This year started off well, but the last two weeks things lost steam . I still finished the month 15% ahead of last February, but March is starting off bad. The first week will tell me a lot, but I am not optimistic because this seems to happen during this time of year after an update. Things start off very very very well and then google pulls back.

March I am seeing a decrease in RPM. February was lower than January.
I have big hope in next core update to regain my traffic because I updated all my old content.

From mid February till today, things have gotten worst day to day. Traffic, page RPM, and earnings continue on a downward trend.

The revenue I earn from Google is insultingly low. I'm tired of jumping through hoops to satisfy their algos/rules/tyranny. April is probably going to be the end for me. I have two sites, one which has been on adsense since 2003, the other, newer site, since July 2023. Google will not approve it, citing thin content. I add fresh content DAILY. Just asked for my fourth review. If they don't approve, they can go FOAD.

I honestly could make more than Google pays me monthly by selling one ad on selected pages, not even run of site. I have been using a privately hosted adserver since like July and it is quite versatile. Free for basics and only $10 a month for the pro version. Anybody who want to know what it is can DM me. It has some minor irritations (not actually bugs), but the owner is available for support all the time via email and a pretty decent guy.

Anyhow, my time is so split up between websites and other work i get things done rather slowly. I have the "luxury" of not needing revenue from my websites, but the pittance Google pays is revolting, try 5% of what I made 3 years ago. Not worth showing their generally shi--y ads.

Thanks for letting me rant. All the best to everybody.

The lack of posts in this thread I think tells us all we need to know, a lot of people have jumped ship...Depressing.

@Juniya,

I have not jumped ship yet, it's not pretty right now, but I am hanging on for dear life. lol

I just don't have anything to add to what I have already posted here, things just remain bad for me.

I’m fighting for dear life! LOL…Down 3% from March a year ago.

RIP Adsense

OK, in my last post, I said,

"I have two sites, one which has been on adsense since 2003, the other, newer site, since July 2023. Google will not approve it, citing thin content. I add fresh content DAILY. Just asked for my fourth review. If they don't approve, they can go FOAD."

Well, they approved the site. Only took four tries. SMH (I've been dying to use that acronym since I finally found out what it meant LOL)

So, should I celebrate or just poke my eyes out with a sharp stick? Or was it my FOAD threat?

I guess, in the larger picture, this is good. I applied to other ad companies. They all turned me down, for the main site and the new one. Whatever. For all the bad things I think and say about Google, at least they saw some value in my enterprise.

Putting up some ads tonight. Let's see how it goes. At the worst, it's a base. Something, Anything. Gotta start somewhere. BTW: My Adsense RPM is so low, it's embarrassing.

[EDIT] Here's the kicker. Carrying Google ads on my site actually makes it more attractive to other potential advertisers that I plan to contract on my own. Net plus. Works for me.

Good fortune to everybody. It's out there.

@fearlessrick,

Glad to hear, congrats :-), I also have two sites, both on Adsense as well, at first I also got turned down by so many other ad companies.

Although things are not looking up for me at this very moment, and for many others, I am as grateful and forever thankful, as many who have said the same here are too, if not for now, for all the great years we had.

I will never give up, I love what I do, and although Adsense only puts crumbs on the table now, at least I can season them with my tears. LOL

@allhearts

Thank you for the kind words. I have the same love for what I do. My professional career started as a newspaper publisher in 1982. I created it, ran it, sold ads, wrote articles, distribution, eventually even ran the printing press.

Ink runs through my blood, though I guess today, it's digital ink. Still have the passion, energy, and drive to make something out of nothing, the art of creation, and that's what it's all about in the long run isn't it? It's not about how much we get paid, but how we can make a difference, Google or no Google.

Sorry to ramble on here, but, being from a journalistic background, I have been appalled - and still am - at the level to which "professional" journalism has sunk. The lies, the smears, the propaganda. It's shameful. My hope is to be an agent of change, for the better.

Just be aware, things are likely to get worse before they get better, but, we've had a good dose of "better" the last couple of months. The future actually looks bright.

from a journalistic background, I have been appalled - and still am - at the level to which "professional" journalism has sunk. The lies, the smears, the propaganda. It's shameful. My hope is to be an agent of change, for the better.

You and I are probably about the same age, and I, too, have a journalism background. I am also appalled and kind of in disbelief at how far journalism has sunk. It isn't even journalism anymore.

Spring Break starting in the States so any student traffic is dead for the interim.

The better weather, however, is jumpstarting outdoors-related sites a bit. Looking forward to July!

Let s be realistic for those who use to sell content only like me:
We use to be a type of mini Wikipedias placing ads and hoping that the right keywords will finance our needs.
Nowadays first our former monopoly of know how has been diliuated through AI , tik tok and Insta.
Secondly, which is more concerning, the new generation brain is unfortunately less demanding intellectually spoken. It looks at make up, selfies, Dubai chocolate and other BS .
This is not a thechnological challenge but rather a generation change.
Last but not least: I haven t worked on my now 80 websites for 6 months now (SEO and ads finetuning) , revenues are stable and my mood better.

well done Sissy

i used to make a lot

now i struggle
i dont know what to do really i dont know if its worth it anymore

If everything is changing and if the new generation has changed, then we have to adapt.

