I have an informational site which gets direct traffic from its good domain name. My first month I was getting 20 cents a click. Now (6 months later) it is getting 3 cents a click. I have watched it gradually go down every month. It did bounce back in March. The site does have a above average click threw rate but only gets a couple hundred hits a day. I think the site is now smart priced. Any suggestions on how to get out of being smart priced? Thanks
Google is having troubles and want the WM's to run after them like little doggies. They have so much money and to keep the shareholders friendly they just tear down on websites. In fact they don't need them anymore. It's time to look for alternatives. I don't think that adwords is cost effective either. But they do feel the pressure and the little growing revolution, which is coming up. They are more into strategical investment now than in the search business, but when this stronghold falls, big G will be hit badly. Waiting for the European, Asian Internet and when that happens then we all will see the long awaited and for all benefitting competition. This time G has turned into a little dictatorship already.
You know what you said might seem like a rant, but when you analyze what has been going on lately, it seems like it will be a reality. Something is just not right... 1 + 1 is not adding up to 2 lately.
At present by changing you may not be gaining much. Alternate to G is yet to come. If your CTR is same then nothing to worry. On other factors you have little control. It is better if you can increase your hits from hundreds to thousands.
Yes it does seem like you've been smart priced, but it could also be a advertiser has targeted your site with some low paying ads. Ask.com will be releasing a contextual ad network next month in march, might be a good time to try out an alternative
I would say you are being smartpriced because thats a huge discreapancy between then and now in terms of cpc.
I wanted to update everybody with my situation. My earnings are back to being good. It might have been a seasonal thing where my keywords were not getting as many advertisers. We will have to wait and see if it drops again this spring.