I have left it too late yet again this year to add a proper snow/xmas section to my web site.

The main reason I dont have one is because we have VERY mild weather here during the winter. If we do get snow then it is rarely more than an inch and it rarely lies for more than 2 minutes...

(So I would need to get photos off other people rather than use my own..)

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Could you run a competition for readers photos of snowy scenes from the past?

__________________
http://thatsnews.blogspot.com http://thats-business.blogspot.com/ http://thatschristmas.blogspot.com

I am currently running a 'photos on a theme' contest in which I specifically mention 'snow' as a possible category for submission...

So far I have had loads of entries.

None of them are snow.

90% of them are how shall we say... slightly below average....

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Why do you think your earnings were down in October? Is your overall traffic down?

Don't worry, on the site that I am building, I now have a whole shopping two pages! I did finally put up at least a decent logo. Total earnings to date: $0 less minor expenses, I'm in the red!

"Can I have some money now?" Homer Simpson

__________________

I have some snow photos, but they are on my computer at work. Would you like to see them? I can send them on Monday or Tuesday.

__________________
http://thatsnews.blogspot.com http://thats-business.blogspot.com/ http://thatschristmas.blogspot.com

Re snow - I think I may have 'xmas' photos sorted out now (hopefully)....

Re earnings - mmmm - I think I may have been 'smart priced' or something - traffic is up slightly but earnings are down massively....

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

What went down?

If your site remained the same it's not site related. But if your CTR went down it could be a change in the SERPS, meaning you're receiving different types of visitors now. Also could be a seasonal thing.

If your CPC went down, there are 2 possibilities.

1) Google adjusted your CPC for quality reasons.
2) It's the low season for the advertisers that show up in your ad blocks.

You can check seasonality by getting keywords from the ads that show up in your ad blocks and check them in Google Trends.

__________________
FREE SEO ! Really? YES! All you have to do is implement it!
Follow me on Twitter PeterIMC

Peter,

CPC is down by approx 50%. Other stats are very similar to what they were.

I agree with you, but I have no idea if it is 1) or 2) yet.

I have decided to remove all affiliate links and all google link units to see if it makes any difference (these did not make a huge amount of money anyway)...

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

I think you won't see much difference. This is simply an adjustment because of some factors that we can't really determine. But common sense may tell that it has to do with the number of conversions the advertisers have.

__________________
FREE SEO ! Really? YES! All you have to do is implement it!
Follow me on Twitter PeterIMC

That's very true, if you look in the almanac, you'll see that a company like GM is spending 4-5 billion on advertising on sales of $160-$170 billion. So if you're taking in $1000 per month, you should be accounting for some serious sales.

I actually just opened an adwords account for a new site that I am promoting and google now gives the option of turning off content on the google network (which is an option that I chose). I'm not sure if this is effecting you because I'm not sure if this is a new development (I haven't done adwords for years now)

__________________

Yes - mostly factors outside my control - but I did read about one site that found removing their link units made a difference to CPC - but even leaving this aside - I have FAR too many link units / adverts all over the place - so I needed to remove them to improve the user experience anyway..

And, the option to not show your ads on the content network has been around for a long time now, and I always turn it off for any Adwords stuff I do for anyone....

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Looks like the honeymoon period is over!

Earnings for October have plummeted to $668...

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

It is about

1. Understanding your content.
2. Understanding your client's needs.
3. Presentation. Example you can make a linkbase separated from content and pull links from that linkbase depending on context. Semantic linking is a huge topic and fully understood by very few. These are new technologies, but you can make applications that handles it by using a good Schema and applying XSLT to an XML /XHTML document and or combining that with server scripting, so the application degrades gracefully (content negotiation).

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

Well, $668 is still better than $0. I'm not sure how you make a living, but assuming this is a part-time jig/hobby, that is okay. I launched mine at Leather-Directory.com | Your ultimate source for trade leads in the internattional leather industry and right now its really a very raw website. I'm just throwing stuff up there and hoping to make it large enough so that it starts to get some traffic, but right now that is a LONG way off. Perhaps you should consider grabbing a different domain name, grabbing different keywords with different content to 'diversify' so that if one goes down, the other goes up?

