Anyone else have weird AdSense numbers?

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   Jerry G2posted 15 years ago

   Hey all,
   
   I'm wondering if anyone else is having the same problems I have.  I have tracking on my other blogs and mini-sites, and in Sept./October I was getting a lot more clicks with less traffic.  Hypothetically, it wasn't out of the question to get 4-10 a day depending on traffic.  Now I get over double the traffic, but less than half the clicks, to the point where I'm getting smart priced.  I'm really baffled, because I know we're not supposed to share percentages, but in the past couple weeks it seems like it's not consistent that I will get any clicks from over 100 visits. 
   
   This really baffles me, as I haven't made any major changes.  Has anyone else on HubPages had any problems at all, or does this seem an isolated thing?
   
   Thanks for any feedback.

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      SamurWriterposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Smart priced? thats a new one on me, care to elaborate on the definition?

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         weblogposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Here it is, Jerrico: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/8953?page=2#post96609

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   Mishaposted 15 years ago

   What made you thinking you are getting smartpriced?
   
   And yeah, it fluctuates a lot for me lately.

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   Jerry G2posted 15 years ago

   End of October for two weeks about every click was worth $0.40-$1.00.  Since the first rough day in November every click is $0.03, $0.04, or $0.07 coming from the same pages.  There was one good day this month that put me above the generally accepted "smart pricing" line, and the first click after I was above that mark was $0.70.  After that, they've all gone back down to less than $0.10.
   
   We can't share percentages, so I can't say exactly where I suspect the line is, but based off the experience of others I've seen from online forums and similar patterns I've seen, if you have two pennies to a dollar that's about the line.
   
   Smart Pricing is a Google practice that I'm not even sure if it's "official," but it's been noticed that if you fall under a certain click through percentage, or if you're sites are too vague to get "matching" advertisements, or other reasons (lack of 'contact me' or 'privacy policy' on blogs, according to some) then you are "smart priced," which means you get a whole heck of a lot less per click than you otherwise would.
   
   So my suspicion on smart pricing is because since I'm "below the line" I suspect in November, all the clicks are at the level they were at when I just got started and was commonly below that percentage.  The one day I peaked above that, the old number returned.
   
   I'm frustrated because I've had some really good success with Hubpages, but it's looking like my traffic has tripled, and my click #'s have fallen by 2/3 at the same time.  That's why I'm trying to figure out if others have had the same problem, or if this is something that's just hammering me.

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   Mishaposted 15 years ago

   I don't think you are smartpriced Jerry. It looks more like a genuine lack of advertisers in your niche. I have very similar results in my niche lately, too  - and I am seriously working on changing my business model...

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      Jerry G2posted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Could be - I did notice the ads changed on what has consistently been my best hub and none of the new ones are converting...which is a shame because based on using the search engine I know there are more ads that could work, but I can't seem to get them to show.  I'd rather have 5 clicks a day at 15 cents a piece than 0 for every 500 views or whatever it is now.
      
      It's good to know I'm not the only one.  Thanks, Misha, for sharing.  I'll start looking around for what I can do.  Let me know if you find a model that really starts working for you.
      
      Best,
      
      Jerry

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