...with the continuing decline of money "most" publishers have been experiencing...

Is this really the case? Given the growth in Google's profits declared recently, is it not possible that many of the better and/or newer publishers have shared some of the growth and seen increases in their earnings?

But maybe if your site is in decline, for what ever reason, accepting an offer may be a good idea. Remember, the more it declines the less it is worth.

The net is a fast evolving environement - apart from some of the "dinosaurs" change is probable necessary to keep earnings growing - or even maintain them at the same level in the face of increasing competition.

And thats not because of anything I did! Those sites have not been updated since they were posted about 5 to 9 years ago - well before adsense or even google in some cases. They are not well designed, or "flashy" and have gramatical errors etc. But the real useful content is all there.

I do think that some sites with rather less "value" to the users are earning less and less and frankly thats how it should be. Adsense seems to reward "genuine" useful informative and unique sites. Especially ones that have people looking to buy something!

As EVF says in another thread some publishers confuse content with "filler" material! People dont naturally link to and bookmark filler!

Now I am not saying your site is like this but it is a possibility?
Obviously not everyone on this forum can be a "best seller" can they?
If I went to your site would I want to stick a shortcut onto my desktop? Or send a link to a freind? Is it of great interest or useful? Can you find the same info elsewhere?

This is a generalisasion of course, because it could be that your particular niche has just lost its good advertisers or whatever. But the system as a whole over all general subject matter seems healthy.

Thing is people are quick to complain about drops in income but seldom say much if its rising or steady!

Personally if you think your site has some real value over and above its previous adsense earnings then I would keep it!
If you dont then your best bet would be to sell it as fast as poss.

[edited by: Genuine1 at 8:22 pm (utc) on Oct. 20, 2006]

I am talking about web sites most of us have built with the premise to make $$ from adsense.

This is your big problem.You make sites for AdSense and for that you make also big mistakes:

1.Optimize for high paying keywords where the concurence is high.
2.Not concentrate in obtaining targeted trafic from organic search.

In my opinion 0.05 - 0.10 $/click is a good pay.

For myself - things have just plodded along. I watch with interest here - try to offer advice and information if I am able, and I wonder if oneday it might be me exclaiming that I have been smart-priced.

I think there are are still a lot of guys out here making significant amounts of money from adsense - so don't give up just yet. If you have a good site, that you think offers a genuine user experience - have faith!

I am talking about web sites most of us have built with the premise to make $$ from adsense.

Why would anyone be foolish enough to buy a site that was "built with the premise to make $$ from AdSense"?

If I were in the market for a Web site, I'd look for one with intrinsic value that could generate revenue from multiple sources.

Why would anyone be foolish enough to buy a site that was "built with the premise to make $$ from AdSense"?

The same people who would buy a bricks and mortar haberdashery shop catering to midget elbonians with two heads?

I am talking about web sites most of us have built with the premise to make $$ from adsense.

Why would anyone be foolish enough to buy a site that was "built with the premise to make $$ from AdSense"?

If I were in the market for a Web site, I'd look for one with intrinsic value that could generate revenue from multiple sources.

The traffic is there. It is a very valuable web site in a niche market. It is just earning less and less per click. I suppose any affiliate program would work there that paid well. Like I said, The traffic is there, but I am being chump changed with smart pricing.

to understand what's going on, you have to analyze your market environment. that consists among others of two factors, market growth rate and state of competition. i'd be very cautious in telling someone that his website is of no use or to sell his website if i don't know about these circumstances.

apart of blaming everything on smart pricing, i'd say there might be very well a general decline in earnings, all publishers aggregated.
a saturized maket allocation is much like the music charts, something like: out of ten there are 2 new entries, 2 climbers, 2 non-movers and 4 fallers. in any case, more fallers and non-movers (and drop-outs) combined than climbers and new entries combined.
so the new entries and the climbers might detect a significant income increase at the expense of all the long-established market participants.

feel lucky if you grow naturally in an overall growing market without doing anything. you are going with the flow.

feel also lucky if your competition is non-existent or too dumb to constantly deliver quality content. or if you're a genius with niche topic expertise others won't ever attain.

but usually, the reality is more that other things being equal, after a few years you're stuck with heaviest competition. hopefully in a visitor-count-wise still growing niche market, but within clear limits of numbers of people who are interested and attentive in what you have to offer.

i for one am working my a$$ off with my websites day by day, recognizing that life won't be necessarily easier tomorrow. fighting against ever increasing niche competition for maintaining my share of interested visitors. and looking forward to still grow with the internet. many of the guys who believe in never fading earnings increases will ultimately end up in this situation, too.

