>>>There are plenty of things better than AdSense. Just not *easier* than AdSense

This depends on how you define "better." I love improving my site which makes life easier for my visitors. Time I spend analyzing Google's behavior in order to monetize my work detracts from my primary mission and thus makes the world a less pleasant place for those who visit and use my life's work which I present to the world on my website.

Maybe I'll win the lotto and be able to run my site ad free. That would be a dream come true, my life free of AdSense.

edited for clarity

[edited by: OnlyToday at 3:06 am (utc) on July 31, 2008]

Maybe I'll win the lotto and be able to run my site ad free. That would be a dream come true, my life free of AdSense.

Funny how anything you like in life, if it becomes your job and livelihood, it's suddenly a lot less fun.

I don't think there's a cap. I've been with AdSense for four years and have seen enough ups and downs on my sites to rule out a cap on earnings. That said, I do think that the glory days of 2005 are probably gone as the novelty of AdSense ads and the curiousity they once evoked has worn off (not to mention a gazillion more publishers entering the pool, advertisers leaving and not being replaced and on and on). And then there's a day like yesterday where I earned as much as I used to in 2005 which in turn renews my optimism in the program and gets my hopes up that all is well in AdSense land and so I stick with it, year after year.

[edited by: Play_Bach at 6:05 am (utc) on July 31, 2008]

Adsense preview tool, right click. Check out who is buying space and then get into direct ad sales. Double your money, it's not always possible but it is possible.

>>> and then get into direct ad sales.

It sure beats used car sales, and don't even think about selling real estate these days. Who should I hire to maintain my website while I'm in sales?

Hello, these people are already buying space and with the extra money you make you might be able to do just that. It's not going to work in every case but it's an option to consider. Who does not like to cut out the middle man right?

>> Who does not like to cut out the middle man right?

Sure, I understand what you're saying. But the middleman does a job, a job I don't want to do. If I wanted to be in ad sales I could have applied to some media giant and done it. I want to run my site, not be an ad sales person. Now I do admit that since Google is not doing their job to my satisfaction I could act to go around them.

But that would be a career change and a rather large one at that, not a solution for me. But hey, maybe for some.

This happens ALL the time.
When traffic increases, clicks increase, and so CPC goes down. <snip>

I realize my experience may be statistically insignificant, but we just experienced a massive (approx. 10x) rise in traffic & earnings over a short period, and saw absolutely no evidence of any kind of 'cap'.

Here's my WebmasterWorld post about the experience [webmasterworld.com]

I can't say that caps are impossible, but based on what I have seen on my site in this case, the 'cap theories' don't fit. So, until I experience the described statistical anomalies, I will remain skeptical.

There might be a cap of some kind but I also believe that human psychology is to blame. The moment we get additional traffic from a source, we start calculating: how much work did it cost me to bring it? how many pageviews were made due to these visits? How does it compare to other traffic sources? We often tend to search for the easiest way to get x pageviews, forgetting that every traffic is different. So basically, there is a point at which we have lots of cheap traffic.

BTW do you know a tool that can determine people from what referring links are the most click-happy? That would be useful.

Storm

So, my eCPM alternates between two levels, it will be high for two or three days and then it will dip 12-25% for several days, then return. This has been such a regular pattern for so long that it cannot possibly be coincidence. I have heard from several posters on this forum that this is smart pricing kicking in periodically. What is that if not a cap?

Everyone who has posted here repudiating the cap theory cites a traffic spike as their example which only tells us that traffic spikes break the cap. Good to know, I'll just have to arrange some spikes to break my cap.