My site, particularly the redwood pages, are said to be the "best". In fact, "by far and away the best" online resource for coast redwoods. And the content grew monthly, and continues to grow. So I will discount and omit the aspect of "crappy" sites in relation to this topic, at least for the moment. For the last few years, every year brought more clicks and revenue that each previous year. And any month, was better than the same month the year before. Last year I got over $4,000 from Google. Last September, instead of the month being level or better, it was the first month where a decrease occurred. About 15% less than the previous September. Then October, November and December all followed suit, being about 20% less than in 2010. My website stats show that my website page views did not suffer. My website traffic was nearly equal in late 2011 to what it was in 2010. If I had to consider something about the timing of the decrease, it was at the end of vacations, and moving into the school year and holiday season. Plus property taxes come out in November. The reduced CTR for Google Adsense, reduced revenue, and timing of the decrease, lead me to take a guess. I'm guessing that business confidence is low, and businesses have reduced their ADWORDS budgets. Maybe even limiting when the ads are running. And that people browsing the internet are less interested in ads related to purchases. My website content would cover travel, hiking, gardening, landscaping, tree care, pet birds and drainage. The specific site I benefit from Adsense is >>> Landscaping Portland and the content is in the ADVICE section in the background. There are over 200 pages on the site.
its totally due to the amount of advertisers. i think the niche got less advertiser this month so the rate of ads is decreased. it happens sometimes. but it will not continue for a long time for sure.
Shit yeah - I am lucky to get $2 for my 100 clicks LoL - but I am in the adult industry... lowest paying - but one of the most popular.