This comment is outside the box of this discussion... but is it possible the drop in sales is not due to anything google is or is not doing, but that people have stopped buying goods or services related to the sites mentioned?

Getting back on track ....

I worked with Amazon affiliate (associate) program for few years and in my experience, affiliates are rarely making a killing.

Some of the scams out there have numerous accounts and websites and they tend to make few $$/month per site. However, that is not a long term sustainable income.

About Google adwords, market is becoming more and more competitive so the cost is going high. Lots and lots of websites are coming up with garbage and lot of websites have adsense as their financial model, leading to ongoing training of users for not to click them. This is what happened to banner ads (01% - 0.2%) and is going to happen to adsense....

At the same time, users are getting more creative to search for the items (50% of keywords every year on Google are completely new - never searched before. DISCLAIMER: I don't remember the source). So, a savvy PPC guy can keep using wordtracker, google keyword suggestion tool to come up with more and more unique keywords to drive CPC lower and make money....

Take care,
Rajat

It doesn't make sense to put Adsense on a business site. As someone pointed out previously why lose a potential client to a competitor (or having him leave the site earlier instead of spending more time there) just for a few cents? Adsense is more suitable for monetizing sites with a decent traffic. I think that to keep Adsense away from dying in a couple of years, Google ought to put some more requirements for the publishers it accepts, or otherwise propose different revenue schemes for publishers based on the amount of traffic they have and other factors as well.

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Thanks for the encouragement, it is just that there are so many unknown quantities with Adsense it is very hard to analyse what is happening so you can make improvements...

But having said that, if you have a web site that does not sell anything, and gets a lot of traffic - then it is a fairly hassle free way to go if you do not want to put too much work into your web site on an ongoing basis.

I just hope it picks up sooner rather than later....

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Odd that over the same period my Adsense income has increased by at least 75%.

I run a number of online news and feature magazines and I try to post stories to them multiple times every day to keep the content lively and fresh.

It's not easy and it screws your social life but hopefully it is worth it in the long run.

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I agree to that.

That is why diversification is important in my view.

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Adsense has been suffered mainly due to issues like click fraud. Moreover search engines channelize ads under "Ads by gooooogle" on the basis of following analysis.

a) Keyword density of adsense website
b) Theme of adsense website
c) keywords in title of adsense website
and some more..

Search engines cannot differentiate between a ligitimate charity website or a spoofed one. Normally spammers create scraper sites and build their websites around 2-3 targeted keywords. Their sole purpose is to generate profit through adsense.

This must be the reason behind your problem. Meanwhile, you can read an interesting article on "adsense/adwords click fraud" at : Adwords/Adsense Click Fraud

I am sure you would love reading it

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May I ask - Is anyone getting similar problems with UK web click providers, especially Yell, BT Phone Book and Thomsons?

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Very interesting thread!

Let's be honest - Google Adsense income has simply been too nice to be sustainable in the long run, especially since Google has become so dominant.

The reality: Adsense income is down by 50 % since 5 months while traffic increased and CTR remains the same, this seems to be quite common after perusing this thread. However, payouts are still substantial (more than 1 k USD) and I would not complain about Adsense as a residual income. But that is exactly the point: Adsense is residual and should not be the main revenue driver.

The first clicks of the day quite frequently are of high value, and a click of some 2 USD still sends a warm shiver down my spine, but then soon the value is more like close to zero and I simply stop caring. If I would care more about Adsense income this apparent lack of transparency (which for me also has defied any keyword research I have ever conducted) would freak me out. That is why Adsense for me is more something like a toilet in a train station (or maybe a beggar in the street?): constant dribble of peanuts that I humbly and gracefully accept as a gift from the infinite wisdom of the World Wide Web.

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Actually it is also very close to my own opinion if you are gathering statistical understanding.

I am encouraged that your background may be finance and economics. Perhaps you may help elucidate on how Google is an advertising network of homogenized affiliate websites paid to provide landing pages with content for it’s advertisers?

