For some of us, it isn't even worth dancing to Google's tune anymore.

@EditorialGuy I agree, I think now more than ever when it comes to Adsense Less is More. There is no benefit of filling your pages with ad units that no one ends up seeing. I recently removed one 300 x 600 ad unit from all my desktop pages because it was close to the bottom of a long page. No one ever saw it. It just messed with my stats. I haven't seen an impact on my earnings.

I have had the opposite experience... I started out with a single 728x90 above the fold, then moved to two 300x250 banners along the side, and a 728x90 at the bottom. The below-the-fold banners don't make as much as the above-the-fold banner, but when I added them my revenue went up substantially.

Then when Adsense began to allow more banners, I added a 4th 300x250 at the bottom of longer pages. The value of the other 3 didn't change, but my total revenue went up about 15%.

So my logic is, put as many banners as looks natural to the page. I base mine on the height of the page, and there's an unspoken rule to not have banners within 800px of one another.

Anyway, back to the topic...

I don't like to read the gloom-and-doom that Adsense is dying... it's my primary source of income, so let's hope that's not true! But I concur that, so far, this is the worst month I've had in 6 years.

I agree Linda. I diversified into other non-website/adsense areas areas last year and am glad I did. I hope Adsense turns around, but I'm not hustling to make changes to see if I can goose that revenue. Because all my eggs aren't in one basket, I'm much calmer about the Adsense downtrend. This may be nich-specific, but I'm in 3 evergreen niches and don't think that's the issue for me at least.

Just a follow up to what I posted earlier today.

Yesterday and today, Adsense ads were no longer showing, on my site, or others sites when I was using Firefox, Opera and Safari. But it worked fine under Google Chrome.

Right now, I noticed that ads are showing normally again on all browsers.

Since no one commented on this, I assume that I was the only one to face this issue, but I have no idea what was wrong.

This was my backup ads showing, and in my stats, I can see that during this periods, my backup ads URL recorded an increase of impressions, and since one hour, it returned to nearly 0 impressions (which is the normal since I don't use the ad balance).

So I guess I was not the only one in this situation, and that there was something wrong with adsense during the last 48 hours.

@Peter_S Honestly, I use the Chrome browser, and I didn't even think to check it on other browsers. This could be one of the reasons why we are so far down, but it sure as heck wouldn't account for earlier in the month up until now.

Yes, on Chrome I see no ads, but ads present on Safari and Firefox.
The main difference is that on Chrome I'm logged in my Google Account.

I've disabled personalized ads on my google account.

Does Media work as back up with Adsense? I have added Media to serve as backup for unused adsense impressions by uploading their code to the site via FTP and then adding the url in the backup on the adsense units. Previously used media as standalone.

I am seeing expected impressions with the backup units but the earnings are currently pathetically low. I wonder if I am going through the dreaded experience so many Media users seem to talk about, which is, after a promising start, things take a massive turn for the worse usually from the second month. I really hope I am not one of them. I like their ads, very on topic, and considering they are serving Yahoo and Bing ads, one would think they would be highly professional.

Most of my users are from US, then UK and Canada.

Peter, I also don't see ads on my site on any of the browsers. It suddenly happened couple of weeks back. Neither Adsense nor Media. I don't have ad block on any of browsers (double checked) or on the computer. I also disabled the firewall to check. Very strange. but I am sure others do see it because I get impressions and clickthroughs with Adsense. I checked on friend's computer and the ads show on his.

@tryingtogrowsite I'm not sure that using Media.net as backup is such a good idea. Bakcup ad code is loaded on seperate url and then shown on a page via i-frame. I am not sure that Media.net will get any data about the page or the user in order to be able to properly target the ad. So the ads shown will be un-targeted bottom of barrel ads. You end up replacing crap with crap, in which case you would be better just showing the AdSense ads.

I think your best option for backup ads is to show affiliate links related to the page content.

You can check out this thread where the issue is discussed in more detail:
[webmasterworld.com...]

IMHO Media.Net text ads are particularly bad. Users have to double click to get anywhere, and most of the ads are misleading as to what they are really about. I removed them all from my sites. The only good thing about them is that they have net 30 payments.

