Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I have a confession to make, not only did I receive one Google gift, but to my surprise, I received two in the mail today!
Either Google believes I've been twice as good as all other publishers this year ;-) or they made a mistake.Now the question is, what to do?
You could send me one :)
- 64mb instead of 128mb usb drive
- no headset
- mouse is not wireless
I'm still happy that I got one this year. The last two years I didn't get anything.
The one with the red sticker on the top-right corner of the box has a 128MB thumb drive, headset, and wireless mouse.
The one without the sticker has no headset, a 64MB thumb drive, and a regular USB mouse.
Or that's at least what I've gathered from what I've heard so far.
Because, I wanted to show it off to my acquaintances. Vain, huh? So I started to think about why did I want to show it off? Well, I guess it's sort of a validation. Sort of "Look, Google values little ol'me! I must be doing something worthwhile. I'm not crazy for doing this."
So I started to think about this. It's not just the "see?" factor. Why do I really need this validation for myself? I'm working hard to increase my publishing business, I'm doing OK; been increasing nicely.
I've been an AdSense publisher for a year and nine months. It seems like the large majority of people here have received either a present, a card or both. Many have received double gifts.
The cost of the gift (or even a card!) is probably equal to or less than Google's share of one day from my account. Even if it's a little more. That probably amounts to less than 1/3 of 1 percent of their portion of the revenue earned from my account. Add in shipping and corporate overhead, and be hugely conservative and triple the amount. Let's say it's 1% of their share of my annual business.
That's not at all out of line with presents that have been given to me by vendors selling and hoping to increase sales to my company (in my former life). Not to mention the lunches and dinners at nice restaurants.
I guess Google just doesn't value my patronage, and they certainly haven't been very forthcoming with information, such as revenue share, nor are their agreements with me (all of us) very fair as to any kind of "due process" or anything. In fact the contracts are so one sided that I wouldn't be surprised if one day they are held to be unconscionable.
So I will be very open to approaches from other companies. In fact, I've been approached by a couple of other advertising brokers. Some are quite silly, others seem to be very professional and have much more reasonable agreements.
So, I am going to go back into my email, and dig a few out, and give them a whirl somewhere on my sites. Man, those grapes are sour.
Ahhhh the value of a gift. Or not.
The wireless mouse doesn't work for Macs and I tried it on a Dell, unless you have it very close to the computer, it won't work either.
The 128 mb memory stick is too small to really store much on.
I don't really need the USB hub or the headphones either.
But still waiting for check of this month. I think it is late because of heavy load on postal service due to Christmas gifts and Christmas cards etc via post.
Mr Google has just come to my door with a top o' the range Dell notebook!
It's for the man next door . . . wrong address . . .
That's fine though. I didn't sign up for this program to receive an x-mas gift every year. This month's check is a nice enough gift for me.
Forget the gift, where is my December payment?
Looks like little Timmy won't be getting the train set he had his heart set on this Christmas.
So if you had earnings in January, if you haven't seen the check by March 25th, then contact them, not February 25th.
incrediBILL wrote:Aww Bill, thanks for the sentiment! ;)
Since JoeS doesn't like his, pack it up and send it to RonS so he'll be quiet.
Not a bad idea, though! :)
Hey wait a sec, haven't you been musing about leaving AdSense too? (I'd check, but I can't seem to search on anything.)
They want you to contact them if it hasn't arrived by the 25th of the 2nd month, not the next month.
Looks like you are right, Ron. No check, no present, no card, no appreciation. I wonder if YPN publishers got anything from Yahoo.
Do they send publishers who make a minimum amount of earnings? or those who were with adsense for more than a specific time? or publisher?
and what about custom fees, do we have to pay custom fees first?
[edited by: Jenstar at 12:16 am (utc) on Dec. 25, 2005]
[edit reason] removing email notifications [/edit]
In fact, I have received TWO gifts - dunno why? But THANKS! :-)
itloc
I think it asks me to pay 7.7EUR import tax, which would be strange as this is a gift.
Hey Santa G, How about a new car for my keychain?
I think it asks me to pay 7.7EUR import tax, which would be strange as this is a gift.
Maybe no gift is a good thing afterall.
It's sweet that those who received corporate gifts are sharing their gratitude in public. But holy moley, I've seen people like "you" (you know who I mean) pouncing on the Google stuff at conferences with grabby fingers stuffing your cheeks with those plush fish keychains...
Oh my god! PENS!
Don't get me wrong, I like a good bit of swag as much as the next guy. But to go on WebmasterWorld all frothing at the mouth, it's ... sad
Just a thought.
