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.. but my earnings and ecpm are better than ever. click through is up from about 5 to 8%, and ecpm is up big time from about 8 to now 12,$13. page impressions are down from about 5,000 to 3,500 a day. Earnings are better than ever, days are extremely steady. this is going to be another month going over $1K and then some.
I was thinking to re-tune the site to prepare for another Google image bot visit (every 6 months or so), to continue to optimize, but now I'm not so sure. Also, my site was affected by June 27th, and I, even though it was tempting to fix the 'problem'... didn't touch anything at all - and it was back at the same level on July 27th.
Maybe I should just leave it alone and do nothing? What your advice?
Also, this, at least for my site topic (personal info site), proves that visitors from Google search are just out there to steal images, they do not care for site content. As such, even if they click, the result is they do not 'convert' on the advertising site, and therefore I'm also hit with smartpricing. I have a hotlink blocker (htaccess), which effectively squashes all hotlinks, except from a few choice sites.
Also, this, at least for my site topic (personal info site), proves that visitors from Google search are just out there to steal images, they do not care for site content.
Or maybe they're just interested in looking at images. Either way, it makes sense that Image Search traffic isn't likely to pay off with clicks or conversions in most cases.
in other words, you just proved that removing adsense from pages that don't perform can make you more money... isn't it funny how google won't admit that?
don't turn your nose up at image search traffic... every visitor has the potential to earn you money, even if it's just from cpm advertising on the page... now that google allows you to make custom channels for advertisers to site-target, there is more possible earnings potential, because the cpm bid prices could be very low, since the pages weren't performing.
you can also pre-qualify and re-route that traffic to other pages, because some of those image searchers will indeed want to learn more about the topic... so if your images get ranked again in google image search, you could try pulling the adsense off of those pages, and see how the re-routed traffic converts... use cpm ads from another source.
An example: I was looking for a detailed description of silkscreen industrial procedures (not home made ones). I found what I needed in the web site of a silkscreen plates maker (big solid industrail firm) when I put "silkscreen rotary plate" in the Google images option. I saw a drawing that fitted my idea and went to the site. I wasn't able to find that with the "web" usual search.
For the third year now with AdSense it's perfectly normal for me that bottom line earnings go up this time of the year. It just depends on the niche your in. I can imagine that it's going down for EFV. Although I can't say for sure.
Maybe it's useful to now that my Google image search referrals dropped with about 5k visitors a day and my bottom line earnings are up (as expected;)
And it started suddenly. I dont even know how it got indexed since I dont think I have a link to it anywhere on my pages.
So I added an adsense block or two and a jump out of frame script. Back button working of course.
It paid up to 70 dollars a day for 3 months (extra) over normal earnings. Then after an image search update the pic vanished from first place and is nowhere to be found anymore for normal search!
Anyway that page was a pure accident. I found that image again in top place for that same popular search term but alas now its in the "dont sensor my results" search.. (and it was perfectly clean!)
Almost no traffic to it any longer. It added an average $50 per day for a few months! No smart pricing issues there!
Now we are back to "normal" if there is one!
[edited by: Genuine1 at 4:19 pm (utc) on Oct. 26, 2006]
[edited by: Bddmed at 4:24 pm (utc) on Oct. 26, 2006]
I have a hotlink blocker (htaccess), which effectively squashes all hotlinks, except from a few choice sites.
I installed also a hotlink blocker, but to exclude some sites only.
6 sites with myspace.com at the top excluded.
Also, this, at least for my site topic (personal info site), proves that visitors from Google search are just out there to steal images
There are also people purchasing publishing rights for pictures.
I soled this year a print publishing license for 200.-EUR
and have just a request for an other 150.-EUR for an other picture.
200.-EUR for one lucky hit are not bad
I installed also a hotlink blocker, but to exclude some sites only.
6 sites with myspace.com at the top excluded.
I did this in the beginning, but it didn't work for me. Every day I'd see another viral/forum site using the free image, people doing it just for kicks to describe something in a post. Now all my images are watermarked, and all sites are blocked from hot linking, except for a few i permit to use images (on-topic forums). I used to block 'blank' referrers as well, but I relaxed that rule recently.
About selling picture rights, I have notices on some pages that pictures are for sale, but I never had any takers. I did have people emailing me asking for free rights, which I usually decline unless for education purposes (and I ask for referral at that point).
in other words, you just proved that removing adsense from pages that don't perform can make you more money... isn't it funny how google won't admit that?
yes! how interesting is that... it's the same principal - removing ads from low-performing channels increases revenue. Of course, truthfully, I've never done it myself on purpose, because it's easier to count the money you have now than to give up the small nickels and dimes to see the big picture :)
From a user point of view: I search many times by means of a description in Google images. Why? I use it normally if a first round of searches gives back no meaningful result and/or I need to find something I am not dead sure how to call it or define it, but I am sure that it must contain a given imagen to fit into my search.
I've done this too! but maybe in 1 out of 100 image searches. just a few days ago, i wanted to find out what type of a palm tree was in my apartment. Doing an image search, i was able to find pictures of palm trees, and found one that looked exactly like mine. then, i read the website for about 15min, learning everything about it (watering, sun needs, etc).
although I'm ad-blind and i didn't click anything, I'm sure 'regular' users would be incline to further their search through ads.
hotlink blocker
I don't block them, I redirect them to a different image that says things like "IMAGE PIRATE" or a porn pic, depends on my mood. Needless to say, hotlinking from that site stopped.
It's also pretty easy to stop people from downloading an image from your site, you just put the image in a TABLE CELL as a background image, then put a single transparent pixel in the cell and resize it to fit 100% the size of the cell.
When someone tries to save the image, they get a blank pixel :)
In my case some tart is searching for a swimsuit. She wants to see it! She searches (black Swimsuit or whatever) on google images.
She spots my GF with a black swimsuit. Clicks, sees a page with a few image links (black swimsuits in this case!) and some ads about guess what?
That page paid very well, was well targeted and probably converted well for the advertiser. No smartpricing then!
Now how to do it again... The key is to find a popular search term where people need to see an image BEFORE clicking to speed up the search. The Swimsuit thing was pure luck. Extremely popular search and an ideal candidate. And at number one by accident!
PS Searching for black swimsuits will not find you my bird because shes gone now! Tut... But you will get the idea - I am a bit of a photographer!
[edited by: Genuine1 at 8:01 pm (utc) on Oct. 26, 2006]
