Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Anyway, about two months ago, I put up a site about free webhosting companies and picking the right one. I had a lot of interest in the site at first, partially because I run a free host, and partially because the adsense ads paid dearly. I averaged about 70-80 cents per click.
Welcome back to reality.
I took the ads off for a month to experiment with CPA advertising. It didn't work out very well, and I went back to adsense, expecting a decent 70-80 cents like usual. Boy, was I wrong. Since I put the ads back on, I have been making 4-5 cents a click, about a 2000% drop. I thought that it might have just been a fluctuation, and that I was overreacting, but it hasn't changed. The exact same ads, but 1/20 of the profit. I emailed google today, and they haven't respodned yet. Has anyone had something similar happen, because at this point, I doubt it is a fluctuation. I really have no clue why the same ads are worth so much less than they were a month ago. I have experimented with keywords and everything, but I am still getting the abysmal rates. If anyone has any ideas on how I can get my CPC up even a little, I would really appreciate it.
Oh well, I doubt Google will figure out who you are with all those specifics :)
Now that I've chastized you, look at your CLICK THRUS steadily declining over the month. Dropping from 600 all the way down to 300 at the bottom. It would appear your visitors don't like what they're seeing or you have the ads in the wrong place to get clicks.
you're saying that my ctr is really low, so here is my other question -- what would be a fair, average ctr for 80,000 page views (160,000 unit views)?
Site 1:
30,000 visitors per day
90,000 page views per day
5% of visitors are repeat visitors
Ads have good copy, many advertisers, ads relevant and of interest, ads typically vary across pages in a typical visit
Site 2:
10,000 visitors per day
90,000 page views per day
95% of visitors are repeat visitors
Ads have bad copy, few advertisers, ads not relevant and not of interest, ads typically same across pages in a typical visit
Site 1 might have a 10.0% CTR, while Site 2 might have a 0.3% CTR. They both probably have opportunity to increase CTR and revenue, but neither site should be compared to the other.
If you share some pertinent details about your site, you'll probably get better insight.
google will be launching a new CPM feature, which might be perfect for you if my hunch is correct about the repeat visitors.
This is a scary thought, that's why i am looking now!
Can you imagine if Google will drop you, or your adsense income will collapse, how are you going to support yourself and the people around you if your bread and butter is only adsense?
Normal jobs are much more scary.
There is no absolut security anywhere.
So I do not bother about it.
But at the end of the day, if you are making money from Adsense then your job is to run your business - that means diversifying your sources of income so you aren't dependent on Adsense. If you are not prepared for the worst case scenario then you aren't doing your job properly.
MG
Matt
But believe me, it's NOT a question of whether you'll lose someday with AdSense, its WHEN it will happen. If you can't handle losing all your income, then yes, get a regular job. Anyway, that just leaves more for the rest of us, so I salute you! :-)
But at the end of the day, if you are making money from Adsense then your job is to run your business - that means diversifying your sources of income so you aren't dependent on Adsense.
Great advice.
I am disversifying with Amazon. The difference in monthly income is only 1:1000
I planed before to disversifying with direct sell of ad space to companies where I write something about them, but the companies are such terrible long thinkers about maybe or not, I considered it as a waste of time.
Can you imagine if Google will drop you, or your adsense income will collapse, how are you going to support yourself and the people around you if your bread and butter is only adsense?This is a scary thought, that's why i am looking now!
It's always a good idea to diversify your sources of income. Your AdSense revenue could shrink or largely disappear for any number of reasons, whether or not you're dropped from the network. For example, "smart pricing" could reduce your earnings per click, your URL could be blocked by advertisers, the advent of "site-targeted" CPM ads could affect your pay-per-click revenues if your other domains are more popular with CPM advertisers than yours is, or you could lose most of your traffic because of changes in Google, Yahoo, or MSN search.
The problem, as I see it, is that other income opportunities do not pay as well as Adsense. Therefore, more work is required to diversify income with other revenue streams in order to match what one makes from Adsense. It is this extra work, harder work, that turns people off and they become "lazy" about the obvious requirement to diversify income.
Add to this that many other affiliate programs are just cheap and extremely unfair to publishers. I've looked at quite a few and I refuse to partake in what will amount to .01 cents per click or less.
When Adsense came along, affiliates really took a well-deserved beating. Some have adjusted their rates up for webmasters, but the majority still insult webmasters with their extremely low pay.
Myself and other friends who are professional webmasters are putting out high quality websites, leaders in their niches, with fantastic original content, and contacting advertisers and firms directly. We are negotiating for better deals on our own.
In one of my main niches, Adsense used to pay an average of .70 cents per click, and this made more then the firms I affiliate with. However, over the last 13 months, this EPC has dropped to about .27 cents and is no longer more profitable then the firms I affiliate with.
Naturally, I am swinging more traffic to the affiliates and decreasing the emphasis on Adsense ads.
With one of these firms I affiliate with, I lease the website for $600/month. My job is to just make sure it gets lots of traffic. Another firm I affiliate with pays $150 per sale or 5 percent, whichever is higher, and it takes about 300 visitors to make that kind of sale. This turns out to be .50 cents per click, more then AS now.
