Written on January 9th, 2008 at 10:01 am by Darren Rowse
AdSense Change Rules - Stupidity Stupidity Stupidity
The AdSense blog has just announced changes to the AdSense referral program which I’m pretty disappointed in. In fact they anger me and leave me disillusioned with AdSense.
There are two changes:
1. Changes to Payment System
The ‘experimental’ payment system for publishers promoting AdSense is being changed back to the way it was before it was changed a year ago.
The current pay system (that is about to change) works like this:
- If you refer someone to AdSense who makes $5 within 180 days you get a payment of $5.
- If you refer someone to AdSense who makes $100 within 180 days you get $250
- If you refer 25 people who make $100 within a 180 day period you get a bonus payment of $2000
The previous payment system (which is what things are being changed back to) is this:
If you refer someone to AdSense who makes $100 within a 180 day period you get $100.
This removes the incentive to refer anyone who is a small publisher and it removes the incentive to work hard at referring multiple publishers. In fact it removes quite a bit of incentive to use the program at all.
As someone who had always just fallen short of the $2000 bonus I can tell you that for me it always acted as a huge incentive to promote AdSense. When AdSense added the $5 and $2k bonus I thought it was genius - while the numbers may not have been right - I’m surprised that AdSense have removed incentive for publishers to refer them in this way.
But if that’s not enough - get this second change:
2. AdSense Referrals Retired for Publishers outside of North America, Latin America and Japan.
If YOU as a publisher are outside of North America, Latin America, and Japan - you’ll no longer be able to participate in the referral program.
Yes you hear me right, its about the location of you as a publisher that excludes you from participating in the AdSense referral system. It’s got nothing to do with your audience’s location, the topic you write about, the quality of your blog or any other factor - it’s about where you blog from.
I’m not privy to the reasoning for this - they simply say ‘We’ve found that this referral product has not performed as well as we had hoped in these regions’ - but in my mind this is stupidity to the ultimate degree.
As a publisher who blogs from Australia but who has a blog on a niche topic that relates perfectly to AdSense and which has the vast majority of it’s traffic from the USA (and which has consistently referred publishers to AdSense that have converted at the $100 in 180 range) I cannot understand the reasoning for this change.
I’m just one example (I’m the example I know best) and a quick look at my stats shows me that I’ve displayed AdSense referral ads close to 20 million times. I’ve sent them tens of thousands of visitors and have been responsible for thousands of sign ups. I cannot even begin to imaging how much money those signups have made AdSense - yet today they’re telling me that they don’t feel that that kind of evangelism for them is worthwhile paying for?
I can understand the reasoning for changing payment levels if they are not converting well for AdSense, but to exclude publishers from promoting them based upon the location of the publisher is simply dumb.
AdSense - this is short sighted, this will cost you money, this is stupid.
PS: The last line of the post on the AdSense blog which announces this shows just how out of touch the team that made this decision are with international publishers.
“We appreciate your support of this referral product, and hope it won’t cause you any inconvenience.”
You hope it won’t cause inconvenience? Are you serious?
Shoemoney joins the conversation with AdSense Slaps Foreign Webmasters in the Face
Update: I’m still a little confused by this decision of AdSense and have been wondering what’s behind it. One that comes to mind is that perhaps they have an oversupply of publishers and need to slow down the intake of new ones. Perhaps with the rise of so many other ad networks advertisers are finding other options to advertise with and going with AdWords less - causing an oversupply of publishers.
Not sure on that one - just the beginning of an idea.
Update 2: one thing I failed to point out in this post that Andy points out is that publishers that you’ve referred to Google in the last 180 days which are yet to make $100 will be switched to the new payout system at the end of the month. For example, if you referred someone 4 months ago who has made $99.99 as of the end of this month (when the changes come into effect) and who makes makes another cent the day after taking them up to $100 - you will only get the $100 payout instead of a $250 one. Of course that is if you live in the ‘golden zones’ of the Americas and Japan.
So for ‘international’ publishers - every person that you and I have sent to AdSense since the end of July last year that reaches a conversion point in the coming months will earn us nothing at all.
111 Responses to “AdSense Change Rules - Stupidity Stupidity Stupidity”
Stephanie
January 9th, 2008 11:04 am
Yowtch! That’s just crazy. Not that I’ve ever had much luck with AdSense referrals, but there’s such a complete lack of understanding about how this will impact international publishers. I’m not one, but I would be steamed about that if I were.
plonkee
January 9th, 2008 11:07 am
Wow. I’m surprised that it matters where you’re based. I mean, if a region is not performing well, and you have the payment levels right, then you won’t be paying out much referral money to them. But that shouldn’t be a problem as the referral money should be less than the profit you’re making - if you pitch the payment levels right.
Running a website (the market for adsense) is such a location independent thing, that I fail to see how they need you to be in a specific region. I thought it was the same internet that you see in Mountain View as the one in Melbourne or Manchester.
