Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Revenue from WebSearch ads may be offset at the end of the month by fees applicable to WebSearch.
How did I miss mention of fees when reading the TOS/overview?
Edit: the same clause appears in the revised TOS, with no further mention of the word fee other than for returned checks or cancelled payments. No mention in the FAQ, nor the program policies.
ASA, what fees?
I'll also have to back out of this one until it is clear.
Seems to be a one way door!
Didn't I read something about checks being withheld until you agree to the new terms?
You sure did.
The email said ‘…and providing additional revenue for you…’ now if they reduce the adsense money, then that would at least borderline on fraud. And while they don’t have to answer to the SEC, they do have to answer to the FTC.
The business name thing could be for 100 different reasons. Besides the automatic deposit, for example it could have something to do with the ads served to your page or just demographics so they know how many businesses are running ads vs non-businesses.
>>Didn't I read something about checks being withheld until you agree to the new terms?
What I read is that checks will be withheld until we tell them whether ours is a company or individual account. Adding that information included saying who the checks should be made out to. That's all I saw and I have no problem with that, with either of those.
<added> Sounds like Adsense has had problems with some folks cashing checks and not telling their partners and/or spouses, then writing to Adsense and claiming they didn't get their check or it was stolen. There is no telling considering the number of fraud emails I receive each day. I'm sure there is a good explaination that will be coming soon from them on why this has been changed.
If there were fees, wouldn't there be a big 'blah' about how much, etc. Every state in the US has laws about hidden charges.
[added]When you sign up for adwords, there isn't an out either. You just suspend your campaigns and you aren't charged. No ads displayed, no charge. I'm sure it is that type of thing.[/added]
Again, as i said a few weeks ago in a lengthy discussion with a few members, the costs per search for this gimick can add up, and I would expect that a little fee is tacked on based on the number of searches done that month? This has the potential of lowering overall EPC by some amount, meaning the same ads MAY pay less using this method than a site search with adsense in the SERPS.
It would make sense if i was google, you may make money on here and not lose money, but your earnings may not be as great as if you just had a search on your site with adsense results at the top. You may be "making more money" if you did not have a site search in the past, and are adding one for the first time, opening up new oppertunites for impressions and clicks.
I will be very upset if they say that you must now use this search and cannot use adsense in your own searches.
I think these new additions should have been thought out a little more and perfected before they were given to publishers. As one member showed us the coding errors in the search box, it seems like the additions of this was premature and the bugs should have been worked out a bit more before feeding it to us.
God save adsense.
There are no fees associated with running this program.
The program is free, and Google pays you for valid clicks on the ads on your search results pages.
[google.com...]
[webmasterworld.com...]
Maybe it means that once a valid click is made ON the search page then a small %or YOUR revenue is taken as a 'fee' to keep the prgram running.
I'm sure someone or even AWA etc, will blow this theory out of the water.
RvN
I think Google had better clarify that sentence with a link to detail, or they should just take it out to stop our speculation for what might be coming.
First of all, these fees will not apply to all publishers. I don't know what number it will affect, but it should be a very small percentage. It's in place because Google incurs a cost for every search through WebSearch. If a publisher is generating a large amount of searches, but is getting a small number of clicks, Google will cover some of this cost with a fee to be deducted at the end of the month. The fee will be against WebSearch earnings only (not AdSense for content earnings) and will never be more than the publisher's WebSearch earnings. So, no publisher will owe Google money for WebSearch at the end of the month.
I'm off to read the rest of the threads! I'll do my best to answer any further questions as well.
ASA.
Now about my hidden fee for directing traffic to Google search? I'll inform Google at the end of the month so they can increase my check amount, by what I consider to be a "reasonable" amount.
Now where they hide that opt out button?...lol
SEOGrrl
SEOGrrl
I'm off to read the rest of the threads! I'll do my best to answer any further questions as well.
ASA.
"
From ASA himself, firms up exactly what i have been saying for the past couple of weeks. Google incurs a cost for each search, and that cost will be passed onto the publisher, google WILL NOT foot the bill.
So what does 1 search cost google? I would think it would be like 1/2 cent each search or around that end, so if you do 100 searches without a click you are deducted 50 cents on future earnings? HA!
This service is NOT FREE as it is advertised, but fee is taken out of earnings, if any. On sites with existing searches with adsense, their is no possible way to make any more with this product as opposed to a regular site search with adsense all other things equal. Adsense on a search does not have a fee, but regular commissions on bid price is paid. I do not have any extra cost for having a search script, and i am certainly not charged for each search i have.
Just after i thought i might consider having this on any of my sites, i promptly have made an about face. A high volume of searches with a low CTR will cost you earnings..........
Anyone have any results yet. In general terms of course
"that's understandable, but if you opted in, you are agreeing to not show search results from any other company. Since I will be showing search results from other companies I would be in violation of the TOS by being subscribed, therefore, I want to be unsubscribed.
SEOGrrl
"
I too want to be opted out from this. I wrote my own search engine set of scripts, so i am not using another companies search, but I do not want my name or sites associated with this product. I do not endorse it and do not want anything to do with it.
[edited by: ChrisKud5 at 11:21 pm (utc) on June 18, 2004]
