Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Impressions are typical, ads tentatively look OK.
This is a large variance from normal for this time of day.
I learned about a year ago through emails with Adsense support that Google was running tests on various ad formats. They were purposely running the same ad concept in different image size and text versions. I was running different Ad units on the same page at the time so the same conceptual ad showed 2 or three times on the same page in different formats. A total waste of resources.
I was a little bothered that Google was usurping ad space that normally showed other ads for their own experiments.
I wrote support and they were kind enough to confirm they were running ad format experiments. I let them know this was not good for MY, emphasis on MY, bottom line.
Then I blocked the URL. Of course they were not breaking the Terms of Service.
This thread is intriquing:
[webmasterworld.com...]
just checking if it's Google or not I guess?
Do you think it's a "heat map" thing? Maybe it's bad targeting or yeah... it's MFA's and I need to add to my filter... Arrrrrg!
It just wasn't rocket science before, why is it now?
When I was totally ignorant and knew nothing about the program... I made $10+ a day. Suddenly I'm doing everything I can to educate myself on all aspects of this opportunity and I'm making change at best!
What's wrong with this picture?
I made $10+ a day... and I'm making change at best! What's wrong with this picture?
I'll tell you exactly what's wrong with that picture. You are complaining about a variance of merely nine dollars a day. I don't think you're going to spot any trends with a variance that small.
OMG, is that what all the foot stomping is about?
kz
How sad it is now to think that some of his posts were created for his own "experiments" and amusement.
Unless you're wearing some flame retardant underwear, a couple of Space Shuttle tiles would probably do the trick, you might want consider retracting that statement as the quote you associated to ME, isn't my quote, not now, not ever.
The clock is ticking and one serving of roasted Chapman is about to be served.
"THE SKY IS FALLING!"
I couldn't have said it better. If you count the number of posts that state earnings are down and divide it by the million or so adsense accounts, you may get an idea of how large scale the problem is. :)
How sad it is now to think that some of his posts were created for his own "experiments" and amusement. How exactly might this have assisted any of the other forum members?
Incredibill was probably one of the test subjects. :)
Yeah, I currently only make $10 a day and it's a small sample as you say, but I've had my content online for 96 months or 8 years at my own expense ($18,240) and it is only now that I'm trying to offset the costs I've incurred with Adsense.
When I first "plopped" Adsense on my site... I made over $10 the first day... and every day after that until just recently. As of the middle of February I've seen virtually no consistant earnings at all. I used to think being banned would be bad but what's happening now is just not that different.
My only complaint is that many of you who have been with the program the longest are soooo righteous as to pretend that NO problems could ever possibly exist.
It's now 11:00 PM and I have... oh gracious me 3386 page impressions AND 3 clicks. Gonna be steak for dinner tomorrow! Not!
I'm very suprised at this response from you martinibuster, I had only the highest regard for you as a contributor and moderator... but obviously you're in a profit category that no longer allows you to be open minded about anything that goes against Adsense grain.
Martinibuster and Incredibill are just speaking from experience. You will probably hear the same from most of us who have been with adsense for a number of years.
incrediBILL... I watched as your initial post was modified to offer that rather unsavory piece of information.
Now, I have to admit the fact that you were able to eliminate the post coompletely makes you "the man"!
This is so trivial... I can't imagine compromising myself for something so absurd! Are you such a light weight? I had expected more!
In any event, where did you think I got the qoute and why do you think I would be the only one who saw it?
I don't know much but they do clip poor web master
Read "Adsense cheats the poor WM "
(Sorry URL s can't be added )
Another record setting day. Keep doing what you're doing. :)
Chapman, the quote was not from Incredibill if you look on page 2 of this thread you will find the quote you are referring to.
[edited by: G_Smitty at 4:45 am (utc) on Mar. 9, 2006]
I too was a late comer to AdSense (relatively speaking) as out of principle I did not want to "sell out" my content... as I was brazen enough to "blaze a new trail" so that most others could benefit by my efforts...
But, after 3 years of unemployment and self-funding of my "public works project," I had to worry about keeping a roof over my head. So I tried Google AdSense for the first time in February 2004... For 3 days... no clicks... $0.OO revenue... and immediately ripped out ALL Google AdSense coding... "what a bunch of CRAP" I thought... just like many other bogus Internet scams...