Mark Dykeman
January 9th, 2008 11:10 am
Why on Earth would one’s geographic location have anything to do with the success of the Adsense-using publisher, at least from a technology perspective? They must be assuming that most of the Adsense ads are geared for the blogger’s domestic market. That’s VERY short sited in today’s world, especially when services are being sold, not physical products.
Steve Mills
January 9th, 2008 11:12 am
The fact of the matter is that Google has already got all of the market saturation and platform uptake that they need for adsense to now promote itself.
I would assume they simply don’t feel the need to pay as much for the referrals that they get. Doesn’t help out the average blogger, but makes perfect sense for the googleplex.
Fatgadget
January 9th, 2008 11:24 am
You have got to be kidding, I only just got adsense and installed it on ly blog acouple of days ago.
I was even looking at how I could implement the referral program.
I live in the UK, but 60-70% of my traffic comes from the US.
Nice one Google.
Darren Rowse
January 9th, 2008 11:25 am
Steve Mills - I’m not so sure about the saturation. I mean on one level yes AdSense have the biggest reach - but I would have thought that the awareness levels of AdSense among publishers would have been more saturated in the US than they might have been elsewhere - wouldn’t it have made more sense to expand their reach even further internationally?
I do agree with you though - this is obviously a business decision and they’ve made it based upon their bottom line. All I know is that they’ll stop getting the millions of page views on this blog that they used to get.
Peter Cooper
January 9th, 2008 11:46 am
I could almost swallow this if it was just a North American thing.. you know, regulations, simplicity of sticking to a single terroritory, that kinda thing.. but they’re including Latin America and Japan? Why? Are these the biggest earners for Google? If so, I’m blown away Europe isn’t in there.
Arnel Reodica
January 9th, 2008 11:54 am
It will cause a lot of inconvenience, especially for publishers outside of North America, Latin America and Japan….. definitely!
Dan Cole
January 9th, 2008 12:00 pm
lol… Everyone had to see something like this happening. Large companies can’t offer nice rewards when they have competition, because it means less money out of their pockets. Plus Google stores a ton of information, including Gigabytes of email now for each account. Paying Adsense account there fair share, buying computers with a ton of hard disk space, and all other expenses of the company is a lot, then expecting them to give $2,000 dollar bonuses to people anywhere on the planet is a lot to ask.
They have looked at the referral program and have pick a new path that maximizes new customers, while minimizing expenses. Small websites open and close like waves on a beach. Why should they pay you for finding them people that are going to give up tomorrow? Maybe this new plan will push you (Darren) into having a larger guiding hand in creating new blogs and making them popular.
Dan Cole
January 9th, 2008 12:04 pm
Darren, you should let up edit out post for a couple minutes after we post them. “Large companies can’t offer nice rewards when they have competition, because it means less money out of their pockets.” … nice, that was the opposite of what I was getting at!
Michael from Pro Blog Design
January 9th, 2008 12:08 pm
Another blow that’s going to annoy bloggers. After the whole page rank outcry, and the paid links business, this is just stupid. What next I wonder? It’s downright un-Google-like.
lisa coultrup ( kystorms)
January 9th, 2008 12:13 pm
they have been acting as if they are doing us a favor for some time now, at least in my mind. I have had a email to their customer service about clicks that occurred on my newest blog that they did not even credit ( I would not have known about them, had I NOT checked MYBlogLog and found them) and yet they have not even bothered to reply to my email to them which I placed on Friday last. I know that they are doing me a favor letting me in their program, but to date I have given them over 55,000 page views or more, that is alot of free advertising that they have paid less then the cost of dinner for two for. And now this? I have no choice but to keep using them as long as I can, that is until something else presents itself as an alternative.
thank you for letting the issue be spoken about here, I am hopeful it will be helpful to others who are affected by these changes.
Rinaldo
January 9th, 2008 12:22 pm
Darren, I assume that you emailed them looking for more answers. Do you have more insight in the situation? Is sad to see that small traffic bloggers won’t be able to support between themselves now using the referral system
jhay
January 9th, 2008 12:36 pm
I think this is discriminatory and very stupid indeed. What is happening to Google nowadays?
Neerav
January 9th, 2008 12:39 pm
Speaking as an Australian middle-weight problogger, this decision is disappointing but not surprising
Internet marketers in the USA always seem to get beta access to search engine features, affiliate programs and preferential treatment compared to equivalent people overseas
And yet the Internet is supposed to be a global system which breaks down arbitrary barriers …
Photography Dreamer
January 9th, 2008 12:41 pm
Not wanting to turn this comments into a petition but maybe we should do something like that !
There are a lot of bloggers and webmasters outside the US and if unite maybe we can influence their decision what do you think ?
Frugal Dad
January 9th, 2008 12:46 pm
“Won’t cause inconvenience?” What a joke! I guess it is an inconvenience if you just eliminated a large source for referrals. Bummer.
Mike - Twenty Steps
January 9th, 2008 12:48 pm
I just don’t understand what’s going on at the Plex these days. Slapping everyone using TLA or PPP was partly driven by them wanting everyone to run back to AdSense with their tails between their legs. By removing the ability to make money through referring their product just seems ludicrous to me.
