An thread on WebmasterWorld asks an interesting question: did the availability of the Harry Potter book affect your Google AdSense earnings? It seems that a webmaster has noticed an 80% drop in traffic ever since the book release on Friday night, and I kind of understand why: I spent Saturday night and almost all of Sunday reading the book. I even got a few emails from friends asking me if I was all right. :) (Yes, I was. I was just reading Book 7!)
I wasn't the only one, it seems. AdSenseAdvisor knows a few people who have done the same thing:
What an interesting thought! I hadn't considered this, even though I know a number of people who spent all of their free time during the past few days feverishly reading the new book instead of going online.
I suppose it depends on demographics.
Gives you an interesting insight into the age group? of your visitors and / or their mental profile...
That's because not all advertisers ran into this issue:
Luckily my target audience has pretty much nothing to do with HP so I'm "safe" from that maaagic.One of the "Adsense challenges": you never know which event will affect your traffic/earnings.
But it's possible that historical metrics have accounted for the drop of traffic on that particular site:
Much more logical answers would be huge flooding problems in northern Europe, India and China (USA?) meanwhile horrendous heatwaves in southern Europe and the USA plus school holidays in many regions have just started meaning parents/families away too.I have nothing to do with HP nor financial planning etc and my traffic always drops at this time of year and as soon as August arrives my European traffic will fall off the edge as businesses close down for their summer breaks.
I don't know... for me, I definitely had my nose stuck in the book. :)
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
