Low earnings. do you trust yourself not to change anything?

[londrum]

judging by what i'm told, and what i read on forums, a lot of people have seen a bit of a dip in earnings the last 6 months. obviously its different for everyone, and some people have seen an upturn, so i don't want to get into a conversation about that because i know that not everyone's the same.
but for those people like me who have seen a dip, do you trust your layout and content enough not to fiddle with anything?

the problem is... if you earnt good money in the first six months, and less money in the last six months, the temptation is to look back on those first six months and try to replicate them.
maybe you made some layout changes mid-year -- so you change it back. and nothing happens. maybe you had a few more ads on the page -- so you change it back. and nothing happens. maybe you added a brand new section with 100s of pages -- so you dump it. and nothing happens. what do you do next?

i've reached the stage now where i think all my changes are good, and i want to leave them alone. (i've even got some good traffic back, so theres no problem on that score.) but my earnings are still not approaching what i did last christmas. so im basically just saying... enough is enough... im not doing any more changes, because it's not me, it's the economy. and im going to sit it out and wait for the sun to come out again.

i base this on looking at the ads themselves. ive got lower CTR (cut in half) and lower eCPM (cut by a quarter) and i know why... to be blunt, the ads are rubbish. im even getting a lot of ads for google chrome -- which to me is a sure sign that there is a lack of advertisers.
if there are less advertisers around, then it doesn't matter how much you fiddle with the layout because no one's going to click on them anyway.

anyone else want to sail in this boat with me? or are you still making changes?

[ascensions]

I've resorted to crosses on my computer, daily prayer, and an exorcism of my adsense account.

My opinion is, Google's panda is working on the greater good principle, and eventually it's going to have to get better or risk becoming exactly what it claims it's not: a non algo-rhythmic engine.

There were sites doing 30K a year prior to Panda, that are now doing 5K. These weren't farms, or MFA, and I suspect, eventually Google might enjoy having that revenue back.

Panda isn't finished by a long shot. That said, never stop changing, and never stop moving forward. Because, one day you might find you've arrived, right where you always wanted to be.

[londrum]

but im not blaming panda for it, im blaming the economy. you can work around panda, you can figure it out and fix it.
but if the economy is shot and there are less advertisers about, and the ones that are left are paying less money, fiddling with your layout wont do much.

is anyone at the point where they are just accepting that earnings wont improve until the economy picks up?

[CMidd]

sound like your ads suck because you aren't managing properly.

Start blocking bad advertiser, categories, and ad networks that are wasting your space.
Your Block List should be a least 100 sites "with Google being one"

Next you need to start hunting for some affiliate offers to ad to the mix. "if your traffic was profitable, it still is, just not to adsense in it's current setup"

* Get an ad rotating script
* Find some supplemental affiliate offer
* Test offers "you will be surprise what makes money"
* Optimize you AdSense ad by elimination/blocking


hope this helps.

[macavity]

is anyone at the point where they are just accepting that earnings wont improve until the economy picks up?

Yup. After 6+ months of intensive optimising/testing (beyond the usual optimising we've been doing for the past 7 years) - to little effect, I might add - that's exactly where we're at right now.

[IanCP]

is anyone at the point where they are just accepting that earnings wont improve until the economy picks up?

For the rest of the world, does anyone want to speculate which year or decade that might be, given many experts predict we have yet to see the worst to come into being?

Decades of where economies and corporations were being built upon an ever increasing house of cards and subsequent years of band-aids are now becoming increasingly ineffectual?

Time will tell.

[londrum]

my problem is that the only way you can tell if a new layout is better than an old one, is by looking at the stats... comparing CTR and stuff like that.

its alright when you compare it to last week, because it was rubbish last week too. but when you start comparing it to six months ago it always looks worse. so is the new layout worse? you dont really know. it might be miles better but because the economy has packed up the stats will never approach what came before.

so you've just got to trust yourself that the new layout is better, even though the stats are worse.

[netmeg]

Most of my sites are seasonal, so it's important to me to compare apples to apples. It makes no sense to compare a down-season time period to a peak time period.

So, if it's relevant to you, make sure your comparisons make sense. Instead of comparing the second half of the year to the first half, compare it to the second half of the previous year, perhaps.

