There’s been a lot of buzz around the Web recently about AdSense and how people aren’t making much money with the program anymore.
I’m not really sure where this noise is coming from.
Yes, many people have reported their earnings have dropped this year, but it’s still a great monetization option for many sites and blogs.
I personally think “dead” is too strong of a word.
I certainly prefer AdSense over many of the other CPC programs available (Kontera, AdBrite, etc.), and have no plans of dropping them anytime soon.
Watch the video below for my view of the current state of AdSense.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Sniff, sniff. The video is gone.
It’s up. I had it set to private by accident. Sorry.
Thanks Lisa,
I’m with you 100%. The bottom line is: “Your results will vary.”
I have sites with low traffic, high click through, High traffic, almost zero clicks and it’s amazing how much variance there is in payouts.
Experimenting with ads helps too (when done properly), but Adsense is not dead.
Let’s see… 35,000 page views a day. Earnings from Adsense running at 6 / 7 dollars a day (average)! CPM was stable from when I signed up in the start of 2005 to 2007 when it suddenly fell by a third. CPM fell by a third again uniformly last week and is now less than half what it was a year ago.
Sell an advert on the front page myself which gets 80,000 page views a month for $300. Earnings from Adsense this month = $200ish on 1 million page views.
Earnings from individually sold adverts total $1,400 dollars on 190,000 page views because we have a little thing called prestige. Furthermore, one advertiser paid me an extra $250 just to remove their rival from Adsense on our website! Another company is paying me $900 per job (these are $100,000 salaries jobs) we list that they have!
Conclusion = Adsense grossly undercharges for quality sites where advertisers will pay more. Webmasters of medium sized websites are unable to set the CPM and screwed as a result by being competitively priced down to the same level as crappy unread blogs.
Wow James, I gotta say that’s one of the worst AdSense stories I’ve heard from a site with your kind of traffic. With 35,000 page views per day one would think you’d do better than $6-7 dollars per day!
When we were getting say… 20,000 page views a day 18 months ago we were taking $35 a day which is still pretty rubbish. The PRs have us lumped in with the industry magazines, I can see from who gets emailed press releases this is the case, but Adsense doesn’t know these things so you have a highly professional site, well regarded, aimed at industry professionals and it couldn’t care less.
To give you another example of how Adsense does not relate to the reality of the site’s success, we have a branded section in a news stand magazine in the UK (circulation roughly 20,000 a month) that they have syndicated from the website. Basically, they republish a selection of our news stories in addition to a news section of their own! Do you know any other websites that have done something like that?
I wouldn’t really care as we do fine from affiliates except I logged into Adsense earlier and saw the CPM had dropped again. It was peanuts before but I am angry at how rubbish it is now. It takes a large amount of the screen up relative to the return and the only people who benefit are Google and the advertisers who undercut the rates they should be paying.
Adsense does not compute.
Hi Lisa!!!
I absolutely LOVE your website and you’re an inspiration! I wanted to ask a question concerning online businesses. I hope its not too off topic…once you have a niche for an on-line business, do you to need to Incorporate or create a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or in someway legally create your company to pay taxes and protect your company once you’re making money?
I’m asking because I’d really like to start an online business yet website builder’s don’t mention legalizing your business with the government.
Thank you in advance for your response!
Thanks David, Yeah a bit off topic from this post but I’ll letcha slide.
See my other site for that answer….
http://www.2planawebsite.com/payments/paying-taxes.html
good work!
Am I the only one speculating that it might be the economy?
I noticed that my earnings took a nosedive (13 cents for 13 clicks consistently, it seemed) just around the time they started throwing the “R” word around.
The way PPC advertising works, if I am not mistaken, is that people bid on keywords, the more expensive the keyword, the more you get each time someone clicks a link relating to that keyword, if I’m not mistaken.
But like all things in life, it’s only worth what you’ll pay for it–or if you even CAN pay for it.