[edited by: moTi at 2:18 pm (utc) on Oct. 21, 2006]

giving tips to someone else on how to act with his website without knowing his market conditions is inappropriate.

Thanks Moti. It is amazing how some people immediately assume my web site is garbage, useless, or simply not good. I must really wonder if all the advice I am getting is from people making $3 a day anyway. I wouldn't take any advice they offer, ever.

i for one am working my a$$ off with my websites day by day, recognizing that life won't be necessarily easier tomorrow.

I try to think of it that way, too. Rather than imagining steady earnings five, ten, or more years into the future, I imagine the whole enterprise will collapse and be replaced by a new paradigm in a few years. Thinking like that, it motivates you to work harder, accomplish more, and stay ahead now rather than be lazy and assume things will just go along favorably.

I try to think of it that way, too. Rather than imagining steady earnings five, ten, or more years into the future, I imagine the whole enterprise will collapse and be replaced by a new paradigm in a few years

That's likely to be true if your site is designed around a highly specific revenue model, such as affiliate sales or AdSense revenues. It's less likely to be true if your content can be "monetized" in any number of ways.

For example, an authoritative how-to and product-information site for do-it-yourselfers could earn revenues from one or more of the following:

- CPM banners, skyscrapers, etc.
- CPC ads (such as AdSense)
- Flat-rate sponsorship deals
- Payments for product listings
- Affiliate links
- Subscriptions
- Micropayments
- Direct sales of related products or services

The revenue mix might change, but the site could go on adapting and making money as Web revenue models continued to evolve.

As google tweeks its code to filter out MFA sites it will inevitably return to its true content value ... nothing.

Here is why: sites with products that cost more than an actual CD will in a lot of cases go for CPC while the cd shops etc will go for the CPA. Why? Because the cost per acquisition is in most cases a lot less when using cpc for more expensive products since most go hand in hand with completing offers before purchasing (insurance, cars, etc etc etc) while less expensive goods only benefit from clicks when they lead to an actual sale.

This is the logic I use at work. For finances I go for the CPC and will never go for CPA since that would be for completing offers and not actual sales.

I was discussing the adsense model with a colleague earlier this week and while he things it will blow up like the internet bubble did a few years ago, I think adsense will see a second life once CPA is introduced.

I think it will evolve, but if CPA is introduced, it will be only one option. Why? Because pay-per-click ads aren't only used by e-commerce businesses that are looking for immediate transactions--they're also used to generate leads for non-retail businesses (both consumer and B2B) who want to develop long-term relationships with customers.

If your site has been made primarily to gain adsence revenue and its declning in Google, then I would think that only a fool would purchase it.
As google tweeks its code to filter out MFA sites it will inevitably return to its true content value ... nothing.

How did you come to the false conclusion that I am running a MFA web site? In my opinion a MFA web site is a web site with little or no content flooded with adsense.

I am an entrepreneur and decided to launch a web site and unlike 99% of my competition, I do not charge my visitors anything for the services the web site offers. I decided I would make my $$ from advertisments on the web site. Hence, I chose adsense.

I appreciate the good advice many people have offered here, but am quite surprised at the immaturity of many of the responses and the negative comments, and finger pointing. Good luck to everybody.

Made For Adsense? MFA? Or a site that would not have existed otherwise?

I didnt say or think that you were running an mfa, but I can see why some thought so since you kind of said it was!

[edited by: Genuine1 at 8:59 pm (utc) on Oct. 21, 2006]

Maybe your site has intrinsic value to users, but--in light of your statement--why would any of us make that our default assumption at a time when so many Web entrepreneurs view AdSense as a get-rich-quick scheme?

Don't tell anyone.....

I have a confession.....

....I, Sonny, have made, created and/or bought several sites whose sole purpose is not to enrich the world but to generate money from Adsense/Yahoo just for me and me alone!