__________________

Whao - sounds complicated!

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Yeah - it is just a part time jig at present.

But it definitely has potential like you say if I put more effort into it and set up more domains etc etc......

Anyway, good luck with the Leather!

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

I've been working on my own little tests - trying to see if I can make just $100 month (I'm not greedy... for now).

So far I'm up to $4.19 for today (Nov. 16th); $15.21 for the past seven days (Nov. 10-16).

To compare: $.56 (Nov. 9th); $3.54 (Nov. 3-9).

And this day is not officially over until 1:am!


*you can stop laughing now...*

I was making about 20 cents a day for a long time!

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

November Earnings = $820.

An improvement over October, but still not getting near the eCPM I was getting in September.

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Total Earnings$0.02

November 2007

Whew, I'm going to have to file for Chapter 11 soon!

__________________

Nov.: $62.41

I hit $106.36 since last payment, so an AFT should be coming in Jan. (after Xmas, of course)

Look at the bright side, perhaps you won't have to pay tax on it until 2009?

(perhaps not!)

__________________

Well, I still have a LONG way to go before I hit 3000 per month.

But I managed to make approx $6900 during 2007.

So here is hoping that 2008 picks up quickly after then new year slump!....

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Or write a book,

Title: "The digital economy."
SubTitle: "My experience with the digital advertising industry."

We are both economists, you young, I from "Prekambrium" (English word is?). I have no time to write that book, but I can edit it for you and I have experience. Note that I have helped

1. Master students.
2. Doctoral students.
3. Professors.

in economics and finance with their thesis (what is the plural? Thesis's? You see, and my language is not English. To cite Ricardo, you have a "comparative advantage" in your language)

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

And when (if) you hit that level the income will not be stable, so you have to hedge the income like intelligent fishermen in the North Atlantic do. Their income is seasonal and cyclical with another periode than the season.

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

"hoping" won't get you much more than you already have.

Here´s reverse logic:

More money <-- More visitors <-- More pages <-- More content


Now it is just a number game. And the only way to get the numbers up is to do more work.

__________________
FREE SEO ! Really? YES! All you have to do is implement it!
Follow me on Twitter PeterIMC

Yes, "there is no room for hope in the market" is a financial slogan used by some traders and investors.

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

Just a quick question - I visited your site and noticed you had pictures surrounding your adsense units - are you allowed to do that?

I always thought it was a big no no from Google as visitors may think the picture applies to the advert?

__________________
Middlesbrough | Sunderland | Darlington | Hartlepool

You mean the original poster, since I do not have a picture site.

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

Yea sorry - it was aimed at the OP

__________________
Middlesbrough | Sunderland | Darlington | Hartlepool

I am a photographer and have been watching this project for some time now. I found this website that dose nature photos it apperes that he has Google ads that show more than three times on many of his pages and at least 7 times on some pages.
Spread Eagle I may be wrong but I thought you could only have the ads on your page 2 times? and if so why dose Google not stop this guy?
I am trying to learn about this stuff Thanks

On AdSense you can have 3 ads, 2 referrals and a couple other things. Usually if there's more than Google allows, the code will automatically know that and just not show one or more ads to keep it within TOS. Because this is not happening on his site, he may somehow be within the TOS.

*Welcome to the forum! *

Hi again everyone.

There is no problem having pics close to your adverts - so long as you do not deceive your users e.g. if you search on google you'll find some pretty devious examples.

I only have 3 large rectangle google adsense adverts on any one page (on some pages I may have one referral unit - but I think I have removed all these now as they performed AWFULLY). NB each large rectangle may contain up to 4 text adverts.

Re the more visitors = more money angle - unfortunately this has not been true for me - I have seen quite a drop in income from Adsense since August 2007 - even though I am getting more visitors! This means this thread could last for quite a few years yet!

Currently I need at least 6 times the visitors to get near to my target income, which might take me another 18 years!

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

What about inflation?

3000 x (1+p/100)^18

where p = average inflation rate over the time periode.

Should I start a new thread:

The $3000 per month Google Adsense Project measured in constant dollar

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

....

Good point - how many years would I have to wait for around $500 to be worth $3000 at current inflation rates?