For those who still dream that everything will magically return to normal, many publishers better wake up as soon as possible, because this change in the way users use the internet has changed, and changed forever.

The faster publishers adapt, the less damage there is.

For those who are still reluctant to use AI, it is better to rethink again. Many publishers have been using AI since the beginning of ChatGPT, and are making a lot of money now ;-)

New AI overviews in my sector have impacted my websites. :-(

@Sissi

Exactly!

This new core update does not help at all.
Discovery traffic is down, search is dead.

Long live the new AI king.
We are ancient in terms of tech.

20% decrease after AI overviews hit my sector a couple days ago.

Starting this Monday CPC down -50%
On increased traffic, AdSense starting to decrease CTR ... seems automatically.
Increased CPC? They decrease CTR. Increased CTR? they decrease CPC.
So they are regulating income on a level they want.

So they are regulating income on a level they want.

Yup! Been doing that for a while now. They are just refining things now.

So they are regulating income on a level they want.

The only problem with this is that Adsense doesn't pay per click anymore, its CPM only. So CPC and CTR are metrics that are completely meaningless and useless.

Can't someone write an email to Trump's team and tell them that Google needs to go back to CPC and we need to go back to the days before Cookie verification etc? Lol, I know I am not the only one who has thought of this!

The only problem with this is that Adsense doesn't pay per click anymore, its CPM only. So CPC and CTR are metrics that are completely meaningless and useless.

It is simply not true. Although ads are paid with cpm, the cpm is calculated based on CTR. Simple to test: put different ads in different CTR spot. Higher ctr spot will have higher CPM. It is basic adops knowledge.

Higher ctr spot will have higher CPM.

Correlation !== Causation. Ads placed in desirable locations, such as above the fold, get seen more, and thus get clicked on. But is it the clicks themselves or simply the location which is driving a higher price?

CPC is calculated as revenue divided by clicks, so high revenue / low clicks = high cpc. It is important to note that revenue is determined by number of impressions, but the CPC calculation does include impression, this makes CPC extremely misleading. If you have many impression (high revenue) and high number of clicks your CPC will lower than it would be if you had the same revenue with fewer clicks.

CTR can also be confusing to some extent, CTR is the ratio of impressions to clicks. Alone it is pretty straight forward, but when comparing to revenue things get muddy. Revenue depends on total number of impressions, where as CTR is simply a ratio, it can be calculated on a single impression 1 impression / 1 click then CTR = 100%, 100 impressions / 1 click then CTR = 1%, and so on. This explains the high CTR at the start of the day (eg: shortly after midnight) and then it erodes from there. This is a result of the lucky early click. Over a big enough sample of impressions and clicks you eventually end up with accurate ratio. The point is, with a low traffic/revenue, (few impressions) you can often get misleading CTR numbers, when impressions rise, you get a more representative sample and CTR becomes more reliable. This isn't caused by some nefarious action on the part of Google, it's simply math. Google doesn't need to resort to nefarious methods to squeeze a few dimes out of you, it does it boldly and openly, AIO anyone.

If I "test" this, and look at my stats for the past 30 days, my best performing ad unit is not the one with the highest CTR, but it is the one with the most impressions. In my case the high CTR ads tend to have few impressions and a few lucky clicks, and these will change month over month, as the lucky clicks don't always land in the same places.

Can't someone write an email to Trump's team

I doubt an email will help, you would probably need to send truck load of cash (likely several truck loads) and Google has you beat in that respect.

But this is how it works inside.. google calculates the time the ad is visible, and thus fillrate for different spot is different, thus cpm is different. Ctr and cpc is higher as natural consequent for more visible ad and is connected with higher cpm advertisers are willing to pay for ad visible MORE time. You may feel that your most impression ad is best performer but the cause is not impressions but visibility. And secondly, your high ctr ads have lower cpm because as you said there are only few clicks, few means = not reliable data.

Ive tested this also. when you have top ad and middle intext ad, and lets say your tool after filling the form refreshes and scroll instantly to middle ad (site.com/ur.htmll#middlead), the middle ad is best cpm while top ad is #*$! cpm because is not visible at all at refresh.

Yes, the Internet is changing and if we don’t change with it, we will go the way of the dodo bird. My problem is that I do not know what to do nor where the Internet is going.

I’ve been doing this since 2005 and have not worked a real job in 12 years, primarily because of Adsense revenue. Now, I am three years away from retirement and I’m trying to figure out how to continue to survive for the next three years. My programming skills are 13 years out of date, so getting a job in the .Net field would be almost impossible for me.

However, I am not upset. This is just life and life changes. I have my health, friends, and a wonderful family. If money is my only worry, then I think I am doing OK.

In the overall spectrum of things, money is less of a problem than I make it out to be. I could easily sell my home, for instance, and live off of that money for the rest of my life. But I don’t want to do that because I want to leave an inheritance to my children.

We’ll see what happens.

After a long time, something positive. Yesterday, the CPC was $0.16, and the RPM was around $8.50.

Today, so far, the CPC is holding at around $0.14, and the RPM is around $7.50, which is a significant improvement and can also be seen in the earnings.

I hope the positive trend continues.