AdSense Earnings and Observations - July 2023

[allhearts]

Month is starting out very bad, so far it's the lowest earning day since I started with adsense, many moons ago.

[Sissi]

Can only confirm that today is my worst day in terms of revenues for the last …. 18 years.

Probably a mixture of weekend, hollidays travel dates and end of the month.

[christianz]

Can only confirm that today is my worst day in terms of revenues for the last …. 18 years.

Same. But especially for about 10 days since when I removed Google Analytics. As an experiment I will add GA4 and see what happens. I absolutely don't need or want to use GA but it might be that Google is effectively forcing me to use it, in this world of de-facto zero antitrust regulation.

In general this year seems like the biggest ripoff since I started with AdSense about the same time ago (18 years or so). It's not so much a traffic problem, it's the laughable ad rates.

[allhearts]

Since July 1st my earnings have hit rock bottom, it was already bad before but not this bad.

I have gone from 3 digit a day earnings to lower 2 digits a day earnings in 2 years, very sad.

[christianz]

very sad

The sad part is that money is not going to some better webmaster with better website. It is going to authority spammers, AI spammers / spinners and SERP spammer (Google).

Advertisers should be blamed too. They are far too stupid to approach genuine websites directly. Every day I get numerous "link buying" requests, but I never get legitimate direct advertising proposals.

Now that these dumb advertisers are getting their ads shown on fake AI generated spam sites, they are getting what they deserve.

[Sissi]

There is a high volatility within a baisse however I have had 4 successive says similar to 4 years ago back to middle 3 digits daily.
As long as Adsense is not your unique source of revenues I find it acceptable as passive source revenue

[CommandDork]

School season is set to start in some regions of the US in about a week or so. Usually means a surge in last-minute vacationing. We'll see what that does to A) traffic and B) Ad rates.

Some sites benefit from teachers/students being back in the classroom - and parents having more time to peruse the web!

[ember]

As a fun test, I ceased all auto ads a day ago to see what would happen. Today, earnings are down 75% from what is normal. So once you start down the auto ads path, Google obviously does not want you to stop.

[allhearts]

For me the traffic is still the same, it's the much lower amount of clicks and low CPC that is killing me.

[edited by: allhearts at 7:22 pm (utc) on Jul 31, 2023]

[Sissi]

Question what happens if you keep only autoads

[CommandDork]

I tried turning off Auto Ads once...and two crooked-nosed Italians showed up at my door.

Needless to say, I still run Auto Ads.

[allhearts]

@CommandDork,

do you use auto ads alone or do you use ad placements as well?

[gatormark]

@christianz

I try to supplement my Adsense revenue with paid memberships ($39 to $159) and by allowing guest posts at $75 for up to 3 backlinks…$50 for one. Trying to be more creative these days.

[allhearts]

Great idea @gatormark.

[christianz]

@gatormark

Paid memberships are great if you site is the kind that users would want to pay for - it is not viable for majority of sites.

Guest posts and paid links I do not allow and will never allow because I don't think they are good long term strategy. Maybe I am foolish that I am still afraid of Google penalizing my site and want to play honest, when it clearly is already suppressed/limited/quota'ed for years.

Having said that - there are niches where sponsored posts don't look out of place and I would allow them (in moderation) if I had that kind of site.

If there was very good, frictionless way of doing micropayments/microdonations (something like Bitcoin Lightning) maybe that would be the future model for keeping websites online. Because programmatic advertising seems to have exhausted its potential. You are basically thrown in the same pot with billions of auto generated and third world sites without any "soul" or real value, and, while they do deserve these pathetic low CPMs, quality sites are treated no different.

I think AdSense should remove/ban 95% of its approved domains/websites to increase the quality of their content network and allow genuine sites to survive. 95% are spammy SEO/affilite/AI junk anyway.

[puente]

@christianz, agree on paid content. always have been skittish about them and never accept any. even if you're super careful about screening them, the submitter may redirect the links to objectionable sites at a later time. as those articles pile up over the years, it becomes an impossible chore keeping up with them. unless perhaps the sponsored articles are up for only a limited time and then taken down.

[gatormark]

@christainz

Everything depends on how you approach it and the type of website. For instance, my guest posts have to be unique content and I check for that before it’s allowed. The content also has to be specific to my community niche. Think of it this way. I often pay for writers to write unique content. Now, what if someone pays you to write your content just to put links in that context. If it’s unique, it’s a win.

As far is paid memberships, that is where I make the second most amount of money behind adsense. My paid memberships make up about 1/4 of my income. Members get additional features and benefits if they pay.

Again, this is a community and not one of those online magazines. Those websites blow with the wind. This is a community that is specific to a niche with members that are a part of the community for years. So yes, it depends on what type of website you own.

Now, I also own informational websites, but those don’t earn nearly the same amount as communities do. If you are just producing websites with information, there is no real longevity in that.

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by not2easy. New thread at: google_adsense/5090847.htm [webmasterworld.com]
1:35 pm on Aug 1, 2023 (atl -4)