Since I have done many business plans I do understand the need to define the business. Google is not a search engine. If I were to create a plan where my business model was to return relevant results on a query than no investment bank in the world would back me. I would need to show a plan where I can earn my keep and show an exit strategy for the investors. Standard no?

So, if you created the Google business plan would it include that it was a link farm selling links? Hi, we are Google. Our business is to sell advertising on our affiliated sites using a massive database of affiliates that homogenize their sites to serve your advertising into the hands of niche markets using a public "front," or face of a search engine. The affiliate sites will create content suitable for your sales niche and it will be in the form most acceptable to the advertiser and promoted through a massive search engine that will highlight the best of our properties to sell your products. We can manipulate the return results to exclude content that might enhance competition, penalize sites that go outside our system, and even censor for political reasons as long as you pay the price. With such a business plan they could become what they are.

They never did IPO until they had that business model and I think that is what our friend was speaking to. Once it became a corporate machine its goals must change. It is finance and economics not search results that make a business like Google.

As far as the fellows who do not like sig lines or identification you may not like to lend them money but to listen to their opinion does not need much more than a discerning mind that can digest and comprehend. I pay a huge price for my intransigence and being outspoken does not make a good business plan either. So he has reason to his madness.

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Thank you Dann, couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm not promoting any business here or trying to get traffic from this site, so I didn't feel the need to provide references/links either, and also have a employer to consider. I'm just expressing frustration with others.

I have nothing against Google, without the Adsense revenues we've had these sites would have shut down, at a loss to the people they're there to support. I owe a lot to Google. I haven't had time to analyse the exact statistics of the recent months as the site in question is non-profit and I work to keep it afloat and the family fed. What's a social life?

The ebay auction feed I'm looking at using will display as text/links in the webpage via php, no javascript or banners, I don't think it will be blocked by ad blockers, except perhaps the pictures. This uses the CJ/ebay affiliate account number in links to ebay but without the CJ click forwarding etc.

Thank you for the suggestion snowflakegirl, I'll have a look at that program.

To me it is:

1. If I search for the term "financial stability" i like what I find.
2. If I search for the term "Object oriented programming" this How Object-Oriented Programming Started hit should be on the first page IMO. Don't believe everything you find on Wikipedia, even if you can read a positive story about Wikipedia here: Education page of MultiFinanceIT

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But Dann also wrote this:
Do you take that seriously?

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I am afraid I can't.

"It is big, therefore I must bash it" is not a sensible paradigm, to be frank.

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Therefore it is

1. Very easy to be faceless on a professional eBusiness forum.
2. Very easy to fill up the forums server with nonsense.
3. On a professinal forum, that is vaste of other member's time (take time to read).

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OK I think the real question that still needs to be answered is if someone is unhappy with google, what are the alternatives? MSN? Yahoo? Kanoodle?

Also, it hasn't been mentioned yet that google delivers automated, TARGETED ads relating to your page content. Does anyone know of any others ads that are auto targeted in this manner? Its kind of nice to slap some code on your site and have it magically deliver ads that are related to your web site.

It also sucks that google doesnt disclose what the profit splits are. I guess if they did no one would want to get paid a few cents for something that google makes a dollar or more on.

I am satisfied with AdSense. I am using adsense for last 5 months.

I was trying AdBrite. It was showing adult nature ads on my site which was really disappointing. Then I stopped showing Adbrite's ads.

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1. That's my choice.

On two and three, then why do you bother needlessly and repeatedly quoting and picking apart every post? Is that not just creating more nonsense to wade through, duplicating my faceless posts, besides using more precious server resources.
Like I said, it's my opinion and in moments of frustration I my say something a little over the top, ignore it or keep beating a dead horse, it's you time.

I skimmed this thread and would like to make a point about adwords.

It is almost always a good idea to seperate your search campaign and your content campaign.

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My conversion for yahoo is great too, 1/10 but for google its 1/65.
Plus google charges a lot more.

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Unless you are Kgun ignore this
Journal of Felipe Hoffa (141801)
But you didn't know about it when I did. HMMM. Go you gooleeer
So off my back, now the Big guns agree so I can give you a big KMA sucker.
Just had to rub it in?
Yeah!