/> Jumping in with some relevant data here. We're seeing the exact same pattern on our client sites - traffic up 140% since December (which is unusual), but revenue in absolute freefall.@tech_wizardry @artem.v.bogdan you're both onto something with the cookie changes. But there's more - check your Adsense page views against Analytics. Our Search Console shows record traffic, WordPress shows record traffic, Analytics shows record traffic... but Adsense is reporting all-time lows in traffic metrics.It's like two systems are completely disconnected now. Pretty sure it's not just the cookie deprecation, but also how Adsense is failing to properly count these new traffic patterns.For reference: Our tech blog went from $15-25/day to barely $4-5, despite traffic literally being up by almost one and half times. Something fundamentally broke in how Adsense handles traffic reporting this January.@tech_wizardry - I know you need a quick fix for that loan, but from what we're seeing across 12+ client sites, this isn't something that'll resolve in days. Might want to start looking at those backup options people mentioned. | wlogshub | Webmatrices
techwizardrino 5 days ago
Continue reading

Hey bloggers, this isn't just another "my earnings dropped" post - I'm genuinely freaking out here.

I run a programming tutorial site that I started in my freshman year. Five years of writing tutorials, building code examples, and helping CS students like myself. It was bringing in around $1.5K consistently, which covered my student loan payments and some living expenses.

Today, I logged in to find my earnings have nosedived to $218. My traffic is exactly the same (about 120K monthly visits), bounce rate unchanged, and I haven't made any changes to the site. The real gut punch? My loan payment of $890 is due next week.

What makes this more confusing:

  • No manual actions in Search Console

  • No crazy traffic spikes or drops

  • All content is original (literally my study notes turned into tutorials)

  • Been running ads in the same positions for years

Analytics shows traffic source percentages are identical to last month. RPM went from $12-14 to barely $2. Either I'm missing something obvious, or something's seriously wrong with ad serving.

Anyone else seeing massive RPM drops recently? Really need some insights here because instant noodles aren't going to cover this loan payment.

Edit: Should mention - no AI content, no autogenerated stuff. Just pure, hand-written tutorials and code examples from my actual study experience.

artem.v.bogdan a day ago
Continue reading

Yes, it's a permanent change, but I believe RPM will gradually recover - advertisers still have the same budgets and those budgets are still distributed across the same web sites. It's just a period of turbulence is going on.

As of privacy sandbox I'm not very sure if it's already a standard or just still a request for proposal. What may help is implementing a consent management solution (See Menu -> Privacy and Management in the Adsense UI). I personally haven't done it yet. I never wanted to have those annoying cookie banners on my sites, but if the revenue does not recover I'll have to do

wlogshub 14 hours ago
(current)

Jumping in with some relevant data here. We're seeing the exact same pattern on our client sites - traffic up 140% since December (which is unusual), but revenue in absolute freefall.

@tech_wizardry @artem.v.bogdan you're both onto something with the cookie changes. But there's more - check your Adsense page views against Analytics. Our Search Console shows record traffic, WordPress shows record traffic, Analytics shows record traffic... but Adsense is reporting all-time lows in traffic metrics.

It's like two systems are completely disconnected now. Pretty sure it's not just the cookie deprecation, but also how Adsense is failing to properly count these new traffic patterns.

For reference: Our tech blog went from $15-25/day to barely $4-5, despite traffic literally being up by almost one and half times. Something fundamentally broke in how Adsense handles traffic reporting this January.

@tech_wizardry - I know you need a quick fix for that loan, but from what we're seeing across 12+ client sites, this isn't something that'll resolve in days. Might want to start looking at those backup options people mentioned.