Thanks to the crisis, many webmasters are no longer earning on adsense arbitrage. It may be due to Google smart pricing, but largely it is due to the crisis. Since arbitrage runs on percentages, a 50% drop in revenue will turn a profitable arbitrage into a non earning arbitrage. Before crisis a $10 spent in adwords give $20 in adsense. Now a $10 spent in adwords, give $10 in adsense. Don't u hate Wall Street for gambling peoples' money on uncertain financial scheme?
(Using the example of Arbritage) I thought that advertisers are paying much less at the moment? If they are then wouldn't the low spending and low payout balance out the same against each other?
it's quite complicated. there is a minimum bid on adwords, and most arbitragers obviously rely on min bids so the drop in advertising cost is less than the drop in revenue.
You're making some rather large and sweeping statements. I'm sure plenty of people are still making money with Adsense arbitrage, it just means getting more creative and working hard. If you want to believe this myth then that's fine, more money for the rest of us!
I still see it all the time, primarily though providers that have 3rd party contracts with Google. It's still working for a lot of people. I know of several sites doing it.
I've made over 50K doing arbitrage..adsense sites on msn and yahoo ppc networks. But for the past year its been dead...was fun while it lasted though.
it's quite sweeping you see. let's say 20% drop in cpc (advertisers pulling out) + 20% drop in ctr (visitors gets less generous) + 10% smart pricing (maybe) = 50% drop in revenue. the people still making money with arbitrage are those with very good sites with ROI > 200%. It is not easy to have a website with an ROI of 200% in arbitrage. The sites who are barely earning with arbitrage before the crisis will be running on losses now.
Please don't guess. @dolin88 How did you do arbitrage ? Is the hardest part to find a niche or what ?
Yes even when it was good, I would try 10 ideas / pages and maybe one would stick. But when it stuck, it was money in the bank.