Madness.
Affiliate Confession
January 9th, 2008 12:54 pm
Adsense, Google, landing page quality, $10 min bids,etc., etc and all their rules are becoming an annoyance. They are biting the hand that produces their revenue. Simply stupid.
Rafael Cotta
January 9th, 2008 12:57 pm
I also thought it was something insane. And although I am from Brazil (latin america) it is something very stupid to remove people from other countries from the AdSense referring program.
But I felt the same when AdWords referrals where lauched and I couldn’t show it on my websites because I was from Brazil and not USA.
I know its a tought task to receive all those bonuses, but removing them makes me think if AdSense references deserve to stay on my pages.
TeamTutorials
January 9th, 2008 1:00 pm
AdSense just keeps going down hill with these stupid changes. I thought the clickable area change was bad enough, now they want to change referrals. It’s ok though, people are starting to realize that you don’t need adsense to make money online. The more people that switch away from adsense the better.
Rick Blythe
January 9th, 2008 1:03 pm
Wow Darren, I have never seen you so upset as in this post, you’re usually such a level headed guy! I agree with you though, Google is biting the hand that feeds it here. Hope they reverse this.
Donovan
January 9th, 2008 1:16 pm
Darren is upset because he’ll be losing ALOT of money. I don’t blame him.
James Jones
January 9th, 2008 1:16 pm
Darren, Your blog has been a big help explaining ad sense. You are more understandable than google. They are making a big mistake in shutting you off from referrals. I am sure you have introduced more bloggers to ad sense than most of the sites in the areas they are keeping on the program. I wonder what their real reason is for dropping the other areas?
Mathew Packer
January 9th, 2008 1:20 pm
This is just such a bizarre decision from Google..looks like I may need to move over to the US or Japan after all, or atleast get a PO Box there for Google to send my cheques to..
Rich Minx
January 9th, 2008 1:34 pm
Unbelievable. I really, really hope Google responds to this post.
Darren Rowse
January 9th, 2008 1:36 pm
Donovan - actually I don’t make heaps off it. Over the two years it’s been just over five figures which is nothing to sneeze at - but it’s actually significantly less than I make off other affiliate programs.
For me it’s not so much about the money - it more a slap in the face after years of promoting AdSense, evangelizing for them and even defending them at times. I did this because I actually think they are a good option for bloggers to explore to make money from their blogs (for numerous reasons). However despite my (and others) best intentions to promote them this sort of decision makes me wonder what the point was.
They obviously don’t want the kind of publishers we can send them. They take away our incentive to send them smaller publishers, they take away our incentive to send them lots of bigger ones and they seem to be saying that they don’t want anyone who doesn’t live in parts of the world that doesn’t suit them.
To be honest I feel like this decision is just insulting.
marhgil
January 9th, 2008 1:37 pm
and I thought Widgetbucks is crazy for not crediting clicks outside the US and Canada. At least, they are focused on your audience, not on the blogger’s geographical location. Google did something crazier by focusing on the blogger’s location.
EarnersBay
January 9th, 2008 1:44 pm
Unbelievable…I actually had to check if it was April 1st already because it sure seemed like a joke.
geomark
January 9th, 2008 1:50 pm
The decision seems so intuitively dumb that it must be an algorithmic decision. The numbers must show that referrals from people who reside outside those areas are not as profitable for them. So they want to squeeze margins up a little and maybe consolidate in some areas.
Technology Slice
January 9th, 2008 1:56 pm
That’s absolutely ridiculous. I can’t believe Google would do this.
Dom
January 9th, 2008 2:01 pm
I completely agree that this just seems insulting. But to many small publishers it will be more than that - people will have invested time and -money- into promoting adsense.
Google is effectively saying “thanksverymuch for the traffic, now get lost.”
This makes me not want to use them for AdSense or AdWords at all any more.
John
January 9th, 2008 2:03 pm
Just goes to show that you can’t put all of your eggs in the Google Basket. I’m just about completely done with Google anyways, tired of adsense smart pricing, tired of PR, etc. Maybe we as readers should start our own ad network!
Think Like An SOB
January 9th, 2008 2:20 pm
How long do you think before people at DP start selling adsense accounts that are based in the US to foreign webmasters?
Google is just finding way to piss webmasters off - first the adsense click zone, and now this.
Takuin Minamoto
January 9th, 2008 2:29 pm
I have been thinking or removing AdSense from my blogs for some time, and this new bit of info sealed the deal for me.
If this is the solution the AdSense team decided to go with, I wonder what sort of things they rejected?
Eli
January 9th, 2008 2:54 pm
I’m sorry to hear about this Darren. Bit of a slap in the face huh. Good thing I never got into the AdSense referrals.
Take it easy hey.
Gil
January 9th, 2008 2:57 pm
this is insane…sorry to hear that this is going to affect you…any way to petition them to offer it?
