Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I'm down about 1/3 from the summer months in the last few years. I would have thought economy but so many people are posting that they have no change or are doing better with AdSense lately.
At first I started cutting back on the number of ads on pages. EPC increased.
Then I started removing AdSense from some pages altogether. Then EPC really increased.
FWIW
FarmBoy
For one site, finally getting some CPM ads did help somewhat, but the revenue from those are never exactly spectacular unless you have huge traffic.
We've always had threads like this, lately the _____________ seems to be the economy :-)
[edited by: Swanny007 at 2:56 am (utc) on Sep. 29, 2008]
Can smart pricing be a series of small drops or would it be more dramatic?
Can smart pricing be a series of small drops or would it be more dramatic?
This is just one man's opinion:
I joined AdSense during their first summer of 2003.
I've had ads on different sites on a diverse selection of topics.
I've used channels aggressively.
I've used no channels.
I've kept a full filter.
I've had an empty filter.
I've tested and analyzed agressively.
I've been passive.
I've spent many hours (too many) reading articles, blog postings, etc. seeking that extra edge.
My conclusion: Other than a very few very basic concepts, results with AdSense are unpredictable and out of the publisher's control. Beyond that you'll soon find yourself on a wild goat chase.
Do something more productive with your time - like testing other sources of revenue - or sitting in your rocking chair on your front porch.
FarmBoy
Great summary of the Adsense program. Almost the same experience here, with the only difference being that filtering/blocking ads can significantly improve ad quality, so users won't be driven to crap/MFA sites and hopefully have a higher opinion of the publisher site.
Income-wise Adsense has always been quite unpredictable for us too, and most key metrics (eCPM, EPC, CTR) appear to be random for us while traffic figures are rather solid. The only predictable part is the fact that we will earn less every month in Y/Y comparison. That has been true for us since we peaked in 2006.
annej - if I were you, I'd probably first go into search and see what the advertisers were like for my likely keywords, and then I might mosey over to some sites that serve the same niche and see who's advertising on THEIR sites, and finally, I might spend some time with the google keyword tool; while as far as I know it's only for search, it might give you an idea of trends as far as costs and searches (make sure you turn all columns on). Oh yea, trends - I'd also run various aspects of my niche through Google Trends for the past year or so and see what it looks like there. It's possible for a niche to wane or die out, I suppose, although I doubt that's the case for you.
What's your traffic like over the same period?
I work with a lot of AdWords advertisers in difference niches. Most of 'em are increasing their spend, going back to the (cleaned up but not perfect yet) Content Network, and willing to spend more there because conversions can be great. The problem is, we don't always KNOW where the good sites are, because there's so many. So if you aren't using Ad Placement, you might want to try it, and really talk up your site on the description.
My traffic and click through rate have stayed pretty steady so it's the epc that is slumping.
Farmboy is probably right, I could waste a lot of time trying to improve epc. I am working on improving the the placement and kind of Amazon ads in hopes I can earn more there.
I'll look at the info on Ad Placement.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this.
When you're smart priced you drown your sorrow drinking beer alone.
/hiccup
Mind you - I made a navigational change on my main site on Friday mainly for my benefit so I could just flip through the site backwards and forwards one article at a time checking for crap ads. Page views went up but CTR seemed to as well. Kicking myself for not having thought of this one earlier!
The problem with AdSense is that you can never be sure if some other factor brought the epc up and not taking it off the free site.
The problem with AdSense is that you can never be sure if some other factor brought the epc up and not taking it off the free site.
True, because epc can vary by 30% from day to day anyway. But if you take it off and on several times and the same pattern emerges, then the odds increase that removing the free stuff was the factor that helped your epc.
