May 2011 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[HuskyPup]

For me, so far today 1st May, it has continued in the same vein of the past few days.

I've never experienced such bad endofmonthitis before, here's hoping for a kick-start Monday or Tuesday or whenever anyone, asides from us lot, go back to work!

[Play_Bach]

> having trouble getting the mobile plugin to work properly

Are you talking Wordpress? If so, care to share what the plugin is? Thanks.

[netmeg]

Yes, it's WordPress. Using WP-Touch Pro (which is the paid version), but need to get it work properly with my custom post types and taxonomy pages plus tuned with W3 Total Cache and find a more or less current list of user agents (which I have thus far been unable to find) and still look reasonably good. Then once I get it properly tuned on one site, I can install it on the other sites. Ideally I would like it to alternate between AdSense and Admob so I can see which does better, but for now I just want to get it to work properly.

[Play_Bach]

I use WPTouch for my blog too, but couldn't get it to look right for websites. I know lots of people have been asking them to get it together for non-blogs so maybe one of these days they'll do it.

[Atomic]

I notice that a much larger percentage of my traffic is mobile this year.

Ditto. It's astonishing how quickly the percentage of mobile users is increasing on my sites, especially on weekends. Finding ways to serve ads to these users is my summer project. I know I must be leaving a lot of money on the table by not doing that now.

[Automotive site]

Extremely low ecpm across most sites today. Its heading to be one of my worst days ever unless things change drastically.

[thechromeguy]

@Atomic how are the rates for mobile content i do get a lot of iphone users over the weekend, my concern is i rarely see relevant mobile ads.

[Atomic]

I am not currently serving any mobile ads so I couldn't tell you how well they perform. Ask me again in September!

[netmeg]

They did quite well for me last year (but I wasn't on WP) This year, in the past six weeks, which includes the start of my peak season, my mobile traffic is just under five times what it was last year (according to Google Analytics).

[HuskyPup]

I notice that a much larger percentage of my traffic is mobile this year.

I wonder how many are mobile phones and how many are handheld devices since I know my Android Tablet PCs are recognised as mobiles even though they have 8" and 10" screens and I use standard screens whenever possible but some sites automatically deliver their mobile sites?

Purely going by browsers used on my sites, Android, Blackberry, IPhone plus "others" make up 0.8% of visitors.

[jost]

@community2004

I get 7.5 million page views a month and 1/5th your income.

All my sites jumped 30% in traffic recently, probably due to panda.
My revenue however is FLAT

Ive steadily increased my traffic only to get the same or lower revenue. Really fed up with adsense. Working on cutting them out.

[Atomic]

Purely going by browsers used on my sites, Android, Blackberry, IPhone plus "others" make up 0.8% of visitors.

That's probably due to your site's content. At leasrt that's my guess. My site gets 7% or 8% on weekdays and about 20% on weekends. 6 months ago mobile users were just a couple percent. That increase caught me completely offguard. I never would have expected a jump like that. Even so, my weekend earnings are fairly stable. But I have to wonder what they could be...

[netmeg]

Woo hoo, got WP Touch working, fixed CSS issues, working with custom post types, impressions and clicks flooding in. All is good.

[zarathustra2011]

Congratulations Nutmeg. I'm actually using a mobile now - would never have considered it in the past, but as soon as I find the time I'll be making mobile versions of my sites.

[Play_Bach]

Delayed reporting is a drag.

[thechromeguy]

it seems stuck but hope its not another slow day, been looking forward to june. I'm closing me eyes for the next panda update and just learn to enjoy making websites again.

[netmeg]

Congratulations Nutmeg. I'm actually using a mobile now - would never have considered it in the past, but as soon as I find the time I'll be making mobile versions of my sites.

NETmeg!

thus spake zarathustra2011 (ork ork)

[koan]

NETmeg!

Nutmeg is to netmeg what "chicken!" is to Marty McFly. You only make the mistake once.

[ErnestHemingway]

Is it just me or many of you have stopped working on any new projects? I have pretty much put a 100% pause in any new site development. I have decided not to invest even 1cent unless I see where all this is going.

Adsense earnings are going down.
Spam is dominating search results. Privacy/Disclaimer pages are outranking real quality content.

CPC is going down. I will return to work when I see some developments from Google side. One thing is for sure, if we don't earn neither will Google.

[Atomic]

My earnings are at record levels. My customers are doing as well or better. I have more work planned than I have time for. My personal feeling is that most people aren't all that affected by recent events and are doing just fine. I can't prove it but the only complaints I see are on forums like this and I think that says a lot. I would be willing to be Google is doing well, too. We'll know for sure when they release their earnings.

