Well, this update is going to be like no other because of the Pure Spam penalties that Google handed to people like me.
As you may know, I had almost 20 sites in my portfolio get slapped with this nonsense penalty, including sites that I report on in these monthly updates.
Yes, they were all in the same Search Console account. No, none of the sites de-indexed were full AI content. In fact, many of them had zero AI content.
It was clear that I was targeted, probably for talking about my success ranking pure AI content sites.
Anyways, let’s get ready to dig into these.
As mentioned when I started these monthly updates, I’m publishing these income reports on the last day of each month to get fresh data your way.
Plus, it helps keep me accountable to you…because we all know that I will procrastinate on getting these written up.
Also, I want to remind you that these Ezoic sites of mine are smaller sites, which means these monthly updates should be easier for new site builders to follow along with (as well as those of you who are building sites with limited time).
With these being my lower earning sites, they never really get the priority that they deserve. (understatement of the century)
But still, small amounts of work compound over time.
Note: The sites in this report are only a portion of my portfolio and not the only sites that bring in revenue.
**And as always, I’m an affiliate marketer and this post contains affiliate links, meaning I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my link.
Site 1: Food/Drink Niche
This site got de-indexed with the Pure Spam penalty. Shame since the traffic was on the rise last month.
Only the recent content here was from an AI first draft.
Deleted that content and requested a reconsideration of the penalty – denied within 24 hours.
I, personally, wrote most of the content on this site. But yes, I’m sure it’s “automatically generated gibberish” or a result of “scraping content from other websites.”
Here’s what the damage looks like –
You’ll notice the site is still getting around 30 visits/day. That’s from other search engines.
And I never took the time to make social profiles for this site, so no real backup traffic here.
Here’s a look as the sad earnings for the month –
In this screenshot, it only looks like a ~500 or so drop in visits, which is a bit odd.
EPMV is down, of course, as well as earnings from Ezoic.
This site is a mix of affiliate and info content, with high converting Lasso product boxes on the affiliate posts.
And quick reminder, I enabled Humix on this site early in 2023 but didn’t upload any videos – instead I’m only earning from other people’s videos that show up on my site.
Here’s how much this site earned via Humix for the month –
No real surprise to see the drop in plays and revenue since this site was deindexed in Google.
Pretty much just other people in Humix responsible for this $0.66.
Anyways, this is where I usually include a screenshot of the overall income for the last 30 days from Big Data Analytics….but it’s not working this morning.
So, here’s the raw stats:
- Ezoic: $8.14
- Amazon: $3.01
Of course there’s an EPMV drop, traffic drop, and earnings drop since the site is currently de-indexed.
Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.
Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.
Site 2: Religion/Spirituality Niche
This site also got de-indexed with the Pure Spam penalty.
Of course, I was actually using AI content on this one since late in 2023. Maybe they got one right?
That 10-20 daily visits remaining are from other search engines and the half-assed attempt I made at Pinterest for this site.
Of course, it’s both traffic and earnings that are down as a result of the de-indexing.
Not a lot to say here other than this one probably deserved to get hit, but did not deserve to get deindexed.
All of the original content, before I started editing AI first drafts, is from an industry expert writer that I paid like $6,000 to for a shockingly small amount of articles for the money.
But they are top notch content….that still got clapped.
Good news/bad news, guess I can make that domain name change that I struggled with doing months back!
Here’s how much this site earned from Humix with the two videos that I uploaded early in 2023 –
Yeah, things dropped, as you’d expect. But a large chunk of that $3.71 earned this month came from Humix…weird.
Anyways, this is where I usually include a screenshot of the overall income for the last 30 days from Big Data Analytics….but it’s not working this morning.
So, here’s the raw stats:
- Ezoic: $3.71
- Amazon: $0.00
Of course there’s an EPMV drop, traffic drop, and earnings drop since the site is currently de-indexed.
Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.
Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.
Site 3: Food/Drink Niche #2
This site also got de-indexed with the Pure Spam penalty, and this one really pisses me off because I was taking real photos for the posts on this site….and I, personally, wrote most of them.
