Low Earnings Per Click

Plagued by MFAs

[dshah]

I spent hours creating site, keeping it upto date and bringing in decent traffic (5k pageviews, around 1.5K visitors - around 200 clicks each day), but what I get in return from adsense is on average 0.01-0.03$ clicks...

All these cheap ads from MFAs, ringtones, wallpaper affiliates and even parked domains is really killing me, adding them everyday to filter but they keep coming up.

[europeforvisitors]

It could be your topic or type of content. What's your site about? Does it consist mostly of articles, forum pages, or...?

[ann]

Dshaw,

Sorry about your troubles but that is why creating a page strictly for adsense does not work so well.

Paying more attention to your likes and dislikes as to design then bringing in to play surfer needs such as easy and smooth navigation to relevant information is what you need to be doing...if of course you are not doing that already.

Put yourself in their shoes and ask what you would like to see by a visit to your site.

It is NOT about adsense, it is about doing something you like, something you are proficient in, something that is easy and enjoyable reading.

Rather than having them go away with a bad impression do some heavy thinking and some revision where necessay. Get books and research your topic.

Your site is all about quality now a days and the higher quality then the higher paying ads you will get.

Good luck.

Ann

[dshah]

Ann,

Seems that you have some prejudice on you.

I didn't do this site for adsense, otherwise I would have selected better paying topic for sure.

[celgins]

I think ann was simply responding to the way your post sounds. It sounds like you spent a few hours building a site; update it every now and then; and expect $$$ to roll in without much more effort.

Adsense is not a system designed to reward you for 5k pageviews, 1.5K visitors, or 200 clicks/day.

You will only get great returns if you have great content, which should help drive great ads to your site.

[ann]

I'm sorry you feel that way as I am the least prejudiced person you would hope to meet.

I simply offered you some well founded advice that I was so graciously offered when I was trying to find an idea for my newest site.

BYE

I won't bother you again with my small advice.

Ann

[david_uk]

Seems that you have some prejudice on you.

Have to say that the words but what I get in return from adsense.... rather gave me the impression that your site was made for adsense. The advice Ann gave you was sound. Some of the people here that do really well out of adsense (especially since QS) are those who had sites before adsense existed, and are driven by the site, and not the goal of ad$en$e.

Some sites just don't do well - forums are notoriously bad. There are well known techniques that can be used to optimise sites to improve earnings. Now if you want our help, it might be an idea not to make assumptions about well respected regulars - the very people that can help you to improve your earnings.

Do we wipe the slate clean and start again?

[OptiRex]

dshah

I generally read a post a couple of times before responding to make sure that I understand fully the gist of the problem. I'm guessing that English isn't your first language and maybe that is where the misunderstanding began.

As EFV asked:

What's your site about? Does it consist mostly of articles, forum pages, or...?

Pro rata for 200 clicks per day I would expect to earn about USD 50~60 therefore if you're earning USD 2~6 then I can understand your frustration.

Tell us more about your site's genre and then anyone else here with a similar theme can advise whether you could actually earn more or whether you really have one of those subjects that simply does not pay much.

[dshah]

I think in all discussion, what is being sidelined is my point about clicks worth of .01 - 0.02$ and the kind of sites (mfas, parked domains, affiliates etc)using adwords for buying traffic for so less (and be able to do it)

I don't have expections set from adsense, certainly not upto 5k (at least from this one site)

[celgins]

What's your site about? Does it consist mostly of articles, forum pages, or...?

You still haven't addressed this question. Folks are asking because it's difficult to determine why someone is receiving tons of $0.01 - $0.05 clicks when there could be a number of reasons.

[OptiRex]

what is being sidelined is my point about clicks worth of .01 - 0.02$ and the kind of sites (mfas, parked domains, affiliates etc)using adwords for buying traffic for so less (and be able to do it)

It's not being sidelined, there have been many complaints about such ads.

Tell me, when you search Google.com for your subject, what ads are displayed in the normal SERPs?

Are they MFA's etc or are they more pertinent to your niche showing good ads?

Do the ads show at the bottom "More Sponsored Links »" for several pages?

If not then there are very few ads for your subject which is why you're getting the low paying ads however if "More Sponsored Links »" is there then Google isn't understanding your site correctly.

Let us know.

[danimal]

>>>that is why creating a page strictly for adsense does not work so well.<<<

his post never made that inference, period.

however, i suspect that the fact that he was complaining about getting mfa's triggered a negative response from some people... just the term "mfa" from someone we don't know was enuf to do it, lol.

what's disturbing is that he's getting mfa's and off-topic garbage after all of these supposedly big improvements in the quality of the adwords landing pages.

[ndaru]

dshah, looking at your stats, your site looks popular enough.

Did the cheap ads just come up recently? If so, maybe you should add them to your URL filter (which I assume you already did). And if the cheap ads are keep coming maybe this is the right time to diversify to another topics.

