Saddest Story Ever Told

[ElvisFan]

No points for guessing my website topic?

Yesterday was the biggest Elvis day on the calendar - it being the anniversary of Elvis Presley death

The good news! Both my Elvis sites rank at google in the top five under my main keywords and in the top ten under my minor keywords.

The good news! I got 23 thousand unique visitors for the day (my stats not adsense)

The bad news! Although I got 250+ clicks on adsense - my earnings (wait for it) was a mere 30+ bucks....

So much for content is KING - excuse the pun. I have over 400 articles combined on both sites 90% feature google ads.

What make this the saddest story ever told is that scrapper sites and scrapper directories earn 100% more per day every day.

I'm open to any suggestions... before I close my adsense account and find a better paying program....

[alang]

I feel sad for you, but maybe adsense is not suitable for your site.

[ElvisFan]

I feel sad for you, but maybe adsense is not suitable for your site.

You got that right....

But can you offer any suggestions????

[Dreamshop]

Elvis Fan, there is an excellent DP thread on increasing your site ctr....here it is (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=17104). Also, what about including some affiliate products? I didn't have time to look at your sites, so maybe you're already doing that.

[Carlito]

Wow, that IS depressing. But rather than blaming Adsense, you may want to look at improving your CTR. 23K unique visitors (even assuming only 1 paltry page view per visitor) gives you a click through rate of only 1%.

Also, looking at your site, I wonder if it's almost *too* complete. You have SO much quality info that is so well linked together that I could spend hours reading about Elvis without ever wanting to click an ad. I've found it helps to leave the reader wanting a little more, then show them Adsense as the best, quickest, easiest way to get it. Just my two cents - don't give up on your excellent sites.

[ElvisFan]

After all the hooplah about images over the ads - I thought why not ???

So I added images over the adsense banner ads - and guess what - my CTR deceased and has never recovered... even after I deleted the images.

Then re-instated a new banner (after the adsense recent restructure ) now no ads showing at all.

I give up

[david_sakh]

23 thousand uniques. gawd. with my cpm id be rich.

Thats why I hate low payout kw sites. They just aren't thrilling when you get a surge.

[phrozen_ra]

sad but it happens...
also happened to me...

I have one site about tutorials (photoshop mainly)

From November 2004 to now, I've managed to have 85,067 visits, with a clickthru of 0.5% and a revenue of $60....

So if you plan on having an Elvis site, do it for your own fun... not for the money.
If you want to make some money from adsense, you definately need to choose more carefuly your keywords

[ElvisFan]

You have SO much quality info that is so well linked together that I could spend hours reading about Elvis without ever wanting to click an ad. I've found it helps to leave the reader wanting a little more, then show them Adsense as the best, quickest, easiest way to get it. Just my two cents - don't give up on your excellent sites.


Here are more depressing stats

Daily unique visitors 6 thousand on a very bad day
Daily unique visitors 12 thousand mid week (every week)

The reason I have this high traffic is the quality of my site...

As appose to the quality of adsense ads. I have asked Adsense to make available better ads on my site that target my visitor demographics which are baby-boomers who travel - go on cruise - need a new car - buy expensive toys for their grandchildren - health insurance etc, etc,

Sure adsense responded with "the over all site topic" is what generates ads to you sites... oh how I wish google would allow publishers more options.

I feel as if I am holding the golden goose but it will not lay any golden eggs....

[phrozen_ra]

as a confirmation:

I have a few "empty content" sites that generate a lot more cash on adsense than the GOOD content sites.

Content is king for ranking hight, and Many LOW CONTENT sites is the way to make money

[lorien1973]

The bad news! Although I got 250+ clicks on adsense - my earnings (wait for it) was a mere 30+ bucks....

That is typical for sites I have. I do not complain about that at all. I get more clicks, but I earnings are on par there, I deal with volume, not high payout/click. I think I'll stick to it too. Less spammers on keywords that have a lower payout.

[Ben5082]

You should definitely have an ecommerce store with all the elvis stuff you can find. Adsense gave me some ads about funerals and living wills... no one is looking for that when coming to an elvis site so its surprising you get any clicks at all. You might try some cpm networks like advertising.com, tribalfusion, fastclick, or maxonline as well but I think the most money would be in elvis memorabilia. If you don't want to mess with shipping stuff maybe you could link to elvis stuff on ebay or partner with another site.

[ElvisFan]

.... I think the most money would be in elvis memorabilia. If you don't want to mess with shipping stuff maybe you could link to elvis stuff on ebay or partner with another site.


I do - I do - you must have missed the link
http://www.elvispresleynews.com/ElvisCollectablesForSale.html

[e10]

About the over all topic thing, I find that Adsense is good at breaking out of the topic when appropriate. My site is about a destination and bulk of AS ads are relevant to the destination, but I also have golfing pages and diving pages and on them AS displays gofing and diving ads not specific to the destination.

