Google Adsense is doing some real stupid changes to their Adsense referral program. They have announced on their blog that the Adsense referrals program is changing. Let me tell you, it is changing for the worst for publishers outside America and Japan.
-If you’re outside of North America, Latin America, and Japan, Adsense referrals will be retired.
For publishers not located in any of the three regions detailed above, we’ll soon be retiring referrals promoting Adsense. We’ve found that this referral product has not performed as well as we had hoped in these regions. Again, please keep in mind that you can still generate referrals for the other products listed under the ‘Referrals’ section of your Adsense Setup
This means if you are a publisher outside of the Americas and Japan, the Adsense referral program will be closed for you. The reason they give for this is that referral product has not performed well outside Americas and Japan.
There is not much good news either for publishers from North America, Latin America, or Japan. They got the slap too.
- If you’re in North America, Latin America, or Japan, the pricing structure for Adsense referrals is changing.
About a year ago, as an experiment, we changed the pricing structure for Adsense referrals so that when a user you referred to the program earned $5 within 180 days of sign-up, you would also earn $5. When that publisher earned $100 within 180 days and removed all payment holds, you’d receive $250. We have decided to conclude this experiment and return to the original pricing structure. As a result, we’ll soon no longer be offering the $5 bonus or $2000 bonus, and the payout for referring a user who generates $100 with Adsense in the first 180 days will return to $100.
It seems Google Adsense is facing tough competition from other Ad networks. With the Advertisers money moving away from Adsense, the need to cut the referral payout could be the start of their many other surprises.
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January 9th, 2008 at 3:46 am
The best thing one should do in Internet Marketing is to diversify your incomes from various opportunities. If you depend on a single opportunity, then any kind of slap on that opportunity wil hurt very badly.
The Adsense program is loosing a bit of shine with many other entrants. Although Adsense is still one of the best players!
January 9th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Hi Allen,
Welcome to Gnaka.com! I absolutely agree with you. Diversifying your income streams, especially in Internet Marketing is a must if it is your main source of income. It may hurt badly if you are dependent on a single source and that single source slaps you badly.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
i was wondering where my adsense referral ad had gone..and was surprise to know that..it is no longer there for publishers outside those countries..
and yeah definitely Google is getting a tough competition with other ad networks and we could expect some more surprises like that in the coming days.
January 19th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Perhaps it is a good idea to have other income streams besides adsense.It seems that Google is getting more competition and is forced to cut down on something.I have never promoted the referral program, hopefully there will be no other major changes.
June 17th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Thank you information….