Theories about why the Google AdSense revenues are way down for publishers

If you build, maintain or promote web sites that derive part or all of their revenue from the Google AdSense program, you’ve surely seen a sharp decrease in your earnings, in the last months.

These are the main theories that are being discussed as to what may explain the drop…

1. Google is getting greedy.
   • Unlikely because that would be a huge boost to spark new competition.
   • May be possible because Google keeps everything secret so it has to be considered plausible.
2. The recession is hitting everybody.
   • Advertisers are being hit head-on and can’t spend as much on advertising.
   • People are buying less stuff or downgrading their purchases which means Google AdSense will see less action or at the very least, much less bidding action, every for well performing keywords.
3. Less people go online.
   • The official numbers show a rise in the total internet user count but it seems to be stalling in the US as the economy forces people to cancel their internet membership to cover for their rent — yikes.
   • Since people need to work longer hours, during a recession, there’s less time left to “be online”, period.
4. More people are wasting time playing video games.
   • Xbox, PS3 and Wii players aren’t generating squat for web publishers when they’re glued to their TV screen, in the living room — immersive gaming takes a huge toll on all other leisure time, including the time spend online.
5. Spam-free surfing may include AdSense-free surfing, too.
   • The truth of the matter is that when there are no ads on a web page, it loads slightly faster and there’s no third party accumulating data on your online behavior — for some people, that’s important.
   • As long as people keep blocking web publishers’ ads (and their revenue), they’re basically stealing content but they probably don’t realize it.
6. Google acquired a bad apple.
   • For countless AdSense experts, the DoubleClick acquisition was a very bad one, for AdSense web publishers.
   • DoubleClick is a low-level, low-paying, CPM-based ad clearinghouse for large advertisers and as such, poisonning the luxurious inventory of pay-per-click ads with such dirt-cheap ads that have tanked all publishers’ revenue stream.

It might even be something else but it’s undeniable, if you’re a web publisher trying to make money with AdSense, it’s now very hard.

If you’re so bold as to try to make a living off AdSense, it’s not downright IMPOSSIBLE unless you can make ends meet on a few hundred dollars a month, at most (if you live in your parents’ basement, it can happen but hey, not everybody enjoys such privileges).

Perhaps you have another idea why web publishers with better, more heavily circulated sites are seeing their revenue plunge in a seemingly bottomless abyss so you’re welcome to share your thoughts with us all.

In the meantime, if you want to make real money, please sign-up to get your own domain name and web hosting reselling store, online. It’s exactly what hundreds of millions of people are looking for and you’ll be the one collecting the moolah for years on end as people buy these services (or products) and keep renewing the forever.

Keep trying with AdSense if you feel like it but be aware that it’s just kiddie pocket change compared to operating your own online domain name reselling business (not to mention you’ll get your own domains at the “buy rate” — wow!) so don’t wait and join the major leagues!