Then comes June 2004, and I discovered the affiliate program that I was working with was a failure (his scheme NOT my work)... so I decide to try AdSense again out of desperation. This time, I was amazed to see steady, incremental growth... first a few dollars... then $10s & $20s per day... by September $50+... and October 2004 I broke $100 per day for the first time.
Since that time I've managed to grow that daily average higher, just with organic SERP traffic, to average $5,000 a month. Not UPS club, but a nice, comfortable living. I lucked out with real etate in Las Vegas and sold the 25 year old home for a very nice profit, and paid cash for a much nicer, cheaper NEW home in Houston, put $100,000 in CDs... and invested another $100,000 in the stock market, and up until recently, was doing VERY well... but STILL up 25% for the year with my investments.
BUTTTTTTTTT.... NEVER did I think that I was better than anyone else (luckier perhaps) or knew EVERYTHING and everyone else's ideas were worthless, subject for hurling insults at...
Like some of the POMPOUS, SELF-RIGHTEOUS people on this board. You know, the one's that ridicule other people's posts the most. Yes, some of you really are "distinguishing" yourselves!
[edited by: alwaysthinking at 4:53 am (utc) on Mar. 9, 2006]
Thanks for the validation... I'm thinking that there are many that don't want us to share information.
At this point... I'm just angry at being played for a fool! Hopefully we'll be able to turn this around.
I understand and acknowledge that you and many others are having problems. However, if you are to regain your footing and prosper, the first step is to recognize that this isn't a universal tweak that is unfairly targeting your website.
In my experience I've seen my revenues drop by many multiples of what you are talking about, only to see another site suddenly shoot up by a similar amount, then to see both of them kind of even out. Things move around, much of it because of the advertisers.
For the amounts that you are talking about, and I don't know your site so some of this won't apply, what could cause a variance is that your revenue could have been on the back of a handful of advertisers who one day figured out that they could bottom feed your website when they discovered they could set the content bid price independently from the search campaigns.
Prior to that feature, I had to set up two campaigns, one to bottom feed contextual sites and another to compete exclusively for search. So I think that feature has been putting the squeeze on our revenues since last year.
The other factors are that to a certain extent we have to rely on the newbies entering the market to dial up the bids. I've made a mistake in my adwords account in the past that caused me to spend several hundred dollars in contextual bidding by accident because I was rushing to get out of the house when I set up the campaign, that kind of thing over the course of a few months can cause the happy days to come, but I think what some people neglect to take into account is that those few months were an anomaly, and the dumps is the norm. Even if those good times were for a year, it's entirely possible that they were on the backs of several advertisers who suddenly figured out how to bottom feed contextual websites.
The other thing that has affected my income was blocking too many websites. I experienced a rise in income when I blocked ONLY the irrelevant ads, and turned a blind eye to everything else.
The other thing that can affect your income is your audience, and if you are cultivating new visitors or not. New visitors will feed the beast, the hippies who are hanging around not clicking anything won't help, although if you encourage them to Tell a Friend, then at least you're squeezing new visitors out of them who will then feed your beast.
Forums. I've done well with a forum. I optimized it for the bots, removing as many links from the different pageviews (index.php, viewforum.php) that led to stupid stuff like member profiles, and created a site map, etc. Now it gets a lot of new visitors who are more inclined to click ads than the hippies who are hanging around playing hackysack and not clicking on anything.
And you know what, I don't want the hippies clicking on anything because they won't buy anything and I'll end up make a penny off the click, lol. I really value search visitors because they might be in the buying cycle.
The buying cycle
This is what you should really keep your eye on. Reviews, anything that is a review of a product is going to help bring visitors that may be in the buying cycle. A site about game cheats may not work because your visitors already have the game and they're just there to read your walkthrough.
Hope that helps Chapman. Remember, anything I post here is to help you. Believe it or not, I really do care. If I can shake you out of believing that something mysterious is happening to you and everyone else that is connected, then I know you are most of the way to taking control, to looking at your website with fresh eyes.
What would really be cool is if instead of profiling hotshot websites that did well, if the AdSense team did a makeover, analyzing someone's underperforming website, then helping them fix it up, then after a few months seeing how much more revenue they were making. Would be TONS more useful than yet ANOTHER hotshot profile.
I'm signing off, the telly is calling.
However... one thing about "buying cycles" and such...