Then you want to look at other metrics as well. What's up and what's down? Visits? Pageviews? Bounce Rate? CTR? EPC? You should probably look at all of these and more; the issue of fewer visits is completely different than a lower click through rate.

[piatkow]

I used to block off topic advertisers but there is so little on topic inventory that it seems a pretty pointless exercise

[farmboy]

I used to block off topic advertisers but there is so little on topic inventory that it seems a pretty pointless exercise

For a while it was common to read conversations among AdWords advertisers advising each other to avoid the content network. I wonder if that is still the case?


FarmBoy

[mhansen]

We were dipping in earnings for awhile (-30 to 40% YOY) and took the step of reducing the number of ads on pages. We used to run 3-4 blocks of ads strategically placed. (mix of sizes, types)

We switched to one single adsense block per page (336x280) at the end of all our content and not only did earnings rise, traffic rose, pageviews/visit rose, bounce rate dropped and we are ranking much better in search results.

I KNOW this is not the answer for everyone, and it was somewhat counter productive to conventional thinking, but we now swear by the 1 ad block, at the end of our content.

[umain30]

I too facing same problem after updating Google Panda where my all sites average earns $300 per month but now they make hardly $100 .Sites updating are going on regular basis ,it is mention that my sites are blogs in various categories .Such Blogging help,Religious,Songs and movies review,Advertising and marketing tips and tools etc. Any one pro can help me as how to over come to my previous points !

[Slashus]

Just thinking... maybe the users that visit sites that run AdSense AND that were hit by the Panda Virus - are already ad blind to our ads because they've already seen them (and clicked them perhaps) on the higher-ranked sites that were not hit by the Panda Virus.

If this were the case the solution would be to immunize your site to the Panda Virus by taking your already good content and shaking a box of the following on your sites:

1) Every possible social button (especially google+ how's that for blackmail)

2) Put a YouTube video on every single page (how's that for blackmail)

3) Make a newsletter even if your content doesn't lend itself to having a newsletter

4) Don't put your AdSense blocks in the first 3 visible areas of your site (only Google is allowed to do that)

5) If you answer the visitor's question in 100 words or less - crap out another 1000 words to waste the viewer's time - but to ward off the Panda Virus

6) If your site was monotone because you're color blind - Panda Virus will eat you alive - make sure you shake a bunch of other colors all over your site

7) Allow social comments on every single page of your site

8) Put a live twitter/facebook feed with your main kw in it - even if it takes away from your website.

9) If you haven't linked out to your competitors yet - do so - that way the Panda Virus knows you're giving everyone the pros/cons and choices. I'd love to see a Bing.com and Yahoo.com link on Google.com (nofollow'd of course)

10) Any other possible "signal" per Matt Cutts that your site is not "spammy" that you can think of - especially if it takes away from your user's experience. Because all that matters is what the Panda Virus thinks of your user's experience - not you.

And your traffic will begin coming back! True story. Across 50+ sites and counting. Good job Panda Virus - I hope you got a big bonus.

[Lame_Wolf]

Panda is NOT a virus.

[eddieh]

In other words -

Don't Do As I Do - Do As I Say

with the caveat that what I say may be pure BS since we don't know what we are doing either!

[Slashus]

@Lame_Wolf

Depends on who you ask. There's a lot going on in regard to the penalty than just trying to improve search results. Way too much collateral damage and I'm sure we'll never know the true reason for it. But as much as Google says there's other options out there, that they're not the only option for people to search with, they ARE the only game in town and have a virtual monopoly.

So we just have to deal with them doing, "No evil" in their special way.

Anyway, it's a Panda Virus.

[Lame_Wolf]

Anyway, it's a Panda Virus.

It's NOT. Stop spreading FUD

[Slashus]

Okay sorry. There is no panda virus... you're feeling very sleepy... it does not exist... it is FUD... Elmer Fud... On the count of 3, you'll wake and you won't remember any thing of the sort... ever existed.

[londrum]

not every drop in earnings is to do with google and panda. the original post was not blaming panda - it was blaming the economy. that's what this post was about

[Lame_Wolf]

Okay sorry. There is no panda virus.

CORRECT