There are probably a lot of AdSense publishers who go no further than signing up and pasting in a code. Not all sites get the kind of traffic required to earn on a daily basis. It can take a long time and when the numbers aren't there, they don't tweak and optimize, they turn to other options more suited to their sites. Some people use AdSense only as filler for empty space and get a payment every few months. Not everyone who is using AdSense treats it as a major element in their plans.

You have probably seen plenty of places showing AdSense ads in poorly thought out implementations. They aren't breaking rules, just not very well informed in ways to optimize placement, ad type, etc.

For averages to be statistically meaningful, the items being averaged need to be reasonably similar. The number reported is like averaging worldwide annual income, or worldwide annual snowfall - it is a real number but has no significance because of wide variance.

What?

100,000 payments when they, Google, claim to have 2.5 million publishers IIRC.

That sounds about right, as a 10-year average. The numbers were of course less than that average during the initial year or two, and although the number of publishers may now exceed two million, a small minority (my hunch is about 10-15%) actually see a monthly payment, for the reasons not2easy noted. So yes, the number seems to be squarely in the ballpark, even though it initially may strike you as too low.

Fascinating, so if G pay out in 50 countries worldwide that makes it only 2000 per country?

That sounds absurdly low. And out of 2.5mill publishers? That means that only 5% or so are getting regular monthly payments.

And out of 2.5mill publishers? That means that only 5%

But it's an average, so the number of payments today is likely to be quite a bit larger than the 100,000.

Still, if there are 2.5m pubs today and if the growth was a constant (I doubt it was) couldn't we look at the average as 1.25m+/- pubs. So the % getting a monthly check might well be less than 10%.

Or is my math way off?

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All those people who ticket the box when signing up for Blogspot?

Doesn't surprise me. Many publishers never try to grow their websites beyond mediocrity.

I'm glad I've been receiving one of those payments for over 10 years (first few months was every other month, last month under the threshold was September 2004).

I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if the 90/10 rule was more like a 98/2 rule when it comes to Adsense publishers.

So, we are part of an elite! I like that, but it does beg the question as to how many of the "elite" are making serious money? It would seem there are very, very few.

I've taken a cheque / AFT every month for many years and in the last five I've mainly lived off it but it's never been serious money.

I wonder what it takes to move up from "earning a living" from Adsense to "earning serious money". And for those that do, how much does that infringe on enjoying a happy life?

how many of the "elite" are making serious money?

I used to earn serious money however mine has gone the other way and now it's just enough to buy a few beers every month. I've never been at the minimum, if I were to be at that level I'd simply remove AdSense altogether, however from reading around many different fora (forums) it is not just here that people are posting about vastly reduced earnings and therefore a most probable reduction in monthly payments.

So, are we part of an ever-decreasing elite?

Without doubt some individuals are making more and they do post here but I suspect they are a very small minority however as for the corporate accounts that could be really interesting since some of them seem to get very, extra special treatment.

I used to earn serious money however mine has gone the other way and now it's just enough to buy a few beers every month. I've never been at the minimum, if I were to be at that level I'd simply remove AdSense altogether, however from reading around many different fora (forums) it is not just here that people are posting about vastly reduced earnings and therefore a most probable reduction in monthly payments.

So, are we part of an ever-decreasing elite?

Without doubt some individuals are making more and they do post here but I suspect they are a very small minority however as for the corporate accounts that could be really interesting since some of them seem to get very, extra special treatment.

"few beers"..." not at the minimum". LOL Redbar. The minimum is $100. How much beer do you drink? ;)

The minimum is $100. How much beer do you drink? ;)

Depends where you buy it.
The minimum UK payout would probably buy you a drink on alternate days in a London pub.

Not everybody is using Adsense to make a living, sites may be monetised in other ways with Adsense as a bonus.

How much beer do you drink? ;)

See ... I left that as a plant for someone to ask:-)

Say an average of £3 pint, 4 pints a night, 7 nights a week in a 30 day month that would equate to £360 or just over $600.

No, I don't listen to the supposed health advice about drinking and especially not when it comes to real ale.

how many of the "elite" are making serious money?

There was an earlier thread [webmasterworld.com] more or less about that.

A post by Sally Stitts in that thread is relevant

These are ANNUAL EARNINGS estimates.

A few suggested adjustments added -

Earned-Publishers--Total
$0--------100K-----$ 0M Tier 0
$50-------700K-----$ 35M Tier 1
$100------800K-----$ 80M Tier 2
$1,000----300K-----$ 300M Tier 3 (top 15% of publishers)
$10,000----70K-----$ 700M Tier 4 (top 3.5% of publishers)
$100,000---25K-----$ 2,500M Tier 5 (top 1.25% of publishers)
$1 million----2K-----$ 1,000M Tier 6 (top 0.1% of publishers)
$10 million---50-----$ 500M Tier 7 (top 0.003% of publishers)

It is not easy, trying to logically juggle the numbers, while keeping the known facts in mind (2M publishers, $6B revenue).

Is this a little closer to reality?
I am assuming more of a Poisson distribution rather than a normal distribution, due to the nature of the beast.
I used Excel to get the figures to add up properly.

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I think Sally came close on this as well. These numbers would also hold out pretty true to the idea that they only pay out to 100K people a month.

I think the stats here are insignificant. You telling me that I think Adsense today is as ideal as it was even a year ago? How about we go back three years, when the madness started, and then we look at how many payments are made. I would suspect that it's a steep decline. An average over 10 years is a joke to even be discussing. Perhaps giving out the 10 year average is a PR move. I'm not that gullible.

There are always going to be a percentage that rise about the gutter as it were. There will always be success stories about the promised land. There has to be. It's the smart way of doing things. You simply can't piss everyone off at the same time. That's a bad business model.

I think it should be very wide-based pyramid rather than a guy with middle age spread. Most publishers earn pennies. I saw a 50-page thread on another affiliate/webmaster forum many years ago and 90% were at the 50-100 bucks/month level, and most of those under $50. It was something like:

30% - under $10
30% - $10-$50
30% - $50-$100
5% - $100-$500
3% - $500-$1000
2% - $1000+

There are plenty of AdSense publishers, often in poorer countries, who get a payout every 3-6 months. At the time of seeing that thread, I calculated I was in the top 3% probably of earners. With so many crying about falling earnings, I'm still at about that same level.

Just the headline figures of 100k getting a monthly payment means only 5% getting over $100. Obviously many of that 100k will be low earners finally getting to the 100 bucks threshold but if we go on averages and allow for that, and allow for the fact those are historical averages, my guess would be that only a max of 10% of publishers get over $100..and that fits in nicely with my notion of me being in the top 3%. Those over $1000 would be 2% or so. Yes, that rare! I think this forum can skew that view because a lot of us are heavier hitters.

all back-of-envelope figures but don't think it's that far out. Long story short - there's no way in my mind that 15% of publishers are on $1000+ (as shown few posts above).

EDIT: seems like that breakdown above is ANNUAL earnings, makes more sense that way.