Drop in Ad Program Earnings by 50%

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   a beautiful messposted 10 years ago

   Has anyone else experienced this huge drop in earnings from the Hubpages Ad Program? Throughout the month of September I was making a steady amount per day. Over September 24-25, my earnings dropped immediately by 50%, and are now consistently 50% less than what they were a month ago. If it were a gradual drop, I wouldn't be so surprised - but that's not the case.
   
   I've noticed that it's because my ad impressions immediately dropped - they have been in the thousands every day since May 20, but they dropped by about 50% on September 25.
   
   What's going on?!

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      Brie Hoffmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yep...50% for me too.  I keep hoping it will turn around, it's very discouraging.

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      Don Bobbittposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I think we all need to maintain our perspective on this.
      This is not a new and unique occurance for Google. As we all know, they are a business, making money and sharing a certain percentage with us the writers who allow ads to be attached to our articles.
      If we all continue to get better at writing good articles, then at some point, they will be paying out too much of their money, to one category or another and essentially upsetting a large portion of their advertisers.
      Rather than lose these disgruntled advertisers, they occasionally have to change their (secret) search engine programming to balance their use of their advertisers.
      Its a simple thing.
      We see these changes regularly.
      At times the Great Google makes temporary changes to test new programming, and then they back off these changes to some degree, again to balance their advertiser success.
      Sometimes, we the writers, do not see things recover, and we need to rewrite or restructure our articles.
      This time? Who knows? We just wait and see.
      Good Luck to us all!
      DON

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         fpherj48posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Don....Thanks for the calm, sensible voice of reason......It's a tough job in the midst of chaos and panic, but someone HAS to do it.  If a REAL emergency comes my way....I'll call your name.  My family did not nickname me Paula Panic without good reason....(but that was back in the day my 4 sons were busy helping me pay for the new wing on our hospital, with their weekly visits to the ER.)   Damn! am I glad those days are gone.

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         Kierstin Gunsbergposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         What Don said! My earnings have dropped significantly, but I believe they'll recover in time.
         
         We are earning income from a business that is always in flux.

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         neostreamposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Don you stole the words right out of my mouth. Perfectly said!

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      sparksterposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yep, same here.  I made a forum post about it too.  It's very discouraging - my traffic is at an all-time high and now it looks like I'm not even going to be able to reach the payout threshold any more.  If what's stated above about Google is true then that means they can just alter payment rates as and when they choose and blatantly and legally rip people off and can, by all accounts, just cut all of our income off completely should they wish to do so.  There should be laws to abide by where these kinds of systems are used to stop companies like Google outright scamming people.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         It's not Google which is altering the rates - the rates are never fixed.   Advertisers bid to put their ads in advertising slots.   If the advertisers pay less, then we get less.  Obviously Google (and HubPages) want advertisers to pay as high a rate as possible, but it's like any auction - if the bidders aren't there, the prices will be lower.

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      santhovposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I have the same problem since   1 st of October. There is  no huge variation in page impression. but  the ad program earning becomes very low.

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      OldRosesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I hope it's not too soon to say this, but my traffic seems to be creeping back up although my earnings remain low.  Fingers crossed that we are over the worst of the Panda update.

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      Eamineposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      My views also dropped on the same days Sep 23-25th.They have dropped 65-75% on average and still remain the same so far

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   Bharath Sunnyposted 10 years ago

   This is due to Panda 4.1 Roll out by Google.You can find more details regarding this here: http://searchengineland.com/panda-update-rolling-204313

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   WAHmomposted 10 years ago

   Yes. I noticed a huge drop too in the number of visits and earnings. They say it's this Panda thing implemented by Google. Why do we always have to be at the mercy of Google?

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   jansharesposted 10 years ago

   Yes, I have the same 50% drop in earnings. Thanks for the explanation, Don Bobbitt.

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   LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years ago

   

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6. 80

   Patty Inglish, MSposted 10 years ago

   Happily, I only lost about $1.00/day for a few days and 6% traffic for those days. Back to normal now, so I hope that is encouraging to you all!

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   Shorebirdieposted 10 years ago

   I think part of it might be the site issues from moving to different servers.  Mine seems to have returned to what it was when my lenses were first moved here.

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   Patty Inglish, MSposted 10 years ago

   That is good to see, Shorebirdie!

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      Shorebirdieposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks.  The traffic on one of my hubs, the one with the duck breeds, has dropped a lot in the last few weeks.  But, that is normal this time of year.  I get the most traffic in spring and summer when people are thinking of buying ducklings.  Sometimes, I get a few hits in the fall from people in Australia, but not a lot.  So, I don't think it has anything to do with the site problems or the Panda update.  My earnings appear to be normal, for me at least.

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   alikhan3posted 10 years ago

   Earnings and impressions dropped by more then 60%, Coincidence of Squidoo migration and Panda update made the Hit Worse then it had been before.

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    prairieprincessposted 10 years ago

    That IS encouraging to hear, Patty Inglish! I hope mine recovers soon, too. My traffic is a quarter of what it was in May/June before the summer slump, and half of what it was a month ago.

