Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Internet income is very unstable, it's mostly hyped and it looks like the hypes are about to burst in our face.
My prediction is only about 5% or less of all internet businesses will survive. They take turns, someone emerges, then another one goes out of business.
You will just be making a fool of yourself if you quit your job thinking that the internet income is a reliable source of income. Time will come and you'll find out the worst.
I used to make serious money online, now i dont and i am preparing for the worst especially when Google introduced the Site Targetting CPM. Who else can i blame for this, I didnt change anything in my site and i get the same amount of traffic everyday.
Due to this change, I have lost nearly 70% of my Adsense revenue since the conception of the new CPM model.
However, there is a positive side i learned from all of these....no internet business is reliable and in order to support yourself financially, you got to do something else besides internet business. I thought my nearly 5 figure income a month would last, but it didnt.
Therefore, any internet income is not reliable.
Do you know if the CPM ads are image only or also contextual?
I have text only on my sites and I am hoping they don't move in on that front.
Ann
I dont think it will make a different either you Select Text Ads Only or Image Ads Only since you dont have control over what ads will appear on your site.
If your are chosen for the Site Targetted CPM, expect the worst....your income will absolutely drop.
My income has even dropped even most of the ads i saw are in Text Ads format.
This Site Targetted CPM is a collosal disaster for me.
I am very disappointed and i cant wait for Yahoo Publishing Network to come out because i am ready to replace all my Adsense ads.
[edited by: asianguy at 9:59 am (utc) on June 27, 2005]
Still saving for a down payment on my new house. So I may have to search for a better paying company a little later if...
Ann
Alika, >>>After removing the said CPM ad, our eCPM today increased by 18%.
Alika, if you are talking about the new Site Targetted Ads, you cant remove it yourself because you dont have control over what ads will appear if your site was chosen..
How did you manage to remove the CPM Ads? Did you implement it yourself or youve been selected by Google Site Targetted CPM but you decided to remove the ads yourself?
Alika, >>>After removing the said CPM ad, our eCPM today increased by 18%.
Alika, if you are talking about the new Site Targetted Ads, you cant remove it yourself because you dont have control over what ads will appear if your site was chosen..
How did you manage to remove the CPM Ads? Did you implement it yourself or youve been selected by Google Site Targetted CPM but you decided to remove the ads yourself?
The problem with this, you wont be making as much as the CPC.
Right now, my adsense income is downed 70% since the inception of this new model.
I am going to email google and request to block the site targetted CPM ads because i dont want them.
Asianguy, sorry to hear about the sudden drop in your stats. I agree that we must all expect the worst (but hope for the best, if I may add) in this business.
Anyway, you mentioned that you were earning 5 figures before the crash. Take 70% off that and you'd still be left with $3K per month at least. To many of us, that's still a large sum to earn. You're still much better off than a lot of us, if you think about it!
I just thought that the Internet income is still the quickest way to make lots of money, thats why i gave up the 9 to 5 job.
When you email Google about blocking the CPM ads will you please keep us updated on the responses?
Thanks a bunch,
Ann
For what it's worth, my income is a lot more stable in the Internet era than it ever was when I was freelancing. For that matter, my AdSense income is a lot more steady than my freelance income ever was. So I tend to look at revenue cycles more dispassionately than I would if I'd been working in a corporate cubicle for a monthly paycheck. :-)
Getting back to the topic of this forum:
If your traffic is steady but you're seeing a big drop in your AdSense income, it could be for any number of reasons (reasons that may have nothing to do with site-targeted CPM ads, by the way). For example:
- "Smart pricing" may have caught up with you if you've optimized your pages for high clickthrough rates at the expense of advertiser conversions.
- A major advertiser in your niche may have pulled out of the content network.
- Exponential growth in scraper sites and other autogenerated sites may be reducing the number of impressions that you're allocated for high-bid "money keyword" ads.
- Seasonal factors may be coming into play (people may be at the beach instead of researching widgets).
- "Ad fatigue" may have set in if you don't have much audience turnover and your visitors are seeing the same ads day after day.
- The AdSense targeting algorithm may have changed (normally this shouldn't have a huge effect on revenue, but it could if, for example, you rely on a few keywords and pages with those keywords are showing a radically different mix of ads).
How can you minimize revenue swings? Editorial diversity and multiple revenue streams can help. Also, "organic" pages and sites are less likely to get whacked by changes in smart pricing and SE referrals than heavily optimized pages and sites are. (Mind you, there are no guarantees, but you're still running less risk if you take an "organic" approach than you are if you try to outsmart Google and advertisers.)
...it's mostly hyped and it looks like the hypes are about to burst in our face.
could you elaborate on this a little. I don't use hypes, nor do I see anything bursting any time soon.
Just curious...
The way the serps are going (correct me if I'm wrong) it seems that it is becoming more difficult to dominate keywords and keyphrases. Maybe this is my perception only, but it seems that, now, you have to work harder by providing content that is more specifically tailored to a topic. In fact, dealing with sub-topics within larger topics seems to be a better route to go. This allows users to find information that's more relevant to their particular search query. It also allows individuals with niche content sites who are very knowledgeable with regard to their niche to grab more of the traffic, versus scrapers who go after the bigger, more generic terms that are much more contested.
I wouldn't say the sky is falling or is about to fall. In fact, even as pessimistic as my commentaries often are, I have a strong hope that google will keep this thing going for a long time to come and that it will remain profitable for most parties involved. I also think google will get the scraper issue resolved at some point.
You will just be making a fool of yourself if you quit your job thinking that the internet income is a reliable source of income. Time will come and you'll find out the worst.
I quit about 6 years ago and nobody is laughing, that was before AdSense too.
