Google Adsense made a shocking announcement on their blog today. They’ve changed the payment structure back to the old , one threshold, one payment structure. But more importantly was this announcement:

“- If you’re outside of North America, Latin America, and Japan, AdSense referrals will be retired.

For publishers not located in any of the three regions detailed above, we’ll soon be retiring referrals promoting AdSense. We’ve found that this referral product has not performed as well as we had hoped in these regions. Again, please keep in mind that you can still generate referrals for the other products listed under the ‘Referrals’ section of your AdSense Setup tab.”

Now I’ve been fairly vocal in my criticism of Google, especially the NonSense program. However, even I didn’t see this one coming. In one fell swoop, Google has basically told all European, African, Asian (except Japan), and Australian AdSense publishers to piss off. The strangest part is that I can’t for the life of me figure out why the hell they’d do this. There is absolutely no risk here for Google. I mean if someone refers another publisher, the only way they get paid is if that new publisher makes $100 in the first 180 days. And, as we all remember, when publishers make money, so does Google.

I guess it could make sense if Google thinks they’ll get the same number of referrals anyway, and they simply don’t want to pay publishers for them anymore. But I’m not sure how they would get the idea that it will play out like that with thousands of people no longer promoting the program. One also begins to wonder, just how many times publishers will let the big G kick them in the teeth before they stop smiling. I’ve already read a post from one big AdSense earner that seems pretty torqued off about the whole thing, and I’m sure the feelings are similar across all the continents Google deemed unworthy.

Talk Back!

I’d really like to hear from you on this, especially our non-American readers. How much will this change be effecting you? How much were you previously making from the AdSense referral program? Does this change the way you feel about Google or the AdSense program as a whole?

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