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However, I'm not really seeing that many different ads, so I'm not sure what's going on. It's been happening now over the last week and a half, except for one day where ecpm was absurdely high (like $50).
Maybe has something to do with the Bourbon update?
Another peculiar thing I noticed is that mornings start out very strong but by the end of the day the result is disappointing. It seems one possibility is that some late clicks are carried over to the next day.
A.
Well finally today I logged in and checked.. hoping to see things returning to "normal" but it's only gone down ever more (eek!). Things were steady for so long! I fell in love with Google, and now I have fell out of love :P
So, are we stuck at that 1/2 eCPM now? or is there a legal way around this smart pricing thing?
or is there a legal way around this smart pricing thing?
Smart pricing can work in your favor if you create pages and content that are more likely to create a conversion of some type to an advertiser.
I read a post by GoogleGuy in the Google News forum today. He wasn't talking about Adsense (I think the question was related to affiliate centered websites and Google), but I think the theme of what he was saying could ring true for Adsense publishers as well:
GoogleGuy wrote:
...I think the value you give to users is often proportional to the value add of your site: unique content, a unique service (e.g. comparisons of different cell phone or web hosting plans), or even a unique perspective. Too often though, affiliate sites don't add much value to users.
It's fine for someone to say "the user wanted to book a hotel room, and I let him do that." But if 50 other sites are trying to do the same thing, and those 50 sites end up crowding out good results like the hotel's real home page with an actual phone number, then those 50 affiliate sites are clearly hurting diversity, esp. if all the sites are cookie-cutter/templates or nothing but repackaged feeds.So my answer would be to think hard about your value-add compared to other affiliate sites in whatever niche you're targeting.
Now I understand the smart pricing as discussed above, but would I not be correct in assuming that filtering your ad url's to not display advertisements from advertisers that are clearly using adwords to generate clicks to their own google adsense advertisements would help to increase your profit from your visitors traffic?
So, Now my eCPM is $6.90, from an average of $10+ ---so just wondering now I am stuck on this smart pricing thing for ever?
OK GUYS, ive been reading alot and this is the effect of "SMART PRICING" [adwords.google.com...]
So, are we stuck at that 1/2 eCPM now? or is there a legal way around this smart pricing thing?
Welcome to hell boys.
If this is your first visit to Smart Pricing, make yourself comfortable and prepare to wait. It could be a day, a week, a month, or a couple of months.
It hit me on March 26 and lasted until May 7. Prior to that, I was always the guy reading the Smart Pricing posts with glazed eyes about "those complainers."
Seriously, I read everything I could find on it, and learned nothing. There is no magic pill.
Below is a post I did after I came out of it. It has some very good advice. Hang in there!
Quick history.
Niche site on specific work industry. Kind of an online magazine. 60K Uniques per month and growing each month. Some banner advertising.
September, 2004 -
Began AdSense . Immediately saw the potential and spent weeks reading every AdSense thread on every forum on the Net.
Madly optimized every page whenever not at my "real job." Optimized, analyzed, re-optimized, etc.
December, 2005 -
Reached $2,500.- per month. Most happy.
March 26, 2005 -
Smart Pricing Strikes. EPC plummets. It goes down to less than a dime per click. Fear, desparation, frustration followed by extensive research and emails with G. A good day consists of breaking $30. where, before, a good day was breaking $180.-
Effort, tweaking, adjustments, etc. No change.
April, 2005 -
All but gave up on AdSense. Checked stats twice a week as compared to twice an hour when things were better.
May 7, 2005 -
EPC jumps. Not quite to where I was, but up to twenty to thrity cents per click which is fine for me.
I'm still at a loss for what happened. Could the rebound have been from my tweaking? I suppose, but it is just as possible that my tweaking did nothing.
Lessons learned
1. If you have banner advertisers, don't neglect them. Promise them a lot, and deliver more. They will never disappear all at once while your AdSense Income could.
2. If you don't have banner advertisers, get some. If you have to offer ridiculously low rates to get the program off the ground, do so, but get some. Get a couple so all of your eggs are not in one basket. Banner advertisers are a pain in the but, but they are needed.
3. Phase in multiple streams of income. (Advice I learned here on WW) I brought affiliates back on to my site. While I don't get much from them, at least it is something. I am in the process now of reading and researching how to use them better. (For the life of me I cannot figure out how people make money from Amazon, but I'm working on it)
4. This may be controversial, but my advice on what to do if Smart Pricing slams you is to do nothing. I looked and looked and looked but could not find any magic pill. G offers no advice on how to fix it, and all of the hundreds of posts containing advice are mere speculation. Instead, focus on building content. With all of the time you will save by not checking your stats every five minutes, write articles, create directories, build your forum, improve links, etc.
5. Keep telling yourself that Smart Pricing will probably not last forever. If it does, Yahoo and MSN are coming, but this scenario is very doubtfull.
That's it. I am not happy or excited about climbing out of the doghouse because I know that it could kick in again tomorrow. PPC advertising will continue to grow, evolve, and improve for good publishers, so there are good times ahead.
If you focus on the money, the money may come. If you focus on the site, the money will come.
Good luck to all my AdSense buddies, and for those who I co-miserated with since March, keep your chins up. If I was able to bounce back, you will too.
Buz
Are the advertisers not paying as much or is google taking more?
I can tell you I'm seeing clicks ranging from $0.03 to $0.80 on my site in the wee hours when it's easy to figure out, but at the end of the day they always average out to $0.17-$0.20/click. Goes to show there are still high paying ads in my segment, just not enough of them or I'd be making $1k/day easily.
For the life of me I cannot figure out how people make money from Amazon, but I'm working on it
As far as diversification goes, I used to make some decent money on Amazon and suddenly in January it went to hell.
The more I beefed up Amazon, the worse it got and I was getting clickers, they liked what they saw but they weren't buying. So I shelved most of the amazon link except a few specialized hand-picked product links and it's slightly picking up but not like it was.
If this is your first visit to Smart Pricing, make yourself comfortable and prepare to wait. It could be a day, a week, a month, or a couple of months.
This has been my observation as well.
My guess is with the introduction of pay-per-impression they decided to adjust payouts for pay-per-click to compensate. That may be fine for sites with large volumes of traffic, but for smaller sites with lower traffic volumes that did well with pay per click, it is bad.
The decline in income will also cause me to have to reduce my Adwords advertising budget - I spend a lot of money on Adwords - creating a domino like effect. This also means less money for Google.
The good news for me is I've been approached by advertisers directly including a large company that offered to sponsor my site, so this may help me make up for the lost income.
If this trend continues, I think the sites that will survive are the ones that have well diversified sources of income. I for one will work on getting direct advertisers and finding other sources of income. I feel if I don't, I will go under. Adsense is just too unpredictable.
Regards
May not be on your scale, but it can bounce back up, lasted about 2 months for me.
And i cut out my 3$/day advertising and am still not paying any and are back to the same levels.
Hi,
You can earn more if you can target more value keyword.
I believe that you can get benifit from [find-about.com...] as I do. And even you can put your controbution to make this pack of kw more rich.
Regards,
Furqan
