AdSense Referral program stopping for some

End of Jan cut off if outside North/Latin America or Japan

[TinkyWinky]

Just got my email from the G - looks like they got all the quality advertisers they want and are shutting up shop to stop the sh**e!

Either that or they haven't got any competition in the UK - oh wait... no they don't!

No point giving away $100 per new advertiser then is there!

[stormshield]

That's funny... just a few days before that news come out I had been planning to invest my time in implementing Adsense Referral to my sites. Well, I'm happy that I didn't do that.

[rajeswari]

---

System: The following 8 messages were spliced on to this thread from: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adsense/3548392.htm [webmasterworld.com] by martinibuster - 5:14 pm on Jan. 15, 2008 (utc -8)

---

hallo

i just viewed the notice in my controlpanel

"""At the end of January, we will no longer support referrals to the AdSense product in India. If you are displaying referral units directing visitors to use AdSense, you will need to update your pages""""

anybody from india?

[MyNewPC]

It's not just India.

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

[graeme_p]

If they do not pay someone in certain countries for providing exactly the same referral as someone in another country, it makes you wonder if they will pay you the same for a click.

Perhaps Google are also adjusting the revenue share downwards for certain countries, or putting a ceiling one earnings (which would explain my near static earnings on growing traffic).

[stormshield]

Yes, a very good question

[graeme_p]

Does anyone know of third world based publishers who are making decent money from Adsense? Not millions, but at least a few thousands or tens of thousand a month.

Has anyone who has moved countries noticed a change in eCPM?

[jomaxx]

Please, this has got NOTHING to do with click values. It has everything to do with the fact that Google has no meaningful competition in this particular area outside the US.

My two cents: It's a little petty and wrong-headed (the referral should logically be based on where the signed-up publisher is, not the country where the referring webmaster lives). But it's Google's business and they can run it as they see fit.

[graeme_p]

jomaxx, I do not think you understand my point.

If Google will not pay us the same amount for the same referral, it raises the suspicion that they may also not pay us the same amount for the same click.

The lack of competition that would cause one to make sense, should surely mean that the other would make sense as well.

[jomaxx]

They don't really pay you "per click". They pay out a proportion of the advertiser's cost.

I can well imagine that advertisers pay less for clicks from some countries because there is less bidding competition for that traffic. As for comparing the "same click" on different websites, there's no evidence either way and I doubt you could ever come up with any, so I don't see how it's useful, or even possible, to debate that.

[graeme_p]

They don't really pay you "per click". They pay out a proportion of the advertiser's cost.

I said for "the same click". i.e. same advertiser and same cost to the advertiser.

I can well imagine that advertisers pay less for clicks from some countries

Based on where the vistor who clicks on the ad is from? I took that for granted as Adwords provides a geo-targetting feature for just that reason. Basing it on where the contact address for the owner of the publisher is, very different.

As for comparing the "same click" on different websites, there's no evidence either way

That is why I want to find evidence. If. for example, Indian owned websites consistently make less money than American owned websites with the same traffic and on the same topic, it would be evidence.

so I don't see how it's useful

It would definitely be useful to know. If we knew it happened we could do things like incorporating the business that receives Adsense payments in a country that got higher rates, using some else's address, even moving to a country that gets higher rates....

[eeek]

I had been planning to invest my time in mplementing Adsense Referral to my sites

So far my experiments with referals have had less than impressive results. I doubt I'll be giving it much of my time in the future unless it very much improves.

[jomaxx]

If. for example, Indian owned websites consistently make less money than American owned websites

But this sort of thing is obviously unknowable. I'd laughingly challenge you to prove this, except that I have no doubt people will try. Probably by taking a mini-poll, or by comparing 2 sites that they assert are in the "same niche".

Anyway these sorts of discussions always come down to one essential truth: Google will pay you a certain amount for your traffic and it doesn't really matter why. If it's a good deal, take it; if not, go elsewhere. (And if you can't go elsewhere, hmm, turns out it WAS a good deal after all.)

[graeme_p]

But this sort of thing is obviously unknowable. I'd laughingly challenge you to prove this, except that I have no doubt people will try. Probably by taking a mini-poll, or by comparing 2 sites that they assert are in the "same niche".

A lot of what is discussed here is unknowable! Know one really knows how Google ranks sites in the SERPS, the smart-pricing algo is secret, what sort of CPM's other publisher's get are secret.

Given the lack of solid evidence we have to go on what we can get. If a mini-poll and a few stories from other publishers are the best I can get, then I have to rely on that.

Google will pay you a certain amount for your traffic and it doesn't really matter why

If there is a way to get a better deal from Google, it does matter.