AdSense isn't a job, it's just ONE way to make money on the 'net. If you still have serious site traffic you can still make money, diversify and stop whining.
Therefore, any internet income is not reliable.
That depends on your business model, as long as the internet exists some businesses will do quite well.
I dont know many people who stick their asses for 6 years and brag about their internet income because any kids can do this from the basement of their house and still be able to do other things like school and sports.
LOL
incrediBILL, maybe you dont have other options thats why you really have to stick your nose on making money online, hoping that one day it will pay off. It's desperate call and it's sad to see that way.
Asianguy, you sounded pretty desperate yourself when you began this thread. :-)
I dont know many people who stick their asses for 6 years and brag about their internet income because any kids can do this from the basement of their house and still be able to do other things like school and sports.
Let's see...on the one hand, you can't rely on income from the Internet, and on the other hand, any schoolkid can do it. I sense a gap in your logic.
To get back to what you were complaining about in your first post, probably 95% of any new small businesses will fail--and instead of losing time and a few months of Web-hosting costs, the owner of a new restaurant, dry-cleaning establishment, bookstore, etc. is likely to lose his savings or even his house.
I've been following your posts for several days now but haven't had a chance to respond.
Bud, I feel your pain. In March of this year I was well on my way to the UPS club. Then, SmartPricing hit and hit hard.
My income plummeted 50% to 70% as well.
It took almost two months, but my site returned to about 80% of what it was.
All I can say is hang in there.
It's funny when you see posts about smartpricing, and some expert always chimes in on how you need to stop being a scraper and should add real content. Well, my site is real content, and I got killed.
I believe that we are still very early in the PPC era. Don't give up on it brother. Instead of using your old figures as a base, use these new ones and keep building.
Your store-front business burned down, and you need to rebuild.
Keep your chin up!
Can the sites opt-out from those CPM ads?
How does a site get chosen for the cpm ads?
Advertisers select them, either on their own or picking from automated suggestions by Google.
So when your site gets chosen for that, they only display CPM ads and not the CPCs anymore?
No, the CPM ads display only if Google thinks they'll perform better than CPC ads on the same page(s). At least, that's how it's supposed to work.
Can the sites opt-out from those CPM ads?
Not yet, except by blocking individual advertisers' domains.
incrediBILL, maybe you dont have other options thats why you really have to stick your nose on making money online and will do all kinds of things hoping that one day it will pay off. It's desperate call and it's sad to see that way.I dont know many people who stick their asses for 6 years and brag about their internet income because any kids can do this from the basement of their house and still be able to do other things like school and sports.
Excuse me?
Waiting for it to "pay off"? ROFLMAO
I've been living off my web site for a long time pal, it's already paid off and handsomely over and over.
Not like I need to justify it to you, but have you ever heard of getting OUT of the rat race? I have lot's of options and walked away from them, I don't need them and if I'm lucky I never will again.
I was in the pressure cooker software world for 20 years and I've designed and built corporate products that sold $100M+ in just one year and managed teams with a payroll of over $1M/year. All that hassle for what? Stock options that only pay off every other company if that often for a paltry 6 digit sum if I'm lucky depending on the skills of the management team?
I'm THRILLED I'm not in that high pressure rat race anymore, no nitwits to explain things to over and over, no executive boards to make presentations to, no meetings all week long, no long nights busting my hump over an unreasonable schedule unless I want to do it for myself.
The difference is I'm a "CAN DO" kind of guy and obstacles are something to overcome, not whine about thread after thread. If "kids can do this from the basement" as you decry, why are you constantly crying your sky is falling and this isn't a sustainable income? It's been more than sustainable on my fat " asses for 6 years" so we'll just have to assume I know more about building a business than you and leave it at that.
While you're whimpering I boosted AdSense alone almost $2K this month over last month and plan to take it higher, but that's just me, I like the challenge. Do you know how hard cubicle drones slug it out just to eek out a small raise at the end of the year and I can do it just by working a litle harder in as little as a month? Yes it goes up and down but if you work all the angles you have a diversification of income sources all going up and not just suckling off Google for your funds it's not too volatile overall.
Besides, if this goes south I can (and do) augment my online income with a few programming projects now and then just to keep up to date and keep my skills sharp.
BTW, I don't think complaining and ridiculing will supplement your resume, what will you do?
I don't know what specific personal issues Asianguy is dealing with, but "Therefore, any internet income is not reliable" is simply incorrect, and there is no excuse for blindly attacking everyone and everything in sight.
Get back in the race, rat.
By the way, I'm going back to the real world next month, getting a new job, get more experience and social life before the internet take away my time completely. LOL
Working at home is just too boring me. I started last year and it's not too bad of experience. I will just do the internet thing part time.
If it works for you, just keep doing it!
[edited by: asianguy at 4:18 am (utc) on June 28, 2005]
incrediBILL, maybe you dont have other options thats why you really have to stick your nose on making money online and will do all kinds of things hoping that one day it will pay off. It's desperate call and it's sad to see that way.
Nice ad hominem attack. Remember, you're trying to do the same thing he's doing.
any kids can do this from the basement of their house and still be able to do other things like school and sports.
Then hire some kids for $1.50 a page and get them to turn out some content that'll keep you high in the SERPs. On their break, have them comb your sites for CPM ads to block so that you can get your revenue back up to where it was. And go do some sports or something, man, the strain is showing.
Personally, though, I'm wondering: You've always been down on people who say they can/will/are earning good money through Adsense. Recently, you even suggested that many people who say they're earning $300 a day are liars. Now you reveal that all this time, you were making nearly five figures a month. If you've been one of the good earners, why be so dubious about other people's ability to make money?
Nothing personal!