Read Scott
January 9th, 2008 2:58 pm
I’ve never been a big fan of Google Adsense. Now, I have a legitimate reason.
Justin Dupre
January 9th, 2008 3:03 pm
Absolutely Ridiculous! If I didn’t have an American bank account and address I’d be out of here. The fact that none of my referrals will probably ever make 100 dollars hurts me. Google… what have you done.
Yahoo decided to screw over its users too! Check out this blog entry: http://www.blogosis.com/2008/01/09/google-and-yahoo-give-a-huge-bitchslap-to-its-affiliates/
Justin Dupre
Neil Duckett
January 9th, 2008 3:05 pm
For once living in Japan we are included in the changes. Although having said that my account details still reside in Australia so i would miss out IF i were taking part in referring people to google.
waggdogg
January 9th, 2008 3:13 pm
I think it’s time for action. Darren you should gather all of the publishers in Australia together and approach the Ad-sense team. You make good arguments about this new program and with more publishers behind you I think you can make a change.
Cindy S
January 9th, 2008 3:16 pm
Darren,
I signed up for adsense because you and several other “big” bloggers recommended it. I will be more than happy to take it away and hey, I made my $5 in 180 days.
For small bloggers, it might be easy but the $100 payout seems a long way off. I have 3 small local niche blogs and none them are “trendy”. My audience tends to be non computer literate and so clicks are rare. My farm blog does the best and gets the least traffic. For some reason people want to know what farmers don’t want you to know about chickens.
Your blog has far more influence than you might think. Start an adsense boycott. I’d give up that buck a day or actually find a better way to earn it.
Far easier for me to say when I am not earning big bucks from adsense but then again, how much of the adsense income was coming from referrals?
Rekzai
January 9th, 2008 4:08 pm
Shit I’m moving to London soon
Justin Khoury
January 9th, 2008 4:47 pm
This is an absolute joke, and as a fellow Australian blogger I can say I’ve also been snobbed off by Adsense. It’s very surprising for someone like Google to resort to such drastic measures, and I think they can only really lose by excluding publishers from their service.
Richard
January 9th, 2008 4:49 pm
Darren, you wrote: “this is short sited”, you may have meant “this is short sighted”. (sorry for being a G.N.!)
Gisele B. from myBeautyMatch.com
January 9th, 2008 4:54 pm
The sad thing is that Google is in control and the rest of the world has to follow :-(
blogging beat
January 9th, 2008 4:56 pm
Maybe they only offered those programs so that they would get known enough and have enough free exposure. Maybe now they think they have most of the market and don’t need to worry about this system anymore.
Nick - road2blogging
January 9th, 2008 5:02 pm
@ Richard - I think that was meant to be a little humor in the post lol.
Darren - Do you think this could be the start of the end of the road for adsense, with so many people using alternatives?
Warren
January 9th, 2008 5:35 pm
Sounds like Google is pulling a Microsoft style move and focusing on too much at once. No matter how many employees you have there needs to be a good focus, otherwise your core products have BIG mistakes made like this.
Wow, Google. Maybe this is why your stock is dropping like a rock in the past week.
Bid Me!
January 9th, 2008 5:54 pm
It’s not fair… Google is being selfish again…
Richard
January 9th, 2008 6:07 pm
@ Nick, hmm, it was lost on me… ;)
Mohan
January 9th, 2008 6:14 pm
Iam a publisher from india, my main income in adsense is coming from referals only, my website is small one but i got visiters much and now they are this updation is very inconvinence to us in india. there is any chance to change the updation in referrals.
Donovan (Seduction Chronicles)
January 9th, 2008 6:27 pm
I can see that Darren. Good points. It is insulting. I don’t doubt that you make FAR more off affiliate programs. I do also.
I’ve never had Adsense on my blog, it simply doesn’t make enough money, and I also have little control of who’s advertising on my blog. I value my readers and only recommend products that I’ve personally experienced.
MY SUCCESS STORY:
Darren, thanks to some of your tips and my persistence, my blog is quickly reaching back to its number 1 place in my niche, and readers are becoming more and more loyal as time proceeds.
I’ve gone from 200 subscribers to over 1000 in only 1 year with a 5000+% increase in competition blogs/websites!
I dedicated this in part to you Darren and the other ProBlogger commenters!
RT the fitness guy
January 9th, 2008 6:30 pm
Darren,
Its about their tax.
RT
Aymarius
January 9th, 2008 6:39 pm
I totally agree that the move to limit the physical location of the publisher is simply stupid and a big turn-off that will tarnish Google’s image in many minds.
Even in the case of your hypothesis that they might have an abundance of publishers at the moment, they should not favor certain countries and locations. It doesnt matter where the publisher is, what matter is his audience. They can come up with stricter rules or critera that can be used to filter the publishers and favor the ones with good quality, but not discriminate against good bloggers. This is the Internet. It should be without borders.
The Arab Aquarius
Rod
January 9th, 2008 7:11 pm
I understand the general bad mood about this decision from Google - particularly as a European blogger.
