Forum Moderators: martinibuster
If you look at a graph of my stats for 2009, it may look a bit like a rollercoaster ride, but overall, I have nothing to complain about.
I have noticed some board "regulars" absent from the pessimistic threads. I'm just wondering how it's going for others?
And please, if you only have gripes or complaints about AdSense, there are plenty of other recent threads where you can post or there is always room for a new thread. I'd appreciate if this thread were kept relatively "gripe-free."
FarmBoy
We know what the gripes are:-)
A simple, you are all crazy, go back to work would suffice ;)
Oh well, good to see your earnings are up ;)
Everything else, including my stock portfolio, is down 20 to 50%.
I can think of quite a few newspapers, TV and radio stations and magazines who would give anything to be where they were last year.
These figures exclude AdSense paid search, which we just added last month. It is so far adding about 20% to total Google ad revenue.
These figures exclude AdSense paid search, which we just added last month. It is so far adding about 20% to total Google ad revenue.
That's a nice contribution from Search. Best we've ever reached was about 6% (this year), and before that it was about 3% for 12 quarters.
It's an uphill battle to stay where I was last year.
Feels like a nintendo hamster wheel above spikes & sharks.
Traffic is up by 117%
AS earnings up by 134%
CTR is up by 32%
So AS earnings overcome my traffic growth, this is great news! It seems that following my AS advisor's recommendations absolutely to the letter, has a lot to do with the above reporting.
As far as my reach, out of a total of 2.2 million visits in the past 30 days, 80% is EU traffic coming from all EU countries.
Another good (I guess) thing is that non AS earnings account for 45% of total website earnings this year, in comparison to 30% of last year’s 30 day period.
I only own this 2-year old website (and another small personal site with no ads whatsoever).
I am not complaining…
The decline in revenue has made me investigate other income streams, specifically direct advertising, which I am using more now. I think adsense still works very well for targeting niche sites though.
But that small increase has been down to new content. eCPM has almost halved in the same time period.
Considering the bad times we are in, then yes (intermittent periods of panic aside) I'm happy that Adsense has provided a reasonably steady income when other industries are going down the plug hole.
Now is truly a time to buy, but a small experiment of mine indicates that there is no serious money out there for website purchase.
The only major change that Google has signaled in recent weeks has been the introduction of interest-based ads.
If you had a content-rich site that already had well-targeted ads, interest-based ads might not even feature. However, junk sites - or news and social network sites - that had previously only presented off-target ads could benefit significantly from this change. Their impressions would be in the zillions. Is that where the income from smaller sites has gone?
Grow. Small site is going to equal small income. That's where your income went.
I am throwing hundreds of dollars in promotion per month to grow my sites. It's not arbitrage, it's growing the site, creating new fans for my sites and keeping them from going to competitors. The promotion does not stop there, either.
I even bought hats to give away as a promotion. My site was small once too. None of my competitors, not a single one of them, even the behemoth established sites, are doing what I'm doing to promote themselves. They're sitting around on their fat behinds getting by on whatever Google gives them.
I am larger and making more money this year than last through sheer promotional effort, by beating out bigger sites through strategy and outrunning my peers everywhere else. I mean, geez, my competitors aren't even on twitter. How lame is that? They deserve to be left behind for their sheer lack of imagination, not to mention their marketing laziness.
[edited by: martinibuster at 8:59 pm (utc) on May 16, 2009]
geez, my competitors aren't even on twitter. How lame is that? They deserve to be left behind for their sheer lack of imagination, not to mention their marketing laziness
I'm going for the double whammy
The coffee almost met the keyboard.
There have been a number of threads/posts here recently where people have reported disappointing stats in one form or another.
Just as many are doing well, probably just less vocal about it.
Some threads have even gone so far as speculating on the demise of AdSense or Google.
That's a bit far fetched in my humble opinion, we are in an economic downturn, of course there will be collateral damage to some more than others.
If you look at a graph of my stats for 2009, it may look a bit like a rollercoaster ride, but overall, I have nothing to complain about.
Me either, I'm very thankful for my adsense revenue.
I have noticed some board "regulars" absent from the pessimistic threads. I'm just wondering how it's going for others?
The "regulars" are probably doing OK.
And please, if you only have gripes or complaints about AdSense, there are plenty of other recent threads where you can post or there is always room for a new thread. I'd appreciate if this thread were kept relatively "gripe-free."FarmBoy
I totally agree,
[edited by: martinibuster at 3:59 am (utc) on May 17, 2009]
[edit reason] TOS#24. [/edit]
Post-maintenance earnings are way better than before. At least for me!
After changing my format, I appear to have been smartpriced. CPC went down dramatically. However, it has been improving steadily since then, for whatever reason. So my stats have been going up recently.
In general I've been very satisfied with Adsense. It has performed far better than any other form of monetization on my site.
As usual, AdSense beats flipping burgers at some fast food joint.
As usual, AdSense beats flipping burgers at some fast food joint.
And AdSense can be making money for you even if you are flipping burgers at a fast-food joint. (Think of it as a "background process.")
As usual, AdSense beats flipping burgers at some fast food joint.
Come to think of it... I guess thats most likely because lowering an McD-wage would break laws on minimum wages.
The problem is that wages at your local McD won't *fall*, compared to your adsense income, which is a wild rollercoaster.
AdSense publishers need to think more like publishers (in the traditional meaning of the term) and less like employees. If you'd been publishing a magazine in the heyday of print publishing, you would have seen big revenue differences between, say, fall or spring and late summer. You certainly wouldn't have seen the consistency that one would expect from an hourly wage or a monthly salary. Being an AdSense "publisher" is like being a freelance writer: You'll have periods of feasting and periods of famine, but what really matters is how much you've earned when you add up your revenues at the end of the year.