[zarathustra2011]

D'oh sorry NetMeg! Those little android mobile screens are hard to read - especially for the sleep deprived!
Moving house tomorrow, so will be mobile only for the next couple of weeks, and as I'll be out in the middle of rural nowhere, I will have the worst of Internet connections. Sad to be saying goodbye to fibre optic. :(

Very average day for me today in terms of earnings

[HuskyPup]

Is it just me or many of you have stopped working on any new projects?

I have to admit that I am also feeling this way even though the new site I am constructing is doing ok at the moment and I haven't done anything to it for 10 days.

When I look around at the sites I have been replaced by there is simply no consistency or pattern, some are simply MFAs, a few have reasonable content, some are so thin it makes a bald man look hairy, many are just old forum-type directory pages.

As yet most Google images do not seem to have been affected however if they take a similar route then I'll be wiped out.

the only complaints I see are on forums like this and I think that says a lot.

That's quite possibly so however I do know of people outside of this board who have been hit and haven't a clue why...what is for certain is that whilst people are still using Google it is inevitable that some are going to be doing a darned site better.

I know of a scraper who copied my main B&M site whose traffic has risen 300% since this debacle began but the funny thing is he doesn't have AdSense and my products he is displaying he cannot obtain!

I get a feeling it's time to walk away and maybe come back after the summer or just forget about Google and The Net altogether and let them commit hari kari since I'm far too old to be playing silly mind games!

[koan]

the only complaints I see are on forums like this and I think that says a lot.

Panda is known to affect bigger sites and WebmasterWorld seems to have its share of experienced big players compared to other forums with mainly smaller bloggers just starting out.

If regular Joe user doesn't find what he's looking for, he's more likely to blame a lack of good web sites for the topic rather than poor results in Google.

[netmeg]

I'm not slowing down on development, just the opposite. I see so much opportunity around me it keeps me up at night that I won't be able to get to it all.

[coachm]

Husky

I have to admit that I am also feeling this way even though the new site I am constructing is doing ok at the moment and I haven't done anything to it for 10 days

As you know I suggested this possibility in a thread in google search.

I'm actually doing a lot of work on sites, including adding new material, but it's not for the sake of google search OR rankings. I've removed adsense from about 75% of my pages, and I'll continue to experiment by adding and removing once in a while.

The content I'm producing is still worth doing because I can repurpose it eventually, which is something I've done since the beginning. By creating good articles of good value for visitors, there's always a possibility of doing a book or two "collecting" articles that share a theme.

The big difference is the removal of the ads, and designing COMPLETELY for the visitor so as to open up non-internet sources of revenue. More of reputation building. We've always pretty much done this, but kept in mind serps and adsense in design. Now, not so much.

[ThatsBoBo]

I just don't see a need to make mobile versions of my sites or to add mobile ads.

These days most mobile visitors are on iPhones, iPads, Droids, etc. which show webpages just as they do in a browser. And things only seem to be heading further in this direction.

Back in the day of Blackberry web browsers, etc. I'd understand, but today? Is it worth the effort?

I have plenty of mobile visitors with about the same CTR as those who come from a standard PC.

[Automotive site]

ThatsBoBo,

I agree with what you say. I can see all my sites perfectly on iPad 1. They appear as they do on my desktop. What's the need for optimising for mobile?

As for adsense, it looks like I am going to finish May around 66-68% of April earnings. Not bad given it was around 50% midway through this month. With the exception of couple of days ago, the second half of this month has been decent and even quite good on a few days.

But still, more than 30% down month on month.

[azlinda]

You did well, Automotive. I'm finishing May with exactly half of April earnings. Although today my eCPM has soared for some reason.

[ThatsBoBo]

My May earnings are UP about 15% over April.

Some sites down, some up, but more up than down.

[HuskyPup]

Oh errr...I've been away most of the day and just logged into my AdSense account for the first time and if stats are not delayed my stuff has completely and utterly collapsed...my eCPM is STG 0.82, about USD 1.34, and earnings so far would JUST buy me one beer in the pub!

This is pointless level, absolutely, utterly pointless, we'll see if anything happens soon but June 1st looks like bye bye Google.

[manny123]

I'm not slowing down on development, just the opposite. I see so much opportunity around me it keeps me up at night that I won't be able to get to it all.

I am with you on this one, Netmeg. It's sad, but I have found if I don't work to exhaustion everyday, the excitement of current and future projects tends to keep me from falling asleep at night.

Hmmm.. sounds like a problem when I write it out like that. It's a ton of fun, though.