August 2013 AdSense Earnings and Observations

Another ride on the AdSense crazy train.

[JCKline]

What will August bring? July was a bust for some and great for others. For me, a bust, so I keep my fingers crossed that things begin to look up.

[JCKline]

It can't get ANY WORSE; then it does. At least I have 5 Revenue optimization dots! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

[webcentric]

@JCKline

I've worked very hard to get those optimization dots down to one (not) and every time I get a second dot it only hurts my revenue.

[breeks]

5 Revenue optimization dots

As of today Site health 5, Google plus 4 and Revenue optimization 2, and this month is excellent so far.

Getting red mark for "Text and image ads enabled"

My highest CPC/CTR ad channel is text only.

What Google suggests you do is not always best for your bottom line

Test and find out what works best for your site not what works best for Google.

[JCKline]

@breeks, I understand this and have tested several times, and text/image ads have always done better than one or the other. I've had 5 dots since this feature was created without changing anything. Things were good, the July and August (so far) have been in the tank with no rhyme or reason that I can see. Maybe it's back to the testing drawing board.

[BlueCore]

Someone's gain would be the others' loss... either way Google will make $$ because they are in the middle, while money gets shifted.

[zarathustra2011]

Me too Play_Bach - best day in a year. No idea what happened, but absolutely flying.

[zarathustra2011]

And a flying start to the morning. It's as though somebody at Google flicked on a switch yesterday. Wonder how long it will last.

[Mentat]

This is getting out of control...
My CPM is 50% than last month, same # of clicks, but CPC down the drain.
If his remain the same, I will be forced to lay off some employees...

Something is broken!
It's not possible that so many advertisers to lower the payment on the same time; we are talking of 100 000+ clicks/day!

Really, I'm getting desperate and Adsense Support is clueless; they ask for mode ads!

[JCKline]

Just dire! AGAIN! CPC from my home country, The US is in the toilet. What is happening!

[webcentric]

Lately, CPC seems to start the day strong and then dwindle off during the day. Then it might pick up a bit later in the evening for awhile. It feels like advertisers are targeting early morning and evening traffic. The junk ads seem to dominate from late morning to early evening or later. My traffic is virtually all US traffic and comes from good sources i.e. mostly organic search and direct with a spattering of natural referrals thrown in for good measure.

[zarathustra2011]

Yesterday ended up a brilliant day too. Not quite on par with Friday, but way above average. I can only assume a good advertiser has come along with a good EPC rate and with an ad that is popular. Not sure it will last.

Webcentric, that is my usual pattern too. Whereas my earnings used to be fairly consistent over a 24 hour period, now it's in fits and starts.

[zarathustra2011]

Today's off the radar - heading towards my best day on Adsense ever. Highest EPC I've ever had, clicks and impressions are flying. Unfortunately I think it will be short lived, as I've discovered the boost in traffic today has come from somebody who has linked to me from facebook.

[JCKline]

@zarathustra2011, want to trade sites? I'm perplexed at how bad August has been for all my sites!

[zarathustra2011]

@JCKline I think the trick is to give up. About a week ago I gave up with Adsense. It was still a nice little revenue earner, but I knew I had to put my focus in an entirely different market, which I've now done. Ironically, after giving up on it, it's all come good. Naturally I don't expect the good times to last indefinitely, but I'll take it whilst it's here.

[karkadan]

It has been a horrible path; sadly I have debts because of all the investments I've done over the years, hoping for things to improve.

The earnings trend has gone horrible over the 2013.... I've lost over 60% of my income, and it is not related to the loss of earnings. Just from 2 months ago, I lost 20% with the same traffic.

[webcentric]

Sunday's CPC at an all-time low when Sunday is usually a good day for us. Most traffic ever for a Sunday and CTR very respectable but it's gonna take a lot more pennies from somewhere to make up for this mess.

[zarathustra2011]

Just fell slightly short of my best day ever. I've had social traffic before, but the bounce rate has usually been awful. The boost from facebook has given good quality traffic, with a great bounce rate, and high paying EPC.
I suspect it will start to tail off today, and I will slump back down to a rather lacklustre August.

[explorador]

Last 4 days have been AT LEAST decent. First good days of decent earnings in A VERY LONG TIME, more surprisingly: 4 in a row.

[JCKline]

@zarathustra2011, that's what I've decided to do. Now I'm knee deep in freelance work earning real money. I check adsense once today moments ago and wasn't so upset with my meager pennies.

[MrSavage]

One word can describe the past week. Discouraging. Based on today, I'm looking at a likely 5/10 when yesterday was about a 4/10.

A topic for a different thread, but I'm seriously wondering about the program itself and whether if what I'm experiencing is like that branch that is rotting off a tree. There is a moment in time when you have to look at your surroundings and realize it's not your imagination what is going on. It's called the writing on the wall. That's what I'm seeing and that's what I'm feeling. Hope I'm wrong no doubt. Not giving up, but keeping it real. I'm not suggesting everyone is in the same boat, but for me and my status and or account, this is how I feel.

[zarathustra2011]

@JCKline checking can become addictive, not to mention a distraction. If you check once a day minimum and focus your efforts elsewhere I find the day passes with less stress. Not that I usually take heed of my own advice. :)

Yesterday was excellent, but that's only because of the facebook boost, but it's certainly diminished, and I think today will be a return to normality. The past three days should turn what would have been my worst month of the year, into a mediocre month.

