April 2012 AdSense Earnings & Observations

[HuskyPup]

March was one heck of a roller coaster ride for me and many others, let's hope they've ironed out whatever it is they've been attempting to do!

[zerillos]

At this point, the only explanation for the huge drop in earnings is that G is stealing. It’s impossible to have such a low CTR!

[zaktoo]

Just to throw something in here - today I tried implementing a new ad format. I chose the wrong size initially, and saw it pretty quickly, made a new ad unit of the appropriate size, and then corrected my mistake. AdSense has so far registered 0 requests for the wrong ad unit size, and despite obviously potentially not registering because they figured out I triggered the request, the chances that no-one else loaded pages with the wrong size ad showing is 0. I have multiple simultaneous requests to my pages at any given instant and the wrong size ads were there for at least 15 seconds.

[netmeg]

It’s impossible to have such a low CTR!

No it's not. Yesterday was one of my lowest CTR days ever, and when I checked Statcounter exit links (which are not entirely accurate, but can at least give you an idea) very few were clicking on Google ads yesterday. I racked it up to possibly a new car ad that was kind of taking over every page. I think it's very likely that my targeting wasn't all that great yesterday, but I don't think Google is out and out stealing, if for no other reason than it would be beyond stupid to do so (and potentially get caught doing it)

And today, clicks look much more normal (so far).

There are a LOT of things that go into this, some of which we control and some of which Google controls and some of which are external to both publishers and Google. Anyone looking for just one thing or one place to point a finger at is just misguided. I understand the frustration, but it's probably not going to help you get back to where you want to be.

[tonyolm]

@IanCP

@tonyolm

"Did those same people add some cool content?"

Nope and I haven't since 2000 and don't intend to do so. My sites were NEVER made with AdSense in mind [it wasn't invented back then]. I can't change the laws of physics in my genre.

Even if they weren't made with adsense in mind, mine weren't either, why don't you add new content or make the content you have more interesting?

You would have no readers returning if the site becomes stale. Now if the content is basically never changing you might have a competitor using the same information but making it more "interesting" to the end user so they gain traffic.

As example. This week I was bored and wanted to make another interesting page for one of my sites.

I'm working on some articles about "Venus Fly Traps".

Why? Because I grow things :)

[flickr.com...]

I'm going step by step..

[flickr.com...]

From the day they sprout

[flickr.com...]

To the day they flower. Have to have to have patience...I don't have a clue how long before they flower..:)

I will even show adult plants and how environment effects their growth..

[flickr.com...]

one example is how proper lighting is very important.

You can see the color change in the plant.

[flickr.com...]

Including new growth..

[flickr.com...]

Soon as I can find some bugs I'll have a page on "feeding day!"... and make a cool HD def video of some poor bug being dinner. Go to youtube and lookup venus fly trap and look at some of the views the videos receive.

That is really what I meant by cool or interesting.

[HuskyPup]

I understand the frustration, but it's probably not going to help you get back to where you want to be.

Yep and this is where I suppose many have a conundrum. Do they persevere with the hope that things will get better or do they decide to ditch Google/advertising altogether?

In my industry there is no alternative to Google therefore I am having to replace Google slots and promote my own products. Unfortunately I have to promote my not so popular products since all my best-sellers are already spoken for!

I feel absolutely sure that The Plex has absolutely no comprehension of the frustration, and dare I say anger, that is building up amongst many publishers.

[netmeg]

(Those are cool and interesting photos, tonyolm, but also kinda against the TOS of WebmasterWorld. We can't link drop here, even to photos. Otherwise my cat would be all up in this forum)

[netmeg]

I feel absolutely sure that The Plex has absolutely no comprehension of the frustration, and dare I say anger, that is building up amongst many publishers.

Honestly, I don't think, even if they did, that that is among their top priorities. We're not spring chickens, HP, and we could grow old and die waiting for G to come around to where we'd like them to be.

I'm putting a big push on direct ads and a few choice affiliate offers this year, even though my AdSense has actually been growing every year. Because I know it's inevitable that that will change, and I want to have more control. Google's not going to change their business for me, so maybe I need to change mine a little.

