August is a very slow month...

Is the drop since April because of traffic, epc or CTR?

80% lose of traffic, I think the Panda update

Don't forget Penguin too, what date did your traffic drop?

I feel your pain. The same happened to me on April 11, 2011. I've done everything to recover - but thinking I'm going to have to start submitting my resume and get a job. Whatever I have to do. I've got two kids and one that is starting college August 20th. YIKES!

Sucks too.... because what is ranking for my niche is pure BS. Crappy, out-dated junk or sites owned by Internet Brands that have tons of cash to buy their rank.

Also see: [webmasterworld.com...]

Frost_Angel - im in the same boat, since april 2011 I have lost traffic I have 2 Month left, if nothing changes im out of the internet business, have to sell my car and move to another place. Whats almost worse is when I look at the first 10 pages where I used to rank, I hardly find anything that can compete with my site at all, so I even dont know what to change and why I should do.

Frost_Angel - im in the same boat, since april 2011 I have lost traffic I have 2 Month left, if nothing changes im out of the internet business, have to sell my car and move to another place. Whats almost worse is when I look at the first 10 pages where I used to rank, I hardly find anything that can compete with my site at all, so I even dont know what to change and why I should do.

I did in December 2011 a big update in design.
My first big change where I see changes in the Google Analytics data.

30% more page views per visitor.
Even a bigger increase at visitors with smart phones.

Thought this should bring the big recovery, but it got even worse.

I'm in the same boat too. My sites have lost about half their traffic since last summer, but it has been a gradual decline so probably not due to Panda/Penguin.
Maybe not enough content ATF, the freshness factor or something else.
I have spent a lot of time going over the sites trying different things to turn it around. Even a redesign to liquid layout did nothing to improve things.
Seems like the EPC also declined at the same time. Did anybody else notice that? Maybe the SERP ranking of site is a factor in the smart pricing algo.

That's staggering! From 4500 to 600 is a big drop. Usually, you should be getting at least 2000 still.

How often do you update your site(s)? I think I may have figured out how google ranking works. It's how often you update your sites; the type of visitors you're getting; where they came from; repeat or new visitors; and how long they stay on your sites.

I only had one site when I started. My traffic took a nosedive about 2 years ago. Then I did something clever -- I separated my main site into 6 new sites. Let's say if your topic is about fashion, you can separate it to different categories with new domains: baby fashion, teen fashion, women fashion, advice fashion, and so on. Within a year, I was able to recover my lost traffic and it just keeps growing and growing. However, I work many hours a day -- at least 8 hours.

The secret to success is keeping your new visitors. The moment they land on your page, you have to get them hooked so they stay longer and get them to come back to your site again and again. How to accomplish this? Regular update; fast page load; well designed site; easy fluid navigation; great fun/relevant/interesting/popular/unique content.

That's staggering! From 4500 to 600 is a big drop.

That's nothing in percentage terms compared to some of us here at 3-5% of our best month's earnings.

However, I work many hours a day -- at least 8 hours.

Errr...try 80-90 hours a week, sometimes 100 hours, every week for the last 17 years.

The secret to success is keeping your new visitors.

Whilst that would be nice for some it is totally impossible, it depends on one's niche, not every niche is an every day or once a month purchase or even once every six months. Whilst the retail side of my niche may have repeat buyers the vast majority are once in every few years, maybe only once in a lifetime.

YMMV!

I have to agree. I *wish* I had only been spending 8 hours a day. I've been doing this since 1995 and have never seen anything like this. I made over US$100K last year on the site that "died" starting on 25-26 July 2012. This month I'll be lucky to see US$2K. But, I'm 62 and can relatively easily retire having saved money, no debts and such. The money was nice, but it may simply be easiest to move on. The internet is being totally "Walmartized" and there's nothing us little folks can do about it.

I'd feel different if I had done black hat SEO or something, but never did any of that stuff. I will say it came as quite a shock to me. I'll give it a couple months, but after that I'll just be turning it off, so to speak, and getting on with life.

Errr...try 80-90 hours a week, sometimes 100 hours, every week for the last 17 years.

All work and no play will make HuskyPup a TiredDog.

That's the beauty of working from home, living a 5 minutes walk from all the bars and cafes and less than 10 minutes walk to a glacial, wooded valley ... I gave up commuting many years ago:-)

I can give you some advice about getting advice.
Do NOT go to the Google webmaster forums for help. I've tried this twice genuinely looking for help after Panda.
They are mean, rude, cruel and brutal. They will tear you down and make you feel like you need to just shut up and go dig a hole and die. I've never gotten advice that was so mean spirited. I don't know how many "experts" live over there on those forums - but they are like doctors with horrible bedside manner.
VERY condescending and God-complex attitudes.
AVOID.

Curious.

Then again? How do we know they are in fact "experts"?

On wholly unrelated technical forums I've seen "self appointed experts" proffer downright malicious, destructive advice.

I judge experts on the basis of consistent, sound advice over time backed up by proven, demonstrated results in their own little backyard.

> and getting on with life.

Misread that Elsmarc as "and getting on with wife."
(I guess you see what you want to see! ;-)

"Errr...try 80-90 hours a week, sometimes 100 hours, every week for the last 17 years." are you kidding mate?
If I was doing that I could probably had 5-6 Cayennes instead of one.....life is too short.....

If I was doing that I could probably had 5-6 Cayennes instead of one.....life is too short.....

Had 'em, over-rated, I don't want to hijack this thread however it may be the basis for a good discussion for those who work from home v commuting to the cubicle.

We are on the same boat, here.
Highest month with Adsense was september 2011.
Since then it's been a slow decline (less and less visitors sent by google), and now I am back to where I was in september 2008.
A staggering -80% in less than a year. Almost 4 years of work gone..
I am sooo close to give up.

It's curious how last december I did a major update to my website that improved user experience and some of the metrics (average pageviews almost doubled, visits average time improved of 30%..).
No matter how good my stats were, because hundreds of the keywords where I used to rank are now dominated by 'quick answers sites'.

I'm back to 2009 heading to 2008. I would still have good search results but being pushed to bottom of page one, or over to page 2 by numerous results from the same domain. By a shocking coincidence these same domains spend thousands, probably hundreds of thousand of dollars advertising with G.