Apparently, everything is not over yet for publishers outside Japan, North America and Latin America with regard to Google Adsense‘s Referrals program.
Last week, Google announced that referrals to the Adsense program will be terminated for members located outside those three regions. Google backtracked yesterday and reported in their Adsense blog that instead of fully scrapping the program for members outside the allowed regions, it will again be available but commissions will only be earned if the referred users are from those regions.
The changes to referrals promoting AdSense will now depend on where your users are located, regardless of your location as a publisher. You’ll earn $100 for every user you refer to AdSense who is located in North America, Latin America or Japan when they generate $100 in AdSense revenue within 180 days and they remove all payment holds. You’ll no longer be paid for users you refer who are located elsewhere. These changes will go into effect the last week of January.
Starting the third week of February, Google will also implement a new bonus structure for referrals to Google Pack and Mozilla Firefox.
- Google Pack: Currently, a publisher earns up to $2 when a referred user downloads and runs Google Pack for the first time. Starting the third week of February, each successful Pack referral will earn up to $1.
- Firefox: Referral payments for Firefox referrals from China will also be decreased. This will only affect installations from users in China, but is independent of one’s location as a publisher.
I personally have not earned much from Adsense, Google Pack, or Firefox referrals anyway so this change will hardly be felt. Most of my referral earnings come from specific targeted products, especially finance- or investment-related products.
If this change will make the Adsense program more profitable for Google and eventually for us publishers, then so be it.
