Hi there webmasters, let's talk specifics (yes I know, not those specifics). I have a network of sites, all white hat, CMS built by me, fast, all original content, all original pictures (lots of it, I'm also a photographer). For years my work has been well positioned, if not by text + pictures, then at least by one of those. Ok, let's talk about some clues, specific stuff.
- Not all the sites have/had Adsense
- The traffic of the websites WITH adsense is about 5,000 unique daily on low season
- That's about 150,000 monthly unique visitors
- Little bounce, many readers stay quite a while online
Responsive #1. A while ago analyzed things and thanks to a forum member saw lots of opportunities for improvement, first responsive adaptation launched and earnings showed only a bit, small increase but steady. Visitors on smartphones were seeing the right ads. Earnings drop. About a year ago earnings went down a bit. Deeper look pointed at needing more updates and full responsive on all sites.
More updates and earnings up. While traffic was steady, posting articles showed increase on earnings the same day and then diluting over the week, it was steady. Solid behavior for a few months (like 6 months)
**Then, the earnings didn't show any change despite updates. Earnings frozen, then went down a bit. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The previous is the FIRST change I saw and I can remember: when I did something affecting positively the earnings, then went down. It's not as earnings going back to previous numbers, they went down a bit from there, let's say I was earning US$ 10 per day, the effects of change increased that to US$ 12, then after a period of about 24 hours to 72 hours, earnings went DOWN to a solid US$ 7 per day
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As learned, did nothing, just waited for things to settle down, this is such a confusing ecosystem with many variables we have to give it time. Responsive #2. Launch a full responsive fast update, sites load fast, right ads-size on the sites, full change on sites but managed to keep the urls, redirects, traffic juice, etc. Everything looked ok. There was an earnings increase, it didn't last
**Then there comes the ghost again: earnings dropped not to where they were, they went down a bit more. Let's continue with the example, I was let's say on US$ 7 per day, it went up to US$ 9, then after 24 hours to 72 hours went down to US$ 5 per day. As learned, did nothing, just waited for things to settle down avoiding several changes at once so I could see some effects of A over B etc. Extra website. Added an extra website to the network using adsense. This is a solid traffic website, the same deal: original articles, pictures, organic traffic, etc. Right after placing the ads the income went up, this time a bit more.
Here comes the ghost again: earnings went up and then down. Continuing with the past example let's say I was on US$5 per day, it went up to US$6-7, then after 24 hours to 48 this time, it went right down to US$3 per day. SOLID. Did I paint the picture well enough? Every change causing any increase on earnings is effective only for about 24-48 hours, then earnings go down but not where they were, it gets worse. Sounds too silly to be true? hear this.
Extra changes: blocking ads and networks.After checking the so many weird ads and non wanted stuff, I go blocking some ads and networks. When it seems the house is clean, earnings go up a bit, just a bit.
And here comes the ghost again: continuing with the example I Was on US$3 per day, it goes up to US$4-5 per day, then back to US$3 and down to US$2.5, the "punishment" seems lower this time but it's there. Extra changes: Networks OFF, blocking all networks.Tired of blocking silly ads and unknown weird named networks I go bersek and blocked ALL THE NETWORKS leaving only Google Adsense on. Earnings go up.
The ghost comes again, after 24hours the earnings go back to where they were. The last stage had US$2.5 per day, goes to US$3-5 and then back to US$2.5 and stays there Extra changes: Networks ON, allowing networks. This time I do the opposite: SAME RESULT. Earnings go up a bit and then back to where they were in exactly 24 hours. I decided to play with this, I go on blocking all networks one day, the next I allow all networks, then switch them off, then on, and play like this day after day. Well, magic, earnings go from US$2.5 to US$4 per day, seems solid.
The ghost again, it goes down to US$2.5 per day. After just ONE WEEK, no matter what I do: on or off all the networks or blocking the ads... the earnings won't change. After 15 days to 1 month earnings are even lower, it went down a bit from the (remember hypothetical) US$2.5 to US$ 2.00. Traffic has been up, in fact it goes up year after year, pure organic traffic. The page views on adsense (adding the total traffic) went up, adding an extra site increased this even more, still... while the traffic goes up the earnings go down. I understand this and have no problem dealing with it, but the evident effect of 24 to 72 hours sending the earnings not only back, but even down a bit from where they were seems fishy and silly to me. My sites are stronger, better traffic, more exposure and interaction than ever, the panorama of going direct ads looks better... while on the other side Adsense is working less for me.
This is not a complain, I won't loose my sleep on this, it's just solid to me, the behavior doesn't look good, it seems like constant penalization. Want to speculate? sounds familiar?
