Wildly erratic earnings this week

Anyone else?

[androidtech]

It still rotates around about the same mean (average), but this week I have seen the most erratic and extreme up and down days. I'm wondering if this is a weird side effect of the affiliate ads change or just an anomaly.

Thanks.

[dregs33]

Hi

A very odd week, I haven't seen extremes like this before. It could have something to do with the affilate change or the Google skiing holiday :)

dregs33

[jimmyboy]

Yeah pretty erratic this week. Guess have to wait and watch the pattern to come to some kind of conclusion.

[diamondgrl]

Here too.

[Zygoot]

Only small fluctuations this week over here, nothing special.

[darkmage]

It depends what you mean by erratic. Two things are for sure, people always look for patterns and they rarely understand the maths behind a chaotic system. Also, sites with higher impressions generally have more stable income.

I'll give an example. Let's say that the average eCPM for a site is $10.00 +/- 20%. This means that one day it could be $12, followed by $8. Now how many times have you seen a thread saying 'my income has dropped 30% or 40%'. However, this is exactly what you can expect from +/- 20%.

Another simpler explanation is report lagging. If some clicks were delayed to the following day's reports, this could deflate the day they were delayed and then inflate the next day where they were added.

[CalArch90]

It's been erratic for me too. Started out normal early in the week, earned the most I've ever earned on one day in the middle of the week and then dropped to low levels towards the end of the week. My earnings are usually pretty consistent.

[diamondgrl]

I'm seeing nearly order-of-magntitude fluctuations, not 20%.

Indeed on one site, I saw an 8-fold EPC and earnings fluctuation from one day to the next (both weekdays). It was not a site with a huge amount of traffic (barely over 1000 uniques per day), so the statistics of small numbers can play a significant role. Jury's still out but I thought it was a little odd.

[creepychris]

wildly erratic here.

[androidtech]

Original Poster here.

Hmmm, I wonder if it's due to equally erratic ad targeting. I just did a spot check and the ads are *very* loosely themed today, which was one of the extreme down days.

Humor: I can't shake the image of one of the senior Google software techs on the ski slopes, adjusting the ad targeting algo on his PDA as he slaloms down the slopes. Any cartoonists out there?

Thanks.

[UnnamedPlayer]

crazy week here too

[flyerguy]

I see nothing but crap. It's been in the doghouse since our Dec. 17 traffic evaporation, and nothing, not even being featured in a the december issue of the number one print magazine in the world for my field, has made a dent in this ridiculous 60% drop in Adsense revenue.

I am at my wits end with this, we have been 'Page 2'ed' across the board in a category where page 1 is everything.

We have been hammered by spam sites that simply redirect to other website content.

[level80]

I see nothing but crap. It's been in the doghouse since our Dec. 17 traffic evaporation, and nothing, not even being featured in a the december issue of the number one print magazine in the world for my field, has made a dent in this ridiculous 60% drop in Adsense revenue.

I am at my wits end with this, we have been 'Page 2'ed' across the board in a category where page 1 is everything.

We have been hammered by spam sites that simply redirect to other website content.

1) a webmaster should always keep up on SEO and if your traffic is mainly from search engines keeping those highly competitive SERPs places. ;)
2) CPC has dropped on Adsense
3) you will see a drop in adsense revenue with a drop in traffic

[diamondgrl]

flyerguy,

Don't confuse two issues. We're talking here about Adsense performance, not our Google rankings.

[flyerguy]

I'm seeing a drop in both Adsense performance and the serps. I'm have less than half the traffic, and I am making half again less on the Adsense performance.

Of course more people means more money, I am saying that the relative amount for X amount of pageviews has also done a nosedive.

The funny thing, it's the same old ads showing, from the big players in my sector. I can't imagine the latest Aff situation has factored into this..

[seowisdom]

Maybe Google's going thro the adsense version of the florida update? Definitely wild fluctuations, though until last week this has been our best ever month for AdSense (way up on December)

[drall]

massive erratic behaviour on a large network with millions of pvs a week, we joined adsense when it was launched and have never seen anything like this, average cpc/cpm is down 30% as well within a 4 day threshold

traffic patterns are the same, ctr is the same, cpm is jumping up and down like mad and down more often then up, one of two things

g is increasing there cut

or

new affiliate system is messing around with pricing

there is no way on the same day for millions of keywords across literally thousands of verticals would they all drop so my gut feeling is some shift on googles part per there cut and some of my closest friends are seeing similar results

[icedowl]

It's just like a roller coaster ride. Ups and downs and ups again. My overall average is fairly stable and is actually climbing a wee bit.

[ogletree]

I have seen the same things. Big jumps between days. Way higher than normal days and way lower than normal days.

[jimmyboy]

I see some major advertisers dropping from Adsense across the spectrum of a wide range of different topics. Also the bidding rates have come down on many keywords. That is why the low returns. Either advertisers are playing some kind of wait and watch game or they have moved to other greener pastures.

[universetoday]

Very erratic for me, but generally better earnings. Some insanely high days - yesterday, for example was a Sunday with lowish traffic, but it was my highest earning days ever. And some low days.

[dregs33]

Hi

Just to add to it all, now Adsense is showing a blank page. GMT 20.28

dregs33

[seowisdom]

None of my sites have displayed any Adsense ads during the last few hours.

[freedata]

My avg EPC across 10 sites has plummented by 50% in the last 5 days (average). I receive 2K clicks per day so this is a big sample. Did anything like this happen to anyone? Never happened to me. Will this recover back to normal levels? I am kinda concerned and if this stays, I may need to look for other ways to monetize my traffic.

[rj87uk]

I hate doing me too posts but 1 wont hurt...

I have earned more this week and last week, than two full normal months. Well its something different for me..

[flyerguy]

I think they got more free alcohol in Tahoe then the media let on..

Wildly erratic. Stupidly erratic.. the other fella was right, they need to fix this now or it's time to go to plan 'B'.

oh.. wait.. there is no plan B.

[no9t9]

earnings are definately down for me. Same ads but lower earnings. Seems like maybe my keywords aren't paying as much as before.

I have, so far this month, 33% more clicks than last month and have only managed to MATCH last months earnings.

[Jenstar]

Very erratic this week as well, earnings/CPM today are down significantly, down by about half.

[walrus]

I wonder if now that its been 12 days since the new policies were implemented we're starting to see the
effect settle in.

[blaze]

Well, hopefully the Google API release will chug it all back up.