AdSense earnings - down across the board

Despite of complaints from the usual moaners, it appears that Google's Adsense program has really taken a bite out of the earnings goldmine. Don't get me wrong - the earnings are still there, but...

"...we're introducing enhancements to our pricing model for advertisers. Google's smart pricing has always provided better placement for better performing ads, and reduced the cost of a click to the least amount possible for an advertiser to stay above their competitor's ad. Now, with the new AdWords pricing model, we’ll also automatically adjust the price of clicks across the Google Network based on their expected value to the advertiser. A number of factors will be taken into account when calculating the expected value, including the keywords or concepts that triggered the ad. For example, a click on an ad for digital cameras on a web page about photography tips may be worth less than a click on the same ad appearing next to a review of digital cameras.

What does this mean? Well prior to the "smart pricing" I never noticed a click that earned less than $.03 - now I have seen numerous occassions when the earnings were very definitely less than that. Unfortunately, I am not the only one....