[NomadMan]

And then Inside Adsense comes up with this yesterday

[groups.google.com ]

"A simple change brings booming revenue"

I must be missing the point completely...

[Play_Bach]

>Honestly, I don't think, even if they did, that that is among their top priorities.
>We're not spring chickens, HP, and we could grow old and die waiting for G to come around to where we'd like them to be.

Amen to that netmeg. It reminds me of trying to call my cat when he's got his sights on a mouse. Talk about "falling on deaf ears"!

[HuskyPup]

"A simple change brings booming revenue"

It must be nice to be naive and have personal assistance from Google:

This surprised Kooshiar, who had previously thought one ad unit per page
was the maximum allowed.

So here we have a publisher who had evidently not read the T&Cs!

More tales from The Plex?

It amazes me that in 8 years I have never:

received a personalized email from the Google AdSense team, invitation

Do they know it's pointless and they simply enjoy slapping down my sites?

My new terminolgy for all this is GBS!

[zarathustra2011]

Pageviews and clicks have been stuck for the past 90 minutes - anyone else having problems?

[tonyolm]

@netmeg

(Those are cool and interesting photos, tonyolm, but also kinda against the TOS of WebmasterWorld. We can't link drop here, even to photos. Otherwise my cat would be all up in this forum)

I saw other links in general so I assumed it was fine. I wasn't pointing to any of my sites trying to bolster traffic up. Flickr doesn't have any programs I'm aware of that generate revenue. Wish there was. :)

I showed the photos so people can understand what I meant by interesting/cool. Make the reader come back for more.

Reason I started to work on plant articles is spring is here and gardening is a big hobby.

Advertisers start pumping money into online marketing when their busy season arrives. That is why my April revenue is going up for me. The increase isn't because of a panda/googly update.

[tonyolm]

Will I be stoned now that I broke a TOS rule.. :)

[Spyder_Cat]

Pageviews and clicks have been stuck for the past 90 minutes - anyone else having problems?

Yes

[tidewatcher]

Stats stuck here, too!

[zarathustra2011]

Just got one click and about hundred more page views added to my stuck total, so I think there's a dump yet to come!

[Lame_Wolf]

Will I be stoned now that I broke a TOS rule.

It depends. Were you stoned before you broke it ? ;)

[edited by: Lame_Wolf at 5:40 pm (utc) on Apr 5, 2012]

[levo]

Stats in Adsense interface are stuck, Adsense stats in Analytics are not.

[edited by: levo at 5:54 pm (utc) on Apr 5, 2012]

[netmeg]

( was just sayin', tonyolm. it goes for flickr too, just because otherwise we fill up with links to stuff )

[tonyolm]

@lame_Wolf..

That was funny.

@netmeg

I understand.

@lame_wolf

That was funny..

[Frost_Angel]

I am REALLY hoping there is some major STUCK-age and not SUCK-age today. I yie yie.

[tonyolm]

Just for curiosity how often are the stats supposed to update. Do people actually check the stats every 15 minutes?

[Lame_Wolf]

Do people actually check the stats every 15 minutes?

That long ?
Sometimes every 5 - 10 minutes.

[JCKline]

Today looks good, yesterday was a joke.

[IanCP]

"You would have no readers returning if the site becomes stale"

25% of traffic is returning, 25% from other sites linking to me.

It's used as a technical reference.

I'm tired and retired. If I wanted to work I'd go back to my old day job and make 50X.

[Play_Bach]

The lousiness continues. :-(

[zarathustra2011]

Woken up, and all seems okay now.

[Spyder_Cat]

In the reported earnings section, I now have the UK country code next to the £ sign on all my figures.

UK£

Looks messy.

[zarathustra2011]

Does anyone else suffer from a significant dip in visitors at the weekends? I used to be pretty stable 7 days a week, but for at least six weeks, I have a big dive in traffic on Saturday/Sunday, and as a leisure type website, I would have thought the opposite would have been true. I can't fathom the reasons for it, unless more and more people are away at the weekends and not surfing the net in pursuit of their hobbies and interests.

[zerillos]

We should really exchange ideas about alternatives. It's pointless to talk about adsense, since it has become a really bad joke, at least for me.