Then all I need to do is keep my earnings constant until then!

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Simple math. Plug in the current inflation rate, p and solve this equation:

500 x (1+p/100)^n = 3000

for n.

Hint: Take log on both sides and then antilog to find n exactly.

You can "solve" it accurately enough on a calculator by starting with a guess for n and modify n to you are close enough.

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

Thanks I will keep watching this with great interest. The ads on the site I referred to do seem a bit misleading the way he has them set up they look to be part of the web navigation tell me what you think ? Spread Eagle I don’t think I would want to risk it like this guy?

Also What if you did 6 more sites that focused on different types of photos 6 x the $$ it may ad up real quick yes I know it’s a lot of work but one of the sites my take of if you hit a niche in the market, I am doing a site that dose photos of ghost and paranormal anomalies caught on film. I bought the domain it belonged to real ghost hunters I guess they went out of business lol but it has in coming links from the right kind of web sites. What will it hurt ill throw up 10 pages of photos and watch the interest if its there I will keep adding more I am just not sure where to get photos of real ghost if you have any ideas please let me know. : )

jordanmcclements, since your earnings have dropped, have you tried to optimize with channels?

In addition, how well have you analysed your statistic over the AdSense membership periode?

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

Theoldway - my site is fine to the best of my knowledge - 2 different adsense support guys from google have looked at it and did not tell me off (there are some much more misleading ways of displaying your pics than this). yes -throw up some pages and see how it goes - it may not be a lot of money - but it is not much hassle once you have them up there..

Kgun - Firstly Maths is NOT my strong point - my mind turn to mush once you say 'log'..., and yes - I do use loads of channels - certain pages perform better than others - but ALL my pages have dropped significantly since last summer. Possibly smart pricing, possibly global recession - possibly Google changing the the 'clickable area' of the adsense text ad (although I dont think so on this one as when it changed, the CTR did go down but the CPC went up to compensate as far as I could tell), possibly a bit of all these things....?

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Jan 2008 Adsense Earnings $558

Traffic is up a fair bit from Dec - but eCPM is DOWN (again)...

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Have you tried section targeting?

<!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->

GoogleBOT: Ignore this section of the page when collecting information.

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->


<!-- google_ad_section_start -->

GoogleBOT: Use this section of the page when collecting information.

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->


View source on the site in the last link in my signature if you are unsure of how it is done.

That may foccus your ad targeting.

Note: It may take up to 2 weeks before you note any effect and you can use as many sections as you like. You must learn speaking to GoogleBOT

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

Thanks.

I did not try this so far - as I have VERY little text on any of my pages - it is mostly pictures.

Though - you are right - it is worth a try even if I have to put more text on most of my pages...

(If only I had more time!)....

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Negative rep point posted 02-02-2008 10:11 AM:

Reason, I did not tell about it earlier.

To you who did it:

Is it possible to think that I did not know it earlier?

Lesson: be careful when you give help at WPW.

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

I have no idea why anyone would do that.

(Also - I didn't even know you could!)

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

I did not say that it was you.

__________________
Mini Network:: Financial information at your fingertips
Learn object oriented programming where it started

Maybe the lesson should be: be careful when telling newcomers they don't belong here?

(wasn't my rep award btw, just a thought.)

/end hijack

__________________
Web Threads
www | Blog | @webthreads on Twitter

Ah sure - in the grand scheme of things, it matters not a jot!

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

Feb. 2008 Adsense Earnings - $660

Still some way to go before I hit $3000!

But at least I am on the 'up' again....

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional

We were making around $10,000.00 a month at one time. We found that the more sites you have the more money you can make. We also found that woman click more than guys.

We also found that there was more work in trying to run a 1,000 sites then it was worth. We gave it all we had the last couple months but no matter what we did we never seemed to pass the $10,000.00 mark.

__________________
Custom Website Design | Search Engine Optimization | Web Design Templates

Janeth, respect to anyone who can run 1000 sites at once.

I have trouble running one site at present..

But for sure, of late, it has been harder to make decent money from Adsense....

You need to really know what you are doing to earn more than the minimum wage!

__________________
Irish Wallpaper/Photos/Desktop Backgrounds|PPC NI| Google Advertising Professional