About six months ago ads were not showing on my site in Chrome. Not all the time, just some of the time. Thought it was my machine, but it happened on other machines, too. Never did know what caused it and then it stopped.

About media.net , I gave it a try last year. It was good the two first weeks, then collapsed to near zero. I never understood why. They made me sign at something at Google, which they claim will grant access to a premium inventory of advertisers for my site. But it didn't change anything. Text ads could have been interesting, but, when you had 5 links, this was 5 variants of the same sentence, which I guess will not be appealing to visitors. And, when you were clicking on one of them, it was taking forever to reach a page, with more links, which were taking themselves forever to load the advertiser's site. The only positive thing at Media.net, is that it's easy to discuss with an account manager. Mine, always answered in a mater of minutes to my emails.

Now, since media.net is contextual advertising, if you insert their code into a blank page, to be used as adsense's backup ads, there will be no "context" to match for the ads. So I assume they might have a global theme for a site, which can be used, I don't know.

About ads not showing on specific browsers. In my case, it was still loading my backup ads. I could tell it was not only from my computer, by looking at the number of impressions of my backup ads page. And during the 2 days I had this problem, roughly 30% of my visitors saw my backup ads, instead of adsense. Then last night, all returned to the "normal", with nearly no impression of my backup ads. I have no idea what happened, since it worked with Chrome (and nothing related to being logged to Google account, or add-ons installed, because I always clear all the cache / cookies when testing). So this was a "glitch".

Now, all is normal, and my adsense earning is in the upper range.

Also, since always, I often see errors message in the console logs of Firefox (or Chrome), coming from third party networks ads. I don't know how it impacts or not earnings, since ads seem to show anyhow.

I really like media.net because the ads would follow the niche of the website and make them much more attractive to my guests because basically they do not like part of the website. To be honest with you, these type of ads are a little bit deceitful because I'm sure people think they are part of the website navigation. My niche is quite unique so in a lot of cases you do and up with the right subjects. However, on a couple of websites I have them on the subject is not related to the wording on the bottom at all.

Media.net was starting to overtake AdSense in the last two or three months. Then all of a sudden we get to April and everything goes to pot. For some reason hit rate has dropped dramatically. Averaging around 2400 so they were only two or three weeks ago I was the 3000 most days. AdSense is also drop down bit most days. Yesterday wasn't too bad because I must have got a couple of high-paying clicks which really boosted my earnings. However, today looks as though it will be dismal carries on as it is.

When I've been trying Media.net, I noticed that lot of display ads were in fact served by Adsense, so I assume that Media.net has some kind of adsense account, and they use it to complete their own inventory.

Now, I never understood how Media.net was paying, because they don't give any details. It's like they make an estimation. They might apply some kind of rules to calculate how much they pay a publisher. It might not be related to the number of clicks, or displays. This should be more general. And, my theory is that, if they earn Adsense money, that they share with publishers, then maybe their adsense incomes decreased like for lot of us since the beginning of the year, so maybe they are decreasing how much they pay publishers now, to reflect this decrease. Just a thought.

I get paid in dollars from media.net. So it benefits me if the pound is weak to the dollar (I think that's the right way around) my next payment is $170 which should be around £136. They don't normally claw back too much so I've estimated I will probably get around £125 in earnings for last month from media.net. If earnings carry on as they have been doing this month then I will probably just about reach the $100 minimum payout

Appreciate it Nick and Peter, I guess that makes sense. That could be why they perform very badly when I add them as backup. I added them because they performed promisingly first month (still hopeful about them for the future despite lacklustre performance so far this month). Don't they draw their ads from Yahoo-Bing? I would expect their ads to be of good quality if they do.

I am currently going by the ad balance tool and this would leave a large percentage of impressions with white background which I find looks really awkward. I don't have any affiliate alternative to go with.

Ironside, how do you use Media? How many of their units do you have per page? I am trying to figure out how many units I should use in total (including Adsense) with my average page length about 1200 words.

@Ironside, is it the first time you'll get paid? There might be bank fees. I live in Spain, and when I get my first (and only payment) from Media.net, it was by wire transfert, and my bank charged me 20 euros of fees. (10 euros because it was coming from outside the European Union, and 10 euros because it was a in a foreign currency, so this was their conversion fees + margin).