So much effort into this content just for it to get hit by an algo update previously and now completely de-indexed in Google.
To add salt to the wound, the EPMV is up this month.
No screenshot from Google Analytics cause this one had that Polish referral spam last month and it makes the last 30 days look flatlined at zero.
Reality is around 17 daily visits…all from other search engines cause I never did social for this site.
Anyways, this is where I usually include a screenshot of the overall income for the last 30 days from Big Data Analytics….but it’s not working this morning.
So, here’s the raw stats:
- Ezoic: $3.99
- Amazon: $6.56
Despite the traffic drop, EPMV and earnings are up a wee bit – how? No idea.
Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.
Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.
Site 4: Tech/Gaming Niche
This site is no longer on Ezoic…..but it also got deindexed. No shame, I was spamming it with bulk AI posts.
Site 5: Outdoors Niche
You’re not gonna believe this, but this site did NOT get de-indexed.
It’s been essentially dead anyways for a while though, right?
Looks like EPMV is up, but traffic is down just a wee bit based on Ezoic data.
But Google Analytics tells a different story –
Thanks Poland referral spam from last month!
Anyways, this is where I usually include a screenshot of the overall income for the last 30 days from Big Data Analytics….but it’s not working this morning.
So, here’s the raw stats:
- Ezoic: $5.29
- Amazon: $0.00
This one has an EPMV increase, traffic drop, and earnings drop – but it’s still indexed!
The affiliate content on this site is using high converting Lasso product boxes.
And I used Scalenut (use code FOREVER20 to save 20% after the free trial!) to optimize these articles. You can also use something like Frase for this.
Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.
Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.
Site 6: Gardening Niche
Wait, what’s this? Another Ezoic site that managed to stay indexed?!
Shame that it was hit by a Google update a while back so traffic isn’t where it should be.
Based on Ezoic’s data, this site went from 79 daily visits last month to 131 daily visits this month.
Great news.
Even better news is that only 26% of the monthly sessions are coming in from Google…..and I’ve not yet setup the Pinterest and Facebook pages for this site yet!
I’ll be using this as a live case study of growing Pinterest and Facebook traffic in my Blogging Success Engine membership – if you wanna follow along, sign up here.
Starting on April 2nd, both of those social plans are being implemented.
Anyways, this is where I usually include a screenshot of the overall income for the last 30 days from Big Data Analytics….but it’s not working this morning.
So, here’s the raw stats:
- Ezoic: $40.84
- Amazon: $7.31
Good news all around here – an EPMV increase, a traffic increase, and earnings increase – and it’s still indexed!
The affiliate content is using high converting Lasso product boxes.
And I used Scalenut (use code FOREVER20 to save 20% after the free trial!) to optimize these articles. You can also use something like Frase for this.
Do note that we have one additional day left in the month, so these numbers are almost complete.
Plus, Ezoic balances are not finalized for ending month until the 4th of the following month. Just an FYI.
Looking Ahead
As you might imagine, there’s really only two of these sites worth working on since they’re the only ones left indexed.
However, only one of those two is growing at all….blame all on me, of course.
Does this mean I abandon the de-indexed sites? Not necessarily.
You can still get traffic without Google.
I haven’t planned yet what I’ll do with those sites, but I will keep you updated here.
Both of these niches are perfect for both Pinterest and Facebook, but I’ll be focusing only in Site #6 for this right now.
The good news is that I can put the Growth Cupid team (save 15% with code SKIPBLAST) on the Pinterest strategy….but not until they have time.
Once I get all that going, I may do YouTube for site #6.
And just a reminder, I’m still planning on some upcoming videos on my YouTube channel about these sites, especially now with some of them penalized. Subscribe here if you want to see ’em when I finally upload them.
If you want more details on how I use Ezoic’s Big Data Analytics to form my content strategies, check out this three-part case study.
Questions? Let me know in the comments!
Hey, I’m Shawna. I make a living working from my laptop in places like London, Sydney, Dubai, Rome, Oslo, Bangkok, Las Vegas, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I share how I do some of that on this website.