Low Click Through Rates Being Attributed To Interest-Based Ads!

I don't seem to be the only Adsense Publisher that is experiencing a low click-through-rate with their Google Adsense sites! I have been browsing some adsense-related boards and there have been many people posting about experiencing the same thing as well.

The low CTR seems to be attributed to Adsense providing interest-based ads. What this means is that - for example - if someone has just visited a site about flowers and then visits your site which is about cars, then the ads that they see will be about flowers and NOT what your site is about which is cars. In other words the google adsense ads that will be appearing on your car-related site will be more about flowers than about cars! Of course this will seriously decrease the number of potential clicks that your site may get.

You would think that interest-based ads would provide more in potential clicks because the ads are being based on the interest of the site visitor but it doesn't seem to be working out that way - at least not for the Adsense publishers who's postings I have seen - including mine!

There also doesn't seem to be a way to opt out of interest-based ads for the ads that are appearing on one's site.

There has also been talk of "ad blindness" meaning that visitors to Google Adsense ad sites are becoming more and more "blind" to the adsense ads that are appearing - meaning that they are not clicking on the ads.

I'm sure that there has got to be some kind of solution to this! I just haven't found out what it is yet - LOL!

There Has Been A Payment In Progress Sighting For January 2009!

Someone in India posted that they got their "PIP" for May 2009! Alas since this is the Memorial Day weekend I don't expect to see a "payment in progress" line on my own Adsense account until Tuesday - which is a few days away.

I Made It Past The Halfway Mark!

As you can see, I have made it just past the halfway mark - meaning that I earned just a little over $50 so far this month!

I'm a little disappointed with the numbers I'm getting but that's MY and not Adsense's - LOL!

I have been checking my adsense numbers all day and was just UNDER the %50 halfway mark. But just a few minutes ago I noticed a surge and now I'm just slightly past the halfway mark.

That means that I still have the rest of the month to earn at least the $100 minimum needed to get an Adsense payment next month.

Google's Adsense Program Making Changes To Their Log-In Page?

As I normally do, I went to check my adsense numbers tonight and found that logging in to the site was taking longer than usual. I noticed that the log-in page looked a little different and a screen came up announcing that "secure" material was included and asked me whether or not I wanted to proceed.

So I asked myself "What's up with this?" and I immediately went to the message boards to find out what was happening. Here is what I found out:

It seems that Adsense is updating their site. To quote the AdsenseAdviser:

>The AdSense team has indeed been working hard on rolling out new features for you.

However it seems that there were some "bugs" that occurred when people were trying to access their Adsense accounts. Here is what the Adsense Advisor has said:

You're also right about the minor login issue. As soon as we realized it was happening, our engineers rolled back the change and we put out a blog post to explain what was happening (check out the Inside AdSense Blog for details). If you try to log in to your account now, you'll be greeted by the traditional login page.

I logged-in to my Adsense account just a few minutes ago and after a slow start I am able to see my Adsense numbers again (I have earned at least 1/4 of the $100 that I need to get an adsense payment next month - so far).

If you would like to read the message thread concerning this issue, just click here.

I'm At The Halfway MarK........

As you can see from this picture I am currently at the half-way / $50 mark. That means that I have the rest of the month to make at least $50 more so that I will be able to get an adsense payment the next month (January 2008).

As I have blogged about before I have seen a dramatic drop in my adsense earnings and my adsense click-through-rate. As an Adsense Consultant, I take this as a challenge as I work on getting my adsense numbers back to where they were when I was at my peak!

Basically speaking my adsense numbers are down about 40%! And to me that is a lot!

On the plus side I do know that some of the drop can be attributed to me having less sites - which I'm working on to increase!

If anything, you will see by my own adsense numbers that you do NOT have to have a lot of page impressions to at least start earning an income with adsense!



12/16/08 Update!

As of today I'm currently $17 away from making at least the $100 minimum needed in order to get an adsense payment next month!