However most of my revenue come from AdSense and not from AdSense referral and this for a simpgle (simple + single… got it Richard ?) reason: I’m not blogging in the blog / webmastering / internet niche, with the exception of one blog.
My view is that apart from metabloggers, this decision won’t affect a lot of people. Not that it makes it good decision, but no major crisis.
Tom Hanna
January 9th, 2008 7:31 pm
Regarding the geographic limitations, I’m wondering whether these sorts of changes might make it worthwhile for some folks to incorporate their business in North America. There would be tax consequences, of course, and cost of incorporating. For most bloggers the Google move alone wouldn’t make it worthwhile, but letting geographic limitations be such a factor for small web businesses seems like a problem that might not be so hard to solve. (Not to mention the fact that at least some businesses are more likely to take “MBB, Inc.” more seriously than “My Basketweaving Blog” on a loan application, etc)
Veronica
January 9th, 2008 7:32 pm
See? I was telling everyone months ago that adsense didn’t care for the little publishers.
Mr Daz
January 9th, 2008 8:32 pm
This is absolutely stupid. It’s not the first time though that Google has touted the geographical location of the publisher as a means to cut off services. They did it with the Video ads as well, which for me being in the UK was extremely annoying - especially as one of my websites was used to test the video ads in the first place.
It obviously had enough US traffic to pilot the project, but as my postal address is in the UK I can go whistle when it comes to launching it.
Google need to get out of this attitude that the location of the publisher matters. It doesn’t. The target audience of the website is what counts.
Amanda
January 9th, 2008 8:37 pm
I’m shocked. I live in the UK and was debating whether or not to publish AdSense on my new site. This post has decided it for me. I’d rather seek advertising elsewhere.
Thank you for keeping us abreast of the latest developments, Darren. I hope that this doesn’t punish your own earnings too much!
acca
January 9th, 2008 11:00 pm
You got this post title very, very right - Stupidity Stupidity Stupidity! I can’t belive, either.
Bobby Handzhiev
January 10th, 2008 12:28 am
Hm, so what’s next? Removing non US publishers from Adsense at all?
Darren, I think it’s time for you and other big bloggers to create an advertising network :D
G is getting worse with most of the things they do. I wonder how will this end up.
Garg the Unzola
January 10th, 2008 12:46 am
My referral ads have not really had any traffic.
Maybe this would affect my blog later.
Guardian Angel
January 10th, 2008 1:01 am
Are google people racists? Now I am glad I removed my referral ads prior to this news. Now the small income will be smaller, so when will it be the smallest, huh?
Stentorized
January 10th, 2008 1:20 am
you are right sir..
this is an “stupendous stupidity”
a true example of discrimination
in a world wide scale.
John Carson
January 10th, 2008 1:25 am
Stupid! Most of my sites run on revenue generated from AdSense referrals. Better start shopping around…
schmuckamuk
January 10th, 2008 1:42 am
I’m confused. Google was offering a promotion to get bloggers to help them get new adsense customers. You guys liked the deal and promoted the service. Now Google has decided it doesn’t want to promote it as much. So what? What’s the big deal?
Do you get mad when P&G decides to spend less promoting Pampers?
Bloggers are not entitled to advertising. In this case Google is a customer not a service.
Eric Giguere
January 10th, 2008 3:20 am
This is pure speculation on my part, but it could be that referrals in certain geographic areas were determined to be more fraudulent on the whole than in other areas, hence the change. Who knows? And, in my opinion, who ccares? Except for a few high-traffic sites like Darren’s, most AdSense publishers don’t make any money promoting referrals. You’re better off working on content and traffic generation than worrying about referral non-income.
John
January 10th, 2008 4:02 am
Are these the signs of downfall of a giant empire?
Maybe Yes! It seems they are overdoing with their recent terms for the webmaster community. They are focusing on penalizing websites for selling text-links rather than working on algorithms to detect those links. They are focusing on limiting publishers base rather than expanding.
This are some signs which may bring the company to a second level, provided one of the giants (Yahoo or MSN) takes the opportunity and grab it replace their number one position
Howard Young
January 10th, 2008 4:28 am
It seems to me that Adsense has saturated the market and it is no longer necessary for Google to promote it as widely as it has done in the past.
I believe that Google has made the correct business decision since it only effects a small percentage of the publisher population.
You the Designer
January 10th, 2008 4:40 am
i agree with you John it only takes a few silly mistakes to create a wave of revolt against you. Delicate issues like these spread like wild fire on the internet and each time they do something like this it really hurts their reputation, especial in such a short amount of time.
I think many bloggers and website owners are already looking for alternatives and its just a matter of time before some one else steps up to the plate.
Hopefully in the end Google will fix this and other issues.
Brian Free
January 10th, 2008 5:00 am
Would all of you who are so upset over this move start promoting Adsense Referrals again if the decision was reversed?
