Who is going to use adsense referrals?

There's a new row when you login now - Adsense referrals.... obviously to tell people using it how much they're earning. I wonder if they're going to open it up to all and sundry?

I can only see one beneficiary at the moment and that is Google.

Why?

Probably lots of less frequented sites signing-up and which will never make it to the $100...am I being too cynical?

I'll read a bit more into it.

Wow, that's some serious cash! Tempting that's for sure!

I just put up one of the smaller buttons. I didn't heatmap it but I did put it on the home page.

We'll see what happens.

Freq---

wouldnt that decrease the payout for your niche keyword? because most likely someone who visits your site will make a site like yours, using the same keywords.. meaning more competition?

I'm not going to try it. $20 isn't enough for me.

Hell No! What is Google thinking, if I put something like 'Earn Money with Google' on my Red Widgets site, then that's just asking for more competition for my niche.

Wow, that's some serious cash!

Not for people who are already earning more than that per day...loganz and SilverSiR are correct, why increase the possibility of more competition?

Well, insofar as my widgets are conerned!.

wouldnt that decrease the payout for your niche keyword? because most likely someone who visits your site will make a site like yours, using the same keywords.. meaning more competition?

You are right "loganz" more competition and more money to Google.

Umm... wait! You may be gaining competition with other publishers in the short run, but in the long run, isn't it true that what makes Adsense more successful allows us to continue making more money?

It seems like a mundane amount for someone with a site that doesn't target SEO/Webmasters/Advertising.

$20 per referral, but they have to spend at least $20 with AdWords.

I don't believe I will actively participate - but some sites could benefit from this I'm sure. Not to be negative, but $20 for a referral that could potentially run millions through the system doesn't exactly excite me. But as I said, my site would have no chance of referring an advertiser... so perhaps my grasp of the value of this referral program is skewed.

I am however happy that AdSense continues to add more features to the fire.

Not for me, I already max some advertisers budgets so I rather not see any competition.

can the firefox buttons be placed on a "logout page"?

but in the long run, isn't it true that what makes Adsense more successful allows us to continue making more money?

Not if there are a limited quantity of advertisers and a relatively finite number of interested visitors in one's products...it's simply dilution...:-(

Wait a minute... the OP posted AdSense Referrals.

Are we all talking about the same thing? I thought that you could only refer people to AdWords as of current? Is this correct.

Where's the $20? All I can see is this:

When a publisher that signed up for AdSense through your referral earns their initial USD100.00 and is eligible for payout, we'll credit your account with USD100.00.

Or is this the Firefox thingy? I haven't read into that yet.

During the past 18 months my ECPM has dropped roughly 25% every six months. Sounds like it's going to continue.

OptiRex, someone confused this with AdWords, where the referral IS $20.

I'm probably not going to use it. $100 per referral is nice, but it is really $100 per successful referral, and for my site I could imagine getting no completed referrals in the course of a year.

Optirex, sorry I was wrong.

I thought the AdSense referral program had the same payout as the AdWords one.

Yes, adsense referral. What's the adwords referal?

I definately will be choosey where I put the adsense referral button. I'm not planning to encourage/push it hard and it certainly won't be on any of my niche sites.

I put it on my hosting site down towards the bottom of the page. Essentially my plan is to refer existing hosting customers to adsense if it could apply to their site. I figure if they have ANY traffic they'll earn enough to cover their hosting making my hosting seem free. This will also encourage them to set up other sites to make more money, also hopefully, hosted with me.

At least that's my theory.

Here's hoping it works.

Freq---

I don't see the Firefox download referral option. Have they only made it available to some people and not others?

Google must be running this because they're still short on ad venues, as surprising as that sounds.

I'm going to put this very prominently on my site and see how it goes. I'm honestly not that worried about it creating competitors, or diluting the ad stream. Anyone who makes a website and become my competitor will eventually find out about Adsense. I'd rather be the one to make $100 from that.

Competitor + $100 beats just a competitor.

[edited by: universetoday at 7:12 pm (utc) on Nov. 4, 2005]

I'm going to put one at the bottom of the main index and see what happens. As long as it doesn't detract from my earnings I don't see any harm in trialling it. If it doesn't wok for me there is always the delete key.

Is it just me or are the buttons/banners only available for white page backgrounds. :)

Why not transparent background or other color options?

Well, just logged in adsense and decided to try the referral buttons. But the button didn't show on firefox only on IE and Opera....

So I did a test page just in case and it still doesn't show...

This is a big no no...

I find it a bit in poor taste that AdSense released a "referral" program only after heavy competition started to offer referrals.

I mean, I'm sure it was "in the works" - but even the AdSense referral of $100 isn't too much, considering the alternatives.

Personally I'd rather take my chances with 10% referral commission for a year using Chitika's program. I would guestimate that the amount of sites that start with AS and never reach $100 in earnings is astronomical.

A % based offering would be far more enticing.

Yep I had convinced myself that this would be a % based offering.

Oh well .. it will be fun to discuss the % webmasters are converting at. I reckon a low number of people will sweat it out to their first $100.

It would have been better if there were bonuses for reaching $1000 and $10000.

It doesn't quite cut it with me.

For me a one time referral bonus is not worth the placement on my web site. Furthermore: I did my best to blend AS with my web site. Adding a button where I basically state that I'm making money through AS is not my goal. And wouldn't this drive attention to the ads? Is AS giving us a tool that, if it is wasn't from Google, would be considered as a TOS violation?

It would most certainly be borderline in my book. I certainly wouldn't have placed anything of that nature near my ads.