I haven´t looked at your site either but if you want cars, travel etc., you could perhaps build some pages around that staying within your overall theme. Great travel destinations for Elvis fans, best customised classic cars owned by Elvis fans.

Elvis travel - talk about Elvis week in Memphis, locations he filmed at... whatever allows you to blend in travel info with your main man.

[Liminal]

It sounds like you have a rather low CTR. Why not experiment with ad placement? With your traffic you should be getting 5x more clicks thus making 5x more $$.

[girl]

jump over to a pay per lead......i am making more $ from pay per lead then adsence!

[ElvisFan]

... best customised classic cars owned by Elvis fans.


I do - I do try my 300 words article ....
http://www.elvispresleynews.com/ElvisCars.html

and what does google ads show...

"elvis wedding" & "wanna look like Elvis" ads


Just can't win....

[sji2671]

Or you could sell the site to me and use the money to build new sites, I was born 8th Jan so you could give me special price ;)

[Ben5082]

I do - I do - you must have missed the link
http://www.elvispresleynews.com/ElvisCollectablesForSale.html

Oh nice, I see the link now on the right side... Maybe you could move it to the top fold and emphasize it more with a nice graphic or logo. As a casual surfer I never saw it so maybe others aren't seeing it either. On my screen there is a large gap between the main column and the right column so I didn't really look over there at all.

[Liminal]

I just looked at your elvispresleynews.com. I browsed a couple of pages but have not seen a single ad actually related to Elvis. Perhaps that's your problem: there is no relevant ads for your keywords?

[subhendu]

My only suggestion is, 'give up' and be satisfied with what is desitned for you. pls dont work for what is not destined. this may sound spiritual, but it's true. pls don't go against the nature. it 'may' sometimes give you benefits, but not for long runs. do what pleases you and money will flow..that's what my f-i-l says. And i've experienced, that's true.

[e10]

Okay Elvisfan, that page is a good example. You can´t blame Adsense for serving Elvis Tribute ads when it is tripping over Elvis three times in the title alone. Just as an experiment try with this one page to reword the title and intro.

I am not in the car biz, but would have thought Cadillacs, limousines and classic cars owned by Elvis as the title may tone down Elvis and up the car quotient.

Also write your own intro followed by the article header and writer's intro.

Cadillacs, limousines, sports cars, top-of-the-range classic cars... if you have always dreamed of driving blah blah......

Again cars are not my thing but I hope I am explaing what I mean a little. De-emphasize Elvis while staying on the general topic. It might be easier to try with a fresh content page.

[ElvisFan]

Thanks for all your suggestions about my site.

Can I say my problem is not my traffic or my click ratio - all that is working well enough.

My issue is - I got 250+ clicks on adsense - my earnings (wait for it) was a mere 30+ bucks.... - because adsense is featuring SH*TY ads on all my pages

What I would like is ads for Elvis Movies (I have the content for that topic) Elvis Music ( I have plenty of content for that topic too) .... however with such SH*TY adsense ads such as: Elvis Weddings .... I have no hope...

"Jump over to pay per lead" Girl I'm listening tell me more... thanks

[subhendu]

u can't help, fan....u're supposed to flow what's there in the air... i hope u follow it. :D

[ElvisFan]

Or you could sell the site to me and use the money to build new sites, I was born 8th Jan so you could give me special price ;)

I was also born on the 8 of January... so I also have a cosmic connection!

However, give me an offer I can't refuse LOL

[aeiouy]

You are just in a segment that doesn't cost much to advertise in. There are a lot of such things.

I just don't think you can expect to make huge adsense money from a site with such a narrow niche as yours that doesn't attract big advertisers.

Am kind of curious what kind of topics do you get for your site in terms of advertising?

[subhendu]

8th jan, 2005??

[aeiouy]

Here are more depressing stats

Daily unique visitors 6 thousand on a very bad day
Daily unique visitors 12 thousand mid week (every week)

The reason I have this high traffic is the quality of my site...

As appose to the quality of adsense ads. I have asked Adsense to make available better ads on my site that target my visitor demographics which are baby-boomers who travel - go on cruise - need a new car - buy expensive toys for their grandchildren - health insurance etc, etc,

Sure adsense responded with "the over all site topic" is what generates ads to you sites... oh how I wish google would allow publishers more options.

I feel as if I am holding the golden goose but it will not lay any golden eggs....

My first impression was you aren't going to do much better, but the reality is you are probably going to be able to do a lot better. Shop around.. Have you looked at some of the bigger site middlemen? Contextual ads are not good for your site. You need ads that will deliver content that your visitors might also be interested in. Have you checked into places like tribalfusion?

