Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Clicks, CTR, eCPM and EPC were all within my "normal" metrics, no complaint there.
On a Friday I normally expect to see 85-90% of my Monday to Thursday page impression average however yesterday struggled to 70%.
Was it just me?
Did I have an unusually slow day?
Have I missed a holiday somewhere? This may be the answer therefore did anyone else in Europe notice the kick-in of the summer shutdown for specific business sectors?
I did see a substantial reduction this weekend last year however my statistics for 2004 are not as complete.
So yeah... Friday the 4th sucked.
But as I said before, August is when all my visitors migrate to the offline world, and so should I.
Ann
August got off to a fantastic start with above average 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Then probably someone in G! realized this and said " Hey... we gotta bring him down to earth..." So yeah... Friday the 4th sucked.
Same here. The 1st and 2nd were good, the 3rd was great, and the earnings on the 4th were 84% of the 1st and 2nd, and 73% of the 3rd.
In short, just an average summer Friday.
when all my visitors migrate to the offline world, and so should I.
You mean... there IS an offline world? whoa... kewl!
There are too many factors involved to pin anything down
I am having problems with pages falling out of the Google index, altered kwyword rankings in google serps and a new generation of MFA's this month. <Oh how I wish google would up the limit for the competitive ad filter so that I can control the spread of this noxious weed over my website>
[edited by: Scurramunga at 1:04 am (utc) on Aug. 6, 2006]
Yep, outside world for sure...now if I could only remember what that was like...(scratchingg head and musing)
Ann
What's up?
Just kidding... I don't know if you are doing the same or not... but I am.
Mike
The evidence would suggest our businesses are being used again as a testing ground for another Googlebrat brainwave.
I have a feeling that this has much to do with changes is Adwords. Advertisters have been grousing for the better part of the past month about higher minimum bids and I think Google caved in. Either that, or it's the normal BS that we go through with AdSense, which is, as we all know, up and down, with neither rhyme nor reason.
So far today, I've made $0.00 with AdSense. Lovely. I would say it's getting old, but this kind of activity got old over a year ago, so it's now ancient, repeating history. Ground Hog day, anybody?
Really, really, really, sick and tired of this BS. The whole point of AS is to alleviate publishers from having to sell their own ad inventory, but G apparently thinks we can live rent-free and on macaroni and cheese. Have they ever heard of economics? Inflation?
sick and tired of this BS. The whole point of AS is to alleviate publishers from having to sell their own ad inventory, but G apparently thinks we can live rent-free and on macaroni and cheese. Have they ever heard of economics? Inflation?]
fearlessrick,
All I can tell you is that if you really believe what you say, then you are much better off getting an offline 9-5 job, and pray it is stable.
It's ok, it is not your fault, but neither it is Google's or anyone else. Unless you have tolerance for ambiguity your life will be miserable, a shop owner never knows how much he will be making everyday, at best it is a guess based on historic trends, we are no different, don't like the bumpy ride? Get off the bike and take the bus.
It doesn't add up that as one continues to improve and expand one's buisiness, income goes down. Adsense is not my only source of revenue, though I would like to have an idea of just how many thousands of quality, relevant pages one must create to produce a reliable income.
What if Google's quarterly reports were as unreliable and unpredictable as what we've come to expect as publishers. Wall Street demands consistency. At least a little of that should be afforded publishers and I just don't see it.
However, since we all signed onto Google's open-ended contract, we all - and that includes me - should not "expect" anything in regards to consistency of earnings, quality of ads or anything else. I suppose I should not complain at all. Just accept it and move on.
So, maybe, in a way, you're right. AS is not reliable, so nobody should rely upon it. We are, however, human, and seeing some positive results, we trust that G will treat us all fairly. Has that been the case?
What if Google's quarterly reports were as unreliable and unpredictable as what we've come to expect as publishers. Wall Street demands consistency. At least a little of that should be afforded publishers and I just don't see it.
How would it be "afforded publishers"? By robbing Peter to pay Paul? That's the only way I can think of.
Google's quarterly AdSense revenue numbers are aggregated from tens (hundreds?) of thousands of publishers. So there's inevitably a "smoothing out" as Christy's Christmas Ornaments site drops for the the summer, Bud's Barbecue Pitstop improves, Sam's Ski Jump takes a nosedive, and Augie's August Car Trip Tips has a last-minute flurry of traffic. As an individual publisher, you don't have the AdSense network's diversity or sample size--so you're going to see more fluctuations than Google does, just as a startup company in Silicon Valley will probably see more fluctations in its stock price than an indexed mutual fund does.
The good news is that you're likely to see fewer ups and downs if you have enough pages and--this is very important--enough subtopics. But if you're looking for predictability, you'll need to try something different, such as flat-rate advertiser sponsorships with long-term contracts (which are likely to be easier to think about than to find).
And that's not the issue, really. At it's core, the issue is the publisher's loss of control over his/her pages, which we ceded to Adsense when we signed on.
Once again, it's an issue of trust, and that trust gets tested when G or the algo or smart pricing decides that you'll get only grade b, c and below advertisers and you will make less than a nickle a click after they've been giving you consistently better ads with better payouts.
When your earnings peak in April 2005, and you develop more pages and improvements to your site, but adsense earnings don't ever measure up to that peak, that trust gets eroded.