My point is with both these firms, I made the deal on my own, no affiliate middleman. Maybe that is what webmasters will have to do more of in order to diversify.
One final thought: Good lord there are a lot of contextual ad programs popping up all over the place. It's like 1999 and everyone is Venture Capitaling these little start ups. Many of them are going to die or have to consolidate as I just don't see that much demand for these third tier contextual programs.
The real need, what the market is crying out for, is a new and stronger CPM program. There lot's of webmasters with high traffic low monetary value websites that would welcome better CPM rates then the old programs pay. This particular type of net advertising needs a couple of defribillation shocks.
Anyway, just my thinking outloud...
AdSense is a great advert revenue source, but all sites which are only 'made for adsense' or scrapers, will eventually die slowly, sooner or later.
If your content is good, you may find good advertisers yourself also.
AdSense is a great commision agent for the adspace in your publication.
I repeat - Our Business is not adsense, Our business is Online Publishings. COncentrate on great publishings and overcome the fear.
But...a year ago it wasn't like that. My only guess is that more advertisers are beginning to conclude that google is not providing enough return on investment.
They don't know why that's true, i.e. they are not aware of the vast number of scrapers out there. They do know, however, that what they spend on google is not providing good return, and some of them are leaving, and probably more will in the future.
It's very sad, really.
My opinion: google needs to get its act together quick or they're going to start sliding downhill
And in this day and age of downsizing and pensions disappearing and outsourcing, I'll take publishing websites, even with all the risks, over a regular job any day.
This has never been secure income, and I don't expect it ever will be.
If you need the income, you need to always at least have a replacement ready, if not in place.
As for Adsense being in trouble, I'm not sure. Some advertizers may well bail out. But there is an almost endless stream of others just getting started, and probably more who haven't yet even thought about it.
Still, being prepared is the best way to go.
But hey, that could turn this deal into a "real job". :)
It's for this reason that google will not put a lot of energy into fixing their mess. And for THAT reason they will be the undisputed heavyweight champion of scrapers. Yahoo may choose to go a different route:
1. admit quality sites only
2. give advertisers good value for their ad dollars.
3 and by consequence give publishers good payouts.
(psst! this is not the road adsense has chosen.)
This is a scary thought, that's why i am looking now!
You think a full time job is secure? ROFLMAO!
How about the thousands of jobs cut all over the place every week?
The only thing AdSense won't do is pay part of your insurance, 401k or allow you to file unemployment when you're dropped. Other than that I really don't see much difference unless you like working for small minded dweebs that stand over your shoulder all day breathing down your neck.
McD's is always hiring, good luck.
I dont have to worry about this because i have an education and work experience that i can use to get out there. If Google Adsense drops my $$$$ income, i can still go back to my old job, or i will find another one.
By the way, Burger King is hiring, Good Luck to you!
As an advertisor adsense works for us as a marketers and bring customers who want to publish their ads quickly and effectively. While liivng with google save our time to look for advertiser and make sure that we will revive payments from advertisers.
We all should look the alternate ways of internet advertisement to strong our roots in business other wise Adsense will play with us and exploit us.
I suggest a Adsensor Union concept.
Whay you say?
The problem, as I see it, is that other income opportunities do not pay as well as Adsense. Therefore, more work is required to diversify income with other revenue streams in order to match what one makes from Adsense. It is this extra work, harder work, that turns people off and they become "lazy" about the obvious requirement to diversify income.
Well put! :)
You think a full time job is secure? ROFLMAO!How about the thousands of jobs cut all over the place every week?
Think outside the box. OK, jobs maybe not secure but there are MORE jobs of equal value (or greater) value.
Earning an income from a job is and always will be more secure, because generally if the worst happens and you lose your job, you can find another.
Earning an income from Adsense alone is and always will be very unsecure, because it can end in an instant and currently there's nothing even close to the same value for the average webmaster.
Obviously there are exceptions to each rule. Some coutnries and regions just have next to no work available. Some types of websites can make more money from affiliate advertising than Adsense.
But generally, working for someone else is far more secure than living off Adsense.
MG
Adsense Income is not an income that you can trust, however, IncrediBill think the opposite way. It's a very scary thought.
I'll feel a little more secure in this business once the Yahoo contextual program opens up. There are plenty of other contextual programs out there, but they just lack the power, connections and profit that these 2 heavyweights have.
Not all of the insecurity in our business can be blamed on Adsense. Some of it comes from serp changes, competitors, scrapers and Potemkin websites. Those Potemkin sites, in English, are growing to such a degree that part of my branching out and security plan is to translate my content. It's paying off too. German, French and Italian are good, Spanish is not. I've got access to cheap translators, which helps.
My point is the English language spam sites are inbreeding exponentially to the point where I am not even looking at future sites/content/income in English. The English market (on the net) is just too saturated with CRAP.
IMHO
Who's going to come along and erase the memories of all my loyal visitors?
Who's going to come along and say that all those eye balls are suddenly worthless?
Right now, Google is the highest bidder, so they get the ads on my sites. If Google no longer wants them, I'll just find someone else who does. This is not a concern of mine.
Besides, I'm making way more than I can spend. I'm saving up that money and will just use it to start another business if the Internet suddenly "goes away". I really don't think that'll happen either.