Just an idea:

I also have a site with a decent traffic yet a mild earning. I began to diversify since June, building a new site selling gimmicks. Thanks to the first site's high PR, the second site appeared in Google in just 2 days. I haven't put any affiliate links inside the second site, but the incoming search keywords for the second site looks promising (the visitors look to buy gimmicks).

Hope this helps.

[andrewshim]

I won't bother you again with my small advice.

Ann,

Will you "bother" me then everyday with your small advice? I find your (and many others on this forum) "little advice" are like little gold nuggets... you just gotta mold them into what you need...

Andrew

[ronburk]

The grass is always greener, but I sure would like to have to deal with the low CPC problem for a while instead of the low traffic problem.

Want a game plan?

• Analyze your demographics. What makes your visitors different than a random sampling of the entire planet?
  
• Analyze the needs of your demographic. Are they more likely to have young children? That raises a lot of very specific shopping needs. Are they more likely to be near retirement? That raises an entirely different set of very specific shopping needs.
  
• Analyze the advertising base for the specific shopping needs you've identified. What are the top 3 payout per click markets likely to be? Which of them can be ruled out as having little ad inventory?
  
• Build content for the top 1 or 2 products/services you've identified as most likely to be profitable. This is content that needs to a) be useful to your users and b) marketable to your users (you will need to convince them to go view this content) and c) has no problem attracting ads for the products/services you've identified.
  
• With the new content in place and attracting the right ads, re-org your current AdSense advertising to do the Burk Two-Step. Reduce (or remove completely) the AdSense ads on all those low-paying pages and use that space for displaying "in-house ads" that, when clicked on, take users to one of your new content pages that target good-paying products/services. These do not have to look like ads, of course, and you have complete freedom to integrate them into your content (or not) in any way that works best.
  
• Now you have greatly reduced your AdSense impressions and refocussed them into mostly good-paying products and services. Since visitors had to click specificly to read content related to these products/services, you should be able to deliver better qualified visitors to those advertisers, moving you from the SmartPricing room where all you can hear is "waaaaaah!" down the hall to the SmartPricing room where all you hear is an occasional whispered "Cool!".
  
• As part of the payback for reducing AdSense impressions, you have much greater control over who sees what ads. That "second click" on one of your in-house ads is automatically reflected in your normal weblogs, and even low-end log analysis tools can tell you which pages convert best for what products/services -- because, as a first-level approximation, you can assume that clicking on one of your in-house ads identifies someone much more likely than the herd to purchase that product/service. Using this as an approximation for advertiser ROI, you can test what sells best on what pages, what "incite to action" text works best where, etc.
  
• Can't bear the thought of slashing those page impressions to a fraction of their current volume? Just remember, a page that pops out $1.00 per click only has to be 1/50th as successful to beat a page that's paying you $.02/click. And, experimentation may show you can leave an ad unit on many pages and pick up the small change as well.
  

When you have good traffic and lousy CPC, it's time to stop being a sheep and start using your brain to think like publishers have had to do for the last 100 years. The Google promise is that you don't have to think about advertisers at all, but when all that gives you is crap-all CPC, it's not worth much.

It's funny to see AdSense users refer to themselves as "publishers", when they typically know virtually nothing that paper publishers know. Paper publishers know:

• Who their advertisers are.
  
• The relative value of each advertiser.
  
• What content attracts better-paying ads.
  
• How advertising dollars vary by day of week, time of year, and other factors -- and how to adjust content accordingly.
  
• How to attract new advertisers.
  
• How to sell content to advertisers -- not just to readers.
  
• That advertisers represent a key relationship to be managed, just like the relationship with readers, with authors, with editors, with the printer, etc.
  

If you think being electronic and online and virtual renders irrelevant the longstanding basic strategies of paper publishers, then you're probably making a fraction of what you could make.

[trader]

Judging by his very low click values he may not have good categories but not sure about that. He should also try to get domains and relevant content revolving around higher paying categories such as real estate, medical, travel, business, credit, stocks and financials, etc.

[Play_Bach]

Great post ronburk - thanks!

[minnapple]

About four years ago, I decided to build a 60's 70's music site. It was hobby site, and I enjoyed building it.

I dropped adsense on it a couple of years ago, and the return was a big yawn.

I then got into this mode that I would not work on it or added to it, UNTIL it made me another twenty bucks.

Recently the site is turning a good profit, but still I don't feel compelled to update it no matter how much money it makes.

For me, turning the site from hobby to a revenue source took the fun out of it.

I cant imagine how it feels to build a site for pure profit and then not get a return.

[andrewshim]

Great post ronburk - thanks!

ditto...

The grass is always greener

When you're starting out, the PR bar is always greener on the other site...

[Andem]

The is probably the best advice I can give: Your web site content and quality should be your priority. Adsense and revenue should be further down the list of priorities. My web site was ad-free for the first couple of years, and now I'm very successful.

[martinibuster]

I agree. Your website topic, and the quality of it, are what you should be concerned with.

If you don't like the ads you're receiving, and the performance of those ads, then you may want to consider researching a new niche and building another site.

Some site topics stink and perform poorly. Considering cutting loose your poor performing site and building a new one may just be the best move you make.