I definitely think this is a sleazy move by the Google Adsense team, but maybe if enough people pipe up then the changes will be reversed
Oussama Messaoud
January 10th, 2008 5:10 am
So does this affect all referrals (Firefox, Plaxo, what have you) or does it solely apply to referring Adsense publishers ?
schmuckamuk
January 10th, 2008 5:17 am
Sorry but still don’t get it. Why is this “sleazy”, “stupid”, “shocking”, etc? Google has decided to cut back on promoting a product - so what? Companies do that everyday. Why are bloggers entitled to any Google advertising???
In this case Google was your customer!! Not your service provider.
HollywoodJoker
January 10th, 2008 6:07 am
While it is truly insulting that Google has denied ‘outside’ publishers adsense referrals for promoting adsense, i want to clarify that still all publishers can use adsense referrals program for promoting products/sites other than adsense.
Just read the 2nd last line in the adsense blog :
“You may wish to begin replacing any existing referrals promoting AdSense with referrals for another product or an AdSense for content unit.”
There are many products/sites in adsense referrals that are paying anything from $3 to $60 for conversions. That’s even better than adsense referrals for adsense. So, please remove this confusion from the minds of publishers.
CatherineL
January 10th, 2008 7:19 am
Darren - Adsense are stupid w..kers. I did not benefit much from their referal program but I am v annoyed for you, because you have promoted their product heaps.
You have a huge amount of traffic and have referred thousands of people to them, and now they are slapping you in the fact. It’s despicable.
CatherineL
January 10th, 2008 7:20 am
Darren - Adsense are stupid w..kers. I did not benefit much from their referal program but I am v annoyed for you, because you have promoted their product heaps.
You have a huge amount of traffic and have referred thousands of people to them, and now they are slapping you in the face. It’s despicable.
heaven
January 10th, 2008 7:57 am
Um, yeah, why not just be more selective with publishers then!
I just started using Adsense recently, after resisting for nearly four years, and now I’m wondering if I just made a huge mistake by wasting my time and energy.
John
January 10th, 2008 8:57 am
@schmuckamuk:
It’s google business and they have every right to do whatever they want. But if you see they allowed some parts of the world (Americas and Japan) the opportunity and robbing the same from top performers from other parts of the world who have sent millions of traffic to them. It’s definitely insulting top performers.
Well a few weeks back, Widgetbuck has taken a decision to cut on the clicks from non-performing nations. They cut on the clicks and not the opportunity for publshers from non-perfoming countries. I would say it was a wise decision for its business model.
What google did was exactly opposite. Which seems stupid and hence the word stupid I assume :)
sir jorge
January 10th, 2008 9:58 am
Dang, that is weird though.
Shams
January 10th, 2008 10:41 am
Well quite a long discussion…
Natalie
January 10th, 2008 12:52 pm
Adsence keeps getting worse and worse. Their ads are not any good anymore. We need the ability to pick and chose which ads we want to appear because some get way more clicks than others due to their visual appearance.
JV
January 10th, 2008 3:01 pm
Is this the beginning of Adsense’s end?
Bart
January 10th, 2008 4:33 pm
It costs a few hundred dollars a year and you have to file a U.S. corporate tax return annually (not that hard), but if you’re really doing this as a long-term business you should just incorporate in Nevada via a resident agent and get a SkypeIn phone number and an internet fax number in Las Vegas. Oh, yeah, you need a bank account at Wells Fargo, and if you need to get the money out you need a payroll service (Wells Fargo can handle it).
The worst part is the corporate paperwork (resolutions documenting the operation of the corporation) — not hard, but you have to get in the mindset that you and the corporation are separate and you need to document things in a way a third party can understand.
You’d have to check into how you’d deal with this on your Australian tax returns, but in general you should only have to report salary and dividends paid out to you. PayPal is the best way to move money overseas.
Anyway, this is what I did as an American living in Japan. It made my life simpler in dealing with U.S. partners and contractors of various sorts.
Thilak
January 10th, 2008 6:21 pm
Ouch! AdSense referral didn’t bring enough money for me, but decisions like these will surely bring a bad image to Google.
After all these years of promoting AdSense on my blogs, I feel it’s quite rude to take such decisions. I’ll never promote adsense again.
Bohol
January 10th, 2008 6:59 pm
I just got two new publishers last month. That’s my first referral after 6 months and I will not get anything from that. Waah!
I hope this change in the referral program will not be applied to all of adsense. Now, that’s more scarry!
Dave Starr --- ROI Guy
January 10th, 2008 7:19 pm
Saturday, October 15, 2005 … that’s the day I served my first AdSense impression … and at that time I lived in the US and joined the program from an affiliate link served up by one D. Rowse from the far off land of Australia.
Somewhere since 2005 when AdSense was really paying well for publishers and Google actually treated their publishers as if they were an important part of Google’s income stream, the world apparently has gone substantially flatter and Google’s appreciation for those who were helping them become rich has gone out the window.