[Ch-Nauman]

If you want to amplify your CTR always place adsense rectangle at the center of each of your content page .So if visitor reads through the page ads surely happen to strike on his eyes. And don't forget to merge your adsense bg color with the color of your page .I am getting 4/5% CTR in this way.:cool:

[seckin]

as a confirmation:

I have a few "empty content" sites that generate a lot more cash on adsense than the GOOD content sites.

Content is king for ranking hight, and Many LOW CONTENT sites is the way to make money

I completely agree. I witnessed many cases like this.

[fryman]

I am not in the car biz, but would have thought Cadillacs, limousines and classic cars owned by Elvis as the title may tone down Elvis and up the car quotient.

But would someone interested in reading about Elvis give a rat's ass about Cadillac ads? :confused:

I've never understood why people insist on having ads that don't really have anything to do with the site's theme. You are an entertainment site that talks about Elvis, what kind of ads do you expect?

[ElvisFan]

So what you are saying is that Elvis fans

Don't buy cars
Don't buy DVD's
Don't buy CD's
Don't travel
Don't go on cruises
Don't need insurance
Don't buy Christmas or birthday or Mother's Day or Father's gifts

Give me a break....

[sachin410]

What make this the saddest story ever told is that scrapper sites and scrapper directories earn 100% more per day every day.

I'm open to any suggestions... before I close my adsense account and find a better paying program....

IF YOU CANT BEAT THEM,....... JOIN THEM

I know it doesnt sound too good, but we cant get advertisers to pay more unless they see real benefit coming from the clicks. I have noticed that ads related to anything online tend to have a higher payout (online dating, online jobs, web hosting etc). Just as an example, I went through overture bids for "web hosting " today. All first 40 bids were 1$+.

You have a choice between whether you want to make a site about subject you love or a something that will make you money. I do a balancing act - made a site for both. :) Maybe you can consider the same.

[GADOOD]

Or buy Elvis stuff (memrobelia, signed stuff etc) off eBay and sell it for 4 times the price on your website. Place your offers above the fold and take PayPal payments.

Pete

[e10]

But would someone interested in reading about Elvis give a rat's ass about Cadillac ads? :confused:

I've never understood why people insist on having ads that don't really have anything to do with the site's theme. You are an entertainment site that talks about Elvis, what kind of ads do you expect?

The guy is looking (or at least that is what I got from his first post) for higher paying AS ads. Why would a dyed in the wool Elvis fan not click on a cadillac ad or a Memphis hotel. All I am saying is wrap a little bit of your content round things appropriate to Elvis that might actually create some money. Anyway ... obviously a lead balloon so forget I mentioned it.

[fryman]

The problem is that people focus so much on changing their content trying to get ads that have nothing to do with their site that they forget about their visitors. I also have an entertainment site that gets one-cent clicks, but I don't go around screwing my pages trying to force ads that have nothing to do with my site. And elvisfan, your last post is nonsense, I'm sure if one of your visitors wants to go on a cruise the last place he will look for information about it would be an elvis site.

[aeiouy]

But would someone interested in reading about Elvis give a rat's ass about Cadillac ads? :confused:

I've never understood why people insist on having ads that don't really have anything to do with the site's theme. You are an entertainment site that talks about Elvis, what kind of ads do you expect?

Well that is kind of how a lot of advertising works. Cars advertise on golf tournaments because they know people who buy cars watch golf. You don't have to advertise to a contextual market all the time. While it is nice and gets some nice tie-ins, it is not always the optimal way to place advertising.

In this particular case it is clearly not the right way to place advertising. Why would someone interested in Elvis be into Cadillacs? Perhaps because the people likely to be interested in Elvis are also people likely to buy Cadillacs.

In fact that is how most advertising is placed. People don't have to own a sporting goods store to advertise on a sports talk station. You just have to have a product that appeals to people who listen to sports talk radio.

I don't think adsense is the right program in this case, so I will agree he doesn't need to focus on trying to change adsense. He needs to use other tools to get different ad placement.

[fryman]

Whatever... just seems ridiculous that most of the posts here are from people complaining that they are getting ads that have nothing to do with their site, and this guy actually wants that.

And how can you compare a gold tournament with the net? The main goal of Adsense is having people CLICKING on your ads. You can put up a banner announcing cadillacs, but having people cliking on it is the hard part. If I go to an elvis site, and I see an ad that offers more information about elvis, I sure would think about cliking on it, but if I see an add offering me to insure my car, what the heck does that have to do with my interest about Elvis?

You can put any ad you want, but if you don't have the targeted audience you are wasting your time.

[ElvisFan]

And elvisfan, your last post is nonsense, I'm sure if one of your visitors wants to go on a cruise the last place he will look for information about it would be an elvis site.