Payment Received And Some Of It Already Spent!

Just wanted to let everyone know that my adsense payment was received and I have already spent a good portion of it!

In fact, I was having so much fun spending money that I just didn't have the time to post about actually receiving the payment.

As a matter of curiousity, my "PIP" was received on a Friday which meant that I didn't actually get the payment until the next business day which was Monday!

According to my calculations, the "payment in progress" line for Novemeber 2008 is estimated to be on November 27th!

The Adsense Site Is Temporarily Down Today!

Did a little checking around and found out more information (and a discussion as well) about the adsense site being down today.

Adsense Site Temporarily Down!

I must say that I'm not going to like the feeling of having to wait to see my adsense numbers for today - especially since I have been doing quite well!



Looks like we'll be waiting a while because it's supposed to not be back up until around 6pm EST!





Update!

As of 8pm EST the adsense site is back up!

Am I Addicted To Adsense?

Actually the answer is yes! I mean the first time you get that adsense check you feel sooooo good! Then if you are like me you start of thinking about ways to increase your adsense income!

I took a look at my adsense numbers today. The weekends are usually the lowest-earning days. Mind you I said "usually because I have come to the conclusion that it is just too hard to pinpoint anything as far as one's adsense earning potential goes!

I do check my adsense numbers quite often and am pleasantly glad to find out that there are those who check their adsense numbers even more obsessively than me!

I start to panick if my adsense numbers don't change - even if its just one penny!

If you were earning money with adsense I'm sure that you would feel the same way!

And just think about those who depend on their adsense money because it is their only source of income!

Wouldn't you be addicted to adsense too?

Just on the off chance.......................

I checked my adsense account today (Sunday) just to see if my "payment in progress" line was showing. It was not!

Since I have been with Adsense for over a year now I have never seen the "PIP" line show on a Sunday - or Saturday for that matter!

So I'll just have to wait until Monday to see if my "payment in progress" line shows up for this month - June 2008!

The Adsense Site Will Be Down For Maintenance Today

Here is an excerpt from the "Adsense Advisor"

There will be site maintenance this Saturday, June 21st, from 10 am - 3 pm PDT . That's a start time of 1pm (Saturday) in New York, 6pm (Saturday) in London, 10.30pm (Saturday) in New Delhi, and 3am (Sunday) in Sydney.

As you know, you will not be able to access your account during this maintenance, but your ad serving and reporting will not be affected.

As near I can estimate this means that the adsense site will be down for a total of 5 hours today!

Guess we will just have to grin and bear it.

Anyone Care To Make A Speculation About The Next Payment In Progress?

Obsessive compulsive that I am (plus the fact that I just love to get paid!) I decided to take a look at last year's calendar to find a month that had the same day format as this month (April 2008). Of course the reason I am doing this is because I want to compare "payment in progress" dates just to speculate on when the adsense payment will come this month!

May 2007 has the same day-format as April 2008.

In May 2007, my adsense payment was recorded on May 23rd! This also means that the "PIP" line showed up the day before - which - of course - was a Tuesday.

Dare I say that we may get the much anticipated "payment in progress" line next week?

OK, I'm Just A Little Bit Pissed At Adsense!

So I'm looking at my Blog Consultant Blog today and it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't see any ads on the blog - WTF!

I go look inside my adsense account and notice that there are two of my sites that have that "robots.txt" message on them! Now this has happened to me before - some time ago and I don't remember what I did or in fact if I did anything at all but I do remember that things went back to normal and my adsense ads were in place again. I also checked my email but I didn't see any email from adsense. I also checked my "spam" folder to see just in case any email from adsense was there - it was not.

So I go to do some searching online to find out what could possibly be the matter! Well there was a lot of information to go through! Come to find out that it seems that adsense has a new policy about not having the adsense ads look like the contents of one's site(s) and/or blog(s). So now I'm in a panic because I have quite a few sites and I'm wondering whether or not I will have to go through them all and change the look of them so that the adsense ads don't look the same as the contents.

