March 2015 AdSense Earnings and Observations

[Mentat]

February had only 28 days, but for me was pretty good in the end, but I do not think it will last, because I see less traffic and clicks each day.

We had President Day, Valentines Day and Freezing temperatures in US.

Let's hope that March 2015 will be better; there are no major holidays.

[RedBar]

Friday I had 64.9% of average PVs from the USA, Saturday 67.0% however so far today 2.7%, yes, 2.7%, not 27%, 2.7%...G seems to be intent on wiping-out my sites, WTF?

[Mentat]

We are 2-3 publisher complaining about Adsense.
Maybe we are the only one affected! :o

I'm down 40% on payment!

[RedBar]

Maybe we are the only one affected! :o

I'm beginning to wonder that myself since it seems to be incredibly quiet around here.

So, Saturday, 3rd lowest PVs of the year, Sunday had my 6th lowest PVs of the year.

From somewhere overnight Google managed to conjure up US visitors resulting in 73.1% but still some of the lowest US PVs of the year.

Thanks again to another good value click my earnings were not that badly affected nevertheless it seems to be like a tightrope walk at the moment with "whatever" is going on in my extremely messy SERPs sector.

[netmeg]

I'm a little above last March, but not as much as I'd like. And last March I was dealing with all those bot issues too.

(Hunh; I appear to have just hit 10 years here)

[RedBar]

Yay netmeg, congrats:-) I don't think I'll ever get to 10, I keep changing my monicker too often!

[frankleeceo]

See higher cpm probably because of spring break.

[ember]

Good numbers this month. Things picked up on the 8th, maybe because of daylight savings. Epc is down a little, but CTR is up. So much better than a year ago when earnings were on a roller coaster.

[IanCP]

Normally I don't comment on this topic mainly because I've never seen any point in considering day to day, or week to week gyrations.

I'm a long term average trend man. Generally speaking, for a great many years even up to this month both my CTR and EPC remain pretty much the same averages. I've never had a problem with AdSense.

Google Search? The Google Zoo? That is an entirely different matter.

I have noticed since about last September a steady increase in traffic from Search. So much so, that this month - subject to claw back, will be my best AdSense month since February, 2013. Ditto with some affiliate programmes.

Climbing back up again? We'll see. One swallow doesn't make a summer.

[MrSavage]

Kick in the gut kind of feeling. It's bad when it would take 3 of these cheques to equal 1 cheque of monthly earnings not that long ago. In three months at this rate, I can make what I made in one month. I need to repeat that just to let it sink in. I barely try to think about it in these terms, but it's almost impossible to think this is worthwhile, big picture wise.

[RedBar]

3 of these cheques to equal 1 cheque

I'll make you feel better, a monthly cheque these days does not equate to my daily average awhile back, in other words I'm at about 3% of my best days and I also know others like it.

For me it has been a combination of circumstances. the two main ones being Google image grabbing reduced my PVs enormously and CTR down about 80%. Interestingly my entire global industry is tending to shun online advertising, not just Google, with many retailers for my widgets returing to former more reliable marketing methods, referrals and reputation seemingly rule the roost at the moment.

[jbayabas]

Server went down for 2 days and traffic and earnings have been affected so badly. I used to earn to so much over the years (at least 3k to 5k a month). Now, i can barely make it. My big problem right now is how to tell my wife the truth about my situation. I've been hiding my diminishing income from her for over a year now, hoping my earning will go back to the way it was but it never did. I"m sorry i'm venting here. It's just that I really don't have anyone else to share my problems. :(

[AlexB77]

@jbayabas believe me most if not all of us here are in more or less the same situation in relation to our earnings at least. My pandalised site used to make more back in a day then my all my other sites combined together make now with 4-5 times the traffic. With that aside, I am exploring other options to monetise my sites, do not take it a wrong way, I am not trying to put you off adsense at all, I am only suggesting to try to see if any other options can cover your loss in any way possible. I am hoping that this is just a temporary problem with AdSense, because if we are not making money from it it is logical that Google is not making it either, well at least from our clicks. I know that G will never really lose, but the least we all can do is to rethink our situation and try to be less dependent and be more proactive in regards to new ways to monetise your sites and business models in general.

[RedBar]

it's just that I really don't have anyone else to share my problems.

The sooner you tell your wife you will halve your problems however sharing this is only just the start, you will then need to decide IF you have an AdSense future or how you need to be monetising your site and even ask yourself if it is possible to make a full-time living from it now.

I used to earn $10k month, I couldn't justify my sites these days purely from AdSense earnings, my main focus has always been my international B2B.

[RedBar]

I am hoping that this is just a temporary problem with AdSense,

Stop hoping, things are not going to change, quite simply many of us do not fit in with G's plans, we're nothing to them even though we made them what they are. As big and important as Google likes to believe it is there is a massive life outside of the Google bubble, escape and grab some reality fresh air :-)

[AlexB77]

@RedBar you are right, but I have already learnt it the hard way back in 2011 right after first panda update and ever since I am doing things differently. AdSense became more or less secondary income, it is good when I get more from it, but at least I do not have to depend on it so much as I used to back in day when things were different. I am concentrating on my customer, my products and my sales. Again I totally agree with you, we need to start thinking outside of the Google bubble and think more about our businesses.