I'm supposedly right smack dab in one of the HOTTEST sectors going (according to all the business news).. yet the CTR is diving... ePC initially doubled - but who wants to complain about THAT? Now they have dropped to about $.15 more than "normal"... "BUT it don't matta" if people are clicking almost 50% less often.
So judging by MY information... I'd have to say all the business analysts are FULL OF CRAP if they are touting THIS sector as the economy's BRIGHT spot...
ORRRRR... There's something a matter with AdSense!
I'd have to say we are all in TROUBLE! Everybody... Worldwide... (I cover my "niche" globally)
That's why I'm hoping it's ONLY something a matter with adsense...
[edited by: alwaysthinking at 5:15 am (utc) on Mar. 9, 2006]
incrediBILL... I watched as your initial post was modified to offer that rather unsavory piece of information.Now, I have to admit the fact that you were able to eliminate the post coompletely makes you "the man"!
This is so trivial... I can't imagine compromising myself for something so absurd! Are you such a light weight? I had expected more!
In any event, where did you think I got the qoute and why do you think I would be the only one who saw it?
I don't know what brand of crack is in your pipe but attemtping to discredit me with something I never posted and making a bunch of fabrications is a load of crap pal.
I don't have moderator privs and I don't play a moderator on TV but you can keep your mouth off me as this is about to get personal and anyone that reads my posting outside this civilized containment area well knows I don't take crap from anyone.
Give me a link to this supposed post or just step off before this gets ugly.
I don't think anyone is making anything up about AdSense going up or down but I think the small sampling is inconclusive which is what I've said, everyone gets a little paranoid when they see a dip and this is trivial from some other panic alerts we've seen in the past.
YET I was told by some other respected WW Mods & members that everything is "business as usual" with AdSense.How WRONG the "mighty" can be!
...and then there's the low and stupid, who can occasionally be right. Go figure. The problem is figuring out who the mighty are, who the low and stupid are, and when each is right. I think I'll take up jello nailing.
I kinda hate to say this, but over the last six months the signal/noise ratio (err...complaints/good info ratio) about adsense has gotten worse and worse here.
I don't know how other people who run businesses in a business like way who happen to use adsense feel, but spending time complaining, conspiracy hunting, or trying to guess what's going on when it's simply not possible to know, isn't a real great way of actually running a business, or making money. Especially since, even if you DID know, you probably couldn't do much about it.
I don't know why it's gotten worse. Maybe because a lot of the people jumping on to adsense feel some sense of entitlement now, or are spoiled, or just have too much time on their hands.
Truth is we're seeing drops the last few days. And a downtrend the last few months. Now if anyone has any validated suggestions about what to DO about such things, all the beechin and moanin doesn't do much but to provide occasional entertainment value. But it is like being in kindergarten again.
Golly, I hope some of the people always complainin aren't the American thought leaders and business people for the next decades.
THERE IS NO "... seeing drops the last few days. And a downtrend the last few months."
The Mods & some respected members of the board empathically say that everything with AdSense is "business as usual."
You are NOT allowed to say the "truth" is otherwise!
Don't believe in what you see in your online AdSense records... purely a happenstance occurrence... so what if they are getting progressively lower... not happening to EVERYONE...
MUST be something YOU are doing WRONG!
(even though you are doing exactly the SAME things as when everything was doing well for your site)
Truth is we're seeing drops the last few days. And a downtrend the last few months. Now if anyone has any validated suggestions about what to DO about such things, all the beechin and moanin doesn't do much but to provide occasional entertainment value. But it is like being in kindergarten again.
I tend to strongly agree.
To Those who are experiencing the recent (wired abnormal) slow down. I am seeing the same and know exactly how you feel. Chill and please stop the fighting....something is truly happening. It has been going on for a few weeks now (regardless of what them super all mighty adsense publishers WHO ARE NEVER EVER AFFECTED BY ANYTHING claim).
I am not sure if it is a glitch or intentional (due to new algo etc.) but it is REAL nevertheless.
I'm seeing this crap across 20 sites i monitor.
[edited by: Web_speed at 5:48 am (utc) on Mar. 9, 2006]
You are NOT allowed to say the "truth" is otherwise!
Define TRUTH, nobody said it wasn't TRUTH for you.
I had a $2k/month dip in December, it was horrible, but I didn't claim AdSense was going to hell in a handbasket. January came back to my usual numbers and then February broke all time records almost every day and this month is holding up with Feb's rates for me.
