Why is Google such a mother ****er?
Good question.
First, AdSense earnings.
This entire month has been absolutely horrible. I'm constantly getting more clicks every day, avg. about 40 a day this past week. Yet, I make less than $10. Not everyone's month has been as horrible as mine has, but within the last 2 weeks, most people I have talked to have seen a 90% decrease in earnings.
Secondly, the SERPs.
The results suck. Could this be related with AdSense and the tweaking of algos? I have absolutely no idea, but the timeframe is coincidental. With Google, nothing would suprise me now.
What I am learning from Google.
Regardless of how hard I work on my site to increase PR or to optimize it for search engines -- my effort is absolutely useless, because, Google can just go and make it all void without a notice or explanation. Making a full-time income out of website publishing (as Aspen does) seems pretty impossible at the current state of time. One month I make $3,000, the next $300 because no one can find my site.
Conclusion.
I like Google. But really, it is a mother ****er. It can make or break the lives of website publishers that rely on it. When is the last time you heard a website publisher optimizing for AltaVista? Google is in a scary and powerful position.