There, I said it, I fessed up.
Wow! I feel much better now.

Therefore, if you're site is improperly optimized and attracting hits from lesser paying AdWrods then simply fixing the SEO could bring you back into the money.

Not sure if that's the case, but if it is and you sell cheap to someone else that just might know how to resolve this problem it would be a sweetheart deal for them.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 10:15 pm (utc) on Oct. 21, 2006]

just a quick look at the tv screen will reveal the idiocy of some advertisers and we all know the mega bucks they pay to show them.

what they spend on internet must be a fraction of that so i see no problem at the moment. as long as there are advertising departments desperate to blow and justify their oversized budgets, i shall sleep soundly as an advertiser.

PS : i want to slash Sheila's Wheels and watch those bimbos crash into a tree, and break their necks, i so hate that irritating advert!

what they spend on internet must be a fraction of that so i see no problem at the moment. as long as there are advertising departments desperate to blow and justify their oversized budgets, i shall sleep soundly as an advertiser.

I think that, for the most part, PPC advertising attracts different advertisers than traditional media and Web display ads do.

Also, don't assume that megabuck corporate advertisers are buying "useless" ads without tracking the results. Big advertisers and their agencies spend a lot of money on recall studies and other research.

I second the notion that there is no "bubble" right now. The real bubble five years ago was driven by massive venture capital pouring into ideas that had no viability. That just isn't the case now. Online advertising is growing organically, sensibly, and predictably.

I don't know if it's a bubble in the same way. But we are and certainly will see changes in advertiser behaviors that will affect adsense pubs, and I do suspect in a negative way.

As for advertising growing sensibly, I disagree. Or rather I'd say that it may be growing on aggregate, but that it's still new enough that there's a lot of money thrown in experimentally, which is not going to generate return, and thus, will or has disappeared.

The changes may very well be invisible in aggregate also, but that doesn't mean sectors, topics, etc, will remain stable earners.

When I see certain advertisers in one of our niches were bidding around $15 per click before, and are now bidding a lot less (using overture as an example), I know there is shifting and adjustment.

On aggregate, or in other areas, new money may be coming in.

Also it's worth remembering that while MORE money is certainly being spent overall on PPC, that can happen without EPC's going up for publishers.

although there are signs of web bubble 2.0 lately (which do not necessarily affect online marketing), what i hope for and what drives me to maximum output even during hard times is the chance to market my visitor stock by more efficient means in the future. this involves other advertising forms and accounting methods (cpm branding!) and more competition to the google monopoly with less limiting marketing capabilities for publishers. but of course i wish adsense to grow even stronger and accompany us on our way.

so i'm fighting for retaining the market share of visitor eyeballs in my niche, assuming that this is the key to future success as the evidence of aggregated visitor interest and attention will be even more important in possible business negotiations and will pay off big time.

i hope that advertisers and agencies will watch much more closely at each websites stats. essentials instead of deception.
when the prime market is already processed, they will look at what the second tier of publishers with respectable mid-size websites has to offer. i expect if you are able to deliver a considerable amount of qualified unique visitors at this stage, there is a bright future.

I'm waiting for CPM to come back in a big way. Branding campaigns, typical of traditional media, haven't really made it to the 'net yet....It's only a matter of time.

It's already happening, and in a fairly big way, in the travel sector. (Maybe other sectors, too; travel is just the one I watch.)

Firstly not only are you making huge assumptions about the people that are posting here, you are also contradicting yourself. At the end of the day YOU posted the questions - so to state that you wouldn't take any advice they offer is ludacrous.

For myself I make a four figure sum each and every day from adsense - I am fortunate I know, I have not been "smartpriced". Don't assume peoples earnings - it is neither relevant or pertinent to your question. I happen to know that a number of the people posting here make significant sums of money from adsense - so surely their advice is worthy of listening to.

Re the assumption that you have an MFA site - you virtually stated that yourself. If you took adsense off the site - does it still make money? The answer has to be no, since you stated that you have tried other monetisations on the site. Therefore, the conclusion is you have a MFA site. That isn't to say that your site does not have any content, or is in any way trashy, it merely means that without adsense the site earns little if anything.

Don't ask for opinions if you aren't prepared to listen to, and evaluate the responses. You don't necessarily have to agree with them.