So what you are saying is that Elvis fans need

an Elvis wig
a Trust
DYI Will kit
A Wedding Chapel

So what you are saying again again that Elvis fans would never - ever come to my site to learn about cheap flights to Memphis or where to stay in Memphis .... and yes, they do offer cruises for Elvis fans

What I am asking is that some of my ads reflect the demographics of my visitors because NOT every single visitor to my site is an avid fan. And it may surprise you that most Elvis fans are into vintage Cadillacs ....

I'll say it again - give me a break...

[fryman]

*yawn*... whatever dude... good luck getting people to click on your unrelated ads...

[GADOOD]

I think you need to approach advertises directly, or as I suggested up there buy elvis stuff from eBay and open your own store on the site. Evil fans want to buy elvis stuff, and eBay sells below 3x what items are generally worth. Buy from eBay, hike up the price and sell on your site.

You could test it just by buying 4 relatively cheap items, worth maybe $20 each. Try selling them on your site, above the fold in a 'special offers' section offering them for $60, with the original price being... well that'd be $130, wouldn't it? ;)

Worth a shot........ it'd be a shame to waste all those visitors. I think contacting advertisers direct would be a better solution though - like the places that offer Elvis Cruises and such.

[e10]

You are always very black or very white Fryman, no greys with you. But if I was an Elvis fan and followed through on the site to a page about exotic locations Elvis filmed at, I might just click there. If I landed on a page talking about Elvis's favourite brand of underwear and there was a link to big-jocks or whatever, I might click there too. If I was a fan, I´d want to go to the Elvis suite of the Heartbreak Hotel in Upmagumphrey or book that place for my 25th anniversary with my sweetie that I met dancing to Blue Suede Shoes back in the day.

There are a lot of reasons why an Elvis fan might click on anything from cars, to hotels, to dental care as a sincere buyer, but it is up to Elvisfan to tweak with his content a bit more to get the right ads.

[ElvisFan]

I'm no dude!!! I am a refined woman that lives and works in Australia... thank you very much...

e10 - you got it.... yes, yes, yes.... that's the sort of ads I would like to see on my site... remembering that my visitors are mostly baby boomers with deep pockets...

An ad for Elvis wigs gets me .001 income.... DIY Wills .005 income....

However, travel or cheap flights ads and the ball park figure goes up....

[Kaabi]

I'm not sure this story is as sad as 9/11... but it does suck for you. Elvis's death is like your birthday for cash, so sorry about that low, low, low, payday.

[Dreamshop]

I'm no dude!!! I am a refined woman that lives and works in Australia...


LOL

Well I'm a refined woman that lives and works in the US and people call me dude all the time...course I grew up in California and I don't mind that. :D

I think you just need to go beyond Adsense, start researching other ad programs, affiliate programs, etc. YOu already have a good grasp of what your readers are probably spending money on so start looking for online companies that might be interested in sponsoring or advertising on your site.

You'll find a wealth of information reading through related folders on this board.


Two ad brokers that I don't see mentioned on this board much are www.adbrite.com and www.blogads.com. They work with content rich sites and often payout more than ppc programs...but the good thing is you can still run Adsense if you want. They have really strong reps among the blogger community.

You might consider adding a blog to your sites as a way to work in more retail related content.

[spdude]

Ok, Elvis Fan.. here's a suggestion.

I think, once your visitors land on your pages, you need to drive your traffic OFF the Elvis site, and onto some other sites you yourself own and maintain.

Take them away from the articles pages to other domains (which you will need to purchase and develop of course), talking about insurance, cruises and what not.

Copy Google's textual ad look.. and keep these home made ads (pointing to other domains you yourself own) above the fold and in the most prominant sections of your pages. Keep the visitors in the loop until they leave your network having clicked an ad.

This suggestion is coming from someone avaraging $400/day with adsense. Take it for what you think it is worth.

[zefefre]

Ok, Elvis Fan.. here's a suggestion.

I think, once your visitors land on your pages, you need to drive your traffic OFF the Elvis site, and onto some other sites you yourself own and maintain.

Take them away from the articles pages to other domains (which you will need to purchase and develop of course), talking about insurance, cruises and what not.

Copy Google's textual ad look.. and keep these home made ads (pointing to other domains you yourself own) above the fold and in the most prominant sections of your pages. Keep the visitors in the loop until they leave your network having clicked an ad.

This suggestion is coming from someone avaraging $400/day with adsense. Take it for what you think it is worth.`

I'm facing a similar problem like elvis fan, and mine is even worst, 500 clicks = $20.

Thx for the suggestion spdude, I'll try to implement it in little by little. :D

[jellyfish]

I would seriously recomend starting a store selling collectables. The click on an ad may only get you .01 but it might get the advertiser a sale. Not to mention you can drive a lot more traffic from your site onto an ecommerce part of the site. I think you could probably turn your $30 profit into $300 or $x,xxx pretty easily if you took that route.

[khin007]

I suggest you to change the article aiming at some high paying keywords.. Good Luck