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As with the SERPs, it's still very much possible to do well with AdSense, it's just gotten a bit tougher, with all systems getting more advanced. It's comparing apples and oranges, really. 10 years back a page that did not deserve to rank highly, still could; nowadays, I'd say, that's much more difficult. I think something similar applies to AdSense: you may have earned much more in "the past", but you weren't necessarily fairly rewarded from an advertiser's perspective.

Maybe look back at those golden years and be thankful you got away with it :-)

PS: You broke your own one-word rule.

You broke your own one-word rule.

Not really. I said less, but added the comment "far".

No rule, just a suggested minimum answer, for ease of participation.

Maybe look back at those golden years and be thankful you got away with it :-)

I am. Too bad all that remains is "the glory of past performance".

"Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way."

Then, time passed.
.

More (traffic increase).

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Ask me after May 25th!

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One word only? Never!

How one calculates makes a difference, in my numbers, as I've been replacing AdSense with direct ad space sales for a decade so number of AdSense ad blocks have decreased ~90% over that time.

Calculation option #1: total AdSense revenue: up YoY 2004 through 2014, big drop in 2015, up YoY since although still well below 2014 level.

Calculation option #2: AdSense revenue per ad block: up YoY 2004 to date.

more, less, far less?: far less

My first site was launched on 1998, then added another and another. Added Adsense on 2007. Overall, traffic went up, and then up, then not so much, and then just steady with little ups and down (but steady). Can't exactly relate earnings to traffic in my case. Yes everything is original content, texts, pictures, a lot of old school optimization, etc. This context is needed to approach what's next:

when penguin and panda came along my *best site in terms of adsense* took a punch in the face going down to pennies. On the other hand my most complete website (good looking, lots of traffic, lots of content, long texts) wasn't doing too well but suddenly went up and since then it's been my most money making website. Still the sum of earnings doesn't match past years/months. I just basically saw the websites and earnings switching sides.

* This old website that was making so much money was confusing. It wasn't pretty, had little text, rarely updated it, I called it my ugly duck, tried a few redesigns and adding stuff only to find out anything I do hurt the earnings so always put it back as it was.

I know we can't post too much detail or specifics, but in terms of earnings I used to make in one day what I do know in one week. Sure there are lucky days, sure there are low days but that's the average.

The name adsense remains the same, but how it works now compared to "then" is all the difference.

The advertisers have changed as well. Fewer big bucks, but that's usually offset by higher traffic.

The black box still does not explain claw backs satisfactorily, so one is always guessing.

So I guess adsense is working moreorless

I know we can't post too much detail or specifics, but in terms of earnings I used to make in one day what I do know in one week. Sure there are lucky days, sure there are low days but that's the average.

Doing better than me then!

Between adblockers, ad blindness and an increasing distrust of online adverts the only reason that I am still running Adsense is that I can't be bothered to take the ads off. Affiliates have done no better. Luckily monetising the site was the icing on the cake for me.

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the big difference (which I know may not go down well here), stopped caring about it, stopped checking AS stats more than once a week, stopped caring about G, my users were first, second and third priority, actually reduced number of ads between 2003/4 and now by c.50%, many pages ad free, etc, etc. Last 4 years have been pretty spectacular.