2 sites, same # of visitors, same general topic and layout

totally different earnings, the old site verses the new one

[spaceylacie]

I've had a site in a certain niche that has been doing well with Adsense since I started so I decided to start another site in the same niche about a year and a 1/2 ago. The first site has been "around" for about 10 years and finally ended up on it's own domain name about 6 years ago.

The second site has been very successful if you only look at the number of visitors, how long they stay, # of pages they visit, percentage that bookmark, etc. The site was even mentioned in a European newspaper today causing a slight surge of visitors and emails commenting about the site. It was nice to wake up to on a Monday morning.

The problem is that the second site, which has now reached the same number of daily page views as the first, earns from Adsense much less than what the older site earns. The were both designed by me with the same basic layout and ad placement. The first site covers a more general subject and the second is very focused on certain aspects of that general topic.

It does make sense to me that advertising should be more expensive on an established site and cheaper on a new one so I'm not really complaining. But, I'm thinking now that instead of starting the new site, I should have just extended the first one. Do older, more established sites automatically earn more from Adsense than newer sites? Sometimes MUCH more?

[hunderdown]

You say the sites are very similar. But is the traffic very similar--I mean going beyond the # of visitors to look at sources, demographics, etc. That could be a factor too.

[spaceylacie]

The first site has a US based audience for the most part (maybe 80%) and the second reaches a more worldwide audience (estimating about 40-50% from the US). I guess too many factors to know for sure if the site's age has anything to do with it.