What's up with all the inaccurate earnings reports?

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   Isabella Snowposted 12 years ago

   I noticed that over the last week HP ad earnings were markedly lower despite traffic remaining the same. I held off commenting and now I see earnings have been adjusted for nearly every day over the last week and they are now what I would have expected them to be for those traffic levels.
   
   (Although, at this moment, earnings posted for yesterday appear to be that famous 50% less-than-would-be-expected, but I assume they will be adjusted at some point.)
   
   I was hoping that perhaps Paul E or some other HP Staff member would comment as to why they have been so off lately?
   
   TIA.

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      Will Apseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The estimated earnings (asterisked) hardly seem worth producing since they are so inaccurate. Personally, I would rather just be patient.

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         Isabella Snowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Erm, I think waiting a week to ask after they are supposedly "confirmed" earnings is patient enough.

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      SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yesterday's estimated earnings are looking pretty dodgy too! At least they realize there is a problem and are fixing things! I agree with Will - I'd prefer to see the final figures and not see an estimated figure....

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         Isabella Snowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, that's what I was referring to with the 50% less than expected bit. I'm sure those will be adjusted soon. I would just like to know why they've all been so consistently inaccurate lately.

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            SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Oops - somehow missed the middle paragraph of your original post! Sorry!

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   j-u-i-c-eposted 12 years ago

   As someone else mentioned in a similar thread, I think earnings should just remain 'pending' until confirmed. Posting 0 or half of your actual earnings just leads to a wave of panic in the forums. In fact, it would probably be better if the earnings page didn't report anything less than three days old.

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   Isabella Snowposted 12 years ago

   The point of this thread is actually to ask HP staff to comment as to why there was an entire week of erroneously reported earnings. I'm not really bothered much when they are inaccurate over the course of a day or two, but an entire week that is then readjusted without even posting a notice is something I have not seen before.
   
   It makes me wonder if there have been other errors of that nature that have not been caught.
   
   It would be nice to know more details about how they are tallied up, in order to understand how such mistakes are made and then corrected retroactively.

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   MakinBaconposted 12 years ago

   The point is, I believe, is many of us are losing confidence in the results presented by Hubpages. Many times it appears they add up the wrong percentage (as HP apparently did yesterday) and present that as the numbers.
   
   I agree. There seem to be far too many glitches in the systems, with Hubpages seemingly not able to ever deal with them.
   
   The other point is the endless changing of CPMs, which produce wildly unpredictable results.  It seems hard to believe as far as the CPMs go that the advertisers change that much on a daily basis.
   
   Together these things undermine what shouldn't be that difficult of a way of measuring results and paying writers.
   
   What is unwritten in the minds of many writers is the possibility we're being gamed, even if it's not the case.
   
   I also think a basic explanation of why things are happening and why the numbers change so drastically would be a great help to many of us. If nothing else, an improved methodology of tracking results is needed, as the current one is obviously flawed.

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   Isabella Snowposted 12 years ago

   I do not think anyone is being "gamed" and, generally speaking, my HP ad earnings are very consistent.
   
   The issue that is currently affecting yesterday's earnings is obviously a common one, and as I've said it doesn't bother me much on that small a scale.
   
   An entire week of retroactively adjusted earnings does concern me, though.
   
   I just think that whatever the method is of calculating earnings is has issues and I would like to understand what is causing them.

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   Nell Roseposted 12 years ago

   Glad someone else has mentioned this, as I just took a look at yesterdays 'earnings' and my mouth dropped open! I had more readers yesterday than for weeks, yet my earnings were a pittance!

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