I sent an email to adsense about a half an hour ago asking why there were no ads on my sites. But since this is a Sunday I don't expect to hear from them for a few days. But I got an almost immediate response from them saying that they got my email but because of the holiday? it might take longer for them to get back to me. What holiday?

In the meantime I checked one of my client's sites and their blog didn't have ads on them either! Again I repeat - WTF? So I go into a panic and change the layout and look of their sites.

In the meantime I'm looking at their blog and guess what happens? The adsense ads show up! WTF! So now I'm in a new panic because I already changed the look of their site! Now I'm going to have to go back and see how their site looks.

In the meantime I'm wondering whether or not I still have to change the look of the sites. Now that the ads are showing up again - does that mean that everything is alright?

As a side note I should also mention that I noticed on my adsense account that I stopped earning revenue for about a day and a half! And that is one of the reasons why I am just a little bit pissed at adsense right now!

There Has Been A "Payment In Progress" Sighting!

Someone from Greece has posted that they have received the "PIP" line on their adsense account. Another person has also posted that they received their "payment in progress" line also. They are posting from the Middle East!

While I am happy for them I can't help but remember back in December of 2007 when people were posting that they received their "PIP" lines on their accounts but all of them were located outside the United States!

I also keep an eye out for that first posting of a "payment in progress" line (since I never seem to be the first person to post that I got it) because when someone from the United States posts that they have gotten their "PIP" line then that means that my "payment in progress" line isn't too far behind.

The fact that someone outside the US has posted that they received their "payment in progress" line first has me a little worried about seeing my own "PIP" line!

I will keep you posted!

I'm Still Waiting On That Adsense Payment!

Well it looks like Adsense is being true to their form when they state that they can't give an exact date of the adsense payment(s).

Like I mentioned in a previous post, the month of December 2007 has the same date format as this month - March 2008. As I noted before there was a "payment in progress" line on my adsense account on Dec. 24th - of which it is now the 24th of March 2008 and there is still no "PIP" line appearing on my adsense account yet.

The general consensus is that the "payment in progress" line usually appears on the last Tuesday of the month - which is tomorrow....................

I'm Currently Working On My Income Taxes..........

This will be the first year that I am declaring my adsense income on my income tax return!

Just in case your interested, you are required to report your adsense income when it is over a certain amount - I think its $400.

I have a local tax on earned income in my local community and it looks as though I won't have to pay any tax on this adsense income.

As far as my state taxes go, since my adsense income is thought of as self-employed income that is what I will be filing it as. And since it's considered self-employment income I will have to fill out my state's Schedule C form - which I don't have and have to get! Schedule C is the form to report income (and losses) from operating a business.

My federal tax return looks to be completed. About the only deduction that I will be taking this time is the expenses for my PO Box. I filled out the federal Schedule C form to claim my business income and deductions. I also had to fill out a Self-employed taxes form since its not automatically taken out of my adsense income. So it looks like I'll be getting some money back because I qualify for the earned income credit. Without this credit (or if I didn't qualify for it) I would be owing the government a payment instead of getting a refund from them!

I'm making copies of everything just to keep for my records.

So right now I'm waiting to get the proper state schedule C form - and then I should be able to have completed everything else as far as my tax returns are concerned for the year 2007!

It was getting kind of nerve-wracking and frustrating at first because of all the different forms. But I'd rather be self-employed than working for someone else.

Plus it serves as a good reminder of keeping records and receipts for the things that I will be able to claim as a business expense.

To be quite honest with you I didn't think that I would be making enough in adsense income to have to report it but I realized that I was going to have to report it when I started making more than the $100 minimum a month. But any additional income is a benefit - especially when you will be getting BACK money from the government!

Why The Big Fuss About Getting The Adsense Payment?

