What's wrong with Adsense?

This is not a rant, I'm clueless on what I'm seeing

[explorador]

I have a network of sites, two already authority in the region. Everything is 100% original, research, text, even the pictures. Been doing great until end of 2012, then March went to the trashcan and has been there, April and May? it went UNDER the trashcan (I mean even lower than inside the trashcan). I'm having more traffic each year, I'm back to updating more often and the content is well received, I'm even getting more of those annoying requests asking permission to use my content but that's another story.

Don't misunderstand me, it's not a rant those are solid facts, I'm happy and proud about my sites but yes I'm confused. This is not about "Why Google likes ugly websites and not mine?" nope, it's not that: I'm seeing webmasterworld forum members that I'm very familiar with due to their high knowledge and abilities now making almost nothing out of their well ranked and visited websites.

Something it's wrong...

Do you visit other forums talking about Adsense?
I know Adsense is like FightClub because we can't discuss details
Most of us have deep knowledge only about our own cases
But do you research in other forums?

I've been taking a look at some discussions outside WebmasterWorld where many things are allowed as including their sites links, asking for reviews, etc. What I've been seeing surprises me, there are lots of really ugly quality sites reporting decent earnings. Some users even post their stats. I can't grasp the concept of ugly, amateur, not original content sites making US$200 per month with as low as 300 unique visitors per day. It's not just one case, there are more like these, the forum is in Spanish. Other users report higher earnings as US$500 per month and more. And yes there is an elite of members reporting really high numbers.

Other facts:
1. No, I don't believe everything I read.
2. Yes, 70%-80% of the discussions inside their Adsense forum are about banned accounts.

But I remain surprised. It's been discussed around here (but just a bit) how other sites are not even banned and still making good money or even premium publishers braking the rules. I don't get it. Something wrong with the algos?

I'm clueless here, so it's not a matter of "I'm not making enough money", it's about sites with low quality of content and low amounts of it and low traffic doing better than respectable WebmasterWorld members.

[Leosghost]

Re "Spanish"..I said a looooooooooooooooooooong time ago", that the English langauge market for adsense was saturated..

You want to make money from the English language market..the bar is waaaaaaay high now, the competition is intense ( how many English speaking webmasters are there worldwide? even if their English is well "broken" because it is their second or third language..they are your competition.. )..and G is actively pre-filtering their results in English, far more aggressively than in other languages..

So..unless your English language site is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the rest..( as perceived by Google ..and it's new "social" bias ) ..forget it...

[explorador]

True. My network has english websites but my main earnings come from solid now authority spanish websites, still... I see low quality making good numbers. Weird. The algo seems to be upside down.

[Leosghost]

Low quality ..but popular with G and with searchers = Demand media = Ehow et al..

[reuters.com...]

I suggest reading the details about where they have diversified into, and what they are diversifying into..

For now..They are not "human crowd sourced" scraping much outside of English language..so non English language content sites are safer...for now..

The algo is doing exactly what G wants it to ..long term..and frequently also short term..even when they may claim otherwise..

[explorador]

Yes..... I often think I'm oldschool, in the sense that the guidelines for quality sites are great but doesn't apply for the new masses consuming that kind of sites.

[Leosghost]

Welcome to the facebook generation..

[HuskyPup]

Demand Media, which went public last year, is being carefully watched as a new media model that lowers the costs of producing content.

Yay, I can reduce the cost of content ... Feed 'em regurgitated incorrect BS!

I've read stuff on ehow that is 100% incorrect for MY OWN EXCLUSIVE WIDGETS yet this joke of a supposed knowledge engine purports to promote them as FACTS.

BTW Leosghost, the facebook generation are not as stupid as many think they may be, the sheep are and will always be so, many of them actually do "know" that G is fubard :-)))

Have a nice, wealthy and healthy retirement G execs, you are no longer required!

[explorador]

That's what I've been thinking FB generation :(

Yes I've seen pretty erroneous content on ehow and still ranks pretty well, its regurgitated content/BS.

I guess there are times when it's not about pure original & quality content, but aiming to the stuff "the public" likes and click on it.

[glitterball]

Spanish Websites:
I have a few Spanish websites (with an audience in Spain) - since the recession started in Spain, the earnings on these sites has dropped considerable. Just the economy in my opinion.

Big Sites with low-quality content:
I see major UK newspapers breaking into the MFA space with travel guides etc. Their articles are often very badly researched and full of misleading and incorrect facts.
People tend to trust big newspapers, but at the end-of-the-day, they are just going to bang out articles as cheaply as they can to generate revenue.