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.
I dont have to worry about this because i have an education
I'm not sure what your education has to do with the company layoffs. If you've ever been at a company that suddenly laid off 50% of the staff (about 75 people) mid-year because sales didn't meet expectations you wouldn't have such a glowing view of a fulltime job - they were all out on a moments notice - POOF! This isn't the "good old days" where years of hard work gets you a nice pension. When the bottom line needs "correcting" you may find yourself "adjusted" out the door faster than Google can send email you've been dropped from AdSense.
If I wanted back in the workplace I'm sure it could be done, I just don't know why I'd want to do such a rash thing after being independent for over 6 years now as I can't even imagine going back to the fast paced grind of software startups.
Do what you want, but one is no more secure than the other and the freedom and lifestyle choices running an internet business provide are much more rewarding and less stressful in the long run. Consider the only advantage being to double your income but possibly at the expense of your online properties as you'll have a lot less time to keep working on them.
BTW, Wendy's is hiring :)
IncrediBill think the opposite way.
I don't think the opposite way, I never said AdSense was the only way to go did I? I just said that AdSense is no more reliable than a full-time job, you can get dumped from either at a moments notice with no recourse.
I have diversified income on my web site and AdSense is about 33% of the total. I've always made income from my website and AdSense is just the latest to be included so I was making money BEFORE AdSense and I'll be making money AFTER AdSense. That's why I'm just not too worried as I wouldn't be out of business, just stinging a little.
So, if someone is making 100% of their money just from one source they should diversify and if a full-time job is your idea of diversification, so be it.
I am in the same boat but don't remember ever removing adsense from my site. I began running adsense right after the buzz about how the rates went crashing down. For the past month, on a newer site, I've had a 5.7% ctr. One day I got 13 clicks and only made .88 cents. Today so far I have 1 click for 1 cent.
The problem, as I see it, is that other income opportunities do not pay as well as Adsense.
Depends on your niche. I earn considerably more from affiliate sales than I do from AdSense. For me, the great benefit of AdSense is the ability to "fill in the gaps" by earning revenue from subtopics that don't generate affiliate income. Also, AdSense earnings don't drop as much in the off-season as affiliate revenues do, since travelers (my target readers) look before they're ready to book.
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.
I think that you're right, for several reasons:
- Search technology will continue to improve;
- "Site-targeted" CPM ads from Google and other networks will reduce opportunities for low-quality sites;
- Improvements in smart pricing and other factors (such as an increase in the "blocked domains" quota) will make opportunistic made-for-Adsense sites less profitable.
In my opinion adsense is probably in trouble.
We'll see. I'm inclined to believe that "site-targeted" CPM ads will bring in mainstream advertisers who aren't interested in cost-per-click ads and who may be more interested in targeted audiences for their brand messages than in direct-response advertising, or who want to generate high-quality leads.
IMHO, Google might want to consider marketing the site-targeted CPM ads as a completely separate product instead of treating them as a low-profile variant on CPC ads. That would help to attract mainstream advertisers and ad agencies who may take a dim view of traditional CPC networks (and especially of the "Wild West," lowest-common-denominator AdSense network).
plummet in adsense earnings
If anyone has any ideas on how I can get my CPC up even a little, I would really appreciate it.
But this thread quicky turned to
Diversify, diversify, diversify. Never put all your eggs in one basket.
And then it became the job scurity.
Earning an income from a job is and always will be more secure ...
I don't think the above advices have anything to the first mentioned question?
These are good advices but how you can diversify when you haven't made anything yet.
asianguy's post #37 was a different thread today, that's where it all goes south
[edit] there's actually about 3 threads in here upon closer examination, the topics make no sense together, what the heck?[edit]
' you need to diversify...' that one always tickles me.
Yes, I did quit my job for adsense. Yikkes!
Yes, my adsense revs are down to 1/3 of normal and 1/5 of potential due to no free visitors.
For me it wont' matter if MSN or Y come out with a competetive program - no visitors is no income.
Why work when you can spend 16 hours a day tweaking adsense,adwords,website,reading WW.com just for the fun of it :)
Then I took it off its expensive host and rebuilt it. And since that time I have watched it's page rank increase from 3 to 4. I have added more pages, and more AS varieties - Links and Search options as well.
The number of visitors has increased slightly, but my income from AS has gradually dropped to 1/20th of what it was. A couple of days ago I made less than one dollar for the whole day, and the daily average so far this month is around $2.60.
I feel like I am banging my head against a very bloodied wall. :(
Welcome to WebmasterWorld.
You'll find tonnes of info here about optimizing your website for Adsense.
Often blending ads in or just above content works great.
Few ads sometimes makes for higher EPC.
You need some more visitors! Are you in dmoz.org?
Can you be found for your keyword in the search engines?
What is a Pom?
Yes, my adsense revs are down to 1/3 of normal and 1/5 of potential due to no free visitors.
sailorjwd: is this mainly because of Bourbon?
What is a Pom?
Its the Aussies way of making fun of the British, possibly derived (Pom) Prisoner of Her Majesty.
However when Jonny Wilkinson drop kicked the winning goal just 26 seconds from the end of the Rugby World Cup the saying "He who laughs last laughs loudest" springs to mind ;-)
It REALLY shows how unpredictable adsense can be. I'm amazed.
It REALLY shows how unpredictable adsense can be. I'm amazed.
I wonder if ad targeting could be a big factor in some cases. I'm seeing some really strange ads today--ads for Los Angeles and Chicago sightseeing tours on a European travel site, for example. If my site didn't have a lot of subtopics, I might be seeing those weirdly targeted ads on nearly every page, and my CTR and eCPM would plummet.