I’m sad much more than mad, I was then and am still small-time and never made much of the referral program, but at one time actually felt by displaying those links and talking about AdSesne from time to time I was actually part of a team. Oh well … I hadn’t published 2008 goals on line, but I will share this one that has just been added to the list … remove all publisher referrals ads today and remonetize (or sell off) my existing blogs that live mostly on AdSense … I’ve frankly had quite enough of the “flat world” treatment. Business decisons based on real world data make sense to me. Business decisons based on completely irreleavant criteria such as where a publisher’s chair tuches the floor are stupid and xenophobic.
Google? Thanks for very little.
66tx
January 10th, 2008 7:51 pm
I was even looking at how I could implement the referral program.
GP
January 11th, 2008 2:36 am
The cynic in me wonders if this has anything to do with the value of the dollar at the moment?
Sonia Simone
January 11th, 2008 9:25 am
Really astonishing. I hope this doesn’t sound like horrendous sucking up, but really, someone at Google should have said, “We can’t do that–for one thing, what about Problogger?”
Leaving that aside, though, even if you lived in Connecticut & it didn’t affect you, I’ve often been struck by how many bloggers & other Internet professionals live in Oz and in the U.K. Telling all of those people “no, that’s ok, we would not like you to refer any business to us” is bananas.
The whole notion is so outdated I just can’t figure it out. Do they really not have people left at Google who can say, “Dude, that is a really stupid idea.”
Godin says that the really dumb ideas happen when there are too many people in the room. (I think he was talking about FB Beacon, actually.) This proves the point, I guess.
Snoskred
January 11th, 2008 9:38 am
Google simply cannot be trusted. They keep showing us bloggers that. And yet many of us keep using their services.
I know how it feels to have promoted a company and then feel stabbed in the heart - I promoted Google plenty, and then they dropped my PR to 0. When that happened in November I made a commitment to stop using their services - and I have kept to it. I have not been to the Google search engine since then, nor have I been to any other of their sites which I used to use regularly. I took Analytics off my blog, and I replaced their search box with a scroogle.org search box. Same search results, just without giving any personal information to Google at all.
Google are not the only people on the internet, they are not the only people providing services like the free email and the calendar etc. We have given them the power by using their services, but we can choose to take that back anytime we like. It just takes willpower - you’ve got to want it. ;)
Unfortunately people often don’t want it until it affects their wallet - and even then they’re still willing to use it because it is easier. I know people with 0 page ranks who still use the Google search engine. They talk a good talk about being anti-Google, but they are too lazy to walk the walk.. Sad but true. ;(
For me the bottom line is simple - kick me in the teeth once, and I’ll give you a second chance. Maybe you made a mistake. Maybe it was an accident. But kick me in the teeth twice, and I’m not getting within kicking distance of you again, ever.
Google shut down several of my email accounts without a good reason and when I emailed asking for them back I never heard a thing - that was kick one. Then the page rank went to 0 - that was kick 2. They did give it back but the damage was done. So I’m done with them - and happy about it. :)
You have a lot more influence than I do - if you decided to come out and say hey everyone, it is time we stopped replying on Google for everything and here are alternatives, chances are people would listen to you. That’s your decision to make. It isn’t an easy one - I know because I did it. However the only way Google will ever listen is when people are committed enough to stop using their services - they suffer from big company ego, just like Microsoft.
Not a Niche
January 11th, 2008 11:59 am
Like everybody is saying, Google is doing a lot BS lately.
At least they should give everyone the deserved money of the last 180 days for referrals they did.
Changing their rules might be OK, no matter how stupid it is. But fooling people, who are helping Google to get customer and keep the earned money of the last months is IMHO just fraud!
Razlan
January 11th, 2008 1:19 pm
I was about to add on my opinion on this whole discussion, but decided to note this instead.
With the barrage of comments on this anger-provoking post from you, Darren, I am pretty sure the (stupid) folks at Adsense will sit up and take notice.
Used to love Google because, to me, they have a very human approach to stuff. But right now I felt like I am talking to any of the large corporations out there.
I am deactivating my Adsense referral programme.
LincolnAve
January 11th, 2008 1:20 pm
Hey, I live in the US and I’m willing to help anyone out for free that needs help here. I’m not looking to make money at this I just think Google is screwing you guys and I willing to help you out.
You can contact me at slacker [at] yourstupidblog [dot] com.
Peer Wandiger - Selbständig im Netz
January 11th, 2008 9:51 pm
This is a bad news. I’m from germany and I made some money from the adsense referrals.
Does somebody knows why google did this? There are many german bloggers who have english language sites. So they have the right audience, but live the wrong country.
InvestorBlogger
January 12th, 2008 2:56 am
I’ve already pulled the ads completely from my blog for obvious reasons. It will be difficult to persuade me to put them back…
Aiyo… Google what the heck are YOU doing?
Kenneth
roffi
January 12th, 2008 4:12 pm
this means that we have to leave google or not?
Patrick
January 14th, 2008 12:33 pm
Darren,
I planned to write a similar comment to Bart - you can incorporate or form some other legal business entity in the US to get around this. Nevada or Delaware are likely the best states to do this in because of their respective tax laws. You should be able to do this for a couple hundred dollars.
