Over the last week or two the hot topic among bloggers and website owners has been the slump in Adsense. All sorts of theories are flying around, but here are the facts;

1. Google Adsense getting stricter with the sites that can use their adverts

2. Summer holidays

Google have been banning thousands of websites that violate the TOS recently in a widespread crackdown. The result is lower prices for keywords that were once highly competitive. When a user clicks on an advert now you’ll probably get less than you would have two months ago, especially if you were serving up Tech / gadget related information.

It’s also a matter of the season. It’s Summer and most people (non bloggers / website owners) are on holiday from school and college. Never underestimate the amount of traffic the age group 12 - 22 brings, they’re the most web savvy and should the numbers drop there, everyone suffers. Right now all US and European students are on summer break, I don’t know about holidays in other areas but generally the worlds young are outside playing sports and having BBQ’s, not sitting at PC’s, this has always happened. Making money blogging is going to be tough over the next few months, at least for newer sites.
The exception is websites that target the older person, more likely to still be working in the office. These seem to be fairing a little better, hopefully you’re one of those and surviving just fine.

It’s a kick in the mouth that these have coincided but it’s just another reason not to put all your eggs in one basket. Use this time to experiment with other affiliate programs and save your top quality posts (if you can) for the next School term.

Have you got any advice on avoiding the slump?
Is your revenue dropping?