a) ad blindness...people have learned to ignore those text links just like they've ignored the banner ads. The only way to actually profit off adsense is to design your entire site around the ad.
b) adblock - more and more people are blocking ads, so you get less and less revenue
c) ad efficiency - more and more advertisers are starting to recognize that the quality of traffic on the display network are crap so they pay MUCH less for it. The CPC on the keyword tool may be $2 per click...but in reality you'll only get 15-20 cents for adsense
So once you pair all of that up...you realize that it takes 30,000 visitors to make $50 a month on adsense.
And yes at scale you can still make a buck...but why would you bother if there are many better options out there?
Sell a single ad space for $100/mo and you double your profit. Sell 3 ad spaces, and you increase it 6 fold.
Or forget ads altogether and go premium. If you get conversions down to 1:200 after you optimize the sales page/price...that 30,000 people turns into 150 sales. So even if you go with a cheap $5/mo subscription option, that turns into $750/mo...recurring. Or if you decide to charge $19.99, you end up with $3K.
The only reason to use adsense is to have something generating revenue until you decide to get serious with your site.
a) ad blindness...people have learned to ignore those text links just like they've ignored the banner ads. The only way to actually profit off adsense is to design your entire site around the ad.
b) adblock - more and more people are blocking ads, so you get less and less revenue
c) ad efficiency - more and more advertisers are starting to recognize that the quality of traffic on the display network are crap so they pay MUCH less for it. The CPC on the keyword tool may be $2 per click...but in reality you'll only get 15-20 cents for adsense
So once you pair all of that up...you realize that it takes 30,000 visitors to make $50 a month on adsense.
And yes at scale you can still make a buck...but why would you bother if there are many better options out there?
Sell a single ad space for $100/mo and you double your profit. Sell 3 ad spaces, and you increase it 6 fold.
Or forget ads altogether and go premium. If you get conversions down to 1:200 after you optimize the sales page/price...that 30,000 people turns into 150 sales. So even if you go with a cheap $5/mo subscription option, that turns into $750/mo...recurring. Or if you decide to charge $19.99, you end up with $3K.
The only reason to use adsense is to have something generating revenue until you decide to get serious with your site.