$0.01 for TWO clicks

I learn something new in this forum everyday :o

DigiChaos

2:52 pm on May 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



$0.01 for TWO clicks

I am serious :)

I still say that index status has a direct result in what you get paid because it affects the relevance of your links. [webmasterworld.com...]

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