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    Susana Sposted 10 years ago

    My traffic and earnings are normal. I'm saying this because I hope it helps to know that not everyone is being impacted by recent changes!

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       DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

       That is really great to hear! Did you find it necessary to go in and disavow bad links? Is this a justifiable use of your time?

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    jansharesposted 10 years ago

    Good to hear it's turning around, Patty Inglish. Thanks!

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    Barbara Kayposted 10 years ago

    My traffic went down to half and is now slowing creeping back up. Maybe we need to be patient and it will return to normal. I hope so.
    
    As far as the earnings per views, it is possible the advertisers aren't spending as much money on ads and are budgeting to spend big at Christmas. I'm trying to stay positive this time.Last year wasn't this way though.

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    rainsanmartinposted 10 years ago

    It started as a 50% drop a couple of weeks ago. Over the last few days it's escalated to a 70% drop in traffic.

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       MsBizProposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I'm in the same boat. The first few days after Panda were normal and a few days, above average, but now my earnings are back to the level they were when I had fewer than a dozen articles (over 70% loss). It's scary enough that I'm putting a hold on writing any more articles here until I see where things go.

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    Cynthianneposted 10 years ago

    I have seen a dramatic and painful drop.

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    Nell Roseposted 10 years ago

    I went from a few thousand reads a day to less than 700, its so hard its painful! especially as how can google love you one second, then hate you the next? makes me so mad!

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       Brie Hoffmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I went from 5000 views a day to 2000

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       Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       ++++ I agree. How can they love you one minute and hate you the next?

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          Brie Hoffmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          They don't, I know my content is good.  It's just google, hopefully things will bounce back.

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             Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             Brie, That is who I meant by "they", - Google. How can Google love us one day and not the next. Their constant changes give me a headache.

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                Brie Hoffmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                Google is not God, they do not do things perfectly.  This happened before and things eventually returned to normal..it just took some time.  You have to hold lightly to the earnings you make here..or figure out another angle..like making money from Amazon instead of Google.

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    David Stone1posted 10 years ago

    Patience. The waves will be rolling out of Panda for a while before things settle. If you had a big drop, there's a good chance Google new algorithm doesn't like your content. There big focus is on authoritative, well-written content. They may be arbitrary as hell, but they have acres of data to back them up on what searchers want to see pop up when they fill in the box. That's the key to figuring it out, but you may need a different one for every door.

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    crazyhorsesghostposted 10 years ago

    Or you can go after other traffic sources other than Google. My traffic numbers are as high or higher than ever and my earnings are wonderful. But I stopped relying on Google alone after the dancing panda got me a time or two. I go after social media, post in forums with on topic posts with links in my signature, build blogs that link to my Hub Pages, do guest posts on blogs that allow me to link back to my Hub Pages, hand out business cards, hand out recipe sheets with simple type in links on them, and etc. etc. etc. Go for it all and you will be rewarded. Google may be the biggest dog in the fight but you can shake the trees and get a lot of traffic other people are not going after.

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       SusanSaiesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Crazyhorseghost, do you (or anyone else) have a social media recommendation for a person who does not want to do Facebook?
       
       I've been reluctant or maybe too lazy to deal with social media, but know I need to. But for various reasons Facebook turns me off.  What's the best alternative?

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          crazyhorsesghostposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          You can try Twitter or Google + but you will never get the traffic any where else that you can get from a popular Facebook Post. I also did not and do not like Facebook but I have many accounts there now and get huge traffic from there.
          
          Pinterest is the next best after Facebook but you need to shoot as many of your photos as possible and do really interesting pics when ever possible.

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             SusanSaiesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             How can you have several Facebook accounts? I thought you could only have one that had to be in your own identity. Do you have some secret method, lol?

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    richardmeposted 10 years ago

    That's is one wonderful idea {crazyhorsesghost} I really think we all need to follow this steps. It takes time but its worth the try and the hard work.

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    Silva Hayesposted 10 years ago

    Thanks for the tips, crazyhorsesghost.  I need to do more.  My earnings were rocking along nicely, getting a payout every month, slow but steady increases, then suddenly a sickening 60% plus drop.  So discouraging.  Trying to stay positive and thinking about what to write next.

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    CassandraCaeposted 10 years ago

    @Susan I really like Google+ personally, I keep facebook for personal reasons, all of my blogging social stuff is done with Googe+ and Pinterest

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    caseymelposted 10 years ago

    My earnings and views also dropped drastically  in the past few weeks.  Let me know if you find a way to get them back!

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    LindaSmith1posted 10 years ago

    So far this month, my earnings are at least 50% less than this time last month.

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    Jayne Lancerposted 10 years ago

    After the Panda update my views and earnings were down by about 70 percent with minor fluctuations, but for the past couple of days I've been seeing a slight but significant improvement. I hope others are experiencing the same, and I hope this means we are on the road to recovery, although it's probably still far too soon to tell.

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