As soon as you reach a level they change your commission %

Alternatives to AdSense? Anyone?

[fernell011]

Hello:

as anybody experienced a reduction in % commission following a good month? I did. Each end every month since the beginning.

They cannot play with the impressions or the clicks because we track them but they decide how much we get paid.

So this is the thing: the more traffic I get and the more revenue I produce for them, the less I get paid. And the new (lower) commission structure kicks in a few days after the month end.

What to do?

[jim_w]

buckworks

How long do you wait till you evaluate the stats? Do you do one channel at a time. i.e. play with channel1 for 2 weeks than channel2 for the next 2 weeks, or do you play with channel1 and channel2 at the same time, then channel3 and channel4, etc.

[kwasher]

I'm all for competition, but I suspect that the only real competition for Google AdWords/AdSense will come from:

1) Overture (possibly)

2) Industry-specific ad networks

MSN?

(Webmaster World isn't starting one? WWoogle?)

[europeforvisitors]

MSN?

Jeez, if people don't trust Google, do you think they're going to trust Microsoft? :-)

[Max_mb]

Well at least Microsoft will not be bragging about changing the web for the better. You'll know exactly of what to expect. LOL

[kwasher]

Ha... thats the truth. So its forget 'trust' and rely on whoever delivers the most pennies at the end of the month.

[hyperstat]

There is a statistical phenomenon called "Regression Toward the Mean" that is a possible explanation of good months being followed by mediocre months. In short, an outcome following an extreme outcome tends to be closer to the mean. There is a short write-up on the Wiki Encyclopedia

[en.wikipedia.org...]

This is not to say this explains it; just that it should be taken into consideration.

[Max_mb]

kwasher,

Did you get that link i PM'd you?

[buckworks]

How long do you wait till you evaluate the stats?

I watched the channels for a couple of weeks before I made any changes. During that time, one group of pages generated over half the daily impressions, but less than 5% of the income. The content didn't lend itself to tweaking to improve the ad targeting, so I just took Adsense off those pages.

[paybacksa]

There is a statistical phenomenon called "Regression Toward the Mean" that is a possible explanation of good months being followed by mediocre months. In short, an outcome following an extreme outcome tends to be closer to the mean. There is a short write-up on the Wiki Encyclopedia

1. Never apply statistical models to data unless you first know the data fits the model that stats were based upon. Otherwise it is completely misleading.

2. Do you really want to believe a wiki that is open to anyone to edit at any time, anonymously?

[hyperstat]

There is a difference between applying a statistical model and being aware of a statistical artifact that frequently results in a faulty interpretation of data. I wouldn't trust Wiki automatically, but I recommended their article because it is accurate and pretty well written. Do a google search for "regresson toward the mean" and you will find the same info in thousands of places.

[paybacksa]

KJP: I agree with you about the "something to hide" and also about the greed factor, but I wonder if G is simply a pawn of the rest of big media and advertising? Perhaps what they are "hiding" is the uneven and perhaps strong arm methods by which their big accounts are playing the game.

For example, if a big account says they want to pay big media players X for performance but trim profits from the small independent publishers, what's G to do? It could either say no and stand up for fairness or give in and simply make sure its not obvious.

In most industries the established players want to collaborate to keep out the upstarts, whether through standards bodies or carefully-crafted alliances. Tech was different, but post-bubble can a tech company afford to NOT "go along to get along"?

If G said NO to Time Warner, M$, or Diller's tough terms, for example, those accounts are big enough to fund an upstart competitor pretty well. G would take a loss on cetain aspects of the accounts just to keep them, no?