People have less money - people bid less for keywords - internets makes less monies D=
Right?
University Princess, I mentioned this very point in the opening minute or two of the video. The economy definitely plays a role but if you have a lot of traffic you can still generate a good income — even in a sagging economy.
HAHA, watch the video, DUR! -hits self in the forehead-
I just saw that and was like, awww, maaan!
My apologies, when I commented I was in class, so I had to save the video for later. ^_______________^
AdSense most certainly is not dead. Like everything else, it takes some work and effort to maintain your income from Adsense. Sure, gone are the days that people blindly click on ads to try to find the next site that they are going to visit… but that does not mean that with the right ad being displayed to the right person at the right time that they are not going to click it.
Like everything else in our fast paced world of internet marketing, AdSense too takes some effort in getting just the right ads seen by your visitors.
Thanks fo that video Lisa. I am working on transitioning from Blogger to my own Domain and Paid Hosting in a couple of weeks and your site is very helpful.
I don’t see any adsense ads?
BloggerNewbie, I don’t use it on my blog. Only on my websites.
That’s a relief. I know that personally, as a web designer, I avoid clicking on the adsense ads, so I always wonder if your average web site visitor still click on those links. Glad to know it’s still a profitable endeavor.
Adsense is NOT dead…If anything the revenue is increasing on my sites. As long as you provide good content and consistently add new information for your visitors and subscribers you should see an increase in revenue from adsense.
Paul
I agree with Paul. Adsense is not dead but in this time of year when financial crisis are going on, people wants to make quick money and usually gettrapped into false “get quick rich programs” showing false Adsense statement proofs.
I have posted a video in my blog it is an eye opener, a little JavaScript can turn $0 earnings to $24,900 earnings of adsense
Click on my name to find out
I have been try to set up adsense in my website and i don’t know what happen it doesnt show me the adds.
Please i need help.
Josie
My Adsense earning on my main blog has been dropped to $0/day. That’s none of my concern because I make money using other blogs/sites.
What I’ve noticed so far is that the earning / click is dropping everyday. I mean it, everyday. At first I was getting up to $2 for some clicks. And now… 25 cents is lucky. I’m talking about the same niche and exactly the same pages.
I do notice the CTR is good for some placement though.
I agree with you, AdSense is not dead. It’s just being … more greedy for Google.
Holy smoke ! Thank you, Sunny Kapoor for the video on the Fraud Adsense Earnings via your link.
I was wondering if you could point me a way to download this video for my blog and website.
Thanks,
William
Im a newbie when it comes to adsense but i would suspect a big reason for clicks being down is the economy. I’m sure if your site is straight that you could still generate some sort of income.
Hey Lisa,
I am a loyal subscriber and repeat visitor of your website. A few months ago I asked you a question (well I’ve asked you many questions over the months) about having adsense on a website tonight page. You said no which was correct, but as of yesterday or the day before, website tonight is now offering widgets, one of which is google adsense. I just thought I would give back to you and your viewers for as much information as you have given to me. Thanks.
P.S. I would love to have my website reviewed by you!
Very good to know John. Thank you. I didn’t know they added that feature.
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Great post! Really love reading them, can’t wait for more.
Follow on Twitter: @nmpnicholas
Google Adsense if you ask anyone online trying to make money these days they will have some big story about how google closed there account. Google really does have strict terms, but they have the right to be strict seeing how they are the big guys on the internet. The truth is everybody who starts a blog or website goes straight to google to create an account. Google adsense is for sites with high traffic not sites that just went up 2 weeks ago. I personally think that all the people complaining about google adsense are newbies to blogging and websites. Not saying that they should know, but as some advice for everyone you should build some traffic up before you add google adsense.
Thanks
nmpnicholas
Very good point, Nick. If you follow the rules and produce solid content you should have no problem with AdSense. That’s why they’ve become more strict with their acceptance policy and some sites have to wait 6 months before they can get accepted.