@tryingtogrowsite, keep in my mind that the backup ads will be served when Adsense has no valuable inventory for a given visitor. If Adsense considers there are not valuable ad, then there are few chances than other platforms have something better to propose.

And as for your number of ad units, I would say it's not a matter of number of words on page. It more like how it looks like. and how it fits with your page layout, and the reading of your article.

Is anyone seeing an increase in RPM for the last 2 days (20th and 21th). I am seeing this on one site. I am not sure if it will continue. Its not back to 2016 levels but still a decent improvement.

@romerome, I do too. I think it's mostly due to the fact that Easter is over. Advertisers use to lower or stop their campaign during holidays/vacations.

Also seeing good RPM for 20th/21st - I'm not sure if it is a general thing or whether we are close to a threshold on being smart priced.

@Tryingtogrowsite - you are allowed to put three units on each page, the same as what AdSense used to be like. My best performing ad unit by a country mile is a 600 x 250 link unit located right at the bottom of my main articles. My next best performing ad which earns approximately half of my best performing unit is a 468 x 60 which I like to put underneath the first paragraph of text in each article.

What I like about media.net is you will be assigned a representative which will work personally with you. They will actually take the initiative to make sure that your ads blend in with your website. All I do is contact my representative when I make a new ad unit and just asked them to make sure that its responsive. Also, wants you have things in place you don't need to adjust your colours, when you put the AdSense unit on your site the colours will all be set in place matching your navigation. I expect you can ask them to change the colours if you don't want them like this, of not done this myself, I like media.net to match my navigation.

@Peter_S - I have then with media.net for probably over a year now. My final payment is normally quite close to the estimated earnings. It is not normally any more than $10 difference when I get paid. Payment normally comes on the last couple of days of the month, sometimes the first day of the new month.

I think that AdSense will probably pay slightly more than media.net, but media.net appear to care more about the people who use their ad units. They are very approachable and are more than happy to help you achieve what you want from their product..

What I meant is, how do you combine Adsense and Media on the same site. How many ads do you have in total on a page? If one is outperforming the other, why would you have both on the same page unless you are willing to show more than three ads. I wish I could use both, but if one is doing better than the other then I prefer to go with them. I think four or five units in total is excessive.

I do agree about Media being very helpful. My rep is very nice, always responding quickly and coming up with helpful suggestions. I am not going to give up on them.

@Trying to grow site - I have sent you a private message is it's probably easier for me to give you an example of what I have done. However, for the benefit of other people who are reading this thread I have a maximum of three media.net units on my pages depending on how long the article is. If it's only a short article I will only have one AdSense or media.net unit. If it's a long article then I will have three media.net ad units. By far the best performing the 600 x 250 unit which is at the very end of the article. Years ago I had a 336 x 280 AdSense unit here which was a fantastic performer. However, for some reason it went from being very good to almost pointless having it there. Occasionally this unit will display AdSense type image ad unit which really hacks me off. Most of the time later completely irrelevant and I doubt whether anybody would click on them. But when they are displaying the proper media.net menu type ads they look very appealing.

If I was to remove media.net for instance I would almost certainly lose quite a bit of money each month because I don't think that would mean more people clicking on AdSense. Media.net was starting to perform really well, this month it's just almost half itself in earnings. I've resigned myself to the fact that between AdSense and media.net I will probably have just about a much money each month to keep my van topped up with diesel and paid for my day tickets for fishing, plus buying baits another little things.. But the days have gone where after three months I could probably go out and buy an omega wristwatch brand-new.

So I am still seeing the rpm bump since the 20th. The smart pricing idea is interesting. What are the factors that go into smart pricing. Now that the RPM is up I would like to do whatever I can to keep it that way.

For me this weekend was the lowest point of the year as revenue.

I stopped Adsense codes from my site for few days but later I found myself running it again because the result in the alternative network wasn't better. Now I'm watching some increase in my RPM comparing to the middle of April which was the worst ever. I hope gradually RPM will go back to the normal situation by the end of this horrible month.

Seems to be a big lag in reporting today - anyone else seeing this?

@glitterball, I think that every day, but those are the new "normal" days for me. :)