Forum Moderators: martinibuster
For example, a click on an ad for digital cameras on a web page about photography tips may be worth less than a click on the same ad appearing next to a review of digital cameras.
[edited by: markus007 at 8:08 pm (utc) on April 1, 2004]
I have a niche content site in a major category, earnings have been up almost 2 x normal while impressions were same as average. Toolbar pagerank is 6/10
Yep. My page impressions and clicks are the same but my earnings are down 50%. The revenue before this change made it worth having these ads cluttering up the page. This change will make the payout every two months instead of every month. Although this is probably small time to other users here and indeed Google, it's enough to make me drop adsense completely.
You know, the saddest thing about this is that I cannot really ever trust AdSense again. Even if revenues were to return to normal, my trust for the program is utterly destroyed.
If Kanoodle, Overture or Looksmart come out with competing products that produce similiar results, I would have to consider running those because Google has proven that you cannot trust AdSense as a reliable source of income.
Imagine people who quit their jobs and relied on AdSense revenue having the rug pulled out from under them like this. I am glad I am not in that camp, but a year from now I might have been and this would have been devastating.
Even the people who this is good for have to realize that it could have happened to them like this too.
I find this sad because I really liked the AdSense program and I like Google as a company and best as a search engine. But the reality is that I will have a hard time trusting them ever again in the future as an ad provider.
This means the minute their competition comes out with an AdSense competitor, I have to try it out. Before I probably just would have hung in there with Google because I like them as a company. But they aren't a stable source of revenue when they'll just change the rules on you like this. :(
I imagine others must feel the same way that I do and at this point there really isn't anything Google could do to repair that trust.
I imagine others must feel the same way that I do and at this point there really isn't anything Google could do to repair that trust.
Google probably doesn't give rat's a**. There are thousands of new webmasters waiting to sign up.
But fear not, sooner or later Microsoft will decide they want to own this sector, and during the first few months they'll probably be giving money away to publishers. Then will come the "enhanced" ads that require MS servers ;)
However, the AdSense program has matured enough that it is time for Google to provide something substantial to the *publisher*. We are, after all, the other half of the equation. This hopefully would mean an increase in the revenue share provided to publishers along with a more concrete explanation as to the share calculation. Creating channels and better reporting functions while helpful was done after many publishers had already added the equivalent code to their sites to perform these functions.
Google likely started the AdSense program to create more inventory. Their AdWords program was very popular and supply was drying up. So the logical step was to extend it out to a network of publishers.
If in fact Google continues to drop the EPC/revenue to publishers, they will be left with the "bottom of the barrel", as the higher quality content sites leave for other ad networks or go direct to the advertisers. This will in turn cause more and more advertisers to drop their content ads, and cause a vicious cycle of revenue decline.
I personally think it would have been much classier for Google to raise their standards during AdSense admission rather than pull some sleight of hand stunt later.
All of the advertisers that are paying Google a dollar/click will be more than happy to give it directly to me.. and I have no qualms, heck I'll even give them a discount, just not 78%.
