If it is anything like the online retail in a niche market I worked in, it is the summer that has the biggest effect. Summer, sales are down, traffic is down, click throughs are down, all because most people spend as much time outside in the summer months as possible.

Outside tends to not be on the computer, so I generally look forward to those cold months where everyone is locked inside getting cabin fever. :)

As far as my adsense goes... I didn't see a drop mainly because I get almost nothing from adsense at the moment. Hard to see a drop when there is nothing to drop from, but I don't doubt for a minute the wildfires had something to do with a drop. The World Series, not so much... over in a 4 game sweep, ahhhh, not even good for those baseball fans that love to watch the game. I suppose many didn't even know it was on. Scott

Interesting theory... the fires in SoCal = decrease in AdSense earnings.

Over the past ten days many San Diegans (including myself) were displaced from our home and Internet (for days at a time). Those San Diegans that were not evacuated from their home, were GLUED to the television. Add power outages to the ordeal, and it's quite apparent that there wasn't a whole lot of Web surfing going on by those looking to buy the coolest new widget.

Actually, the number of people who were not online for days at a time is probably much higher. There were more than half a million evacuees in San Diego County alone, and I believe the number increases by a few hundred thousand after adding those evacuated due to fires burning in Riverside County & Malibu.

So, I believe a more accurate number would be a hair over one million people in very wired cities/counties that were not buying.

Have no fear all of you AdSenser's... things are slowly getting back to "normal" here. The fires are nearly out so you can expect your AdSense earnings to return to their previous glory--hopefully sooner rather than later.

More interesting is the ebay effect. I remember in katrina something that I ordered on ebay was never shipped because the person's house was destroyed. I'd reckon people in cali have way more items listed on ebay.