[JCKline]

Here's what I woke up to this morning on my dashboard:

Your earnings were 95% below our forecast
Your earnings on August 12 were 95% below forecast. This may indicate an issue with your site that you should investigate. We detected the earnings drop by comparing the money you earned to a forecast for your account.

Sites are up and running and ads are displaying so I have no idea what the issue is...

[webcentric]

I've recently thought of Adsense as "volatile" but that word would imply wide swings and the wide swings seem to be subsiding into a dwindling trail of pennies, nickles and (if I'm lucky) dimes. Yes, watching stats all day long is definitely not a good way to boost morale these days and it can certainly distract from other things that could be termed "productive."

The "writing on the wall" seems to be saying what it's always said, "Diversify! There is no permanent gravy train."

Easy money just looks easy. It all comes with a price. What's most frustrating for me I think is that there doesn't seem to be anything specific I can point at that can account for what I'm seeing. One day I think it's this, the next that. OK, "it's the economy stupid," or is it the weather? Is my content good enough? Too good? Are there enough ads on the page? Too many? Should I try a different ad format? The data doesn't support any solid conclusions because it's all over the place. Traffic up, clicks down. Traffic down, clicks up. Clicks up, CPC in the toiled. CPC up, everyone's mouse is broken.

Breathing is good. Having a hobby is good. Having a hobby that makes money is even better. Working for a living will always have a bit of "this sucks" associated with it but it will always beat standing in a bread line as long as I'm the author of my own tragedy. I'm sure I meant to make a better point in there somewhere but got distracted while waxing up my poetic license. Life may not be a joke but it certainly has a punch line.

[explorador]

webcentric: Having a hobby is good. Having a hobby that makes money is even better

True. It's not that I don't care about money or that the content is not worth it, my sites were born as a hobby and some of them became authoritative sites, Adsense might gibe bitter moments (sometimes too many). Panda, Penguin, etc. It made a lot of things go down, original content pays well, still we all were hit, suddenly there are no stable months, just up and downs...

Anyway having a hobby is good, making money out of that hobby is better, but keeping in mind why one is doing things is even better, keeping the mind healthier.

It's sad, a lot of good white hat decent webmasters feel terrible (I joined the club recently) but some of them are nowhere to be seen on the forum. The problem is, Adsense is unpredictable, there is very little we can discuss, really, very little.

Back into topic of observations: I'm near of making a week of stable decent earnings. I've been focused on something else completely and left some sites on autopilot and auto publish some content.

[explorador]

Ohh... it seems talking about positive things brings back the negative... The Adsense Sniper Team read my message doing well and decided to strike.

Today sucks so far like no other past day! really low, low like low inside low.

[JCKline]

The day is half over and 0 CTR. Things are truly broken!

[webcentric]

@explorador Lot's of wisdom and insight in your comments. I've been known to wax off-topic to maintain my sanity at times. It seems to help. I'm pretty sure many of my observations have already been flogged to death by others and I can certainly understand folks not wanting or needing to make this thread sound like a broken record so I'll try to stay on point.

I am noticing what looks like a daily revenue threshold (probably just my imagination). Doesn't seem to matter what time of day we reach that threshold, it pretty much spells the end of any more earnings until the next day. Doesn't matter what time we reach that imaginary line item or how much more traffic comes. Anyone else seeing anything that looks like this? There's no rhyme or reason to the timing of it. Could hit it by noon or it might be midnight. It's like someone set a our daily limit at the beginning of the month and the only drama is whether to dole it out slowly or quickly over the course of the day.

P.s. I'm not proposing a conspiracy. Just pointing out a trend.

[explorador]

webcentric, you are talking about ceiling or limit earnings for daily income. It's been discussed a lot previously, some webmasters agree (I do) and some webmasters don't due to lack of proof because they can get better results with some changes... it seems like "some changes" wont perform the same improvement on other sites.

While I agree, I just gave up trying to overcome those limits. I'm having a lot of low and kinda decent days, only FEW good ones almost old average, but yes never been able of breaking the limit.

[webcentric]

@explorador Thanks for putting a name to my observation. A quick search of the board turned up this thread and many others which I find enlightening.

[webmasterworld.com ]

Don't know what camp I fall in but my experience lately at least got me thinking about it. Feels like some kind of capping mechanism but in an environment with so many variables (many of which are unknown) I don't know how you'd prove it one way or another. Just feels like one of those laws of the universe at the moment that can't be explained and can't be broken. As for terminology, I think "revenue throttling" would more accurately describe what I'm experiencing than capping. Like a mixture of fuel and oxygen, CTR and CPC just keep mixing at different rates to arrive as some seemingly predetermined level of efficiency (regardless of increased traffic). Of course, that's just a handful of variables so not very scientific. Randomness will always play a factor I'm sure but I'm betting Google knows a lot more about random than I do and I also think that they're very calculating. Bottom line, I just keep testing like everyone else and hope the people who say adjustments can make a difference are still right.

[Play_Bach]

Even though I'm making a fraction of what I used to with AdSense, I've never subscribed to the idea of a cap. Incompetence from the Plex, maybe, shift to mobile, definitely.