How was the olden days of adsense?

[Farmer77]

To those who used adsense when it first came out, how well was the click through rates and the money? I remember when I first saw an adsense ad, I clicked on it, believing it was part of a site's content. It wasn't even blended in.

[GeorgeB]

I wrote a good blog post (http://www.georgeboone.com/how-the-heck-are-people-making-money-with-adsense-these-days/) on that recently. It's definitely been on the decline.

Hard to see it going any direction but down from here.

[Chris]

There was a sweet spot after it launched but before they started doing all that smart pricing BS.

Immediately after launch, June 27th 2003, I joined. I saw the potential. I made a new site, iddb.org, to take advantage of it. The site grew rapidly and well, and ended up making $1500 a month it's second month, and that lasted until Google banned canadian pharmacy ads.

Now it seems I am constantly fighting with Google, working and making optimizations to increase CTR, and yet the overall income stays the same. It is extremely annoying. For every increase in my CTR my earnings per click goes down.

[ogito]

I'm seeing the same thing... by increasing of the CTR, the earnings per click are going down... , isn't strange? I don't think there is any relation between CTR and quality of the click...

[Todd W]

My CTR has gone up every month since I joined AdSense in Late 2003 to bad the $ has not. I remember even late 2004 looking at stats and I was doing 2x the clicks but earning half as much!! Grrr.. 2006 was better than 2005 that's for sure, earnings went back up (not nearly as good as the start) and CTR stayed steady.

[polspoel]

Maybe your increase in CTR (by constantly optimizing) also means that more clicks are "accidental", from people who are not interested in buying the product advertised or who clicked on it thinking it wasn't an ad at all, lowering conversion rate for the advertiser and putting you in a smart pricing situation.

[Todd W]

Maybe your increase in CTR (by constantly optimizing) also means that more clicks are "accidental", from people who are not interested in buying the product advertised or who clicked on it thinking it wasn't an ad at all, lowering conversion rate for the advertiser and putting you in a smart pricing situation.

While that may be true for others the sites I earn most from adsense haven't been touched in over a year. (Yes Yes I know I'm in the middle of re-doing them now)

[GeorgeB]

When you send any ad network over 100 clicks and make less than $5 it's time to step back and re-look at your options.

P.S. Toddw it's "Too Many Sites" not "To Many Sites". I'm sorry man it's a hang up I have. I wouldn't have been able to concentrate for like 10 minutes if I hadn't said anything :(

[Todd W]

When you send any ad network over 100 clicks and make less than $5 it's time to step back and re-look at your options.

P.S. Toddw it's "Too Many Sites" not "To Many Sites". I'm sorry man it's a hang up I have. I wouldn't have been able to concentrate for like 10 minutes if I hadn't said anything :(

I think I fixed it. :ladysman:

[GeorgeB]

Oh great. From now on you'll be viewed in my mind as that little "special" boy on WebsitePublisher who tries really hard. :D

*golf claps*