Don't Back Down

I recently posted about one year of advertising here on the blog. Over that year, advertising revenue has gone up by about 50%. But over that time, what has changed? Why exactly did the revenue go up over the last year? I am certainly no expert, but I have been able to draw a few conclusions about what causes the data to fluctuate during that period.

Perhaps the most interesting time period has happened over the last month. For much of that time, I actually haven't written anything (some posts dated during that time have now been posted, because I've frantically been posting in order to catch up - but these were post-dated, after-the-fact). So during this entry, I'll cover that too. While it's been mentioned that the site doesn't make boatloads of money, it does provide an interesting look at some mechanics of how things seem to work - at least in the context of this particular implementation.

What effect does the site's traffic have on the revenue? The first question that comes to my mind is traffic, so I'll address that first. There have been ups and downs, but over the last year, traffic has remained remarkably steady. I can attribute this to two factors. One is that, with the exception of my self-imposed sabbatical, I post with some regularity. Two is that I get a lot of traffic from search engines - as much as 75% most months (and most of this is from Google, though I don't know if this matters). While I would imagine if my traffic tripled, there would be a corresponding increase in revenue, I have to say that a steady traffic flow did not contribute to my 50% revenue gain in this case.

What effect does the click-through rate have on the revenue? This is relevant only to CPC (cost per click) networks, such as Google AdSense and Kontera ContentLink. CPM networks, which charge per impression, are going to be influenced much more by traffic. Unfortunately (or fortunately, perhaps) my advertising to this point has been mostly CPC-based. Thus, the click-through rate is more important. Thus far, it's varied for AdSense, from a low of 2.1% to a high of 3.71%. I don't know if these are good values or not - but I can tell you that the lowest rate translated to my lowest month for AdSense, while the highest rate was in the middle (the highest-performing month was actually achieved with a higher traffic month and a lower click-through rate).

What effect does the positioning have on the revenue? In my experience, this is the largest differentiator that I have found to date. If you are not familiar with the Google Heat Map, you should get to know it. The placement tips are there for a reason. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work with your layout, but it's good to know why you are placing ads where you are. Also, be familiar with how to conduct A/B Testing so that you can compare the results of two different placements, or two different color schemes or even two different ad formats. Then follow up by reviewing your reports. The strongest component of AdSense, after the ease of implementation, is the reporting piece.

What effect do other ad networks have on revenue? Mostly it depends on those networks, as they can do one of three things (perhaps all of them). If you put too many ads on your site, people may be turned off entirely, and all revenue may drop. It might come back, or it might no. Your new network may simply add to your earnings. Or you may see nothing at all happen from the new network, because it's simply not compatible. The best bet is to try new things and see what happens. For me, I've found that Kontera ContentLink works well with AdSense here. Text Link Ads is doing okay thus far, but it's still new, so we'll see how it goes. I haven't done well with affiliate sales, such as Amazon, unless I write a product review, and I don't do a lot of those - but when I do, they do nicely. So your mileage may vary. Most importantly - don't be afraid to experiment!

What effect will it have if I don't post every day? It depends entirely on your blog, and the ads that you have in place. As I mentioned earlier, I serve mostly CPC at this time, and I also mentioned that a lot of my traffic comes from search engines. What that means, in turn, is that I don't have to post every day. In fact, for nearly 30 days (in fact, it was a bit longer), I didn't post at all. The traffic did fall off a bit, but very little - in fact, it was less than 5% - and the revenue dropped by a similar amount. Yes, it did fall, and yes, I would prefer that it didn't. But it was an interesting exercise, and I'm glad I did it. I attribute the fact more to the idea that I wasn't putting anything new into the search engines than anything else.

In fact, when I started posting again, I immediately had one of my best days ever - and revenues were double the day immediately preceding - but then the revenue quickly settled right back down to where it was, even though I kept right on posting. So it may have had something to do with the fact that I started posting again, or it may have just been an aberration. I may never know.

Does that answer all of your questions? Is there anything else you'd like to know about, or share about your site, and what you've found from your own experiences?