Point is, was, and shall be that AdSense is always up for one and down for another and whichever way it's heading for you is YOUR TRUTH.
Case in point, a couple days ago many posted about recovering from an odd weekend slump:
[webmasterworld.com...]
Slumps happen but it's not just happening to everyone which is the TRUTH for those of us not having a slump.
When more than 50% of the posters claim AdSense is down THEN we all need to panic.
Until then, sell your stock before it's too late.
FYI, my wife also has AdSense on her site, her own account, and it's running about normal too and she's got a much smaller site and less traffic than mine but it's statistically within norms.
But let me tell it like it is: There are a group of people here who make a good enough amount of money to defend Google (Adsense) like it's their untouchable trust fund. They come in here reading of other people's complaining and whining about falling epc's, impressions, earnings, banned accounts and whatnot that they must be thinking, "What are these mere mortals talking about? There's nothing wrong with my life!"
When something is amiss, something ought to be (especially in this case). When a guy is having a bad day, why not provide some real answers rather than provocative nonsense? I admit that I'm just a lurker here at WebmasterWorld, but what I can say is that many of us must have a serious change of attitude. We have to accept that the complaining will never ever stop, unless you impose rules against it. If you hate it so much, why not ban it? Picking on, insulting, provoking and making sarcastic remarks towards others really puts you a notch below the rest. If you have nothing great to say, please, put a sock in it. If you don't know what the answer is, more so.
Could someone explain to me why people are spending their time arguing whether "sumtin's happenin" or "sumtin's not"?
Since it's really so pointless and has no usefulness in improving business, I'm assuming it's just adolescent my argument is bigger than yours, and frankly, it ain't looking that big lying out there on the table.
Now, I have a pretty good idea where the lower income has gone for my site(s) lately, and it's basically an invasion of spam sites advertising (they just moved into the topic recently), and PROBABLY some strangeness in the google adserving system.
When 4 of the 5 ads in an adblock are clearly junk (I mean it's obvious from reading it), is it not surprising people aren't clicking? And I do think they are crowding out the high quality, and higher CPC ads we WERE getting (hence probable adserving issues).
I can filter some of the junk, but by and large, not much else can be done. Except, I suppose I could "waggle mine" around in the air complaining, but there's always someone around with a hammer.
Why is this week more special than any other week for the past two and a half years?
this week is more special because:
a) big daddy update is in full effect. huge differences in serp ranking and indexed pages. look at different data centers.
b) the index is currently broke (as google guy admitted a few minutes ago in this thread msg #176)
my indexed websites currently vary from 60.000 to 300.000. never seen that before. my serp places also vary dramatically. there could obviously be an effect on your stats, too.
by the way, i try to stop whining about income collapses. everyone gets hit at some point.. there are a number of plausible reasons which martinibuster has pointed out.
I don't have any clicks today.
Not a concern for me because I am only "testing" adsense on my internal pages. But I do usually get at least a few clicks a day.
We have to accept that the complaining will never ever stop, unless you impose rules against it.
Here's something you might want to consider. A LOT of people who know a lot about adsense (and used to offer a lot of help), don't bother anymore posting here, or probably even reading here. The crap, the complaining, the moaning, the ridiculous logic and conclusions too many people draw on too little evidence...heck why even bother participating anymore.
There's about a handful of really good people helping others out with adsense. People far more expert than I. But even I read a lot less of the adsense posts -- it's all so old and repetitive and pointless. There's almost NO useful information that help me with my business, and trying to point out poor logic and information in posts just generates more junk.
So, yeah. You're right the complaining and formerly entertaining (but not longer) idiocy probably will continue.
So, I guess eventually, the only people who will bother posting will be the people who want to complain to each other. Ok. Fine.
I've spent enough time on this, so I guess I'll either go sleep or filter out some more junk parasite sites (I betcha parasite site owners really really complain).
If you have nothing great to say, please, put a sock in it. If you don't know what the answer is, more so.
Considering only AdSenseAdvisor knows these answers and he/she isn't spilling the beans this would be a really quiet place as nobody else knows answers to posts like "Is Adsense withholding clicks today?" so it's a round of socks for everyone.
heck why even bother participating anymore
Amen, hence my thin posting of late.
[edited by: incrediBILL at 6:17 am (utc) on Mar. 9, 2006]