I'd rather accept no ads under 10 cents (my share) than accept whatever they decide to throw my way, but I have no mechanism to accomplish that. Even the banner ad networks allow you to set thresholds (G does not) and minimums and set a default (G does not). If G were really so swell and great, they'd allow publishers to make those adjustments. I'd rather show my own ads, or CPM ads rather than .01 or even .09 ads. When the advertisers realize that their ads aren't showing up on my site (and I have a good number of regulars), they'd have to raise their bids. Right now, there's no incentive for advertisers to raise their bids.
Maybe my the advertisers in my sector are tapped out, but I doubt it, since Aug. 1 was a near record day for me, and it's been a steady decline in epc since.
Maybe, and one must recognize that AdWords has its share of problems, too, the new algo in AW tapped everyone's monthly budget out by the 2nd or 3rd. I've seen it happen.
G isn't perfect, though some people around here are ready to accept it for what it is without due diligence.
BTW: Good to see Alex_Miles around, though I'd prefer it to be under better circumstances. ;)
G isn't perfect, though some people around here are ready to accept it for what it is without due diligence
Hi fearlessrick,
Who said Google is perfect?
Who do you mean by "some people"?
Could EFV please explain how many would constitute "enough pages?"
As most things, it depends. I've never had any dramatic fluctations in AdSense earnings, and my site probably had about 3,000 pages with hundreds of page subtopics when I joined AdSense in June, 2003. Your mileage may vary.
And that's not the issue, really. At it's core, the issue is the publisher's loss of control over his/her pages, which we ceded to Adsense when we signed on.
Yes, you did cede that control. We all did. It's a bit late for seller's remorse.
Once again, it's an issue of trust, and that trust gets tested when G or the algo or smart pricing decides that you'll get only grade b, c and below advertisers and you will make less than a nickle a click after they've been giving you consistently better ads with better payouts.
Times change. Bidding methods change. Smart-pricing calculations change. Advertisers come and go.
When your earnings peak in April 2005, and you develop more pages and improvements to your site, but adsense earnings don't ever measure up to that peak, that trust gets eroded.
Okay, I'll repeat a question that I've asked before: "Why would a publisher continue working with a business partner that he or she doesn't trust?"
I'd rather accept no ads under 10 cents (my share) than accept whatever they decide to throw my way, but I have no mechanism to accomplish that.
No, and you probably won't, because Google needs inventory for all of its ads--not just the advertisers that deliver attractive earning per click for publishers (or, for that matter, for Google).
Even the banner ad networks allow you to set thresholds (G does not) and minimums and set a default (G does not).
So why not try them? (I can guess the answer: Because they don't pay as well.)
If G were really so swell and great, they'd allow publishers to make those adjustments. I'd rather show my own ads, or CPM ads rather than .01 or even .09 ads.
Would you be willing to compensate Google for the loss of revenue from the ads that you refuse to show on your site? Maybe that could be a publisher option.
When the advertisers realize that their ads aren't showing up on my site (and I have a good number of regulars), they'd have to raise their bids.
That would depend on how badly they needed impressions on your site. Your proposal might work if Google offered site-targeted CPC ads, and if your site performed well enough for advertisers to justify higher-than-normal bids, but it it wouldn't be very effective with ads being served across the network.
Right now, there's no incentive for advertisers to raise their bids.
AdWords/AdSense is an auction-based system. Bids are determined by supply and demand. If more advertisers start competing for the same keywords, bids will go up. If competition decreases, bids on those keywords will decline.
one must recognize that AdWords has its share of problems, too, the new algo in AW tapped everyone's monthly budget out by the 2nd or 3rd. I've seen it happen.
Could be, and if that's the case, you'll probably hear a firestorm of protests in the AdWords forum.
G isn't perfect, though some people around here are ready to accept it for what it is without due diligence.
We all accepted AdSense for what it was when we signed up. AdSense has always been based on a simple premise: We put a block of code on our pages, Google figures out what ads to put in the "Ads by Google" box, and we get paid an unspecified share of the revenues. That was the deal in June, 2003, and that's the deal three years later.
In the end, the decision whether to remain with AdSense comes down to a simple issue: "Am I making enough from AdSense to justify having "Ads by Google" boxes on my pages? If the answer is "yes," great. If it's "no," then the publisher needs to think about alternatives. From a business perspective, that's the reasonable and intelligent thing to do.
One other thought: If AdSense isn't performing well enough to keep you happy, why not consider using the AdSense code on just a small number of "bellwether" pages? That way, you can monitor your EPC/eCPM trend and put the code back on your other pages if and when performance improves. It's a win-win-win situation: You keep your options open, you make a statement to Google, and you wean yourself away (at least to a great degree) from a partner you don't trust.
that's how adwords *should* work, but as i proved several weeks ago with that robert cringley blog, it works in the exact opposite manner many times.
specifically, if your keyword has no competition, or little competition, it could cost you a fortune to advertise with adwords... just yesterday i read a john battelle blog on the subject, that had many adwords advertisers complaining about it... most of 'em simply had to stop using adwords, which means that publishers can't make any money from those keywords.
that situation is proof positive that adwords has big problems that can have a negative effect on publisher income.
>>>We are, however, human, and seeing some positive results, we trust that G will treat us all fairly. Has that been the case?<<<
and how was our trust rewarded? with massive amounts of unregulated click fraud from google, and a bogus click fraud "settlement" that has, what, 500 people opting out of it? and look how it took google 3 years to stop charging advertisers for double-clicks.
fearlessrick, the next time somebody starts tearing your post apart line by line with false information, lol, just ask yourself why they keep pushing a pro-google agenda... and then rate their credibility accordingly ;-)
I've also found that it's somewhat fruitless to respond to certain people. You know the type: they're right no matter what. The truth is only what they believe.