[edited by: AlexB77 at 8:13 pm (utc) on Mar 31, 2015]

[netmeg]

Waiting for things to just get better almost never works because they almost never do. Things change, and we have to change with them.

My earnings have never dropped, but this year I'm trying something new. Actually, I'm trying something old. I paid a friend of a friend to design me a flyer, and I had it printed up cheap online, and I collected a bunch of snail mail addresses from places I thought might be likely advertisers around the web, and I'm gonna mail out my flyers in a couple weeks and see what happens. Minimal cost other than my time and postage, and nothing to do with Google at all. I'll let you know how it comes out.

[nubchai]

Netmeg please let us know how it goes. Direct Advertising is very attractive to me. Have you looked at Passionfruitads or BuySellAds?

[netmeg]

Nope. I've never met a network that came close to what AdWords pays; I use Media.net but they're a distant second. If I'm going to go to the trouble of figuring out, implementing and fine tuning a new network (which probably won't pay out very well), I might as well just sell my own and take complete control. It's not that much more work, when it comes down to it.

[AlexB77]

Hm...

In comparison to March 2014:

Estimated Earnings: UP by 24.5%,
Page Views: UP by 75.3%,
Clicks: UP by 24.7%,
Page CTR: DOWN by 67.2%,
CPC: UP by 00.0%,
Page RPM: DOWN by 67.3%.

Also visits from browsers without JavaScript support is UP by 4.2%, but traffic is UP by 63.9%.

This is what I have for March so far.

What is very interesting is that logically thinking earnings and clicks should also be UP by at least 40-50%, but I can no longer find any logic in Google maths.

[RyuUK]

Was going well and then today came. Real shocker. Oh well, a new day and a fresh month tomorrow.

[ember]

I'm gonna mail out my flyers in a couple weeks and see what happens

I did that a few years ago and not much came from it. Seems that my advertisers are inundated with advertising requests. I'll be interested to see if it works for you.

What I do now is find potential advertisers and give them a free link for a few days. I don't tell them about it and just wait to see if they notice that they are getting traffic from me. I doubt most ever notice. Others I'm sure just take the traffic and are happy to have it. A few, though, contact me about it and ask about advertising opportunities. I've already built some good will by sending free traffic. And since I am not the one making initial contact and since they already know the quality of the traffic I send, they are usually ready to buy if the price is right.

[ken_b]

I'm gonna mail out my flyers in a couple weeks and see what happens

That's where I started with my site back in 2000. Mailed a postcard to carefully selected list of potential site users/visitors.

Response was about 9%.

But it was a small highly targeted list list, that makes a LOT of difference in response rates.
.

[MrSavage]

Speaking of sending free traffic, that's about what I'm doing right now, with respect to my earning for these real estate dedicated to these ads. However, that's something I will likely look at doing myself because I'm not sacrificing very much at this point. More upside for that idea imo.

[nubchai]

Netmeg. These aren't ad networks. Passionfruitads is just a service that gives you some of the infrastructure for selling your own ads. They charge $9 a month I think. BuySellAds offers the same but more expensive and more difficult to get accepted.

[nubchai]

Ember that's a smart strategy.

[netmeg]

I did that a few years ago and not much came from it. Seems that my advertisers are inundated with advertising requests. I'll be interested to see if it works for you.

But it was a small highly targeted list list, that makes a LOT of difference in response rates.

My list IS a very targeted list, and it's a list of people who aren't allowed to use AdWords or Bing Ads. Should be like shooting fish in a barrel, but we'll see. Won't know till I try.

Passionfruitads is just a service that gives you some of the infrastructure for selling your own ads. They charge $9 a month I think. BuySellAds offers the same but more expensive and more difficult to get accepted.

I already built my own infrastructure. And I'm guaranteed to get accepted.

[breeks]

jbayabas you should talk to your wife and get some of that stress off your back.

For me 2011 was amazing, 2012 - 2013 went way down, 2014 amazing (best year ever) - this year good so far.

Wild swings in income are to be expected.

Try to find some good affiliates you can make big bucks with the right affiliate program that matches site content.

Commissions from a few dollars up to 60-70 dollars per transaction vs 25 - 50 cents a click.

[ember]

jbayabas, I agree that you should talk to your wife. Keeping it all bottled up inside is going to affect your health. Maybe it's time to find a job. I'm still doing well but considering finding one, something completely unrelated to this internet thing (if that is possible). Sometimes, a steady paycheck sounds very comforting.

[Mentat]

In the last 2 years... each day meant less traffic (Panda) and each month less $.

When I saw the trend I had a family meeting to present the problem and to optimize spending.

I already had two rounds of layoffs and the third one is around the corner, if the last week brutal drop of earnings will be the "new normal".

My wife is telling me to be optimistic, but really, I'm not.

So talk to your wife; tell her the truth.

It will not be a pleasant conversation, but at least you will escape some steam.

[netmeg]

So talk to your wife; tell her the truth.

Plus she deserves to know the truth. It's her situation and future too.

Sometimes, a steady paycheck sounds very comforting.

Yep. I retired last year from full time work but I still kept a couple consulting clients. For one thing, yea that paycheck helps, specially because my sites are so seasonal and it evens things out during the off-peak months. But it also forces me to keep my skill sets up - just in case. And I for one always want to have a Plan B, even if I never have to use it.