Yes, I agree what Google has done is a slap in the face to you and others who have done a lot to advance Google’s AdSense reach and ultimately pad their coffers.
But, now you have to ask yourself - do you continue to work with an affiliate that makes you a fairly substantial sum of money and takes up a very reasonable amount of real estate, or do you drop it completely?
I imagine you will continue to use AdSense on your other sites, so you will remain current on the AdSense environment. You will also offer a valuable service to many new bloggers (as you did me when I was starting out). You have the opportunity to adapt to this change in the AdSense environment.
Yes, it will take a few hundred dollars and the time to fill out the paperwork to set up the business entity… but for someone with your reach, the reward is almost certainly worth it. Having an account in the US may make it easier to transfer funds funds from other sources to yourself in Australia, which is another benefit.
It is unfortunate for those who do not have this option. But I have a strong suspicion you can make this work well for you. Good luck.
stephanie
January 15th, 2008 7:50 am
I am astonished that Google was stupid enough to do this - they are the one company that I thought had some *sense* of the Internet community. Somebody there should have known this would upset people. For that reason ALONE it was a poor business decision.
I am upset because I have been earning a little extra on the $5 referrals. I never referred one publisher who got me the $100 bonus. But I’ve gotten a lot of $5 bonuses. So now I won’t get a measly $5 that isn’t a lot to them but adds up for me.
This is pure greed on their part. I am already looking at alternatives and will be testing out other PPC companies on a few of my blogs…because to me companies that screw over affiliates like this deserve no loyalty.
Chopper
January 15th, 2008 11:15 am
I’m sure Problogger had sent more referrals to Google than probaly 1000 other publishers combined. I know I personally signed up through Darren’s link,
Ramdayal
January 15th, 2008 6:25 pm
I am also very much disappointed with the decision taken by google adsense team, their other referal products are not as much convertive as adsense, in last 4 months I have got good clicks and signups, but now all that for no use. its very sad.
jansegers
January 16th, 2008 1:49 am
It seems to me that they’re risking a downward spiral.
It’s a bit like Lego who’s policy to sell fewer and fewer plastic for more and more money, almost caused the complete abolishment of the company.
Less referrals means less people engaged in the promulgation of Adsense.
Pieter Jansegers
stephanie
January 16th, 2008 3:49 am
BTW, I would encourage people to WRITE Google and complain. Snail mail, not just email. Here is the address:
The Google AdSense Team
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Lalit Nagrath
January 17th, 2008 12:42 am
WTF
they even took referral money i got from a referral Signed up 4 months go
this is not fair
PCNews
January 17th, 2008 7:26 pm
CJ make similar move few months ago. referrals are no longer value for ads networks?
Ernest Goldberg
January 21st, 2008 11:46 am
And I thought it was the WORLD WIDE WEB, same for me, same for you, same for all. I have the Australian largest online WebSite- Directory.com.au never had much luck with AdSense referral, just upset about the new limitation and think it is very poor and unfair.
Kevin Lam
January 23rd, 2008 3:39 am
Hi Darren,
I understand your frustration and that is unfair what Google is doing. I completely agree that it’s stupid how they could determine that they simply don’t need referral help from specific regions/countries. After all this time, effort and new members you’ve given to them, now they’ve practically given you the boot. I mean, what’s next?
Anglictina
January 23rd, 2008 8:05 pm
This is horrible, i lost more money with this ****** *** change.
Vanessa
February 6th, 2008 3:11 pm
The U.S. considers the Internet to be theirs sharing it with the rest of the world. This may be about competition. Funny thing.
One of my posts was not crawled by Googlebot and came back an error. It was a post about China being the second largest online community in the world. Oddly enough that was the only post it appears, that week that produced anything at all from AdSense for Content. It all sounds very fishy.
The Internet is a global community and however diverse opinions and beliefs are, it is still global. It sounds like American politics to me.
India has been having problems with this for years. I just made the decision as I updated and re-organized my site to place AdSense. It took me months to decide to finally do it. Now this. The only thing left to do is seek out other sources to offset this. Small publishers like me have fewer alternatives. Nevertheless, I do not believe it is hopeless, just another challenge.
Its really ashame but no one here in the U.S. should be surprised I think.
Fat Lester
February 8th, 2008 3:25 pm
AdSense is a horrible decision for any small business and all but a few bloggers. This is especially true if you’re actually making money from it.
There are several reasons why small companies should avoid doing business with Google at all costs:
1. Google won’t talk to you. In fact, your company isn’t even important enough for them to provide you with a phone number.
2. Google reserves the right to ban your account and keep all your earnings for any reason it sees fit and/or no reason at all.
3. Google doesn’t differentiate between you fraudulently clicking your own ads and your competitors fraudulently clicking your own ads. In either case, your account will be banned and your money withheld - and that includes anything revenue generated by legitimate clicks.
Lora
April 9th, 2008 7:02 pm
I also blog ftom Greece and i Can’t add any refferal ads which target to us people to my blog.
http://funnyhack.blogspot.com
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