As hard as it might be hard to believe a lot of people depend on their adsense payment. Forget the logic about not "putting one's eggs" in only one basket!

I saw one post from a guy in a foreign country (India - I think) who posted that he was waiting on his adsense payment to buy food!

Another contributing factor is that Adsense is not specific about when they will actually place that "payment in progress" line on a person's adsense account and people get frustrated trying to contact adsense about this matter.

Adsense does protect itself by saying that if a payment isn't received by a certain date then a reissue of the payment can be applied for - however that date is many, many days ahead of when payments are normally issued.

Like it or not some people are not going to be logical as far as getting their adsense payment is concerned!

The Official Adsense Blog

I really have to say that I'm disappointed with Adsense's offical blog! Of course the blog is filled with information but my major peeve with that blog is that it doesn't allow comments. What makes it worse is that the blog has a Google Groups counterpart and even IT doesn't allow comments! (I believe the google group says that it is moderated but I have yet to see any of my posts added!)

No "Payment In Progress" Yet! )-:

Despite there being a "PIP" reported sighting there is no "payment in progress" line appearing in my adsense account yet. (Of course I'm quite pissed!)

Since I don't remember ever seeing the "PIP" line appearing during the weekend my next hope is that it will show on Monday - which is 2 days away!

You Are Scheduled To Be Sent A Payment......

I'm only guessing here but when you see the above information on your adsense account I'm guessing that they are in the process of processing the adsense payments. (Can you tell that I'm anxiously awaiting my adsense payment which will be my highest so far!) Like I said, I'm only guessing here and I can chalk that up to my anxiously awaiting my adsense payment. I have checked the webmaster forum and so far no one has posted that they got the "payment in progress" line on their adsense account yet.

I'm hoping that the "PIP" line shows today since it is a Thursday becasue if the "payment in progress" line shows tomorrow - which is Friday - then I won't have access to it until Monday at the earliest! So I'm hoping and praying that the "PIP" line shows up in my adsense account today!

Just in case you're curious there isn't much of a record of adsense paying this early. Maybe the earliest would be like the 22nd or 23rd of the month - but you never know!

*A small minute matter but there is no "30th of the month" for February 2008.

Your Adsense Payment(s) And Income Taxes

I got an audit notice from my local tax administrators concerning my 2006 adsense earnings. I, of course, reported my adsense income but there was no W-2 that was included with my tax return and that was what the audit is all about. Now normally people would think that this would be an occassion to panic (which I did at first) but since I have worked for both H & R Block and the IRS I had some experience with the whole "tax" thing.

So I called up the tax office to find out what the problem was. Basically speaking all income reported has to be backed up by an accompanying form of proof of that income. Since my adsense income was so low - it was only for two months - adsense did not send me a W-2 form. Here is an excerpt from adsense's site:

Will you send me a Form 1099 or 1042?


Publishers are responsible for paying their own taxes resulting from participation in Google AdSense. In order to facilitate this, we send IRS forms 1099 and 1042-S to qualifying publishers as required by US tax law. Forms will be sent before the end of January 2007.

We will send a Form 1099 to you and the IRS if:

• You submitted a Form W-9, are not a corporation, and were paid at least US $600 in 2006 OR
  
  
• You indicated that you are subject to backup withholding and had taxes withheld

We will not send you any forms or report your earnings to the IRS if:

• You have signed the declaration of No US Activities OR
  
  
• You have NO earnings from the AdSense program OR
  
  
• You have submitted a Form W-9 as a corporation and did not have any taxes withheld OR
  
  You have submitted a Form W-9, made less than $600 and did not have any taxes withheld

To find out more information about this just click here to go to the Adsense Help site.

According to my local tax administrator(s), I have to let them know the reason as to why there was no W-2 form included with my tax return. So I have included an excerpt from the Adsense site itself as to why there was no W-2 form included with the tax return and I will let you know how everything goes.