Referral Ads for Google Adsense to be Removed in Most Countries

If you are currently displaying referral ad units for AdSense on your websites, you need to read this. There are some major changes coming up to the referral program that you should be aware of. Only referral units promoting AdSense will be affected by the new rules. It will not affect referrals to other products and services. The changes that will be effective from February 1^st 2008 to referral ads promoting AdSense will be different, depending on the location given in your Google account settings, regardless of the whereabouts of your users.

North America - Latin America - Japan

If you are located in one of the above countries, the referral pricing will undergo massive changes.

Old Prices

• When a user you referred earned 5 $ within 180 days, you would earn5 $ too.
• When the publisher earned 100 $ within 180 days you’d receive $250
• When you referred 25 people who mad 100 $ in 180 days you’d get 2′000 $
  

New Prices

• When a user you referred earned 5 $ within 180 days, you nothing anymore.
• When the publisher earned 100 $ within 180 days you’ll get $100
• When you referred 25 people who mad 100 $ in 180 days you’ll get nothing.

A referred user who reaches $100 within 180 days of signing up and who removes all payments holds before the change occurs will make you 250 $. If the referred user reaches the 100 $ after the changes have taken place he will only generate $100.

All other Countries

If you are an Adsense publisher and you are not located in one of the above countries you will have to remove all referrals promoting AdSense. Google has found that this referral product has not performed as well as they had hoped for in these countries.

You can still add referrals for all other products listed under the ‘Referrals’ section of your AdSense Setup Account.

For referred publishers who have not reached the 100 $ before February 1^st 2008, the same changes are valid as in the statement above.

Firefox and Google Toolbar Package Referrals

The commission will be reduced from 2 $ to 1 $ per referral. Keep in mind though that this still supports the Firefox Open Source Project. So don’t go and remove all ads there.

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